News and the Art of Water and Yellow Submarines

Amidst all this depressing doom and gloom news lately it's a little refreshing to hear some good news even if it's not remotely newsworthy to begin with. Obviously the rescue that captain from the pirates off the coast of Somalia was very big news with a happy ending (unless you were one of the pirates) and that the First Family has a new puppy named after blues and guitar legend Bo Diddley. That news was less important but important enough to be the front page story on The Washington Post. Some news is just crazy funny such as that lady in Berlin who jumped into the polar bear exhibit. I am not kidding. I have no idea why except that it's probably mating season for crazies or she was so sick of men she thought a polar bear might be a step up from dating a guy. I think it was just Darwin proving that the herd sometimes needs a little thinning and so she was the next in line. Wow. And this just in: Comedian and now politician Al Franken may get to be senator of Minnesota after all. h A Minnesota court has ruled in favor of Franken in his 2008 Senate race against Norm Coleman. It also said that Coleman can appeal the ruling if he wants and guess what? He is! And so it continues.....Closer to home there is an underwater scientific team coming up here to Tahoe to explore the clarity of the lake and how it can help document if things have gotten better or if we have to worry about the lake losing its color down the road.

Along with the scientific team will be two mini subs that will dive into the lake and I have just been invited to go along with the captain of the expedition on one of the dives. Alright.
Speaking of all things aquatic not too long ago I interviewed an artist who specializes in water-based paintings and sculptures: Wyland (shown here on the right). Yep. he goes simply by the name, Wyland and has a gallery up here. He's based in Hawaii and his artwork is very popular. I never even heard of the guy until I came up to Lake Tahoe and cruised through his gallery. Wow. Some pretty cool stuff I have to admit. He came up here with his publicist and she had ready-made questions I could ask him. Sorry that would be no fun. Best to see how anyone thinks on their feet when I ask questions. Looks like I'll be chatting with him again and one thing I will ask him if he's ever dreamed about smoking a doobie with Peter Max and spray paint a couple of garage doors of dolphins turning away fish from humans.