One Ko-Inky-Dinky-doo, Two Ko-Inky-Dinky-doo . . .

Yesterday, I sent a fanboy email to a celebrity I admire, mentioning that they strike me as being “Elizabeth Bennet meets Prue Sarn meets Jo March.” —But the address I have is uncertain, so I wondered if my note would be received, and if so, if my reference would click even if they did get the email. . . .  A few minutes later, I walked out to check the neighborhood free book bin (public sidewalk library), where a single item was sitting pretty, patiently resting sunny-side-up: a pristine vintage copy of Pride and Prejudice ! I took it as a “sign” that my message would be received and my reference duly appreciated. Of course I know skeptics will snicker that such co-inky-dinkies mean nothing. But I’ve never seen a copy of P and P in this or any other free book bin. And over the years that must have entailed a least a thousand visits to such bins over a great deal of territory. Take it for what it’s worth.

Later in the day, I walked by the book stall again, and this time the only item there was a copy of the little blue covered booklet, Steps to Inner Peace, by my old friend Peace Pilgrim (1908-1981)!  This was quite wonderful in itself, of course, but over the years I have stumbled unexpectedly upon numerous copies of this free, non-copyrighted booklet in various places across the country and indeed around the world. . . .  Now, sitting back down to my computer, I found that while I’d stepped out to the book bin the second time and back, my blogsite had received a single new visitor-ping:  someone had just linked anonymously to an entry about Peace Pilgrim, that I had posted there last September! That’s right: during the coupla minutes in which I left my seat, stepped outside to the book bin a second time, discovered Peace Pilgrim’s booklet which has just newly arrived there, and walked back to my table in the cafe, some anonymous person somewhere in the U.S. had visited my blog entry about Peace Pilgrim posted months ago….

https://skybluemindblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/peace-pilgrim/

Again, skeptics shall scoff, but I’m convinced that such co-incidences have subtle (woo-woo) meaning. Though I’m not yet sure just what either of these two particular little ping-backs of kismet synchronicity mean, I place the same value on them as being  meaningful signs of the intimately connective nature of reality as those contained and mapped in “the science of omens” preserved in the ancient Vedic cognitive sciences (which are also the source of Yoga and Non-dual Vedanta philosophy).

When my now-late belovéd wife was studying Ayurveda — Indian traditional medical science, — and other branches of Vedic science, under our teacher Maharishi and other enlightened masters working closely with His Holiness to restore the full knowledge of these traditional sciences, she made a good study of the ancient science of omens — auspicious and inauspicious “signs.” For instance:  the ancient Vedic rishis and maharishis cognized and noted that if a deer crosses your path from one direction,this is an auspicious sign that something good is on its way to happening soon for you; if a deer crosses your path from the opposite direction it is a sign that something good (but as yet unknown) already has just happened for you. I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to tabulate from your own experiences with deer and with good luck which direction correlates with which auspices deer signify — something good but as yet still unknown having just transpired, or “something good this way comes.”

Cheers!

 

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Nature”

 

If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.

When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.

Pure love is a willingness to give without a thought of receiving anything in return.

~ Peace Pilgrim

 

Everything is holy!

everybody’s holy!

Everywhere is holy!

every day is in eternity!

Every man’s an angel!

~ Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

 

Science applies a finite rule to the infinite — & is what you can weigh & measure & bring away. Its sun no longer dazzles us and fills the universe with light.

~ Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Journal, 1849

 

Negating boojy society

The creative life is the best life of all.

~ Chuck Close (b. 1940)

 

We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.

~ Dr Seuss (Theodor Geisel, 1904-1991)

 

You showed me how to say
Exactly what to say
In that very special way
Oh, it’s true
You fell for me too

And when I tried it
I could see you fall
And I decided
It’s not a trip at all

~ Gene Clark (1944-1991) and Jim (Roger) McGuinn (b. 1942), “You Showed Me” (1964)

 

People don’t take trips, trips take people.

~ John Steinbeck (1902-1968)

 

Who were we — we who formed the ‘Beat Generation’ of San Francisco and beyond? We knew nothing but the allure, the draw, the hope of safe haven, defiance, and the immediate utopia of resistance in zones of momentary freedom, negating boojy society.

