Look for the new version of Live More Lightly soon.

I was inspired by their tagline, “Connecting You to Communities of Action”, so I developed a more modest motto, “Changing the World One Small Action at a Time.”  I don’t think it’s perfect yet, but it’s a start.

I have observed many individuals who are very successful in promoting their projects and it seems that joining networks and having lots of ratings and comments really helps. I continue to be inspired by Diane McEachern of Big Green Purse as she starts a women’s business initiative, Big Green Breakthrough. She is an author that has built on her success to make a real difference to the environment by offering a list of green products and rating claims of “earth friendly” and “natural”.

As I am looking for more work right now, I am going to try the Bright Green Talent site to try to obtain enough contract employment to support my project and myself with environmentally friendly work. Due to the downturn in the economy and the fact that I have not received any funding, I have had to reconsider my idea of riding my motorcycle across Canada. I still might be able to achieve this goal, but I really need to establish some financial stability before I can bring my workshop to the people.

]]> http://www.livemorelightly.com/blog/2009/05/joining-the-wiser-earth-network/feed/ 1 http://www.livemorelightly.com/blog/2009/01/time-investment/ http://www.livemorelightly.com/blog/2009/01/time-investment/#comments Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:19:46 +0000 victoria http://livemorelightly.com/?p=346 A new year and I have been thinking about one of the great topics of my life — time.

These ideas may be totally obvious to everyone else, but I like to analyze and explain my perceptions. This is off topic for this blog, but indulge me this once, please.

Perception of Time Passage

It seems to me that time is going faster the older I get and I have spoken to other people my age who feel the same kind of speeding up effect. My theory about this is that a given amount of time is experienced in comparison with the amount of time you have previously been aware of. For example; to a child aged 2, one additional year is one third of their life span but to an adult aged 29, one year is only a thirtieth of their life span and an older adult of 59 perceives a year as one sixtieth. For me to experience another year is approximately one fiftieth of my lifespan, so the effect of time is compressed compared to the perception of the length of childhood days.  Please comment on this theory.

Photography and Time

Recently, I have started to raise the quality of my photography. In order to accomplish this goal, I studied photographs and also compared the result that I achieved with the result I expected. I have come to some conclusions that may be surprising.

As a competent audio engineer I am used to capturing audio from source and achieving excellent results, because I am familiar with the behaviour of sound waves. Sound waves are quite slow moving and long, especially at lower frequencies (perceived as pitch). Both audio and visual capture are actually the process of recording the past because of the latency between the event and the capture device. The event of striking a string or hitting a key initiates a vibration that travels into the air and is picked up by some type of microphone and because sound waves are so slow, the audio engineer can initiate the recording process when the musician starts to move and still capture the entire sound wave.

It is well known that many people have traveled faster than sound in airplanes, but light is another story. Light moves so quickly that the photographer must actually move to take the photo before the moment that is captured occurs. No one can move faster than light and most photos are not taken from a great distance so the light reaches the camera almost instantaneously. A great photographer must plan to take a picture of the immediate future when the capture is initiated because if the moment has been seen, then it has already passed and can no longer be captured.

This has led me to take note of the amount of planning and forethought required to create interesting photos. My new idea is to recognize that a moment is about to occur (or plan a moment) and be ready to initiate the capture process to freeze the next moment in time. I have been trying to take a photo of what I am seeing, but that is impossible — I can only take a photo of what is about to happen.

In audio sampling, I have had to develop an accurate idea of very short time frames. I own the very first EMU SP-12 in Canada, the first drum computer to have built-in sampling. Due to the 5 second memory limitation, I had to learn to truncate (cut parts off) samples to make them take as little memory as possible. So I learned what .008 seconds sounds like.  Now I will try to translate that awareness into visual technology. I must develop the rhythm of shooting photos so that I will know how long it will take to initiate the process. This idea is interesting and I hope my photos will improve.

Where the Hell is Matt?”

When my daughter told me about Matt, I didn’t get it. She invited me to come down to the beach and dance with this young man who was traveling all over the world dancing with people. No, he is not a great dancer. I didn’t get it — I didn’t go. That’s my daughter in the red skirt, front left, on the beach in Vancouver.

