A New Creation

One of the best things about being a Christian is the sense of family you receive when you become a believer. You become part of God's family. That is a community formed by Him that knows no race or creed other than a unifying belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  The New Testament tells us that when we ask Christ into our hearts, we become a new creation:  the old is gone, and the new has come.

I was asked by The Grove Community Church (my home church) to take pictures at our recent baptism. Twenty people were scheduled to be baptized. They came in all shapes, sizes, age, and backgrounds. There were single women. There was a group of three young brothers. There was a mom and her two daughters. There were old men and there were young men. We often try as a society to form and legislate what a family should look like. But God has already done that His word and His unifying love.

Pastors Kerry Warren, left, and Mike Barnes baptize a man.

There was a nice soft cloud cover over the event which made it easy to capture the moments.

And there were many. There were laughs, tears, and smiles. When folks get into the water, they make their way to the microphone and tell the audience why they want to get baptized.

A young girl makes a commitment to follow Christ.

“I want Jesus to know that I've accepted him in my heart,” said one 6-year-old.

“I want to testify for Him,” said a middle-aged man who wrote out his testimony.

“I want to be a better wife and mother and I can't do it on my own,” said a tearful young woman.

The display of baptism is one of leaving your old self behind and becoming something new. The world and its problems, and our problems in it do not go away. But we begin a new life with a new perspective knowing that we serve the One who has conquered all. And we now live with a new purpose and a new goal which is to serve God by loving Him and serving all people. Our lives become a testament to others that true hope comes from Christ and that all of life's burden is carried by Him.

A young wife and mother starts her life over.

I loved that I was able to capture the beginning of a new life of faith for 20 people that day.For baptism is a life-changing experience:

For those that feel they cannot manage alone, they will now know that God shares their load as described in Matthew 11: “You will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

For those that may not have an earthly father that they can turn to, they now have a Heavenly Father who is described in Isaiah 9: 6 as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

For those that feel the unrest of this life, or have ever felt betrayal they can have a new understanding about a true peace. Jesus Himself told his apostles what that means: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14: 27)

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15)

They will learn how to rely on the Lord and be able to trust Him even when times are tough: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
 (John 16: 33)

I remember fondly when my son was baptized in 2007.  He had made a decision to ask Christ into his heart. He was baptized in same baptismal that I was at today.  Since that time I have seen him grow from a boy towards becoming a man.  But my deepest joy has come from seeing him grow in his faith.  We have served together on many weekend trips with his youth group where he learned about being a to servant to others. He is currently getting ready to embark on his first mission trip which will be to San Francisco.  He's also attending mid-week service with the junior high group and has just started attending a Bible study.  He was able to tell his mother the other day during a discussion, "Mom, God doesn't want me to lie."

Like most parents, we groom our kids to become independent.  Its both exciting and also difficult to watch your kids grow, knowing that one day they will be out from under your wing.  But its comforting to know that they will never be away from God's eternal protection.  Thanks to God that they are new creations that will be groomed spiritually in this world in preparation for the next one in Heaven.

My son's baptism:  A defining moment in both our lives.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3: 26-27)

Katz Alley Records In Redlands: More Than A Feeling

I'm from the '70's.

And because of that, I LOVE records.

Steve Rogers shops for vinyl.

I stumbled upon Katz Alley Record Store in downtown Redlands last year.  It was a cool place filled with vinyl records, rock 'n roll memorbilia and the sounds of some of my favorite bands. Bottom line it was a great place for me to hang out and work on finishing my own LP collection.

There is something about an LP for this music lover that is very special.  You got the artwork. You got the liner notes.  You got maybe a poster or a fan club card.  You got COOL.  So in the Spirit of Radio here is a what I wrote for my gallery that ran online for the Redlands Daily Facts and The Sun on Katz Alley:


Buddy Holly, Diana Ross and The Beach Boys are rocking Katz Alley in downtown Redlands. Owned and operated by Kevin McCurry (see top photo) and Kathleen Wood, the record and book store has become a cool place where the past meets the present for music fans of all ages.

Records, records everywhere:  Inside and outside of Katz Alley.

While many older fans come to the store to walk down memory lane, a bulk of the store's clients fall in the younger age bracket. "People who are becoming the audio files of the future are the 17-28 age group," says McCurry. "They buy the classic Fisher receivers, the two-way speakers and they want the vintage turn tables.” 

A 1978 picture disc album of 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

I wanted to be at my cousins house: They had KISS records.

Kathleen Wood files albums in the cool record store known as Katz Alley.

