The Kurdish Peshmerga from Iraqi Kurdistan are gathering in the southern Turkish province of Sanliurfa, south of the ancient city once known simply as Urfa, less than forty miles north of the border, looking south, and southeast, where a Kurdish Syrian town is besieged by an ancient enemy with a new face, one seen on …
Month: October 2014
Made in China
Earlier in the week, I visited the contemporary art galleries at the Denver Art Museum and saw this fabulous resin sculpture of a T-Rex (or maybe that’s an Allosaurus) by Sui Jianguo called Made In China. I confess I no sooner saw this than I heard Steve’s voice in my head saying, “Shoulda had feathers!”
Quote
When we were together…..Dixon would never converse much. He did not need to. He was one of those rare and wonderful companions who did not carry with them a requirement that one engage in constant conversation. We had our occasional discussions of matters quite profound, but for the most part while visiting he would draw …
Quick Links & Pics
Not a hornet. Thagomizer Thagomized! Chorus: “Allosaurus shoulda had FEATHERS.” Southwestern petroglyphs and hallucinogenic plants. Cave art and auditory illusions. “Do you write, Mr. Faulkner?” Sounds like William Gibson has his best novel in a long while. I’m ordering it! It is a shame that one of our greatest living writers must resort to crowdsourcing …
Poorest of People Caught in Anti-Hunting Crossfire
In March 2011, a coalition of animal welfare groups opposed to the hunting of African lions petitioned the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for protection of this lion subspecies under the Endangered Species Act. FWS responded this week by proposing to list African lions as “threatened” – not the “endangered” status sought by the groups. …
Predator
Cooper’s hawks, quintessential Accipitrine stealth predators, transform themselves from hidden to active in an instant. Dan Gauss gets it here. But how did Audubon do something nearly identical about 175 or more years ago? I will try to find but this is better a search in books than in the electrosphere, books I assume that …
Arroyo hounds
Don’t try this on unfamiliar ground (see comments on Blaze below). But if your hounds are as well conditioned as Riss and Tavi…
Breakfast Club
Recently– last winter- an odd mix of ranchers, cowboys, artists, medical workers, teachers, and even less classifiable types started having Sunday brunch at Tita Dixon’s brief version of the Bear Mountain Cafe. It was so much fun that when Linda Rael Mansell and Kelly Kent opened a good cafe at the old Magdalena Hotel it …
Random Doggage
Daniela tells us that Blaze is not coursing marmots; he is just diving off a steep slope– an arroyo?– in hot pursuit…
Progress
Rio, or “Guero” (Whitey or Blondie as opposed to Tavo’s little black Gyr MERLIN Negrito) is making progress. Photos by Shiri Hoshen, training by Octavio Cruz… UPDATE: The little guy has brains too! Tavo writes: “Last night Güero flew off after chasing two rabbits. I got him back right after dark. “He flew back to …