Rainy day, Brooklyn

We've been in New York for a week now and have spent most of that time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's huge. They have over two million objects in archive. I am beginning to wonder if we are not, in fact, masochists. The Smithsonian already kicked our asses. We went to 15 out of the 17 museums, but still left DC beaten, heads bowed, oodles of art yet unseen.

Our Brooklyn airbnb apartment,
the three windows above the grocery store.
That's M. going in the door.

Yesterday, we took a quick pass through Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial in Central Park. In all, it's a couple of acres but most people just stop long enough to take a photo of themselves by the "Imagine" mosaic embedded in the sidewalk. Naturally the place has a self-appointed, Yoko approved, "Mayor of Strawberry Fields" and yesterday the Mayor was in. M. Lee hates guys like this so, when the Mayor began rounding up the tourists for his schtick, he wanted to immediately leave. I thought about staying to take a couple of photos but then decided against it. The memorial feels sweet, sad and empty. Seemed best to leave it at that.

View of the street from our apartment

As usual, we eat breakfast and lunch at home and take sandwiches with us when we're out during the day. For treats, we found a bakery in Chinatown that sells excellent red bean buns and mochi balls. And here in Flatbush, only two blocks from our apartment, Kabir's Bakery sells most delicious giant samosas for a dollar so this rainy Sunday we stayed home, had samosas for lunch and did laundry.

Small but nice, with a kitchen.

I have yet to find a place to read poetry. Places favor rap and spoken word, which I don't do, and most readings start late here in the City that never sleeps. Anyway, New York is already listed on my world tour. I read here in the '60s in the basement of St. Mark's in the Bowery before it was taken over by academics. Yes, Gingburg and Orlovsky also read that night and no, they did not speak to me, a mere girl.

Kabir's Bakery, Brooklyn
Great samosas, one dollar.

Tomorrow, MOMA.

Peter and the Starcatcher

Peter and the Starcatcher was absolutely enthralling. It was hard waking to the gray morning after an evening of such wonderful language and spectacle. Everyone was perfect. And all on such a small stage. Brilliant. I read that Peter is going on the road beginning this August. If it comes to a theater anywhere near you...GO!!! Here's the schedule schedule.

Friends along the way

NYC
As usual, I'm on the run so this has to be brief. We made a new friend last night. It's a friend of a friend kind of thing. Anyway, we're going to a play with him tonight. As a member of the Actor's Guild, he can get discount tickets so the three of us are going tonight to see Peter and the Starcatcer. Should be good. It won five Tony Awards when it was on Broadway. Now it's moved to a smaller off-Broadway location. Okay. Gotta go.

Enter the Blue Cloud

I have no idea how I got this photo. I took it from the car as we were driving across the country but, at the time, I was completely unaware of that strange blue cloud leaking in from the top.

Strange photo taken on the road

Perhaps M. Lee is right. Perhaps we do live in a sim.

Other than that, we are in NY, Brooklyn to be exact and, of course, M. Lee is tapping his foot by the door so gotta go.

my perfunctory arty ny subway pic

Nuts

One fateful day, Squirrel and Mr. Donut cross paths.

Notes in passing

Spaceman and me.

Went to the National Archives today. I have never been in a building with so many brass doors. Even the bathroom doors are brass and gigantic. The Archives are the home of important historical documents such as the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta. Oddly, of these four, the Magna Carta, from 1297, is in the best shape. In comparison, the Declaration of Independence, 1776, has almost completely faded away and the Constitution and Bill of Rights aren't doing very well either. However, the room they are in, the manner in which they are displayed and the Security surrounding them is so opulent, reverential and threatening that it wouldn't matter if comic books were under the layers of brass, glass and watchful eyes, they would inspire awe.

Glenn Curtiss
1907s Fastest Man in the World.

We also visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It houses everything from the Wright brother's airplanes and Glenn Curtiss's V-8 motorcycle to the Command Module which ferried astronauts to and from the moon and a full-scale replica of the same Voyager I which is on its deep space mission, never to return. Besides sending information back to Earth, Voyager is carrying the Golden Record with pictures and sounds of Earth and detailed information about where our planet is located. I hope that's a good idea.

This evening, back in our little makeshift basement apartment on Capitol Hill, the domestic battle raging upstairs all week continues. It's really sad. Their baby chirps away happily in morning and they are at each others throats at night then the silent treatment.

