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Avalanche Awareness
I’ve been going into the winter backcountry all my life, and it’s been a little tough to admit that I don’t know squat about avalanche danger. Finally I attended a free REI class, feeling sure I would just be verifying my ignorance and finding out how many thousands of dollars worth of gear and classes…
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Dark Star (1974)
A satire that is still great 30 years after it’s made is rare enough, but a low budget sci-fi satire that survives that long is truly remarkable. John Carpenter hit one of his few home runs with this hilarious parody of Star Trek and 2001. What happened to him after that? I never heard about…
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Heron Lake & Foothills
The high today was 11 degrees Fahrenheit. We didn’t think we were missing winter, but this weather brought an unexpected feeling of relief. We know from the one cold snap earlier in the season to leave a tap running in temperatures like this, but today held another lesson for us. The running tap kept the…
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Movie: Dandelion (2005)
This was a little too much downer following The Neon Bible, but shared the quality of being beautifully made. The story takes a few too many liberties, but it’s supported by brilliant cinematography that balances things out. It’s a contemplation of growing up in a rural prarie town that struck some chords with my adolescence…
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This Morning
At last, some significant snowfall! It looks peaceful, but it was 12 degrees with a ripping wind, and I almost froze my fingertip off taking this shot. A break in the clouds over Wyoming put a soft pink line between heaven and earth.
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Book: The Neon Bible / John Kennedy Toole
It’s a rare depressed 17-year-old that can express that angst in a subtle and compelling novel. John Kennedy Toole was not yet employing his outrageous sense of humor when he wrote this (he later wrote A Confederacy of Dunces), which makes this a bit of a dismal, Salinger-esque read. I’m confident that Holden Caulfield fans…
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Goldeneye Mates
This is a pair of Common Goldeneye ducks, several of which visited our lake on my walk this morning. They were all paired up already, but the drakes were still doing their mating call. They stick their head in the water, then throw it all the way back until it hits their body, emitting an…
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Movie: Dark Days (2000)
I can’t think of a worthy complement for this film. It’s like finding a flower growing on the moon. The lives of several homeless people living in railroad tunnels beneath New York are documented without an ounce of hype. It’s a minor miracle that it got made at all. At first I didn’t really believe…
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Movie: Hilary & Jackie (1998)
I recall enjoying this the first time I saw it, and I enjoyed it again, but differently. It’s a true story about musicians, so it hits two of my soft spots. The strange thing is that I’ve been watching so many episodes of Six Feet Under that I’ve completely identified actress Rachel Griffiths with her…
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Morning Clouds
Clouds today provide the illusion of a sunrise well after dawn. It has an almost violent look, though I didn’t feel a breath of wind. The ducks didn’t mind at all, they seemed to be chasing each other through the reflections on the water.