Thursday, November 17, 2016
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Drain the Facebook Swamp
Here's an enjoyable way to spend an hour or so: pull up your Facebook friends list and classify all professional contacts and other peripheral contacts to acquaintance. Delete mercilessly all people who post stupid shit, have not interacted with you in months or are otherwise a pain in the ass.
I'm down nearly 400 already and will continue until the last dolt and dipshit is gone. And here is a very nice Echinocereus bonkerae 'apachensis' to look at.
I'm down nearly 400 already and will continue until the last dolt and dipshit is gone. And here is a very nice Echinocereus bonkerae 'apachensis' to look at.
Hindemith, born on this date, 1895
"Hindemith's relationship to the Nazis is a complicated one. Some condemned his music as "degenerate" (largely based on his early, sexually charged operas such as Sancta Susanna), and in December 1934, during a speech at the Berlin Sports Palace, Germany’s Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels publicly denounced Hindemith as an "atonal noisemaker."[6]
Other officials working in Nazi Germany, though, thought that he might provide Germany with an example of a modern German composer, as by this time he was writing music based in tonality, with frequent references to folk music; the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler's defense of Hindemith, published in 1934, takes precisely this line.[7]
The controversy around his work continued throughout the thirties, with the composer falling in and out of favor with the Nazi hierarchy; he finally emigrated to Switzerland in 1938 (in part because his wife was of partially Jewish ancestry)." (Wiki)
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Getting geared up for field season again
Departing for the wilds of Bahía Magdalena, Isla Magdalena and probably Isla Santa Margarita in a few weeks for field work season number 4. The study site for the PhD research is mainly the two islands, a total surface area of about 300 km^2.
The island and bay system to the northwest here is Isla Magdalena, including the large crescent bay, Bahía Santa Maria and the approximately 20 km^2 rocky northwestern cape, Cabo San Lazaro. The island to the southeast is Isla Santa Margarita.
Isla Magdalena is accessible only by boat from Puerto San Carlos, a fishing town sheltered on the peninsula.
My friend Marco, who runs Magdalena Bay Whales, provides most of the boat transportation, except to the south of Isla Santa Margarita. For that study site, I get a ride from one of the fishermen in the tiny village of Puerto Alcatraz. Still waiting on the Mexican Navy for permission to continue my research on the island.
These research trips always involve massive prep, a checklist with more than 120 items, carefully planned and targeted field work goals doable by one field botanist in a relatively short period of time and a huge serving of uncertainty. But it's always worth it.
The island and bay system to the northwest here is Isla Magdalena, including the large crescent bay, Bahía Santa Maria and the approximately 20 km^2 rocky northwestern cape, Cabo San Lazaro. The island to the southeast is Isla Santa Margarita.
Isla Magdalena is accessible only by boat from Puerto San Carlos, a fishing town sheltered on the peninsula.
Fishing pangas at Puerto Alcatraz on Isla Santa Margarita
The palapa painstakingly built by Marco on Isla Magdalena for the comfortable whale watching camp he has built
The fearsome species I am studying that occurs almost entirely only on these islands: Cochemiea halei.
Two Poems by Liz Waldner
Wishness
There is this wish, that wish, and the other wish.
There is the wish not
to feel this way.
There is the wish in the heart
of the geranium leaf
such that where the leaf is lighter,
its shadow is darker.
There is the wish on the part
of my hair that fell in an arc
to have fallen in a circle
that it might be connected still.
There is the wish to be born.
There is the wish to be known,
and there is the wish to be known.
******
Of Unknowing, The Cloud
In the morning would the white
cat nose the tall grass
along the driveway.
Careful not to touch, knowing
at a distance. Smell the synapse
as is the green thing springing
forth from the earth
also good to smell.
In the morning would the white
cat carefully
go its nose naming along
in the morning. It would, yes,
it did go. And in the morning watching
she thought this: it is important to remember
there is really no certain way
to be. What she wanted
to think is: I'm allowed.
Liz Waldner, _Saving the Appearances_, 2004
Liz Waldner at Poets dot Org
Liz Waldner at Poetry Foundation
There is this wish, that wish, and the other wish.
There is the wish not
to feel this way.
There is the wish in the heart
of the geranium leaf
such that where the leaf is lighter,
its shadow is darker.
There is the wish on the part
of my hair that fell in an arc
to have fallen in a circle
that it might be connected still.
There is the wish to be born.
There is the wish to be known,
and there is the wish to be known.
******
Of Unknowing, The Cloud
In the morning would the white
cat nose the tall grass
along the driveway.
Careful not to touch, knowing
at a distance. Smell the synapse
as is the green thing springing
forth from the earth
also good to smell.
In the morning would the white
cat carefully
go its nose naming along
in the morning. It would, yes,
it did go. And in the morning watching
she thought this: it is important to remember
there is really no certain way
to be. What she wanted
to think is: I'm allowed.
Liz Waldner, _Saving the Appearances_, 2004
Liz Waldner at Poets dot Org
Liz Waldner at Poetry Foundation
Cantankerous James Agee
"A good artist is a deadly enemy of society; and the most dangerous thing that can happen to an enemy, no matter how cynical, is to become a beneficiary."-- James Agee
Thelonious Monk's last studio recordings
Recorded on this date, 1971. Many of these tracks feature Art Blakey and Al McKibbon.
Monday, November 14, 2016
strange doings
Isla Magdalena, on the Pacific side, spring 2015
Sunday, November 13, 2016
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