Turkey Talk

Turkeys are much more stupid than I thought.

I mean, I guess I never really thought turkeys were that smart, but still.

We have about 20 to 25 turkeys that we’re raising here in preparation for Thanksgiving turkey season. Everybody wants a nice, big ol’ organically raised turkey for the Thanksgiving dinner and we aim to give it to them. I asked Dom what Thanksgiving on the farm was like, and in his typical fashion he first responded with a mini-rant about the problematic nature of institutionalized, commercialized holidays. And then, in his typical fashion, he answered the question fairly and calmly, talking about how hectic it is getting everybody else their turkeys and so on, that there’s no time for a proper Thanksgiving. But a couple days later he’ll throw together a big meal. Of course, as I’m learning, almost every meal here on the farm is a big meal. We’re making chocolate zucchini bread soon, because we harvested several 6 pound zucchinis. I digress.

We keep the turkeys in tractor cages that we move every day so they have fresh grass. We keep them in there at night to protect them from predators, like the fishercats that ate almost all the ducks. But during the day, we let the turkeys roam free. When we let them out of their tractors in the morning they all stretch their wings and run up the hill flapping. I think about the flight of the Valkyrie. Or putting them in slow motion and parodying a football team running out of their tunnel.

Anyway, the pasture their tractor is in isn’t secured, so they wander all over the farm during the day, and besides recently getting into some herbs, they normally don’t cause a fuss.

But man, they do have a penchant to meander into a place, any place, and have no clue how to get back out. They are completely incapable of understanding what a corner is, or, really more importantly, what a fence is. I learned about birds that stash their food and are able to represent notions of the temporal and spatial dislocation, but turkeys must be on the opposite side of the phylogenetic tree from those birds. They’re like those monsters in Chip’s Challenge that always hone directly to your exact location, with no ability to move around a barrier.

I was walking past the chicken garden this afternoon, when I heard some distressed gobbling. Yup. The gate to the garden had been left open (or more likely had creaked open – the gate has no latch and needs to be repaired), and one solitary turkey had been stranded, left behind by the rest of the herd, none of which are intelligent enough to notice. This turkey was running back and forth, trying desperately to get through the chicken wire fence to rejoin his friends. Retreading the same 3 feet back and forth back and forth completely unable to realize that the gate it had just walked through was a mere 4 feet to its right. I circled around and herded it out the gate, allowing it to frantically scramble back to his compatriots.

Well done, turkey. Keep up the good work.

Moon In The Pond: Let's Begin

“An old man took his grandson outside to show him the stars. The child wanted to see the moon. The old man extended his left arm towards the sky. The boy said that he still did not see the moon. The old man responded, ‘I can only point at the moon. Stop looking at my finger and gaze into the sky.’”

I moved to a farm yesterday. And as Dom drove down the single lane gravel road, the earthy smell of humid cow manure weaved through the windows. Looking through the mist in the trees, I couldn’t see much of my surroundings.

I’ve been living a lot of memories lately. It has something to do with this time of year, a sudden departure of normalcy, and an amazing expanse of options. I’ve been reading old emails, opening up old documents, and trawling through old notebooks. It’s good to remember the moments we forget, and we forget so much. I’m not sure what I’m looking for, but it’s a relaxing search. I’ve spent the summer in mini-bouts of flux, often not sure of what my plan is, or when I would have a plan. I still don’t have a plan, but timing and circumstances have left open a natural next step, and I’ve taken it.

So, I’ve left New York City, and my small sublet in Brooklyn, and I’ve hired myself out as a farmhand, here at Moon in the Pond Farm in southwest, Massachusetts. I’ve been here before, but this time I’m not sure when I’ll be leaving.

I'm not sure I’m on the precipice of any great adventure. I’m here to work hard, and learn everything I can. But there’s an excitement in the creaking of this wooden farmhouse, and all the uncertainty I’ve been living with is now reduced into concretized tasks and tangible results. I know when I’m done weeding vegetables. I know when the cows’ fence needs repairing. The geese let me know when they haven’t been fed.

