Revenge

Come the crows, cautiously

The birds dine in shifts at the Bird Park, starting with the magpies who arrive about 7:10 am but the crows haven't been regulars for a while. They are here this morning however. They like the tortillas, dipped in water. Perhaps it's the ripping and tearing, I don't know. They're not interested in the veggie suet I make. Too bad. It's nourishing. Anyway, to my delight Minerva, my favorite crow, showed up the other day. I haven't seen her for months and thought she was dead. She's my favorite simply because I can distinguish her from the others. She's got a white patch on her breast, so we have history. She didn't eat the Marvel Meal either but seemed to side against the magpie horning in, or should I say, beaking in on the starlings who are the second shift and crazy about the stuff.

Minerva and the magpie

Madame Twee gets her 'do done

Thyth kept a close eye on Madame Twee when she got her hair done the other day. It was the first step of a hair transplant procedure. Thyth was pretty concerned at first but the session ended well.

Madame Twee & Thyth kickin' it.

00:11

puppets invisible theatre

Reality gap and check

Snake eating its own tail.

Jane Smiley wrote an excellent article for the Huffington Post today entitled Not Only the Worst President, but the Worst Possible President". It's not new to call Bu$h mad or the worst President ever but her article is insightful and refreshing none the less and I recommend reading it.


Although I have been telling myself for the last couple of hours to back away from the computer, I couldn't resist commenting on several threads I read this morning or reposting some of those comments here. After this, I am going to get up and get out...I swear!

#1: The word Karma has a simple definition: CAUSE AND EFFECT. Undoubtedly Bu$h is a madman but he is also a war criminal and should be tried for his crimes, along with Cheney, who is mad but competent. Unfortunately, because we have let them run unchecked for so long, we have earned a fair share of the karma (reaction) their actions have generated: hatred, mayhem, poverty, violence, retaliation, breakdown, failure. It is a toss up whether man or nature calls us to account first but, even at pennies on the dollar, payback could be pretty uncomfortable.

But not only is Bu$h a madman conjuring war and catastrophic, global climate change, he has dragged us into a dizzying level of debt. In fact, this asshole has redefined monetary vertigo and disintegration. It is by the way not coincidence that the Chinese have a trillion plus foreign exchange reserve, up 30.22 percent from last year. The Bu$h boys are selling America piece by piece right out from under our feet.

#2: Bu$h's reality check has bounced. Known cost of his War o' Terror to date: $1.2 Trillion and climbing and that's only counting the money. The hidden and not so hidden costs are incalculable but here's a little visual to illustrate just how much ONE TRILLION DOLLARS actually is compared to the money in your pocket or bank account, or that inheritance you're waiting for that will probably be consumed by unprecedented health care costs.

And that's just money. The human, animal and global costs are incalculable.

Okay, so much for the doom and gloom. Life is still good. Earth will probably survive us. It's another blue sky day here in Nevada. Here in the Bird Park, quail are having another dust bath party in the back yard and the pigeons have been cold tubbing on and off all afternoon.

Ash Canyon Library at Comma Coffee

 
Liz, Teresa, Bob, Krista, Susan and I got the poetry and three book shelves over to Comma Coffee yesterday and have four or five more boxes to take over to the Public Library later this week. What they don't want we'll add to the collection at June's. It will be great once the books are out and available. People will be able to go in, get a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and read poetry. That's what this world needs, MORE POETRY!

poetry

Hellholes and blackouts

I spent most of the morning at the Carson City hospital after suddenly becoming delirious at the gym. Lee tells me that on the way I kept repeating, "It's like you just picked me up at the airport, like I've been gone for a very long time" and "Bhaktivedanta would say death has left his calling card".

As you might imagine, it freaked him out. At one point, he asked me if I realized I had been saying that over and over but I had no memory of it at all, although I do vaguely recall him asking that question and me feeling pulled up short and kind of embarrassed. And I have a free floating memory of the Bhaktivedanta quote, but can not connect it to any particular time or place, other than when I said it I was riding in a car. Turns out I was merely hypoglycemic. It was pretty strange, time lost in the loop.

