Decay! Decay! Decaaaay!

Insects making quick work of late-season wildflowers, on the flanks of Mt. Hood.

The title, of course, comes from that seminal work of the postmodern era, Strindberg and Helium. Seriously, you should probably go watch it.  Let it bring...some...joy to the long, boring walk...through the shadowland of memory.

(Not really very) Bokehlicious

Yes, it's a very shallow depth of field, but it ain't bokeh to write home about.

Daintily-etched characters on a sandstone wall, in southern China.

Metallurgy

More beauty amid decay: texture and color swathing an abandoned house in Bodie, CA.

The Mountain Cat's Ear

Two social commentary pictures in a row?  Crazy.  Now, here is a flower.

Liliaceae Calochortus Subalpinus, the Subalpine Mariposa Lily, taken near the beginning of a circumnavigation of Mt. Hood via the Timberline Trail, with my bro.

Street(non)meats

There are rice pyramids in these bamboo leaves.  They looked so good (and so benign and un-intimidating relative to the average East Asian streetmeat), but they were just a bit too blandly sweet for me.  Muslim Quarter, Xi'an, China.

Swarms

This isn't really great photography or anything, it's more of a Halloween post.  You see, swarms of anything gross me out in a creepy, Halloweeny way.  Doesn't matter if it's rats or people crawling all over each other, it's stomach-turning.  So you can imagine my consternation when, on a winter hike in the Poconos with boyfriend, I came upon an area of snow pocked here and there with holes FULL of swarming insects.  These are big holes, about a foot across, and there were at least a dozen of them.  That's a lot of bugs.  And they were all wriggling and squirming.  It's snow, bugs!  It should be pristine and pretty.  Stop making it gross.

Anyway, Happy Halloween.  May your snow be free of weird bug spawns.

In his house he waits dreaming...

Fancypants spider of unknown species (genus Aranea!), Kathmandu, Nepal.

Salt of the Earth

Salt formations (don't tread on them!), Death Valley, CA.

A Gentle Eye

At a horse farm in the Poconos.

Bones

Yak vertebra at the edge of the receding Khumbu glacier, which we saw while crossing it more or less at random (trails are for...pussies?).  There were quite a lot of bones scattered around in the grass, enough for several yaks.  None of the cool ones, though.  Skulls probably get snatched up by tourists before all the flesh is gone.  (Gross)

Taste the 'Rainbow'

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  Fuck, it's a V2 rocket!

Gravity’s Rainbow, Pynchon’s opus and my determined literary slog for about the last four months, finally completed last week.

For those that are unfamiliar, here is a handy equation:

Gravity’s Rainbow =

Catch-22(Dhalgren x Ulysses)^hardcore pornography
William S. Burroughs + Kafka

It is nearly 900 pages. There are over 400 named characters, many of whom appear only once, while others might be introduced early and then left for hundreds of pages, only to become integral near the close. Dozens of distinct voices providing narration. Whiplash-inducing tonality changes; from technical engineering or mathematical discussion, to philosophical digressions, to mythology/analogy, to horror, to comedy, to some truly hardcore, straight-up porn, and back again.  It encompasses an enormous pile of themes- free will vs destiny (celestial/divine and man-made), Pavlovian conditioning (sexually murderous octopi!), science and the limits of human control, sacrifice, psychology, extinction, sexuality and transgression, paranoia, insanity and self, obsession, mythical pig-heroes, immortal light-bulbs, kazoos...

The narrative of the main character, such as it was, ended over 100 pages before the novel did. Those last 100 pages provide total disintegration of plot, character, structure, hell, reality and the English language (I will grant you that these two things are not unrelated- those last 100 pages reflect the complete dissolution of that main character, among other things). The climactic action to which the main plotline was building is presumed to occur beyond the final page. Or not.

I will admit that this was at times an infuriating slog. However, however. Frequently you emerge from an eye-crossing passage of stream-of-consciousness or technical digression into episodes of pure brilliance. Laugh-out-loud screwball comedies, thrilling action pieces, beautiful instances of poignancy, bizarre wtf essays that still manage to be enthralling…and yes, some of those sex scenes were pretty damn titillating. 

I can’t even imagine what its editors thought when they read this thing- where even to begin? The consensus is that 99% of the original manuscript ended up published. Reviews were decidedly mixed. The Pullitzer fiction committee recommended it unanimously, but the full selection board opted instead to award it to…nobody. But there was also fervent praise like this, from the NYT’s reviewer: "If I were banished to the moon tomorrow and could take only five books along, this would have to be one of them."

Um…no. But I'm glad I read it.

A wing and a prayer...

Back again.  More computer problems and silly Adobe left me with sans editing software yet again.

But here's some prayer flags, from atop Gokyo Ri.  May they keep me photo-bloggable evermore.

Minutae

Chinese micro-engraving, through a magnifying glass.  This was at some tourist shop in Chongqing, and I seem to recall getting yelled at as I was taking this picture.  Fortunately it came out well, cause I only got one chance.

Making a Wish

Prayer boards at the Dacien Monastery in Xi'an.

Wish-coins slotted into a rock at Mt. Huangshan.

Shortcut to Shrooms

Gentiana nubigena

Beautiful little Himalayan flower, found on the hills behind Namche.

(Pixellated) Flowers for my Mum

Yes, it is a virtual bouquet, but on the plus side a) no flowers were harmed in the making of this Mother's Day gift, and b) didn't have to propagate the hallmarky consumery grossness of this most sacred day.  I took this picture in Suzhou garden, on a day that was actually rather strife-filled and unhappy for me.  But it was my Mom (and, I guess, boyfriend) that cheered me back up and let me enjoy and remember all the aspects of the day (and there were many) that weren't unpleasant and strife-filled.  My mother is simply a good person- compassionate, empathetic, giving, and supportive.  All qualities I hope to have should I pass on these genes to another generation.  Yep, I said it- I want to be like my Mum.

I love you Mom!  Happy Mother's Day.

If wishes were fishes...

We'd all be out of luck, as my childhood friend liked to say during her ichthyophobic stage.  No reason to fear these guys though (apart from the fact that they are actually stone and so not fish at all barring a Gargoyles-type situation).  No, these are decidedly Good Fish (...two fish, bad fish, blue fish)- the two golden fishes of Buddhist symbology.  One of the eight auspicious symbols, they represent fearlessness in the face of the Ocean of Human Suffering (Samsara, or the continuous cycle of life).  Also freedom, movement, fertility, abundance, and the Ganges and Yamuna rivers.  Busy fishies!

Taken at Swayambhunath temple complex, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Weirdo Flowers Need Love Too

Taken on a portion of the Appalachian Trail that goes right through a big ol superfund site.  I'm not saying that this is some sort of burgeoning radioactive super villain weirdo flower, but...

Oddly enough, I really like this section of the AT.  Maybe because it is fairly unique terrain among the thousands of miles of treed-in ridgelines looking out over forest or farmland.  But its probably a good thing I enjoy it cuz...marcellus shale, fracking.    Oh, and- BONUS VISUAL AIDS!


*Those stills are from the documentary Gasland, which is an incredibly well-done, though incredibly depressing film about the environmental and health effects of fracking and the stonewalling received by anyone seeking help, information, or god forbid, regulation, from the industry, their lobbyists, and the politicians who love them.  See that movie.

Fuck Yeah, Spring!

It was gorgeous today.  That is all.