Silbury Hill

Silbury Hill, Wiltshire. About 5,000 years old and no one knows who built it or why. They do know how—with chalk blocks formed with deer antlers and moose shoulder blades—incredible. Archeologists calculate it took 18 million man-hours to create. We climbed to the top and looked around-pretty cool. When we go back to the car park Kerry wanted to take a picture of a lovely Alfa-Romero and instead of ‘pressing the button’ inadvertently opened the camera and exposed all the film. I yelled at her and then we both felt bad. The End.

Private Dancer

From the recent copy of "The Word". File under 'why didn't I think of that?' Perhaps it would give me something to do on Friday nights.

Monkey Attack!

...a tale, told by an idiot, signifying...nothing...but monkeys...

We stay in an old gatehouse near Bath and the proprietor is very kind and spends a lot of time talking to me about where we are going etc on our UK trip. Since my traveling companions are an 11 and 12 year old, the itinerary has to be somewhat kid friendly, so I tell him we’re going to drive through Longleat Animal Park. He becomes very specific at this point and said, ‘do not drive into the monkey enclosure’. So, OK. We get there and drive through the place, the kids like it, and then we get to the gate of the monkey enclosure, which is plastered with all these warnings and disclaimers. I figure, hey, we’re on vacation and they’re just monkeys, what could they possibly do? So, we go in, the monkeys all rush to the car and jump on and I’m thinking they’re friendly little buggers. As we're watching the monkeys one jumps on the hood, removes the little plastic device that directs windshield wash water and pops it into his mouth! The little ******* are eating the car! I’m thinking, oh no, it’s a rental! The kids start screaming and I pop the car into gear and screech out of there. Once we were safe, got out to inspect the damage: 3/8” deep tooth marks on all the high-impact (and hard) plastic pieces of the car, some were chewed up completely and everything removable was gone.

Apparently, monkeys, even small ones, are not to be trifled with. Some just have to learn the hard way...a wise person out there invented rental insurance for people just like me--thank you.

Andrew Wyeth

‘Christina’s World’ was completed in 1948 and hangs in the MOMA in New York. I have a copy hanging in my office and I’m repeatedly fascinated by the way this painting captures an essence. So much is said, but so much is also left to the imagination...in short, a wonderful painting by one of the greats of the last century.

LA Story

Nobody (guys that is) likes a chick-flick, since most are mediocre and not really worth watching. I’m no exception. To be fair, most movies are mediocre, just ‘product’ and not film. But, every so often, a romance comes along that hits the mark, and when it’s good, it’s the best! LA Story is one such film. Up there with the likes of ‘A Room With a View’, ‘Moonstruck’, and the BBC version of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, it is one great movie.

Tucson

Spent last week in Tucson, it snowed (bummer) and then I broke my camera by dropping it on the marble floor of the hotel lobby (total bummer). Other than that, it was great!

Seven Devils, Idaho

I like this pic of the kids-it was taken about 5 years ago.

Situated between the Salmon and Snake Rivers in west central Idaho, the Seven Devils offer high alpine hiking that is second to none. Really steep and difficult hiking at times, it is one of the most incredible places I’ve ever been. This stark and austere environment is something you cannot appreciate unless you experience it firsthand.

Drive to the campground at about 8,000 feet and go up from there. While we were up on the 3-mile-wide bench that forms the Seven Devils high country, a goat followed us for about 30 minutes; it must have been looking for food, but a strange occurrence in a strange place nonetheless. As we were up on the ‘bench’ a storm looked like it was headed our way and I thought I could hear it screaming towards us-like something out of a movie. So there I am, totally mesmerized by it all and two A-10 war planes come roaring from behind one of the peaks-impressive, but the spell was broken.

The Lofty

Why sleep on the floor when you can recline on the stainless steel ‘Lofty’. They have got to be kidding, I mean, it looks great, but aren’t humans supposed to use these things for relaxation? Form follows….nothing? It's enough to make me lose faith in nihilism.

Window Drops

Window Drops-a great idea! Just imagine what you could do with a large window to make it more interesting, especially on those gray winter days. Each set includes eight drops of various shapes and sizes The largest drop measures 5" x 2.5"; smallest drop is 2". All for just $13.

P.S. They suck! They don't look like the photo and won't stay on the window.

Time Out

One of those great French films that break down barriers and show us a portrait of domestic middle-class life that is instantly recognizable. After an education and life spent immersed in a somewhat chauvinistic Anglo-American mindset, where the culture of Latin Europe is almost completely ignored or at best downplayed, to see a portrait of life so familiar, here on the frontier of the western world in Spokane WA, is a revelation.

