Gradu-lation.

Graduations, for me, are fun to shoot.  

In any given moment or spread of shots there is whatever emotion you might imagine and there are all ages to pick from.  Thankfully, it seems that nowadays, the ceremonies are short and its common that there is a lot of comedy.

The OC Register called with the Dana Hills graduation assignment early in the week and then because of someone getting sick I got the El Toro graduation at the last minute.  The shots for the Dana Hills High School went in the paper and on line but the story I wrote got lost and didn’t make it, lost in the system, so I include it here.

I wrote a story for El Toro as well and I think it went in but will have to check and post it here after 30 days.  I almost didn’t make it as the Dana Hills Graduation was barely over when the El Toro Graduation was just starting.  The event was at The Bren Center on the UCI campus.  Five dollars for the toll road and another seven dollars for parking.  I should have flashed my press pass to see if they would waive the fee but usually it means a phone call, the standard back an forth, and there was just no time.

Last year at The San Clemente Graduation I shot the cap toss with my wide angle and I was anxious to shoot it again at Dana.  I got in position to shoot it and its an okay shot and will look great blown up but caught something I was doing wrong and now I will have to wait an entire year to try it.  I was going to try it at El Toro’s graduation and it would have been great but I got pulled off the floor by the protocol police because “…The Register knows we don’t allow photographers on the floor…”  Whatever. 

 

DANA HILLS GRADUATES 686.

DANA POINT(CA.)-Beaneath a sea of Dolphin blue caps, the Dana Hills High School Class of 2009, 686 smiling faces in all, sat patiently on the football field in the bright Thursday afternoon sun.   Acknowledging the hoots, hollers and shouts of congratulations from family and friends in the stands, one by one, each graduate stood, waiting to receive their hard earned diploma.  A short walk to the podium, a photo and back to their seat, with a diploma was all the time it took if you don’t count the four years it took to get there.

 

Max Kelley, Associated Student Union Vice-President commented that the last four years had been a time of change, highlighting the fact that as freshman there was no FaceBook or even U-tube.  Kelley encouraged his classmates with the idea that with change comes experience and opportunity and together they should look forward to what opportunities the world has.

 

“We can do anything we want…(we have) an unlimited opportunity to make our life meaningful…” Kelley said.

 

Jeremy Chang, as the Dolphin Scholar of Scholars used the movie “Risky Business” with Tom Cruise as a lighthearted example of how to accomplish a goal and at the same time challenged the Class of 2009 to examine and rethink their values.

 

“I encourage everyone to consider the well-being of others…”Chang said.

 

Graduating students, brother and sister, Rory and Megan Weinell, spoke together and brought laughs from students and faculty with props and comments, including a kitchen rolling pin meant to be a scroll of past commencement speeches at elementary and middle schools and one (hopefully) from their presumed future at Yale.  They bemoaned their job opportunities in the light of the present economic crisis.

 

“There is no hope of finding jobs because they’ve all been taken by the Dana alumni…” Megan Weinell said.

 

After the official acceptance of the Class of 2009 by faculty and staff, the students wasted no time to throw their caps into the air accompanied by the release of several dozen white doves.  Family and friends where invited to join the graduates on the field with hugs, handshakes and a lot of photos.

 

Alexis Kubicki will attend Orange Coast College to study illustration in the fall and was surrounded by family and friends, enthusiastically posing for photos in endless combinations.  Kubiki’s mom, Lisa Smith qualified her daughter as the best artist at Dana hills, also commenting that she is beautiful inside and out while her father Marty Aahmes offered her some sage advice.

 

“You must remember to stay young, look for happiness and constant growth…” Aames said

 

The Old Gloom Routine.

Its not even June yet, and the gloom is already here.  Its really been here for more than a week but, like every year, we hope it won’t last if we ignore it.  I shot this looking south from the San Luis Rey  I-5 freeway overpass on Friday evening and an hour later it was raining.  I hope the tourists don’t see this or maybe I do.

Meanwhile, ten minutes inland, in San Juan Capistrano, the sun shines bright and no one is in doubt that summer is just 3 weeks away.

First Annual Cuchessi Memorial Spin to Pulgas.

 

Its been a year since Cuchessi passed and although the initial shock is gone, you still wonder about what happened.  This would be where anyone thinking about how it is that loved ones are taken so young, say whatever it is that means something to them, but to me its just that they are gone.

