a bit of HanksterZ stuff

11:53 pm - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, the whole nation seems to be having some cold storms. And, being just over 6200 feet up in Southern California, it meant my house has been getting a decent serving of snow.

Here are some pics I shot as of yesterday:

11:51 am - Photo Taken From Livingroom Deck A Little While Ago

I took this picture at 9:45 am, about two hours ago.

Needless to say, I love these frequent island-in-heaven views: above the clouds, and under beautifully clear blue skies.

My thoughts and best wishes are with those being terrorized in Mumbai, India, and elsewhere.

Peace to all.

06:22 pm - Truth In Advertizing

Just a couple of hours ago, after I took a shower, Jason's lady Teresa, took some quick pics of me after I let Jeepers The Cat back in. And, no, I am not naked. I was wearing jeans and sneakers.

Teresa picked the picture she thought I should post here.

Having just had my 62nd birthday last month, it is obvious I am aging no matter how cute I try to look.

Oh well.

I'm still very much alive and enjoying it.

02:30 pm - As the young concert promoter/rock journalist...

Earlier today, I began using a computer that had been offline for ages. And to my delight, an email download resulted in my receiving some emails sent from France, where a dear friend, Chandler Keeler, moved to not too long ago. In one were two pics that Chandler shot of me shortly after I came out of a shower. Since my facial hair was seasonal back then, the no-mustache tells me these were most likely shot in early Summer 1971.

For your amusement, here they are:

( Click Here To See The Other )

01:08 pm - All right already, it wasn't that big of a shake...

Yes, I felt the 5.4 Chino Hills earthquake over here in my Tehachapi area home. But, really, unless you lived in Chino, it was no big shake even though it was also felt in the Kern County Planning Department in Bakersfield, down south in San Diego and a bit in Vegas too.

Tall buildings swayed a bit for seconds. Cell phone systems immediately got very busy. Some stuff fell off shelves in the Chino area. Yes, it "could have been a lot worse." But, it wasn't. There was no major damage or injuries except for a broken water main and a ground radar system getting knocked out. A bunch of wine bottles broke upon falling in some store. Ok?

Still, seriously, CNN interrupted reporting the indictments handed against Alaska's powerful Senator Ted "Bridge To Nowhere/Big Oil Friend" Stevens to cover this with multiple straight rehashing for over two hours now.

Dudes! This only deserves a quick "A low level 5.4 earthquake shook Southern California today with no major injuries or damage. Lower level after shocks have, of course, since been felt by some in the quake's immediate area."

Now, please. Please. Oh, please. ~ Can we get off the continuous "reporting" of this and get back to more important news.

If we are going to keep talking shake, I want a smooth vanilla milk shake.

This didn't even make my dogs bark, nor did it disturb Jeepers' nap.

Speaking of Jeepers, here he is this past Saturday afternoon. For a 15-year-old, he still acts like a kitten.

06:53 am - New Day

10:31 pm - It's Amazing What Outsiders Come Up With...

Upon deciding to check out the 60's rock group I am a member of here, I encountered a link to http://antispamnow.livejournal.com/ where a "theory" of the murder of Jim Morrison was offered. I quickly realized I needed to reply, and posted this there:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I'm not really responding to "goldenrod21" as much as I am placing this as close to the top as I can because of the importance of clarifications I'd like to quickly make here. To further draw attention, I am inserting a pic of Jim seldom seem since I published it in 1968:



There's no information here identifying whom its author "antispamnow" is, but I find the handle rather curious and (in amusement of sorts) I wonder if he was a spammer previously. I also strongly suspect that his credentials are as simple as that he may be a younger fan who has read a lot of books and has an inclination to get very creatively imaginative. No offense meant, but his forte here is more akin to fiction than investigative reporting.

However, early on, the fallacy of this "theory" is nakedly exposed with the declaration that "It’s not very difficult to notice that all these versions sound different, which means that none of the above never actually took place." That's really quite a leap. Ever seen Akira Kurosawa's movie "Roshomon"? Different recollections do not invalidate the fact that there may indeed be some collective truths.

