the village buzz

those big fatsos on the beach are seals. there is a stretch of beach off bailard avenue in carpinteria that is set aside for the seals to hang out, undisturbed. when i grow up and retire, i think this is what i am gonna do. if all the seals spots are taken, i would settle for a place anywhere in carpinteria. there are a group of volunteers who hang out every day and count the seals, talk to visitors about them, and let them use their binoculars. that is the coolest. i was hoping to see some whales out there, but i think the whales (like me) were on vacation.. dang my luck!

if you live in the socal area and want to see more info on the rookery, check here!

i tried this once before, but i was terribly unorganized. this time, i am gonna be a bit smarter about it. i would like to branch this list out a little more, just because it’s so much fun, and i like getting feedback from everyone. here’s what i would like to do. i have two prints, from my personal collection that i would like to give away. they are 5×7’s, and may or may not have been featured on this site. they were going to go on my wall, but i think it might be fun to put them on someone else’s wall. so, here’s the trick. the first two people to get 15 people to sign up for this list, gets them. i owe “ARRRrrrr”:http://xterminal.livejournal.com/ a print from my last botched attempt to do this, so he gets one, and this does not count as part of the two. ideally, the people who sign up should like photos (not necessarily photography) and stories. here’s what they need to do:

1. “go here”:http://village-buzz.com/lists/?p=subscribe and sign up.

2. confirm their subscription

3. come back to this entry, and leave a comment that says “so and so sent me…”

4. the count will be tallied chronologically.. for all to see..

have fun!

the flower that sucked my blood

one afternoon, the girl and i were up in this place called peninsula. it’s a small little spot somewhere in the cuyahoga national park. i am always lost when i go in there, but this day, we found our way into the place. we had lunch and during lunch, they had this fantastic wheat beer on tap. down the hatch they went. with all these beers, they brought slices of lemons. as i squeezed the lemons, lemon juice kinda squirted everywhere. it was nothing too messy, but i guess the essence was all over me by the time lunch was over. we decided to go hiking on the trails, and found ourselves kinda far back up the trail. the problem was, this was the middle of summer. right at the height of mosquito season. these guys smelled not only the co2 in my breath, but all the lemon all over me. they attacked like pit bulls. every time i stopped walking, they would over power me. i wanted to shoot these little flowers so bad, but i couldn’t deal. finally, i sucked it up, hit the deck, and shot this little feller. i need to make a print of this for my wall.

grado phono cartridge on vinyl

this one goes out to “RRRrrr”:http://xterminal.livejournal.com/ .

he requested a photo of something like “massive stupid retarded quantities of vinyl.” although my collection is nowhere near the status of some of r’s friends’, i would imagine mine kicks some pretty good ass in the land of mere mortals.

i still listen to alot of vinyl. hell, there’s a record spinning on the turntable right now (it’s the soundtrack from “the graduate”).

although i have converted most of my cd collection to mp3, and i have hundreds of megs of them at my fingertips from any room in the house, there is just something about vinyl that is missing from my connected digital life.

i tried to figure out what that might be, but it eluded me for awhile. then, one night, i was laying on the floor, watching the candle bounce shadows off the ceiling and listening to a record, and i realized what it was. vinyl offers something to us that we really have no regard for anymore. commitment.

it is now SO easy to start a playlist, and after the second or third song, throw another one on. it’s really easy to do this for hours on end. you have no commitment to the album that is playing. i think humans like that kind of commitment.

we look over all the vinyl choices. grab one. remove it from its sleeve. clean it. put it on the turntable and drop the needle. all of a sudden, you are committed for 20 minutes of your life. you are going to listen to that record.

in those 20 minutes of committment, you and the artist can sort of get to know each other.

this photograph was taken by candlelight, just for the hell of it. the album on the turntable is “john and yoko’s double fantasy”:http://www.amazon.com/Double-Fantasy-John-Lennon/dp/B000002UUC/sr=8-1/qid=1169002742/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7043418-0245454?ie=UTF8&s=music

it happened to be playing, and i happened to have a camera handy.

