31/05/2012

Photo dump

Gargoyle
Gargoyle, Windsor Castle
Once again, I'm overwhelmed.

Street market wares
London Saturday flea market
I've already taken far too many photos to manage and we're only just over a week into this trip.

Huron St., London
Huron St., London
The flat we're renting is on this street.

It happens every time.


Chinese bride & St. Paul
Wedding photo shoot.
St. Paul's cathedral.
The groom standing off to the right.
Anyway, we came upon this fun scene the other day while walking to the tube.

Wedding photo shoot

These gigantic, multi-location, muli-costume professional photo shoots are the current fashion at the weddings of young Chinese couples.

Wedding

They didn't seem to mind me taking a few of my own.

Wedding shoot

So, that's it for now. As usual, I'm up too late lost in the hodge podge. 

Reflections with a horse
Chelsea reflections

27/05/2012

English or American

I agree with Ghandi when he wrote, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” and, by that measure, both the United Kingdom and the US are neither truly great nor even very moral. However, since we arrived in the UK, I have been enjoying how differently they use of our common language and am wondering just how deep those differences go.

Perhaps I have merely succumbed to novelty but, at the moment, it seems more polite to ask drivers to "give way" rather than "yield" like we do in the US.

London cafe

And even though I'm vegetarian, I find this unobtrusive window sign both amazing and delightful. "Proper Hamburgers"?

London cafe

American restaurants advertise "fast" food, even "healthy" and "organic" food but "proper" hot food? Never! I believe I speak for the majority of my countrymen when I say that no one shall ever enforce the eating of "proper" food on an American. By god Southerners, cued by their Corporate Overlords, thoroughly vilified the First Lady for merely suggesting that parents feed their children healthy food.

Hyde Park, London.
Hyde Park, London

Perhaps I am belaboring the point here but I also thought the dog poop bins in Hyde Park were pretty civilized.

26/05/2012

Thought for the day

Mind the Gap w/ train
London Tube
That blurry blue line is a speeding train.

Alrighty then.



24/05/2012

The Queen is home but I am out

It's going to be hard keeping track of our experiences in London. Tonight again I am far too tired to retrieve the mental notes I made during the day. All that's left is bits and scraps but I'll do, well not my best, but I'll do what I can.

We took the tube to the center of London. Because I like horses we started with the changing of the Horse Guard. It was not conducted in the regular field as that area is being turned into a volleyball field for the upcoming Olympics. The entire city is preparing, not only for the Olympics in July, but the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June.

Anyway, after watching the Horse Guard, we wandered through Admiralty Arch and ate our peanut butter and banana sandwiches on the steps leading up to a bigger than life sculpture of someone or other then made our way up The Mall, the giant red carpet like road leading to the Palace. Along the way, The Mall passes through Green Park, a lovely area "acquired" in the 16th century by Henry VIII from a colony of female lepers. He desired a convenient place to shoot deer. But what can I say? The grim old structures, the gothic spires rising above the trees, the enormous royal residences and pompous towering halls of government facing The Mall had the desired effect. I was impressed. Even the obviously phallic stylized ship's masts topped by red and gold crowns lining the parade way between the Arch and the Palace hold their own.

As it turned out construction is also underway directly in front of the palace and the last part of the way barricaded. The flag was up on the Palace which means the Queen was in but we were out of luck. No big deal. Even with the construction, barricades and walk arounds, I am here to report that London is still a great show, an extravagant display of great world power, incalculable wealth, ruthless, fearful and magnificent.

But enough of that. M. Lee and I went for bike ride after getting back to Tooting Bec. It was rush hour so traffic was horrendous. The cool thing is that motorists are pretty accustomed to cyclists, much more so than in Nevada anyway, so it seemed quite natural being in the flow. This is partly due to the efforts of London's cycling mayor Boris Johnson who is bent on making London a more bike friendly city. We brought our own bikes with us. I think I failed to mention that before. Bromptons. Folding bikes. They take a little getting used to but are great fun. Along the way we stopped to pick up some maps of bike routes at Crazy Horse, a bike shop in Tooting Bec. We got to talking with the owners and discovered that the woman and I are actually related but more about that later. It's already too late. I've got to try to sleep now.

22/05/2012

London, hello and good-night


A couple of photos is about all I can do for now. It's been over 30 hours since I last slept. We're in London. We arrived around noon today and are staying up to catch up with the new time zone.

