Area 51 and other roadside wonders

There's a winchy model rocket on sticks at the north entrance to Nevada's Area 51. Before 911 it was decrepit and plastered with lots of interesting stickers. After 911 the government scraped off the stickers, gave the it a new coat of paint and threw a fence around it. It's all about respect, don't ya know. Naturally it was much cooler before. By comparison, I found the cactus flowers, free ranging lama, Great White Pyrenees Shepard dogs and lonely graves we met along the way far more interesting.



The once in a hundred year bloom of desert flowers extravaganza is over but there were still plenty of plants in full bloom. It always amazes me how they prevail in such a harsh environment.



I've got to hurry this little show up. I'm leaving for Portland in the morning so I've got to get to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day. I'll have to let the pictures do most of the talking.



The flower season may be past it's peak, but the Mormon crickets are just now on the rise, at least in Austin where we stopped for gas. Even though I have a couple of giant hissing Madagascan cockroaches for pets, I have to admit that the Mormon crickets creep me out. Guess I haven't attained Buddhahood yet.




I just uploaded the same photograph 3 times. Time to stop for the night. I'll have to save the Belmont graves and the hero Great White Pyrenees Shepard dogs for the morning.

So much for property rights. What's next?

As always, the rich are getting richer, richer and richer, all at the expense of anyone and everyone else. And why shouldn't they? Corporate Amerika and the US government are one and the same. Pfizer Inc., the largest drug company in the world, was just handed a huge plum by the Supreme Court in its latest ruling. Government may now seize and destroy private homes and small business properties when it benefits a corporation. Naturally this privilege extends to all the big companies. It's them against us and most of us (including those hard working guys with flags on their trucks) don't even know it. Enough is never enough for these rapacious, Nazi bastards. I bet that verdict was followed by a hardy round of cigar lighting and back slapping.

The Great Basin the spring

Here's a few more photos of the camp trip. I'll post more later. Our camp was at its base the couloir on left. The peak is almost 12,000 ft. In previous years, we've hiked to the ridge line.


That's where we were fortunate to spot the Great Basin Snowman one hot July day. Here's a photo of him from my Nevada Journal. He's looking down the same couloir and out over the valley below.



Flowers weren't the only things blooming. Mosquitoes and no-see-ums were out too but Swami didn't seem to mind as he chilled by the creek.

Wet spring in Nevada

We came back early from the camp trip. We could have driven to Montana in the time it took to pick our way around the the very elusive mountains near Area 51. Finding a way in was our goal this time but the ground is still too wet. Some places in the state got seven to eight hundred times the normal snow pack last winter and roads are washed out. Crossing and re-crossing flooded areas just tears everything up so we'll go back after things dry out a bit more. We had great weather though, balmy as Hawaii in spite of the night rain. We saw some cool stuff and I took about a thousand photos but the most notable ones were of swami's first ever bath.



On our way out we have to drive through Mina so we always check to see how Lobster Boy is doing. After the state shut down his "desert lobster ranch" about a year ago he dragged an old boat to town and is working on turning it into a classy restaurant. Since last fall he has cut 3 holes in the side and started a deck.




The Wild Kat Ranch brothel just down the road from Lobster Boy seems to be doing much better. They've painted Playmate on the back building and generally spiffed the place up.




Okay, that's it for now. This little photo log will have to be continued later. It's late and we're going to the gym in the morning then I'm meeting with some people from Ash Canyon for a free write. And... the Ash Canyon Review is back from the printer. It looks great. I think we should have gone with white stock for the cover but what the hell. The sandy gold is definitely Nevada.

Downing Street Memo, Impeach Bush

DOWNING STREET MEMO
"SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL - UK EYES ONLY"

This memo is the smoking gun revealing how the Bush Administration connived and lied to congress to get support for his invasion of Iraq. It has the potential of doing to Bush what the Watergate tapes did to Nixon, bring him down. The White House, naturally, denies it's importance. Don't let them get away with it. Impeach the bastard.

"WE ARE AN EMPIRE NOW"
The radicals impeached Clinton for lying about a blow job. What a pathetic waste of time and money. Bush lies and American soldiers needlessly lose their lives. Bush lies and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens are maimed, and traumatized, tortured, killed. This bastard better be impeached!

IMPEACH THEM ALL!!

Off to the mountains

Well, we're off to the mountains tomorrow to camp for a few days in the Great Basin. Swami is so excited about going that he even took a bath. He hasn't taken one since Mexico. Actually, this was his first bath ever, but don't tell him I told you that. Anyway, we did some hard miles in Mexico. He can't wait to go tomorrow. He loves the road. I'm bringing lots to work on as I may not be hiking much. My foot is still sore from last week when I whacked it. So it's late and we're leaving early in the morning but here I sit, pounding out a blog entry. Geez...g'night. Be back Saturday.


The swami in Mexico

Fellowship results

The Nevada Arts Council met today to select the winners for this year's fellowship grants. I didn't even make it past the first cut. Oh well. My poems are rather...mmmm....odd, not tidy little narratives that are so popular these days. Four other poets from the Ash Canyon were there as well so it was fun in spite of the fact that I got the lowest score in the bunch. I did draw about 150 birds though. You may be seeing some of them here from time to time. They are friends of mine from Birdland...of course.
Ps. Happy Birthday Mark! :-)

The American Taliban

Ever wonder what the evangelicals are really up to? They are the Christian equivalent of the Muslim fundamentalists, complete with their own Jihad. Don't believe it? Read what these leaders of the Christian right have to say.

