this old cowboy

Brenda's blog

2011-07-21T03:17:00.003-04:00

Thank goodness someone's writing about my experiences up here in Canada. Here's a link to Skagway Etcetera. Enjoy.

Shaaw Tláa / Tagish Kate / Kate Carmack

2011-07-04T01:41:00.002-04:00

Oh Lee, you're breakin' my heart down there

2011-03-21T07:07:00.000-04:00

from "The land of unhappy brides"

2010-08-11T22:58:00.005-04:00

No one is aware that only a few steps from their baby basket they have fostered indescribably shocking places. Of all the stories we heard as tikes, I always got stuck on the ones about mejere, witches who become horses, and devils who attempted to redeem themselves by becoming pious men only to reassume the forms of wild animals. The stories that yielded the popular iconography of our city were always dismal – a man married a woman and discovered she was a mejere, that she, after having forced her husband to eat broth every day (all the while pretending to do likewise but with a fork), fed on the cadavers in the hidden tombs of San Martino’s cathedral, and then she disappeared into the misty night like those autumn nights of Martina and its valley of figs and bramble. Odd stories of water changing mejere into animals, of the city hosting thousands of these mutant beings, these cat-men, these horse-women, who by day spoke suavely and by night meowed, barked, or whinnied like famished, solitary creatures. In this town full of enigmatic were-creatures, legends of shapeshifting, and demonic hordes, you cannot not listen to the thousand stories about surprising, unforeseeably surprising places. Whoever told stories about the Holy Grail or the Wondering Jew being in the field near Barsento would be laughed at, and yet we all, at least once in our lives, would happen across a storyteller, a charlatan, a finangler, a imploring bull-shitter, a sorry bum ranging the province, with a mysterious dialect without vowels, in which the rules of phonetics seek their last rights before slipping into occult memory. That abominable being, laden with stupid, superstitious rants, with his face like a country priest or perhaps wearing an expression disfigured by the unmistakable wrinkles of disdain, would take us aside and lead us some place we never would have believed possible. This genus included characters like Cito, Fulco, Mimo, Cenzoum, and very shortly, with fanfare playing, yours truly would arrive in pompa magna. So mindful of judgments on and by others, yet so taken with myself, my narcissism, my sense of guilt, my willingly turbid fate, fated to an ineluctable condemnation.

much further than that, i hope

2010-08-07T10:17:00.005-04:00

Last night we went stargazing with Bob and Ed at the Allegheny Observatory. In addition to filling our ears with awkward sounds we all assumed they would classify as information and light humor, they let us stand on a rickety, 60-ish-year-old mobile staircase and look through the good old Fitz-Clark Refractor telescope and into the out-of-this-world. We all took turns taking peeks at Venus, which looked like a very yellow version of the moon waning, Saturn, which looked unbelievably like a pale gray model of what I assume more or less everyone saw/sees/would see in a 1960s book about the solar system, and the exploding star M-57.

It all seemed fake enough that we began to suspect that when Ed and Bob had switched the lenses on the telescope they had done so because each of those lenses had the desired images painted on the other side, which would pretty much guarantee that everyone who put his or her eye up to the scope would see what was to be seen and go away happy. Scam or no scam, all were allowed to interact with the 150-year-old telescope free of charge. And I have to admit that I was more than a little impressed to hear that the man who discovered that the rings of Saturn were composted of particles, a true gentleman named J. Keeler, had made that discovery both in Pittsburgh and with that very telescope.

I soon caught myself longing for the days when mankind cared about stars and could readily admire them (without being stymied by light pollution) and make up crazy stories about them. I almost wanted to be on an ancient Greek ship, or something similar. Then I realized that we still care about stars and planets - to the point of spending BILLIONS of dollars every year just for NASA programs - and we still make up bizarre stories about outer space - heaven only knows how much money goes into creating, packaging, and selling them - and in the end I just kind of felt overwhelmed and confused and didn't know what to think (but I'm pretty sure I was still romanticizing over the ancient Greeks et al.) . However, if in the next year one of the other planets comes into view in our not-so-starry skies, I'll be going back to the observatory for sure.

2010-05-09T10:47:00.003-04:00

"While the actual working cowboy disappears, along with the genuine nonworking Indian, the make-believe cowboys flourish and multiply like flies on a pecan pie. Everywhere you see them now, from California to Florida, from Texas to Times Square, crowding the streets in their big white hats, tight pants, flowered shirts, and high-heeled fruity boots. From the rear many of them look like women; many of them are women. Especially in the small towns west of the Mississippi, where cowboyism as a cult grows in direct ratio to the disappearance of cattle-herding as an accupation, you will see the latest, the Mr. and Mrs Cattleman couple in authentic matching Western costume - the husband with sunburnt nose and belly bulging over a steerhorn buckle heavy enough to kill a horse with, and his wife, a tall tough broad in gabardines and boots with a look on her face that would make a Comanche blanch."

E. Abbey Desert Solitaire (1968)

My friend's film

2010-01-17T23:28:00.002-05:00

Sandbags

"Set in 1987 war-torn Beirut, Sandbags recounts the true story of Edmond Naim, Governor of the Lebanese Central Bank. We follow the man in charge of the Lebanese currency and governmental payrolls on a fateful day that will ultimately lead him to an unprecedented historical feat: Edmond Naim will sleep in his office from 1987 till the end of the civil war, keeping the Lebanese Fort Knox machine well oiled and operational.

