Big Sur July 2010

An interesting trip. The last 2 years of high school I lived in Monterey, spent quite some time in Big Sur. Alot of time in college, too. Haven't been back in a while, and we (S Bee and I) paid the price. My plan was to avoid the summer crowds by staying up top; we came in from the Hunter-Liggett side cause I wasn't sure the Peanut could get up Nacimiento-Fergusson from the 1. This was all well and good 'cept it was 90-100 degrees out up top, hence S Bee wanted to be down in the fog. So we're cruising along the South Coast Ridge Road in her low clearance Honda Civic, slightly sketchy but ok. Turned down to come in to Plaskett by the backdoor, so we could camp in the fog via a dirt road (you can camp anywhere, legally, in National Forest if it's off of a dirt road). Everything was ok, minus some semi-minor ground clearance issues, till we reached a locked gate. Uh oh. Backtracked and carried on to the south -- I thought we might have turned down too soon or something. Many miles later I reckoned we were bound for the dirt road that comes up from Willow Creek. Her car was doing well. We nearly turned around, and then wished we had during a gnarly, washed out ascent. The Peanut did well, but we over-worked it.

So we turned around. A low point. Hallelujahs for the pavement. Fog clearly visible below. There was some really cool evidence of the 2008 fires. Redwoods that had everything green burned off of them looked like sticks with green carpet glued to them. Kinda like how boojums look in Baja after it rains. Basically every bit of wood on the redwoods was resprouting. Really odd and cool looking. We pulled in to the tight turn with the creek and redwoods and things really began looking up. Washed the heat/grime/sweat off of ourselves. A semblance of joy was returning. Tempered by the fact that everyone and their mother was driving up Nacimiento-Fergusson to find a campsite cause the sea-level ones were all gone. No worries says the former Monterey County local. The Peanut was blowing smoke so we got some oil and cold beer in Lucia, then headed south for some commando camping. We turned up Plaskett Road and the painted sign said locked gate 5 miles -- guess the road washed out in the 2004-5 El Nino or something. What we ended up finding wasn't ideal, but it worked.

Dinner was grassfed beef Bratwurst from the farmer's market. After the long day of driving anything would have been good, but they were amazing. Breakfast next day included PB&J on a croissant which was unbelievably epic: 2009 was a good year for apricot preserves, plus it was on a croissant.... Lots of other tasty treats, too.

Sunday we tooled around in the redwood grove that is 1 or 2 valleys north of the big Salmon Creek grove, and then made our way back down the 1. Went to Montana de Oro for the first time, one of S Bee's favorite places. Hmmm, running out of steam on the write-up. Time for pics. The full albums are here and here. Will likely add S Bee's later, too.

full trunk resprout

green carpeting the upper limbs

more resprouting

char

charred madrone

sketchy digicam focus, but fun facial expressions; redwoods + creek area

1/30th second and slower and water looks awesome

self portrait. S Bee took a real portrait but I don't like pics of myself...

charred log

the Peanut in the bend

cotton candy water

post swim

temperature was about 40 degrees lower down below

girl and her beer

breakfast of champions

coolest spoon ever, freebin find

grove north of Salmon Creek.

Peanut is back there somewhere

cool mossy char

my fave pic of the lot

I'd rather drink muddy water and sleep in a hollow log

lichen-y dead redwood

nice grain

dragonfly

Ragged Point area

South end of Montana de Oro, there are Bishop Pines on the hill with the fog on it

People Get Ready

Today I found a download for the 5 disc gen-u-wine basement tapes, the Bob Dylan and the Band stuff from '67. Stoked. It's hard to evaluate songs I've never heard before, but I really look forward to reading the Greil Marcus book about the songs and how they fit into the american collective mythology. blahblahblah. People Get Ready I do recognize and it's pretty awesome.

Neil Gaiman / OnionAV

Onion AV has a wonderful, wonderful in depth piece on the work of Neil Gaiman today. I've read/seen maybe half of what he's done and it's just amazing. The guy who used to teach the science fiction class in the english dept. at UCSB was a big Neil Gaiman fan; every other year Neil would come to the class and give a guest lecture. Alas, my year was an off year.... Great list of things to read. And a Tori Amos mention, as per usual....

The weird ones are always the ones most worth the time it takes to know them.

Salmon Salad

S Bee and I are starting to cook together. It's a work in progress cause I'm so used to having complete control in the kitchen.... Last night we (mostly she) made a salad of grated carrot, an avo from Amy's parents' farm, a can of pink salmon (alas, not sockeye), boiled sweet corn, minced garlic, lemon, salt, pepper; eaten with lettuce leaves. Tasty. And as per usual, food photography is hard, be gentle.