~ David Meltzer (1937 – 2016)

 

You can have your funky world — See ya round!

~ Bob Seger (b. 1945), “Ramblin, Gamblin Man” (1969)

 

The past memories, present experiences, and future dreams of each person are inextricably linked to the objects that compromise his or her environment.

~ Mihály Csíkszentmihályi and Eugene Rochberg-Halton. The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self . 1981

 

plan, navigate, and share

~ (ad for digital map company, 2017)

 

Get lost in the right direction.

~ ad (2017)

 

Let’s get lost
Lost in each other’s arms
Let’s get lost
Let them send out alarms

And though they’ll think us rather rude
Let’s tell the world we’re in that crazy mood
Let’s defrost in a romantic mist
Let’s get crossed off everybody’s list
To celebrate this night we’ve found each other
Mm, let’s get lost

Let’s defrost in a romantic mist
Let’s get crossed off everybody’s list
To celebrate this night we’ve found each other
Mm, let’s get lost
Oh, let’s get lost

~ Frank Loesser (1910-1969) Jimmy McHugh (1894-1969), 1943

 

Adventure embraces uncertainty,

and it demands a departure from

the safe and timid road.

~ anon (2017)

 

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried . . . . We but half express ourselves.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 

The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.

~ James Baldwin (1924-1987)

 

Even in doubt, be fearless.

~ anon (2017)

 

Life is all a big joke, but I’m afraid it is only the brave who get the point.

~ Miles Furlong (1890-1994)

 

Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

~ Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

 

Everything you can imagine is real.

~~ Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

 

What will be your next adventure? See the world.

~ ad (2017)

 

I find inspiration in everything, but especially travel, movies, and art – as an art history major in college, it is a real passion. And at the end of the day, sometimes it’s just walking around NYC and seeing chic women with amazing individual style that can inspire.

The process is very organic – it sometimes starts as a mood or a feeling that I want to convey. Other times I’m inspired by an old textile or a mosaic from my travels.

It’s a love of work—but I never take for granted that I’m doing something I love and which makes me happy . . . . It’s not what it is about, it’s how it is about it.

~ Peter Som (b 1970 San Francisco) fashion designer

 

Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.

~~ William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

 

All the fun’s in how you say a thing.

~ Robert Frost (1874-1963)

 

Wander what is out there.

~ ad (2017)

 

Fly away.

~ ad (2017)

 

We came to LA for a better quality of life. It’s a much more human place to live and there’s a sense of freedom that is different from New York. Anything can happen in New York, but you can be anyone you want to be in LA. We don’t feel limitations here. There’s a lot of room to look inwardly, for exploration and reinvention.

We all have great libraries. Of course we all travel and that always informs our work, but books are our education and biggest source of inspiration. Also, it’s impossible not to be inspired by California: it’s physical beauty and openness and great tradition of frontiersmanship.

We admire the craftsman and artisan — the people who inject design with a soul through their expertise and the work they do with their hands. It’s our greatest desire to keep their tradition alive.

~ Roman Alonso and Steven Johankneckt, Partners, Commune Design

 

Collect Memories.

~ ad (2017)

I look at my photographic coverage as a narrative. It usually has a beginning, middle, and an end. It also employs specific details to further describe what I’m trying to illustrate. From a design standpoint, imagine how boring images would be if they were all taken from the same point of view, with the same lens, from the same perspective.

~ Jack Dykinga (b1943), A Photographer’s Life: A Journey from Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photojournalist to Celebrated Nature Photographer (2017)

My tastes exceed my talents.

~ anon (2017)

 

Work hard. Be nice. Don’t stop. Keep going. See more. Do more. Be prepared to fall on your sword. Be thankful.

My life is really my work and my work is my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve never understood how to keep them separate! I think you have to commit to that from the moment you start your own company.

~ Chris Benz (b. 1982), fashion designer

 

___________

 

Omnia Causa Fiunt.

Omnia Causa Fiunt.

(Everything happens for a reason.)

~ Anonymous

 

Life is all a big joke, but I’m afraid it is only the brave who get the point.

~ Miles Furlong (1890-1994)

If you speak delusions, everything becomes a delusion;

If you speak the truth, everything becomes the truth.

