27/03/2007

Seattle


Note to self: It is so nice bathing in water that has passed through the roots of the trees.






25/03/2007

Tonopah, Sunday morning


Tonopah, main street.


I'm back from Tonopah and am off again tomorrow to Seattle for a week. Here are a few images from the trip. I'm acquiring quite a collection, for what's it worth. I did get inside an abandoned house this time, one rumored to have once been a brothel with a tunnel under the town connecting it to the Mizpah Hotel. I have no idea if the story is true but after I heard it, I had to explore the place, a boarded up old mansion directly up the hill from the Mizpah. I'll post it and more photos when I have the time. Once again, adieu.













Tonopah after dark.




Here's a link to the video walk-through of the abandoned brothel. It's too dark in some places but if you want a peek inside the mansion have at it.


22/03/2007

Adieu


I'm going to Tonopah for the weekend. That's the half ghost town located a few miles west of the northwestern boundary of Area 51. It's the town that won't die because everybody has to stop there for gas and there's couple of prisons in the area that employ people. I have photographed the place a lot but will see if I can come back with an interesting new shot or two. Wish me luck. Oh and I left Uncle Orson cued up. If you need anything, ask him. (re-enactment)










17/03/2007

URGENT - pet food recall


The FDA has just issued a recall of several brands of contaminated pet food that is known to cause kidney failure and sometimes the death of dogs and cats who have eaten it. For product information, check this list. According to the FDA, if your pet has "consumed the suspect feed and show signs of kidney failure (such as loss of appetite, lethargy and vomiting) consult with the veterinarian immediately." Good luck.

Ps. You should probably hang on to all the packages you have (including any empty ones) and the vet bills to see what you can do after/if they figure out what's going on.








7 am magpie


It's 7 am and the lone magpie just arrived in the bird park to scoop up some of the peanuts scattered on the ground. I like her. Perhaps she is the one who used to come at 7 pm. At least she also is a loner. I have cut back considerably on the goodies. The little birds, the finches, were getting pushed out by larger, more aggressive ones but the 7 am magpie swoops in, gobbles a couple of peanut chips, scoops up a beakful and is gone before anyone else has even showed up. That's it. All the news that's fit to post before coffee.







15/03/2007

If FOX were a wine


If FOX News were a wine,
it would be Mad Dog 20/20.



FOX is not a legitimate news media. It pimps lies and half truths. It's job is to provide a smoke screen for the thugs and thieves manipulating our government and military for personal profit. FOX anchors aren't even actors. They are media whores. The rest of the time, FOX fills its trough with sleaze and slop to booze and snooze by.

Yeah for Nevada! Last week we jettisoned FOX as a host for our Democratic presidential debate. I don't give much credit to the boobs in Las Vegas who invited FOX to participate in the first place. FOX is unfair and wildly unbalanced but Nevada Dems raised a huge fuss and Harry Reid finally pulled the plug. Thanks Harry but more importantly, thanks Nevada. Hell ya, I called and complained! If you haven't read the juicy details, MediaMatters posted a good article on it by Eric Boehlert called Fox News can't take a punch.



14/03/2007

March mouse update

Time for the March Mouse Update.

If mice freak you out or are just too trivial for your taste well, sorry. I guess you'll have to pass on this one. Not to sound self-righteous but I have a commitment to local as well as global and cosmic news.

A couple more of the Lelands recently relocated from my garage to the grove by the pond and naturally I documented the joyous occasions. I've been using the Professor lately. It's a humane, smart mouse trap from PETA. I like it because, unlike the Tin Mouse, it's transparent, it's easier to know when to open the door.


Benny didn't waste a second embracing freedom.


Tiny Tina was momentarily as interested in the lovely forest duff as getting away. Perhaps she is pregnant.




13/03/2007

Money and the Muse




Interesting forces have aligned seemingly bent on challenging both the irrelevance and smug society of poetry. It is easy to dismiss the moment as a tempest in a martini glass. Perhaps the only thing that will change is the names but it is entertaining to watch the New Yorker show its teeth and the New York Times growl back as they defend their tarnished reputations for bringing poetry to the world. But one thing is certain, while they circle each other, the Poetry Foundation is hatching big plans for the still slumbering masses.

Ruth Lilly

But is all this fuss really just about the money, that pesky two hundred mil Ruth Lilly bequeathed Poetry Magazine? No. Something greater is at stake. We have forgotten how to listen. As a nation we are spiritually blind, morally bankrupt and leading the world into environmental ruin. It appears that the Poetry Foundation is invested with great power to encourage new voices and ways of seeing. I hope they stay humble. It is never a good idea to underestimate the mercy or tempt the wrath of the Muse.








