It's Harbor Seal Pupping Season in San Diego, California, so here are some video clips I took yesterday.

The song is "Trip Around The Sun" by Jimmy Buffett and Martina McBride

I have an annual pass to nearby SeaWorld here in San Diego, so today I decided to test out a theory . . . (any of my close friends will tell you that I ALWAYS have theories spinnin' around in my head   more...LOL)

I've always known that little kids focus "solely in the moment", whereas older kids, and particularly adults, usually lose that ability as they grow older. It's understandable, because the older you get, the more that your thoughts are consumed by your responsibilities, worries, problems, and commitments, etc.

My theory is that one of the best ways to force your brain to "shut off" the worries of the day for a while, and TRULY "live in the moment" again, is to take thrill rides :) :)

So today when I went to SeaWorld, I decided to head over to their "Journey to Atlantis" ride and test out my theory :) , and YEP!!, after watchin' many boatloads of people drop down the steep slope durin' this park ride, I saw that almost EVERYBODY had a smile on his or her face, so for those few seconds of the steep dropoff, I'd be willing to bet that NOBODY had worried about their car payments, upcoming income taxes, work problems, or anything OTHER than the ride itself, so for those few seconds, the people had "re-learned" how to truly "live in the moment" and were happier as a result :) :)

So sit back and enjoy the ride for 2:41 seconds :) :) and listen to Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City".

Thanks for watching this video :)  less

When I moved to San Diego, I was happy to see an old friend at the Maritime Museum. The “Berkeley” is an 1898 steam ferry that operated for 60 years on San Francisco Bay, and I vividly remember riding   more...on this ferry boat when I was a little kid growing up in the San Francisco area, so it was great to learn that the Berkeley still survives this half century later, and can now live out her life being visited by people who never got to experience a journey on such boats :) (For that matter, it’s great to learn that I’M still around this half century later! LOL) The funny thing is that, as a little kid, the seating benches looked HUGE, so when walking around the boat now as a 6’-1” tall baby boomer, the benches NOW look really SMALL!

The San Diego Maritime Museum has an interesting historical tidbit about the Berkeley. Since the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges didn’t yet exist across San Francisco Bay in 1906, during the massive earthquake and subsequent fire of that year, the Berkeley carried thousands of survivors to safety. Her captain and crew, not even knowing the fate of their OWN families, worked night and day to help victims escape the burning shores of San Francisco.

The song for the video is “(You Want To) Make A Memory” by Bon Jovi.  less

Here’s video footage of the air and space museum located in Balboa Park, San Diego.

The song choice is “Space Oddity” by David Bowie.

Today was opening day of the auto show, so here are some of the vehicles that got my attention :)

Bein' a motorcyclist now for almost four decades (tempus fugits!!!), & an adrenaline junkie AND a fan   more...of anything wild and "leading edge" lookin', the three wheeled "Trirod" motorcycle in this video was my personal favorite, so I spoke with Trirod's Operations Manager for QUITE a while! LOL Here's a great video of the Trirod in action: http://trirodmotorcycles.com/motorcycles/adrenaline_video.html

The song is a remixed version I did of "Money (That's What I Want)" by the Flying Lizards.  less

I took the camcorder out again to record more of the bike paths in the area, so these paths go along Mission Bay. I've got five bikes in my home in San Diego, and another bike at a friend's house in   more...England, and this is my favorite bike (the one shown in the first two photos). It's a Trek triathlon/time trial type bike, and the most aerodynamic bike I've ever owned. It's soooo effortless to ride :) :) The video speed is sped up as well, 'cause I LOVE seein' things in fast motion LOL. Part 1 in this two part San Diego bike path series was my video "Don't Worry . . Be Happy".

