16 February 04
Marking Place
For the Ecotone wiki’s joint topic on Stones and Rocks.
Ever since our paleolithic ancestors started painting on stone, it has been the material of choice for marking, in a more or less permanent way, a geographic location of particular significance. The art of Scottish sculptor Ian Hamilton Finlay explores this neoclassically (a commission at UC San Diego shows a 1987 example), but cairns on mountaintops are as interesting in their way as the Trajan column. Stone: permanence. Human interaction with stone: human attempt to project permanence.
Gravestones are the markers most of us will encounter, but even they are less than permanent what with acid rain and ordinary erosion. When my father was cremated, my mother scattered his ashes to the waves from the northern California clifftops by their home. At the time I missed the lack of a stone that would give me a place to visit, to mourn. A series of rocks guards the inlet where the ashes scattered five years ago. They are bigger, more imposing, than most gravestones, and during our visit there this weekend I was able to touch my father’s memory by a visit to the cliff and the rocks below. The pelagic cormorants are coming into breeding plumage; California gray whales are migrating north. The surf pounds the rocks and the cycle continues. One day these rocks will be sand.
15 February 04
Indian Rock
An entry for the Ecotone Wiki’s topic on Stones and Rocks.
Berkeley, in addition to its fame as a center of development of California cuisine (the town’s radical past now usurped by the gourmet ghetto on Shattuck Avenue), is also noteworthy as one of the original training grounds for modern rock climbing. In the 1930s, the California mountaineers who would go on to do many of the first ascents in the Sierra Nevadas, among them Dick Leonard and David Brower, would practice their bouldering techniques in North Berkeley where there is a set of crags composed of rhyolite.
Indian Rock is the most famous of these boulders. It got its name from nearby mortar basins in the rock used by natives for grinding acorns. It is less than a mile from my old house, and I would often go there on a walk. It has a great view from the top, and as can be seen from the steps in the photo, you don’t have to go up the steep side with ropes to get to the top.
14 February 04
Metamorph
According to Justin Pope, there are many different Jesus figures in American history. There’s Jesus the distant symbol, and Jesus the gentle friend. There’s Jesus the pacifist and caregiver, and Jesus the gruff, muscular warrior. There’s black Jesus, and white Jesus. Homely and handsome, capitalist and socialist, stern and hippie. Hard-working social reformer, mystical comforter. (He omits the “Buddy Jesus,” a winking, good-natured fellow from the irreverent but deeply religious film Dogma.)
Pope has been looking at two new books: “Jesus in America: A History,” by Richard Wightman Fox, and “American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon.” This is all of great interest to me as I continue my Religion and Non-violence class here at UC Davis.
Gandhi is one of the most interesting historical figures of all time: weaving together life experience (especially colonialism) and Hindu, Christian, Enlightenment, and other traditions and texts, he developed a unique way of changing the world. His political and spiritual beliefs were inseparable; his body became the locus of conflict as he fasted, declared lifelong celibacy, pared down to essentials (gradually shifting down into a loincloth; his body became a national obsession in India particularly during his fasts-unto-death). One of the most interesting things to me about Gandhi, though, is his fascination with Jesus, whom he saw as the best example of a non-violent fighter.
“I kept running into Jesus when I was trying to study Hindus and Buddhists,” says Prothero quoted by Justin Pope. Indeed one of the most interesting things I learned from our Muslim brothers and sisters following September 11, 2001, was the reverence in which they hold Jesus (the word is always followed by “may his name be blessed” in Islam).
As the release date for Mel Gibson’s “Passion of Christ” looms, and Jews in the United States and elsewhere brace themselves for a wave of anti-semitism, we might do well to explore a little further what our own image is of Jesus.
13 February 04
Sign Of Spring
The first fruit tree to blossom here is the almond, long before it leafs out. This tree is in our backyard, and I think its blossoms opened on Wednesday.
But a weak storm has come through today, and it has been overcast with some showers. No astronomy tonight!