The store carries many music genres ranging from Blues and Jazz, to Rock and Punk.  While McCurry's favorite music is 1950's Jazz and Blues, he has an eclectic musical palette that includes Led Belly, B.B. King, Johnny Stitz, and Billie Holiday. “I don't think that anybody ever has hit a pitch as beautiful like her,” said McCurry, “To listen to a clean original pressing of Billie Holiday will bring a tear to your eye.” 

I could not have said it better myself!

L to R: Mowtown greats The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, & Smokey Robinson

A 1958 Johnny Cash original pressing- still cool after all these years! 

How Deep Is Your Love

...And its me you need to show
How deep is your love?

So sang the Bee Gees in their smash hit song from 1977.  The song from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was a #1 hit on the U.S. charts and reached #3 in the U.K. But for Bee Gees fans everywhere, the song is still charting in the reaches of our hearts and memories.

The Bee Gees have always held a special place in my life.  And as I heard the news about Robin Gibb’s death last week, those memories came flooding back.  The songs and the story of the Brothers Gibb have also held an uncanny parallel to moments in my own life.  While I was born in 1967, I was truly a child of the ‘70’s and I often tell people “I’m from the '70’s.”  The Bee Gees released some of their biggest hits in that musically important year:  New York Mining Disaster, To Love Somebody, and Holiday.

Classics Bee Gees & a Barry Gibb production from the late '70's.

I just the right age when the Bee Gees took over the airwaves and much of Pop Culture from 1977-79.  The first album that came into our home was the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack (Dec. 1977).  We had Disco Fever like almost everybody else.  I remember later going to GECMO and my Dad getting my Mom the Here At Last...Bee Gees Live album (May 1977).  We played the hell out of it as well, but it didn’t compare to those magical songs of Fever.

Not the Brothers Gibb, but "The Boys":  Mark, Philip, and Gabe

Back then it was easy to be a Bee Gees fan.  They were simply everywhere!  You had the awesome video of Stayin' Alive featuring those white jumpsuits, the Fever soundtrack, Barry Gibb writing/producing the Grease Soundtrack, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and of course the endless hits. Beginning in Christmas 1977 the Bee Gees penned the following #1 Hits:  Staying Alive, How Deep Is Your Love, Night Fever, I Just Want To Be Your Everything, (Love Is) Thicker Than Water (for Andy Gibb), and If I Can’t Have You (for Yvonne Elliman). They held the No.1 spot on the U.S. Charts for 25 of 32 consecutive weeks.

My sister thought Barry & Barbra were married!

As kids, our personal SaturdayNight Fever happened when we arrived home from 5:15 Mass on Saturday nights.  We’d typically have hamburgers, and while mom was cooking we’d be playing disco with our records in the living room. We’d eat, watch the Muppets & Dance Fever with Deney Terrio, then play Bee Gees songs and the like.  We’d take turns using flashlights with colored construction paper taped to them, to simulate a disco ball.

As I look back now, I see how deep the Bee Gees were in my life.  Their music, with its vocal harmonies, its peaceful sways, and poignant lyrics reminds me of a simpler time.  It reminds me of a time before technology:  we had time for each other and music was the soundtrack of the memories we were making.

Growing up in the ‘70’s, there was us three brothers and my sister.  But in our family, it was always

Circa 1988: Former Disco Kingpins. Yes, I was still in corduroy

about the boys:  "The boys are coming”, “The boys are going?” “What are the boys doing?"  In many ways it was just us three.  We’d play together.  We’d mow lawns together.  We spent Friday nights at Grandma and Grandpa’s together.  Like the Bee Gees, we were a family of talent.  I was the artist & a later photographer.  My brother Mark was the journalist and story teller.  Philip was the musician & now web designer.  My sister Christina became a creative writer and teacher.  And later my brother Michael became a graphic artist.

When I hear the Bee Gees,  I am reminded not only of their great music but of the interesting parallels & coincidences that I have placed upon our different, yet sometimes similar stories:

SNF opened on Dec. 16, 1977

-The Gibb family had three boys, plus one:  Andy.  Our family had three boys, then later we added one more:  my brother Michael.

-Saturday Night Fever was released in 1977, on my mother’s birthday: December 16.

-My brother Philip was tall and skinny with long hair, like Robin Gibb.

-We have a strong family of siblings, but we brothers have always had a strong bond like the Brothers Gibb.

In 2003, I made my own CD of all the Bee Gees non-disco hits.

