Nalina and Kaytea

Monumental

VIdeo projection Monumentale 2009
by uruk

Abandoned Places

Eden and I just spent an enjoyable and kind of creepy hour looking at abandoned places around the world on this great site Web Urbanist.
You can explore Asia, The former USSR, the US, EU and more.
The photos come with stories and often have onward links for more information.
Enjoy

Thanksgiving

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
---Albert Schweitzer

Thank you for reading my blog. And thank you for all the things you do each day, big and small, to make the World more coherent and beautiful, peaceful and just, homey and fun. Even if you don't think you do anything all that special.

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all.

Off to New Orleans

Krista is stomping around the French Quarter today. She's visiting NOLA with her friend Amy the poet who was runner up in the Faulkner Award for poetry.
They're staying with a friend of Amy's and attending posh receptions and readings in swanky hotels. Actually, Krista is attending some of them but also touring solo.
We spoke early this morning and she said it's bitter cold there today, balmy yesterday. She's been to several voodoo shops--some cheesy tourist traps and then the real authentic one (which had a beautiful altar to Erzulie).
Krista said the city reminds her of a cross between Chiang Mai and Haight Ashbury. Sort of gritty and crumbling and funky, but way cool. And way different from your average US town. Which made me happy. If you're going to the trouble to visit someplace, it should be a little exotic, don't you think?
As a reward for winning runner up, Amy gets to sit down with a major book publisher and pitch a book. She's chosen to pitch The Painted Tongue Flowers, her collaboration with Krista.
I'm not a huge poetry fan (sorry to admit that) but when I read Amy's poems--each one inspired by one of Krista's paintings, they knocked my socks off. I still can't find my socks and I'd love to see that book get picked up for national distribution.
But even if it doesn't, Krista is in the final stages of self-publishing it on Lulu.com and it should be available to purchase on-line very soon.
Meanwhile, Krista is off on another adventure. Send her some warm thoughts for a cold cold day.

Gobekli Tepe - Check This Out!

A German archaeologist by the name of Klaus Schmidt has claimed discovery in Turkey of the world's oldest temple. Called Gobekli Tepe, it predates Stonehenge by six thousand years, and Smithsonian magazine writes that "the find upends the conventional view of the rise of civilization:"
Here's a quick read on Huffington Post with some photos, or click the link above for the Smithsonian article.
The columns and carvings were made when humans supposedly had no metal tools. Hmmmm.