What I'm Reading: Guns and America

A few recommendations for thoughtful and intelligent information in the wake of another mass murder by a mentally ill individual with unlimited access to assault weapons.

I am biased in favor of gun control, particularly in the form of making assault weapons unavailable to civilians. It's hard to keep a truly open mind on this; I can't comprehend the mindset that assumes a genuine, personal need -- or, worse, a 'right' -- to own these types of weapons.

After all the rhetoric and the passionate pleadings and the data and the discussions, I have to ask the anti-gun control proponents one simple question: "Hey -- how's this been working out so far? Think we might try something else for awhile?"

# # #

How research on the effects of guns in relationship to violence has been suppressed in America:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/12/gun_violence_research_nra_and_congress_blocked_gun_control_studies_at_cdc.htm

How the proponents of 2nd amendment rights to bear arms are whistling in the wind:

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/guns_have_never_saved_us/

How American gun culture is viewed in at least one European nation:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/commentary-newton-and-the-fatal-national-identity-of-america-a-873350.html

How America could potentially limit and control guns and their access without resorting to a values-based campaign:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_big_idea/2012/12/newtown_massacre_bloomberg_not_obama_knows_how_to_beat_the_nra.html

One example of a country that instituted serious gun control restrictions and the effects of that decision:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2012/12/16/gun_control_after_connecticut_shooting_could_australia_s_laws_provide_a.html

What I'm Reading

Serious stuff. Maybe because, for me, the relentless hot hell of a Texas summer brings out the gloomy. I’ll perk up in, say, late October when the temperatures drop out of the 90s. Today it’ll be 103. No rain, of course.

Highly recommended: everything published by thebrowser.com.

I read most of a special report “How to Die”. (How to face the end? Peacefully? Still fighting? With all of medicine's help? Or naturally?)

My two favorites are:

• Best Of 2011: How Doctors Die

Ken Murray | Zocalo | 4 December 2011

    "What’s unusual is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves.”

Physicians make it clear -- even to getting it tattooed on their bodies [NO CODE]--  that they do not want to get in the way of their own deaths. Most doctors believe that well-meaning relatives cause considerable pain and harm (not to mention, expense) by insisting that everything possible be done for their loved one who is dying.

Image by Ben Cooper on Flickr

• On The Meaning Of Life

HL Mencken | Letters Of Note | 1 February 2012

                                                                                         

Mencken’s letter is not so much about death and dying but about how to live. An avowed nonbeliever, Mencken’s attitude toward death was pragmatic and … confident.

In 1931 philosopher Will Durant asked a select few about life, death, religion. Mencken's reply is memorable. "When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness. No show, however good, could conceivably be good for ever."

And, what’s particularly surprising to me is how uplifted I felt after reading most of the 15 essays of the series. Perhaps it’s because it’s welcome to have discussion and conversation about our deepest fear – the monsters in the dark corners shrink considerably when the light is turned upon them…  

Image by Union-Square on Flickr

The Weather

Yep. Dog Days of summer.

What I'm Making

lots and lots of pretty shiny things ...

What I'm Reading

Wildly Affordable Organic, by Linda Watson

Lose weight, save money, and save the polar bears at the same time? When you live the Wildly Affordable Organic way, it is possible! Join the movement to change the way you eat—and keep the change.

# # #

Field Notes on Science & Nature, Ed. By Michael R. Canfield, Foreword by E.O. Wilson

# # #

...and, to start off on the right thought ...

How to get along with people, how to deal with violence, how to adjust to losing someone you love—such questions arise in most people’s lives. They are all versions of a bigger question: How do you live?

How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer,  by Sarah Bakewell

Winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography

Turns out to be one of the best books I've read in a long time. Ms. Bakewell, formerly a curator of early-printed books and currently a writer and writing teacher in London, has combined a tour through Montaigne's views on just about everything with the details of his actual, physical life.

It's important to note right off that the book and Montaigne – as the title indicates – make no attempt to proselytize how one should live. Montaigne made certain to reassure everyone that he had no answers to the big questions. In fact, while he might glimpse a fleeting truth, he staunchly maintained his belief in its ephemeral nature and in his own inability to get to the root of anything.