Seventeen days

That's how long we've been gone but it seems so much longer. We've traversed many worlds, visited a time whorl and now are here in the center of world power, the US capital. Yesterday, passing by some nice rocking chairs under a rose arbor on the Mall, we dipped in for a sit. One of my many mottoes is never pass up a fine rocking chair. No, I'm not "ready" for one but they are fun for a pause. So we sat there under the just budding vines, under gray skies and got into an interesting conversation with an older black woman who was also rocking away. She claimed to be in the DOD and, if it were true, it sounded like she really had her ear to the ground, foreign ambassadors, street rumors...all that. I decided to believe her. It's more fun that way. M. Lee did not.

Anyway, I still haven't included anything about our visit to New Vrindaban and now the whole thing is receding in the rear view mirror. I fully intend to post some photos for my own future reference and my kids, if they are so inclined. This is, after all, a blog aka diary. And I'm still preparing myself for the task of wearing actual grown up clothes to this wedding on the 25th, an actually dress, high heels, M. Lee in a tailored suit. Holy shit! I was born wearing jeans. So we're going to do it, and it will probably be fun, but damn. I'm just hoping I don't wobble in the heels and twist an ankle.

Ok. Enough of this. Gotta eat my oatmeal now. We're leaving in 15 min. Yes. It's raining.

Rainy Monday

Suitsupply has the right suit for everybody,
even old guys.

On Saturday we managed to get in a bike ride. It was the one, true, though not quite warm sunny day. Including all the noodling, it was about a 25 mile ride which is pretty good for my first ride of the season. Once we crossed the Potomac we jumped on the Mt. Vernon Trail, a multi-use path which follows the river all the way to George Washington's home, though we didn't get that far ourselves.

But we did stop off at the Museum of Natural History on the way home. Oh my god. This museum alone is worth driving across the country for. Outstanding, fabulous and amazing.

And M. Lee's suit was ready yesterday so we picked that up. He looks great. Suitsupply is everything it promises to be but the guy who made it all come together was a fellow named Faouzi. He was wonderful. Fantastic. He knew exactly where the line was for an old guy, modern but appropriate. Photo to follow.

Okay. Gotta go. The Trip Tyrant, M. Lee, is rattling on about how we have to leave in a few minutes.


Note to my future self: 
Hey! Don't be like me. Bring your bike jacket and collapsible water bottle.

Slow Nickels TV

Washington DC

Slow Nickels is an odd name for anything but I suppose it makes sense as a laundromat although it would be more accurate to call the place Lots of Nickles. Anyway, we're at Slow Nickels doing our laundry this morning for the first time since we left Nevada. DC TV news is on. I don't know if its just me but it seems definitely different than TV news anywhere else I've been. The daily political scene plays out more like a battle in a Roman Colosseum, every strike broadcast, who is where doing what and everybody leaning in, keeping up blow by blow, the States themselves watching from front row seats, competing with one another, switching alliances on a moments notice like ringside hustlers buying and selling odds on each and every move. It's mad. OK. Time to fold laundry.

Notes and reflections

Five days in DC now. We're staying about 2.5 mi away from the Mall so everyday we get in a good walk going to and from the museums. The first few days it rained but the last two have been clear blue and warm in the sun. Makes all the difference. We've seen a lot of art, good and bad and some masters, including da Vinci and Rembrandt, and today we checked out the exhibit at the old patent building now the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Their portrait gallery was pretty bad but there is some wonderful, and disturbing, art brut. They refer to it as folk art for whatever reason but it's art brut aka outsider art. Anyway, the exhibit kicked our asses. It's huge. We got there at the end of the day and only had enough energy for the first floor.

Also I ran into a dear old friend from Oregon on the Mall today. Talk about a surprise! She and her husband are in DC visiting family. She called my name from across the street. It was phenomenal. We really don't know what's going to happen in a day, do we? So we did coffee. The event got me brooding again that we didn't stop in Kansas City and have coffee with Roy. I want to totally blame M. Lee for that. He makes plans way in advance and mostly alone. He decides destinations, reservations and even where we'll eat along the way. It's mostly all good so I am in the habit of just going along with things. I really hate admitting I'm so passive. It's a pathetic kind of flaw, a convenient weakness, but blaming him only magnifies it so I can't/don't want to do that. Arg.

Hwy 50 revisited and the wild guys at Suit Supply

Day Eight, DC and such.