More importantly, I wasn't there. But there are some contradictory facts which I am very aware of:

1) Only in recent years have I heard of Jim's death having been "kept secret" for several days. I have no idea what the source of this misinfo is, but I know that on July 4, 1971, I already had heard of it. After our concert of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention / Uproar at the Centre Paul Sauve in Montreal on that Sunday night, Frank and I stayed up all night discussing all sorts of things, including the irony that when I promoted him in Western Canada the previous September, Jimi Hendrix died then, and now my friend Jim was gone. The news of Jim's death was not delivered to me by The Doors office, which was closed until the following day. It had to have been on the news.

2) Perhaps it's different in other parts of the world, but I know of no Christian customs that call for burial on the third day nor that a church service is required to have an open coffin.

3) Bill Siddons may have been young, but he was of a generation which deplored both dishonesty and corrupted authority. I can't see him having been manipulated by any French officials into any conspiracy covering up any murder of Jim,

4) Jim's death was a shock to all of us. He had basically freed himself from the trap of having become a rock sex symbol and had gone to Paris excited with the artistic freedoms he now had at hand. Pamela had every right to refer to him as a writer. During his last year of life, it was clear to me that Jim's interests had moved beyond the trappings of just being a rock star. His last night in Los Angeles he told me how much he was looking forward to writing and doing more literary styled recordings and film-making as well.

Suicide was certainly out of the question. Despite the depictions of Jim as a drunkard towards the end in Oliver Stone's movie, he was sober, reflective and very observant with bigger ambitions whenever we were in contact. Yes, we shared some beers, grass and another substance which he had turned me on to, but I never saw the extraordinary out-of-it Jim of legend.

The outright speculations of Jim having been shot to death is no more than that. Speculations, from one who wasn't there and has no foundation that can support this.

Yes, I have my own suspicions of what killed Jim, but they are only that, suspicions, despite my good reasons for suspecting what I do.

"antispamnow" should apply himself to either facts or fiction that does not corrupt facts.

Please excuse any typos, I have written this straight-on late at night.

My best wishes to all,
Hank Zevallos

03:25 pm - Love the Music, but this ain't no Spice Girls girl power

Whoa ~ this should be fair warning that you just don't mess with today's modern young ladies.

08:12 pm - TrustFlow results for hanksterz

Yes, I need a haircut. But what about this thin mustache that some friends are encouraging me to keep going?



Ah, now I understand how my friendship was found by reddeliciousx7
That's a cool thing, considering I've been in somewhat of a funk of blues for some time now.

I tried out TrustFlow II for LiveJournal. The following people not on the friends list for hanksterz are close by:

• roarfire, tala_nituna (400 - 450)
• irishrose83, iris_ablaze, marykae (450 - 500)
• dk_leathers (500 - 550)

Created by ciphergoth; hosted by LShift.

TrustFlow II: Who is closest to your friends list?

03:37 pm - I wasn't the only one to cry Friday...

My niece Laura was born January 22, 1981, to my sister Lillian and her loving husband, Gene. On January 18, 2003, in a full Naval ceremony at the North Island Naval Base on Coronado Island off San Diego, she happily married Jeff Mankey.

She was always a joy to be around, and I know of no one whom met her that wasn't positively affected.

I last spoke with Laura during the family Christmas Eve gathering at my sister Maria's home. Unable to make the event myself because a friend needed my car for his job, Laura was happy to hear my voice on the phone and went away from the noisy activities so she could have a quality conversation with me. She spoke not only of how she would soon be deployed as a helicopter pilot off Kuwait for rescue missions, but of her excitement in both soon being together again with her submarine-based husband, Lt. Jeff Mankey, and the possibility she had to become an astronaut as well.