Where the Hell is Matt 2008

Matt brought the world together with his little dance. There is such joy in the act of Matt doing his dance from the heart that it refreshes my belief in humanity. I believe that behind the power struggles and the greed — we are all one people. When I saw the video — I got the message.

Playing for Change

Here is another group that is doing video of pop songs, like “Stand By Me” (Ben E. King) and “One Love” (Bob Marley) performed by musicians all over the world playing together through the wonders of technology. They all appear in their own country playing their instrument on the same song playing with the musicians that have already been recorded.

They have a great site and the passion to show that music can cross borders that have been created by the power structure to connect us.

Live More Lightly

The completed Live More Lightly song 6 minute video will show me singing, joined by one person, then by another, then by all the workshop participants that want to be in the video. As each workshop will be different, it probably won’t be as smooth in transition as the Playing for Change videos, but if I get some funding I can make better video. The first one will be a do-it -yourself demo, but I hope to have it ready for the start of the tour in 2009.

The documentary movie will be about the journey across the continent in 2009 to bring the diverse age groups, cultures, ethnic backgrounds and others (basically everybody I can get) together to Live More Lightly on the land one small action at a time. I want to show lots of great environmental footage of natural scenes so everyone will know why we should save the planet. I anticipate that 90 minutes of singing, workshop events, beautiful scenery and on-bike motorcycle riding should be about right.

The motorcycle tour is a small portion of this project, but it has been taking a lot to coordinate. I could just go in my van to do the workshops, but the motorcycle is much more environmentally friendly.

I also hope to be able to be the first person to stream live video from a moving motorcycle to a satellite without a truck. The Grand Prix racers have on-bike cameras that stream to a nearby truck that carries a satellite dish, like the one pictured below. This huge dish with signal amplification allows them to send a broadcast quality signal to the satellite. From the satellite the signal can be received at the television station for editing or routed into the broadcast signal as live coverage. A higher quality signal (broadcast television) takes more power, so a larger amplifier and more microwaves, than a low quality signal (webcam).

Due to microwave radiation from this type of dish, it is against Canadian law to mount it lower than 4ft off the ground. This dish, when fully extended is well above the heads of any concert goers and is considered safe. I don’t even like to carry my cell phone in my pocket, but for the sale of art, I plan to innundate myself with microwaves from a portable modem. Basic outline of streaming requirements here.

Many motorcyclists have mounted cameras on their bike and there are a lot of videos on the internet of intense riding. Depending on your area of interest there are many to choose from. One other Vancouver rider, Jeff has captured a lot of scenic footage from his Harley on VRide TV. I love the smoothness of his ride as it makes for great video as I already described here. I am on a more limited budget with my old Yamaha FJ1200, but I hope to be able to get some great nature footage for the documetary. Still working on the streaming aspect. I will keep you posted.

When I first installed Wordpress, I had never administrated content management software before. The default is to install to the root folder, so that is where I put the program. Now, I am thinking about expanding the Live More Lightly Site to include a regular web site in addition to the blog, I find the root install is a problem. I have since installed and administer Wordpress on other websites and it is just as easy to install to a new folder and link to the blog from the site menu. I would advise anyone installing Wordpress to build a home page and put a link to the blog on that page. This will allow for easy site expansion as more links can be added to the home page and the blog will remain in the second-level folder where it was installed.

To avoid having to reinstall and reconfigure my site, I am constructing a Site Map page that will help to direct readers to the content they want to view and to the static pages that give information about the project. Many people find the three column layout confusing as there is so much information and different filtering options. The Site Map should help to demystify blog navigation and I welcome feedback when I get it published.

News Flash: The Live More Lightly Guestbook Page is now functional using the DMS Guestbook plug-in. Try it out, then I will know it works for sure.

On one occasion, when Krishna was still a child, he revealed his true god-self to his mother by asking her to look in his mouth. When she complied, she was astonished to see the entire universe inside the mouth of her child. When I looked into that camera, I saw a glimpse of the infinite — I was astonished. The photographer who owned the magic box enthusiastically started informing me of the technical details in a language full of numbers that I did not understand. This machine may be described by numbers, as the universe can be modeled mathematically, but the impact of the revelation I had experienced created a bookmark in my mind that I return to in wonder.

