bigbonton

Spring 2010 and "Daffodils" (1804)

2010-03-06T23:06:52Z

Saw a dozen round bellied robins the other day.
One of them was really getting him some bugs.
They were all hopping and darting in the sun and leaves, making a good lunch from the bugs, grubs, and whatnots that have come up since the ground thawed.

The daffodils are in bloom rather suddenly - seems like last week they weren't even sprouts. But it's like that each springtime, always a pleasant surprise. Just like last year and the year before that, on back to 1804 and beyond.

Decent photos, but it's just a half-effort attempt because the real deal is this wonderful visual, "beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze."
The inward eye, led by Wordsworth, trumps iPhoto, no contest. We all win:

"Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

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Lucky Lindsey Jacobellis

2010-02-17T15:44:50Z

Starting with the 2006 Winter Olympics, aka the XX Olympic Winter Games, cut to the 2010 Olympiad, flashback to the Low Tatras, Italian and Austrian Alps, then we sing:

She's an athlete, a trooper, and what a snowboarder.

In 2006, coming into the home stretch of the snowboardcross (which is like a roller derby down the mountain), Lindsey was way out front with her gold medal almost around her neck.
On the last jump before the podium she got more-than-called-for air and she did this method grab (above) just because it felt right.

She wiped out and went from Gold to goat.
Watch the grab but note how fast she got up and back into the race:

She was so far out front that she could wipe out and still came in second, yet the benchwarmers and the Monday morning press had a field day, such as, “Jacobellis settled for a silver medal and was labeled a showboat after her mishap.”

For four years she has been asked about “the grab” and her answer is always the same,
“I was snowboarding and I did a snowboard move and I fell. I fell, it's just a part of boarding."

Can't ya just see her shrugging it off?
I fell, it's all a part of the game.

Now, in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games snowboardcross, Lucky Lindsey Jacobellis took a jump higher than her opponents, didn’t plant it well and skidded out of bounds. It was over for her. This time getting up didn't matter, her race was done - out of bounds meant game over.

Afterwards Lindsey said,
“I just landed a little front-footed. I feel OK, though.
Sometimes, you can't control the things you want to.
That's how it goes in boardcross."

When I learned to snowboard (Burton Snowboards!),
one line from The Pretenders kept playing in my head:
“We fall but we keep getting up.
Over and over and over and over and over and over…”

Full lyrics from “Message of Love” by The Pretenders:

]]> Now the reason we're here
as man and woman
is to love each other
take care of each other

when love walks in the room
everybody stand up
oh it's good, good, good
like brigitte bardot

Now look at the people
in the streets, in the bars
we are all of us in the gutter
but some of us are looking at the stars

look round the room
life is unkind
we fall but we keep gettin' up
over and over and over and over and over and over

Me and you, every night, every day
we'll be together always this way
your eyes are blue like the heavens above
talk to me darlin' with a message of love

Now the reason we're here
every man, every woman
is to help each other
stand by each other
when love walks in the room
everybody stand up
oh it's good, good good

say i love you, i love you, i love you, i love you, i love you, i love you
Talk to me darlin' Talk to me darlin'

the iPad

2010-02-01T21:44:32Z

funny video, well done
but it takes a moment to load...
wait for it...wait for it...

there ain't no flies on me

2009-11-09T18:31:08Z

This is one of the few turkeys to see the sunrise the day after Thanksgiving.
His name is Jake, as in Jake Turkey. More original than naming him Tom.
Turkey Jake has his namesake from an old man with a saggy neck waddle. Human Jake didn’t seem to mind the saggy comparison, although I wonder if he is crying inside or if to him it's all water off a ducks back or maybe saggy human Jake no longer feels emotions…

Old gray turkey Jake is old, even by fowl standards. He’s older than most of the human offspring playing in the yard and has outlived all of his fowl contemporaries. Consequently, Jake has been granted a permanent pardon from ever being considered as sustenance. Smart decision for all, especially since this old bird must be one tough old bird to have escaped the dinner preparation neck-ax, survived nightly raccoon raids, and avoided road and farm vehicles up to November 2007.