Bakewell places Montaigne's individual thoughts and concerns within the turmoil of his larger civic and political life in 16th-century France. The religious wars, political unrest, wealth disparity, health crises, and a fluid knowledge and artistic panoply suggest the present 21^st century, but Montaigne’s response to these external pressures is unusual for any era. Mostly, he holds firm to his Stoic philosophic roots, refuses to take a stand on anything (even for action or inaction), and makes it look deceptively easy to straddle the balance beam of moderation in all things. Not for him the armed fortress, for instance; even during plague years and times when desperate bands of outlaws roamed the countryside, Montaigne kept his gates open and the welcome mat out.

What I'm Making

After a recent rush of creative energy -- and an attendant slap-up-side-the-head of problems and disasters, things seem to be evening out. Still feeling energetic but am making myself slow down and pay the attention to detail that I know I must do. In an opulent mood, as below:

Lt Amber Irid Pocket Vase w/dichro accent, copper handle

Fractured Irid on Black

What I'm Reading

“How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America,” Otis Webb Brawley, M.D., with Paul Goldberg. Don’t read this one at night because if, like me, you tend to bring the last-read-of-the-day with you into sleep, this book will bring you nightmares. Brawley (“Call me Otis”), an oncologist, is chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society. He has worked longtime in Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, the largest public hospital in the U.S.

What propels you through his stories of real people in America are his anger, his humor, and his passion for giving every person the best possible care. I took away three things Brawley knows will improve those possibilities: 1. Insist that everyone in the position of giving medical care makes decisions based on the available science -- not on tradition, what-my-mentor-said, cost, or the best and newest drug pharmaceutical companies are pushing this week; 2. Make certain that methods and products of care selected will do the most good and the least harm – which sometimes means refusing to provide treatment that a patient wants but which the provider knows is inappropriate, useless, or even dangerous; 3. Eradicate the U.S. bifurcated healthcare system – one tier for the insured, another for the uninsured/or under-insured.

Brawley’s first story is of a middle-aged woman in Atlanta who, because she did not have access to screening, insurance, or good medical counsel, showed up in the Grady ER with her breast in a bag; it had fallen off her chest as her breast cancer advanced. See # 3 above.

I’m encouraged by the recent news of physicians who have publicized their concerns about unnecessary (and, sometimes harmful) medical tests; this is something Brawley would find hopeful.

What I'm Making

{and, see previous post on 'mistakes'} Got a burst of creative glass-making energy recently, and fired up the kiln. Doesn't hurt that it's almost 100 degrees outside in the daytime -- my preference is to take advantage of that and do a lot of glass projects in these hotter months: less time to get up to temp in the garage and the kiln ...

I've tried several new techniques and, to a technique, there've been problems with the results. I'm going to try to save each project and what I'll learn doing that is worth it in and of itself.

Frustrating and disappointing to open the kiln and -- what the hey is that?? Or, more likely; I see that my Attention-To-Detail module wasn't working when I did this; if only I'd paid closer attention to ... Etc. So, there will be photos of before- and after-projects as they progress. In the meantime, this is excellent practice in: practicing!

The Weather

103 today.

I propose a new moon-name for this kind of weather: "Toad Burrowing for the Cool" Moon.

This big boy (or, big girl) is making itself at home in a microcosm of the backyard without the danger of dogs, birds, or cats.

The Weather

After a wet and cool spring, south central Texas is hunkering down into its usual summer weather: dry (as in no rain), humid, hot. But, here's a nice memory from last week.

What I'm Making

Pieces and parts. In the mood to play with the glass -- and, apparently, no interest in creating functional or structured work, so ... here's the 2nd look at some work with powders:





Step 1: powder on clear



Step 2: take a look at combinations



And, here's a larger component I made by smashing a disaster firing (much fun! hammer and glass!!) and firing the pieces w/some clear and white frit. Lovely colors that looked muddy in the original but now have some room to breathe...

What I'm Reading

“Eco-Mind,” by Frances Moore Lappe, author of “Diet for a Small Planet.”  Just seeing her name takes me back to the 60s. Those of us back then who rejected over-processed food and an overly processed lifestyle were considered by almost everyone to be on the fringe of reality; so, it’s with a certain sense of smugness? that I note that, in the 21^st century, it’s almost normal to demand food grown without pesticides and to try to live with as small a footprint on the earth as possible.

Good for you, Frances, and thank you for all of your work. “Eco-Mind” is a great addition, most especially because it is not the diatribe against Big Bizness and Corrupt Government with a Shame On You chaser that you might expect.

