Corn Farm Tour 2007

Farewel 2007, Happy 2008 New York

2007-12-31T21:01:00.000-05:00

Another year in New York is about to come to an end

my 13th time since I came to US

Morgan, Lee, Debbie... our old faces cuddle up in our old place, with 7 dishes cooking for 9 people! Happy New Year, I pass out well before midnight, exhausted from joy of cooking.

wrapping gifts in Charleston, SC

2007-12-24T20:34:00.000-05:00

Erika sews her Christmas gift for her brother and sister

take a break!

by the lake

where Captain Keith teachs Toshiro how to sail

wrapping the gifts can get very creative

Bowman sisters sing Christmas Carol

'I'm distracted.' says Christin, putting her headphones on

next morning the family gather around the tree

in the fog of Shenandoah, VA

2007-12-08T20:22:00.000-05:00

Erika watches the sun set in the misty clouds of Shenandoar

Toshiro has slept little

Zephyrhills, Florida

2007-11-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

drifted down from New Orleans on the day before Thanksgiving, to the lush green of Zephyrhills, Florida

my micro tent has just enough for me to sleep next to my guitar and the suitcase

any given moment the sky is full of colorful canopies, above the landing area so big that you can hardly land off

2 Japanese girls Kayoko and Yukari practice their 34 way

'we didn't make it!' laughs Yukari

November 24th, I'm a proudly A-licensed skydiver. Now the sky is the limit!

(L-R) Chris gets ready for loading as Marius talks through the dive flow with a new AFF student Steve

And below are some freefall photos by Martin Stull, a jumper from Toledo, WA
3-way exit with Chris and Brian, hang on tight!

shoot I lost them, let's catch up!

okay, time to pull...

the last tent standing! after everyone left to go back to their post-thanksgiving American life

a flock swoops above the pond

flying lead and sinking paper... I manage to fly in the same fall rate with Rob, a dense jumper from Pennsilvania. thank you for all the coaching and fun jumps

Chuck Blue, the world's top class wing suit flyer has become such a sincere and generous big brother to me, at last in the night before I am to leave Zephyrhills

the last night at Z-hills goes wild and late. Chuck and Melanie invite me to their pimped up RV

life in Baton Rouge, Slidell and New Orleans, LA

2007-11-17T20:48:00.000-05:00

Matt teaches me how to pack a parachute in Skydive N'awlins, Slidell, LA

Anita, the packer girl sits on Daddy Santa's laps

Santa loads onto Cessna 182

Toshiro finishes his jump #19

Stephen drives our rock-star Altima across the Mississippi, by mistake.

dinner night!

music for dessert

chilling out on the acoustic set in living room

look how this guy leans so far out to feed the alligators

and the turtles older than we all could ever know

gwarrrr!!

cruising the bayou through setting sun

'another one gets hooked.' I introduce Betsy to skydiving, an exciting and expensive sport

Toshiro gets training

Let's go, jump #21

Thank you Matt, for coaching with me, flying with me and showing me how to pack

busted down on Bourbon street

while my comic book princess Betsy lies sound asleep in the passenger seat, Toshiro pulls up on the side of a country road to take a pee. pitch dark night in the bayou land somewhere between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Toshiro makes one step too far off the shoulder and dives knee deep into an alligator populated muddy swamp

busted flat in Baton Rouge

2007-11-01T19:14:00.000-04:00

'Do you wanna come to Louisiana and help me shoot this movie?' my west coast friend Kevin asks

straight down the Mississippi from Davenport, Iowa, almost to the Gulf of Mexico

where there's music there can always be new friends

Stephen, my coleague/kamera geek from New York, originally from Bay Area

Cuba Gooding Jr. prepares firing guns in a scene

mixed-coast kamera kats (L-R August, Stephen, Toshiro and Dave) prepare for the fight scene

'You're like a kicker, or relief pitcher.' says Kevin. B-camera pride!

War machine is coming

you got spunk, kid. ....LINE!!?

Kevin Sarnoff, Stephen Buckingham, Cuba Gooding Jr., Stephen Kozlowski (out of focus) and myself at the wrap of 'Way of War'

DC and Virginia revisited

2007-10-28T03:55:00.000-04:00

Erika invited me for a weekend in the capital

Halloween party

by Lake Annie, on the way back from my failed attempt to skydive

Gwrrrr!

Autumn in Big Apple

2007-10-15T09:20:00.000-04:00

Empire State Building peers out of the fog

Subway signs don't make any sense

Andrij gets haircut

rain washes the streets of Times Square

filming continues, for the fourth months

Mike and Mariela chew on lollipops

Smokey, Andrij and I. Wrapping our 5th(?) movie together.

