Ridley

The Worst Decision Since Dred Scott

Posted on 25 June, 202225 June, 2022 by Ridley

Look, the majority of us know it’s an evil decision by the Supreme Court. In terms of rolling back rights and creating a separate legal environment for people based on who they are as opposed to what they do, it’s right up there with Plessy v. Ferguson. As terrible as it was, I’m not certain that that case had the same broad, revanchist implications as this one. Even without the knock-on effects, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is an absolute mess if the non-party affiliated lawyers’ reactions are anything to go by. Hey, Democrats Trying To Fund-Raise Off Of This! So, the Nancy Pelosi campaign wasted approximately zero time in trying to raise money off the outrage at this…um…outrageous decision: Nancy Pelosi just sent out her first email fundraising off the decision overturning Roe v. Wade. pic.twitter.com/i85Yfxeyuv— Gravel Institute (@GravelInstitute) June 24, 2022 Great! I’d love to donate to politicians who are actually going to do something about this. But…some of y’all have been in Congress for 35 years now. What have you done to enshrine Roe in law? What legislation have you supported, what have you sacrificed to make sure that it passed? I want to see your record on this subject. And I want a plan. I want to know what action you’re going to take to right this wrong. I don’t want to hear “I’ll fight!” or anything that isn’t specific and measurable. Without that? You’re part of the problem and you need to get out of the way. But They Lied During Their Confirmation Hearings!!!! Yeah, the Trump appointees all lied about their views on Roe. If Kavanaugh lied about what “boofing” meant, you thought he was going to be honest about Roe? We all knew it at the time. Susan Collins knew it. There’s zero chance of repercussions. Sorry. Samuel Alito Is A Coward and a Liar Here’s what Alito said about the potential domino effects of overturning Roe: “Finally, the dissent suggests that our decision calls into question Griswold, Eisenstadt, Lawrence, and Obergefell. But we have stated unequivocally that ‘[n]othing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.’ We have also explained why that is so: rights regarding contraception and same-sex relationships are inherently different from the right to abortion because the latter (as we have stressed) uniquely involves what Roe and Casey termed ‘potential life.’” There’s a lot in the decision that is head-scratchingly wrong, but this is the most egregious bit. First of all, it is pretty obvious that contraception does, in fact, involve ‘potential life’ so he’s done us the favor of invalidating his entire premise. More to the point though, let’s be honest here: If he believes that Roe was so wrongly-decided that there was a need to overturn 50 years of settled law, then there’s no defending other decisions based on Roe unless your entire goal was to make abortion illegal no matter what legal reasoning you had to create and what other consequences might ensure from that reasoning. This is reminiscent of Bush v. Gore, a decision that the majority knew was so specious that they went out of their way to state that it shouldn’t be used as precedent. Alito knows damned well that he has just knocked the foundation out from other a host of other rights; he just doesn’t want to own it. At least Clarence Thomas, the one openly-corrupt justice on the bench, had the courage to own what they were doing in his solo concurrance. He knew what the decision meant, and he embraced it. I can’t really give him any credit for the enthusiasm with which he listed the rights which could be swept away, but at least he was honest about what the court had just done. You Have No Idea About How Much Time And Effort Overturning Roe Took I don’t mean to depress you, but this has been over 50 years in the works. My parents, both Goldwater Republicans, saw what happened when they tried to swing for the fences with a hard-core radical conservative in the general election. Goldwater got 52 electoral votes, taking his home state of Arizona and the deep South. They learned from this defeat. You cannot start at the top, especially if you’re a radical wing of a minority party. You make like Drake and you organize locally; you take the school boards and the city councils. You take the county offices. And then? You start changing the rules to ensure that your minority movement has an outsized voice. You gerrymander. You suppress voting in areas where you’re weak. You work your way up to the state houses. You re-make the voting maps. Then, and only then, do you start dreaming of national offices. Reagan was the child of the 1964 presidential election, and he was just the start. There was a lot of hard, unsexy work at nigh-invisible levels to get to the point where a Reagan was a viable candidate. If history is any guide, you don’t, you can’t start with electing Bernie Sanders. Bernie would do better than Goldwater, but he doesn’t get into triple-digits in the electoral college. That’s not to say that this particular issue cannot be reversed quickly. The avenues to do so range from “unlikely” to “are you fucking kidding me?”, but they do exist. However, the long-term goal of a progressive government that assures civil rights, human rights is not going to happen in one presidential election. A Quick Note On “The Media” Y’all…the media has always leaned conservative. I’m old enough to remember when Lee Atwater openly admitted that his complaints about the “liberal media” were just him “working the ref.” I’m old enough to remain mainstream coverage of unions, which was universally negative. Coverage of wars and of policing is universally positive. “How can this be? Most media personalities are liberal?” They are! But, most media outlets are owned by either billionaires or huge companies, and neither of those categories is known as a hotbed of socialism. It turns out that the owners and their proxies in management have a great deal more influence over what gets covered, and how it’s covered, than the reporters do. Thanks For Reading This Far I’m pretty depressed about this. Everyone has seen this…

