Cultural Geography via the T.V.

Recently I was turned on to a website that allows you to stream television shows: Hulu. Pretty good site for a quick t.v. fix. I like that they have many PBS series to watch. I just watched the Nova series on the ancient art of Tibet and the ancient kingdom of the Maya. Amazing.

Having been accused of being a t.v. baby and a cultural geographer, I must stick up for myself and say, that I was learning cultural geography via the boob tube. These two episodes explore one of the cultural geography questions of "what's it's like" which is essential to understanding any physical and culture oriented place on the planet.

The more I watch television (I probably shouldn't be fessing up to this) the more that I am finding so much of what people understand about their own surroundings and other places comes from what is represented/depicted by television shows. I am not talking about just the nice nature shows like Nova or National Geographic or even Frontline, but main stream network and now cable programming. I am not saying this is bad or good, but that it removes much of the imagination and wonder of exploring a new place.

Here comes the circular argument: People may not know about particular places with out television and thus would never want to go there with out seeing it. But I say what happened to looking over the map and doing a bit of old fashion research? Like reading travel journals of early explorers or residents? What about talking to people from or who have traveled these places?

Perhaps now that gas prices are so high, including jet fuel, that gaining a sense of wonder via the television will have to suffice for global exploration for now. Wait, I forgot books!

What better way to spend the summer than sitting outside reading a great travel/geographic book, working on your tan and drinking a cold beer?

Here are some titles that I am reading this summer (yes I know I should be doing my thesis):
The Mapmakers Wife - Robert Whitaker
In Search of Captain Zero - Allan C. Weisbecker
Leading Out: Mountaineering Stories of Adventurous Women - Edited by Rachel Da Silva
Why in the World: Adventures in Geography - George J. Demko, Jerome Agel, and Eugene Boe
I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman In Guatemala - Translated by Ann Wright

There are a few good old thesis titles too, but I won't bore you with that.

Happy Reading!

Fire, Fire On The Mountain

Well folks, as the Grateful Dead sang it, there is fire on the mountain. California is burning and Reno is full of smoke. One amazing thing is that the sunsets have been awesome! The sun turns this brilliant red due to particle scattering (Samy would be so proud.)


These fires have got me thinking about where people live and what would happen if people did not live in these places. I know that most of the fire fighting efforts go into protecting houses and structures, and the most of the time the forest is allowed to burn, but man this is unreal.

In particular, the fires in the Sacramento--I-80 area. The location of these fires and the timing reminds me of a description in George Stewart's book Earth Abides. The book was written in 1949 as a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel set in California. The main character Ish describes what he sees, haze on the horizon, from the annual burn of the Sierra. Read the book it will make more sense. It is just a great description of the natural processes that take place when humans aren't around.

Ironically though today, NPR ran a story about the Tahoe fire last year (Angora Fire) and the people who are rebuilding their homes. Most of those people are unwilling to implement the new building codes that will make their homes more fire resistant. They say that it is too costly. Hmm having your house burn to the ground and having to rebuild again, or just spend the cash up front to protect your home . . . .

All I know is that it isn't much fun having to exercise indoors due to poor air quality. Hmff, guess this means I will just have to go to the gym.

So Hot--Summer is here

I'm melting...and it's not even July yet. Today summer officially left its hot, sticky, smelly mark all over me and town. For the last two weeks the weather here could not decide if it wanted to prolong spring or move straight into summer. Well it finally made up its mind today. It was balmy 94 degrees today. The upside, no humidity.

The point of the blog, to complain about the weather. For those of you who have to listen to me complain about this place, what is that I always say: "I don't like the weather here: Winter is to mild; Summer is to hot; and there is like 300 days of sunshine." Yeah I know rough, right? Well some of us like heavy snowy winters and a touch cooler summers.

The temporary solution for these hot summer days: Cold beer or a margarita on the rocks!

My Morning Run - Or Lack There Of

As you can see from the posts, or lack of posts about running, I have sort of taken a break from the whole running thing--at least in the mornings. Instead I have switched over to an evening runner. This is due to the fact that I now have a running partner, Samy. Yep finally got him some good shoes and he is running right along.

But for old times sake I went for a run the other morning and it was glorious. Nice cool weather, not a lot of people, and lots of birds. Good stuff.

To add to the fun, on the mornings that I don't wake up earlier enough to run, I ride my slick new (White Lightning) bike to work and school. I think that makes up for the lack of morning runs.

Hiatus

Recently I took a bit of break from school. I needed to clear the head about this whole thesis thing, especially after I got a smack down from my advisor on chapter two. So I headed to Track Town, better known as Eugene, Oregon.

While there I took in the Saturday Market, always a pleasure, and a mountain bike ride. Yes I still occasionally ride and this was the most glorious mud-filled-hell-of-a-climb-first-time in the northwest ride I have ever done. I bitched and moaned all the way up, crashed (over the bars) in the first 200 feet of the downhill and laughed my ass off when riding through the mud holes.

So here are a three action shots of me coming down a section of trail. See if you can describe the expression on my face in picture two (I describe it as oh shit don't fall.)