06/03/2007

Local news


Tuesday night

Bayonet clouds criss-crossed beneath a lopsided yoke of a moon and a dog driving through the deserted middle of town with his head out the window barking.





05/03/2007

Poetry money



A few years ago Poetry Magazine inherited some two hundred million dollars from heiress Ruth Lilly (Lilly Pharmaceuticals). Ruth was an eccentric recluse, a bit like Howard Hughes, but instead of airplanes she doted on poetry. Over the years she even occasionally, anonymously, submitted some of her own work to the magazine but it was always rejected. Founded by Harriet Monroe at the beginning of the twentieth century, the journal has high standards:

Mission
"The Open Door will be the policy of this magazine—may the great poet we are looking for never find it shut, or half-shut, against his ample genius! To this end the editors hope to keep free from entangling alliances with any single class or school. They desire to print the best English verse which is being written today, regardless of where, by whom, or under what theory of art it is written. Nor will the magazine promise to limit its editorial comments to one set of opinions."
—Harriet Monroe, 1912

The Poetry Foundation was established in a bit of a scramble when the magazine received its unfettered fortune but they took the flying leap that only money can buy. According to its chairman John Barr, Poetry Foundation has become a proper "bully pulpit". Self-described "real moguls", the Foundation's CEOs decided to invest in themselves first, the trickle down formula favored by most captains of industry. The first thing they're doing is building themselves a glorious headquarters from which to operate.

Men who previously avoided being associated with poetry's riffraff image have decided to spiff it up, monetize it, supersize it, glamorize it, mass market it. I suppose that sooner or later it had to happen. Whether or not I agree with their approach, I agree things are in a sad state. I don't know about you, but personally I can't stand the gassy narcissism that currently passes for poetry.

The moguls have plunked it all down on red. It's a stiff bet. Harriet Moore brought T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, and Ezra Pound and others to light. The Foundation plans to better that and up the ante. They plan to launch a Renaissance. Naturally skeptics predict the Foundation will merely do the expected ... establish a royal court, anoint an inner circle and reign over it gloriously until the whole scene implodes under the weight of its own vanity. Who knows? I do like their new website. It has some interesting pages such as Dispatches: News. Refreshing. So many writer's circles and publishing houses have their wagons ringed up tight and the only stories they tell around the campfire are about themselves.

When the money arrived, Poetry Magazine's then editor relinquished his post to head up the newly formed Foundation but didn't long survive the surge of bullies like John Barr from Wall Street. Christian Wiman is its new editor. I met him not long after he took the job. He came to Nevada to be the keynote speaker for a writer's conference I peripherally helped put together. I liked him. He seemed very grounded, open and unimpressed with himself. He critiqued one of my poems. I'm not much into things like writer's conferences and don't run around courting people's opinions about my writing so, other than the fact that I am an incurable showoff, I didn't expect much. To my relief, he didn't offer "advice". He simply challenged the need for the final stanza. When I wrote it I knew I had flinched so I very much appreciated his astuteness. I hope he continues to stick to the code. And I hope the Foundation knows what it is. We all know money talks but can it, will it, walk? Guess we'll see. Anyway, they've made some nicely designed broadsides available at Dispatches: Gallery for the Fridge Archive. Go on. Download one. Spread the word. Poetry's baaaaaaaaack.








H.R. 249 - Protection for wild horses and burros




Below is a forwarded letter from the Humane Society of the United States. Just got it. I know I've asked you to call before and collectively we've gotten the bill this far. Wednesday is the next hurdle. Please call again. It takes minutes. Easy number look-up here. There's a little script included below if you want an idea of what to say. Please do it. Video here, if you need more information. Warning: graphic material.

HSUS forward:
On Wednesday, March 7, a federal bill (H.R. 249) to restore protections for wild horses from commercial sale and slaughter will be brought up for a vote in the House Natural Resources Committee. Your U.S. Representative needs to hear from supporters of the bill. Please take action and help this important bill clear its next hurdle.

Call your Representative today and express your support for restoring protection for our wild horses and burros from commercial sale and slaughter. Their lives depend on our success.

Congress originally passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act in 1971 to protect our wild horses, but in 2004 this protection was gutted. In a midnight maneuver by then-Senator Conrad Burns (Mont.). He slipped a few unnoticed lines into a massive spending bill, overturning 30 years of protections for wild horses and burros. Senator Burns was booted from office last November and it's time to win these protections back.