12 February 04
Bird Names
Some names for birds seem perfectly obvious: red-bellied woodpecker, for instance, gives a fairly detailed description of the bird, while hoopoe approximates its name. Thanks to Richard for drawing my attention to the meaning of the word “phainopepla,” which is the only species of silky flycatcher found in North America. It comes from the Greek meaning “shining gown,” which is a great name for this beautiful bird. “Pyrrhuloxia” means flame-colored plus crossed (oblique) bill.
The names I like best, though, are the “descriptive” ones that aren’t helpful at all. The yellow belly on a yellow-bellied sapsucker is really a stretch. The bristles on the thighs of a bristle-thighed curlew are NOT a good field mark…
11 February 04
Words Of The Year
Perhaps it’s getting a little late for lists for 2003, but the American Dialect Society has an annual list of the words that most colored the nation’s lexicon in that year. The overall winner in 2003 was metrosexual, with notable others being SARS, gropenfhrer, and weapons of mass deception.
And Pica and I certainly qualify as flexitarians.
10 February 04
The Muck Off the Pond
Maria at Alembic and Lorianne at Hoarded Ordinaries have both within the last week prompted some thinking about the nature of writing. Lorianne’s under a fearsome deadline to get a dissertation finished on time; Maria wondered whether there were enough words to go around what with being paid to write and scrambling to find pieces of paper with words written on them; she suggests writing for oneself first.
Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way is relegated in my mind to the 1990s and a slew of get-rich-quick schemes, none of which really worked in the end. Her point was that if you wrote three pages-the dreaded “morning pages”-every day, you’d be clearing the scum off the pond of your mind, and you’d be able to compose an opera, write a dissertation, paint a masterpiece, or knit a tea cosy before dinner. (Or all of the above, really, honest.)
I used to believe in this model of writing, and I have books of drivel to show for it. I’m grateful to the blog, I suppose, for providing an audience (even theoretical) to keep the drivel somewhat under control. Being on an every-other-day schedule as we are provides a structure for the writing that suits me, at least, quite well. But unlike Julia Cameron, I think there are probably as many models of writing as there are writers.
9 February 04
Northern California Surfing
I went for a little bike ride Saturday south and east through the farmlands of Solano County. I scarcely had gone a mile when, on the opposite side of the road, astride a muddy irrigation ditch, I saw a large silver Toyota pickup, with one person outside of the vehicle. When I passed the truck, I looked behind at it and was rather startled to see the truck towing something resembling a bodyboard, the college-aged guy in shorts perched on top of it, moving at a steady modest speed though the mud of the irrigation ditch.
I guess if you can’t get to the ocean, you have to improvise.
8 February 04
Cheese, Gromit!
We went today to an event put on by the Slow Food Society: a tasting of homestead, artisanal cheeses, all from California, all raw cow’s milk. It was held at the R.H. Phillips (warning: unnecessary Flash introduction) winery in north Yolo County.
Favorites of mine included Serena, which was billed as evoking a fine Parmesan or aged Gruyere (which have nothing at all in common in my opinion, but I thought it a lot closer to the Gruyere); Black Butte Reserve, a full tasting hard cheese made in the manner of Gouda, where most of the whey is washed out; and St. John Natural Rind, a sharp, grainy cheese in the Portuguese style. They gave us bread from the Village Bakery in Davis, Viognier white and Syrah red wine to taste, almonds, walnuts, and apricots. It was a beautiful afternoon; bright sun. The almond blossoms are about to burst all over northern California.
This was definitely an elite foodie crowd… I’m all for slowing down over dinner but hope a BMW isn’t a requirement!
7 February 04
Everybody’s Favorite Planet
At least to look at in the telescope. Wednesday evening we had clear skies and I did some imaging with our digicam through my 7” reflector, looking at the Orion Nebula and Saturn. The 7” Dob has no tracking so I’m limited to very short exposures, a maximum of 1” second before star trails are evident. With those exposure times, the Orion images were too noisy to be usable for anything, but my imaging of Saturn was more successful. Here is a composite image of Saturn made from 13 stacked exposures (1/60th and 1/125th second), at the original resolution. I’m looking forward to trying my hand at Jupiter as it nears opposition early in March.