In the forgotten recesses
On the degrading tracks of America
In the forgotten electrical wires
On the backroads heading south
By the decrepit trailers
Junkyards look beautiful in the sunset
Dying factories that long ago accepted their death
Empty parking lots
So many parking lots with nothing going on
Vines taking over trees
Concrete taking over dirt
People taking over hearts, and minds
And money
Corn taking over crops
Pretty murals on crumbling walls
The gloss of fresh paint on dusty train cars
This is generic America
This is unfettered consumerism
This is dissolution of the being
Illusion of the diss
This is disenchantment of the youth
This is dismemberment of the whole
This is dislocation of life
This is disowning of responsibility
Disjointed
Discouraging
Dis-ease
This is distraction

This is love
This is unexplainable connection
This is reflection
This here moment is inflection
Or perhaps deception
Spinning plates
Vibrating frequencies
Revolving doors
It's all unique and all the same
It's all linear and cyclical
So flat and elliptical
So fat and eclipsable
Sunset of an empire
Sunrise of another
Change of a lover
This is birth of an earth
This is glowing light
This is whatever is in front of you
This is broken dreams and lost thoughts
This is shattered glass and faded walls
This is electric and eclectic
This is frenetic and kinetic
This is the most delicious, and the only moment, that is

random thoughts

How much does the person who does your laundry learn about you? (If, of course, you have your laundry done.)

Why are some of the poorest people the most generous?

"You get what you pay for."

I think this is true for some things and not for others. For q-tips, definitely true. It's incredible to me but I've been quite disappointed by "cotton-tipped applicators" and other q-tip wannabes.

Not true for salad spinners. Beware the fancy push-down type - ours lasted three months before malfunctioning and six months before completely breaking.

True for fresh foods. Tomatoes and greens from the farmer's market are incomparably better than from the chain supermarket.

Not true for real estate. What was a "great deal" three years ago turned out to be quite the opposite after the 2008 bubble burst.

they say no two snowflakes are alike

Where are all the Burqueños?

People who live in Albuquerque are called Burqueños. The question is, where are they? I walk the three miles to work and I pass perhaps a soul or two. The sidewalks are dirty and free. Restaurants are quiet. Parks are empty. Ok, so we've seen hordes of people downtown around midnight Saturday night, but where is everyone during the daylight hours?

The answer came today: The mall! Holy shit, the mall was packed. I encountered more traffic in its aisles than I ever have on streets or highways in this town. A slew of teenagers, families, middle agers, couples and wide-eyed babies. Checking out the latest underwear in Victoria's Secret. Browsing jewelry. Eating fudge and fast food. But mostly people were just strolling these pristine indoor corridors where the air smells like candy and the sun is nowhere to be seen.

garden growing goodness

garden growing green goodness gracious gourmet gastronomy. the garden is going quite well. as we enter winter we have lettuces, spinach, sorrel (a delicious lemon-tasting green), beets, chard, kale, carrots, garlic (sprouted early), onions, cilantro, a struggling tomato plant and cabbage. all in a 4' x 8' raised bed with room to spare. we put our nifty little plastic cold frame on top when it drops below freezing. i'm curious to see how long these plants keep growing. next to a south facing wall with albuquerque's warm winter sun, along with the cold frame, might they grow through the winter? i hope so.

when i first got into food growing, at ecoversity 3 1/2 years ago (where i met julia!), joel the teacher stressed "it's about growing the soil." this seemed to me a strange concept at first view, but over time it makes more and more sense. good soil makes good plants and hence good food. a lot of dirt i encounter in new mexico is hard as rock, and rather discouraging to me and plants alike. add a 12" layer of mature compost on top and it's amazing what is possible. keep adding more good stuff over the years and a little plot of desert can transform into an oasis. good soil is nutrient-rich, holds water (big plus in dry climates!), and has all sorts of favorable bacteria, fungi, worms and such.

getting my hands dirty in a growing garden is truly a good feeling.

