SJWA

I had a hole in my week suitable for a small deviation and drove out to the San Jacinto Wildlife Area to see what was up? In the air, that is. And the answer is not so much, although I still had a marvelous time and it looked beautiful with all the spring color.

Old Mt. Gorgonio still had a faint snowy cap in the distance.

One of these days I will figure out the cycles of the Wildlife Area, need to look at the dates of past shots of mine and see if I can make rhyme or reason of the whole thing.

There was nary a raptor in the midday sky. Lots of red winged blackbirds and swifts.

And a male ruddy duck, with its beautiful and idiosyncratic blue bill.

My old friend the butcher bird, better known as the loggerhead shrike. Look at its deadly curved bill.

I thought that it might be the banded one I shot pictures of a few years ago but upon further inspection, doesn't look like it.

Barged in on these stilts having an intimate moment. Sorry, I should have knocked.

Caught coots and plovers, starlings and crows.

This long legged Avocet high stepping around for lunch.

And a pond turtle doing its thing.

When I am nearly alone on 19,000 acres of beautiful wetlands, I feel pretty good about things. Forget about aches, pains and politics. These critters don't care either.

A sparrow of undetermined origin, a song sparrow? He or she appears to be singing, in any case. Ace Birder Ken Weaver tells me that this bird is actually a female red winged blackbird. Who knew? Thanks, Ken!

Even the rather plain black phoebe is deserving of our love.

Red winged blackbirds were everywhere, will be hard to pick a shot, they look so pretty against a mustard background.

Saw a few red winged blackbirds chase a red tailed hawk, you don't see that every day. Fight in the dog, not the dog in the fight.

Saw some white faced ibis on my way out. Love them.

My camera is working well. I've had way worse days.

Cactus blossom

I bought a pretty blue cactus on Gavilan Mountain last year. Noticed that it wanted to bloom last night and it did, no doubt helped by the big pink moon.

Grabbed these shots in the early light.

Love is just a four letter word

Cause Lennon's on sale again.

I have been muddling through Heinlein, I forget how prescient he was about certain things, like cell phones, and joke telling robots. Also getting ready to start reading How to live on Mars by  Robert Zubrin. The author is the President of the Mars Society, an international organization dedicated to furthering the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet.

The book helps you find, get to, adapt to and get along socially while on your martian excursion. And he recommends that you go freight class.

And just to prove that we are closer to the Brave New World, this article by James Brooks, Cyborgs at work: employees getting implanted with microchips. Epicenter chips consenting employees with a small microchip implanted between thumb and index finger.

What could pass for a dystopian vision of the workplace is almost routine at the Swedish startup hub Epicenter. The company offers to implant its workers and startup members with microchips the size of grains of rice that function as swipe cards: to open doors, operate printers, or buy smoothies with a wave of the hand.
The injections have become so popular that workers at Epicenter hold parties for those willing to get implanted.
"The biggest benefit I think is convenience," said Patrick Mesterton, co-founder and CEO of Epicenter. As a demonstration, he unlocks a door by merely waving near it. "It basically replaces a lot of things you have, other communication devices, whether it be credit cards or keys."

And don't tell them about your antiquated sixties era fears of Big Brother, the surrender of privacy, etc., these kids want to be part of the future.

"People ask me; 'Are you chipped?' and I say; 'Yes, why not,'" said Fredric Kaijser, 47, the chief experience officer at Epicenter. "And they all get excited about privacy issues and what that means and so forth. And for me it's just a matter of I like to try new things and just see it as more of an enabler and what that would bring into the future."

Sandra Haglof, 25, who works for Eventomatic, an events company that works with Epicenter, has had three piercings before, and her left hand barely shakes as Osterlund injects the small chip.

"I want to be part of the future," she laughs.

Some worry about the ethical considerations of allowing such an intrusion into one's body.

Ben Libberton, a microbiologist at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, says hackers could conceivably gain huge swathes of information from embedded microchips. The ethical dilemmas will become bigger the more sophisticated the microchips become.
"The data that you could possibly get from a chip that is embedded in your body is a lot different from the data that you can get from a smartphone," he says. "Conceptually you could get data about your health, you could get data about your whereabouts, how often you're working, how long you're working, if you're taking toilet breaks and things like that."
Libberton said that if such data is collected, the big question remains of what happens to it, who uses it, and for what purpose.

