Malcolm Johnson

Goodbye Old Blog

2009-09-01T19:41:00.001-07:00

"Moon and Light" by Nathan Birch

It's been fun, but this blog is closing down and moving over to theshinysea.ca. It looks a bunch better over there, and I'll be posting a much fuller range of work. Goodbye old blog, fall is new.

Today's music is "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" by Charles Mingus.

Black Gold

2009-08-04T13:46:00.001-07:00

Deep Cove, B.C.

Today's music is "Not So Sure" by Joe Pug.

Summer Reading

2009-07-29T09:56:00.001-07:00

The Summer '09 issue of SBC Surf has been printed and is on the way out to surf shops, bookstores and newsstands across the country. Many thanks to everyone who helped with this edition. The cover shot is Shannon Brown by Scott Serfas.

Today's music is "Love vs. Porn" by Kevin Drew.

37 Degrees

2009-07-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

How good is summer!

Thanks and praises from the simmering coast...

Tonight's music is a live version of "Gospel" by The National.

The Roundabout

2009-07-27T10:12:00.001-07:00

The Roundabout is a new zine out Tofino, B.C. It has some neat art and great design, and each issue gets stitched together by sewing machine. If you're out on the coast, make sure to stop by one of the surf shops and pick one up. There are some good words about summer at the end of the editor's note in Issue Two:

"be free, have fun. now."

Today's music is "Hymn 101" by Joe Pug.

WTH?

2009-07-09T10:04:00.001-07:00

The answer is Alaska.

Today's music is "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me" by The Deep Dark Woods.

Evening View

2009-07-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

Looking north from Tofino towards Mt. Mariner and Bedwell Sound.

In other news, my camera made a terminal descent into the waters of Rosie Bay during a session with Pete and Noah yesterday morning. Sayonara, little Pentax. You lived a happy life.

Today's music is "I Summon You" by Spoon.

Aloft & Moon

2009-07-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

Oak Bay, B.C.

Today's music is "Summer Evening" by Gillian Welch.

On Queen

2009-06-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

Toronto, ON

Today's music is "Making It Back" by Richmond Fontaine.

Taco Hell

2009-06-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

Toronto, ON

Today's music is "New Country" by Broken Social Scene.

Gehry & Wave

2009-06-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

The facade of the AGO as a steepening wave.

Today's music is "To Leave It Behind" by Great Lake Swimmers.

Kurosawa & Dreaming

2009-06-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

Gotta follow your dreams, people.

Life's far too short to do otherwise.

Today's music is "Story I Heard" by Blind Pilot.

This Is Killer

2009-06-16T20:27:00.001-07:00

Noah at the coffee shop, sporting the Kodiak plaid and a Thomas Campbell T.

Tonight's music is "Cake and Eggs" by Deer Tick.

Mountains & Money

2009-06-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook pages by one of our friends from the South.

(Thanks, J.)

Tonight's music is "Delia" by Jolie Holland.

Seaworthy in the Journal

2009-06-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

My review of Nathan Oldfield's film Seaworthy is in the current issue of The Surfer's Journal. The full text is online here at Look & Sea. Oldfield's second full-length release, Seaworthy is a lovely piece of celluloid and well worth the watching.

Tonight's music is "One Night Man" by Kevin Drew.

Fins Free

2009-06-01T22:04:00.001-07:00

Tofino, BC

Tonight's music is "Wild West End" by Dire Straits.

Eagle & Mountain

2009-05-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

- via Kyler Vos

Today's music is "Runaway" by The National.

Festival Season

2009-05-22T15:14:00.001-07:00

Seems like everyone's heading south for Sasquatch this weekend. I'm going the other way, cruising up north for the surf contest in Tofino, and thinking that this year's festival budget is going towards this. Can't imagine a better lineup for a mellow day in the park with a few sandwiches and a bottle of screwtop wine.

Today's music is "Upward Over the Mountain" by Iron & Wine.

Gull & Cloud

2009-05-19T11:34:00.001-07:00

Deep Cove, B.C.

Today's music is "The Big Surprise" by The Felice Brothers.