chocolate and cheese

rich dark chocolate
melts in my mouth like butter
finger lickin win

moving stuff chaos
where's my purple underwear
i can't find nothing

sorry for riling
you up, he says. no big deal
i say, i need it

talk to me. tell me
something i knew not before
bust open my door

something and nothing
together like friends, each gives
what the other needs

je veux du fromage
slice grate melt chunk dip savor
gimme that flavor

haikus

rain patters outside
storm clouds descend upon me
my life is water

window to my right
door to my left, car outside
i'd rather be out

why politicians
lie, i know why, just like me
afraid of ourselves

twenty-six years old
old guy and young boy inside
make room for the man

you both need the man
as he needs you, and (big and)
he takes care of you

listen to music
enveloped in hella love
awestruck by construct

meat and maggots

i had heard many rumors about composting meat and dairy. "just don't do it", "it stinks", "carries disease" and things like that. well, of course i ended up adding meat and dairy to the compost anyway, about 3 weeks ago. a couple days after i did the deed, it was like hell on earth erupted out of that compost. juicy white maggots were squiggling just a little too intensely. the stench wafted just a little too grotesquely. it's hard to beat that smell, but at least one thing still does: l'amie de chambertin cheese, beaune, france, fall 2005. yes, that cheese still takes the cake. but besides that, the smell of decomposing meat and dairy has no equal. for me anyway. so i read up on the internet about all those 'crazies' out there like me who have given it a shot. one recounted in detail his exploits of composting road kill. others said other things, but nothing as good as that.

3 weeks later. all the frenetically squiggling maggots gone. all the strange insects and flies swarming the compost gone. the horrible smell gone. the compost seems to be back to normal. the red wriggler worms, who are fans of plant matter and not meat, are back in full force.

ok, ready to do it again! haha.

May-hem

oh but what doth lie on the other side
the shadow side, wer dark things doth lie
bright as a may sun shall we appear
wherefor we guard what we hold dear
betwixt the known and the unknown
betwixt the light and the dark
betwixt the blackness and the spark
doors to shadow exist in scores
but to open any, hark!
one is challenged to weigh the truth
venture through one's dark side as a sleuth

as such, my new dark blog
http://adarkblog.blogspot.com/

2008 Recap

Jeremy's 2008 Favorites

Favorite New Movie
Slumdog Millionaire

Favorite Old Movie
Chinatown

Favorite Documentary
The Up Series

Favorite Quote
The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.
- Ralph Nader

Favorite New Album
New Amerykah, pt. 1: 4th World War - Erykah Badu

Top 10 Albums
1. Aha Shake Heartbreak - Kings of Leon
2. Spirit of the Forest - Baka Beyond
3. Luna Park - KiLA
4. The Rebirth of Hooch - Jimmy Swift Band
5. Guero - Beck
6. OST - People Under the Stairs
7. '93 Til Infinity - Souls of Mischief
8. All Balls Don't Bounce - Aceyalone
9. Destroy Rock & Roll - Mylo
10. Transistor Radio - M. Ward

Took the most courage to...
Share a poem at a poetry slam open mic

Hottest day
100+ degrees, Supai, Grand Canyon, May, 3200 ft

Coldest moment
Whiteout on top of Santa Fe Ski Basin, January, 12000 ft

Tastiest New Mexican food
Hands down: Duran's Central Pharmacy, Albuquerque

Most successful vegetable grown
Tomatoes - south facing wall, good soil, well watered: hundreds of tomatoes

Most Undeservedly Unplayed Board Game
Scotland Yard

Favorite and Most Addictive New Hobby
Online chess

Favorite Book
Neither Wolf nor Dog

Favorite Pastime
What else? Checking the weather on the internet 10x a day. And going ballistic (eye plastered to the window) anytime it snows.

Quintessential American Experience
Fiesta Bowl, Phoenix: Texas 24, Ohio State 21

Quintessential anti-American Experience
Watching replay of shoe thrown at George Bush


Thoughts from 2008

Why do I always see cops speeding without their flashing lights on?

Other than during the wet season (July and August), it rains perhaps one out of thirty days in New Mexico. Yet both times we've moved (neither during the wet season), it rained. Coincidence? I think not.

I have experienced the biggest snowstorms ever recorded in Philadelphia and Halifax, and the biggest snowstorm in several decades in New Mexico. Coincidence? I think not.

How do you convert an anti-capitalist environmentalist hippie into a money-loving business freak? Give them a solar sales job.

How do you start as a socialite and end as a hermit? Move to New Mexico.

What is completely natural to a New Mexican but completely foreign to an Easterner? Pray for rain.

"We live by and believe in capitalism, until we screw up." That is the message I get from the banking and automotive bailouts. What happened to taking responsibility for one's actions?