The Vancouver Hyatt is very nice. This may as well be a photo of my room. I guess they all look the same, like they were dropped directly out of Robert Palmer tour video.
Communications
With that said, they charge the usual appendage ($15/24hrs) for high speed access. I'm coasting on whatever nearby networks I can, occasionally coffee shops when I'm not on duty, and my posting will be spotty, as in Beam Me Up, spotty. Also my Canadian roaming on Verizon is the magical .69 cents a minute, so my phone is disabled and spotty communication all 'round.
BMC UserWorld 20071030-1102
at Vancouver Convention and Exhibit Centre or see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Convention_&_Exhibition_Centre
Conference Recording Service cohort:
Abraham Haviv, arriving October 30 and departing Nov. 2nd.
Julia Harrell, arriving October 28th and departing November 2nd.
Lou Judson and Coleen Burrows, arriving October 30th and departing Nov. 3rd.
We took over the "Servery" on the 2nd level (floor plan here, if you are interested), a service kitchen in the midst of one block of rooms. We are running:
I may write more here later about our joys and concerns during this gig. The BMC A/V crew has one less member than 2006 at the SF Hilton and are suffering from one internal relational issue having to do with a boss feeling profoundly ill informed by a direct report and spending a bunch of time increasing everyone's tension and being crotchety. They are ill prepared, especially compared to last year which was SMOOTH, and didn't know how they were going to mic the rooms until long after we were ready to start laying recording XLR cable. More later, maybe.
Almost always, my Conference Recording Service gigs double as research into the development of the Process Arts (thereby justifying the inclusion of this work in Association Building Community's "Saving Sounds" budget line) because the forward edge thinkers who speak are on the wave that doesn't know it reflects an entire discipline yet. Most luminaries in "progressive" work are calling for a process shift from what we make to working with how we make it, thereby indicating this "new" field. CRS' annual work for BMC might seem incongruous because it is right up next to Big Business' income-yoked Bottom Line. But it too is a part of the Process Arts and doesn't know it. BMC's primary products track work flow and how just about everything gets done, thereby drawing everyone's attention to the Process by way of their profit motive. Fascinating windows onto the doorway to the Normal business world and also the potential shadow of the Process Arts as a whole.
Friday and Saturday evenings I had the pleasure of listening to Kristian Alexandrov (keys), Leslie Mounteney (vocals), and John Nolan (drums) perform live jazz at the Hyatt. It was indeed a pleasure.
The Unit
I can't help but reflect on teamwork, etc. when I am engaged in any group activity. One of my favorite playwrite/writer/directors is David Mamet. I'll list his achievements another time but I read or see anything he creates and have included him in my dissertation. Recently I've been watching his TV series (never thought it was possible he would shift this far into TV) called The Unit, a counter-terrorism drama based on Eric Haney's book Inside Delta Force. The word I would use to describe Mamet, not because it is True but because it is apparently characteristic, is "uncompromising" and he works with people who also carry the mystique that accompanies that word related to character, integrity, and honor with a major dose of post-modern realpolitik and con. Fascinating to watch myself watching it and listen to my thoughts as I wonder into the choices made. It draws me into feelings of power and fantasies of purpose even as I sit, physically inert, participating in the video medium.
 |
Communications
With that said, they charge the usual appendage ($15/24hrs) for high speed access. I'm coasting on whatever nearby networks I can, occasionally coffee shops when I'm not on duty, and my posting will be spotty, as in Beam Me Up, spotty. Also my Canadian roaming on Verizon is the magical .69 cents a minute, so my phone is disabled and spotty communication all 'round.
BMC UserWorld 20071030-1102
at Vancouver Convention and Exhibit Centre or see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Convention_&_Exhibition_Centre
Conference Recording Service cohort:
Abraham Haviv, arriving October 30 and departing Nov. 2nd.
Julia Harrell, arriving October 28th and departing November 2nd.
Lou Judson and Coleen Burrows, arriving October 30th and departing Nov. 3rd.
We took over the "Servery" on the 2nd level (floor plan here, if you are interested), a service kitchen in the midst of one block of rooms. We are running:
- two wireless receiver racks belonging to BMC
- one block of rooms (17-20) wireless in the rooms but hardwired to our recording station
- two rooms into Zoom H4 mp3 recorders
- three ballrooms into Marantz mp3 recorders and
- running backup analog cassettes to the all rooms on the 2nd level except those going to the Zooms
I may write more here later about our joys and concerns during this gig. The BMC A/V crew has one less member than 2006 at the SF Hilton and are suffering from one internal relational issue having to do with a boss feeling profoundly ill informed by a direct report and spending a bunch of time increasing everyone's tension and being crotchety. They are ill prepared, especially compared to last year which was SMOOTH, and didn't know how they were going to mic the rooms until long after we were ready to start laying recording XLR cable. More later, maybe.
