Category: Manny Kagan

Growing up in Riga, Latvia we did not celebrate Hanukkah or Christmas. Instead, we celebrated the New Year, and decorated a fir tree similarly to how people decorate their Christmas trees. The custom of tree decoration actually has pagan roots. It evolved in Germany in the 16th century, and became popular beyond Germany during the second half of the 19th century. Many people enjoy the spirit of the winter holiday season; there are so many wonderful holidays, celebrated by different religions and traditions, such as Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, Christmas, which is lighted by light and Kwanzaa, which honors African heritage in African-American culture and uses seven-branched candle holder Kinara to commemorate this holiday tradition.

As in the Hanukkah song “The light dispels darkness, the light is everywhere. ”. Whichever tradition you celebrate, fill your life with light.

Enjoy and share.

P.S .Holiday light can come in different packages, as you can see from my images.

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 Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

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The idea to write about bread came after listening to Michael Pollan’s audiobook about food titled, “Cooked”. My first encounter with his food writing began with his book, “Second Nature: A Gardner’s Education”, that he wrote in 2003. On Amazon I counted twelve titles of his books related to food. Michael also narrates all his books. For someone like me, who does not know how to cook and is surrounded by women (my wife and daughters) who know quite a bit about food (My youngest daughter Tamar has a food blog and web series called Healthy Delactable), it might be strange to be interested in the subject of cooking. The basis of Mr. Pollan’s stories, as they are presented in his introduction, are “discoveries of enduring power of the four classical elements – fire, water, air and earth – to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink.” He does it by experimenting in his own kitchen, as well as by apprenticing with a succession of culinary masters. In North Carolina, he learned and helped a barbeque pit master use fire to prepare a barbequed pig. Berkeley’s famous restaurant, Chez Panisse trained Pollan in the art of braising. The celebrated baker of San Francisco based Tartine Bakery taught him about how air transforms grain and water into a fragrant loaf of bread. And finally I learned about how fungi and bacteria can actually contribute to our health and well being. You may wonder why someone, like me, who does not eat meat or fowl, is interested in the meat preparation. To make matters more perplexing, I also recently stopped eating bread to help my body to become lighter (in which I succeeded). My answer is that Mr. Pollan knows how to tell a good story. For me, the most fascinated part of the book was related to bread. Growing up in Latvia, bread was part of our everyday diet (though there was not much to choose from). It was enough to become hooked, which seems is not only a problem in Latvia. To give you perspective, according to the Bread Production market research, in the United States in June 2015 the revenue of the bread production was $42 Billion dollars, employing 222,980 people in 24,642 businesses.

Luckily for San Franciscans, we have many choices for good artisanal breads. Besides Tartine Bakery, we have Acme Bread in Berkeley (this is my wife’s favorite bread company). A few years ago, The Mill opened on Divisadero Street. I found a list of the 10 Best Bakeries in the Mission Area alone, on Yelp. You can buy very tasty bread at Outerlands Restaurant and at Twentieth Century Café. And of course, at many farmers markets in the city and Bay Area. Whatever you eat, read (or listen to) “Cooked”, and enjoy your food.

P.S. I was introduced to the bread making process a few years ago. Tamar’s best friend’s father is Mick Sopko, a well-known baker from the famous Tassajara Bakery, which is part of the Zen Green Gulch community in Marin County. As you know, bread comes in different shapes and sizes. I photographed Mick’s production of his small breads. On another occasion I was present when a single loaf was ready for baking at the Twentieth Century Café. Before quitting my bread habit, I enjoyed going to the Ferry Building farmers market for sandwiches made from Acme Bread.

Bon appétit!

Enjoy and Share!

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Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

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 Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

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 Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

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The title and quotations of this story came from a book about photography, “It’s Not About the F-Stop”, written by one of my teachers, Jay Maisel. The F-stop is the function of the camera that controls the amount of light that comes through the lens. In the book, he quotes a Tibetan proverb, “Objects are there for you only if you see them.” And then he continues with the quote by photographer Barbara Bordnick, “We walk by wonders every day and don’t see them. We only stop at what shouts the loudest.”

The Pilgrims were puritans and followed strict rules. However it turned out, the reasons for the fast were not exactly religious. Ken Albala continues:
“The original logic (to abstain from meat, eggs and dairy products) was purely medical — these were considered the most nutritious foods available, which would generate a plethora of blood and sperm (in both men and women), which would in turn stimulate the libido and lead to sin. Only humorally cold and moist vegetables, salads and fish were suitable foods to restrain lust.” So what shall we do now that we know the truth?

I participated in Jay Maisel’s workshop many years ago.  Since then, I’ve purchased many of his photography books. The latest one, I’ve been reading a page a day, after I meditate.  In this experience, I realized that the qualities of being a good mortgage broker and a good photographer are actually very similar.  And I think the number one quality is being present.  Every time I meet with and try to help a new or a repeat client, first I have to fully understand their circumstances, concerns, limitations, desires, and only then think about the possible solutions.  To paraphrase Jay Maisel, “It is not about the interest rate”.  Being a good photographer is more challenging – there are so many components to consider to get satisfying results.  And even then, how can I know if the result is a good image?  This is why I immerse myself into looking at the work of other photographers and art in general, to train myself to sense, rather than just see what a good image is.  However a true professional cannot do things alone.  I remember that at the beginning of a workshop, Joe asked us how we know that we have a good image.  My response was that I know it’s good when my wife likes it.  When I work on the final touches and cropping the images, Elfa’s suggestions help me a great deal.