i bought that record when it came out. i was in the 5th grade. that afternoon, this girl named kyra (one of my sister’s friends) came over, and we ended up listening to the album together.

i think we were sitting indian style, or something, on the floor i so distinctly remember that when the yoko songs came on, we kinda looked at each other like.. “wtf?”..

now, listening to that album, those yoko songs really are cool songs. good songs punctuated by moments of “wtf?”.. but still a really listenable ablum.. even after 27 years..

when my grandma passed away over christmas, my mom asked my to write something up for someone to read at her service. i wrote it up, emailed it, and my sister got the task of reading it..

i am putting it up here so that any family that was not able to make it could see it too..

I guess I would like to start by saying that it is killing me not to be able to be there. I will be out to see Grandpa in February, so I am hoping we can all get together then.

Like most of the boys who call Manny and Amelia Grandma and Grandpa, I am colorblind. Rather than think of it as a handicap, I think have come to grips with it. I think it has given me a heightened sense of smell and taste. I think it’s this sense that I think of most when I remember Grandma. When I think about it, all the scents of Grandma’s world are still as fresh now as they ever were. It’s often said that one of the smells that never leaves you is the smell of your grandma’s house. I don’t know if there is a much truer statement.

• Grandma’s house - the scent of polished wood, the coast soap bars that she left hidden in the plants, and the lingering scent of Pall Mall non filters still there from before she made grandpa quit smoking in the house. Top this off with a splash of Old Spice.

• The backyard - the scent of orange blossoms (overhanging grandma’s buddies, Luigi and Don Pablo), plums, and a mixture of oak trees and Santa Paula riverbed that hung over Richmond Road. I went back to see this house in August, looking for exactly that magic, but after riding 3,000 miles to get there, and standing in front of the house, I realized that that magical scent was not a part of the house, it was part of Grandma.

• The cooking - I have spent a good deal of the last 20 years trying to figure out how to make my beans smell like grandma’s beans; trying to make my rice smell like Grandma’s rice. I have failed miserably, but I do take comfort in the fact that no matter how long it takes me to get it dialed in, I will know it when I get there.

• Grandma’s Purse - Grandma’s purse was a magical bag. A rigid bamboo structure that for all you knew, was the source of all goodies in the known universe. Grandma also taught me a lesson that I still revere, NEVER get into a woman’s purse. All I knew was when she opened that bag, the whiff of perfume and Wrigley’s gum that sprung out meant that some sort of magic was about to be handed out.

I could go on and on, but I am sure my colorblind relatives know just what I am talking about.

When I think of Grandma, I don’t think of the things that are gone, I think of the things that will be here forever:

• The way people lit up when she laughed.

• The way Pickles used to go insane when she whistled at the door.

• The she could make a glass of chocolate milk or a quesadilla make the whole day better.

• The way I had to do some fast and tricky driving to keep when I followed her to Hi-Ho burger for lunch.

Yes, I will miss Grandma every time I think of the things that she meant to me, every time I think of home, every time I hear Wayne King (which oddly enough does happen), and every time I think of her laugh.. But most of all, I hope that I have learned something from her: Learned how to make people feel happy, secure, and important, learned how to brighten up a room.

Although it would be nice to think I could learn these things, I doubt it. I think Grandma was just someone that doesn’t happen to this world every day. I am just proud that she happened to our family.

if my calculatoins are correct.. today would have been the birthday of my boy ayche..

although i only got to see him every month or so, i did get to tune in to his show on wruw every week.

i could go on and on about ayche stories, but i think i have an “all ages” audience here.. kids.. if you are lucky enough to run across a kid like harold in you travels, consider yourself lucky..

ayche, ol buddy.. i am sure you are still cranking out a great radio show, wherever you are .. and i am sure that you are still the most knowledge guy around wherever that might be..

i bet if we all put our heads together, we could put together some sort of antenna that would catch your show..

anyone else out there remember old ayche?

click here to share some stories..

