Today, Sunday May 20, something special is going on around the world: an annular eclipse of the sun by the moon. That’s where the new moon passes in front of the sun, blocking the light from getting to earth.
Some eclipses are “full” which means the moon blocks the light the most and produces an eery twilight during day time. An annular eclipse produces a “ring of fire” for those who are fortunate to be in its path. This is the first eclipse in six years to be visible from the United States–the next one that will be this spectacular will be in 2071 according to NASA.
The eclipse of May 20, 2012 starts at dawn on Monday May 21 in China, traces a line going north through Japan, arcs just below the Aleutian Islands in the Pacific where it will be midday and at its greatest, then crosses into north America near the border between Oregon and California. It passes through Redding on its way to Lake Tahoe, through Reno to Pyramid Lake where thousands gather on traditional Shoshone Pauite Land at Symbiosis, slides over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, descends toward Albuquerque New Mexico and finally sets in Lubbock Texas.
For those not directly in its path, the event is still potentially dramatic; the closer you are, the more apparent the eclipse. This eclipse favors people in the population dense west coast most of whom will see it from about 5pm until sunset between 7 and 8pm as it passes over or near many of the larger metropolitan regions of the west including Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. These cities will experience 80% or more coverage of the sun; at its greatest, the moon will cover 96% of the sun–leaving the “ring of fire.”
So what can you see? And how do you see it? And where should you go to see the eclipse?
Whatever you do, no matter how tempting it is, even if it is sunset, don’t look directly at the sun because that will damage your eyes. Instead,
1. Criss cross your fingers and you will be able to see the moon taking a bite out of the sun. You will achieve the effect in this photo by Stephan Heinsius from APOD.
2. You can also cut a hole in cardboard and see the moon eating the sun.
3. If you know any welders, borrow their #14 helmet–that’s sun safe.
4. Use a mirror to reflect the sun onto another surface to watch the moon pass in front of the sun.
5. If there’s an observatory nearby, go there or search for a gathering of amateur astronomers.
6. Watch the sun on water.
We had planned on being in the White Mountains near the ancient bristlecones and the Nevada border or perhaps hung out at hot springs in the region but it looks like we will be in our local mountains, possibly at Pine Mountain or the Ojai Foundation which is hosting a mythological round table discussion and labyrinth walk during the eclipse. It is foggy on the coast so we will NOT be at home even though I have heard that people will be gathering on the pier.
Regardless, you should be some place for the eclipse that feels sacred to you, and take a moment to honor the sacred, the divine that is around us, animating all life on this earth.
Eclipses come in pairs; that means on Monday June 4, there will be a lunar eclipse. For those of us on the west coast, it will start around 2am and last until the still colored moon sets around 6am.
Eclipses are a time of change, of a shift. What seemed to be clear is obscured, and what was obscured comes to light. Obstacles and opportunities appear where none had been.
According to Astrology.com, “On May 20, Gemini will take control of the cosmic reigns as the Sun floats out of Taurus and into Gemini, while the Moon, already in the sign of the twins, immediately moves in for a Solar Eclipse.” Gemini, ruled by Mercury, is the sign of communication which means that “how you relate to and associate with others will come to the forefront now. Gemini also likes to do and know as much as possible, without worrying too much about going very deep into any particular subject. That makes this an ideal time to multitask, but also to think outside the box, since you’ll have so many random ideas floating through your head at any given moment…A Solar Eclipse generally has some lesson it wants you to learn, and since the focus here is on Gemini, your life lesson will have something to do with the traits mentioned above. Pay special attention to areas of your life that involve communication, learning and trying new things.”
The time of the greatest shift is the 2-3 days before and after an eclipse. During this time, Hindus around the world pray to Ganesh, who leaves his home in Mount Kailash to walk the earth before and after each eclipse.
Read about Lord Ganesh’s home in Mount Kailash here.
On another occasion, a few years ago, I was at my wit’s end. We had tried everything to deal with our “unneighborly neighbors”–and so I turned to ritual on the night of a sunset lunar eclipse. We used out energy, set our intentions to protect my home and family and generate love, and by the next moon, the worst “unneighborly neighbor” was in escrow to move.
Read more about that eclipse and the rituals we performed here.
