19/06/2010

Buddha on the road

Old Sukhothai


I thank Whirling Phoenix for posting this lovely photo of old Sukhoithai. Other than one charming picture of his rented motorbike, I am still waiting for photos from Mr. Lee but he did email another post to share so back to Thailand, this time in the lovely old and new city of Sukhothai again on an old motorbike...

June 18

I'm staying at the TR Guesthouse in New Sukhothai. Yesterday, I set off for Old Sukhothai. The history is not clear, at least not to me, but many will tell you that Sukhothai is something like the origin of the Thai monarchy or possibly the cradle of Thai culture or even civilization and that its origins date to the 13th Century. Let's just say that it's an important historic site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it's full of old buildings and old Buddhas, all in a park-like setting.

Every single piece of literature you can find on visiting Sukhothai, no exception, will tell you to rent a bike near the front gate, and this is good advice. A bike is a lovely way to visit the park. But I was born to ride and you know it was way way way too hot to pedal. I got my motorbike, the oldest and the crappiest one yet, and I hit the road. Seven miles later I was at the entrance.

There were one thousand children there already, mostly on bicycles, mostly dressed in pink school uniforms. Most of them wanted to practice their one English word on the only foreign visitor there. They were polite and good-natured and I said "hello" back 500 times throughout the day. It was hotter than hell, probably 100 degrees. I talked to Buddhas, listened to monks, sat in the shade, ate lotus moon cake, drank water, said hello to children. All good things come to an end, and I made my way back to my room before dark.

Another day, another site. Si Satchanalai is like a sister city to Sukhothai except it gets few visitors and is less restored. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was too far for the little crappy motorbike, so I took a bus. This was stressful. I know I am a visitor here but Thailand has been part of the gringo trail for decades and yet it is shocking how little English there is. I didn't really plan this trip and I didn't learn any Thai but it would seriously help. I asked six different people to help me get off the bus (getting on the bus if fairly straightforward as New Sukhothai has a nice bilingual bus station) but this concern of mine was completely incomprehensible. Turns out, someone did help me get off at the wide spot in the road that is the entrance for Si Satchanalai. Without help, I would have missed it completely. On the bus ride back, I saw two Thais miss their stop by about 10 miles because no stops are announced ever. Probably happens all the time.

Wat Traphang Ngoen -Sukhothai, Thailand - photo by Taiger808

I rented a bike (sigh) for one dollar and had the park to myself. For me the place was 20 times better than Sukhothai. It was right on the river, it was covered in trees and wildlife, it had better buildings, though fewer Buddhas, and a temple with the remains of 36 life-size elephant statues. It was one of the most photogenic places I've visited in Thailand. I entered the site on a wood-planked pedestrian suspension bridge over a broad muddy river fringed with dense vegetation and palm trees and so damn picture perfect. Too bad I forgot my camera battery. I took it as a message from the Buddha to let go of my attachments and live in the moment and with only a few pangs that is what I did.

--M. Lee


Ps. In all fairness I can't really hold it against Mr. Lee for failing to supply me with tons of photos. Even I once fell into an irrational stupor while traveling in another country and was completely unable to download my photos until I got home. It was very strange but faced with a crappy, beat up hotel computer and connection, I froze. I like to think I'm past that now but who knows what lies up the dusty road?


Ayutthaya, Thailand - photo by aheu


16/06/2010

Reno, Spoken Views


I am staying in Reno tonight after reading at Spoken Views monthly open mic. I heard some really good work. It was better than Berkeley and more energetic. I'm glad I finally went.

Note to self



I've been home for a few days and the birds are just now beginning to return to the Bird Park, one or two here and there, although the ever faithful 7 o'clock magpie was right on it, gobbled up the kibble the minute I returned. She doesn't miss a beat. But it's lonely here without them all, even the quail have disappeared, and it's especially lonely since we cut down the big cottonwood tree that stood majestically over it, giving shelter to all, predator and prey. The park feels really exposed and vulnerable without it. We didn't want to cut it down but Dick's widow wanted to do it and, after all, it was just over the property line on her side so it was her call. It shocked us all. It was a great tree, really defined our little enclave but she wanted it gone and anything to keep the widow happy I guess. The rest of us neighbors thought of it as Dick's tree and were amazed she wanted to cut it down. Old Dick is barely cold in the ground. Anyway, the birds are slow to return, the weeds are high and Ratfink is still cavorting around Thailand which leaves me simultaneously jealous, lonely, insecure and grateful. The jealous part is self-explanatory I suppose, as is the lonely part. I am grateful because, in his absence, I finally made it to the Bay Area and connected with the poetry scene there. I was always waiting for him to go with me. Lame. I have to go back. Must not forget that. It is so easy to get lulled by our everyday life when he's home. Note to self: Must remember. Must go back, with or without him.