So, I’ll be here. And I’ll try to update this blog as I can. And maybe if the haze clears up, I can see the moon.

Love and Taxis

"It is an extra dividend when you like the girl you've fallen in love with" said Clark Gable.

"Oh, Clark Gable" said Jesse.

"Is it possible to not like someone you're in love with?" we all said.

"Love is just memory and time. A collection of memories that you're fond of and like the best. You go along in life until one day you realize that there is someone who you share really good memories with, and that's when you know you've fallen in love with" said the cabbie.

"Don't overuse your brain and think love exists. It's just a word; it's not real." said the cabbie.

Space Battle

So, recently I've been watching a lot of Battlestar Galactica, and last night I watched Empire Strikes Back and I've been thinking:

Why do all spaceships approach other spaceships in the same orientation?

I mean think about it - there is no up, down, sideways, or back again in space, right? Gravity within spaceships seem to be oriented so that the pilot can sit in his or her seat, but there is not gravity outside of a spaceship. So, it would make sense to me that ships would approach other ships from all sorts of ways, upside down, sideways, any number of different oblique angles and so on. And yet whenever you see one fleet of spaceships approaching another fleet of spaceships, the ships are ALL oriented top to bottom the same way. Is this done because we as an audience member would find it weird and disorienting any other way, or have TV and filmmakers just not thought of this? Or am I mistaken?

Let's Review

*Job at D4, Irish Pub. Irish workers headcount: 2. No tips yet, still training. Bit of a travel. Near the pier. Marrying condiments and taking drink orders.

*TMLMTBGB aka Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind - neo-futurist theater experience. 30 plays in 60 minutes. Mash-ups the name. Half-naked men wrestling with Ramen noodle. Unexpected alarm clocks. Defiant pubic hairs. Tornadoes and guitars. Bacon art. Shower art. Noodle necklaces. Mixed drinks and cemetery talk. More or less pretentious. All in all some interesting ideas, some much better than others, makes me think, I'll give you that.

*The Reckoning, except not. (Damn tornadoes). The Eelum family +1. Still funny, solid scene work. Commit to a character fast - remember to act. Control of your body and voice. Great fire speech!

*Back to Downers Grove after 3 years (and then after 9). Unexpected carnival - craziest looking ride I may have ever seen. Reunion with 2nd grade friends. Jelly on the ceiling. Making new friends. Very little sleep. Realized how close together everything in town actually was. Express train back.

*Mattress arrival! Got a room after all. Tilted floor. Early morning sunlight. Nails in the wall. Feels like a home.

*Toaster. Got one.

*Battlestar Galactica. Why didn't I listen to Kellie and Jamie when they told me to watch this show in the first place? Season 1 is hot shit. Waiting on others to begin season 2.

*Rainstorm. Frolicking. Strawberries and cream. Puddlejumping.

Chicago, The Beginnings

This is going to be a good summer.

I arrived in Chicago 4 days ago now, and I've just been loving this life I'm living. The four of us, Alexis, Sally, Jesse, and I have a wonderful apartment in Roscoe Village. We have the whole second floor of the house, and the first floor is occupied by 5 Irish folks. We're actually going to be grilling out with them this evening in our backyard.

I've been spending the last days scouring our neighborhood, applying for jobs, and dropping off my resume at different places. So far nothing has seemed too promising, but I gotta keep at it.

Classes at iO start 3 weeks from tomorrow, which feels really far away. I'm so excited for classes to begin, to meet our fellow students, and to begin improvising again. We also get free tickets to any iO shows that we can get into, so hopefully I'll be all over that.

This is it for now, because I'm borrowing internet from the Dunkin' Donuts behind us, so I don't want to be stuck in a corner of our backyard forever.

Renascence

One of my favorite poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Also a description of this blog and my plans to kickstart it again.

A lot has happened in the last 9 months. I might fill in some gaps if I feel like it this summer.

But I will also be using this to catalogue my goings-on in Chicago this summer. Just got back home to Texas a few days ago, but I'll be heading up to Chicago in less than two weeks. And I'm hoping it will be madness.