11 May 05
Shipment O’Goodies
It’s a fine day when the box of ordered art supplies arrives.
10 May 05
Slowly Edging Back Into California
I’ve been slowly uploading some of the sketches I did while in Boston (and on the way there). This may take a little while but there are about six of them here. [Postcript, Thursday May 12: a few more are now loaded, including one of the curious and animated discussion taking place across the courtyard which qB snuck over to listen in on…]
I met my father-in-law for lunch yesterday in Berkeley on the way home. We talked about some wonderful things, including the excellent series on race over at Abdul-Walid of Acerbia. Not content to call it quits on my trip, I continued sketching all the way home on the train.
As someone who tending not to process much but dash about from experience to experience, I’m rather savoring everything that happened over the last week. I’m also fading. I may add to this post in the morning.
Heads-up to Davisites, though: David Neiwert of Orcinus will be speaking in our town about the recent hate crimes here (wot? Davis? NEVER!) on Thursday evening.
9 May 05
Snail Day
There was light rain all day yesterday. Not so good for the Whole Earth Festival, but good for the snails.
8 May 05
Soggy Days
Yesterday was extraordinary, spending time with such congenial people in such congenial places (S&S deli, Gardner museum, Middle East restaurant). I will write more about this when I get back to Davis.
Today I went with my friend Linda to Plum Island by way of Newburyport (blue grosbeak, Nashville warbler), Ipswich (blue heron, which we didn’t see), Rowley (wilson’s phalarope, ditto), and lots of wind and rain.
I’ll be heading out tomorrow to California. I have a lot of sketches to complete on the plane. More then.
7 May 05
Whole Earth Days
The Whole Earth Festival is back on campus this weekend for the 35th year.
6 May 05
Boston
Mount Auburn. The warblers. The stones. The sketchbook. The tower. The children. The sister. The mother. The zoo. The art store. The frigate. The dinner. Mount Auburn. The birders. The editor. The T. The Copley. The library. The ivory-bills. The T. The Coop. The cartridges. The surprise. The friend. The nap. The blogger. The buddhists. The chanting. The crumpling. The saag. The bus.
The bed.
5 May 05
That Was Fast
There’s already a book out on the rediscovery of the ivory-billed woodpecker. It is entitled The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and it’s by Tim Gallagher, the editor of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s magazine Living Bird who was one of the observers of the woodpecker in the Arkansas swamp a year ago February. Coordinating the release of the news of the rediscovery must have been an interesting feat.
4 May 05
Spring Migration
I’m heading east. In a few hours I will take a train over the Creek Running North, get on a different train that goes under the San Francisco Bay to the airport, not quite take off over (but still see) where naming is knowing and on the other side where words are distilled, fly over where Andi Ditched the Raft just yesterday, over the Middle West, over where Cassandra, Lorianne, Rachel, Leslee and Paula pore over their keyboards just as I’m doing now.
The last time I was in Boston during spring migration was in 1996; I have probably forgotten most of the songs (here in California you learn to tell warblers apart by their call notes, not their songs, since here in the Central Valley they mostly aren’t singing much before they get on territory). I have done no preparation for this avalanche of color and song that awaits me. I hope also to see a few migrants other than birds. Blogging opportunities will be sporadic but Numenius will be here…
3 May 05
Web Design Linkfest
Vitaly Friedman maintains an excellent and growing list of essential bookmarks for web designers and web developers.
2 May 05
Countermeme
Only because my blogson says (in an attempt to dismantle the internet):
“Which book, out of the millions ever published, do you most wish never to read again?”
Lots sifted through my mind this afternoon, mostly books that have a cop-out last line, but a whole BOOK of cop-out rose out of the Aegean Sea: John Fowles’ The Magus.
It’s just a nasty novel.
On to you, Maria. Sorry. You sent me the Fahrenheit 451 meme…