I'm bad. I started Weight Watchers the other day and didn't eat enough on Saturday. Lee tells me that at the hospital I had an EKG, brain scan, blood work etc., I remember none of it. I came to sitting in an exam room about the time a couple of friends show up with a bag of food and the hospital was rolling in a $2000 morgue salad and told me to eat; mmmmm... flesh of murdered chicken draped over lettuce, vegetables stewed in fat rung from an indeterminate mix of unidentified dead bodies, an apple, an orange, and some crackers. I munched an apple. I'm vegetarian but not vegan so we stopped at Subway on the way home where I had a 6" tuna sandwich. I know there are starving children everywhere so I should be grateful for the abundance that rains upon me, which I am of course, but I feel bad about eating fish. Nothing with a face. Anyway, I don't blame Weight Watchers for the episode. I wasn't keeping proper track of my points. I wasn't hungry so I didn't realize I wasn't eating enough. Without getting too mired in explanations, the genius of Weight Watchers is its point system, much easier to track your intake than counting calories or making certain foods off limits. Your point allotment decreases with your weight, and I'm not wildly overweight to begin with, so I started without much of a point margin. I'm going to be good from now on and eat all_my_points_everyday! I like altered states but not creepy blackouts.

Rant n roll. It's bitterly cold out right now. The temperatures are hovering around zero. Our fat neighbors over the back fence are tucked snugly in their little hobbit hole. The music is cranked up and they are enjoying a groove while outside their poor little dog Star is standing forlornly on the concrete slab of her cage with her head down, shivering. I'm infuriated. It is so fucking speciesist! Inside, in the warm, the humans are wallowing in cool "feelings" stimulated by the "soulful" tunes they're playing on their big sound system while their dog, who they claim they "love", stands in the back, half frozen in a cage. Here's the deal. Whether emotions or subzero temperatures, humans are not the only ones who feel things, but whenever convenience demands, we can oh so easily turn our backs on the suffering of others with whom we share the planet. I'm with Ghandi and Schopenhauer on this one...

The greatness of a nation and its morals can be judged by the way its animals are treated. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Maybe I'll call them about Star again. I can't rescue every suffering critter on the planet, but maybe I can help improve the plight of one, little black dog.

Compassion is the basis of morality. ~ Schopenhauer

So...
here are a couple of video links Mr. Lee sent just me. I really enjoyed them and pass them along to you. You might enjoy them as well, especially if you like weird and funny combined. It's the first 2 episodes of a new, original web series at AtomFilms called...

HellHole, Episode 1


HellHole, Epidode 2

HellHole Atomfilms

Friday night poetry

I went to Ash Canyon last night. As I put myself on the line with Comma Coffee about moving the ACP library there on Monday, Susan convinced me it would be a good idea to attend poetry night. I haven't been going much after the fracas over the journal. Anyway, it was nice seeing old friends and being around other lovers of the written/spoken word. Also, as I wanted to bring a poem, I rescued a page from one of my notebooks and printed it out. It was a piece I stumbled on the other day while doing something else, one of those scribbles you dash off only to promptly forget about it. Once it got on a nice, clean page however it looked respectable enough to read. I love Ash Canyon. There are damn few places or people who care about things like that.

Also, last night turned into a celebration of sorts as Ellen Hopkins, one of the old time regulars, just found out she is suddenly a "break out author" at Simon and Schuster. As she puts it, "an overnight success after fifteen years of hard work", well, not exactly an overnight success. Actually Crank is a bit of an anomaly. Apparently, most books either catch on fire right off the press or quickly smolder to death, but Crank has been out for over three years and is a grassroots, cross-over success. Look for it soon, front and center at both Barns and Noble and Borders. It's movin' up from the stacks.

As is an old Ash Canyon tradition, we went to the Fandango Casino after the meeting. The wine was flowing and Liz made a startling confession about the worst thing she's ever done. Whew! This woman has an all too rare quality, manners.

Confessions of a country woman

Liz

-------------------
Footnote: As a kid Liz and her friends watched the first nuke test from a hilltop in the Nevada desert. She died of radiation poisoning.

Juju Queen

Another anomalous moment from our New Year's day celebration. The Juju Queen spontaneously hurls herself on the floor for an impromptu snake dance.


The Juju Queen welcomes the new year


more

Surge for Bush

Current US Body Count

"Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results".

Now the Republicans have announced they are going to do what we all knew they were going to do in Iraq, repackage the same old failed same old plan ... send more and more Americans to needless injury and death. Bastards all.

