FIELDNOTES: I report on my wilderness ecology fieldwork from the field…

If these little story-poems are a bit rough, then good. It reflects something about what I sometimes sense as the overcooked or false perfection of book culture. Like Thoreau said, it IS possible at times to have too much civilization. One begins to long for a bit of dirt under the nails, the sound of wild water, the smell of freshly turned earth. None of these stories are written down. This is how we talk with close friends at high, remote camps, for fun, perhaps sitting on the ground around a campfire. 

There's also the key relation between IMPROVISED & COMPOSED. We know this in Music as well. Without going into this question here, just let me say that, in contrast to Indian Music and Jazz, in both Western Classical Music and Poetry, the spirit, the quality of energy, and yes, the perceived necessity of improvisation, has been lost. In my view, we need a new awareness that is, as a matter of daily practice, giving attention to the balance of the two. All we have to do, really, is take the pedants, professors, poetry journal editors, and throw them out of the room, for the more artificially formal and objectified an art becomes in terms to its notation, the greater the fear will be of making 'a mistake.' And, of course, its concomitant: the lesser will be the joy of creativity.

[PHOTO: The famous Hwy. 20, BEND to BURNS, Oregon]

For a bit of context, and for those who don't know me:

HOW I WORK, or when how you get there is more than half the photograph, more than half the text . . .

Following the simple ethical principle, "FIRST, do no harm," I never use cars. Instead, I do everything on foot, by bike, or snowshoe, or ski. I think this in a direct way affects the spirit of my work; it also deeply influences how I see and sense the world. The photos of my 100 MINIATURES Collection, for example, were all approached in this way—including the spaces in between each image—as a kind of pilgrimage, sometimes involving journeys of many weeks or even months. Similarly, most of the texts were composed while walking, or at basecamps, or otherwise living outside. I would not want to work any other way.



12 PORTRAITS, little improvised road stories


    A MORNING MEDITATION, on the layered sound
    of dry whitebark pine burning in my campfire.
    One of the basic complementarities of musical
    rhythmic movement is the back and forth of    
    regular and irregular: Regular beats, because
    they a predictable, tend to become background,
    like the blue sky in a photograph, or the white
    of this webpage. Irregular beats, because they
    are unpredictable, tend to become foreground. As
    in all perception, difference and balance are
    crucial. In design, musical or otherwise, too much
    of either one pushes the whole in the background
    we call boredom, or at least, "not worthy of
    attention." The Latin root of regular, regularis,
    from regula, or 'rule,' suggests this very thing.
    We all know that too much rule leads to the
    rigidity of the authoritarian; and too much
    of the irregular leads to the degenerative --
    not generative -- chaos of anarchy. If you're
    a percussionist, it's an interesting challenge
    to, first, write down these irregular rhythms,
    and second, have them played in ensemble. And
    all that in the sound of a morning campfire!

SEE ALSO: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/sound-of-burning-whitebark.html

FIELDNOTES: I report on the sound-rhythm of Whitebark Pine, burning...

Recorded in snythvoice. Sometimes I prefer a nonhuman voice to read texts of some urgency. I like the greater DISTANCE & OBJECTIVITY it gives to matters of some emotional concern.

PHOTO: A Norway Spruce in North America showing all the symptoms of illness. You will not find a healthy tree in the Alps, where they are the signature species, and native. Victims of a hotter, drier climate & all-pervasive pollution. SEE MORE at http://www.picture-poems.com/photoweek/fiddletop-spruce.html

SEE TEXT at http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/spruce_sonogram_composite.html

WHY I CALL Picea abies FIDDLE-TOP SPRUCE, a stringplayer-ecologist's manifesto

SEE PHOTO & other links to avalanche materials at: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/avalanche-swath_10-7-12b.html

FIELDNOTES: I report on an Eagle Cap Wilderness "Avalanche Swath" X.7.2012

PHOTO: I couldn't quite find the image I mention here, in the field. Until I do, here's an image of flock of thirty sheep in Urnerland, the Alps. My job here is two-fold. (1) Come up behind and catch strays; (2) Count them, which I find very difficult. I always forget where I'm at!

FIELDNOTES: I report on March snowmelt, overgrazing & the problem of natural limit on public land

PHOTO: Urnerland, the Alps

SOUNDS: Header from my PHAROS; coda, from THE MAGIC BOX, "Night phantom"

WALKING THE WORLD: "Backpack Pilgrim," a narrative prose-poem crossing in the Alps

An interview with Chris Riebe, as she was working on YUM CHENMO, "Great Wisdom Mother"

I made this photo while biking back from Glacier National Park to the Wallowas. On the way, I stopped at the wonderful and amazing Garden of 1000 Buddhas, in Arlee, Montana.

