intellectual properties

what i learned in tahoe

growing up in the northern michigan woods in a home that did not have central heating (wood stove), on a private road that, during the several months of winter, often got snowed in until some neighbor went out and plowed it, driving through blizzards to get to work, pipes that froze (melted snow for bathing!), and without all the fancy NorthFace gear that kids have nowadays (have you ever worn knitted mittens? they are totally useless, and just get wet and then freeze to become icicles on your hands.), i have a fair amount of post-traumatic stress around winter. i get really scared of it. the potential for it being funtimes vs. cold miserableness seems very low to me. this is much different than my california and southern friends who ONLY have memories of funtimes in the snow, because their only interaction with it is ski vacations. but for me, all i can remember is how cold, difficult and what a pain in the ass winter was, and i haven’t had enough ski vacations to quite get over that yet.

so generally, because i’m not into the downhill sports (my skiiing in Chile this summer was an exception, not the rule), when i think about going to tahoe, all i imagine is getting stuck in a blizzard on highway 80 and having to sleep in the car (which happened to our friends the weekend before), frostbitten fingers and toes, and feeling trapped inside a cabin. usually late november in tahoe is brisk late-autumn with some dustings of snow that melt off in the morning but you can still go hiking kind of weather, and that is what i envisioned when we made the plans to go up there for Thanksgiving weekend. so as mentioned, i was slightly apprehensive once we learned what the weather would be like. jay, however, was SO EXCITED.

wednesday eve, the 5 of us (stephen, nicole, whit, jay, me) had a delish dinner @ Wally’s Cafe and left oakland late to avoid traffic, and then our drive up was fast and on dry roads. above 3,000 feet the unseasonably large snowbanks sparkled in the moonlight. we arrived shortly after midnight, and because it’s so early in the year and the not all of the services are open, we had to have the SnowCat – a tank-like vehicle with a passenger cabin – pick us (and all our stuff) up and take us to the ski house, which sits right on the slopes. so once you’re there, you are THERE. no driving anywhere to get to where you want to go. *amazing*. and then we stayed up until 3am drinking wine.

Thanksgiving morning it was GORGEOUS at Sugarbowl – still cold, but sunny and clear and piles of white fluffy snow (see current conditions here). jay and whit got up early and went to hit the slopes ASAP, and nicole, stephen and i hung out in the apartment – which is the bottom floor of the larger cabin, and sort of dungeon-like in that there are low ceilings and few windows – until mid-afternoon and then went for a long walk on the cross country trails and had some cocktails at the bar. despite my PTSD i enjoyed it quite a lot, and we frolicked. for Thanksgiving dinner we cooked a hodgepodge of items in the tiny kitchen – baked mac and cheese, fondue, roasted vegetables – and then hung out, continually marvelling at the slowness of time after it gets dark at 5:00 and enjoyed eachother’s company.

Friday morning was similarly gorgeous, and after the other 3 left to ski, stephen and i both debated if/when we might also go skiing/boarding as it seemed sort of like we should (we were RIGHT THERE), but neither of us were super motivated to 1. pay the lift tickets and 2. hurt ourselves, which were possibilities. part of the reason i’m not into downhill is that i’m pretty terrified of hurting myself. almost everyone i know who does downhill has been hurt pretty badly at some point, and given that i’ve already been dealing with constant body pain for over a year now, the idea of doing something that could possibly hurt myself even more seems ludicrous. so, it being a gorgeous day we went and sat on the deck near the bar and chatted. later, when the other 3 went into the bar, the bartender, a local friendly fellow, asked “Where are Cosmo and the White Russian?”, referring to us by the drinks we’d ordered the day before.  quaint!

then came saturday, when we awoke to a fairly significant snowfall that kept going all day long. everyone else decided to “hit the pow”, and i continued my streak of sleeping in and then laying in the bed watching movies. Lost in Translation is really a great film, although i find ScarJo to be really flat. i don’t buy that she’s a hyperintelligent Yale Philosophy grad at all. jay came back sometime after noon and i put on my snowclothes and walked the 100 yards to the bar, met up with everyone for a drink, and then went back. i can bring myself to enjoy a sunny gorgeous day in the snow; in my world, blizzards are really not fun, but they were all RAVING about how much powder they were shredding all day.

after dark, another long evening of movies (Let the Right One In, touted as “the best vampire movie ever”, really didn’t do it for me) and fondue and wine. the amount of calories in cheese and wine consumed over the course of this weekend was pretty astonishing, and we didn’t even consume all we’d brought.

