Skip to content

Year: 2009

The Lost Book Club: The Survivors of the Chancellor

March 24, 2009 • • 3 Comments

The last unread book from Season 4 of Lost was The Survivors of the Chancellor by Jules Verne. I had not previously read any of Verne’s work, and after reading this, I consider that my loss. I’ll have to investigate some of his more famous works like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or Around the World in 80 Days.

Published in 1875, The Survivors of the Chancellor recounts the ordeal of a group of people who survive the burning and slow sinking of their ship, a freighter called The Chancellor. They must endure almost 2 months aboard a raft as their food and water dwindle and the remnants of the crew begin to turn against the passengers and one another. Verne’s story takes the reader through many of the classic perils of life on the sea: fire, storms, mutiny, murder, suicide, doldrums, and even to the drawing of lots to determine which of the survivors must be sacrificed and eaten.

It’s a short, brisk read, and thoroughly entertaining.

As to Lost, it appears in the Season 4 episode “Ji Yeon.” It is the book Regina is reading (upside down) moments before she goes on deck and takes her own life. Had I read it or known the book last year, I might have been able to offer predictions about the future of the freighter: that it was doomed, that few would survive, and that there would be a mutiny.

A year later, The Survivors of the Chancellor sheds no new light on Lost. Still, it was a worthwhile read, and a perfect book for Regina to read considering the hopelessness that had begun to take root on board the Lost freighter.

There haven’t been many books in Season 5 yet, but I am working on Ulysses by James Joyce, which is, so far, the only identifiable book from this season. The book Sawyer was reading in “Namaste” remains in shadow as if we are not to know the book. Or perhaps, there was a production error, and he is reading something that had not yet been published in 1978.

Check out the rest of my Lost Book Club posts.

Miles (Never Once Imagined) – Postal Remix

March 23, 2009 • • Leave a comment

miles-never-once-imagined-r

—

I’d been working on this to submit to Postal Poetry but by the time I finished, I found that they were no longer taking submissions so I offer it here. It’s based on, and is really a remix of, a draft of the poem that I posted with the image about three years ago. I’m still working on the longer version.

It’s disappointing to see Postal Poetry go static, but I found it quite inspiring as I had never thought to combine images and words like this, which is werid considering the time I spend writing and doing photography.

I’ll probably post more of these here as I come up with them. Thanks, Dave and Dana, for the inspiration.

And, in a odd circular kind of way, and with no connection to poetry, the very day that Postal Poetry stops, my old friend Andy starts up his own site, which is about traveling in Texas. Check out Texas Rhodes Trips.

Project FeederWatch Week 19

March 23, 2009 • • Leave a comment

This was a busy week for the birds. At 19 species, this week had the most diversity and even included a lifer: the Brown-headed Cowbird, my 100th life bird. The cowbirds came in a small mixed flock of icterids that included a few grackles and a Red-winged Blackbird.

The Song Sparrow is also new to both yard and life list. I saw my first ones last Wednesday at the pond down the street. I guess one of them decided to come check out my feeders.

Other than that, it was mostly the usual suspects, though the Orange-crowned Warbler didn’t turn up. Perhaps he has headed north.

Still no hummingbirds. The black chins arrived on the 16th last year and on the 17th in 2007. I suspect the drought and resulting lack of wildflowers has them going elsewhere.

The Official Project FeederWatch Count for Week 19:

  1. White-winged Dove (12)
  2. Mourning Dove (2)
  3. Ladder-backed Woodpecker (1)
  4. Blue Jay (2)
  5. Carolina Chickadee (1)
  6. Black-crested Titmouse (2)
  7. Carolina Wren (2)
  8. Bewick’s Wren (1)
  9. Northern Mockingbird (1)
  10. Chipping Sparrow (3)
  11. Song Sparrow (1)
  12. Northern Cardinal (2)
  13. Red-winged Blackbird (1)
  14. Common Grackle (8)
  15. Brown-headed Cowbird (4)
  16. House Finch (5)
  17. Lesser Goldfinch (1)
  18. American Goldfinch (1)
  19. House Sparrow (10)

A Springtime Walk

March 19, 2009 • • 5 Comments
Cardinal singing for spring

Every tree along the trail to the pond wears its own cardinal, each claiming territory and attracting mates, filling the air with song. Gnatcatchers and kinglets hop through the branches with the chickadees. Blue Jays build a nest by the pond where the ducks had been until yesterday when they got the migration call and departed for points north. With all the birds alive and calling attention to themselves, the deer skeleton was quite a shock.

on a bed of leaves,
a deer skeleton picked clean,
save one furry hoof

Golden-cheeked Warbler

March 17, 2009 • • 10 Comments
A Golden-cheeked Warbler
Golden-cheeked Warbler

Today was an exciting day. I finally got to see the Golden-cheeked Warbler, the only bird that nests only in Texas. Sadly, it is also an endangered species.