Getting into DC we missed the turnoff Mrs. Google wanted us to take so we ended up exiting I-70 on good old Hwy. 50. It was like coming home. We only stayed on it for five miles then once again parted ways, it winding off towards its destination, as Don noted, Ocean City, MD 3073 mi away from its beginning in West Sac. We missed the cherry blossoms...or at least while they were still on the trees though we did pass voluptuous sweeps of fallen blossoms in yards and gutters. Even they are quite lovely, but perhaps that's just my expanded/skewed sense of beauty. Anyway, now that we are "somewhere" we are on military time. M. Lee has a busy day planned so, as usual, I have only minutes to dash off a note.

New Vrindaban didn't have wifi and I didn't want to fiddle with using my phone for one. In any case, that experience will require a little more time to digest so notes on Days Five, Six and Seven will have to wait awhile. Just to say, it was an amazing stop. Much has changed (and not changed) but even M. had a good time and that is saying a lot. So today we are off to Suit Supply. M. needs a suit for my nephew's wedding. He wants them to make him look like this, well except that he's going to still wear socks. 

Day four, "Eat your dinner LIKE THIS."

Columbus Ohio. Went to the Banana Leaf vegetarian Indian restaurant/buffet. Tasty but very strange place. Dinner began with a complete oral tutorial by the owner, six individually served appetizers and a glass of mango juice or mango lassi before we could get our hands on the buffet. We felt like children who had to be good little clean plate-ers with each and every serving before we could have anything else. Anyway, it was a vegetarian joint so, especially after the Limon Denny's, it qualified as a bonafide oasis.

Today, on to New Vrindaban to face down some ghosts and maybe liberate a few. Wish me luck.

Day three, ghosts and hard choices

We both hated Limon, M. Lee even more than I. And I don’t think it was because the place is so small or beat down or because so many of its residents work at the grim prison nearby. There is something else, something very wrong about Limon Colorado then, this evening, we read about the gruesome event that happened there back in 1900 and that feeling of dread and gloom permeating the place made sad and eerie sense.

We were back on the road by seven this morning. We needed to get an early start as today’s destination was Columbia MO, a 650 mile, 10 hour drive. I-70 goes right though Kansas City.  We also wanted to stop and have coffee with Roy. Even weeks before we left home, M. Lee and I discussed the possibility and decided the only way to do it would be to spend the night in KC. Stopping for an hour just wouldn't be enough and anyway, today’s drive was already too long. It was very disappointing but adding another night on the road just didn’t work with the rest of the schedule. We invited him to join us in DC instead. It would be great fun. We really hope he does. Who knows? Far-fetched perhaps but it could happen. We shall see.

Kansas points of interest:
8000 lb. prairie dog
World’s largest ball of twine
Kansas Barbed Wire Museum
Home of President D.D. Eisenhower

Day Two made better by pancakes and Louie C.K.

We stayed in Salina CO last night, had a veggie burger and fries at Denny's and today, after 537 miles, made it to Limon CO. The drive included a grueling passage over the Continental Divide during the tail end of a spring storm. Vail was closed which infuriated M. Lee. Skiers get crazy when they see fresh snow go to waste. At Grand Junction we left Hwy. 50 for Interstate 70 (sorry Roy) and tonight we're in what's left of Limon watching Louie C.K. after a pancake dinner at (where else?) Denny's. You know you're in a small town when photos of the high school prom court make the front page. Before leaving town we stopped at the thrift store and picked up a secondhand towel. We needed a throwaway.

Day One, the Loneliest Highway

Headed east, looking back. 

When Life magazine named Nevada's Hwy. 50 the "Loneliest Road in America"  back in 1986 its uninitiated urban editors meant it as an insult. They missed it all, the terrestrial beauty, the staggering silence and untamed sky. We took Hwy. 50 east this morning and, having spent a lot of summers past exploring the Great Basin, it was sweet like coming home. It is a place to disappear in. But today was not a time for that. Today was Day One of our cross-country road trip. Our first main stop will be New Vrindaban, West Virginia, two nights. I lived there many years ago. I am going back to reclaim my ghosts.

Spring fling

All afternoon there was a huge quail collective honeymoon party in the Bird Park, couples aglow with conjugal bliss strolling around nibbling seeds, lounging under budding lilacs, enjoying dirt baths and sunshine after a week of schizophrenic spring snows laced with taunting bright moments clouded over by bitter winds the next all to the tune of quail love songs trilled from rooftops and fence posts all around the neighborhood.

Spring in the desert.

