DOREMIFASO:What Folksingers Moira Smiley & VOCO left behind at the Bach
Yesterday at the Bach: Moira Smiley & VOCO
Show was hot for us eclectics:
Moira Smiley & VOCO at the Bach in Miramar today.
The Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society’s Pete Douglas says:
“Improvisation-built folk traditions in four-part harmony with Eastern European instrumentals.”
650.726.2020
Blue Sky Nursery: Traipsing through the countryside with the Lighthouse String Band
Channing Pollock: Magic: 1400s – 1950s
World famous magician Channing Pollock is referenced (with photos) in this new big, expensive book, Magic: 1400s – 1950s, published by Taschen. For many years Channing and wife, Corri, lived in Moss Beach in a magical home overlooking the north end of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. Up and coming and established magicians came from all over to seek advice from the master who had enthralled audiences with his sophisticated act. He raised magic to a new level by ignoring the basic elements of vaudeville: the joking around aspect. Channing’s silence during his seven-minute act– he made doves vanish– matched the perfection of the formal attire he chose to wear. He was tall and extremely handsome all of his life and had cultivated a carefully thought out stage presence. 
Why the 1929 Depression Lasted So Long and Why This One Will, too
If you want to know more about why the 1929 economic depression dragged on and on when it could have healed quickly if left alone (without intervention), and why the one we are currently suffering through is going to take the same wrong direction, please read “The Man Who Predicted the Depression,” by Mark Spitznagel.
For more fascinating reading, you can download “America’s Great Depression” by Murray Rothbard on your Kindle and start reading it right now.
Sebastian Belli built the Half Moon Bay Inn
Sebastian Belli, who lived in Moss Beach in the 1930s, built the Half Moon Bay Inn at Mill and Main, now home to “It’s Italia.” Handsome, isn’t he?
Oh, and this image was taken at the HMB Inn.
While You Slept: John Vonderlin’s Been Out There Collecting
Story by John Vonderlin
Email John: [email protected]
Hi June,
Here’s a few interesting photos that you can add to your collection. In the last month we’ve noticed tarballs are coming ashore in small numbers. These seem to be of the same Monterey seep origin as all the other episodes the last five years. I thought the one pictured was interesting enough to photograph.
The giant bull kelp mass in the other pictures is the biggest I’ve ever seen. I “Image” searched online and couldn’t find a picture that matched in in size. The last pictures are some of the results of the best sea glass collecting we’ve ever done. But, I now believe, in regards to this, that if something seems to be too good to be true, it probably is. I’ll explain why I believe so, in a posting later this week. Enjoy. John
Barry Parr: On Local Politics…And the Winners Are
Story by Barry Parr
Check Coastsider for complete results, but the current city council majority
slate swept the field in Half Moon Bay.
In Granada Sanitary District, incumbents Ric Lohman and Gael Erickson won,
and incumbent Leonard Woren leads challenger Lisa McCaffrey by a single
vote.
In the Coastside Fire Protection District, challenger Gary Riddell and
incumbents Gary Burke and Ginny McShane have won.
In the Coastside County Water District, incumbent Chris Mickelsen and Jerry
Donovan have won.
More details:
June Morrall: Climbing Old Pedro Mountain Road
Yesterday, my cousin and I hiked up Old Pedro Mountain Road, with our lofty goal the very top.
Automobiles once traversed the tricky turns on the Old Pedro Mountain Road and it could challenge San Francisco’s famous Lombard Street as the road with the twist-iest (and most spectacular ocean and landscape views) in the world.
Not a boring moment along the road that goes up and up and up—if you choose to keep going up and up and up. The morning was warm with a good, welcome breeze that cooled us off—and on one sharp turn a little stand of pine trees responded with a musical sound as the wind mussed up their needles.
Along the way we encountered other hikers, many young, couples, and several singles, most with dogs, some with dogs whose coats were highly polished revealing the owner’s relationship with their pets. A standout for me was the blue-black colored dog, his coat so slick that it reflected sunlight, and I know he, the dog, heard me praise his beauty.
When I say we met other hikers, I am not talking about a great number. It’s surprising how few people were walking along the trail on that post-Halloween Sunday morning.
A lot of the walkers were going in different directions because there are other feeder trails than the one that goes directly to the top, that very elusive top of the mountain, I should add.
One of my repeated questions was: How far to the top? “An hour”, somebody said, this after we’d been walking for an hour and a half and the terrain was getting seriously steep, and we were at the point where we longed for the mercy of flat, level land. Another woman cautioned: “Go where you want to go. We didn’t make it to the top, it gets almost vertical.” She didn’t need to use her hand to show me what vertical looks like.
Yikes: It gets almost vertical. Visions of how hard it was going to be to walk down the trail danced in our heads. Another hiker reminded us: “You use different muscles when you come down. Your toes move to the front of your shoes. The dirt is loose in places.” Those thoughts began to squash the goal of making it to the top.
When we reached our limit, that is, as far as we were going to go on that morning after weighing the information we had gathered on our way up, I wondered outloud if there was, or should be, some way to register our foot mileage.
Okay, we didn’t make it to the very tippy- top yesterday but how many people HAVE made it to the tallest peak on old Pedro Mountain Road? And who are they?
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Addendum: You may notice that the permanent image on my blog page is of a woman with a dog sitting high up on a mountain. That’s me, with my dog, Scorpio, and we hiked up Old Pedro Mountain Road in the 1970s. I don’t think I made it to the very top that day either.