Almost always, my Conference Recording Service gigs double as research into the development of the Process Arts (thereby justifying the inclusion of this work in Association Building Community's "Saving Sounds" budget line) because the forward edge thinkers who speak are on the wave that doesn't know it reflects an entire discipline yet. Most luminaries in "progressive" work are calling for a process shift from what we make to working with how we make it, thereby indicating this "new" field. CRS' annual work for BMC might seem incongruous because it is right up next to Big Business' income-yoked Bottom Line. But it too is a part of the Process Arts and doesn't know it. BMC's primary products track work flow and how just about everything gets done, thereby drawing everyone's attention to the Process by way of their profit motive. Fascinating windows onto the doorway to the Normal business world and also the potential shadow of the Process Arts as a whole.
Friday and Saturday evenings I had the pleasure of listening to Kristian Alexandrov (keys), Leslie Mounteney (vocals), and John Nolan (drums) perform live jazz at the Hyatt. It was indeed a pleasure.
The Unit
I can't help but reflect on teamwork, etc. when I am engaged in any group activity. One of my favorite playwrite/writer/directors is David Mamet. I'll list his achievements another time but I read or see anything he creates and have included him in my dissertation. Recently I've been watching his TV series (never thought it was possible he would shift this far into TV) called The Unit, a counter-terrorism drama based on Eric Haney's book Inside Delta Force. The word I would use to describe Mamet, not because it is True but because it is apparently characteristic, is "uncompromising" and he works with people who also carry the mystique that accompanies that word related to character, integrity, and honor with a major dose of post-modern realpolitik and con. Fascinating to watch myself watching it and listen to my thoughts as I wonder into the choices made. It draws me into feelings of power and fantasies of purpose even as I sit, physically inert, participating in the video medium.
Labels: Canada, conference, daily, travel
| posted by Brandon @ 10/29/2007 03:17:00 PM
Serenity Restored!
Parked at 3pm on Friday, stolen at 5 or 6 pm, reported on discovery Saturday evening, much lamented...
On Monday I went to get a parking permit for the Honda so we might get and put a rental car in its place in the garage where it won't be ticketed for existing on the street in Berkeley. The Parking Enforcement people asked "Do you know you're other vehicle has a ticket?" I said "Hot Diggidy!", was made fun of roundly by the clerk for sounding like a hick, found out where the ticket had been issued, ran down the street to activate the cops and walked to meet them where the van was parked, five blocks from my house. The Bad Guys sorted our stuff and removed the expensive stuff they wanted, but left the heirloom silver pitcher from my grandmother Craig and the van in working order with only minor damage. I'm feeling VERY glad to have Serenity back, have purchased a brake pedal lock anti-theft device, and am most grateful for all your support during the crisis.
In Other News
Fall is officially here. The shorts are being switched for sweaters in my closet and I need a jacket every night as I walk in the neighborhood. Ahhh. Birthdays and other new beginnings galore. Intense memories. Aidan's Birthday on the 23rd was particularly difficult. Spent it alone as much as possible, which was very good. Not looking forward to December.
A report from the trip to D.C.
Richard Page and I went to D.C. this month to record the International Forum on Globalization's Teach-in addressing the "Triple Threat: Climate Change, Peak Oil, and Extinction." The weather was unbelievably beautiful, we drove back and forth in cabs, and came back alive, against all expectations. Throughout we avoided employing any false solutions to the big three. We traveled in no hybrid vehicles, generated no nuke-you-lar power, and shipped no house-pets to feed children in the Amazon. OK, well, there was that one pig we sent back to Equatorial Guinea only to discover he wasn't from there originally and that we had created another displaced person, of sorts, but you can only do your best, after all.
I was called on the carpet at the National Gallery.
To enter it is required to stop at one of the long tables that blocks every door to the outside and interact across said table with security guards who will ask questions and prod in bags with a garden variety dowel or other arm length stick of their choice.
After being in the building for some time we needed to get to the cafe. I approached a nearby security detail and, stepping up behind and between them, discretely inquired as to which direction we should go. They leaped to the side like John Cleese in Fawlty Towers and the younger of the two insisted "you are on the carpet!" Not sure about how to take this revelation I looked at the floor.
There was, as he insisted, a carpet there.
I was, not to put too fine a point on it, on it.