I predict that one day, very soon, it will be illegal not to have a chip.  Much like a modern day cell phone, your every location and action will be monitored and transmitted to Central Control. And who cares, if you are sinless or better yet absolved, like what exactly do you have to hide?

Dave Van Ronk - Jesus Met the Woman at the Well

4.10.17

I’ve got a pretty homely home.
It lacks all pretension
But I really don't think there's a lick of shame
call it homely but homey.

It knows that it will never sport fancy granite counter tops
Or a Tuscan facade
Its harvest gold shag
(which dates to the time of Tony Orlando)
best day will never return
that is,if it ever had one
and it's okay with all that.

One working bathroom
or occasionally working
It’s small
like the closets
and kitchen.

Built by a Navy electrician
In 1970
A no nonsense guy
who favored utility
over any other considerations

And plunked down a box
in the middle of the grove
in a forgotten valley
and a town
where most of us 
honestly 
just came to hide.

The house never cared much what other people thought
and frankly
neither did I.
After a point in time
it let us know
we were through entertaining

Things stay piled up in a house this small
but you get used to it and make accommodations
with what is; the realm of the possible
and I'm sure it feels the same way about me.

Never fixed it up much
thought I would replace it one day
When my treasure ship of 
unidentifiable origin
finally sailed into port

But I missed that boat
and somewhere along the way
stopped caring
or looking elsewhere
content
to
accept its deficiencies
as it accepts mine
we’ve got deep roots together
this house and me
we've grown old together

And when I exit this mortal sphere
I would be extremely happy to sleep
with dogs Barfy, Odin, Duke and Max

Under the giant live oak tree out back
our resting souls will keep.

Hummer

The Hong Kong Orchid tree is a favorite sight in the Southern California spring, loved by people, bees and hummingbirds alike.

We have a gorgeous purple variety of bauhinia x blakeana at home. This is a closeup of a branch of our friends and neighbors Beth and Levens' tree, which is more whitish pink and is simply magnificent right now.

Lonely Avenue

David Peel, rest in peace

David Peel has passed on. He was a hippie anarchist legend in New York City when I was a kid and I managed to brush up against him once or twice.

A friend of my pal, the late Douglas Monroe, word had it that Peel would paint the cockroaches in his lower east side tenement with fluorescent paint and watch them scurry around the ceiling while tripping. Bug trails.

I met him at a pot march up fifth avenue, way back when in the early 1970's. The Yippies had rolled a forty foot joint and we carried it on our shoulders up the street to the base of John and Martha Mitchell's apartment where David did his usual shtick.

David handed me a snare drum and asked me to play a roll while he shpieled. I told him that I was a horrible drummer and he passed it to a guy who was possibly even worse than me. No matter. David couldn't play either. Got my picture in Time Magazine for that one. Think Dana Beal was there too.

A real character from a bygone era, one that will never be matched for energy and fun. Glad I was there to witness. Bye David.

Moanin'

John

Terry Schurmeier's brother in law John passed away this week after a protracted bout with cancer.

I did not know him well but knew him to be kind, quite intelligent as well as very eclectic. Part of the essential fabric and landscape of the indian trader world of gypsies that I flock with every summer, like painted warblers returning to Albuquerque after a winter's rest to trade and congregate. A fixture.

God bless the square pegs who refuse to fit into the round holes, the nonconformists who choose to face life on their own terms. Our deepest sympathy and condolences to Janine and the family. John will certainly be missed.

Sonny Rollins - The Bridge

Tony Z. asked me if I had seen the latest New Yorker magazine? I had not. Apparently there is an effort to rename the Williamsburg Bridge after Sonny Rollins. For good reason.

Deadhead joke

I heard this one the other day and thought it was pretty good:

How many deadheads does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Deadheads don't screw in a lightbulb, they screw in a dirty sleeping bag.

Ever seen Mitch look so happy?

High and dry

Keystone, Anza Borrego

Borrego Springs Trek

Yesterday, Ken, Mike and I took a photography trip out to the desert. We met early at Mike's, who was kind enough to have coffee and doughnuts ready.

He drove his car down the hill to Borrego Palm Canyon and we started our trek. We hoped to see bighorn sheep but weren't lucky enough to this time. Did have a really nice hike.

It is amazing how much water is up there still and wonderful to see the only native California palm in its original habitat, Washingtonia filifera.

It was a beautiful day, not too hot. Nice breeze. Got a good workout in and enjoyed the flowers and scenery. The Palm Canyon is quite the oasis.

