a fish story....

I wanted to share my first rather successful fishing trip last weekend in the foothills of the Eastern Sierras with the Boy Scouts.it wasn't an uber-survivalist camping trip - the creek was just stocked last thursday and googling revealed that the powerbait I brought probably was the best choice for attracting the trout. still, for me it was an adventure.

I braved the weeds and mud and cold water to search out nice holes where I might find a large hungry rainbow. to catch a fish, think like a fish. and sure enough, I got one! he was just waiting for me to throw my line out it seemed. I was so excited and now that he was hooked, a whole new procedure began. I went and got a bucket to keep him alive in (later I find out a gill line would have been better). then the delicate process of removing the hook from the slippery guy commenced. I held him gently, his face next to mine as I figured how best to get that golden piercing out of his mouth. he looked at me with pleading eyes as if to say "please don't hurt me". with my hemostat I swiftly and confidently grabbed the hook down his throat, pushed it down so as to disengage, and quickly pulled it out. I released him into the bucket. we were both relieved I think. kinda like pulling out a splinter. he was still doomed, however. he swam around and poked his head up to look at me. it's an odd sensation to be looking at an animal and think "I'm going to kill you and eat you". so yes, there was a bit of empathy there. but not enough for me to let him go. I was determined to do the whole fishing experience. which of course includes the "cleaning" (which more realistically is called "gutting"). but before that, I went and did a little more fishing, now that I had gotten the hang of it (or the time and place were right - however you wish to define the destiny of your skills). sure enough, at a different secluded spot, I cast and quickly caught another trout - this one a little smaller, but still in the eatable range. since by this time my first fish was not doing too well (upside down but gills still moving), I figured it was time to face the music and commence with the butchering.

I read how to clean a fish on the Internet, but words don't always get the whole lesson across. it got bloody. two knives sticky with blood. not enough water to wash things with. gross guts to be ripped out by hand. someone challenged us to eat the beating heart. my knife had a hard time cutting off the head and tail. manly, animalistic grunts usually heard in the gym helped out with getting over that hurdle. and then the deed was done. the boys scaled the fishes (not really neccessary 'cause we weren't going to eat the skin anyway and I put them on ice. the last and biggest fish I "cleaned" was a female that another boy had caught.
we knew it was female because of the little orange eggs pulled out of her.

man (and nature for that matter) can seem pretty cruel. but it is what it is and its good to occasionally face the reality of life and death. others die that we may live; something we distance ourselves from when we buy plastic wrapped packages of meat or drive-thru filet-o-fish sandwiches. last weekend we ate what we caught... and that wild fish became a part of me and my spirit.


references:
how to clean and fillet fish

graffiti...

a flickr comment on this pic above that I took a while ago (raw toast coming soon!) got me started on a new project exploring the artistry of graffiti. I looked at the commenter's stuff and found some interesting shots like this:

and this:

which led me to wander to places like this flickr freight train graffiti set (or this one or this and this -- thx guys). there's some talent out there busy dopin' up the drab canvases of boring soCal infrastructure. public art for us all to emote upon. hey, I appreciate the work y'all are doing. I'm gonna hunt down some pieces myself and post soon. BTW here's a pic I took quite a while ago that still is kinda fun:


of course that's nothing compared to the beauty of pieces like this:
(thx kezam)
anyway, I understand why people call it vandalism... it sux when nice places are defaced. on the other hand there's a lot of creative juice bursting to be expressed, and it's all temporary anyway. kids... ya gotta love 'em!

musical postery

first selection for today is
"Invisible Ink" by Aimee Mann (from "Lost In Space"). I like her wordplay, her voice (good range, slight accent - Toronto?) and simple clean guitar strumming (reminds me of Jimmy Page on acoustic actually):

There comes a time when you swim or sink
So I jumped in the drink
Cuz I couldn't make myself clear

Maybe I wrote in invisible ink
Oh I've tried to think
How I could have made it appear

But another illlustration is wasted
Cuz the results are the same
I feel like a ghost who's trying to move your hands
over some ouija board in the hopes I can spell out my name

What some take for magic at first glance
Is just sleight of hand depending on what you believe
Something gets lost when you translate
It's hard to keep straight
Perspective is everything

And I know now which is which and what angle I oughta look at it from
I suppose I should be happy to be misread-
Better be that than some of the other things I have become

Invisible Ink

But nobody wants to hear this tale
The plot is clichéd, the jokes are stale
And baby we've all heard it all before
Oh I could get specific but
Nobody needs a catalog
With details of love I can't sell anymore

And aside from that, this chain of reaction,
baby, is losing a link
Though I'd hope you'd know what I tried to tell you
And if you don't I could draw you a picture in invisible ink

But nobody wants to hear this tale
The plot is clichéd, the jokes are stale
And baby we've all heard it all before
Oh I could get specific but
Nobody needs a catalog
With details of love I can't sell anymore...

it's on my ipod and I like to hear it now and again. also in my eclectic set today are a couple songs I don't have (but have heard recently:

Dead or Alive in '85 - "You Spin Me Round" like a record baby right, round round! music to dance or workout by :)

lastly we have Marshall Crenshaw, former faux Beatle in "Someday, Someway"... just another catchy little old power pop tune I heard playing at BevMo.

thanks for reading, maybe I'll talk about my weekend backpacking trip next...

meditation news...

yesterday I was listening to fox news while changing in the gym locker room. surprisingly, a guy was being interviewed about meditation (TM I think).
"a little hippy-dippy for the faux", I thought. what are these guys up to? my google search on the subject doesn't pick up anything on the story (as of today), but I noticed it does find a fairly large number (197,000) of results linking "fox news" and meditation. is this some kind of brainwashing being attempted? or something else?...

anyway, the interviewer asked him "do you think a group of people sitting around a table meditating can will the world (emphasis mine) into a better place?". this is a good question and deserves a good answer, but the dude ducked it with something like "meditation generates positivity which gets reflected in the participants' other social interactions". ok, so that's nice, acceptable and harmless, but it dodges the question about the possible full power of meditation. (refer to my previous post about being players in our own play.) if indeed we are the actor and playwright of our world and can tap into some fairly unknown physical power source like Jen speaks of -- that's big stuff. can focused mental intention magically make things real? what happens to causality? if you imagine something will happen and it then happens -- what made you want it to happen? ok, thats enuf mind bending for now. if you want more, try reading these best sellers: "The Secret" or "Law of Attraction". and if that's too much of an infomercial, try boning up on what this guru said a hundred years ago. as I was saying, this is not the blog you are looking for. you can go about your business. move along. :)