My next reaction was more practical, as the Virgo reasserted her presence. If everyone had a camera like that, my opportunities for employment as a graphic artist would be seriously reduced. There was no noise in the image, it was balanced and in sharp focus. If the capture mechanism was as pristine as the view, the images would reflect a hyper-realism that would need few adjustments. My daughter later comforted me by pointing out that many of these cameras are owned by individuals who can cause them to malfunction and that composition skills are still required. Even the best images can benefit from layout, design and story, so my production skills will still be needed.

The term “multi-media artist” has often been applied to my skill sets in production. I know that if I am not being paid, I do music, music technology and saving the world. Some practical part of me knows that my time will not allow any more addictions. I am already being drawn away from my “Live More Lightly Project” too much by other musical entanglements. I have to complete a book prototype this month. Move on.

Then, I went to Seattle and I used Kyle Cassidy’s camera to take photos of Kyle, Trillian and my daughter, Jhayne, together. This time, when I looked into the camera, the universe resolved and I saw my friend the computer lived there too. I immediately knew what to do and asked Kyle to set the controls to automatic. I can trust my computer abilities completely and I recognized that this was a computer that knew how to use the camera mechanisms. I could trust my intelligent friend and concentrate on steadiness and composition. I hope to see the results of this experiment [edit:one photo posted on Trillan's blog link here].

Now, I feel myself wanting to experience that clarity again, but another thought intrudes. Am I ready to take the responsibility of being able to capture the hyper-real visual universe? In music recording, I live in hyper-reality because I capture sounds that are usually very fleeting and preserve them so they can be examined, manipulated and controlled. I capture in very high resolution and my mixing and mastering work is essential to reconstruct or engineer the three-dimensional space of the recording. Another dimension of music technology is to edit lower resolution captures and enhance them to contemporary standards. I take the responsibility of revealing moments of time and translating a transient waveform into a repeatable experience. There is always some level of interpretation required and other ears can be consulted on an important project.

Image capture is decided quickly by the one person who has control of the mechanism. I had decided to pursue video because it is a relatively low resolution media and the editor shares the responsibility because there is so much material. Video is very similar to audio recording in that sense. Audio/video footage is a linear record, but photography is a much more selective process. A hyper-real photo will capture the essence of the moment and freeze the light-wave, the way I preserve audio samples. There is some truth to the idea that a photo will capture a piece of the soul of the subject as it is the reality of physical and spiritual presence that reflects the light.

The photos I take start out as relatively low-resolution and I compress them to make them load quickly. Despite my poor equipment, sometimes I capture the spirit of light and I do not post those images to the internet. If I had a camera with a brain, these occurrences would increase.The posts I write with images are more attractive to readers, so I take snapshots, but I am selective about posting ones that qualify as images.

I want to be a musician first and I need to improve my financial picture before I could make such an investment in camera technology. I think the experience of computer-guided image excellence will help me to push what I have and even the poorest new video cameras have superior image resolution to my Canon A80.

The higher resolution specification given for still image capture on a video camera can be misleading. The cameras take interpolated images to raise the resolution specifications, but I hope to find a dual-purpose that will allow me to disable that feature and use the native resolution of the CCD. Camera manufacturers believe that consumers will buy more mega-pixels regardless of how they obtain them. It is true that most individuals do not research a purchase the way I have, but I will live with this device for a long time if I pick the correct unit and my integration with the machine will improve the function.

If I ever have a camera like Kyle’s in my hands again, I will remember that I have my own memory SD card in my pocket. I usually have a memory stick/USB with removable media on my person at all times. Then I would feel free to move into the hyper-real universe because it is my memory media and I will control the results of my journey.

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Progress of Live More Lightly Project

Book Portion

Cover – draft complete, photo rights purchased, still writing material for the back

Interior – 3 sections planned: First Edition is for everyone, Second Edition is for Choirs

1. Front Matter (Title, CIP, Dedication, Index, Foreword)
2. Workshop Guide
3. Sheet music (positioned so material lays flat in the middle of the book)
4. Section break photo page (2)
5. Environmental Suggestions (for song lyrics)
6. Music Materials (instructional material on basic rhythm patterns and melody ideas)
7. Creative Commons License

Next Step: Finalize draft so that number of pages can be used for print quote.

