see/read into the wild

I've just finished reading 'How the West Was Ruined,' by Jonathan Raban, in the Jan. 2008 edition of Playboy. Yes, I read the articles. His argument states that John Muir's vision of the West, which obsessed over the sublime vision of 19th century romantics, is an outdated, elitist way of looking at the world.

"It's time to retire the language of the sublime, with its implicit class snobbery and muddling together of aesthetic pleasure with social hierarchy, and look freshly at the relationship between the ungussied-up townships of the American West and their natural surroundings."

you'll have to pick up a copy of Playboy to read the rest of the article - couldn't find the link.

But it's interesting, because I think of Christopher McCandless, subject of the film Into the Wild and book of same title, and his obsessive quest to throw off his suburban, well-to-do upbringing and live among the impoverished during his journey, which ultimately took him into the wilds of Alaska.

Chris McCandless is the young romantic searcher - with an almost unhealthy reverence for nature - which ultimately kills him. You're pulling for him, but you just know he's trekking towards disaster.

There's a poignant scene during his journey when he reenters society from a long, isolated journey down the Colorado on a kayak, which ultimately took him into a Mexican desert.

He hops on and off a train and visits LA, where he's aggrieved by both the plight of the homeless and its seediness and a trendy restaurant, where he could envision himself with other social climbers if he weren't the rough and tumble Alexander Supertramp.

He flees in desperation from the scene, back onto the trains, just like other romantics who view society with abhorrence and revere nature.

I say to hell with nature and Thoreau-esque journeys into the woods.

Try to live ethically in society - that's got balls to it.

I wonder how Raban would view him - did he escape his family - or did he try to create order in nature where it had been lost in his parents' lies? Were his intentions -similar to Tolstoy in his renunciation of money - socially conscious or elitist in their scope?

Because how can someone raised in wealth ever understand what it means to be poor? One cannot cast off his social umbrella completely. it's always there, isn't it?

It's present in his elevation of nature to the level of majesty. Noone who was truly penniless would see beauty in living in a stinky bus by himself in the middle of the woods. Maybe his priorities were out of whack.

The film, which I loved by the way, is shot in locations that are almost all what are considered majestic beauty-type shots. Grand Canyon, the coast, the top of a rock mountain near the Salton Sea where an old man and Chris climb to the top and see the light of God. It's all about some "higher" elitist? reverence in nature.

It's the difference between Western and Eastern Oregon. The warm fuzzies come out when you think of the Cascade and coastal ranges and thick evergreen forests. That's the type of environment that environmentalists protect. It's also got more $$$ than Eastern Oregon.

But I'm not so sure he would think of lost middle of nowhere towns in Eastern Oregon with the same reverence as say, the Oregon coast. Maybe that's the problem with young Chris McCandless, who would be approaching 40 if he were alive today.

He saw things from the eyes of a young romantic, not as they really were. He lived in the 19th Century, not the late 20th. What's so wrong about setting a forest fire that would have attracted the planes or at least someone to come rescue him? Probably didn't realize that the trees would grow back or that he squatted on millions of acres of forest.

why obama should be president

It would eliminate all criticisms that we are anti-muslim if we had a post racial, African-American president in office, according to a very good article in The Atlantic by Andrew Sullivan, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/obama
Hillary v Rudy would revisit the culture wars that have plagued the US since the 1960s. Ellen Goodman, columnist for the Boston Globe, thinks a polarization of politics is not such a bad thing http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/left/orl-syn-good1209,0,7865626.story
because it engenders political change such as the end of Jim Crow laws, the end of Vietnam, etc.
I have to side with A. Sullivan on this one. The U.S. is being crippled by this culture war - every time the right wing uses gays, abortion or immigration to divide our country, we lose grasp of the real issues. I'm sure the Dems do it too.
I just don't think race, gender ethnicity issues matter that much anymore in the new climate of global warming, class disparity and global politics. We need to get over the issues that have divided us as a country and start thinking how to function and compete within a global society. Obama will help us do this because he's not tied into the war, he's not already damaged by his efforts at health care reform and he doesn't incite memories of the 1990s.
This is a different era with different issues -time for a new leader who can help the nation redefine our place in the world nonmilitarily.
I still need convincing that his stance on issues is to my liking. Part of this is not having cable, other part is sheer boredom at reading the candidates platforms.
But mostly, I think it's a reluctance to get too involved too early when I don't feel I have a say in the process. The primary system gives so much power to two states - Iowa and new Hampshire. There's something pretty whacked about that. Any thoughts?