-The Bee Gees moved past the era of their hits, but always came "back home" to them, keeping the songs that made them stars close to their hearts.  We also moved past those songs, but at least for me, I came back to them realizing their depth and beauty in my adult life- never again feeling the need to apologize for being a Bee Gees fan.

-In 1998, my Aunt died in Texas, leaving my Dad with only one sibling:  his brother Victor.  In a very special trip, my brother Mark and I journeyed with my Dad and our Uncle Vic to Texas for the funeral:  two pairs of brothers.  For them, they were the youngest in their family; for us we were the oldest.  Twice the Bee Gees made a similar trek as brothers to a sibling's funeral:  The Bee Gees in 1988 for Andy Gibb's funeral and Robin and Barry to Maurice's funeral in 2003. 

In 2001, I got word when I was in Brazil that my uncle, my father’s last brother, had died.  I grieved at the thought that my father had no brothers left.  For at that point you are no longer a brother anymore, but someone who once was a brother.  I can only imagine what my father then, and what Barry Gibb is feeling now at the reality of losing all your brothers.  My dad had five, Barry had three.

Brothers:  My Dad John M. "Chet" Acosta & his brother Vic:  on the way to Texas in 1998.

 -In 2005, when my father was dying of heart failure the Bee Gees song How Can You Mend A Broken Heart came on the radio as I was leaving the hospital one day.  In that moment, the lyrics took on a new meaning for me:

And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can can you mend this broken man...
Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again

The song came on at a time when the doctors had told us that my Dad was living with only 33% of his heart functioning--a physically broken heart.  And there was nothing we could do to stop it--like stopping the rain or the sun.  And we wanted to mend my Dad’s broken heart so that he could continue to live.  A year later, in grief counseling I learned that the death of a loved one breaks your heart, and that your heart will be forever fractured.

After my Dad’s death,  I assembled a group of songs on CD that were from different eras of his life.  How Deep Is Your Love rose up to represent not only that time in our lives, but the quiet, calm man my father was.  There is a peace in that song that is very representative of him.

Brothers:  My Uncle Vic & my Dad; My brother Mark & me in 1998.

-Lastly, I read April 21, 2012 that Robin Gibb was roused from his coma after the family had played him music and Barry Gibb sang to him in his hospital bed.  In 2005, my father also recovered from a coma three days after having a heart attack that we were certain would take his life.  We spoke to him, but heard later from a nurse that the Beethoven music we'd left in the room (my Dad’s favorite music) got him moving his head back and forth in rhythm.

And so we fans mourn the loss of of Robin Gibb, author of some of the sweetest sounds of harmony displayed in those early Bee Gees songs.  Those of us who are brothers, mourn personally Barry’s loss of his brothers.  We children of the '70’s mourn and sweetly remember the days gone by when the Bee Gees ruled the world.  To Barry, Maurice, Robin, and Andy Gibb I thank you for a lifetime of musical memories, that has been my soundtrack as the world has changed all around me.

....Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down
When they all should let us be
We belong to you and me

Welcome To The Hotel California

Poppies, statices, all their colorful array accented the more than 200 year old Mission San Juan Capistrano

 

Welcome to the Hotel California

Such a lovely place...

The fountain even provided some color

While on our way to my brother’s house in Carlsbad,
we ended up at the Mission San Juan Capistrano.
And like Don Henley sang in the classic Eagles song:
such a lovely place.
The mission brick over 200 years old.
Not quite 65 degrees.
 The blue skies.
The white cotton clouds.
 And colors in the garden like
fresh oil paint right out of the tube.

Bouganvilla meets original mission style

Walking around the mission, I quickly realized I was in a place
where the pictures ‘find you.”

What I saw all around me invoked images of vintage California.
It reminded me of some of those slightly over-lit technicolor shots from the Hitchock's Vertigo, the movie Chinatown or vintage California postcards.

The drive along the I-5 reminded me of why I love Southern California.  It would be a crime to drive inland when you can drive along the coast gazing into the endless blue of the sea.


After about an hour at the mission, I had this feeling that I had been transported to 1940’s California.  My 60 mm and a 17-35 mm lenses had provided the perfect scope of vision for this visit. 

Like a postcard

But in the end it wasn’t my camera, my lenses, 

or the images 

that I was making that made the day. 

It was California itself 

with its mission heritage, wild flowers, 

and coastal breezes.

 

A view of wildflowers of the ruins of the original mission

Father Serra founded Mission San Juan Capistrano on All Saint’s Day, November 1, 1776.

I find a tranquility that comes from the dark shadows of arches

Classic CA: The mission, the skies, the palms & cactus

For this brief time, I felt like a visitor in my own 

homeland.  And the best part was 

that I was already home.