New Sukhothai

Quick note this morning from New Sukhothai. Looks like a really lovely place but are there tiny little motorbikes?

June 16 - Language Barrier guest blogger

I'm here. The room is small and a little smelly despite all the glowing reviews. The train arrived an hour late and then I had to hunt for a driver to drive me an hour to New Sukhothai.

Anyway, I'm crashing after 14+ hours of travel. I'll see about calling you in the morning...the bandwidth here is scant, but I'll give it a shot.

monkey dragon love,
L.

Outraged yet?

Oh and how do you like this? Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell and BP) all have "Safety Response Plans" that are virtually identical... in other words.... total bullshit! More here.



15/06/2010

Ratfink does Thailand

June 15 - another email from the Language Barrier's vagabond guest blogger M. Lee

I just returned the motorbike I have had for the last two days. It is (cannot find the apostrophe key on this Thai keyboard) one of two at the Rabieng guest house in Phetchaburi. I enjoyed the hell out of it probably a little too enthusiastically. Imagine if you will a tall pale giant hunched over a tiny little motorbike, death-gripped to the handlebars, dark wrap shades obscuring wild eyes, a loose fitting old bike helmet over a greasy stained cap (it is the law for farang but the moto helmets were too small), a big shit eating grin across the bug and dirt smeared face, weaving in and out of traffic like life is too short to care (if you are older, Ratfink will provide a frame of reference). Live free or die, baby.

I have a few minutes left on my card back at the Sun Hotel but I do not trust that card so I will tell you now that I leave at 5 AM tomorrow morning heading for Bangkok by train, 4.5 hours, and from Bangkok to Sukhothai by train, 9 hours. Long day. Will probably have internet at the end of it.

I will not be able to phone you in the morning but I will email you if I can when I arrive.

I am finally settling into Thailand. I think you would like it very much. It is possible to get off the tourist trail and have some fun. Phetchaburi is proof. Fun town.

Leefink


14/06/2010

Monkeys & motorbikes

June 14 - More from the Language Barrier's roving reporter

I rented the motorbike for another day and have been exploring Phetchaburi. I already have my familiar stops. This is not unlike Antigua in size and feel. Except it has a lot of motorbikes and the monkeys are all over the place (macaques?).

Okay, now I need to use my precious remaining internet minutes figuring out to get the hell out of here.

L.


Phetchaburi

Back on the Thai mainland now, this latest post of Mr. Lee's is from Phetchaburi. I am learning a little bit about the country as he makes his way north. There are wild monkeys living in abandoned buildings and (literally) hanging out in town. And elephants still live free in Thailand. How cool is that!?

And now for the RANT PORTION of this post:
Unscrupulous people are poaching what's left of the world's incredible, irreplaceable exotic wildlife population and superstitious, self-indulgent Asians are their biggest customers. Together these assholes are responsible for endangering these fragile diminishing populations. Whether it's because of a taste for shark fin soup or an ignorant, misguided effort to increase sexuality (which doesn't work but that's not the point), I'm calling you guys out. Think I'm racist? Too bad. As long as you're killing and eating my friends, fuck off.

Don't support exploitation. If you are traveling in this (or any) part of the world please know that travelers are discouraged from buying food from handlers to feed animals or even having their pictures taken with them. The whole system is corrupt and illegal. In Thailand, Wildlife1.org provides a way to anonymously report handlers. I am including the link in case I'm ever in Thailand and want to report somebody. You can use it too.

So now, on to our guest blogger.


June 14 - Phetchaburi Thailand Photos here

After we got off the phone, I strolled around the town to try and get oriented. It had just rained, so it wasn't so hot and I had a window of opportunity to get out and explore. I was the ONLY westerner downtown. I finally shook off the grubby Euro backpack set. Obviously, there are enough stray visitors that I didn't attract too much attention (or the people were really sneaky about it). Folks actually smiled at me, but no one stared.

