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Attending Wilco's Solid Sound Festival in North Adams MA. Billy Bragg opened proceedings and it started raining about three songs in but nobody cared much. Gang of Four soon and then Wilco with Billy Bragg who will perform music from their 1998 Mermaid Avenue album of Woody Guthrie songs live for the first time ever.

Found some motivation this morning. Weather was fantastic. Calories were burned so beer will be drank.

Similarly we skipped Mountain View & the San Francisco Symphony and Santa Clara & the World Cup stragglers to head to the occasional DMZ of Milpitas. Not sure the band’s horns to pants ratio was correct.

Such a great day. The best group of people. I think Rini and Dorothy made some new friends of my coworkers.

Went all the way to Tiburon in an abortive attempt to see the 4th July Fireworks on The Golden Gate Bridge. Abandoned the attempt, due to the Bridge being enveloped in fog. So we came home. To watch YouTube Happy Birthday America

You can't fool me, that isn't a woofer.

Some moar webz pics. Found a fun FB group for interesting signs.....

A little while back I posted somewhere on here about a very exciting project. Some of my work at a San Fransisco book store just happened to have been noticed by Linda Ronstadt and her longtime friend and carpenter. That carpenter happens to live in Fairfax, and is a regular customer of mine at the lumber store. Once my name was mentioned by the store owner ( this owner has become a great friend, and I've now done two of her homes, and her book store), this carpenter said " wait, I know him. He works at Fairfax Lumber. " Long story, still long, he talked with me about collaborating on a large set of bookshelves for Linda. Linda's health isn't great, and that has affected the scheduling of this project. However, we are now into this project. I have not yet met Linda personally, but we have started working on the shelves at Andy's shop. He took great measurements of the space. Usually the sign of a good carpenter, and I'm sure he is. But for me the most difficult part of the project thus far has been slowing him down. He wants to hurry through and get it done. I want to build the best shelves that I can build. Time, though maybe an issue in the long run, isn't really an issue now. She's not pushing this to be quick. Money clearly isn't an issue, so I think I'm winning this little battle. I've made it clear that I'm not interested in blowing out some average shelves. I want to make something that I'm proud of, especially considering the client. We've spent two whole days working together in Andy's shop, and I think he's starting to get it. He's around 80 years old and I'm very respectful of my elders, except when it comes to sacrificing my quality. We will continue working tomorrow and I'm guessing about two more weekends. Then most likely at least 1 day of install. That's when I'm going to meet Linda. That'll certainly be a fun day for me. As most things concerning music or movies, my trivia knowledge is vast. Ask me something about anything important and I'll come up blank, but ask me about a music or movie artist and I can talk forever. This is even tenfold for me on Linda, because the Laurel Canyon crowd, and the beginning of the Southern rock genre really peak my interest. All of the crossovers of the people of this era are just fascinating to me. Linda met Graham Parsons early on, who I consider the Father of this genre. Graham discovered and then worked with Emmylou Harris, another favorite singer of mine. Linda met Emmylou and Dolly Parton at different times, and then introduced them to each other at lunch one day. They of course started harmonizing on favorite songs, and were so impressed with the melding of their voices that they decided to create music together soon. Soon turned into more than a decade, but the results were phenomenal. Linda was also a guest on the Cher show back in the 70's, and started a lifetime friendship. I being a gay man of course adore me some Cher! And anyone who is an Eagles fan owes something to Linda, because she had a lot to do with putting that band together. I could go on and on, but I'm hoping that I can reign it in a bit on the day I meet her in person. Although I doubt that I'll be successful there. Anyway, this project is coming to fruition, and what a way to crown a career that I have deeply loved for over four decades now. This will be a story that I will, well I guess I'll have to tell your Grandkids about it, because I won't have any, but I'm sure that I'll have to be told to "shut up about it already ". I will certainly try to take pictures upon install. More to come later.

It being Father's Day a nearby hotel celebrated with $38 burgers, whiskey tastings, and a local Jaquar club showing off a few cars (mostly non-Jaquars). Thus more testing to try to figure out this confusing Light Lens Lab 50mm f/1.5 Z21 (Angenieux S21 clone). Paired with the SL (typ 601). Makes one more appreciative of modern flat field lenses. Still old lenses for old cars.

I snapped this photo without tripod. It has a fairly high ISO, but nothing the R6II can´t handle.

Finally made it to the top of the local climb without blowing up. Key change was grinding out the steepest pitches sub 60 rpm to keep my heart rate out of the red. I was worried I’d be going too slow to stay upright, but it was fine. Also helps that I’m also slowly but surely getting more fit. I feel a lot better about the climbing on the Marin metric century now that I’ve finally been able to get up and over this thing. Nate is right, 32mm is the sweet spot. Put some on and they felt amazing.

Andrew and I went for less-prep, faster-cook pizza for dinner tonight. Still working on my launching, but getting a bit more reliable.

Tuesday sourdough za. Tried something new and baked it on the pellet smoker.

Condolences, Todd. The more I live, the more convinced I become that life is often complicated and rarely simple. People are often seen as one thing but that is seldom, if ever, the truth.

Giving the Everybody STILL Digs Bill Evans CD box set a listen.

Lemon shortbread. Joanne on sampling it, said it goes well with Sauvignon Blanc.

Naturally a few days after doing the major software upgrade the server had a drive failure, it's been restored from the latest backup but it may be missing several hours worth of data. My apologies!

