other dead things i like.

while on tour with the crate lung co-op we stopped in barnes and noble in austin texas, mainly to use their bathroom and wireless internet. we, of course, took some time to explore their graphic novels, poetry, and (extensive) literary magazine sections. i also stumbled upon the book SMALL DEATHS by Kate Breakey, and fell in love. 

the book itself is quite large, and very heavy, which is why i didn't buy it at the time-- we were living out of a van, and carrying what we owned on our backs. i figured i could order it later online or find it in a store in SLC. 

turns out, the book was put out on the University of Austin press, and wasn't in any bookstores here. i did find it on Amazon, finally, but will wait until i move to kansas since it's so damn heavy. (i don't just mean the subject matter... i mean it literally weighs a lot).

I fell in absolute love with the book because of the idea behind it, small deaths. Kate Breakey photographs the small deaths (be they of tiny animals, flowers, insects) that happen every day, all around us, and are easily passed over or forgotten, but are perhaps not any less significant. and, are even beautiful. one review i read said that these small deaths, finding the little animals and plants that had died, while she was growing up in australia, used to overwhelm her. i think a lot of us can relate to that, passing roadkill as children, or finding animals in the bushes. for one, it puts them in a state of stillness not common to wild animals, and allows us to approach and observe them in a state we're not used to. for another, it is death, and we are certainly not accustomed to that.

on the day that i made lilac and lavendar cupcakes (as featured on my food blog tomato sugar), i walked out of my door to pick the lilac. lying in my driveway was a beautiful bird.

birds tend to crash into my bedroom window quite often-- i'm not really sure why my bedroom. it doesn't get less traumatic for me, and i'm sure it's no real picnic for the bird. while i was in southern utah i was leafing through my mom's bird-book (that i intend to buy borrow or steal) BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, and i believe this is an oriole.

but, as with all cases of bird identification, i could be wrong. it's really really hard. there's a different bird for every slight change of feather color and arrangement.  it's mainly an excuse, i think, for english/old world men for insert their last name onto something else.