Mariposa on TV

Hi there. While we were out of town, Mariposa Grove, the community where we live, was on TV.

Not too bad at all.

old photo imports - abandoned libraries

hi all.

Yeah, so my digital still camera died a while back, and so I didn't have photos to go with a whole lot of photo-necessary posts, but I finally put them up and out.

Anyway, as I was going through an old photo card, I also came across some photos I took while I was scouting a location for the Wholphin shoot. I loved this location but the Oakland Film Office said I'd need to pay for a police escort to use it, and that's not really my style. But I still really wanted to share this space with folks in some way.

So! These photos are of the Miller Avenue branch library that's been closed for quite a while. It's really a haunting space to be in. I felt like I could still hear the whispers, and feel the ghosts of the books.

Even though it seemed like it was sealed off (no sign of forced entry, as the police said), somehow the whole place got tagged multiple times. There were also a bunch of files that somehow got left there, and scattered everywhere. Plus it has beautiful light.

Anyway, when I found these photos languishing on a memory stick, it kinda reminded me of the library itself, and the files abandoned there.





I wish I could learn the lesson of abandonment. In some ways, it takes the pressure off. Like reincarnation. If I could just manage to really believe in reincarnation, I think I'd be happier.

bees are cool

hey everybody who hasn't seen my backyard lately! Announcement: Bees are really cool.



When we moved into Mariposa Grove, there was already a hive here. It produced a lot of honey last summer, and I started to get into beekeeping then. But in the fall, we ended up with a hive in crisis. Our queen had died and been replaced by an intercast queen - a mish-mash of a queen bee and a worker bee. Basically, a larger than average bee with queen pheremones and an infertility problem. A queen bee that doesn't lay any eggs is death for a colony, which is where our hive was headed, until some beekeepers who know what they are doing came by and identified our problem. They killed off the intercast queen, introduced some fresh brood, and saved the colony. Yay!

That's where the action begins, actually, because the uber-beekepers left us with the advice that it's easier to maintain two hives than one - when one hive is suffering, you can help it with aid from the other one. That was all i needed to hear.

So with Tim's help (he's a Grover too), and the workshop of a friend from the eastbay topbar users group, I put together a new hive this spring. Since we happened to have an almost perfectly sized piece of plate glass lying around (who knows why? it looks like it might have been a shelf or a table-top) I decided to make it an observation hive.



The observation side of the hive doesn't actually take pictures well (reflections and whatnot), but you can see it in this swarm-catching video.



It was really cool to catch that swarm. It's doing well, and I'm really enjoying having these bees observable.

Babies in Japan

Hey. So we went to Japan for my friend Patrick's wedding. It was great. Here are some photos .

The highlight was Patrick making a pregnancy announcement at the after-wedding dinner/reception thing. His mom claimed to have known, but I don't believe her. I don't know why she would pretend that she knew.

I mean, when he said it was true, her face was like a stone. Like a shocked stone pretending that it didn't hear anything. And then quickly pretending that it had known all along. That's all.

Oh yeah. I haven't developed the panoramic photos yet. They're coming tho-

urbanite construction and raised beds

Our back yard used to be a parking lot, and there's still a lot of concrete back there. But at a work party recently, we busted up another 10'x10' square. With that busted concrete, I built a retaining wall for the raised beds that also serves as a bench for the social area around the swing. I was really surprised how well it turned out.



I learned a few things while doing this, which hopefully I, or you, can use in future urbanite construction.

My wall is rather narrow, which is preferable for a host of reasons - aesthetic, space conserving - but it's only put together with dirt - no mortar or cob or nothin'. So while it feels really stable right now, I'm not sure about it's longevity.

Besides just making it thicker, or using cob under the top layer, I think it could be made to be sturdier if I hadn't made it flat at each level. Here's an illustration of what I mean:

If I was to do it again, I would make each level slant in toward the dirt, and only make the top pieces level. Or, if it was a stand-alone wall, I would make it lean in on itself, each cross section looking like a very shallow "V." Basically, as Kevin (one of my Grovers) pointed out, the cross section would be a modified (filled in) arch. This way it would better resist any lateral pressures.

Okay. So I mentioned that we made raised beds, but I didn't show any pictures yet. We used a basket-weaving technique with a lot of the trimmings from trees in our yard and on the street. Here's a couple of pictures.


a close up.
and now, an overhead:


Bob van de Walle, one of the Grovers, keeps a blog where he also mentions the raised beds. His pics might give you another idea of what they look like (tho his are during construction).

