(no subject)
So we're settled in Tucson now, with a house and temporary jobs and everything. I'm wandering the desert looking for endangered pineapple cactus, and Audrey is trying to squeeze money out of hard-working American families during dinnertime on behalf of the Arizona League of Conservation Voters. The area I'm working in is a thoroughfare for illegal immigration and drug smuggling, and as a result it's littered with empty water bottles, baby-food jars, and dilapidated bikes. And nail clippers, for some reason. I wouldn't have guessed they'd be a high-priority item for border crossers, but what do I know? Very occasionally, we see the back of someone crashing through the bush. A few years ago, when I was doing reptile and amphibian surveys in southern Arizona national parks, we stumbled onto a couple having sex in the dirt beside a ruined Native American dwelling. Regrettably, on this job we haven't yet been treated to such an unfettered expression of the divine gift of love.
The first picture above is a restaurant near the University of Arizona here in Tucson. Chicken Baby's American odyssey looks like it could turn into a search for her roots, a la "An American Tail." The other two photos are from our recent trip to Alabama to visit my sister, her husband, and their new baby. We spent our time playing with the baby, touring the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast (shockingly, much of it is still rubble 6 months after Katrina hit), and going to a Mardi Gras parade (of which my sister, a local news personality, was the Grand Marshal). The parade was fun but also a bit disturbing; to our outsider eyes, it seemed to crystallize the distinct lack of progress the South has made in the arenas of race relations and social justice. To wit: the parade consisted of white folks atop elaborate floats hurling trinkets to a crowd of poor black people, who scrambled madly for the beads, moonpies, and bags of peanuts that landed in their midst. We have a long way to go.
Also noteworthy: we went with a few friends to the National Roller Derby championships yesterday; they were held here in Tucson. In the finals, the Texas Rollergirls handily defeated the hometown Tucson Saddletramps. I was impressed with the entire spectacle; I was expecting a pseudosport which hung its appeal on campy catfights and gratuitous flesh-flashing, but these ladies were serious athletes. They skated fast and well, hit each other hard, and took the whole thing very seriously. They also sported some incredible names, such as Tara Hymen and The Muff Thumper. Apparently a whole subculture has grown up around roller derby in the States; it's linked with the punk scene, and it attracts a lot of female fans. Anyway, it was good fun.