Dirty talk

Note: A Different Iraq Metric

US SPENT $1 MIL FOR EVERY DEAD IRAQI - CIVILIANS INCLUDED:

Early this year the Bush administration is to ask Congress to approve an additional $100bn for the onerous task of making life intolerable for the Iraqis. This will bring the total spent on the White House's current obsession with war to almost $500bn - enough to have given every US citizen $1,600 each... with over half a million dead, it means that the world's greatest military superpower has spent a million dollars for every Iraqi killed...
[THE GUARDIAN]

surge Bush Iraq poetry kinky roleplay sex

Walkabout and dirt bath party

I was in Carson City twice in the last couple of days running errands and naturally brought my camera with me so it ended up being a photo walkabout as well.



I also stopped by Comma Coffee to talk with June about relocating a portion of Bill Cowee's poetry collection there. Sadly Bill, Godfather of Ash Canyon Poets, is in failing health and is in the process of moving into a care facility. One of his primary concerns is to find a home for his vast, wonderful collection of poetry books, journals, little magazines and obscure, single run chap books. He has an amazing collection. Ash Canyon poets get the first pick. After that, the majority of the books will be donated to public and school libraries.

The remainder, six book shelves worth (shelves included), will go to Comma Coffee. This is the lovely little library that Bill used to house at Carson City's Brewery Arts Center where Ash Canyon Poets have met every Friday night for many years, that is until recently when the center rate hikes forced Ash Canyon to seek a new home. For the last several months the Brewery Arts books have been tucked away in Terry Breedon's basement. Today I was hoping to make the final arrangements with June to move them to the cafe but she was too busy to discuss it. I stayed for a while anyay, had coffee and read. I am finally in the last thrilling pages of volume 4 of the Otherland series. Good read.

It was a blue sky day in Nevada. The quail were certainly enjoying it, especially as just a few days ago they were scurrying around in a blizzard looking for whatever frozen seed they could scratch up. To celebrate the warm weather, they had a dirt bath party in my back yard.

Dirt bath party

01:03

New Year resolutions and troupe members

I am very impressed with Roy's decision to post every day this year. Never mind he's been under the weather and already missed a day. That just makes him human, for which I am grateful. I am inspired by his resolve. It's a good way to insure that one writes every day so I secretly decided to try doing it myself but, after switching to one of Blogger's new templates this morning and fiddling with it all day, I decided to abandon the goal. This is the best I can do at this late hour, and once the bloom of the new year fades, I know it won't get any better. Once again I resort to photos to fluff things up. She hasn't revealed her name yet but Wolfie recognized her the minute she arrived, and has been at her side ever since. As you can see, he's very protective of her so I've been leaving them to themselves. Seems they have some catching up to do.

Ryan

M. Lee turned me on to this documentary by Ryan Larkin and Chris Landreth. It won an Academy Award in 2004 for Best Animated Short which is kind of sweet, given the story. More on Larkin here.

Ryan

Ryan Larkin animation Ryan Chris Landreth Bingo

Nevada at night

It's (finally) snowing ... big, fat flakes ... just why now when I have to go to town? I hate driving in weather like this but gotta go. Wish me luck.

Masks for the New Year

A couple of friends and I had a New Year/Winter Solstice, vegetarian feast, mask making, I Ching party on the 1st. Naturally, I took a bunch of photos and videos. The masks aren't painted yet but here is a video of Susan wearing hers, playing around with homegrown mudras and a set of japa mala. Happy New Year!

Mask & Mala

00:50

New Year's day masks mudras

WPIX yule log

Snowy morning

We finally got a little snow on the valley floor yesterday, not a lot but it's nice and powdery. On Friday the birds ate about three times their normal amount so I wasn't surprised when the snow came. I wish I had built a little warming hut for the quail. I think they would appreciate it.

I did put out a Marvel Meal buffet this morning however.
It was a big hit all around.
Breakfast in the snow
(YouTube 02:02)

Will write for money?

Here's a little something I found over at Craig's List that was just listed today, a paying, free lance writing gig. If you like the prospect of getting paid for writing, check it out. Typical payment per story is between $100 and $200 for up to 2,000 words but they prefer less than 1,000. Common Ties.