More about the top photo from APOD:
A Partial Eclipse Over Manila Bay
Credit & Copyright: Armando Lee (Astron. League Philippines), F. Naelga Jr., 100 Hours of Astronomy (IYA2009) Explanation: What’s happened to the setting Sun? An eclipse! In early 2009, the Moon eclipsed part of the Sun as visible from parts of Africa, Australia, and Asia. In particular the above image, taken from the Mall of Asia seawall, caught a partially eclipsed Sun setting over Manila Bay in the Philippines. Piers are visible in silhouette in the foreground. Eclipse chasers and well placed sky enthusiasts captured many other interesting and artistic images of the year’s only annular solar eclipse, including movies, eclipse shadow arrays, and rings of fire. Today parts of the Sun again will become briefly blocked by the Moon, again visible to some as a partial eclipse of a setting Sun. A small swath of Earth, however, will be exposed to the unusual ring of fire effect when the Moon is completely surrounded by the glowing light of the slightly larger Sun.
Before this dream—
The dream was of magical words.
If you spoke or knew the true word
they would burn themselves into the paper
and would be there forever or disappear
if they weren’t needed or heeded.
You could pick up a twig or a leaf
the message for you, to you would
inscribe itself into the object.
I don’t remember any of the messages
but when I knew the truth of words
and how they were inscribed,
I traveled to a getaway place
of eco-warrior scholars.
Having forgotten something,
before I could move on,
I return to my room
where others are dreaming.
I step over and through them
a river of humans, shifting, boulders of blankets.
On the stairs a waterfall of people
three across heads pointing downstream.
After that dream—
I climb a hill in the woods.
A young woman behind a fence
keeps sheep and shows me
how easy it is to escape “like this”–
she doesn’t because of family.
At the top of the hill, goats, and
a young woman there tells me her story
gives me a big burning kiss on the lips.
I return to my husband and say
“It’s always a good day
when you are kissed by a beautiful woman.”
He tells me those are true words.
With his kiss, they are transcribed
on my lips and I feel them.
2012 Dream Poems (April 10)
Tonight at 7:30pm I’m the featured reader at the San Buenaventura Artists Union Gallery, located on the Ventura Beach Promenade by the parking garage at 330 So. California Street–where “C St” meets the sea. An open mic follows and many of my college composition students will be sharing their writing from a class anthology; this is the poem I’m submitting.
In honor of Mother’s Day this coming Sunday, I’ll be reading mostly poems from my collection of 3:15 Experiment poetry, middle of the night poems from mother to daughter :: daughter to son which traces my journey from being a daughter to becoming a mother to losing my mother from the perspective of 3:15am August nights from 2002-2010.
Read sample poems and reviews of middle of the night poems from mother to daughter :: daughter to son. Mother’s Day specials on print and ebooks available from me or from the publisher en theos press: My book is also for sale at Bart’s in Ojai, Bank of Books in Ventura, Best of VC Marketplace in Santa Paula, and Mrs Figg’s in Camarillo.
Image above by C.G. Jung from page 1 of The Red Book.
Happy Star Wars Day!
It’s CycloMAYnia and National Bike Month is officially here in the US! With longer, milder days in the northern hemisphere, it’s time to recognize bicycling for the multitude of benefits it provides – improving our health, economy, and environment.
Here in Ventura, weather is a crapshoot. We’ve had rainy first Fridays every single month of the year–and 70 degree night rides too! Fortunately, for tonight’s Star Wars Day First Friday ArtRide “The Empire Bikes Back” the weather should be PERFECT.
So light your bike like your favorite Star Wars vessel, energize your light saber, find your robes, gather your buddies and meet us at 5:30pm tonight at the Artists Union Gallery or outside Aloha Steakhouse on the Ventura Beach Promenade for a ride to various galleries and art studios around downtown and the west side.
Because INVITED YOU ARE!
Here are three more ways to make the most of this…
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“Lights out tonight
Trouble in the heartland.”
–Bruce Springsteen
“Badlands” Darkness on the Edge of Town 1978
“Hold on. I’m Coming.”
–lyrics by Sam and Dave
“When the blue sky breaks
Feels like the world’s gonna change.”
–Bruce Springsteen
When Bruce Springsteen walks onto the Los Angeles Sports Arena stage with the E Street Band on Friday April 27th and lashes into “Badlands,” I can’t contain myself. A tidal wave of emotions washes over me like a sacred light of remembrance, and when he sings “there’s trouble in the heartland” (from “Badlands”) I break down and embrace 37 years of joy and heartache that this artist, my friends, my family and I have shared.