Rather, Lappe, makes a strong and interesting case for the possibility that the environmentalists are suffering from the same cognitive dissonance as the naysayers who believe that technology-driven progress will be our savior.

 “…Lappe dismantles seven widely held messages that undermine our culture’s response to the global environmental and poverty crises. In each case, she challenges their limiting premises – or ‘thought traps’ – and offers instead contrasting ‘thought leaps’ that unleash our hidden power. This internal transformation marks the creation of our eco-mind.”

What I'm Reading

Walter Mosley, “All I Did Was Shoot My Man,” featuring Leonid T. McGill.

Mosley is the creator of the award-winning, popular Easy Rawlins mystery series; this is his 4^th book starring L.T. McGill, a middle-aged black former PI to the mob. McGill is going, has gone, is mostly on the right side of the law these days, but circumstances have a way of blurring the boundaries for him on a regular basis. McGill is a complicated man with Buddhist leanings, anger management issues, family problems, and the need to make a good living. He also has a fierce conscience and his internal stories spiral through attempts to make restitution to those he has wronged in the past to his obligations to his wife and children and, finally, to his heart that never lies. Fascinating characters and fast-moving convoluted noir.

L.T. McGill is always on his way home to his wife and children – two of whom are not his ‘by blood,’ but his wife’s and her lovers’. One of those two is his heart-child, Twilliam (Twill).

  

What I'm Making

Onion Tarte Lyonnaise. With my own onions! I buy the onion sampler from Dixondale Onion Farms -- white, yellow, red -- and plant them every winter. By late spring (now), they're as large as they're going to get. I use most of them as green onions for salads and garnishes; a few are allowed to reach bulb-size and the ones I 'sacrificed' for the tart were in the spring onion bulb category. Fabulous recipe from the iconic 1970s cookbook "The Vegetarian Epicure," which doesn't believe in substitutions for butter in pastry, cream (and milk) in the filling, cheese (real cheese :). Delicious.

The Weather

And, unusually glorious it is! Highs in the low 80s, lows at night in the high 50s. Sigh. Such a nice reprieve before the 8-month summer hits here in south central Texas …

Unfortunately, the annual Kitten Explosion has ... exploded. In this part of the country you can count on a breeding female cat having 4-5 litters a year, but there seems to be a special peak in Spring. All the shelters are full, as are rescue organizations; and I’m one of many people frantically looking for someone to give some kittens a home.

What I'm Making

Backings for future? pocket vases, probably ... Practicing with using powders to create my own tiles. The two here are L to R: teal and light plum. I've laid a strip of light amber irid across them because, ultimately, I may make a pair of pockets that are connected by similar 'fronts' of the irid. Early days and I want to layer on some different colors, re-fire the backs. But, I like the texture created by my impatience of not sifting the powder evenly; it helps me visualize adding new colors.

What I'm Making

Mistakes. Lots and lots and lots of glorious mistakes. Every day in every way I … make mistakes! Why so happy? Well, according to Lewis Thomas, one of my favorite authors, “Mistakes are at the very base of human thought, embedded there, feeding the structure like root nodules.”

If he has the right of it, people -- eternally unfinished and sloppy – are uniquely primed to create. Sometimes, that means resolving an argument or solving a practical problem. “Whenever new kinds of thinking are about to be accomplished … there has to be an argument beforehand.”

“…there can be no action at all if there are not the two sides and the argument. The hope is in the faculty of wrongness, the tendency toward error."

Cats, dogs, other animals – crystals, snowflakes, rocks – don’t have this “splendid freedom,” as Lewis defines it. “They are limited, most of them, to absolute infallibility.” What the absence of error creates or solves is, literally, nothing. Perfection is also death and stagnation. There is simply no moving forward or even sideways, no movement at all, without mistakes and lots of them. How very comforting.

"The capacity to leap across mountains of information to land lightly on the wrong side represents the highest of human endowments.”

Thomas, Lewis, “To Err is Human,” from Gross, John, “The Oxford Book of Essays.” 2008.

What I'm Reading

Why can’t printed maps be … accurate? As in: drawn by their creators to factually ‘map onto’ their terrain? So, if one segment of highway is considerably shorter than another, wouldn’t you assume that it would take you less time to travel that first segment? Yes, you would; but, no, you’d be correct only about 50% of the time. I’ve missed numerous turn-offs because I incorrectly assumed I had miles to go before I needed to slow down and … whoops! There goes another exit…

Armed with copies of maps from the Internet, a printed road atlas, and various local maps obtained from Welcome Centers, realtors, and the like, I strapped the dog into her travel harness, rolled up the car windows (manually), and headed out for a 2500-mile adventure.

