Dawnita Perryman and Her July 4th 'Break It Down' Line Dancers

 From my Facebook and YouTube: 

A freeze frame from the video below.

    Enjoying the Sestercentennial last Saturday with my sisters Yvette and Georgene, one of them a member of Dawnita Perryman's 'Break It Down' Line Dance class. As my sister was in the midst of the group, making it difficult to get a clean clean unobstructed view of her, I chose to concentrate on the instructor instead, and the class as a whole.

TRT: 10:48  

 Below is a copy of the announcement.

Mad Hatter Holiday Festival flyer.

 

     -FIN-

 

Conjunctions and Occultations - It's been a busy month!

    It has!

2026-06-09 

The Close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, plus Mercury.

    Starting on the third of June, I began taking snapshots of Venus and Jupiter with my mobile phone as they drew closer in the evening skies. For the most part the weather was warm and the western heavens relatively free of clouds, but then on the sixth, it started to cool, and with the increase threat of cloud cover building or fog coming inland. By the eighth, it looked pretty dire for the ninth being clear. The blanket of fog had all but blotted out the skies as far as the eye could see.

    Thankfully, the warmer and cloudless weather returned for the night of the main event, and stayed that way til the fourteenth. Below is the photo from the ninth when the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter was at its closest. The planet Mercury is also visible. Low in the WSW, you can spot it just above the rooftop and left of the tree to the right of the frame. It lies in an almost vertical line directly below the star Castor.

 

Wednesday, June 9, 2026 9:28:45 PM PDT Fairfield, California

      However, it took up to the twenty first of the month (the Summer Solstice) to compile and reposition the photos into the following video.

2026-06-16 

The Conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, and Mercury

    A week later, the waxing crescent moon decided to join the line of three planets, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury appearing somewhat equidistant from each other along the ecliptic.

Wednesday, June 16, 2026 9:28:45 PM PDT Fairfield, California

2026-06-17 

The Occultation of Venus

    Earlier today, the occultation of the planet Venus as the Moon passed in front of it.

    Here in Fairfield, Venus disappeared from view shortly after 11:33:36 AM PDT and didn't emerge from behind the Moon until an hour and twelve minutes later, at 12:45:22 PM PDT.

    My apologizes for the "hair in the gate", in the first half of the video, which due to the brightness of the day as compared to the brightness of the viewfinder display, made the lint nigh impossible to spot. I got rid of it for the second shot, but now had no pin point on which to focus, the moon being too indistinct, which is why Venus is slightly out of focus coming out from behind the lunar limb.

    I'm just happy I was able to capture the daylight event.

 

 2026-06-19 

Venus and the Praesepe

    Tonight, the planet paid a call on the Praesepe, also known as the Beehive Cluster, or designated as M44, NGC 2632, Cr 189.

Friday, June 19, 2026 9:45 PM PDT, Fairfield, California

    -FIN-

    ;-) 

 

'A Shot in the Park' + 23

    Twenty-three years ago Brian Vouglas and I collaborated on a birthday spoof created for Karl-Heinz Teuber and his celebrants. Sadly, for the wider public, the 2002 video files have been not available until the present. However, in Karl's memory, this newly reworked version (edited for time and additional audio) can now be enjoyed. ;-) Starring: Brian Vouglas

 

 .[UPDATE 2026-06-01]:

     While creating this video with Brian, I thought to shoot a quick scene in the elevator, knowing where the light would fall on Brian's face and how a low angle POV might enhance the effect and add to the film noir feel I was trying to achieve.. 

    In the viewfinder I could see the shadows details of Brian's face while shooting the one and only take,* and was technically disappointed to say the least, when the later playback revealed none. 

    How wrong I was. 

    Actually, the enigmatic deepness of the dark only strengthened the composition and overall effect. Turned out, it was a lucky accident!

    Anyway, today, for my pleasure and possible future utility, I decided to make a title card of the freeze frame lifted from that scene, adding the pun Brian supplied finished product. .

.

A cropped title card made from the elevator freeze frame. 

