Ridin The Rails

While looking through the pictures from the post below, I was reminded of the scene from Ridin The Rails where Johnny Cash is sitting around a fire with some confederate soldiers singing "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that if I were a soldier during the Civil War and I was tired and hurt and I'd lost all my friends and family and had watched hundreds of people painfully die from the bullet that I had put in their heart, I'd have a big grin on my face if I heard that voice sing me that song. I mean, really, could you imagine sitting at a fire and looking through the flames to see that face? Cheer up dude that looks like Ernest.Watch the video and know what I'm talking about:Youtube: Johnny Cash - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Allegheny Islands Wilderness

From Wilderness.net:

Between Buckaloons Recreation Area and the town of Tionesta, a distance of approximately 56 miles, seven islands in the Allegheny River have been designated Wilderness. Alluvial in origin, the islands were formed from deposits of sand, mud, and clay that the river carried down from the Allegheny Mountains. Old river-bottom trees--willow, sycamore, and silver maple--characterize these little hunks of land. Crull's, at 96 acres, is the largest, followed by Thompson's and Baker (both 67 acres), Courson (62 acres), King (36 acres), R. Thompson's (30 acres), and No-Name (10 acres).

The New Folk

A few months ago daniel flew to california to watch some bands play in the woods while he camped near an evil river and took pictures of young men and women with navajo rugs as clothes and drugs as thoughts and when the music and the circular dancing stopped he sat around a fire and asked people questions about God that he wrote down into a beautiful magazine that fader gave to the world yesterday.HereMariee Sioux Daytrotter

Free Spirit Spheres

From Outside:

Free Spirit Spheres, located an hour north of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island's east shore, is comprised of Eve and Eryn. These two pods, created by former boat craftsman Tom Chudleigh, hang suspended 15 feet in the in the air, looking as if they were spherical spacecrafts that landed in the trees on their decent to earth. Eve is the smaller of the two at 11 feet in diameter, and both are made of cedar stripping.

More pics hereMP3: Derek & The Dominos - Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?

Durango/Silverton Railroad

If you've ever been down to the Durango, CO area, you know about this coal-fired, steam powered locomotive that passes through the San Juan National Forest. Although the views from the window are unreal, it's nicer to be on the outside and see the train twist and turn while rafting down the Animas River. Hell, the train'll even pick you up if you wave it down when you're done. (Or at least it used to.) But seeing that it's November and the train still runs during the winter, you don't have the option of being cocky.Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge RailroadMP3: Guy Clark - Desperados Waiting For The TrainWrong Durango, but still..

Twenty Seven Kalimbas

On Sale Now:

We just finished a small edition of our electric kalimbas. They are all handmade, beautiful, and electric. Some of the instruments closely resemble a typical kalimba, mbira, or African thumb piano while others offer a wild deeper bass sound with gong or gamelan-like overtones. This latest run is our best work and sound amazing through any guitar amp, bass amp, P.A., or even played acoustically.

When You Walked In With This, I Just about Died..

Check out the most valuable appraisal to ever appear on the US version of Antiques Roadshow. It's hand-woven Navajo Ute First Phase wearing blanket that was made for a Chief. The dialogue right after the appraisal goes a little something like this.."I had no idea, it was just laying on the back of a chair.""Well, sir you have a national treasure. A national treasure. When you walked in with this, I just about died. Congratulations."This video is amazing.More on Navajo Chief's blankets here

Death Valley

The last time I visited California, a group of us stopped in a gravel parking lot to take a picture in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. We left the car that we had driven out from Colorado in and, after a minute of snapping away, heard another car peel out in the distance. We didn't think much of it until we got back to the car and found that the pebbles from the peel out had broken one of our back side windows. Lack of funds and time made it impossible to get fixed, so we used the next best thing. A garbage bag.We drove from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Phoenix to Boulder with the constant thump of the wind hitting plastic in our ears and, more importantly, were constantly in fear of getting robbed whenever we'd park.I've decided to go back this Christmas and drive out with a few friends through Yosemite and down to Death Valley, so if you're around, give me a ring on my cellular telephone.MP3: Third Wave - Eleanor Rigby

Scenes From Antarctica

From Boston.com:

Down in Antarctica, November marks the end of spring, the beginning of austral summer, and the beginning of Antarctica's cruise season. The Sun just rose for the first time in 6 months on September 22nd, and is now visible in the sky all the time. Recent studies in Antarctica have brought new insights into the origins of deep sea octopus species (a 30 million-year-old ancestor from Antarctic waters), volcanic contributions to disappearing antarctic ice, and the effects of increasing numbers of icebergs scouring the seafloor. Collected here are 32 photographs of Antarctica from the past several years.

MP3: Springwater - Stone Cross

Suicide

I was asked by a college friend last week to join him and his brothers on their annual winter traverse of New Hampshire's Presidential Range. I am monumentally unprepared to do this infamous hike/suicide mission and the brothers I would be going with might as well be a family of monster trucks. Their idea of bonding on the 4th of July was to create their own triathlon by their house on Lake Winnipesaukee.Here's a little more info on why this is such a bad idea.MP3: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Way

Robyn O'Neil

A long year or so ago, on a bright day in New York City, I took a train to the Folk Art Museum to see the Henry Darger exhibit. His work was nice to look at in a "cool back story" kind of way, but the real eye poppers were the massive graphite drawings by Robyn O'Neil. The one above is a section of a piece named "As Ye the sinister / Creep and feign / Those once held / Become those now slain."More Robyn O'NeilMP3: Loudon Wainwright III - Glad To See You've Got Religion

Psychological Warfare

When we were young, our Way Of The Scout obsessed friend, Trevor, would lead us on "psychological warfare" missions in the middle of the night. One of the most memorable missions was to Horizon Farms, Trevor's next door neighbor. We sneaked onto the property while backyard camping and switched the flags (not all of which were Stars and Stripes) on all the flagpoles that were scattered throughout the massive property.Hopefully they were confused.MP3: David Crosby - Wooden Ships (Demo)

World Gone Wrong

A couple of winters before the one that's on the tip of our tongues, we all went walking around the woods near a waterfall whose name I always say wrong. We walked through ankle high snow, made it to the top of a small mountain, and took a shortcut home across half frozen rivers and private bunny hills. We stayed in a state park cabin made of fake wood while one of us put on the only thing that made those cold walls worth a damn.MP3: Bob Dylan - World Gone Wrong