Caught between two capricious seceded governments, away from his family and guarded only by two Security officers, Naim endures a harsh work routine with constant shelling at and around his bank, civil strife and gunfire on the roads, and constant pressure to keep the Gold safe."

Let's be honest, it sounds great. Unfortunately they're a few grand short on funds, so, if you're a fan of the arts or just want to get your name in the credits of a worthwhile film, I encourage you to consider donating a few dollars.

Wouldn't it be great if this helped save the rainforest?

2010-01-13T09:09:00.000-05:00

makes you want to take an ape home to play with

2009-12-17T21:08:00.000-05:00

in the land of make believe

2009-11-08T20:00:00.005-05:00

Today I met up with some childhood icons and a bit of American television history. I like to think I do this frequently, but today was different.

Mr. McFeely even had me say "speedy delivery" in Italian for our picture and told me of his visit to KUED some years ago. What a neighbor that man is!

denti di giudizio

2009-11-02T15:50:00.004-05:00

2009-10-14T16:16:00.008-04:00

in memory of my very first post, i repeat that fall is a nice time of year. this year i won't be enjoying the change of seasons three times over, but i'm finding plenty of pleasant things to do instead. i think it all began with a Labor Day visiting Niagara Falls, where i believed (falsely) that people had aching desires to enjoy nature's majesty and power

while in reality it's seems more connected desires for wax museums and haunted houses.

Annamaria and i held off until just recently for our halloween experience, which was masterfully brought to us in the form of Diamanda Galás gurgling razors and low-note piano keys for over an hour.

in efforts to balance our diet of this year's fall experience we took a little jaunt out to Hartwood Acres to tour the mansion there. i thought that was pretty worthwhile as well, and have a photograph to prove it.

the next addition to the parade of autumn delights would be nothing else but a wonder movie and concert by Califone. they played a cacophonous soundtrack to their kind of scary, kind of kooky, kind of silly film and topped everything of with a very enjoyable group of songs. i was so satisfied that i bought the new cd and a t-shirt!

one of the next adventures will be thanksgiving in phoenix. the last time we had thanksgiving there we had great napkin holders.

2009-08-21T14:22:00.000-04:00

So every time I go down near Moab I try to stop by the T-Shirt Shop and pick out a design to remind me of the olden days when Grandma would buy a shirt for all us grandkids.

biking adventures with Gus pt II

2009-08-07T20:19:00.003-04:00

kind of like sasquatch

2009-08-01T13:44:00.005-04:00

So a dream came true for me on Wednesday when I was up mountian biking with my friend Gus in American Fork Canyon. We ran across one of these guys

about this color too. I've wanted to find a rubber boa for about the past 16 years or so, so I was pretty pleased when Gus managed to spot one on the trail without running it over. You can find some more info and more pictures of the boa featured above here.

making the river answer

2009-07-19T01:00:00.001-04:00

Plastic in the water

2009-07-04T17:25:00.004-04:00

As I've been reading Alan Weisman's book The World Without Us I've stopped several times to sit and wonder just what it is we think we're doing to the planet - most of what we're doing doesn't seem to be keeping within any kind of previously existing ecological balance. I stopped to question our behavior once again when I read about exfoliants.

"Can you believe it?" Richard Thompson demands of no one in particular, loud enough that faces bent over microscopes rise to look at him. "They're selling plastic meant to go right down the drain, into the sewers, into the rivers, right into the ocean. Bite-sized pieces of plastic to be swallowed by sea creatures."

Weisman certainly plays on the theatricality of this experience, but I have to say that the issue might merit some dramatic emphasis. For the past year and a half I've been using and enjoying a particular body wash. Today I checked the ingredients and found near the top of the list "polyethylene." I don't know where that plastic is going now that I'm in the eastern United States, but I have to believe that when I was in Southeast Asia I was contributing to the island of plastic floating around in the North Pacific Gyre.

The question for me becomes "what do we now do with all this plastic that we have and how do we live without it?"

SEND BOOKS TO KIDS IN INDIA (please)

2009-07-02T20:08:00.004-04:00

This morning my friend Taty in Sicily asked me if I wanted to help collect books to send to a children's school in India where a friend of hers is trying to assemble a library. I'm in the humanities and consequentially am really into books, so I emailed Fr. Sibi to get some more information about what he's after. This was his response

"I would like books on subjects like science, geography, history, stories, events, encyclopedias etc. Books that is meant for children and their mental growth."

If you can think of a book you read as a child or young adult that stimulated your mental growth, or a book that would have stimulated it, I think you should do what you can to get a copy to the school. Here are a couple of options

1. Find a copy of the book(s) you want to send, write a little message on the inside cover, go to the post office and send it. Just be aware that sending heavy things to India might be pricey so

2. I recommend buying your book(s) through an online bookstore that will ship it(them) for free. The best ones that I've seen so far are Rediff Books and flipcart. The prices are in rupee but you can check the dollar amount here, just select "Indian Ruppe" and you can figure out the rest. As for the message on the inside cover, you could simply email it either to me or directly to Sibi.

I'm waiting to here back from Sibi about where exactly we'll need to send the books.

My hope is that we can add at least 100 books to their library. Help me keep track of what gets sent (also so Sibi knows what to wait for in the mail) by sending me an email or even commenting here on the blog. Thanks for reading.