I found the food market. Pretty much like any market anywhere. I sniffed out some sweets. They make a distinctive egg-based sweet here, sort of like a custard ball, and that's what I thought I found cooking over a charcoal grill. But what I got was something different though probably no less delicious. The sweet was about the size of a ping pong ball and I would guess it consisted of roasted mashed banana or plantain, fresh coconut, maybe a little egg as a binder and maybe a little sugar for a sweetener. I got 10 for 50 cents.

As I munched my snack, I slowly made my way over to the Rabieng Guesthouse, reputedly the only place in town to rent motorbikes. They had two venerable Suzukis. I took the one with two mirrors So far as I know, there are only two motorbikes for rent in the entire town of Phetchaburi (contrast that with the hundreds available on the tiny island of Koh Tao). That's how slight tourism is here.

After learning that it was way too far to travel to Kaeng Krachen National Park (really, one of my main goals in my visit here), and after assuring the girl that I wasn't going to KK Park, I set off for KK Park. I had no map. I had a compass and a vague idea of where the park might be. It's large, the largest in the country, so I figured if I kept driving in one direction, I'd probably run into it. 50 miles later, that's exactly what happened. Although the roads are generally good, the ride there was perilous and hot and dusty and easily one thousand times more dangerous than my aborted plan to visit Khao Sok National Park on a tour.

At the KK Visitor Center, signs were in Thai and English, but nobody spoke any English. The girl at the desk told me I couldn't continue on "motorcycle". When I asked just how, then, I was supposed to get to a trailhead, I was met with incomprehension. It just didn't make sense to me, but she was adamant. I watched a couple motorbikes whiz by and decided to cross the street to Park Headquarters, maybe find a forester who spoke English. I talked to three fellows but they really didn't understand me and continued to gesture toward the Visitor Center despite my protestations, despite my pantomiming riding a motorbike, etc.

I set my jaw and resolved to drive up the damn road, and the heck with the Visitor Center girl. I hopped on my little Suzuki and, like a renegade outlaw biker, I gunned it straight to the center of the park. Nobody pursued me. Nobody cared.

After some time, I came to a luxury resort. I reckoned that a luxury resort would have someone at the desk who was fluent in many languages. I rode through the extensive grounds, covered in sweat and road grime, my filthy day pack on my back, and eventually I got to the front desk. Open air and quite beautiful. There, a nice woman eating a green coconut welcomed me in English. I asked her where exactly I was. My question was impossible, I know, but I had to start somewhere. A half hour and one coconut shake later and finally we came to an understanding. I was just outside the park proper.

The resort was hurting for business. Normally, rooms were $100 or more per night (nice big bed, TV, wifi in the room, biggest pool I'd seen in Asia, great staff, perfect grounds, I could go on). Without negotiating, she offered me a room with breakfast for half price. Great rate, but $50/nt is still too dear for my backpacker budget.

Back in Phetchaburi, I stumbled across the Monday Night Market by accident. Seems half the city was there. Interesting goods including a lot of manufactured goods that were made in Thailand rather than made in China and that just seems so odd and rare these days. In addition to every kind of clothing and consumer good, there was a vast array of food. I'd already eaten at the Night Market - fish and veggies and a fried egg over rice for a buck - so I just had a milky iced tea with grass jelly and two other kind of jellied things.

I'm at the hotel now. My body is still vibrating from more than a hundred miles of hard riding on a small motorbike. I will sleep now.

Mr. Lee

Read about Wildlife Friends of Thailand's latest rescue and news here.

11/06/2010

Ps from Thailand

Travel in paradise, news from the Language Barrier guest blogger Mr. Lee
June 11 - Ps

I'll call you in my morning after my coffee and with a full charge on the computer. It takes days notice to make arrangement to get off and go somewhere and I haven't been sure where I'll be going and that takes many hours of research and this tiny computer is too tiny and sometimes the internet goes down for hours and I still have to book a 7-hour overnight ferry ride to somewhere I've never been, a ferry ride in which I'll be crammed like a sardine below deck onto a potentially bed bug infested thin mat 3 inches away from my fellow Thai travelers, no a/c, diesel fumes, body fumes, finally arriving at a port I've never seen in a place I've never been. To suffer like this takes copious research.