He also mentions the sprouting of some of the stakes that we used to build the raised beds. This is a concern, but we're monitoring it to make sure it doesn't get out of hand.

more oil settling & delivery

Well, I finally finished (?) the oil settling/delivery system, and it took some time. I was really excited about the hand-crank pumps, because they're bright red, and made of cast iron, so they feel awesome. BUT they're leaky, and they don't have standard pipe fittings! (what??!?! yes. i couldn't believe it either.) So I couldn't make an airtight delivery sytem. With a constant source of air in the lines, only short distances would work - ie from the settlers to the clean tank. So I ended up moving the clean tank to the highest point, and the oil flows to the car by gravity (siphon) alone. In the first picture, you can see the pump that moves the oil to the sock-filter which is fitted into the top of the "CLEAN" barrel. The photo below shows the oil gravity-feeding into the car at the curb.



At some point, I may mount a hand pump at the end of the fueling line so that I can speed it along (if the clean tank is low, it can take 40 min to fill the tank by siphon). But I'm not going to do that right now.

live music

I'm embarrassed about this, and can hardly believe I'm writing this here, but I just made the decision that I don't want to go see one of my favorite bands in concert, so here it goes:

I really don't like to see live music.

It makes me pheel like a philistine to write this, because - just like locally grown vegetables - live music is something that's good to like. But this winter when invited to a concert for a band that was trendy in the 90s, i had a striking realization about my relationship to this cultural pastime.

I'm saying it again: I actually don't enjoy live music.

Maybe I shouldn't say that so baldly. There are live shows that I love, for example, Zakir Hussain. But aside from vituosic instrumental/acoustic (usually "WORLD" music), I'm can't get into it. I don't enjoy it.

OLD REASONS:

In my heart of hearts I've known that I didn't enjoy live music, and I've had a host of reasons over the years that ran through my head when I found I wasn't enjoying the show.

REASON NUMBER ONE:

Too damn loud. I always prefer to be social when going out with friends, and live music is too damn loud. I'd rather be able to talk to the people I'm with when I'm out, and live music is universally too amplified. Club and bar music is also often too amplified, which I've never understood at all (why would a bar with bad speakers play music at deafening volume?), but live music is the worst for this. I always feel like I leave live music venues with a hoarse voice and ringing ears. I can never hear the music as well as I can even on a terrible recording. It's almost like the performers are scared you might do something other than listen to the show. They'd rather you lose your hearing than hold a conversation.

REASON NUMBER TWO:

Lack of focus. This is the part that's most embarrassing for me - my own personal deficiency.

It has been a number of years since I felt like I could really focus for two straight hours on listening to a band. My mind starts to wander, and then the sheer discomfort of the venue (per reason one) is more of a hindrance than anything.

(I should say here, that there are times when I can focus on music for long periods, but I can't do it on command (such as at a show), and I'm usually alone when I do have that kind of focus and interest. So the combination of the ostensibly social venue and the private focus on music really just doesn't work for me.)

REASON NUMBER THREE:

Awkwardness. The standing still thing that happens at some concerts doesn't agree with me. It's so awkward! I'm bad at pretending to be enjoying myself, or pretending to be interested. I'd rather sit down. Or listen to a CD in my living room. Instead I wander in and out of the hall, adjacent rooms, and the bathroom.

------------

So, those are the standard reasons that I have had for not enjoying going to shows. Looking them over, they're not very convincing, and only do more to make me pheel like a philistine. These reasons are pretty lame, really. So there's good reason that I haven't been comfortable saying this out loud.

NEWER IMPROVED REASON WHY AARON DOESN'T LIKE LIVE MUSIC:

But then this winter, I was invited to see an old band who I didn't really like even when they were popular in the 90s. The first thing that passed through my mind was, "why are those people still on stage?"

That's when I realized why I don't like live shows. The question "why are these people on stage" gets stuck in my head as soon as I lose focus on the music. So for me, going to see a live show is exactly like going to a two hour session of pondering, in mental isolation, the nature of the cult of personality.

It's a terribly boring mental exercise: analysis of performers' manufactured image, questioning of motives, criticism of staginess and posturing, projected aspirations to fame, criticism of the stagy passivity of the crowd, internal criticism of my own stagy passivity, repeated recognition of the vampirism of cool.

Clearly, I end up in a really terrible head-space. At this point, even if I could regain interest in the music, I'd be immediately distracted by the orchestration of "the performativity of celebrity culture." It makes me even sadder in small venues, because it's such a hollow recreation of celebrity.

So, in conclusion, seeing the show actually detracts from my enjoyment of hearing the music. For a second I thought maybe I should try going to a concert blindfolded, but then I got the better of that idea. I mean, so what, I don't like live music. Why fight it?

Goodbye, attempts to enjoy live music,
Hello...
...other things.

i should note here, that some types of music and performances are exempt from this analysis. notable exceptions: dance bands, some jazz, much "world", most street music.

I should also note that much theater, however, is not exempted; I find the stage of theater to be similarly distracting, though perhaps to a lesser degree.