Batty

While I was attending our neighborhood street fair in Multnomah Village with my kids and mother-in-law, a boy in the parade who was there to represent a local toy store handed me a Magic: The Gathering playing card that featured Vampire Bats. It had on it a picture of a pretty evil-looking bat flying in front of a full moon and a few game related directions that, of course, meant nothing to me. However, beneath the directions was this rather unlikely quote: "For something is amiss or out of place / When mice with wings can wear a human face." It comes from Theodore Roethke's poem "The Bat". What a delightful surprise to get a bit of fabulous poetry at such an unlikely moment--and from one of our own regional poetic superstars at that. Good on you, Magic: The Gathering. Here's the poem:

The Bat

Theodore Roethke

By day the bat is cousin to the mouse.

He likes the attic of an aging house.

His fingers make a hat about his head.

His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead.

He loops in crazy figures half the night

Among the trees that face the corner light.

But when he brushes up against a screen,

We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:

For something is amiss or out of place

When mice with wings can wear a human face.

~cd

p-p-p-p, p-p-p-p, Pingu! Pingu!

I've fallen in love with Pingu, an animated TV series from Switzerland that was broadcast, chiefly, in the 80's and 90's with a brief revival in the mid oughts. The show concerns itself with the shenanigans of a young penguin (titular) and his family and friends. It's all done in very spare, sometimes crude, claymation, but it's charming and often hilarious. The voice work--all grumbles, screeches, and babble--is perfect and by itself very funny. The show is for kids, but I think grown-ups will get a kick out of it too. You can find a batch of episodes (all around 5 minutes long) on Netflix, but Net searches will bring up some bits on Youtube and a bunch of web stuff that's more contemporary--games, merchandise, and other nonsense. From what I can see, the best of Pingu  is the old, creaky animation: very Euro, very silly, utterly delightful. Check out this episode, "Pingu Goes Fishing":

And what's a cute little Eurokid cartoon without a Hasselhoff connection? That's right. Check this out too:

Now get THAT out of your head!

~ C.D.

and I feel fine...

Hey, I stole this from the letters after an article on Salon this morning. It was about today's rapture, naturally, scheduled for 6 pm (no matter the time-zone). Probably the best comments I've seen yet on this event:

The world has already ended.

Only those with Jesus in their heart can perceive that the world is being gradually destroyed. Everything from climate change to disease to war which is happening now is evidence of the tribulations that are stripping away the material world we knew.


The rapture was not a physical event, but rather the final salvation of the souls of the righteous. The raptured walk among us, but remain untouched by the apocalyptic forces besetting the world.


Are you raptured? If you are, you will believe you are sincerely, with no shred of doubt within you. Let the holy fire of armageddon be the crucible that purges the impurities of doubt.


Of course, should misfortune befall you, it will mean you were not raptured.


That's my new apocalyptic Christian cult idea. What do you guys think? It deals nicely with the whole prediction problem, and it really isn't that different from Calvinism.


Should I declare for tax exemption?


—psalmanazaar

And now I shall write no more forever about this sad instance of mass delusionality.
CD

I'M BACK!!!!!!! Ha hA ha HA!

Vaux's Swifts

Last Saturday night we went to the Chapman school on 25th and Pettygrove in Portland to see the Vaux's swifts come in to roost in the chimney. This is an annual ritual here in PDX: this particular species of swift will find, during its autumn migration, a safe roosting place en masse--usually a hollow tree, but in this case, a tall chimney. They come in by the thousands at sunset. After filling the skies in the vicinity of the school for a couple hours, they start to work their way down towards the chimney in great whirling funnels, cylinders, and ribbons. At last they start to descend down into the chimney to find a roosting spot, sometimes flapping back out for another go. But by dark, they're all in. Hundreds of people gather on the school's lawn to watch this spectacle (along with a hungry hawk or two), which happens every night for about the entire month of September. When chillier temperatures arrive, the swifts begin to move further south. (Credit goes to Steve Warner and Portland Upside for the photo above.)