LA in spring

Here's a few more photos from our recent trip to Los Angeles. The baby bird and mother were a block off of La Cienega Blvd, a horribly busy street in LA. The rest of the photos come from either the Getty Museum, Venice beach, Santa Monica beach or near LAX.

Los Angeles...worlds within worlds

I should be tired. I am tired but I can't sleep so here's a few pics from my trip to Los Angeles. We got back this afternoon. Yes, the signature is from a photograph of van Gogh's original Irises. We saw it at the Getty. Fabulous museum. It's free. Go there. I'll post more pics later. Hope you like them.

Lift off; Minerva, Hank and other old friends

Lift off, with the goods.

We're going to Los Angeles for a few days. I should be trying to sleep. We're leaving early. I always seem to do this, stay up late before a trip and have a lot of trouble getting up in the morning. Whywhy? Oh well. No deep thoughts after 9 pm. I left Delicata and Nugget slices of avocado, orange and banana plus the usual dry food and Minerva has a new block of suet. I think she may be a raven rather than a crow. She travels alone which is typical of ravens not crows. Mr. Lee mentioned it the other day and I was only too happy to agree. I like the idea. Ravens are cool and then I get to say, "she travels alone, not in a ......... murrrrrrrrrrrrderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" (of crows). The legend of crows murdering one another isn't even true, as the FAQ points out, but it makes a good story therefore persists. And I am always up for a bit of drama. Minerva, on the other hand, is more into stuffing her beak, although she did fight off a couple of intruder crows the other day.


A few personal deities and friends of mine.


Hank is not in this happy group shot. He's taken to sitting on the top of my monitor, smoking cigars and talking tough. Ducks are like that, especially black ducks.

Feast

Delicata loves sweet oranges.

Heaven on earth
I gave the cockroaches a slice of a sweet, juicy orange the other day. It was a treat after I cleaned their terrarium. Nugget couldn't have cared less. She shot straight back into the dark safe hut. Delicata, on the other hand, loves sweet oranges. If it's not sweet, forget it. She stayed out and feasted, in spite of the fact that it was her first day out in a long time. The two of them have been laying low in the hot hut and we've hardly seen them all winter. I guess this is a sure sign it's spring. Well, and the fact that Delicata really loves oranges.

I liked the photo even though it was blurry so I slapped a couple of filters on it. The glow in the orange reflects the way Delicata feels about oranges, as does the way she is straddling it. All in all, it "captures the mood"... ecstasy. Ever think a cockroach could feel such happiness?

Bush forced to consider reality

Review May Shift Terror Policies

The shift is meant to recognize the transformation of al Qaeda over the past three years into a far more amorphous, diffuse and difficult-to-target organization than the group that struck the United States in 2001. But critics say the policy review comes only after months of delay and lost opportunities while the administration left key counter-terrorism jobs unfilled and argued internally over how best to confront the rapid spread of the pro al Qaeda global Islamic Jihad.

I'm still not expecting any kind of sane leadership from the White House because I don't believe any of them are capable of living in reality. They are high on hubris. They really fucked up after 911 by squandering the world's good will towards us. Did they learn? No. They continue to fuck up. The result? Now to many, terrorists are folk heroes. We all know it, even if we can't/won't admit it. I don't know about you, but that really pisses me off.

We can also thank this swelling anti-Americanism on the Christian fundamentalist, right-wing extremists and their Armageddon wet-dream. Like all fundamentalists, they believe they are "above the law"; forgiveness without accountability. They believe they can steal, lie, even murder for god with no consequences because they are forgiven. It's a lie. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. That's a law. It doesn't merely apply to physical nature. It's true politically. It's true spiritually. Bush and Co. don't believe it so they are icons for these one-note, flag-waving, xenophobes with their hysteria, sense of entitlement, and addiction to one-dimensional solutions. Their uncritical, unwavering support of the Republicans is essential to the spread American imperialism.

As a result, our foreign policy is in shambles but karma (cause and effect), unlike "justice", truly is blind. Why wouldn't foreigners fear and/or hate us for swaggering around, waving the world's largest cache of weapons of mass destruction? We thrill at the evil empire in the movies. They see us rolling through their villages. It's so ironic. Bush, himself a military deserter during the Vietnam war, is the world's biggest bully. We can't bomb countries into the stone age and expect people to bless us for it.

To go over the short list again, Bush continues committing us and our children to more and more debt. He whipped up support for his invasion of Iraq by lying to us and continues to lie to us. He is responsible for the ongoing, needless deaths and maiming of thousands of innocent, young American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent people in other countries. Ever wonder why we don't hear much about US military deaths in the news? After all, we are at war. The Bush mandated black-out on causality reports. shsssss......he prefers us to sleeeeeeeeep.....His administration is cloaked in secrecy and is doing everything possible to spy on US citizens...with no check or balance on its power. The guys in the backrooms, who stay in power as presidents come and go, like it like that. Currently, they are doing everything they can to pad the Supreme court with extremist toadies who will support their nefarious agenda's. They will continue running this game until we collectively, emphatically say NO!

Inchworm on a friend's grave

She was my first friend when I left home.


She had an indomitable spirit and kind heart.

Michael Ferguson and Lynne Hughes
The Charlatans, 1965
photo credit: Sam Andrew

It was strange visiting her grave years later.




After he died they buried her dog at her feet. She'd of liked that.

Lynne and her faithful companion