London bound. on Twitpic
Travel buddy stowaways, Swami and Minerva.

Our apartment is in Tooting Bec, an interesting, very diverse neighborhood in south London. M. Lee found it on AirBnB.

Arrival... on Twitpic
London customs.
More a concept than a place.

We had dinner tonight at a tiny nearby restaurant our landlords recommended, Chennai Dosa. Yum. It was perfect comfort food. Anyway, it's finally getting dark so, for now, good night.


10/05/2012

Obese magpie

Breakfast in the Bird Park and once again, the magpies are loading up with peanuts, sometimes flying off with two in a beak, while the cautious crows look on. Actually, the magpie are not really obese, well there is one. I just like the image. I want to shout, "Come on! Grab a goodie before everything's gone" as one crow finally begins inching in sideways toward the kibble but no. Can't do that. They tolerate me through the window but otherwise our relationship is pretty tenuous.

The cool thing is that Minerva the crow is here this morning. She's been a Bird Park regular for years. You might wonder how I know but I have my ways. Actually, it's not all that mystical. She has that feather protruding from her right wing and her companion has a distinctive brown feather in her right wing. Her/his? I don't know. Maybe they're siblings but, in any case, they are out there right now and Brownie has finally grabbed a beakful of kibble and flown off. Breakfast in bed for the chillens? I am so going to miss this. Yes. I am looking forward to London and Paris. We leave on the 21st. I'm not addled, for Christ's sake, but I am also very attached to my bird friends. Awww well. It's spring so they won't be out there foraging in the snow anyway and Penny Robin, who had to have her apple first thing in the morning, has already gone back to higher ground.


06/05/2012

Oh. It's just you.

That's the response I get from a lot of the birds out in the Bird Park when I sit down at my computer, as I did just now. Before they figure out it's just me they do that little crouch birds do before launch then they notice it's just me, straighten up and go back to their business. I'm flattered.

Other than that, the feeling in the house among us two humans is as though we are drawn up into a great wave that is, in six days, going to come crashing down around us. Ready or not, we leave on Friday and will be gone until the end of July.

So, last week M. Lee decided to paint the house alone by hand. It's been on the project list for a few years. At this point, were you to ask, he might say he underestimated the job. In any case, it has upped the pressure about a thousand degrees. Other than that, for me, traveling is always preceded by great, amorphous anxiety and I am fully in it. I worry about the birds. Don't even say it. I know how pathetic that sounds, as though I am Mother Nature incarnate.They are wild. They will, somehow, survive my absence. My regret, in part, is purely selfish. Currently, a group of red wing blackbirds are regular customers at Bird Park and all day long they fill the silence with their charming conversation. This is the first time they've been regulars and, of course, they will be long gone when we get back. I know that's nothing but it at least it distracts me from the anxiety of what I'll forget to do or bring and how horrible that 10 hour flight is going to be.

Anyway, thanks for listening, if you got this far. I don't know why but it helps to write about it but it does and, like the message in the bottle, it's comforting to think there is another shore. Now I've gotta go. I've got a list of things to do. Have a great day.

01/05/2012

Ringtones for a weeping eye

My poor left eye is not doing nearly as well as my right eye after its cataract removal last week. I have a post-op with the doctor tomorrow so we'll see but I'm not too worried. The results are still within what he has explained are "normal" even though at the moment it feels like there's a stick jammed into the side of my eye. Last week was simple, in and out, but today I came home with a terrible headache and a blood shot eye oozing rubbery pus and surrounded by dried blood. Sorry for the gory details. I just report. So, I spent the afternoon downloading ringtones for my phone. I got some cool ones, a couple which I will share with you in hope of making up for the gory details I have inflicted you with. I'd post more but zedge.net is currently too busy to access. Sci-fi Creepy is one of my all-time favorites. My daughter has had it on her phone for a couple of years and I was delighted to finally stumble across it this afternoon.


Get this on your phone | Make your own free ringtones


Get this on your phone | Make your own free ringtones

28/04/2012

The difference between crows and magpies.

Here at the Bird Park crows jump down out of the air with a ground shaking, window rattling THUD, straighten their feathers, then assess the situation before committing to anything further. Magpies, on the other hand, careen out of the air, hit the ground running, taper off in a sometimes stumbling bounce to a brief pause before dashing off, grabbing a peanut or bit of kibble and flying away.

