I make maps to understand what it means to be blind, and a flaneur . Those ideas are elusive destinations. Think of them as streets you can wander along with me. Start with the first post, ![Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/04/isle_royale_fog.jpg "Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]")
"Brendan, this is what the world looks like all the time to me. Just a little fog. It’s a fine day for boating on the Great Lakes.” Without missing a stroke he turned to dart a skeptical glance at me. Brendan the Navigator. When we named him I didn’t tell his mother everything the legendary Irish name implied. But I imagined him taking on the role of navigator for me. Growing up with Coastal Survey charts and tales of Great Lakes shipwrecks, he came to know Superior as another home. He never doubted the wisdom of canoeing there with a father who was half blind. 
If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in 
![Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/02/charlotte_casiraghi_red_dress.jpg "Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]")
When I figured out who Charlotte Casiraghi was, I realized that I once sent a poem to her mother. 
Poet and street artist Miss Tic isn't exactly a kid in a hoodie with a can of spray paint. Maybe she can still run like hell when the police show up, but can she sprint in high heels? Well-known in international avant-garde circles, her work is exhibited now at the Venice Biennale as well as the alleys of Paris. My friend Chris Merrill talked tonight on PRI’s The World about Radovan Karadzic’s other life — no, not the naturopath in hiding who was captured last week in Serbia — but the psychopath who wrote poetry as he pursued ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Chris told a surreal story I’ve heard several times about meeting Karadzic […]
Entries from July 2008
The Poet’s Crimes Against Humanity
0
July 31, 2023 at 9:31pm
by Mark Willis
politics · poetry Add Your Comment
Global Warming and the Future of Isle Royale
1
July 30, 2023 at 6:00am
by Mark Willis
A bull moose wades in the water at Isle Royale National Park. [Photo by Jim Scurlock, a winner in Lake Superior Magazine’s 1998 photo contest]
You don’t have to look for polar bears in Greenland to find the impact of global warming on wildlife. Climate change now threatens the dynamic balancing act between moose and wolves […]
Isle Royale · ecology · Lake Superior Add Your Comment
Life As a Locavore
0
July 29, 2023 at 10:39pm
by Mark Willis
Barbara Kingsolver talks about eating local on this week’s edition of Living on Earth. Here’s the blurb:
Barbara Kingsolver left life in the farm country of Kentucky in the 1970s to become educated as an evolutionary biologist. But what she didn’t know was that she would also become a best-selling novelist. You may know some of […]
garden · Edible Dramas Add Your Comment
Don’t Move That Farmers’ Market!
1
July 28, 2023 at 4:01pm
by Mark Willis
On Saturday mornings at the height of summer, the Yellow Springs Farmer’s Market gets as crowded, garrulous, and animated as any Arab souk. The market has thrived for 25 years at the heart of the village. It’s only two blocks from my home, and walking there is one of the best […]
garden · Yellow Springs · foot rage · Edible Dramas · Uncategorized Add Your Comment
The Times — Are They A-Changin’?
1
July 22, 2023 at 2:14pm
by Mark Willis
JibJab is back with a new satirical video for the 2008 election — Time for Some Campaignin’. JibJab seemed to invent the Internet video mashup in 2004 with This Land!, which presaged YouTube by two years. Now JibJab has a YT channel and a commercial site. According to their YT profile:
Brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis […]
media · satire · politics · pop culture Add Your Comment
Blue Hole, Little Miami River
0
July 13, 2023 at 4:04pm
by Mark Willis
Robert S. Duncanson. Blue Hole, Little Miami River. 1851. Cincinnati Art Museum.
Ohio · landscapes · 19th century · Flaneur's Gallery · Art Add Your Comment
Café Mouffe: Utah Phillips
0
July 10, 2023 at 10:10am
by Mark Willis
With the indulgence of the proprietor, Café Mouffe opens early this week for my birthday. Utah Phillips has been on my mind since his death in May. America lost a national treasure with his passing. Utah was an ardent, union organizer and raconteur of tall tales, and he wrote more songs than I ever realized. […]
1970s · Playing by Ear · Café Mouffe Add Your Comment
Playing By Ear: 60 X 365
1
July 1, 2023 at 7:40am
by Mark Willis
Composer David Morneau has concluded a heroic yearlong musical project. A doctoral candidate in composition at Ohio State., Morneau has been composing, producing, and blogging one 60-second piece of music daily for the past 12 months on a site called 60 X 365. He discussed the project yesterday on NPR Music:
“I kind of hit a […]