Remaining tasks: Source paper disk sleeves for book insert, try a few more fonts, source line drawing for logo, disk label and song sheet cover, source environmentally inspiring photos.

Disk – 4 sections possible

1. Music (includes recording of the song with and without vocals and helpful loops for practicing)
2. Parts for printing in booklet form
3. Workshop support materials (includes poster and other materials that may be helpful)
4. Possible power-point of workshop material
5. Possible demo video of sample workshop

Next Step: Create a demo book and CD

Remaining Tasks: Finalize “Basic Arrangement” with piano accompaniment, Record material, Video workshop, Create Power-point presentation, Complete support materials

Workshop Portion

Local workshops in Vancouver being organized.

Next step: Create sample workshop video and workshop promotional material.

Motorcycle still not ready to tour.

Next Step: Get luggage and camera on-bike.

++++++++++++X+X+X++++++++++++

A project like this can be daunting, but I am trying to organize the tasks into bite-sized sections. Project administration is another area that is receiving a lot of attention. There are grant deadlines coming up and I am trying to balance the time invested with the possibility of actually getting a grant. Sponsorship is another possibility, but I will have to be careful to keep the focus on the individual actions that people can do and not a corporate agenda.

I have been encouraged by the response to my blog and the many encouraging comments that people have made. When I tell people about the project I get different reactions, from supportive to completely negative. It does take a certain kind of stubbornness to see a project like this through to the end. By this time next year, I hope to have my video recorded and my journey completed.

Many of the technologies I envisioned in the play have become ubiquitous in our lives. I wrote about ATM machines, the internet and e-books, but the focus was surveillance and government control. Now I read articles that confirm my fears that every moment we are in a public place, we are on camera (example). Is this something to fear or does it contribute to public security? The example article quotes Norman Siegel, who recommends that everyone carry their own camera with them so they can record their version of any event they witness. This is good advice, but sometimes events happen so fast or unexpectedly that the video camera is still in the case when the action occurs.

The idea of mounting a video camera on my motorcycle did not arise from the idea of documenting civil rights violations, or even motor vehicle traffic law breakers, although that’s not a bad idea . . . my idea came from wanting to share the experience of riding a motorcycle. When I am riding, I am part of the environment in a way that never occurs when I am sealed in the box of a car or van. With only two small patches of rubber on the road — it’s as close as I can get to flying.

Even though I know each time I go to the bank, shop, drive or even walk down the street, I may be on  video and might be on the internet. I know that there is not enough manpower to monitor every video stream; so there must be years of video stored on hard drives that has never been viewed. There are very intelligent software filters and programs that match facial features or license plates to database records, used by large organizations and governments, so humans only become involved if there is an alert. Video is often used after the fact to try to identify perpetrators or get-away vehicles. I try to be nondescript in public and pass under the radar by looking completely non-threatening. Invisible = average height, middle-aged woman.

As part of my camera research I have been looking at the possibility of using a surveillance camera for the always-on option on my bike. The cameras are small, high-quality, durable and stream directly through an ethernet cable to a computer or the internet. There is a lot of money spent on the development of these cameras and so they come in many shapes and sizes. Some manufacturers even make ones with a built-in windshield wiper, de-mister and/or heater! Some are really high quality and I will do another post on camera choices soon.  I already plan to bring a computer and I wanted to stream on to the internet, so this could give the process a jump start. This system example I got from Gary looks like it is used by plumbers to examine pipe insides. The notebook runs on Vista, but I will try to make it work in Linux too.

Carrying my notebook with me everywhere I go would be a good thing as I really do use it, when I bring it along. I need bags on my bike so I can carry it securely and not have to strip everything off every time I stop. I am working on it.

———————————————————

Another connection with surveillance technology is my interest in highway-cams. On my tour, I plan to identify hiway cams and video them as they are capturing me. I talk about the artistic influences that inspired me to do this here. The ideal outcome will be if I can have a collaborator saving the highway-cam stream on their computer so that I can use the video record in a documentary.