The Weather

A spring in central Texas, the likes of which we haven’t seen here in at least two years. Some plants – like one of my favorite herbs, plantain (Plantago major), disappeared completely, it seemed, but popped up bright and furrily green this year as if it had never been gone.

Often, trees and shrubs will bloom sparsely or not at all during the bad years, conserving their energy for roots and leaves.

Photo:  Huisache.

Acacia minuata (A. farnesiana). Fabaceae.

Small, spiny tree with bright yellow-gold spring blossoms … “Bees make tasty honey from its flowers, and birds eat its seeds … In parts of Mexico, crushed leaves are made into wound dressings, and the flowers are used in an ointment … headaches.”

“Trees, Shrubs, and Vines of the Texas Hill Country,” Jan Wrede, 2^nd Edition, p. 111.

What I'm Reading

Interesting to me how at least one explorer chooses to distance himself from his subject matter: the green world of plant medicine. Alain Touwaide, scientific director of the Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions at the Smithsonian, studies ancient manuscripts. He’s looking for evidence of the efficacy and usage of plants as medicines – partly in the hope that new medicines can be developed (or, perhaps, resurrected) from the past. In an article in the “New Scientist,” he responded to interviewer questions:

Are there other plants mentioned in classical texts that have potential as new medicines?
Walnut, and the herbs black horehound and white horehound. These plants are credited with a disinfectant and anti-inflammatory action in the ancient literature. They appear to be active against the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, even drug-resistant strains. And red raspberry (Rubus idaeus) is recommended for treating inflammation in ancient literature. In modern-day tests it appears to be active against superficial skin inflammation.


Have any new medicines come out from studying ancient ones?
The best example is artemisin—the malaria treatment derived from the Artemisia plant. Malaria plagued the ancient world, and we have found more than 70 agents to treat it in the Greek medical literature of the classical period, from the 5th century B.C. to 3rd century A.D.—including Artemisia. It was identified quite recently by Chinese pharmacologists on the basis of their ancient literature. Currently, we have quite a range of plants on our databases that should be tested for the treatment of malaria.

 

At the end of the interview, Touwaide is asked if he’s been tempted to try any of the remedies that he studies, to which he replied: “No. I wouldn't practice self-medication! Studying these ancient remedies is a scientific activity for me, not a lifestyle ‘quest’."

Scientifically vetted discoveries have, for many people, replaced the tenets of conventional religious belief. Oddly, a belief in the efficacy and value of rational, empiricist-based science, does not seem to correlate with a desire to take personal responsibility for its use.

What’s wrong with ‘self-medicating’, by the way, especially since we’re talking about plants like broccoli and conditions that are not life-threatening? How else – other than to take hands-on responsibility for our own health – can we grow up? To me, there’s little difference between worshipping the gods of modern medicine and worshipping the gods of the supernatural… Both processes seem to tap into our need to be taken care of and the difficult decisions made for us. But, here's evidence that a simple plant -- a weed, even -- has shown the ability to destroy drug-resistant staph (an evil born directly out of our need for a quick fix by the by) and there's hesitation to use it without the approval of a higher power? I apparently am lacking the respect-authority gene ... [types smiley face thingy here...]

What I'm Reading

What Time Is It??

We think we know what time it is – and our comfort reflects partially our belief that Time is inviolable, permanent.  But, in the 2011 Best American Science and Nature Writing essay by George Musser (originally published in Scientific American), the almost-unthinkable question is asked: “Could Time End?”

The essay explores the nature of time as presently conceived by physicists and other scientists (and philosophers). Musser describes Time: its directionality, its duration and scale, its spatial separation. These are all ways that Time serves to make sense of our universe and allow us to function. As he says, for instance, about directionality (the past, the future): We depend on the directionality of time as children grow into adults, as matter degenerates. If there is no directionality, there will be no change, and only ceaseless equilibrium = death.

“Might there come a point sometime in the future when there is no ‘after’?” Musser asks. “… Modern physicists believe the answer is ‘yes’. Time itself could end. All activity would cease, and there would be no renewal or recovery. The end of time would be the end of endings.”