I went on one of the Two Hour Tuesday walks sponsored by the Travis County Audubon Society. Our guide, Stan, was great. Not only did he show us these birds, but by the time I left I felt I had learned enough to possibly find one on my own someday.

Walking along Turkey Creek near Emma Long Park, we heard more of them than we saw and for the most part, we only saw quick glimpses until, walking back towards the parking lot, we got some good looks, including the one I photographed, which was right above us on the trail.

I was surprised by how vocal they are, a fact that makes them surprisingly easy to find. Apparently, though, as soon as nesting activities are finished, they become very quiet and secretive and so, March and April are really the only time one might expect to find them.

It’s a bittersweet thing to see such a beautiful and unique creature while knowing that it is also an endangered species. The threats to the Golden-cheeked Warbler’s existence seem to come mainly in the form of habitat loss. It nests only in the mixed oak/juniper forests of the Texas hill country, and according to Texas Parks and Wildlife:

Golden-cheeked warblers are endangered because many tall juniper and oak woodlands have been cleared to build houses, roads, and stores. Some habitat was cleared to grow crops or grass for livestock. Other habitat areas were flooded when large lakes were built.

These little birds only nest here. They winter in Mexico and Central America, but according to All About Birds, their winter habitat is being cut down for timber. It seems they can’t catch a break.

Golden-cheeked Warbler 2

This bird was a rare treat to see and a potent reminder of the importance of conservation and doing all one can to ensure that we leave room for all the wild things with whom we share this planet.

Update: Be sure to check out I and the Bird #96 at The Birdchaser.

Project FeederWatch Week 18

March 17, 2009 • • Leave a comment

The highlight for Week 18 of Project FeederWatch was a Red-winged Blackbird at the tube feeder. This was only the second time I’ve seen one in the yard (the other time was June 12, 2007). I watched him for a few minutes, but he flew away before I could get my camera out.

The White-winged Doves took the lead this week for “greatest number of individuals observed.” During the summer months, we see more of them than anything else.

It was a mostly dark and gray weekend, so no pictures. Just the list, which includes most of the usual suspects:

  1. White-winged Dove (25)
  2. Mourning Dove (1)
  3. Blue Jay (3)
  4. Carolina Chickadee (2)
  5. Black-crested Titmouse (2)
  6. Carolina Wren (2)
  7. Bewick’s Wren (1)
  8. Northern Mockingbird (4)
  9. Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
  10. Chipping Sparrow (8)
  11. Northern Cardinal (1)
  12. Red-winged Blackbird (1)
  13. Common Grackle (2)
  14. House Finch (2)
  15. Lesser Goldfinch (1)
  16. American Goldfinch (2)
  17. House Sparrow (8)

South Austin Chili

March 12, 2009 • • 12 Comments

Black beans, fresh rinsed
obsidian jewels,
drop through fingers
feeling for stones.

Pasilla chiles, toasting,
warm the air. Later,
ground and simmered in oil,
they seethe in a mild lava.

Chocolate softens,
flows into the chili—
an ebony swirl
rippling on a midnight sea.

—

This is for Read Write Poem’s What’s Eating You?.

One of my favorite things to cook is The Soup Peddler’s South Austin Chili recipe in his Slow and Difficult Soups. I like the end result, but I love the process of making this chili. The time spent in the kitchen working the ingredients and listening to music while enjoying a beer as the pasillas toast in the oven is sheer joy.

The chili itself is wonderfully rich with a slow chipotle burn, and with the chocolate added it comes off almost like a mole.

My Other Blog: a gnarled oak

March 10, 2009 • • Leave a comment

I started another blog about a month ago, but kept it under my hat until I had a name for it. The name came this week: a gnarled oak.

It’s from this haiku I wrote last week:

I watched and listened—
a gnarled oak full of stories,
birds turned into words

a gnarled oak is a microblog where I’ll be posting short observational poem-like things mostly about birds and nature.

This started from my experiments with Twitter (you can follow me on Twitter where the gnarled oak stuff is automatically be cross-posted). The notion of posting every moment of one’s life is kind of silly so I just twittered short little poem-things and haiku. I discovered there are a lot of people who do this. Many quite well. I wanted a more personal and simpler space for these besides Twitter, and I discovered Tumblr, a microblogging platform that works nicely for this.

The things I post there are the things that often got written and lost in my paper journals, but after being inspired by a small stone, a handful of stones, The Morning Porch, TWITTERKU, Open Micro, Paiku, Haiku Habits, Full Moon of November, Oversouled and numerous others whose RSS feeds and tweets I’ve been enjoying, I decided to have a go at this style of blogging. Many of these sites are powered by Tumblr and that’s how I found it, so thanks to all of those for inspiring me.

Coyote Mercury is still my main joint, but you’ll find these other bits of writing that seem too small for a “full-size” blog laid out for large images at a gnarled oak where they won’t be overwhelmed and can kind of live by themselves in a simpler region of the blogosphere that lacks sidebars, comments, spam, and upgrades.

Check out a gnarled oak and have a look around. There’s even an rss feed for those who use readers.