She was excited when I commented she could be continuing a family aerospace tradition begun when my father had helped develop the SR-71 Blackbird, which many consider the first actual spaceship (it secretly flew higher than the news-making orbiter flights of its days). When I asked her to please be careful because we all loved her so much, she assured me she knew what she was doing and fully appreciated the love she knew was there for her. She also promised that she and Jeff would take up my offer to visit my mountain home where she might be able to relax above clouds.

Two Fridays ago, on the forth day after her 26th birthday, the USS Bonhomme Richard, to which she had been assigned, received an unexpected single quick "May Day" from her helicopter. Then it was suddenly gone into the water. The sole survivor found sadly died upon reaching the ship. Laura and the two other crew members have not been found. After an extensive search, the U.S. Navy classified all as deceased because of the unlikelihood they could survive in the cold water for so many days.

It is now speculated that Laura and her two missing mates are strapped to their seats 3600 feet under water near San Clemente Island.

Stunned by this loss, which involved a new MH60S version of the otherwise familiar Night Hawk helicopter, the ship's Captain (and other Naval officers) have assured me they want to bring Laura and the helicopter up. An investigation is under way to determine what caused this first crash of a new MH60S Night Hawk.

Our family was very touched to see, hear and feel the love and respect that Laura had from those who knew her in the Navy. It was also easy to see why she loved being a part of the Navy family.

Your posts in the previous entry have also comforted us during the shock and distress we felt. We truly thank you for having opened your hearts.

Click the link below for more.

01:51 am - Your Prayers And Best Wishes Are Requested

Just over 4 years ago, on January 18, 2003, my lovely niece Laura Berwager married Jeff Mankey, whom she had met in the U.S. Navy. Right now he is stationed in a submarine.

She recently turned 26.

Now our family is praying and hoping this wonderful young lady is found soon after the helicopter she was one of the pilots on went down in the Pacific Ocean off San Deigo during final rescue training maneuvers before going to Kuwait where they would be stationed for rescue missions.

An experienced pilot for some time now, Laura has not only also flown jets, but has taken some training which has excited her as well with the possibility of becoming an astronaut.

She's a joy to be around, always lighting up the environment with her big smiles, shining eyes and big heart.

Please, Dear God, bring her back to us. Our prayers are also with her crew mates and their families.

You are welcomed to get to know Laura via her website at http://www.geocities.com/laurajb81/

04:15 pm - Well, I'll be...

Although I did make Honor Roll a few times in high school, I was hardly what one could call a "straight A" student (such as kuragaritenshi was). So, you can imagine my surprise to fly to an A+ average on this little test I took at lesa's LJ just moments ago during a break. This is especially surprising because I'm certainly not financially independent and eat fast food more than 3 times a month. I honestly expected at least a couple of C's. But, heck, I'll celebrate this rare straight A report card.

Current Mood: cheerful

06:56 pm - My Holiday Column...

My Merriest Best Wishes To All




Mary Ann's husband, Jim, watches Black Jack as friend Paul is about to release the donkey for his short stay in their yard May 5, 2005. Photo by Mary Ann.

My Brush With The Saga of Jumpin’ Black Jack Flash

One night over a year ago, I drove down Jacaranda into a cloud. As I cautiously drove back uphill between Winchester and Sandpiper from its thick fog, the surprise vision of a donkey suddenly coming out from a mountaintop driveway halted me when it stopped in the center of the road. With a lot of attitude, and his ears straight up, he turned his head towards me and stared at me for a prolonged moment then calmly turned and headed on down the road as if he owned it. In my head I heard the Eddie Murphy-voiced donkey from “Shrek” asking me “Whatcha looking at?”

Rather than follow him, my first thought was that he had just escaped. So I drove into the driveway he had exited and turned towards the darkened two-story house, honking my car’s horn repeatedly. It was a bit after 11 pm, and either the residents were away, or they were wondering who the crazy guy making so much noise was. No lights came on. And, after several minutes of occasionally sounding my horn, I drove back out on to the road.

The donkey was nowhere to be seen as I glanced about on my way back down Jacaranda.

