superman and wonderwoman

found:
photobooth strip

subject:
me and my brother
county fair in santa rosa, california
circa 1980

live music bonanza

Save the Peaks!

i saw two amazing live shows this weekend: ozomatli and blackfire.

ozomatli played a sold out show at the orpheum, an old movie theatre converted into a live music venue and bar. their multi-cultural music (a blend of latin, middle eastern, hip-hop and rock music) with commentary on social justice had everyone dancing, hippies and hipsters alike. the best show i've seen in this town.

blackfire played a show at the hive, a community center run by the flagstaff indigo movment, to benefit Youth of the Peaks. YOP is group of young folks working to prevent the expansion of a ski area on the mountains sacred to over 10 native tribes in the southwest. blackfire is a trio with punk rock roots and political action in mind. consisting of two brothers and a sister, this navajo family rocks hard and makes the kids mosh.

both band's websites have mp3s available for downloading and information about the causes close to their hearts. check them out.

the dark underbelly of sock monkey culture

butterstick

one of the blogs (Wonkette) i read reguarly is obsessed with the new baby panda at the zoo in washington D.C. they have dubbed him "butterstick" for reasons unknown. today they posted a link to the zoo's baby panda-cam and it really is one of the cutest things i've seen - even when he is just fuzzily sleeping.

copying and pasting this link mms://160.111.253.227/pandacam1
into your browser should open up windows media player and give you a front-row seat to the 'stick. you will be kicked off after about 15 minutes.

sock monkey party

family photo
Originally uploaded by sparkypants.

drinkin, smokin, and sewin sock monkeys creatures. what makes a better party?

i need a haircut

 
 

canyon de chelly national monument

last week i went to Canyon de Chelly National Monument for a work meeting. it is a very unique national park unit in that the land is owned by the Navajo Nation, and Navajo families still live and farm in the monument. in fact, one of the principal objectives of the monument is to provide for the continuation of traditional cultural lifestyles. they have just started a huge project to remove non-native russian olive and tamarisk (AKA salt-cedar) trees from the canyon floor. back in the 1930's the Soils Conservation Service decided that the canyon bottom soil needed to be stabilized, so they planted these highly invasive species. they have now taken over the canyon and have changed water availability, the shape of the canyon and have driven many navajo families out - their land has become unfit for the kind of agriculture they practice. the park hired a crew of 28 navajos, trained them and set them to work cutting down tamarisk and russian olive. it is a huge undertaking, 100s of acres. little old navajo grandmas are coming up to them, overjoyed, saying they haven't felt the sun on their faces or the breeze in their hair in this particular place since they were little girls. it is amazing.

this picture is from a recently cleared area that used to be solid tamarisk & russian olive. the red rock formation in the distance was not visible at all, nor the wall immediately to the left. see more pictures from Canyon de Chelly at flickr

give me maps

not that i have a lot of visitors or anything, but if you feel so inclined head on over to frappr and put yourself on my map. i love maps and this is a pretty cool application that allows groups to map themselves and add pictures and comments. show me where you're at.

gem sweater

leslie hall (of leslie and the lys fame) has a mission in this world to collect and save for all future generations that rare form of art known as the gem sweater. see the amazing gallery here.

Leslie and the Ly's

you must see this trilogy of videos by the group leslie and the lys:
gem sweater, beat dazzler, and gold pants live. they make me happy.


Leslie and the Ly's by Nick
Originally uploaded by FortDrastic.com.

UPDATE: you can listen to clips from and purchase their album gold pants here. they also have a my space page.

pre-party cocktails

julia and sam's annual cocktail party

flooding and mudslides in Guatemala

hurricane stan (what kind of name for a hurricane is that anyway?) hit southern Mexico and Central America pretty hard last week. Guatemala seems to have taken the brunt of it with widespread flooding and massive mudslides wiping out entire Mayan villages. the death toll is expected to be over 1000 people. there isn't much coverage of this tragedy in the american media, but i was able to find some pictures on a few Guatemalan blogs.


flooding in Xela(Quetzaltenango), Guatemala (from esquipulas)



mud in Panajachel, Guatemala (from panajachel.net)

crisp

we went up to the mountain today to wander around in the yellow and orange of quaking aspens changing colors.





see more photos at flickr

happy birthday alex!!

tickets!!

we bought tickets to guatemala today. it was a little scary and quite exciting. we are flying on january 4 from phoenix to los angeles then to guatemala city. i will be in guatemala for my birthday. then we head to quetzaltenango, also know as xela (pronounced shayla) where we will take spanish classes for two weeks. next on our loose itinerary is costa rica, where we will probably also take classes, walk around in jungles looking for howler monkeys and sit on the beach. finally we will take buses all the way up through mexico back to arizona stopping all along the way but particularly in chiapas, mexico city, the monarch butterfly santuary and copper canyon. we are expecting to be gone for two months, but are leaving everything a little bit up in the air.

fallin'

fallin
Originally uploaded by sparkypants.

more stencil art from flagstaff. and on a completely unrelated note - i gave my quittin' notice to my boss today. as usual i imagined it to be a much bigger ordeal than it actually turned out to be. she was very understanding and said some awfully nice things. i will be working until the end of december, then layne and i fly down to guatemala right after the new year. i can't express how excited i am right now, it is just too impossible.

bikes bands and beer

tour de fat came through flagstaff yesterday. we tapped out 120 kegs of new belgium brewing company beer in less than 5 hours. after the beer was gone, we played bike polo for the first time, flattening a few garbage cans and only getting a few scrapes and bruises. then came the yard dogs road show, featuring sword-swallowing, fire-eating, and burlesque babes. the camera was missing in action most of the day, but here are a few snaps.

more from wet beaver creek

layne
Originally uploaded by sparkypants.

nothing beats nekkid sun bathing on red rocks near the end of summer.

flagstaff stencil art

good karma

proud

change

katrina quote

representive richard baker from baton rouge, louisiana, was overheard telling two lobbyists, "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." source

katrina timeline

wade through the bullshit with this well-documented and easy to read
timeline of events from talking points memo.

one way to help

wet beaver creek

we hiked out sunday night to our favorite swimming hole/camping spot on wet beaver creek. cruzi spent that night running with the havelinas, but came back to us in the morning. we explored further up the creek on monday and then lazed about in the sun for hours.

prickly pear



swimming hole



cruzi

more sex from the '50s

stay away from those exciting foods for dinner...

flying spaghetti monster

the church of the flying spaghetti monster wants the kansas school board to teach their theory of intelligent design to students, too.


wikipedia entry on flying spaghetti monsterism

via Boing Boing

illustrated encyclopedia of sex

i borrowed this book from a friend of mine. published in 1950, the illustrated encyclopedia of sex has some of the most visually appealing diagrams of sex organs i have seen, i couldn't put the book down and bothered everyone at the party by showing them diagrams such as this one.


but the diagrams dealing with male sexual excitement are pretty amusing.



and, on the subject of female sexual excitement the book has this to say: "...the seat of female sexual satisfaction is the posterior part of the vagina...What we mean is that this part of the vagina is the most important receiving station of excitations, the actual seat of voluptuous sensation being, of course, the central nervous system, i.e., the brain." the only visuals dealing with female excitement are in the form of schematic diagrams comparing the timing of female orgasm to that of the male.