Des Cieux

Thanksgiving is coming, so here's a yummy ( recipe )!

He'd grown lean and bitter.
Some said mad.
A malign star kept him.
-Cormac McCarthy, Child of God

Not that I'd want to be Lester Ballard, other than maybe the "gothic doll" part...

I just got back from a meeting with an instructor about my seminar paper. We were supposedly discussing nostalgia, pastoral traditions, and apocalypse, but my eyes were trained on her office: the abstract watercolor on the wall, the small laptop, the books hemming everything in. I was looking for clues on how one settles into such a life. How does one maintain? Her throat made pleasing little thick noises between her words.
*
In trying to get class started this morning, I had to ask what was on the iPhone one student was passing around. At first I thought the student said it was a picture someone had taken of me. For a brief moment I thought I was going to have to discuss drag. But no, this was something else.
Apparently, this is how my students think I look. Curse you, Twilight.

A picture will have to be worth a thousand words. It was fun. It was shameless.( Vegfest weekend in SF! )

Unfortunately, we missed Neko. However, we did get to hear Emmylou Harris and Old Crow Medicine Show sing "The Weight." Beautiful people everywhere, not to mention the trees.

So I'm shirking all my duties and running off to the Bay Area for the weekend with my vegan cohorts. We're going to World Veg Fest Weekend! Along the way, we plan to stop at other vegan restaurants. I hope to have photos and a culinary report!
I'm doubly excited because there's a free music festival going on at the same time, where Neko Case, Okkervil River, The Duhks, and others are playing!
Someone do my reading for me! Speaking of that, I'm revisiting Edmund Burke this week: "We submit to what we desire, but we love what submits to us..."

I was watching clips from the MTV VMAs. I feel old and way out of the loop.

"Je ne sçay par quelle superstition quelques Ilinois, aussi bien que quelques Nadoüessis, estant encore jeunes prennent l’habit des femmes qu’ils gardent toute leur vie: il y a du mystere, car ils ne se marient jamais, & font gloire de s’abbaisser à fair tout ce que font les femmes; ils vont pourtant en guerre, mais ils ne peuuent se servir que de la massuë & non pas de l’arc & de la fleche, qui sont les armes propres pour les hommes; ils assistant à toute les jongleriës & à toutes les Dances solennelles qui se font en l’honneur du Calumet, ils y chantent mais ils n’y peuvent pas dancer; ils sont appellez au Conseil, où l’on ne peut rien décider sans leurs avis; enfin la profession qu’ils font d’une vie extraordinaire les fait passer pour des Manitous, c’est à dire de grands genies, ou personnes de consequence."
—Voyage et Découverte de Quelques Pays et Nations de L’Amérique Septentrionale par Le P. Marquette et Sr. Joliet

"Japan's New First Lady Says She Flew In UFO"

"Japan looks to robots to fill jobs"

"We're all mutants, say scientists"

I'll tell you what doesn't make me feel sexy, LJ blog "writer's block" topic generator (sponsored by Victoria's Secret -- good God): sitting in this library.
I don't know how the other students do it, what with side businesses and raising children and teaching multiple courses. I suppose passion or interest must have something to do with it.
I have a few hundred pages to go read, and a class to plan for...
happy thoughts:
- red wine
- sage
- fallen apples for the taking
- calling friends by their new married names

This morning was the first time I detected any precipitation in the eighteen days since I've arrived. I think people would count it as rain, though it was only a few drops. At least there was a little moisture to the air. I woke up, did my laundry, and then drove over to meet some of my program peers to go for a 10K in the Peavine Mountain range. Thank goodness my illiotibial band seems to be holding up. I am going to thoroughly stretch before I go to bed.
I spent the rest of the day running errands, primarily for groceries, punctuated by a few hours on campus to prepare for class tomorrow. I briefly encountered my faculty mentor. He is probably the busiest person I've ever met. The amount of traveling he'll be doing this semester is more than most do in their lifetimes. I printed off syllabi and questionnaires, then ditched the place to go wander the overabundant natural food supermarkets in the south of town.
Yesterday was the program's retreat up in the mountains (8,900 feet). I did two hikes and learned about some new plants: purple sage (actually mint), sulfur flower (actually buckwheat), and mule's ears (a sort of alpine sunflower). As a group, we shared our interests and attempted to discuss two selections of literature. Later that night there was a potluck and I drank a lot of beer.
I want to go to Natural Gourmet culinary school or work in a vegan diner.

"Main Entry:
de·com·pen·sa·tion
Pronunciation:
\(ˌ)dē-ˌkäm-pən-ˈsā-shən, -pen-\
Function:
noun
: loss of physiological compensation or psychological balance; especially : inability of the heart to maintain adequate circulation"

- Miriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary


A term my new writing program director used the other day to describe a Japanese exchange student's mental deterioration during a conference in her office. She personally escorted him to the campus counseling center.

More on life soon (I hope).