Not surprisingly, the same goes with mortgages. Regardless of which solution or lender I find for each client, it is my underwriters, Mila and Sarah, who make the final cut. But the question still remains, how does one notice and recognize the right opportunity, the right light, the right place, the right subject or the right lender? I think that thorough preparation and a lot of practice helps to recognize the beauty in ordinary things and the small details that make or break a mortgage. There is a Russian saying, “Na lovtsa i zver’ bezhit”, which translates to, “Prey runs into the hunter”. But first, the person needs to know what it takes to be a hunter, a photographer or a mortgage professional. Then one needs to be in the place where one can meet the prey (the solution). I learned this from another photography teacher, Sam Abell: “First you choose the background and wait for the subject to appear in front of the camera.” After a while, what seems like an ordinary thing, is suddenly illuminated and miraculously transformed, or a lender “appears” with the program that the client is waiting for. The rest is simple – you just need to capture the moment.

P.S. In choosing the images for this story, I decided to show you some ordinary objects, perhaps in a way you may not have noticed before.

Enjoy and share

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
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 Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

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The Wall Street Journal, (among other newspapers), recently published a story titled, “China’s Leadership Scrap One-Child Policy”. Now some families in China can have two children. China has the largest population in the world – 1.37 billion. In the past, families in China had many children (in 1950 there was an average of 6 children per family). In the Chinese society, where there is no social security, parents depend on the care of their children in their old age. But today, when economic opportunities allow people to work more to keep up with their neighbors, young Chinese people feel that they cannot afford to have more children. This problem is not unique to China. I recently read an article that young people in Cuba do not want to start families and have children, because it is not economically possible.

It is generally believed that in Arab countries families have more children, probably for the same reason it happened in China in the past. But in countries like Saudi Arabia, there are 1.2 children per family (similar to what China has now). The rest of the developed world is experiencing the same phenomenon – a drop of the childbirth. This becomes a huge problem in countries like Japan as well as in Western Europe.

I speculate that the reason Germany recently decided to accept such a large number of refugees was strictly driven by economic considerations. After all, they had relative success with the Turkish workers, who had been living in Germany since the 1960s (In recent municipal elections a man who was born to Turkish parents ran for the Mayor of Berlin). The question remains, “Why do we need children?” In the Torah, after the flood, “God blessed Noah and his sons, and He said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the land” (Genesis 9:1). At least there was a very specific purpose – to fill the land. But now when it seems that we have fulfilled this commandment, what’s next? In 1798 the reverend Thomas Robert Malthus wrote an “Essay on the Principle of Population”; his point was that if the population continues to grow, the earth would not be able to produce enough food to support the expansion. The history demonstrated that his theory was just a theory. In 1798 the world population was 800 million (which was the number of people in China in 1970). The world population is approaching seven billion. Who is going to produce and feed all of those people in the next generations? African countries’ economies are growing and their childbirth survivorship is increasing.

The new book, “A Mighty Purpose” by Adam Fifield is a biography of James P. Grant, the director of United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), who died in 1995. Thanks to his efforts, the mortality of children dropped from an average of 23% before they reached their fifth birthdays in 1960 in the low-and middle-income countries to an average 5% today. It might be that in the near future Chinese companies will set their production in Africa. Whatever the reason is, it is good to have children.

P.S. When we visited Cuba in 2013, I photographed many children.  One of the reasons that separates children from grown-ups is that they always play.  As you can see in my images.

Enjoy and share with a friend.

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,

At the end of the day on Friday, the 13th of November, I called a client to discuss her mortgage. Before I was able to tell her anything she blurted out, “Did you call your daughter in Paris?” That is how and when I first learned about the massacre. Our daughter Alona, who lives in Paris, was in New York on business on this day. Alona was naturally shaken by the devastating news, but is OK!

When events like this happen far from home, it is very difficult to completely relate to the scope of the tragedy. Every morning when I open the newspaper, there are articles upon articles about how many people are killed or injured in different parts of the world. Would it change anything if I did not look through the paper, as though I’m on vacation, when I do not typically read the news? Of course it would not. On Sunday, my wife Elfa and I went to see Steven Spielberg’s latest film, “Bridge of Spies”. When attorney James D. Donovan (played by Tom Hanks) asks Russian spy Rudolf Abel (played by Mark Rylance):”Don’t you worry?” He answers, “Does it help?”

Many people primarily worry about the unknown; things that are either real or imaginative. They often project the worst outcome just reading something in the paper. When Palestinian terrorists attacked and killed Israeli civilians with kitchen knives last month, the population started to carry guns, in self-defense. Israelis also attacked and killed an innocent person, whom they suspected to be a terrorist. Unfortunately, too often we read in the news about police killing innocent African Americans. Yes, Black Lives Matter. But can we stop the violence? Maybe it sounds naïve, but one thought of how not to attach ourselves to negativity is to rather do or read something that would bring a smile on our faces. Over the weekend, I was out on the streets photographing, when I encountered a young French woman, who came to San Francisco with her personal project. She travels the world asking strangers on the streets what makes them happy. Sometimes she just carries a big yellow sign that reads, “Smile”. She photographs people and posts their images and responses on her blog. We all have choices. If you can, choose to smile.

P.S. In spite of the tragedy in Paris and other parts of the world, for many in San Francisco life continues like nothing happened. People are overwhelmed with their own small and big issues. As long as we keep smiling to life, like people I’ve encountered on that day, most of the pains will heal.

 

 Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,

 Whom Do You Know That Might Benefit From Our Tailored Mortgage Solutions?

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