I have been working on a small narrative about Cuchessi for the last year now and I don’t want to give it away until its done but I want to refer to it in some small way.  How many times we had a week in the shop with some event that had passed the week before and we dissected every possible point of view on what took place.  

Like a Supreme Court Justice, Cuchessi would hear the case with the entrance and testimony of witnesses and those willing to detail their opinion.  Afterwards he would evaluate each fact and filter out the exaggeration and truth for what it meant to our small town.  The theorems and co-theorems would stack up until it was obvious that all the info was in and after it all the final decree would come.

Sometimes it might be a single sentence of fact or a paragraph of Cuchessi truths with some mix of Italian wisdom that only his DNA could deliver.  He would apply  and  cross apply other “cases”, comparing them in some way to the web of small town occurrences that archeologically fell on top of one another and never ended; we had a constant presentation of new facts and information.

Cuchessi was not always right but like most small town characters, he was never confused.  The inevitable news would arrive, providing more details of what might have occurred, and Cuchessi would weigh each morsel; usually, wordlessly, he would glance up from the sales counter to the mechanics bay and smile wisely at the confirmation of his intuition and sometimes commenting with “Too Funny…”,  ”…what’d I tell you?” or  simply stating, the predictable nickname of whomever just left that, with his inflection, indicating disbeleif, astonishment or confirmation.

This was mostly done in the late afternoon, with the Sun Post News spread across the glassed case that held the steel, durex plastic and aluminum jewels from which he made his living.  Cuchessi had memorized the sayings of the cycling greats that stared down at all of us from the posters on the walls; he would sagely quote them in a way that would in some way apply to the case at hand.

“…I accept the challenge!!!(French accent/Jaques Anquetil)…When I am in question I…ATTACK!!!(Belgian accent/Mercyx)…Haa!!!…I scoff at you!!!(italian accent/Felice Gimondi)” or “…alo, baby…(Flemish accent/Freddy Maertens)”

I can imagine that anyone in the shop the last few weeks and talking to Sue, Andrew and the mechanics about what the last year has been like and what it all means, that if you really carefully listened hard you might hear John’s voice above it all.

“…Don’ worrr’ ’bout it!!!(San Clemente accent/John Cuchessi)”

 

I wrote this for the OC Register:

 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/ride-cuchessi-family-2429848-sunday-john

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hula Hula.

 

 

 

The San Onofre Hawaiian Surf Club sponsored the Polynesian Festival in San Clemente, held at the Community Center this year.  I shot it for the Sun Post News and it seems as though the daily, the OC Register, is going to feature the story with a host of other events going on county wide, this Memorial Day weekend.

It started at 10 am and these things usually start out slow and a little late but when I got there at ten minutes after, they were already in full swing.  They had everything including a chicken bar-b-que rice combo plate that looked really good.  My favorite was the music and the dancing.

Sometimes the music can start to sound the same but they had a good mix and it was all really entertaining, especially with the dancing.  I didn’t see any of the flashy hula type stuff but more of the hand ballet that goes in time with the tune.  They had all ages performing and with different traditional instruments like halved coconut shells and some sort of shredded bamboo wand that made a great sound.  

I got shots of everything including some great looking old time woodys that were really well restored and the best part was from what I saw, it was a real home grown deal with most people I talked to from South Orange County. 

The Hula group “Halau Hula Lani Ola” did most of the performing but there was also a Missions and Bible Study group that went on first and did traditional Hula to Hawaiianized olde time hyms like “A Closer Walk With Thee”, that was really well done.  They were backed up by a full band and with the dance they did that went with it, was just great.  They chose a great spot just between the library and the community center that accentuated the natural aspect of what the Islands can be like.

At one point I saw a gaggle of young performers waiting to go on and sitting all along, on a wall and it made a great shot with San Clemente’s palm trees in the background.  This would be a great event to not miss next year.

Photo Round-Up for Spring 2009

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Life Begins Again.

 

LIFE magazine is online and enjoying it’s first day today…

 

http://www.life.com/

 

 

A big reason…the biggest reason actually, that FiveBlocks takes photographs today, are the hours spent on the living room couch, my dad’s waiting room, the library, my sister’s beach bag, my grandmother’s home, the barbershop, long car trips, the doctor’s office or the dime box at the American Veteran’s Thrift Store in Oceanside, and anyplace else that had a spot big enough to stack a pile of LIFE magazines on top and wondering over the larger than life images that detailed how humans worldwide live their lives.

