This weekend, I
> ambled through the U.C. Davis' Whole Earth Festival. Every year, the festival organizers aim to increase environmental and social awareness through education, food, music and art. There were vendors selling organic food, hemp clothing, tie-dyed clothing, the usual arts and crafts found at festivals everywhere and henna body art. Made keenly aware of my own materialism, I didn't buy anything.
I was most impressed with the geodesic domes and the concept of community composting, which was rigidly enforced through the removal of all trash and recycling receptacles from the vicinity.
I was least impressed with the man at the tent providing information about local trail preservation efforts. I glanced at some of the brochures he had on display, but didn't take any of the literature. As we moved on to the next tent, he said, "If you don't stop to ask questions, you'll never learn anything. Just keep walking. It's the mindless twenty-first century." I don't know what he was hoping to accomplish with his remarks, but if he was hoping to win me over with his charm, it didn't work. It's not what he said (for I agree with him). It's the way he said it.
> annoyed strangers and acquaintances alike with my constant sniffling and bouts of sneezing. My allergies were at their worst on Friday and Saturday and were only slightly better on Sunday. They finally began to let up in a noticeable way after I used an over-the-counter nasal spray that I purchased from Costco during a medicine run last night. I decided to stop buying everything in 12-dose quantities where the pills are individually sealed and separated in a perforated field of plastic and foil and packaged in a box one-hundred times the size of the product it contains. From now on, I'm buying my allergy medication in bulk.
> celebrated Mother's Day with my mom the day before Mother's Day. Since my dad planned to treat her to a dinner for two on the actual day, the family dinner was moved a day ahead. We had Chinese food, which is the default food for almost all family occasions. Every birthday, anniversary and holiday has been celebrated with Chinese food at least once. Nothing says Christmas, Thanksgiving or St. Patrick's Day like a plate of chow fun and bowl of steamed rice.
> bought a dozen easy-to-install solar lamps for the backyard. They were on sale and the hardware store was also having a special tax-free weekend event, so I snapped them up. When fully charged, each light provides fifteen hours of white LED goodness in a bronze-colored fixture. The best part is that they are wireless, which gives the yard an unusually clean look and makes future relocations easy. I never imagined myself being one of "those people" with outdoor lighting, but now that I am, I feel inclined to go all in and buy a set of tiki lamps, a flock of plastic flamingoes and a horde of lawn gnomes.
> watched The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (TGtBatU) on DVD. Within the past two months, I've seen the three spaghetti westerns that make up Sergio Leone's unofficial trilogy featuring The Man With No Name played by Clint Eastwood. (The first two in the trilogy are A Fistful of Dollars and A Few Dollars More.) After watching them, I can confidently say that nobody squints better than Clint. I've always been a big Eastwood fan, but this most recent viewing also made me a fan of Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach and Ennio Morricone. Van Cleef played Angel Eyes (or The Bad) in TGtBatU and Colonel Mortimer in A Few Dollars More. Wallach played Tuco (or The Ugly) in TGtBatU. Now I'm curious to see his performance in The Magnificent Seven. Morricone composed the music for all three films.
Watching Leone's movies, I can see how he influenced Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi trilogy. Now I want to see how Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo influenced Leone's A Fistful of Dollars.