L.

Adventures of the Thai-Dragon


"Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why." -Kurt Vonnegut Jr.


Circumnavigus Interuptus

June 11

I paddled as hard as I could, almost, but the sun and heat won. And the kayak, not much of a boat, tracked poorly and wallowed like a pig. But the water was lovely and the sea was calm. I did not come close to a proper circumnavigation; even in a real sea kayak, it would have been a serious challenge.

But I own that boat for 24 hours. Cost? 5 American bucks. Gonna paddle south when the sun gets a little lower.

You know that feeling when you are so coated with grime - the sweat and the sunscreen and the salt and the peeling skin - and it seems like nothing you do will ever make you clean, and everything you have is coated with salt and dirt. I feel profoundly dirty. I love the sea but it coats everything and then slowly eats it alive.

Wait, as I sit in my room overlooking the water, I see that another patron is paddling off with my boat! The outrage! I better go investigate.

--M. Lee


10/06/2010

Thailand express



Thailand

The last time something from Mr. Lee appeared here at this outpost border crossing we were exploring Mayan ruins together in the Yucatan. Now he's in Thailand and I am not. It sucks. I miss him like crazy but it's clear the Universe wants me in the jungles of Berkeley exploring the poetry scene and I have found, after repeated attempts, that it's best to not argue with the Universe. Anyway, but and so for your reading pleasure I give you Mr. Lee our Language Barrier Guest Blogger du jour writing from the sunrise side of a Gulf of Thailand island paradise.


June 4

Do you like shadenfreude? I know you do. I'm racing against time here with only 22 minutes remaining on this satellite internet connection from bumfuck thailand (yes I found it). Power is supplied by generators and is only on 6 to 12. Internet was not working for me yesterday. Today is ok but like I said, time limit.

I am on the island of Koh Phangan. I flew to Samui and took a ferry. I am on the remote (where else) east side, a little place called Than Sadet. Thai kings used to come here so it is good enough for me.

I was the only patron at Plaas (do not be deceived by the web site, should you go there). Other than four drunk Germans smoking cigarettes around a table, I am the only person here tonight. Tourism is way off in general and it is also the start of the rainy season. I have a great bed, probably the best bed I have had in weeks. It is soaked in my sweat since the fan goes off at midnight. It is so hot here it is hallucinogenic. I can't be sure I am actually at a computer writing an email to you. I am nearly out of time now.

I had hoped to hang out with other travelers at least occasionally. I will move tomorrow to a little more populous place. Will it have internet? I do not know. Please do not be alarmed if you do not hear from me for a couple days by which time I will surely be off this island and on to other parts (the enduring irony here is that I went to this island for a little peace and quiet from the city, a place to gather my thoughts do a little research maybe even skype with you. a bitter irony indeed)

Please feel free to enjoy my plight. Savor the schadenfreude.


June 5 - Here's my "blog post":

I caught the "ferry" from Than Sadet this afternoon, destination Thong Nai Pan Noi, still on the island of Phangan. As lovely and budgetarian as Than Sadet was, it was really too hot and too isolated. The isolation alone would have been ok, but the heat was crippling without electricity to power a fan. Plus, no internet, and I need internet to make plans on the fly.

As I say, I caught the ferry but it wasn't a regular ferry as you might picture a ferry. It was a large boat and it beached, sort of, and I waded to the ladder and handed my backpack up and climbed aboard and then we sped off. There were three other passengers from somewhere else. I spoke to a taciturn Thai who seemed not to understand me at all and I was certain I would not reach my destination easily or quickly but somehow the boat dropped me off (in the water) right in front of my "hotel". It could not have gone easier.

I was the only person to disembark. My hope to meet other travelers is dimming for the moment, but we'll see who gathers around the water hole tonight.


June 6 (after finding lost passport)

sumbitch blended into my luggage, slipped behind a panel...I emptied out my luggage 3 times and the 3rd time was the charm...but first I hopped in a cab toward last night's lodging after trying and failing on each one of their phone numbers...they are really cut off and have no power until evening...was going to go there, find passport, catch the ferry back...stopped the taxi after quarter mile and decided to rent motorbike - cheaper and faster - eventually, I made it there on scary eroded dirt tracks ("you scratchee bike, dragon fucky fucky you long time!") and no passport. Had a great lunch and, dejected, I headed home. Decided to go through everything one more time before calling the US Consulate and BAM!, chinese dragon have pity on me.


