Category Archives: Place
FREE RANGE: FOOD, NATURE, PLACE, AND MORE
Conflict on the half-shell in mellow Marin
“… most ranchers and farmers in the West care as much for the health of their land, air, and water as any member of the Sierra Club.” (Mark Dowie) This was the second September in a row in which we … Continue reading
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Tagged Cowgirl Creamery, environmentalism, Marin County, Mark Dowie, national parks, nature, oysters, Point Reyes National Seashore
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Christian Althaus and the gift of perspective
For all of my whingeing about the difficulties of adjusting to life in Texas, even after thirty years here, I know I’ve had it pretty easy, especially compared to the nineteenth-century settlers who endured almost unimaginable hardships while trying to … Continue reading
Look out of any window
Last week we spent several days at the Chisos Mountains Lodge, in Big Bend National Park, with our friends Bruce and Margaret Bennett and Peter and Kay Willcox. (Longtime readers may recall that Bruce was my hiking buddy on coast-to-coast … Continue reading
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Tagged Big Bend National Park, birds, Chihuahuan desert, Chisos Mountains, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Reality TV, West Texas
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The Alliance conference: our first time in the Second City
The Windy City. Hog Butcher for the World. City of the Big Shoulders. The Second City. Mrs. O’Leary’s cow and Harry Caray’s “Holy cow!” Richard Daley and Mike Ditka. Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Frank Lloyd Wright and Al Capone. … Continue reading
Field notes from Madroño Ranch: bison and birds
This is a bird-and-bison-intensive kitchen sink of a blog post; even Martin’s most focused editorial ministrations will be of no avail in trying to flush out some kind of narrative thread. To lend it at least an illusion of coherence, … Continue reading
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Tagged birds, bison, fly-fishing, Madroño Ranch, Thunder Heart Bison, Tink Pinkard
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The mythical West: John Wesley Powell and the limits of individualism
In reflecting on some of the issues Heather raised in her recent post on billboards and property rights, I’ve found myself forced to the conclusion that the American West doesn’t really exist, and never did. Oh, I don’t deny the … Continue reading
Down home and out of place: East Side blues
As regular readers of this blog know, we believe firmly in the pleasures—and, even more, the importance—of cultivating the kind of deep knowledge of people and landmarks and events, present and past, that only comes with long residence in a … Continue reading
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Tagged Antone's, Austin, blues, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Little Elmore Reed Blues Band, maps, sense of place, TC's Lounge, Texas music
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The Trans-Pecos: fried chicken and freshwater sharks
West Texas has been much on my mind recently, in part because Heather and I drove down to San Marcos a couple of weeks ago for a panel discussion marking the opening of an exhibition entitled Big Bend: Land of … Continue reading
Maps and mobility: living in, not on, the land
I was surprised, while reading Rebecca Solnit’s fascinating Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, to realize that I probably know substantially more about the history of Texas than I do about the history of my native San Francisco. Of course, … Continue reading
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Tagged Bay Area, Frederick Jackson Turner, frontier, home, maps, Rebecca Solnit, San Francisco, sense of place, Texas State Historical Association
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These boots were made for blogging
Owen Wister and Roy Rogers, Audie Murphy, John Wayne, and a powerful pull. All of which only partially explains why I just bought myself a pair of a certain professional football team based in Dallas. Moreover, my feet are famous … Continue reading
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Tagged Audie Murphy, boots, Clint Eastwood, cowboys, Dallas Cowboys, England, Gary Cooper, Gene Autry, John Wayne, Nudie's, Owen Wister, Roy Rogers, sense of place, Tom Mix, Zane Grey
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