Picto Diary - 20, 21,22,23,24 July 2021 - Pioneer Day

Above: LSDM Riders and Drivers. Flaming Gorge, UT. 20 July 2021

Contractor, Peterbilt, Commander, Mont Blanc, Enzo, The Commodore, The Bishop.

Above: LSDM Riders and Drivers Combustible Chasm Lake. 20 July 2021.

2021 Ducati Multistrada, 2002 HD, 2016 Ferrari California T, 2016 Jaguar F Type.

21 August 2021. I've had Blade Runner, in my personal collection, running on all screens this AM. I catch repeated glimpses of the movie as I putter, while walking through the house.

Blade Runner is a brilliant, provocative film which is set dystopian Los Angeles at a time when human "replicants" are used for remote space exploration and asteroid mining. The replicants, who are not allowed on earth (Caesar's army forbidden to cross Rubicon?), are programmed to self destruct after five years.

One group of replicants hijacks a space craft and returns to earth seeking to find their creator. They want the creator to give them eternal life. Roy Beatty (Rutger Hauer), the leader of the replicants, his time up, shuts down before he can kill his pursuer, blade runner (LAPD operatives who hunt down replicants) Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). Prior to shutting down, replicant Roy Beatty opines, and I love this movie line: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. I've watched attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've seen C Beams glitter in the dark at Tannhauser Gate. All of this will be lost in time like tears in the rain. Time to die."

Good films and literature provoke... cause reflection. I wondered, as I listened to the dying Beatty utter his final words, about mortality. Does all I have done, for good or for worse, like Beatty's incredible experiences, disappear in a puff of smoke when I exit this existence? Or, is my life somehow codified on some eternal chip to provide life lessons to some future human?

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and his acolytes say we humans are random occurrences, without meaning in the universe. In contrast, Stephen C. Meyer, a philosopher of science, argues for a designer of life in his book, "Signature in the Cell." I've read this book as well as Meyer's NYT bestseller, "Darwin's Doubt." Meyer is highly criticized by the "conventional wisdom" scientific community, but, more and more, his arguments... for one, the statistical improbability of randomness in the creation of life... are taking hold among researchers. So, the convergence of science and religion, considered by the conventional wisdom to be irreconcilable, picks up momentum.

I enjoy reading beyond the blockade of the conventional science censors.. there is good stuff out there. Read "A Troublesome Inheritance," by former New York Times writer, Nicholas Wade. Wade talks about new research that says that human evolution is recent, copious and REGIONAL. The "science" is never settled. Truth can never be honed in the absence of controversy. There is too much unscientific social science narrative driving repression of true science today. If we're not teaching our kids to challenge conventional wisdom we'll delay the process of arriving at truth... and, people will suffer because of these delays (under edit). I don't have the answers, but in my readings and film watching, I enjoy a sort of personal discovery process. Short of anything else, I suppose my progeny will somehow be influenced by my life... and, I suppose, that should be enough.

Above: Deer. Park Meadows, 22 July 2021.

LSDM Walkers.

Above: Neighborhood Flowers. Park City, UT. 23 July 2021.

Above: Deer Crest. Wasatch County, UT 23 July 2021.

Musical performance outing. 22 July 2021. 7:30 PM. Downpour after 30 minutes from time of image. Image looks ESE over Jordanelle Reservoir.

Above Sunrise. Iron Canyon. Park City, UT. 23 July 2021.

Above: Vicious Beat Band. Charleston, UT. 24 July 2021.

It's Pioneer Day... 24 July, the Utah state holiday that celebrates the arrival into the Salt Lake Valley of the Mormon pioneers, 24 July 1847. Charleston is mainly an LDS community that was celebrating this historic event in their city park. We are joined by friends Montage, Spago, Maui, and 'Cake. No beer in sight! Probably many of the participants, mainly families, in the park didn't know that their city had contracted one of the best youth bands in the country,

Vicious Beat. Vicious Beat. Caleb Chapman Soundhouse. Oh... did I mention? Caleb Chapman is a genius! Charleston City Park. Contemporary Rock. These guys were playing Beyonce. Between numbers I yelled out, "Sultans of Swing," Dire Straits! Then, "Take it Easy," Eagles. But, nobody listened. The guy at the sound mixing station gave me a nasty glare. I'm not into Beyonce music. I'm OK with Bruno Mars, though. Obviously I was focused on the drummer.

Beaucoup progress has been made by Drums since when, fourteen years ago, I'd bounce him on my knee while we watched rock videos together. I can't say whether the bouncing knee imbued in Drums his extraordinary sense of rhythm today. I can say that its a hoot to watch this kid get into the music at concerts like this.

