When I turned on my cell today, I discovered I had 5 voice mail messages. I was a little concerned something bad had transpired to someone I know.
The female voice that tells me everything about my voice mail announced, "First message. Private and personal."
Private and personal? I'd never heard it say that before: I braced myself.
For... I'm not sure what. A pause, static, some sort of grunts made by a deep male voice, a female voice saying something in the background. I got the impression I was getting called by someone mentally challenged, but then there was a spate of Spanish from the male voice that I didn't understand and then click.
2nd message: shuffling, grunts, the female voice in the background encouraging the man holding the phone, "Go ahead." This time he spoke in measured English, "I need my clothes. Now!" There was more background noise; it seemed like he was waiting for her to tell him what to say or do next.
3rd message: Clearly, he's exasperated. He said something about having to be at a job, more shuffling and grunting, silence, then click.
4th message: several seconds of silence.
5th message: more silence.
Good grief, what is it with this cell phone number? And why is every wrong number some urgent message lately? I reckon the urgent-ness is why they ignore my voice and leave their messages anyway, but these persistent mumbling strangers are getting on my nerves.
Perhaps I'll change my outgoing message to: Hi, you've reached (---)--- ----. If you're not trying to reach Claire, kindly piss off.
One year ago at TTaT: Bonafide, Three Breaks: Part 1
tags: cell+phones, wrong+numbers
07 September 2006
06 September 2006
The Road is my Favorite Place: Day 4
(Days: one, two, three)
20/viii/04: Torrey, UT and Capitol Reef National Park
another 25 miles/40 km or so exploring the park for another day
If the road is my favorite place, then spectacular national parks are a very close second. This was the view of Capitol Reef from outside my motel room. After tracking down the one room post office in Torrey to mail some postcards, I headed back to the park.
Capitol Reef is a park of diverse terrain. After the desert rock formations and wash trails of the previous day, I checked out some of the orchards where I met this deer. (Later, I encountered a mama and two baby deer crossing the street in front of me.)
When the fruit's in season, you're welcome to eat as much as you like on site for free. For a small amount of money, you can pick boxes or crates of fruit to take with you. I was there slightly off-season, but I ate most of a slightly under-ripe pear anyway just to engage the experience of being there as fully as possible.
Rain showers were still passing through the region intermittently, but they didn't keep me from checking out the Anasazi petroglyphs.
After that I drove to the trail that lead to Hickman bridge. Since this would be a longer, more difficult hike than what I'd been doing, I waited in my car for the rain shower to pass. There were lots of black volcanic rocks on the hillside by the trail. The sky looked clearer above, but the winds kept shifting.
The trail descended into a rocky ravine with gnarled dry trees and sandy sections along the lowest parts. Sometimes the ground level trail markers were far apart, but I could usually tell from other people's foot prints which way to go. Only the wide stretches of flat rock caused me trouble since they sometimes held no traces that I could discern; other times small cairns suggested the path.
On the underside of a large rock overhanging the once again ascending trail, I noticed lots of dried handprints made from red mud. I would've taken a shot of it because they made me smile, but it was overcast and too dark to get a decent shot. After blowing through four rolls of film the previous day, I was trying to be more selective about my shots.
After a while, the trail started to become significantly more difficult. The national park system has a rating guide for their trails; I'd been on a "moderate" trail which had quickly become a "strenuous" one. Since the guide had been accurate up until then, I was pretty sure I was off the trail. In addition, the Hickman bridge formation was nowhere in sight, and I'd been walking long enough that I should've reached it by then.
I climbed back down the way I'd come and paused at a flat plateau with a wide view of the horizon and took a couple shots. I could hear running water from the Fremont River, and I was able to pick out Route 24 which I'd driven to get here. It was a long way down.
Then a lightning bolt struck in the distance amidst massive storm clouds, and I started counting my Mississippis, waiting for the thunder and trying to remember how many seconds equaled a mile. I felt so screwed.
I hoofed back the way I'd come and encountered a cairn blocking the trail I was on that hadn't been there before. A family of voices drew my attention the direction I should've gone initially. And there it was: Hickman bridge.
I'd looked at it before, but I hadn't seen it in my own Indiana Jones leap of faith moment. (For scale, the two small white dots on the lower left are people.)