As a tangible example of an homage to elders, we sent Jake off to the farm. Meaning the real farm, not the “farm” as in that euphemism for the chopping block and then the carving plate.

Old Jake has not yet “bought the farm” here.
Look closely and there’s a dog in the bottom right of the photo. She's a nice Boykin Spaniel, not likely to agitate the old bird.

Jake is more likely to see tomorrow than many of us, especially if we don’t learn to mend our wicked, wicked ways and remember to say "Yessum" to the ladies, and "Yessur" to the men.
Which leads us to:
“Most all the time, the whole year round,
there ain't no flies on me,
But jest'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be! “

Click below for wise insight on
just how to behave “Jest 'fore Christmas” according to Eugene Field (1850-1895).

]]> "Jest 'Fore Christmas"
by Eugene Field (1850-1895)

Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,
Mother calls me Willie but the fellers call me Bill!
Mighty glad I ain't a girl---ruther be a boy,
Without them sashes curls an' things that's worn by Fauntleroy!
Love to chawnk green apples an' go swimmin' in the lake--
Hate to take the castor-ile they give for belly-ache!
'Most all the time, the whole year round, there ain't no flies on me,
But jest'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be!

Got a yeller dog named Sport, sick him on the cat.
First thing she knows she doesn't know where she is at!
Got a clipper sled, an' when us kids goes out to slide,
'Long comes the grocery cart, an' we all hook a ride!
But sometimes when the grocery man is worrited an' cross,
He reaches at us with his whip, an' larrups up his hoss,
An' then I laff an' holler, "Oh, ye never teched me!"
But jest'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be!

Gran'ma says she hopes that when I git to be a man,
I'll be a missionarer like her oldest brother, Dan,
As was et up by the cannibals that live in Ceylon's Isle,
Where every prospeck pleases, an' only man is vile!
But gran'ma she has never been to see a Wild West show,
Nor read the life of Daniel Boone, or else I guess she'd know
That Buff'lo Bill an' cowboys is good enough for me!
Excep' jest 'fore Christmas, when I'm as good as I kin be!

And then old Sport he hangs around, so solemn-like an' still,
His eyes they seem a-sayin': "What's the matter, little Bill?"
The old cat sneaks down off her perch an' wonders what's become
Of them two enemies of hern that used to make things hum!
But I am so perlite an' tend so earnestly to biz,
That mother says to father: "How improved our Willie is!"
But father, havin' been a boy hisself, suspicions me
When, jest 'fore Christmas, I'm as good as I kin be!

For Christmas, with its lots an' lots of candies, cakes an' toys,
Was made, they say, for proper kids an' not for naughty boys;
So wash yer face an' bresh yer hair, an' mind yer p's and q's,
And don't bust out yer pantaloons, and don't wear out yer shoes;
Say "Yessum" to the ladies, and "Yessur" to the men,
An' when they's company, don'a pass yer plate for pie again;
But, thinkin' of the things yer'd like to see upon that tree,
Jest 'fore Christmas be as good as yer kin be!

Raven and full moon

2009-10-20T18:34:00Z

Happy Halloween 2005
Not a scary image but it has all the components:
raven, full moon, remote coastal town (think of Hitchcocks "the Birds").

Maybe it's not creepy due to blue sky, the lone bird is just hanging out, and I was in a great mood when I took this photo. The cool vibe of a Spring Sunday afternoon walk overpowers any Halloween macabre.
Was hiking along the Northern California coast in Point Reyes National Seashore.
One of my favorite places in the world, Point Reyes includes Limontour Beach where the waves break with a perfect sound. Each wave is a shorebreak; the sets surge in with a whoosh and a noticeable whoomp. They often have an air pocket trapped in the tube that blurps out with a whale or porpoise breaching sound.
On the north end of Limontour sea lions are laying about, on the south end are waterfalls from the cliffs, running directly into the Pacific.
Kite surfing, horses, beach bonfires, isolation.
Now that's a nice beach, eh?