Not wanting to unsettle him too much further I became agreeable.
"Yes I am!" quoth I.
Said he in reply, "You can't be on the carpet, sir!"
Reluctant to gainsay him I could not prevent a certain downward glance as I observed in all honesty, "Nevertheless, here I am."
"Step off the carpet, sir, and come around to the side," said he.
Moving the 1 1/2 feet required I asked him again where I might find the cafe.
Regarding me with great suspicion, he pointed in a direction that turned out to lead, eventually to the vicinity of the cafe.
By the time we arrived it was closed.
I had been called On The Carpet and, to be sure, I had been.
more later...
Special Hidden Bonus Track
An excerpt from Lisa's lecture notes:"The heightened period for order occurs from age two to three. The child will close drawers, move chairs, put things in their proper places. The child's sense of external order is black and white and he is disturbed by changes (and other David Bowie songs, the Sensitive Period for Glam Rock occurring much later in the child's development)."
Labels: conference, conflict, daily, season, travel
| posted by Brandon @ 9/29/2007 03:55:00 PM
Been home for a couple of weeks and deep in transition, which means, as is too often the case, crazy running around trying to catch up. With what, of any real substance, I am progressively unsure.
Load shift
Lisa has been carrying the brunt of blogging since we returned to the East Bay. If you haven't checked out her blog lately, there is a bunch of good new stuff there.
Intrepid as always, Lisa has become part of a bike team riding for funds toward MS research.
Her Montessori training moves forward apace and I find the renewed nearness of that pedagogy existentially reassuring in a way that is both pre-rational and post-literate, by which I mean it is a supportive and nostalgic reminder of the innocent world of my childhood and comforts the reflective consciousness of the adult activist working for education and thereby understanding beyond the functional literacy required to read traffic signs and draft notices and calculate and pay taxes to fund empire building wars.
And I am, appropriately, now in charge of creating most of our income while Lisa is in school. I'm back providing some in-home support to Iris (time well spent), working for Jim Shultz from Epworth as he develops his rental properties, working for CRS recording conferences all over the continent and studying the Process Arts as they develop. I'm looking for 20hrs of work at $30-$40/hr in a direction at least parallel to my vocation. Help?
This past weekend in D.C,. was the International Forum on Globalization conference an "IFG Teach-in:Confronting the Global Triple Crisis - Climate Change, Peak Oil, Global Resource Depletion & Extinction." At the breakfast table (in the fabulous Tabard Inn) Richard and I spoke with several ecology luminaries: Wes Jackson and his wife, whose first name I am embarrased to admit I have forgotten, David Korten, and Wolfgang Sachs. I suggested in the middle of a conversation about what holds The Movement back, probably a it too passionately, that the reasons behind people in general ignoring the rather obvious facts about climate change, the end of cheap energy, resource depletion, etc. had to do directly with the story being lived in our historical moment. There is certainly no dearth of people willing to live and die in extremes for their belief about the world. If the primary shared myth were communitarian it would be obvious and obligatory to set limits on consumption, no less certainly than rationing and Victory Gardens were a part of WWII. The difficulty is not in the communication of scientific facts, though that is undeniably important, but in the transmission of a new heroism that values both specific, local life, and that which reaches beyond the tribe, not because it is All of The Truth but because there is survival truth and living beauty in it. David seemed a bit gruntled but also slightly dis- as the theme leaned nearer his regular territory. Also Richard made a joke about smugness and the motor on David's bike, which seemed to irritate him. Wolfgang seemed quite well disposed, as did Wes.
During the conference I felt particularly impressed with
and
I'll see what I can do about a lengthy podcast featuring these guys.
During the conference I felt particularly impressed with
JOSHUA FARLEY
The Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
University of Vermont
An assistant professor in Community Development & Applied Economics and Public Administration, Joshua Farley is also a fellow of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics (GIEE) at the University of Vermont. His interdisciplinary academic background includes degrees in biology, international affairs and neoclassical economics. Distressed that neoclassical economics ignores physical and ecological principles as well as issues of social justice, Joshua taught himself ecological economics, and with Herman Daly has authored one of the first textbooks in the field. Interested in both theory and applications, he has been involved with a number of problem-based projects around the world. Prior to his current job, he served as program director of the Centre for Rainforest Studies in Yungaburra, Australia, and executive director of the University of Maryland Institute for Ecological Economics. He serves on numerous boards— the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, EarthEconomics, and the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics, as well as the directory board of the Scale Project.The Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
University of Vermont
and
DAVID BATKER
Earth Economics
David Batker is the founder and executive director of Earth Economics. He completed his graduate training in economics under Herman Daly, one of the world's foremost ecological economists. Dave has taught in the Training Department of the World Bank, and has worked for Greenpeace International, specializing in trade and international finance. He also worked for two years with the Rural Reconstruction Movement, a Philippine non-profit group dedicated to ecologically sound community-based development. David's responsibilities as a member of the board of directors are focused primarily on fundraising, outreach, public relations, administration, budgetary management, strategic planning and board development.Earth Economics
I'll see what I can do about a lengthy podcast featuring these guys.