Weekend List

2009-05-18T11:17:00.001-07:00

Viva Los Long Weekends.

Today's music is "Born on the Cusp" by The American Analog Set.

This Is Called Home

2009-05-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Today's music is "No Surprises" by Christopher O'Riley.

21 Wings

2009-05-09T16:10:00.001-07:00

- via Rob Campbell

Today's music is "I Don't Know" by the Count Basie Quartet.

Anchor & Flower

2009-05-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

via Nathan Oldfield.

Today's music is "All The Money I Had is Gone" by The Deep Dark Woods.

A Monster Wave

2009-05-05T13:28:00.001-07:00

From "The Coral Island" by R.M. Ballantyne.

Today's music is "Great Expectations" by The Gaslight Anthem.

Gratitude, Etc.

2009-05-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

Sitting at home writing on a Sunday morning, thinking of how good we have it here in the Pacific Northwest. The streams and the rivers are clean, the system we're born into gives us wealth and mobility, and the land, though a bit scarred and trampled, will heal itself if we let it.

Today's music is "Here's Looking At You, Kid" by Brian Fallon.

The West End

2009-04-29T17:35:00.000-07:00

Repurposed logo on old driftwood at La Push.

Today's music is "Gimme Sympathy" by Metric.

Five To Go

2009-04-28T15:14:00.001-07:00

Today's music is "Next Go Round" by Old Crow Medicine Show.

Old Bones

2009-04-26T18:52:00.001-07:00

Another photo from a recent trip to the Olympic Peninsula, with thanks owed to my good bruddah Chris for the skookum canvas work.

Tonight's music is "Change Order" by Jaydiohead.

Sea Level

2009-04-21T16:04:00.001-07:00

In the self-promotion department, I have some words in the current issue of Color Magazine. It's an essay that accompanies a set of black-and-white photographs from Jeremy Koreski. The piece is called "Sea Level" and spreads over six pages. Copies are kicking around at bookstores, skate shops and other various places where they sell things bound and printed.

Today's music is "The Ocean Cliff Clearing" by Richard Buckner.

Target Practice

2009-04-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

Flat day fun on the American side.

Today's music is "Take 'Em Away" by Old Crow Medicine Show.

Fog & Forest

2009-04-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

Last night at Matheson Lake in Metchosin.

Today's music is "To Live is to Fly" by Townes Van Zandt.

Redwood Sorrel

2009-04-11T15:46:00.001-07:00

Oxalis oregana, on Quileute land near La Push, WA.

Today's music is "The Big Surprise" by the Felice Brothers.

Three Planks

2009-04-05T11:09:00.001-07:00

Surfers in Sri Lanka, as seen by David Maurice Smith.

Today's music is "Thy Will Be Done" by Handsome Furs.

Three Elements

2009-03-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

The smaller days can be just as fun sometimes.

Today's music is "Waymore's Blues" by Waylon Jennings.

Ireland, ca. 1967

2009-03-17T12:01:00.001-07:00

Some vintage and soundless Irish surf footage in honour of St. Patrick's Day.

Sure do love the vintage Land Rover as surf car at 1:35.

For a contemporary view of surfing in Ireland, check out Mickey Smith.

Today's music is "A Sort of Homecoming" by U2.

Snow & Harbour

2009-03-16T18:11:00.001-07:00

Resurgent winter in the Inner Harbour.

Today's music is "Yuma" by Justin Townes Earle.

Eight Spines

2009-03-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

The yellow book on the right is one of my grandfather's many collections of notes and sketches. I'm going to start photographing his woodcut prints over the next few weeks, and I'll post them here in not too long.

Happy Lazy Saturday, everyone...

Today's music is "I Cover the Waterfront" by John Lee Hooker.

Things vs. Things

2009-03-11T23:18:00.001-07:00

Enough said. Thanks, Gary.

Tonight's music is "Show Me the Roof" by Herman Dune.

Beat Feet

2009-03-11T00:31:00.000-07:00

- via fellow Victorian Adam Gilmer

Tonight's music is "Police and Thieves" by Junior Murvin.

