Adm Golub's blog

The way we look at our environment has changed in the past few years. My mother drives a hybrid. I wish I did, but I do drive a Camry, which is not quite as bad as other cars. I wish my father drove a hybrid, and we won't mention what he drives.
It is time we all take a look at what we are doing and how it is affecting the world around us.

One of the things I have always felt to be unique about Modesto has been the abundance of trees. I think we held a record at one point for the number of trees per person. And we have held records for the number of trees planted by the city in a year. We even have our own "Greater Modesto Tree Foundation."

Our propensity for trees is in spite of the fact that one of our most popular trees, the Modesto Ash, has appeared on a USDA list of California’s 20 most maintenance problematic urban trees. I doubt you haven’t noticed our friendly rollercoaster sidewalks and boughs full of mistle-toe. But the city takes care of all the trees, right? Wrong.

Eve Hightower reported in the Bee today that last Tuesday, Modesto City Council passed a $324.5 million budget and gave our Community Forestry Division, which takes care of our trees, no new money. However, they do plan to look at funding three new jobs for the forestry department in August. All of this comes after the Forestry Division has had major cut backs in funding.

Oprah gets it; she has started to publicize how dire our environment’s situation has become and how great the need is to plant trees. Our entire world is heating up like a microwave oven, and our city council is worried about our golf courses and funding reserves. I know we need more money in law enforcement, but does it need to be so much that it is more than half of our budget? Does the Modesto City Council plan to do anything for the environment?

We have lost a lot of trees over the last 10 years and we will lose a lot more if we don’t take care of them. I don’t want Modesto’s summers to get any hotter. If they do, sooner rather than later we won't be living in the fertile Great Valley of California.... we will just be living in another desert.

Everyday more people are getting their news from sites on the Internet. Struggling to maintain a viable product in the changing market, newspapers are transitioning to multimedia. This is a short piece I produced about a newspaper in Santa Rosa, The Press Democrat, but The Modesto Bee is going through the very same changes.

Click this banner to view the Soundslide

Other sites referred to:
modbee.com
pressdemocrat.com

Or take a look at my website here.

The Chinese New Year is celebrated in San Francisco, Calif., March 3, 2007. The lunar year of the pig is a grand event in San Francisco, home to the largest population of Chinese people outside of China.

Click the link to experience the celebration for yourself.

Photos by:
Alison Yin and Adm Golub

Music by:

�一個世界
5566
好久�見
Kim Heon Jick 2005

Topics in Focus
Phoenix Cry
2007

Or take a look at my website here.

In contrast and with contour Mark Holden's and Yolanda Rameno's art work hangs at Deva Cafe in Modesto, Calif on the night of the showings reception, February 24, 2007. Travis Vick, of Fairway, played piano, strummed guitar, and sang to a full house.

Sierra Repertory Theatre

by Lisa Millegan and Adm Golub
The Modesto Bee

More than 700,000 people have seen Sierra Repertory Theatre's plays and musicals in Tuolumne County since the company started in 1980.

A new adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is running through Dec. 23 at the Fallon House Theatre in Columbia State Historic Park.

Click on the banner to view the sound slide

A friend of mine, Adam Schneider, invited me to take photos of him and his friends, Richard Woodman, Ken Hoyt, and Mark Ortega, skate a mini ramp a couple of blocks off of McHenry on Saturday, November 24, 2006, in Modesto, Calif.

Deva's monthly art show reception hosted by Allen Passalaqua was for Will Arvin's work November 18, 2006. Travis Vick, of the band Fairway from Stockton, played piano the entire night without break.

Next show Dec. 16

Tuesday Night Fights is a night of amateur boxing at the Fat CAt in Modest, Calif., November, 14, 2006.

Please Click the banner to see the Gallery

Photos By Allen Passalaqua and Adm Golub

The MAMA rolled through on a bumpy wild ride. Long speeches, bands who played sets instead of single songs, and what was his name again, that guy from Flying Blind, making quite the scene were over shadowed by humor and a lot of love.

Greg Edwards took home a well desered MAMA for his dedication to Modesto for Off the Air. When are they going to let Edwards run The State? Just a suggestion.

Matt Smith told Wily "Bull" Taylor to, "Praise Jesus!" Smith did this as his friends Fat Skeleton accepted their MAMA.

Last, but in no way the least Poet Laureate of Modesto and emcee for the evening, Sam Pierstorff, kept Mama alive.

Pierstorff owned Modesto, Edwards brought the love and Smith gave us a little dose of our own medicine.

These are images I have taken in and around Modesto, where I live, which, to me, represent the city. I plan to continue this series and I don't know where it will lead. Please, feel free to comment.

This is my Modesto: