A/philia- first never refrigerate tomatoes if possible, they turn mushy and loose flavor. second, most recipes call for peeling the tomatoes by removing the stem/core, then score an x on the other end, and blanching them for about 30 seconds till the skin slips off. this will make the drying go faster. third, cut the tomatoes in half (remove the seeds or not) and place on a baking sheet lined with your favorite non-stick material (foil not recommended, parchment paper or plastic wrap works) in a single layer. drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper (and herbs) to taste. forth, stick them in 175-200 degree (f) oven and walk away. after 3 or so hours rotate the baking sheet 180 degrees. you can use the tomatoes at this point for pasta/pizza. but they won't keep very long unless frozen. after another 3 or more hours in the oven they should look like sun dried tomatoes. these leathery deep red morsels will keep in the cabinet (in a tightly sealed jar) or freeze for months.
lots of variations of this dessication method on the web - use what appeals to you.
I'm chained to microsoft word on this rainy and cool day, trying to finish my manuscript on Owens Lake. Got one more week (hey it's been two years) before the deadline.
Two hundred miles due north of Los Angeles lies a 108 square mile playa, the abandoned corpse of Owens Lake, a silent victim of the destructive thirst of the city. Almost a century ago the city became dependent on this distant watershed, funneling its life-giving liquid into a vast aqueduct to nurture its delirious growth. Long a vicious history of water, politics, and enslavement, this relationship has grown ever more complicated and inextricable, demonstrating the way that nature and society alike are being thoroughly reshaped by a politics of negotiation.
now I just have to figure out how to end this saga...
What I do with excess tomatoes in summer is grate them - skin and all, on a largeish grater - over a big bowl, then bag them with all the liquid in Ziploc sandwich bags and freeze them. They make great spaghetti sauce months later - they retain that brightness of fresh tomatoes even in deep winter.
LB- drying the tomatoes at 200 degrees reduces the volume to 1/10th and preserves the brightness of fresh tomatoes even in deep winter with less mess. just add some water, or a little oil for the most intense tomato sauce.
ok- I'm trying out my concluding paragraphs. the instructions from my editor were 'your biggest challenge is to produce a crisp, clean conclusion that avoids morailzing but rather focuses on the paradoxical conditions created by the recent work at Owens Lake and their implications for the society and culture as a whole.'
So what do you think about:
As the antipode to sprawling Los Angeles, the artificial emptiness of Owens Lake is a relief to the weary traveler pushing to find the remnants of the fabled frontier. As the stark flatness of the playa recedes into the distance, the monumental dust control project is barely visible as subtle shading of grays, reds and greens against the white salt until you are in the midst of them. At opportune times of the year, a visitor may see the otherwise transparent brine pools transformed into stunning reds and pinks by the halobacteria that are the bottom of the food chain.
California has become a place where everywhere you go, there are cities, fields, mines, and chopped down trees, except where regulations, inaccessible terrain, or brutal desert environment intervenes. If there was no Los Angeles, a muddy Owens Lake might reflect the sky and mountains. If there was no Los Angeles, Owens Valley might be filled with cookie cutter subdivisions. Yet we have Los Angeles, and through its existence, have preserved the amazing open rural landscape of Owens Valley through the infrastructure of the void.
mrs. tk thinks that 'cookie cutter subdivisions' is inflammatory and should be changed. I don't see what bugs her with this language...
For the first time in weeks, I've had a weekend where my only obligation was to sleep in and veg out the whole time. Unfortunately, Saturday morning I somehow pulled a muscle in my neck while in the shower, and I've barely been able to move without huge amounts of pain since then. This has happened a few times in the past, and it's a huge pain whenever it does... And it's not as if I was doing anything particularly physically strenuous, either. It finally seems to be getting a little better now, though.
Despite that, I did manage to get over to Brooklyn yesterday to look at an apartment for rent... Nothing to brag about, but it seemed like a clean, decent place in a fairly stable working-class neighborhood. It's a so-called "railroad" apartment in an old brownstone, in which all the rooms are in succession without a hallway. As such, one would have to walk through my bedroom in order to get to the kitchen. Not really a problem, since I'd be the only person living there. At least it's got some character, with a lot of the original details intact. I put in an application on the spot; I hope to hear back from the landlord on Monday... Wish me luck.
In the meantime, I'm settling into life at my temporary abode here in Harlem. The neighborhood can be a little intimidating to outsiders, but so far it's been harmless. The apartment itself is small but nice, except for the fact that the central air is controlled by the landlord upstairs. Why this apartment wasn't given its own thermostat (it's a new renovation) is beyond me, but what's worse is the fact that the landlord turns on the A/C only about three times a day if I'm lucky... The rest of the time this place is like an oven, even when it's 65 outside with the windows open. Who turns on the A/C only three times a day? Why not just set the fucking thermostat at one temperature and leave it there? Arrgh.....
my younger brother, in his feckless youth, sold christmas trees in harlem. he lived out of a truck, but a latin american family man pitied the bearded, oh so lumberjack-looking, and most likely stinking, canadian boy and gave him use of his shower every day. Just as a neighbourly thing to do. Harlem is still fav place for little bro. Of course he made no money on that job, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.
tk, mind if i have a go at editing? Obviously please take this with a grain of salt as I have zero editing training--just a very strict writer of a mother. So:
You have a tendancy to begin your sentences with what i'm going to call "introductory clauses"-- i don't know the proper grammatical term for it. Basically this type of sentence: "As the blah blah, blah blah blah blah. At the blah blah, blah blah blah blah. If blah blah, blah blah blah blah. Although blah blah, blah blah blah." It makes for a weird perceptible cadence that distracts the reader from your words. I would say that generally you use commas too much; often they are not grammatically necessary in your sentences and their inclusion simply creates an awkward pause that interrupts the flow of your thoughts. Here's how I'd mark up your paragraphs if I were editing them:
As the antipode to sprawling Los Angeles, the artificial emptiness of Owens Lake is a relief to the weary traveler pushing to find the remnants of the fabled frontier. As the stark flatness of the playa recedes into the distance, the monumental dust control project is barely visible as subtle shading of grays, reds and greens against the white salt until you are in the midst of them. This second sentence is confusing; I had to read it twice to figure out what "them" refers to. (I think it's the "grays, reds, and greens"? Which is weird because the beginning structure of the sentence sets up "subtle shading" as the object, and then when you get to "them" at the end you think, huh, were there multiple objects? and you have to go back and figure out that it was the greys, reds, and greens.) Another awkward thing is that you have two sentences in row beginning with "as the". The first sentence is very strong so I'd rework this second one.
At opportune times of the year (NO COMMA) a visitor may see the otherwise transparent brine pools transformed into stunning reds and pinks by the halobacteria that are the bottom of the food chain.
California has become a place where everywhere you go, there are cities, fields, mines, and chopped down trees, except where regulations, inaccessible terrain, or brutal desert environment intervenes. eek! Tighten this one up--it's losing its impact, mired as it is in lists and commas. Maybe something like: "California has become choked with cities, fields, mines, and tree stumps--except where regulations or inhospitable environment have precluded the human effort."
If there was no Los Angeles, a muddy Owens Lake might reflect the sky and mountains. If there was no Los Angeles, Owens Valley might be filled with cookie-cutter subdivisions. Yet, (here you need a comma!) we have Los Angeles; (semi-colon) and through its existence have preserved the amazingly open rural landscape of Owens Valley.
through the infrastructure of the void. <-- this part i don't understand at all.
If you clean up the previous string of sentences-starting-with-clauses, then the final, repetitve "if there was no los angeles" chunk gains power.
So I dropped my mom off at the airport. This was the last time I get to see her before she goes back to Bonaire, to help my dad in their crazy home development scheme. I'm scared for them, but especially for her, she's so fragile emotionally. I don't really know where I'm going with this explanation, but suffice to say that in the seven years since I moved out on my own, this was the ONLY time that saying goodbye to my mother has made me cry.
TK, congrats on getting the manuscript off. Techno, stay safe out there. WK, I'll call you tomorrow probably, have fun at orientation.
I posted this exact post on Green Thread Central, but wanted to share it here too.
This was the best part of my recent drive to Chicago and is no doubt one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I do believe it's a wind turbine blade:
This was actually one of three I saw, each on a separate truck bed. For one, it's enormous - I mean stunningly enormous. Second, it's incredibly graceful and *fluid* - I mean it looks like a whale or a dolphin, and it looks exactly, specifically, beautifully designed to function at maximum power and efficiency.
I was not only entranced, but nearly obsessed, with this thing - I couldn't stop looking at it. It's sublime.
And later, when I looked at the amorphous NURBs-ey shape of a proposed nature center column, well, it looked completely clunky and contrived.
myriam, those are exactly the edits I would have made to treekiller's manuscript. tk, there's still editorial review, right? So still time for a little tweaking?
rationalist, bear in mind that YOU are also in transition right now, so seeing your parents so unstable is therefore even more difficult for you. My mom has Parkinson's and every time I see her both looking frail and simultaneously feeling worried about ME, because I'm having my own life problems, I get overly sad to say goodbye to her, because I think we would so enjoy being close to one another.
liberty, that thing IS entrancing!! how cool! I had *no idea* those things were so huge. i grew up roadtripping up and down the 5 freeway in California and remember staring out the window at the fields of wind turbines, until i finally lost sight of the very last speck of them. i was obsessed with them and called them penguins for some unknown reason. for years i thought everyone had wind turbines littering their state.
that blade is gorgeous, i keep looking at your photo. i wonder if it's made of carbon fiber? wouldn't that be perfect--lightweight, strong, and resilient... mmm.... carbon fiber wind turbine blades....