Art deco skulls smoking with the word reminiscences over their head

Zero-Point Energy

Posted on 23 June, 202223 June, 2022 by Ridley

After a month of nothing but frustration and some (likely self-created) stumbling blocks, things are starting to click for me again. Getting this #$%#$(@#$ site transferred was a part of both equations, but I think there’s more to it than that. Exactly what that source of creative energy is, I’m not certain, but I’m not super worried about that right now. Last night, as work was winding down, Nicole sent me this message: “Tea and tarot?” Did you know there are Yoshitaka Amano tarot decks? I wouldn’t say either of us is into tarot, but it’s fun to pretend and get out of work-brain. The first card I pulled was the Fool because of course it was. Anyway, while I’m sure it’s a coincidence, everything I pulled suggested creative energy and the removal of obstacles and I’m not going to with a random deck of cards. The song I was working on is all but done. The only question is whether or not to cut down the extended, slow-build opening which is probably the right answer but…maybe I’ll do both versions. The um, “hit single” version (snort), and the “album” version (guffaw). It’s good, though, and I don’t normally say that about my own stuff. My super-secret-side-hustle is going well, too. There’s been a little burst of interest at an unusual time for interest in this particular subject, so that’s gratifying. It’s still just a hobby and pays accordingly, and I think it is extremely unlikely that it will ever be anything else, but it’s fun and it lets me stretch a muscle that had been dormant for a good while. And yes, I’m being vague (unless you know me personally, in which case I’m just being silly), but I’m more comfortable that way. One thing I haven’t done much of lately is fiction, but I’m getting that urge again and the burr under my saddle is an odd one: The Taco Bell Quarterly. It is, as near as I can determine, a legit literary magazine, albeit one where all of the material must relate in some way to Taco Bell. The fact that they are not in any way connected to the fast food company only makes it more intriguing. I’m one of those folks who generally works better with some arbitrary restrictions or a prompt of some sort, so this is right up my alley. And, I am having ideas. Dark ideas. Probably not-good ideas. But ideas nonetheless. We finally got library cards here in Seguin. For such a small town, we have a shockingly nice library. We’ve visited several times but never filled out the paperwork prior to this weekend. Not an artist’s conception; this is really what it looks like. I’ve done a poor job maintaining my reading levels since I stopped taking the train to work. I have a stack on my nightstand awaiting my attention, but there’s nothing like a “return by” date to get me motivated. I picked up A Blink of the Screen, a collection of Terry Pratchett short stories. Pratchett feels exactly the right choice for my First Library Book in town. Now, I think I’ll retire to the bedroom, do some reading, and try to ensure that Pratchett isn’t also my First Library Fine here as well. -RK