this is noah thomas quevedo. it seems like us ruiz kids wait a long time before doing things that most people rush into.. settling down, growing up, and reproducing. with all three of us finally settled down, it was a race to see who would be the first to deliver the first offspring to my parents. most of my parents’ friends were grandparents 20 years ago or so, so the pressure was really on. leave it to my sister (dominique) to finally be the one to deliver the goods. i think most of the time i spent with noah, he was just confused. this big giant beaner comes into town, looking like his mom, but with a five o’clock (or 3,000 mile) shadow. he put up with it without too much fuss. i rolled into long beach LATE at night, and i wanted to roust him out of bed.. but my sister said.. “you wake my baby, and i’ll kill you..” so i saw him the next morning..

unrelated stuff…

my good friend cathryn beeks (at one time, when i was a polygamist, she, along with the great courtney baker, the little yellow haired chickie baby, and vandrinkula were all my wives) has released a new album. i listened to it all across the us.. it’s a great album..

for my mini review of cathryn’s new album, click here.. if you want a great road trip album, buy it..

just to keep everyone up to date.. i was in california the week before last. i was there for a little over a week, and it has taken me a week to get back into the swing of things. i rode my motorbike out there.. i did 7,000 in 9 days.. that rocks.. one of the things i wanted to do was see the place i grew up. i had not been there in 20 years, and i was curious to see the place where i got wired up. most of the photos i took there would not be that interesting to most folks, so i will only post a few from the trip. so this is mary. i was sitting in a coffee shop (the santa paula coffee company) on main st. in santa paula while i was working on some stuff for the office in ohio. we struck up a conversation, and i told her i had just ridden into town and was checking out where i grew up. she was a nurse in santa barbara, and had moved to sp to retire. she asked if i would take her around main st. and tell her what i remembered about the place. the walk through main st. with mary was awesome in that it forced me to think about all the things i remembered from being a kid. where i got my shoes, where the leather fixing guy had his shop (i think his name was jess), the place where i learned photography (john nichols gallery), and the places where i came of age. we talked mostly about the people who influenced our lives and made us who we are. she vowed to me that she would start working in the library, teaching kids to read and write english. that rocks. it would be the coolest to know that sp still pumped out people who cared about each other. rock on, mary..

were there people who made a huge difference in the course of your life? at some point, make sure you go out into the world and let them know this.. it’s important..

more unrelated stuff…

there is absolutely no way i could express in words how awesome it was to travel our country on top of a motorbike. i would do it again tomorrow, if i could. BUT! there are some very important things to consider..

i wrote them all out in a rough sketch for anyone who is thinking about hitting the open road. if you need someone to go with, i’ll go..

click here for the full story..

the smiths in review.. i just had and article go up over at scoremusicmagazine.com. for those of you who just can’t let go of the 80’s, be sure to check out my review of the new smiths dvd..

go here for more info..

when i was a kid, back in the 70’s, there were tons of movies about killer bees, PLUS, right afterward.. there was always the obligatory story on the 11 o’clock news with randomly colored in maps showing how the bees were coming up from brazil, and settling right around our house. it scared the shitsky out of me then.. the other day, at work, we found this little beehive thingie on the sidewalk under a tree. we went out to see if they were killer bees, but we weren’t sure how to tell how much killer instinct they may or may not have. while everyone had their face up in the hive, steve kicked it, to see if they were hostile. they may not have been killer bees, but they were REALLY pissed.

and, like every day lately, there is an unrelated side note.

i did the photography for a slasher film earlier this year.. this film is now up for a scream award as the most anticipated horor film of the year. it would ROCK if you helped us out and voted for us.. all the details on this can be had by clicking here…

i am not sure how much i am allowed to talk about this, but last winter, i did the behind the scenes work on a horror flick filmed here ohio.. i have kept it quiet lately, but it looks the guys are talking now..

you can see some of my photographs, along with a bunch of info on the movie here:

rage… the film

you can see my work on the film here:

still photos

anyway.. the film is up for a scream award as one of the most anticipated horror flicks..

if you REALLY wanna help a brother out, go here and vote for The Rage and help alot of other good fellas i know get a leg up..

to see more info on the company that made the film, check out my friends over at precinct 13..

thanks!