San Severo - la Madonna del soccorso

2009-06-30T18:48:00.005-04:00

This is the annual run of the bulls for San Severo but instead of bulls they line the streets with strings of very mean firecrackers and occasional bits of what must be TNT (they even managed to make a small wall collapse this year) at the approximate hight of a human head. The hight is important when you add the fact that townsfolk are supposed to run en masse in front of the explosions in effort to not get burned or maimed. The fuochi, literally meaning "fires," are the main attraction of the celebrations and this fact has not settled well with the local bishop, who would like the attention to be refocused on the namesake of the events, that is the Virgin Mary. But when this fine gentleman began insisting a couple years ago that the city do away with the explosives the citizens responded with the an iron fist. For several days the bishop couldn't leave his house without getting beat up. So the explosives stayed and the bishop stayed quiet.

The fuochi featured in these videos were some of the first to be set off and consequently they were also some of the tamest. Nevertheless they still managed to shake us to our core and make our ears bleed slightly.

dance-o-tronic

2009-06-29T19:14:00.005-04:00

this is basically what we did for an hour while they cleaned a body off of the highway.

then we did this for the rest of the day:

reading Anna Maria Ortese

2009-06-25T00:09:00.005-04:00

I didn't understand much of what I read in the short story La casa del bosco, but I did enjoy this sentence:

Si è parlato anche, con una certa compiacenza, dell'Apocalisse, e i Cavalieri del Cielo spesso hanno animato le notti dei più infelici che spiavvano dietro i vetri di New York, o Londra o Lisbona; ma il mio idraulico, non si è mai veduto.

I'll even give you a late-night translation:

There was also talk, with a certain satisfaction, of the Apocalypse, and the Horsemen of Heaven often stirred the nights of the most unhappy who would peer from behind the windows of New York, or London, or Lisbon; but my plumber was never to be seen.

The rest of the short story wasn't much clearer.

the where

2009-06-20T10:06:00.005-04:00

About a month of my stay was spent in the region of Apulia, which goes from the spur to the heel of the boot. Our base camp was the city of Altamura (famous for bread and Ciccillo, the prehistoric man) in the province of Bari. By depriving Raffaella of her car for days on end we managed to visit some hit cities in every province, a few of the favorites being Otranto, Gallipoli, Torre a mare, Ostuni, Alberobello, Trani and San Severo with its unique festival for the Madonna del soccorso.

Destinations outside of Apulia included Matera and the Sorrento Peninsula, famous for the Amalfi Coast. And a trip to Italy wouldn't be complete for me without a trip up north to see old friends. We even made it out to Spain for a few days. And that was about it.

that's it for italy

2009-06-19T10:50:00.002-04:00

reading Flann O'Brien

2009-06-01T11:43:00.003-04:00

Hatchjaw's theory in this regard is more acceptable. He tends to the view that the water was boiled and converted, probably through the water-box, into tiny jets of steam which were projected through an upper window into the night in an endeavour to wash the black 'volcanic' stains from the 'skins' or 'air-bladders' of the atmosphere and thus dissipate the hated and 'insanitary' night. However far-fetched this theory may appear, unexpected colour is lent to it by a previous court case when the physicist was fined forty shillings. On this occasion, some two years before the construction of the water-box, de Selby was charged with playing a fire hose out of one of the upper windows of his house at night, an operation which resulted in several passers-by being drenched to the skin. On another occasion he had to face the curious charge of hoarding water, the police testifying that every vessel in his house, from the bath down to a set of three ornamental egg-cups, was brimming with the liquid. Again a trumped-up charge of attempted suicide was preferred merely because the savant had accidentally half-drowned himself in a quest for some vital statistic of celestial aquatics.

It is clear from contemporary newspapers that his inquiries into water were accompanied by persecutions and legal pin-pricks unparalleled since the days of Galileo. It may be some consolation to the minions responsible to know that their brutish and barbaric machinations succeeded in denying posterity a clear record of the import of these experiments and perhaps a primer of esoteric water science that would banish much of our wordly pain and unhappiness. Virtually all that remains of de Selby's work in this regard is his house where his countless taps are still as he left them, though a newer generation of more delicate mind has the water turned off at the main.

I'm reading "Herzog on Herzog"

2009-05-04T06:25:00.005-04:00

While waiting for my flight I just kind of opened up the book and noticed this toward the back:

The Minnesota Declaration

Truth and fact in documentary cinema

LESSONS OF DARKNESS

by Werner Herzog

1. By dint of declaration the so-called Cinéma Vérité is devoid of vérité. It reaches a merely superficial truth, the truth of accountants.

2. One well-known representative of Cinéma Vérité declared publicly that truth can be easily found by taking a camera and trying to be honest. he resembles the night watchman at the Supreme Court who resents the amount of written law and legal procedures. 'For me,' he says, 'there should be only one single law: the bad guys should go to jail.' Unfortunately, he is part right, for most of the many, much of the time.

3. Cinéma Vérité confounds fact and truth, and thus plows on ly stones. And yet, facts sometimes have a strange and bizarre power that makes their inherent truth seem unbelievable.

4. Fact creates norms, and truth illumination.

5. There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.

6. Filmakers of Cinéma Vérité resemble tourists who take pictures amid ancient ruins of facts.

7. Tourism is sin, and travel on foot virtue.

8. Each year at springtime scores of people on snowmobiles crash through the melting ice on the lakes of Minnesota and drown. Pressure is mounting on the new governor to pass a protective law. He, the former wrestler and bodyguard, has the only sage answer to this: 'You can't legislate stupidity.'

