Eric Blehm, "The Last Season"

Yesterday, while it was bright and a Seattle sunshiney day, I descended the Elliott Bay Book Company steps and went underground to see an author talk about being outdoors in the High Sierra. Pretty ironic now that I think about it but probably a reasonable explanation as to why the crowd was solely myself and an ex-park ranger (that's when I got ther, some stragglers ended up wandering in).

Eric Blehm, the author, has written a compelling and caring book about the 1996 disappearance of a very well known backcountry park ranger, Randy Morgenson, in Kings Canyon National Park. I'm about 130 pages deep into the book and had a difficult time putting it down last night. Morgenson lived a life so many of us have romanticized for ourselves. He's one of those guys that knowingly chucks the normal world in favor of a life lived with "no safety net" in the backcountry, assisting visitors and acting as a steward of some very special places, taking his "payment in sunsets." Randy's special love of the outdoors was fueled at an early age by his family's relocation to Yosemite National Park where his father worked various jobs in the park, eventually becoming a well-known photography and wildflower expert. Randy was raised on a steady diet of Thoreau, Stegner, Muir and the terrain that made those authors so introspective and well-known. It's no wonder that he ended up having a long history of correspondence with Wallace Stegner and spent his early days working with Ansel Adams carrying photo equipment in the valley.

I look forward to wrapping up this book but I just wanted to get my initial impressions down here first. I think this is a brilliant book for anyone that has ever thought about chucking city life and moving to the mountains (for me, that's about a daily occurrence). If you enjoy Krakauer's writing, you'll love this - it's pieced together as biography and a true mystery novel by a diligent author that spent 8 years putting together the pieces, hiking the trails, and trying to understand the strange pull of the wilderness and what that may have had to do with the disappearance of one of it's staunchest defenders.

A life less cluttered: Step #2

So step #1 involved getting indignant and deciding to spend $30 to join a group called "Private Citizen." The initial materials for that membership showed up the other day. They have requested my signature and approval for them to start sending letters on my behalf to the largest proprietors of direct/unsolicited mail and telemarketers. For Junk Calls, it authorizes "Private Citizen" as your personal agent in the submission of your name of their own Do-Not-Call-Directory which they in turn to distribute to various offenders. For Junk Mail, your signature gives Private Citizen the right to contact "The U.S. House Committee on Government Reform" and 8 of the most egregious junk mail companies in the country and to tell them directly that you do not wish to receive junk mail/unsolicited mail. In fact, the specific language and recommendations from "Private Citizen" tells the telemarketing industry that they are denied the free use of your property and time (you phone and the fact they called you) except on a case-by-case basis wherein they agree to pay you $500 for each time they call. The literature which comes in your initial package gives instructions in how to play these telemarketers so that you can get enough information to collect. Apparently people do...

The initial package also comes with a small form which you can sign and laminate for placement out adjacent to your mailbox. It's a "Notice of Refusal of Mail: Pursuant to USPS Domestic Mail Manual, Section 508 - 1.1.2." In this notification which you can laminate and post, you basically tell your postal delivery person that you refuse to accept mail which does not designate you by name. It specifically lists the following: Postal Patron, The Family At, Occupant, Our Friends At, Current Resident, Box Holder, The Folks At, Postal Customer.

So I've signed the initial papers and put them in the mail. We'll see if I start to notice less junk mail. I'm going to wait to post the "Refusal of Mail" for a couple of months to see if notifying the big baddies alone did the trick... It feels good to be doing something to eliminate the clutter though. You should see how much random paper I am throwing into my recycle bin today. Pounds of it I tell you.

Bad form from "The Nature Conservancy"

Ivory-billed Woodpecker - The Ivory-billed Woodpecker has been Found in the Big Woods of Arkansas - Ivory-billed bird

I believe "The Nature Conservancy" is generally a good organization which does useful work protecting and extending habitats of endangered species. With that said, I am a little angry at the bundle of crap they sent me to try and get me to donate to them recently. The reason I'm not happy is that they've gotten way ahead of themselves on an issue and are potentially greatly misleading the public (aka "me). The subject of the packet was "Found!" and they featured all sorts of materials related to the claimed recent sightings of the "Ivory-billed woodpecker." Now I've seen enough on this issue on tv and in the science periodicals to know that there is still debate over whether the bird featured in the only known video so far is actually an Ivory-billed woodpecker. Experts from various universities do not agree that that video constitutes irrefutable proof. You wouldn't be able to find this out from visiting "The Nature Conservancy" website though. Every video they have has experts using the words "irrefutable" and "undeniable".

Here is what I know: you have a bunch of ornithologists who really want the Ivory-billed woodpecker to be alive and you have a habitat where there exists a bird which looks almost identical, albeit smaller (the Pileated Woodpecker). Until you get a clear photo or close video of an actual Ivory-billed woodpecker, you do not have the right to ping me, asking me for money, and trumpeting your horn about the bird being "found."

20060406: Seattle Art Walk

Michael Abegg, "In a world of her own"
Originally uploaded by mrefranklin.

I walked around with Sung Kim (thanks for the wine, Sung!) and some of his friends last night at Art Walk. It was a nice time and I saw some great things. Two artists jumped out at me in particular, one in a visceral way and one in an appreciative professional sort of way.


The artist I enjoyed viscerally is named Michael Abegg and he had a space over in 619 Western. His art is posted directly with this blog entry. Not only is he an interesting painter, but he has put those paintings on to a series of windows which are great to look at and add a real dimesnion to his work. I have to aqdmit though, a couple of his "plain" paintings were also quite good.


The artist I enjoyed on a professional level is a gent named Nori Morimoto who is on display right around the corner from my work at the Catherine Person Gallery (319 Third Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104). His work is done in wood (the ones I liked were all in maple - that might be all he works in) and he has some amazing painstaking pieces he has done.


My favorites are posted over on flickr if you want to check them out


On a related side-note, there is a special reception to honor the artists (including Nori Morimoto) and Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival on April 19th, 6-8 PM, at the Catherine Person Gallery.

Whistler

I went to Whistler this last weekend with a large group of friends and new acquaintances. It was my first time snowboarding this year. For anyone that knows me, that's quite difficult to believe. This is my 18th season snowboarding (good golly that makes me feel old) and I've never ever done less than 10 days in a season. A couple of seasons ago, I had never been fewer than 20 times in a season. Alas, that's what happens when you get older and employed. Blarg. Well, now I'm excited and hope to make it up a couple more times for spring skiing. Kutta says he may be going up to Whistler again in a couple weekends. I might have to do that one too...

Had a great time, especially yesterday when the sun came out and Kutta, Haigh and I just yo-yo'd Whistler Peak over and over again in packed powder conditions. Lovely.

The best part about a ski trip is when you get home, go to the local coffee shop on the way in to work and have the girl behind the counter ask you how the snow was. I guess my goggle marks are still visible.