Why I Love The Late James Horner

As some of you noticed and most of you have not and don't care, James Horner, one of Hollywood's greatest movie scorers died in a plane crash a week ago today. It happened out in the middle of nowhere (to most people) in Quatal Canyon which is in the Los Padres National Forest east of Highway 33 and south of Highway 166 roughly near Ventucopa, CA. Strangely enough, I had previously visited where he died while exploring there about a dozen years ago. Also, at the time of the crash, I was monitoring Twitter and the Hotlist and saw the initial dispatch for a plane down with fire at that location not realizing who was aboard the aircraft. I have dearly loved the cinematic sound of James Horner ever since The Wrath of Khan in 1982 followed by The Search For Spock in 1983 followed by Aliens in 1986 and Willow in 1988. Given how I dropped off the face of the earth by 1990 I did not follow his work since then given how few movies he scored since that time which I have actually watched. He was at his best scoring the antagonists and his sound transformed each of these movies from good movies into great ones. If context is everything then so is tone as a form of context.

Scripture of the Day - Paul (ICor.6:12)

The following scripture has been on my mind a lot lately. I know exactly to what the Lord refers in my life. I choose to submit to His will. I suspect most people have things in their life to which this passage applies equally well so I share it with you here.

"All things I am free to do, but not everything is beneficial. All things I am free to do, but I will not allow myself be brought under bondage to anything." ~ I Corinthians 6:12 (Kimicus ad Absurdum translation)

Picture of the Day - Dune Lakes Sunset

Tonight I worked a wedding at Dune Lakes for the first time in my experience although our company has had this client for some time. Today the Central Coast experienced a significant surge of monsoonal moisture in the upper and middle levels of the atmosphere. Only widely-scattered hit and miss light precipitation occurred in our area from some virga reaching the ground. I had a feeling we might get a great sunset so I brought my camera to the job and was not disappointed by the result. Above and below are my two best images. This was the best sunset I have seen so far this year.

Both images by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

A Vertical Street View

As awesome as this is, nonetheless, my butt still puckers and palms sweat watching particular parts of it due to my acrophobia. For more on this project visit Google's blog.

Calbuco Awakens!

I find this most remarkable and haunting... Calbulco awakens ending 43 years of slumber... and a videographer just happens to be in position to capture it.

Royal Flushes Are Bigger In Texas

Apparently this is going viral... I first noted it a few days ago on Twitter. I'd be game to try this recently opened water park slide if I happened to be passing through Waco, TX... and if I weighed 50 lbs. less. I LOVE the accompanying sound track "Memories That You Call" by Odesza.

Picture of the Day - My Latest Car

Today I purchased and acquired this 1997 Volvo 850 with about 150,000 miles on it. It only cost me $500 from a friend who gave me a buddy deal plus considered the vehicle has a series of small but not serious (more like annoying) issues I can reasonably live with for now. I am so very grateful to God for this provision despite my endemic austerity. I bought my previous automobile (also a Volvo 850) three years ago and it was a model year 1994. I so enjoyed my first Volvo experience that I'm glad it worked out I could continue to use the Volvo product line. This vehicle is just as old now but has much less mileage and look significantly better. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Lucidly Listening To Trilucid

I discovered this Yuri Kane remix of the Trilucid (a.k.a Andy MacDougall and also a.k.a. Andy Tau) track "Departures" last year on a mix on Youtube and love it more and more with each listening of it. It is haunting and atmospheric, hopeful and soaring.

55th Annual Cayucos Gem & Mineral Show

This weekend I participated in the 55th Annual Cayucos Gem, Mineral, & Jewelry Show at the Cayucos Vets Hall next to the Cayucos Pier. The show was a huge success again this year. In fact, it may have actually expanded in visitation and lucrativeness for the dealers relative to previous years. This was a result of a convergence of factors including my efforts in promoting the show (if I may say so without fear of coming across as tooting my own horn). As important was the hot weather inland driving folks from the Central Valley and inland valleys of the Central Coast to escape to Cayucos. It also helped that this year Cal Poly's graduation ceremony occurred the previous weekend and not the weekend of our show as is often the case. In any case, I had a great time helping out setting up the show (on Friday morning) and breaking it down (this evening) and with security throughout many hours of it both yesterday and today. My good friends Diana Enscoe and her awesome husband Max could not be with us this show which bummed me out and made for less eye candy to include in this blog post compared to usual.

