Summer Soapbox

OK, here we go. I’m stepping up to my overturned soapbox in this terribly crowded corner of the internet. I’m only 5’10” and I might have eight followers on this platform…so I should probably be standing on top of a car in order to really capture anyone’s attention. Instead, I’ll just share some recent comics and consider that my “thing.” You are headed back in time as you read, but each comic has a summary from it’s original post on my blog to keep you grounded. Thanks for taking a look and I hope that you are finding ways of your own to talk about things that matter.

7.29 - Melanie loves scrolling through the MSN "news" feed on a discarded iPhone as much as the next mustelid, but it IS a little alarming when a headline proclaims your imminent demise! Since the main threat to wolverines as an endangered species is probably the loss of late-season snowpack related to climate change, we were probably not moving the needle much on that one regardless. Now the endangered sage grouse or spotted owls on the other hand...they probably ARE at a greater risk since land development and logging are a more immediate threat that could change quickly. Nothing really positive in that, but you see what I mean. GRRR!

7.22 - I won't say this week's comics was totally prescient, but the temperatures were definitely headed up and yes indeed the lightning from last week had started a few small fires in parts of the surrounding wilderness. Yesterday was nice enough (although 100+ degrees), but the smoke plumed up in the late afternoon...and dropped like a ton of bricks into the lower lying valleys (like ours) overnight. The mid-summer smoke season has now arrived. Definitely NOT my favorite time of year!

7.15 - At least from the standpoint of the wolverines that populate this comic strip, a new standard for greed and profiteering -- an the expense of any remaining "greatness" that this country holds -- has been reached by this administration. A bit of a sticky wicket too, because the pushback in the courts could potentially do more harm than good. In 1995 the court upheld the definition of "harm" as it currently stands, but today's more conservative court might see fit to go against precedent and make an eventually unraveling of this purely "presidential" rule change harder to undo. Onward and...

6/24-7/8 - Immediately following an AMAZING week in Denali National Park (see the next comic), I took a road trip from Seattle to Los Angeles in order to fully immerse in the second phase of summer - my MFA residency session with Vermont College of Fine Art (at CalArts.) Thanks in large part to the WIFI that is available at State Park campgrounds in OR and CA, the comics didn't skip a beat and Thor got his chance to “soapbox" as well.

6/17 - Pretty much IMMEDIATELY after the last day of school, I finished packing and headed to Alaska. My wife was already one day ahead of me due to work/meeting needs, so I drove to Seattle and then met her in Fairbanks...

...where given our proximity to the summer solstice, THIS is what it looked like at 1:30am when I landed at the airport. It was darker when I took off from Seattle at 10pm then it was when I landed :)

This was our view of the north face of Denali from our little slice of Camp Denali...

...and this was our AMAZING cabin for the duration of our visit.

A quick note of thanks and appreciation to Tom, Sony, Dave and Anne - the friends with whom we shared this adventure, and also to Lili (above) and to ALL of our amazing guides and hosts for each and every day that we were in the park.

And lastly - many thanks to my wife, Sarah - who makes ALL of these visits and adventures decidedly more and never less. It was AMAZING walking the tundra and spending time on Camp Ridge with you. This photo is one of my favorites ever! And those endless slopes of the Alaska Range...GRRR!