Don't look north

We had planned to be in Colorado this past weekend, with a goal to be in Ouray for the Ice Festival. I’ve never been but Molly has been a regular attendee in the last few years and has been raving about it: the program consists of ice climbing clinics by day and competitions by night, and of talks given by climbing and moutaineering celebrities. Unfortunately, Omicron and the prospect of spending extended time indoors with people coming from all over the country didn’t make for espcially inviting cicumstances.

Instead, we decided to make it a second three-day week-end in a row and headed to Big Sur. In 15 years of living in the Bay Area, I had somehow never stopped by Bixby Bridge. By the time we got there, it looked abolutely glorious under the California winter sun:

The Bixby bridge

And about 36 hours later, it looked like this:

The Bixby bridge surrounded by fire
Credit: Nic Coury / AP (source)

We learned of the fire as we had just finished watching Don’t Look Up, which made for an eerie few minutes as we were transitioning back into the real world. The movie ridicules the postures of people —politicians, journalists, business people and, ultimately, folks from all walks of life— when confronted with a predictible tragedy.

The script is rumored to have been written in 2019 but it’s undoubtedly been reworked in light of the last two years of pandemic. Certain scenes triggered feelings of acute cringe for me because of how recent that scar tissue is (you could argue the wound remains open). The movie lacks subtletly in its delivery, but its depiction of corrupt, incompetent people being trusted with the utmost responsibilty is spot-on. It’s an apt blend of Idiocracy and Deep Impact, heavily influenced by the Trump presidency.

The plot also touches to a recurring argument about global warming: that looming disasters should only be dealt with at the condition that addressing them registers as a positive outcome for the economy. That, in due time, any time now, supply and demand will naturally rule in favor of the good side. And if that’s the case, why even bother building a moral sense that would assist in making policy decisions?

The fire ended up having only moderate impact on us — we were staying in Cambria, far enough south that the smoke didn’t reach us. We’d already driven through the section of Route 1 that was closed down — just a handful of hours ahead of the fire starting. Everything was fine, we just had to avoid looking north.

Seals on the beach at sunset The Big Sur coast, looking south from Nepenthe Sunset over the Pacific ocean, seen through the leaves of a tree

Weekly Log

We skipped town last weekend as a friend was visiting from London and asked to spend some time in Marin county. We rented a house in Monte Rio, an area which I know well thanks to the Jonathan Pon memorial ride, which I used to do every year pre-pandemic. It’s a lovely region and the couple of hikes we did over the weekend were drop dead gorgeous: we took a stroll by Goat Rock Beach and did a 4.5 mile hike in Pomo Canyon trail the next day.

The Pacific coast, south of Jenner Woods along Red Hill trail

Also, this photo could totally be an album cover for an indie synth pop duo from 2008, back when people were always cold:

We are rockstars

I was planning to ride my bike over that weekend and unfortunately forgot to pack in a pretty crucial item: my front wheel, which was left behind in San Francisco after we loaded the car. This was kinda sad as the weather was clement and Wildflour Bread made a perfect destination from Monte Rio. Either way, I still put myself on morning scone-getting duty. And sticky bun. And fougasse as well. Everything was thoroughly devoured.

Pastries from Wildflour Bread

I finally made a dent in my reading backlog: I went through the first two volumes of Bolchoï Arena. The graphic novel is somewhat remindful of eXistenZ, as it revisits the age-old theme of the boundary between real and virtual worlds. Volume 3 just came out and I placed an order right after finishing my reading. I also read the Atlantic’s issue on the January 6 attacks, which are presented as a blueprint for a massive upcoming assault from Republicans on US democracy.

At every level, it seems the GOP is lost in its own separate world and untethered from reality: the conspiracy theories are layering over one another, endlessly. But — and this is a pretty major but — the death cultists are purging the party from leaders who don’t support the Big Lie, and also organizing in many state-level election boards where they change the rules of how ballots are certified. An unlikely break from the madness this week was Trump himself calling his fans to get a Covid vaccine booster – a pragmatic move when a large majority of people who die of Covid every day are leaning red. It’s a pandemic is the unvaccinated and the unvaccinated vote donate to Trump.

Two days after asking Americans to honor the legacy of MLK (tweet), Sinema voted against changing the filibuster rules, which would in turn allow passing stronger voting rights at the federal level. The irony was not lost on anyone, not the least of which on MLK himself.