Alexander Stuart

Photograph  copyright © 2016 Alexander Chow-Stuart. The waves, and the light, on the beach in Santa Cruz for these moments in my brief YouTube video were awesome.  The wooden posts only appear in winter - remnants of an ancient jetty, although there were also old railroad tracks that ran literally at the water's edge, all the way up to San Francisco, I believe.  The posts are only visible in winter. In summer, they are buried by the sand, which the ocean tears away in winter months, completely reshaping the beach and filling the harbor mouth (if it weren't dredged). If you enjoyed this post, please follow me on Twitter  @alexanderchow .   And please  subscribe to this blog via email by clicking here.

My review of David Bowie's legendary Ziggy Stardust Rainbow Theatre show in 1972. ( These are fragmentary thoughts, first started around 4am on Sunday night/Monday morning, when I learned about David Bowie's death. ) A post I wrote about David Bowie's legendary Ziggy Stardust concert at London's Rainbow Theatre. I was seventeen at the time!  I somehow never quite imagined David Bowie's death, listening to Rock'n'Roll Suicide all those years ago. He went with grace. Peace. Commander Chris Hadfield performs David Bowie's Space Oddity on the International Space Station. See the extraordinary video at the bottom of this post. Beautiful thought from Tumblr: the accumulation of Bowie being played all over the world right now must be enough to hear from space. I hope he can hear it. One of the most beautiful renditions of David Bowie's music (YouTube video below): Seu Jorge - Rock n' roll Suicide , from Wes Anderso

I did not expect to wake to this: #DavidBowie: legendary rock star dies aged 69 – latest updates from The Guardian: http://gu.com/p/4fy2e?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Photograph  copyright © 2015 Alexander Chow-Stuart. Happy New Year 2016 to all our friends in Europe, Asia and elsewhere...and soon here in America ✨🍾💫

Photograph  copyright © 2015 Alexander Chow-Stuart. One of my all-time favorite shots of our family on the beach at Santa Cruz at high tide.  The beach in winter is fascinating to listen to and observe. The waves pound the sand with a force you can hear streets away.  They would entirely block the harbor mouth with sand if not for constant dredging by the harbor authorities throughout the winter - which redistributes sand onto the beach, where an earthmover works pretty much constantly to shore up the road side of the beach against natural erosion.  It's strange how we take our California beaches for granted, yet most of them (the ones people use, anyway) require management in some way.  I remember in Miami Beach, after Hurricane Andrew, when the lifeguard huts were swept 100-300 metres across the sand and the seaweed piled high in mounds you could climb, I realized how much work daily went into keeping the beaches manicured, evenly leveled and seaweed-