June 7


Yes, I disembarked into bathtub-warm water up to my knees and waded about 20 feet onto the shore.

Had a Thai massage in Bangkok (G rated, with clothes on!). It was in a wonderful, relaxing old wooden house in the middle of the city and I was the only customer. I was prepared for lots of pain and a bit of coughing and phlegm from the masseuse, but it was really ok. More than ok, it was great.

I rented a small motorbike for a couple of days and have been exploring the island, cruising through dense jungle roads to get to distant beaches. The place is empty of tourists in general except for a few Germans.

For a variety of reasons (inertia, distance from anywhere else, tricky ferry schedule), I'm finding it hard to get off the island. Not a bad predicament, all in all.


June 10 - Your good night is my good morning

I'm renting a kayak tomorrow ($10 for the day to give you an idea of how cheap it is) and I will attempt to circumnavigate the island, something that is appropriate for a solo dude. I don't got to answer to no one, I just got to paddle. I'm crashing right now - I'll let you sleep and fill you in on the details as soon as I can.




--M. Lee


08/06/2010

Poetry express



I read at the Poetry Express open mic on Monday night. It's held at the Priya Restaurant on San Pablo Ave, a little hole in the wall with a friendly staff and really tasty, cheap Indian food. Poetry Express is another of Berkeley's many groups. They are not only good poets but nice people. I am so glad I finally made it to the Bay Area to check out the scene. (thanks universe et al) The facilitator also invited me to be a feature reader at some future event but we set no date. Whether or not either of these invitations actually pan out, it's great to meet people who are not only doing things themselves, but also like my work.

Berkeley graffiti



07/06/2010

Woman in the Wall



So here I am on what I promised would be an Epic American Road Trip (implying, of course, that I would be sure to post the adventures here) and nary a word. Of course you understand that I was being ironic. I have no money so that severely limits my options along the way but the universe compensated. Thanks universe. I've got your back. Anyway here's a quick update for the record.

As the fates would have it, I hooked up with an old friend while I was in Ashland. She was on the loose and up for an adventure and, in a happy synchronicity, her dad called and offered the use of his garage apartment for first two weeks in June. So here we are. Richmond, CA. In the hood. Other than someone squeezing off several rapid fire rounds yesterday it's been really quiet. At night the stranded earth out the window becomes a streetlight lit savanna for the neighborhood cats; in the day it returns to a sad parcel of earth defined by opposing chain link fences. The cats don't mind. Neither does the earth who watches it all come and go.

I read poetry at an open mic in Berkeley the other day. The group's host said he'd like to invite me back to be a featured reader sometime next winter. Great, though from here winter seems a long way off. We went to a Thai place afterward for dinner. Terrific. My new friends. Tonight I am hoping to read at another open mic in Berkeley. This is, after all, the point.

30/05/2010

Stone's throw



I am out and about in what used to be my home town, but it's not anymore. I am what's left of us... of me. I am the beast inside the child's stone plaything thrown 10,000 years ago.

26/05/2010

Trip update

Yesterday was Baby Thea's first birthday. It was a very sweet day. She's a delightful, happy little girl. She's already walking, signing some (ASL) and definitely working on her English. She amazes and fascinates me. All in all, I was in Portland just over a week and left today. Now I'm back in Southern Oregon and not quite sure what's next. A friend and I are talking about going to the Bay Area together but we haven't worked out the details yet.

I've been out almost two weeks now and am just beginning to sense a little distance from my life. It feels good.

17/05/2010

Rainy day Oregon


Mr. Lee and his mom made it safely to Hong Kong. Actually, other than the shitheads at J & V Travel, I hear it was a great flight, great airline, great hotel, and the tours J & V booked have been outstanding, although yesterday's 12 hours odyssey was a bit much. And now they are having a great time in Beijing. Excellent.

