Author: Manny Kagan

What a Piece of Meat Has In Common With a San Francisco Neighborhood

I decided to write this story after noticing a headline in the Insight section of the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, January 7, 2018 – “Historic Tenderloin is at Crossroads. New developments will challenge neighborhood to retain community and services.”

Before arriving in San Francisco on August 5^th, 1980, we needed to find an inexpensive hotel, so we called my wife’s friend, who had only recently moved to San Francisco, herself.  So she did. Our first stop in San Francisco was a hotel located on Leavenworth and Ellis Street. At night my wife, as a result of jet lag, could not sleep and would look out the window at the lightly clad women accompanied by men, who walked in and out of our hotel.  On the corner, stood a man who seemed to control the traffic (later on I learned about the job description of a pimp).  The next morning, holding our daughters’ hands tightly, we ventured outside.  Walking towards Market Street, we saw a lot of strange looking men and women in dirty clothes. This was our introduction to our beloved city.  It did not take us long to discover that there are other people living in this beautiful city as well.  And gradually we blended in with them.  Through the years, I did not have many reasons to go back to the area, which I found out is called the Tenderloin.  But on a few occasions, when I went to see a show at the Golden Gate Theater, which is located on the corner of Taylor and Market Street, we parked our car in the area, and it was like going back to almost forty years ago. The same looking people filled the sidewalk, either drunk or on another substance.  Actually, it seems that the conditions on the 31 city blocks have not changed for over one hundred years.  Online I found the reason why this neighborhood is named after the most tender cut of beef.  There are a number of stories.  One story is, it is named after a neighborhood in New York City where Captain Alexander S. Williams, after working in the area since 1876, acknowledged the bribes he would get from crooks, and ignored their crimes,he would say, “I’ve had nothing but chuck steak for a long time, and now I’m going to get a little of the tenderloin.”

The second article in the same newspaper, “Tenderloin’s strides, struggles”, points out that the area in the past was full of life with theaters and restaurants. However, because of the city and its’ policies, the area was deliberately kept open for drug dealing and drug use on Tenderloin’s sidewalks, to keep those activities away from the other areas of the city.

But things are about to change thanks to a number of new development projects, which will make the area less affordable for its current occupants.  You can find more about the history of San Francisco at the Tenderloin Museum located at 398 Eddy Street.

P.S. Recently when I was driving from a meeting downtown, I decided to stop in the Tenderloin to take some photos for this story.  But it was impossible to find a parking space.  As a result, I am sharing four images I took in other parts of our city, where I saw a similar picture of the street people occupying sidewalks.

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How to Create Mystery

I recently attended a four-day workshop organized by the Leica Academy, titled “Mystery”. The instructor was Maggie Steber, a well-known photographer who photographed for many years for the National Geographic and other major publications. Her images are very humanistic. The book “Dancing On Fire From Haiti”, where she worked for thirty years, touched my heart. Her images are very poetic and contain a lot of mystery. I strongly encourage you to visit the Leica Store, located at 463 Bush Street, San Francisco to see her work, which is on display until April 7^th.

Many great legendary photographers have photographed using a Leica camera, and every time I have an opportunity to use one for my photography, I tell myself that one day I might buy one. They have diverse cameras, including one, which only takes images in black and white. But what make Leica cameras especially unique are the lenses. They are probably the sharpest in the industry and can be quite costly. To give you an idea, the new Monochrome Camera (the one I’m licking my lips about) is priced at $7,550, plus another $7,795 for lenses. While I’m still dreaming about the Rolls Royce of cameras, I continue to take photos with my pocket Canon, for which I paid about $550. Of course, I also work with more expensive cameras and good lenses, like my Canon 5D Mark III and Fujifilm X-T2, which is much lighter. One needs to be really knowledgeable to distinguish the difference of the quality of an image, which very much depends on the size of the prints. Regardless the camera, or smart phone one is using to photograph, a little bit of knowledge might go a long way. This is why I constantly take classes and participate in workshops, learning from great photographers and other participants. This time, our group consisted of 16 men and a woman, from all over the world. One young woman flew from Holland for the workshop. There was a man who has been following Ms. Steber’s workshops for a number of years, flying to different locations (I think this was his 5^th one).

During the workshop, we had to photograph images with a “Mystery” theme in mind. Each day of the workshop, there was a review and critique of our work. At the end we put together about sixteen images. I chose as a theme, “Night and Day”, focusing on the mystery surrounding the darkness of the night and the transformation into the early morning. During the workshop, Tom Smith, who organizes Leica Academy workshops, assisted Maggie. Tom used my images and added music and voilà. You can see the result here.

P.S. On the first day we had to photograph (or solve) the mystery of the crime (the victim was Maggie Steber). You can see my take on mystery in four graphic images.

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P.P.S. Friday, March 30^th is the first night of the celebration of the Jewish Holiday – Passover, during which the story of the Exodus of the Israeli slaves from Egypt of about 3500 years ago is shared around the table. You can find a lot of history and suspense in this story.

Happy Passover!

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Where to Find Joy

A few weeks ago I shared about celebrating my seventy-first birthday, while vacationing in The Sea Ranch. I wanted to keep writing about the joy that I experienced while there, and photographing nature. As I mentioned before, I am currently writing a book titled, “Retirement Solutions for Smart People. 5 Easy Ways to Enjoy Your Life”. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the definition of joy is “The emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, or by prospect of possessing what one desires, a state of happiness or felicity”. Since I was not familiar with it, I looked up the word “felicity”, and learned that it is “something that causes happiness”. The word “happiness” is defined as “good fortune-prosperity or a state of well-being and contentment, i.e. joy”. For me, all of those words are just words. What it really means will change from one person to another. For some, being seventy-one is the beginning of the end, for me it is just another day to experience joy without caring what it really means.

