sheetthe News, Views & Culture of the Eastern Sierra What did Hitchcock and the The Birds know in 1963 that made ‘em all so angry? Tippi advises to check out page 13. Saturday, October 12, 2019 FREE Vol. 17, No. 41 PROVING IT CAN BE DONE WILLEY SHOWS Private sector real estate developer quietly builds affordable housing in June By Hite THE WAY on Head, a real estate devel- affordable housing in 2016, he structed and habitable within An afternoon with the world’s premier oper, and his partner, Darryl started looking for land on par- 10% of the time it takes for con- Despie have been working falling leaf photographer J cel viewer, “Every day I looked ventional construction” By Lunch to create affordable housing for at a new site and would call my The shell of the cabin is made There’s something about workers in Mono County. agent (Rebecca Garrett) to see if of steel and only takes 2-3 weeks being the very best in the With no handouts or grants it was available and checked the to put on the foundation. The world at something, even from anybody. right boxes.” Said Head. cabins are three feet off the “ When asked why they would if that something may be so When asked what they were ground which mitigates leak- arcane that you’re not even do something like this on their looking for, Despie explained age/drainage issues. Head and sure if anyone else in the world own volition, Despie jokingly “The main thing was to find an Despie said these cabins could is doing it. said, “We have been skiing here area that was designated multi- be built as early as January and But here’s the thing about since the 60’s” family.” After months of using worst case scenario puts them at Bishop-based photographer Head continued, “When I parcel viewer to look at pro- a spring debut. was young and living in these spective sites, they purchased a The project is small but also Bruce Willey. You hang out Tree. His climbing partner ski towns, the same problems parcel within walking distance of a test run, “We want to see how with him for a little bit, and his had exhibited far more inter- existed. I struggled to find a Gull Lake in June 2018. this works here and if it’s suc- energy is so infectious that you est in ass than crevasse on that place I could afford. As far back The website Head used is cessful then we have a prototype start getting sucked into what trip., so Bruce went searching as twenty years ago, I have been titled ‘Affordable Resort Com- to show anyone interested,” said he’s doing. for a new climbing partner talking about doing a project like munity Housing’ and provides Head. To the point where I was tell- online. Her name was Caroline this.” custom designed workforce The pair met in 3rd grade in La ing him to stop the car because Schaumann. When Head discovered a housing. They provide small Canada. Head heard Despie I had a good vibe about our They met February 15 of that website designed to provide houses that “can be fully con- see PROOF, page 10 surroundings. year. They married June 21. Yes, Bruce Willey, by tradi- Schaumann is a professor of “I LOVE POWER OUTAGES” tional pigeonholing, is a wed- both German literature and En- ding and family photographer. vironmental literature at Emory A very much in-demand wed- University in Atlanta, Georgia. ding and family photographer. We will talk more about this But he is also the world’s pre- later ... mier falling leaf photographer. How Bruce got into falling What, you may ask, is that?!? leaf photography: He was in To properly explain, we must Georgia, unemployed and jump back in time. unemployable. He’d been free- Let’s start with the debauch- lance writing for magazines like erous climbing trip to Joshua Climbing, Nat Geo Adventure and Adventure Sports Journal but the pay had dropped from $1 a word to $0.35 a word. It wasn’t paying the bills. He thought maybe he’d get into wedding photography. In part because the couple’s itinerant lifestyle was such (hopping between Atlanta and Berlin at the time) that he needed a job that was ultimate- ly transportable. But then he thought, “I can’t just jump into wedding pho- tography.” He wanted to do something to sharpen his ob- servational skills. So he thought he might try shooting falling Dan Molnar, owner of the First Chair food truck, may be an exception to the rule when it comes to power outages. leaves as a way to hone his eye, If you have a food truck and a generator, they are apparently quite lucrative