Going Native? - Pendleton and Opening Ceremony

There's a lot good to say about Pendleton Woolen Mills. They're a family owned company and their clothes are made in the U.S.A. Their distinct styles and patterns are easily recognized. If you've own a Pendleton garment, you know that their stuff is very well made. As a vegan, I don't buy wool products, but I have a few old Pendleton shirts and flannels that I really like. I doubt that a woolen mill will ever make a cotton or synthetic line, but we vegans can dream, right Pendleton?

In any case, Pendleton has recently done some interesting collaborations with Levis and with Opening Ceremony, both of which accentuate Pendleton's famous Native American style prints. Some of it looks pretty cool, some is a little too busy for my taste.  Looking at these lines, particularly the Opening Ceremony collaboration, I started wondering if the patterns were authentically Native American or if Native American people had any stake in clothes designed to express or imitate their traditional patterns. Put a different way, I wondered if is it problematic to have a major purveyor of a style modeled upon Native American culture designing clothes and accessories for a market (rich hipsters) that excludes many Native Americans?

I started researching Pendleton's relationship with Native Americans and I found a couple of great articles on the Pendleton collaborations by Native American scholars who study Native American fashions. Here are their posts - Native Appropriations' piece "Let's Talk About Pendleton" and Beyond Buckskin's "Pay No Attention to the Man Beneath the Indian Blanket" both acknowledge that the relationship between Pendleton and Native Americans is traditionally positive, but they find it problematic when Pendleton uses Native American designs to produce very high-end fashions marketed to non-Native people and unaffordable to many Native Americans. Read their posts. Neither is what I would call radical - both are very thoughtful and revealing.

A Quieter Canyon

The National Park Service has an interesting plan to increase flights over the Grand Canyon (that right, increase flights), while making the Canyon quieter overall. The plan calls for an end to non-tourist flights over the Canyon and the implementation of noise reducing technologies on low flying aircraft over the next ten years. Read more details here.

This is just another chapter in the ongoing saga in our National Parks' quest to balance recreation and conservation. Animals will certainly benefit from the quieter, more natural environment and hikers, who have often griped about the intrusion of noisy aircraft into their backcountry solitude, will appreciate it too.

Of course, the air tour companies and their lobbyists are upset. Ask the greedy bastards to make less noise with their aircraft and they start making more noise with their mouths. They're complaining about regulation, saying that it is unfair and will negatively affect their profits. This A.P. article cites the president of the United States Air Tours Association here:

"Steve Bassett, president of the United States Air Tour Association, said setting the goal at more than 50 percent is "unconscionable" and would drive the industry out of business."

Interestingly enough, a search for the United States Air Tour Association doesn't find a website for the USATA. The first link is a law suit they filed against the FAA, in which the court rejected the USATA's case. You should read the outlandish stuff they claim, such as their assertion that only half the Grand Canyon's visitors see the Canyon on foot. 

If air tours lose some money because of this noise regulation, too bad. The way I see it, they're lucky to make a profit off of a National Park in the first place. It's not just their land, it's ours. Parks should be run in such a way as to make them as pleasurable as possible for the largest number of people while keeping a close eye on the environmental impacts of recreation; those who wish to profit off parks do so at their own risk, knowing that environmental and recreational regulations will occur differently than with private land. They have no greater claim to the Grand Canyon skies than the people and animals on the ground.

I've taken a helicopter tour of the Canyon and it was terrific, but it wouldn't be any worse in a quieter helicopter.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

This weekend we headed out to L.A. to see one of our favorite bands, Les Savy Fav, play at the Echoplex. If you're not familiar with Les Savy Fav, check them out on Youtube and you'll see why we'd drive all the way from Phoenix to see them. It was terrific.

The next day, on the suggestion of a friend, we visited the Museum of Jurassic Technology. It's in Culver City. Housed in an unassuming building, the museum displays artistic oddities and far out concepts of art, science, and philosophy. My two favorite exhibits were the collection of superstitions called "Tell the Bees: Belief, Knowledge, and Hypersymbolic Cognition: An exhibit of pre-scientific cures and remedies" and Micromosaics of Harold "Henry" Dalton.  From the "Tell the Bees" exhibit I learned what sin eating was and how people used to salt and burn their lost teeth. Really fascinating.