 

 

In our neighborhood, growing up, I imagined my own everyday pains and struggles embroidered within the images I would see each month.  Even with the images that were taken before I was born; I would look back on the frozen moments in time captured on the oversized page, thinking and comparing what I held in common with the grainy black and white faces I stared into.

 

 

Every possible emotion held up for the world to see and almost in the size of a poster.  It was more than a few times that I contemplated everyone else turning the same pages as I would do and thinking if what they saw, brought forth the same feelings and thoughts.

 

 

How could it be that, at these extreme moments, a photographer could be ready and sane enough to hold the camera forward, frame a photo, control the exposure and freeze time so that everyone could see and arrive at just the smallest understanding of what the moment was actually like.

 

 

Today, we talk and share what we think about that funny  Utube video or that unusual website but do you remember talking about that LIFE photo and imagining through your conversation what it was about and what it must have been like to actually be there.

 

 

 

I so much hope that in our own modern way of seeing things and sharing life on our planet, that we can be in the moment of what its like to live on the edge of our lives where every step is the unknown edge of a new frontier.  LIFE magazine reminds me of that and thats why I am so glad its back.

 

 

 

It occurs to me that with every photo I take, as I take it, I imagine, for an instant,  those bright white letters on a red rectangle in the corner, that spell out “LIFE”.

 

FiveBlocks

You Had Me At Gutentag.

We were thinking of going to see Tom Cruise’s “Valkryie”, but then I saw some previews and I thought it was Jerry McGuire in a Nazi outfit.  I was waiting for a scene with Cruise in a sweet black Mercedes on the audobon, tapping the steering wheel to a tune by Marlene Dietrich, after signing a dozen or so cautious Nazi officers to play on his team against Hitler.

We got into a conversation about Heath Ledger and how good he is in the Batman movie as the Joker.  It seems that just when artists are really doing well, they go for a plane ride they shouldn’t go on or take an unscheduled nap, to never wake up again.

 

Maybe thats why Tom is still around and I think, what’s worse for him, he is going to die of naural causes.

FiveBlocks.

It’s Christmas Time In The City…

 

 

 

Metrolink Holiday toy express 2008

Metrolink began last year a program that stops in various cities on the way to Camp Pendleton and collect toys to take to military families that feel the need for some help.  Fireman collect the toys at each stop, and in addition to military famlies, collect toys for all needy families.

Metrolink has constructed a special set of train cars that support a fun holiday program that characters perform from atop the train at each stop.  Last year it had a “pirate” theme where Santa and his crew were kidnaped and held hostage for toys.  Eventually, of course, Santa is rescued and the pirates are allowed to have toys and take part in Christmas anyway.

This year it was “Santa-Claus” versus “Santa-Hog” who wanted to take all the presents for himself; in the face of Santa’s message Santa-Hog learns not to be a hog and share.

 

Reindeer helpers at The Casa Romantica with Santa.

The Casa Romantica had a program last Saturday for all the kids that featured Santa, games, caroling, snacks, hot drinks, the christmas goose and a talking Christmas tree.  

Nothing compares to any of the events I cover, with how the children respond to Santa.  Although, there are a few that are terrified it’s true, the average little one approaches with awe and barely concealed elation that emotionally is un-measurable.

 

Santa is fun.

 

 

This what Santa is all about.

 

 

Aliso Viejo also had a Christmas gig on Sunday.  They had singing and performances by the high school dance group.  A high school duo sang some Christmas songs and then led the group in caroling.  There was free hot chocolate and then Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up with Frosty the Snowman and lit the  city Christmas tree.  Santa sat for awhile and met all the children that waited for him and checked their lists.

The first little guy that was in-line (see photo) sat down and was all business, as he had several lists and information that he wanted to give Santa.  His parents made an effort to move him along but he was so into it, there was no stopping him.  Santa checked it all and he got a candy cane out of it.  The parents and all the adults nearby could not contain themselves; it was hilarious and everyone was a good sport.

 

 

THE Christmas List.

 

 

Just a little taste of Christmas in the southland.

Awl Encompassing.

 

BAND-AID

 Leaner times can mean cinching up your belt and adding new holes.

 

There was a tool in our garage when I was growing up that my father never used. We didn’t have many toys and things to play with growing up; partly because there just wasn’t that much around to buy, partly because my folks just didn’t buy things like that and most importantly my mom ran the church rummage sale at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church and we got all the toys that didn’t sell.  

