The Real West
Today I was nearly run off the highway by a tumbleweed as high as the hood of my car.
February 27, 2007
Good Things
Good things about today:
- It snowed last night - enough to make everything lovely but not enough to muck up the roads. Perfect. I was up well before dawn, so I watched the world take shape in white and grey-blue from my kitchen window.
- I just found out that Po' Girl put out a new album this month. They're playing in Kilkenny this spring and damn if I don't wish I had an excuse to be there.
- Bill O'Reilly said something right for once!
Government's gotta be proactive on environment. Global warming is here. All these idiots that run around and say it isn't here. That's ridiculous.
- This Jens Lekman video. (Yup.)
February 26, 2007
Some Old Links
Having emerged from the strange and sickly fog that was last week, here are a few things that I read and found interesting/funny/thought-provoking/charming when not sleeping 12-14 hrs/night:
- It's not just a giant squid, it's a COLOSSAL SQUID! Some unsuspecting fishermen caught a big one. I did not know that there were two distinct species of large squid - for real, there are giant squid and then there are colossal squid. Colossal are, as you might expect, larger. Holy moly. (The AP)
- Facing South looks at what's happening on the EJ front in North Carolina - grassroots groups are fighting some really egregious side effects of industrial pork farming. When you read about this stuff you've got to wonder how the hell it could ever be legal. (Facing South)
- Need a little more corporate cynicism? Grist does some muckraking on how a big multinational is bilking working-class Mexicans by price gouging tortillas. Oh, and trying to force people into buying less-nutritious kinds of tortillas or white bread. (Grist)
- On the lighter side, this graphic designer hand-drew 150 fantastic individual hearts for her friends for Valentine's Day. I really like this idea. I also really like her portfolio. (Marian Bantjes)
- Dooce actually did a compassionate piece on the whole Britney Spears debacle. Worth a read amidst all of the insanity. (Dooce)
February 25, 2007
She Knows Me Too Well
Part of a memorable conversation.
S: Oh man, I can't believe I was so stupid.
J: Yeah, right. You don't regret [it] - you're just pissed because you think it's fucked up your Master Plan.
S: OK, OK, point taken. But... this does threaten the Master Plan!
J: You want me to be straight with you? You were fucked the minute you made a Master Plan. Plans are made to fall apart, dude.
S: Oh. Right.
February 24, 2007
Illness
Isn't it amazing how quickly you regain your appreciation for good health when you're sick?
Also, has anybody ever, uh, had their vision black out temporarily? In the midst of nausea and general unwell-feeling-ness?
February 22, 2007
Kiwanis
Did you know that if you speak before the Kiwanis club they will give you a gift certificate and a pen? That was kind of cool.
I'm out on the dog-and-pony show in town, presenting on the plan I'm writing for the county. Every audience is a little different, but they tend to have several common characteristics:
- Slouchy. Posture, people, posture! You notice it when you're standing and everyone else is sitting.
- Resistant to participation. Do you know how hard it is to get folks to raise a hand when you ask a group question?
- Skeptical. I just love it when somebody in the back wears a big scowl throughout the entire presentation, clearly convinced that I am Evil Government Spawn, and then busts out with something snarky at the end. Turns out I'm pretty good at being tactful.
- The Pledge of Allegiance. Lots of organizations apparently still recite it at meetings. Thank God for 13 years of daily recitation in a public school system where you Were. Expected. to actually recite it, one nation under God and all. Because if there's anything worse than speaking to a bunch of crusty patriotic Westerners about a government plan, it's speaking to a bunch of crusty patriotic Westerners about a government plan after bungling the Pledge from the speaker's seat of honor at the front of the room.
- I also feel bad for the few folks who happen to be members of multiple organizations before which I've spoken. Some of these overly-involved-in-the-community souls are going on round 3 of Sarah's Riveting Presentation on Natural Disaster Preparation in The County.
February 21, 2007
Salty
I'm not Catholic, but I think that I should give up potato chips for Lent. It's been, uh, getting out of hand.
February 20, 2007
Memory Stick
Y'all, I need one of these:
A 1G USB memory... stick. Designed by some Dutch artsy types. Too bad it costs $99.
(via MightyGoods)
UPDATE: leave it to T to offer up the brillo suggestion to just make one. I'm totally going to do it - I need a new memory stick anyway and I've got a whole bottle of über-strong glue at home. Will of course document the process.
Never Learn
The thing about swearing off dating for 6 months is that a few days after you enthusiastically make this declaration you will find the email address and phone number of that nice boy you met at that environmental conference, recall his offer to go snowshoeing anytime up in the Idaho mountains, and notice that your weekend calendar is quite empty.