As for me, it's odd being back in my old Southern Oregon stomping grounds, this trip in particular. It's my state of mind. I drove by the empty field that used to be the Medford A's stadium. Dixie and John owned them, bought the team after watching Field of Dreams... including some hot young rookie pitcher who was throwing balls about 100 miles an hour. She and I sat behind the catcher and timed him. But John's vision faded and with it his enthusiasm. They sold the team, left town. I don't know what happened to the kid. Or them. All gone. The team is gone. The stadium torn down, the field reverted to grass. If you didn't know, you wouldn't know. And the lumber mill that was in that part of town... long gone. Really long gone. Before John and Dixie came to town. But the old duplex in Ashland where I used to live... it's fixed up, white picket fence and all. Slugs used to crawl up through the hole in that bathroom floor and lounge around on the walls, probably why my daughter is so repulsed by them, even to this day, no matter how I plead their case, that it was not their fault, that they are just little ol' slow moving, don't mean nobody no harm fellows. Hates 'em. Anyway, it's gray and rainy here. I leave for Portland in the morning. Baby Thea's one year birthday is next Tuesday. That is soooomething.



14/05/2010

Friday update


M. Lee left this afternoon for China. It's been a helluva week. Murphy's Law was in full force. When he left he still wasn't sure if he had a seat on the connecting flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong and I won't know for a couple days how it turned out. All this was the result of going through a funky ass Chinese travel agency in Oakland by the name of J & V Travel. NEVER USE THEM. He needed to make a slight change to his ticket but the wankers at J & V Travel were totally unwilling/ignorant/rude and or stupid to get it done. I needed to make a similar change on a ticket I bought recently directly through the airline. It took a one minute phone call. Anyway, I'm sad he's gone. It really changes the way I look at my surroundings. I'm glad I'm leaving in the morning. It won't be an epic trip but at least I won't be moping around here. When I was a kid I tried digging to China with a tablespoon. He seems that far away tonight.

10/05/2010

Our day

Bad Mother's Day ~ May 10, 2010.

Yippee. Why can't everyday be Bad Mother's Day? Well, 364 days out of the year anyway. The goodie-two-shoesers can still have their one day.




07/05/2010

Bad Mother's Day gift suggestion


Bad Mother's Day is right around the corner, Monday in case you've forgotten, and since I created Bad Mother's Day a few years ago, search engines have been directing people looking for bad mother's day cards my way. The keywords tell a sad tale:

"bad mother"
"bad mother's day"
"where do i find bad mothers day cards"
"mother's day message to mom + bad relationship with mom"
"mother's day cards for a bad mom"
"Mother's Day Cards-Awful mom's"
"mothers day cards for terrible mothers"
"you are a bad mother" mothers day cards"
"really bad mother day cards"
"mothers day card for a sucky mother"
"lousy mothers day cards"
"rotten mother mother's day card"
"shitty mother's day cards"
"shitty mother, mother's day card"

This year, to help our fledgling holiday along, I share with you a Language Barrier "Best Of" gift selection for The Day... the Better Marriage Blanket. Okay, I know it's a little last minute but I did it, didn't I?

Anyway..... yes, this gift might have saved your parent's marriage but all that is water under the bridge now, isn't it? The Better Marriage Blanket is a must have in any case, but especially if you are one of the many Good Children who has inherited their Bad Mom in her declining years (age 25 to 99). It contains a layer of activated carbon fabric, the same type of fabric used by the military to protect against chemical weapons. Perfect! Not only will you be obeying the Fifth Commandment to honor your Mother, it is a gift to your whole family. Even if you want to shirk your duties as a Good Child you owe it to them to purchase one for her. Her cat will thank you too.



03/05/2010

Day in the life

This poor pigeon, his leg is swollen, red and inflamed. It probably throbs and hurts like crazy. He got tangled up in fishing line. That stuff is such a menace and it's everywhere, mountains of fishing line, abandoned nets, hooks and miscellaneous crap tossed or lost by thoughtless idiots worldwide. ARG!!!

Oakland resident

We are back in the Bay Area for the weekend dealing with the ongoing task of helping a family member transition to a new living situation. She got kicked out of the Royale.

I would love to have freed his foot.

It's a complicated story. The Royale is a great place but she's got problems they can't handle so it's all for the better. In any case, Charlita the Cat doesn't seem to mind so that's one in the plus column.


Lady at the bus stop.


Vegan soul food in Oakland.... how cool is that!


Lost horizon

WTF?! Let the poor fellow rest in peace.

