another lazy Summer (yes, i know it's always Summer for me) day but i have checked on my upcoming flight to Japan as well started thinking about

Photos/写真 from Today and Yesterweek

i didn't know my little compact digital camera had this feature. no, not Squirrel-cam but the ability to take between 1 and 4 photos on the same "shot". i took this photo(s) on my walk back from the market.

early morning lantana

Irvine texture

Irvine minato (harbour)

Alex, Megumi and one empty glass of Tenants

the almost kiss photo & speaking of photographs of love . . .

this is another favorite song from one of my favorite movies. the song is Renai Shashin (Photographs of Love) by Ai Otsuka. the movie is Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru (I Only Loved You, or Just Loving You). the english title is Heavenly Forest. how many tears have fallen because of this song, this video, this movie, these feelings? i just found this wonderful heartfelt review and thought i would share it . . .

Tada, kimi wo aishiteru is definitely one of the most beautiful films ever made. A simple story between two brilliantly presented characters: Makoto (Tamaki Hiroshi) and Shizuru (Miyazaki Aoi) conveys a powerful message of life.

Photography as an art form is really beautiful because it captures the little memories - of things that may seem simple to people but are in fact meaningful to us. Memories like a smile of a loved one, our friends, of good times, and of nature.

Featuring incredibly artistic photography by Miyazaki Aoi (who dragged random people away from their busy lives in New York, to take their photos), stunning cinematography, beautiful music and one of the best acting performances ever captured on film, this is the perfect film for today's world that is suffering the cost of excessive greed. It is a magnificent film for promoting environmentalism and of treasuring the beauty of the things we take for granted.

old school . . . where do i enroll?

summer storm, some are not

Criterion Band wannabe

so true, so true. this was in the same shop as the "make tea not war" in Edinburgh.

dogs need hugs too

Mike Hart's Society Syncopators with special guest Tricia Boutte

more Tricia

somewhere down there is . . . Greenland (Greenland is ice and Iceland is green) last week while flying from Glasgow to Philadelphia. thanks to the Captain for inviting me up into the flightdeck to take some photos.

Palace of the Holyroodhouse. and what do you think the yellow flag means?

better days behind

Life: at any time

coincidence? i saw about 10 guys wearing a shirt that said "OSAKA" in Glasgow. i hope to be there by friday and then see the hanabi at Inagawa on saturday.

World's End flowers, fish and chips

another view from a moving train . . . to or from Edinburgh

this is how i was sitting yesterday on my flight from PHL to LAX after working from GLA to PHL

supreme patience

summer fun (for some) on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow

a small sample of Makoto Ozone (O-zo-ne not ozone) on piano and his band No Name Horses at the Jazz on a Summer's Day in Edinburgh, Scotland on the first sunday in August.

h o m e

home again home at last home for a few days

did you even know i was gone? : )

here are some memories of Scotland.

pronounced "Erfin" but spelled "Irvine"

yesterday around this time, i was at the beach in Scotland. before going to the beach by train i listened to a couple of teenagers on bagpipes on Buchanan Street. i think they were pretty good (sometimes not so easy to tell he said with a smile). of course, more photos and video when i finally get home which should be sunday night. now i am in search of tonite's dinner here in Chester. i am hoping to find some more hotaru (fireflys, lightning bugs) on the way.

guess who's coming to dinner, or is it supper, or tea?

that was one of the topics of conversation on today's Tom Morton Show on the BBC Scotland. which is which and which do we call which. thinking back to my childhood, i think supper was our everyday evening meal.  dinner was more formal or for special occasions such as Sunday dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner. we never did "tea" in south Texas but we drank a lot of it, sweet tea that is.  i did learn from Tom's show that those in the United Kingdom have many different versions of what we (i) always called "tea time".  i thought it was always "tea with a dessert" sometime in the mid-afternoon. i learned that "tea" could be supper followed by dinner later in the evening.  and don't get me (or them) started on "high tea".  there was some good music today including a new Counting Crows song called "sunday" and the album of the week is by Bob's son Jakob.  i heard the song on Clyde 1 on monday morning in Glasgow.  

before i continue with more photos/videos from Scotland, here is one sweet smellin' foto from my walk to the market this morning. . . ALOHA

here's a little "jazz on a summer's day" music and dance video from this past sunday. 

going home . . . i hope

"and hope is a good thing".  (Shawshank Redemption reference). i am trying for the 730a flight home to LA. it is full so i might be "riding the jumpseat" but if that is what it takes . . .

more about Edinburgh and the music festivals and the Piper's Trail and the bonny Scottish weather and Kelvingrove and my all-male crew when i get home. and of course, many photos and video too.

Home Again

and what a homecoming.  within 15 minutes of stepping in my front door we had a nice little earthquake.  i think i heard it was around a 5.8 something and centered somewhere in the valley.  no damage here in the south bay.  the water in the pool was swaying.  and inside my apartment my windchimes were chiming.  i grabbed my camera and was ready for "the big one" but all i got on film was a few seconds of the sounds of windchimes. i have always been pro-windchime so . . . " i've got that going for me".

no, i had no kiss waiting for me at home. i took this on saturday in Edinburgh near the Royal Mile after the Mardi Gras/ Blues Festival at The Grassmarket.  more photos and videos to follow (my nap).

girl on the train from Waverly to Queen Street

Scotland . . .somewhere near Falkirk High or Linlithgow or was it Croy

Lyndon Anderson.  wait to you hear him sing and play the harmonica.

and what was the umbrella for?  sun?  rain?  no. . . for dancing with the Criterion Brass Band

The Grassmarket runneth over

cheeseburgers, chips and a castle