Here & There

2009-03-07T18:18:00.001-08:00

- Pemberton, B.C., and Mount Currie, B.C.

- near Huntsville, Ont.

- Vancouver Island, B.C., and Portland, Ore.

- Steveston, B.C., and Portland, Ore.

- somewhere south of the Border

Today's music is "Rave On" by M. Ward.

Casting & Morning

2009-03-04T13:43:00.001-08:00

This shot comes from my friend D., who snapped it early in the morning in the Michoacan province of Mexico. It seemed appropriate in relation to this recent post from Ku Yah. The sensationalism of the media can be a misleading thing, so it's good to step back sometimes and remember that the majority of people in this world just want the opportunity to live their lives in peace with their families and their surroundings and their fellow men.

Today's music is "Running to Stand Still" by Elbow.

Creature Soup

2009-03-02T16:12:00.001-08:00

Derrick Hodgson is a man of many talents: artist, gardener, puzzle-maker and accomplished fryer of pickerel being among them. He has a new blog up and running, which you can check out here.

If you go to the first post, you'll see a picture of the friendliest dog in the GTA.

Today's music is "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" by Nina Simone.

Wind & Rigging

2009-02-28T16:14:00.001-08:00

East wind and the rigging of the Swift and the Grace.

Today's music is "Another Noon" by Jon and Roy.

More Randoms

2009-02-22T18:34:00.001-08:00

1. Through Black Spruce.

2. "We've eaten more than 90% of the big fish in the sea." (Thanks, Drew.)

3. Dickipedia, with the Olympics classified as a dick. (Thanks, Bing.)

4. A short doc about skateboarding on Vancouver Island.

5. Sketchy slab, via De Fuca.

Tonight's music is "Dry" by William Elliott Whitmore.

Strait Technicolour

2009-02-18T20:31:00.000-08:00

Acryclic on canvas and wood, by dedicated goofy-footer and all-around cool cat Danny 'Chico' Amato. Thanks for the inspiration, Chico.

Today's music is "Float On" by Ben Lee.

Good S&*^

2009-02-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

1. A poem about pirates.

2. The Chief at sunset, from the blog of Sonnie Trotter.

3. "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender."

4. Christian Beamish and the Voyage of the Cormorant.

5. Some super cool art by Juliana Neufeld.

Today's music is "Revival" by Soulsavers.

Waves and Rabbits

2009-02-14T19:39:00.001-08:00

Hokusai as interpreted by Kozyndan for the cover of Giant Robot.

Happy Valentines, all.

Tonight's music is "Sleepwalking" by Modest Mouse.

Good To See You

2009-02-10T13:51:00.001-08:00

Toronto, Ont.

Comradely sentiments above the door of the Cameron House.

Today's music is "Long Time" by Deer Tick.

Church & Shadows

2009-02-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

This was out the window of the airplane on the way into Edmonton last week.

Seemed like a good photo for a Sunday morning.

Today's music is "Still Crazy After All These Years" by Deer Tick.

Five Things

2009-02-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

1. A fantastic paragraph from this story by Joni Tevis in the current issue of Orion:

"Traditionally, it took forty days and forty nights to cure tobacco in the barns. In early spring, you weighted seeds with ash to sow; come midsummer, cut green leaves, working slowly down the line. Bundled stems together in hands and set a slow fire. The leaves cured to brown, supple as skin on a wrist. Smoke wriggled out through gaps in the walls. You'd see it wafting over the fields, smell it on a still night, dusty and sweet, like grass in August but darker. Most people have forgotten all this by now, or never knew. One day won't anyone remember."

2. Elephant seals are colonizing the Strait.

3. In Fan Tan Alley on Saturday afternoon. The walls and windows of the opium dens, and an old man singing Bowie as he turned in from the street: "put on your red shoes and dance the blues."

4. How to make a Sobo tofu pocket.

5. Good advice from Garrison Keillor.

Tonight's music is "Prehensile Dream" by The Bad Plus.

Waikiki, ca. 1920s

2009-01-31T18:48:00.000-08:00

Tonight's music is "Travelin' Man" by Ricky Nelson.