Then there's Louie. Lonely Louie. He's here a lot since the hawk got his mate. He tries to mind his own business but every now and then some male suddenly takes an unprovoked run at him and he zig-zags through the couples as fast as he can go trying to escape. Poor Louie. I hope he meets a nice new lady quail soon. Quail mate for life but hey! The little guy deserves a break.

If you're a regular here, you might recognize Dwayne's giant green Indian Willow Tree o' Life in the background of the photo. This year the tree is more fabulous than ever. However Dwayne is not doing so well. Recently his son Tom had to whisk both him and Thera off to an assisted living facility. One day they were at home and the same day .... gone. Tom called me over to help. His dad was threatening to shoot him if he tried moving them so Tom wanted me to act as distraction so he could get the guns out of the house. I tried my best but when Dwayne saw Tome heading for the door with his arms full of weapons he looked at me and said, "You're with him. Traitor. Get out of my house". That was it. They were gone that day.

Tom, his two kids, their dog Roxy and Dwayne's cat Snooky live there now and poor Snooky has been demoted to the status of an outdoor cat. One of the kids has an allergy problem. Tom's been doing a lot of clean up and repairs around the place. He was even thinking about cutting down the willow (which we all love) but Dwayne asked him to spare it. He told me he agreed...for now. We all know what that means. In any case, sounds like Thera probably won't make it out of the care center but, if Dwayne's condition continues to improve, they've arranged for him move to a different residence and Snooky can join him there. Not exactly one of those "happily ever after endings" but it will have to do.

And we're leaving on Sunday for our trip back east. We're driving to DC then NYC then Florida for the summer. I'm packing and fretting and fretting about packing and going. The new, fabulous paper floor is done and the really cool studio is ready so off we go. Crazy, eh?

Spring treats

Spring evening

Spring is a crazy time. Last night's ominous sky brought this morning's snow and a hungry morning in the Bird Park. The leftover vegan "tuna" chunks were a big hit.

Sweet Lorraine's magic silver polishing trick

"It really works."
- Lorraine

Mostly I'm posting this (again?) for myself so I will have it. If nothing else, this blog is my file cabinet. But you can use it too. This very excellent, oh so easy, silver polishing trick even cleans the kind of silver jewelry with intricate designs that turn black deep down in the little crevasses and are impossible to reach. Compliments of dear sweet Lorraine. RIP my friend.




Ingredients:
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 sheet of aluminum foil
1 quart water

Add dry ingredients to 1 quart boiling water.
Submerge foil in water.
Drop silver onto foil.
Tarnish will immediately disappear.
Remove silver from water.
Place on drying cloth.
Allow to dry.
To enhance affect, gently rub silver but it's not necessary.
It will come out of the water shiny as new.*

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you're thinking about trying this recipe out, I suggest you also check the comment section of this article. There are some interesting pro/con comments on this technique.

Morning report

I got up a bit later than usual this morning and the birds had already come and gone, without breakfast. However Maggie, the 7 O'clock magpie, the Bird Park Prima Bella, showed up soon after I put out this morning's fare, peanuts, kibbles, mashed potatoes and remnants of a crunchy cookie. She went to the cookie first, not because it was a cookie but because it was something different, something she hadn't seen before. Such a wonderful trait, her curiosity. It is a mark of her intelligence. At this point a few others have shown up. Oh oh! Here comes the hawk!

Louie the lonely quail dude.
Quail mate for life so this guy is bereft
after the hawk recently ate his companion..

OK. Where was I before Ms. Fancy Pants showed up? Damn. I scared the shit out of the quail chasing her off. Poor guys. They were walking around nibbling seed, totally unaware Ms. Death had arrived. I ran at her but she just stared me me down. I had to grow and wave my arms even to get her to move down the fence, quail blasting out from under the trees in every direction, wings revved up like jet engines. The quail were in utter chaos. Ms. Fancy Pants finally took off but not without a quick pass at the fleeing covey, swooping low over the ground, me in hot pursuit, quail screaming. She didn't get anybody. This time.

Ms. Fancy Pants with that
"You're next, buddy" look in her eye,
quail parts dangling from her beak.
- photo by Kristiana

Yes, yes. I'm choosing sides. Interfering with nature. GASP! I deprived the hawk of her breakfast. Too bad. When Kristy and Thea were here, we watched her eat a quail and ever since then a lonely quail dude wanders the Bird Park outcast and alone. So enough is enough. The thing is, the Bird Park is not a natural environment. It doesn't have amount the kind of ground cover quail need to have a fighting chance so I am stepping in. Not on my watch, buddy. The hawks have a lot of territory. At least while I'm here, it doesn't have to include the Bird Park.We'll only be here another two weeks then we leave for the rest of year. Things will settle down around here on their own after that.

