Perfect Room Dance

A video taste of a dance at the Perfect Room awaits you, below.

Up the Oregon Coast

Sunday, I had a beautiful drive up the Oregon Coast to Newport where I stayed with my sister-in-law, Lorie, and her son Aaron. Monday, we took a pretty hefty hike in the Drift Creek Wilderness just northeast of Waldport. The forest is oozing with water, moss, and ferns. I enjoyed having a soft, duff covered trail for a change.

Lorie and Aaron.

It was a short, but fun visit. Yesterday, though, meant an 11 hour drive back to Napa. Good thing today was a recovery day - it's back to work tomorrow.

The Perfect Room

Saturday night, in downtown Eureka, I was a guest of The Perfect Room. Monte and Laura were instrumental in inviting their artist friends from as far away as Seattle and San Francisco to meet again as they had previously done in Seattle. Their warmth and graciousness is felt through Cascadia, and far beyond.

Monte, on the right, is welcoming folks as he chats with poets Stefanie Dirico and Randall Potts.

The Perfect Room was held in a humble performing artists space in Old Town Eureka. Some of the artists are not shown here, as many of my photos didn't turn out due to not using my flash. Meg Renmeyer (sp?), in particular, performed one of the wierdest, put it all out there, blow your mind performances you'll ever see.

Monte in his usual role of Master of Ceremonies. He also gave a reading of some of his poems.

In the back, Judy Irving and Mark Bittner were filming. Judy made the documentary "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill", and Mark was the human subject of the film, who had an extraordinary relationship with the parrots. Judy and Mark also developed a relationship with each other. They showed the first 16 minutes of their new film, "Pelican Dreams". It appears that it will feature quite a bit of Monte, and some of IBRRC. The film starts out with the rescue of a pelican on the Golden Gate Bridge, which is then brought to IBRRC.

Olin singing and playing his songs.

Monte and Willoughby, percussionist.

Monica Shley read her lovely poems, played piano, and sang her songs.

Mark Bittner read some of his writing about living off of handouts years ago, and being surprised how a lucky break can happen at the least expected time. He is also a musician, and belted out a Dylan song.

Mark, singing and playing.

Stefanie Diricco had a very engaging presence, and humerous poetry.

Eli Huntington performed with the other musicians by playing his version of electronica.

Randall Potts read his poetry which radiated warmth and sensitivity.

This dancer, whose name I didn't catch, performed in what I believe is the Butoh style of theatrical dance. The dance may have lasted 15 minutes or so, and became grotesque, as is the style. The musicians are Monica, Ishan, Willoughby, and Monte.

Laura provided the lighting background for the dance using an overhead, and torn up bits of paper. Laura also had her drawings on display, and read her poetry. I really enjoyed being around her and Monte - they are greatly missed in the Bay Area!

I hope to add a couple videos of the evening, but currently, Blogger doesn't want to upload them. I'll work on it later, though.

Tomorrow, I head north to Newport, Oregon to visit my sister-in-law, Lorie, and her son Aaron.

Patrick's Point

On Saturday, I drove roughly 20 miles north of Eureka to Patrick's Point State Park. I hiked northward towards a large group of gulls that were feeding right in the shore pound.

Two gulls fighting over a piece of green plastic. You could easily see how this could get caught around a bird's head or even in its digestive system.

I was a little surprised to see Brown Pelicans this far north so early in the year. El Nino?

Trinidad at Night

I just returned from a 5 day trip up the coast with stays in Eureka CA, and Newport OR. These shots are from my first day on the road - Friday evening at Trinidad State Beach. These are low resolution - the RAW images look better, especially full screen.

It was unusually warm _ just right for a little night photography. I can't wait to try this again, as I felt I was just getting started, learning from my mistakes. You can tell by the long star trails on the last two photos that these were long exposures, and the night sky was very dark.

Yucka-yucka-yucka-yucka!

It was a beautiful day for hiking - coastal California at its best. The water is still flowing, the flowers are blooming, and the temperature was around 75. I was going to take about a 3 hour hike at Skyline, but ended up making it about 6. Part of the reason was that I heard the loud yucka-yucka-yucka-yucka of a Pileated Wood Pecker. I spent quite a bit of time following it around through the trees, nettles, berry vines, and poison oak.

Another water-feature photo.

The poppies and lupine were exquisite.

Pileateds are really beautiful when the sun shines on their heads. I felt fortunate just to get any kind of picture, though.

Their nesting holes are large rectangular holes. They make a new one each year. Wood Ducks use the old holes for their nests.

Well, tomorrow I'm off to "The Perfect Room" and points further north. More to follow!

Day Hike!

Today saw a nice break in the weather - no stratus, no rain. I spent most of the day hiking up Oat Hill Mine Trail, with little side trips along the way. There was still a little snow in places, left over from yesterday. It is so nice to see water trickling everywhere!

Above are wagon wheel grooves from the ore wagons that carried their heavy loads from Oat Hill Mine, near Aetna Springs, to Calistoga.

The bees were all over the manzanita flowers.