9. The gauntlet is hereby thrown down.

10. The moon is dull. Mother Nature doesn't call, doesn't speak to you, although a glacier eventually farts. And don't you listen to the Song of Life.

11. We ought to be grateful that the Universe out there knows no smile.

12. Life in the oceans must be sheer hell. A vast, merciless hell of permanent and immediate danger. So much of hell that during evolution some species - including man - crawled, fled onto some small continents of solid land, where the Lessons of Darkness continue.

Walder Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (April 30, 1999)

a glance behind

2009-05-02T11:05:00.006-04:00

One year ago I had just received 30,000 baht for teaching four overcrowded classrooms and two less-crowded ones, and was nearly on my way out to visit other wonders of Thailand. At that time I think the only thing I was afraid of was my neighbor and fellow teacher, Mike, the one who looked like a week and a half old cadaver despite his being only a few years older than myself and who was constantly having fairly intense arguments with his own self. There was no doubt in my mind that he could try to kill me one night and send me to heaven. And just to be honest, I was also a little afraid of Greg even though all he ever did was talk incessantly about loving the apostle Paul, earthquakes, pot, and his search for love online, the latter being the result of his unsatisfaction with his pregnant girlfriend, whom he left just as teaching finished up. So that was the sum of my fears a year ago - two strange men I interacted with as little as possible and will hopefully never see again. The fact that I didn't have tons of money and very limited language skills didn't seem to bother me considering the fact that I had extensive plans to get rid of the money and put my self in situations of even greater linguistic diversity. I had the Unknown right where I wanted him. Sometimes he won sometimes I won, and it all turned out nice enough.

This year I'm off again. Tomorrow I head out to Italy for a month to be with someone that I don't want to be without, and the adventures seem ever more challenging and intriguing. This time around I have to like pretty much everyone I meet. While meeting people is easy, liking them all and wanting to spent time with them often creates some challenges. The language barriers that were ever present last year will no longer be around, and the lack of people to rely on in time of need will no longer be a factor this trip, but still the presence of the Unknown comes seeping into my dry skin like an unwanted but, oh, so effective lotion. I imagine that, much like last year, sometimes I'll win and sometimes he'll win - either way, it should be interesting.

airborne

2009-04-30T02:49:00.003-04:00

The other night I had a dream that I could fly. I've not had one of those for a long time. It always starts with me jumping up into the air and not falling and so I keep kicking until I think I've froggied up high enough. My first flying dreams were all the same and involved being at my grandma's house in the backyard by the swings, but this one was different.

And while I'm here, I might as well add this link to an article explaining how I've joined a cult.

2009-03-28T18:04:00.001-04:00

Here are a couple of highlights from a New York Times article.

“He shivered and I leaned over and said, ‘Come here, baby, are you cold?’ and he exploded,” Ms. Bowers says. “He started biting and screaming at me, biting any place he could touch. It was a nightmare. We tipped over furniture, I would have killed him if I could. But he was so strong. I tried to choke him to make him stop. We fought for I don’t know how long. I was trying to hold him so he couldn’t bite me. I took one of my big fabric books and held it on his throat.”

“All of a sudden I feel a severe pain on the right side of my mouth and then I felt something dripping down my face,” Ms. Harrison says. “And there was all this blood, and I look over at Mikey and here he had my tooth in his hand, roots and all. He had pulled my tooth out with one finger.”

2009-02-28T23:22:00.003-05:00

One day we made a special day
for a very special person.

in the flesh

2009-02-26T19:14:00.004-05:00

For all you cynics of transubstantiation, proof lies in Lanciano, Italy.
What does your heart tell you?

new year's resolution

2009-01-01T17:54:00.003-05:00

For those of you living out in Utah County, or might be passing through, you should go enjoy some tacos at the Pastorero. Like most restaurants that have tried making a claim in Brigham's Landing, it will likely have to close in a couple of years, so the moral is that you should get your tacos now before it's gone.

Talking Heads - Mind

2008-12-09T12:37:00.002-05:00

Time won't change you
Money won't change you
I haven't got the faintest idea
Everything seems to be up in the air at this time
I need something you change your mind
Drugs won't change you
Religion won't change you
Science won't change you
Looks like I can't change you
I try to talk to you, to make things clear
but you're not even listening to me...
And it comes directly from my heart to you...

bad news

2008-12-01T12:03:00.002-05:00

Last night in the shower I realized not only that I can't name a single player on the Steelers, I can't name a current professional football player on any team.

November, more or less

2008-11-30T12:40:00.000-05:00

after the personality test and the mental illness test, i naturally took the dating test

2008-10-30T01:44:00.002-04:00

Your dating personality profile:

Liberal - Politics matters to you, and you aren't afraid to share your left-leaning views. You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate.
Practical - You are a down-to-earth individual who is not impressed with material excess. You care about the stuff of like that really matters.
Big-Hearted - You are a kind and caring person. Your warmth is inviting, and your heart is a wellspring of love.

Your Top Ten Traits

1. Liberal
2. Practical
3. Big-Hearted
4. Adventurous
5. Intellectual
6. Athletic
7. Shy
8. Stylish
9. Sensual
10. Wealthy/Ambitious

Your date match profile:

Shy - You are put off by people who are open books. You are drawn to someone who is a bit more mysterious. You want to draw her out of her shell and get to know what she is all about.
Practical - You are drawn to people who are sensible and smart. Flashy, materialistic people turn you off. You appreciate the simpler side of living.
Intellectual - You seek out intelligence. Idle chit-chat is not what you are after. You prefer your date who can stimulate your mind.

