Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun
Showing posts with label Coca Cola. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coca Cola. Show all posts

Monday, June 26, 2017

LIKE DELINQUENTS

 A California Central Coast bouquet for all who survive 
hooligans, delinquents and stupid kid tricks.

because they blew up
      It was a tough summer for my mom, suffering through a troubled pregnancy. Dad was on the road most of the time and my brother John and I were jerks. It was nothing mean, we were just boys. I was almost 6 and though 22 months younger than me, John was my size and soon would be bigger. (From birth John was a brawler and big. He went on to lead the county in tackles and was a helluva football player).
      Later mom would say we spent most of the summer in a rumble, from the front yard to the back yard, through the house and leaving a trail of aftermath everywhere. Despite the lectures about me being the big brother, and my protests "look at him, he's as big as me" I was under the gun to keep our behavior in check and I wasn't doing a very good job of it.
      It was 1951 and one of our modest treats was a bottle of Coca-cola. The real thing, before cans and flavored coke. We'd buy a carton of those little 6 1/2 ounce glass bottles. John and I would split one, always eyeing, carefully, that each fruit juice glass was poured evenly, exactly even, accounting for the foam too.
      A side trip for a moment. Like most kids we collected pop bottles for the redemption pennies from the grocery store. In that line of work a kid will discover a lot of things, especially sorting through trash and burn piles in the alleys of our side of town. We saw breasts for the first time in a partially burned copy of Confidential. I think it was Kim Novak, but honestly, who didn't matter. We also learned that some of the neighbors apparently didn't know the good deal on pop bottles because we found some that were broken and that led to a discovery that eventually led to big problem.
      The alleys were cinder, as in burned coal. Behind some places there was a little gravel and a few folks had poured a cement burn ring, on which sat their incinerator or burn barrels. (Remember this is 1951 and the EPA were only letters in the alphabet that crowned the backboards in our class rooms.) John discovered the best thing to do with broken pop bottles was to break them a little more. It was a youthful sense of justice. You cheat me out of a few pennies by breaking the pop bottle, I'm going to finish the job for you on a cement burn ring.  Wow, could those bottles really explode.
      Fast forward to a rainy summer day when mom, who is basically bed ridden tells us to play in the basement. Oh boy did we! The specifics are lost in the haze of history, but somehow we learned that those empty Coca-cola bottles exploded wonderfully when dropped from the top of the basement steps. They made a great exploding sound and the glass cascaded like something from the movies. Well,... If an empty bottle was so spectacular, just imagine what a full bottle would do. We had no imagination, but did have a few full bottles. Man! Seeing a full bottle of Coke explode in foam and spray and flying glass is a sight of a lifetime.
       More fast forward, through details---why would we willingly waste good Coke, the painful process of cleaning up shards of sticky glass that littered our basement, the waste of money for a family on a tight budget, mom's further distress--cut to--my understanding why corporal punishment in that summer of 1951 was the right thing.
       

     further exploits of man child
    That California bouquet above? That is also for all American citizens. The delinquents in this administration continue to set new lows. 
     The "games" of the press briefing is simply childish and has no positive upside-none. It is punitive and juvenile. Ditto and double jinks on the president's tweet storm about the Obama administration going easy on the Russians over the attack on the presidential election. At least trump has finally acknowledged it. As a friend said it is the normal trump hypocrisy of criticizing Obama for a problem that he-trump-never admitted existed.
      I thought the Obama response was too reserved, but I also understood there's a lot more to such complicated diplomacy than meets the eye. We find out now Mitch McConnell was creeping around the wood pile threatening to accuse Obama of using the CIA to help Clinton. McConnell is one twisted and evil, racist. He is a political "intellectual-pedophile" and arrogant little donnie trump's small brain and outsize ego is McConnell's boy toy.

helping out
      Our Cambria Church and Dinner Fellowship completed a project that will help, but it also stimulated thought.
      We assembled emergency personal care kits that will be used by disaster victims or refugees in the US and around the planet.
      Hand towels, wash clothes, bandaids, soap, tooth brushes, combs, nail files, etc. The next time you reach for the soap, or go to brush your teeth, think about  how convenient it is- how accessible is water, shelter, something as simple as towel. We take a lot for granted. As wars create more refugees, as nature ravages, as the climate continues to change more fellow citizens of this planet are facing breaks in that kind of gentle and comfortable routine. 

     because they blew up
an epilogue
      By the way, brother John and I continued to gather pop bottles from the alley ways and continued to learn about life.
      There was one house that had the good sense to stash their magazines for a couple of days before filling their incinerator and lighting it up. That is how Tom and John learned about Stag Magazine, True Detective art work and Jayne Mansfield!

     See you down the trail.

Monday, May 18, 2015

SECRETS-TRUE AND OTHERWISE AND OTHER HISTORY

SO IT WAS BIG SUR?
     The series finale of Mad Men revealed the origins of that famous old Coca Cola commercial "I'd like to teach the world to sing…" 
           It was a "new" Don Draper, fresh from Big Sur and an Esalen style institute who presumably returned to the New York ad world, retooled and re grooved by the hippie love and peace ethic and the magic of the California coast. We were left with a meditating Draper, breaking into a smile and then we see the Buy the World a Coke commercial.
       Many central coast Californians recognized our neighborhood in scenes of Draper reclaiming his soul midst the Big Sur coastline and in the ultra sensitivity sessions of a coastal retreat.
   The mythical Draper worked for the McCann Agency and in a kind of Oliver Stone version of history there is a little truth, but only a little.


   There's a lot of buzz about the way the highly acclaimed and historic series ended.  For the record, I loved it. And I wish Coke would bring back that creative  masterpiece.
     During the run of Mad Mendirector, writer, creator Matthew Weiner was fastidious with playing it close to history, matching plot development with actual events even down to the weather. His payoff with the 1971 commercial
and the changing ethos of his characters and the mood of the nation was just one more gleam of brilliance in an historic and enjoyable television event.
THE WATER DIVINER
    Russell Crowe is also a brilliant director. His The Water Diviner is an epic film and a haunting, moving story that puts a face on war you'll not soon forget. That it too conjures history, easily over looked and conveniently forgotten is also powerful testament to his creative vision. The horrendous offense of war in the course of human existence is as poignantly stated here as in any film or novel, though it does not preach. It is the also uplifting story of the power of a father's love and guilt and the beautiful love of brothers. And the story of romantic love healing broken hearts.  
       Crowe uses film like an artist and fills the screen with emotion, pathos, beauty, action, hope and truth. 
WINE AS FESTIVAL
    Spring Wine Festival in the Paso Robles appellation has many faces.
   A covered bridge dinner in the Halter Vineyards.



    The "field kitchen."
   Food as art!
   An evening deep in merriment.
  The staff that delivered. Superb work by Thomas Hill Organics in Paso Robles!
  An afternoon grill, bocce and friendship at Hearthstone.
  The beat continues at Kenneth Volk and Four Lanterns.
   The extraordinary group of Danny Weis, Jill Knight and Eric Williams and the watchful eye of Willow.
    A central coastal afternoon,
  with approval from Tashi
    and a young Californian.  


    The west side hang out.

    See you down the trail.