Saturday, 6 May 2023
Big public activities today requiring hats or requiring no-hats, and sometimes changes of hats. These two had the fanciest hats, hands down. Several times over.
On this side of the pond, many lady-hats and some man-hats at the event in Kentucky (although I didn’t watch). None with goose-egg jewels.
Not my photo…goes without saying, eh?
Saturday, 22 April 2023
We went with a sheet-pan dinner to celebrate…with BBQ sauced tofu and assorted veggies. Tofu won over fish as fish is not from the earth (heh).
Wednesday, 19 April 2023
I’m still parsing an article* in the NYTimes about the pieces of the kylix that curators at the Met began collecting in the 70s. Over the years the Met obtained pieces from multiple art dealers.
A kylix is a kind of stemmed drinking cup. This one is made of terra cotta and thirteen inches in diameter. It has a nice decoration of a man and woman partying in a circular panel on the interior. The exterior has a band of multiple male figures, described as older fellows chasing younger guys.
The last fragment of the kylix arrived at the Met in 1994, and the restored vessel was on display until last fall, when the Manhattan DA’s office seized it as a looted item.
As near as I can tell, the prevailing opinion is that the vessel was intentionally broken, and the pieces essentially funneled to the Met’s purchasers and curators. This is not the only vessel in the Met’s collection that may have received this treatment.
Remember: to archaeologists pottery contributes to a complex story, while to art historians pottery has aesthetic, and, yes, monetary value—even broken, when an intact vessel would be worth more, the pieces have monetary value.
* The article is “The Kylix Marvel: Why Experts Distrust the Story of an Ancient Cup’s Rebirth,” dated today, by Graham Bowley and Tom Mashberg.
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
How many times have I been in Powell’s and not noticed this? Actually, there are several staircases, and this is on the landing of just one, so it can honestly and easily be missed.
I just checked their website, and the bookstore dates back to 1971. I think the first time I entered its doors was in 1979.
Our country might well be improved if we had a Department of Literature.
Sunday, 16 April 2023
The approaching sunset offered us an arty entrance into Our Fair City. By the time we reached our neighborhood, the light had dimmed, yet the colors remained—here highlighted by the neon at the Plaza Theatre and the Majestic Diner. Summary: home safely.
Let me add three images from our time in Santa Fé.
I can’t parse the gunshot (or imitation of a gunshot) with the Nativity scene.
Cactus as a protector for leafy greens.
I was entranced by the patterns in the blue on this door.
Saturday, 15 April 2023
Frosted morning.
We drove away from the mountains. We did see a herd of perhaps three dozen pronghorns about a half hour after this stop. This was the only antelope sighting on our eastbound leg.
Busy wind farm.
It’s so windy here in western Oklahoma that the rest stop garbage cans have tie-downs, and it’s that windy today. This is better than in TX, where the “rest stops” had neither garbage cans nor toilets. [Ick warning: they were toxic waste sites that reeked of urine and were festooned with trash that was small enough or heavy enough that it didn’t blow away.]
Friday, 14 April 2023
I began my afternoon perambulation here, as it is close to our hotel.
That’s a Rail Runner Express on the right, with the active track to the right of it. The parked train must be a backup? I don’t know what the deal is with the blue-purple train, decorated in a pseudo-graffiti style from nose to tail.
Feeling like I had “done” the depot area—now a Saturday Farmers’ Market—I proceeded into a residential area…
…and then looped to the central plaza area. This is the Loretto Chapel (privately owned)…
…and this is the active Catholic cathedral basilica.
Looking at the churches, followed by this “Settlers Monument” (2003), by sculptor Donna Quasthoff (1924–2021), I could not help but think about the arrival and “good works” of the Catholic priests and Euro-American settlers, who upended the lives and health and cultures of the people who lived in this area. Notice how the incomers are atop their beasts of burden and invasive species. Kinda creepy and definitely an ethical downer. I’m glad it was sunny and that we had leftover red-chili ribs for dinner to cheer me up.
Monday, 10 April 2023
I arose not quite as early in the dawn sequence as yesterday, yet the golden-yellow tones are lovely.
Still saw a few snow-caps as we motored south, and they tapered off as we continued.
Without a doubt, the most dramatic landscape was at White River Narrows.
After long miles of a downward trending road (which lead to overall mileage of 53mpg, at a speedy pace), we ended up creasing Las Vegas. We saw no meadows.
Yeah, we made a burger stop, which happened to be in the middle of the lunch rush. Wow, what a crowd, including dozens of vehicles in the drive-through lane. They even sent a guy out to take orders from those in line.
Back out in the country, we saw several solar panel fields. This one almost looked like a lake. In contrast, in the city, we passed dozens of housing units, almost zero with solar panels. I can’t fathom the logic.
We did get several glimpses of the reservoir called Lake Mead, and the level is low low low, just as you may have read.
After crossing into Arizona, in contrast to this morning, we drove on a generally rising trajectory (mileage was a hammered 42mpg).
There was roadside rotten snow coming into Flag (much diminished from our westbound leg), but none around the hotel.
Unexpectedly, our hotel had a two-plug electrical charger. The car is now fully charged and moved away from the charger. The other space has a handicapped parking logo on it, so I can’t imagine it gets used frequently.
Sunday, 9 April 2023
Stunning orange-gold and pink sky to wake up to.
Some overcast as we rolled down the road.
Switched drivers in front of the only parking meter in Owyhee County. You better have the right change if you park there; it only takes pennies and nickles.
Still high overcast; still mountains in the distance.
Striking erosion patterns; overcast is mostly gone.
Must be an Easter Sunday requirement in this area: run the irrigation system.
Open high terrain. The snow is closer. The sky is clear.
Driving through a canyon; the sunlight has reduced the snow more in some places than others.
Snowy high flat. Dry road.
This flat: not so high and not so snowy. Clear, clear sky.
Big lead and silver mining on the slope by the town of Eureka. The boom really didn’t last long, yet the community survives.
A higher pass, so more snow on our level.
Again: lower and less snow at the road’s elevation.
My brain tried to make these horizontals into terraces (shades of the Mixteca Alta), but they are geological layers.
A bit higher again.
We watched this peak to the right for quite a while. Then as we kept motoring along and could see more of the ridge to the left, we noticed the spoor of (open pit?) mining in regular piles. MaNachur melds awkwardly with human terraforming.
Here’s Ely! This is US50. We started the day on US20 and US30. That seems quite an accomplishment for one day.
I think we crossed four and perhaps five passes over 7000 feet and maybe five more between 6000 and 7000 feet. Yup, we got high today.
Friday, 7 April 2023
First stop. No lie: this is John Sam Lake.
Snow geese migrating…although here they‘re hanging or wheeling.
Show daffodils.
Oyster nursery on Samish Bay.
A deer (!!) in Fairhaven.
A park on the shore at Bellingham. The ducks are buffleheads…or are they Barrow‘s goldeneye?