The weather was perfect at the coast and made coming to our show here at the Cayucos Vets Hall seem attractive.

Anna Pense at the front welcome counter giving me the evil eye.

Don Pense looking at me with quiet desperation. Beyond him the show beckoned.

Esteemed club member Leslie Nelson in her booth.

Esteemed club member Beverly Brown (right) in her side room booth space.

Kirk Brock's Rock Solid Jade booth as viewed from the backside.

Esteemed club member and show chairman Mike Lyons in his Gem Cove booth.

Looking from one Richter booth into another Richter booth... a one-time convergence!

David "Shaft" Richter wearing a Cheshire Cat grin.

Esteemed club member Lynette Bayless helping out in Keith Olivas' booth.

Santos Sarabia's new brand label is rather catchy, even from across the room.

Great color in Richard Sittinger's Wonderwork booth.

Shaft with the reason for his aforementioned Cheshire Cat grin.

Jesse, Josie, & company did another wonderful barbeque performance at our show.

My friend Mike's Lyon's new display case looks awesome!

Jenn and Anja of Team Dave (Rocks & Relics) honored us with their presence this year. Nice to visit with old friends.

Garnet on Fluorite from China on display in Mike Shirey's booth.

Keith Olivas was selling this awesome smokey quartz point.

The material in the necklace at left was amazing... it contained an assortment of inclusions in quartz kind of like Super Seven. 

My dear old friends Crazy Gary From Tulare Gary Robertson and his lovely wife Janice.

It must have been the new display case: Mike's booth was rocking this weekend.
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Parkhill Fire - Day One

This afternoon while working at the 55th Annual Cayucos Gem, Mineral, & Jewelry Show I received a phone call from mom. I missed it but 15 minutes later noticed she had called and left a message. On it she informed me there was a major wildfire burning somewhere out to the southeast of where she lives in Atascadero and she thought it might be the Parkhill area. As it turns out she was spot-on. I immediately left the show and drove to her house and from there we carpooled down to what turned out to be the Parkhill Fire which has burned about 1,000 acres as of this writing and destroyed an unknown number of structures including homes. What follows is a photographic account of our fire chase this afternoon.

Note: given I was not in a fire season frame of mind prior to the advent of this fire, therefore I did not have a scanner with me nor was my camera properly maintained. Consequently, many of my images have specks of dust or even a fiber on them. Also, many of my images were captured with the camera on the wrong setting. In any case I hope you get something out of these best images of the bunch which are shown in the order they were taken.

Update: damage assessment has revealed this fire destroyed 8 residences, 10 outbuildings, and 7 vehicles. 

View from mom's house... how often since my family moved to this house in 1983 have we seen something similar to this in that direction to the southeast out in the Parkhill area which is some of the most wildfire conducive real estate in the country if not the state with an overabundance of chaparral and innumerable spur ridges to support nearly constant running.

View from El Camino Real near Carmel Road.

View from Santa Margarita Lake Road at the KOA Campground.

Better view from further down the road.

View from River Road near the intersection with Parkhill Road looking north to northwestward as will the remaining images.

Notice the hawk?

Jet lead plane.

The convection column starting to get the barber-pole look as it rotates.

Unidentified CALFIRE S-2V air tanker approaching the fire for a retardant drop.

Santa Margarita Fire Department Type-3 engine.

Aside from the dirty lens artifacts notice the vultures circling below the CALFIRE S-2V air tanker.

Another CALFIRE S-2V retardant drop.

Tanker 105, a new MD-87 jet air tanker dropping behind the ridge to our north.

The same tanker exiting the same drop as previous image.

Tanker 105 on another retardant drop exit....

.... and yet another.

The sharpest image of Tanker 105 I was able to capture today.

The first flames we spotted today.

All images by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).