Travel Something in the way You say eavesdropping, I say just part of eating at the bar. I overheard a story that I loved. Three people. One of them is trying to sell her father's waterfront home. That person was fairly quiet, but a friend filled the third person in on the details
Read Watch Listen It's never entirely about the apocalypse. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories and shows. I have a magnet on my refrigerator that says, "Sometimes I worry about zombies." It's next to the Andre the Giant magnet from the Princess Bride - anybody want a peanut? The zombie world is multi-layered.
Read Watch Listen This is going to be interesting I didn't feel like cooking anything tonight, and I wasn't particularly hungry, but I knew I'd want something during the obnoxious booms. I took a gamble on a Simple Truth, plant-based, spicy veggie masala. I'm a bad gambler, and I think I&
Read Watch Listen Plans I know I can be a downer sometimes. I blame some of it on the medium. I think if we were sitting down having an actual conversation, it would come across more as questioning and searching rather than the sky is falling. Even though the sky is falling. I'
Blog Carthage Must Be Destroyed Carthāgō dēlenda est. ~ Cato (via Wikipedia) The sirens beckon. I am lost in the ancient world. A re-discovery of sorts. I spent the last 6 years or so not wanting to think too much about the Middle East. I'd had enough, for a lot of reasons. Looking back
Music Bremerton is the Wild West My friend's band, Filth is Eternal [https://filthiseternal.bandcamp.com/album/love-is-a-lie-filth-is-eternal], had a show at The Charleston in Bremerton a few weeks ago. I forgot about the show until the day of. Tick tock, tick tock. You're not going to make that ferry. That bummed
On the Road Et Tu, Sacramento? I'm behind schedule and tired. And still here. I must be due for a site renewal soon. If the site goes down, it just means I've missed an email. I was about to write that I've been driving through California's Inland Empire
Lensatic Essays Left turn at Portland I need to hear someone pronounce The Dalles. I think that every time I'm in Portland. I also think 84 towards The Dalles sucks every time I'm in Portland. The traffic on 84 is always terrible. It turns into the start of a beautiful drive after
Travel Seattle to Phoenix I left Seattle for a Phoenix visit in early June. I say visit, but it's a combination of things. I wanted to work on a small photo essay. You know the kind - dude with camera posts 50 photos and makes grand, sweeping comments about places he visits
Blog Be prepared My folks have a place in Arizona's high desert. It's nice to get out of Phoenix's summer inferno. Fires are a threat in this region, so I bought a new emergency radio for the place. I knew they had one, but I worried it
Blog I'm stuck. Before the pandemic I started moving away from the fast posts on social media. I don't think there's anything wrong with the fast posts on social media. Seriously. There's a lot wrong with the big social media companies, but after that consideration, it'
Blog Good news bad news I tried shooting a roll of film on my grandfather's Leica IIIa before leaving Seattle for Arizona. Ended up finishing it on the road. (Posting this one from the phone, please forgive any typos - hate typing on this damn thing.) When I went to unload the film,
Out of the Shoebox Out of the Shoebox: Defiance Long walk today. Long for me, at least. Out of shape. Down the Hill to Pike Place Market. Braved some of the interior corridors, but the words variants and mutations hung over my head. Best to get back outside. Walked up to Belltown. Lots of places closed. I wonder what
Travel Ring of Fire My brain is counting paces, readying for a duel. Write, go to bed. Write fires in haste, bed takes a slower aim, but shoots straight. My PNW days are drawing to a close. If I can get my act together, I'll give notice at the end of the
Photography On Photography It's late. I'm tired. A friend dropped off a Ham Jam care package in memoriam of a friend. I'm no Hunter S. Thompson. A Ham Jam combo does not make me more lucid. (Accurate words or prescience - I fell asleep not long after
2020 Manifest I know I’m not alone in wondering this. Can we manifest things? Don’t worry – you are at the SBHOPPER blog. I know I don’t get cosmic very often. I have not dropped acid. I really don’t even know what acid is. LSD? Timothy Leary stuff? I
On the Streets Out in the west Texas town of Glendale Phoenix is massive. Metropolitan Phoenix is only a bit smaller than Iceland. If you’re reading this and appearing on Jeopardy soon, please know that’s not true. It seemed true as a kid in Tempe in the 80s, though. It seems true still. But it’s not. Ken Jennings
Alki Afternoon at Alki On Saturday I helped Tony with two photoshoots. One was at Alki in West Seattle. I finally made it out there. If you’ve looked at photos of Seattle, you’ve probably seen a photo of Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, and a view of the Seattle skyline from
35mm Palmyra, Syria 2001 Palmyra, Syria*, summer 2001. The photo is not very good. I’m posting it for two reasons. It’s from my first attempt at scanning 35mm film negatives on the Epson V800 [https://epson.com/Support/Scanners/Perfection-Series/Epson-Perfection-V800-Photo/s/SPT_B11B223201] flatbed photo scanner. I used the basic scanning