Manure Basics

2009-09-19T22:15:00Z

What will you do for your Saturday Bull Session?
Figuratively shoot the bull or literally spread the manure?
Decisions decisions . . . .

There's even a flower on the bag! Now that's good marketing!

Reduce, reuse, re-purpose, repair, recycle

2009-09-13T19:45:33Z

Alan Greenspan, my man! What a wonderful season we had, back at the turn of the century.
Irrational exuberance + time
= that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Add the realization that ice cream melts, and suddenly life ain't easy.
Lucky for the label-heads and status-needy among us, we're deep into a trend of green-ness.
Reduce, reuse, re-purpose, repair, recycle is not in recession, it's in vogue.
See the fun beauty found in found art:

Feel free to claim your scrimping belt tightening isn't because you are now poor, it's because you're trendy! Join the green sustainable club, be faddish. Reduce, reuse, re-purpose, repair, recycle.

Hard candy Christmas this year? "Sufficient for the day are the troubles thereof," so let's just see if Mama's Little Baby can make it through Thanksgiving without shredded newspaper in a turkey-shaped meat-loaf. Don't knock it, it's high in fiber and loaded with highbrow Steinbeck literary references. [uh-oh, is Steinbeck highbrow? Um, no. Literary genius does not equal highbrow.]

Halloween will be easier, it comes with built-in excuses for otherwise embarrassing actions. Prepare yourself for the economic nadir with a trip to the thrift store - claim to be looking for a funky Halloween ensemble. Act now because after Oct. 31st the gig is up, you'll just be shopping in a thrift store without an excuse.

Or just go hobo. Grow a beard (razors cost money). Oh! Go beat, 2009 is looking so beatnik. Be a beat hobo beatnik cat. A beret and fingerless gloves? Dig it, but not just on Oct 31st, go-hobo, be-beat and drop outwardness until macro-means catch up with micro-ways.

Alan Greenspan sez: "I found a flaw in the modeling structure in how the world works.
I made a mistake in presuming that organizations, banks specifically, are not as protective to the long term survival of their structures as might be expected."

Tell me about it. The corporation has no mind. Or heart or soul. Just add human greed and the awareness that you're leading something considered "too big to fail" and, "Oops! Sorry 'bout that, bail me out Uncle Sammy."

Don't think twice, it's alright

2009-08-17T19:52:47Z

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.
- Satchel Paige

First read that quote on an 8.5x11 paper
on the wall in English class.
Liked it then. Living it now.

"Been sittin' here thinkin' back over my life
All of the good things, and trouble and strife
Felt my share of heartache, so many I've had
Still think the good things outweigh the bad"
- Flatt and Scruggs, "Good Things (Outweight the Bad)"

Listen to the June Bugs rev up their hypnotic hind legs and wonder about . . .
what, why, if, how about, and the ever-fresh WTF!
We'd have better answers if we had the right questions.
No insights from out here at the Cypress Knee, just getting better and better at sitting still.
Sitting and thinking never was a problem but it has led to some sticky situations, not all of which were unpleasant...

"Sittin, drinkin, superficially thinkin
About the rinsed-out blonde on my left
She was pretty, flirty
Looked about thirty
Would have run away but I was on my own
Said my my my, like a spider to a fly
Jump right ahead in my web!"
- The Rolling Stones, "The Spider and the Fly"

Jackalope Dinner Special

2009-07-31T06:00:00Z

This Blue Plate Dinner is a rare treat.

Jackalope was a favorite meal of Dutch Reagan
when he was down on the ranch.

