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David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America Part 1 & 2
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
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David Thompson's Narrative of His Explorations in Western America Part 1 & 2 - David Thompson, Joseph Burr Tyrell
So clearly I didn't go with the "Clear up the shelf/Tidy the Apartment" motif and I dived straight into Thompson's Narrative.
Or, to be more precise, dived into the introduction, and then the itinerary, and now, some 100 or so pages in I'm into the narrative.
Now I love this, it's a keeper, for in it much will be found that will benefit our intrepid prospector, an abundance of clues to be followed up upon, and already, recognizing all the historical routes he travelled and pioneered, the distances he covered, the tribes he met, his own reflections on such (he was 14 when he arrived in Hudson's Bay apprenticed to the Company, "sold" for want of better world from his orphanage in Westminster, and his descriptions of the wildlife, the abundant forts, factory's, houses and camps the fur traders stayed in, along the Red Deer, all environs Alberta and BC as far as the Arrow Lakes and Revelstoke, well, all these places now lost to the woods and can be reasonably pinpointed on a map (and gone to with a metal detector), there will be treasures to be found for sure. I need to make sure I have wheels and next summer free...
And recognizing, of course, the creeks and rivers that he passed over that later proved the site of major gold rushes, a shame he wasn't more of a geologist or taught to dip the pan, but - I'm early into it, there will be clues.
First person history, by North America's greatest geographer and far, far earlier than Lewis and Clark (and far better travelled).
My edition, a limited and numbered one from a limited run of 500, so probably hard to find your own, but you can read it all here online: https://archive.org/details/davidthompsonsna12thom/page/n9/mode/2up
Still Life: Coats and Hat thrown over a chair
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
- Hits: 121
Sorting through the images on my phone, found this:
It's a proper "Accidental Renaissance", somehow the volume of discarded coat, hat, sweater and scarves gives the illusion of the man...
The Planters (2019)
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 137
This was a very charming Indie film, the story revolving around the rather socially maladroit Martha Plant who makers her living selling AC units in the desert, and burying treasure for a slight cash reward...
...Who befriends a homeless dis-institutionalized crazy woman who turns her life upside-down for the better...
Surreal, hilarious, great imagery and characterizations of otherwise dysfunctional people, about isolation and surreal moments of connection, sort of a cross between "Napolean Dynamite" and "Sorry to Bother You" - the biblical claymation scenes are amazing.
Better than "House M.D.", "Foundation", "The Purge", everything else I've watched lately and on a fraction of the budget...
Watch Online for free (sorry about the ads but ... free): https://youtu.be/AfGvYLf99fg?si=v1_Pe45Hpjvx8eaj
Yesterday
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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Refusing to give up I moved the chilis indoors. 4 X 3 foot shrubs in 10 inch pots balanced on a 8 inch window ledge. I was avoiding doing this because there's no bloody room for me in the apartment, let alone the plants, but I've been 6 months growing these fuckers and I'm gonna see some results.
I wonder if they appreciate the homecoming, if they remember the ledge they where they started, if this will be the clue, "Time to Spawn, to Fruit", it's the circle of life guys and I'm giving you one last chance...
They do seem happier, and the plants-on-the ledge does brighten up an otherwise madhouse of incompleted art projects.
***
The morning, a couple of thrift shops (nada), grocery store - I'm making salsa. I'm done with the store-bought, their "Mild-Medium-Hot" which all are invariably mild, the "Fresh" and "Home-Made" which are never either; just slightly more seasoned chunky tomato puree...
My recipe, 8 fresh Roma tomatos, 1 large Spanish onion, 6 Jalapeños, the juice of a large lime, a hand full of spicy Thai Chilis, garlic cloves, garlic salt, salt & pepper to taste.
I actually don't have a recipe and it changes every time but every time it's the best salsa in town.
And I'm eating it, tasting, as I go along, damn, it's mighty fine without the tomatoes, just the onions and garlic and peppers and why tomatoes anyways...
and tasting and tasting and I go through first one bag of chips and then another before I'm done and what will all this tasting there isn't a lot of salsa made but I put it in the fridge for later...
Maybe this will inspire the chilis to fruit, making salsa with store-bought chilis 6 or 7 months in is preposterous...
(later, trapped inside, realizing that man should not live on Salsa alone, attempts for an evening constitutional threatened by a growling belly. For dinner I make a clam chowder, small pot, which turns out to be 4 big bowls and as I hate leftovers I'm cussing myself out for not inviting a friend over for dinner. But better I didn't with the belly-and-all)
***
What to read, what to read? If my apartment is a mess books are a large part of it, not the sole contributing cause (art supplies!!), just a big contributing cause. And I'm choosing books to read that I can take to the bookstore and get credit on, avoiding those I'm dying to read like the 2 volume set, first person, on Thompson/Tyrells explorations in Western Canada/US, because I suspect I'll want to hang onto them (being relatively rare) and I'm trying after my own bumble-fuck fashion to make this apartment liveable.
I start them anyways, flipping to the back, only 200 pages, should be easy and quick enough but then I note that the forward for each is 100 pages, roman numerals, and they just got a little bit (enjoyably but not responsibly) longer and I should choose something I can part with...
(Sorry, clickbait AI News. You'll need to do better - what books and 650 don't make you an expert by a long shot!.)
***
In the evening, a prospecting video out of Tasmania. Tasmania, part of Australia, so no surprise, a location in the jungle, YouTuber in a shallow creek with a couple of classifiers, slow shovelling the gravel, finding placer nuggets of tin, spinels, zircons, topaz and sapphires. All of this in every pan. His net haul isn't so great after 2 days, but - watching him work explained a great deal. Too much talking to the camera, not enough shovelling buddy!!! Some places are better than others, a humble creek, and I speed through the video; I'm annoyed, and I need a jeep. Somewhere in this great province we have the same or better...
And I finish with a movie, "The Planters", which is a separate post.
***
This morning I hear from Iskra on Facebook. A few months ago, reading old letters, looking up vanished friends, found her on facebook and added her. And today she replies. She'd been thinking of me a few months before, then recalled my last name, and then I added her as a friend on Facebook, and she knew...
Stranger things...
Iskra, a Macedonian girl that lived down the hall from me in London. Sent by wealthy parents to avoid the conflict in Yugoslavia, started, as she explained to me, by "Kutnik's" or "Chutnik's", the Serbian hill people whom apparently the rest of Yugoslavia reviled. She would finish her explanation with a sigh and lament Tito as the best president the former Yugoslavia ever had.
She was an interesting one. Maybe 20 years old she got a job working at a gentleman's club in Soho, her duties included dressing enticingly and dancing and encouraging the patrons to order expensive bottles of champagne and tipping her glass into the plants when they weren't looking. She had some stories...
She confessed to me that if she ever lost her virginity it would be to a man who dressed like a woman, she found that strangely sexy...
And telling Nana, another friend from work, Serbian, another war-exile, and she explained to me that Macedonia was filled with girls like this...
So there will be a long piece of writing to catch up with her...
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