A New MUSICAL with JEFF BUCKLEY's music

A new musical inspired by the work of Jeff Buckley will open in San Diego at the Old Globe Theater and may end up on Broadway.

The Last Goodbye sets Buckley's haunting music to the script of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Read more of this story at the Telegraph or The Hollywood Reporter.

See another blog entry from this site about Buckley, who is one of my favorite singers ever.

MYSTERY dolphin SCHOOLING in San Diego

This is magnificent.  I once saw a similar school of dolphins off the northern San Diego coast as I was driving on Pacific Coast Highway.  But there weren't anywhere near this many. If you follow this blog you know that I love dolphins and elephants, among many other things.  But this is truly a breathtaking image.  

Massive group of mammals: A ship captain spotted a group of 100,000 dolphins swimming together off the coast of San Diego on Thursday and experts are unable to give a specific reasoning for why such a large group would be there

A group of over 100,000 dolphins spotted off the coast of San Diego caused a spectacle for nature watchers as they traveled together in an enormous pack.

'They were coming from all directions, you could see them from as far as the eye can see,' Joe Dutra said after seeing the spectacle first hand.

Mr Dutra, who captains Hornblower Cruises, was out on his daily tour with a boat full of nature watchers when he spotted the massive group of dolphins. 

'I’ve seen a lot of stuff out here… but this is the biggest I’ve ever seen, ever,' he told the local NBC affiliate.

Dolphins typically travel in groups of anywhere between 15 and 200 which are called pods.

What Mr Dutra spotted on Thursday however is best described as a super mega pod given the astonishing size of the group.

He estimated that the trail of dolphins was seven miles long and five miles wide, and he was able to steer the boat alongside them for over an hour.  

Experts are unable to pinpoint any specific reason as to why so many of the mammals were traveling together on this particular night. 'They’re definitely social animals, they stick together in small groups. But sometimes, the schools come together,' marine expert Sarah Wilkin told NBC.

While it does seem like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a very similar flock of thousands of dolphins were seen swimming together about this time last year.

At the end of February in 2012, an unspecified group of dolphins was spotted swimming about 65 miles north of San Diego, implying that there may be an unacknowledged migratory pattern.

This article is excerpted from dailymail.com.  To see a video or read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280236/Mystery-group-100-000-dolphins-spotted-swimming-coast-San-Diego.html#ixzz2LIXF12uo

ABELARDO MORRELL--Camera Obscura--one of my favorite photographers

When I lived in San Diego a few years ago one of our neighbors was very involved in The Museum of Photographic Images (http://www.mopa.org/) which is in the Casa de Balboa building at the exquisite Balboa Park, one of San Diego's most captivating of places. I had never been to a museum devoted to photography although I'd always had a bit of interest in photography. I joined the museum and would visit periodically.

And then an exhibition came that completely mesmerized me. The exhibition was photographer Abelardo Morrell's "Camera Obscura." Camera Obscura, and I didn't know a thing about this, was a device that was invented by a Persian around 1000 AD which eventually led to photography.

Here's the wikipedia definition of camera obscura:

The camera obscura (Latin veiled chamber) is an optical device used, for example, in drawing or for entertainment. It is one of the inventions leading to photography. The principle can be demonstrated with a box with a hole in one side (the box may be room-sized, or hangar sized). Light from a scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface where it is reproduced, in color, and upside-down. The image's perspective is accurate. The image can be projected onto paper, which when traced can produce a highly accurate representation.

Using mirrors, as in the 18th century overhead version (illustrated in the Discovery and Origins section below), it is possible to project a right-side-up image. Another more portable type is a box with an angled mirror projecting onto tracing paper placed on the glass top, the image upright as viewed from the back.

As a pinhole is made smaller, the image gets sharper, but the projected image becomes dimmer. With too small a pinhole the sharpness again becomes worse due to diffraction. Some practical camera obscurae use a lens rather than a pinhole because it allows a larger aperture, giving a usable brightness while maintaining focus.

The photographer's exhibition was fascinating to me and I fell in love with the Morell's work. Here's just a few reasons why (all photographs are copyright of Abelardo Morrell):

Light Bulb, 1991

The Empire State Building in Bedroom, 1994
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, East Entrance in Gallery #171 with a deChirico Painting, 2006Times Square in Hotel Room, 1997

The Eiffel Tower in the Hotel Frantour, 1999

Camera Obscura: View of Central Park Looking North-Summer, 2008 The Grand Tetons in Resort Room, 1997

At the exhibition they had a walk-in camera obscura where you could observe the phenomenon yourself. The complicated set up and length of time it takes to capture these images, in so many different settings, is as elaborate as can be although the images themselves are beautiful in their simplicity.

I especially enjoyed his Alice In Wonderland series and the Book series!

Check out the trailer for a documentary film about Morrell titled Shadow of the House:


To order the DVD: http://www.shadowofthehouse.com/

If you're like me I just can't get enough of the beauty that this guy creates. Please visit Abelardo Morell's website at http://www.abelardomorell.net/photography/recent_01/recent_01.html to see the rest of his work. And please check out one of his exhibitions if it comes to your town.

Have a beautiful day!