Living Things

2009-01-30T16:41:00.001-08:00

The Vancouver-based poet Matt Rader is reading tonight at the Black Stilt here in Victoria. He's an incredible wordsmith and a great human being, so come on down if you can. Things start at 7:30 p.m. Here's a link to his latest collection.

Today's music is "Taking the Farm" by The War on Drugs.

Another Roadside Attraction

2009-01-28T22:01:00.001-08:00

Nanoose Bay, B.C.

Tonight's music is "These Hands" by Hank Snow.

Snow on Lone Cone

2009-01-27T19:24:00.001-08:00

Tofino, B.C.

Tonight's music is "The Bridge" by Elliott Brood.

Cox Trail

2009-01-26T23:40:00.000-08:00

Tofino, B.C.

Tonight's music is "Are the Good Times Really Over" by Merle Haggard.

The Cove

2009-01-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

Tonight's music is "Blood Bank" by Bon Iver.

Good Luck, Sir

2009-01-19T22:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight's music is "Shenandoah" by Bruce Springsteen.

The Point Is Not Where It Leads

2009-01-14T19:55:00.000-08:00

This beautiful little shred of wisdom is from the journals of Jaimal Nikos Yogis, an author and writer from San Francisco. He posts photos of his notebook pages on his blog, which you can visit here. Yogis lives and surfs at Ocean Beach, a place that's inspired a lot of artists over the years. (Incidentally, it's also one of the five places I'd think about moving to if I had to leave the Island. The others: the Eastern Shore, the Muskokas, the Alentejo, and probably somewhere as-yet-to-be-determined in New South Wales.)

Tonight's music is a live version of "Neon Bible" by Arcade Fire.

Grey & Window

2009-01-10T19:51:00.000-08:00

The cold in the Strait isn't easy to deal with at this time of year. Serious respect to those who were out there in the '60s and '70s. God knows it's chilly enough in a modern-day 6/5/4. So it goes, though, and all you can do is keep the hood on and the heartfires burning.

Tonight's music is "Hold Time" by M. Ward.

Esteyonage

2009-01-06T18:11:00.001-08:00

My friend Myles Estey is currently working out of Liberia as an independent journalist. In addition to his other work, he's running a blog with news and dispatches from one of Africa's more troubled countries.

Here's what Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada has to say about Liberia:

"...the security situation in Liberia remains unpredictable. Mass movement of people aggravates the already poor economic conditions, especially in Monrovia and in other cities, where the presence of refugees is putting a strain on food and shelter resources. Looting and robbery, often at gunpoint, is being reported throughout the country. Fighting and demonstrations can occur anywhere at any time."

You can check his site here.

Today's music is "Blue Bossa" by Dexter Gordon.

Waltz With Bashir

2009-01-05T10:49:00.000-08:00

via Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing:

"I couldn't help but think as I was watching last night (in a mostly empty art-house theater on the other side of town) that this captures what the young Israeli soldiers must be experiencing right now, and what the Palestinians in Gaza must be experiencing, as well. Waltz is about memory. It's a story about conflict trauma and PTSD. It's a story about how the responsibility for atrocities tends to be passed from one set of hands to another, never resting, and how the impact of violence is also passed down, never resting. It's a story about what combatants on both sides have in common: we are human beings."

Today's music is "Goodbye Old Stepstone" by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy.

Nautical Disaster

2009-01-03T21:55:00.001-08:00

The aggregate barge "Warrior" on the rocks in Oak Bay, BC.

Story here, via the Victoria Times Colonist.

Tonight's music is "In the New Year" by The Walkmen.

Beechy Head

2009-01-01T23:45:00.000-08:00

Tonight's music is "Panama Red" by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch.

Koreski Interview

2008-12-30T16:08:00.000-08:00

Peter Devries. Photo by Jeremy Koreski.

The Imperial Motion site has an interview up with Jeremy Koreski:

"The next big trend is already here, still cameras that shoot HD video as well. For a long time now I've had a hard time deciding what I really want to do, stills or video. Now I can do both. The RED camera company just announced a new camera coming out in 2010 that will shoot 24mp files at 100 frames per second. Basically you'll filming but will be able to pull high quality stills from the video."

