I’ve found a new term that describes me and my current obsession pretty well: Ecopoet. This is from Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. I’m nearly done with the set, and I’ll write about the work when I’m done, but in the third book he introduces the term ecopoet. Like a poet does with words, an ecopoet takes bits and pieces of ecology and turns them into something beautiful. Just as there are many types of poems, an ecopoet can create many sorts of things. Gardens. Landscaping. Buildings. And not just plants, but animals are included in the mix as well. A combination of Little House on the Prairie and art. The Art of the Kitchen Garden has some nice photos illustrating the point, though these are more on the side of art than I picture things. For me, living in my apartment of concrete on asphalt, food has been my creation. I grew what I could in pots (tomatoes, basil, oregano), but I have this overwhelming need to dig in the dirt, to nuture living things, and to use them to make other things. My lease expires late this spring, and so I’ll find a place in town with a large enough yard to get me going for now. Eventually, though, I’d love country land to play in. Mike Gunderloy, a fellow blogger that I mention more than most, has an array of pages devoted to his small farm. There, look in the “around the farm” section in the navigation bar on the left.

I’m now in Pueblo, Colorado. My belly is full from the best stack of enchiladas I’ve had in a long time, courtesy of The Cactus Flower. Yeah… I said stack. The best way to prepare (and consume) enchiladas is stacked flat like pancakes rather than rolled and placed side-to-side. Don’t forget the eggs over easy on top! This trip has been wildly successful. Other than knowing there were enchiladas waiting for me, I wasn’t looking forward to this trip much. But, the work could not have been better. Of course, I’ve got a day and a half to go, all at a new place, so I’m not out of the woods yet. Enchilada links: a recipe, a restaurant, and an article on art museums that mentions them in passing.

I’m staying at a Hampton Inn in Colorado Springs. Hanging above my bed is a signed original print from one of my favorite artists, Socorro resident Doug West. You couldn’t have suprised me more with a da Vinci. Here’s many more on-line West prints. They are silk-screening at its best. His gallery and studio is on the plaza in Socorro, and is open to the public. There are usually several pieces in various stages of completion lying about.

Apathy has a wonderful ASCII art weblog portal at the bottom of each page. January 17th’s the Cheshire cat, topping off more links on Lewis Carroll than you could ever use.

Kestrel’s Nest is now Bobby Approved for accessibility for peole with disabilities. Thanks to Brig at Eatonweb for pointing to wetlog who pointed this out.

I’m leaving tomorrow for a week-long work-related trip to southern Colorado. Colorado Srings and Pueblo, to be exact. I’ll have access while I’m gone, but my posts probably won’t be as verbose and certainly won’t be as frequent this week. Thanks for reading!

Today’s installment of “Movies Worth Watching” takes us to Go!, a new video release directed by Doug Liman (Swingers). Go begins like a hip teen comedy, so much so that I almost gave up on it after a few minutes. After a quick dive into some fairly dark territory, though, I kept up with it. The movie tells a series of overlapping stories told from three different points of view. The stories are presented sequentially, so we see some of the same scenes more than once as the characters converge here and there. The first story ended on a similar note to the first story in Run Lola Run (my favorite film of last year), and when the events began right back at the beginning, I wondered if I was watching an American knock-off. When the cameras focused on a new main character, though, I finally figured out how this movie was structured. I didn’t realize this while I was watching, but the lead actress in Go! also played a main character in Exotica , which I talked about a few days ago.

Two cooking adventures last night. First, I made some sourdough pitas. They looked just right up through baking, puffing up in the oven and the whole bit. But when they were done, they were very, very crispy. I thought they’d soften up by letting them cool wrapped in a warm damp towel, but they stayed very, very crispy. They’ve got a nice taste to them, but they’re more fragile than a taco shell. The second adventure was much more successful. I made some spinach & chicken stuffed manicotti, but instead of chicken I used eggplant. I had no idea at all if this would work (I made up the recipe as I went), but I knew for it to work at all, I’d need thin firm strips of eggplant. I did this by peeling one and slicing it 1/3 inch think. I salted the slices and stacked them in a colander, alternating layers of slices with paper towels. I placed a weight on top (my ceramic crockof sourdough starter) and pressed them for about 6 hours. I took these slices, brushed them with olive oil, and roasted them under the broiler for about 5 minutes to a side, until they were just starting to brown. I then julienned the slices, using a non-serrated knife. The result was a supremely tasteful dish. I used mozzarella and ricotta that I made myself as well. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to lunch! If you want the recipe, send me an email.

I guess they didn’t like what they saw. Earlier today, webloggers were pointing to stories on David Letterman’s suprise announcement that he was to have a angiogram, an announcement he made while interviewing Regis for a show to be aired tonight. Now, he’s recovering from an emergency quintuple bypass. Get well soon, David Letterman! Back in the day (1992 or so), I was an active participant in the usenet group alt.shenanigans. Back then it was an outlet for culture jammers and the like, and one thing we did was mail many coconuts to Letterman. It turns out than you can afix stamps to the outside of a coconut, write an address on it, and just drop it in a mailbox. I have no idea how many were sent that week (I sent three), but Letterman inserted into one of his top ten lists that next week “What’s with all the coconuts?” Perhaps now would be a good time to send him a get well coconut or two. On a complete side note, while reading the alt.shenanigans FAQ, circa 1996, I see that Jorn Barger of Robot Wisdom is listed in the credits. Any other shenanigan folks in the weblog community?

Tommasi Pinot Grigio Le Rosse: I don’t yet know a whole lot about wines, but I like Pinot Grigio, and this in particular was very good. And only $10 a bottle!