Your Top Ten Match Traits

1. Shy
2. Practical
3. Intellectual
4. Big-Hearted
5. Traditional
6. Adventurous
7. Athletic
8. Stylish
9. Romantic
10. Funny

Take the Dating Profile Quiz at Would I Date You

I just have to say that the two biggest surprises here are: 1) "Liberal" being my number one trait, and 2) "Funny" being the least important trait of whomever I date. By the way I'm an INTJ personality.

a steady part of my current diet

2008-10-29T22:08:00.001-04:00

2008-10-12T18:18:00.003-04:00

I'll admit that I intentionally side step a lot of what I deem mainstream pop culture. I don't want to be mainstream, as silly as that might sound, but I have to say that the Saturday Night Live election skits have certainly made me giggle.

1st presidential debate

2nd presidential debate

1st vice-presidential debate

Italian friends on the mind

2008-10-11T10:44:00.006-04:00

I'm thinking more and more about getting over to Italy for a short visit next summer (hopefully the $ will still be worth something by then). Despite the fact that ever since my last visit I've been pretty set on going down into Southern Italy, I can't help but think about how much I want to see the folks I learned to care so much about up north. I can't really go off about all the people I'd like to visit, but I can show you some of the beauty of the Dolomites that the Marcellins insisted I enjoy when I spent the summer of 2005 in Italy. I also feel like their enthusiasm for treating me as family is fairly representative of all my dear friends I want to visit.

Paolo pointing out a trail he hiked in his youth.

Gorgeous.

Paolo, Giovanna, Susanna and Fillipo

Who knows if I'll actually make it back or where I'll end up if I do. Just the same, here's to hoping.

Dialogo della Terra e della Luna (Dialogue between the Earth and Moon) by Giacomo Leopardi

2008-10-05T13:56:00.005-04:00

The Earth and the Moon discuss the nature of their peoples and manage, after numerous misunderstandings, to come to a few conclusions. (English translation by Giovanni Cecchetti found below the Italian.)

Terra. Almeno mi saprai tu dire se costì sono in uso i vizi, i misfatti, gl'infortuni, i dolori, la vecchiezza, in conclusione i mali? intendi tu questi nomi?
Luna. Oh cotesti sì che gl'intendo; e non solo i nomi, ma le cose significate, le conosco a maraviglia: perché ne sono tutta piena, in vece di quelle altre che tu credevi.
Terra. Quali prevalgono ne' tuoi popoli, i pregi o i difetti?
Luna. I difetti di gran lunga.
Terra. Di quali hai maggior copia, di beni o di mali?
Luna. Di mali senza comparazione.
Terra. E generalmente gli abitatori tuoi sono felici o infelici?
Luna. Tanto infelici, che io non mi scambierei col più fortunato di loro.
Terra. Il medesimo è qui. Di modo che io mi maraviglio come essendomi sì diversa nelle altre cose, in questa mi sei conforme.
Luna. Anche nella figura, e nell'aggirarmi, e nell'essere illustrata dal sole io ti sono conforme; e non è maggior maraviglia quella che questa: perché il male è cosa comune a tutti i pianeti dell'universo, o almeno di questo mondo solare, come la rotondità e le altre condizioni che ho detto, né più né meno. E se tu potessi levare tanto alto la voce, che fossi udita da Urano o da Saturno, o da qualunque altro pianeta del nostro mondo; e gl'interrogassi se in loro abbia luogo l'infelicità, e se i beni prevagliano o cedano ai mali; ciascuno ti risponderebbe come ho fatto io. Dico questo per aver dimandato delle medesime cose Venere e Mercurio, ai quali pianeti di quando in quando io mi trovo più vicina di te; come anche ne ho chiesto ad alcune comete che mi sono passate dappresso: e tutti mi hanno risposto come ho detto. E penso che il sole medesimo, e ciascuna stella risponderebbero altrettanto.
Terra. Con tutto cotesto io spero bene: e oggi massimamente, gli uomini mi promettono per l'avvenire molte felicità.
Luna. Spera a tuo senno: e io ti prometto che potrai sperare in eterno.
Terra. Sai che è? questi uomini e queste bestie si mettono a romore: perché dalla parte della quale io ti favello, è notte, come tu vedi, o piuttosto non vedi; sicché tutti dormivano; e allo strepito che noi facciamo parlando, si destano con gran paura.
Luna. Ma qui da questa parte, come tu vedi, è giorno.
Terra. Ora io non voglio essere causa di spaventare la mia gente, e di rompere loro il sonno, che è il maggior bene che abbiano. Però ci riparleremo in altro tempo. Addio dunque; buon giorno.
Luna. Addio; buona notte.

