Monday, March 14, 2005
Mycophiles and carillon bells.manoman if I am not having a knitting jones right now. A friend let me know about a co-op for some 1337 yarn and I have been pouring over my hoarded patterns to find out exactly how many bags of yarn I *need*... yargh. And here sits on my desk one lone sock that needs a mate an a kitchener toe, and I realize I should have just knit two on two circs like a goodie two shoes and not on dpns of death... and that I don't need any more yarn since I have a plastic crate full of it that I haven't touched, and even enough for clapotis from knitty if the uruguay wool ever arrives. Did I mention I've got my eye on another few (10? 15?) skeins of it?? Even though it is so not going to be wool weather much longer... Part of the reason I have so many new projects is cos I got my grubby paws on a copy of Stitch and Bitch Nation, which has like a thousand projects I want to try. I'm glad I dragged my feet on buying it (and still am too cheap to shell out for it, it's a loan from a good pal) since there is just *so* much to knit! Even though I've been too cheap to buy knitting mags, I went out and bought all of the poker mags I saw at a newsstand (they specialize in mags and had 3-- All In, CardPlayer & Bluff). Also picked up "Telling Tales", "Blink!" and my snB friend who lent me SnBN is also lending me "The Know It All"... So, like the yarn the books I intend to read pile up as I sift thru poker blogs (will anyone read me instead of knitting? Perish!) I did actually leave the house though, to go to dinner in downtown Oakland and happened upon the bookstore/newsstand DeLauers (which doesn't have a website, but when I googled it, googlegod wanted to know I didn't mean "dealers oakland," which made me blow decarbonated coke out my nose just now)... A few pics of downtown Oakland, then back to the grindstone: No makeup! No laughing. I'm not really a makeup kinda grrl anyway, doesn't jive with my slacker wake up five minutes before having to go personality.  Oakland Trib bldg in back, that you can see from the 580 coming home from SF/Hayward. Last time I was here I heard the Trib's carillon, but I doubt it's a live carillonist like Cal's. The bookstore's a few blocks behind on Broadway.  *** Okay, okay *one* more thing before I go. Feel like the little worm on Sesame Street who says "more! more!" and to whom Oscar says,"no no slimey, we'll read more... tomorrow," but that's beside the point and not what I was going to say. At Cal, the carillon plays at noon and 6pm, and also during other special times during the year (maybe a concert, whatever.) But it will also play on holidays, and I think some special football games or something... Anyhow, years ago my date and I, on the 4th of july, decided to get our mushroom trip on and wander around berkeley. We were still in college, so this was like, way more than the statute of limitations for California in terms of years ago ;) ... We started the night at tightwad hill after watching the fireworks above the bay from SF and Oakland, smoking Sampoernas and tripping over the exposed sky, the black bay and the huge expanse of forest behind us. Once as we were all lying on the platform, two men dressed in blanket ponchos came and sat down with us and smoked... we all agreed they must have been sham(e)n from our subconsciousnesses, except for the fact we all saw them and they took an apple and a granola bar we offered as they were leaving. The group split off from each other after the fireworks were pretty much over, leaving us to traipse down the hill and to our respective wherevers. How the hell did I get down from that mountain, avoiding the moving ground and not concentrating on the delight of the shining trees? (And if you remember, let me know-- I didn't realize I was missing a hole in my memory but I don't remember getting from the hill on down!) Campus was empty, edging on midnight. We walked over to the campanile, which normally shines with this bright light all its own but our mycophile eyes saw a shining beacon tower of ivory, some faceless Helen launching our desire to lie down on the sidewalk and let her take up all of our field of vision: a lover on top whose hair creates a two person cave as it tumbles over her shoulders and blocks out the world. All you could see was your feet, in front of you on your back, and the long walkway it seemed to create along the black night and white stars (that were pale in comparison to the 'nile). We were just lying like that when, ding! All of a sudden, the carillion starts and I'm walking along this long, impossibly wide road of ivory and every step is a clanging eightyeight bell which vibrates thru my feet and up my legs and makes me forget a body in motion stays in motion (fig) and mines not stopping but running with the stars surrounding me like the shark tunnel another old boyfriend had a panic attack in... I'm in my own half tube of reality and motion is not a people mover but cold cold stone and the brass bells of heaven playing a song I'd never heard but thanked mine and Helen's lucky stars I was golden enough to open my ears up to and hear. I don't remember how long it was going for, or how I willed myself up from the ground and got home to quickly sleep and dream about the ivory carillion trip, but that's what I think of when I hear a carillonist play. Gnite! :)  aK gamesgrid www.gamesgrid.com
11:34:16 PM |
Ponce de Leon for the day (minus the headgear)Batting cleanup... Yesterday I went driving on that *I hadn't planned on getting off on that exit, but here I am and now I'm driving some windy road thru redwoods* kind of a drive. It's so nice to be able to do that, here in northern California. Back in socal, there was no way I'd ever accidentally stumble upon a redwood grove or a mountain, but I was able to do it yesterday. CA-13 splits and starts somewhere in the poshy Claremont hotel area (damn, someone please send me there for a massage and a pedicure?!) and I found myself directed towards the Chabot Space and Science museum, which is a fun drive up the side of a mountain (it is a planetarium, with huge telescopes open for public viewing). But I kept going, further than I'd even been and off of the 13 now, at least I think. For some reason I really wasn't worried where I'd end up, I somehow knew I wouldn't have to backtrack thru the windy roads (or, at least I could take another back, which would have been worth it too). I ended up in a redwood forest, not like the giants I saw on a sidetrip I took last year to Redwood Nat'l Forest (pic below, waldo?), but still huge enough to make me feel my own mortality. Anything that will outlast me-- the Golden Gate bridge, redwoods, the 980/880/580 interchange before going to San Francisco-- all makes me think of how quickly it all passes, and how little I am in a monolith's shadow. But in a good, noncreepy opposite of clowns eating me way. So I have a special soft spot for redwoods... I think since I "accidentally" discovered all of those individual parks up there (with picnic areas no less!), I'll be headed back this weekend with a packed lunch and good shoes. Oh! And the camera, since I missed out on taking any pics this weekend :( The road was so fun though, with the trees pressing in and excited waiting for our reign to end... (so they can get back to one another instead of being seperated by asphalt, natch). There were stretches of road like that I went barrelling down in Puerto Rico a few years ago, driving across la isla from Ponce back to San Juan to kayak thru mangroves towards a midnight dip in glowing water.^ And it's the same way the oneohone/one is so open on the coast it's closed; no one here but us chickens keeps us more hemmed in than those superhighways of socal. Sultans of swing? This blog brought to you by the letter a(lliteration) and the number 13. aK gamesgrid www.gamesgrid.com ^ I'm disappointed I can't find a link to the biobay near the nw tip of the island near fajardo... we didn't get to visit vieques but still watched our bodies and oars making the dinoflagellates turn blue :)
10:35:10 PM |
Had something to say here, about my road tripping yesterday (as it is now 4am)... I'm sure it'll wait til tomorrow.
12:47:46 AM |
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2005
Asia K
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Last update: 4/4/2005; 1:42:38 AM .
Last update: 4/4/2005; 1:42:38 AM .