Keep Moving Forward

Posted on 22 June, 202223 June, 2022 by Ridley

At the end of the three-day weekend, Nicole thought it’d be fun to watch a movie she liked that I’d never even heard of: Disney’s Meet The Robinsons. Y’all, it was surprisingly good. The animation is definitely of its time, that time being the “the late 00s,” which isn’t my favorite look, so I was a little grumpy when it started. But, the thing chugged along like a freight train with an absurd amount of goofy energy, silly set-pieces, the odd celebrity voice, and a pretty solid overall message to go with an off-the-rails story. I’d heard nothing about it and apparently, it did nothing at the box office despite a pretty hefty budget, and that’s a shame because it’s a better film…check that, I’m not sure it’s a “better” film, but it’s more fun than other far more famous (and profitable) Disney properties. Today I learned: One of my favorite bands helped finance Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Actually, it was a bunch of them, but I hadn’t heard Genesis were involved prior to today. It doesn’t mean a lot, I suppose, but I’ve always loved it when two unrelated things I like intersect in unexpected ways. Anyway, while we were talking about movies, I thought I’d bring it up. Hrm…I started at the end, so let’s go backward (counter-clockwise?) through the weekend. Before settling in for a film, Nicole made generous use of my favorite seasoning in making dinner. I’m a sucker for ras-el-hanout in just about anything, and the lack of Moroccan food around here hurts. She fried up some garlicky meatballs, made roasted veggie ragout, and some homemade hummus and it was all spectacular. The ras-el-hanout was the primary seasoning for the meatballs and used to great effect in the veggies too. If you’re a fan of Mediterranean food and have tried any Moroccan meals, I cannot recommend the cuisine highly enough. I spent most of yesterday working on a song that’ll be my first complete effort in years. It’s a full production of the little melody I used to sing to my cat when he was struggling. I wanted him to hear my voice, so I just came up with something I could sing over and over for an hour at a time. I’m reasonably sure it’s the last thing he heard, and I feel like completing this song is important to honor him. I think all the tracks are in place; we’re just mixing and mastering now before calling it complete. Felt good to finally get back into the groove and produce something rather than just “writing” (which could easily be confused for just unfocused noodling on the keys to distract me from actually completing anything). Since I couldn’t eat anything beforehand, around noon we popped up to San Marcos to get yet more blood drawn and schedule an appointment with the GP. I’m sure this has been building for a long time, but it still feels as though “visiting doctors on a very regular basis” became a thing for me very suddenly. There’s probably nothing of note happening, but the doctors are very keen on collapsing the state of that probably to a certainty. It would be lovely if more of this were covered by my insurance, but it’s lovely to actually have insurance. Here’s hoping for very positive results and the unlikely avoidance of a nasty little procedure. We’ve taken to getting up early (by my standards) and going to the park to play a small amount of basketball or soccer and do some walking. Just 30-40 minutes a day at this point as some of us aren’t in peak athletic condition, but that brief exercise is starting to pay dividends. I’m definitely feeling stronger and more energetic, at least when I’m not feeling sleepy from getting up early. It was a good day. With the world seemingly collapsing around us, I’ll take a good day. -RK

Platform Scroller

Posted on 19 June, 202219 June, 2022 by Ridley

Whew. This has been an ordeal. You might notice that the blog looks a little different today. That’s because I’ve just ported it over from Squarespace to a hosted Worpress site. Why? Honestly, I like almost everything about Squarespace, but it has one ridiculous and utterly fatal flaw: Its editor has no autosave function. It’s actually worse than that, because not only does it not autosave, but when you manually save, it takes you out of the post. You save. You go back to the post which is now a “draft.” You click “edit.” And then you can start writing again. This has been an issue for years and when I contact their support team, I get the same answer every time: “Yeah, that seems like something we should have. I’ll make a note of it.” And then, two weeks ago, I had a Very Big Day and wrote a long post about it. There was no hint of an error, but I decided to save anyway just to be safe. When I did, I received a notification that I had to be logged in to save and the page refreshed, wiping out everything I’d written. I contacted support one more time, more out of habit than any conviction it would do any good, and, receiving the same answer, decided it was time to move on. So, off to WordPress because I figured with all of the plugins available, surely there would be autosave and a “save draft” that doesn’t take you out of what you’re doing. I won’t lie: This was not an easy transition. It’s been two weeks of frustration punctuated by bursts of success that kept me going through it. So, where were we? What now? Well, let’s start with a couple of weeks ago. I won’t try to recreate what I wrote then and try to keep it a little shorter: A friend from high school passed. I drove to his funeral and got to catch up with a lot of mutual friends I’d lost touch with, some of whom I’m sure I will again, and some of whom I’ll try to keep closer this time. To be honest, seeing some of these folks was the reason for attending. That part was great. Even under the circumstances, it was a good thing to have been there. I will say this, though: If/when I go, please don’t hold a funeral for me in a church. I suspect both my friends and the church will be grateful for that. To make it a little more complicated, I was actually prepping for a procedure while I was there. I had an MRI scheduled the next morning and needed to watch my diet. I watched it a little too closely, neither eating nor drinking the entire time I was at the event. By the end of it, when I was about to leave, I became terribly dizzy due to it being nearly 100 degrees and being horribly dehydrated. My sister and friends took care of me, getting me some fruit and a soda, so I was fine to make the three-hour drive, but still…that wasn’t clever and it caused them needless worry. The procedure itself went swimmingly for an 8:30 AM Sunday morning MRI. I was in the tube for 20 minutes, but they let me choose my own music. Poor guys had never even heard of Polyphia. When they hauled me out, one of the techs said “Progressive metal? Huh.” Highlight of my day. Anyway, there was a lot more that happened throughout the whole weekend, but those were the highlights. That’s probably enough for now about that time. As a fun coda, the doctor’s office called me yesterday and the receptionist told me that the doctor would want to do a biopsy and she’d tell me more about it in two weeks at my next appointment. If you’re trying to make sure someone has a great weekend, telling them that they’re going to have to have a nasty little procedure but not telling you why is a great way to do it. So, I guess that’s it for tonight. I’ve been working all day trying to get this site looking good enough. It feels like LiveJournal but with all kinds of extra steps, which is not without its appeal, but also kind of a pain. I hope things are good in your neck of the woods. It’s really rough out there, so try to cut yourself some slack. -RK