Click here for the full piece.

Today's music is a live cover of "I Shall Be Released" by Wilco and Fleet Foxes.

Nine Photos

2008-12-26T16:31:00.001-08:00

Today's music is "To the Dogs or Whoever" by Josh Ritter.

More Snow...

2008-12-22T11:21:00.000-08:00

It's been a week and more, and Victoria is still all done up in white.

Today's music is "Furr" by Blitzen Trapper.

Rocket 88

2008-12-20T10:23:00.000-08:00

Just like bein' a kid. Breakfast with Saturday morning cartoons. This one's a 1973 surf animation by John Lamb. From the YouTube description: "The first air, the first 'shuvit' maneuver and the first 360 degree barrel ride are all in this film. And the wide awake surf industry never noticed."

Today's music is "Rollercoaster" by M. Ward.

Six Things

2008-12-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

1. The tunnels beneath Toronto.

2. A map of modern piracy.

3. "I climbed to Dharamsala too..."

4. Another great lo-fi print from Norther Wester.

5. Nathan Oldfield's short film for Valla Surfboards.

6. How to make a good hot toddy, via my pal Erin.

Today's music is "Monster Ballads" by Josh Ritter.

Fir Spires

2008-12-15T19:31:00.001-08:00

Can't help but love the arctic outflow.

In the immortal words of Calvin & Hobbes:

"Wow, it really snowed last night! Isn't it wonderful?"

"Everything familiar has disappeared! The world looks brand-new!"

"A new year...a fresh, clean start!"

"It's like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on!"

"A day full of possibilities! It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy...let's go exploring!"

Tonight's music is "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes.

Jeremy Koreski

2008-12-09T15:50:00.000-08:00

Jeremy Koreski got his new portfolio site up a few days ago. I've had the good fortune to work with him on an assortment of projects over the last few years, both here at home at farther afield. He's a great photographer and a great human being, and he has a lot of damn good stories to tell if he ever decides to start on his memoirs. Click through and check it out.

Today's music is "Ring Them Bells" by Sufjan Stevens.

Saturday, Etc.

2008-12-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

- Sunrise from Vic West

- Grate and truckbed

- Old wax on old board

- Bridge and hills

- Christmas ideas on Vancouver Island

Today's music is "Beaumont" by Hayes Carll.

Fog & Conifer

2008-11-29T18:29:00.001-08:00

These trees have seen a lot of good waves in the last few days.

Tonight's music is "Come Rain or Come Shine" by the Bill Evans Trio.

Happiness Is

2008-11-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

This slab of concrete has been a canvas for all sorts of sloganeering here on the South Island. Seems the last person to tag it was feeling the positive vibe.

Love + Peace + Hollow = Happy.

Hard to argue with that.

Tonight's music is "Sinaloa Cowboys" by Bruce Springsteen.

Matthiessen on the Unnecessary

2008-11-23T21:55:00.000-08:00

From this interview with Peter Matthiessen, via the Paris Review:

There’s a wonderful Zen story about a young monk who has had an enlightenment experience. To celebrate, his teacher takes him up Mount Fuji. All the way up this snow volcano, this young monk is crying out, “Oh, Roshi! Do you hear the birds? I’ve never heard the birds before! How beautiful!” The teacher scarcely grunts, won’t say a word, just thumps his stave. On and on the fellow goes, ecstatic. “Oh, the snow, the clouds!” Finally they near the top of the mountain. “Oh, Roshi,” he cries. “Do you see how the wind blows snow across the cone of the volcano? How the clouds drift past on the wind? There is no separation between us and the wind and the great earth!” The roshi hisses, “Yes! Yes, true! But what a pity to say so!”

Tonight's music is "Comment" by Wilco.

Flood Light

2008-11-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

- Ralph Crane / Life Magazine

The photo collection of Life Magazine is being made available online through the Google Image Search. According to the release 20% of the magazine's archive is up already, with the remainder to be added over the next few months. The shot above is from Manhattan Beach in 1965.

