She has been getting requests for them, had to make these five for five friends today. What makes me most proud is she came up with these all by herself. She cut the fabric, and on these ones did the sewing on her own (with some supervision from her mother).

One of our friends has already asked to buy some.

This just started, my daughter has begun sewing these little toys. She has made four so far, gave them away at school and they are a big hit.
Not sure what brought it on, but I am really happy she is doing this. Plus they are really cute.

She, meanwhile is still really shy.

I just received a note that we ranked in the top five percent of wedding photographers nation-wide by the Wedding Wire in their Bride’s Choice awards. Of course we could not have done it without such great people to work with, thanks to all of the couples we have had the great honor to work with over the years, I feel very luck to have had the chance to work with and get to know so many great people.

Gabriel Martienz Jr. was a five-year-old boy, most likely I never would have known who he was, probably never met his family, maybe passed the restaurant his family worked at, but not given it a second glance. The only reason I know his name is he was killed on December 30, the 110th homicide victim in an especially bloody year for Oakland. I was assigned to photograph the small memorial set up for Gabriel, and spent most of the day there, talking to neighbors, sharing their grief, sadness and mostly anger. I have some very schizophrenic days, one day I am photographing the happiest day of a family’s life, the next some CEO who does not really enjoy being photographed and then I get an assignment with such a tragic topic.

A little toy truck at the memorial, of all the toys and candles at the memorial this one hit me the hardest.

A hole in the window of the restaurant where Gabriel’s parents work, I can not say it is a bullet hole, but not sure what else would make such a hole.

Here is how the New York Times and Bay Citizen ran the story.

In a bit of sad irony, the New York Times Travel Section also ran a list of cities you should visit in 2012, number 5 on the list was Oakland The 45 Places to Go in 2012 I agree, Oakland is a wonderful place, full of wonderful people.

My daughter had the great idea to take a walk today up the little hill near our house. I think the official name for it is Grand View Park, the kids used to call it Our Favorite Hill, I have heard others call is Turtle Hill.

There were more people up on the hill then I had ever seen, must have been some tour group. It was a spectacular sunset (hence the name of our neighborhood)and it was fun to play around with the Lensebaby 3 I had on my camera.

I was showing the kids how to use the tilt and shift effect on the Lensbaby lens to make the streetlights appear distorted and really liked how the darkness of the tree branches contrasted with the warmth of the sunset and the city lights. They were not terribly interested in a photography lesson, but did think the photos looked cool, so I guess I was somewhat successful.

Looks like a good start to 2012 for us, so far, one good day, I say that is just about perfect.

My kids will not be happy I put this one on the post, but I could not resist. This was at the end of some fight they were having about kicking sand or something. I told them to act like they actually liked each other.

Anastasia and the kids made ginger bread houses, one of my favorite holiday things to watch other people doing. I think the houses turned out really well, and enjoyed eating the leftover cookie and candy.

There is more to candy than just eating it…
Hope you all have a wonderful New Year!!

My son has had many great soccer coaches throughout his days of playing. I am happy to say I was the first, and still am for my daughter, but he has progressed much further than I could possible teach.

I appreciate the dedication and time these coaches put into teaching the kids about soccer but more importantly life, they do get paid, but not nearly what the lessons they are providing are worth. I so happy to have been able to become friends with them. Joey, Toby, Alex, Benjamin, Danny, and anyone I forgot, you are so great to offer so much of yourselves to the kids. Also my fellow coaches for my daughter’s team deserve a special note as they, like me, do it entirely for the girls. We are not the best team in the league, but the girls sure do have a great time. Thanks to Paul G and Paul O, Kathleen and Isaak.

One of my son’s coaches sends periodic emails with his thoughts on life, soccer and whatever else is on his mind. With his permission I am forwarding this holiday note, it explains a lot, to me at least, about how he approaches soccer and teaching.

Thank you Coach Gianni

This year I would like to wish you Happy Holiday by telling a tale……….

Once upon a time, more than 90 years ago, there was a kid who was living in a very little town in the Southern part of Italy in a region called Basilicata.

Considering the hard life in that area and the fact that it was almost a century ago, his family was of very modest means. Christmas and Holidays in general, were just days like all the other ones. On those special days, his father didn’t go to work, he didn’t go to school and with his mother he went to church an extra time and………………….. that was it !!!

So, thanks to the Holidays, the only different thing was having a little more free time. And what could a poor kid do with a little more free time? Of course, play more ………………….. SOCCER/FOOTBALL !!!!!

And because the family couldn’t afford it,  don’t even dream that he had a pair of soccer shoes. Also, because he just destroyed the last pair of shoes by playing on the dirt and was beaten by his father for that (!!!!) the only way to play soccer was to do that bare foot !!! In the winter…………….not a great idea !!!

He was playing many hours a day and, thanks to this fact and to his natural talent, with the passing of the years he got really good at that.