~ ~ ~

Earth. At least you can tell me if up there people are acquainted with vice, crime, calamity, pain, old age - in short, evils. So you understand these words?
Moon. Oh yes. I surely understand them. And not only the words but the things they mean; I know them perfectly well, for I am filled with them - rather than with the other things you mentioned.
Earth. What are more prevalent among your people, virtues or vices?
Moon. Vices by far.
Earth. What is more abundant, good or evil?
Moon. Evil, without comparison.
Earth. And, in general, your inhabitants are happy or unhappy?
Moon. So unhappy that I wouldn't change places with the most fortunate of them.
Earth. It's the same here. So much so that it is a great surprise how similar you are to me in this, whereas you are so different in everything else.
Moon. I am also similar to you in form, and in movement, and in receiving light from the sun, and this is no less surprising than the rest because evil is something common to all the planets of the universe or at least of this solar system - just as much as roundness and the other conditions I have mentioned. If you could raise your voice so high that it could be heard by Uranus or Saturn, or by any other planet of our world, and if you could ask them whether unhappiness exists on them and whether good or evil prevails among them, each would answer in the same way I have. I say this because I have already asked Venus and Mercury about the same things, for now and then I find myself closer to them than you. I have also asked some of the comets that have passed by me. All have answered in the same way as I have. And I believe that the sun himself, and every star, would give the same answer.
Earth. In spite of all this, I am still hopeful, especially nowadays, when men are promising me great future happiness.
Moon. Hope as much as you like; I assure you that you can hope forever.
Earth. Do you know what's going on? These men and these animals are beginning to stir and make noise. On the side from which I'm talking to you, it is night, as you can see, or rather, as you can't see; and so they were all asleep, and at the commotion that we are making while we talk, they are waking up with great fear.
Moon. But up here, as you can see, it is daytime.
Earth. I don't want to frighten my people or to shatter their sleep, which is the greatest blessing they have. So we'll talk again some other time. Goodbye, then; and good day.
Moon. Goodbye; and good night.

some brothers

2008-09-23T18:00:00.001-04:00

Laotian monastery

2008-09-18T21:06:00.003-04:00

2008-09-14T13:34:00.003-04:00

So Sonic Youth just signed to Matador Records which is kind of cool news, but really I just wanted to post this picture of SY that I picked up from their facebook page. This is from back in the days of 1985 when they were on Homestead and Blast First. If only I had been a little older than three at the time, you know?

today's scare

2008-09-12T15:31:00.003-04:00

I'm not really one for politics but I just spent the last hour or so watching news clips of Sarah Palin in interviews ans giving speeches and such, and I must say that THIS WOMAN FREAKS ME OUT. The thought of her in a position of power anywhere, Alaska or Washington D.C., makes me deeply uncomfortable. Listen to her explain herself and her political intentions and see what crosses your mind.

Zion's National Park

2008-09-09T15:09:00.002-04:00

Teacher Jim

2008-09-07T10:17:00.008-04:00

I met Jim in Zhuhai, China, where we went through a month long TEFL course together. Following the course I went down to Thailand and met up with him again in his previously established realm of influence, which he generously shared. He then returned to China for work and I returned some time for play. I think he's still sifting through the teaching opportunities, but here you see him at his 9 pm English hour at the now defunct Sansook Place in Thailand and have a good time wading through the sewage-y floodwaters of Yangshuo, China. Perhaps those were the days.

leather could hardly look better

2008-09-06T22:06:00.000-04:00

China flashback #3

2008-09-04T19:39:00.006-04:00

So you've seen this picture before on facebook and now you see it here. I think this image of me and Meili Mt. (6,740 m or 22,107 ft) sits deep in my heart for the fact that it a) documents me at the highest altitude I've ever set foot on, b) captures my neck in it's hairiest glory, and c) shows me in a happy state, refreshed by a taste of snow and ice after months of Southeast Asia jungle.

2008-08-28T17:30:00.004-04:00

My detour down to Oklahoma satisfied the way only Oklahoma can. I got to meet up with Hillary in her native environment and make her do stuff like walk around the cemetery just outside of Mannford looking for Lee Hazlewood, snoop around a little oil well, and go have dinner at Shortcakes with the increasingly celebrated McFarlins. It sure was nice to see Lee and Diane again four years after they so eagerly lead Laura and me into the waters of Lake Carl Blackwell and the world of noodling. If you're wondering what Lee's been up to or what he's up to now, here are a couple of links that might interest you.

http://www.okienoodling.com/okienoodling2/index.html

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=368428329

China flashback #2

2008-08-28T07:21:00.005-04:00

I don't know much about what was going on. I know I was headed south and they encouraged me to wait for the bus with them. I know I had to pose with them in various photographs. I know that when I came out of the supermarket with my breakfast we witnessed a small car accident. I remember the kid with the cigarette disappeared for a time and then returned with a taxi van. I'm sure it wasn't long after we loaded into the vehicle that our driver was confronted by an officer of the law, and at that point he drove us all over to the police station. We never saw that driver again. I'm certain these kids dictated some kind of statement while I wondered back and forth from the taxi and the office where all this was taking place several times over a period of a long time. I recall getting into the front passenger seat a policeman's car and being driven down to the dock along the Mekong River. At one point I asked if we were going to a particular city and got shushed by the youngsters. As soon as the officer had driven away from the dock we all hurried into another taxi and left the river with the speed of thieves. I know we were pretty uncomfortable packed in this new taxi and the fighting cock was taking up more space than that one woman would have liked. We definitely sang along to "Yesterday Once More" three and half times. And the taxi sure didn't take us all the way to where I wanted to go.

Blind

2008-08-22T19:40:00.002-04:00

"And if you saw with my eyes, you'd see what self-deception means."

