Not with a bang but a slither

The rattlesnake, like all snakes, is a noble creature– beautiful and graceful, and generally quite peaceable– like this golden beauty that crossed my path at Arastradero Preserve today. So it is completely inaccurate and unfair of me to apply the noun form of slither– a perfectly honorable mode of transit– as a pejorative for the behavior of the bottom-dwellers associated with our president.

It's somehow so disappointing that what will probably bring the bastard down is not some grand conspiracy with Putin to steal the election, but the cumulative litany of petty and venal tax evasions, frauds, payolas, sweaty one-night stands, and back-room deals. Which is not to say I'm convinced that he's not the Manchurian Candidate or a serial rapist.

Oh, and apologies to all you bottom-dwelling flounders, carp, tubeworms, skates, and larvae. Nothing against you guys either.

Killer Trees

Get me out, cut me down...
Yikes!

What it is

Aretha at Muscle Shoals

Alicia had it right... goosebumps.

Aretha Franklin at Muscle Shoals from Course Media on Vimeo.

Ouch

Dwight Garner, reviewing Nate Chinen's new book of jazz criticism:

He writes about “tracing a historicist agenda that actualized in the 1970s.” The composer Anthony Braxton’s music “utilized proprietary strategies.” Vijay Iyer’s dissertation “helped frame his personal interface with the piano.” The saxophonist Joshua Redman “prioritized an agenda of direct emotional clarity.” Sentences like these prioritize an agenda of not being able to stay entirely awake.

The most perfect 15-second TV commercial ever?

Apparently there is a longer version that provides context, but frankly I like the mystery and gentle melancholy here. Lovely.

Pull me under

Thanks for this one Lisa!

California burning

Taking the long way home from Carson Pass a week ago, Aidan and I drove southeast and back over Sonora Pass on 108. We passed this resort just one day before the fire started that would destroy it. The new normal, some say.