It wasn't raining yet, and I couldn't pass up hiking the short distance left now that I realized it was so close. A couple with three young children were taking pictures by the arch, and they were completely unconcerned by the booming thunder. The son wore a t-shirt that read: Peace, Love, Carbs. The mom was friendly, a real hiker, hippyish but only my age, mid-thirties at the oldest; she loved the idea of a cross-country trek. I was getting kind of freaked out by how loud the thunder was, so I took my shots and then started back at a quick clip.
I passed one of the girls on the trail, told her to "be careful," and then hauled ass so I could get through the ravine and back to higher ground before any downpour and possible flash flooding. Luckily for me and my cameras, it was only sprinkling by the time I made it back to my car.
(NEXT>>>)
One year ago at TTaT: The Wedge
tags: road+trip, travelogue, travel, photography, driving, Capitol+Reef+National+Park
20/viii/04: Torrey, UT and Capitol Reef National Park
another 25 miles/40 km or so exploring the park for another day
If the road is my favorite place, then spectacular national parks are a very close second. This was the view of Capitol Reef from outside my motel room. After tracking down the one room post office in Torrey to mail some postcards, I headed back to the park.Capitol Reef is a park of diverse terrain. After the desert rock formations and wash trails of the previous day, I checked out some of the orchards where I met this deer. (Later, I encountered a mama and two baby deer crossing the street in front of me.)
When the fruit's in season, you're welcome to eat as much as you like on site for free. For a small amount of money, you can pick boxes or crates of fruit to take with you. I was there slightly off-season, but I ate most of a slightly under-ripe pear anyway just to engage the experience of being there as fully as possible.Rain showers were still passing through the region intermittently, but they didn't keep me from checking out the Anasazi petroglyphs.
After that I drove to the trail that lead to Hickman bridge. Since this would be a longer, more difficult hike than what I'd been doing, I waited in my car for the rain shower to pass. There were lots of black volcanic rocks on the hillside by the trail. The sky looked clearer above, but the winds kept shifting.
The trail descended into a rocky ravine with gnarled dry trees and sandy sections along the lowest parts. Sometimes the ground level trail markers were far apart, but I could usually tell from other people's foot prints which way to go. Only the wide stretches of flat rock caused me trouble since they sometimes held no traces that I could discern; other times small cairns suggested the path.
On the underside of a large rock overhanging the once again ascending trail, I noticed lots of dried handprints made from red mud. I would've taken a shot of it because they made me smile, but it was overcast and too dark to get a decent shot. After blowing through four rolls of film the previous day, I was trying to be more selective about my shots.
After a while, the trail started to become significantly more difficult. The national park system has a rating guide for their trails; I'd been on a "moderate" trail which had quickly become a "strenuous" one. Since the guide had been accurate up until then, I was pretty sure I was off the trail. In addition, the Hickman bridge formation was nowhere in sight, and I'd been walking long enough that I should've reached it by then.
I climbed back down the way I'd come and paused at a flat plateau with a wide view of the horizon and took a couple shots. I could hear running water from the Fremont River, and I was able to pick out Route 24 which I'd driven to get here. It was a long way down.
Then a lightning bolt struck in the distance amidst massive storm clouds, and I started counting my Mississippis, waiting for the thunder and trying to remember how many seconds equaled a mile. I felt so screwed.I hoofed back the way I'd come and encountered a cairn blocking the trail I was on that hadn't been there before. A family of voices drew my attention the direction I should've gone initially. And there it was: Hickman bridge.
I'd looked at it before, but I hadn't seen it in my own Indiana Jones leap of faith moment. (For scale, the two small white dots on the lower left are people.)
It wasn't raining yet, and I couldn't pass up hiking the short distance left now that I realized it was so close. A couple with three young children were taking pictures by the arch, and they were completely unconcerned by the booming thunder. The son wore a t-shirt that read: Peace, Love, Carbs. The mom was friendly, a real hiker, hippyish but only my age, mid-thirties at the oldest; she loved the idea of a cross-country trek. I was getting kind of freaked out by how loud the thunder was, so I took my shots and then started back at a quick clip.
I passed one of the girls on the trail, told her to "be careful," and then hauled ass so I could get through the ravine and back to higher ground before any downpour and possible flash flooding. Luckily for me and my cameras, it was only sprinkling by the time I made it back to my car.
(NEXT>>>)
One year ago at TTaT: The Wedge
tags: road+trip, travelogue, travel, photography, driving, Capitol+Reef+National+Park
05 September 2006
Fun With Dead Trees debut
As some of you know, Kevin of Kapgar runs a book review site called Fun With Dead Trees. My reviews of Jane Fonda's My Life So Far and Geoff Dyer's The Ongoing Moment are my FWDT debut.