TAKE ACTION!
Please make a brief polite phone call to your Representative today. It's easy. Numbers here. Just say is something like:

"Hello, my name is [your name] and I am a constituent from [your city]. I strongly support H.R. 249, the legislation to restore protection for our wild horses and burros from commercial sale and slaughter. It will be considered this week by the Natural Resources Committee. Please give it you support. We must provide permanent protection for America's wild horses and burros. Thank you."


Now that you've done your good deed for the day, here's a fun little video of not-so-wild burros.





04/03/2007

Sunday dreamin'


My grandfather used to talk to himself, a lot. I could never make out what he was saying. All I heard was a steady stream of whispers mixed in with his breath. As a kid I worried that it might be a family trait. I do talk to myself sometimes but I'm still not as bad as Grandpa Chance.

For instance, when I'm writing I often speak the words out loud first. Take the sentence I just wrote, and the one I'm writing now. I said them both out loud as I composed them. I'm quiet now but actually, by the time I typed out the first 3 words of this sentence, they were no longer true. I thought the words "I'm quiet now" decided to write them without speaking them so they would be true in real time, but as I typed them I spontaneously said them out loud and muttered "typed it out" while I typed that. There's a peak into my head, in case you wanted one but were afraid to ask.

And, while I'm on the subject, I might as well admit that I did mutter to myself this morning, something to the effect of, "Humans are a violent, greedy, predator species; carnivores who fancy having a unique, divine nature and personal relationship with a god who likes them better than everybody else and doesn't mind if they torture and/or kill the rest of his family."

It is Sunday morning and I am off to a rocking start. Minutes after I got online I found myself watching a video of soldiers in the Islamic Army inspecting a helicopter they just downed and executing the sole survivor, probably a Blackwater contractor. Then I watched Anna Nicole's funeral procession in the Bahamas, and videos of several other totally unrelated events, although their disparate nature actually underscores just how prone we humans are to self-undoing. My ricochet tour brought me back to the question I pondered aloud in the shower earlier this morning. Can we, as a species, survive our own precocious narcissism long enough to wake the fuck up? Then I found the following gritty view of hope. Now I'm off for second cup of coffee while I've still got a chance of a day. Bon matin, mon ami!









02/03/2007

Jed's Other Poem


Even if you don't like poetry you might like this video poem or, if you've already seen it, might enjoy seeing it again. It's that kind of thing. It was made by a very interesting guy named Stewart. The music is by Grandaddy. Warning. Their site opens with music.

"Jeddy-3 the humanoid was assembled in the kitchen out of spare parts. Before Jed's system died he wrote poems. Poems for no one." more history here.











01/03/2007

Jimmy


Jimmy Mouse stayed at the Hotel Nevada last night. I didn't discover him until late yesterday afternoon, too late in the day to release him, too cold. Temperatures what they are right now, it would be a big drag to suddenly find yourself homeless at the end of the day. It's supposed be sunny through the weekend though so he'll have a running start on finding a nice comfy new home by the meadow pond. We found our last guest at the hotel dead in the corner as though he were trying to dig himself out when he expired. It was very sad. We forgot the lid was down. We're very careful now. Once the trap is set we check it at least once a day. We don't want innocent creatures to suffer. We like happy endings for our guests, like Fatty Leland. Jimmy Mouse did okay too, although he didn't seem all that eager to face the big world. I don't blame him. He's a pretty tiny fellow. I hated to see him go but, as I understand it, field mice don't do well in captivity.









Books I found at the second hand store today.

This one I bought. This one I just photographed the cover.






28/02/2007

Because it's soothing


Ragged Feather did a nice claymation to the Beatles song, Because. It's a 02:45 massage for the frazzled psyche.






25/02/2007

Life without replay

I find the bank of TV monitors in front of the stair steppers at the gym incredibly annoying. We canceled the service and gave our set away a few years ago so I don't have any tolerance for replay after replay after replay, changing only when there's another clip or program to take its place, the endless foie gras for the brain, that is television. The brain drain. Outside the window it was snowing and a couple of cows were standing over a very young calf sheltering it from the storm. It's sad knowing what they don't, that probably by the time summer arrives that calf's loving mother will be hanging by her back legs with a slit throat.

24/02/2007

Holy shit!