Also, the economical situation of the family was getting better so they moved to the closed city, Potenza. That city had a soccer/football club that in that era was in Serie A, the top level of ‘calcio’ in Italy.

He tried-out for the youth teams and……………… they accepted him !!! He grew up and in a few years he was playing professionally in Serie A !!!!!

What a dream for a kid who played bare foot !!!!

But, the dream soon become a nightmare. All of Europe went crazy and the madness spread fast to the point that he had to leave the soccer uniform and ware another uniform in order to do this………..

Fortunately he survived but he was wounded badly in a shoulder and, worse, in a leg. Go back to playing ’calcio’ ? No way !!!!

In the meantime, because during the war he also studied mechanics and become a skillful designer engineer he had the chance to leave that poor area and moved north to a great metropolis. He went to Milan !!!!

 And the first thing he did, after having found a good job as a designer engineer was to get engaged to a beautiful Milanese girl !!!

But soccer wasn’t completely forgotten. “I can’t play ? Then I will…………….COACH !!!”

 Here are the first teams that he coached. At the bottom of the picture we can read the names of the players and, the second to the right (bottom) is Gervasoni, who had an important professional carrier.

In a while he married his fiancé and someone else came into this world, with the same passion for ’calcio’………..

When he was just 6, his father began to train him at a very high level, often with the adult team. The kid was complaining, of course, but thanks to that tough training he was able to win the National Title at 16 years old and was asked to enter the youth teams of…………………… A.C.Milan !!!!

Not too bad !!!

Life was continuing very well and the coach became a scholar of the game and began to codify strategies in order to publish a book with his ideas.

Thanks to his drawing ability and his advanced mentality, he came out with ideas very futuristic for that defensive strategy era. Please consider that this deadly counter attack was envisioned in 1953 ( 58 years ago ) !!!!!

In 4 passes (indicated ======) and proper movements, the team arrives to shoot in a few seconds !!!!

But, the most unbelievable is this one from 1951 !!!

To permit you to understand the revolution of his proposal it surely will help to know that in that era, the numbers on the back of the jerseys were fix according to the role a player had on the field, so: keeper #1, defenders-backs #2-3-4-5, right wing #7, mid fields #8-6-10, center forward #9 and left wing #11.

He came out with this 3-4-3 formation in which all the players keep the shape by often exchanging positions and moving all together back and fourth. He called this strategy: Triangular System with the Wings Back.  Please check the drawing below to better understand…….

As you can see, in a very fluid constant motion, the 2 mid fielders #8 and #10 can move up as forwards and the 2 wings #7 and #11 sprint to the middle covering the positions left open by the midfielders and keeping the correct shape. Also, one of the four defenders-backs (#4) comes up wide on the right wing and the mid fielder (#6) goes wide at the left wing. By doing this, even if they constantly move, they always cover the whole field and the distance between the players being very short, this fact permits them to play possession because every player always has many solutions until the final pass (assist) that will lead to score.

It doesn’t takes a soccer/football genius to understand that this is exactly what Barcelona does today (!!!!) in it’s endless possession and keeping the shape. The incredible thing is that this scheme is from 1951, 60 years ago when I was 3 years old.

Why did I write all of this instead of whishing you Happy Holidays, as I wrote in the subject ?

Because this top soccer/football player, this top futuristic coach and top artist, is my father and he passed away last month.

As you noticed, I wrote ‘is my father’ not ‘was’ because, besides living forever in hundreds of paintings (dozens of which I distributed among his friends in Italy), he is in every instruction that I give to my soccer students and so, as long as they apply my instructions, my father will always be there on the fields with them and I hope that a few of them, one day, will become coaches and continue to transfer forward his legacy.

Happy Holidays to all of you and your Families.

gianni    

I really do not control the weather, but like to think I do. It had been a wonderful sunny day for Jonalyn and Joseph’s wedding on the beach in Monterey. During the reception at a nearby resort/spa, clouds came in and the sunset photos we had wanted to take did not seem to be a possibility. I checked a few times and no sunset. As it got closer to dusk I decided to give it one more look and there is was, an opening in the clouds, I rushed back inside, got Anastasia and Jonalyn and Joseph, and we had our sunset photo, this was such great fun.

The ceremony was on the beach, it was beautiful, I love the clouds. In the other direction the clouds which later came in over the area were making their way toward us, but not at the ceremony.

I have to say the officiant was really into the wedding, he was very colorful, I have never seen someone perform a wedding in a Hawaii shirt, but Jonaly and Joseph love all things Hawaii (almost got married there) so it makes perfect sense.

I knew as we were setting up a photo of the whole bridal party they wanted to jump, who am I to say no?

I never really understood the phrase “the smell of money” until I got closer to them after the money dance. They really had money all over them. It was a lot, and I really appreciate the effort their family put into the folding and placement.

The kids were great dancers, and they wanted to make sure I saw them to get their photo.

Congratulations!!! to Jonalyn and Joseph!!!