World Cup in Photos

Kirk found this link. Nice.

le Tour 2010

Now that the World Cup is over I can concentrate on the Tour de France. I love the newsflashes, they have little nuggets like this:

The man who started the move today, Ryder Hesjedal is the best placed on GC of the escapees. He was 27th overall at the start of the day, 3’43" behind Chavanel. (He is Canadian, not ’Canandian’ as posted in the previous flash. That’s not even a word. Apologies for the typo.)
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13:34 - Wedding Interrupts Francaise des Jeux Last Night... “It should be an interesting stage with plenty of animation but, having said that, the leaders are all trying to save themselves whenever possible so it’s a good opportunity for the outsiders to try something.” “Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone in our team got a good night’s sleep. There was a wedding in our hotel. I’m not sure what denomination the ceremony was but there was plenty of singing and dancing with a Krishna theme and the party lasted until five o’clock in the morning…!”

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13:48 - Vogondy Upsets Tranquility
The Saxo Bank team is now chastising any rider who is attempting to bridge the gap to the four stage leaders. Vogondy tried but he was chased down and given a talking to by Chris Sorensen. Then an AG2R rider tried and Lance decided to boss him about a little - a shake of the head hints that he didn’t think it appropriate to keep chasing the escapees. Et voila, the attempt stopped... Who said there’s no patron in the peloton...?

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This is the first time that Vasili Kiryienka has ridden the Tour. (Apologies for the numerous ways that his surname has been spelled during the course of today’s coverage... fat fingers were at work on the keyboard at times of haste.)
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Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen posts.

Waylon Jennings / OnionAV

Yet another great read in the OnionAV Nashville-or-bust series. This one in particularly good.

Joan Rivers / Fresh Air

Funny, thought provoking, highly recommended.

Review of John Prine / Fresh Air

Great listening.

Dennis Hopper / Fresh Air

This piece ran a month or so ago, after he died. I found the conversation about art collecting to be fascinating. Highly recommended.

RIP Harvey Pekar

The movie about him, American Splendor, is amazing. NPR ran a story about him last night that was lovely.
I got the jpeg here. Nice article about him.

BP Responds to a Coffee Spill

Andrew sent me this link. It's solid gold.

Holland vs. Spain

Ennnnnnnnnnnn VVVVVVIIIIIIVVVVVVVVVOOOOOO!!!! con Univision.

The naranje are all orange today.

Great save by the dutch keeper off of a header 4' in. Spain looking aggressive. Rough game since then. Holland just had a nice cornerkick play, but the guy with great position swung and missed. Bizarre.

Halftime. Hope we aren't looking at PKs. The whole Zidane getting tossed and then PKs thing in 2006 was terrible.

2nd half a little cleaner. Both teams missed pretty good opportunities in the first 13 minutes. Better game in the 2nd half for sure. Good chances everywhere. I can't believe it's still nil-nil at 90'. Man, plenty of chances in the 1st extra time, too. Spain is diving all over the place now. Sure Holland is dirty-ish, but Spain is out of control. I think Holland is playing for PKs after the red card. I dunno about that goal, I think there was an offsides just before. Spain might have deserved to win, but I don't like how they played that 2nd overtime. C'est la vie.

I put together a slideshow of our Africa time when I was at SDSU and did a 'Geo-jaunt' talk. These 2 slides were my best joke: top is an African Wildcat at Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, December 1988, bottom is my brother's American Housecat, Nike, at our house in Monterey, California, circa spring 1991. Love her facial expression.

Uruguay vs. Germany

Watching at school on a terrible feed via channelsurfing.net. I don't understand why ABC isn't webcasting the games they do. With broadcast tv going away a year ago or whatever it's totally lame. Good game thus far. Meh, video is getting too many hits, lagging, switched to ESPN radio. Oy vey, the radio guys are Americans. This is horrible. Germany just scored and the announcers didn't seem to realize it happened for about 5 seconds. Univision.com. Heaven. I love spanish speaking announcers! GOAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL 1-1. The announcers are going batsh!t crazy.

Such a fun game. It's clearly raining like crazy, I loved playing in the rain, slide tackles become so fun. Lots of chances everywhere. Forlan just went for the goal on a corner kick, just missed. Both teams are attacking. Swing and a miss right before halftime for Germany.

OHHHHHHHHHHHH. Uruguay should have just scored. FORLAN is amazing. Gorgeous cross by the defender, gorgeous goal. Germany scored on a pretty cross + header. 2-2. Good game. Schweinsteiger in spanish is 'el Capitan Schwiney.' Epic.

How did Germany not just score?? They got one, definitely deserved. Sloppy play in the box by Uruguay. Oh man, #9 for Germany has missed 2 gimmes now. Suarez dive. Forlan to tie it in stoppage time?? He hit the crossbar!!!!!! Really fun game.

Yikes, only 1 game left. Gonna have to drop a bunch of Africa pics.

Kruger, December 1988

Moremi National Park, Botswana, July 1988

Chobe National Park, Botswana, July 1988. Elephants came through the campsite (no fences for the campgrounds in Botswana!), and a baboon stole a loaf of bread while the car was open when we set up camp!

Cry for Zimbabwe, eh?