 _______________________

There are also threats to privacy in the proliferation of spyware. A description of what these programs can do is found here on a site that sells software designed to assist network administrators to monitor computer use. Downloaded spyware can track every keystroke you make, where you go on the internet, what pages are viewed, for how long and what you are clicking on. Then, the program will send all of this information back to over your internet connection to the company or individual who invaded your computer. Computers running Windows are most vulnerable to this type of background program and regular use of Spybot and Ad-Aware are recommended to all of my Windows computer clients. Just to demonstrate how devious these programs can be, a recent invasion of spyware was caused by a company masquerading as Ad-Aware. Please ignore all other sites and download only from Lavasoft.

I have many stories to tell of those days of off-road adventures; discovering abandoned mines, riding to the snow in August and the breathtaking mountain vistas that inspire a connection with the spirit of beauty. This story is not one of mine, but a guest post by my friend and mechanic, Simon. This story is the tale of an actual ride that Simon and Mark experienced, told in Simon’s own words. Please be warned that he uses words as part of his regular vernacular that are not usually found on these pages, but that are familiar to most speakers of the English language. Due to the general nature of the internet audience, I have used some discretion, while still preserving the form.

I know it seems hard to believe, but this is what happened . . .

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Simon and his Yamaha FJ1200

Simon + Mark’s Enduro Experience

One summer’s long weekend, after my birthday in June \05, Mark and I rode out to visit my sister Jacky,who lives in the southern interior of “Beautiful BC” Where you should be!

We opted to do the first leg on the Fraser Canyon Hwy, also known as “old highway one”. We were both riding Yamaha FJ series bikes, and the prospect of a few hundred kilometers, in perfect riding weather, on the twisty turny of the canyon route, on bikes perfect for just such conditions — well, you can pretty much predict our collective mood. How do you say YEEEEHAAAAAAWW!!! . Well factor that by two, you’ll have an idea of just how much fun was had by the two of us that day. To only have gotten one ticket each, courtesy of the “Revenue Collectors Motor Patrol” is nothing short of miraculous.
Surely, at least, a testament to our maturity as riders, to have shown such discretion and restraint, in the face of such temptation . . . sheeeesh! The mind fairly boggles!

It took the better part of the day to get to Jacky’s country digs. Our arrival was not unexpected. We enjoyed a couple of drinks, sampled a plate or two of regional fare, mostly BBQ and some very palatable pot luck sort of stuff.

Seems we landed in the middle of a party amongst the locals. No mean portion of which was comprised of members of my Sisters’ extended family. The couple of hours we stayed were spent chatting with relatives, and in Mark’s case, any number of the fair sex, several of which appeared to have my associate squarely within their crosshairs.

All this, of course will tire a man out quickly, especially after a long day in the saddle. When we make inquiry into intended sleeping quarters we find, much to our surprise and chagrin that their intended solution to our dilemma is woefully
inadequate. Lastly used by, and now the final resting place for, the remains of several thousand STINK BUGS .

“Gee . . . we haven’t opened this trailer tent up since that real bad infestation. Don’t worry, it’ll air out in a bit.” Welllll . . . I don’t think so, thanks a lot just the same!

So with some hasty changes of plan, Mark and I are headed for town. Enderby . . . it’s only 30 or 40 klicks back completely unlit, mostly paved country road. The fog from the river we parallel is not altogether blinding. I did not loose count of the near misses of various hazards, live or not.

It approaches midnight as we check into the motel, waking the manager who had been sound asleep. The staff of all the local restaurants appear to be in a similar state. We are not too hungry to sleep. Good thing, ’cause f**k, was I tired!

We got up next morning, not really sure of the time.We showered and buggered off fairly quick like,thinking to be ahead of some of the already growing holiday traffic. We hit the road and don’t stop ’till Salmon Arm, where we decide to get breakfast.
“The Best Country Breakfast” or something of the sort, sez the sign. This looks good enough for our needs. We are shown to a table from which we can nearly reach the towering display case, fairly packed with desert options. The waitress asks how Mark wants his eggs. He sez “nogged” . . . I sez, “I want 3 eggs meuranged, just like on that big pie over there!” Chaos ensues.

