25 September 06
The Loser Democrats, or My New Wheelbarrow?
I can hardly bear to think about politics these days. I’m outraged in all kinds of ways about the administration, of course. But I’m so despondent about what is the only presented alternative.
I got a phone call from the Democratic party the other day. At work. I’m at work, I said. Oh, they said, well can you just send us some money to counteract all the negative publicity the Republicans are throwing our way, to the tune of millions of dollars?
For what? I said. I don’t know what the Democrats’ program is. I don’t know what they stand for. It seems to be a wimpy version of what the Repos are doing. That’s what they want you to think, said my telephone volunteer.
I felt blackmailed. I’m outraged at both of them. And, yes, the Repos are probably rubbing their hands about people like me. In a year when the war in Iraq is an obvious slam dunk for the Democrats, they’ve decided to run mid-term elections on the economy.
So I bought a new wheelbarrow, in which I plan to transport many hundreds of pounds of Republican manure from across the road onto next year’s summer garden.
24 September 06
Soul Of A Nation
This past week the Senate debated whether to redefine torture as something other than the gentle practices of waterboarding and inducing hypothermia. The fact that we’re having a political debate about torture, that such actions are just not universally condemned by everyone, right and left, is truly astonishing. Something has shifted in this country over a generation or so, a shift that goes far deeper than electoral politics, a shift of spirit and soul.
Spirit and soul. The archetypal psychologist James Hillman distinguishes between these two notions in a way I think is illuminating:
Soul is vulnerable and suffers; it is passive and remembers. It is water to the spirit’s fire, like a mermaid who beckons the heroic spirit into the depths of passions to extinguish its certainty. Soul is imagination, a cavernous treasury—to use an image from St. Augustine—a confusion and richness, both. Whereas spirit chooses the better part and seeks to make all One. Look up, says spirit, gain distance; there is something beyond and above, and what is above is always, and always superior…Spirit is after ultimates and it travels by means of a via negativa...The cooking vessel of the soul takes in everything, everything can become soul; and by taking into its imagination any and all events, psychic space grows.
– James Hillman, Re-visioning Psychology, 1975.
We retreat to little things. Sketching. Gardening. But these are things that create soul, as the Romantics well understood.
23 September 06
Sketchcrawl XI
Today we finally joined the source, the San Francisco sketchcrawl outing to Sausalito. This effort was started by Enrico Casarosa two years ago; it’s grown into a worldwide movement.
I was trying out the Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils today. I’ll post some scans tomorrow, but I like them the pencils very much: they are, indeed, intense.
We were joined by Erin, Emma, and Gretel. A great way to escape the Sacramento Valley smoke and north wind…
I’ll post some sketches tomorrow.
[now uploaded; too bad the bull terrier came out looking like a cross between a pig and a wolf…]
22 September 06
Greening the Parking Spot
(I’m blogging this in the dark—we’ve had no power since 9 AM, due to the wind storm.) Yesterday, a number of environmental design activists in San Francisco, and perhaps elsewhere, declared it to be PARK Day. Rather than occupying a 2 hour metered parking spot with a car, they set up a temporary park, often complete with a lawn and a tree! They did this at a dozen or more sites throughout the city.
(From WorldChanging).
21 September 06
The Best Meal of Our Lives
Or certainly a top candidate: Tim and Carolina’s wedding, at El Convento in Boadilla del Monte.
Part of this is always, inevitably, context. But I think we arrived in Spain at a time when the cuisine, previously safe, predictable, heavy on the pork to an extreme degree, has been experimenting with copious fresh produce, an interested and interesting clientele, and just plain panache.
The wedding menu featured meats, salad, seafood in novel and interesting combinations (smoked duck and asparagus in an intriguing-looking soup, for instance). But we were offered, and accepted, a “real” vegetarian menu. Watermelon gazpacho; saffron-flavored tagliatelle. Shaved cepes with an exquisite sauce. A chocolate-hazelnut mousse drizzled with tiramisu “soup.”
Was it because, at 10 pm, we were starving? Hardly. The appetizers served outside would ordinarily have fed us on an evening, not counting the meat ones. No. Food in Spain is now Interesting.
(For a fulsome and very elaborate account of a different kind of Spanish meal, see Ethan’s Barcelona Extravaganza.)
20 September 06
Bound For Rio Vista
We had a big, blustery north wind today. Headed into town after lunch today, we noticed that our cardboard solar cooker, last seen on the plastic chair by our front door, was now about 100 yards into the alfalfa field to the south. I ran after it and jammed it into the shelter of the back seat of the car.
19 September 06
Pulling up Freeway Daisies
I’ve been clearing the area in front of the house for a herb garden, suggested a while ago by Nicole and seconded by many. The Arboretum plant sale is on October 7; I have time to plan and ponder.
Meanwhile, the first of a series of scans from the Europe sketchbook have been posted here.
18 September 06
Sunflowers In Decline
Fall is almost here, and the sunflowers in the garden have run their course.
This upcoming Saturday is the 11th worldwide SketchCrawl. We’re going to be headed to Sausalito with the San Francisco contingent of sketchcrawlers.
17 September 06
Could You Spare a Colorado Quarter?
But only minted in Denver, you understand, not Philadelphia. You’ll know by the small “D” not the small “P.” (You need the OED magnifying glass for this one, folks, at least if you’re over 35.)
This was a request from the guard at the Alcázar in Segovia, who must pose the same question to all American tourists.
Muy Señor nuestro:
Adjunto le envío una moneda de 25 centavos americanos del estado de Colorado sacada en Denver y no en Filadelfia, tal y como nos la pedió hace dos o tres semanas en la entrada al Alcázar, y que por casualidad tenía en el monedero un compañero ayer.
No dude en pedirnos otras monedas estadounidenses, pues casi no nos damos cuenta de lo que se nos escurre por las manos.
Monedas, guerras, mundo. A su servicio.
[More sketchbook scans will follow by popular request]
16 September 06
Farmers Market Wander
We met Ron and Joe today for sharing notes on Gertrude Jekyll, a visit to the Davis Farmers Market, and lunch at Pluto’s followed by sharing of our sketchbooks from our trip. The Farmers Market is an excellent place for sketching so I drew a typical produce stand at left.