Penguins is perfect, myriam - it has a similar curve to their wings, or a flipper. BTW, we were in Chicago for only 5 hours (took more time to drive there than we were actually in the city!) so I didn't even attempt to contact anyone. In and out, nobody gets hurt...
did you see the recent ep of daily show making fun of wind turbines and kennedy family LB? if not you should get a hold of it. too funny.
totally know what you mean about parent child relationships, especially when the child has own adult life and problems....
being on other side of ocean makes good byes to family harder the older i get. it is maybe a built in protectiveness but my mum and grandparents try not to burden me and bro about their troubles, even when we want to help...i think they are afraid we will drop everything an head back to canada, and they don't want that. when my da was alive he was the same. we had no real idea even that he was life-threateningly ill until we got the call saying he had passed away. all i can say is thank the small gods for skype cuz it was only way we got to see our family and talk to them most times...what a lovely bit of soft-ware.
M & Lb, never to late. I love, the use, of, comma's. Also, introductory clauses, add a nice cadence and lyricism that I aspire to.
I'll pick up those suggestions tonight and resend the manuscript. The editor will appreciate the help. Infrastructure of the void is my essay's title. i was being cheeky by slipping it into the last sentence.
i wanna design penguin fields/wind farms or what ever as the antipode to our energy guzzling society.
tumbles, I forgot to follow you home to get boxes after WK's shindig... will you be around at any point on Friday night? I'm going to kareoke downtown for a friend's birthday and could stop by and grab some, if there are any left. Sorry it's taken so long to get them. Hope the roomate thing works out.
tumbles, I did indeed get housing settled. I've got a little three-bedroom Tudor north of the university, with two other architecture people. Hardwood floors, good height ceilings, a very cute kitchen, my own half-bath, roomates who are as committed to contemporary furnishings as I am, and a not-too-tough bike commute to school are the major hilights. Oh, and we get planting privileges, so we agreed to try a small kitchen garden. Probably just some basil, mint, cilantro, tomatoes, stuff like that, but I'm excited. Many of the neighbors seem to have small gardens too, and there were many sunflowers on my way there from school. Maybe treekiller can give me some suggestions as to good things to plant that aren't too difficult?
radishes are the easiest and quickest to harvest. spinach is good too.
get seedlings for herbs, germinating them yourself is tough. i'd also recommend tomato/pepper seedlings too. if you have a big enough space (4'x4' or more, plant one summer squash/zuchini seed - these plants get really big and give lots to harvest everyday once they mature.
carrots are nice, but slow. no luck with my cauliflower. strawberries are delish but take a few years.
even better is talk to your new neighbors about what they have luck growing- it all depends on the soil, amount of sun and water... you're not in minnesota.
I'm starting the "Free Ron Mexico" campaign. Who's in? The only thing I love more than two dogs ripping each other apart is brutally killing the dogs that aren't good at it.
See ya in the pokey Mike. Take the Mark Furman route and just go away.
i moved into a place one summer when i was in grad school. it was called the bovine house. because there was a cow crossing sign on the porch. i had four or five roomates. a very pretty woman who rode a motorcycle, a radical lesbian who worked for new mexico pirg, and a couple of those kind of stoners who are smarter than everyone else. anyway they had a garden started that included many pot plants. after the harvest we had bags of pot in the kitchen cabinets. i was stoned for an entire semester. good times.
Does this thread make anyone else's head hurt? It's as though everyone is talking but no one is conversing (for the most part). The junior is talking to everyone else as a peer. The seniors are talking to the junior as if he/she is their peer. Like two trains passing in the night?
Perhaps I did not have the benefit of watching the discussion unfold throughout the day.
Okay so the hurricane passed my folks almost completely. House is fine, sister's apartment too. My best friend and her sick Gram are okay. So despite coming awfully close they've all been spared.
So now I'm desperately trying to finish a proposal for a client. He's getting a little anxious and can't seem to understand that because he wants both his office & home its going to take me nearly twice as long. A well...its only Monday
wow, I got a one day turn-around on edits from the latest draft. There were months of silence earlier in the process- I feel loved again!
So here is the editor's pass and my second round on the essay's conclusion:
As the antipode to sprawling Los Angeles, the artificial emptiness of Owens Lake simulates the conditions of the frontier. Standing at the edge of the Lake, the stark flatness of the playa recedes into the distance with the monumental dust control project is barely visible, comprising only a subtle shading of grays, reds and greens against the white salt until the visitor arrives in the midst of the bubblers on the terraformed lakebed. This vast infrastructure collapses the romantic notion of discovering a pristine wilderness in this otherwise featureless terrain. Looking back out towards the surrounding mountains, the other subtle traces of human activity jump into stark relief - the road snaking up the shear wall of the mountains, the gossamer threads of the power lines, and absolute horizontal trace of the aqueduct cutting into the foothills.
Once natural, California is now thoroughly artificial. Perversely, only in places as heavily regulated as Owens Lake is there any semblance of what the territory might have been like before settlers arrived. We can dream that if Los Angeles hadn’t taken its water, a prehistoric Owens Lake might still reflect the sky and mountains. But more likely, if Los Angeles hadn’t taken its water, Owens Valley might be filled with agribusiness being rapidly supplanted by cookie cutter subdivisions. Yet in a strange gift, Los Angeles has preserved the open rural landscape of Owens Valley, re-creating the void where by all rights we shouldn’t expect to find it.
most of the 'introductory phrases' and over abundant commas have been smoothed out. So thanks Myriam and Liberty Bell for the great suggestions. I'll let ya'll know when the book arrives in the stores. (hope I get a couple free copies!)
oh wow i completely disagree with your editor's edits! yikes. guess i'm not cut out for editing after all. ah well. it would only ever have been a second love, anyway...
myriam- introductory clauses are his writing style (ok, I'll let the cat out of the bag- Kazys is the editor for the book). we'll see what Michael Kubo at Actar does to my essay.
man there is this smell in the air. smells like burning model airplane for all those who used to burn their models. what could it be? cuz i don't have any models.
I spray breathe freshner in my car today when i was picking up my boss-lady (her car was out again). It smell really nice and I thought I had a market for it.
An hour later I went back in the car, and had to suffer under the smell transformed completely by the heat in the car - I'm not sure how to describe it but the "rotten egg" smell of the volcano (venting after the heavy rains from the hurricane, et al) was significantly more appealing.
A few years ago, my cute foreign mother went grocery shopping and puchased salmon. It slipped under the passenger's seat while she was driving. Upon arrival at our house, she grabbed all the bags out of the car and went her merry way. (Note: this is the part of the story where someone might say 'Hey, didn't I buy fish at the grocery store?')
A few days later, lo and behold, the car reaks. It smells like death. Horrible stench. Intolerable. My mother refused to drive the car. My dad called a tow truck to pick it up and take it to the dealer to see what was wrong with the car. One of my sisters finally got the balls to search the interior of the car and found the fish under the passenger seat.
it wasnt my car that smelled like that. it was the air outside. it is gone now. all that remains is the deafening love call of the cicada. i don't even get that loud!
Every so often I'd board an 'L' train in Chicago that had that telltale sulphuric smell of an electrical fire. Electrical fires on Chicago 'L' trains are fairly common (due to trash in tunnels that never gets cleaned, deferred maintenance, and the L's unique electric friction braking system -- most other subways use air brakes), but it never ceased to amaze me how nobody seemed to regard it as a big deal. If that smell appeared anywhere in the NYC subway system, they'd have the entire line shut down within minutes. Of course, the NYC subway has plenty of unique smells of its own....
Why do you call hamburgers sandwiches? From the inventor of the Big Mac:
LOS ANGELES - Jim Delligatti took two years to convince McDonald's that the Big Mac was a good idea but 40 years on he takes pride in having invented one of the world's most widely eaten foods that is getting its own museum.
In 1967, the McDonald's franchisee got permission from the corporate office to put two beef patties on a hamburger bun. A year later, the Big Mac he lobbied so hard for made it onto the menu of every McDonald's restaurant.
"I felt that we needed a big sandwich," the 89-year-old Delligatti said. "But you couldn't do anything unless they gave you permission."
diabase, isn't a hamburger a sandwich? Isn't a sandwich defined by being filling between two slices of bread? Or down under do you have another term for filling surrounded by bun as opposed to filling surrounded by sliced bread?
Well, crap I just got some bad news: my proposed "Architecture Appeciation" course for fall, which was supposed to start Monday, has been canceled as not enough people signed up to take it. I had just started doing some publicity for it and apparently it was too little too late. I'm really bummed.
But we're going to try again in spring!
That funny precarious red mushroom is back at the bottom of TC....
Thread Central
A/philia- first never refrigerate tomatoes if possible, they turn mushy and loose flavor. second, most recipes call for peeling the tomatoes by removing the stem/core, then score an x on the other end, and blanching them for about 30 seconds till the skin slips off. this will make the drying go faster. third, cut the tomatoes in half (remove the seeds or not) and place on a baking sheet lined with your favorite non-stick material (foil not recommended, parchment paper or plastic wrap works) in a single layer. drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper (and herbs) to taste. forth, stick them in 175-200 degree (f) oven and walk away. after 3 or so hours rotate the baking sheet 180 degrees. you can use the tomatoes at this point for pasta/pizza. but they won't keep very long unless frozen. after another 3 or more hours in the oven they should look like sun dried tomatoes. these leathery deep red morsels will keep in the cabinet (in a tightly sealed jar) or freeze for months.
lots of variations of this dessication method on the web - use what appeals to you.
I'm chained to microsoft word on this rainy and cool day, trying to finish my manuscript on Owens Lake. Got one more week (hey it's been two years) before the deadline.
Two hundred miles due north of Los Angeles lies a 108 square mile playa, the abandoned corpse of Owens Lake, a silent victim of the destructive thirst of the city. Almost a century ago the city became dependent on this distant watershed, funneling its life-giving liquid into a vast aqueduct to nurture its delirious growth. Long a vicious history of water, politics, and enslavement, this relationship has grown ever more complicated and inextricable, demonstrating the way that nature and society alike are being thoroughly reshaped by a politics of negotiation.
now I just have to figure out how to end this saga...
What I do with excess tomatoes in summer is grate them - skin and all, on a largeish grater - over a big bowl, then bag them with all the liquid in Ziploc sandwich bags and freeze them. They make great spaghetti sauce months later - they retain that brightness of fresh tomatoes even in deep winter.
presently (1pm) the eye of the hurricane is about 60 miles south of the east coast of Jamaica.
that should read 5pm
LB- drying the tomatoes at 200 degrees reduces the volume to 1/10th and preserves the brightness of fresh tomatoes even in deep winter with less mess. just add some water, or a little oil for the most intense tomato sauce.
ok- I'm trying out my concluding paragraphs. the instructions from my editor were 'your biggest challenge is to produce a crisp, clean conclusion that avoids morailzing but rather focuses on the paradoxical conditions created by the recent work at Owens Lake and their implications for the society and culture as a whole.'
So what do you think about:
As the antipode to sprawling Los Angeles, the artificial emptiness of Owens Lake is a relief to the weary traveler pushing to find the remnants of the fabled frontier. As the stark flatness of the playa recedes into the distance, the monumental dust control project is barely visible as subtle shading of grays, reds and greens against the white salt until you are in the midst of them. At opportune times of the year, a visitor may see the otherwise transparent brine pools transformed into stunning reds and pinks by the halobacteria that are the bottom of the food chain.
California has become a place where everywhere you go, there are cities, fields, mines, and chopped down trees, except where regulations, inaccessible terrain, or brutal desert environment intervenes. If there was no Los Angeles, a muddy Owens Lake might reflect the sky and mountains. If there was no Los Angeles, Owens Valley might be filled with cookie cutter subdivisions. Yet we have Los Angeles, and through its existence, have preserved the amazing open rural landscape of Owens Valley through the infrastructure of the void.
mrs. tk thinks that 'cookie cutter subdivisions' is inflammatory and should be changed. I don't see what bugs her with this language...
how much energy is used baking those tomatos?
For the first time in weeks, I've had a weekend where my only obligation was to sleep in and veg out the whole time. Unfortunately, Saturday morning I somehow pulled a muscle in my neck while in the shower, and I've barely been able to move without huge amounts of pain since then. This has happened a few times in the past, and it's a huge pain whenever it does... And it's not as if I was doing anything particularly physically strenuous, either. It finally seems to be getting a little better now, though.
Despite that, I did manage to get over to Brooklyn yesterday to look at an apartment for rent... Nothing to brag about, but it seemed like a clean, decent place in a fairly stable working-class neighborhood. It's a so-called "railroad" apartment in an old brownstone, in which all the rooms are in succession without a hallway. As such, one would have to walk through my bedroom in order to get to the kitchen. Not really a problem, since I'd be the only person living there. At least it's got some character, with a lot of the original details intact. I put in an application on the spot; I hope to hear back from the landlord on Monday... Wish me luck.
In the meantime, I'm settling into life at my temporary abode here in Harlem. The neighborhood can be a little intimidating to outsiders, but so far it's been harmless. The apartment itself is small but nice, except for the fact that the central air is controlled by the landlord upstairs. Why this apartment wasn't given its own thermostat (it's a new renovation) is beyond me, but what's worse is the fact that the landlord turns on the A/C only about three times a day if I'm lucky... The rest of the time this place is like an oven, even when it's 65 outside with the windows open. Who turns on the A/C only three times a day? Why not just set the fucking thermostat at one temperature and leave it there? Arrgh.....
good question - probably less then if they were transported mexico or florida... or turned into ethanol.
my younger brother, in his feckless youth, sold christmas trees in harlem. he lived out of a truck, but a latin american family man pitied the bearded, oh so lumberjack-looking, and most likely stinking, canadian boy and gave him use of his shower every day. Just as a neighbourly thing to do. Harlem is still fav place for little bro. Of course he made no money on that job, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.
yeay- sent the manuscript off. now I get to make maps, but that will be another day. off to veg in front of my newly installed cable tv.
tk, mind if i have a go at editing? Obviously please take this with a grain of salt as I have zero editing training--just a very strict writer of a mother. So:
You have a tendancy to begin your sentences with what i'm going to call "introductory clauses"-- i don't know the proper grammatical term for it. Basically this type of sentence: "As the blah blah, blah blah blah blah. At the blah blah, blah blah blah blah. If blah blah, blah blah blah blah. Although blah blah, blah blah blah." It makes for a weird perceptible cadence that distracts the reader from your words. I would say that generally you use commas too much; often they are not grammatically necessary in your sentences and their inclusion simply creates an awkward pause that interrupts the flow of your thoughts. Here's how I'd mark up your paragraphs if I were editing them:
As the antipode to sprawling Los Angeles, the artificial emptiness of Owens Lake is a relief to the weary traveler pushing to find the remnants of the fabled frontier. As the stark flatness of the playa recedes into the distance, the monumental dust control project is barely visible as subtle shading of grays, reds and greens against the white salt until you are in the midst of them. This second sentence is confusing; I had to read it twice to figure out what "them" refers to. (I think it's the "grays, reds, and greens"? Which is weird because the beginning structure of the sentence sets up "subtle shading" as the object, and then when you get to "them" at the end you think, huh, were there multiple objects? and you have to go back and figure out that it was the greys, reds, and greens.) Another awkward thing is that you have two sentences in row beginning with "as the". The first sentence is very strong so I'd rework this second one.
At opportune times of the year (NO COMMA) a visitor may see the otherwise transparent brine pools transformed into stunning reds and pinks by the halobacteria that are the bottom of the food chain.
California has become a place where everywhere you go, there are cities, fields, mines, and chopped down trees, except where regulations, inaccessible terrain, or brutal desert environment intervenes. eek! Tighten this one up--it's losing its impact, mired as it is in lists and commas. Maybe something like: "California has become choked with cities, fields, mines, and tree stumps--except where regulations or inhospitable environment have precluded the human effort."
If there was no Los Angeles, a muddy Owens Lake might reflect the sky and mountains. If there was no Los Angeles, Owens Valley might be filled with cookie-cutter subdivisions. Yet, (here you need a comma!) we have Los Angeles; (semi-colon) and through its existence have preserved the amazingly open rural landscape of Owens Valley.
through the infrastructure of the void. <-- this part i don't understand at all.
If you clean up the previous string of sentences-starting-with-clauses, then the final, repetitve "if there was no los angeles" chunk gains power.
whoops, got there too late! oh well. too busy photoshopping stuff for work tomorrow.
So I dropped my mom off at the airport. This was the last time I get to see her before she goes back to Bonaire, to help my dad in their crazy home development scheme. I'm scared for them, but especially for her, she's so fragile emotionally. I don't really know where I'm going with this explanation, but suffice to say that in the seven years since I moved out on my own, this was the ONLY time that saying goodbye to my mother has made me cry.
TK, congrats on getting the manuscript off. Techno, stay safe out there. WK, I'll call you tomorrow probably, have fun at orientation.
I posted this exact post on Green Thread Central, but wanted to share it here too.
This was the best part of my recent drive to Chicago and is no doubt one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I do believe it's a wind turbine blade:
This was actually one of three I saw, each on a separate truck bed. For one, it's enormous - I mean stunningly enormous. Second, it's incredibly graceful and *fluid* - I mean it looks like a whale or a dolphin, and it looks exactly, specifically, beautifully designed to function at maximum power and efficiency.
I was not only entranced, but nearly obsessed, with this thing - I couldn't stop looking at it. It's sublime.
And later, when I looked at the amorphous NURBs-ey shape of a proposed nature center column, well, it looked completely clunky and contrived.
myriam, those are exactly the edits I would have made to treekiller's manuscript. tk, there's still editorial review, right? So still time for a little tweaking?
rationalist, bear in mind that YOU are also in transition right now, so seeing your parents so unstable is therefore even more difficult for you. My mom has Parkinson's and every time I see her both looking frail and simultaneously feeling worried about ME, because I'm having my own life problems, I get overly sad to say goodbye to her, because I think we would so enjoy being close to one another.
liberty, that thing IS entrancing!! how cool! I had *no idea* those things were so huge. i grew up roadtripping up and down the 5 freeway in California and remember staring out the window at the fields of wind turbines, until i finally lost sight of the very last speck of them. i was obsessed with them and called them penguins for some unknown reason. for years i thought everyone had wind turbines littering their state.
that blade is gorgeous, i keep looking at your photo. i wonder if it's made of carbon fiber? wouldn't that be perfect--lightweight, strong, and resilient... mmm.... carbon fiber wind turbine blades....
Penguins is perfect, myriam - it has a similar curve to their wings, or a flipper. BTW, we were in Chicago for only 5 hours (took more time to drive there than we were actually in the city!) so I didn't even attempt to contact anyone. In and out, nobody gets hurt...
did you see the recent ep of daily show making fun of wind turbines and kennedy family LB? if not you should get a hold of it. too funny.
totally know what you mean about parent child relationships, especially when the child has own adult life and problems....
being on other side of ocean makes good byes to family harder the older i get. it is maybe a built in protectiveness but my mum and grandparents try not to burden me and bro about their troubles, even when we want to help...i think they are afraid we will drop everything an head back to canada, and they don't want that. when my da was alive he was the same. we had no real idea even that he was life-threateningly ill until we got the call saying he had passed away. all i can say is thank the small gods for skype cuz it was only way we got to see our family and talk to them most times...what a lovely bit of soft-ware.
what is it with girls and propellers?
I did see it, jump. I imagine the blades I saw *might* have been headed to Nantucket? I wonder where they are made...
M & Lb, never to late. I love, the use, of, comma's. Also, introductory clauses, add a nice cadence and lyricism that I aspire to.
I'll pick up those suggestions tonight and resend the manuscript. The editor will appreciate the help. Infrastructure of the void is my essay's title. i was being cheeky by slipping it into the last sentence.
i wanna design penguin fields/wind farms or what ever as the antipode to our energy guzzling society.
tumbles, I forgot to follow you home to get boxes after WK's shindig... will you be around at any point on Friday night? I'm going to kareoke downtown for a friend's birthday and could stop by and grab some, if there are any left. Sorry it's taken so long to get them. Hope the roomate thing works out.
tumbles
you're welcome...
ps, keep your fingers out of the wet drywall mud ;)
Well, the apartment in Brooklyn I submitted the application for has been rented to somebody else. Fuck.
tumbles, I did indeed get housing settled. I've got a little three-bedroom Tudor north of the university, with two other architecture people. Hardwood floors, good height ceilings, a very cute kitchen, my own half-bath, roomates who are as committed to contemporary furnishings as I am, and a not-too-tough bike commute to school are the major hilights. Oh, and we get planting privileges, so we agreed to try a small kitchen garden. Probably just some basil, mint, cilantro, tomatoes, stuff like that, but I'm excited. Many of the neighbors seem to have small gardens too, and there were many sunflowers on my way there from school. Maybe treekiller can give me some suggestions as to good things to plant that aren't too difficult?
radishes are the easiest and quickest to harvest. spinach is good too.
get seedlings for herbs, germinating them yourself is tough. i'd also recommend tomato/pepper seedlings too. if you have a big enough space (4'x4' or more, plant one summer squash/zuchini seed - these plants get really big and give lots to harvest everyday once they mature.
carrots are nice, but slow. no luck with my cauliflower. strawberries are delish but take a few years.
even better is talk to your new neighbors about what they have luck growing- it all depends on the soil, amount of sun and water... you're not in minnesota.
I'm starting the "Free Ron Mexico" campaign. Who's in? The only thing I love more than two dogs ripping each other apart is brutally killing the dogs that aren't good at it.
See ya in the pokey Mike. Take the Mark Furman route and just go away.
i moved into a place one summer when i was in grad school. it was called the bovine house. because there was a cow crossing sign on the porch. i had four or five roomates. a very pretty woman who rode a motorcycle, a radical lesbian who worked for new mexico pirg, and a couple of those kind of stoners who are smarter than everyone else. anyway they had a garden started that included many pot plants. after the harvest we had bags of pot in the kitchen cabinets. i was stoned for an entire semester. good times.
i named my fantasy football team Vick the Dick's Bad Newz Kennelz in dubious homage to the idiot.
i don't think fantasy football means the same thing in the clink.
mmmm, carrots sound good. My mom and I used to grow carrots, and they always smelled about 5x as good as anything bought from the grocery store.
Someone wants to see my car! Hooray! Now I just have to get it smog checked...
Does this thread make anyone else's head hurt? It's as though everyone is talking but no one is conversing (for the most part). The junior is talking to everyone else as a peer. The seniors are talking to the junior as if he/she is their peer. Like two trains passing in the night?
Perhaps I did not have the benefit of watching the discussion unfold throughout the day.
Okay so the hurricane passed my folks almost completely. House is fine, sister's apartment too. My best friend and her sick Gram are okay. So despite coming awfully close they've all been spared.
So now I'm desperately trying to finish a proposal for a client. He's getting a little anxious and can't seem to understand that because he wants both his office & home its going to take me nearly twice as long. A well...its only Monday
wow, I got a one day turn-around on edits from the latest draft. There were months of silence earlier in the process- I feel loved again!
