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Wagonwheel Farewell Party
A variety of oddball climbers have been my family in Ridgecrest, California for the last two years. Many of them show up at Wagon Wheel for my going away party. My need to blow off steam after my last day of work seems contagious, and we howl and drink our way late into the desert…
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Movie: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
This is the Australian film that inspired the American remake, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. It had some things I had never seen before, like a flying blow-up doll, a woman shooting ping pong balls with her genitals, and a “cock in a frock on a rock”. You might say it goes…
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Last Day of Climbing / Alabama Hills
At first I’m disappointed that our group (Walter, Roy, Barry, Sean, Tom) decides not to go to Margaritaville, a place I haven’t been. Instead they opt for the familiar, chossy Alabama Hills. But we end up having a near-perfect last day of climbing. Ann starts off by taking the lead for the first time! In…
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Work Luncheon Going Away Gifts
At 11:30 today I go to the Sante Fe Grill for my goodbye luncheon. Ironically Ann is in Sante Fe working, and I wish she were here because I’m no good at these things. She helped me through a similar luncheon just after we met in 1996 in Los Alamos, when I left my job…
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Movie: The Serpent and the Rainbow
When I was 15 I met Wes Craven, the director of this film, just after he had filmed it in Haiti. I didn’t realize then how truly chaotic the country must have been. The story takes place during the build-up to the flight of president Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1986. Almost as we watched, President Jean-Bertrand…
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Sleeping warm, staying light
It’s a gorgeous morning, and Ann stayed warm during the cold night. We’ve now tried a number of different ways for her to keep warm at night. Read on if you’re interested in what we’ve learned.
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Evening on the PCT
We only have time for a couple of short hikes this weekend, but we also want to test some more gear on a cold night. So we work through the morning, pack up, and are on the Pacific Crest Trail by 3:30 PM. We are treated to vibrant sunset, Mt. Jenkins basking in the last…
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Movie: The Believer
The idea of a Jewish kid so consumed with self-loathing that he becomes a neo-Nazi has potential, but runs into problems here. The characters’ motivations and philosophies are too muddled to be believable. Ambiguity in a character is good, but eventually it has to be explained.
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Movie: The Elephant Man
I feel like nothing I say will be worthy of this film. The was some kind of amazing confluence of talent and circumstance that made this movie greater than the sum of its parts. It’s stunning. I’ll risk one bit of commentary. The circus freak is a fundamental human archetype. To use it cheaply or…
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Reverse Order Button
I coded up this nice little button that allows you to reverse the current sort order of posts, so you can look at earliest or latest posts first. Right now I have the button just below the page header – try it out. It’s a nice, clean, satifying bit of code. I’m running WordPress-1.0.1, but…