Grateful for Snow: Lake Tahoe early season report–Boreal Ridge
We left Ventucky just before midnight and drove north all night, switching off between sleeping in the back of the van with the small boy and taking the wheel. At dawn, I pulled off and slept for an hour and the small boy read books and played. Then we were back on I-80 marveling at the fall color and more and more snow as we climbed higher into the Sierra.
We neared Donner Pass and Boreal Ridge ski area just before 9am. We pulled off to check it out and decide where to go to ski for the day. The parking attendant convinced us with a report of $39 for lift tickets but it turned out they’d upped the price to $49 for adults, and $15 for kids.
Even at $49 for a lift ticket–cheap by Tahoe standards, I doubt if I’ll ever return to Boreal Ridge. It was the first time I’d ever been skiing when I wished desperately for a helmet. Read more…
Thankful for writers: “We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” Cynthia Ozick
One of my favorite cartoons, Mutts by Patrick McDonnell, offers this quote today by Cynthia Ozick: “We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”
I take for granted the comics, I admit it. Mutts is one my special pleasures in life, so much so that I have bought several of his books like The Gift of Nothing and Hug Time and gifted them to friends. His work consistently reminds us to pay attention to the small joys of life. Here he is reading his book, Hug Time:
Native American poet/activist John Trudell and his band Bad Dog featuring Quiltman will perform in Ventura on Saturday, November 28th. Also performing will be Conjunto Zacamandu, Jarocho music from the region of Vera Cruz, Mexico: lively, upbeat, infectious music. Call (805) 258-1160 for more info.
I’m sorry to miss out but we’re heading for the mountains!
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Independent Lens . TRUDELL | PBS
… reveals the philosophy and motivations behind Native American activist and poet John Trudell’s work and its relationship to contemporary Indian history.
www.pbs.org/independentlens/trudell/
Blue Indians by John Trudell – Rhapsody Music
Listen to Blue Indians by John Trudell FREE on Rhapsody.com. … Bad Dog. 3. All Nite Cafe. 4. Toy. 5. Devil and Me. 6. Johnny and Joe. 7. Angel of Sin …
www.rhapsody.com/john–trudell/blue-indians–inside-recordings
Yes you could say I’m grateful for Burning Man aka the Black Rock City Arts Festival held every year over the Labor Day weekend. I’ve been grateful for its life changing experiences since my first Burn rocked my world back in 1992. I’ve burned 17 times now.
Why am I grateful for Burning Man? These galleries of giant panoramas by Brad Templeton might indicate why:
http://pic.templetons.com/brad/pano/bman09.html
http://pic.templetons.com/brad/pano/bestburn.html
http://pic.templetons.com/brad/pano/bigburn.html
Or consider PHILIPPE GLADE’S IMPRESSIVE GALLERY OF BURNING MAN ARCHITECTURE
http://thisisblackrockcity.blogspot.com/
Or SCOTT LONDON’S BEST OF BURNING MAN 2009 GALLERY http://www.scottlondon.com/bm09
Need a holiday gift for yourself or a loved one? Ticket Pre-Sale opened on Friday: http://tickets.burningman.com
Art Predator will see you there!
August 25, 2009 3:15am
My small boy starts
first grade tomorrow.
Already over my shoulder
he reads aloud
status updates on facebook, twitter
stumbling over the rare long word
in a context he can’t determine
or a punctuation mishmash.
This morning it really hit me
how well he can read
how grown up he is
how no matter how often he wails
owee & I want Momeeeee
he is no longer a baby.
Over the summer his face lost
its roundness, his stomach flat & taut.
He can dribble a soccer ball.
He can remember & manipulate
elaborate rules for games.
He is not afraid
to ride his bike in the street.
There is so much he can do now.
The world is huge and full for him.
I wrote this poem last summer at 3:15am as part of the 3:15 Experiment. It’s now Thanksgiving time. The small boy has had a birthday and is 6. I just returned from his conference with his teacher: he’s doing really well and reading at the third grade level. I’m proud of my small boy. I am grateful too that I will be spending Thanksgiving with him off having adventures in our VW van.
What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving season?
For more poetry, catch the train! I’ve been a regular on it for over two years now! Wow! Thanks Gautami for keeping the train running and on time now for over a year!
Grateful for Snow: Make Yourself Some Merry Little Snow Flakes
A few simple steps and you soon will be decking the halls with a score of singing snowflakes! It’s that easy and they look that great!
They’d make a great stencil. Wouldn’t that be a fun costume for the Santa Ride–come as a snowflake!
For immediate release: Nov. 19, 2009
Photos available from previous Santa rides
contact Gwendolyn Alley
email gwendolynalley AT yahoo DOT com
Save Santa! The Ventura College Eco-Pirates Present:
Eco-Fest– A DIY Day for Action Thursday December 3, 2009 8:30am-1:30pm
and Ride to Save Santa Dec. 4 5-10pm
Can’t go to the UN’s Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen this December?