Time Out is the story of Vincent, a consultant/bureaucrat type…etc who loses his position and cannot bring himself to tell his family. The film examines the interlude between positions and the evasions and turmoil of Vincent's life. One of my favorite scenes is of Vincent walking, in the dark, along the outside of the building housing his old firm, watching his former colleagues give presentations and so on. I guess one has to walk in those shoes to know what it feels like. You may feel like your work is dull and repetitious at times, but when seen from the outside, it seems like everything.

This film has an emotional honesty and resonance not typically seen in your typical Hollywood production. Again, to feel that this person could be me from a culture I’ve always been taught to regard as so foreign, so yesteryear, gives the lie as to our supposed dissimilarities. The makers of this film are depicting a world of values and practices more true to my own than almost all the homegrown crap I’ve seen lately. Crap that at times meets its goal of providing entertainment, but doesn’t enlighten. Time Out does just that.

La Evolución

Way cool lighting…when can I get it at Target???

La Evolución provides an exceptional lighting experience to enhance the ambience of a living or work space. These wall-mounted light panels measuring 50×50 cms can be used as single units or can be clustered together to create a striking strip of light. The panels are available in primary basic colors or bearing works of contemporary artists, designers and photographer to create distinctive panels. The light panels are hand-moulded and the surface is polished crystal-clear composite resin.

Atomised

“…all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be…” Pink Floyd ‘Talk to Me’

I used to sort of believe that, but it wasn’t good enough…it seems as if too many of us are just wasting away in this so-called paradise. Except it’s just a vision of paradise for the many and ends up being a living hell. Not the gut wrenching reality of medieval life, the ‘vale of tears’, but a separateness…a hell with no explanation, no closure, no meaning. Such is the world we have inherited. Lo and behold, miracle of miracles, this is the document that attempts to tell all. After reading this, I am all a quiver with hopefulness and dread. Such is life…this book gets right to the soul of our modern dilemma....society's listlessness as it slips away in a sea of boredom inversely proportionate to our materialism and diminishing fundamental values or belief's in anything. It is a sophisticated and unsparing look at where we're headed.

A good read and translation, full of laughs but deadly serious--highly recommended. I first came across it while reading the top ten lists in The Guardian. Purchased it used on Amazon as it apparently hasn’t been published in the USA. Atomised and Houellebecq are the most thought provoking pair I've met in many a moon. I mean, who would have thought that John Paul II was right all along! I certainly never did, until now. I am confused.

Donkey Island, Spokane River...

...is closed for the season. Remember the island where Pinocchio was sent with all the bad boys and they were turned into donkeys and then shipped off to the salt mines, well, this is a different Donkey Island. The one you've never heard of and it's right on the Centennial Trail. It's a very cool place, but the lagoons (it's not really an island most of the year) contain PCBs, so don't eat the sediments. In a month or two, it will all be cleaned and then, you can eat all the sediments you please.

Gramps

The first guy to climb the Matterhorn in oxfords…just kidding, and I didn’t dare call him Gramps, he was the Grandfather. Kind of old school, one might say, he was of the ‘children are best seen and not heard’ crowd. From my vantage point now, can’t say that I disagree. He retired at 40, so he could ‘travel’. How, you may ask, does one do that? Since I not only missed that boat, but didn’t even know the boat had docked--can’t really say.

So, he was mostly gone, usually with ‘Gram’ (she was much more user friendly; a lovely and amazing woman). When I would go with my parents on one of our infrequent trips out of the county or to New York, they would meet us for a few days, which I always thought was very cool and a good way to spend time with Gramps. I could never quite figure out the ‘what are they doing in, say, Montreal the very week that we’re there?’ thing. Seemed like magic at the time--Gramps, you were one of a kind, at least in my book, and the walk up that mountain must have been killer.

West Riverside

Call me trashy and reactionary-there is no sight as majestic in this town...

Senmut? Helloooo...and I'm told that I'm odd?

A modified Corinthian with an Indian head...what will they think of next?

...and of course, the lion motif-ever popular and it always works.

Thank you Mary, for such a pleasant street.

First Friday

Kolva-Sullivan Gallery/Trackside Studio, W. Adams St.

The lovely and elusive Miss Kerry.

Every first Friday of the month, all the galleries in downtown Spokane are open and the artists are typically available for discussion. Most of the time, it's hard to get to know such people, but on a day like this, it's all out there-really, really fun. Shown is a pic of the Kolva-Sullivan Gallery/Trackside Studio on South Adams. Being a shameless consumer (something I apparently choose to pass on to my children), I had Kerry pick out a piece of pottery. The child has good taste! The piece was exquisite but had unfortunately been previously purchased. As I stood around the gallery, I noticed others eyeing the same piece. Anyway, she choose something else and now, she has become an ART COLLECTOR. The tradition of pretentious consumerism is passed along-it’s all good.

