Help Our Wolves Live

Since I bought this army jacket at a thrift store in Brooklyn, I've gotten numerous comments from strangers around town about the HELP OUR WOLVES LIVE (HOWL) patch that was already sewn on the left breast pocket. My favorite was last night on the 6 train, when a woman came up to me and started raising her voice about Sarah Palin's insatiable love for the smell of wolf blood.Woman: "I bet she falls asleep counting dead wolves instead of sheep."Me: "Yup."Listen to wolves howlin at Closet Of CuriositiesMP3: Howlin Wolf - Shake For Me

Demoiselle Crane

Demoiselle Cranes:

Demoiselle Cranes have to take one of the toughest migrations in the world. In late August through September, they gather in flocks of up to 400 individuals and prepare for their flight to their winter range. During their migratory flight south, Demoiselles fly like all cranes, with their head and neck straight forward and their feet and legs straight behind, reaching altitudes of 16,000-26,000 feet (4,875-7,925 m). Along their arduous journey they have to cross the Himalayan mountains to get to their over wintering grounds in India, many die from fatigue, hunger and predation from birds such as eagles. At their wintering grounds, Demoiselles have been observed flocking with Common Cranes, their combined totals reaching up to 20,000 individuals. Demoiselles maintain separate social groups within the larger flock. In March and April, they begin their long spring journey back to their northern nesting grounds.

MP3: Shankhar Jaikishan - Typewriter Tip, Tip, Tip

Cactus and Succulent Society Of America

The Cactus and Succulent Society Of America:

The Cactus and Succulent Society of America (CSSA) was founded in 1929 in Pasadena, California and has grown to encompass over 80 affiliated clubs and thousands of members worldwide. Our primary purpose is to enjoy succulent (water-storing) plants through horticulture, travel and scientific discovery, with a particular concern for habitat preservation and conservation issues in deserts worldwide.

The New York Chapter meets on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at Jan Hus Presbyterian Church, located at 351 E. 74th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. Their next meeting is on Tuesday, March 17th at 6pm. More info here* Pictured above is some Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus in Washington Heights. Eastern Prickly Pear is the only native cactus found in the northeastern part of North America.MP3: Elvis Costello - Cheap Reward

State Of The Planet's Oceans

I'm not exactly sure what Damon is doing here, but any shots of the great dark underworld abyss can absolutely do no wrong. Unless the reason they're showing them is to demonstrate how that very great dark underworld abyss is being ruined. Still, how can you not like watching documentaries about the ocean? That shit might as well be a cartoon for all I know. Maybe Cousteau was just really good at drawing. Watch STATE OF THE PLANET'S OCEANS on PBS, March 18th, 2009 at 8 p.m. Youtube: Here's a preview

Iditarod 2009

The 1,150 mile Iditarod started on March 7th.From yesterday, March 9th, on Iditablog:

Leaving Finger Lake and heading into Rainy Pass is the thing nightmares are made of - regardless of how much experience you have. Multiple drops along Happy River, combined with hairpin turns and tricky switchbacks put veterans and rookies on a level playing field. It was on this section that in 2007 some of the most tested mushers, DeeDee Jonrowe and Doug Swingley (4 time champion) were both forced to scratch, DeeDee broke her hand, and Swingley broke some ribs. Once checked in at Rainy Pass Lodge mushers can look forward to soon reaching the highest point of the Iditarod, they’re in the middle of the great Alaskan Range.Going from Rainy Pass into Rohn isn’t a walk in the park either, the checkpoint is at 1,800ft elevation and before reaching Rohn (about 40 miles away) they will hit 3,160ft and they highest elevation of the race. After this point they are considered to be in Interior Alaska. After reaching the summit, the trail quickly goes downhill and the nightmare from the run before isn’t over if warmer weather is a factor. There is a steep 200-foot hill drop running into a Gorge and, running along “Dalzell Creek”. The trail jumps from side to side of Dalzell Creek (at a few point the Canyon is just barley wide enough for both the trail and the creek). There is always open water on the creek with snow and ice bridges for the mushers to cross. In colder weather the bridges hold better, but going faster is always better to avoid getting wet!

Read Bruce Lee's blog on Iditarod.comMP3: Abner Jay - Woke Up This Morning

Severed Ways

NYT/AMG:

Many historians contend that Norse explorers settled on the North American continent long before it was "discovered" by Columbus, and this adventure blends historical research with the filmmakers' imagination in the tale of two 11th Century Vikings and their struggle to survive in a new land. Orn (Tony Stone) and Volnard (Fiore Tedesco) are the only two survivors of a bloody clash between their Viking clan and a band of Native Americans; aware that their best hope of survival is to move on, they set out to find a new territory to settle. While making their way through the wilderness of what is now the Canadian province of Newfoundland, Orn and Volnard encounter a pair of monks from Ireland who have escaped from a Viking camp.