So here is the editor's pass and my second round on the essay's conclusion:
As the antipode to sprawling Los Angeles, the artificial emptiness of Owens Lake simulates the conditions of the frontier. Standing at the edge of the Lake, the stark flatness of the playa recedes into the distance with the monumental dust control project is barely visible, comprising only a subtle shading of grays, reds and greens against the white salt until the visitor arrives in the midst of the bubblers on the terraformed lakebed. This vast infrastructure collapses the romantic notion of discovering a pristine wilderness in this otherwise featureless terrain. Looking back out towards the surrounding mountains, the other subtle traces of human activity jump into stark relief - the road snaking up the shear wall of the mountains, the gossamer threads of the power lines, and absolute horizontal trace of the aqueduct cutting into the foothills.
Once natural, California is now thoroughly artificial. Perversely, only in places as heavily regulated as Owens Lake is there any semblance of what the territory might have been like before settlers arrived. We can dream that if Los Angeles hadn’t taken its water, a prehistoric Owens Lake might still reflect the sky and mountains. But more likely, if Los Angeles hadn’t taken its water, Owens Valley might be filled with agribusiness being rapidly supplanted by cookie cutter subdivisions. Yet in a strange gift, Los Angeles has preserved the open rural landscape of Owens Valley, re-creating the void where by all rights we shouldn’t expect to find it.
most of the 'introductory phrases' and over abundant commas have been smoothed out. So thanks Myriam and Liberty Bell for the great suggestions. I'll let ya'll know when the book arrives in the stores. (hope I get a couple free copies!)
oh wow i completely disagree with your editor's edits! yikes. guess i'm not cut out for editing after all. ah well. it would only ever have been a second love, anyway...
liberty bell i sent you a tomato email!
vado- I want a tomato email too!
myriam- introductory clauses are his writing style (ok, I'll let the cat out of the bag- Kazys is the editor for the book). we'll see what Michael Kubo at Actar does to my essay.
man there is this smell in the air. smells like burning model airplane for all those who used to burn their models. what could it be? cuz i don't have any models.
vado- wiring on fire, maybe? I used to have a '76 Bronco that would smell like that now and again.....
I spray breathe freshner in my car today when i was picking up my boss-lady (her car was out again). It smell really nice and I thought I had a market for it.
An hour later I went back in the car, and had to suffer under the smell transformed completely by the heat in the car - I'm not sure how to describe it but the "rotten egg" smell of the volcano (venting after the heavy rains from the hurricane, et al) was significantly more appealing.
A few years ago, my cute foreign mother went grocery shopping and puchased salmon. It slipped under the passenger's seat while she was driving. Upon arrival at our house, she grabbed all the bags out of the car and went her merry way. (Note: this is the part of the story where someone might say 'Hey, didn't I buy fish at the grocery store?')
A few days later, lo and behold, the car reaks. It smells like death. Horrible stench. Intolerable. My mother refused to drive the car. My dad called a tow truck to pick it up and take it to the dealer to see what was wrong with the car. One of my sisters finally got the balls to search the interior of the car and found the fish under the passenger seat.
That's my car smell story.
it wasnt my car that smelled like that. it was the air outside. it is gone now. all that remains is the deafening love call of the cicada. i don't even get that loud!
Every so often I'd board an 'L' train in Chicago that had that telltale sulphuric smell of an electrical fire. Electrical fires on Chicago 'L' trains are fairly common (due to trash in tunnels that never gets cleaned, deferred maintenance, and the L's unique electric friction braking system -- most other subways use air brakes), but it never ceased to amaze me how nobody seemed to regard it as a big deal. If that smell appeared anywhere in the NYC subway system, they'd have the entire line shut down within minutes. Of course, the NYC subway has plenty of unique smells of its own....
Here's a question for my American buddies.
Why do you call hamburgers sandwiches? From the inventor of the Big Mac:
LOS ANGELES - Jim Delligatti took two years to convince McDonald's that the Big Mac was a good idea but 40 years on he takes pride in having invented one of the world's most widely eaten foods that is getting its own museum.
In 1967, the McDonald's franchisee got permission from the corporate office to put two beef patties on a hamburger bun. A year later, the Big Mac he lobbied so hard for made it onto the menu of every McDonald's restaurant.
"I felt that we needed a big sandwich," the 89-year-old Delligatti said. "But you couldn't do anything unless they gave you permission."
there was a guy in "Supersize Me" who only ate big macs. thats it. nothing else.
diabase, isn't a hamburger a sandwich? Isn't a sandwich defined by being filling between two slices of bread? Or down under do you have another term for filling surrounded by bun as opposed to filling surrounded by sliced bread?
my thoughts exactly...
doesn't BREAD + ___________ + BREAD = SANDWICH ???
yeay for the north woods!!!
Well, crap I just got some bad news: my proposed "Architecture Appeciation" course for fall, which was supposed to start Monday, has been canceled as not enough people signed up to take it. I had just started doing some publicity for it and apparently it was too little too late. I'm really bummed.
But we're going to try again in spring!
That funny precarious red mushroom is back at the bottom of TC....
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