God. I've got to get back to my list making and anxiety attack.

Spring commeth and the squawky babies

The first of the spring babies has arrived at the bird park today and, like all babies, she's out there knee deep in food squawking away trying to get her mother to feed her. Well,she's not literally knee deep in food but it's a better image. And Charlie the Crow just dropped in for breakfast. The left over spring rolls were a big hit, everything but the carrots. Birds don't like carrots.

Spring Visit

They've come and gone.

It was a great visit.

We did a little of a lot of things.

It wasn't enough time.



It never is.

That doesn't change.



No regrets.

The sweetness lingers.

Timelines Traffic Jam

Frosty the Horse.
Lunch stop in Lone Pine, CA.

We're in LA for the next couple of days. It's a turn around trip. We drove down this morning and are returning home on Tuesday and that night I'm reading at a Jazz & Poetry event at Comma Coffee in Carson City. Then, in the next two days we have to try to get all the furniture put together and make the house presentable because Kristiana and Thea Belle arrive on Saturday. We'll barely be ready and I certainly wouldn't have planned it this way. It's just that the various plans for the week suddenly and unavoidably got mashed together.

Now that the new floor is in, we are replacing our plastic desks and milk crate office furniture with IKEA modules. We thought we'd be able to pick everything up at the Sacramento store last week but it turned out to be an older, smaller store with a reduced inventory.

When M. Lee began this massive, monumental paper floor project a couple of months ago, their visit marked the absolute must finish by date. At the time it seemed like a purely academic deadline because, after all, how could tearing up every inch of flooring in the house and redoing it one square of paper at a time possibly take that long? Did I say crazy? But no. Really. It's beautiful and totally worth it. It's a huge improvement. I've already gotten my office half put back together because of the new shelving we got last week and it's great. It really makes a difference. I do believe I'm going to end up with an actually working work space? Christ, that sounds pathetic.

Froggie lullabies

There aren't many benefits to insomnia but last night around 2 AM as I lay awake wondering if the wind was going to blow the tool shed over again, Michigan H. Frog began holding forth against the storm raging down from the Sierra. Little Henry. Damn! Whether or not he's an endangered Sierra Nevada Yellow-Legged Frog is still up for debate but how in the world does any frog make his way to my desert backyard and survive winter? But he did and he is and last night this plucky little fellow's storm watch nocturne put me to sleep. Thanks, Froggie. 

Paper Floor, the final coat

Tonight, just after 9 PM, M. Lee finished laying down the last coat of poly on the last floor in the house, the laundry room. What a trip it's been. More later.

That is all.

Poly-wolly-doodle all day news update

M. Lee sent me this hilarious link to the Beast's annual 50 Most Loathsome Americans list. I am not on it.

Monster-size casino bling

I spent the weekend at the Circus Circus hotel in Reno attending a conference. Naturally, I managed to squeeze in a photo safari.

Midway wild things eyes on you.

I'm not without a certain amount of guilt as M. Lee was home working on the floors. Hey, I'm not a total flake. He won't let me help. Trust me. I've offered but before I left, I did manage to get my office emptied out (miracle) and when I was gone M. Lee put the refrigerator back in the kitchen and the toilet back in the bathroom.

Office in parts

Now all the crap from our offices is in the middle of the living room and today he's applying the last four coats of polyurethane to those floors so they should be done by tomorrow.

All work

All play.
You don't have to rub it in.
I am already suffering monstrous guilt.

Ps. Roy, you mentioned putting a joke penny in the floor so M. Lee passed this along for your viewing pleasure. Crazy ass penny floors.

M Day

"M" is for moving. "Day" is for TODAY!!!

Red Dragon and Alien Rock protest this disturbance mightily.

Yikes! This is it. Today I dismantle my office. Better that I do it than the job be done in the style of one of those postmortem clean outs where, in one afternoon, your kids come in and dump your lifetime of treasures into 20 or 51 big black lawn bags and take everything to the landfill. But there is so much stuff...special rocks, candles, photos, bags, note pads, little boxes, bottles, sort later piles, brief cases oh, and the entire cast of the Invisible Theatre has to move as does the stage itself along with the printers, chairs, tables, book shelves, file cabinets, cables and oh god...