Thinking it would be better to be home earlier, rather than later , [holiday traffic] we opt to return via the Coquihalla Hwy. We don’t mind the $5. toll at the top of the pass. The road is deceptively curvaceous. The cars do 130 to 140 most times. Things start to become stimulating when the bike gets over 200 kph. This is a freaking riot as these bikes will cruise effortlessly at 225 kph. Well we had us some fun for an hour or so. We took on fuel in Merritt and had a little rest as we planned our route home.

We decided to get off the Hwy at a Lake Resort outfit, where we had rented a cabin some years ago. We thought we would be ready for a stop by then. Hey — we’re in no big rush!

So it’s only 50 or 60 clicks to the toll booth, and before ya know it, the last exit is upon us. As we exit the highway, I realize . . . shit! we’ve taken the wrong f**king exit!

My suspicions are soon verified as we pass a sign pointing to the right for the “Played Out Pit Mine”. We go left. This route takes us under the highway and opens up where the pavement ends. We are greeted by a sign that bids us “Welcome to The Trans Canada Trail”. What f**kin trail?? We see a gravel [sort of] vehicle track going one way. The other way goes back to the highway OFF ramp. Hey, wait a freaking minute . . . just how the f**k do ya get back onto the freaking highway??? Well,we see that we can get back on if ya want to go to freaking Merritt. Now aint that just f**kin ducky! Backtrack all the way to Merritt??!! No thanks.

On the positive side, we have plenty of fuel and many hours of daylight remaining under a nearly cloudless sky. We are several thousand feet up in the mountains, so the temperature is perfect, even under the midday sun. This is all very fortuitous, we agree.

It seems our only practical choice is to see how this gravel track plays out. We believe
that there must be a loose network of these not-quite-roads. We saw some of these leading away from the Lake Resort ,where we had stayed, years ago. My best guess is that if we can go far enough to the east,via this path,we will probably hook up with a road that will take us to the Lake Resort, and so, to the highway. “The best laid plans” et al.

We take a little break while we ponder all this. I took a couple of pictures here. In retrospect, I should have taken fifty along the next few clicks. In self defence, I will say my hands were full at the time.

So, it’s “off we f**k!” We proceed down this track,which is strewn with fist sized blast rock. I’m concerned for the well being of about 400 bucks worth of rubber as we motor along, mostly in first and second gear. Our first obstacle appears in the form of a rather formidable gap in the track. It appears someone has been busy with a good sized back hoe here. They have managed to create what you could call a “yawning chasm’ for a couple of NOT trail bikes! The accompanying sign, which I confess not to have seen, allegedly said something, by way of admonition, about “No Motor Vehicles Beyond This Point”!

Well, the Grand f**king Canyon we were facing, one might think, would make such signage redundant. Not so, dear reader!! I looked down that big f**ker of a ditch and said to myself . . . self — you can do this!! Down I went, standing on the pegs with some rear brake to keep me together. WOW, the front end starts to come up, as I begin my ascent. I’m on the gas; and before ya know it. I’m back on flat ground! Unscathed, save for the belly of Mr FJ.

I turn around and beckon Mark to follow. He looks at me with a sort of deadpan expression at the same time, shaking his noggin. I’m seeing ,’ no fukkin’ way’. Mute, yet eloquent.

I shut off my bike, search for sidestand footing. Once I’m sure Mr FJ ain’t gonna go over, I scramble back, down, across and back up the other side. Having suffered an injury to his left ankle\foot this summer, this is not exactly what the Doctor ordered for my associate. I, of course volunteer to “have a go at it”. Being fresh with confidence, amassed during my recent experience, I say “piece of cake”. This trip went just about like the former. A bit more contact underneath methinks, but hell, we’re still in one piece each!

The track is looking more like a trail as we wind down towards flowing water, in the form of a creek, like salmon might spawn in. Our next obstacle comes in bovine form, a rather large brown & white sort. The critter had command of the trail, near as I could tell. Mark was on point at that time, so I bravely waited to see if our bovine interloper intended to stake any territorial claim here. Good fortune still with us, the great brown milker appeared to suddenly recall some unfinished bovine business elsewhere, in another locale, no doubt. In any case, we pressed on, no more was seen of the great brown milker.