For some time thereafter, I’d tell friends the story of the “Eddie Murphy donkey” whom had proudly stepped out in front of my car, stared me down, then confidently took over the road in front of me. Eventually, it just became one of those memories we smile at.

Recently, at Albertson’s “Re-Grand Opening”, I met Diane in a line. Upon learning I lived on Paramount, she said, “Oh, that’s around where my friend’s donkey had run off to.”

Without hesitation, she said “that’s him” when I told her of my experience, adding that the donkey had been living nearby for over a year as her friend make regular trips up and down the mountain to feed and water him. “She finally caught him”.

My interest renewed, I soon met her friend, Mary Ann Moore, who also quickly said, “That’s him” when I recounted my experience.

As she shared pictures of “Black Jack”, the cute donkey they had acquired at a special Mothers Day adoption the Bureau of Land Management held in Ridgecrest on May 5, 2005, she told me of her extraordinary experience after they brought him home.

“He let us walk up to him and pet him in the yard and was very friendly. The next morning we discovered he wasn’t in the front yard. During the night he jumped the gate and hightailed it.”

A quick 7 am call to the Bear Valley Springs police department resulted in her learning that a runaway donkey had just been reported up the mountain on a driveway just off Deertrail and Paramount. “We drove up there only to see him run over the hill. Oh Brother! There goes my Mothers Day present!”

The hoped-for “nice new friend” for their horses soon had Mary Ann committed to try and get him back. And, despite soon suffering a broken leg that handicapped her for a while, Mary Ann began meeting a lot of nice people who’d tell her of their sightings, adding “let him go, let him go”

“No, no, you don’t know us,” she said she’d tell them, “We feel responsible for him. If he hurt somebody or made somebody have a car accident or something… He wasn’t going to get hurt by any animals up there because he’d probably kill the coyotes. The only thing that would hurt him would be a mountain lion if he got hurt”

This resulted in her daily hiking up and down the canyon he’d be seen around, even getting her and a friend once lost in a thick fog. Eventually she was running out of friends to hike with her.
“When I’d mention Black Jack,” she lamented, her friends would soon tell her they had other things to do.

In December ’05, she read “Talking with Donkeys” by Mark Meyers, who happens to be the Executive Director of the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue located locally in Sand Canyon. Loving the book, she called the Meyers, who agreed to help her catch the donkey. They put up a horse pen with a tied-open gate near where he was often seen and she began putting food and water inside, which he’d eat when they were away. Eventually, they set the gate to close when the donkey entered. But that didn’t always work.

“Then early one morning at the end of June, the gate was closed when we checked. But, there was no donkey in it,” she remembered. “After checking the pen, we determined that he was caught the night before but JUMPED out leaving a good dent on the top rail. This was a 5 foot high pen!”

So, to lure back what friends were now calling Jumpin’ Jack Flash, they began leaving the gate tied open again, adding 3 feet of wire to the pen’s height. This worked and on July 17 they found “one mad donkey” caught inside.

Getting him to a horse trailer caused a procession worthy of a Fellini movie scene.

“We formed a triangle with the panels of the pen and literally picked up the back legs of Black Jack, forcing him to walk on his front legs while the rest of us were on the outside lifting the pen and inching it up the hill.”

Black Jack now lives at the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue in Sand Canyon, where Mary Ann can go see him whenever she wants.

-30-

Current Mood: cheerful

10:30 pm - Remembering Jack and Cody

It has been suggested to me that I should also post this newspaper column here in my own journal:



Jack and Cody Palance were truly special

Cody Palance was my best friend here shortly after we moved to Tehachapi. We met when he pulled over in his huge older Lincoln to see if he could help when my Corvette stalled by the telephone company building on Banducci just outside Stallion Springs.

He was a great guy whom I have missed dearly over the years since his untimely death in July of 1998. Now, with the passing of his legendary father, I am compelled to share some of my personal memories.