Excerpt 34

One word, one sentence at a time I will reconstruct the story. I've written it before on countless scraps of paper. One word, one sentence at a time I will reconstruct the story. Forgive me. It is composed of a seemingly endless succession of beginnings. The original order of the words has been lost so I rely on you to supply the details. One word, one sentence at a time I will reconstruct the story. Forgive me. The original has been lost but I promise to stay true to its drift. That is not a matter of memory. It is a matter of being. One world at, one word at a time. Forgive me. The original version of this story does not exist. One word, one sentence at a time, this is its drift. This is the drift. The notes are scattered. No. Not scattered. The notes were never collected. Jotted. Scribbled. On scraps, in notebooks, on flaps. They have never been collected. They have seldom been re-read. Or read. The words, disjointed, have been set down and abandon. No, not abandon. There is much thinking between them, the phrases, the paragraph and elimination of words. And ideas. "Why?" I am telling a story. Build the house. Paint it later. And later still introduce the particulars. Each letter reverberates, twists but... if morning brings a promise it is a simple thread strung between opposites requiring a wire dance in thin air...

Christmas cheer

Mr. Lee emailed me this fine bit of Christmas cheer to help kick off The Season. It's a little clip from Space Bass Films.

Santa

Open mike finder

Want to know where the open mikes are in your area? I just stumbled on a cool website that lists them. Check it out. Openmikes.org.

In passing

NaNoWriMo ends tonight at 11:59:59. I'm glad I'm already done. I would hate to be grinding words out at this late hour but I'm sure people are. Right now the collective word count is 909,464,173. Crazy. So... to commemorate the end of the wonderful madness that is NaNoWriMo, here is a recent photo I took up in Virginia City during my daughter's Thanksgiving visit and a great little poem by A. E. Housman. I think the two compliment one another and NaNoWriMo in a fitting and oblique way.

Infant Innocence
A.E. Housman

The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild;
He has devoured the infant child.
The infant child is not aware
It has been eaten by the bear.

Nevada poetry Housman

New troupe member

A new actor joined the cast here at the Language Barrier's Invisible Theatre over the holiday weekend. She was living up in Virginia City when I spotted these fellows through an open door off the boardwalk. That's her just right of center, between the white lamb and the golden dancer; the one with the long, gray hair.

NaNo's end and holiday cheer

Virginia City, Nevada
Big happings around the Language Barrier. First off, my daughter and her very nice fiance came home for a Thanksgiving visit. We had a great time. Also, I finished NaNoWriMo while they were here. That's 50,000 words in one month, babeee! Naturally my ... uh... novel ... is crap, throat clearing, but I expected that. It was all about the word count. It is a beginning or not but at least I got out from under the boot of the bastard inner editor for a month. And like they say, you can't edit a blank page. Anyway, I hate to disappoint you but that's it for the What I did on Thanksgiving and My NaNoWriMo posts for now. I've got errands to finish before the snow hits. In the meantime, here's a little casino love to keep you going. I recorded this from the platform of the huge, crazy, indoor mining diorama at the Silver Legacy in Reno. Enjoy.




Silver Legacy casino, Reno, Nevada
00:58











nanowrimo

Reality cliff notes

Today at washingtonpost.com Joshua Muravchik, a neoconservative at the American Enterprise Institute, is quoted as saying

"There's a question to be sorted out: whether the war was a sound idea but very badly executed or was the mistake the idea itself?

Hmmm??? Let's see .....
preemptive war....

sound idea very badly executed
or
is the mistake the idea itself?

Rummy or the neocon agenda?
Rummy or the neocon agenda?
Rummy or the neocon (i.e. fascist) agenda?

Warning: plot spoiler ahead...

The geniuses in the neocon think tanks will do their best to keep our focus on Rummy and off themselves and Bush Inc. for as long as we will let them. Heaven forbid any of them should have to take responsibility for anything! But it's an obvious answer so I'm not really spoiling anything when I say that, even beyond the fact that the "reasons" they gave us were big fat lies, invading Iraq was a very bad idea. Using the American military or mercenaries to invade sovereign nations is a terrible, terrible idea and if you have half a brain or one quarter ounce of moral fiber you know it too so why should we pretend otherwise or wait for a cabal of spiritually retarded geniuses to decide for us?