Join the Eco-Pirates in Ventura College quad 4667 Telegraph Road Ventura
and learn how you can “Do It Yourself” to help preserve the planet and ourselves.
Keep the North Pole from melting! Read more…
How would Malcolm Gladwell of “The Tipping Point” explain Christmas?
In the December 2009 issue of Vanity Fair, satirist Craig Brown does a Malcolm Gladwellesque analysis of Baby Jesus, Santa and Presents. For example:
He is grotesquely overweight. He is childless. He lives in the chilly and undesirable North Pole. He insists on dressing in a bright-red jumpsuit with fur trimmings. He can only ever find employment on one day a year, and, even then, it is night work.
On every accepted level, Santa Claus is a total loser.
Yet this is a man who heads up a brand that commands 98 percent global recognition. Furthermore, he is universally adored.
How does he do it?
In a controlled research investigation involving uninterrupted surveillance videotaping, a sustained loop of twinkly music, and state-of-the-art merriness-determination equipment, a Dutch santologist named Hans Bunquum discovered the secret to Claus’s phenomenal success.
“The conclusion is both remarkable and inescapable but also—most importantly—counter-intuitive,” Dr. Bunquum told me over a glass of organic lemonade in his stunning waterstulp, or waterside studio, near Rotterdam. “To become the object of universal love, one must first live with a red-nosed reindeer, and then gain a premier position as the sole registered employer of elves in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s as simple as that.”
Speaking of Santa, what’s going to happen to the North Pole if nothing but talk happens at Copenhagen?
Participate in the solution: learn about Hopenhagen, sign a petition, make a video, change carbon emitting behaviors, join us on the next ride, Santa Ride, Dec. 4. Meet in Ventura at the corner of Telegraph and Day Road at 5pm or join us at 5:30pm at the Artists Union Gallery where California Street meets the sea. We’ll ride from there by 6pm and visit galleries and art studios ending with a wild party!
Is the fate of the world at stake this December in Copenhagen? Many say yes.
Hopenhagen Ambassador Contest: HuffPost Citizen Journalist Will Win A Trip To Copenhagen
Next month at the UN’s Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, world’s leaders will decide what to do before the Kyoto protocol expires in two years–and this will indeed determine the future of our planet.
The effects of global warming are already lapping at the world’s shores, destroying species, threatening cities, and encroaching on our ability to produce food. This is real, and this is happening. But there is hope.
Hopenhagen.org wants to connect every one with what is happening at the conference in Copenhagen so that we together can push for limits on carbon emissions. Leaders don’t want to make these commitments because they will require deep changes (yes, sacrifices even) so we the people must show the politicians the way–and that there is a strong political will to set emissions targets — which would mean more green jobs, and a more sustainable future for people everywhere.
At Hopenhagen.org, people can become a citizen of the Nation of Hopenhagen by signing a petition, learning about grassroots climate efforts and spreading the word to their own communities. In addition,
a HuffPost citizen journalist will go to Copenhagen for the climate conference as the Hopenhagen Ambassador, to represent the global nation of people who are hopeful that leaders will come to an agreement.
How? Submit a 1 minute video. The Top 10 vote getters will then move forward to a panel of judges who will choose the winner who will receive a trip to Copenhagen from December 12-19th including airfare, accommodation, press accreditation for the UN conference, Media training with HuffPost Citizen journalism editor Matt Palevsky, HuffPost blogging privileges, and a flip camera to record events.
Hopefully, they let you keep the flip camera!
What an adventure! I’m already thinking about what I’d like to say to win that trip–although I really think Rachel Morris of VCCool should go for it–and soon!
But more important, I think, is to create a buzz about what’s happening in Copehagen in December, and how necessary it is to make a commitment to a drastic reduction in carbon emissions in order to prevent more radical climate change.
Already reports are pessimistic. The Kyoto Protocol runs out in 2012.
Connie Hedegaard, the Danish climate and energy minister who will chair the Copenhagen summit, said that the Dec. 8-17 event will be “a moment of truth” and “countries are very worried about the consequences of global warming and expect the developed countries to perform in Copenhagen.”
The discussions start in earnest Dec. 2, 2009 … and may not end in our lifetime.
August 12, 2009 3:15am
for Ginga Paul in AUS where it’s winter
It’s summer inside
and when you wake up in the
middle of the night
and when you get up in the
middle of the night
it is easy to be naked
to roam the house
to lie in bed & write
It’s summer outside
and when you look out the window
in the middle of the night
orange lit fog fills the barranca
the power lines crackle & pop
vague outlines float
it looks spooky like Halloween
like it should feel like fall
but we have 6 more weeks of summer.
even if we don’t see
a blue sky during the day
or glittering stars at night
the days are warm enough
for us to walk naked
& that’s all that really matters
that & not having to be anywhere
like school or work
in the morning
It’s definitely no longer summer inside or out here in southern California (camping over the weekend nearby at Rose Valley was way below freezing by bedtime!), but for GingaTao Paul Read more…
art predator 