Cody once told me how excited he was when he got to meet Bob Dylan, and yet how surprised he was to find Dylan was equally excited to meet him because Jack Palance was his favorite actor.

Cody always demonstrated a lot of love and respect for his father, whom clearly established himself as one of the most loved “tough guys” on both the big screens and television.

Jack Palance was one of those extraordinary persons of many talents and accomplishments. As a young man, he had a 12-2 record as a professional boxer. Then, after requiring extensive facial reconstruction from a World War II crash while serving as a bomber pilot, he studied journalism and became a sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle while also working for a radio station.

It was in 1950 that he took an actress friend’s recommendation and went to Broadway, where within a couple of weeks he was in a play. Not only was he also Marlon Brando’s understudy in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, but he won a “most promising personality” award for his performances in “Darkness At Noon”. This led to Hollywood and his film debut in Elia Kazan’s “Panic In The Streets”. Within two years he was nominated for his first Academy Award for his performance as a dangerous husband in “Sudden Fear”, and the following year he was nominated again for his hired gunslinger role in “Shane”.

On my first visit to the Palance ranch house, I quickly noticed the Emmy he was awarded for his Playhouse 90 television performance in “Requiem for a Heavyweight”.

Appearing in over 100 pictures and countless television shows, Jack was not just a favorite of fans, but an actor’s actor as well, finally receiving an Academy Award for “City Slickers” most memorably in 1992 when he delighted everyone with a stunning display of one-armed push-ups.

Years later, Jack would say, “I get off an airplane in South America and I am called Mr. Push-ups.”

That performance became so legendary that the 1993 Academy Awards ceremony began with Jack using his teeth to pull out a giant 20 foot tall Oscar statuette ridden by host Billy Crystal, and Ford used him to promote the toughness of their trucks.

But Jack was also a very sensitive, compassionate man. Once, with a big loving smile on his face, Cody told me about how Jack had spent hundreds of dollars to save a calf that would eventually be sold for a lot less. And, as a surprise to many, in 1996 his poetic book, “The Forest Of Love: A Love Story In Blank Verse”, was published.

One day on the ranch, Jack approached us as Cody was feeding a calf.

“You know,” he said, “this may not be for me because I’m getting kind of tired. But, with medical advances being what they are, I think a cure for cancer and other diseases will be discovered soon and both of you may live to be a very healthy 150 years old.”

When Cody asked me to manage his gifted blues-singing career, we decided we might be able to convert the then-closed Sizzler’s on Valley into a nightclub, where his blues band could perform weekends. We could have purchased the building, with a first-class kitchen, for less than half what it had recently cost to build. But, when we found it had only two urinals for each gender, we realized we’d have to design and build our own venue. The plans we came up with would have provided this area with a much-needed facility. But it would have cost three million in late 90s dollars. Cody did not want to even burden his father by asking for his help. However, Jack, who had accompanied us to inspect the closed restaurant, pulled me aside and told me, “I know Cody doesn’t want to ask for my help, but I want you to know that I’ll do whatever I have to do to help him.”

This was so true that Jack had often insisted that his only son also appear in films he starred in.

Tragically, Cody, an equally remarkable man who preferred ranching and singing to acting, was soon discovered to have melanoma cancer. Despite Jack’s best efforts, we all lost Cody in July of 1998. This was such a tremendous blow to Jack that the memorial service was not held until the following month. Then, when Jack followed others who lovingly remembered Cody, he too began to speak movingly only to soon raise his hands to his face and run off in tears.

His on screen persona shall forever be of a tough man’s man whom often portrayed the bad guys.

To me, Jack Palance shall forever be a wonderful, sensitive loving man hurt by one of the cruelest fates any parent can ever experience.

-30-



This photo was captured from a two hour VHS compilation and shows Cody, Anna and Jack outside the Zevallos’ Stallion Springs home as Jack begins to rave about Anna Zevallos making “the best chicken tacos in this…(“house”, Anna volunteers) …area, state, possibly the world.”

