July 22, 2016

Wine Tasting in Beautiful Willamette Valley, Oregon

My wife and I took a recent trip to Oregon wine country to do some tastings. We visited three different wineries and they were all unique and fantastic!

We've started a travel blog where we wrote about it here:

https://lexandneek.wordpress.com/2016/07/22/wine-tasting-at-beautiful-willamette-valley-oregon/


Or if you just want to view the amazing scenery and watch us sip great wines, here is our video:

July 21, 2016

The Poetry of Gary Snyder and Radical Revolution

The Poetry of Gary Snyder and Radical Revolution

​
Full Definition of radical
1 : of, relating to, or proceeding from a root: as
a (1) : of or growing from the root of a plant <radical tubers> (2) : growing from the base of a stem, from a rootlike stem, or from a stem that does not rise above the ground <radical leaves>
b : of, relating to, or constituting a linguistic root
c : of or relating to a mathematical root
d : designed to remove the root of a disease or all diseased and potentially diseased tissue <radical surgery> <radical mastectomy>



TOMORROW'S SONG by Gary Snyder

The USA slowly lost its mandate
in the middle and later twentieth century
it never gave the mountains and rivers,
trees and animals,
a vote.
all the people turned away from it
myths die; even continents are impermanent

Turtle Island returned.
my friend broke open a dried coyote-scat
removed a ground squirrel tooth
pierced it, hung it
from the gold ring
in his ear.

We look to the future with pleasure
we need no fossil fuel
get power within
grow strong on less.

Grasp the tools and move in rhythm side by side
flash gleams of wit and silent knowledge
eye to eye
sit still like cats or snakes or stones
as whole and holding as
the blue black sky.
gentle and innocent as wolves
as tricky as a prince.

At work and in our place:

in the service
of the wilderness
of life
of death
of the Mother's breasts!



War, politics, economics, energy. These are all concepts intrinsic to human civilization. War is the continuation of politics by other means, politics is the continuation of economics by other means, economics is the continuation of energy by other means. While the concept of energy may not originate with human civilization, it is intrinsic and in contrast with the other three continuations of it, energy alone is separate from humanity as a part of nature. Try as we might to show how sophisticated we are with our ever expanding technological advances, we can't escape the fact that we are a part of nature and disregarding the significance of this not only has repercussions on the natural world around us, but also on the very civilization so many in vanity try to place above the natural world.

If there is one concept intrinsic to human civilization that connects energy to its most direct continuation, economics, it is money. As with technology in general, it is a concept that many of its most ardent advocates like to pretend is divorced from the natural world; that all the currency manipulation, derivatives and speculators rise above such terrestrial inconveniences as natural resources. But our monetary system is predicated on infinite growth. And you cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet. This is an important concept to grasp if you really care about a real revolution in human civilization that is truly radical, if you define radical as mentioned above, proceeding from a root.

more at the link...

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-poetry-of-gary-snyder-and-radical.html

July 11, 2016

My visit to the Athabasca Glacier

I recently visited the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. While my blog post is ostensibly on this recent vacation my wife and I took, I thought it would be of interest to people here as it shows just how bad global warming has been over the past 97 years.

Our Road Trip to the Columbia Icefield, Yellowstone and Beyond