Irises, in January.
Everytime I remember to look around, this city astonishes me.
Irises
January 19, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Melilla, a photoessay by Flo Razowsky
January 19, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Flo — activist, photojournalist, friend and inspiration — has just posted a beautiful new photoessay from the Spanish-Moroccan border at Melilla.
http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/slideshow/9398
“This portfolio is part of a bigger project focused on the look of borders become manifest, the look of the land and the people when the arbitrary line in the sand takes form. These shots were taken from Melilla, Spain, a Spanish enclave cut off from the north of Morocco by a militarized and deadly triple layer, 10ft high structure. Migrants travel for 4,5,6 years to reach this side of the line only to be held in migrant detention centers, some for years, awaiting the legal system to either award them papers or deport them to where they started out from so many years ago and worked so hard (and many died) to get away from.”
Cabazon’s Creationist Dinosaurs
January 12, 2008 By 2 Comments
This friendly looking dinosaur at a truckstop in Cabazon, Southern California:
Holds a creationist museum in its belly.
You climb up its tail, and are greeted by exhibits like this:
Finally, when you reach the top of the stairs, you arrive in the mueum/gift shop, where a variety of dinosaur paraphenalia is sold, and a slack-jawed adolescent stares at a video of a sermon about how Noah took dinosaurs onto the ark with him.
“But of course, he took baby dinosaurs. Why? Because they’re small…duh! And light. This will be important later.” (Verbatim, to the best of my memory. I only wish I was making this up.)
[it's worth clicking to view the larger picture sizes, and actually read the exhibit labels]
New Year’s Eve
December 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment
The Sun Sets on 2007
from my back porch.
(Squint and you can see the Golden Gate Bridge)
From my bedroom window.
Happy New Year everyone. More posts in 2008.
Winter
December 11, 2007 By 2 Comments
Winter 2001: Minnehaha falls, frozen. Me, so acclimated I’m not even wearing gloves.
I’m not going to pretend there aren’t things about California that make me want to spit nails. People, for example, who actually think talking about chakras is a reasonable way to chat me up. Or endless discussions about feelings that never actually seem to result in people saying what they’re feeling. Or being asked what my spirit animal is (actually, that happened in Washington, but you get the idea).
Numerous other things reconfirm that, at least when it comes to interpersonal communication, I’m East Coast to the core.
But then I read about the crazy ice storms gripping the Midwest, and remember the terrible things Midwestern winters did to my head, and realize how much worse I could have it. Which, come to think of it, is one of the few things the Midwest is consistently good for.
I’m trying to make a point of spending some time everyday barefoot on my backporch, looking at the hills across the bay, and appreciating civilized weather.
It’s that time of the semester again…
December 6, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Continuing my series of desk portraits, here is the wreckage of my desk as I near the home stretch of a marathon last-minute paper revising session:
It may not be a system of organization that works for anyone else, but I seem to have done alright for myself with it so far.
Now, if I can just stop procrastinating and find 2000 more words I can get rid of without undermining my thesis before my eyes totally give out, I may just be through with writing about impunity in the Philippines forever.
Well, probably not forever, but I feel like a nice long break is in order.
I am so ready for the semester to be over.
UPDATE @ 2:30: Oh, it hurts, it hurts! Every line in this paper represents hours of research and writing. The fat’s trimmed off, so is a lot of the meat. I’m starting to hit bone.
Bloke Metges evicted
December 3, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Free community bicycle shop in CSO Metges, 2003
CSO (Squatted Social Center) Metges in el Forat de la Vergonya in Barcelona was evicted after 6 years. 4 people (and I don’t yet know who) were beaten up in the process.
The eviction happened Tuesday morning, though I’ve only now gotten the news.
This house was one of my most beloved homes, and an amazing center for resistance and organizing for the whole neighborhood.
My heart is truly broken.
Breakfast at Metges, 2003
More images
Spanish language story on the eviction. Sorry, best I could do. At least it’s not Catalan.
November 21, 2007 By 2 Comments
Mt. Shasta, from I-5 in Northern California
It’s been a rare sunny day in Olympia. And cold! Four months of living in the Bay Area has made my blood thin.
On the way up here, I was remembering the only other time I’ve ever been on I-5 between Oakland and Oregon — tail end of what was probably the most miserable trip of my entire life. I was seventeen, on the West Coast for the first time, hitchhiking south after the WTO protests in Seattle.
My companion and I were both broke, and sick from all the teargas and nerve-gas we’d been exposed to. I remember being cold, throat aflame, and with wet feet for days on end, walking and walking in the rain and finding it nearly impossible to get picked up. In the realm of small miseries, I can think of few worse than waking up in the morning and having to put back on the same wet clothes you were wearing the night before. I think it took 5 days to get from Portland to Oakland (including a disastrous detour on the 101), and I can’t recall ever being happier to make it somewhere.
Doing the same trip in reverse took about 13 hours, including a surreal stop at a casino and the requisite tire blow-out 15 miles before our destination (fortunately, the only roadside emergency I actually know how to deal with). Quite a pleasant trip, all things considered. And I’m happy for a change of scenery.
I still have to spend a few hours working every day to justify leaving town for nearly a week, but the rest of the time is mine to explore, think about food, and spend with old friends.
November 18, 2007 By Leave a Comment
I’ve been feeling kind of stressed lately, so I’m trying to remind myself of small things that consistently make me happy no matter how stressed or grumpy I am:
- Photobooth pictures
- Dancing
- Skating
- Swimming
- Mail (paper, though email’s not bad either)
- First cup of coffee (and second! The best thing about addictions is that you create problems for yourself that you can then easily solve)
Go look at my photos…
November 11, 2007 By Leave a Comment
I’m still working on getting all the tags and dates organized, but I’ve started putting some of my photos from the last 5 years up on flickr.
Check them out at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19958499@N03/