Outside the truth there is no delusion,

But outside delusion there is no special truth.

Followers of the Buddha’s Way!

Why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places?

Look for delusion and truth in the bottom of your own hearts.

~ Ryōkan (1758-1831)

 

Now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.

~ John Steinbeck (1902-1968)

 

All the fun’s in how you say a thing.

~ Robert Frost (1874-1963)

 

Although the Dunning–Kruger effect was formulated in 1999, the cognitive bias of illusory superiority has been known throughout history:

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.  ~ Confucius (551–479 BCE)

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.    ~William Shakespeare (1564–1616), As You Like It, V. i.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. ~ Charles Darwin (1809–1882)

One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision. ~ Bertrand Russell (1872–1970)

___

 

Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.

~ William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

 

When you’re in it, just keep riding the wave as long as you can.

~ anon, 2017

 

Everything you want is on the other side of fear.

~anon, 2017

 

Faith is not about finding meaning in the world, there may be no such thing — faith is the belief in our capacity to create meaningful lives.

~ Terry Tempest Williams (b. 1955)

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.

~ Wendell Berry (b. 1934)

The appropriate way to do anything is thoughtfully and gracefully—and with as much soul as you can pull around you.

~ Rina Swentzell (1939-2015)

_____

Jeff Sessions Stars in ‘How To Spot A Stoner’

Sessions: “I used to think the KKK was great, till I found out they all was smokin pot!”

Cokehead Skrumpf put this leprechaun in charge of the entire U.S. legal system!

 

 

_______

A BOOK A DAY KEEPS THE BIGFOOT BLUES AT BAY

Photo: Will Saunders/The Locals Project – Kalen Thorien’s “Library of Sophistication” from Outside Magazine online

One-shelf mobile library suggestions

Have greatly enjoyed viewing the new video of adventurer Kalen Thorien’s standing-room-only tour of her Bigfoot trailer home. . . (which I posted about here earlier

https://skybluemindblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/pierced-navel-pierces-the-mandala/

you can view the video here:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2188061/inside-pro-skier-kalen-thoriens-gear-shed

. . . And, as with an earlier photo from KT’s website from a year or two ago,

(which you can see/read about here:

https://www.kalenthorien.com/update/Post/6Ju9HNABTqI.text 

I was gratified and intrigued to see the choice of books composing her one shelf “Library of Sophistication” (Exception noted: those two fat books by the truly horrid Ayn Rand! for which I gave Kalen some shit!).

(You can see her bitchin lie-berry shelf here:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2191006/how-live-well-road-according-pro-skier-kalen-thorien#slide-10

But the video made me think, again, of some additional/ alternative books she might like. So I drew up a list of tomes I’m suggesting to her (see below).

KT with her one bookshelf reminded me of my friend Artie, an ocean-going sailboat-dweller who lived alone aboard his tiny piratey old sloop which he continuously, slowly sailed back and forth between Hilo, Big Island, and San Diego Bay, spending part of every season harbored alternately in each town. Like KT, he was an avid reader, but also like her, his mobile berth-home had just one bookshelf. Artie’s seaworthy ledge held only about eight to twelve books, total — depending on how thick they were. In order to bring a single new book aboard, he had to give up a previously-adopted/resident one. It was a very big self-discipline for him. I would never have made it!

So, anyway, I’ve compiled a list of other books I think KT might enjoy, might wish to gradually/alternately add to her Bigfoot bookmobile’s Library of Sophistication.

Readers, you are most welcome to send me lists of whatever may be on your own favored shelf at this particular time. And/or a list of books you think I might enjoy and/or ones you think KT might enjoy. Of books and the making of lists of books there is no end, of course — there’s a bible verse that pointed that out long, long ago somewhere in Qoheleth. But still it’s gratifying to make lists sometimes, eh?

 

Kalen Thorien’s 41 volume “Library of Sophistication” (from recent video, numbered as seen shelved left to right) :

1 Ron Adkison. The Falcon Guides Hiking Grand Staircase-Escalante & the Glen Canyon Region: A Guide To 59 Of The Best Hiking Adventures In Southern Utah (Regional Hiking Series). 2011.