Of all the venues, over all those years, I am standing in that one special arena, the LA Sports Arena, in which I have attended every show but one.I see Roy Orbison sitting in the risers while Bruce praises him from the stage. I see the Halloween shows in which Bruce enters from a coffin, smiles, and launches into “Haunted House.”I see my brother at the Vietnam vets show watching his first Springsteen concert, and I see my mother and father dancing during a Tunnel of Love concert.
As he ends “My City of Ruins” with its gospel chorus of “with these hands,” I see the day my father died and I watched as the life slowly left his body.I see my friend Dan laughing during his only Bruce show and then years later having his wife call me and tell me that my much younger co-worker suddenly passed away when his heart quit beating forever.I see Cheryl outside the Sports Arena at 2 AM during The River Tour waiting for Bruce to come out and we talk about movies, songs, and her getting her nursing degree, not knowing that Cheryl will soon find out she has MS and thus have to quit seeing Bruce many years ago as it eventually grew so bad that she couldn’t even walk.
When Bruce asks if we’re missing anybody, my answer, like his, is in the affirmative.
In 1981, my husband went to his first Bruce Springsteen show at the LA Sports Arena for The River.
In April 1987, a friend took this photo of him and The Boss after the Tunnel of Love show at the LA Sports Arena.
On April 16, 2009, after a 20 year quest, Bruce signed the photo after the Working on a Dream show at the LA Sports Arena.
During the past 32 years, Marsh has been to countless shows, well over 100, including last night’s in LA. He came home late, exhausted, still moved by the tribute to Clarence Clemons, hoarse from singing, feet hurting from his black converse All-Stars. Like Bruce, my husband is now in the “AARP” demographic and long, late nights pose a different set of challenges than they once did.
Last night he brought his coaching buddy to his first show. Marsh and Scott have coached several seasons of soccer and are into their second season of coaching Little League. Scott wanted to hear “Hungry Heart” and other tunes from back in the day; Marsh bet him $1000 Bruce wouldn’t play that song. Scott was incredulous, but after the show he remarked that he didn’t even miss it because Bruce has such an amazing selection of songs to choose from.
Tonight my husband’s returning to the LA Sports Arena, home to so many amazing memories, and he’s bringing our 8 year old red-headed son to see his first Bruce Springsteen show. I am not sure who is more excited–the boy or his dad.
Problem is, they don’t have tickets. They’re going to go down there anyway, as soon as school gets out, and they’ll wait at the Box Office, “Working on A Dream” and singing songs from “Wrecking Ball” which they both have memorized after playing it almost continuously since its March release. Read Ron Wells thoughtful and thorough review of Wrecking Ball here.
If you can help them out with tickets, I am sure you will recognize them! Marsh is planning to wear his t-shirt from the 1990 Chrystic Institute t-shirt. He’ll be the one standing around with other long time fans like Christine and Ron Wells, sharing stories, and waiting for the magic ticket drop that will get them into one more show.
Will these shows make his Top 10 list of all-time best Bruce Springsteen shows? We’ll see!
“Well, it seems like I’m caught up in your trap again
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band hit the road to share his latest release, The Wrecking Ball; tonight and tomorrow he’ll be in Los Angeles. From all accounts, the shows are as great as ever, even though everyone is missing Clarence Clemons. Tuesdays night show in San Jose went for over 3 hours; not bad for an AARP member!
Stay tuned for reviews of the LA shows; my husband is going to night with a friend and tomorrow he’s taking our 8 year old son. In the short time that the album has been out, both have memorized the songs and they take great joy in belting them out around the house and in the car. During the recent Record Store Day, he scored the collectible pictured of “Rocky Ground.” 
In the meantime, here’s a review of The Wrecking Ball by guest blogger Ron Wells who has attended more shows than you can imagine (well over 100, possibly closer to 150 in his many years of being a fan).
If you haven’t bought the album yet, I hope this inspires you to do so, and to sit and listen to it all the way through in one sitting. If you are a Springsteen fan, and you’ve listened to the album many times, I hope Ron’s review will get you to think about it anew. And if you like this post, please say so!
“No one wins, unless everyone wins.”–Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen has said the above quote more than once in concert. He is not naive enough to believe that everyone can win, but that’s still the goal. That’s the hope. But that wish, that dream, is now under attack. The winners are few and far between. Those not among that group ask, “Where is the promise in the promised land?”