There’s nothing like appreciating 

what you already have.

They livin' it up at the Hotel California

What a nice surprise!

Down By The Seaside

Today was one of those days when I experienced 

the pure joy of taking pictures.  I could say the same thing about the friends my wife

and I spent the day with.  I often say we not only have our own family,

but we have our church family.  Our church family consists of our Christian friends 

who we openly share our faith with. They may be from church or just other 

believers in our circle of friends.

On this fine February day, my wife and I were finally able to get

together with our long-time friends:  Greg and Brenda Norris.  This

day trip had already rescheduled a few times, and today was the day.

We ended up in Laguna Beach.

I decided to bring my camera along, and I decided to make

a selection of photos in a very strategic way: one camera,

and my 60mm macro lens.  And I would edit as I went along, deleting my “throw away”

images. My idea was to bring home  my 10 best shots in camera.

My goal was to look at the light and have fun taking pictures.

So here is what I ended up with:

The light was just right on these plants.  Love their shape.

Window light illuminates these items in a shop.

Our friends Greg & Brenda: So In Love!

This will be my next oil painting

My previous oil painting.

The day was going wonderfully.  Relaxing, having great conversations, people watching and taking pictures.  Then I got a double bonus

when I noticed a cluster of foliage in a planter. The reason I responded to it so much is that it was perfect subject matter for my next oil painting.  Typically I paint in an abstract expressionist fashion. Often times, I start out with a found situation that I photograph. The last one I did was abstracted from a photo I took of a burnt manzanita bush in the mountains.

Light filters through a hand-made patio decoration.

Photography is looking at thing differently.

Bottles used as light fixtures in a shop.

I love to incorporate lettering in images when I can.

We finished the day having drinks atop the Hotel Laguna.  The building is from 1930, but
the manners from the hostess were current 21st Century OC rude.  The 949-er must have seen the 951 signs around our necks and never called us for a table.  But alas, that didn't stop our fun nor me making one last image.  The setting sun combined with the drizzle in the sky to create a truly sumptuous filtered light.  Can't wait to have another day like this one soon!

The gal was in the right place at the right time for my camera.

Veterans Valentine

The best part of my job is when I can witness-not necessarily capture with my camera- a moment like this.

Quiet.  Personal.  Intimate.

The man kneeling is Army Sgt. 1st Class Joe Verdusco.
The man in the wheel chair is 58-year-old Air Force veteran Andrew Hawkins.

And here in this hallway, as the sergeant tried to cheer up this man in the wheel chair, I realized that these two men were potentially on opposite sides of their military lives.

Verdusco was one of the active duty members of the military who came to deliver some of the almost 2,000 Valentines cards to veterans at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Hospital in Loma Linda February 16, 2011.

Young Navy recruits wait to deliver Valentines cards.

As I walked up and down the halls of the hospital, with personnel of the Army, Marines, and Navy, I realized that I was among members of an exclusive club:  those that would lay down their lives for our country's freedom.

In the course of my assignment I witnessed hugs, smiles, and salutes not from patient to visitor but from brother to brother.  These men and women were family.  There was an automatic affinity present in the meetings in these halls today.  It was a place where the past, present, and future mingled.

A veteran gets a visit from a U.S. Marine.

In the hand of one sergeant, was a collection of Valentines cards not unlike those my kids would make at school.  In them were the love, wishes, and prayers for those we call soldiers.  For the veterans, it was a double blessing.  Not only did they have these kind words from the schools and churches in the community, they got these messages hand-delivered by active duty in uniform.

This vet felt like he was receiving the Medal of Honor.

The smiles on the faces of some of these veterans helped me imagine how much it meant to them. Being here today reminded me of how little it takes to make someone feel special.  Today, it was a card.  A hug.  A visit.  A little bit of conversation.

In between frames I was able to chat with some Vietnam vets.  These guys were so polite, and so nice.  I could tell that down deep these men had a peace inside them.  They were enjoying what they had fought for.  They very much appreciated the support coming from these cards today.  What really moved me about these guys, was that as bad as they had it in Vietnam, they were more concerned about G.I.s doing back-to-back tours in today's campaigns. 

Two Vietnam veterans get a special visitor.

A Valentine that made a difference.

Whether it was veteran of a past war or a new recruit, what these men and women shared was a pride in their service and their country.

That’s not an easy thing to capture with the camera’s eye.

But I’m glad I saw with my own eyes.

Army veteran Ken Munson, 53, left, gets a visit from Sgt. 1st Class David Paez