Special thanks to Chris Riebe and #KonchogNorbu for showing me around, and allowing me to make photographs of their work. Below is a little taped interview I did with Chris, Montana Buddhist artist extraordinaire, made on a sunny day towards the end of September, as she was painting details along the part of #YumChenmo. (If you listen carefully, you can actually hear light brush strokes as she is unfolding the meaning of the Garden, and what she is working on placed within the #Tibetan #Buddhist tradition. (With a bit of Montana wind, and shutter release clicks, but only at first . . .)

SEE MORE PHOTOS at: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/1000-buddhas_9-29-10_2.html

IF YOU ARE interested in Tibetan Buddhism, and especially the question of the Chinese occupation, listen also to: A QUESTION OF NONVIOLENCE, OR NONEXISTENCE http://bit.ly/1o6KZMf



FIELDNOTES: I report on YUM CHENMO & the Garden of 1000 Buddhas

THIS IS A FIELDNOTES composite of recordings I made at the amazing and wonderful Salish Language Revitalization Institute. Most of us are unaware that, in the Pacific Northwest, we are experiencing the 5th largest language extinction on the planet. Here, some of the heroic young parents tell their story of learning a complex language -- #Salish -- and actually creating an entire elementary school so that their children may grow up into their native tongue in a modern environment. A few of the elders, also participating in the project on a daily basis, help me learn a few simple words. 

"Put that language in the middle, and it spreads out,
everywhere..." Stephan Smallsalmon

PHOTO: YOUNG SALISH STUDENTS at morning class Jocko Valley, Arlee, #Montana. The Salish Language Revitalization Institute

SLIDESHOW OF 37 images I made at the school: http://bit.ly/1rv0qIM

SEE MORE INTERVIEWS, photos, etc., at: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/nkwusm_9-29-10_1bw.html

VISIT The Salish Language Revitalization Institute online at: http://www.salishworld.com
 

FIELDNOTES: I report on "Salish learning Salish," Jocko Valley, Montana

PHOTO: NORTH-side / SOUTH-side Cornucopia Peak, the South WALLOWA, Oregon, where the recording was made VI.27.2008

SEE MORE at: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/copia_north-south_6-27-08.html

FIELDNOTES: I report on difference between SOUTH- & NORTH-facing slope

FOR MORE PHOTOS & MORE ON the natural history of the Camas Lily -- one of the most beautiful and storied plants of the Northwest -- go to: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/camassia_6-15-10d.html

FIELDNOTES: I report on a secret reserve of CAMAS LILIES

PHOTO: Last light on Snow-wiki (a kind of quickly made igloo) in the South Wallowa, February aspect, OREGON

FOR MORE SOUNDS & photo of Mt. Toad love, go to: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/bufo-borealis_7-1-10.html

FIELDWORK: I report on the sound of snow, bird nests & mountain toads

PHOTO: Corn Lily (Veratrum viridis), MAY aspect http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/veratrum_6-5-11.html

NOTE: "Native invasive" is a radically new concept, one we need with disturbance, especially if we are to understand the more subtle effects of the climate crisis. It's an interesting thought: a native species, like say, Mt. Pine Beetles, becomes thoroughly invasive once the wider context -- the climate, or grazing practices -- changes. 



FIELDNOTES: I report on the "native invasive" Corn Lily & the "Strong Man Circle"

A rambling, cold, windy meditation -- it was -15 c. -- on skis, above the picture-poems.com Office in happy EAGLE VALLEY, an isolated, rugged & wild area of Northeast Oregon. And yet, I'm looking down into a temperature inversion holding a toxic soup of particulates from an interstate highway 60 km away, as the crow flies. It's true. No place to hide. Pollution, if nothing else, brings home the oneness of the world. MORE AT: http://picture-poems.com/photoweek/eagle-valley-inversion.html



FIELDNOTES: I report from the Eagle Cap Wilderness on air pollution in the valley below

PHOTO: Snug Thanksgiving Camp, at 2300 m., between Spire Firs & Whitebark Pine, the WALLOWA, #Oregon

FiELDNOTES: Climate Crisis, Mountaineering & Rain on top of Snow

PHOTO: David Landrum, expert field biologist & "timber cruiser" with 30+ years of experience working all over the Pacific Northwest.

MUSIC interpolations are from TIMELINE, on SOUNDCLOUD at: http://bit.ly/1EpufWM

SEE INTRO to Timeline at: www.cs-music.com/drums/intro-timeline.html GO TO iPad webscore at: www.cs-music.com/drums/timeline-1.html DOWNLOAD score at: cs-music.com/drums/timeline.pdf DOWNLOAD parts at: cs-music.com/drums/timeline_parts.pdf




FIELDNOTES: I talk w/ my friend, David Landrum, field biologist, on the job in OREGON

JUST A LITTLE field recording I made yesterday, Mayday-Tree-of-Life-Day, V.I.2015. I was out photo-making/mt. bike training, going up a little 400 m. pass just 1.5 km from my little Eagle Valley shoebox Office. I had just stopped as two regular-sized pickups approached in opposite directions. If you bike, you know first hand what I'm about to say; if you don't bike, you won't.