At the same time as the conference was in progress the huge impeachment march was happening nearby. Hannah Johns returned from it with a harrowing story about a friend being assaulted by the "Gathering of Eagles" (listen to podcast here >>). The vets staging the "die-in" on the steps were arrested, but there was less official (police) violence than expected. To contact Hannah directly email create dot peace at yahoo dot com (permission granted to release contact info).
Glad this gig will pay a month's rent for us. What was I supposed to be doing? Oh, yeah, writing my dissertation.
This week will involve:
- Monday - fly home.
- Tue with Iris, taking a free Gears class at the Missing Link bike co-op so I can begin working on our new modes of transport, and preparing for the BDay party Wed night.
- Wed. working all day with Jim and then the party.
- Thu writing all day!! and then lovely training at AiBerk.
- Fri apt. and administration tasks (money, bills, etc.) then writing.
- Sat I teach the new Basics class at AiBerk.
Somehow there must be a way to hold on to the feel of "wake up, brush teeth, drive to next destination with loving people, rest, write/adventure, repeat." Since we returned home it has seems more like the familiar "work until power-decompressing with late food and too little sleep, and then repeat." Time-off suggests being long enough between obligations to feel guided from within. Right?
- shrimp and manchego croquettes
- charcuterie including house-made pork terrine and duck pâté
- jumbo crab cake with tasso ham, fried okra (the only let-down), sweet potato, and crawfish coulis
- pan-roasted moulard duck breast, plums, duck ham, rapini, gastrique
- and a bottle of lovely Beaujolais I can't remember more about just now.
Labels: conference, CRS, daily, travel
| posted by Brandon @ 8/29/2007 02:32:00 PM
Heading back West
Alas, our time in Burlington has rocketed to a close and we must make our way back across the nation.
The current plan for the remainder (guaranteed to change in some particulars):
Fri 10th Burlington VT to Niagara Falls, NY 8 hrs
Sat 11th Niagara Falls to Arlington Heights 9 1/2 hrs
Sun 12th in Chicago
Mon 13th Chicago to Minocqua, incl. House on Rock
Tues 14th in Minocqua, tour, Circle M Corral, NLSP
Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th From Minocqua to Yellowstone 20 hours
Friday 17th in Yellowstone to Boise (6 1/2 hrs)
Sat 18th Boise to Crater Lake 8 1/2 hours
Sun 19th Crater Lake to Medford
Mon 20th in Medford
Tues 21st Medford to Berkeley (after breakfast): start unloading, get situated, get good night's sleep
Weds 22nd join YMCA, get things from Warren Ave kitchen, bookcases, closets
Thurs 23rd build bed, bedroom (access 5A San Leandro storage), return to AiBerk
Friday 24th clear some storage, continue organizing
Saturday 25th clear some storage, continue organizing
Sunday 26th rest, church, mime troupe! (wanna come?), prep for Lisa's first day of school
Labels: daily, travel, walkabout
| posted by Brandon @ 8/09/2007 02:21:00 PM
The Big Easy
Every time I've been to and through New Orleans I've had to keep my hand on my wallet, extend and harden the outer boundary of my personal-space, and simply deal with the incredible crush of stereotypical tourists. Certainly due in part to post-Katrina realities, Bourbon Street was marvelously relaxed of a Sunday afternoon. We walked around a bit, had a bite to eat, and enjoyed the Quarter in repose, but didn't feel the infamous Big Easy musky sweetness until we escaped the stretch of pervasive porn purveyors and were drawn in to listen to some fabulous guitar trio blues (ala Stevie Ray) delivered on a venerable and ornately tarnished metaphorical platter by Mark Penton and the Pentones (an excellent sax player showed up and sat in) at the Funky Pirate bar. Besides the bartender, our only companions in the virtually sacramental blues extravaganza were a very drunk, very social, and marvelously Queer middle-aged man and his very straight but loving Great Nephew, who were in town for a funeral. The Uncle and Lisa danced a bit, fun was had by all, and I shall remember them fondly as part of the experience.