I spent most of today going through plastic bins filled with old papers, photos, memorabilia, and so forth. It was like going down memory lane with a wrecking ball. A lot of old writing and old journals. I didn't get through it all, but I have enough for one roaring bonfire. I was planning that for tonight. I'm too tired now. I can't believe the amount of stuff/work I did.
I also had my first MRI, which was incredibly loud. I'd never have guessed from watching television.
I made a few calls on apartments.
I typed up a poem by Bob Hicok.

Slept last night on some driftwood on the beach in Sidney. After trying to keep a low profile tucked into a little alcove in the hillside, reading and observing a family of geese, I rolled out my sleeping bag and watched a vermilion moonrise.
I woke up with this song in my head and now it's playing in the cafe. One hour to San Juan. I hope someone from the farm will be there to pick me up!

I can't believe how much can happen in a single day. I woke myself up to go down to the lake for a cloudy dawn. I packed up the rest of my room and said goodbye to the walls, the register, the doorknob. I got my deposit check from Lin, and I was on my way.
I bought Tori's new CD, some rain gear and an LED headlamp, then went down to the co-op to say goodbye and print itineraries. I also found I had a place to stay in Sidney. Thanks CouchSurfing!
I had tea with Rachel and Ruthette, then drove down to Gladstone. Went for a walk with Grandma and touched the river, then we headed up to the airport. She graciously stayed with me until I finished Love Medicine so I wouldn't have to cart it around with me. I wasn't expecting to get so into it suddenly, but Lipsha's narration captivated me. I checked my email to discover that I'm all set to go farm post-conference.
Then I flew away to Minneapolis. It was nice to see that the lakes keep some of the land wild. The Minneapolis airport was huge. On the flight I was interested to listen to my rowmates discuss their poker professions-- a whole world I know nothing about.
And then touchdown in Nevada. Here I am, where I will return to be for quite some time. So strange! I was amazed by the darkness (I'm reading Let There Be Night), and more so by the lone specks of light dispersed so far apart. Then we hit Las Vegas, and here I am for a few hours...

I'm sipping an Arabic espresso at Hard Times Cafe here in Minneapolis. I've ditched out on the other sessions for the NAISA conference today so that I could get some work done for the conference next week. It's been a rough couple days, but I think I'm in a comfortable enough place (i.e., coffeehouse) to write about it.
( academia rant )
This is my second time in Minneapolis, and the visit has only added to my admiration of the city. I could see myself living here. Some highlights of the trip:
-visiting Birchbark Book, Louise Erdrich's bookstore. Highly recommended. I wanted to read every book I saw.
-The Seward Co-op. Bright, extensive, and they have an excellent deli!
-watching Janiva Magness perform at the Cedar Cultural center. Her solo encore was amazing.
-The Mill City Museum. The conference reception was here, and I loved how they built the museum into the ruins of the mill.
-the view from the Holiday Inn. It was fun to look down on the outdoor seating of the two pubs below.
-the weather! It's finally spring and such a pleasure to be able to walk outside without a coat any time of day.
Okay, I need to go prepare this cover letter, email the farm I'm supposed to stay on, and attempt to make a compelling profile on couchsurfing so some awesome Bellinghamers will want to take me in...

When asked what one poem could save the earth, John Felstiner unhesitatingly selected the following.


The Well Rising
by William Stafford

The well rising without sound,
the spring on a hillside,
the plowshare brimming through the deep ground
everywhere in the field —

The sharp swallows in their swerve
flaring and hesitating
hunting for the final curve
coming closer and closer —

The swallow heart from wing beat to wing beat
counseling decision, decision:
thunderous examples. I place my feet
with care in such a world.

:/
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Global Warming presented by Dr. Alan Robock (Rutgers).

Dr. Robock served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Why peace? Because governments are increasingly seeing the effects of climate change as a danger. The Pentagon once warned that climate change posed the most serious threat to national security.

The IPCC has issued a series of reports, all of which found that anthropogenic climate change was real. The conviction of this finding increases over time, going from "likely" to "very likely."

This is more a problem for your children and grandchildren (reproductive ethics?).

2050: no more sea ice, and that's conservative.

La nouveau masque de la mort rouge?

Cap greenhouse gases at 450 ppm.

STOP coal.

Reversing trends could cost less than .12% of the GNP/year.

geoengineering not likely to be the answer.

States need to take the lead... political involvement including supporting the Waxman-Markey bill...
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"Through the close study of a place, its people and character, its crops, products, paranoias, dialects, and failures, we come closer to our own reality. It is difficult to impose a story and a plot on a place. But truly knowing a place provides the link between details and meaning. Location, whether it is to abandon it or draw it sharply, is where we start."
-- Louise Erdrich, "Where I Ought to Be."


Well, that's done.

Almost done with the manuscript.

Panel on Saturday:
Superior Water Festival

Presentation Monday:
Indigenous Earth Issues Summit
Interviewed in:
Marquette Monthly

A first: I listened to myself on the radio this morning.

"Studying and celebrating these stories will help keep us grounded in our bioregions, better aware of our impacts on them, and their influences on us."