Dreams, Moments, Travels
An old friend, Uwe Hamm-Furholter, wrote me and sent this brochure for the Exground Filmfest held in Wiesbaden, Germany, for the past 18 years – he and I went to the first one back in 1988, and I got my clock cleaned by Ari Roussimoff following the Exground showing of his film Shadows in the City in 1990 or 1991. Uwe brought the likes of Nick Zedd to Germany to show his films, did some documentary work with Richard Kern, and has always had a liking for extreme films.
On the trail at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona for Las Noches de las Luminarias. The garden transforms into a holiday wonder – at least as far as this desert is concerned. There are half a dozen stands along the trails selling coffee, hot chocolate, wine, and soft drinks. We watched and listened to no less than eight musicians or groups as we strolled between the luminarias with their candles flickering. A woman playing harp greeted us at the front gate, and a barbershop quartet serenaded us and even made us laugh. Onlookers gathered around a Native American flutist in an Indian-style hut while the Scottsdale Bell Ringers drew a large crowd in the Patio Cafe. A cowboy sang songs of the old west, not to mention two jazz bands, mariachis, and more. It was a blast; we only wish we’d shown up at 5:30 when it all begins instead of coming in at 7:00. The luminarias are lit from 5:30 till 9:30, and quite a few weekend days are already sold out – well worth a visit.
This is me, John Wise, at my office in 1992 in Frankfurt, Germany. Caroline and I started producing record covers for Techno music in 1989 and eventually made many a t-shirt design, postcards, CD covers, magazine advertisements, posters, slides, and various other graphic designs, 3D modeling and animation, video, and multimedia stuff. We worked under different monikers, including:
Dweeb, Magic Donut, 4-Eyes…
…Optic Kiss, Kommunaggresion, Intrinsic Dimension, and…
…The Hippies. Prior to this, I did live concert documentary work for bands including…
…The Pixies, Nitzer Ebb, Dinosaur Jr, Front 242…
…Nirvana – (live in Hanau, Germany 1989),
The Sugarcubes, Psychic TV, Laibach, and about 100 other bands.
Visited long-time friend Mike DeVarennes for the first time in quite a while and was surprised to see the inside of his house had become a giant canvas. The front entryway is what you are looking at above – his two kids love the jungle motif. A nearby closet door has taken on the magic of a Mayan temple passage. A bathroom has received a tropical underwater treatment that I wish were in our bathroom. This is how all children’s rooms should be painted! Well, I might opt for a circus feel or maybe bring ancient Egypt into our abode. Then again, the rainforest holds a lot of appeal. Contact Mike through his website: www.mikesmurals.com
Reports of snow, road closures, emergency facilities for those stranded by ice, and poor weather are starting to litter the news. Here in Phoenix, the grass is greener and the weather pleasant. After suffering through our 110-degree summer days, which seems to have abruptly ended just days ago, we are lulled into climactic bliss. Images of parka-clad Minnesotans and snow-buried Buffalonians tease our sense of revenge-gloating as we stroll with bare feet and short-sleeved shirts down our green grass-lined boulevards punctuated by the occasional thorn-bearing cactus.
Disclaimer: Back in November 2005, when I was posting about our trip up the coast, we were severely limited regarding photos I could post on the blog due to bandwidth limitations. Here in 2022, I’m updating these posts using the original image and text, but I’m adding the rest of the photos I would have liked to share 16 years ago if bandwidth and storage had not been an issue.
We had to backtrack about 10 miles from our motel, but there’s nowhere else near Santa Barbara where we can find a room for under $60, so it was well worth the minor inconvenience.
Things really got kicked into action with breakfast at Sambo’s. Every time we eat here, we wonder if it’ll be the last time before the times catch up with them and force a name change.
The giant Moreton Bay Fig Tree in Santa Barbara that I’ve been visiting since I was a kid and has been growing here for almost 130 years.
Off the Santa Barbara coast, we can easily see the Channel Islands, well not looking this way as the shot is from the end of Stearns Wharf looking northwest, but I hope you get the idea.
Erected every Sunday since 2003, this is Arlington West, symbolizing the soldiers who died in the Iraq war.
In L.A., we are stunned at how extraordinarily clear the skies are.
We hiked up the Hollywood Hills to Griffith Park Observatory for a view that allowed us to see the most southerly of the Channel Islands – Santa Barbara Island (60 miles as the crow flies), then west to Santa Catalina Island and east to what appeared to be the mountains down by Palm Springs (90 miles away).
We watched airplanes taking off from LAX, looked upon the high rises of downtown, and visually followed Western Avenue to the ocean.
Time to cut our hike out here off as we are still about 7 hours away from home.
What was that, John? Well, there’s always time for Northwoods Inn. I wonder, how long will it be before this restaurant has to remove this painting due to naked breasts offending the sensibilities of adults who don’t want their children to know what they fed from their first months of life?
This is the last photo of this 5-day journey up and down the coast and a great trip it was. From this point, at the intersection of the 10 freeway and the 71, we are under 6 hours from home, and with no ocean, forest, butterflies, whales, naked ladies, or jellyfish on this route, I’m pretty sure we’ll just keep on driving till we get there.