Tiger

A fantastic book, John Vaillant's The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Knopf, 2010). Far Eastern Russia, the taiga, bitter cold, hard people in a hard landscape. And tigers. And tiger lore and etiquette and myth. And men with names like Yuri Trush and Vladimir Schetinin and places called Primorski, Sobolonye, Vladivostock, the Bekin River (pronounced be-KEEN). The forest. The complex interconnectedness of Tigers and humans sharing a landscape.

This story is told in rich confident prose, and with great pacing. He weaves in and out of the main story - the stalking, killing, and devouring of a forest poacher by a vengeful tiger - with fascinating divergences into anthropology, tiger biology, tiger conservation in the Russian Far East, Russian history.

See Tim Flannery's essay at the New York Review of Books, it discusses The Tiger as well as Elizabeth Tova Bailey's The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. For ongoing information on the Amur Tiger (commonly known as the Siberian Tiger) in Russia, check out the Tigris Foundation. Also 21st Century Tiger.

Old San Juan

Old San Juan, Dec 30, 2010

Old San Juan

Africa, Old San Juan, December 2010

... narrow purplish-blue cobbled streets lined by gorgeous Spanish colonial architecture; carved wooden bar windows, ornate balconies; windows and doorways at street level open behind bars and grates, apartment insides visible beyond; facades of soft blues, peaches, ochers, washed-out greens; decorative clay wall scones, a brass lion mane door knocker.

Outside the Ramparts

Another New Year, 2011

Another year, another adventure, another running waiter. Live strong, eat slow. Love language. Write, travel, create.

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, December 30, 2010

Bruegelian Doings

A new Bruegel. Odd to write that some five hundred years after the painter's death. But last week we received notice of the re-emergence of  "The Wine of Saint Martin's Day," a painting that becomes the forty-first authenticated and signed work by the great 16h century Dutch genius. And at 5 ft by 9 ft, the largest.

Apparently, "unidentified Spanish collectors" brought the unattributed painting to the Prado for cleaning (how connected do you have to be to have the Prado clean your art?). Conservators at the venerable Madrid museum were astonished to discover that the painting was actually executed by the hand of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. His signature, buried beneath centuries of glue, resin, and dust, gradually came to light in the restoration process.

The Wine of St Martin's Day, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1560s

Capitalism With a Human Face

Harry Crosby Death Day 2010

Happy 81st death anniversary, Harry, hope that worked out for you. And the Fire Princess too. Fools.

Coilhouse.net has a very interesting and encouraging interview with Erik Rodgers, founder of String and a Can Productions.

There's also a cool illustration by Alastair from Red Skeletons but you can skip the boilerplate bio of Crosby, we've read it before and elsewhere and with much more nuance and perception.

Erik Rodgers, however, offers some of the most intelligent commentary on both Harry and Caresse Crosby out there, including:

"I actually came upon Caresse first, while developing a project on Salvador Dalí.  [My business partner] was intrigued by the idea of such an accomplished and independent female from that era, and started researching her life.   Of course as soon as she began reading about Caresse, she discovered Harry as well.  Their story captured her imagination, and she began relating to me some of the details as she read them. We both felt there was something vital and overlooked in their story, something that had been obscured by all the scandal and negative criticism."

Check out Black Sun: The Life and Death of Harry Crosby, A Play  presented by the Black Sun Players.