2 Jeannette Walls. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. 2006.

3 David Foster Wallace. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays. 2007.

4 Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature and Selected Essays. (Penguin Classics) 2003.

5 Pico Iyer. The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere. 2014.

6 Mike Kelsey. Non-Technical Canyon Hiking Guide—Colorado Plateau. 201.1

7 Gary Chapman. The 5 Love Languages. (2004?)

8 Katie Lee. Glen Canyon Betrayed: A Sensuous Elegy. 2006.

9 Clare Bailey. Forbidden Knowledge Sex:101 Sensual Acts NOT Everyone Should Know How to Do. 2008.

10 Douglas Sproul. GeoBackcountry Rogers Pass: Uptracks, Bootpacks & Bushwhacks, The epic guidebook & map to backcountry skiing Rogers Pass. (no date).

11 Ayn Rand (title indiscernible)

12 Annie Proulx. Close Range: Wyoming Stories. 2000.

13 Henry David Thoreau. Walden & Civil Disobedience.

14 Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Love in the Time of Cholera. 1997.

15 Ryszard Kapuscinski. The Shadow of the Sun. 2002.

16 (indiscernible)

17 Marc Reisner. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. 1987.

18 Tom Meade. Essential Fly Fishing. 1994.

19 Jon Turk. The Raven’s Gift: A Scientist, a Shaman, and Their Remarkable Journey Through the Siberian Wilderness. 2010.

20 Edward Abbey. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. 1968.

21 Ayn Rand (title indiscernible)

22 (indiscernible)

23 Wallace Stegner (title indiscernible)

24 Norman Maclean. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. 1976.

25 Thomas Fleischner. Singing Stone. 1999.

26 Ralph Hopkins. Hiking the Southwest’s Geology: Four Corners Region. 2002.

27 David James Duncan. The River Why. 1983.

28 Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse Five. 1969.

29 Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals: North America (National Audubon Society Field Guides). 1979.

30 Michael Kelsey. Technical Slot Canyon Guide to the Colorado Plateau. 2008.

31 Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg. The Beat Book: Writings from the Beat Generation. 200.7

32 Craig Childs. House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest. 2008.

33 Staying Alive (author & complete title indiscernible, probably either:

Vandana Shiva. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development. 2010

or: Michael Dorn. Staying Alive: How to Act Fast and Survive Deadly Encounters. 2014.)

34 The Chuting Gallery – A Guide to Steep Skiing in the Wasatch Mountains. DBA PawPrince Press. 1998.

35 (indiscernible)

36 Lester Bangs. Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock’n’Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock ‘n’Roll. 1988.

37 Tanya Milligan and Bo Beck. Favorite Hikes In & Around Zion National Park. 2013.

38 The Mountaineers & Steven M. Cox. Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. 2003.

39 Tom Jones. Zion: Canyoneering. 2006.

40 Steve Roper. Sierra High Route: Traversing Timberline Country. 1997 (2^nd ed)

41 David Day. Utah’s Incredible Backcountry Trails. 2006.

 

Kalen’s Bigfoot bookshelf, from a photo posted on her website a year or two ago (with indiscernible titles left out):

6 Marc Reisner. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water. 1987.

8 Richard Lucas. Nature’s Medicines; the Folklore, Romance, and Value of Herbal Remedies. Fifth Edition 1966.

9 Tom Meade. Essential Fly Fishing. 1994.

10 Howard Zinn. A People’s History of the United States. 1980.

12 Joe Mitchell and Mike Coronella. The Hayduke Trail: A Guide to the Backcountry Hiking Trail on the Colorado Plateau. 2005.

13 Jon Turk. The Raven’s Gift: A Scientist, a Shaman, and Their Remarkable Journey Through the Siberian Wilderness. 2010.

14 Charles Bukowski. You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense. 1986.

15 Craig Childs. House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest. 2008.

16 David Day. Utah’s Incredible Backcountry Trails. 2006.

17 Kevin Fedarko. The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon. 2013.

18 Edward Abbey. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. 1968.

19 Don Miguel Ruiz and Janet Mills. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book). 1997.

20 Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged. 1957.