The song is "Ray of Light" by Madonna (whose real name is "Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone" . . . bet you didn't know that huh? . . . well, neither did I 'til I just Googled it! LOL)  less

My favorite time of day to bicycle along the ocean is in the very early morning hours. It’s SUCH a tranquil and peaceful time of day, and this song “The Power of Now”, by my friend Faith Rivera, mirrors   more...my view that life is best lived when you truly focus on living in the moment, and experiencing everything going on around you minute by minute . . . so on this particular early winter’s morning, if you take the time to stop and look around you, you see the waves splashing up against the wood pilings of an ocean pier . . . you see pelicans and humans surfing the waves, but each in their own way . . . you see seagulls peacefully waiting for the day to warm up a little before they head off to scavenge or to seek fish swimming too close to the ocean’s surface . . . . . . you see LOTS of things . . . IF you take the time to look and really enjoy the "Power of NOW" :)

Faith's websites, including her YouTube channel, are listed below, so please check out the websites. Faith, is an Emmy Award winning singer/songwriter who sings at many venues around the United States and other parts of the world, and it's a wonderful experience to hear her sing, and to see how audiences respond to her singing. Her upcoming calendar of events can be found on her MySpace website. Her empowering and inspirational music is available via CDs through her online store, and at iTunes, etc.

Faith's websites:
http://faithrivera.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/faithrivera
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/faithrivera  less

I often hang out backstage at the killer whale pools at SeaWorld, in order to watch them interact with each other, and watch the games they play in their free time when the human trainers are off doing   more...other things, so on this particular day, the killer whales decided they felt like body surfing onto the smooth surface at the back of the pool, so time after time they’d do this. It reminded me of watching skateboarders practicing their sport, as they hop their skateboards time and time again, up onto the edge of low walls and slide along.

One summer night before the killer whale show, I was watching backstage, and one particular killer whale saw me and then he (she?) stopped swimming and rose up vertically so his eyes were out of the water, as the other whales kept swimming, and this one killer whale just stared back at me for the longest time. It was an amazing experience . . . particularly since nobody else was backstage at that time, so it was just the whale and me :)

Anyway, the song for this video is “Surfin’ Safari” by The Beach Boys.  less

I always get an annual pass to SeaWorld, because I love watching the incredible grace and power of the killer whales and dolphins, so I’ll put the links to two of my previous videos about them below,   more...but, BUT!! . . . since I visit SeaWorld quite often, I have lots of opportunities to notice things going on at SeaWorld OTHER than the main attractions.

One of the things that always amuses me is that the local BIRDS have grown REALLY accustomed to the MUSIC used in the SeaWorld shows and to the timing of when the shows are going to END, so if you’re not “distracted” by watching the amazing whales and dolphins, you’ll notice if you look around you, that pigeons, seagulls, and various other types of birds start flying around and grouping together near the end of each show, as they hear the songs that are used to end the various shows. Some days it starts to look like you’re reliving Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” movie! LOL, and it’s hilarious watchin’ the “stealth tactics” of various birds as they try to sneak up and eat some of the fish in the containers meant for the whales and dolphins!

So here’s a video about this airborne custodial service that’s an integral part of the SeaWorld ecosystem, as the birds do their part to get a meal AND to help save the planet, as they clean up some of the MESS that the masses of inconsiderate, littering humans always leave in their wake as they depart from the seating areas.

The song is “9 to 5” by an English singer known as “Willis”. I REALLY like this edgy, urban, soulful, ennui filled version of the song.

Willis is a talented, deep-voiced country/soul/blues/indie singer from London, England, who, in her words, “grew up on a diet of Elvis, Hollywood musicals, nursery rhymes and country music.” She began her career by singing traditional Irish folk songs, but then discovered 1970s Americana, Neil Young and The Band, and for six years she also worked in an eclectic London store, “Soul Jazz Records”, where she was introduced to the world of dance music and electronica. . . . the result is this great, unique, and eclectic sound that is heard in her version of “9 to 5”.

Here are two links to previous videos I’ve done about the killer whales, pilot whales and dolphins at SeaWorld, if you want to see more typical SeaWorld videos of mine:

"Dolphins and Whales Jumping in SLOOWWWW Motion!!"
http://www.livevideo.com/video/F7DD60DFC2CD422588A9AA7A7593CB61/-dolphins-whales-in-slloooowww-motion-.aspx

and

"Splash Zone" (Dolphins & Killer Whales)
http://www.livevideo.com/video/0C61C49EA29F4811857E35E7CB3AA5D8/-splash-zone-dolphins-killer-whales-.aspx  less

