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End: '96 Jeep Cherokee Sport
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 813
Sunday, a brilliant day, Autumn sunshine and I'm heading North, back to the meadows. I've supplies, bananas, oranges, some olives, grapes, trail mix, not hearty but this isn't a pleasure trip.
And past Cooper creek it begins, the wobble on the passenger front tire. Get gas. Look at the tire - it appears the lug nuts have come loose again. Only now they're not tightening, not loosening, merely spinning. 2/5, maybe 3 out of the 5.
This is a problem. The Jeep, I know, precarious condition at best, but to attempt to travel up the mountain - 12 KM rough roads, 6 KM in 4 WD, well, I don't want to be walking down again.
And I would be walking down again.
Tighten as best I can and return to Nelson, I can have a mechanic look at it on Thursday. This is the quickest. And so again I'm couch surfing, bored, I should not be, there's no excuse, I have much to do but my mind is still at the top of the mountain, digging, what I have to do - writing, painting, etc - can be done indoors when the cool weather comes.
It's the rush to make hay at the end of summer.
On that note I mentioned a prospector who came in a few weeks ago, breathless about some pegmatites he found above the dark sky preserve. And I'm on the MTO looking up some land use around Ymir when zooming in I notice it. He's claimed at least 10, 000 hectares in the district I used to go for my black tourmaline and aquamarine.
Looking at costs...$20, 000 per year. Minimum. He's a variety of claims up there, but this is an expensive gamble. All these claims laid in the past 3 weeks. From approximately the night he showed up drunk in the restaurant talking about all the pegmatites he found. I look him up - exploration geologist for a gold mining company based out of Vancouver.
Hmmmm.
Somehow I'm a little annoyed.
Anyways, Jeep fixed with luck tomorrow. And I've managed to squeeze in an appointment with the Dentist, so - days not entirely wasted. This weekend, the last at the restaurant, then the deep clean - how many days? 2? 3? We'll see. Then it's off, spend the last snow-free weeks digging at the summit...
***
Update. Talked to Mechanic. Jeep won't be getting fixed. Will be lucky if it survives to Balfour for my last few days of work. Time, now, to find another...
Häxan
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 923
1922, silent Swedish horror/documentary on Witches.
This was surprisingly brilliant - in it's special effects, it's treatment of the subject matter, appropriately salacious with some of the best costumed devils and demons I've seen.
Best of all you can watch it online here for free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl6NvqUM5IM
Note - the end - or simply "End" - in Swedish surprisingly works well in English, an unintended pun of sorts.
The Innocents
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 831
A dark little supernatural horror film. Norwegian. Well done, but not particularly enjoyable...
The Poetry Slam, Lakeside Park
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
- Hits: 824
And last Sunday, the Poetry Slam in Lakeside Park, my third.
Filled with the usual suspects, everyone arriving fashionably late. It's a cool evening. Despite the crowd, perhaps 30 people, only a few are presenting.
There's *****, shirtless, wrapped in Persian Carpet that's been converted into a vest, living out of a van with his dog, a destructive little husky pup that's in the process of mauling a little stuffed toy.
He introduces himself, followed with "I earned this name", as if it were hard won in battle, clearly this is not his given name and he's adapted to the local tradition of both pen and chosen names. I'm unfamiliar with it, make a phonetic note of the spelling, can do some research later. Followed with by his stoner-styled poetry which is some sort of passionately delivered ode to life.
The judging isn't kind, he's a newcomer, only been to a couple of the slams, his overall rating (Originality, Presentation, Writing?) only comes to a high 8.7 or 8.9.
There are 5 judges, to get an 8 in this is a complete and utter fail. It's on a scale of 1-10, so while you might think an 8.7 is good having seen a few of them you realize that an imbecile barking and growling would score an 8.5, this is the overall threshold of kindness in the community, if he wants a better score he'll have to recruit a few friends to be judges...
Followed by a few others. One of the themes of tonight's reading is "Uncertainty", given the world at the moment it's pretty topical. One of the organizers does her finger-snapping, her "support" when she likes the groove a particular poet is laying down. Then there's the free-form, unjudged presentations. Another organizer has a little rant about how she doesn't need a man, then wanders the park outside the reach of the microphone and lights.
These events, there a who's who of literary nepotism, while most are good some are clearly better than others, the judging favors the familiar.
And as the weather cools down and the jeep is laid up it's time again to resume long-stalled projects...this is the motivation.
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