Things Change

Before...

After...

Well, maybe not EXACTLY like that...

It does happen like THIS though: A Yin has done remarkable work capturing recent changes in Mongolian culture with a series of diptychs.

And then there's the photo essay by Alessandro Grassani called Paradise Lost, also about modern Mongolian life...



The contrasts are stark.

Holiday Party

10:00 AM... Brunch with Mimosas

4:30 PM... Pre-Pre-Party with Dark and Stormies

5:30 PM... Pre-Party with Calimochos

7:00 PM... Holiday Party with PBRs


Are you sensing a theme or is it just me??

48 Hours In Sin City

Last weekend Evan and I pulled out of Lander after work and headed south in the pickup, bound for Vegas. Around midnight we tried to get some shuteye in a Walmart parking lot, but I had chosen a spot right by the Big Rigs and their idling motors kept us up all night. We hit the interstate again in the predawn hours and made it to The Strip by noon.


When I told Jen that we were staying at Hooters ($37 a night!), she came back with, "You mean at Brian's [where her truck was stored]?" Love that. We weren't at Brian's, but we WERE within shooting distance of the Thomas & Mack Center-- home to the National Finals Rodeo.


After a dim sum dinner in the New York New York Casino, we caught a city bus to the rodeo. Oh, my dear God! The smells, the sights, the sounds, the skills, the hokey commentary...


It was incredible. We were in the nosebleed seats (very last row), but the event still seemed intimate AND we could stand up without bothering anyone. The night felt like it was on steroids-- all the events happening in a mere two hours. As Evan pointed out, it's pretty remarkable to watch a man earn forty grand in 3.6 seconds (especially when it takes us years!).


The next day another predawn start had us hiking into Red Rocks with all the cliffs aglow. Evan was kind enough to spend the day with me on Solar Slab, a 5.6 multipitch that was just my speed-- the perfect reintroduction to climbing for this gal.


We topped out at 11am a little low on blood sugar, so Evan dug into a Cliff Bar that had been moldering in his backpack for eons... only to contract food poisoning. Trudging along to a song in his head about puke, Evan made it back to Ruby Sue only to end up bullfrogging on the side of the highway. A passing driver shouted out the window, "Jesus loves you!"

Nice.

Plans for a visit to the Neon Boneyard, dinner off The Strip and Cirque Du Soleil were put on ice as Evan's body went into a full-scale revolt. Pretty impressive stuff. The convulsions reminded me of the broncos and bulls from the night before, but the gallons of water and stomach bile that were getting loosed in the Hooter's bathroom put them in a category all their own.

And then Evan got better and we came home. The End.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

This winter color palate was stolen from Lovely Clusters...

Inspiration Often Looks Like This

(click on pic for music)

Togwotee Drifting

Evan and a crew of friends came up to Jackson Hole (where I am currently teaching) to ski for the weekend. On the drive over, they coined the term Togwotee Drifting for a vehicle sliding over snow or ice. I love the way the phrase feels on my tongue-- blissfully lazy with a hint of mayhem underneath.

Free associating from there, I arrive at originals and knockoffs and how sometimes covers are better than the songs they copy and sometimes they're equally brilliant, but different. Which leads me by way of Amy Rathke to Katy Perry. You be the judge...

The original:

The knockoff:

Snoop Dogg dazzles me into a puddle from which I am unable to make decisions.

A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi

Feeling rather pitifully lacking today. A bit like an alien trying to get home. Sacred juices running low. Needing to tap into the source.

Walked along a snowy river for a ways trying to figure out the tears.

Intellectually, I realize I'm blessed. On a cellular level, I sometimes need convincing.

This helps...

Thanks, Mei.

Festival of Lights

(click on pic for music)

It's that time of year again. Time to celebrate the miracle of light in the midst of darkness-- Day Two of the holiday whose name I cannot spell (although I know it involves many consonants and vowels).

I love watching candlelight from a menorah flickering against the windowpane or on the mantelpiece in the evening. I'm excited to get home and light mine, even if it ends up being too late to observe the occasion with the rest of the world.

Happy Chanukah. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Channuckah.