25/04/2012

Good-bye smoker's teeth world. Hello London.

At the moment, I'm halfway through the two part process of cataract removal. The right eye was done yesterday. Amazing! The walls in our house aren't smoker's teeth yellow after all. They're white! And the fence in the Bird Park? The wood has a lovely grain. One thing. I have occasionally noticed the curve of the new lens along the outside corner of my vision. I hope that goes away but, no matter what, next Tuesday we're doing the left eye.  

Now for the summer travels countdown part of this ongoing, chaotic account of my life accompanied by a fair amount of anxiety. Not for the trip itself, five weeks in London, five weeks in Paris. That should be really interesting and fun. It's the preparation that makes me crazy and I am currently fully in The Crazy, with an extra dose of anxiety for the flight itself, a two-part adventure beginning with that restless night before the flight. We get up about 4 am for the kick-off flight to LA on May 21 followed by a several hour layover before the 10 hour flight to London arriving 8 hours ahead of our biological clocks so we'll do what travelers do. Stay up to catch up. But more on all this later.

23/04/2012

Moving Day

We were recently in Portland helping my son Jack move his family into their first very own home.


Mista Leo packed right along with the rest of us but took...

Mista Leo's moving day
...personal responsibility....


Mista Leo's moving day
....that his prize soccer ball...


Mista Leo's moving day
...made it safely...

Mista Leo's moving day
 ...to their new home.

Faerie Court

No gender bias in her house so what a surprise when, completely on her own, Thea has fallen in love with the color pink and swirly dresses and takes very seriously the idea of being a Princess in the Faerie Court.

Faerie Princess Thea
Nevada is also a member of the Faerie court. on Twitpic
Faerie Princess Nevada














Of course, Nevada is only to happy to play along. If ever a dog were a faerie princess it would be Nevada.

21/04/2012

Morning from the backroom

Comma Coffee is constantly changing.

Morning from the back of the room on Twitpic

Can you spot the new parlor grand piano?
Clue: look for the shinny flat surface.

Carson City Comma Coffee piano on the wall. on Twitpic

In fitting Comma fashion,
the old upright is now on the wall.

Share photos on twitter with Twitpic

 Back in the back.


15/04/2012

"Women and children first"

MITT ROMNEY:
"THROW 'EM OVERBOARD!
NO LIFEBOAT,
NO LIFE VEST FOR YOU!"

Republican version of women and children first then the world.

Here's Romney's proposal:

  • Make contraception less available to poor women by getting rid of Planned Parenthood.
  • Make the option of abortion illegal by signing a Personhood Amendment.
  • Make access to prenatal care and pediatric care less available by gutting Medicaid.
  • Then force mothers out of the home so that they can't even raise their own children.
  • Gut public K-12 education.
  • Gut grants for College Education.
  • Continue outsourcing jobs to third world countries where people will work for .50 a day.
  • Gut Medicare and Social Security.
  • Gut the environment upon which life as we know it depends.

08/04/2012

The Mizpah at last

I'm just back from my spring trip to the lovely semi-ghost town of Tonopah Nevada. 

The desk clerk told us they sometimes hear
children talking who are not there. That made
the strange miniature furniture look really eerie.

The big news this year is that the Mizpah Hotel has finally re-opened.

Last year...outside in.

I've been photographing the place through the windows for years.

Now I finally got in.

This year...inside out.


There have been other changes around town as well.


That photo I found a few years ago of the guy posing with a beer is gone.

Gone....
It was in the cave/cabin on the floor with all the junk so, for safekeeping, I stashed it between some stones in the rock face of the "cabin". However, this spring it was gone so another face disappears into Tonopah's fading past. Also, the abandoned tailor's shack up the street that still housed some wonderful antique equipment is gone.


Little remained of tailor's
shop from days gone by.

I'm hoping the museum folks rescued the equipment. I don't think it was in the rubble but then I didn't dig around.

Tailor shop today, collapsed and gone.

And, as I mentioned before, the little store Hippies of Tonopah is gone, not the building itself, but Hippy. Graffiti inside reads "Ur Gay". So much for love in diversity. 

But no time to mourn to past.


The ghosts of Tonopah Present haunt us even now...

Goblin of the Fifth Floor

...not only the goblin that accosted us as we explored the hotel...