The end of Time might be, as some suggest, comparable to the end of life as we know it – where internal timed and timing structures (cell genetic markers and so on) fall apart, resulting in a disintegration of the most essential of qualities. This could happen slowly or quickly. If slowly, our human lives will become more and more difficult, as things break down or no longer make sense.

If quickly, some scientists speculate the end of Time as equivalent to its beginning – so, the opposite of a Big Bang or Big Bounce could occur and everything would just. Stop.

Many physicists believe, on the other hand, that the dilemma is not resolvable. “For them,” as Musser notes, “the boundaries of time are also the boundaries of reason and empirical observation.” In some ways, the question of the beginning and end of time resolves in the viewpoint of many psychologists – and, again, philosophers – who posit that there is no objective reality. There is only what each of us perceives through our individual lens of history, experience, current condition, values, and emotional valence. So, in the ‘little’ sense, time certainly ends with our individual deaths. And, perhaps, the whole question is meaningless anyway if my Time is different than your Time which is still different from his Time. What time is it, anyway?

The Weather

Dense fog advisory. Lovely words to read, see, and even drive through in the land of drought! Up to 80 today w/light drizzle. Possibly one more freeze before the end of our very warm and short winter. My 3 types of onion plants  (white, sweet yellow, red) are all thriving and I'm beginning to thin them as green onions. Supplementing salads w/the wild plants in my yard: chickweed, henbit, cleavers. Wish I had more dandelions -- they are great bitter herbs for early spring.

What I'm Reading

WEEDS

What do dandelion, jellyfish, and coyotes have in common?

You can definitely eat the 1^st two in the list. Dandelions, jellyfish, and coyotes belong to different living groups: plant, fish, mammal and, while adaptable, do have some specific environmental requirements (water, for instance).  All three can be annoying, irritating, even dangerous . And, for my purposes, all three are prime examples of weed species – invasive, prolific, and hard to stop once they get going. Dandelions, jellyfish, and coyotes are all weeds.

One of the themes running through this year’s 2011 The Best American Science and Nature Writing collection: how humankind has successfully destroyed numerous species of living things mostly by destroying their habitats and how, in some cases (the BP oil spill, fracking), threatens to destroy human habitat as well.

“The planet of weeds,” as David Quammen describes it,” is an impoverished place in its abundance because it heralds the end of diversity. And it is likely our inexorable future.”

Here’s a little bit about the jellyfish from “The New King of the Sea” by Abigail Tucker.

What I'm Making

Decided to make some accompaniments to a plate I'd made sometime ago -- it had lovely colors: eridium pink, French vanilla, orange, midnight blue -- but it looked lonely by itself. So, I made 3 smaller plates and a bowl to keep it company! The orange in all of these is a striker glass, which means that it starts out looking clear and 'strikes' its color upon firing ...

What I'm Reading

The Best American Science and Nature Writing (2011)

Table of Contents

What I'm Reading

When I was in school I believed that science was mathematics. That science was truth. And, ergo, that science was unimaginative and devoid of beauty. That’s what I believed from the textbooks I read, the lectures I sort of attended to, the lab exercises I performed, the statistics I applied to the data I gathered from my subjects [people].

Since I discovered science writing, my expectations have been turned on their heads – or, their molecular structure diagrams or their 1s and  0s. I’m reading the 2011 edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing, and I’ll share the TOC in another post which -- by itself -- should be sufficient to entice you to learn more about the physical (and, not necessarily observable) worlds we inhabit.

What I'm Making

Happy Lurve Day, my peeps and peeplets!! Cookie?

The Weather

45, windy, overcast, dampish. The weeds are so high in my yard from the unexpected rains and mild winter that I mowed yesterday – in early February.

And, at the intersection of art and science, astrophysicist Adam Frank notes today that:

"Fundamentally, both art and science are about encounters with the real world — the one we live in and experience as colors, textures, shapes and sounds. Every artistic creation and every scientific study is a record of experimentation. At their best those experiments are rooted in two vital qualities: interest and attention."

What I'm Reading

Reading the “2011 Best Essays” reminded me of how much I appreciate Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) and Samuel Pepys (1633-1703). In complicated times – and, when are they not? -- it’s perspective-lending to revisit wise voices from hundreds of years ago who wrestled with pretty much the same issues, albeit more wittily.

Throughout all of the civilized countries from Asia, the Middle East, Europe, it was, in fact, almost obligatory if one was literate and of the ruling class (having time to read, study, and write) to keep a journal. Some journal contents were stewardship issues (estates, businesses, countries, legislatures, families), but they were also opportunities for personal anecdotes, sharp observations, and reflection.