*As The Crestview Apartments is a working enterprise, we only had the moment using the building's north wing elevator to return to Karl's fifth floor residence, to photograph the scene. Killing two birds with one stone as they say. Not exactly guerilla filmmaking per se, but close.

 

;-) 

 

[SECOND UPDATE 2026-06-04]:

     "On June 4, 2026, I decided to upload and post the title card to my Facebook with the following copy**: Here is a happy photographic accident I once experienced with a camera and its shortcomings. 

Back in 2002, Brian Vouglas and I once collaborated on an open-ended, birthday video: a crime spoof we shot to celebrate the natal day of our friend Karl-Heinz Teuber, and in which his party guests, as the usual suspects, would be called in for questioning. 

In the lead-up, Brian played a detective on his way to Karl's SF apartment in search of clues.

With the exterior shots of the Crestview Apartments taken, where Karl resided, we next entered the north elevator. There I had an image in mind. 

Taking advantage of the old, wood, prerenovation paneling and film noir reminiscent lighting, I proceeded to videotape, Brian from below, all the while on our way up, clearly able to see with my eyes the grim facial features in shadow under Brian's brim.

We only had the one take.

Alas, when I later played the scene back, I panicked - the dark had swallowed up the details! What a technical fiasco the fedora had fostered!

Then I realized the mistake instead had actually added to the mystique, well, at least in my mind. I think Brian also enjoyed the man-of- mystery effect, thinking it intentional.

Anyway, today, I thought I'd again give it the once over - 'Freeze, frame!' - and turn the visual into a title card with the pun Brian lent the production."

     

 ;-)

 

 **Wish I could say "backcopy" instead - I like the sound of that word much, much better, but technically speaking, it doesn't really apply. 

Ironically, the above citation of it does exactly that - rendering the Facebook copy, a backcopy when cited here!

 

 

 

 

Remembering

    It was four years ago today, my siblings and I lost our sister Angie. As I write, the time is as it was then, and now the memories of that last day begin. I was going to chronicle the sequence of events, but decided to simply post this collage and short montage instead. 

BAMPFA...

...with Birdie or, as she is better known on social media, Birdie Roy (Trish Keefer). To celebrate her birthday, I was asked to treat her to the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), which I did, and happily so.

 Roy (Trish 

Photo by Trish Keefer, who herself was actually in a James Bond flick, Vic!

Thirty-three+ Years in the Failing Part 1

    I will try to keep this concise.

    Around three in the morning, Yvette awakens to the sound of the office cam security trying to boot. When she turns on the room lights, she discovers they are flickering. Thinking it a momentary issue, she returns back to bed and sleep.

    At 5:55am I awake and think to use my iPad tablet. It cannot get internet. I go to the living room and find Alexa constantly cycling. When I turn on the lights, they are at reduced power and flickering. The kitchen refrigerator is turning on and off. I check the household electrical panel but the circuit breakers seem perfectly fine.

    At 6;25am I put in a call to PG&E. They remotely test the meter and though there is power to to the vicinity, my meter is dead.

    Joe arrives at 7:25am. I note to him that though our outside meter appears off, the next door neighbor's meter shows no such sign. Indeed, Joe finds our address receiving barely any juice and ratchets up the case calling in for a repair crew as he suspects a damaged underground line leading anywhere from the PG&E junction box across the street to our house. Other properties seem unaffected.

    Finishing his paperwork, Joe leaves at 9:30am. 

     Yvette is well up by now.

     10:20am sees the arrival of Jerry. As the field crews are currently tackling other emergencies, Jerry decides to place a temporary splice from the nextdoor meter to ours so that we will have a steady current. I text our neighbor to apprise him.

     Temporary power is restored by 10:58am and Jerry leaves with our thanks in tow.

     End of Part 1

The PG&E splice up close.

A mobile phone video of the same splice,

Karl, a Life

     This is a re-edit of the very last montage I made for Karl, celebrating his life. That was in 2020. With a new beginning and conclusion to the video to mark the sad occasion of his passing, I share this work anew. Karl's large life was a colorful one, and I am truly grieved, along with others, to see him go. His friends were many.