21 The Chuting Gallery – A Guide to Steep Skiing in the Wasatch Mountains. DBA PawPrince Press. 1998.

22 Anne Waldman & Allen Ginsberg. The Beat Book: Writings from the Beat Generation. 2007.

29 Mike Kelsey. Non-Technical Canyon Hiking Guide—Colorado Plateau. 2011.

30 Norman Maclean. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. 1976.

31 David Foster Wallace. Consider the Lobster and Other Essays. 2007.

 

My List of Supplementary/Alternative Book suggestions for Kalen Thorien’s Library of Sophistication (one of many such possible supplementary/alternative lists!):

Ian Baker. The Heart of the World: A Journey to Tibet’s Lost Paradise. 2006.

Smoke Blanchard. Walking Up and Down in the World: Memories of a Mountain Rambler. 1984.

John Brandi. Reflections in a Lizard’s Eye: Notes from the High Desert. 2000.

Gui de Angulo. The Old Coyote of Big Sur: the Life of Jaime De Angulo. 1995

Jaime de Angulo. Home Among the Swinging Stars: Collected Poems of Jaime de Angulo. Stefan Hyner, ed. 2006.

Jaime de Angulo & Gui de Angulo. Jaime in Taos: The Taos Papers of Jaime de Angulo. 1985.

Kenneth Cox, ed. Frank Kingdon Ward’s Riddle of the Tsangpo Gorges. 2001.

Philip L. Fradkin. Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death, and Astonishing Afterlife. 2011.

Danny Goldberg. In Search of the Lost Chord: 1967 and the Hippie Idea. 2017.

Lama Anagarika Govinda. The Way of White Clouds: A Buddhist Pilgrim in Tibet. 1966.

Li Gotami Govinda. Tibet in Pictures: A Journey into the Past. 1979.

Jack Kerouac. The Dharma Bums. 1958.

Weston LaBurre. The Peyote Cult. 1938.

Gary Lawless, ed. Nanao or Never: Nanao Sakaki Walks Earth A. 2000.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz. Rolling in Ditches with Shamans: Jaime de Angulo and the Professionalization of American Anthropology (Critical Studies in the History of Anthropology). 2004.

Jack Loeffler. Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey. 2003.

Jack Loeffler and Meredith Davidson, ed. Voices of Counterculture in the Southwest. 2017.

Dipika Muhkerjee. Shambhala Junction. 2016.

Chiura Obata. Obata’s Yosemite: Art and Letters of Obata from His Trip to the High Sierra in 1927. 1993.

John P. O’Grady. Pilgrims to the Wild: Everett Ruess, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Clarence King, Mary Austin. 1993.

Sean Prentiss. Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave. 2015.

Carrot Quinn. Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart: An Adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail: Ditching the city for the wilderness; walking from Mexico to Canada against all odds. 2015.

Kenneth Rexroth. In the Sierra: Mountain Writings. 2012.

David Roberts and Jon Krakauer. Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness Explorer. 2012.

Doug Robinson. The Alchemy of Action. 2014.

Doug Robinson. A Night On the Ground A Day in the Open. 2004.

Arundhati Roy and John Cusack. Things That Can and Cannot Be Said: Essays and Conversations. 2016.

Everett Ruess and W. L. Rusho. The Wilderness Journals of Everett Ruess. 1998.

W. L. Rusho and Vicky Burgess. Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty. 1973.

Albert Saijo. The Backpacker. 1972.

Albert Saijo. OUTSPEAKS: a Rhapsody. 1997

Albert Saijo. Woodrat Flat. 2015

Nanao Sakaki. Break the Mirror. 1987.

Nanao Sakaki. How to Live on the Planet Earth: Collected Poems. 2013.

Andrew Schelling. Tracks Along the Left Coast: Jaime de Angulo & Pacific Coast Culture. 2017.

Claire Scobie. Last Seen in Lhasa: The True Story of an Extraordinary Friendship in Modern Tibet. 2006.

Gary Snyder. The Great Clod: Notes and Memoirs on Nature and History in East Asia. 2016.

Gary Snyder and Peter Goin. Dooby Lane: Also Known as Guru Road, A Testament Inscribed in Stone Tablets by DeWayne Williams. 2016.