After I've got the room emptied out, M. Lee will come in and tear out the filthy, coffee stained rug and put in the new ...TA DA.... PAPER FLOOR!!!! Can't wait. This is the last phase. Woo-hoo. And then in 10 weeks, just after we get kind of settled into the new studio, formerly known as the living room, we leave for the rest of the year. Crazy.

Paper floor update #2

It's a slow go but the paper floor is progressing brilliantly. Last night at about 10 pm, M. Lee applied the last of 10 coats of polyurethane to the kitchen and guest bathroom. It's not without problems. Some edges will need redoing where the glue is not adhering to the sub-floor, but he'll figure that out.Anyway, the house is still in shambles. The dishwasher and refrigerator are in the living room with tools, bags, buckets, mops...you get the idea. Chaos. But the chaos, the real chaos has yet to begin. That happens when I start dismantling my office. That's next and the last phase. The final frontier. The Day always finally arrives, doesn't it?

Who said?

Yesterday my daughter sent me this photo of Thea "reading" the newspaper. Who said she could grow up so fast? Yes. Yes. It's all good. It's what you want them to do but come on!

Thea at three. And no. She doesn't really wear glasses.

Reading at this point is identifying letters of the alphabet but she is definitely on her way!

Writer

Madness in Holley, New York

"The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest." 
- Henry David Thoreau

This is madness!

The fire department in Holley, New York is sponsoring the seventh annual "Squirrel Slam," an annual event organized for the mass killing of squirrels, with prizes given to the individuals who kill the largest and heaviest of the animals, often the pregnant females. This year, the squirrel killing contest even has a "youth" category for children 14 years and under interested in trying their hand at killing. I'm sure Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold would approve. Before opening fire at Columbine High School they bragged about cruelty to cats.

Therefore I say madness. And, because of this murderfest, how many wounded squirrels will crawl away to suffer and die slowly? And how many females will die and leave their young alone in the nest to starve to death?

If this isn't obscene enough, the Holley Fire Department will raffle off firearms including an AR/22 Semi, all part of their killfest frenzy. And I always thought firefighters were the "good guys".

Please add your voice to the protest:

Sign the petition

And/or better yet, give 'em a call:

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo: 518-474-8390
Mayor John Kenney, Jr.: 585-638-6367
Orleans County of Tourism: 1-800-724-0314

Members of the Board of Trustees:
Ross Gaylord: 585-638-6367
David Dill: 585-638-6367
Lewis Passarell: 585-638-6367
Donald Penna: 585-638-6367

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

Cirque du Soleil and Big Elvis

Cirque du Soleil's O turned out to be every bit as spectacular and amazing as it's claimed to be. Dazzling. Impossible. Thrilling. Wonderful. Okay the narrative, the love lost and found story, is almost totally eclipsed by the spectacle. Or was it found? I don't know. It didn't matter. The show is, simply put, fantastic. Yes, tickets are really expensive, but it's incredibly expensive to produce and the level of performance is world class so they earn it. While it didn't linger like a play would, it is a circus after all, I would not hesitate to recommend O to anyone wanting a something special evening. OTOH, do I think this fabulous spectacle is worth the millions and millions of gallons of water? All due respect to the artists but...no.

Anyway, next time you're in Vegas, check out Big Elvis. Pete Vallee is a very talented guy who does a free show daily, 2 to 4, at Harrah's on the Strip. So far, he's logged over 7,000 performances. It's a sweet, sad, fun show. If you're in the neighborhood, check him out. He's worth it.

This unedited excerpt is a peek into what I think of as a true Las Vegas moment. The sound guy has trouble cueing up the signature song Big Elvis wants to treat us to so he pulls "Sweet Carolina" out of the hat. Then, just as he rocks into "All Shook Up", my battery runs out. I had another one but M. Lee and his mom were already looking for an escape. The music was so loud. They offered to wait on the street but it seemed more fitting, more respectful to The King and the Forces That Be, to leave something on the table. I hope Pete has better luck than Elvis. I hear he's on a diet and down to 450 lbs. That's something.

Living it up, Vegas style

 Plaza hotel parking lot, Las Vegas.

So tomorrow we go to Vegas. It's been awhile. M. Lee's mom is taking us to see the Cirque du Soleil at the Bellagio. The show is billed as an "aquatic masterpiece of surrealism and theatrical romance". Naturally, I'm conflicted. How can it be otherwise? Las Vegas squanders water at the expense of all surrounding natural life. It's beyond frivolous. It's insane. Too bad it's not a crime. Someday it probably will be. After the water wars. Plus, I don't have clothes for an event like this. But I'll enjoy it, even in jeans. I suppose that makes me a hypocrite. But still I will go. And anyway, how can I turn down my dear mother-in-outlaw? They say the show is really fabulous. A "life changing event". I'm sure the wild mountain lion cubs living 50 miles due north of the stage would agree.