hawks chat

seattle is a better team than they were last year at this time. Clayton is right http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=3148322 when he says that they pick up their intensity as the season goes along, just like the SF 49ers used to when they were champs. Last year, they were marred by injuries -remember, they had a Home Depot salesman playing cornerback in the playoffs against the Bears - and should have won that game. not that they would've beaten new orleans in the Dome, but just saying, they are a better team this year with fewer injuries. They are peaking at the right time. They've figured out the pass is a more valuable weapon than the run on 1st and 2nd downs. The Lofa Tatupu-led defense, even though he went to USC, is toight.

housing mess

What once looked like a good investment is now turning into a kind of debtors' prison. My house, which I bought in June 2005, is nice and everything. I bought it for $168,000 - actually the listing price was 164, but I couldn't pay the closing costs so they added that to the price of the purchase. already 4k in the hoc by the time I signed the papers. A year passed and I struggled with payments. I made everything on time - I actually did pretty well my first year. But last year I made the calamitous mistake of taking out a home equity line of credit. I wanted to take a vacation, after all, I had worked so hard to make the payments the first year and I was about to start a new job after working so hard at the old one for two years and home values were appreciating so much....Actually, I should have seen the warning signs when an appraiser only said my house was worth 207. Anyway, people were listing their homes for 250 - similar 2 bedroom homes without a nice view of the irrigation ditch. So I thought, why not, and I still had those pesky credit card debts that I had consolidated and wanted to eliminate. So I rolled those into the house as well. Hey, property taxes come around - why not use the line of credit - that's what it's there for, right. A new bike - gotta have a new toy. whenever I had a month where I'd fall behind, write myself a check, it's all good, i'm still ahead.
Until I realized that I wasn't ahead. The collapse of Central Oregon's housing market, which some say is just beginning, http://www.bendblogs.com/Bend_Bubble_2/ reared its ugly head this summer. When I tried to put my house on the market in June, I listed it for $ 218. Good lord. That wasn't going to happen. Eventually, my price came down to $205, but that didn't sell either. My realtor and my listing were pulled.
Now, I'm facing realty of the housing market for the first time.
I met with another realtor who said that she could maybe sell my house for $189. I owe $190 and that wouldn't include her fee or closing costs. So basically I'm fucked with a house that will not appreciate any time in the future and continuous problem of credit card debt, an additional 5k, and a job that takes up all my energy and pays $33k a year.
I've got a world of hurt looking at me in the next year. I am thinking it's time to pull the plug on this house and either rent it out or take a hit and sell for below market value, whatever it takes. Either way, i've got to pack up my things and move back in with mom and dad with my tail between my legs.
At least I have that option. Total debt if I sell the house for $189? About $15k. And that's if I can sell or rent out my house. All of which I will have to pay before I could get out of parents' house. I spose it's a lesson learned. After all, I didn't know much about buying a house when I started this mess. I'll know a helluva lot more when I get out of it. I hope. By the way, those houses listed for $250, they never sold either.

news

Reading the news is always an interesting experience, especially when you've reported it. I mean, what do you really know from a story? Has the writer really looked at all sides or are his or her personal biases slyly hid from view? What was his or her frame of mind when she wrote the story? I am less convinced that we have an unbiased media the more I see my own viewpoints, and how they interact with a story. I try to clear my mind, ask tough questions and present all sides to a story.
The reporter's mind is always under siege by questions of objectivity. I am sitting in an interview, formulating questions, trying to steer the conversation towards my questions, and I can tell my subjects see where I'm heading. It's somewhat easier when you know your subjects, but that's the rub. You cannot protect them from serious questions when you know them. You must become a vessel through which the serious questions are asked.
In a way, this form of journalism is impersonal. I am not taking sides, nor am I jumping to conclusions. I am asking the questions that I know will be asked by my editor, and my readers. I am the only one who can ask these questions.
And I love it when people want their stories to be told. I don't love it as much when I am faced with evasive subjects. But that's the challenge!
Here in Central Oregon, there are so many interesting stories to be told. I am learning to find a variety of viewpoints for every story.

redmond usa

I grew up in a small affluent town called Danville just 40 miles east of San Francisco and now I live in an even smaller town called Redmond. It's the kind of town most people in Danville would just as soon forget. But it's my home.
Redmond's been known in the past as the fastest growing city in Oregon, but it's not like that really. The scale of growth is probably extraordinary for someone who grew up here, but I think of growth in this small town as a blessing.
It means more restaurants, more bookstores, more interesting people - people already living here probably don't see the need.