And as the nail sunk in the cloud…

Posted on 22 May, 202217 June, 2022 by Ridley

Sitting out on the porch during the first rainstorm we’ve had after a nearly a month of 95-100 degree highs this spring. It feels good. It feels necessary for some reason. It’s been a rough month. They all seem rough these days, don’t they? Nicole made me some genmaicha to bring out here. I’m a very fortunate gent. Today I Learned: Marie-Therese, the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, was the (disputed) Queen-Consort of France for 20 minutes in August of 1830. We were watching Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and I did a little googling to see what became of the kids. Marie-Therese, the eldest child, lived quite an interesting life that was probably a good deal more eventful than her mother’s. Apparently, and it is not impossible that I’m not fully following the bouncing ball here, royalists would periodically try to restore the monarchy and prop up some fellow claiming to be Marie-Therese’s brother (both of her brothers died young) and she would inevitably be involved in some fashion. Anyway, the thought of someone holding an office for 20 minutes or so is the sort of thing that interests me and I thought y’all might find it interesting as well. I did get a little joy today from an unexpected source. I saw that Sunderland A.F.C. were promoted from League One in England (which is, inexplicably, the third highest level of English football) and I thought of an old friend who has remained a loyal Black Cats supportor. I shot off an email and he responded almost immediately, which delighted me no end. Weird little connections like that are disproportionately delightful, aren’t they? We visited my mother for her birthday last weekend. I’m not gong to lie: She looks Old. That’s to be expected as, in point of fact, she is old, but it’s still….I’m proud of her. She’s still learnng things, still changing her mind, and still muddling through trying to do right under the assumption that, if people just do the right thing, then things will work out. She adores Nicole, which speaks well of the both of them. You can’t tell by reading, but I just stopped typing for ten minutes thinking about mom. She’s a good egg. A lot of what I like about myself came directly from her. We are, all things considered, relatively well off. I’m employed, insured, and we can make ends meet even if there isn’t quite so much slack in the rope as there was a few years ago. I can only imagine how bad some people are feeling the rising price of everything right now. Just like with the people who get the disease, COVID is going to have serious long-term affects on the nation and, specifically, the economy. I don’t have any idea how to fix any of this; when so many of the links in the chain break at the same time, even trained experts struggle to come up with solutions. I can say that diminished buying power plus food supply chain shortages are a recipe for Very Bad Things (side note: Perhaps the biggest problem the Louis XVI faced was inflation brought on by deregulation and poor harvests. Weird how relevant that feels now). All this and the fact that the pandemic hasn’t been resolved in any meaningful way (unless you find “just declaring it’s over because you’re tired of it” meaningful) makes me very nervous. This doesn’t end well. I have quite a bit more on my mind, but the rain is nice and I’m no longer in the mood to grip. Tomorrow is the last day of the Premier League season, so I’m getting up early(ish) one last time and really ought to be hitting the hay. Goodnight all, and I hope things are good in your neck of the woods tonight. -RK