The Jackalope it is a hybrid of the pygmy-deer and a species of killer-rabbit. Reportedly, jackalopes are extremely shy unless approached. It's also been said that the jackalope can convincingly imitate any sound, including the human voice. It uses this ability to elude pursuers. (Editors note: ever camped next to a babbling brook? same principle.)

Although no jackalope has ever been captured alive, it is said that a jackalope may be caught by putting a flask of whiskey out at night. The jackalope will drink its fill of whiskey, and its intoxication will make it easier to hunt.
It is also legend that the Cherokee Indians would eat these at the end of a vision quest.

Above all, respect the jackalope.

River Iris with Rush

2009-07-09T20:40:42Z

got on a wiki jag while thinking about flowers . . .

"Green grow the rushes go
The compass points the worker's home"
- REM, "Green Grow The Rushes"

The word “iris” has three main meanings, related by their derivation from the Greek word for rainbow:

* Iris (mythology), a messenger of the gods in Greek mythology, identified with the rainbow

* Iris (anatomy), the sphincter around the pupil of the eye, named after the colors in human and animal eyes

* Iris (plant), a genus of flowering plants, named after the rainbow

“Irises” is a painting of iris flowers by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh.

Van Gogh felt that he could keep himself from going insane by continuing to paint.
“Irises” was the result.
Painted in 1889, it's on display at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Another Iris: Jodie Foster played "Easy Iris"
in the 1976 film “Taxi Driver”.

"You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here."
- Travis Bickle

one to one correspondence

2009-06-25T18:48:52Z

One to one correspondence
That's a favorite term for me, learned it in first grade and it sounded so big and important that I tried it out that night at the dinner table - without ceasing, as first grade chirrens often do...
Everything at the table had newly discovered one to one correspondence.
Salt to pepper. Fork to spoon. Plate to bowl.

What about these two images?
There's some correspondence going on here, but what?
Holes through partitions?
Failed attempts at barriers?
Perspective via a centered focal point in a photo?

Notice the padlock on the gate of the wooden building.
A padlock on that gate is mostly symbolic but it does communicate the intention to barricade the place better than a twisted wire or slip latch.

Thank you for your time and we hope bigbonton has once again passed as your leisure guide of choice.

Statistically (webstats-istically), 80% of you gentle readers have just returned from lunch, it is 1PM local time, and you'll spent 8 minutes on bigbonton.org.
Most of you are not in the USA. We know because we care.

Hello to you fans in Denmark, Australia, and that curious uptick of traffic from Argentina.
Hmm... does bigbonton also have a "soulmate in Argentina" like South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford?
Click away on me my dear, mi querido, mon cher, meu caro, mijn lieve, liebe, käre, kedvesem, mio caro, and all the other localizations of the term of endearment.
Mine heart is big with grand affections, without reservation. Well, maybe one reservation (if this is one): for me, the one to one correspondence applies to relationships. You do what is best for you, but I'll go with:
GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out.
You get out of it what you put in to it.

along the Coastal Hwy

2009-06-20T04:58:16Z

This BBQ place never really got going.
and then the Interstate came through, and then people started eating salads instead of BBQ and then they quit going to the beach, "what with the price of gas these days" . . .

Earlier we've stated some (made-up) rule about how a tin roof and smoking pit guarantees good BBQ eating.
This is an exception to that rule, even the tin roof couldn't save this BBQ joint. Maybe the food wasn't good or the cooks were surly & glum?

Today the parking lot has a tree growing up through the pavement. Couldn't photograph from my part of the parking lot because some rapscallion ne'er-do-wells were conducting some sort of business on that very spot by the tree - whoops! - we didn't see anything, don't know nothing 'bout nothing. Sure wasn't going to point a camera at 'em.

All I know is I don't know.

We documented the failed BBQ stand and departed before they could come over.
As we shifted into 2nd gear we heard the crime boss yell
"You best Ge-et out this lot!".
Right. Some threat, lame bravado crowing from the rural poor.
But here's another made-up rule:
"Don't get in a fight with someone that has nothing to loose".