sunday morning it was back to clear sunny skies, and now about 2 more feet of snow. stephen and i stayed inside for the morning, then jay came back and we all packed up our stuff and went for a walk while whit+nicole skiied more. we investigated the car situation, and found it buried in the parking lot. luckily, it’s light dry snow (powder) and didn’t take too much effort to dig out.

just before leaving, in a brave act of full immersion, whit flopped into the snow bank in his regular clothes. we hit the road just before dark, stopped at Ikeda’s for dinner, and were home in decent time.

i do sort of regret not skiing, if only because it provides spectacular views from the lifts and tops of runs. that was the main reason i skiied in chile – i didn’t want to miss out on any gorgeousness. but without that stress – physically and mentally – i was able to decompress quite a bit, and after a long weekend of sleeping and eating as much as i wanted to, when i got back sunday night i felt great. rested. satiated. and THAT i was definitely thankful for.

butoh and wine and tapestry

ras-Artumnal-portrait-2194, originally uploaded by furtographer.

from the BRAF Artumnal 2010 portraits by the Furtographer

i’m a flexifeminist

speaking of hyperbolic publications, i have been quoted over at Jezebel.com on the subject of flexisexuality:

As for the word “flexisexual” itself, it’s also not new, despite the Mail’s headline (“the new word for the women who refuse to play it straight”). If we want to get liberal with our definitions (flexilingual), blogger Amy LeBlanc wrote a post dropping “flexisexual” back in March 2004, using the word as a potential synonym for a metrosexual vegetarian who ate free-range and organic meat (“flexitarian”). More relevantly, our friend the Urban Dictionary lists several like-minded definitions of flexisexual dating back to March 2008, when an anonymous Noah Webster-type defined it as a “straight, heterosexual person who flirts with gay homosexual people. Usually seen at clubs, part of the hipster scene.” A few months later followed a new definition: “a girl that is bisexual only on weekends.” Finally, a third person chimed in with, “a person of flexible sexual orientation.”

the piece then goes on, predictably, to discuss how the term degrades women.

.::.

semi-related, on the subject of what i perceive as an issue with having feminism as a focus point for a revenue generating website, namely whether or not that sometimes taints your ability to stick to a positive “empowerment” message and not resort to making things up/exaggerating for hits: Feministing vs. Jezebel:

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hobbit homes: the future

The Tea Party Targets….Sustainable Development?

First, they took on the political establishment in Congress. Now, tea partiers have trained their sights on a new and insidious target: local planning and zoning commissions, which activists believe are carrying out a global conspiracy to trample American liberties and force citizens into Orwellian “human habitation zones.”

At the root of this plot is the admittedly sinister-sounding Agenda 21, an 18-year-old UN plan to encourage countries to consider the environmental impacts of human development. Tea partiers see Agenda 21 behind everything from a septic tank inspection law in Florida to a plan in Maine to reduce traffic on Route 1. The issue even flared up briefly during the midterms, when Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes accused his Democratic opponent of using a bike-sharing program to convert Denver into a “United Nations Community.”

…

In the tea partiers’ dystopian vision, the increased density favored by planners to allow for better mass transit become compulsory “human habitation zones.” They warn of Americans being forcibly moved from their suburban dream homes into urban “hobbit homes” and required to give up their cars and instead—gasp!—take the bus to work.

now, this is from Mother Jones, so yes, a huge helping of salt and hyperbole with that, so what’s interesting to me about this (particularly since i just watched The Book of Eli) is not so much the “tea partiers are total nutjobs” aspect but that as an extreme minority, this point of view provides a definitive shadow of overlap with extremely left wing conspiracy theorists who have been suspicious of all forms of government planned anything.  it’s possible the extreme right and left have each gone so far around they are now meeting face to face (is that part of the 2012 prophecy?), which is either hilarious or terrifying, depending on how you look at it.  in fact it reminds me of Marin County NIMBY planning conflicts, where the conservative ultra left fight over things like whether or not Habitat for Humanity should be allowed to build homes n their communities.

or maybe this is nothing new…politics as usual…yawn…trumped up for ratings/publicity, and in that case, isn’t Mother Jones just as guilty of misinformation and rabble rousing as the Tea Partiers are for spreading this around?

this photo was an accident

but that color blue is my favorite color. i call it “tahoe sky blue”.

more photos of our lovely snowy thanksgiving weekend here.

