Carmel Valley, CA

Spring is coming. I love this time of year. I feel like a black bear that's emerging from a few months of hibernation. I'm ready for some warm weather, sunny days, and lots of outdoor action.

I suppose Springtime is God's way of saying, "Okay, enough's enough. Time to bring you back to life." Although Winter is leaving, I'm not sure it's actually ever arrived here. One of the perks of living on the Monterey Peninsula is the year-round climate. Winters are more about rain than anything else here. And since California is suffering the worst drought in its history, the rain is welcome.

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This afternoon I'm attending a novel-writing seminar hosted by the Carmel Public Library. Local authors will be speaking about writing novels and the publishing industry. While the economy is hurting most sectors, including the book market, books and the publishing industry or still strong.

I'm a regular reader of the blog "The Rejector", written by an assistant in a literary agency. He (or she, probably she) recently wrote:

"Despite the corporate doom-and-gloom, publishing is actually a fairly stable industry in that people always want/need books...not all publishing companies are doing badly. Yes, I don't know an editor who isn't under a little extra stress (or a lot of extra stress because half her department was cut and merged with another imprint), but most companies are in the black or near the black, and the ones doing well are being tight-lipped about it, hoping no one will figure out their secret. (Hint! It's probably cheating the authors with low advances and bottom-level royalties!)"

I really don't think the economy is as bad as the press makes it out to be. People are still spending money. Yes, there are layoffs and the job-market is flooded with people looking for work. But why? Is it the recent real estate crisis? The world-wide recession? The depressed markets? When it's all said and done, it comes down to consumer confidence. If we keep hearing how bad things are, then a self-fulfilling prophecy takes hold and confidence drops.

Yes, the economic climate is bad. But I have confidence that it will rebound and we'll move ahead. I tend to see us going through a market correction. The real estate market was living on borrowed time, and it had to come to end.

I was a real estate broker in the late 1990s and we were saying at that time that banks were nuts for lending money to people who couldn't afford to pay it back. I attended a meeting in 2000 that warned us about this disaster. We were told it was coming, a banking collapse brought on my bad loans, probably by 2010. Sure enough, here we are. But as a real estate broker making lots of money at the time I joined my colleagues and ignored the gloomy forecasts. "We'll worry about the mess when it comes" was the prevailing attitude.

So I'm not surprised by the recent collapse. That's why my confidence is higher than ever that we'll be okay.

Wild Goose Cafe
Carmel Valley, CA

Okay, let me see if I can get this straight. Roy Blount, Jr., current president of the Author's Guild, is lambasting Amazon's Kindle 2 release because it converts the text of a book into computer-speak.

Says, Mr. Blount:
"The Kindle 2 is a portable, wireless, paperback-size device onto which people can download a virtual library of digitalized titles. Amazon sells these downloads, and where the books are under copyright, it pays royalties to the authors and publishers.

Serves readers, pays writers: so far, so good. But there’s another thing about Kindle 2 — its heavily marketed text-to-speech function. Kindle 2 can read books aloud. And Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights."

He wants to stop Amazon in its tracks before, God-forbid, the entire audiobook market is destroyed by some high-tech gadget. There are certainly writers who believe he's nuts and wasting his time. Audiobooks are read by ACTORs who are actual HUMANs, and therefore add something to the bookreading experience. A computer voice just doesn't get there.

Neil Gaiman, John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, and Wil Wheaton have posted comments about the issue, which I've just read. They seem to be on the right side of the fence on this one.

I doubt Amazon has any worries. Just another day at the office for a company that sells zillions of books and audiobooks. Any time a new tech-toy emerges there are those who go bonzo over the prospect of losing something, either real or perceived. For Mr. Blount, Jr., he needs to find another issue on which to spend time and money.

Time for a Serious Update...Happy Holidays

Day 179 on the Monterey Peninsula
Carmel Roasting Co., Carmel

This is ridiculous, I know. I haven't posted here since back in September for goodness sake. I haven't been quiet, just not posting here. I've been spending my time developing my online art studio at www.SolaSendero.com and write an art blog there. That's the reason for my silence here.

