The end of summer in Portalrubio

Blas sent us these pictures from the village where he was with his parents.
A wild mountain goat--I've never seen one!

The blackberries were plentiful this year, and there are also some plums.

Flooding to the south of here

Three years ago, in 2007, there were catastrophic floods in the hilly farm country of southern Minnesota. After the rebuilding, they've been struck again by even worse floods in the last few days. Thank goodness the forecast is for sun the rest of the week.

At the farm, Loren has had some water in his basement, in part because he had not yet installed his sump pump, but basically things are OK: he had one in his garage that he put in, and will have a better one installed tomorrow. No major damage to the home or any furnishings, but kind of a scare! The news is more dire for many communities.

Here is some film of the Cannon River that flows through downtown Northfield. Normally, there is a drop of several feet at the dam, but here you can see that the river has risen almost to the edge of the dam, and large logs are snagged. Some of the riverside businesses and homes are flooded. For comparison, here's a photo of this same spot from earlier in the year:



Lots of folks turned out to sandbag, to protect what areas they could.

Arcade Fire concert

A couple of years ago, I played Arcade Fire's album Funeral over and over. Last week, I was thrilled when I won free tickets to their show on Thursday. What a show! They all switch instruments and pour their hearts out with every song. The crowd was on fire. We left happy and singing.

Someone named kelly who must have been sitting about where we were posted these excellent quality videos: thanks, kelly! Of course it was all much louder in person!

The song "Intervention"

and "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"

Tía Angela, hoy te recordamos con mucho cariño. Que descanses en paz.

José Antonio Labordeta, grande.

José Antonio Labordeta died this week after a long struggle with cancer. He leaves a legacy of song, of integrity and love for his homeland, Aragón, and for the people of Spain. The city of Zaragoza has declared three days of mourning. Over 50,000 people lined the streets to pay their respects as his body lay in state in the Aljafería. From everywhere come expressions of love and sadness for this honorable man.





Polvo, niebla, viento y sol
Donde hay agua una huerta
Al norte los Pirineos
La tierra es Aragón

Al norte los Pirineos,
al sur la sierra callada
Pasa el Ebro por el centro
Con su soledad a la espalda

Dicen que hay tierras al este
Donde se trabaja y pagan
Y al oeste el Moncayo
Como un Dios que ya no ampara

Desde tiempos a esta parte
Vamos camino de nada
Vamos a ver como el Ebro
Con su soledad se marcha

Con él, van en compaña
Las gentes de estas vaguadas
Los valles de esta sierra
Las huertas arruinadas

Polvo, niebla, viento y sol
Y donde hay agua una huerta
Al norte los Pirineos
La tierra es Aragón

This song is "Albada," in the tradition of songs sung at dawn as people went out to the fields to work.


Here he is, acting as "pregonero," officially opening the Fiestas del Pilar in Zaragoza, evoking with love the thousands of years of history of his beloved Aragón and its capital Zaragoza (text here)





And the song that many consider the song of Aragón, Canto a la libertad




Letra:

Habrá un día en que todos
al levantar la vista
veremos una tierra
que ponga LIBERTAD

Hermano, aquí mi mano
será tuya en mi frente
y tu gesto de siempre
caerá sin levantar
huracanes de miedo
ante la LIBERTAD

Haremos el camino
en un mismo trazado
uniendo nuestros hombros
para así levantar
a aquellos que cayeron
gritando LIBERTAD

Habrá un día en que todos
al levantar la vista
veremos una tierra
que ponga LIBERTAD

Sonarán las campanas
desde los campanarios
y los campos desiertos
volverán a granar
unas espigas altas
dispuestas para el pan

Para un pan que en los siglos
nunca fue repartido
entre todos aquellos
que hicieron lo posible
por empujar la historia
hacia la LIBERTAD.

Habrá un día en que todos
al levantar la vista
veremos una tierra
que ponga LIBERTAD

También será posible
que esa hermosa mañana
ni tú, ni yo, ni el otro
la lleguemos a ver,
pero habrá que empujarla
para que pueda ser.
Que sea como un viento
que arranque los matojos
surgiendo la verdad
y limpie los caminos
de siglos de destrozos
contra la LIBERTAD.

Habrá un día en que todos
al levantar la vista
veremos una tierra
que ponga LIBERTAD.

Heaven

Heaven, heaven is a place
a place where nothing
nothing ever happens

Random Twitter Harvest

A Capella version of the Inception trailer

I laughed so hard when I saw this for the first time
Octopus steals camera, then tries for speargun:

"I looooove youuuuu, Octopus!"

Learn the "waka waka" dance!

Why Lady Gaga is relevant.

so I say, Hey!

Neil Gaiman is going to make an appearance on Arthur!
Having fun isn't hard
when you've got a library card.


Jekyll Jekyll Hyde...

Let's hear it for Arthur!

We used to have a few dozen VHS recordings of Arthur episodes, which were watched a gazillion times, and which served as fodder for the narrative-machine that was my kid when she was a pre-schooler. Her alter-ego/evil twin was D.W., and I was always forced to act out her scenarios without deviating from her direction: "Now D.W. pokes Arthur in the eye to see what it feels like!"
Good times. But we never saw this episode, in which D.W. overhears a curse word.

Obama supports our Constitutional rights

Why I"m still proud to have voted for this president. Speaking plainly about Islamophobia and its dangers.
Now if he would only GET WITH THE PROGRAM (Mr. "I am a Christian") and withdraw all our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sculpture Garden at the De Young museum 1/3

One of my favorite places to visit in San Franciso is a discreet installation in the sculpture garden of the De Young museum. To find it, you walk down a bamboo-lined path, then turn toward a structure set into the earth. It is called "Three Gems" and is one of the many Sky Space creations of James Turrell.


You enter an open-air pathway that curves around to the entrance into the chamber in the center.

The chamber entrance is arched, the room inside is domed, with a small round opening at the top.


Sunlight through the opening moves across the wall as the day goes by.

Look straight up; the clouds moving across the blue sky look like clouds on the moon.

I have just discovered that Turrell has a similar installation now at the Walker Art Center called "Sky Pesher!" People have made music in it, gotten married in it, made out in it....I will go see it today!

"Talk about me Like I'm a dog"

In his speech on Labor day, Obama quotes Hendrix's song "Stone Free" (Wonkette says "...proves he is secretly black")

"Every day of the week
I'm in a different city
If I stay too long, people put me down
Talk about me like I'm a dog
Talk about the clothes I wear..."

Time to break out the Dyson Pet Hair vacuum

I wish my cat would let me do this.

Dessa, live at the MN State Fair

We thought Dessa's show at the Fair on Friday was terrific. She is a great live performer, and had a tight band. I didn't have my camera with me, too bad, so here are some videos of songs from her CD "A Badly Broken Code." UPDATED TO ADD: interview after her show at the State Fair with Mary Lucia.
"Dixon's Girl"

"The Crow"

"The Alibi"

will Sheldon get a girlfriend?

We are big fans of The Big Bang Theory, so I was genuinely thrilled when Jim Parsons won the Emmy for playing Sheldon Cooper.
You can peruse Sheldon's Shirts if you want to find one of the tees worn by the characters, or see the collection of Howard's belt buckles.
The last season ended with a cliffhanger:

I quite like this mashup using the (1982) Thomas Dolby song "She Blinded Me with Science!" (Science! Science!)--sly editing!