1 year ago
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
13 April 2009
Jaw Dropping
Dali + Cervantes in one beautiful, classic tome? I *must* find this volume! The Illustrated Modern Library Don Quixote De La Mancha
11 September 2008
09 July 2008
12 May 2008
Sounds of the Sahara
Rockin’ the Casbah - New York Times: "But it was a sojourn by Jimi Hendrix, the guitar idol who vacationed in Essaouira in 1969, a year before his death, that inspired visits by Mr. Ehrlich and countless other musicians and fans, many of whom believe that Hendrix’s song “Castles Made of Sand” was inspired by Borj El Baroud, the ghostly, turreted remains of a Portuguese fort decomposing off the beach south of the city."
Such a lovely song... adds another compelling argument to the mystique and magnetic draw that's building up around Morocco for me.
Such a lovely song... adds another compelling argument to the mystique and magnetic draw that's building up around Morocco for me.
10 June 2007
Reconsidering the Plant Kingdom
After hearing the celebrated ethnobotanist/real-life Indiana Jones-adventurer/poet/scholar lecture at the National Geographic Society, I nabbed a copy of Wade Davis' One River from Amazon. I'm just beginning the text, reading a few chapters before my far-too-late bedtime here and there, but so far, I can only praise and gush Dr. Davis' authorship. The eloquent lyricism of his lecture is echoed on the pages of his memoirs and tribute to his mentors, Richard Evans Schultes and Tim Plowman. Clearly these figures themselves possessed many of Davis' gifts. Consider the brief excerpt below, from Davis' early travels in Colombia with Plowman.
..."Why would a plant give a shit about Mozart? ...and even if it did, why should that impress us? I mean, they eat light. Isn't that enough?"
"He went on to speak of photosynthesis the way an artist might describe color. He said that at dusk the process is reversed and that plants actually emit small amounts of light. He referred to sap as the green blood of plants, explaining that chlorophyll is structurally almost the same as the pigment of our blood, only that the iron in hemoglobin is replaced by magnesium in plants... Unlike every other botanist I had known, he was not obsessed with classification. For him Latin names were like koans or lines of verse. He remembered them effortlessly, taking particular delight in their origins. "When you say the names of the plants," he said at one point, "you say the names of the gods."
-Davis recounting memories of his colleague Tim Plowman
..."Why would a plant give a shit about Mozart? ...and even if it did, why should that impress us? I mean, they eat light. Isn't that enough?"
"He went on to speak of photosynthesis the way an artist might describe color. He said that at dusk the process is reversed and that plants actually emit small amounts of light. He referred to sap as the green blood of plants, explaining that chlorophyll is structurally almost the same as the pigment of our blood, only that the iron in hemoglobin is replaced by magnesium in plants... Unlike every other botanist I had known, he was not obsessed with classification. For him Latin names were like koans or lines of verse. He remembered them effortlessly, taking particular delight in their origins. "When you say the names of the plants," he said at one point, "you say the names of the gods."
-Davis recounting memories of his colleague Tim Plowman
06 May 2007
How do you spend your Friday nights?
AKA "How I met Indiana Jones"
The National Geographic Society recently partnered with the Embassy of Peru on a series of lectures touching down in various cities across the USA. With the NGS HQ five blocks from the office, I managed to swing by for the DC event last Friday. The event's marketing was relatively spartan, so I was delighted to find ceviche, empanadas, and pisco sours in plenty pre- and post-lecture. Plus a raffle which I happened to win.
Anyway, around 8PM the audience shuffled into the NGS auditorium and was introduced to Dr. Wade Davis by the Ambassador of Peru. Unfortunately, Dr. Davis' name was a new one to my ears as of eight weeks ago, when I read a mini-bio on the lecture website that involved living 3 years in the Amazon, conducting a thorough investigation of Haitian zombie potions, and a few other "too-Indy-to-be-true" tidbits. Wade spoke for about 90 minutes, lucidly transitioning through a series of observations and historical anecdotes around indigineous life. The "explorer-in-residence" included material on astronomy, botany, coming-of-age rituals, architecture, etc etc etc..... all with the skill of orators of years past and accompanying by a startlingly beautiful set of photos that were all taken with his own eye. The man seemed to combine elements of Victorian-era explorers with the chemical awareness of a hippie and the activism of the modern global citizen. He wasn't particularly eager to speak in person, but on stage, his earnest plea to respect and preserve cultural diversity and indigineous wisdom proved quite inspiring--enough to instill a deep regret in my heart that I never poured myself into cultural anthropology coursework.
Here are four great links to give readers a taste of Wade Davis' very interesting life and body of work:
Wikipedia
Quill and Quire
Promotion for One River
NPR Interview
On a related tangent, two great global bands I've been listening to a bit of late:
Forro in the Dark (Brazil)
Bembeya Jazz National (Guinea)
The National Geographic Society recently partnered with the Embassy of Peru on a series of lectures touching down in various cities across the USA. With the NGS HQ five blocks from the office, I managed to swing by for the DC event last Friday. The event's marketing was relatively spartan, so I was delighted to find ceviche, empanadas, and pisco sours in plenty pre- and post-lecture. Plus a raffle which I happened to win.
Anyway, around 8PM the audience shuffled into the NGS auditorium and was introduced to Dr. Wade Davis by the Ambassador of Peru. Unfortunately, Dr. Davis' name was a new one to my ears as of eight weeks ago, when I read a mini-bio on the lecture website that involved living 3 years in the Amazon, conducting a thorough investigation of Haitian zombie potions, and a few other "too-Indy-to-be-true" tidbits. Wade spoke for about 90 minutes, lucidly transitioning through a series of observations and historical anecdotes around indigineous life. The "explorer-in-residence" included material on astronomy, botany, coming-of-age rituals, architecture, etc etc etc..... all with the skill of orators of years past and accompanying by a startlingly beautiful set of photos that were all taken with his own eye. The man seemed to combine elements of Victorian-era explorers with the chemical awareness of a hippie and the activism of the modern global citizen. He wasn't particularly eager to speak in person, but on stage, his earnest plea to respect and preserve cultural diversity and indigineous wisdom proved quite inspiring--enough to instill a deep regret in my heart that I never poured myself into cultural anthropology coursework.
Here are four great links to give readers a taste of Wade Davis' very interesting life and body of work:
Wikipedia
Quill and Quire
Promotion for One River
NPR Interview
On a related tangent, two great global bands I've been listening to a bit of late:
Forro in the Dark (Brazil)
Bembeya Jazz National (Guinea)
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