Mike saw these two frogs and thought they were having a piggyback ride. I know that I am a hopeless romantic but I prefer to think it was love.

We had an early lunch at Carmelitas. The staff was still talking about the recent influx of tourists that the locals call Flowergeddon.

We headed back out to the slot canyon for some more shots, with tripods this time.

Need to work on them and see what I got, didn't really have time in this morning's rush.

Met some cool fellow hikers out there who thought I should go into stand up and borscht belt comedy.

Might be right.

Afterwards we headed over to the Tamarisk Grove.

Reports of a long eared owl on my birding forum this week.

Bingo.

I took a zillion shots, will bore you with a few. Still not sure exactly what I grabbed. Definitely felt the limitations of the quality of my long lens. I can dream.

 Will post some more as I process. Really beautiful bird, very docile. A treat for all of us.

A birding couple from Los Angeles showed up and I led them back to the bird, tripping over a rock in the process.

Thankfully my equipment was spared and my body not too badly bruised. Nothing hurt much but my pride.

We stopped at Lake Henshaw for a beer and a coke on the way home. A very satisfying day!

Moby Grape - Miller's Blues

Teflon Don

You almost need a scorecard and a pad of paper to keep it all figured out. In the wake of a terrible attack on his own citizens by Bashir Assad, Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer has figured out whom to blame. Barack Obama.

“Today’s chemical attack in Syria against innocent people, including women and children, is reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilized world,” Spicer said on Tuesday. “These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution.”
“President Obama said in 2012 he would establish a red line against the use of chemical weapons and then did nothing,” Spicer continued. “The United States stands with our allies across the globe to condemn this intolerable act.”

But just yesterday U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that we were not going to focus on getting him out.

“We have no love for Assad. We’ve made that very clear,” she said, according to Reuters. “We think that he has been a hindrance to peace for a long time. He’s a war criminal. What he’s done to his people is nothing more than disgusting.”
Her statements came just days after both she and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stirred controversy when they said the U.S. was no longer trying to remove Assad from power and may work with him to help fight the Islamic State. The comments represented a sharp departure from the strategy of former President Barack Obama, whose administration for years worked to remove the Syrian dictator from power.
Haley told reporters on Thursday that the plan has changed, and the United States’ “priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out.”
“Do we think he’s a hindrance? Yes. Are we going to sit there and focus on getting him out? No,” she said. “What we are going to focus on is putting the pressure in there so that we can start to make a change in Syria.”

Quite the mixed message. We will hold our nose and work with the guy. If any thing goes awry we can always blame it on Obama. Spicer said that he saw no relationship between the gas attack and recent statements from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

And this all takes place a day after Rex Tillerson is filmed shaking hands with his new associate. Tillerson refused to take questions on the matter. Here is Rex from the other day, setting the table for the chemical attack. Guess somebody got the message.

A Prayer Like Any Other (For Nikke)

Road Kill

Calling Ed Mell

Last stretch to Flagstaff

East Houston Blues

Owl on a wire

Baby, Please

The late Snooks Eiglin was certainly one of a kind, a brilliant talent. This song is sometimes credited to the late James Cotton but here Snooks says it is actually by Percy Mayfield. Wish I could have seen Snooks when he was alive, a New Orleans institution.

Kid Kryptonite

Herald of the setting sun

I am having a hard time writing, if you can believe it. And you know I am not the kind of guy who normally suffers from writer's block. I just hate to trod the same old ground and I'm not feeling anything fresh at the moment.

And I hate continually inveighing against the latest dumb from Washington. It is like the country is embroiled in a weird fetishist role play experiment. Quick, somebody utter the safe word so we can wake up from this national nightmare.

I actually tried to write some poetry yesterday, that was abominably bad and self indulgent, thinking that a little free verse would free my fractured brain. No such luck.

So I'm just going to let it fly here and see what happens. See if I can prime the pump with some loosely associated scribbling.

I had a couple come in the other day that I hadn't seen in years. Thought that they had moved away. I was open Saturday, first day in a long while, actually.

And I had always thought that they were fairly moderate people, looked quite normal but it turns out that they are very conservative and want to join the growing numbers of conservative white Californians moving to Prescott or St. George. "People in California are crybabies," she said and I instantly understood that she was referring to the last election and the animosity of a large number of Golden State residents regarding the Donald.

