( An interesting bit of history )

Fourteen of us. Quite a good turnout and quite an adventure. It's the end of July and snow covers most of the last quarter-mile of the trail. But the adventure began with crossing Castle Creek at the start of the hike. No rocks or logs are exposed to use so we had to go barefoot throught he water. It is cold but the real problem is the rocky bottom ( Read more... )

A hike with a ghost--or some kind of mystery. I have seventeen signatures on my sign-in sheet. But I consistently counted eighteen people on the hike, not counting me of course, and not counting one person who couldn't start with us but caught up with us at Emerald Bay. Whatever the number, most of them were restless enough to be on the move. I ( Read more... )

So I can't say much about it. Indeed I haven't been inside a movie theater in years so I have no idea what recent movies are like. Of course the reason I haven't seen any recent movies is that I just can't summon up any interest in any of them. I'm guessing that David Walsh is pretty much on the mark (and Wallerstein's analysis seems to tie some ( Read more... )

Obama is himself a commodity, the most telegenic political commodity since Kennedy. One that suits American style capitalism best this particular historical political moment. He is a useful illusion, the same as George W. Bush was a useful illusion. What is the difference between George Bush managing the country through media performances and Obama ( Read more... )

Went to a raw food potluck last night. I should have brought a notebook to keep track of food and recipes. I tried to put some notes on a small card but I can't read what I wrote. So it goes. I transferred most of my tomato plants into bigger pots and have started putting the mini-greenhouse to use during the day. I really need hiking season to ( Read more... )

( I must admit my guts lurched with queasy dread last week when Barack Obama announced, with a flourish of falsehoods and fearmongering, his grand plans to escalate the Af-Pak War )

Anyway, I attended a presentation about permaculture (1 2). I probably would never have known there was any such thing. It's interesting. There's not much I can do with it so far, unless I remove all lawn and put in food crops of some sort. Not a bad idea but I won't jump into such a project just yet.

( The 1960s were, you see--and you can look this up if you don’t believe me--the era of brotherly love )

Nothing very much happening. As planned I put some lettuce seeds and snow pea seeds in the ground. It's supposed to get warm this weekend, which seems to be the case every year near St. Patrick's Day, the traditional time for planting cool weather crops. But then things turn cool again. I haven't been mentioning it, but I've been hanging out with a ( Read more... )

Interesting line from Saturday Night Fever. I've never seen the movie but I've caught bits of it here and there. I can't understand the appeal it ever had. From what I've seen, characters that should have audience sympathy, don't, while characters that should not have audience sympathy, do. An upside down world, indeed. But is the "real" world ( Read more... )