Since much of my book commentary focuses on my experience reading a particular book at a particular time, not every 'review' posted here will end up at FWDT, but the more traditional ones will. The site has a lot of different search options, so go check it out.
tags: book+review+site, Fun+With+Dead+Trees, FWDT, books
Since much of my book commentary focuses on my experience reading a particular book at a particular time, not every 'review' posted here will end up at FWDT, but the more traditional ones will. The site has a lot of different search options, so go check it out.
tags: book+review+site, Fun+With+Dead+Trees, FWDT, books
34
The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer (3.5/5)
This one took me a while to read, but only because I needed intervals for all the details to sink in; I'm glad to own it. It's a history of photography arranged by photographic subjects. There are no chapters, just breaks, which facilitates a hypertext approach to reading the book which Dyer encourages. The next time I read it, I'll flip to a photo I like, read that section, and then flip to what that makes me think of next whether that's the next page or another section of the book.
He draws attention to the influence photographers have on one another (conscious or not), how certain subjects crop up in photos repeatedly over decades, and how some photographer's best shots look like they were actually shot by someone else. In this age of ubiquitous photography, the rapid-fire flashes of images, I find Dyer's ability to examine one photograph at a time, each in detail, refreshing. I'm accustomed to scanning photos quickly with simple like/dislike, good/bad judgments, but The Ongoing Moment made me slow down and really consider what I was looking at.
I'm looking forward to checking out more of the photographers' works from the bibliography.
One year ago at TTaT: Off-kilter, A year and some days
tags: books, The+Ongoing+Moment, Geoff+Dyer, history+of+photography
This one took me a while to read, but only because I needed intervals for all the details to sink in; I'm glad to own it. It's a history of photography arranged by photographic subjects. There are no chapters, just breaks, which facilitates a hypertext approach to reading the book which Dyer encourages. The next time I read it, I'll flip to a photo I like, read that section, and then flip to what that makes me think of next whether that's the next page or another section of the book.
He draws attention to the influence photographers have on one another (conscious or not), how certain subjects crop up in photos repeatedly over decades, and how some photographer's best shots look like they were actually shot by someone else. In this age of ubiquitous photography, the rapid-fire flashes of images, I find Dyer's ability to examine one photograph at a time, each in detail, refreshing. I'm accustomed to scanning photos quickly with simple like/dislike, good/bad judgments, but The Ongoing Moment made me slow down and really consider what I was looking at.
I'm looking forward to checking out more of the photographers' works from the bibliography.
One year ago at TTaT: Off-kilter, A year and some days
tags: books, The+Ongoing+Moment, Geoff+Dyer, history+of+photography
03 September 2006
Keep your eye on the penguin
I came across this silly game* and am still amused enough by it that I felt compelled to share it here. My best score is currently 321. What's yours?
Also, if you're into sudoku, give this [adult swim] circular version a try.
*8/6/17: Hat tip to Melissa for noticing the game link was broken and sending me a link to it elsewhere on the interwebs!
One year ago at TTaT: After the flood came fire, Trivial in comparison
tags: games, free+computer+games, sudoku
Also, if you're into sudoku, give this [adult swim] circular version a try.
*8/6/17: Hat tip to Melissa for noticing the game link was broken and sending me a link to it elsewhere on the interwebs!
One year ago at TTaT: After the flood came fire, Trivial in comparison
tags: games, free+computer+games, sudoku
01 September 2006
La Vida Lohan
I was taking a trip through Lohanland, and if I had to pen a travel article on my stay there, it would be one-word short, and in the diction of its indigenous people: "Whatever."I came across the above link to this month's cover story for Elle at Bread and Bread where Cheryl aptly describes the interview as "showcas[ing] Lindsay Lohan's full, proud manic-ness." Go on, take a peek; you won't be able to look away.
tags: Lindsay+Lohan, Lindsay+Lohan+interview, Elle
33
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (3/5)
tags: Walker+Percy, The+Moviegoer, the+search, books
The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. This morning, for example, I felt as if I had come to myself on a strange island. And what does such a castaway do? Why, he pokes around the neighborhood and he doesn't miss a trick.One year ago at TTaT: The fog is all internal
To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair. (p.13)
tags: Walker+Percy, The+Moviegoer, the+search, books
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