Redmond is the big city compared to Prineville or Madras - it's all about perspective, that's all.
But I see something akin to Danville about 17 miles south of Redmond in Bend, which is where is more commonly known to the outside world.
I wonder what people who live in San Francisco or London would think about a place like Redmond. There's not much to do here in the classic, 25 to 35-year old sense of things to do.
There are no museums, people watching places, no places to spend any time or money. But that's okay, because I have neither time nor money.
All I have is my imagination.
Would someone who saw where I lived suppose that I am wasting my life, wasting my time?
I don't know, but I would have to say they would be wrong.
I have lived in some interesting places, like Madison, Wisc., Arcata, Calif., Seattle, Wash and Osaka, Japan. I would like to live somewhere else again someday, but there's nothing wrong with staying in one place for awhile. And while I'm at it, I might as well get to know the place where I live.
Because there are universalities of man that can be discovered and applied to life wherever you go. And Redmond is pretty much an interesting place to be. It's not like there's nothing happening here.
I've always thought I could live anywhere thanks to my ability to read, write and wonder.
What's going to happen in Redmond, Prineville, Madras, Sisters? I think Bend has already taken shape as far as what it wants to be. The same cannot be said for any other Central Oregon city.
My job keeps me busy. I've established a broad net of understanding with Redmond at the center of it all.
Today, I went to Sunriver, yesterday Prineville, Tuesday and Wednesday I spent in Redmond. Monday in Bend. Last Friday in Madras.
It's a holy circle that I believe will eventually make me understand the people of this region better than anyone else.
Redmond is at the geographic center, equidistant to all.
It is the place that most reminds me of the majority of the U.S. - proud of its decency, not too showy, down-to-earth Redmond. There's no pretense here. It's Flag City USA and Tree City USA and the proud supporter of a new Wal-Mart Supercenter all rolled up into one.
There's local excitement brewing up again about the emergence of downtown Redmond, but I'm not sure I'm buying it yet. I mean really, it's great to see a new bookstore, but two?
And how is the reroute going to help downtown businesses other than to take drive through traffic away ?????
That's what i love about owning a house in Redmond. Christ nobody knows how this market is going to play itself out. We could be talking about whether we're in a depression let alone a recession a year from now.
but I will have a firsthand eye on the entirety of the region, not just Bend, during my time here. I will speak face-to-face with merchants in all the cities of Central Oregon, not just one part of it.
And I will see answers to these questions as they happen in the next 12 to 18 months. Because nothing is inevitable. Anything is possible, and likely.

Three books by Cormac McCarthy

This won't be a politics blog or a sports blog or a culture blog. I don't pretend to have any insider knowledge. I don't live in Washington D.C. I'm not following anything that closely. I don't even have cable television - though that may change here pretty soon.
I'm starting from scratch really. Maybe that's how it's done, by noticing little things that people say or do and posting them on my Blog.
It's about creating a universe, fictional or otherwise, that people find interesting. I do it for myself, but I do it for whoever takes the time to read.....maybe it's something I've read like three books by Cormac McCarthy.
I've always wanted to read McCarthy, but had trouble reading him until I took up The Road. I read the first lines to myself like a father reading directions on medicine for his sick child. After awhile, it became a kind of poetry and I got hooked.
Sometimes we live on the road where forces are conspiring to get us and hunger grows and desperation emerges.
But small moments carry us through the day, maybe it's the connection with a loved one or a piece of fruit.
Not that looked at literally anything in The Road could compare to contemporary America, approaching the end of 2007.
We don't have to scavenge our neighbor's food lockers or eat other people for that matter, although I did think about going down to Costco and buying one of those 2 month supply kits and a shotgun after reading this book.
But there was a different landscape in the book that exists for us in our current world - the human landscape.
The father and son survive unimaginable circumstances in a realistic way. Their dialog is just how a parent and child talk to each other in every day life, but the subject matter is so striking.