Read about this amazing phenomenon here: http://audubonportland.org/local-birding/swiftwatch

Take a look at this video of Vaux's Swifts roosting in a Eugene, Oregon, chimney. It's exactly what you'll see at Chapman school, but this particular footage is so outstanding that I had to link you to it: http://www.formula1movies.com/video/1TT07lAdNaM/Thousands-of-Vaux-s-Swifts-Roost-in-Eugene-OR.html

And enjoy this artist's rendering of the scene (second row down); I must say he captures the mysterious beauty of it well: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32310833@N06/page5/

Adios,
~CD

A sentence I didn't expect to hear today:

Dude, an octopus can kick a tiger's ass any day of the week.


~CD

Words are failing me...

CD

July 2, 2008: On The Way to CDA

We're leaving for Lake Coeur d'Alene for a few days this afternoon. I'll make this quick.

Daily Five: (1) St. Johns Bridge. Spectacular gothic suspension bridge spanning the Willamette. Built in 1931. (2) The OHSU Tram. I love this for no other reason than when I'm driving down Macadam to Naito Parkway and see a great silver pod floating along the cables above my head a feeling of sheer joy bubbles up in me. (3) Chinese Yo-Yos. Great for kids, pets, and for a boredom cure for college students on long road trips. (4) The Ugly Mug Cafe. My favorite place in Portland for Joe. Unpretensious, artful, happy, shabby. Great coffee too. (5) ABC's Lost. Best TV show ever (even better than, alas, Twin Peaks--although I will say TP was ballsier given that nothing like it had been on TV before.) Lost is a whole wacky universe unto itself.

Hasta Luego,
JBF

June 30, 2008: Besson's "Angel-A" and a Coupla Kooks

My online English 101 begins today and, boy, am I anxious about it. I've never taught online before and I'm dubious about the whole endeavor (that is, online teaching generally). I'm going in with an open mind, however, and will give it my best shot. In many ways, doing this over the summer is a good idea--I won't have the distractions of other classes, and I can fuse work with recreation a little more easily. For instance, K, Ian and I are going up to Lake Coeur D'Alene later this week to spend July 4th with my brother Scott, his wife Carolyn, and their two kids Ryan and Katherine. I'm looking forward to their meeting Ian for the first time.

~

Recently viewed: Angel-A, directed by Luc Besson. An amusing trifle by a French director who is hit and miss, in my opinion. It concerns a down and out scam artist who is saved by an angel--a six foot plus, platinum blonde, power-bodied angel, that is. Familiar territory, this, but it dares to go where It's a Wonderful Life could not. Capra for the French. Wim Wenders crossed with Jim Jarmusch. B.

~

The Daily (more or less) Five: (1) Peter Pauper Press books. I always pick these up used and I'm not sure the press is even still operating. They're thin little editions of classic literature, usually stuff in the public domain: collections of poetry, excerpts from famous works, short pieces. They come with wonderful illustrations too, often woodcuts. (2) Benson Bubblers. Free drinking fountains located all over downtown Portland; apparently they got their start after a city father grew angry at the practice of charging working men more for water than for beer in the local taverns (or some such thing). (3) The voice of Jolie Holland. What a mesmerizing, lilting, enigmatic sound she makes; if Billie Holiday sang through the vocal chords of Peggy Seeger, this is how it might sound. (4) James Joyce's "Araby" from Dubliners. One of the finest short-stories ever written; a boy makes a romantic quest to a traveling bazaar to buy his lady love a trinket and learns a hard truth about the folly of vanity. Devastating. (5) (Guilty pleasure alert!) Wikipedia. Seriously, I could spend all day just surfing wikipedia; I know the pitfalls--the misinformation, the bad writing, the unreliability, the shoddy citing, the hearsay-mongering--but I'm healthily skeptical and a critical thinker. All one needs is a good BS detector.

~

Here are a coupla kooks (K and Scout):

Bye,

JBF