Not all tracking is bad. After playing Albert King’s killer 1970 live (Fillmore East) version of “Blues Power,” this Duane Allman/Boz Scaggs masterwork was at the right and I clicked on it.
Slipform concrete walls à la Taliesin West, where rocks are placed in forms and concrete poured in. Note wagon spring lintel above window. In Tuscarora, Nevada.
In a Miwok myth, Coyote creates all animals, then calls them to a council to discuss the creation of human beings. Each animal wants people to be imbued with its own best qualities, causing an argument. Coyote mocks them all, vowing that human beings should have his own wit and cunning. Each animal makes a human model in its own likeness; but overnight Coyote destroys the other models, so that only his own model comes to life.
–Katharine Berry Judson, Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest
It’s now in bookstores. Here’s the City Lights poster:
I’ve been doing this blog since 2005 — 15 years. Over 5½ million page views. Over 4 million unique visits. I was most active in 2012-13, when I was getting about 3,500 page views a day.
But as the years went by, I posted less and less. I started putting up photos on Instagram a few years ago; it’s a photographer’s dream, except for the Facebook factor (like the increasing ads). I put in a lot less time blogging world these days, partly due to Instagramming, partly due to the fact that I have to concentrate on books to keep us afloat.
The best way for you to keep up with what’s going on around here these days, and with me, is to get on my GIMME SHELTER newsletter list. At this stage, with the social media blizzard, email is a form of communication out of the past that suddenly seems to have a new relevance.* I’m writing for a select group of people (latest count about 2,000), not winging it out into the socialnetworkosphere.
If you want to get on the list, subscribe with your email address here. I send one out maybe every 4-6 weeks these days.
*It’s not that “The old is new again.” It’s rather that the old is being looked at in a new light in this digital age, and being rediscovered for its relevance, its soulfulness, its imperfections.
Música del Día: Iko Iko, Dr. John: (Listen to his piano notes at very end of song.)
Beautiful young grey fox in garden yesterday, seemed unafraid of humans. Good for photos, not good for fox’s longevity. Please humans, don’t feed wild animals. Especially coyotes. Some of them end up getting hit by cars.
The real thing for seafood lovers.
Sheet of craft paper for tablecloth. After you make a big mess cracking the crab, they roll it up and remove. These are blue crabs, steamed, not boiled. Delicious.
This was a coal-fired power plant, closed down in 1973. Note the cooling towers, shown in the bottom 2 photos.
Yes it’s me and I’m in love again.* With Baltimore.
I suspected I’d like it (my first visit), but man, what a city! From the moment I got here, it’s been one wonderful experience after another.
My first impression was that there’s space. Streets are wide. There’s light from the surrounding water. It’s not as cold as I thought it would be. Compared to Minneapolis, where, when you go outside, it’s as if you’re being assaulted by the cold.
The people are great. Just about everyone. I think the physical aspects of a town affect the inhabitants, and here, the wide streets, the old brick buildings, the harbor, the neighborhoods, the Feng-Shui of the city all make people by and large feel good and project good vibes. Every Baltimorean I’ve talked to loves their town. Many (maybe 50% of ones I’ve talked to) are native-born.
My angels, from Publishers Group West, Elise and Kim
I came here to promote my new homestead book and Thursday night, signed about 100 copies for booksellers from across the country. What a bunch of great people!
Publication date is March 3. You can pre-order at: www.shelterpub.com/building/
*When I was 18, I heard this song, by Fats Domino, and it changed my life.