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Phish

I never really liked Phish but somehow I've made it to about ten of their shows. The first one I went to was down in Champaign-Urbana at the University Of Illinois somewhere around 1998 or 1999. I was in high school, though looked like I was ten, and six or seven us piled in a big windowless van with a young guy named Dave (I think) and a friend's mother, who was just as excited as the rest of us. I didn't know Phish at all, although I probably pretended I did, but felt more at ease when Dave (I think) whipped out his mess of bongos and shakers that he encouraged us to play while he blasted bootlegs on the long three hour drive. I don't remember a damn thing about the actual show because, as I'm sure y'all know, the show is never the best part.Tonight is the first night of Phish's reunion tour in Hampton, VA.  What a goddamn time that'll be.PhishPhish - Brian and Robert

Why Do I Do This?

In the double seat in front of us was a black woman and her four children. A little girl with her hair braided in cornrows, with an elaborate set of strings and beads attached - like Cleopatra - looked back at us, smiling at my ridiculous beard. She said, "Where you goin' ?" I said, "Home."My friends and I build a fire with dead sticks from a nearby ironwood tree. Ironwood is slow growing, dense, very hard. A chunk from the heart of it will sink in water. We drink some beer. As the fire dies down we lay three T-bone steaks directly on the red coals, aboriginal style. They begin cooking themselves right away, no hesitation. We open and heat three cans of corn at the edge of the fire.The sun goes down. The air between us and the near mountains become visible as a medium, substance, a thing in itself, transparent but clearly four miles thick. The new, waxing moon, first quarter phrase, shaped like a shield, hangs in the sky at approximately the same point occupied by the sun when we first stopped here.We eat supper. Drink a little more beer. I produce a half pint of Jim Beam from the side pocket of my pack. We drink it, passing the bottle around the fire as the moon grows brighter, the evening more violet.Moonlight and bourbon. The plan was that the three three of us would camp here tonight and in the morning my friends would start driving back to California and I would start walking east toward Bagdad. One hundred and twenty miles by jeep trail, give or take a league, a mountain range now and then.By now the plan begins to seem absurd. Unnecessarily rigid. Why wait till morning, suggests the moon? Start at once, says the whiskey percolating through the purring storage cells of my brain.We finish the Beam. Shake hands, squeeze shoulder, kid around as I hoist the pack onto my back and pick up an extra gallon of water in a plastic jug. A final salute and I march off, the two men by the fire staring after me, silent with envy. Why aren't they coming too? Because they were not invited. "I vaunt to be alone," said Greta Garbo.A half mile from my friends I pause and give them my parting wolf howl, then a snatch song from Madame Butterfly. Un Bel di...He will return. Ah yes! But not just yet. Cruel of me to flaunt my job and pride. But I can't help it. I feel like Antaeus returned to earth. The power of the desert, of the planet, surges electricity up through my boots (Vietnam style jungle boots, old and worn) to heart and head and out through song into the moony sky, completing the circuit.Marching on, north, I follow this condemned jeep road as it meanders towards the mountains. Why do I do this sort of thing? I don't know. I've been doing this sort of thing for thirty-five years and still don't know why. Don't even care why. It's not logical - it's pathological. We go and on, our whole lives, never changing repeating ourselves with minor variations. We do not change. Bruckner spent his life writing the same symphony nine times, trying to get it just right. Seeking perfection, Mozart wrote his single symphony forty-eight times. We cannot change. Saul on the road to Damascus, struck by the lightning of revelation, turns his coat inside out, drops the S and adds the P, and goes right on. Right on fantasizing. And here Iam on the old devil's road to Bagdad. Under a clear sky. Marching. Singing. Marching.Tramp...Tramp...Tramp tramp tramp..................Why do I do this? (My feet hurt.) Why? Well, it's the need, I guess, for some sort of authentic experience. (My hip joint hurts.) As opposed to the merely synthetic experience of books, movies, TV, regular urban living. (My neck hurts.) To meet my God, my Maker once again, face to face, beneath my feet, beyond my arms, above my head. (Will there be water at Cabeza Tank?)- Edward Abbey, Beyond The Wall

1,000 Mile Journey

9 News Colorado:

It's been a long and lonely winter trek for a female wolf that separated from her pack in Yellowstone National Park five months ago.
The Colorado Department of Wildlife says a global position satellite collar, worn by the wolf, has helped them track her epic five-state journey, which has apparently brought her to Colorado in search of a mate. It says the wolf's last known location in Eagle County, is about 450 miles from its origin. The DOW estimates, however, that she may have walked an estimated total of 1,000 miles.

The 18-month-old female separated from her pack just north of the Yellowstone National Park boundary in September and traveled across five states, including Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.It's not unusual for wolves to travel as far as 60 miles of their pack, but biologist have documented approximately 10 wolves since 1992 that have traveled more than 190 miles.

MP3: Marvin Gaye - Time To Get It Together