Spring in Oakland


28/04/2010

PETA protest


Christina, as the snake

It was a cold and windy night afternoon but PETA was in town yesterday so I joined in the fun. We were protesting the killing of snakes for their skins and our nearly nude snake, Christina Cho, gallantly shivered her way through the hour. Nothing new for her. She's one of many PETA volunteers who travel the world over promoting animal welfare willingly enduring bad weather, bad attitudes and occasionally being tossed in jail along the way.

In general, people in Reno were pretty friendly but in the last five minutes the cops showed up. Seems someone complained about a woman being inappropriately (un)dressed in public. What's wrong with pasties? Some people....

Brian, photographer and very excellent body paint artist

Afterward, the four of us had a a great vegetarian lunch at the Pneumatic Diner.

Ashley (organizer & driver) and Christina (snake)


25/04/2010

Remembrance


Remembrance by Emily Bronte

Local news at 7:07




I took lots of photos of Thea during my recent trip to Portland but was too busy to post them at the time. In fact, they are still on the camera, which has a dead battery because the minute I got home I had to throw myself into the newsletter and now that I'm finished with that I have to clean this wreck of an office. My daughter wisely copies whatever she wants before I leave because I seldom get around to sending photos back to people after the fact. While I prefer to think of chaos as a subtle form of order, it has its drawbacks. Anyway, I am home and today I have to tackle my lair. The chaos here has reached critical mass one more time. Mr. Lee is threatening intervention again (let him try) but it's even too much for me. That's bad.

I am thinking about doing an Odyssey American Road Trip next month, the kind where you throw a mattress in the back of the wagon and go. Mr. Lee is going to China for the month which leaves me at loose ends. Well, it wouldn't be that much of an odyssey I suppose but I could go to Seattle for a week or two, base at my brother's house, and knock around the town for awhile, maybe read at an open mic or two, then head down to Portland and visit Baby Thea again. She is growing up way too fast.

On the other hand, I've been to Seattle and Portland recently but I generally fly. I am not much of a long distance driver. I could go west instead, to Sacramento and the Bay Area. It's way closer. Some Canadian friends we first met in Nicaragua are doing their own Odyssey American Road Trip next month and have been planning to visit us here in Nevada but, lately we've been talking about meeting along the way. If I stay closer to home, I could show them some of the wonders in our little corner of the world and the rest of the month, do esoteric things like make poetry videos that I'll never post. Well, off to wrestle chaos.



12/04/2010

Thea in three

Yikes. What was I thinking? There's no time for anything else with a baby. Gotta go.



Baby T.



I'm in Portland for the week being gma. Clark is out of town and I get to help with Baby Thea. At the moment my camera batteries are charging but expect photos. Many photos.



09/04/2010

Note to self

The Blog of Innocence: On Blogging and Technology for Writers


Check back on this Blog Of Innocence's article. There may be some useful information here.

05/04/2010

Oakland outtakes 04.10


Too tired to remember whatever it was I thought to post about today, as though it matters. It's been another long day. The apartment is finally emptied and done. It's really strange dismantling another person's life. We paid a guy to haul almost everything away, including nearly 30 bags of clothing that had been stuffed, jammed, crammed, packed, pressed, shoved, squeezed, forced, mashed, squished, squashed and rammed into the tiny closets and dresser set.

We asked him to take the clothes to a thrift store but they probably went directly to the dump. We'll never know. We'll never even see him again.


Charlita the Cat likes the new digs. She has a morning and afternoon sunbeam.


No one seems to care that the chair is too close to the fire.


Lunch at the Royale.
I think I'd rather die but what the hell? It's not an either/or situation.



Rainy day Oakland

We had lunch at the Golden Lotus yesterday. It's a vegetarian restaurant in Oakland located across the street from the Oakland Tribune. Delicious. I highly recommend it. Currently, we are waiting for the guy with the truck. All the stuff in the apartment is bagged and tagged and ready to go.














03/04/2010

Transitions


I'm in Concord tonight helping with a quasi-emergency kind of thing, nothing too serious (probably) but urgent. We have the weekend to close out the apartment of an incapacitated family member. I have to say, it puts things in a very peculiar light.

Anyway, here are a few photos from last week in Tonopah.









Karaoke goodness is pretty rich but if you're up for more, I posted the second video here.