You will also immediately start to think of exceptions to the no-dating rule (Does it only apply to people you meet post-declaration? What about already-existing emotional entanglements with troublesome-but-handsome-devils who have been placed on the far back burner indefinitely?) and potential complications and reasons why maybe you don't need 6 months off, I mean, who knows what the next 6 months will bring? Could you have predicted the previous 6 months? I think not.
(JOKING)
(I REALLY AM TAKING A BREAK)
(I'm legitimately excited to stay single for a while. Excited to have a no-drama lifestyle for a while. Excited to hang out with friends and have free time and use fewer cell phone minutes and and enjoy people for who they are, not who they might or might not be to me.)
(but maybe I will still go snowshoeing...)
February 19, 2007
Blue Skies
I'm back east of the mountains today - woke up at 8:30 and looked outside onto a bright clear high desert morning and smiled a big wide smile.
I went for a jog and unloaded the last junk from my car and took a shower and ate a big hot sugary spudnut (brought home from Eugene) and did some mega kitchen restocking and now I'm hippied out in Carhartts and wool with John Hartford on the stereo and the ingredients for a Cajun stew simmering all fragrant in the slow-cooker. Every window in the place is open and it smells like andouille and yams and it is so good to be home.
(Eugene stories and pictures later...)
February 17, 2007
Shark
Good end to a gray day: pizza, The Bier Stein, shooting pool, and dancing on a very narrow bar with the very awesome Elliott.
But I've really got to learn to play pool better.
February 15, 2007
You Will Search, Babe
Song of the day - Nico's cover of I'll Keep it With Mine.
The train leaves
At half past ten,
But it'll be back tomorrow,
Same time again.
The conductor he's weary,
He's still stuck on the line.
But if I can save you any time,
Come on, give it to me,
I'll keep it with mine.
February 14, 2007
Red Velvet Cake
I don't know how I feel about the fact that the New York Times has a feature piece up on red velvet cake.
Especially with a lede like this:
IT’S a cake that can stop traffic. The layers are an improbable red that can vary from a fluorescent pink to a dark ruddy mahogany. The color, often enhanced by buckets of food coloring, becomes even more eye-catching set against clouds of snowy icing, like a slash of glossy lipstick framed by platinum blond curls. Even the name has a vampy allure: red velvet.
Sheesh. Why is most food writing so bad?
That said, I kinda do want to try their recipe.
Dopamine, Baby
It's all about the chemicals, y'all. WaPo has a hilarious piece up for Valentine's Day today and you should really read the whole thing.
Bill Shakespeare had it down cold, when he had Friar Laurence warn young Romeo of the perils of passion: "These violent delights have violent ends."And did Romeo listen?
Shucks, no! Wise counsel, patience, foresight, prune juice -- who wants that ? Is there one among us who, at least once in this life, does not want to throw everything out the door and sprint to the Disco Ball of the Brain, where there are big white piles of dopamine, where a hot and sweaty Barry White is always on stage, thumping out "You're My First! My Last! My Everything!" And there's that new girl in class! Scantily clad! She's on the floor, beckoning you! Yes, Bubba, you! Out you go, and she's saying your name and her hand slips to the small of your back, and this is going to last FOREVER AND EVER!
Hot damn I love the Disco Ball of the Brain. Inevitably, though, the high burns out and by the end of the night you find yourself here:
What it feels like: A one-way ticket to the Tex-Mex Border Bar of the Mind. It's always dark in here, stinks of old cigars. The clock on the wall always reads Beer:30. Your caudate nucleus is now slouched over a bar stool in the dark. Sitting next to it is Freddy Fender.Suddenly your brain bellows, off-key:
WASTED DAYS AND WASTED NIGHTS!
Happy V-day, everybody!
Confidential to LS: I hope things work out like you hoped today!
Dartmouth in February
I can't believe you bastards get a snow day.
The Chubbernet graybeards are in fine form on the listserv this morning - recalling the last time Dartmouth had a snow day, in 1978:
That was the winter I had a job out at CRREL north of Hanover. Not having a car, I used to ski to work via the golf course. I started out on the golf course that morning, but gave up breaking trail after a while and made my way over to Rte. 10/Lyme Rd. There were no cars out so I just skied down the main highway. What a memorable storm!
February 13, 2007
Eugene
I'm in Eugene this week, folks. I won't have tons of time to post given the nature of living out of the back of your car, couch to couch, coffeeshop to coffeeshop. But never you fear - I'm having a helluva lot of fun.
In short:
Food & Drinks = heaven.
Friends = heaven.
Weather = purgatory.
Work = purgatory.
Love = hell.