I've noticed when I fly into San Diego, that the approach to the airport requires planes to fly in just over the tops of many, many buildings on the downward slope of a hill in the flight path, so here's   more...how it looks from various views on the ground. It's fun watchin' pedestrians stop in their tracks as the planes unexpectedly skim by low over their heads! I was ALSO going to film from the top of one of the high rise parking structures in the flight path, but the people running the parking garage said that customers aren't allowed to stand on the top floor, because the pilots don't want any extra distractions as they glide over the buildings on their approach to the runway!, and OH! . . . the sounds of the planes in this video are set at only 74% of the actual jet volume (so you can still hear the song lyrics during the flyovers), so there's a lot of NOISE when the planes fly over too!, makin' it a VERY visceral, entertaining experience! LOL

The song is "Watching Airplanes" by Gary Allan, which was suggested by one of my longtime friends.

and, AND!! . . . if you want to see a place where planes land REALLLLLLLLY low, check out THIS video of a Boeing 747 landing at St. Maarten:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAfQwDizpRo  less

The other day I got a Day Pass on the San Diego Trolley, to explore the various routes on the system, and to take video footage for an online video project.

What I always find interesting when taking   more...public transit, particularly during commute rush periods, is that you can have a trolley car FULL of people . . . . yet nobody is talking. It’s always a surreal experience for me, so I wanted to pick a song that conveyed that eerie ambiance you often find inside trolley cars, so I chose the hauntingly beautiful song “Age of Loneliness” by Enigma.

(Note: If I had been surrounded in the trolley cars during this excursion by rude people on their cell phones, who were holding loud conversations with unseen persons, I would have chosen an entirely DIFFERENT song!! LOL)  less

It's fun watching people happily exploring the tidal pools at low tide on a beautiful sunny day :) :) . . . the song is "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" by Cat Stevens . . . this song was   more...included in one of my favorite movies . . . the REALLY quirky, bizarre, warped sense of humor, somewhat cult-classic movie entitled "Harold and Maude" in 1971, which was filmed in the S.F. Bay Area.  less

San Diego is home to the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier. The engines total 212,000 horsepower; the ship weighs in at 69,000 tons, has 2,000 compartments, 18 decks, four 18 foot high propellers (with each   more...propeller shaft over 400 feet long), 12 boilers, and the ship holds 3.4 million gallons of fuel. The normal ship crew for this ship was 600 men in engineering, 225 cooks, 200 pilots, 40 corpsmen, 2 physicians, and 1 dentist, and, AND, you get a great view of downtown San Diego and the harbor from the flight deck and from the superstructure above!

The song is “Where the Stars and Stripes and Eagles Fly” by Aaron Tippin.  less

I decided to take my camcorder along on one of my bicycle rides recently, so here are some typical scenes of what December looks like in San Diego at the beaches of Pacific Beach and Mission Beach.

The “Festival of Sail” started today, August 20th, here in San Diego and the event runs through Sunday, August 24th. It’s great watching these tall masted ships sail into the harbor!

The song is the great   more...Crosby, Stills & Nash 1960s classic “Wooden Ships”. For Baby Boomers like me, it’s hard to believe that David Crosby is now 67!, Stephen Stills 63, and Graham Nash is now 66! I had the opportunity to see a reunion concert of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young around 9 years ago and it was a FANTASTIC evening!  less

Here are some photos I took at a competition of worldwide professional kitesurfers on San Francisco Bay, and video clips I took at the “expert level” kitesurfing beach at Tourmaline in San Diego.

The song   more...is “4 Minutes” by Madonna, featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.  less

I’m always fascinated at the ease and grace with which whales and dolphins swim, so it’s always a joy to watch them. Beluga Whales weigh between 3,000 and 3,300 pounds and grow to be between 10 and 15   more...feet long. Unlike the more popular dolphins and killer whales, the Beluga Whales have no dorsal fins, primarily because the beluga whales spend so much of their time in their natural habitat swimming very close to the ice sheets over their heads, as the whales look for breathing holes in the ice, so there’s no evolutionary advantage for Beluga Whales to have dorsal fins.

The song I chose is “Ordinary Miracle” by Sarah McLachlan.  less

Here is a video about the playful polar bears at SeaWorld in San Diego, California.

The song is “Message to Myself” by Melissa Etheridge; I love the positive message conveyed in the lyrics!

Here are just a FEW of the many critters at the park :)

The song is “Jamming” by Bob Marley.