NOISE POLLUTION. 

How is it experienced by the avian world? I'm afraid I can't agree with the great Bucky Fuller, here."Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting." That's true for the trucks emissions, but it's hard to see how that's possible with all the noise pollution of the world.

Just meditate on this a bit. NOISE, here, is the entirely unintended side-effect of two ranchers going in opposite directions in a hurry. I guess becoming de-sensetized to the subtlety of natural, living sound is just part and parcel or a generally horribly de-humanized landscape. I also wanted to call attention to the fact that this is not just a feature of BIG CITY life. And the two counter-singing Meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta http://bit.ly/1I6qaZW)? Well, I for one can only marvel at their tenacity and strength of spirit. Sing as sing one must, regardless of the racket the rest of the, from their point of view, indifferent world makes.

PHOTO: Sulphur Lupine in Sagebrush (Lupinus sulphureus), just above where the field recording was made . . . at: http://bit.ly/1QYYngB

[LISTENING TIP: try downloading the little mp3 file & putting into a loop w/ iTunes or other player. The density as a background soundscape is about what it is like if you're biking the Oregon outback on asphalt. Once you're on gravel, it's very much more quiet. And once you cache your bike, which is what I do, and head into the roadless wilderness, one only has to contend with the fighter jets overhead.]


FIELDNOTES: Noise pollution in an isolated sagebrush steppe at 700m., w/ Meadowlark Duo...

THIS IS A little recording on SOUND / SILENCE complementarity in Music, Poetry & Dance. I made it while taking a break from autumn fieldwork photo-making. I was working in an enchanting Avalanche Alder grove at 1500 m. or so. It was the end of October. Wind still. Wonderful golden yellows all around. A small creek near by. So my thought naturally turned to the rhythmic back and forth of sounds against the natural ground of silence.

It seems that a key feature of Western cultural fragmentation is the breaking apart of natural, complementary cycles of movement. Think of a circle. Think of a circle MOVING, a kind of dance around a DIFFERENCE. And now, cut the circle, the cycle, apart. What you get is a straight line. Lines going nowhere, without life, without breath, without movement. 

That's bad. Why? Because it naturally leads -- most of the time unawares -- into kind of confused state of imbalance.

See what you think!

PHOTO: Fall Alder leaf venation, or vein patternation. 


On The Fragmentation of the SOUND / SILENCE Complementarity

I'M JUST BACK from a 27-day winter solstice ski / snowshoe camp. This little clip brings together some of the things I was working on. Let met know what you think! Mail to cliff@picture-poems.com

POSTER and more more are on the web at: NEW ENERGY MANIFESTO -- a 3-fold revolution http://bit.ly/1NUGJXi pdf http://bit.ly/1YMKIj9


FIELDNOTES: A New Energy Manifesto

A DIALOGUE TAPE . . . THE POSTER & more for this FIELDNOTES are at: 

FIELDNOTES: #OREGONunderattack, ten different ways of looking at a conflict http://bit.ly/1TYgx1R

MUSIC HEADER & coda is from my recording of Edgard Varèse, Integrales, w/ the ASKO Ensemble,  on Soundcloud at: http://bit.ly/1S2uexu



FIELDNOTES, I report on the armed takeover of an OREGON wildlife refuge

I REPORT ON an idea for a winter refuge that came to mind while skiing with my sled yesterday, from alpine to canyon country. Just a thought. See what you think!

PHOTO: My "snowbob," or "stationwagon," i.e., the mountaineering sled I use with skis or snowshoes, mostly for transporting loads to basecamps.


FIELDNOTES: I report on an idea for a winter refuge

Composer. Writer. Photographer. Former conductor & founder of the ASKO ensemble.

On a bike/ski/hike trek of the Pacific Northwest studying native plants & climate breakdown 🌲 from sagebrush sea to whitebark pine. Composing off-grid the whole way.

#Sun2Sound 🌕 on X

THINKING LIKE A STONEPINE, a soundpoem manifesto https://vimeo.com/844665859

“LOVE & WATER, three thought poems w/ coda, PHAROS for small orchestra, “Nightwind”” https://vimeo.com/847079690 

CURRENTLY on mt bike/ski/climbing trek through Pacific Northwest, working on a photobook about WHITEBARK PINE COLLAPSE and CLIMATE CRISIS. BASES in the WALLOWAS | AMSTERDAM | ALPS. 

WEEKLY photo/poetry updates at www.picture-poems.com & THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE new music, poetry & dance performance project at www.cs-music.com

ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT for progressive, tech-savy, instrumental virtuosi interested in dialogue & collaborative undertakings.

CONTACT cliff@picture-opoems.com
Or on SKYPE or FACETIME @cliffcrego

MUSIC? The one thing humans do,
that makes the rest of nature jealous.

FIELDNOTES: I report on my wilderness ecology fieldwork from the field…

Cliff Crego