As I was listening to the Vicious Beat grooves, I couldn't help but focus on the bass player. This kid was good. He and Drums, playing the two fundamental rhythm instruments of any rock band were totally in synch. Who was this kid (outside of image shown here)? Good bass players are hard to find. They get no glory. Yet, they are essential to the proper functioning of a rock band. Think of Dusty Hill of ZZ Top. Paul McCartney and Sting, both bass players, were exceptions to the "get no glory" rule.

After the concert I'm mingling with Drums' family and friends and up walks Scott Zinc, retired NYPD special branch cop and 911 First Responder at the World Trade Center. "Scott, good to see you," I exclaim. "What are you doing here?" My son, Justin, is the bass player in Vicious Beat," says Scott. "Whaaaa," I exclaim. "I was just saying that the bass player up there is outstanding!"

Justin's older brother, Ryan, was a speaker at LSDM last year. Ryan, a youth officer of Turning Point USA, organized a speaker event at Park City High School last year. A misguided student decided to try to break up the event by injecting pepper spray into the school ventilation system. Seventeen kids were hospitalized. Ryan was later personally recognized by President Trump at the Turning Point USA 2018 Convention in Washington, D.C. Zincs. Top level parenting. I love hanging out around folks like this.

Other folks I like hanging out with were there. Jenny and Joe, friends of FeeBee and B1b. Joe is my personal physician. Jenny and Joe, and their son, Drums' friend, Kelton, are great travelers. Several years ago we joined with Jenny, Joe and Kelton on a trip to India that included Kaziranga Game Park in Assam.

The next day, Sunday (today as I write) 25 July 2021, I was the fill in organist at the Park City LDS ward, pioneer themed, church service. The timing was good for me. Each of my eight great grandparents were children of pioneers who made the fifteen hundred mile trek across the plains to Utah between 1847 and 1860. I selected the hymn, "Come Come Ye Saints," as the closing hymn. The hymn is a seminal recognition of the sacrifice made by the early Mormon pioneers to cross the plains in pursuit of a new life in what then was considered a desert wilderness.

There was good attendance at the service... some 200. Ward Bishop, Bishop Peterson, bore testimony to the strength that his pioneer heritage gives him in his day to day life. Bishop Peterson and Mwah (sic) are trying to get together for a short motorcycle ride when he gets some time. He has only 200 miles on his new HD. Kathy R. was the chorister. Her husband, Frank, was a long time competitor in cutting (a horse event). Frank is now in his mid-80's, no longer riding horses. Stake President Greg. R. was there. President R. was a recent speaker at LSDM. Jim H. stopped me as I was walking out of the chapel. Jim is the big time developer who, then working for East West Properties, in the late 90's and early naughts, developed the Northside and Silver Star areas of Deer Valley. He says he's now doing some developing for the Holding family, owners of Sun Valley and Snow Basin. At a distance, I saw Walt O., retired Chief Engineer for Boeing. When Walt was at Boeing, he had 30K engineers reporting to him. Walt was also a speaker at LSDM a few years back.

One of the speakers at the Church service talked of her 5x grandparents converting to the LDS Church in Scotland in 1848. At the time they were oldsters... 73 and 72 (her). The speaker described how, at age 74 and 75 her 5x grandparents walked from Winter Quarters, Nebraska to Salt Lake City in 1850. Heck. That's my age! Would TIMDT and Mwah (sic) be up to walking 1500 miles to seek religious freedom?

There are so many stories of great dedication and sacrifice that underlie the great place that is Utah, in which we live today. It is good that we have Pioneer Day to remember these sacrifices. I'm glad that my timing as back up organist coincided with this important holiday.

In June of 1847, at the crossing of the Big Sandy River in Farson, Wyoming, Brigham Young and western explorer Jim Bridger met for a colloquy. Bridger told Young that he'd do best to bypass the Salt Lake Valley as he sought a home for the Mormons. No one, Bridger told Young, could live there but a bunch of hard scrabble, berry picking Indians. Of course, Brigham Young proved Bridger wrong. To make the Salt Lake Valley bloom like a rose, the Mormons learned to irrigate, redirecting the mountain streams to water their crops. By the 1930's, Mormons were the world experts on irrigation. The top executives of the Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Interior in the 1930's were Mormons... Mormons who built most of the great dams of the west, including the Hoover Dam.

I occasionally reflect on how the sacrifices of the Mormons to open up the Salt Lake Valley are suppressed in popular understanding of Utah today. I mean, I guess its fine for Salt Lake City to name its major boulevards after Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez. Each of those individuals made contributions to advance social justice and racial equality in the United States. But, where is the boulevard in Salt Lake City named after Brigham Young, that individual most responsible for the dynamic spot that Utah is today?

Overall for Mwah (sic) and TIMDT, a great Pioneer Day, two day, experience.

Addendum

Lovely!
Ken & Kate, Salt Lake City, UT

Beautiful kitchen. Could be a living room. Mohan, New Delhi, India