But for the New Year, I'll be posting here and at Sola Sendero. I've been trying to decide exactly how to proceed with my blogging interests. I think I've narrowed my focus down to just two blogs. At one time I had four. That's totally dumb. I was repeating myself too much. My life is all a jumble of events and interests and I think I can cover it with two blogs.

I considered just having one main blog, and that's all. But then I decided to devote one blog to mainly my art studio and art life. The remainder of my life will be covered here. Afterall, I spent a year on the road developing this blog and I don't want to just let it go. I may hit the road again, some day. I know I'll continue to travel.

So, when it comes to expressing myself on various topics (other than art), then this is the place. If necessary I'll cross-pollinate information between Sola Sendero and MyRoadArt. For now, these are the only two blogs I'll be writing. My business cards and all advertising for my artworks and writings will mention both blog locations. If I have something to say, it'll be here or at Sola Sendero.

Lazy, Hazy, Days of Fall Coming

Day 92 on the Monterey Peninsula
Outside the Stirrup Co. Pizza restaurant, Carmel Valley

We've been experiencing an Indian Summer of sorts...been warm, almost hot. But the Fall is coming, along with cooler temperatures. It is lovely this time of year, I'll admit it. I enjoy sitting outside and doing nothing. Especially doing nothing.

Now that I've been off the road for over three months, I'm getting the itch to travel some more. But for now, it is almost impossible. I've still got to recover from the past year I spent running all over the Southwest. There are many places to see around here...places I've yet to visit. So why rush off to drive somewhere else? I like it here.

I spend most days painting in my art gallery, or at my part time job in a local liquor store. I like the people you meet in the liquor store...all sorts of interesting characters. And my artistic passions are being met daily by the watercolors on my desk. I sit near a window and paint while listening to Joan Baez or Leonard Cohen. Yesterday I had a goat keep me company. The old nag was sitting in the back of a jeep parked in the alley beneath my studio. An occasional "baaaa" was all I could hear. It's rather quiet in the Village.

Wine Bottling in a Truck

This week a wine-bottling truck has been parked nearby. Local vineyards bring their wine, and these guys bottle it up for them. The wine goes in one end, and it comes out the other fully corked and ready to go.

Day 67 on the Monterey Peninsula
Wild Goose Cafe, Carmel Valley

It's hot today in the Valley! The entire summer was very mild and then out of nowhere, the past few days around here have been almost setting new records for high temps. I'm not complaining. Things could be worse. I could be back in Texas.

I turn 50 today. Happy Birthday to me. Thanks. Now to survive the next 50 years.

I've been trying to figure out how to add the data from another blog to this blog, but so far I can't come to terms with the "widget" code. Gee, what a nightmare. I want to add a bunch of links to a new linklist, without having to write them all in one by one. Cutting and pasting code is the usual way, but I can't figure out where to paste the code. I'll figure it out. It'll just take some time and thought. I might as well go ahead and type in the data!

I am getting a little fed up with Blogger...but I've come this far with them, I hate to change things up. I've got a lot of photos and posts here, and it would be a real chore to try to move stuff around. Blogger needs to get it's act together. But...you get what you pay for.

Day 66 on the Monterey Peninsula
Carmel Coffee Roasting Co.

On Saturday of Labor Day weekend I spent the day on the Peninsula. I started out at the Del Monte Shopping Center for lunch and to listen to some jazz music. Each weekend for a few weeks, a jazz concert will be held there. It was a little cool, but the sun finally broke out and it turned into a beautiful day.

After lunch I drove to Fisherman's Wharf and attended the Monterey Greek Festival. I also walked around the dock and spent some time at the Portola Plaza.

Below are some photos I took during the day.

This guy looks like a politician. Actually, he (she?) is one of "George's Birds." George is a regular at Fisherman's Wharf, along with his birds.

Greek dancing at the Monterey Greek Festival. Zorba never looked so good.

The crowd at the Greek Festival enjoying Greek food.

Whale Watching cruises are popular at the Wharf. I like the wooden fisherman who looks rather sad. I guess the fish aren't biting.

I guess they missed the sign...it says "no parking".