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well, i missed a day of National Blog Posting Month because i went to tahoe and it turned out we didn’t have internet in the cabin, and since i don’t have a smart phone….all i could do was twitter via txt. i set up some other posts to post on thursday and friday, which i know is still cheating, but then saturday i hadn’t scheduled anything and so, no post.  i was thinking that it’s a little ridiculous to schedule NaBloPoMo for the month during which a large percentatge of amercians travel, but whatevs.

recently

performing with BadUnklSista @ the Black Rocks Arts Foundation ARTumnal fundraiser 11/20/10

redefine christmas.org

as you are celebrating all the things you are thankful for today, consider this from www.redefinechristmas.org:

Consider that the amount of money spent on candy alone during the holiday season is greater than the annual budgets of the American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association and Habitat for Humanity combined.

Redefining Christmas

It’s not about reinventing the holiday. It’s about changing the way we look at gift giving and receiving. It’s taking money we usually spend on obligatory gifts with little meaning, and creating gifts of charity that give in multiple ways, to the receiver, the giver, and people who truly need.

There is no question we are in the midst of difficult financial times. And if it has you feeling unsure or uncomfortable this holiday season, imagine how purely difficult it’s becoming for people who already, or are about to, depend on the generosity of others for the things that only a donation can provide.

As we consider our individual place in this world we can be of help to others with a simple gesture that bestows the gift of charity on those who are in need, on behalf of the ones we care about. If this sounds like a good idea to you, redefine Christmas by giving others donations to their favorite charities, request that others do the same for you, and use this site to share this message with as many people as you can think of. Chances are, you’ll like the way it feels.

Give Charitably Now

i’m also a big fan of Heifer International, where you can support sustainable living by donating farm animals to poor families around the world.

clear fragility

yesterday the headwind was so strong that i thought maybe gravity had increased overnight. i was pedaling so much harder than usual, yet barely moving. it was psychedelically slow, almost unbelievable, and when i finally dismounted my legs were like jello.

this morning was bright and clear with less of a wind, but cold like we have not felt since last winter. i had to stop to rub my hands together, my fingers numb, and as i did so, i noted the birds flocking in the water at Aquatic Park. how can those birds stand what must be frigid water, while i stand here with 4 layers, freezing my ass off?

today we prepare for a trip up the mountains, where it snowed 8-10 feet in one day and overnight lows are below zero. i am not prepared for this; i had envisioned crisp late-autumn days and hikes on muddy trails and maybe some flurries and frost in the morning, just enough to be enchanting. i did not envision huge piles of snow and subzero temperatures, as if it were february. i pray we do not get delayed by road closures or accidents, and once we arrive, if this weather holds i do not intend to leave the cabin or get out my pajamas until sunday.

have a safe and happy thanksgiving everyone. be grateful.

…snow can wait i forgot my mittens…

BND + Small Business Saturday

once again…time for the annual rant against holiday consumption and nudge toward a smarter economy….

it’s not like i don’t buy things. i do. but i try to buy them conscientiously, knowing where things come from, who made them, and how they were made and what from. i support local fashion as much as possible, shop recycled/used clothing stores, and try to avoid “made in china/sri lanka/vietnam/indonesia” when i buy something new. when it comes to food, beauty, and cleaning products, i look for the most organic/fewest ingredients/greenest thing i can find. but this doesn’t make me anti-consumer. i certainly couldn’t go a year without buying anything. in fact, i think because i am always looking for the perfect thing, the greenest thing, the most sustainable, best choice, i probably end up shopping MORE than someone who just walks into Wal-Mart, loads up the cart and walks out. i probably go to 5x as many stores looking for the best alternative, and pay more for things too, further supporting the economy.

i say this because i don’t want people to get the wrong impression when i support things like Buy Nothing Day (no shopping the day after Thanksgiving) and Buy Nothing Christmas (a radical Christian idea!). i understand that these seem extreme, and many people think futile. does it really make a difference if you shop the weekend after Thanksgiving or a week later? and aren’t giving gifts a nice thing to do?

in my mind, it’s the mindset of these activities that bothers me most – that this ritualized consumption is now an expected part of American culture, so much that people put themselves through horrid situations at the beck and call of retailers like cattle through a gate – remember the people getting trampled last year on “black friday”? – and into financial debt they can’t afford to “participate”. and, in the end, what percentage of Christmas gifts are actually something people wanted?

go ahead, consume. i’m not going to pretend that isn’t part of all our lives. but i encourage you to do it as mindfully as you can. this saturday is the first ever widely organized Small Business Saturday, with companies like American Express giving huge promotions. so maybe instead of hitting up the Best Buy and Wal-Mart on Black Friday and filling up your cart, take some time to find some of the items on your shopping lists at small businesses in your community on saturday instead.  if done right, this can turn our economy around. small family businesses will thrive, artists will make a living, communities will come together. in my mind, THAT is the American way.