It was another warm, sunny summer’s . . . err. . WINTER’S day yesterday here in San Diego (it’s always hard to remember it’s winter with this great weather we almost always have here LOL), so I went over   more...to the Maritime Museum of San Diego, and wandered around inside the 300 foot long “B-39”, which is a Russian, Soviet era “Foxtrot” class (its NATO designation) or “Project 641” (Soviet Navy designation) diesel-electric powered attack submarine. She was constructed at the Sudomekh shipyards near Leningrad and commissioned in 1974. The irony is that the B-39 almost certainly spent part of her career stalking many of the of the U.S. Navy ships that are now her neighbors on San Diego Bay! (the above info is taken from the Maritime Museum brochure).

The two songs for this video are “Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles, and, AND, since I have a REALLY droll, dry, warped sense of humor, I also used a bizarre song (more of a “surreal, story telling narrative”) called “The Submarine”, by 2NU, which is a group out of Seattle, Washington. The eeriness of the song seems to go really well with the eerie, solitary journey thru’ the pipe and wiring filled “intestines”, within the confines of the belly of the sub. (I’m over 6 feet tall, so it was quite a stunt to continue filming while squeezin’ thru’ the small openings inside the sub!! . . . luckily I do a lot of Yoga, so I'm USED to bendin' my body into the shape of a PRETZEL!! LOL)  less

Here are a bunch of vid clips highlighting our Fowl Feathered Friends :) I took the video clips recently at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in California.

The song choice is “Sea Lion Woman” by Feist.   more... This video has NUTHIN’ to do with sea lions (unlike some of my OTHER vids LOL), but I love how the long necked birds in the video seem to be rockin’ out to this song!! LOL (For those not familiar with Feist, it was her music video for her song "1,2,3,4" that was a part of the Apple iPod TV commercials.)  less

Here are some video clips of some OHHHHH so cute baby elephants and their parents, that live at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in California.

The song is “Baby Elephant Walk” by Henry Mancini, which was   more...the song made famous by the John Wayne/Red Buttons movie “Hatari” that was released in 1962, and the scene in the movie that uses this song is HILARIOUS, as a baby elephant runs amok. Although I was only eleven when I saw the movie in ‘62 on the big screen at a drive-in theater, I had SUCH a crush on female wildlife photographer “Anna” in the movie, played by BEAUUUTIFUL Italian actress Elsa Martinelli . . . the “minor” point being that she was 27!!! in 1962, so there was a HUGE age difference, but that didn’t seem to MATTER to me at the time! LOL (NOR did the age difference topic seem to matter to the producers and director of the movie, when they cast John Wayne as Elsa’s potential love interest “Sean Mercer” in the movie, considering that John was 55!! at the time! LOL).  less

My friends and I went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park today, so here are some video clips of this great looking lion we saw. (I guess you COULD say this is SORT of a continuation of my "Lion"   more...series, since my last video was about SEA Lions! LOL)

The song is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)” by The Tokens, which came out WAYYYY back when I was eleven LOL (I SOOOOO remember when this song came out!). Here is some interesting bio on the song and the group, that I found on Amazon.com:

“The song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," was based on an South African Zulu folk song "Wimoweh" made popular by the classic folk group the Weavers in the 1950s. However, the Weavers were political in the best sense of the folk tradition, and fell out of favor among the common folk who thought them Communist sympathizers of varying hues along the spectrum of the color red. However, younger music listeners might remember Robert John's version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," which made it to #3 on the Pop charts in 1972 and was included on the soundtrack for "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective."

“The group, The Tokens, was a doo wop group out of Brooklyn, who originally included Neil Sedaka when they were known as the Linc-Tones (they were students at Lincoln High School). In the early 1960s the group was reformed by Hank Medress with Phil Margo, Mitch Margo, Joe Venneri, and Jay Siegel as The Tokens. In 1962, The Tokens recorded "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," which hit #1 on the Billboard Pop charts. It was far and away the biggest hit The Tokens ever had, and this CD-Single basically includes the two songs that are arguably the best of the rest of their inventory. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "La Bamba" were both off of The Token's debut album.”  less

Here are some video clips from SeaWorld, San Diego, California, that answer the question!! LOL

The song clips are from Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence”.