Afterward we returned to my classmate Victoria Hippard's lovely Uptown home just off Magazine. She lives in the high-ground "Footprint" and her house didn't sustain any storm damage. It is, as I suspected, a lovely place and very cozy, mirroring the graciousness of our hostess. Her son Daniel is in a performance of Red Sneaks by Liz Swados at the moment and loves to "Pump" (dance creatively guided by a video/scoring machine). His mostly Asian and Latino dancing buddies have given him the competition moniker "The Great White Hope" (aka Great White or GWH). Check out his YouTube appearance below.
I write this between work on my dissertation sitting in the Rue De La Course Coffee House on Magazine (free wi-fi) while Lisa and Victoria have gone to Wholefoods nearby. Tomorrow we head for Florida and a visit with Lisa's Dad.
Labels: daily, recommendation, travel, video, walkabout
| posted by Brandon @ 7/23/2007 09:02:00 AM
Goats and Cherokees
We drove through the torrent and flood of North Texas yesterday to arrive in Cookson Oklahoma, just outside of Tahlequah.
Lisa’s grandparents, Jim and Barbara Martens live right on Lake Tenkiller surrounded by beautiful oaks, fields, and rolling wooded hills, every species of bird my grandparents Craig taught me to know
(the limit of my ornithological expertise), an entire festival of raccoons every night, 
and the beamed ceilings and paneled walls of a truly homey place that reminds me of September Song, the home on Lake Texoma to which my grandparents retired. Jim is a charming combination of dour and wry while Barbara is loquacious and charming at all times. Jim sets (different from sitting - we southern folks set), Barbara talks or reads, Lisa knits and talks, and I mostly listen when I'm not annoying Jim with genealogical questions or requests for stories.
To make this homey and relaxing visit even better I just finished polishing off three organic, cowdairyless, oatmeal cookies with an entire mug of fresh goat’s milk from Pine Lane Dairy (918-458-1504 - prop. Lisa Turner). The Turner family has Oberhasli dairy goats aplenty on their beautiful land. Barbara played tour guide as she drove us around Tahlequah and then through their crafted stone gates and past the horses, guinea hens, and ranging goats. We scored an entire gallon of fresh goat milk for $7 and a pound of almond-honey chevre for $5. They sell kids, yearlings, dry and freshened does around Easter to supplement their milk, cheeses, yogurt, whey, and (soon) soap! Considering it has a more easily digestible fat and protein content than cow milk, is better for infants, invalids, convalescents, folks with ulcers, and doesn’t require grass pastures (doing well with much less in brushlands and so many other kinds of terrain without having the environmental impact of industrial cattle production), it is no surprise that more people worldwide drink the milk of goats than any other single animal. I’d better stop before I sound too much like an advertisement. My sister, Meghan, would have approved in a big way. Goats are where it’s at, even if cow milk doesn’t make you swell up until you look like a hippo with a goiter (gosh, thanks, Lisa).
On the way to the dairy we heard from Barbara, until recently a local candidate for Cherokee Nation Council, several familiar tales from the political arena about minor candidates lining up behind major candidates playing the usual roles developing the usual themes engendering the usual gossipy spittle. Pandering politicos promising perpetual purses to persuasive people while pointing to recumbent incumbents conned into conservatism by budgetary banditry, or possibly plausible people power purveyors pushing politicians past their prime to put the populace in their primary place. Problematic, to put a point on it.
I’ll end where we began, at the Iguana, near Northeastern State University -- Go Riverhawks! They were until very recently known as the Redmen, but we try not to mention that.
The Iguana is a fabulous new coffeehouse/gathering place in Tahlequah near the campus, with wi-fi, excellent hot and cold sandwiches, and drinks. They also sell all kinds of cool stuff from elsewhere, from Buddhas, sarongs, and masks to Indonesian picture frames (on sale for $2!) two red ones of which we acquired for our new Yellow Submarine apartment walls. If Lisa has her way, and I hope she will, our place is going to be the spiffiest ever.
Though I'll have to go elsewhere to upload this to the net, I’m writing at the kitchen table in the presence of the aforementioned flora and fauna spread before me by the grace of five floor-to-ceiling windows. In short, life is good.
Labels: cafe, daily, family, travel
| posted by Brandon @ 7/03/2007 12:53:00 PM
The Dissertation has taken a turn for the better. I realized, as I was very slowly forcing myself to fill in the blanks of my consultant's outline, that I was writing her idea of my work. Thus the forcing. So I have reshaped the outline to fit my basic premises and am flowing nicely now. Making much better progress, still pricked onward by the fear of failure and shame at being so windy (read as winding - twists and turns - as well as too much wind). It is important to have authentic and traditional motivations, like fear and shame, to drive one onward.