Gary Snyder and Tom Killion. California’s Wild Edge. 2015.

Gary Snyder and Tom Killion. The High Sierra of California. 2002.

Gary Snyder and Tom Killion. Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints. 2009.

Harriet Steel. Becoming Lola. 2010 [“the true story” of Lola Montez, badass Victorian]

Robert Thurman and Tad Wise. Circling the Sacred Mountain : A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas. 1999.

Albert The Writer. Stories of Love and Sex around the World: True stories. Part one. 2017.

 

Here’s wishing all y’all cold mountain summer streams in which to:

chill your beverage cans and bottles,

wash your word-polluted ears,

and soak your trail-tired dawgs.

 

_______

Hunka Hunka burning video tracks

Having lots of fun during last 2-3 days watching/listening to selections from the yuge batch of mashup music videos some extremely talented and smarmy-fun-ass folks have stuck up on youtube. Some are just OK, others are effin EPIC — smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy! Get online, scout around! Here’s a couple to uptown funk you up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If9qQ4XgabY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euu1topuEv0

______________________

 

Do Epic Shit

MORNING NOTES

with undertones of Himalayan cedar, winter begonia, Malabar nut tree bark, holy basil, sacred lotus, shatavari root, heart-leaved moon seed, and Indian kudzu . . .

At a time when the mercury here has risen into the high triple digits and will stay there with little fluctuation all 24/7 for the entire season, I spent part of the morning yesterday at the local bookstore café, completing my usual daily grading of student assignments for my university summer courses,  . . . and for dessert, washing down my Ayurvedic herb & mineral tonic pills for longevity & lucidity with a tall iced chai masala with shots of peach and black cherry while perusing various magazines. In addition to journals devoted to arts and politics, poetry & literature, history and interior design, Hinduism, Daoism, Buddhism, yoga & spirituality, and a few other things, these publications included a few surfing, hiking, camping, travel and outdoor adventure magazines. It’s nice to do a little armchair inner-&-outer adventure traveling now and then when you’re in an outer travel-restricted mode in your actual everyday-zone  (Only straight-up loco horn’d toads & coyot’s venture out in the 119 F degrees sun.)  Here’s some ad copy from a few of the mags, plus a couple of non-ad lines from others.

(from a Colorado mountainbike café:)  Bread . . . p.s. Not bombs. / The toil of many goes to the fortunate few.  / Bikes need neo-liberals like First Nation peoples need Europeans.

Our newest coffee roast with undertones of vanilla butter, crazy raisins, and crystal clear nectarines . . .

Wanderlust is not a sin.

Get outfitted. Get trained. Get inspired. Get going. The world is waiting.

Harness the challenge, discover your journey.

Ancient strategies, modern connections.

Modern by design. Timeless in nature.

The most inspiring moments come through simple and unexpected discoveries.

The funny thing about a good view is it’s always there, even when you can’t see it.

Ride Bikes / Do great things

(the header notice I pasted above: “Do Epic Shit” is from a poster I saw a week or two ago in a video of the trailerhome of Kalen Thorien, skier, adventurer & epic shitkicker.)

Cross borders. Push boundaries. There are travelers. And then there are explorers. For you, no location is too remote; no journey too long. Find your way then lose it. But whatever direction you take, know that you’ll never reach your destination, only your destiny. Let the odyssey begin. Make life a ride.

#Anywhere is possible.

Experience matters. We only know things when we live them.

The world is out there. Go look. The world is waiting. Live the dream.

Home Sweet Nowhere.

No one has the right to obey.

Not all escapes are created equal.

Telluride – the most Colorado place on earth

Adventure is calling . . . What are you waiting for?