I was not altogether pleased to see the”trail’ was moving further and further away from the highway, as it followed the natural meander of the creek . We did not need to confer vocally, the mutual pan and shrug is universal motorcyclist silent communication. Taken, in this case to mean, “What the f**k else we gonna do?” We kept going.

Truth be known, I’m not sure exactly how far we had gone here, had to be a few clicks. The trail had been taking us back in the right direction for a while. We were climbing up out of the little river valley. We found ourselves going up a fairly good rise, on what was clearly nothing more than a single track cattle path. We would not have been able to get past any of our erstwhile bovine friend’s friends. Fortunately, our outrageous good fortune was still with us, as no such encounter had befallen us, as yet anyway. As we arrived at the top of this rise, the trail emptied into a very tiny field and stopped altogether! What the f**k?? The field had an impassable fence at one end, deep bush on the right and an unpassable drop on the left! How the f**k do we get out of this mess?

A little way back down the rise, we had passed what turned out to be the only way out, so to speak. Another narrow little cow path. This f**ker goes straight down the side of this rise we’ve been climbing. At the top, we look down, Holy f**k!! That’s one long steep fukker of a drop. Pan and shrug . . . I go first — Holy f**kin Shit!! By the time I’ve said that a couple of times, I’m at the bottom and the trail is visible once more. I wonder how Mark’s gonna do this?? Man, there was rocks, roots, ruts, loose shit all the way down. I don’t know much rear brake I used to try to keep my speed down. Don’t forget, these motorcycles weigh in at close to 600 f**king pounds!!

I turn around to see Mark take the plunge! I’m cheering for him, under my helmet, as I watch him come down “clean” without so much as a single dab! Now, here’s where things get interesting.

After another distance on the path, which is just visible on the floor of what I would call a meadow, the highway is once more before us. We are looking at the side embankment of an overpass. We can see the underneath of the bridge. Now, imagine looking up the side of this embankment, to where it levels off, about 5 feet from the underside of the beginning of the bridge deck. If you’re standing at the top of the embankment, you may need to crouch a bit.

Looking ahead, there’s a flat area maybe 4 or 5 feet across. At it’s end, the embankment goes steeply down to the floor of the river valley. From where we are, the embankment looks like it’s made of some kind of stone; shale or something like that . . . Well guess what mutherf**ker ?? The f**kin trail goes straight up the side of that 100 foot embankment!! I’m thinkin, “f**k, I hope I can squeeze between the bottom of the bridge and the top of that embankment!!”

I look at Mark . . . pan and shrug. Once more “it’s off I f**k!” Well, this is the first time I’ve done a Hill Climb on an FJ . The back wheel spun all the way up, the arse end went east and west. No shortage of power, not a lot of leverage from the narrow grips though. When I got to the top, I just kept my head down. Ya can’t look straight up with a full coverage helmet it seems!

I traversed the width of six lanes of Coquihala Hwy under that overpass. I saw nothing to suggest that any other human had done so since the thing had been built. When I emerged from the relative darkness beneath the bridge, I practically cheered to discover I had come out onto a wooden deck, which led immediately to gravel then paved road . . . finally!

We had arrived at the road leading to the Lake Resort at last. We had both, it seemed lost the hankerin’ for that “outdoorsy” crap. We took a pass on stopping at the Lake Resort .

For sure, I’m gonna put a milder cam in this bike before I do any more of this off road stuff. Who knows, maybe next year.

]]> http://www.livemorelightly.com/blog/2008/08/simons-yamaha-fj1200-enduro-experience/feed/ 0 http://www.livemorelightly.com/blog/2008/08/vancouver-folk-music-festival-and-the-canon-a80/ http://www.livemorelightly.com/blog/2008/08/vancouver-folk-music-festival-and-the-canon-a80/#comments Sat, 02 Aug 2008 05:54:32 +0000 victoria http://livemorelightly.com/2008/08/02/vancouver-folk-music-festival-and-the-canon-a80/ It has been raining in Vancouver now for a couple of days and I have been riding, because I put my van in the shop just as the clouds were gathering. As the rain pours down in a foreshadowing of the winter that will arrive all too soon, I think back to the clear skies and endless sun we enjoyed July 19 + 20th for the 31st annual Vancouver Folk Music Festival.

