Archives: June 2005
Thu Jun 30, 2005
Julia Sweeney is a Genius
A few weeks ago on This American Life, they ran a half-hour piece by Julia Sweeney called "On Letting Go of God." It is hilarious, moving, and rings so true. (If you click the TAL link, you need to fast-forward to about minute 28 in the show. But the first part is good too. ) You can also hear it here, but I don't know about the quality. This latter link has a letter from Julia about the responses from listeners after the show.
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A Sense of Place
In a paper by Chas Clifton, who writes the blog Hardscrabble Creek linked on the left, he offers us a quiz to judge our understanding of our natural world. He calls is "Where you at." More...
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Vacation Plans
In a few weeks, I'll be spending the weekend at Florence Lake, which was featured in an article in Sunset magazine.
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Santa Cruz from the Sky, 1906
I've linked to Hiram Clawson's website before, sharing his photos of annular eclipses. The other day I landed on his site again while searching for information about Antonelli Pond. He has posted a photograph of the Santa Cruz beach, taken from a camera on a kite. Below the photo is an annotation by Peter Nurkse. It's really interesting. One factoid: the photo was taken in the summer of 1906, after the first casino burned down. That's why there is no casino in the photograph. I had wondered about that. The photograph itself is available from Zazzle.com.
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Tue Jun 28, 2005
Future Not-So-Shocking
There's a very funny article at Ars Technica: "Ten Things I Learned about the Future" written from the NextFest . More...
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Sun Jun 26, 2005
Santa Cruz Waterfall
Last weekend I drove up to Big Basin to see a waterfall. Even though I only had three hours, I didn't *drive* to the waterfall that you can drive to--I walked to it. More...
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Sat Jun 25, 2005
Report from Cambodia
My little sister is spending a month in Cambodia taking a class for law school and sent this report. More...
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Fri Jun 24, 2005
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
Someone sent me the commencement speech Steve Jobs delivered at Stanford. I think that we seldom get to hear from Jobs directly, and what I know of him is from a corporate speech and the spin by the computer media. Reading this I am inspired again by his directness and wisdom. More...
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Thu Jun 23, 2005
NIMBY
I know what NIMBYism is, and usually I'm on the side of the people who assume that the NIMBYers are the ones who have some sort of classist hypocritical political opinion. Today, I am saying Not In My Backyard, and I think I have a good reason. More...
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Tue Jun 21, 2005
Some Lesbian Love Poems
A few weeks ago, over at Hardscrabble Creek, I read a chapter from a new book about a place in Mill Valley called Druid Heights. The book is about pagan communities, but I know Druid Heights as the home of Elsa Gidlow. I can't just say that Elsa is my favorite poet; she is so much more, although I only know her from her poetry, her autobiography, and the resonance of her words in my heart. More...
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Mon Jun 20, 2005
Hidden Court in Its Day
The "Hidden Court" is near my house, and over the last few decades it has been a sketchy place to live and a nuisance to live near. Recently conditions have improved a little bit, and a non-profit agency is attempting to buy it and convert it to low-income housing. I really hope things turn out better than they have been. The cottages were built in the 1930s as a motor court. Here's how it once was marketed to tourists: More...
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Cute Casino Postcard
Here's a cute postcard of the old casino taken while a train passed under the arch to the Del Rey Hotel. More...
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Sun Jun 12, 2005
Gone for a While
I'm on vacation until next Saturday, and probably won't be near the net. I'll have plenty to contribute when I return, I'm sure.
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The Rosicrucian Enlightenment Revisited
Rosicrucianism has always interested me but the more I read about it, the less I understood. Even the explorations of a really smart man like Robert Anton Wilson seemed endless, and I still haven't read all his books. While reading "Rosicrucianism Enlightenment Revisited," edited by Ralph White, I realized that you can't really understand Rosicrucianism, you can only experience it. And it is extremely hard to reduce to a thesis--like everything else important. More...
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When is a Soulmate not a Soulmate?
In today's paper I read a column by Stephanie Coontz about the expectations of marriage. More...
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Sat Jun 11, 2005
The Most Beautiful Dump in the World
Today, in one of the final acts of this spring's cleaning frenzy, I went to the dump. More...
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Fri Jun 10, 2005
Tarot Art
The Waite tarot deck is my favorite, and if you don't know what I'm talking about it is probably the tarot deck that has the images that you think of when you think of a tarot card. The artist, Pamela Colman Smith, illustrated the deck "for hire." She had a long career, and I found a site created by one of her fans. More...
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Howl's Moving Castle
I have read almost all the books written by Diane Wynne Jones, and today opens the first movie (that I know of) based on one of her books, Howl's Moving Castle. A fansite I found has some links to interviews with Jones, and it appears that perhaps it won't suck too much. I hope not. This book was not my favorite, but any of her novels would make great films. My favorite book is "The Ogre Downstairs," a hilarious mixture of wacky magic, dangerous chemistry sets, and the secret life of teenagers. I also liked "Fire and Hemlock" even though I didn't understand it.
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Lenz Arts, 1974
I've always loved the newspaper ads that Lenz Arts has created over the years. Here's their ad in The Whole Thing Catalog, 1974. More...
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Television, Feminist Media, Photography, Musical Saw
Here is a more eclectic page in The Whole Thing Catalog, 1974: A description of the public television effort, a women's media collective, a rock musician photography, and Tom Scribner, Musical Saw Player. More...
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Where does a Chemistry BA get her first job?
When I graduated in 1984 with a degree in Chemistry, I had two job offers: an editing internship in LA and an analytical chemistry job at PharmChem. I took the writing job, and the rest is my history. PharmChem was an analytical chemistry company that would analyze any drug and tell you what is was. The Whole Thing Catalog, 1974, included an article about PharmChem. More...
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Early Community TV, Santa Cruz 1974
In the 1974s, people were trying to get a community television station going--broadcast. KOPE were the call letters, naturally. More...
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Thu Jun 09, 2005
The Umbrella Guy
I thought I had mentioned the Umbrella Guy before, but I couldn't find it. The Umbrella Guy walks down Pacific Avenue very, very, very slowly with a beatific smile on his face. Some people call him "Baby Steps." Here's a photo of him with a friend of mine. More...
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Tue Jun 07, 2005
The Cooperhouse Vision in SC Whole Thing Catalog 1974
I've read secondary sources about the original vision and plan for the Cooperhouse, but I hadn't read anything by Max Walden himself. More...
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Mon Jun 06, 2005
Santa Cruz, 1974
Oh, this is fun. You've heard the saying, The Sixties were really The Seventies? At eBay auction I won a tattered copy of "Santa Cruz, 1974: The Whole Thing Catalog." More...
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Sun Jun 05, 2005
World's Largest Rose Tree
At one time, someone in Santa Cruz boasted of the world's largest rose tree, and sold postcard view of it. More...
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Smelly Stuff
We did something sort of fun and different the other night. Three of us went to The Perfumer's Apprentice. It is just like the website says: for $15 you get to mix up essential oils into your own scent. More...
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