Newman

Funny-all these posts about water lately, must be some kind of Jungian thing. Anyway, since so many posts refer to water/Newman, here you have it.

Upriver

What I do for fun during the day…today we (Ecology did the press release) had a ‘major media’ event at the Upriver Dam PCB Sediments site. All the TV stations and the paper were there. Ecology and the Dept. of Health guys did most of the talking. I wasn’t interviewed which was good as I was having a bad hair week (never date your hairstylist and then don’t call back AND then go back for another cut, the result, as they say, is entirely predictable).

So, the intent is to cap the PCB sediments near the north bank of the river using an enormous ‘long stick’ excavator on a barge, which can be seen across the river in the photo. This is where I’ll be hanging out off and on for the next month or so.

Lake Painting

One of my best buddies did this multi-media painting/creation for the cabin the other day. His family also had a cabin at Newman when he was growing up, so we’re both kind of sentimental about the place. The photo just shows a section of the piece and doesn’t do it much justice. It’s a really beautiful work that takes a while to grasp fully; everyone I show it to points out different elements that I had yet to notice. I still don’t get it. What I do know--definitely one of the coolest gifts I've ever received.

Das Boot

From Fallingwater to The Boat…reality bites. The Boat has sailed the seven…er…three bays of Newman in splendid style-it just needs a little TLC at this point or something...maybe a torch. One big lesson I’ve learned from The Boat-never leave shore without a paddle.

Fallingwater

Nice house, now it’s some kind of museum-I’ve heard the roof leaks due to design flaws-so what. A few pots and pans to catch the drips and some strategically placed Squirrel Trophy Heads-killer crib-I'll take it.

"Give me the luxuries of life and I willingly do without the necessities." -- Frank Lloyd Wright

Squirrel Trophy Head

It seems as if the one of the main functions of the internet has been to provide a virtually unlimited consumerist smorgasbord catering to every known fetish and creating new ones along the way. For example, the squirrel trophy head available at Custom Creature Taxidermy Arts. No cottage is complete without one. I think I’ll get two.


Or how about 'bringing your cottage to life' with custom toilet seats.

Real Climate

Real Climate is the real deal, the bona fide no-spin zone on climate change. It never ceases to amaze me just how sophisticated the mass media have become at propaganda. As a result, the populace as a whole have a distorted view of what is really happening when it comes to climate change. Perceptions are slowly changing as reality has a way of getting peoples’ attention, eventually. One of the favorite ploys of the media is to position a credible climate scientist against one of the quickly dwindling group of contrarian climate scientists and stage a kind of faux debate for the ‘benefit’ of the viewing public. The effect is to introduce far more confusion and uncertainty that actually exists-to mischaracterize and forestall a call to action on the part of the general public. Guess what-it’s all over except the tears.

If I hadn’t seen so many times how the mass media get it wrong I wouldn’t believe it either. At some point, one is faced with the realization that the media have an agenda and the agenda doesn’t have much to do with facilitating public debate on critical public policy issues...kind of makes you wonder what is really going on.

Remember the ozone depletion debate, how it raged in the media for a few years and then just...disappeared. Media coverage and the debate surrounding the issue disappeared due to the results of experiments based on the Rowland-Molina (both won the Nobel Prize for their work) model of ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere, an event the media covered poorly or not at all. Unfortunately, such decisive evidence is not available for an issue as complex as climate change. However, climate models are continually being refined and circumstantial evidence continues to accumulate. So much so that only a very few credible climate scientists are in the ‘change is not happening--or--there is nothing we can do about it anyway, so why bother’ camp. These are the folks you see on television.

So, if you’re interested in what mainstream climate scientists think about climate change, got to Real Climate. Then, go buy yourself a bicycle and get used to it.

Nuspirit Helsinki

At first I thought it pretty much sucked. But after a few beers and some time spent meticulously tuning the hifi, I decided to try it again. Lo and behold-this is one great CD. I didn’t realize they even knew about jazz in Finland, but these guys do it all. One of the best jazzy/chill CDs I’ve heard in a long time. Oddly, though it was released in 2002, it seems to be out of print and only available used. Read what others have to say about it here.

The blue building

This is the blue building, where I spend a lot of time. Completed in 1958, it has that Jetsons-like modern look to it. It was built during a period when people still believed in progress, in the modern as a way. Now, I don’t know…but we still have buildings like this to remind us of what once was.


Here is a pre-construction rendering of the blue building. It seems like there was so much optimism and hope for what the future held. I really like the boat pier on the river—hey!..we don’t need cars--just take the ferry. The reality: neither boat pier nor boats on this stretch of the river…seems strange. Anyway, I've really become attached to the place, it's almost 'homey' in a way. Sounds odd perhaps, but I've spent most of my life in schools and workplaces similar to the blue building; I've been institutionalized all my life and didn't even know it-at least they let me go home at night.