But seriously folks, I realized at a different level the necessity of setting myself up for success by paying real and careful attention to what hasn't and doesn't work for me. Hereafter I'll follow Dennis Slattery's instruction to "write like you are writing an email" so the audience can understand what the heck I'm saying. Extending the context of his comment, I'd best do what I love to do - outline clearly and write shorter pieces (one clear page or two at a time) for prompt release (requires clarity in the first draft rather than curly wandering for later revisions) towards the creation of websites and the like. Like a blog! How many people within the range of this would be willing to read stuff faithfully and tell me
Without, the environment has felt much like my internal weather since December.
The sky has been pouring so much liquid on Texas of late that the Trinity River in Dallas is WAY out of its banks and filling every nook and cranny from levy to levy.
And the rest of North Texas ain't much better off.
We have a history of that, you see (the `08 in this particular case refers to 100 years ago),
but many different reactions to the thunder, lightning, and roaring firmament.
I highly recommend a visit to the Meghan-Val-Isaiah blog. Val is way out beyond cute.
"He claps and dance-dances to music fists waving. He can find the moon in the sky at night and points." I love that boy. Val is absolutely The Most.
I miss Aidan so much my stomach balls up and feels like a lead weight beneath every beating of my heart. There is nothing more precious than a child, and one who can point at the moon is no longer "a child" but The Child, the one who knows where your moon is and without whom pointing becomes pointless for quite some time.
Missing the point,
B
But seriously folks, I realized at a different level the necessity of setting myself up for success by paying real and careful attention to what hasn't and doesn't work for me. Hereafter I'll follow Dennis Slattery's instruction to "write like you are writing an email" so the audience can understand what the heck I'm saying. Extending the context of his comment, I'd best do what I love to do - outline clearly and write shorter pieces (one clear page or two at a time) for prompt release (requires clarity in the first draft rather than curly wandering for later revisions) towards the creation of websites and the like. Like a blog! How many people within the range of this would be willing to read stuff faithfully and tell me
- Does it make sense?
- Does it fit, given what has gone before?
- Does it support what I said I would support?
- Does it set up what I say is coming and make you want to read on?
Without, the environment has felt much like my internal weather since December.
The sky has been pouring so much liquid on Texas of late that the Trinity River in Dallas is WAY out of its banks and filling every nook and cranny from levy to levy.
What it looks like at the moment:
What it usually looks like:
And the rest of North Texas ain't much better off.
We have a history of that, you see (the `08 in this particular case refers to 100 years ago),
but many different reactions to the thunder, lightning, and roaring firmament.
I highly recommend a visit to the Meghan-Val-Isaiah blog. Val is way out beyond cute.
"He claps and dance-dances to music fists waving. He can find the moon in the sky at night and points." I love that boy. Val is absolutely The Most.
I miss Aidan so much my stomach balls up and feels like a lead weight beneath every beating of my heart. There is nothing more precious than a child, and one who can point at the moon is no longer "a child" but The Child, the one who knows where your moon is and without whom pointing becomes pointless for quite some time.
Missing the point,
B
Labels: daily, Dallas, diss, family, flood, grief, kin, travel, VK
| posted by Brandon @ 6/28/2007 10:02:00 AM
Since the experiences of Memorial Day Weekend, I've received several compassionate and perspicacious responses. Several conversations by email seem appropriate to share, so I've created an entry (please click here or scroll down) for posts belonging to those related issues.
Following the Gasshuku and demonstration in San Diego, Lisa and I headed for Oxnard for a dissertation writing intensive with a professional researcher and graduate writing coach. Basically, while Lisa sunbathed and relaxed, I enjoyed two straight days of focused writing and have some very satisfying results, even though the page quantity I had hoped for did not materialize, due in part to needing to pay less and therefore receive less personal attention. The big benefit was a full outline with scope boundaries and page targets, as well as a new discipline for the writing itself. Now it is time to produce, after a few days effectively "off" for exploration and working on the part of the trip that needs to feel more like vacation and less like a race toward a deadline.
Somewhere between San Diego or Oxnard and the desert Serenity experienced AC failure. The desert heat was, in my humble opinion, not as intense as I have felt it before but it certainly got our attention streaming in the vents and the occasional open window. Francisco reclined on his cushion and panted quite convincingly as he worked on his impression of a hot dog.
