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poet martín espada on bill moyers

pulitzer prize winning poet tracy k smith on forum

beautiful photos of andorra, spain and norway (and more) by natalie mccomas


 

favorites

 
some of my favorites here: pinky leon, morning sun, flowers, and npr. 

just after this picture, PL sniffed a succulent and spied something very exciting outside. 

(also, after this, he tried to eat the flowers (in his usual flower-eating fashion), so they had to be removed to a cat safe location to avoid petal-y vomits.)

yesterday i finished a place in time, wendell berry's latest port william book, this one of short stories. i actually took my time reading it, because i worry this may be (and really hope it's not) the last port william stories he publishes, and i wanted to stay for a while in each story, with burley coulter, dick watson, elton penn, and the rest. something about his sentences too. they're not like other people's. not around here anyway.

 

 

warm colors in the cold

siri kristinsdottir

dearleila's instagram

on a sunnier day

now, cold rain

hello 2013

it was a quiet end to 2012/beginning to 2013 for me, since i was cooped up with a cold. had to skip a couple of fun activities i was looking forward to. but there's time, hopefully. 

i have a lot of plans, intentions, and resolutions for 2013. we'll see how closely the year cooperates. 

happy new year!
 

welcome

when i returned home to alameda the other evening, i was welcomed by the two slutty cats who live a block away. the other one (very bushy calico) was rolling on the ground as i approached, but s/he ran off when grey-white took over the flopping about. they have both followed me a block before. but they're plump and trusting and always on the same block, so i assume they're doing ok at their house. it's not like pinky leon would accept them anyway, if, say, they were to follow me all the way home. 

double fish-cycle! 

 

above/below clouds

although i can sometimes not breathe when flying because it scares me so much, the flight down to orange county last week was one of the more beautiful ones i've been on skywise. the sun was setting, and the clouds were just below the plane for much of the flight. the sky was the lightest, clear blue. toward the end of the flight, the clouds were not as thick and puffy as in the above photo; they'd smoothed out some and rippled like waves. 

the bottom photo is a view from my parents' house of laguna canyon at dusk. bigger.

tract housing and mini malls and roads have advanced closer and tighter around laguna since i was little, but the canyon is mostly intact. i heard frogs there this year, which i haven't heard there in a long time.

 

 

✿

shimmery blue winter day yesterday

my cutie pie

hey lady by peggy honeywell 

morning/evening

hanna konola's annual online christmas calendar

i would like to have this calendar in my kitchen.

been listening to the new martha wainwright album on repeat. favorite so far.
and a lovely martha interview to go with.

colors

thinking about where to hang annamaria potamiti's beautiful little watercolor. i love it.

the back yard wears a green clover blanket during the cold. (the green teepee was for growing beans.)

tree!

tree is dressed.

this wild idea 
 

alameda calendar

printed some alameda calendars i made. months include mostly photos from my alameda houses set. 

redux, a favorite store in alameda, is carrying some. and now they're also carrying some from orchards, fields, and gardens. only took me a year to try to sell them in alameda. such a bad salesperson. but it was encouraging that they seemed excited about both.

 

/

 
these leaves have probably fallen now. these were the hangers on this past week.

it was hard to listen to the fresh air show about yemen last night. makes me disappointed in obama and our foreign policy, especially in regard to drone strikes and the lack of guidelines around them. 

the interviewee, journalist Gregory Johnsen says:
 
I think that one of the failures—or at least for me—one of the failures of both the Bush administration and the Obama administration has been to not put in place a legal or an ethical framework for the use of drones. Drones I think are a great piece of technology. They are a piece of technology that groups like al-Qaida do not have. They are something that the U.S. I think can use to great utility, and can use to its advantage but they have to be used judiciously, and I don't think that's what's happening right now, unfortunately.  
 
he also mentions a ny times article by scott shane and jo becker that says that the US doesn't count military age males in yemen as civilian casualties when they are killed in a strike zone. they're automatically considered combatants if they are in a strike zone. this makes me very very sad. this disregard for lives (in addition to the deaths during strikes of those the US does consider civilians) can only lead to more violence and enemies.

mr. green eyes

pinky leon 

the words green eyes always remind me of this song

just like walking on lafayette street here in alameda never fails to plant paul simon's that was your mother in my head— "standing on the corner of lafayette..." i won't even realize it either until i'm blocks away and humming, "headin' down to the lone star cafe..."

fall houses in alameda

 

gobble

happy thanksgiving, americans.

savoring the last of the season's leaves. more fall photos to come.

now it's torte baking time.