Wonderfully brutal lyrics by Michael Gira.

signs along the way

2008-08-19T18:05:00.004-04:00

Things got strange once I hit Kansas - strange for me anyway. I began seeing signs for things that I hadn't been exposed to before. If I had to judge from the signs and billboards posted along I-70 I'd say the folks in Kansas care a lot about getting you saved in the Kingdom of God and making sure all fetuses get there too. It's not a bad goal, really. The folks in Oklahoma must have a tendency to fish off highway bridges. The Missourians have placed a lot of adult shops along the freeway, but I'd never go in them. One billboard had a picture indicating wheelchair access and I couldn't help but think of shopping in such a place with Gramma 'n Grampa. Then there was the "UP TO 6XL" that troubled me deeply. For the life of me I couldn't imagine what someone wearing a garment that large would look like, and I hope real life never forces me to find out. Missouri also marked the real beginning of innumerable displays of Waffle House advertising. But my favorite sign was a road sign in Pennsylvania that read

"Buckle up
next million miles!"

Since when did we put so much attitude in our road signs?

2008-08-03T15:07:00.005-04:00

My few days on Maui have provided amble opportunities to converse with various self-proclaimed hippies. I really learned a lot from them and look forward to future contact with their kind.

Calvin, a man claiming to be the offspring of Def Leppard, when talking about the Oklahoma City bombing remembered things like this: "What was that dude's name again? Deuchebag McDeuchebag? Wayne, man, do you got any herb, bro?" Here on Maui there are a lot of bros. There are also a lot of puka shells.

John, a 51-year-old swinging by the end of his rope, made this comment upon seeing two fairly attractive girls walking on the beach: "Listen, Wayne, you really gotta get yourself a B-otch - I like saying B-otch, it just makes sense." And right now you're wondering "was he saying 'B-otch' or the other word?" and, as it turns out, he was saying B-otch, otherwise it wouldn't make sense.

i definitely wish i was this elephant, at least then i'd understand two more things than i understand right now: people and the future

2008-08-02T02:29:00.004-04:00

traveling space and time

2008-07-31T16:29:00.007-04:00

Flying long distance on an airplane can leave a kid like me a little disoriented. Maybe it's the meals served at odd hours, maybe it's the seeming sterility of the plane's interior, maybe it's the awful films they play, or maybe it's the plane's ability to break out of the terrestrial headlock, provide staff that can ask me if I want coffee in more languages than I can understand, and then deposit me somewhere in a previously seen hour.

2008-07-30T16:32:00.006-04:00

http://www.okienoodling.com/okienoodling2/press.html

2008-07-26T22:40:00.009-04:00

When I left for Asia many of my family and friends inquired as to my intentions with the women of Asia. Are you going to bring back a wife? they would ask.

As I'm preparing to leave Thailand for the States I am surprised to find I'm often asked, mostly by middle aged Thai women, whether or not I'll be taking my Thai girlfriend home with me.

I suppose I could.

china flashback #1

2008-07-26T22:24:00.003-04:00

muslim chinese food (featured on the green board in the upper lefthand corner) could be the best in all of china. so there i was looking forward to eating some when this yung fellow whips out his phone - a phone twinkling with more blinking lights than even LAX probably - selects a song, turns the volume up to "ridiculously loud and distorted," takes a drag on his cigarette, and then bursts forth in what i understood to be completely sincere, heartfelt song. i thought he might be crying. no one else in the restaurant seemed to notice or care.

body hair pt. II

2008-07-15T23:49:00.002-04:00

My trip from Vang Vieng down to Vientiane took place in the back of a crowed truck, but two men up near the cab weren't being crowded. I'm not sure why, but a young lady sitting next to them was really pushing the lady sitting between us hard up against me and I was trying to subtly push back because to the other side of me was a fellow with no legs and I figured he'd probably had enough of being crowed to last a handful of lifetimes. The lady getting sandwiched eventually ended up preferring the bed of the truck, where she sat hunched over a barf bag, and within seconds the younger lady who was doing all the pushing ended up scooting right up next to me making the gap between her and the men even more painfully obvious.

I don't really know what to say except that when the young lady got off at her stop I ended up next to the men, who both took turns touching my arm and leg hair.

proud to be an American?

2008-07-11T10:42:00.005-04:00

cluster bombs + Lao PDR

http://www.itvs.org/bombies/story.html
http://www.maginternational.org/MAG/en/where-we-work/where-mag-works/lao-pdr/

2008-07-09T10:06:00.004-04:00

My brother just posted 5 essential albums on his blog. I was pleased to see Lee Hazlewood had a spot. This is a picture of Stuart A. Staples, the living expression of Lee's sad side. He sings sad songs to make us happy, because human beings really enjoy sadness.

cursed be the man who introduced plastic to asia

2008-06-02T14:39:00.004-04:00

2008-05-20T23:36:00.003-04:00

This is the fine young gentleman who sold me a camera today. Now I just have to try not to sweat on it too much or drop it in the drink.

Rompiendo la monotonia del tiempo

2008-05-20T08:44:00.007-04:00

It might... it might rain money
It might... it might rain fire
Now Im gonna call... gonna call on Legba.

According to recent revelations my life just might be in order. What I'm talking about is the tarot card reading I got from Sharon, my new fruitivour Kiwi friend I met in Pattaya, and the result of a study on car color and personality recently featured on Yahoo News. The cards told of my current state of equilibrium and foretold of my eventual run in with some money. There was also a love card and a fertility card in there. I can't wait. The study mentioned that owners of silver cars are the second most stable Americans you can find, enjoying something like 1.3% more personal stability than the average American. Only folks with dark blue cars, I think it was, supersede us kids with silver ones. My feelings on that are these: American's must be pretty messed up if I'm better than average. In any event, while I wait for my future fortune, I have some Talking Heads to listen to.