Zen and tranquility of Northern California

2007-10-07T17:40:00.000-04:00

drive along the coast to Monterey bay, some crisp view of Pacific spoils you

King Air at Skydive Monterey Bay will take you up to 15,000 feet in 10 minutes, from where you can enjoy 70 seconds of free fall

Monterey, CA

on the way back as the sun tilts over the ocean

morning practice with Kinko Kyudojo

Lucy tells me to shoot slow. "You don't understand, I haven't shot anything for the last 4 months. I missed this so much!"

Ben swirls a rubbery tube, it's a seaweed.

Ben talks to Frank, 208 years old sea creature. "Drink lot of water."

The longest hike of all week took us 3 hours to get back. (Ben ran the track ahead of me and Dylan)

We built this city on Rock and Roll!

2007-10-06T07:53:00.000-04:00

October 3rd, wake up in a sound cozy bed of Ben's aunt's house in Oakland, CA

Ben talks to his father, his personal nutritionist

crossing the bridge to the city built on rock and roll!

strolling through the memories of Janis and Jerry

world's best record store, main branch in Haight street, San Francisco

Jeff Tweedy appears at free Bluegrass concert in Golden Gate Park

people here bike a lot

my old roommate Dylan comes home

Gillian Welsh and David Rawlings

going to California (with an aching in my heart)

2007-10-01T18:38:00.000-04:00

we wake up in Zion national park next morning. our minivan's getting dirtier

a tarantula wanders off onto the street

VOG in Las Vegas

stars of Death Valley

all morning we drive through this big national park

Independence, CA at the foot of Sierra Nevada

some more VOG

Route 395, flying at 100 mph, almost hit 2,000th mile of the trip. (shortly after this we get pulled over for major speeding)

crossing the Sierra, Katie photographs Mono lake, CA

after three days in the desert sun...

2007-09-30T11:19:00.000-04:00

next morning we start pumping the flat

Buckskin gulch

wild life in the dry sun and cold shadows

flash flood leaves muddy paddle all along the trail

pull yourself out of mud before you sink

wash off all the mud in Kanab, UT. getting ready for big hike tomorrow

Grand Canyon, North rim. September 30th

Jorge is a serious hiker

a wild deer wanders about

1,000 miles through the desert

2007-09-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

Captain George, a mastermind of this whole trip

organic farm in the middle of desert, Cainsville, Utah

'much needed rest stop' says Josh after sitting in the car for hours

next morning shortly after a quick coffee stop in Escalante, Utah, we hit 1,000 miles since we left Scottsdale, just East of Phoenix, AZ on Tuesday

Josh and I pretend to be in Gus Van Sant's 'Gerry'

we got stuck!

from Utah back to Arizona, then back again to Utah...

quick hike up before the night falls

we brought back plenty of fire wood to keep the windy desert night warm

Up US-191 to Moab, Utah

2007-09-26T05:03:00.000-04:00

discussing the map in the morning. we'll drive great distance today

sisters of sheep in Rock Point, AZ

Kristan's car reaches 250000 miles!

we enter Utah at the town of Bluff "Toshiro, we're in Utah." "I think you're bluffing, Kristan."

Arches National Park

get to Moab, Utah, a little hippie hide out surrounded by mountains

stop for VOG breakfast

Kristan splits

George picks me up

Leaving Phoenix

2007-09-25T16:24:00.000-04:00

George, Katie, Josh and I pile up in a new rental mini van, leave Phoenix behind to see the great Southwest. Our final destination is San Francisco, CA.

70 miles East of Phoenix, we find Old Town Superior, a home of The World's Smallest Museum

in San Carlos Indian reservation's junior school, kids go around and pick up trash for their in-school suspension

Kristan joins in the town of Grove, to visit breathtaking mountain range with us

full moon rises over our first camping site by Lyman lake

Phoenix, Arizona

2007-09-20T14:34:00.000-04:00

mountains of red rocks

magnificent clouds in Arizona sky

Mike watches clouds

Mike gets drowned

'I wish I could play chess on my prep day.' says Mariela

Only that we play these huge pieces

Katie makes 'Mini Zavars container'

Kats on John Deere

Jamie, my sumo wrestling buddy

boys on the field

Kristan says goodbye to coleagues

Eloy, Arizona

2007-09-15T12:39:00.000-04:00

'Nothing else to do around here other than skydiving or smuggling people.' says Brian, somewhere near Mexican border on Interstate 10

a wind tunnel towers out in the middle of desert

German air force team practice canopy formation

Katie practice back flying in wind tunnel

Wow! James and Nathan finishes their first tandem jumps

hanging out with German air force crew. Frank, above left, says 'Our country's politics is becoming very complicated, but at least we get to choose what we like to believe in.' while Garfield, right, calls me Tokyo

emergency vehicle... not a pleasant thing to see in a dropzone. Fly safe!