events. For the latest innage on the outages, see Page’s story page six. Bruce Willey see WILLEY, page 2 Fairly awesome Get in the Zone More CARBs The Woodson shed Stump City p. 12/ p. 8/ p. 8/ p. 3/ p. 4/ 2 I www.thesheetnews.com THE SHEET I Saturday, October 12, 2019 WILLEY the Ted Carleton ....... Jack of all Lunches continued from page 1 760.937.4613 / [email protected] his reflexes, anticipatory skills. June Simpkins...Jack of everything else “I didn’t think it would be that hard … It was really hard.” 760.937.3967 / [email protected] What he discovered: That each tree has its own personality. That he was fascinat- ed by the series of micro-deaths that each falling leaf represneted. That he thought sheet Zachary Hite ................... Writer about the regenerative nature of it all, that the tree doesn’t die, that the leaves fall News, Views & Culture of the Eastern Sierra [email protected] to the ground to provide nutrients for the soil. The life cycle of things, all stemming “Sic ergo dicemus ad hanc quaestio- from leaves leaving stems. Owen Page ..................... Writer nem respondendum legit sibi; beatior [email protected] But further, falling leaf photography is a little bit like fishing. You never think ille qui est, et qui fuit et qui habet you’ll get one. And then you get one. And then you’re hooked. pertinacia tantam tempestatem vitae, et Melissa Maddux .............Writer Bruce says stuff like the above all the time. He is a quote machine. He is a zen mansit super litus et absque timore ullo [email protected] master. Or at least close. As a zen neophyte, how would I know? modo fuisse?.” “I’ve gotten so zen,” says Bruce. “I don’t mean to get zuzu here, but ... you’ve got Charles James ............ Contributor the ‘poof’ of separation between leaf and stem. That chemical reaction ... -Hunter Thompson 760.614.0546 But there are rules to this. These are the Willey Rules: 1. No mendacious use of Photoshop with a leaf spilled into a better background. JACK LUNCH Clouds McCloud ......... Ass-trologer PUBLISHER 2. No manually thropwing the leaves in the air or the employment of a ladder Spike Todd ........... with a delightful rhinestone-clad assistant atop it. P.O. Box 8088 Beverage Consultant 3. No strings or monofilament line attached. Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546 For a subscription to The Sheet contact Lunch 4. And no monkey business like a pet chimp shaking the leaves out of the tree 760.924.0048/[email protected] at his above e-mail address, or call the office. despite the hand-in-hand satisfaction a walk in the woods with a fellow ape would An adjudicated paper of general circula- Issues are mailed out bi-weekly. Cost is $75/ give. tion. ©2019 The Sheet, all rights reserved. year. Some rules I learned as an addendum. You set the camera on manual. You have to. Automatic and it will focus on every- Are you afraid I’ll give it away? i asked. thing but the leaf in question. And get the leaf in the frame and then focus. Don’t No, he said. There are other rocks. try to focus first. And be prepared to take a lot of shots. And remember that the “season” is only two weeks long. It starts as soon as the still leaf photographers have Bruce’s wife is coming out with a new book about the German explorer Alexander packed up their tripods. And ends when there are no more leaves on the trees. Von Humboldt. The namesake of Humboldt County. Friend of Jefferson. Influence Willey’s elusive Great Whale of falling leaf photography. “I started doing this in on Muir. 2008. I still don’t think I’ve ever gotten a good shot of an aspen.” An op/ed by Andrea Wulf in the L.A. Times in 2015 states that in California alone, Favorite place to take falling leaf photos: Berlin. Because the old buildings create a county, a bay, a college and a state park all bear his name. He is a founding father great backdrops, and the wind tunnels between buildings create wonderful swirling of environmentalism, a visionary who predicted manmade climate change as early conditions, and the way the color of the leaves is juxtaposed against the old archi- as 1800. tecture. “How intensely I desire to be a Humboldt,” Muir declared when he was in his 20s. Compositionally, says Bruce, it’s about getting the leaf in focus, and the rest of the Muir’s famous quotation — “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it shot out of focus. Best time of day: You want slanted and enchanted light.