Morrison remembers when cats were worshiped as gods. Today I spotted him meditating before the enlighted cat.
Someday when cats are returned to their rightful position in human theology, Morrison will be ready.
by James Brush
Month: July 2006
This was taken at Wupatki National Monument near Flagstaff, Arizona.
My dad’s side of the family came from Phoenix and so when I was growing up, we visited Arizona whenever we had the chance. I guess the desert air got to me because as an adult, I’ve gone back many times to what I think is probably the richest state in terms of natural beauty and pre-Columbian history.
I also really like driving through the desert, especially in a place like Arizona where so much of the land is public and a person can just pull off the road and explore.
In 1996, my wife and I took a trip to Arizona and New Mexico. We went without a plan and just zig-zagged around the northern part of the state, camping and visiting as many of the national parks as we could, including Wupatki where I took the above picture.
The structure was most likely built by the Sinagua people sometime around the 12th century, but was abandoned by 1250 AD.
Ever since I first heard of the Anasazi people and saw their cliff dwellings at Montezuma Castle, I’ve been fascinated by the history of the region. The great thing about deserts is that so much is preserved.
I don’t know what it is about ruins in the middle of the desert, but there’s something about them that captures my imagination. Perhaps it’s because in the desert you can really see and get a sense of things like time and the infinity of space. You can feel the Earth’s long slow processes, the geology happening all around. Seeing ruins reinforces that and reminds me of how short a time we’ve been here.
Deserts create perspective. At least for me. That’s probably why my book is set in the desert.
I’ve also posted other photos of more recent desert ruins from a trip in 1992.
Last week’s Old Photo Friday lamented the passing of the one-day-only lemonade stands once run by enterprising young urchins out to make a bit of summer coin.
Today, I stand corrected.
While on my way back from driving a carload of cardboard to our local recycling facility, I came across three boys standing at a neighborhood intersection selling powdered high fructose corn syrup mixed with water. For fifty cents, the concoction is served up in a nice styrofoam cup with three ice cubes.
I bought a round and then headed home where I dumped it after a few sips. Too sweet. Still, it’s nice to see that some of the summer traditions of my youth still exist, rare though they may be.
Kids probably get tired of the same old boring juice box in their lunches everyday. Now, there’s something better… single serving boxes of wine.
The boxes are made by Three Thieves and probably aren’t intended for school lunches. Well, maybe grad school lunches, but either way when we saw these at Whole Foods it seemed like a cool idea, not because I like my wine in a box, but because here was a way to take wine to the pool, the campground, tailgating, wherever glass is unwelcome.
But, what of the taste?
Boxed wine tends to get a bad rap, but the 2002 Bandit Cabernet wasn’t bad. In fact, it was pretty good. Now, I’m not a wine snob, but I likes me a good red and while I wouldn’t serve this (from the box) at a dinner party, it would be great for a picnic at the park or dinner by a campfire.
The box claims that the packaging, which is made from renewable resources is not only convenient, but reduces packaging waste by 90%. I guess that makes this a green wine.
Cheers!
And no, you don’t use a straw.
I rode about 25 miles today, mostly on the trails around our neighborhood. Before leaving, I thought about bringing my camera in case I saw any interesting wildlife.
If I had, here’s what you’d see pictures of:
- The tail end of a snake darting across the trail. Probably a western coachwhip;
- Inca and white wing doves;
- A meeting of turkey vultures in the middle of a meadow;
- A roadrunner, though since he was on a trail, perhaps we should call him a trailrunner;
- and, three very young turkey vultures.
I had spotted the three young turkey vultures last week. They were sitting underneath a bridge on the trail looking quite startled as I raced by. They still had down feathers under their wings. Today there were no down feathers and one of them flapped uncertainly into a nearby oak. I don’t know if they’ve been abandoned or if this is normal for turkey vultures, but they seem to be doing well.
Maybe next time, I’ll bring the digital camera.
There are many mysteries on ABC’s Lost and the rabbit hole goes pretty deep as viewers discovered late in the second season in the episode “Two for the Road” when Sawyer was seen reading a manuscript that was found in the wreckage of Oceanic 815. The manuscript was for a detective novel called Bad Twin written by fictional fiction author Gary Troup.