Vegas 2005

Squirrel Appreciation Day

The Shipping Squirrel enjoying Squirrel Appreciation Day.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day
and Inauguration Day for the President of the United States
but let's not forget the little people.
Today is also
National Squirrel Appreciation Day.
So get a bag of nuts and head over the your local park.
Time to spread the love!

Frida Kahlo the Squirrel appreciating a peanut

Calving season and Paper Floor Update

Mr. Fancy Pants dining on a less fortunate member of the Bird Park

Word is out about the Bird Park. Mr. Fancy Pants must be talking. Lately a new hawk drops by to see what's on the menu nearly everyday. It's calving season and hawks come from all around for all the tasty afterbirth. In about two months they'll be gone though I suspect Mr. Fancy Pants is a local. He was here before the season started.

Bag 'o' floor.
Raw material for our new paper floor,
this and a whole lot of polyurethane.

I took three short videos of him devouring one the quail the other day but none are worth posting. They are all irritatingly shaky which irritates me all the more. Starting at the head, he ate the whole bird. One of the three videos jerks up and away just as he's pulling what looks like an organ out of the body. By the time he was done there was nothing left but feathers. About an hour later a covey of quail grazed through the scene but didn't seem to notice the carnage. However, since then, the quail have, for the most part, stayed away. Better they do for now but I miss them. The little birds still drop but don't stay long either. Without them, the bare trees outside my window look harsh and forlorn.

Emerging studio floor, formerly known as the living room

Inside the house is a different matter. M. Lee is plowing on with Project Paper Floor. It is the indoor fabulous Event of the Season. Currently, I am land locked in my office as he's papering the hallway and front entrance. If I want to get to the kitchen I have to go out the garage and around the house through the crunchy frozen snow, being careful not to walk on the door of the tool shed. Its three-sided shell still lays frozen to the ground across the yard where it was blown during the last wind storm. Redoing every floor in the entire house, including the closets, is a huge undertaking but it's looking great! And I have started dismantling my office, it being the Final Frontier. It is so overwhelming but little by little, right?

Studio done. Now on to the hall and entrance

Ashes and Snow by Gregory Colbert

Need a break? Get your coffee, tea or whatever, pull up a chair, turn on the speakers and, for the next 11 minutes, float away to earth.


Ashes and Snow by Gregory Colbert from Gregory Colbert on Vimeo.
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RIP, Aaron Swartz

God damn it! Aaron Swartz committed suicide yesterday. Among his many accomplishments, we especially owe him a huge debt for all that he did in his short 26 years to protect Internet Freedom. Now, more than ever, it is up to us.

Never heard of him? Full article here.



RIP, Aaron

To the extent possible under law, Cory Doctorow has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to "RIP, Aaron Swartz."

God save the people

Graffiti on New Oxford St., London 2012

Just by way of rolling the front page on, here's a photo I took last summer during our stay in London.

Bret Lockett, Hero for the New B'ak'tun

Happy New Year, b'ak'tun or however you mark time moving future to past. We're back from Christmas in Oregon (photos soon), the paper floor still looks great (updates coming) and I am finally beginning to feel like we're home for awhile.

I am currently following the dreadful, heartbreaking events in New Delhi and in America's own pathetic, prima donna football brat worshiping small town of Steubenville, Ohio. Michael Nodianos, words cannot convey how disgusting you and your buddies are. In contrast to these shit-for-brains psycho morons, NFL player Bret Lockett is a beacon of sanity, light, hope and fresh air and it doesn't hurt that he has the body of a god. Thanks Bret and PETA! We are much in need of real men to step up and do it right.  

My new year's resolution: practice listening with my heart.

Happy Winter Solstice & end of the 13th B'ak'tun

Gotta go. It's going to be snowing in the mountains today and we have to get over the pass.

Put a log on the fire.  Time to celebrate the end of the 13th b'ak'tun and...

Happy Winter Solstice!

Michigan H. Frog & paper floor update

Even as the days grow colder, Michigan H. Frog, aka Henry, is still alive outside my window croaking. I'm amazed. God, I wish I could find the poor fellow and bring him in. He'd have to live in a terrarium but I'd make it comfy and he'd be warm.