Current Mood: contemplative

12:56 am - Yes, I still miss her daily

WHAT'S GOOD?
by Lou Reed

Life's like a mayonnaise soda
And life's like space without room
And life's like bacon and ice cream
That's what life's like without you

Life's like forever becoming
But life's forever dealing in hurt
Now life's like death without living
That's what life's like without you

Life's like Sanskrit read to a pony
I see you in my mind's eye strangling on your tongue
What good is knowing such devotion
I've been around - I know what makes things run

What good is seeing eye chocolate
What good's a computerized nose
And what good was cancer in April
Why no good - no good at all

What good's a war without killing
What good is rain that falls up
What good's a disease that won't hurt you
Why no good, I guess, no good at all

What good are these thoughts that I'm thinking
It must be better not to be thinking at all
A styrofoam lover with emotions of concrete
No not much, not much at all

What's good is life without living
What good's this lion that barks
You loved a life others throw away nightly
It's not fair, not fair at all

What's good ?
Not much at all

What's good ?
Life's good -
But not fair at all



( Share My Grief And Celebration )

Current Mood: melancholy

04:02 pm - Cat In The Box, and the Clouds Below

At 3 pm Saturday afternoon Teresa needed me to pick her up from her work as her boyfriend Jason slept from his late night schedule. So I drove down into and below the cloud layer shown in the following pic.

It was so much more cooler in the dark shade of the clouds that coat-less Teresa turned on the heater as soon as she got in. Althought clouds had covered the San Jaoquin Valley further below, it had been a beautiful blue-skied day in Tehachapi when she had gone to work, thus she had no jacket.

Once we had climbed up back through the clouds to our islanded mountain home, the warmth of the sun shone through the windows.

( Click Here To See Jeepers The Cat Claiming A Box For Rest )

Current Mood: energetic

06:20 pm - I'm in need of more sleep and a haircut...

...it shows in this pic, taken of me on Saturday the 21st at the West Coast premiere of "The Great Warming" and Community Energy Expo.

Back in the 70s, as the accompanying pic shows, the haircut statement would have been almost unheard of. But, in my role as a renewable energy advocate, what my barber calls my "semi-annual" haircuts are getting closer together. Problem is I hardly ever have the time for more sleep or more than 3 or 4 haircuts a year. Maybe I need a girlfriend hair stylist who can do me at home. Whatever, I must get the haircut within the week. No question.

01:30 am - Am I getting goofier looking in time for Japanese TV?

On Friday the 20th, I hosted a Japanese film crew preparing a news feature on residential wind energy systems for November broadcast in Japan by Nippon Television.

After they interviewed David Colley, one of my all-electric home customers, they asked me to take them out to a wind farm I do some work for. As the wind gently blew, they inviewed me there. Hopefully I'll look better in the pics shot of me the following day at "The Great Warming" film west coast premier and Community Energy Expo.

( Click Here For More Pics )

Current Mood: sleepy

07:46 pm - Promised Pics from ISEF 2006 in San Francisco

This is only a partial view of the front of the private residence of the Consul of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in San Francisco, where a V.I.P. reception was held after the International Sustainable Energy Forum 2006 concluded.

Hosted by the governments of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada, this event was a very important one in promoting renewable energy sources and projects that can help us combat the very real dangers of global warming.

Because of my activities there, I did didn't really have much time to shoot pics, but hope you enjoy these.

( Click Here For More Pics From ISEF 2006 )

Current Mood: cheerful

08:14 pm - Off to the International Sustainable Energy Forum 2006

As I await my associate Jeff Kober for our trip to San Francisco for the International Sustainable Energy Forum hosted by the governments of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada, I realized I should free my digital camera's memory card so I could shoot some pics of the trip.

Well, in saving these pics to my hard drive, I enjoyed some very delightful pics Jessica shot when she visited a few weeks ago.

I've decided to share some of these, and begin with this pic of Jeepers keeping me in bed:

Current Mood: relaxed