Escape to Amazing

ad photo of roadsign warning: “Falling Rocks”; altered with graffiti to: “Falling in love Rocks”

actual tourist photo of handwritten sign posted at secluded surf break in Jamaica: RASPECT DA SPOT

 

Passages from various articles:

“Expect foul weather at any time of the year, but realize it is part of the raw and unfiltered experience of traveling in Iceland. Before venturing into the interior, be aware that there are no towns or villages in the remote parts of the island, nor is there anything in the way of fuel, food, or accommodations.”    Overland Journal

“Adventure doesn’t always look like what you would expect. It is not bound to the toughest trails or limited to foreign lands with unfamiliar cultures. Some journeys are about rediscovering the places we already know and seeing them in a new light.”  Chris Cordes, Overland Journal

“In the middle of the night the beers awoke me, asking to be let out.” Overland Journal

 

Parallel passages:

“If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.” ~ Robert Frost

“If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.” ~ Ludwig Wittenstein

——

 

White House on Lockdown

White House on Lockdown After Television Hurled out Window

By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

09 June 17

 

The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes the news for his column, “The Borowitz Report.”

 

he White House was on lockdown Thursday morning after a television was hurled out of a window, the Secret Service reported.

The incident, which occurred shortly after 10 A.M. E.S.T., caught the attention of the Secret Service after agents heard the sound of smashing glass emanating from the Oval Office.

“The sound was consistent with that of a large object, such as a television set, being thrown through a closed window,” a Secret Service spokesman said.

The television, which crashed to the ground outside the Oval Office, injured no one, the Secret Service confirmed.

A group of fourth-grade students from Bethesda, Maryland, was on a White House tour when the incident involving the television occurred.

“I heard someone screaming lots of swear words and then, like, this big crash,” Zach Dorrinson, a student on the tour, said. “It was messed up.”

______

Aging Prostitutes

“We’re all a bunch of old whores.”

~~Shirley Temple

If you work to earn money to pay for your daily bread

(and who among us is lucky enough not to have to do this?)

— renting out some part of your mind and/or

some part of your body to turn a profit

for someone else who then pays you a sliver of that silver

for the labor you perform for them,

you are prostituting yourself

and you know it.

At least sex-workers are more honest,

and usually have more freedom

over who and what they allow inside

the inner spaces of their minds

if not their bodies.

Unless you are performing physical labor,

you are probably prostituting your mind

rather than your body per se

accommodating some erstwhile stranger

in some erstwhile private space inside your self,

some space inside your mind

instead of your body.

Allowing them to occupy much of your mind,

renting out that space probably most of the hours

of your day most days of the week

But you’re probably also dragging your body to the workplace

along with your mind. Sitting in your office cubicle

or standing on your workplace floor,

Selling a piece of your mind all day long

along with your body held captive there too

laboring for some stranger’s pleasure or profit

All for a piece of silver with which to buy

your daily slice of bread.

Selling yourself, renting out one space or another

inside yourself for some ready cash

It may not be selling a piece of your ass

on the street, literally. But you’re prostituting yourself

nonetheless. And you know it.

We all are.

“We’re all old whores” ~~ Kate Middleton

Of course, being an independent artist allows one to be more like an independent street whore rather than one indentured to a corporate pimp or madam. But wait till you start trying to create your art according to what you have reason to think will be most likely to sell, instead of what you’d most like to create if money were no concern. And most artists (of any and all genres and media) have their pimps just like most street whores do. If what you do all day long to make a living is not exactly the same as what you would be doing if money were no concern, you are a fucking whore and you know it — pimping your soul out, renting out space inside your mind and/or your body to some fucking stranger in exchange for money to pay your fucking rent, buy your groceries, your meds, your nappies, your books, your apps. And you know it. “We’re all old whores.” ~~Barbara Bush

A few of us are lucky enough to do for a living exactly what we would do just for fun if we could afford to, what we might even be happy to pay others to allow us to do if we had to, and if we could afford it. But only a very few of us.  Most of us do things throughout the days of our lives for the sake of staying alive that we would never stoop to doing if we didn’t have to — if we had enough money that we didn’t have to work any more, ever, for anyone else, doing anything we wouldn’t be thrilled to do for free. “We’re all old whores.” ~~Justin Bieber

