"Wringing your hands won't help!" blurted the less than sympathetic listener to my friend's troubled concerns about our darkening geopolitical circumstances. Obviously - oblivious to real point at hand (no pun intended).
Anyway, with the nail-biting, presidential election just days away, that got me thinking and my creative juices flowing. With a twisted touch of wit, here was my comeback.
It won't help, but what the hey, it can't hurt!
;-)
Finally, a clear night and a clear shot at the comet!
 |
| Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan ATLAS) |
At the same time I was snapping my shot, Adam Block, a serious astrophotographer, was taking theirs. (See the difference below.)
%20by%20Adam%20Block.jpg) |
| Photo Credit: Adam Block |
 |
I thought to backdate this post. Unfortunately Blogger doesn't go back any further than January 1st, 1970, and this picture was taken well before then.
Sunday, January 21st, 1962, Genie, my twin, awakens everyone in the house, excitedly yelling "Frost! Frost!"
She had never seen actual snow.
Yet there it was, everywhere on the roofs, the parked cars, and hospital grounds across the street. In San Francisco, at the Eastern edge of the Inner Mission District, this was an extreme rarity! Indeed, one can go decades without sight of a single falling flake.* Therefore, the white phenomena just wasn't in our childhood lexicon, though we had already known of it through popular media and the personal accounts of others.
.jpg) | ||
| San Francisco General Hospital, Sunday, January 21, 1962 |
Most of the fall had melted by the mid to late morning, but not before we could gather enough of the material to mold and make a modest snowman.
However, my biggest unfamiliarity was in how to put together a snowball. Packing one too tight, I unintentionally turned the innocent projectile into an ice-ball, beaning of my middle sister upside her head! Angie could have murdered me!
The sunny afternoon later saw nary a trace left of the night's snowfall. Thankfully, our dad had slide film available and at the ready to record the exceptional event.
Above Photos Credit: Manuel Rubio Sanchez (our dad)
*Speaking of decades, Sunday, December 11, 1932: nineteen years before our family took up residence at 988 Potrero Avenue, and thirty years before our frosty encounter, it had last snowed on Potrero and 22nd!
 |
| Snowman at Potrero Avenue and 22nd Street (1932) |
Wednesday, February 13, 1991, 2PM: I stepped out of 988 onto Potrero, only to be struck in the face by a gentle snowflake drifting down from a passing cloud, the other flakes melting upon contact with the sun-warmed sidewalk.
Now, I could have gone back into the house, to get my camera from upstairs, but that would have prevented my seeing the remaining snowflakes wafting down from the aforementioned cloud which was almost past, and taking the time to retrieve my equipment would have definitely caused me to miss the soon arriving, crosstown bus and the start of my next class at the San Francisco Art Institute!
I chose enjoy the moment on my way to the bus stop.
.jpg)
On this day, forty years ago, this person entered my life. Thirty seven years later, our friendship parted ways. That's me directly behind Karl-Heinz Teuber with the chalk and film slate in hand. Dan Gleich on sound, and Georgia Packard, assisting Emiko Omori (not seen) at the camera, are the other two crew members visible in the photo.
The reason why I am intently watching the performance is to keep an eye on the Canon NF1 Karl holds in his hand. It belongs to me. Karl is using the motor drive which deliberately stops after firing thirty six shots and has to be reset.When it does, that's when I step into the shot. Mine was the only "dummy" professional grade camera on set, available for prop use.
The film is director Issam B. Makdissy's independent feature entitled 'A Hard Act to Follow' (screenplay by Terry Eubanks-Makdissy) released six years later in 1990. Karl has a bit part in the film playing a studio portrait photographer. His was the very first scene of the production shoot, though the above photo is of the retake, filmed half a year later, in January of 1985. The character of a publicist was dropped, requiring a reshoot of all the scenes formerly involving them.
As for Karl, he was at the height of his career, his last role playing the wig salesperson in the memorable, “three heads” scene opposite Tom Hulce in ‘Amadeus’ (1984)! We would remain friends for almost four decades until our lives eventually went their separate ways.