Despite my frustration with how slow everything is progressing with my project, I still dropped everything to go to the Folk Music Festival with my daughter and her friends. It is really hard for me to concentrate on spreadsheets when I know there is some fine music out on Jericho Beach.

This is also a story about cameras because I was left with my venerable aged Canon A80 to take to the Folk Fest and to the Javanese Shadow play. This is because I invested in the Canon S series as a suitable camera for my daughter and it is really too fragile. I ended up with her old S2 after the power supply blew out and I bought her an S3. I had my Canon A80 and had just bought some lenses for it when I got the S2 repaired and have been using it instead of the older A80. Alas, the S3 blew out it’s power supply and I returned the S2 to my daughter while it was in the shop. So, I was left with the A80, but I had lenses to try out.

My daughter was armed with the newly repaired Canon S3 and her friends are also photographers with very impressive looking cameras, the usual digital SLRs and even a medium format antique. There were a lot of really expensive cameras at the Festival and good photographers as can be viewed on flikr.

My daughter looked at me quizzically as I started screwing plastic bits on to my camera. It’s not like my old Pentax K1000, bayonet mount, this is a procedure where parts have to be manipulated. “What’s that?”, she asked. Quick witted as ever, I looked at the part in my hand and carefully read the neat white letters printed on the side, “It’s a wide-angle lens, dear, I’m trying it out.” She replied definitively that I should take crowd shots.

There was great music at the festival and it was an opportunity to spend time with my daughter and her friends. I had never spent so much time with non-musicians at a festival. Some of them went shopping, so I joined them, as I had never considered shopping at a festival. The wares were very unique, like the small fairy wings some of the girls were wearing. A lot of time was spent talking and enjoying the sun and fine food. Relaxing, socializing and hearing the music like a lounge band at a fine restaurant, this was a very enjoyable and perfectly valid festival experience … but, I was panicking inside because I was missing everything! I had to go and listen to some music without having to talk to anyone. We coordinated cell phones, so we could meet up again, and I went off by myself.

Tommy Babin was there looking very folky with his masses of dark curly hair and huge beard. He was backing up “The Sojourners, a gospel flavoured vocal group. The group brought back memories from my childhood attendance at the Highway Gospel Church in Toronto as they sang familiar tunes. Steve Dawson was a standout, playing both electric guitar and pedal steel with equal confidence.

I could have taken a photo of the group, but I have invested heavily in SD cards for the S2, that are smaller than the A80 uses. As I prepared to take a photo, I received an “out of memory” message. At first, I tried to erase some other pictures, but there was too much sun to see the display. After a few minutes of frustration, trying to block the sun so I could see what I was erasing, I gave up and just enjoyed the set, then I went to a shady spot and cleared room on the card.

I heard a number of world music folk groups during the two days including Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians of JaJouka on the main stage and several inspiring groups including one from India (Northern instrumentation with Southern Karnatic influenced vocals) on Stage 2. I didn’t get a chance to see Marc, who was behind the desk mixing, but the result was a very high quality example of live sound reinforcement. I bet he took some good photos too. I will add him to my collection of photographers some other time when I catch him in action.

The groups that really impressed me were the fusion ensembles. The banjo and kora combination was so unexpectedly well matched as Jayme Stone and Mansa Sissoko wove their melodic lines together. This seemed to be a gathering of banjos as Bela Fleck was in his usual good form. I missed my friend Mei Han and her group Red Chamber as well as several other “must see” choices, but heard a concert that was not programmed to happen over on Stage 5.

The group consisted of Joseph (Pepe) Danza, with his world music kit, a Eastern European violinist (who was incredibly soulful), two guitarists and a bass player who might be from “Spirit of the West”. This was one of the best shows I saw and the rest of the crowd agreed as we called them back for an encore.

Then the main stage took over the action and I was too far back to really do anything but enjoy the music. Then I got a picture of one photographer, my daughter, before she ran off to enjoy her pass privileges.

Then I took the crowd shots.