After more than a decade here, I have migrated my sporadic posting to a new site. Blogger is no longer updating and even though I have posted a few things from my phone in the past month, they have gone into the ether. So, new digs are here: https://erasingthevoid.wordpress.com/
You can follow by email but it is a "locked" site, so it will send a request for me to approve.
Goodbye to blogger.
BEHOLDER
. . .from the mixed up files...
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Sunday, January 22, 2017
dissent. march.
Essential day one. Now we must begin to think about how to practice dissent everyday and keep this momentum.
We marched from home in the morning and then watched as a powerful, peaceful, protest and affirmation of feminism unfolded across EVERY SINGLE CONTINENT. I wore my EZLN shirt. I tweeted. And I keep thinking, this is the beginning. Since November I have woken every day and had to shake off a deep fear, today the words organize, resist, teach make up the background noise in my head. Onward.
![]() |
| Newark March |
![]() |
| En solidaridad |
Sunday, September 25, 2016
gathering very little moss
...oh yes, we moved. Again. We are quite good at it.
So c'mon by and pick raspberries with us next spring. Or help me peel wallpaper--either way...
| The raspberry patch |
Saturday, August 27, 2016
one step away
I saw this a few weeks ago on the NYT and thought, 'we are one step away from being in a dystopian novel.' As Joe pointed out, watching is not yet mandatory. Of course, I question whether it would have to be....
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Construction
![]() |
| On campus... |
So....they broke ground a new dorm project at the end of spring semester, and I've been slightly deluded in thinking that they were targeting the coming fall for completion. I walk past this every day (incidentally there is evidence of a third level since I took this photo). I started to equate their progress with mine, thinking: if they can get freshman in there by the start of the semester I should be done with X,Y, Z. It started to feel like an albatross to me.
Turns out, it's slated for next fall.
Sunday, August 07, 2016
post-industrial
When I was out west to give a talk and attend a conference I got to hang out with some grad school chums and get up to no good. I was taken on a whirlwind tour that included the university, the local watering hole(s), what is apparently a "world famous bar" in the middle of nowhere, and an abandoned mill.
I have a friend who did her MA thesis on post-industrial landscapes and ruin porn in Detroit--she alerted me to ruins tourism (where people trespass into abandoned sites) and the power it holds over people. I was definitely one of those people the moment we set foot in this space. It was astounding, eerie, and quite frankly dangerous.
It's incredible what is left behind--we looked through old log books, newspapers, files. And then of course there are new additions, things that people trespassing have littered around. Sci-fi VHS tapes, for example...
I enjoyed the graffiti. It strikes me that the main use of the walls in the past decade has been for various kinds of graffiti art. They certainly aren't holding up the building all that well...
Perhaps I've been watching too many comic book movies lately, but I kind of wanted to test the gravity around this truck...
This landscape that was once considered a sign of wealth and "progress" in the community has been relegated to another dumping ground. Curiously it is also an unsafe "safe" place for various groups of people who may be functioning outside of legal norms....
I have a friend who did her MA thesis on post-industrial landscapes and ruin porn in Detroit--she alerted me to ruins tourism (where people trespass into abandoned sites) and the power it holds over people. I was definitely one of those people the moment we set foot in this space. It was astounding, eerie, and quite frankly dangerous.
| "Dear Sirs: I believe this was intended to be received by you." |
I enjoyed the graffiti. It strikes me that the main use of the walls in the past decade has been for various kinds of graffiti art. They certainly aren't holding up the building all that well...
| proceed with caution: 1 floor down |
| Danger, contains asbestos |
| wedding rings and VHS tapes--strange bedfellows? |
| Post-industrial silhouettes |
Perhaps I've been watching too many comic book movies lately, but I kind of wanted to test the gravity around this truck...
| Safety first... |
This landscape that was once considered a sign of wealth and "progress" in the community has been relegated to another dumping ground. Curiously it is also an unsafe "safe" place for various groups of people who may be functioning outside of legal norms....
Saturday, August 06, 2016
The "week" in review
| Hood river whiskey stop |
We got back from Cuba and classes started again. That sort of explains things. But I did more than teach, write, and read these last 6 months (6 months!#@%$)...
We went wine tasting, hiking, took up some space to grow things for the squirrels to eat, some traveling happened, I made soap, backpacking on the AT, we sold a house, we bought a house (...in 30 days), baseball, hung out with friends, and we got to know the first state a little better.
We also spent a lot of time reading (for work and play) and unsuccessfully keeping the cats out/off of things...
| subversive fire (not allowed in rental housing) |
| Birthday seafood outing |
| clever |
| flight of whites, flight of reds |
| Joe holds a bee |
| Pocket finds comfort |
| Shoulder kitty, Risa style (read: wobblier) |
| spring garden |
| Pallet garden |
| Whiskey in wine central... |
| "alcohol receiver" |
| my favorite place to be in Hood River |
| Ariana to the beach! |
| Frisbee at the beach |
| Reduce Food Waste |
| Again, Pocket finds comfort |
We went to a wedding that brought many of our west coast peeps to our neck of the woods--it was rather odd, and I kept having to check myself, realizing we weren't on the west coast. We had some time to wander about ahead of the wedding and so we checked out the capitol, walked the aqueduct, and took in some street art and enjoyed a beer. It was a lovely wedding. We drove home by way of a winery we'd been to a over a decade ago. We really liked the style of the production facility and the gravity feed set-up. Sadly it's become rather commercialized.
| pre-wedding shenanigans and west meets east |
| At the Aqueduct in Richmond |
| Muddy flood in Charlottesville |
| In Richmond |
| Pocket makes his own space |
I also went to Arizona to meet my new nephew and hang out with my mom. We lounged around with the baby, I got way overexcited shopping for baby items and we generally just had a nice time. We made our way north for a couple days and enjoyed the beautiful landscape.
Also, we made soap, lotion, and chapstick...and I'm pretty sure my life has changed forever. I made my own laundry detergent the other day. I want to go to Greece and make Olive oil soap (I bought Greek travel books and have convinced fellow travelers to go....this is totally happening next summer).
| Sedona |
| Sedona selfie |
| Mason! |
| Rose, Calendula, and pumpkin tea soap |
| Lotion |
| Seriously Pocket.... |
| see how our garden grows...and feeds the local squirrel population |
| Major League! |
| post-AT backpacking...car camping relaxation, complete with cooler! |
| west meets east part 2 |
| Minor Leagues! |
![]() |
| "hiking" in the state park |
![]() |
| Shadows in the grass |
| Scary Catch...on the kitchen cupboards |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)