Viewers who looked the book up on Amazon found, to their surprise (and my dismay), an actual book called Bad Twin by Gary Troup. The publisher says it was his last work before disappearing on Oceanic 815.
ARGGHH, I thought.
The last thing I wanted to do was get sucked into some metafictional work that exists only for the creators of Lost to cash in. But then the second season ended leaving many unresolved mysteries and my wife suggested that we should read it along with all the other books mentioned on the show as a sort of fun summer reading project. So here we are.
First of all, Bad Twin is pretty good for what it is: a genre-style detective novel about a small time private eye named Paul Artisan who gets stuck with a big case in which a powerful man, the chairman of the Widmore Corporation, wants him to find his identical twin brother because “he may be in danger.”
It’s a fun summer read that can be enjoyed without any knowledge of Lost because in their world and ours, it’s just a private eye book.
Of course there are connections for those of us who watch Lost. The Widmore Corporation is referenced throughout Lost. Bad Twin mentions Lost‘s ominous Hanso Foundation. In the Lost world Gary Troup was something of an enemy of the Hanso Foundation and when the book was published the imaginary Hanso Foundation took out ads in real (our world now) newspapers denouncing the book.
This is all part of the Lost Experience, a sort of real-world/Lost world scavenger hunt for clues and meaning that I won’t be participating in other than to read the literature referenced on the show which has more to do with me being an English teacher than a TV junkie.
So, other than to make bigger bucks, why was Bad Twin written?
First off, I think that it exists to help educate readers about some of the literary and philosophical references in Lost. Conveniently, the detective in Bad Twin has a close friend with whom he meets every day. This friend is an old literature professor at Columbia University who talks about books that are relevant to Artisan’s investigation. Surprisingly, among these books are Turn of the Screw and Lord of the Flies.
He also talks about the philosophy of John Locke (whose name is shared by a character on Lost) and talks frequently about both Purgatory and Purgatorio.
This alone would be a boon to anyone trying to make sense of Lost but who doesn’t have the time or inclination to go off reading classic literature and seventeenth century philosophers (several of whom give their names to Lost characters) because it distills some of the key ideas that tie in with Lost.
The second reason for Bad Twin, I think is thematic. The story deals with a recurring theme on Lost: that of Purgatory. In fact, Gary Troup’s name is an anagram for purgatory.
Lost’s creators say that the characters are not in Purgatory, but I think they are in something of a purgatory. Each of the characters that has not been nabbed by the Others has a checkered past. In nearly every case, they are given second chances on the island. Some pass this test, others don’t. Like the characters on Lost, detective Paul Artisan gets many second chances and opportunities to redeem himself.
Purgatory is neither Heaven nor Hell, neither here not there. In a way, Purgatory is something of an island between destinations. Bad Twin reinforces this concept by having all of the action take place on islands: Manhatten, Long Island, Key West, Cuba, Australia, and a host of smaller imaginary islands.
Touching on another theme common across the Lost literature is the idea that things are not as they seem. Characters in Bad Twin who are presumed to be good, often are not and vice-versa. I’ve seen this pattern in the Lost lit as well as on the show itself. I keep going back to Henry Gale’s claim that the Others are – contrary to what we’ve been led to believe – the good guys
So it comes down to this. Based on my reading of Bad Twin and the other Lost books, I suspect that the Hanso Foundation is trying to remake the world by moving humanity to the next step in human evolution. I’m not sure if the Others are against or with Hanso, but I think they are trying to save the world, if not remake it.
So the bottom line on Bad Twin? If you watch Lost, it’s a clever re-imagining of the central themes along with a few obscure tidbits about the show. If you don’t watch Lost, it’s a light, enjoyable detective story. Read it at the beach or on a plane.
If you dare.
For more of my Lost book posts, check out The Lost Book Club.
They say crime doesn’t pay, but it can be pretty lucrative.
Employee of the Month (Mitch Rouse, 2004)
This was interesting. What exactly is Employee of the Month? Romantic comedy? Cynical black comedy? Journey through despair? Buddy flick? Crime thriller? Or something else entirely. I wasn’t sure until it was over, and I don’t want to give anything away but it was good. It seems muddled until act three at which point I saw everything clearly, realizing that nothing was muddled except my own expectations, as it hurtled towards a strange and satisfying conclusion.