This is from the Harold Dalton exhibit. Dalton made works of mosaic-like art so tiny you need a microscope to see them. They have a room with two rows of microscopes set up and you need to look through the microscope to see the artwork. There were lots of other cool exhibits too and it didn't take too long to see everything if you didn't let yourself get overwhelmed with reading.

Birds and Animals of Oak Creek Canyon and Northern Arizona

Oak Creek Canyon is located near Flagstaff and Sedona, Arizona. If you're not familiar with Arizona's different climate zones, you might be surprised to learn that it's not all desert nor all hot. Areas of higher elevation, such as areas on or above the Mogollon Rim (the edge of the Colorado Plateau) are much cooler, temperate zones that host lots of flora and fauna familiar to folks from cooler climates. Some areas even get lots of snow!

This nifty postcard includes a key to identifying the birds and animals on the back:

Bat Murder

The U.S. has recently encountered mysterious instances of animals, mostly birds, dying together in huge numbers. No one knows what killed the birds. These incidents have occurred primarily in the southern States.

Here in Arizona we've seen the unfortunate wildlife deaths, too, but we know the cause - it's the work of assholes. For example, a little while back some piece of shit name Edwin Jess in Bullhead City, AZ murdered a great blue heron with a golf club. He just walked up to it and smashed it with the club for no reason. He was golfing and the bird had the audacity to sit near some water on the course, a mistake it paid for with its life. The bastard didn't really even get in trouble.

The newest chapter in Arizona's moron-assault on our animal population is particularly sad. Thousands of bats have made Tucson's man-made structures, like bridges, their homes. Most of these bats are Mexican free-tale bats. Each one of these little bats is about as big as your thumb and weighs 13 grams. They eat tons of insects and pests, like mosquitoes, ironically repaying us for dropping our concrete world down on their desert. Many Tucsonans love the bats. We've gone down to the bridges at dusk to watch thousands of bats pour out and other people are often there too, watching as they drop down, swarm under the bridge, and then shoot off into the night. It's pretty impressive.

However, last month some scumbag killed 80 bats with a BB gun. Just shot them while they were sleeping under the bridge. AZ Game and Fish were offering a $750 reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer. An anonymous donor has upped the stakes, adding an addition $1000 to the reward. Even if the killer isn't caught, this is terrific news. It's important for the community - local, state, and regional - to send the message that we will not tolerate reckless losers killing our wildlife. If law enforcement understands that we care about these crimes, and that leniency will anger and disrespect the community, perhaps we will see more prosecutions and fewer instances of wildlife destruction. If we can nurture this mentality and extend it to Mexican wolves and other controversial species, then we'll really see an improvement in conservation efforts; apathy kills as many animals as bullets.

If you have information about the bat murder, here's what you can do:
Per AZGFD -"Individuals with information should call 1-800-352-0700, anonymously if need be, and reference OGT# 11-000017. Calls will be taken 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Information may also be provided through www.azgfd.gov/thief."

Canyon Lake/Boulder Canyon Trail

Canyon Lake is a man-made lake contained in what used to be a canyon west of Phoenix. It's not hard to get there. Just follow the Apache Trail (or AZ Route 88) past Apache Junction and past Lost Dutchman State Park. It's a windy road that snakes through some of the most beautiful country in the Phoenix area.

Across the street from Canyon Lake is the trailhead for the Boulder Canyon trail. The trail leads you into the Superstition Wilderness and all the amazing things those mountains have to offer. Here are some photos from the Boulder Canyon Trail.



The large, tan rock formation that dominates the photograph is called Battleship Mountain. The formation that looks like a mountain split in two behind and to the left of Battleship Mountain is The Narrows. It's at the end of LeBarge Canyon and the subject of my previous blog post!

Ever wonder why you see these colors and patterns on Southwestern pottery or art? Wait until sundown and look at the horizon.

The Narrows

The Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix are incredible. From the spectacular views awarded to those who climb up Siphon Draw to the Flatiron, to the ubiquitous Weaver's Needle, to the many petroglyphs near Hieroglyphics Spring, the Superstitions are full of amazing natural wonders that in other states would make National Park status in a second. In fact, the Supes are part of Tonto National Forest and the much of the mountains are contained in the Superstition National Wilderness.

