Holy. Fucking. Shit.

So my convertible has had some electrical problems, where I basically have to jump start it to get it going. Noelle and I were out front after having jumped it so I could take it over to the garage to get looked at. My Jetta is facing the Z and I'm getting ready to turn the car around to leave.

Coming down the street is a very large vehicle. Hmm, I think that looks like a hummer, I think. Painted like... a police car? With police lights... oh fuck. So the APC pulls up in front of the neighbors house, whom Noelle does not like a lot because they have loud parties, baby daddies show up and honk their horns instead of knocking on the front door, shit like that. She has teased me for ages that "we live in the ghetto." I now realize I am never going to hear the end of it. (I live in the suburbs, folks.)

About 15-20 guys in body armor carrying assault rifles pour out of the SWAT car and swarm over the front lawn of the neighbors house. I notice they appear to have a door ram. Must be a no knock warrant, I think. I hear "Open up" and then they started slamming the door open. An amplified voice comes out of the APC: "Attention <next door neighbor's address> we have a warrant, come out with your hands up!" It repeats.

I'm worried that someone might start shooting and right on cue there's a tremendous boom. I duck down for cover, not knowing WTF is going on. (I'm sitting in the Z, Noelle's in the Jetta, still.) When I look up I see smoke coming out of the house and I realize the cops threw a flash bang inside the house. There's another bang and smoke starts coming out the back. There are a couple of cops on either side of the house watching to make sure no escapes down the side yards.

At around this time I decide that it's a good time to go, so we left. Curiously, no one in the police stopped the guy in the convertible leaving the scene or even asked any questions of us. We got back about half an hour later and while there were still a bunch of cops around, it looked like the excitement had died down. That's really more excitement than I need in the morning, although I didn't need coffee after that.

The Happening

91 minutes of WTF.

Sequoia Photography Trip

Oy! I am really pooped, but having a good time at the photography workshop I've been attending at Sequoia National Park. The lead instructor is David Muench, who's fairly well known in the outdoor photography world. I've been getting up at 4ish to do sunrise shoots at various parts around the park. Yesterday I got to sleep in until six. What luxury!




I've been learning a lot of stuff, some from the instructors, some just from having a lot of time to use my gear in the field. Now whether I will remember it all remains to be seen.




I've met a lot of interesting people and been seeing a lot of cool stuff. Shooting in the woods presents a number of challenges, such as mixed light (David calls it "shattered light") and a lot of junk that's not that interesting to look at. Sequoias are additionally a challenge because they are so large it's hard to photograph them in a meaningful way. We had bears wandering through some of our shooting areas, which was exciting. I'll try to get more pictures posted as soon as I can.



I'll be heading home in a few hours and maybe I'll get to sleep in a bit tomorrow. Then back to going through the 1355 images I've shot since Monday.

Did You Know?

That we successfully landed another spacecraft on Mars? It's true! The Phoenix Mission has landed a probe at the Martian North Pole. They're looking for water and maybe, you know, life.

Kung Fu Panda

Noelle, Rachel, and I trekked over to the Oakridge Mall Friday night to see the much awaited (by me anyway) debut of Kung Fu Panda. The protagonist, Po the Panda, is voiced by Jack Black. Po is cook who dreams of being a martial artist like his heroes. Through a moderately implausible series of events, Po is identified as the Dragon Warrior who will save Peaceful Valley from The Bad Guy who is destined to return to seek his revenge against the dojo and his old master. The animation some of the best I've seen from PDI (they did Over the Hedge and the Shrek movies, among others). In particular, the martial arts scenes are really, really cool. I thought this was going to be a comedy since Black is playing the lead, but I found the action story much more involving. I.e. it makes a decent kung fu movie, as well as an animated kung fu movie.

The Fall

Last Thursday Noelle and I went up to the Aquarius Theater in Palo Alto to see Tarsem Singh's new picture: The Fall. I was quite impressed. It has the same kind of stunning visual imagery he brought to The Cell, but the story was much better written. It's a story inside a story really. During the silent movie era, an injured actor befriends a young girl who's recuperating at the same hospital he's convalescing at. He spins a story about five warriors on a quest to destroy their common enemy, so that he can keep her attention while he's in traction. As you might expect from Tarsem's previous work, the story and the story within the story become dark after a while. I thought it was kind of like Baron Munchausen meets Pan's Labyrinth. Oh, this is the first movie I've ever done a spit take in. During the wedding. [trailer]

RIP Bo Didley

Sigh. Another musical pioneer has passed away. I imagine that up in heaven they're playing his trademark bomp bomp bomp bamp-bomp Bo Didley beat. He should get his props up there, since he never got the recognition he expected down here.

RIP Harvey Korman

Right on the heels of Robert Asprin's death, I learned that Harvey Korman had passed away. I loved him as a kid on the Carol Burnett show. As I got older, I loved him as Hedley Lamarr in Blazing Saddles and Dr. Montague in High Anxiety. Sigh.

Hello, My Name Is Chris

and I have a problem. I am a pack rat. Acknowledging the problem is the first step to dealing with it, they say. How am I pack rat? I spent over an hour going through receipts dating back to the early 1990s that I have evidently hauled across the country and through several moves. And I mean credit card receipts for trivial things. WTF is wrong with me??? Soon they will be gone, at least.