Short but (sorta) Sweet

Posted on 2 May, 20227 June, 2022 by Ridley

Hey everyone (my beloved handful o’ folks)! It’s been quite the year/month/week/day already hasn’t it? I won’t try to recap the last six weeks. They’ve been a lot. They’ve been a lot and then some. Work has been whelming, I’ve seen so very many doctors (largely preventative/precautionary stuff), Nicole had to take a trip for family stuff, Nicole came back. It really feels as though an entire year has been crammed into a few months. Here’s hoping things unwindulax a little in the summer. Today I Learned: You know those round things you see on the Buddha’s head in all those statues? I always assumed they were a very specific hairstyle. I was wrong. Those are snails shells. I had no idea. They are known as the 108 snail martyrs. I won’t spoil the story, but it’s a good one. I’ll certainly never look at the statues the same way again. Anyway, after all of the busy, busy weeks of April and March, I just wanted to remind everyone to feel grateful for what’s good in your life. Odds are pretty good you deserve those good things, but that doesn’t mean you can feel gratitude. Besides, “deserving” is no guarantee of “having.” Nicole planed a garden to provide a home for the baby snails we have in our tank that we can’t keep. Here’s the first one we saw on a big piece of leaf of lettuce in the middle of the garden. That all for now. I hope everything is going well for you, and that you’re in a place where you can appreciate it. -RK

Post

Posted on 12 March, 20227 June, 2022 by Ridley

Ever have one of those weeks where every day feels like it’s own week? In addition to work being at one of those crescendos you get when a bunch of big moving pieces trying to all fit into a tiny time window, things outside of work have been…dramatic? That would have been nice. Sometimes, it’s like Ciaran says: “Dull is best.” “Oh Ridley, don’t be such a downer. You don’t want dull!” I beg to differ. Let’s start with the procedure I had this week. A common thing, but not entirely inconsequential as it involved a couple of days of prep, a severely restricted diet, and a little general anesthesia. If you read the last post, you know we were/are having plumbing difficulties. Prep for this particular procedure and plumbing difficulties are a bad, bad combination. To add a little spice to the mix, a truck damaged the only gas line leading into town, meaning that the entire area had no heat. In Texas, that’s not normally a big deal, but we were seeing temperatures in the 30s (outside) and mid-50s (inside). This was unpleasant. Yesterday, we finally got an answer as to the source of our plumbing difficulties: The folks who flipped this house cut one very important corner when putting in the shower. When you merge a shower drain into the main drainpipe, a responsible plumber would put in a t-joint and everything would be fine. If you were lazy and irresponsible, you would just drill a hole in the drain pipe and run a pipe from the shower down into it. Doing it the lazy way meant that there was a length of pipe running across the drain and that length of pipe collected paper and such and eventually clogged. Also, word to the wise: Shitty construction is NOT covered by home warranties. We have temporary relief at the cost of our shower, so yay! We can use toilets and wash dishes again. That’s a huge win. But, the fix is going to be pricey, so significantly less yay. The good news is that the procedure, which was strictly a routine thing and not prompted by any specific concerns, went swimmingly. No problems were discovered, so it’ll be another decade before I have to do this again. For folks approaching 50 and facing their first encounter with this procedure, I can tell you from experience: The prep is far, far worse than the procedure itself. So, we have most of our plumbing, heat has been restored, and a Thing I Was Dreading is in the rear view mirror. Ah well, that’s what therapy is for, right? There’s more going on, but there are stories that are not mine to tell. It’s just a very sad time in too many ways. So, I hope this finds you well and that you’re safe and warm and generally in a good place right now. That’s all I got. -RK