 

Usually when the whining got to be to much for my mom she wrestled the wooden spoon drawer open, jangling its contents together, to get my attention and I was sent out to the garage to make something. There were always blocks of wood, bolts, screws and odd ball hand tools from my Grandfather’s farm. All the tools made sense to me except for one tool.

 

It was brown with rust and chunks of it flaked off when I squeezed its plier like hand grips.  It was larger than a crescent wrench and yet smaller than a monkey wrench.  It had no on and off button and therefore no cord to be plugged in.  It sat always in the same spot, dangling from a nail on the beam next to the green gopher traps.  It was really the shape of a pair of scissors but rather than blades to cut with it had a type of wheel with metal rods protruding outwards, about an inch long, each one a different diameter.  It was really a curious tool but I never got to use it as there was no need.

 

Well, I think we used it once on my first day of school when the belt I had for my new shorts was to big and then it came down from beside the gopher traps, the spool of braided brass wire and the old lamp cord, to make some extra holes; it was a leather awl.  A tool to make holes in belts and straps. Extremely useful on a farm especially in the time my father lived on one during the great depression.

 

Not everything my father did had a tinge of depression reasoning behind it but a lot of it did.  Painting the house ourselves instead of hiring it out, growing our own vegetables and always having dessert at home.  Dad frequently took apart whatever house hold appliance before its final trip to the curb to scavenge nuts, bolts, screws and a cord…just in case.  Its wasn’t strewn about in an un-navigable mess in the garage but stored carefully in little boxes and stored in the drawers of an old dresser.  Clean and tightly put-away, any little part could be found and utilized and it didn’t leave the house until he was sure it had done its full duty.

 

I would tease my dad as I sat on the driveway, carving out the weeds in the cracks with an old table knife.

 

“…depression labor, dad…lets buy a machine to do this…” I would say.  

 

Most of the time he would just smile and then sometimes he would give me that look that he was trying to teach me something.  Sometimes he looked like it hurt him with what I said, like maybe that same feeling he had when the more cashed up folks in town looked at him in his not so new clothes.

 

It doesn’t take too much reading of history to know about the great depression and what it must have been like.  Experiences like that don’t just leave and I remember thinking it wasn’t just my dad that looked at things through harsher colors, but a whole generation.  Loving history as I do, I knew that I should really hope that I didn’t have an opportunity to live through one.

 

Now its late 2008 and history seems to be on a bend to repeat itself.  I have thought back a lot lately to those funny things that dad used to say and do and they aren’t so out of hand now.  In fact I am glad of them and in his own way I see he prepared me for a time in our country he did not live to see.

 

Every indication is that it’s going to be worse before it gets better.  A little thinner America somehow doesn’t seem to be something so un-needed.  A time to be learning some lessons and cinching up your belt when their isn’t as much on the plate as there used to be.  What I am really getting at is hopefully with what we are about to experience, we will pay close attention and take advantage as much as we can; its only that some of us had moms and dads that have already lived it.  

 

It would be nice to point out the sage advice of our parents on investing, getting along at work or moving up the corporate ladder but it may be that a simple rusty awl and what it can do is the best lesson we could have ever gotten.

October and November Photo Round-Up.

FiveBlocks has upgraded to a new computer and media software.  Soon FiveBlocks will be on a new website; we were hoping to have the new platform up with the new system and all at once but alas…it will be a bit still.

What FiveBlocks will do is keep the postings up as before and hopefully with less time in between until one day you come by and you will be on the new site.  

Thanks for enduring the long pause with us….hopefully it was harder on us than it was on you but if we do our job right no one will have to worry about that again.  One of the exciting things we have planned is video on the new site…and it really looks great…so plan to be a little homesick if you live far away but then it will give you some ideas of new things to visit or just a few laughs if you already live here.  More on other surprises and things we have planned…later…

In the interim, it’s not like we haven’t been busy so check out the latest Photo Round up…

 

FiveBlocks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saddleback Football and another close call…he ran for a TD on this..

 

 

 

Day of THe Dead at San Juan Capistrano Library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes on 8 sign on Crown Valley parkway on election day.

 

 

Soth County Democratic Headquarters in San Juan Capistrano on election day.

 

 

Fall Fest (halloween) in Aliso Viejo.

 

Roller skating in San Clemente.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is “Mini”, the San Juan Chihuahua…she is waiting for another bite of mango from her owners at San Juan Library’s “Day of the Dead” celebration.

 

 

 

 

 

The “Great California Shake-Out” earthquake drill at Saddleback College.

 

 

 

The Hookah Craze.