23 March 05
Things People Say
If you haven’t had a chance yet, definitely take a peek at Overheard in New York.
I can’t compete with ANY of these. People do say interesting or inane things in Davis but I don’t ride the bus, and if I’m in a place with a lot of people they tend to be students, so you don’t get the same range of ages, ethnicities, social classes, and outright weirdness that only happens in New York (hobo to Hispanic construction workers, f’rinstance: “Remember the Alamo”).
But I did once spend a day at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the big white towering thing over the 405, and in the cable car ride up people were already saying things worth writing down, so I started. Here are a few of them:
“Oh! It’s Jerusalem.”
“You know, everyone who comes up here says this place looks like Jerusalem.”
“Isn’t this one of the more beautiful spots, Adele? Man-made, I mean?”
“It’s just nice to sit out here in the sun.”
“Belle! Where’d you get that clock bag?”
“Really, aesthetically, I think it works. Even though from a distance it’s horrible.”
“Let’s go. There’s way too much scary furniture in here!”
I’ll be getting on a plane tomorrow to go to the desert to see my friend DocRoc and the most amazing wildflower show in 50 years, so I’ll have a chance to do some listening in to conversations that are quite different from those in New York OR at the Getty. Stand by.
22 March 05
Creek Overfloweth
We had 1.05 inches of rain overnight, and sometime mid-morning the creek burst its banks on the stretch near where we live, in particular flooding the field (alas since last season covered with perennial pepperweed) southeast of the bridge up to the levee. Word has it that the Glory Hole is spilling over as well.
21 March 05
From Romans to the Dark Ages
My Roman Majuscule class is over; the next one in the series is Uncial starting in April.
The story of Western writing is the history of empires that came and went, of striving for perfection and going beyond it to precious and eventual decay.
I don’t know what future paleographers will make of the American empire through its writing (or lack of it). At any rate, I’ve been playing with 4th-century letterforms, some of which have made their way into the new Feathers of Hope masthead. I think we should change this more often than every two years. Walnut ink remains plentiful in the fridge.
20 March 05
Northern Rail Line
We went on our usual Sunday run to the food co-op and noticed two locomotives of the California Northern Railroad on the tracks that run north-south behind the co-op. The geography of Davis has been built around a T-intersection of rail lines just east of downtown. There is a doubletrack line running northeast-southwest heading into Sacramento that get both Union Pacific freight trains and Amtrak traffic, and then there’s the line heading to the north, the one running by the co-op, that gets only light use, mostly by the California Northern.
This is a small railroad with a dozen or so locomotives. It’s based in American Canyon in Napa County, but they also run trains on a line stretching from Davis up to Tehama in the northern Sacramento Valley. We like them because the locomotives are pretty, with green and beige trim. Someday we’ll sketch one in color.
19 March 05
Berkeley for Indian and Blogging
We took a trip to Berkeley today to meet Allan’s sister et al. for lunch at Vik’s Chaat House (an Indian fast food restaurant in a warehouse, exceptional food, two-foot-wide pooris) and then to meet up with Tim of the Where Project.
We had a great cha(a)t with Tim about the future of Ecotone and how we might all get this back to the vital forum it was before it got so attacked by spammers… If you’re interested in joining this discussion, leave a comment here, and we’ll add you to the mailing list. It looks like there will be a new host, a new domain name, an archive of material that’s already there, and lots of new goodies.
18 March 05
Backyard Fowl
When I got home at dusk today, Pica was talking to our landlord about springtime trips to the desert. He went off, circling around the north side of the house. Then he shouted at us from outside — there’s a turkey under the walnut tree!
The Swainson’s hawks are back, though not in large numbers yet: I saw and heard one over the creek as I was riding home.
17 March 05
Morphing
This entry marks the 700th since Numenius and I started Feathers of Hope back in March 2003.
We started out thinking we were going to do lots of political entries. There have been very few of those, and not much film or music either. Plenty of nature and place, which IS one of the things we wanted to write about.
Our blogday is coming up soon, just a few days after Beth’s… I might submit a new masthead in honor.
16 March 05
Requiem For This Land
So in one day that fine body of scalawags known as the U.S. Senate voted to a) allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and b) defund Amtrak. The only motivation to this is that Bush’s friends, cronies and sycophants will get even richer than they already are — you can only lose one’s soul once, I suppose. Oh, and gas will be 5 cents cheaper for about two years. The one marginally satisfying thing about the ANWR vote is that seven Republicans voted for the amendment to disallow drilling. Alas there were three Democrat turncoats — just see if I plan to go to Hawaii again!
We wrote compositions this evening in Spanish class, about vacations actual and dreamed-of. I do long for northern latitudes, and for the latter I thus mentioned Iceland. Here’s an amazing photograph from that northern land of fire.
15 March 05
Randomnesses
The following are strings that have led people through search engines to Feathers of Hope, in no particular order. (Tom of The Middlewesterner is keeping a list of the best ones, World Champion Search Strings. Be sure to send him yours.)
somerville gates
sangreal
girls of starbucks / girls of dunkin donuts
countin crows
buying a goat
mystery babylon united states
pink saucepans
venezuela snakes
emily dickinson leaving cert
opposite of ghandi (sic)
achilles tendon pop alternative
squat formica
name of a pop group with a name of a California city
cultural differences us britain pregnancy misunderstanding world war ii marriage
portuguese government and feathers
how to take a good shower
jean cocteau fresco de lady of paris in london priory
how many pens are in a pica
kryptonite biro
worst powerpoint
men who are hollow from within
church of satan robby rust evangelist
dichotomous key for ducks
plagues and pleasures on the salton sea
In other news: I am very proud to live in a state where a Catholic Republican judge deems it unconstitutional to deny full rights to marry to all its citizens. Yes, we, a straight couple, did get married. But we had no intention of ever having children. Does this render our marriage invalid, according to the religious right, as invalid as it thinks gay marriage should be? Probably. I know several gay couples who have children and they are MUCH better parents than I could ever aspire to be. We’re watching this one…
14 March 05
Turkeys By The Bridge
I was cycling to work this morning, heading up the rise to the bridge over Putah Creek, when I saw a flock of seven tom turkeys crossing the road. They were most of the way over on the east side of the road, but were indecisive and had thoughts about heading to the west side. When I came closer on my bike, six of them flew off west, joined shortly by the seventh who was already in the brush, and landed about 75 meters west from the road, just south of Putah Creek.