Pre

Posted on 8 March, 20227 June, 2022 by Ridley

Strange times, no? I’ve been burying myself in distractions and avoiding starting things for the last couple of months. This is partially due to the world being in quite a state in a way that seems to be affecting pretty much everyone I encounter. My attention span can be measured with a stop watch. It’s a general malaise tugging at me, and, quite likely, you’re feeling it too even if you might be reacting differently. There have been some more specific things as well. It turns out that plumbing is a very important feature in a modern, or at least semi-modern, home. When it goes bad, it can go very, very bad indeed. Things are coming out of places that they are manifestly not meant to come out of. Some very disturbing things are coming out of some of the least-appropriate places and no I will not be getting more specific. Here’s a bit of advice to anyone looking to purchase an older home: Be absolutely certain that you have a drain clean-out. I didn’t know what one was, and I wish someone had warned me. It turns out that, if you don’t have one, the things your home warranty will cover are extremely limited. The good news is that we have one now. The not-so-good news is that, one emptied saving account later, we have a clean-out but we still have the aforementioned problems. Our plumber is stumped, which does not fill one with great confidence. This is a problem, as is likely, nay, certain, that I will be in need of stout plumbing in the coming days. The next 48 hours promise to be interesting. Oh, and the situation in Europe is not filling me with hope. I won’t pretend to know the best way for the United States to navigate what looks like a series of “lesser of two evils” choices. I just don’t know enough and don’t have it in me to balance one set of lives against others. But…I have become aware of some very obvious propaganda being spread by people who should know better. I’m not going to be naming names, but I’m disappointed. I just want this to resolve without a world war and with Ukraine’s sovereignty intact and as little loss of life as possible. I’m not sure that those options are on the table, but I can hope. This is a bummer of a post, I know. Honestly, there’s a lot more, but the other stories are not mine to tell so I’ll just leave it at that. I hope I can get through my bits, can resolve what is in my power to resolve, can survive what isn’t, and can help the people folks who are going through it. -RK P.S. It’s not all bad. there have been a lot of good things in my life over the last few weeks, and I’ll get to those. My head’s just not there right now.

G.O.A.T.

Posted on 30 December, 20217 June, 2022 by Ridley

One of the things that never fails to excite me is hearing some new (at least new to me) music that gets under my skin in ways I wasn’t expecting. This used to be a pretty regular experience for me, particularly in the 1989-91 and 2003-06 eras, but I’m not quite the consumer of new music I was so it’s been a while. And then I clicked on Polyphia’s “G.O.A.T.” I didn’t know what to expect but I can assure you I didn’t expect this. I’m not a big fan of “musicianship for the sake of musicianship,” but that’s not what this is. The musicianship is absolutely off the charts, but it’s catchy as hell, it’s a really unusual mixture of genres and techniques, and the composition is masterful. That said, I didn’t really have the vocabulary or the experience to describe it. So, now fully committed to exploring the rabbit hole, I started watching reaction videos. I watched a lot of reaction videos. I find it kind of comforting that a lot of the people doing these videos have the same reaction and the same struggles with coming up with suitable words. Here’s one of the better examples by Chase Carneson: I cannot tell you how many of the videos start with “I’ve never heard of them before, but they call their song ‘Greatest of All-Time’. We’ll see about that…” and then stopping the video after the opening guitar lick and saying “I was not prepared for this. Wow.” What gets really interesting is seeing the different descriptions vary based on where the video maker is coming from. The guitarists are obviously just blown away by Tim Henson but they often struggle with what are unfamiliar rhythmic elements. On the other hand, the drummers tend to be all over the bass and drums and call out the trap music elements immediately. The producers are fascinated by all of the production and engineering elements that seem very out of the hard rock element but fit perfection. My personal point of reference would probably be early-80s King Crimson with Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, and Bill Bruford. There are similarities: The wild mix of guitar techniques, the clean tones, the incredibly tight playing, and the non-traditional song structures. It falls short as an analogy. Polyphia’s approach to incorporating production, samples, hip-hop, and whatever else is unlike anything else I’m aware of. There really isn’t a vocabulary to describe this kind of cross-genre virtuosity. They seem to be not so much breaking the rules of what you can do so much as…ignoring them? Acting as though the rules don’t exist. It’s not so much rebellious in the way punk is/was/was supposed to have been and more like Neo at the end of The Matrix just realizing that the boundaries don’t exist. That might seem like hyperbole for less than four minutes of music but I’ve spent a lot of time with this song over the last month or so and I just start giggling every time I hear it. I’m still loving watching YouTube reviewers see it for the first time and try to describe it. At the end of the day, it wouldn’t matter if the song wasn’t great and, not gonna lie, it gets stuck in my head for days at a time. So, yeah. I’ve been a little obsessed. I wanted to share, and I needed to get some of this down on (not exactly) paper. This song has opened my ears to quite a few newer bands playing in this neighborhood: Animals as Leaders, Yvette Young and Covet, Sarah Longfield, and Ichika Nito (plus, of course, more Polyphia songs too). I’m not even a guitar guy, but…man, it feels good to hear stuff that excites me. I hope you enjoy it too. -RK