Not long ago I started getting forwards from a mystery source but they sent the emails properly (Bcc'd) so I checked out one of the links. To date, they are almost always excellent. I did a little polking around and seems the sender lives nearby. Perhaps we've met, but I don't remember. That remains an open question about which you may hear more later. Anyway, here's one of the links I recently received. It's really impressive. Even though you, being very hip, have undoubtedly encountered some of this information before, it's all put together here in really Big Picture. I highly recommend you watch it. Learn a little bit about the world that does not yet exist because that's the world we are living in.

SHIFT HAPPENS.






23/02/2007

Foie Gras, you are what you eat


Here's a little good news. The grocery chain Giant Eagle announced today that it will no longer sell foie gras in any of its 230 stores! They join Whole Foods as well as the state of California, the city of Chicago, and 16 nations worldwide that have already banned this barbaric practice.

Sir Roger Moore volunteered to narrate a documentary for PETA revealing the cruel facts of foie gras production. Give it a watch. It's a lesson in compassion and, as we all know, compassion is food for the soul.


The hidden lives of ducks and geese.










FOX propaganda channel


Fox sucks! It doesn't report news. Fox injects wingnut propaganda into the public debate. That's it. The rest is cover. They don't deserve an FCC license. For starters, this channel should be investigated for fraud, criminal lobbying, and intentionally misleading the public. If you haven't been following their attack on Senator Obama, check out this video. It's a sickening mixture of lies, innuendo and slander disguised as news. The people in front of the camera aren't reporters. In fact, it's even flattery to call them actors. They are media whores. Fox my "campaign headquarters?" In your dreams, assholes...

FOX ATTACKS OBAMA









22/02/2007

Yesterday's news



All the Democratic presidential candidates but Obama were in Carson City yesterday to kick off rutting season. I didn't even hear about it until this morning when I dropped by for a meeting that didn't happen because of the snow but I found the morning paper lying on the bar with this photo and headline. That's June (the owner) dragging Hillary through the room.


Things were considerably calmer there today but still there were plenty of interesting looking people scattered around. Some were probably lobbyists, then there were the edgy guys in suits with strange badges, slick guys wearing designer glasses, watchers, readers, mellow woolly folk, a man quietly playing his guitar, people on laptops, chatty lunchers, a couple of loners besides myself. Anyone from anywhere might show up at the Comma. The legislature building is right across the street and there are two penitentiaries in town. Politicians, crooks, travelers. People with secrets and money to spend. It's that kind of place. It all revolves around June. Even Hillary knew enough to pay respect.


June has all the poetry books out that we, as Ash Canyon, recently donated. She sawed the bookshelves we gave her in half so that the library lines the walls unobtrusively. Very cool. I got a cup of coffee, grabbed a stack of journals and read and worked on a poem for a few hours. Heaven in a snowstorm.



Today June was back to business busy making sandwiches during the lunch hour rush. Another day at the Comma. As for the carpetbaggers, they did their one night stand and are gone. The big news from the Carson Valley today is that Willy the squirrel made his first appearance of the year at the Bird park yesterday. I'd say he's looking pretty fat and happy for mid-winter.














21/02/2007

I will not waste my afternoon blogging.



I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
I will not waste my afternoon blogging.
Or posting on message boards.

20/02/2007

White House Mordor




Patrick Fitzgerald is right.
Cheney and Bush have drawn "a cloud over the White House."
Impeach these bastards!



Dirty Dick Cheney

bushbash.com

Can't Earth host an interplanetary game show and raffle Cheney off to aliens? I suppose not. He could be the booby prize though. This loser would even be the booby prize at a sweetheart box social in Folsom.











Morning

It's morning again in my part of the world. It's a lovely morning although I did miss seeing the new nova in Scorpius at dawn. Here I am again, wondering which way to go. Lots running through my head. So many possibilities. Instead of choosing one, I am circling the event horizon of the day and, as always from the approach point of view, possibilities never appear to cross the horizon. It takes an effort to escape this hypnotic spell. I no longer take freedom for granted.

“I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till i drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.” - Jack Kerouac

19/02/2007

Tonight



A flame is quietly wavering above the clear pool of melted wax cupped in the top of the stubby green candle on my desk. A new nova was discovered only a few days ago in the constellation Scorpius. It will be visible to the naked eye tomorrow morning just before dawn.






18/02/2007

Yesteryear's tombstone art




This photo is of an old tombstone in nearby Carson City. I took it a few summer's ago but polished it up today for your viewing pleasure.





15/02/2007

Beat Baby #05 - Magic Carpet

Here's the latest in the adventures of Beat Baby and Hep. This episode took a long winding path to the fourth frame but it's finally done.

Open book



Everybody needs someone to hold a little hope for them. Valentine's day in Reno.
Who do you love?