With faith eroding and anger rising, Bruce Springsteen lets forth a fury of frustration and rage in Wrecking Ball seeking some form of salvation for everyone in these cruel, seemingly godforsaken times.
Wine Blogging Weds #76: Barossa Boomerang?
This month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday invites participants to revisit wines from the Barossa region in Australia. In response, I wrote about The Grateful Palate Imports which did a lot to call attention to Australian wines, especially those from the Barossa which is winemaker Chris Ringland’s favorite place to grow and make wine.
Within the Barossa, he is especially fond of the Ebenezer Road area, and in 2008, when Grateful Palate founder Dan Philips and winemaker Chris Ringland produced and released a 2006 shiraz for R wines, I was one of the first to get a sample bottle and to review it. 
For Wine Blogging Wednesday #76 –the Barossa Boomerang, I revisited this wine and the story about how I almost came to work for Grateful Palate. I also taste and review R wine’s 2005 Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon.
Read all about the R wines from the Barossa and the foods (ummn, duck wrapped in bacon?) we paired them with in this post over at Wine Predator.
PS BTW, I did not get an invitation to go with Problogger Darren Rowse to Queensland Australia (I hear the wine isn’t as good as in Barossa anyway…). My schedule is open if you want to invite me somewhere on an adventure– to travel, to taste wine, and to write between May 18 and June 18, 2012!
As an Art Predator, Wine Predator, Bikergogal, and Compassionate Rebel, I prowl the world for the aesthetic (that which engages the whole soul according to Coleridge) to publish exciting wine, food, and travel adventures to inspire readers and subscribers to leave the sidelines to become involved participants in all the wonderful challenges and experiences life offers.
Sometime in the next few hours, I will find out whether I will be joining Darren Rowse of Problogger fame and nine other bloggers in Queensland Australia for an amazing five days exploring the rain forest and the Great Barrier Reef, meeting the native plants and animals (and possibly some poets and cyclists!), and taking two blogging workshops with one of THE names in blogging. They are supposed to post the winners sometime Monday, April 23…eastern Australian time which is quite a bit ahead of Pacific Standard Time. UPDATE: They now plan to post the winners on Tuesday, April 24 AUS time.
My WordPress stats say my highest readership was 18,533 page views Sept. 2011 on my Art Predator blog when I was posting photos, news, stories and poems live from the 2011 Burning Man Festival in the Nevada Desert. I average over 15,000 or more page views a month on my various blogs; my readers come from all over the world, with most of them from English speaking countries.
The contest closed to submissions less than a week ago, Tuesday August 17, and according to a tweet from Darren Rowse, some 800 people applied to go on this itinerary. In another tweet, he said he was looking through the applications and he seemed impressed with how stiff the competition was. We were asked to provide some information about our blogs, our audience, our social media use, links to sample content, and to write 150 words about how we would approach the project.
Thoreau: “In Wildness is the preservation of the world.”
As an ecopsychologist, college writing teacher, and blogger, I know stories create meaning and turn “spaces” on the planet into “places” in someone’s imagination, places to bring family, explore, preserve.
I will enthusiastically use my social media “Klout” to share stories about rainforest and Great Barrier Reef biodiversity, artists and poets like Oodgeroo Noonuccal, efforts to be green, and cutting-edge cuisine. Discovering Queensland’s growing wine industry and opportunities for hiking, camping, and other family friendly adventures are also topics of great excitement to me.
With my MA in writing and BA in environmental studies, I write with knowledge and flair about land and people developing stories that “engage the soul” and inspire readers to make their own stories, to discover their own wildness…in Queensland!
As a bonus, I learn to be a better blogger! Read more…
April = Earth Month & Poetry Month: 10 Reasons to Celebrate
Over here at Art Predator head quarters, April is our favorite month.
1. It’s Earth Month; Earth Day is April 22!
2. It’s National Poetry Month & lots of great readings!
3. It’s our wedding anniversary on both Good Friday AND April 18!
4. It’s prime wildflower season!
5. Bruce Springsteen often shows up in LA!
6. Great time to see whales & dolphins!
7. Cecil bruner and iris in bloom and other flowers in the garden!
8. Spring Break ski and camping trips!
9. The days are longer!
10. The birds’ bright mating plumage!
What’s your favorite thing about April?
PS I’ll be doing a poetry reading Tuesday May 8 at the Artists Union Gallery at 730pm; an open mic follows my feature. Here’s more about my poem and broadside which was first published in ArtLife Limited Editions.