Finally... I can't resist.

Glassworks - Expanded Edition by Philip Glass (1981) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0827969039427 Example: It has been some time since I have listened to this. It occupied a bit of my brain in the 80s.

Got up around 6:30 and made a batch of chili. Al's Sister Rini and Neice Dorothy and myself are making chili dogs, smash burgers, corn on the cob, potatoe salad, fruit salad, some type of blueberry angel food cake with mascarpone whipped cream, blueberry custard pie, watermelon and who knows what else? A few of my coworkers are coming by to join in the feast.

Hey! Sorry I didn't mean to go missing for so long, it just kinda happened. I have a little corner of the house with a bunch of fun music things. I recently commissioned a calligrapher to make some artwork to go with the box and can't wait to show you what they look like together.

Also, for me, everyone appears as Brent...

Finally have local AI downloaded and running. So ... Yeah, I can do that, now. EDIT: And I got GLM-5.2 running! Abysmal speeds but when I need it, I got it!

Beautiful landscape! Also I'm sure a nice Distagon. I can't choose between, but did you debate about shooting at f/800? So Light Lens Lab is probably most known for recreating old Leica lenses, but they've produced three non-Leicas also - The Cooke Speed-Panchro II (below), the Angenieux S21 (previous page), and the Dallmeyer Super-Six (I should resist, right? Being a completest is expensive.). Sometimes this is in a new mount, occasionally a new focal length. Anyway, they're often compared and I had Monday off, so swung by The Cantor Art and Anderson Collection Standford spaces with a dusted off SPII with the SL (typ 601). Isn't much of a comparison with the Jaq show, as their subjects are so different, but fun to shoot close together. Mostly at f/2.8. You may recognize the Richard Serra sculpture Sequence, shown here many times, along with a Nick Cave Soundsuite and Deborah Oropallo Patrol.

Rick's wide angle images made me want to look at some older images. Here's one with a 21mm Zeiss distagon from 2015.

ElevenHifi is a Rega dealer...

For the same money, you can buy a Steinway grand piano that will play itself.

I can't believe I'm going to bore you all about Newton. Although English, he wrote Principia and Optiks in Latin. An that is a real problem - translating back into English is a tickly thing, particularly the more fundamental stuff which is to do with what we learn as Newtons laws of motion at school. What is the precise translation of momentum for example? After that the translators have an easier job. Newton derived all his proofs in his long book Principia geometrically, step by step. He finishes off by meticulous measurements of the motion of the planets etc. At one stage he says that a chunk of the measurements was lost, but he can recall the basic idea behind the measurement. By "lost" he actually meant that his dog ate some of the sheets, or knocked a candle over and set fire to some sheets. Accounts vary. As professor at Cambridge University, his lecture course was so unpopular that no students attended. But part of his job was to give lectures. So he'd turn up and give the lecture to an empty theatre. In later life he spent most of his time studying alchemy. I'll shut up now

Vive L’Espagne!!

Unfortunately, the dusty haze kept me from capturing the full moon. It's normal here ☹️ I had planned to go to one of the highest points on the island on thursday to try and take some pictures of the Milky Way... I have confidence in my equipment but not in my abilities. Some photos with the RF 35mm F1.4L usm. I really like how this thing catches the light.

25 Photobooks That Define America https://aperture.org/editorial/25-photobooks-that-define-america/

Be more like Robert -- 🤘

We've thought about that over this weekend but one critical difference is that all of the stages here point away from the sunset so we get to look into the sun rather than the performers. The other is that he is king here so it should be harder to get grumpy.

Butthole Surfers - Psychic.... Powerless.... Another Man's Sac Mad genius album! Lady Sniff makes me chuckle hard every time.....

Always great in used lens ads when they include a photo of the "flawless optics".

Or, from the source

In this case, you don't know how wise you are.

I made a fusion Pad Thai / Mapo Tofu thing yesterday with Tofu, ground turkey, and noodles. I need to work up to the recipe I recently acquired (didn't have any Doubanjiang -- Chili Bean Sauce) and maybe make it more heart healthy, but I'm getting there. It was delicious.

Finally finished UFO, starting Space: 1999.

R6mII + RF800 ISO800, 1/800, F11

A millennial friend of mine is touring .ca and got multiple free upgrades with his rental. I said "I got a Benz too and it's black like that." He gave me a blank look. SMH kids these days.

Anthony Garcia - C’était L’été

Novato is Rocking The Block With Mercy and The Heartbeats

Twofer (or twoFUR) today. ZeosPantera is a guy who wears a GoPro, yaps at great length and ostensibly review headphones gear. It is my understanding that he is somewhat well known on that other site. I have watched his videos on and off for years. I don't think I've ever made a product purchase based on Zeos's reviews, but his content makes good "second monitor" entertainment when I'm doing something else. Zeos is know for a few things, he's got the gift of gab (45 minute video rambling on about a DAC/amp combo), his absolutely cringe taste in anime waifu art, and his various cats that make cameos in his videos. For years he had a small gray cat named Drake that is one of the mouthiest creatures I've ever heard. His persistent, insistent meowing is the stuff of legend. I happened to be checking Xitter (not something I normally do) and saw that Zeos had posted this: Very sad. His videos won't be the same without the Chorus of Drake. I'm not sure if YT deep links work on HC. The timestamp I used includes an earful of Drake.