What I'm Making

The oceanic large pocket now has a wire hanger across the back, twisted through fused-in glass brackets. Very nice. It's heavy (> 10 lbs.) with a large interior that can hold water for flowers or leaves. Or not. It would be equally happy to hold dried frondy things and shreds of plant.

Aren't you a Beauty ... !!

What I'm Reading

Sometimes, books almost jump off the shelves of the library into my hands -- I've had them fall off a shelf onto my feet on occasion if I, perhaps, had missed their more subtle entreaty. Here's the latest catch/cache:

The Plenitude / Rich Gold

"creativity, innovation, and making stuff"

Gold, who died in 2007, worked at various times for Xerox PARC and Mattel, and characterized himself as wearing 4 hats [science, art, design, engineering] -- sometimes singly and sometimes, as he says, on top of one another at the same time.

C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy / Jeff Sharlet

Damon Lee Fowler's New Southern Baking

Yum.

 

The Best American Essays, 2011 / Edwidge Danticat, Ed.

Essays are conversations and they are my favorite form of literature. Frequently nonfictional or autobiographical, they don't have to be; it's a very open genre in content and style. Essays, however, are always personal and one of the most intimate forms of literary communication. I've been reading the annual collections for 20 years. This one looks to be as amazing as the others.

 

The Weather

39 degrees this morning and sunny. What’s it like where you are?

For gardeners and weather-followers, the USDA has updated its Plant Hardiness Zone Map

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/  Based on the average minimum winter temp, you can simply type in your zip code and find your hardiness zone. Also available as an interactive GIS-based map, the 2012 update was prompted by the nipping, nippy slavering Hounds of Climate Change…



http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/home.action



Others are hunkering down to look more closely at nanomaterials -- forms of carbon, silver, aluminum, etc., often less than 1/10,000^th the width of a human hair -- used in cosmetics, clothing, paint – and medicine. The National Academy of Sciences is concerned that their potential health and environmental risks are not being studied sufficiently  

http://dels.nas.edu/Report/Research-Strategy-Evironmental-Health/13347.

This interfaces with debates about the role of self-teaching, adaptive nanotechnology purposefully introduced into the human body to fight cancer, affect gene expression, build scaffolding. We haven't yet figured out how to insist that nanoparticles obey the Three Laws of Robotics.

What I'm Reading

Deadhouse Gates, Book #2 in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Very very dark. Nobody gets out alive. There are 12? books in the series, I think (Steven Erikson). When you start any of them, you're immediately sucked into a whirlwind of action and characters -- human and nonhuman -- battling their way through continents, oceans, sorcerous realms. There's a glossary to identify characters, ethnicities, places, but I've found it hard to take a break to refer to it. I'm just muddling through without a map and enjoying the very wild ride.

Just finished  Atchafalaya Houseboat by Gwen Roland, and that's a trip in all senses of the word. Gwen and her partner, Calvin Voisin, spent 8 years in the backwaters of the Atchafalaya River Basin of Louisiana, living on a houseboat they built with no power tools, no Internet access (this was the 1970s after all...), and no previous building experience. Gwen wrote about her experiences first in the alternative magazine, Gris Gris, and National Geographic's C.C. Lockwood photographed the journey. A fairytale true story with roots deep in swamp water and mud.



C.C. Lockwood, photographer
http://beta.lpb.org/index.php?/site/programs/atchafalaya_houseboat

What I'm Making

Working to finish a large (about 18" square) pocket from a fused glass volume control project that I created in a class at Wired Designs Studio: Set up a bunch of glass pieces on a slanted kiln shelf, fire, and see what you get! It turned out to be sort of oceanic with either coral branches -- or demonic tusks? protruding out one side. Awesome! Gail at Wired Designs Studio added a back to it and voila! Now I need to add a wire hanger to the back...

Step 1 -- Before first firing

The Weather

57 and drizzle in beautiful San Antonio, Texas. We love our drizzle and our cool temperatures and we are NOT looking forward to Hell again this summer. No 105-degree days for us, please?

Other weather: Politics is still dominating the news. Who thinks any of it makes the least difference when we elect legislators to whom we have given: $$, our trust, a complete list of what's important to us, and a mandate to try to make at least some of that happen -- and, these same individuals are unable to do anything but get together in groups, posture like the primates they are, and squabble amongst themselves...