When our daughters were growing up I would tell them, “Regardless what you do – enjoy it”. At the end of this story, like in all before, you will read “Enjoy and Share with a Friend”. The feeling of joy comes from sharing whatever you feel or experience with others; otherwise it is short lived. If you want to experience joy, just ask yourself what is it that another human being or an animal, or nature would enjoy and share this experience together. Having our labradoodle puppy Max in our lives gives me and my wife Elfa and our daughter Alona great joy and a lot of laughter. For Max it is easy, since the purpose of his life is to express joy by licking our faces and being a good and obedient boy (which he is learning). If you’re lacking joy in your life, you could adopt a dog (or get a puppy if you have a lot of patience). Regardless what you do – enjoy it.

P.S. Every time I pressed the shutter button of my camera, I thought about the joy you are going to have seeing the final images. If you enjoy seeing my photography, visit our office, where I’ve covered the walls with a variety of my photographs. Meanwhile, these four images of the sunsets from The Sea Ranch are for your enjoyment.

P.P.S. I am sure you will enjoy my latest book, “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers”, which will be available at the beginning of May. I will keep you posted in next week’s writing.

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It’s All About the Water

Recently there were two articles about the water (or lack of it) that caught my attention. The first one appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 titled “California plans ban on waste of water”, written by Kurtis Alexander. It starts: “Sprinklers that splash more water onto the sidewalk than the lawn, which have increasingly drawn scornful looks in drought-distressed California, are about to be banned forever. Same goes for hosing down a driveway or patio, or washing a car with a garden-variety hose.” If the regulation by the State Water Resources Control Board will pass wasting water could trigger a $500.00 fine. This can be a good idea to help all of us to save more water and keep the cost down. We can blame the rainless winter or Global Warming, or the President of the United States, or God, this will not change anything – our conservation will. For instance, taking shorter showers or turning off the water while applying shampoo and conditioner, can help with water conservation.

One of the major consumers of water is the agricultural industry. And in this area, California with the thirsty population close to 40 million is cooperating with Israel, a small country with the population of about 8 million. Online I found out that “Israel plans to recycle 95% of its waste water for irrigation purposes by the end of 2025.” One of the examples of the cooperation between California and Israel is the 1 billion water desalination plant Israel’s IDE Technologies is building to provide 50 million gallons of water daily in San Diego area. This bring us to the next article which appeared the following day, Thursday, February 22, 2018 in The Wall Street Journal written by Seth M. Siegel titled “Cape Town May Dry Up Because of an Aversion to Israel”. Turns out that “Cape Town, South Africa, has designated July 9 ‘Day Zero’. That’s when water taps throughout the city are expected to go dry, marking the culmination of a three-year drought. South African officials aren’t responsible for the lack of rain, but inept management and a devotion to anti-Israel ideology needlessly made the situation worse.”

The article continues, “Israeli Foreign Ministry recognized the problem and alerted national, provincial and local governments in South Africa. Israel has trained water technicians in more than 100 countries, and it offered to bring in desalination experts to help South Africa.” Instead, because “The leadership of South Africa’s dominant political party, the African National Congress, aligns itself with the Palestinian cause.” South Africans turned to Iran for help. “Unlike Israel, Iran is not known for its water-management expertise. Anger over water shortages was a feature of the recent Iranian protests. Even before the South African visit, a former Iranian agriculture minister predicted that as many as 50 million Iranians – around two-thirds of the population – would need to be uprooted because of growing water scarcity.”

In life we all make choices. When it comes to water, be wise – save.

P.S. Since we see water everywhere, often we do not notice it. Therefore I am sharing with you four images of water which might surprise and delight you.

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It’s All About the Women

When I was growing up in Riga, Latvia, March 8^th was an official holiday called International Women’s Day. I remember the first gift I gave to my mother on that day. I was probably about eight or nine. Somehow I was able to save enough money to buy her a chocolate bar. For some reason I still remember how it looked and tasted (it was my favorite brand). It seems that in the United States the gift giving to women moved to the Valentine’s Day, which became more commercialized. Both holidays are focused on women for different reasons.

International Women’s Day started in Russia out of a massive demonstration that took place on the eve of the Russian Revolution in 1917. It was a protest against the deteriorating living conditions, a lack of basic food supplies and the shortage of goods. A majority of the demonstrators were women. In commemoration of this demonstration, since 1922, the Soviet Union has celebrated Women’s Day on February 23rd (or on March 8^th, according to the Gregorian Calendar). Until the mid 1970s, it was primarily celebrated in socialist countries. In December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a “United Nations Day for Women’s rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.” As of 2014 IWD is celebrated in more than 100 countries.

Actually the events that led to the 1917 protests started earlier. In some accounts, there was a demonstration in 1907 when about 15,000 women working in needle and textile marched through New York City.

On February 28, 1909 the first Women’s Day was held across the United States. A year later, The Second International Conference of Women was held in Copenhagen during which it was suggested to have an “International Woman’s Day”. Over a hundred years later, the position of women in society all over the world has changed. Women became head of certain countries, like Golda Meir who was elected Prime Minister of Israel on March 17, 1969.

Today there are thirteen countries in the world with a female as the head of state. Online I found the list of the 15 top female tech entrepreneurs who are “blazing the way for the many generations of female start-up founders who are sure to follow.”

I am blessed to have been surrounded by strong women all of my life. Thanks to my wife Elfa and our daughters Alona and Tamar, I became who I am today, what I am very happy to share with you.

P.S. In spite of the progress, the Women’s Marches and Protests continue with the new messages. Some of them took place in San Francisco, where I was able to capture four images to share with you.

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Cheers,