  

jack london square

 
jen's bob lake cuts sprout studio cards at patchwork, a craft sale held at jack london square. (skateboard footrest not pictured.)

i purchased this sweet cloud mobile made by katrina.

the JLS tree was getting dressed with lights (already). 

the JLS farmers market pears were looking cute.

the sky, blue.

leaves everywhere

beautiful 100 year old artist and her home

animal love
family
untitled by cody james bentley
mav and scotch 
by nick hance
+
buddy at 5th and sunset
untitled by emma louise 

walking

around alameda after a sunglasses purchase. my usuals have disappeared, as sunglasses seem to do. a cute vw bug seen on the way.

just around election day, i noticed some clever and beautiful designs for marriage equality. two by christopher david ryan (who also did a bunch of lovely obama graphics) and two by shanna murray. talented supporters!

pinky leon in his nest of covers

morning walk

this morning's alameda houses

quick last pre-election links

for prop 37
just label it
great short video that very succinctly debunks several of industrial agriculture's myths 
more 37 links in this post of mine

for obama
those americans who eat food (that's everyone, right?), here's an opinion about why we need obama.
for those americans who care about climate change and the environment, here's another reason we need obama in office. 
for those americans who believe in equality, another reason.

fingers and toes crossed for tuesday!

 

moving pictures

some films are poetry.

this aatsinki looks like it will be one. the trailer certainly is.

two short films by alan spearman:
april 
as i am

fall in the back yard

some more rambling back yard photos here. 
we have a badminton "court" now! 

vanishing ice

 
my trip to the city yesterday for a haircut meant salted caramel and a walk down pretty lexington street.

two great photographers are documenting the changes in the world of ice.

james balog who has documented the receding ice through time lapse and still photos, has a documentary coming out called chasing ice.

james also gave a TED talk.

and katrina shared this link to an emotional TED talk by national geographic photographer paul nicklen, who documents the animals who depend on the ice for their survival.

meanwhile neither obama nor romney addresses climate change in any meaningful way. romney's plans would in fact speed climate change—what with his ties to big oil and plans for increased drilling and his ties monsanto (see last post). money for corporations clearly comes before the environment for that guy.

 

37 yes!

 
michael pollan's ny times piece on why prop 37 is so important

and very much related to this, is an in depth look at mitt romney's deep monsanto ties: "mitt romney, monsanto man"

to learn more about the monsanto's evil ways, view the documentary the world according to monsanto.

i don't understand why a company that has consistently poisoned people and the earth for years and years (while profiting off of that destruction) is allowed to continue to exist and continue to pollute us.

and so as not to end on such a depressing and maddening note, here is a nice short video about gary hansen and his jersey ladies and rosa's blog post about decorated sheep.

a bosc

 

pears are the prettiest.

another feather
mary lindsay

alejandro cartagena

rolling along

 
i probably looked pretty funny walking home from the bus stop craning my head upward and behind me every few steps to look at the clouds passing, pink and yellow lit, over bits of clear blue and grey grey sky.

of course can't do the flickry cats w/o the flickry dogs:
space heater hog
by sarita lolita
hey, wait!
by cody james bentley
polaroid week | day 1 extra
morning: momo listening to the lake before sunrise
thbbbttt

loving hannah by freelance whales (the best band name)
(video reminds me of the take on me aha video—one of the first good videos ever and one of the first videos, if not the first, i remember seeing at sarah johnson's house, where they had MTV!)

i wish big long earrings suited me, because i love these silver hares

 

pinky leon + pink

 
this apartment seems to call for pink, surprisingly. 

this weekend i (finally) made a box cushion for my bench (much more time consuming than i expected) and a couple of bright pillows. i think i'm back into sewing. 

dead oaks by now now 
wanting by exitmusic

flickry cats of late
from oladios
maggie chillin'
someone helped baking cake
by sunkentreasure
skycats hilarity
by o l y
L O V E 
leopard 
by sarita lolita

assorted

haven't taken many photos lately. thus the feet and the cat. again. i like how round pinky leon's face is. 

guillermina baiguera

stich and hammer's instagram 

i really enjoyed the book doc by mary doria russell. such good characters—it was one of those books i couldn't wait to continue reading because i liked being around (so to speak) the characters. funny bits and moving bits and a well told tale about doc holliday and another time and place.

i go to the ferry building most days of the week, on my lunch break, usually for a blue bottle latte and a cookie and some people watching. the ferry building marketplace is a vibrant, bustling part of san francisco now—a destination for locals and tourists. read about the ferry building's slow re-start, almost 20 years ago now. 

more about the ferry building's history

these two

 
some days the bart ride makes my day. she sat down first and put her hand on his back as he aimed for the seat. (i also love her outfit.)

started a photos on the sly set. usually not a big sneaky photo taker, but the iphone certainly makes it easier...

some colors

went to the headlands center for the arts today. sure is pretty over there, even if foggy and chilly. and even if they didn't have open studios like we thought they would.

sandwich assembly

 
summertime sandwich with tasty eggs from alameda's growing youth project urban farm

found via freunde von freunden blog:

paper artist matthew shlian video
beauty is embarrassing trailer
dapper salmon smoker ole martin video