Today's music is "Land of Long Shadows" by Andre Herman-Dune.

Five Things

2008-11-13T21:04:00.000-08:00

- Reservation II by Josh Keyes

1. The paintings of Josh Keyes.

2. Surf reports from Long Beach Surf Shop.

3. The unexpected appearances of Bob Dylan.

4. Eleven Dawns with Su Tung-p'o.

5. A short history of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Today's music is "Mama, You Been On My Mind" by Bob Dylan.

Animal Farm

2008-11-12T17:26:00.000-08:00

Tonight's music is "Short Native Grasses" by Corb Lund.

Remembrance Day

2008-11-11T09:02:00.000-08:00

Cold and quiet on the Island this morning. Reading through Saint-Exupery as my own act of remembrance:

"All my tanks had been pierced, both gas and oil. Otherwise we seemed to be sound. Dutertre called out that he was through, and once again I looked up and calculated the distance to the clouds. I raised the nose of the ship, and once again I sent the plane zigzagging as I climbed. Once again I cast a glance earthwards. What I saw I shall not forget. The plain was crackling everywhere with short wicks of spurting flame—the rapid-fire cannon. The colored balls were still floating upward through an immense blue aquarium of air. Arras was glowing dark red like iron on the anvil, a flame fed by subterranean stores, by the sweat of men, the inventions of men, the arts of men, the memories and patrimony of men, all these braided into the ruddy ascension of that single plume that changed them into fire and ash, borne away on the wind."

- from "Flight to Arras" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Today's music is "Goldberg Variations (Aria)" by Glenn Gould.

Finding Farley

2008-11-06T16:03:00.000-08:00

This looks like it's going to be a beautiful film: cross-country with the family, mostly self-propelled, to go see Farley Mowat on Cape Breton Island. It's by Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison, the couple who made Being Caribou.

There's also a great essay by Heuer here.

Today's music is "Knuckleball Catcher" by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings.

Red Bark

2008-10-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

Courtenay, B.C.

Today's music is "Flacana 6" by Melodium.

Five Things

2008-10-29T23:32:00.000-07:00

1. Populations of British Columbia in 1901. (Clayoquot: 147)

2. "Killer Whales Disappearing Off Southern B.C."

3. Waves come from giant bellows.

4. "Do not turn your back on a falling tree."

5. A slideshow from the Aleutians.

Tonight's music is "Not on Top" by Herman Dune.

Whiskey Jacks

2008-10-28T23:49:00.000-07:00

Courtenay, B.C.

Tonight's music is "Duet for Guitars" by M. Ward.

Castle Crag

2008-10-26T22:56:00.000-07:00

From Cruickshank Canyon in Strathcona Provincial Park.

Tonight's music is "Concerning the UFO Sighting..." by Sufjan Stevens.

Owl Cabin

2008-10-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

Today's music is "Our Swords" by Band of Horses.

Rain & Leaves

2008-10-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

Arbutus Menziesii, from yesterday behind the house.

via Pojar & McKinnon:

"In a Straits Salish story, told by the late Chief Phillip Paul of the Saanich people, arbutus was the tree used by the survivors of the Great Flood (a tradition common to almost all northwest coast peoples) to anchor their canoe to the top of Mount Newton. To this day, the Saanich people do not burn arbutus in their stoves, because of the important service this tree provided long ago."

Today's music is "When You Awake" by Rick Danko.

Industrial & Holy

2008-10-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

This post from Jasminembla reminded me of a passage I read a few weeks back in the David James Duncan book River Teeth. Duncan and a fishing buddy, still teenagers, had packed up their fly gear to fish for salmon in front of the Crown Zellerbach paper mill at the convergence of the Washougal and Columbia Rivers:

"We began setting up the odd tackle we'd together come to prefer: a stiff fibreglass fly rod and light spinning reel (mine open-faced, his closed); monofilament line a third the test of that used by most salmon fishermen (to increase casting distance). There wasn't a holy man in sight. There wasn't any kind of human in sight. The mill rumbled behind us like an insatiable stomach; tugs dragged log rafts up Crown Z's own private slough; a dredge worked the slough a half-mile downriver; trucks and cars whisked along the jettied highway across the bay; ships and barges plowed the Columbia beyond. It was the machines you saw and heard, though, not the people inside them. Industrial men, not holy ones. Them's the kind we grew in these parts."