The Grand Canyon was, well, Grand. Last time through we stopped for a few hours at the South Rim. This time we returned to the rim but also visited the Tusayan Ruin and Museum and heard the talk by Ranger Brian (pictured in this video) there. Quite a guy. He did his undergrad in archeology and spends his off time walking among other ruins with his wife and discovering unsurveyed sites which they photograph and report. He told stories from various traditions descended from the "Ancient Puebloans" (don't call them Anasazi - that's a Navajo word which basically means dangerous aliens or "the bad guys" - much better to use the Spanish invader's word originated on this continent to condescend to the savages). I kept my mouth shut as best I could and he told some wonderful Zuni stories at what remains of the Tusayan site and introduced the idea of Kiva to a bunch of folks who would otherwise probably have never heard of the idea.
We also drove to Desert View and climbed the tower there, a complex example of what I call "culturopoiesis", or culture-making. An anglo architect designed this building to fit in and celebrate indigenous culture. An at least partly assimilated native artist created wall paintings based in historical narrative for the inner walls. Through a synthesis of cultural understanding and misunderstanding an edifice was created which, I believe, serves to highlight both the beauty and dilemmas of indigenousity, invasion, and influence.
On the way back to our campsite, Coyote visited. He was standing on a side road keeping track of the four-leggeds passing in wheeled boxes and regarded us as we slowed and passed through his world. The following morning I had a dream which he may have brought, about Lisa's father being super-polite, followed by an expanded new facility for Aikido of Berkeley.
Then we departed for Tucson to visit Eric and Brian. They have welcomed us with amazing food and drink, excellent recommendations of auto mechanics, worthwhile conversation, and a place for Francisco to be able to relax, cool off, and poop on the floor, alas. It turns out that the sudden change to extremes of everything (schedule/lack of routine, temperatures, etc) take their toll on two-legged critters. A slightly more obviously impact, however, is on four-leggeds. This morning, Francisco didn't get out of the van in quite enough time and shared with our bed the contents of both his stomach and bowels. These evacuations began a day otherwise dominated by sitting in a Firestone office during van repair including an oil change and system inspection, AC repair (the compressor manifold ground wire to the chassis was too short and engine vibration eventually snapped it, in addition to the compressor being chronically overcharged, presumably by the Iron Mountain fleet mechanics previously in charge of the vehicle), lock repair for the side door still suffering from the break-in attempt and, finally, the turn signal relay assembly so when we lift or depress the turn signal lever on the steering column it goes "click - clock" and continues until changed.
I'm am obliged to say, at this point, that, should you find yourself in Tucson and in need of automotive repair, I heartily recommend Kim Danielson at Firestone Complete Auto (520) 722-3080 [7950 E. Speedway and Pantano]. Kim charged us only what was required and then went way beyond the call of duty, including building a new lock cylinder from parts supplied from Ford (instead of a complete lock assembly). I wrote most of this while sitting in their waiting room as I worked on converting and profiling the mp3s from the Nutrition and Health conference for a deliverable for Conference Recording Service (which continues to help pay our bills). I also need to point out that without a generous parting gift from our San Leandro neighbors, Claire and Phil, this would have been rather difficult to manage. Lisa and I are very thankful.
Tomorrow (now today, I guess) we head for Carlsbad and the cavern tours, by way of Agua Caliente and Seguaro National Park, but bypassing Biosphere II and probably Tombstone.
Dallas, here we come! Can't wait to squeeze some Keepins, currently visiting The Mom.
Following the Gasshuku and demonstration in San Diego, Lisa and I headed for Oxnard for a dissertation writing intensive with a professional researcher and graduate writing coach. Basically, while Lisa sunbathed and relaxed, I enjoyed two straight days of focused writing and have some very satisfying results, even though the page quantity I had hoped for did not materialize, due in part to needing to pay less and therefore receive less personal attention. The big benefit was a full outline with scope boundaries and page targets, as well as a new discipline for the writing itself. Now it is time to produce, after a few days effectively "off" for exploration and working on the part of the trip that needs to feel more like vacation and less like a race toward a deadline.
Somewhere between San Diego or Oxnard and the desert Serenity experienced AC failure. The desert heat was, in my humble opinion, not as intense as I have felt it before but it certainly got our attention streaming in the vents and the occasional open window. Francisco reclined on his cushion and panted quite convincingly as he worked on his impression of a hot dog.
