on the salton sea

 

Hello, friends!! Yey, it's a whole new year. I got mine off to a good ol' surrealist start with a little sojourn down to the Salton Sea.

The Salton Sea is like a mirage come to life. The shimmering band of blue water just doesn't seem real against the rocky red desert hills.

This strange land is the victim of environmental tragedy, and after a vacation-oriented housing boom in the '50s and '60s, it slid into obsolescence. Today many abandoned homes and businesses line the shores of the toxic salt lake called the Salton Sea, giving us an eerie feeling. I'm intrigued by it despite that tragic element, though; it's such a thoroughly unusual place. It has true character and midcentury charm, albeit in a faded lonesome kind of way.

Even for an intrepid rural explorer like myself, though, it broke my heart; it's very sad and strange to see all these shuttered up vestiges of a more prosperous time! I do think it's important for Americans to see the Salton Sea, to see what our thoughtlessness can do (the Sea's environmental collapse in on account of messed up irrigation systems and fertilizer runoff; soon all that will be able to survive in its toxic waters are tilapia fish).

(More pictures after the jump )

dreaming of a white christmas

Hey there! I just wanted to wish one and all a Cool Yule and a Frantic First!!!!

 

This year I'm facing the "novelty" of a snowless SoCal Christmas. Can't fib here, it's a mite tough to access the spirit of the season when all around me it feels and looks like it's the middle of summer! When it comes to Noel merriment, Vermont is just where it's at. Little villages dusted in snow, cutting our own Christmas tree from the forest hills out back, sledding parties and mulled cider-- it's tops! Here's a nostalgic peek back at last year's festivities, just to get those yuletide juices flowing...

 

I put this li'l tableau together for my fam's Christmas dinner.

The best Christmas dress ever!!! (And the best dog ever, Miss Banjo Frenchburg!)

 

Even the antler chandelier dons its gay apparel!

(BTW, I found this rad lamp at the town dump! Lotsa people have hunting cabins and such near me, and when they decide to "modernize" 'em, well, guess where that vintage woodsy decor ends up? Yes, the dumpster at first, but I snap 'em pretty quick ;)

I hope you and yours have a really lovely holiday season, whether you're celebrating anything or not.

OK, gotta go read some Robert Frost and dream about the Green Mountains now.

I guess I will see ya next year!!

♥♥♥♥

the art of jon langford

 Hello there! If you're a rolling stone, all alone and lost, then you too will be enamored by the works of Langford. No, I do not mean the Mekons (though I do have a real soft spot for them too). My favorite paintings of his capture a reverence for the halcyon days of country music, and a (rightful) deep disillusionment over its modern state.

 

Have a wondrous weekend everyone ♥♥

in this open country

Fond greetings from Joshua Tree, California.

How lovely it is to be out under the open skies, and to see the great landscape yawning before me! These dusty desert towns are great fun to explore. It is definitely strange and surreal to see the contrast between the new buildings and the vast ancient desert hills; they make you feel like civilization is awfully small and flimsy. It sure is different from the Vermont kind of countryside, where timeworn farmhouses and historic little villages are tucked away behind twisting mountain lanes and dense forests. There is no quaint or cozy here; instead it is fresh, big, and exciting. So far I've mostly stuck to the towns and highways, leaving no thrift shop or abandoned building safe, but I hope to venture even further into the wilds soon!

(These are just li'l old iPhone snapshots; we'll just have to wait 'til my first roll of film is developed to see more...)

Over and out ♥