We will be spending a couple of weeks in Oregon with the family. Thea Bella, being three years-old now and quite expert on her balance bike, gets a real bike this year. Amazon already delivered it but M. Lee will put it together when we get there. Mr. Leo, being two, is still working on his balance bike so we have some other new toys and warm duds for him and we have some stylish new threads for Baby Frank. As for the floor, the bedroom is done and looks great. We won't put the room back together until we get back. Then on to another section of the house. This is M. Lee's winter project. In the end, the front room will be an art studio which we will share. It's definitely worth the mess and wait.

Paper floor update. The first room is done and looks great.

Oh, and happy last day of the 13th b'ak'tun.

Bathtub Bass, the rest of the story and paper floor update

Thea and G'pa's flute and bass jam

Remember that bass in my bathtub? It's finally gone. We sold it when we were in Portland this fall. With all that was going on with my granddaughter, I forgot to mention it  She's doing better now, btw. She's living at her mom's, has a new boyfriend and a job so we are keeping a good thought from here in the background. Growing up is hard and, I didn't realize it then but, oh man, the 20s suck!

Thea examining bass before sale

So, back to the bass. We sold it to a guy named Pete in Portland, Pete of Pete's Upright Bass Shop on S.E. Boise Street. Pete was the perfect guy to buy bass. We couldn't be happier. He's a musician in the full sense of the word. Music, and in particular the bass, is his love and way of life. So this is the end of long journey for the bass. M. Lee's dad bought it in Portland. We inherited it when he bought a smaller one and, after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer, it lived in our bathtub for a number of years. Finally, and to our great relief, it's time in the desert has come to an end.

Testing testing testing

As for Project Paper Floor. It's going just fine, punctuated by occasional moments of, how do I say, great uncertainty. After all, he's not just slapping down tile or rolling out linoleum. Doing a paper floor is more like doing a life-size art installation. There is only so much anyone can read and trust me, M. Lee has read it all, before one has to take the inevitable leap off the cliff. Of course, he did a lot of tests first on plywood scraps to figure a few things out, proportions, which color paper to use, methods for applying the glue, whether or not to crumple the paper before dipping it in glue or just dip it. He pre-crumples.

The test case was our bathroom. It's the smallest room in the house but turned out to be the hardest due to all the angles. But it's done, including the 12 coats of polyurethane. It looks fantastic. Now he's working on the rest of the bathroom, bedroom and closet. So far so good. It's papered but not without some redoing to break up a couple of seams that developed due to laying paper on two separate days. That took some juggling but he fixed it. Today he'll polyurethane that, beginning with the closet where he'll experiment with using the roller. Applying 12 coats of urethane throughout the entire house with a paint bursh is just not something one does unless one has to. But hey. No matter what, the fucking carpet is gone! Okay. Gotta go. I'm mired in a solstice/xmas card project that I made waaaaaaaaay too complicated. I'm even making the envelopes. Madness! But they must go out today.

First room done and beautiful

12.12.12 paper floor report

Mayan calendar

Happy 12.12.12.

The inter-tubes are strangely quiet these days about the upcoming End of the Mayan Calendar a.k.a. End of the World, Friday December 21, 2012. I guess people are a bit burnt out after all the uproar last year when May 21, 2011, otherwise known as Judgement Day, came and went. It was a huge letdown for the evangelical community who assured the world that the "Bible Guarantees It" . We saw the billboards all through Texas advertising it. Anyway, today being the only day this century that gets to be triple 12s, I had to post something so here's what's happening in my neck of the desert.

We are currently in an uproar here. M. Lee is in the process of tearing up all the carpet and all the linoleum in the house and replacing it with paper. Yes. Paper. As in découpage, papier-mâché aka paper mache. Mon Dieu! Paper? How is that possible?! No problemo. It will be under 12 coats of polyurethane.

Ingredients.

Quail taxi

Henry update

I heard from a couple more scientists regarding Henry the frog but without a photo and a recording of his peculiar croaking no one is convinced he's a member of the endangered Rana sierrae and, even if he were, I don't know what they'd do besides add him to the footnotes. One guy from UCSB Life Sciences was pretty dismissive about the whole thing. Why write me at all? I don't think it's good science but that's his problem. Anyway, I heard Henry again today and sadly it seems he's growing weak. I went out again determined, again, to find him but I could not. I would give him a home indoors out of the cold but it looks like it's not to be.

Sad story of my life these days

I haven't taken up Instagram yet but I photograph everything. It's bad.

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