On the surface it’s about a loan officer (Matt Dillon) who loses his fiance and his job on the same day. He seems like a good-hearted decent guy, but maybe he’s not. Whatever he is, he’s having a pretty bad day. Or maybe everything is going perfectly. Check it out.
Be Cool (F Gary Gray, 2005)
I hardly remember anything about Get Shorty, but that doesn’t matter in this sequel about the further exploits of goodfella turned Hollywood player, Chili Palmer since it works as a stand-alone film.
When Be Cool opens, Chili (played by John Travolta basically doing a more likable version of his Pulp Fiction role) has grown bored with the film business and wants to make it in the rough and tumble music scene. Naturally his background helps him navigate a world of thugs, playas, gangstas and wannabes as he tries to break an up-and-coming young singer and help her get a good record deal. It’s a good-natured and at times wickedly funny movie that’s worth the watch.
I first saw Soulive at the 2003 ACL Festival. The forty-five minute festival set didn’t really give them time to open it up so it was cool to catch them on Saturday night at La Zona Rosa.
Soulive is the kind of band that’s bringing back the organ-based jazz-funk sound of the late sixties and early seventies and playing it to audiences comprised of jazz, hip hop, and jam band lovers. I’m a fan of guitar and organ based jazz and there’s nothing I enjoy more than seeing a band play, and I mean really play in the truest sense of the word where experiments and improvisation are all part of the fun.
The crowd was small, which I like, though I think Soulive deserved a bigger audience, but it wasn’t one of those come-to-be-seen crowds. People listened and danced and just generally dug the whole vibe.
I tend to watch guitarists and so I tried to focus on what Eric Krasno was doing. His playing just amazes me whether it’s on CD or live, he seems to get to a place that’s so inside the music that I just follow each line, each riff with rapt attention. Neal Evans on organ and Alan Evans on drums kept things simmering through the set.
I’ve always felt that the trio format can be a bit limited and start to sound the same after a few tunes whether it be jazz, rock or punk, but Soulive kept things interesting through their own interplay and by bringing out singer Reggie Watts to do a few numbers with them.
One highlight of the show was their funky jazz rendition of the 2Pac and Dr. Dre gangsta rap classic “California Love,” which drew a cheering response from the small crowd. I’m a big fan of jazz bands delving into the realm of pop music to find the new standards for modern audiences, and it’s always a treat to hear a band find jazz in unlikely places be it 2Pac, Radiohead, Pavement or Nirvana.
Afterwards, we stopped for a slice at the Roppollo’s Pizza truck and sat on the curb, enjoying the cool night air and mild humidity that carried bass notes and snippets of songs, barely heard, from countless other acts in other bars. A good night in a good city.
(My wife posted about this as well.)
Fourth of July week can be very trying for dogs what with the skyrockets and all. This was Phoebe’s first Independence Day with us and we learned that she is as terrified of artificial explosions above her home as she is of thunder.
This was a long dark week of the soul for poor Phoebe who had to wander around shivering and panting all day listening to thunder and then all night as she listened to fireworks.
Daphne, who is terrified of everything except thunder and fireworks, slept through most of the ordeal awakened only by Phoebe’s bed and couch shaking shivering.
And as if all that wasn’t enough, they even got baths.
[saveagrey]
They say the weather is supposed to start getting hot again after a few weeks of unusually mild and sometimes rainy weather. Mild for central Texas that is.
In the spirit of beating the heat, today’s Old Photo Friday takes us back to Springfield, Virginia sometime in the late seventies. I’m the kid on the right. My business partner, Georgie, is to the left of our little shop.
I don’t see many kids out selling lemonade anymore. Perhaps their parents give them all the coin they need or maybe it’s too dangerous for kids to be out on the street corner trying to attract strangers.
Or maybe it’s too dangerous for passers by to drink what strange kids are selling.
Still, selling lemonade was for many of us our first glimpse of American capitalism, our first effort at selling, marketing, customer service.
Our little stand didn’t make us rich, but we probably earned enough to get something from the ice cream man since our investors were pretty laid back about recouping their capital investments in our venture. Perhaps that’s the lesson that doesn’t translate to the real world.