3rd gear, 4th gear, and we're laughing and I'm checking the rear view mirror - as if!

The Veiled Lady

2009-06-14T23:01:00Z

The Gibbs Museum of Art, Charleston, SC.

A magnificent bust, non?
Oh! She eees too bee-yoo-tee-foo.

click photos to enlarge in new window

No Photography! - the sign said.
Lucky for us I cannot read.

Mess o'Fish

2009-06-10T19:00:00Z

photo below, from the top:
1) Spanish Mackerel, caught trolling over the Betsy Ross Reef
LORAN C-45504.1/61061.9 // GPS-32 03.427/080 24.851
2) A large mouth surprise photo'd at the dock. I shot this one.
With this camera. It was much larger than the cooler it was draped over - about 4 feet of solid fish not including the tail. He could swallow your head up to your shoulders.
3) Sea Bass, from 40 miles offshore. Not telling where. Off Hilton Head in the Atlantic. Look at those eyes - clear means fresh.

click the photo!
Actual fish are larger than they appear.
I grin everytime I read that.

Quite a haul & by the time I reeled in my last thundering Sea Bass of the day I'd fished myself out. We got a big laundry basket full of fish. Even after cleaning we had a cooler stuffed full of meat.

At the reef our Spanish Mackerel catches were often partials - barracuda found us and were biting off our Spanish Mackerel catch before we could land them. We were pulling up heads or fish with a significant bite missing from their abdomen.

More yapping about fishing:
"I" caught the biggest shark until my buddy one-upped me. But mine fought more!
"I" also made the biggest commotion over nothing, hooting & crowing while reeling in a "shark or something" that turned out to be some sort of epileptic sand dab / guppy. It felt big. Perhaps a shark did a bait & switch?
"I" claim to have caught the most, but admit most of mine were from an Elementary School and were tossed back to graduate.

One undisputed superlative "I" earned:
"I" tossed cookies the most. Twice.
Nobody else got sick over the side although some looked like they felt like it on a few trolls. When I hurled, my experience at sea showed. Everyone agreed that I really know how to barf with finesse.
Along with the "Most Urps" award "I" also earned the "Best Bounce-Back" award: "I" ralphed, "I" rinsed my mouth, blew my nose to clear the stomach acid from my sinuses, and "I" re-started fishing & yapping again without delay.

"I" persevered against these obstacles and kept on fishing.
Then I accused a guy of hogging the "Luck Corner" of the boat when he caught several in a row and I was on a dry spell.
Fish, Fish, fish-fish. Fishing!

BADbonton

2009-05-09T22:51:46Z

The episode in which we see how lack of attention led to a horrible transformation...
and the panic of the emotionally frail Miss Lass.

This character came out of the bush and scared our field correspondent so badly that the lass fled into a safety container with a peephole, a wildlife-watching hut.

Miss Lass could hear BADbonton bark on the other side of the fiberglass, “Argh! You wanna see wildlife? Grr Grrrl! Come out, come out wherever you are. Oh, duh, you're right inside there. Anyway, come out. I know you're in there. I can hear you breathing."
BADbonton mistook her high energy level from his unpolished apple applications for a prim excitement over his being all frisky in the field.

“Who said apples were good for you,” Miss Lass queried sillyly. “His purple eyes are bugging. Look at what one wedge of a Granny Smith apple did to his smile! The guys teeth – they are beyond carnivore – why he, he’s a OMNIVORE oh my!”

Apples are good for you but pity the guy getting an apple for dessert when he was eyeing her sweet apple cheeks. Thus the May Day Mangler mixed up Miss Lass, rather than polishing her person and mussing up her May day.

Fielding affection from another fine lass will fix him right up.
Any takers?
“Replacement Lass needed"
"Urgent field research with dynamo.”
Prudes or the verve-less need not apply.
Bring your own moxie.