At last
I shall give myself to the desert again,
that I, in its golden dust,
may be blown from a barren peak
broadcast over the sun-lands.

If you should desire some news of me,
go ask the little horned toad whose home is in the dust,
or seek it among the fragrant sage,
or question the mountain juniper,
and, by their silence,
they will truly inform you.

-Maynard Dixon’s Epitaph

I seem to have misplaced my copy of Blue Highways because of the move. I spent like 30 minutes searching for it just now. (I found a bunch of other interesting stuff though.) I think about that book a lot and I’ve decided to honor it with the introductory quote to No Shortage Vol. 3.

“On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and the back roads blue. Now even the colors are changing. But in those brevities just before dawn and a little after dusk — times neither day nor night— the old roads return to the sky some of its color. Then, in truth, they carry a mysterious cast of blue, and it’s that time when the pull of the blue highway is strongest, when the open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself.”

— William Least Heat Moon Blue Highways

A Day in the Life of Hawaii (the original one) documents December 2, 1983.  There are other Day in the Life books, but this one’s my favorite. These things are like a little time capsule that you can open to get a window into the past. Can you imagine how cool it would be if such a thing had happened 2000 years ago? Well, they didn’t have cameras back then obviously. But 2000 years from now, this book will still exist, at least in some form or another. The pictures it contains aren’t glamour shots, they’re more intended to represent real people doing everyday things. I picked up my copy for a few bucks online. I remember the listing said it might come with some unwanted markings. I think the seller was a little confused. Perhaps they were unaware the unwanted markings are signatures of the two main editors and many of the principle photographers. The picture of the girl above has a gold ink signature on it. Well anyway, this thing was great for envisioning Hawaii as it once was. I highly recommend rummaging through piles of old books that people want to throw away. You just might find a gem.

And now for Aiden’s Music Corner: (Yes, don’t laugh, Aiden S. Clarke still buys CDs!)  I’m really digging the new James McMurtry album called “Complicated Game”.  It’s new in the sense that it came out last year. You don’t need the skip button; every song is listenable. My favorite song is “She Loves Me”, but the single, “These Things I’ve Come to Know” is also superb. You know, the best thing about buying a CD is seeing what they had in mind for the artwork, and I really like the cover photo he chose.