    As always the music of Mozart was Karl's mainstay.

 

In These Very Trying Times

    "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!

 

    ;-)

  

Nine 26

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LEE PAIGE!   ;-)

Lee, Disco, and the Windy City (backdated)

While visiting with Lee Paige and my cousin PJ Aguilar last year, Lee shared a video from his disco days in a Chicago dance troupe. Here is the one and only, Dr. Lee Paige of The Windy City Disco Movement dancing 1978's 'Shake Your Groove Thing' by Peaches & Herb! (See video below)

I relaid the music track to eliminate some audio breakups in the original recording.

 

 

JMHhhhhh...

This is my Facebook friend, whom I’ve always appreciated since meeting him in high school eons ago. In fact, we were each other’s first cave- er, roommates! Importantly, he, like me, has always enjoyed approaching life from a little off-center, as this video I put together will attest. It’s nice to know that JMH, despite whatever life changes there have been and however many guises we have undergone, is still the same at heart.

Enjoy.

;-)

The Pan That Panicked Me! (backdated) [This post is under construction.]

    There are times I am simply amazed at how caught off guard I can be, and how instantaneously I can recognize someone completely out of the blue!

    I was on Facebook when on a whim, I thought to search out a name.* Many, many years ago this individual and I were friends. We met in 1968, and the last time we saw each other was in 1979. He was also in the circle of friends that included one particular person, but at the time I had found his account on Facebook, this had completely slipped my mind.

     Curious to see what he nowadays looked liked, I clicked on a video. As he was addressing the camera being pointed at him, I would also have a chance to hear the sound of his voice once again. The occasion was the holidays, his interviewer was dressed as Santa Claus. Playfully, my old friend disavowed any responsibility for the video when the person holding the camera decided to pan the room.

    Inexperienced at video, the pan was simply too fast, smearing the faces of the gathered guests asked as a group to say "Hi". 

   The hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end! That motion blur, the camera went past, was none other than "She"! Despite the speed of the camera motion, the recognition was almost feral in its instinctive spontaneity! The alarms went off like fireworks within me - all at once! How could I have been so clueless?!

    She was seated next to her husband with her son (I'm guessing) sitting beside her, on the floor.

    Reality, with its iron boot, had just kicked me in the teeth! It only took less than half a second for my confidence to go splat! 

The motion blur was increased for this freeze frame.

     A glutton for punishment, I had to replay the pan and freeze frame as best I could on the moment she swished past the lens, thus removing all doubt, as to my significance to her. I mattered nothing to this person's happiness. I was looking at a woman, resolutely content in her life, with absolutely no thought to or of me. 

    The pain was cold. It was hard. What little emotional armor or protection my feelings and frail inner ego had managed to built up over the years, came crashing down. My shields, each and every last one of them, were down, and suddenly defenseless, there was nowhere to hide and nothing to soften the blow.    

    Like that, I had no ego - evaporating in an instant with all my sense of self! A hollow of myself or a husk of myself would have best described me had the armor held, but with it gone, I was too! I simply vanished. Out of sight, out of mind, that was the naked truth of me, staring right back.

    For a second time in a panic, I got out of the video soon after confirming my fear. Part a knee jerk response; part disbelief, and just as quickly as I could. Well, that's one Facebook Friendship I cannot entertain, I remarked to myself, much as I like this gentleman. 

    What a dolt I was, not to have seen that scenario coming! I thought I was more likely to stumble across this woman on Facebook, when I befriended her best friend or when I also friended her husband's first cousin. As I did not, something in my head thoughtlessly let down my guard.

    An yet, despite the clear dangerousness of the situation I had just faced, I was also drawn to capture the video, yes, to return to the danger and record her image. Why? It is because of my other overriding instinct in wanting to hold on to whatever imagery there is of her, however happenstantial; however fraught with pain.

    In that way, I'm hopeless, I guess, and helpless. 