Gerona, Catalonia

We arrive by plane from Brussels and the place looks just like my original home (San Joaquin Valley, California). Since I speak enough Spanish to get by it feels great to be there. We book a hotel for a couple of nights and then go to the nearest café for dinner. I get the menu…hello!...you’re not in Spain, you’re in Catalonia…they have their own language, which sounds like Spanish (or Castellano, as they call it) but ALL the words are different. I can’t read a word of the menu and my Spanish isn’t good enough to ask the waiter to translate from Catalan to Spanish. At least the waiter was kind enough to speak Spanish; a lot of the older folks would only speak Catalan. Given the history of the place, they're a bit touchy about their language and culture, rightfully so. Anyway, I’m reduced to pointing and not having a clue what I or the kids are ordering. The entrée comes: an egg, on a bed of rice, topped with ketchup…at least it’s recognizable. I’m thinking this must be some weird dish specific to this café. The next day as we're walking through this fantastic medieval city, I notice the entrées lined up at the café windows, and they all serve ketchup/eggs/rice--a local favorite.

One thing I thought very cool about the place is that the people, teenager and adult alike, promenade along the downtown streets before dinner (which isn't served until about 8). They are for the most part well scrubbed, well dressed, and a delight to watch, which is the whole point, I guess.

We were there during the Christmas holidays and I also noticed all these shops with signs that say ‘Bon Nadal’, which means something like ‘good birth’ in Catalan. So, I’m wondering, if they have so many maternity shops, where are all the infants? It takes me a few days before I realize that it’s the Catalan equivalent of Merry Christmas. Yep--just another dumb tourist.

Caverna del Diablo

Mazatlan: The Devil's Cave used to hide soldiers guarding ammunition during the revolution. Now, during the crazy days of the annual pre-Lenten ‘Festival’ it serves as an overflow drunk tank—it’s so called because it ‘smells like the devil’. I took our driver's word for it.

It all starts with you

So here I go from extolling the virtues of virtual consumerism on Amazon and hyping my favorite TV show to beating the drum about this radical anti-consumerist tract. How can two such divergent sentiments possibly co-exist? Perhaps I’m not just a consumer or a radical, but an armchair rad-sumer (that was supposed to be funny, in print it just looks stupid, oh well).

More relevant than ever, The Revolution of Everyday Life, written by Raoul Vaneigem in the late 60s, is a far easier read than the similair work by Debord, The Society of the Spectacle. It attempts to dissect the complex web of consumerism that we’re all caught up in and provide a few pointers to what an authentic life looks like in the face of such a sophisticated and effective onslaught—an onslaught that amounts to a commoditization of human life. Call him a leftist, pinko, or whatever, his call for a return to a more spiritual approach to life seems ironic but is not. I think it’s just an example of how we all yearn for the same things, regardless of the stories we tell ourselves.

4 8 15 16 23 42...

...are the magic numbers.

I never watch TV, except when I do. Usually, I prefer to relax in the evenings with literature and classical music (on the radio at 88.7, KAGU, it just keeps on rolling). Now that may seem pretentious, but I’ve found that if you try hard enough, you actually become pretentious, and then it’s OK, sort of.

Enough of that…it turns out that watching a hit TV show on DVD is a splendid way to keep up. You can watch a whole season in a matter of days. I find the pacing of a weekly TV show interesting as it’s so different from a movie, and something you don’t really notice until you watch the TV show like a movie, a really long, digressive movie. An unfair comparison perhaps: a movie has about 2 hours to wrap everything up, a TV series keeps on rolling until the ad $$ dry up.

Lost is kind of like a cross between Mysterious Island, The Magus, and Survivor (with guns). With one cliffhanger after another, all you have to do is click to the next episode to see the (partial) resolution. I’m totally hooked, but after 25-30 episodes of season 1 and now most of season 2, I’m getting a little bit itchy as to what it’s all about. I mean, how can long can they string this thing out? The downside of watching via DVD is that the next set of DVDs is a year away, so you forget a lot about the show.

Never buy from Amazon…

…fooled ya, I buy loads of stuff, always from the Amazon marketplace. With almost anything, but especially with the likes of CDs and books, the Amazon marketplace is the place to shop. The marketplace is a clearinghouse for a zillion independent sellers worldwide of your favorite items, usually at a huge discount. I purchased a CD from Argentina once and it came in 3 days-how do they do that? After 20-30 or so purchases I’ve only had a couple of bad deals: one from the Amazon warehouse, a double CD that was missing a disk and the other a book that had the correct cover but was a different book inside (the book only cost about $1 plus shipping, so whatever).