The Lady in Red

...but the ghost the Lady in Red herself. Legend has it that she was stabbed to death by a jealous lover in the hallway outside of her room, 502, and haunts the hotel to this day. Naturally, we tried reserving her room for our stay next fall but it was already booked. But we will be in room 501. Close enough. I'm already spooked. The building itself is morose and vaguely threatening. I was happy to get back down to the lobby and glad to re-emerge back out under the blue desert sky.

I posted more photos of the Mizpah here.


03/04/2012

New Madhuban

Going through papers on my desk this afternoon, I came across some things I wrote years ago that I'd been thinking about, and forgetting to, do something with. As you might guess, I wrote it during a particularly difficult time in my life. Anyway, I'm posting an excerpt here and at Anna Sadhorse.

New Madhuban
West Virginia


this forest,    
planted for a loaf of bread
and a dollar a day, 
is a solemn place
the hill it has taken possession of
drops sharply
to a holler     too steep for pasture
a place where small skeletons   slowly turn to stone
this is a good place to be alone

the sun seldom finds entry to this grove
is a stranger here     off his path  
from a world that does not exist
his probing beams
only deepen the darkness
and threaten to ignite the brittle trees

one may only be here carefully    
this forest has no need of company
birds know it   they do not nest
or sing among its spiney branches
there is no undergrowth   
nothing pierces the needle mat

and the pines themselves
have shed their lower branches
becoming heartless    
pitch steeped trunks with shattered limbs
they offer no place to rest
who comes here must stand alone
who comes here to dream must dream
indifferent as the dead


asha
West Virginia, 1975 - Excerpt from Sunday Feast
Trees were planted in this area during America's Great Depression of the 1930's as part the New Deal.

02/04/2012

First dance

My niece Maren's wedding last month in Portland was a very sweet affair.

Maren, Thea and Mama

Uncle Papa Jim conducted the ceremony. Before meeting and marrying my sister, he was a fourth year novice at a Catholic monastery so priestly duties are natural for him.


He did choke up though when it came to the part where he put Maren's hand in Drew's. For a moment, we all held our breath.

Papa Jack, Mister Leo, Jeannette and Uncle Papa Jim

Unfortunately, I'm one of those crappy amateur photographers who waves the camera around in the air and hopes for the best. It's like trying to catch a swarm of butterflies with a bucket. I took a lot of photos but, unfortunately, these are about as clear as any of them get.

Big Girl Thea teaching cousin Leo to dance

28/03/2012

Adrienne Rich

So sorry to see you go. 

"We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to this scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear"


Adrienne Rich, "Diving into the Wreck" (excerpt)
May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012

Minerva & the outdoor crows

Minerva & the outdoor crows by ashabot
Minerva & the outdoor crows, a photo by ashabot on Flickr.
Watching you watching me watch you.

19/03/2012

Old friends and familiar places

We're currently in Southern Oregon, en-route to Portland Wednesday for a wedding next Saturday. My niece is getting married. We left Nevada a week early in order to attend the Celebration of Life for a friend who recently died. And I've been visiting friends everyday since and will again tomorrow. I lived in Ashland for years and have never made friends like these anywhere else. It's home in a very special way. This trip I reconnected with three people in particular that I was estranged from when we moved to Nevada 11 years ago. It's not just a case of absence making the heart grow fonder, at least with two of them. It is that we realize now that if you love someone tell them before it's too late.

14/03/2012

11/03/2012

Coffee with Old Robin

It was barely light this morning when I put breakfast out in the Bird Park but Old Robin was already there enjoying an apple. What's very cool is that she didn't fly away when I opened the door. She hopped off a bit but then turned to watch as I filled the water and scattered the goodies. That was about 15 minutes ago.

We're now on the third shift although the demographics have changed at bit. The crows are back, sometimes even beating the magpies to the table but, for today at least, Old Robin gets the Early Bird Award. Otherwise, and every morning, the crows and magpies swoop in first then, about 10 minutes later, the grackles arrive along with a smattering of starlings. That order is fixed. At least so far, Old Robin's presence is seasonal and intermittent. And, of course, the quail make their appearance at some point, a few pigeons drop in, including a lovely couple of mourning doves and last, but of course not least, the finches arrive. They are here on and off all day and the quail who come and go in waves. Lately Old Robin has been around a good part of the day, along with a second robin she chases off, to no avail. And, yes, the Seven O'clock Magpie checks in through the day on a regular basis. She is the most loyal of all.

