The Days Fly

You can tell the years are passing by when you hear Tiësto booming from a retirement home's open windows.

Spring Awakening

For the last several days, the Sacramento Convention Center has been hosting a gymnastics meet. Passing by, it's hard not to notice the toned, muscular bodies....

Slavic Friday

Stromae - Papaoutai

Slow Starvation

I wondered about Cliven Bundy's cows. Apparently he abandoned many of them on the range decades ago. His threats of violence frightened off responsible caretakers, so cattle numbers increased. Now they may be starving. Much more alluring instead to take over Oregon wildlife refuges, wave guns around for the camera, and deliver lectures on personal responsibility to long-suffering government employees, elected officials, and Clark County African Americans:

But an administrator for the Nevada Department of Agriculture told the paper they have not received any “substantiated” reports that Bundy’s cattle are starving.

“We have not received any substantiated reports of Cliven Bundy’s cattle starving on the Golden Butte allotment – though this may be true to some extent, as Cliven’s management practices leave a lot to be desired," said Flint Wright, the animal industry administrator for the department.

But the question of who’s response for the cattle is complicated. Wright told the Gazette-Journal that while the cattle are state property because they’re trespassing on public lands, a move by the department to corral the cattle would require an order from the federal Bureau of Land Management.

A representative for the BLM also told the paper their hands are tied when it comes to dealing with the free-ranging cattle.

“The Bureau of Land Management too is concerned about the welfare and condition of the cattle,” Rudy Evenson, of BLM in Nevada, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, all previous attempts to remove Mr. Bundy’s trespass cattle from the public lands have been met with threats of violence and most recently with an armed assault on law enforcement officers.”

RIP, Imogene Adams

RIP, Imogene Adams, born in Mt. Dora, NM, in 1924; married shortly after Pearl Harbor; a longtime resident of Guinda, CA. A gracious lady, she will be greatly missed.

Some funerals are about celebrating life, rather than dwelling on death. I was surprised yesterday at Imogene Adam's funeral reception to learn there was a Dixieland band there. Her daughter hired the band and likes to dance, so the two of us danced to Dixieland.

BBB Shriners Ballet - Yuba Community College - 1998

One of the high points of seeing Jenny Stallard Lillge in Woodland Opera House's "West Side Story" last Saturday night was learning that Robbie Brigham had passed on to her a digital copy of a show all of us had been involved with: "Bye, Bye, Birdie", Yuba Community College, staged at Woodland High School, in 1998, featuring Erik Catalan at Albert, Jamie Johnson as Rose and Ryan Gordon as Birdie.

Here is the Shriner's Ballet, choreographed by Pamela Kay Lourentzos (back in the day when I had a little pony tail):

"West Side Story" - Woodland Opera House - April 9, 2016

Saw "West Side Story" at Woodland Opera House Saturday night. Liked it!

Missing Vulva

Return the Vulva now and no one gets hurt.

"Better Call Saul" - Season 2, Episode 9, "Nailed"

Season 2, episode 9, "Nailed" opens with a distant view of the escarpment of a volcanic plateau along a remote road heading south to the border. That escarpment belongs to La Bajada Hill, famous in National Old Trails Road and Route 66 lore, and the most important administrative boundary in Spanish colonial New Mexico, between Rio Abajo and Rio Arriba. It was a significant impediment to travel and commerce for many years.

Vince Gilligan's Albuquerque is like a funhouse mirror image of the real Albuquerque, and it's no surprise that trouble lurks at the edges.

Saul is dead.

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Oasis Motor Court Sign, Tetilla Peak Road, La Bajada, NM (35.571913ø, -106.250978ø). Sawzall to the tires (Season 2, episode 9, "Nailed").

The music accompanying the driver on his Regalo Helado journey is "Mi Cucu" by "La Sonora Dinamita", the Columbian band that has been so successful over the last several decades spreading love of cumbias throughout Latin America, and the rest of the world.





Cumbias are a favorite music used in Zumba. This is my favorite Zumba song, "El Viejo del Sombreron", also by "La Sonora Dinamita":




"Mi Cucu" is a cross-genre cover of "My Toot Toot", long-famous in Cajun Zydeco music circles:

Glass Man

Bella and I heard the ShopVac and stopped to watch the Glass Man crawl around the sidewalk sucking up crumble glass from the shattered storefront window at The Money Mart (Pay Day Loans/ Check Cashing/ Pawnbroker) at 20th and Broadway. When he finished I asked, "What happened? Did someone lose their temper?" He replied, "No, someone just fired at it. Maybe a BB gun, or a 0.22 pistol, or something."

Usury carries risks, I suppose.

Snowboarder Girl

Bowling Alone

Bella and I hit the streets unusually early tonight. I was surprised by the large number of homeless people in the Highway 50 underpass at 26th Street: maybe about six people - the most I've seen in one place on our walks. There was no warning either. There was no one in the underpass at 19th Street, for example.

It seemed incongruous to see these scattered homeless folks in their chaotic shopping cart and garbage bag encampment, atomized into personal spaces, each person surfing the Internet on their own personal Smartphone or laptop. "Bowling Alone", indeed.

Pushover

These neighborhood pigeons blow me away. They catch a glimpse of me at the back door and they gather on the nearby power lines to stare. Because they are hungry and they know I have seed.