Text

Text

However laudable I think my motive, however commendable I consider my rationale, the truth has just kicked me squarely in the teeth again. Fact is she's completely free of me no matter what I proffer to do or not to do for her. I'm just full of my own self importance because she could care the fuck less. I cease to exist long, long, long ago. I'm not saying that she's heartless, far from it, I'm just saying that I could never ever get it through my thick skull, that I simply didn't register at all to her. There just wasn't any feeling there. I was a total washout from the first - a no go.

*I am still in a moral quandary as to whether to disclose or tag any names, all of whom I know. My fear that doing so might make them discoverable to online searches. Yet at the same time I wish I could catalogue them for my own future memory and reference. On the one hand, I do not wish not have I the permission to betray their privacy, but at the same time their names mattered to me. They belonged to those who most counted in my life. These people were my friends and intimates. They were not blank nameless ciphers. The had impact, weight, and importance.

Maybe, I will run the risk. If there is a way in the settings to do so, I will try disable their search visiblity. We shall, forgive the unintended pun, see.

[-POST UNDER  CONSTRUCTION-] [-PUC-] [+TAGS]

Nearing Super Perigee

Peter and Cindy, Cindy and Peter

I stopped by Cafe Van Kleef the other day when both Peter and Cindy happened to be there, so I let my little camera run to catch the two of them together behind the bar. The crowds were coming in, so Peter and Cindy were much too preoccupied to notice my recording or concern themselves. I know my video might read like a plug (I was trying to think up copy for the crawl) but hey, I use to work at the Cafe. I can't help it. And besides, it's true: Peter, Cindy, and the Cafe were there first with the vision for the Uptown district!

Here's a photo taken earlier in the shift depicting a hard working Cindy in the shot. Peter and she had just arrived with fresh grapefruit for the Greyhounds.

Cafe Van Kleef. Photo by antaresrichard

'Pane'

Self portrait

Brian Vouglas' Day at the Albany Twin (photo and video portrait)

'Brian Vouglas' by antaresrichard

The third in a series of posts, this is the second video (see below) and longer version wherein I recorded Brian Vouglas, my friend, performing "Victory Song" live over the end credits of 'Ariel's Dream', a film by Robert Martin. In the film, Brian sings the title melody and plays several voices, including that of a wartime sailor, lost at sea.

Again, the occasion was the premiere screening of the film at the Albany Twin Theater on August 28, 2011. Michael Lande composed the nostalgic score, with Robert Martin providing the lyrics for the tune.

The off-camera voices that you hear are mainly those of Robert Martin and Kim Foscato. The latter was the film's sound designer and rerecording mixer. She also provided audio for the live event.

Additional music: "Porch Swing Days" courtesy of Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com

With Love to San Francisco

As you know, I'm a native San Franciscan (born the year the George Cory / Douglass Cross tune was written). This video is a collaboration with my friend Karl-Heinz Teuber and current resident of the city by the bay. It is the first of two video paeans to San Francisco. The second can be seen on Karl's YouTube Channel.

Oh, a little behind-the-scene trivia by the way of a blooper: the "kiss" seen in the freeze frame below and documented in the video, is in point of fact, a collision taking place between my face and Karl's right temple. Bam! I wasn't expecting the rapidity of our embrace. But what the hey?! It also the only clip (beside the generic stills) shot by a third person: Mario Genel.
 

'Victory Song' sung live by Brian Vouglas

Again, this is my long time friend Brian Vouglas, performing "Victory Song" live over the end credits of 'Ariel's Dream', a film by Robert Martin wherein Brian sings the title melody and plays several voices, including that of a wartime sailor, lost at sea.

The occasion I was taping was the premiere screening of the aforementioned film at the Albany Twin Theater on August 28, 2011. Michael Lande composed the nostalgic score, with Robert Martin providing the lyrics for the tune.

The theater lighting is subdued.

'Victory Song'

This is my friend Brian Vouglas. Years ago he lent his mellifluous singing and vocal talent to a Robert Martin film project which is now about to be screened. This is the song from that feature. Enjoy the forties flavored tune composed by Michael Lande. Lyrics by Robert Martin. Portrait shot of Brian Vouglas by me.

A Little Twist of French

Karl's cameo & Brian's brio in Pussy Tourette's ‘FRENCH BITCH’