And, while I'm on the subject Bird Park wonders and special events, yesterday at dawn a crow watched me silently from the peak of old Dick's house as I put the food out. I heard his talons click on the roof as he dropped down from the sky but I pretended I didn't notice and he didn't get scared off. Woo-hoo.

So that's it for now. If you're a regular here, you've probably read similar rundowns before. Sorry about that. I just felt the need to write some words and this is what's happening outside my window. At this point, everyone has come and are already gone except for Old Robin who has all the apples to herself again and she is taking her time. She's at that last cup of coffee part of breakfast when you're full but want to stretch the moment out as long as possible before launching into the day. And so am I. Well, I haven't had my oatmeal yet but it is time for one last cup of coffee. So, have a nice day. Good chatting with you.

07/03/2012

Etude leaves the garage

Etude leaves the garage
Etude developed a soul warbling songs in the dark to the mice for weeks after being thrown in the trash. I felt very sad when the little fellow finally grew silent. Naturally, I assumed he'd died.

27/02/2012

Etude's return

Etude 02.24.12
Etude 02.24.12
I'm shocked. Etude's back!

25/02/2012

Conservative Chickens

Looking for something to go along with your morning coffee or whatever? Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi just published an excellent article on the Electric Conservative Paranoia Acid Test. Check it out.

20/02/2012

Predominantly Inattentive


That's me. Predominantly Inattentive. I keep going back to this because the term is a relatively new update to the ADHD thing and fits me like the proverbial missing piece. As for strategies for "afflicted adults"? Wikipedia covers that here.

If I could just call my mind back to attention with a dog whistle fine.... but I'd keeping changing where I keep the whistle and sometimes forget I have it at all. Which isn't to say ADHD-PI is the same as Alzheimers but hey, they're not mutually exclusive. Woo-hoo. On the other hand, maybe I should get a whistle.

Anyway, truth be told, the real reason I did this post today is because I wanted to use this photo again. I took a few years ago at Comma Coffee . The bits of mirror were, at the time, pasted on the wall. However now, in the light of the PI addition, it's really the most accurate photo I have of myself.

Now back to the tasks at hand.

18/02/2012

Red-eye

1:30 A.M.
Reluctantly the metal beast shudders up and above a sudden spill of sleepless iridescence, lagoons of gold, pockets of blaze, sprawling tendrils of light trailing off to coals glowing in the dark then a few scattered embers then they also vanish and there, traversing the interstellar night, the edge of our planet and her lovely moon who is, at the moment, gazing at her reflection on my window. Hello Moon. But before she can answer our reverie is interrupted by the arrival of the steward bearing peanuts.

________________________________________

I found this entry in one of my notebooks the other day. I wrote a while ago and totally forgot about it until now. Don't be surprised if it has changed if you happen to drop by and read it again later. That's how things go around here.

17/02/2012

Bird Park Wish List

If it weren't for the damn CC & Rs, we
could have a fine fellow like Mr. Kung Fu around
to greet the neighborhood gangster cats that have made
the Bird Park their own personal Nevada casino style dessert buffet.


Meet Mister Kung Fu Rooster.

11/02/2012

Mexican standoff at the brain drain

EphemeraWriting doesn't come easy to me. It's generally a miserable experience trying to get a sentence or two straight, real work on my part, but then concentrating on anything for long is hard. My attention is as divided as a swarm of bees working a meadow. Naturally this kind of thing has a diagnosis. There's a diagnosis for everything isn't there? And thanks to Big Pharma, there is a drug to conveniently "manage" it but I have no interest in living my life high on speed. Okay. I am always battling my inertia, but cycling, walking, weightlifting, swimming etc., along with my improvised version of mindfulness, however imperfect, are way better than that. As ol' Zeke would say, it's a better way to live.

As you might guess, this blog is one of my regular stops in the meadow. At the moment I am taking a break from two other tasks that have pressing deadlines and are locked in a Mexican standoff.

In other news, breakfast was a huge event in the Bird Park this morning. Only now, the quail finally wandered off giving me an opportunity to restock the apple treats since a chattering of starlings dropped in and ravaged them.

Okay. Gotta go.