Podcasts

I’ve always been an avid public radio listener. Now it is now pretty acceptable, maybe even a little cool, but possibly wasn’t as cool when I would arrange my Saturdays in college so that I could listen to the This American Life broadcast. Such arrangements are no longer necessary thanks to podcasts, even weekly shows can be consumed freely and in bulk.

I like to listen to stories more than music while I work on projects like quilting or editing photos. Audiobooks are the best, as they continue on for ages, but it’s an expensive habit and I usually consume my one allotted book per month in no time. So podcasts it is. I’ve listened to nearly every This American Life at this point and it’s really time I broadened my horizons.

I love Radiolab. It’s a great mix of storytelling, history and science. The episodes stick with me. I think about this one about the silence and darkness of space often.

Another recent favorite is Night Vale Radio. It’s fun to follow along with the absurdity of this fictional, supernatural town. I’ve just burned my way through all the episodes and am impatiently waiting for more.

Next on my list to check out is Sawbones. Exploration of misguided medicine? Count me in!

Podcasts have really exploded in the past year or so and I love it. Even friends are starting their own podcasts. I’m looking for new material though. What are your favorite podcast?

past lives

I’ve spent the past few days sick in bed. It’s been awhile since I’ve been so laid out that I couldn’t remotely function. The strangest part was not having complete control over my mind. Everything was foggy and slow, especially words. Mostly though it was utterly boring. Unable to do the things I wanted and unable to sleep, I just laid there, watching tv and movies, most of which couldn’t really hold my limited attention.

I did manage to watch the new COSMOS, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Maybe it was just the mentions of Sagan and the Voyager, or the story of little Neil deGrasse Tyson being extended such kindness by a great scientist, but the show really got to me on an emotional level. I’ve been fretting a lot recently about the destruction us humans have wrought on our planet and it was nice to see the bigger cosmic universe for a moment and feel small in both time and space. Not that it lets us off the hook but sometimes you just need a different perspective and a little relief.

Humans spend so much time looking forward or looking back. It’s not easy to be in the present when there is so much ahead of us and so much that we’ve left behind. I’ve been thinking a lot about roads not taken recently, mostly in terms of art. It is a topic I come back to often, having been trained as a painter and with my film studies through the lens of video art and critical theory rather than by way of story plotting and pitching scripts. I gave up painting at some point. It’s something that I occasionally feel sadness about. A tiny death to make space for other things. It’s not like I couldn’t pick it back up, but it’s the one thing that I’ve let go that I do experience remorse over. I consider what that path would have been, every time getting stuck on the fact that it’s painfully difficult for me to try to sell something that I’ve made. Which is pretty much going to be a problem with whatever I do artistically.

It is more comforting to think back on those things that I know how to do rather than those that I do not (I still need to learn to code or this craft or that), or worse the paths not explored (biology would have been a fascinating option). It’s a relief when I’m exhausted by the film industry to think about particular video art pieces that are rarely seen. The thought serves as a reminder that sometimes you just have to keep creating without experiencing any success for a long long time. Or perhaps never. Or perhaps just enough so that a girl in art school can watch a vhs of something you made in the library and never forget it.

photo from NASA, ESA, and D. Gouliermis (University of Heidelberg)

yosemite – mirror lake

I hope you’re not tired of hearing about Yosemite yet because I’ve got quite a few more posts in the works. All the photos came out too beautifully to not share.

We planned a hike to Mirror Lake and around the interior edge of the valley. Because I thought the shuttle route would be closed in winter, we started a bit father from the trail head than we meant to and had to make a few river crossings to get to the start. Once on the trail, the path was a little bit like walking in an elven wonderland, with old stone paths and boulders covered in moss. It was warm and sunny when made it to the lake and little kids were running through the water. We decided to cross ourselves and head down the trail back into the valley. The water was calm but icy cold. We ate our lunch by the lake before heading back on the trail.

As we walked back, we came across a deer on the trail. All the deer we encountered were surprisingly docile but this one particularly so. I walked slowly past it, trying to keep my distance, and it just calmly continued grazing.

It wasn’t long before it started getting dark and we found ourselves at the Ahwahnee hotel. We ventured inside for a bit to check out the place. It was strangely reminiscent of the Overlook hotel with massive fireplaces and red elevator doors.

We walked around the village a bit more afterwards before driving back out of the valley with the most brillian pink sunset.

yosemite national park

It was overcast when we arrived in the Yosemite valley on our first day. Since we had left so early in the morning, it felt as if we were in a sort of never ending afternoon without any discernible sun in the sky. It was surprisingly cold on the side of the mountains as we gazed into the valley from tunnel view. What the photos here don’t reveal are the crowds of tourists that surrounded us at popular stops like these. Buses of rowdy teenagers and groups of international travelers on photo tours quickly came and went around us at the viewpoint and bridalveil fall. There is solitude to be found in Yosemite, but you have to seek it out.

Once in the valley, it was a quick walk to the Bridalveil fall, which, at this point in the dry winter, was just a tiny stream of water that dispersed into mist before touching the rocks below. Signs warned of the danger of slipping on the wet rocks, but the falling water wasn’t particularly robust and visitors scrambled all over the rocks to its base.

We explored a little more in the valley before it got dark, checking out the camp curry tents and such, then drove the windy road back up to our cabin and settled in for the night.

It sounds a bit silly to say that I feel different after visiting Yosemite, but it’s true. There is something majestic about the place. It recharges your spirit to be in the presence of rocks carved over thousands of years by glaciers. Just the pure enormity of it all, of the time that has passed over this place, is awe-inspiring.

a cabin in wawona – yosemite

Over the presidents’ day weekend, in celebration of our anniversary, Shawn and I took a trip to a little cabin in Yosemite. Our cabin was in a small town called Wawona, which is just barely inside the park, but still about an hour drive from the valley floor. I had never been to Yosemite before and Shawn had only been long ago during a snowy road trip. We expected snow on our trip, as it had snowed the previous weekend, but there was hardly any, even in the highest elevations. Though it was cold in the evening, it was quite warm in the sun during the day and not terribly wintery at all.

We left early Saturday morning and arrived just after noon. We were able to get into our cabin early so we unpacked and explored the area a bit before heading down to the valley. We walked down to a creek not far from the cabin and spotted some deer snacking on the undergrowth. There wasn’t anyone around and it was a relief to be in the quiet and calm. It felt luxurious being able to just walk aimlessly in the woods and sit and listen to the water rush by. When I dream of living in the woods, it feels something like these moments. In the city I am always longing for quiet, always wishing for access to nature. We live squarely in the middle of a sprawling city though and it’s always a trek even to the closest semi-wild places. Even then, it’s sometimes hard for me to filter out the noise of other humans and just be present in my own space.

We ventured down into the Yosemite valley not much later in the day. It is truly one of the most magnificent places I’ve visited. Stunning views and rock formations in every direction. Yet the little bit of time we spent alone, exploring in Wawona, was something I treasure dearly. For awhile, walking in the trees next to the river, there was no sign that people had ever touched the place, no buildings or noises or trail. It takes a bit more work to escape such things in the valley, though it is certainly possible, as much of the park goes unexplored. I look forward to a time where we will be able to venture even further into the wilderness.

I’ll be sharing more photos from our trip over the next week. Though our trip to the Sequoia national park and even our adventures in New Zealand have been amazing, this trip was really special in a different way. It left us both longing to go back to such a magical place and stay as long as we could. Since our return, we’ve been watching the Ken Burns’ documentary series on National Parks and researching various hikes we can go on so we have something to look forward to. There is something magnetic about such a stunning wilderness that touches something deep inside of you and calls you back.