Earth Day Every Day: Live Like A Locavore!
What’s a locavore? Depending on who’s doing the defining, a locavore is someone who eats foods grown and produced within 100 miles. Others define it as 400 miles.
Why would you take on the challenge of eating locally?
One reason is that it is much better for the planet to eat food that comes from your neck of the woods. Your carbon footprint is lower because what you consume is not traveling as far, and local food and especially food purchased from a farmers market consumes less materials and requires less packaging.
I know a number of people who have taken on the 100 mile Locavore challenge and enjoyed it. They had “freebie” days and they could purchase a certain number of products which were from outside the boundary. We grow such a diversity of products all year around here that it is much easier to do it here than for someone who lives in a less temperate climate.
We try to eat as locally and as low on the food chain as possible. In addition to the benefits to the planet, the food is fresher and tastes better. So I thought for Earth Day, I’d document and share some of the stories of how we eat.
Here in Ventura, we not only have a temperate climate and some of the best soil in the world, but we live on rich coastal waters. From December through April, the tuna boat comes in about once a month.
You can buy a whole tuna (around 50#) and share it with friends or you 
can buy as many pounds as you want.
You can even choose your tuna and watch it butchered in front of you or you can come back.
This is the last weekend for the tuna boat so we’re definitely stocking up on this incredibly delicious sushi grade tuna. Our favorite way is seared for less than a minute on a steaming hot skillet
then sliced onto a bed of mixed baby greens, blueberries, walnuts, and white stilton cheese with dried apricots. We drizzle a champagne orange vinegar and sesame oil on it. I love to pair Washington merlot with seared ahi tuna–the fruit in the merlot is supple, velvety, and rich.
The tuna boat is in today all day and will be selling tuna again tomorrow until 3pm. We’re getting our tuna then and having Monday night with a bottle of Columbia Crest Horse Heaven merlot.
Many Saturday mornings, first thing we go the fish market at the Ventura Harbor to purchase another seasonal favorite, prawns caught in the Santa Barbara channel or possibly a box crab, lobster or whelk. Pictured is a box crab–they fold up on themselves jus
t like a box–a box with algae growing on it! If you have only had frozen crab, you deserve it to try it fresh sometime.
For our money, when they are in season, we usually go for the $4 a pound prawns: $10 can feed our family well. The season for prawns is the first Saturday in October through the first Saturday in June.
We usually cook the prawns simply as they come, dropping them live into a hot pan of butter, garlic and olive oil, throwing the ones that jump out back in, and cooking them for a few minutes until they turn opaque. Then we peel and eat them at the table with a pile of pasta dressed with olive oil, basil, and parmesan. Messy but so so unbelievably sweet and tasty!
Sometimes we blanche broccoli in the boiling pasta water before cooking the pasta or we saute mushrooms and other vegies, often adding tomatoes just before taking the skillet off the fire.
The prawns are best eaten immediately- they are living (and pooping) and unless you want to deal with a lot of prawn poop, eat them sooner rather than later or cook them all up at once.
I like the prawns with chardonnay–anything goes from a traditional oaked California style to a lightly oaked one to stainless. With our prawns tonight we’re going for a balanced, com
plex and not too heavy Ojai Vineyard chardonnay, a locapour for our locavore dinner.
In addition to prawns and pasta, we’ll have a caprese salad: arugula and tomato from the Farmers Market plus buffalo mozzarella drizzled with balsamic and olive oil and served with a ciabatta from Blu Orkid Bakery.
Fresh clams and oysters are another option for us for local seafood. Last August, Mark Reynolds opened up the Jolly Oyster at Ventura State Beach so we can get farm fresh oysters and clams every day, and we eat them about once a week. The oysters I LOVE raw; the clams we steam with garlic, white wine, and olive oil. Once you’ve had fresh clams, it’s hard to go back to frozen or tinned ones! Oysters are great with sauv blancs, pinot grigio, sparkling wines, 
and torrontes; the clams go well with those wines as well as chardonnay.
Another recent business to open is the Ventura Meat Market. They are super strict with their quality and while they try to buy their meat locally, sometimes it comes from further away. We love duck, but instead of getting one there, my husband was able to trade a few bottle of wine I selected for a few duck a friend of his caught–and that’s what will be on the table on Sunday. To pair with the duck and for this month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday, I’m going to open a bottle of Barossa shiraz.
So there you have it–some ideas on how we live like locavores!
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