I will find some examples::::

Then I read the first of McCarthy's Border Trilogy - All the Pretty Horses.
John Grady Cole is similar to the unnamed father in The Road because both go to places where most people would resort to lesser human forms -like cannibalism- but both refuse to go there.
Not even after he's (spoiler) been kicked around a Mexican jail and denied one last time by his Mexican flame. Cole learns that it doesn't matter whether you get the girl, or get the money, but there's no damn way they can take away your horse. Or your friends' horses, for that matter.
After reading The Road and All the Pretty Horses, I skipped ahead to No Country for Old Men, which recently became an Ethan and Joel Coen Bros. movie, with a screenplay written by another of my favorite Western writers - Larry McMurtry.
I think I got the book pretty well. It's essentially a violent book that doesn't let you get too attached to any one character because they keep getting dead.
His characters go the opposite direction of The Road and All the Pretty Horses - towards the diabolical. There's an undercurrent of pure evil that has taken over in this book. Maybe the aging sheriff is the last one that can save it. Maybe he's too late.
I found the sheriff's voice-over narration (in the book) annoying. Overall, a good read that kept the pages turning, but a disappointing ending so much that I skipped a few pages of it.
I read the book thinking about how it could be made into a Coen Bros movie. I'm hoping it's better.

It's going to be interesting as the election year heats up which aspect of Bush's performance takes greater heat. His dismal handling of the economy - the tax cuts and the drain on the treasury that the war has created - or his impeachable offenses, like his involvement in the Valerie Plame leak case or illegal wiretapping.
People hear Abu Ghraib, Mission Accomplished and Halliburton, and they think of this administration's hubris and incompetence, but when their houses are being repossessed and their credit lines cut off, there could be some chaos in the streets.
That is what has rekindled this Blog. I'm not sure where it will go, but looking ahead to 2008, there is no shortage of material.
There needs to be some accountability for the current regime in Washington D.C., but at least there are voices out there calling for impeachment including Dennis Kucinich and this columnist in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/340904_focusimpeachment25.html
There are many articles this week were focused on the coming U.S. financial crisis, including:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/12/bush200712
The president has not driven the United States into a recession during his almost seven years in office. Unemployment stands at a respectable 4.6 percent. But the other side of the ledger groans with distress: a tax code that has become hideously biased in favor of the rich; a national debt that will probably have grown 70 percent by the time this president leaves Washington; a swelling cascade of mortgage defaults; a record near-$850 billion trade deficit; oil prices that are higher than they have ever been; and a dollar so weak that for an American to buy a cup of coffee in London or Paris—or even the Yukon—becomes a venture in high finance.

My thoughts are that regardless of what happens, it looks like 2008 will be an interesting year to watch in the U.S.
Top stories in my opinion that deserve attention - winner of the B.C.S. NCAA football game notwithstanding:
How the election plays out - I mean, could Americans really ever vote another modern-day Republican into national office. I mean really. But you see the attack machine already greasing its wheels, don't you?
How the U.S. economy responds to simultaneous rise in crude oil prices, the collapsing housing market and rising deficit and war costs.
Better question: how will the U.S. consumer respond when no more credit is available and bad debts are called for payment?
Will $4 per gallon gas become a reality and what does it mean? Could it be a good thing?
How will the U.S. dollar fare against the Euro and what will a rise in prices do to the marketplace?
Will there be a surprise attack on Iran to sidestep what could be an impeachment year?
I don't think of anything as inevitable because history is not inevitable. There are forces and responses to those forces, but the Republican Party has taught me that anything is possible and the Democratic Party has taught me that anything (in an election year) can be messed up.

thanksgiving turkeys

Thanksgiving is a strong family holiday in America, and this year has a greater sense of the importance of family and friends as our country languishes under Bush rule.
Turkey time provided some good feastings and football at the homestead, with lots of litluns running around and grownups dancing with glee at the sight of their alma mater's college football victory.