I've met some wise and profoundly spiritual people who work in the resource industries, but Duncan's passage is certainly an interesting commentary on how the things we've created have skewed our perception of our place in the world.

Is the economy serving us, or are we serving the economy?

Seems that most of us don't quite know anymore.

Today's music is "Shenandoah" by Bruce Springsteen & The Seeger Sessions Band.

Six Things

2008-10-05T13:53:00.001-07:00

Not much time to post these days: back from the East Coast and back into life. Slim material for the site, other than a short list of things much appreciated in the last few weeks.

1. Podcasts from The Moth.

2. Encounters up the coast: elk near Parkinson Creek, grey whales at First Peak.

3. Arno Kopecky's dispatches at Notes from Nairobi.

4. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams.

5. James Nachtwey at TED.

6. Cape St. Francis.

Today's music is "Her Eyes Dart Round" by The Felice Brothers.

Halifax Graffiti

2008-09-20T06:15:00.001-07:00

Street views from downtown Halifax.

Today's music is "Orphans" by Beck.

New Scotland

2008-09-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

Halifax: Fortune's Favour via F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Halifax: mural at harbourfront.

Seaforth: addresses and utilities.

Halifax: fore-and-aft rigging on the Bluenose II.

Tonight's music is "Danny Says" by Tom Waits.

Laws of Physics

2008-09-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

Ford Cove, B.C.

Today's music is "Percy's Song" by Bob Dylan.

Wave Forms

2008-09-04T23:07:00.000-07:00

Denman Island, B.C.

All things find their order.

Today's music is "Going to California" by Led Zeppelin.

Grass & Overcast

2008-08-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

Denman Island, BC

Today's music is "Humble Me" by Harry Manx.

The Carnivore's Dilemma

2008-08-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

Hornby Island, BC

Today's music is "Out on the Weekend" by Neil Young.

Five Things

2008-08-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

1. Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.

2. A well-stocked shelf: Murakami, Marquez, The Journal, etc.

3. War is absurd.
4. Simon Whitfield's race.

5. Peace through skateboarding.

Today's music is "Small Town Talk" by Bobby Charles.

Last Light, Knee-High

2008-08-17T20:24:00.001-07:00

Mellow evening last week. Thanks for the salmon, Jas...

Today's music is "Tennessee Blues" by Steve Earle.

Dead Zones

2008-08-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

Another argument for organic agriculture, via the Globe and Mail:

The root of the problem is the spread of nitrogen caused by runoff of fertilizers, sewage outflows, and nitrogen deposits from burning fossil fuels, Dr. Diaz said. Nutrient pollution from agricultural runoff fuels blooms of algae – a process known as eutrophication – that rot and consume oxygen levels as they decay.

“Dead zones are not local problems,” Dr. Diaz said. “They are occurring around the globe and have negative consequences in all locations. The surprising thing is that many of these zones are caused by the same set of processes and factors. It all links back to us, and what humans are doing.”

The full article is here.

Today's music is "Murder in the City" by the Avett Brothers.

Hong Kong

2008-08-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

I loaned out my trusty point-and-shoot and it came back with this picture of Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong. The little Pentax headed to Chiang Mai before flying home.

Today's music is "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" by The Smiths.

Eagle No.2

2008-08-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

Bald eagle, haliaeetus leucocephalus, over Cox Bay, B.C.

Today's music is "Basin Street Blues" by Sam Cooke.

Bigfoot: I Not Dead

2008-08-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Great interview with Graham Roumieu, Bigfoot's intermediary.

More on the book is here.

Today's music is "Slapped Actress" by The Hold Steady.

Fog, Etc.

2008-08-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

West towards Cape Flattery, waiting for swell.

Today's music is "The Greatest Show on Earth" by The Felice Brothers.