Katie's rainbow canopy

15 jumps in one weekend... Are you done for the day, Katie? 'No I'm gonna do a few more jumps before I go to work.'

beautiful sunset at Eloy, Arizona

Goodbiowa

2007-09-11T14:15:00.000-04:00

Chicago O'Hare Airport

Goodbiowa, see you in Phoenix

Hey, Dementicalo

Miguel 'Azucar' Santos travels to Uniet States

Shooting film in a live airplane, fun!

Davenport, Iowa

2007-09-05T13:53:00.000-04:00

Blue Eagle rises to lay justice against Rebels of Angry Babies

Shananananana....!

Army of Blue Eagle occupies John O'Donnel Stadium in Davenport, regains control against Angry Baby's tag attacks

Couchfreaks, Fort Dodge, Iowa

2007-08-31T11:32:00.000-04:00

meanwhile A-licensed princess Katie Sky Kat scratches her hair

'I'm doing 10 way.' in Couchfreaks skydiving festival in Ft. Dodge, Iowa

Katie practice the formation

Katie boards an otter, a nice and fast aircraft

Otter takes off to Iowan sky

Katie parachutes back safely, in a jump somewhere between her 60th and 70th.

'People only want to drive nice cars, I only want to jump out of nice airplanes.'

Greetings from 13,000 feet above Genesio, Illinois

2007-08-30T21:19:00.000-04:00

Stevie hangs in a harness for the quiz

Ready!

One last walk-through of the dive flow

she comes back, lands on her feet like it's no effort...

'That was fun!'

my turn!

uhh... my old back...

I'll be right back...

Do you see him?

Yey!

nice butt landing!

Kato watches as Juan gets an altimeter

oh, no... torture

Prop, Up, Down and Arch!!

Kato: 'I don't think you should be doing this, Master...'

'Oh no, my Master...'

Juan successfly deploys his chute at 5,500 feet

'That was awesome!'

up we go, my level 2!

holy cow it's getting dark up there

a bit scared, but this is something I wanna keep doing

another day, another jump, another pull and another landing

seems so easy for Juan it's only getting more fun

my level 3 goes easy

beautiful landing!

Battendorf, Iowa

2007-08-25T23:16:00.000-04:00

Beth 'Janis' Mickle with her Art Band

Toshiro drinks green juice

'There are five kinds of corn grown in Iowa.' says Dr. Smokey

Sun sets over the west

Full moon rises on the east

Burlington, Iowa

2007-08-15T13:07:00.000-04:00

sleepy-eyed zombies line up in Fun City water slide

as vegan camp food is been experimented

Dr. Smokey's lab uses curtain rails, color gels, power drill and a dimmer to keep the Iowan party night spinning hot and cool

we waste plastic

Dr. Smokey in his golf outfit

we abuse plastic waste

Los Quemados, Dominican Republic

2007-07-26T02:44:00.000-04:00

drifted away from the southern coast of DR, in midst of mountains I find the village of 'the burnt'
Isreal quietly saddles up

the village has a few streets, several stores, a church with a primary school and no hospital

I'm a stranger here, everybody watches curiously

come to the crossing point of river

many villagers cross river like this

construction workers on the river bank have built a cable troley

so I took it one day

fire in the mountains of Los Quemados (the burnt) in DR 'quemados' also means accademically failed

across the river, through someone's private farm property, there's a waterfall where everyone hangs out

on the way back home, half a mile to the river and the rain came in hard by a colmado

colmado is a general store, sells batteries, soaps, cigarretes, beer and collection of Domnican rum

waiting for the rain to lift, to get back across the river

water is rapid, hold onto each other

Prakash, an Indian national and Dominican resident on a vacation with his French wife Laurence and their lovely 1 yr old, another rare guest in the village of Los Quemados. I get to tag along with them to the Northern city of Santiago, where I flew out of this country, back to the United States, but my Corn Farm Tour continues

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

2007-07-21T21:21:00.000-04:00

zona colonial, a cute old tourist town in Dominican capital

brick stone forts from the wartime era

soldiers at the forts tell you it's the closing time. 'Puedo tomar tu foto?'

hanging with Jorge and Juan in Santo Domingo night

beautifully rusted architecture all over the town

a bicycle kid in the background of trash

typical Dominican dish involves rice and beans, fried plantane and pollo, have it with cold Presidente