They Teach Black and White Photography at Humboldt State University... With FILM and a DARKROOM and Chemicals... A Truly Unique and Wonderful Experience...

to be in total darkness moving a roll of film from the camera into the specialized HOLDER used to dunk the film into the chemicals... quite a tricky manual dexterity process... and all the time My eyesight was hallucinating like a madman... outrageous flowing geometric patterns... and then there was the fact that more than half of the students were pretty young women... It's really fun to associate with them... Me being 50+ and them being 20+... and so many were "Organic Earth Mothers." My Favorite... 

The REASON we worked in Black and White was that COLOR is simply too complex. First learn B&W then move up to Color. The next semester we DID NOT do Color Film, we moved directly to Digital using Adobe Photoshop on a MAC.  Same Teacher... 

We also learned about shutter speed and blurring motion photography... so one day I walked out onto the Shoulder of Highway 101 and took a Picture of a Logging truck... It looked very ghostly because the trees and Guardrails were in focus and stationary but the truck was translucent. 

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In my Art History Class at HSU... I Drew a Picture of the Lady Sitting next to me... It Never Looked Like my Classmate but... It turned out to Look Like Grace Slick... so I emailed it to the Official Jefferson Airplane Website and they Posted it online... and Said Thanks! I was So Honored!

Pencil Drawing of Grace Slick by gvan42

Simplicity Patters: I remember those... Mom made clothes including a Bell Bottom Sleeve Nehru Collared Shirt. I wore a bell necklace with it in 1970... I also had a thin Camouflage Jacket that I stitched a row of sparkling purple sequins up and around both sleeves... like Military Striping... Like Sgt. Pepper Beatles Uniforms... and I owned a giant Fake Fur Coat... Black, like I was a bear... and we bought Huarache Sandals in Ensenada, Mexico when My Family went there on Vacation.

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Keep in Mind that... While it is Obvious that Marijuana should be legal... It might not be a great idea to ACTUALLY SMOKE IT. I've smoked weed off and on for 50 years and I've been happier during the NO WEED years... That's MY Experience, Yours May Be Different. Yes, Sex is more fun stoned. Yes, Food Tastes Better, Yes, Rock Music is DESIGNED to be danced to Stoned... BUT... I automatically start smoking at Dawn and stay stoned all day and all night until Sleep... All Day Every Day for Months on End... and then I took a driving Vacation to Nevada and LEFT THE WEED AT HOME... Because I didn't want to be in possession of an ILLEGAL Drug when I was stopped by the police. What I didn't Realize was that I remained Stoned for at Least a Month without smoking... and Experienced events that did not happen... They Call that Hallucinating. That's what I paid For and That's What I Got.

However, during these last two years of NOT Smoking... I recorded Fifty Five (55) Music Videos on Youtube of me Singing and Playing the Guitar... When I was Stoned I recorded Five (5) and those were not that great. I had difficulty with the timing and rhythm... as if my brain was experiencing difficulty looking up what chord to play next... EVEN ON SONGS THAT I WROTE. Yes, it is FUN to play while Stoned BUT... I just don't get much DONE... and too much foot-pedal hold on the piano... until all the notes blend into a swirling whirlpool of sound... Yes, FUN but NO Not A Great Recording. Too Mushy... and I published songs even when I made a mistake instead of making another recording... Ahh, Good Enough... Now I practice the Song and If I play it wrong, I stop the Camera and Try Again... Sometimes Three or Four "Takes"... and SOME songs are just too difficult but with enough work, maybe I get them. "Space Odyssey" by David Bowie is one that I find Difficult... But I'm Practicing...

I remember Redwood Summer... Earth First! Protests in Humboldt County... In the End The Taxpayers of California Bought a Huge Piece of Land and Made the Headwaters Forest Park. Thanks! It's Great! Better than the "Stumps of Mystery" - I was Living in San Jose at that time and Did NOT Participate in the Protests... and I DID NOT "Spike" Redwood Trees In San Jose... at the Corner of Lincoln and Willow... Not Me... It Was That Other Guy... "Lumpy the Biker" - (Not His Real Name) Remember DO NOT CHAINSAW Redwood Trees... Might be Dangerous! SAFETY FIRST!

Read more of my autobiography at:
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html

Autobiography: I remember that we did not have air conditioning in elementary school. When it got hot we folded up paper to make a fan. We also folded a sheet of newspaper to make a HAT... and a four sided thing to tell the future... sort of like a Magic Eight Ball.

 I also knew how to fold a CUBE... I have forgotten everything I ever knew about paper folding... 

I remember Board Games. Risk, Chess, Monopoly, Parcheesi... and then years later when I got married we played Master Mind and my wife always won. 

I owned a Blacklight. And a Lot of Blacklight Paint... I painted the blades of a fan different colors and when the fan was spinning it created unusual colors due to persistence of vision... 

I remember owning a Transistor Radio. I listened to Giants Baseball Games. I was not the only kid who was a Giant Fan... as a Matter of fact, John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival tells the story of how he wrote the Song "Centerfield" about his Childhood Hero Willie Mays... He also listened to Games on His Transistor Radio... 

I remember owning a Brownie Camera. It used Film and If you "forgot" to wind it between pictures you could force the camera to take double exposures... a very "Trippy" Effect... 


Then decades Later I took B&W Photography at Humboldt State University and we did the developing in a Darkroom. That's a wonderful experience because you do all that physical manipulation of film and holders and chemicals in total darkness while looking at swirling rainbow hallucinations... Even when I am not "ON DRUGS" I see a lot of checkerboard style patterns in the dark that dance. Then the same teacher taught us Photoshop the next semester... EPIC CLASSES...  That was the only time I used an Apple Computer. I knew I was "home" when it asked me if I was trying to upload a series of photographs in order to create an animated GIF... that was EXACTLY  what I was trying to do and It offered to upload all the pictures for me Automatically! For homework we had to design a WEB Based Store... and The specific Task was to show a product (A Coffee Cup) spinning around so the customer could see all sides... We worked in teams to do our projects and an Older student taught me how to create an animated GIF... That was a big Idea that our teacher had... We should teach ourselves Computer Science because after we graduate we were not allowed to ask the teacher questions... We should research the answers ourselves... 

Read More of My Autobiography at:
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html