Last week me and a friend went for a quick overnight trip into the Superstitions. We originally intended to go to Reavis Falls, but the road was closed so we opted for the Boulder Canyon Trail. Our plans were pretty tentative - just hike in and find a good spot to camp - but we ran into a couple of helpful older gentlemen who steered us to a place called "The Narrows." The Narrows is really an amazing canyon cut through a mountain in an "S" shape. To get there, you need to slog up a wash for a couple miles. Jumping from boulder to boulder with a heavy pack puts your thighs muscles and balance to the test, but it would be a realistic, if ambitious, day hike. Difficulty aside, the reward is amazing. There's a big pool with a little beach in a beautiful canyon. We pitched our tents in a corner of the canyon under the shelter of a tree. Here are some photos I took around the The Narrows. More here on Flickr.

The color contrasts are caused by algae and leaf debris in the water.

You can see the scale of the canyon walls here. Look the lower left-hand third of the photo. That really little looking fellow is my buddy Chris. Those walls are really high.

Campfire Photography

I almost always lug a digital SLR camera with me when I go backpacking. I'll sacrifice other items, like a pillow, extra clothes, or a backpacking chair, to have my camera with me. I'm not a terrific photographer and my camera isn't anything to write home about; it's an older Nikon D50 with an aftermarket Tamron lens, best a grad student stipend can buy. There's probably a credit-card-thin point and shoot camera out there capable of producing great results in the right hands, but I like the control I get with the SLR.

I spent a couple of days out in the desert this week and I'll share some more photos from that hike later, but first I thought I'd put up some campfire shots. I love the light you get from a campfire and I've taken night photos by campfire light before, but the other night I decided to turn the camera on the fire itself. I thought some of the results were worth sharing, so here they are...





P.S. - If you click on the photos it will take you to Flickr. Click on the little magnifying glass icon on the upper right between the "Newer" and "Older" arrows. That will take you to the lightbox. Kind of a lot of work, I know, but these look better viewed there!

Arizona Sales Tax Token

As a New Englander, it cracks me up when Arizonans complain about taxes. Not only are Arizona's taxes low, they're regressive and misplaced. While there is a tax on food and clothing, there is no tax on mining machinery, salon and spa treatments, donations to private schools, and country club memberships. Like any civic minded community, Arizonans realize that it's better to have nearly the lowest per-student-spending in the country than to inconvenience Cadillac driving Snowturds from Michigan.

Stupid as our state taxes might be managed today, impecunious numismatists can find something interesting in the state's tax history. Tax tokens were common in many states in the 1930's when sales taxes really began to come into play across America. My brother, a very knowledgeable coin collector, gave me this on when I went home for Christmas.  Back then state governments looking to raise revenue from sales taxes faced a problem with the currency. 80 years ago you could actually buy things for a few cents. If the sales tax was 3% and something cost only 10 cents, the merchant couldn't give appropriate change. The solution was to charge the purchaser and extra cent and give them change in tax tokens redeemable during future purchases. Each token was worth 10% of 1 cent, or 1/1000 of a dollar. All those fractions of all those pennies added up for the states that used them, but people didn't really like carrying extra coins and doing all that math, so the tax tokens were soon discontinued. They were coins minted at the state level worth less than a penny. They were fairly common and are still easy to find today. Tax tokens even have their own collectors' society, the American Tax Token Society.

Zoom-Ins!

Happy New Year! I know I'm 25 hours late, but that's about my speed lately. Haven't been posting too much lately. I've been really overwhelmed with work. Also, we moved from Tucson to Glendale, AZ, which is sort of like leaving the Smithsonian Institute to go sit in your dentist's waiting room. Oh, and my scanner is broken. I have a bunch of mint shit to share, but no way to get it from by desk to my desktop. I'll figure it out soon.

In the meantime, check out this video from Internet Archive. The Goddard Space Flight Center* has many of these.They use satellites and computer imaging to zoom from space to various locations of Earth. This one goes to Sabino Canyon in Tucson. Check them out. There's like to be one highlighting your city. They're pretty cool.

*Side note - The Goddard Space Flight Center is named after Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard, a Worcesterite and son of central Massachusetts like yours truly. He is considered the father of modern rocketry.