----
Two nights ago I dreamed that my house was on fire.
There was nothing I could do but watch it burn.
Haven't had a bad dream in a while - it was strange to wake up and feel so ill-rested.
February 8, 2007
Afternoon LOLz: You Forget, We Are Children of the 60's
Conversation of the day:
A: I lost my car for a week in San Francisco once.
J: Don't you just hate it when you lose your car?
A: God, yes. Don't forget, I lived across the Bay so I had to take the bus over every day to look for it, just wandering around for hours.
J: And it's so embarrassing to ask people if they've seen it.
A: Then you find it, and you think, now how did it get there?
J: And who's that sleeping in the back?
February 7, 2007
So What
Marc sent me a link to this and man oh man it's spectacular - Miles Davis and John Coltrane doing So What. Jazz is a love that I know mostly aurally - I've not attended many live performances, nor have I seen many video clips, so to have these visual close-ups of Davis is rather startling and renders a familiar piece fresh again. It's things like this that make me love YouTube - where else would you find this kind of footage? (Or, for that matter, the, um, pilot episode of The Wonder Years...)
Small World
So here I am at work, doing a little internet research on USDA Rural Development grants for some projects out here in high desert country, and I start skimming the menu bar for what I'm lookin' for - the money - when something catches my eye. There's a news feature over there - and wait, does that say DeSoto?
Here, Dorr meets with Ken Harrison, President, DeSoto County Farm Bureau (right) at DeSoto Memorial Hospital in Arcadia, Florida. USDA Rural Development supplied a $20 million loan for construction of the hospital's new 58,000 square foot, 32-bed emergency, surgical and outpatient wing.
So yeah, that's pretty neat, eh?
February 6, 2007
Good Titles
My buddy A asked for his friends' favorite titles the other day - books and movies and music and things that for whatever reason resonate. I wrote down a couple of mine, off the top of my head: something about these, the turn of phrase or the rhythm or the imagery, just strikes me right. What are some of your favorites?
The Optimist's Daughter
Everything is Illuminated
Giles Goat-Boy
Everything That Rises Must Converge
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Middlemarch
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Nightswimming
Lo-Fi Tennessee Mountain Angel
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill
The Long Winters
All the Real Girls
For a Few Dollars More
Smith Rock
Here's where I spent my weekend. Click it to see a few more shots.
You're probably all wondering what the hell I've been up to lately. In short: it's been Hank Sr. at sunset, rust-red rocks at dawn, black coffee at all hours, gin-and-tonic and Dylan in the kitchen, long low clouds moving in across Keeney Pass, thinking about the future, thinking about the past, living as best I can in the moment, and being pretty OK with that.
February 5, 2007
The Old Laughing Lady
Neil Young busking on the streets of Glasgow. I really like this.
February 1, 2007
What a Catch!
Remember all the fuss over a NYT article about how more and more women are remaining unmarried? See, this guy's being funny, but he's being serious too:
Look, ladies, deciding not to marry for your own well-being is one thing, but it is we you’re not marrying in the process. Your decision is killing single men — literally.Single men partake in more risky behavior than married men. We eat badly, smoke more, and avoid doctors’ offices. We die younger. And we’re far more likely to wake up in a pile of crumpled newspapers still clutching the tequila bottle we began sipping from two days before.
Sheezlebub's great response at Pandagon:
What a catch! Where do I sign up for that? Who needs a baby when you can be some random entitled nitwit’s mommy? If you could throw in horrific personal hygiene and a predilection for punching walls, I’m in baby!
Hey, I could even pass on the name of a certain Ivy League wall-puncher, if you're so inclined...
Here's another real winner:
Personally, I have given up on women – for reasons based on aesthetic, economic, and karmic criteria.* Aesthetically — I no longer pursue relationships with women because by-and-large, modern American females are no longer particularly desirable. Feminism has largely extinguished femininity, replacing it with the modern, aggressive, masculinized Go-Grrrrlz careerist prototype. In pursuing masculine forms of power, women have remade themselves into poor imitations of men. As a heterosexual man, I am not erotically attracted to my own gender. So, why should I be attracted to faux-men in skirts? (And no, I do not wish to see women sequestered at home barefoot and pregnant.) But please don’t ask me to find ball-busting, affirmative-action professional diversity princesses with toxic feminist entitlement attitudes and the requisite uncritical certainty in their moral, intellectual, and emotional superiority (over lowly, subhuman men) — DESIRABLE as potential relationship partners.
The best part of it is the opening line - that's right, this tool has gone and done the best thing any woman could ask him to do - remove himself from the dating pool.
Looking West
Out on the butte yesterday evening.