Meanwhile, the luckiest of the rest of us take solace in the thought that we are at least helping others in some way or other by what we do all day long to earn our living. In which case, to be fancy about it, we are sex therapists, sex surrogate workers, in that sense, not just whores. Sure, we’re still whores, but we are charitably-minded social worker-whores, earning our keep by helping others. We’re practical nurses, as it were, psychiatric nurses, if you will, giving more than just comfort to our johns. We’re actually helping others in important ways. Or so we fancy about ourselves. We’re actually helping our “johns” cope with this world in which they also are all prostitutes just like we are. We’re all old whores together here. Trading favors with each other. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours; you pay my rent with a salary check, I’ll show up at your business and work for you all day, every day, renting out my mind and body to you. You pay my grocery bill, I’ll suck your American dick. Or whatever. “We’re all old whores.” ~~Jimmy Stewart

This pertains to religion as much as politics, to the art world as much as to the academic world, to the world of medicine (often) as much as to the world of arms manufacturing or the science of physics (the military and the weapons-manufacturing military contractor corporations employ 95% of physics graduates — in the US, and around the world.  What other jobs did you think physics grads could get?). “We’re all old whores.” ~~Robert Oppenheimer

This is the world we live in. Buy low, sell high. Make a profit, however thin the margin. Live off of what you can get taking advantage of others. Just try living outside this grid! See how far you get! “We’re all just old whores.”~~Sean Spicer

If you were born wealthy, great (just don’t look too closely at where that money came from!); if you’re retired, great (some whores are lucky enough to retire also). But mostly it’s a matter of how many dicks you’re going to need to suck or take up your ass every day to pay your bills at the end of the month, every month. Month after month, year after year. “We’re all broken-down old whores.” ~~Steve Bannon

It’s a matter of how willing you are to pretend that you like it. How good you are at convincing others that at least you don’t hate it. That you don’t hate them for having to sell yourself to them to pay your bills. And the additional sick truth is many of them want you to hate them and to show it — that’s part of what they pay you for. Because they hate themselves. Because they’re whores, too, of course. “We’re all nothing but a bunch of old whores.” ~~Billy Graham

Or maybe you are an aging trustafarian and think none of this applies to you. Ya think?

My late sweetheart and I first bonded in part over exchanging similar views about this when we first met.

Below: I just recently heard this song (“pre-released” back in September, I think). It is the first “pop” song I can remember to address this issue so directly, aside from numerous old and some new songs about actual sex-worker prostitutes… I was already fond of some earlier songs by this duo. But this particular track really speaks to something artists (not just performing/recording music artists) and indeed other workers of all sorts have to deal with. What a world…. “We’re all a bunch of old whores.” ~~ Walt Disney

 

“Slave to the Radio”

by Sylvan Esso, from their album What Now (2017)

 

Gimme a new single

Make me a new baby
Gonna eat all the candy

while you straddle and lay me

Gonna know all the words

before you come on top
And I sing them back at you

while you try to nap

While the world rides on,

we’re so happy to be

listening to our radio
Our savior, oh
While the world melts on down

we’re so happy to be

listening to our radio,

now break it on down slow

Slave to the radio, slave to the radio,

slave to the radio, three-point-three-oh

Slave to the radio, slave to the radio,

slave to the radio, 3.30

Now don’t you look good

sucking American dick
You’re so surprised they like you
You’re so cute and so quick

Singin’,  “I’ve got the moves of a TV queen
Fuck-girl hero in a magazine
Faking the truth in a new pop song
Don’t you wanna sing along?”

Slave to the radio, slave to the radio,

slave to the radio, 3.30
Slave to the radio, slave to the radio,

slave to the radio, 3.30

Highway blues and gasoline fumes,

it’s all I seem to make

while I’m playin’ my tunes
I know the rules, I ask for it, too
But I just keep on yelling,

keep on running, never stopping

Do you got the moves

to make it stick, yeah?

to get the clicks, yeah?
Technicolor our every move
Can you keep them coming

like a machine, yeah?
The old blue jean, yeah?
What can we do to get you on the news?

Slave to the radio, slave to the radio,

slave to the radio, 3.30
Slave to the radio, slave to the radio,

slave to the radio, 3.30

Slave to the radio,

wait till they forget you, though

slave to the radio, 3.30
Slave to the radio, slave to the radio,

slave to the radio, 3.30

 

Songwriters: Amelia Randall Meath / Nicholas Christen Sanborn

Radio lyrics Words & Music A Div Of Big Deal Music LLC

 

 

 

_________

 

Novelist Paul Auster…a longer view