Vic falls, Zimbabwe, July 1988

Kommetjie, '88 or '89

Going Scorpacciata on Apricots

Not a whole lot of food posts this World Cup season, lots of energy is going towards soccer, and working on the dissertation. Been eating lots of bread, yogurt, and going all scorpacciata on fresh apricots; sometimes all 3 meals in the day have been that. I've canned 17Q of preserves, and have a 3 gallon batch of peach/apricot preserves ready to go on top of that. It's a bit nuts. I've been giving away lots, too. The pic is the pile of apricot pits from the fresh ones I've eaten at the office, there's a couple of plum pits in there, too. In the background are loquat pits -- they are beautiful.

James Taylor / Carole King / NPR

Decent enough interview, but man do I love me a Two-Lane Blacktop mention. The discussion of how songs are written at the end was interesting, too. Many, many musicians have talked about the phenomena of songs 'coming out of the ether' to them. I remember an interview or stage banter or something of Trey of Phish talking about a conversation with Carlos Santana about there being a hose from the heavens that delivers songs. Being 'hosed' entered the Phish lexicon as describing a situation where long jams were particularly transcendent.

Germany vs. Spain

Ok, I've been convinced that it isn't fair to blame the German futbol team for WW2, especially since half of their team are Turks or black dudes, so I'm happily rooting for them. Plus I hate Spain cause of the Chile game. That said, thus far Spain has had the chances. The Ozil dive in stoppage time was a little embarrassing. Spain is playing really well I must say; should have scored. Germany just missed a gimme, too. Spain's goal was gorgeous. Now we see if all of those 4 goal, piling on games meant anything for Germany. #18 for Spain is an idiot -- should be 2-nil. Well, Spain deserved to win. I'll be pulling for Holland in the final, but I respect Spain more, now. They played good soccer.

In acknowledgment of Spain's passing ability, God Help Me Pass, Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, January 1988

Holland vs. Uruguay

Here comes Forlan who's control is velvet and instant. Seconds later, bad pass by him, turnover, 1-0 Holland; an amazing goal. Forlan got the equalizer with a pretty goal, too. Good game. 2nd Dutch goal was a bit hectic with rebounds and players in the way. The dude who screened the keeper was even. 3rd goal gorgeous. Oh my 3-2 in stoppage time. Uruguay had a shot there at the end, dangerous cross. Good Game.

UCT campus (the game was played in Capetown)

Games Today

Frankly I'm not too interested in today's games. Don't like Argentina or Germany, though Germany piling on 4 goals seemed unnecessary and not classy. Watching the Spain/Paraguay game right now and I'd love if Spain lost. OH MY GOD. 2 PK saves in a row ~62nd minute. Oh this game got good! Spain hits the post twice, the 2nd time it goes in. I wish I worked blue on the blog.... I hope and pray Uruguay or Holland wins the tournament.

Hyena, Kruger, Desember 1988

Uruguay vs. Ghana

I don't know who to root for. Uruguay has played great soccer. Ghana is the only African team left. I think Uruguay is the better team; we shall see. Ghana got lucky at 17th minute. Oooh Ghana, tough luck. Again! Ghana playing well. Lugano comes off, he's hurt. Fucile down hard. Hmmm, he recovered awfully fast. Bicycle kick! -- that would have been the goal of the tournament. Muntari - what a goal! Forlan is a stud; 1-1. Both goals have come as if the ball was directed by a remote control. Forlan is amazing, Suarez should have scored off of that cross. Ghana is dominating overtime, but still 1-1. I think we're going to penalty kicks. Oh My. Missed PK at the end of overtime. Shootout. The guy who missed it at the end nailed the first one in the shootout. Que terrible! 4-2 Uruguay advances.

My dad chimed in that the full name of the Ghanaian guy who helped at our soccer practices when I was a kid is Eric Boampong. Ghana played so well. Pity the 2 teams I liked the most had to play against eachother in the quarters.

Kudu silhouette, near Punda Maria, Kruger National Park, December 1988. I think I've put this pic on the blog before, it's one of the few from our time in Africa that I took, very proud of this image....

Brasil vs. Holland

WTF? Listened on the radio while puttering in the patio garden and putting up 10Q of apricot preserves. Sounded like Brasil should have pounded in multiple goals in the first half. How the heck did Holland score twice? It didn't sound like they were playing that well, and the video highlights weren't that impressive. S Bee stopped by and had a spoon of yogurt and fresh preserves, that looked good to me so I had a bowl for breakfast.

Taoioca Pudding + Apricots

Not a good picture. And I split the custard by ignoring it and letting it come to a boil. And big pearl tapioca isn't good for this dish. But I haven't dropped a food post in a while, so....

Tapioca Pudding:
(recipe from Simply Recipes)
1/2 c tapioca
3c milk
pinch salt
~1/3 c honey
2 eggs
3 apricots (under-ripe-ish)

soak tapioca in milk overnight
cook slowly for an hour or so
add honey
beat eggs in a bowl, add some hot milk, beat, add to pot
cook low heat till it thickens
cut apricots in half and add for last 5 minutes to soften a little

with the honey the custard got pretty sweet, the contrast with the tart apricots was nice. Other than that the texture was all wrong....

Bill Simmons on the World Cup

He is a writer for ESPN, usually about basketball. Good writer, good/funny article.