You'll be a magnet for money
You'll be a magnet for love
You'll feel light in your body.
- "Papa Legba"

Feathers in the cap

2008-05-15T06:58:00.004-04:00

I like to imagine that the long good luck hairs sprouting from some men's moles are the feathers of a tranquillizer dart, or maybe the tail feathers of a very small rooster pheasant nestled just below the skin.

Stop and stare

2008-04-06T02:22:00.003-04:00

At mealtime in China I could often catch the Chinese watching with fascination as I ate with chopsticks. In Thailand folks stare at my arms in awe of my arm hair.

Laotian mud flap

2008-03-14T06:45:00.006-04:00

In a part of the world where women's fashion gets high marks only if it features Micky, Mini, Pooh Bear, or a Playboy logo one would expect the mud flap fashion to consist of Taz, Yosemite Sam and the female silhouette. Truth is you won't find any of that, but you'll find plenty of mud flaps featuring Al Pacino as Frank Serpico. The top of the flap reads "SERPICO" while the bottom reads "HERO." I'd like to know if these same mud flaps were popular in the US back in mid-'70s and have since been shipped over Asia-way.

2008-02-27T07:16:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I find I get to thinking of the past.
We swore to each other then that our love would surely last.
You kept right on loving, I went on a fast,
now I am too thin and your love is too vast.
But I know from your eyes
and I know from your smile
that tonight will be fine,
will be fine, will be fine, will be fine...
for a while.
~ Leonard Cohen "Tonight Will Be Fine"

Today as I prepared my backpack for my trip to Laos I decided to leaved my music behind me which means I'll be doing without my prefered tunes for the first time in 4.5 years. This could last as long as a month, and that's a long time.

2008-02-22T22:25:00.003-05:00

2007 saw the end of two of my heroes: one of Italy's most impressive directors ever, Michelangelo Antonioni, and, not even one week later, one of America's quirkiest country songwriters, Lee Hazlewood.

My big disappointment in Alaska

2008-02-22T21:26:00.002-05:00

From late August to late September I watched the salmon spawning in Pullen Creek die off a few at a time - a sign that my time as a seasonal worker was also coming to an end. But watching the salmon was as passive as simply watching the big clock on the wall at work ticking steadily forward to 5 pm. A felt a sense of competition with the fish as if we were in some kind of race, or maybe it was a competition with Father Time himself, embodied in the fish. I'm not sure what I could have possibly gained from winning the race - I wasn't going to get paid overtime for it - but I wanted to last long enough to see Pullen Creek devoid of living salmon. Everyday as I hurried over the bridge to and from work I would quickly count up the remaining fish and feel ahead whenever the numbers had dropped, until finally there was just one fish left in the river. One silly salmon that swam in place hour after hour, day after day. After about four or five days I expected it to be dead and for me receive my reward, but alas it lived on. Some times I'd stand on the foot bridge and watch its tail stop moving and the current would push the fish back down towards the mouth of the creek, but then life would come back into the tail and the fish would regain its ground. I'd note its skin being stripped from its body a bit everyday and think "It hasn't got long. Maybe it'll be gone this afternoon." After a couple of weeks I began wondering if this was the same fish or if a new one had accepted the baton and took over the race. Weeks past. My time to leave Skagway arrived. I made one last trip to the bus yard to fill out my time card. And check on the salmon.

Chopoff

2007-09-25T02:08:00.001-04:00

I thought I might manage to go a full two summers of tour bus driving without ever having to use a wheelchair lift but I was wrong. Yesterday I was assigned a tour with a wheelchair confined individual by the last name of Chopoff. If this 80-year-old woman had actually been an amputee that would already be the end of a great story. Ms. Chopoff and her daughter had apparently been planning their trip out to Skagway, Alaska for quite some time. Having made numerous inquiries by phone to many of the local vendors about their wheelchair accessibility, they chose to pan for gold in Liarsville where each pan of gold is salted with a few flecks of Canadian gold. Ms. Chopoff, however, had not managed to inform herself on the fact that the value of gold to be found was limited to probably no more than a dollar fifty. Her daughter excitedly had me wheel Ms. Chopoff to the panning trough, we both helped her rise from her chair for the occasion, she attempted to find the gold only to hand the pan to me, and then, when I showed her the gold in her pan, she spoke. The translation soon followed (Ms. Chopoff spoke something I assumed to be Chinese), "This is ridiculous! You can't even make necklace or anything with this much gold!" The daughter then explained that all night her mother had been dreaming of all the gold she would find and what she would make out of it - rings, bracelets, necklaces, etc. While this seemed to me the greatest disappointment of one woman's eighty-year life, Ms. Chopoff seemed less than phased. Her daughter on the other hand kept repeating the expressions of disappointment supposedly coming from her mother. I loaded her and her wheelchair back onto the bus for the short drive back to the cruise ship and there on the dock the dream ended, as did my experience with the lift.

Perpetual autumn

2007-09-15T22:30:00.001-04:00

One of the best things about 2007 is that I will be experiencing Autumn three separate times. My first began way up north in the Yukon Territory sometime around mid-August and ended when I got stranded in Skagway, Alaska on the 3rd of Sept. Now, nearly two weeks later, I'm enjoying watching the summer foliage of Carcross, YT and Skagway bleed out their green and come ablaze in yellows and reds. Today was perhaps the best Carcross had to offer, and Skagway should follow suite soon enough. My third autumn begins when I fly back to Utah on the 25th. Hopefully I won't be too late.