Ken Adelman (the guy who famously said that invading Iraq would be a "cakewalk") is suffering from shattered ideals: "The whole philosophy of using American strength for good in the world, for a foreign policy that is really value-based instead of balanced-power-based, I don't think is disproven by Iraq. But it's certainly discredited."

Actions speak louder than words, Ken.

Ken is right about one thing though. Invading Iraq did make "them" more "like us" ... violent.

But I indulge myself. It's still November, NaNoWriMo time. I've got miles to write before I sleep.






iraq neoconservatism bush

Life beyond NaNoWriMo?

Twilight.
Nevada State Legislature
from Comma Coffee

I didn't get any writing done today and less than a thousand yesterday so tomorrow it's back to Comma Coffee for a NaNoDay ... just me and the laptop, no editor, no plot, no problem. I'm doing okay, 38,008 words - 51 pages, but I have to keep at it. I would like to be done by the time my daughter and her finance arrive next week for Thanksgiving. Here's what's odd. At this point I have separation anxiety whenever I think about finishing this thing. I have grown very fond of NaNoWriMo.










NaNoWriMo

Marvel Meal, a winter delight

As Thanksgiving and winter are upon us it's time to whip up that first batch of Marvel Meal for the birds, so here's the recipe. It's tasty, nutritious and, best of all, vegetarian. It doesn't get any better than that. Just be sure the birds have access to water when you give them Marvel Meal or anything containing peanut butter. Birds have small throats and have been known to choke to death on peanut butter.

Louie's Stamp of Approval

Marvel Meal

Mix together:

1 cup peanut butter (crunchy or plain but NOT SALTED*)
1 cup vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
4 cups cornmeal (yellow is higher in vitamin A)
1 cup white flour
It makes a soft dough that you can put in a suet log or basket.
Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

~ from ornithologist John Terres

*SALT IS VERY BAD FOR BIRDS. IT CAN KILL THEM SO BE SURE TO USE UNSALTED PEANUTBUTTER.

Litte Cat and Lucy

I spent the afternoon at the Comma again today working on my word count, aka NaNo novel. There was a bit of drama there the other day. Little Cat found Lucy the Snake after she had been missing and feared dead for over a week. Some kid let her out. It was a true Comma drama. As it turned out Lucy was hiding under the dresser where her terrarium sits and Little Cat, now local hero, sniffed her out.


I made of video of Lucy gulping water after returning home from her harrowing misadventure but unfortunately last night it "went away" while I was trying to edit it down. I don't exactly know what happened other than the fact that I shouldn't fiddle with shit when I'm already too tired to sleep.

Anyway, here's another video from the Comma....

LITTLE CAT & COFFEE STRAW
00:18

Call for horses - S. 1915

Please take a minute and help pass a permanent ban on the business of selling American's mustangs for slaughter. There is only a few days left for the Senate to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 1915)! The House of Representatives passed their vote against this dreadful practice in September (H.R. 503). Now the Senate must pass S. 1915, their version of the same bill before it becomes law. Help flood Senate offices with phone calls urging them to vote for S. 1915.

You can find your Senator's phone number here.

Please call. It only takes a minute but it is a matter of life or death for horses. Help save America's wild horses.

Let them stay wild and free!

Here's a script from the American Humane Society if you're at a loss for words:

"I am a constituent and I am calling to ask that my Senator immediately protect our horses from slaughter and cosponsor S. 1915, the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. I am very concerned about American horses and I don't want them slaughtered."

save wild horses Senate bill S. 1915 mustang

Poetry notebook update

I recently added several poems to the notebook section of my website. I also posted some other of my writings a little harder to categorize that loosely falls into the catch all category, flash fiction. I put them under the heading Fourth Wall. I'm always torn between posting work online before I've tried submitting it to a few print journals. So many publications only want unpublished work but I decided to do it anyway. Journals that are willing to use already published material have the right idea. Share and share alike.








poetry writing fourth wall

Crow stop

I shouldn't be fiddling with my blog right now. I have to catch up on my word count after yesterday's slump so this has to be quick. I just put some goodies out in the Bird Park and almost instantly ten crows dropped out of the sky for an afternoon snack. Must be a sentry posted in the crow's nest today. News traveled suspiciously fast. I tried to get a photo but they don't like their picture taken. This is the best I could do because I gotta go.







Bye-bye. Off to NaNo land.