I pivoted quick, no sense losing a potential sale. "St. George is great, yada, yada, yada." The country is bitterly divided and there is no longer a middle ground. No sense creating a new enemy. But if you have to leave, don't let the door hit you in  the ass.

A Gorsuch filibuster is not going to help things but I guess the dems will do what they think they have to do, St. Merrick's name be praised. Perhaps Gorsuch will do a little soul searching after being called out for being such a supposed prick, but he's forty nine and most of us are incapable of modifying our behavior after the age of seven. Probably just another dour shmegeg like Alito. Someone who can be counted on to reliably deliver one for the big corporations or state and shtup the little guy every time.

It is amazing how the Chaffetz and Gowdy's of this world went after the folks in the Obama Administration so fiercely but are like meek little lambs in excusing so many ethical lapses and indiscretions from Trump and Co..

View of the Little Colorado

Appreciate Nikki Haley standing up to Russian intervention in elections at the United Nations yesterday. Her boss is not going to be happy.

If I was Marco Rubio and found out that the Russian Bot Army helped tank my election chances, I would be pissed too.

I actually applaud Rex Tillerson chiding the Europeans on stepping up and paying a larger share of NATO money. I just wouldn't look him in the eye and tell him.

Isn't it embarrassing to have a leader who doesn't read and would rather listen to what the folks at Fox News are telling him than his own intelligence services? Well, enough of that.

Crayola got rid of the color dandelion today. I know that I speak for all of you when I say she will be sorely missed.

One day we will have professional baseball again in San Diego, I just know it.

Mark Ziegler at the Union Tribune is one of the best sportswriters in the entire country, day in and day out. Incredibly knowledgable, good scribe. Canepa ain't bad either.

Law of the jungle

I was not real thrilled with how Obama treated Israel but Netanyahu is the same old disingenuous and lying prick he ever was. His post Obama settlement policy shows how much he really acquiesced to the two state solution he pretended to agree to.

Gaza will blow up again as will Palestinian anger in the West Bank and Netanyahu will share a large share of the blame, for being content with the status quo and Israel's role as a perpetual occupier.

Even more nauseating is the U.S. cozying up to Assad, the man who uses chemical weapons against his own citizens.

And we had a friendly Egyptian dictator over at the White House today, no worse than Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, I suppose.

Unnamed bend, Canyonlands

I spent the weekend with a book by my favorite writer, the late Roger Zelazny, a man I was lucky enough to meet several times and interview. I had not read Isle of the Dead in at least twenty years. It was nominated for a Nebula in 1969.

I got a bunch of old science fiction paperbacks from Doug before he left our shores. This one was falling apart out of its binding and it went in the trash when I was finished. Not close to being one of his best, that is more Lord of Light, Amber, Light and Darkness territory but a decent read.

The interesting thing about my favorite writer is that he kept writing the same book, like a composer pens the same song, over and over again until he got it right. Refining. Many of his protagonists are in the process of becoming gods, or playing them as the case may be. But he was never afraid to revisit an idea.

Some day I hope to write fiction and if I can ever turn a phrase worthy of Roger Zelazny I know that I will have achieved something!

Need to read his entire output again, starting with Jack of Shadows.

I am a big Humphrey Bogart fan, just watched Huston's Beat the Devil with Bogart and Lorre, written by Truman Capote. As an art dealer you would think that I would know that Bogie's mom was the illustrator Maud Humphrey but I never did. She used to use him as a model.

April come she will

Marilyn impersonator, Queen Mary

Walt Whitman's Niece

Terrakill

Line up, Swamis

Sanoguy sends a pretty disturbing post over regarding the EPA, New EPA documents reveal even deeper proposed cuts to staff and programs. Ceding environmental responsibility to the states will work about as well as ceding medical insurance and Medicare to the states, that is, not at all.

For one thing, the states are already underfunded, some of them don't even regulate their environment, many of the problems are of federal conception e.g. Keystone, and you also get airborne pollutants and polluted waters that don't exactly respect state lines. Is Missouri supposed to sue Arkansas if they receive a nasty toxic drift?

This is a deliberate and cynical ploy by the administration and the industrial polluters they represent. I believe that we will be fixing the deliberate environmental evil promulgated by this administration for decades.

I wrote about the overturn of the federal ban against the insecticide chlorpyrifos the other day, an overturn of the evidence of its own staff scientists. Now I find out that the agency won't even look at the issue again until 2022. Nasty people.