Magpie's secret peanut

The 7 O'clock Magpie has a secret peanut stash. I'm sure it's her. She comes in the evening at dusk and in the morning before it's light, before everyone else, just like last year and the year before that. At the beginning of the day, she grabs all the peanuts and tucks them around the park for later. I don't think she always remembers where she put them because I find them from time to time. And she drops by at night for a final look around, and yes, I put a few goodies out for her. How can I not?

The other morning, I saw her rummaging in the gravel around the trailer, picking pieces up, moving them around. The way she was digging, I thought she was searching for peanut chips. When I went out later, I discovered she had built a SECRET PEANUT STASH. Shsssssss... don't tell anyone.



Here's a link to a video of her I made a couple of years ago. WARNING: It's hard core Bird Park. The magpie doesn't even make her appearance until half way though. A lone crow plays support. Scratchy background music by Low. 7 O'clock Magpie

Hawk & Sparrow

Warning: hard core Bird Park. No car crashes. No steamy sex scenes. No mind numbing violence. No rhyme. No reason. Well, the lyrics are rhymed.

"For every prayer there is an equal and opposite prayer."
~ Animal Life
Music: "Saturday Sun" by Nick Drake

No. This unlucky little fellow is not the bird in the header.

Hairy and Bela

Hairy and Bela, Return

After spending centuries cloistered in an astral monastery, during which time he got a few things straightened out, Hairy returns, reconciles with Bela, and is accepted into the troupe at the Invisible Theatre.

Faded views

In answer to my daughter's question, no, I didn't visit any of the graveyards in Tonopah this trip, although the town itself is haunted and melancholy as any. I didn't have time to do any more than show a friend, new to the place, a bit of the downtown.

Salvadore was still there, and still doing his fine fade
from the world. I kind of spooked her when I pulled his
photo out from between the stones but I had to check in
on him. He's one of my current favorite time lapse windows
on the past.

She had a $5000 dollar camera with a $3000 lens.
As you might imagine, her photo of this room is better than mine.

Sleepy spring in Tonopah.

Tonopah never forgets.

Roadside distractions

 A couple of photos from my recent trip to Tonopah.


Still standing. Still for sale.

Opening late 2006

Lovely, downtown Tonopah

Local news at 8:24

How's your day going? It's 8:23 AM and I am already overwhelmed. Ah well. This too shall pass.

Window in the sea

Road to Tonopah

Just got back from my bi-annual Tonopah, 12th in row. Here's a few photos from the trip down. Nevada's a strange place.

Stolen for Fashion

Royce on Fashion




Stolen for Fashion
I dare you to watch it all the way to the end.
I did and it made me cry. Have you got the guts
to have a heart? Open your eyes and see.


"Stolen for Fashion"—Learn More at PETA.org.

Words in the dark 3.15

The floor of my mind is littered with crumpled, scribbled out, scrawled and often illegible words, some strung together, some adrift on their own. They are like leaves running before the wind and the next time I look they are spindly sprouts growing in the fetid dark. At other times they appear to be like bugs skittering by and I shudder. Or they are annoying the way sharp rocks are to bare feet or threatening like broken glass. Some of them are frivolous like photos in a collage, interesting only in relationship to something else, or provocative like the preview of a film and some are merely blobs of paint that didn't make it to the canvas, perhaps the best part, but dried and beyond recall. I hear them mumbling and whispering. I kick my way through them, sweep some aside, pick others up and place them under the light for a closer look. Observed they change. They have strange magnetic properties that do not obey the rules. They erratically change poles, attracting then repelling one another. Some are lurkers, suspect, shifty and resistant.