Capybara Encounter

Posted on 24 November, 20217 June, 2022 by Ridley

A couple of weeks ago, we got to meet capybaras. I’m just going to pause for a moment to let that one sink in. If you know anything about me or, even better, you know anything about my wife, then you know that capybaras are a sort of platonic ideal animal for us. (Side note: I’ve found I am drawn more and more to gentle creatures: Snails, capybaras, sloths, turtles, etc. I’m not sure if this is a function of getting older or just refining my tastes as there are too many variables for me to be certain.) They’re beautiful, they’re peaceful, they get along with every other creature if the photos are to believes (except for jaguars, piranhas, and, of course, pelicans), and they’re good comrades. Unlike in countries like, say, Japan, where capybaras are accorded the proper level of respect, our neck of the woods doesn’t offer many opportunities to do meet-and-greets with the noble carpincho. Nicole got a recording of Fred the capybara at the Dallas Zoo for my birthday. I dropped by to visit when I was in town, but alas, Fred is only available for his public on specific days. There’s a minor zoo nearby that has one capy, but…it’s not a great situation. So, imagine my surprise when I “discovered” that the Austin Zoo not only had three capybaras but that they offered the opportunity to hand-feed them for half an hour. “Discovered” is in quotations marks on account of the fact that a friend called this to my attention three years ago and I completely forget. That is a very me thing to do. So, I scheduled a meetup on the first available weekend and marked the calendar. Before I get into the event, I’d like to give huge kudos to the Austin Zoo, a place I never visited when I lived there. Not only was it a great experience, but I was glad to learn that they are a rescue zoo. The animals are, by and large, surrendered by people who can’t care for them and they aren’t bred in captivity. The goal is to give these animals the best possible life they can if they can’t be returned to the wild. And no one can side-eye like a capybara. So, enough stalling. What is it like to meet a capybara? Well, let’s start by saying that these three were semi-wild. They’re not nearly as comfortable around people as the ones at the Nagasaki Bio Park. They’re very skittish and cautious. But, when the zookeeper led us inside the cage with a big bucket of leaf lettuce, they wandered over from the sunning area by the pond. One slowly approached and, after no small amount of side-eyeing, took the lettuce from my hand. But, before long, all three were literally eating out of our hands. Enthusiastically eating, to be more precise. Diego, Enrique, and Olivia all warmed to us and gave us their undivided attention. A word to the wise: Be careful reaching below their line of sight. I dropped a piece of lettuce and tried to pick it up and scared Diego a bit. He jumped slightly and had to re-evaluate the situation before coming back to continue with his lunch. Now, while they are ever so gentle to other creatures, they can get a little feisty with each other. Olivia and Enrique had a little spat over a particularly delectable leaf and Oliva, the head of the group, would not brook any challenge to her choice of victuals. Spoiler alert: They made up. I should probably note at this point that I’ve never seen Nicole look so happy. I mean, can you blame her? So…what else? Their fur, which we were not allowed to touch, is rough like coconut and not nearly as pervasive as it looks. You can see their skin, which resembles fish scales, through almost any patch. Their teeth are too ludicrously large to be scary. They can move their lips independently like ungulates, which took a little getting used to. They came very close to us, close enough that our hands touched their noses when we were feeding them, but we were never in any danger of a bite. Lauren, the zookeeper, said that there were two kinds of people who did the encounter. The kind who didn’t know anything at all about capys and the people who were obsessed with them. She sussed out which we were immediately but still hand plenty of good info on ‘em to share. She said that, normally, after eating, they vacated the area immediately. We were fortunate in that they chose to just plop down and start resting in a ring around us rather than going back to their sunny spot. The best bit, though? They were so peaceful. They had peace in excess. The exuded peace. It was uncanny. I don’t think I’ve ever met a mood-altering animal before but I felt happy, energetic, and (this sounds so dorky) cleansed after meeting them. So, if you’re interested in capybaras, this is an absolutely fabulous way to meet them. They’re extremely well cared for, they have a lot of space, their own ponds, trees, and folks who seem to genuinely care about them. I can’t recommend it highly enough, but that won’t stop me from trying. -RK P.S. When they were forming their ring around us and about to drop to the ground, we heard them chirping! Oh. Em. Gee. Diego is ready for his closeup. The gloves are as much to protect the animals as anything.