The Grand Canyon was, well, Grand. Last time through we stopped for a few hours at the South Rim. This time we returned to the rim but also visited the Tusayan Ruin and Museum and heard the talk by Ranger Brian (pictured in this video) there. Quite a guy. He did his undergrad in archeology and spends his off time walking among other ruins with his wife and discovering unsurveyed sites which they photograph and report. He told stories from various traditions descended from the "Ancient Puebloans" (don't call them Anasazi - that's a Navajo word which basically means dangerous aliens or "the bad guys" - much better to use the Spanish invader's word originated on this continent to condescend to the savages). I kept my mouth shut as best I could and he told some wonderful Zuni stories at what remains of the Tusayan site and introduced the idea of Kiva to a bunch of folks who would otherwise probably have never heard of the idea.
We also drove to Desert View and climbed the tower there, a complex example of what I call "culturopoiesis", or culture-making. An anglo architect designed this building to fit in and celebrate indigenous culture. An at least partly assimilated native artist created wall paintings based in historical narrative for the inner walls. Through a synthesis of cultural understanding and misunderstanding an edifice was created which, I believe, serves to highlight both the beauty and dilemmas of indigenousity, invasion, and influence.
On the way back to our campsite, Coyote visited. He was standing on a side road keeping track of the four-leggeds passing in wheeled boxes and regarded us as we slowed and passed through his world. The following morning I had a dream which he may have brought, about Lisa's father being super-polite, followed by an expanded new facility for Aikido of Berkeley.
Then we departed for Tucson to visit Eric and Brian. They have welcomed us with amazing food and drink, excellent recommendations of auto mechanics, worthwhile conversation, and a place for Francisco to be able to relax, cool off, and poop on the floor, alas. It turns out that the sudden change to extremes of everything (schedule/lack of routine, temperatures, etc) take their toll on two-legged critters. A slightly more obviously impact, however, is on four-leggeds. This morning, Francisco didn't get out of the van in quite enough time and shared with our bed the contents of both his stomach and bowels. These evacuations began a day otherwise dominated by sitting in a Firestone office during van repair including an oil change and system inspection, AC repair (the compressor manifold ground wire to the chassis was too short and engine vibration eventually snapped it, in addition to the compressor being chronically overcharged, presumably by the Iron Mountain fleet mechanics previously in charge of the vehicle), lock repair for the side door still suffering from the break-in attempt and, finally, the turn signal relay assembly so when we lift or depress the turn signal lever on the steering column it goes "click - clock" and continues until changed.
I'm am obliged to say, at this point, that, should you find yourself in Tucson and in need of automotive repair, I heartily recommend Kim Danielson at Firestone Complete Auto (520) 722-3080 [7950 E. Speedway and Pantano]. Kim charged us only what was required and then went way beyond the call of duty, including building a new lock cylinder from parts supplied from Ford (instead of a complete lock assembly). I wrote most of this while sitting in their waiting room as I worked on converting and profiling the mp3s from the Nutrition and Health conference for a deliverable for Conference Recording Service (which continues to help pay our bills). I also need to point out that without a generous parting gift from our San Leandro neighbors, Claire and Phil, this would have been rather difficult to manage. Lisa and I are very thankful.
Tomorrow (now today, I guess) we head for Carlsbad and the cavern tours, by way of Agua Caliente and Seguaro National Park, but bypassing Biosphere II and probably Tombstone.
Dallas, here we come! Can't wait to squeeze some Keepins, currently visiting The Mom.
Labels: daily, recommendation, travel, walkabout
| posted by Brandon @ 6/03/2007 12:05:00 AM
Flight Plan (subject to change with or without notice) as of evening May 29th in Oxnard, CA) right on almost the cleanest beach we've ever seen). Note the Epworth TShirt. I miss home already.
- Wed 30th driving to Prescott and crashing with Susan Adams (Director of The Leadership Center at Yavapai College of the Arizona Civic Leadership Initiative) that night.
- Thu 31st all day is spent at the Grand Canyon
- Fri morning June 1st driving south to Tucson (seeing cool stuff along the way) to spend time with Eric and Brian.
- Staying there until leaving June 3rd, Sunday morning, headed for Roswell by Sunday night
- Monday 4th we explore there and then Carlsbad. Tuesday the 5th we leave Carlsbad and arrive in Dallas in time for a big family dinner before the Keepins head north Wednesday morning early. In Dallas we'll stay a while as I write like mad again, see folks, train at North Texas Aikido, etc.
- From there we'll go to Mason, San Antonio, and Austin at some point (for me to give an Aikido seminar) and return.
Click here for our Flight Plan map thus far. If that doesn't work, try this http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=113377647598955470334.00000112dba90a4fcf04a&ll=32.755879,-96.845537&spn=0.00102,0.002266&t=k&z=19&om=1
Labels: daily, littlefire, travel, walkabout
| posted by Brandon @ 5/29/2007 10:56:00 PM
