Post-Halloween Autumn

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(I have stayed in the USA much longer than expected, as I had originally planned to return to Thailand before Halloween.  And I have neglected posting here.)

On the last weekend of July we had a fantastic reunion of Barlow family first cousins, with all 12 cousins still alive and in attendance.  We all had a great time.  I haven’t written about it simply because I didn’t know where to start.  I’m still speechless with joy whenever I think back on it.

In August and September I did a lot of hiking and bivouacking, as I have mentioned in posts during that time.  I slowly regained my health after it had declined from the unusually intense tropical heat of Thailand’s last Hot Season earlier this year.  I continued exercise through October, although I recently stopped my lifting program due to backache.  As much as possible I have been in bivouac out in the fields of the farm under the Moon.

On Halloween day, late afternoon, I marched up Teal Hill Road doing “roadwork”, i.e., the old boxers’ routine to improve one’s wind.  I had shuffled up this hill in the summertime heat, and I knew its gradient and the psychological effort needed to make the climb with maximum intensity.  From first shuffling to walking and then to full-0ut marching it, I have made it a prime workout.  It gets you to breathing hard.  It feels so good, but it takes a lot of painful work to get to this level of fitness.  Now to maintain it!

The late afternoon Halloween sun was low and the wind was crisp.  I felt like a Viking in the northern wind.  I topped out at the high plateau junction with Swede Hollow Road in cold sun and fresh wind.

Two days later, I repeated the march with the same quick tempo and grim into-the-hill forward lean to the uphill stretches.  Now I have been repeating this roadwork at this same quick-step whenever I can.

I have been given a clean bill of health from the VA, so now I’m ready to get a ticket back to Thailand.  Last night and today was the first real snowstorm of this coming cold season in Sugar Grove, and the world is white.  Time to think about the Tropics.

-Zenwind.
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Sleeping Out in Open Air

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Tai Chi in the Moonshadows.

Silver landscapes at midnight.

Ah, yes, the mountain poets would have smiled.
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-Zenwind.
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Bivouac at Pine Tree Point

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I like it here, nestled in an isolated little ravine with reliable water and the fire-circle I built over a decade ago.  Peaceful and quiet.

This is one of the last times I will wear my old hiking boots in the hills.  They are comfortable favorites – best damn hikers I ever owned, comfortable right out of the box – but they are over 20 years old and the inside stitching is coming undone, so I want to retire them to trusty work-boot status.  I just received a new pair of the identical model from L.L. Bean, and they fantastic.  These will take on the ruff duty from now on.

I brought portable music on this bivy.  Is this odd to bring such technology along when sojourning in a cool, quiet spot of natural paradise in the forest?  Maybe.  But when I played the Chinese “12 Girls Band”, their traditional Chinese instruments added additional Ch’an/Zen flavor to my bivy site.

At dark I heard a strange cry from the trail not far above.  Eerie.  It was a coyote, and another one further up the hill answered, as did another one further off.  The near one must have heard my music or seen my lighter, and the word went out to the others that there was a stranger in the ravine.

In the several bivouacs I’ve done here at Pine Tree Point this year, I’ve never yet built a fire in the fire circle.  Instead, I’ve brought along a candle lantern, and I haven’t done any cooking.

Soon, I’m hoping to do a long backpack and multi-day bivy out in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) at my more remote site I call Dharma Point – if and when I can find someone to drive me out there and drop me off, and later have someone pick me up a few days later.  I will need to plan a more serious menu with cooking gear.  I’ll need to do some shakedown bivies locally with the gear to test the systems.  It’s been a long time.

Got to get out to the back and beyond.

-Zenwind.
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Moondance

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00:00 hours.
Midnight bivy in the west orchard.
Doing Tai Chi in the moonbeams
and amidst hidden moon shadows.

I loosen up, flow, dance.
Alternately I shake out one foot
then the other, and
my movements start to quicken.
Deer, who had been resting in the
nearby thicket shadows which
border the orchard, take flight.
Who is this stranger in their midst?

Looking up, I see Lyra, the lyre.
Now, after over 40 years of mystery,
I finally see it and
know why it is so named.
Vega is both the brightest star
in tiny Lyra
and also one point of the larger
Summer Triangle.
I only now see the lyre as Vega passes
westward over the zenith,
leading the Triangle with it.
In this new, high westerly, orientation
the little stringed lyre is obvious.

Perseus is rising high in the NE.

01:00 hours.
Capella is moving up
in the NNE.
There is a lone star low in the south.
In Virgo?

02:00 hours.
I ramble through dewy grass
in the orchards and groves,
peeking up at patches of open sky.
Due east I see the Pleiades rising
with Taurus right behind.

02:30 hours.  Time to bivy.
I lie down in warm comfort,
but hear stomping of hooves
from the other side of the thicket.
A deer snorts strongly at my
mysterious presence.
I snap my fingers, not too loudly,
twice, and then there is silence.

05:30 hours.
Waking just before dawn
I see Orion and Sirius
in the SE.
Harbingers of new seasons.

-Zenwind.
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August Full Moon

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Still damp after rains.
Fog starts near streams
and moves up through
moonlit fields.
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The Moon chases Altair
as Vega leads
the Summer Triangle west.
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Classical Guitar Alive on
radio fills the still night.
Warm bivouac gear
and a lawn chair
warm my heart.
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Watching the Full Moon.
How many times
have I seen it?
How many more?
I will resolve
(second step of Path)
to seize more opportunities.
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-Zenwind.

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Cousins Arriving

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Our cousins have been arriving in the lead-up to our family reunion of first cousins this weekend. It is wonderful to see them.
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-Zenwind.
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July Evening

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Dragonfly evening.
Rock n Roll plays at dusk.
Fireflies everywhere.
I look up,
and I see Mars bright in Scorpius.
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-Zenwind.
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St. Swithun’s Day 2016

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St. Swithun’s Day marks the midpoint of summer – “summer” as defined by meteorologists (and not astronomers), being from 1 June to 31 August.  The Ides of July.

I am Stateside and enjoying my stay with my family here.  My cousin Danny just arrived ahead of our cousins’ reunion here in two weeks.  He was a brother to me growing up, and it is great to see him again.  We have so far discussed music, our youth, Vietnam, women, and lots and lots of other topics – with great enthusiasm.

On St. Swithun’s Day, I have traditionally listed the books and movies I have read or seen in the half year since New Years Day.  But I did not get the list together yet and hope to post it one day.  This visit has been a whirlwind, and I have not given much time to my writing.

The Moon is a gibbous waxing one, heading toward the Full Moon on Monday which is the Buddhist holiday of Vesak, celebrating both the birthday and later the Enlightenment (at age 35) of Gautama Buddha.  In Thailand it will be a major five-day holiday.  It will probably rain on Monday, but I’m hoping for a clearing sky by dark.

Blessed coolness.  Zen delight.

-Zenwind.
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Bivouac in the Woods

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Pine Tree Bend – Midsummer week

I carried a “lazy man’s bivouac” up to Pine Tree Bend the other day, returning the next afternoon.  It was a refreshing experience to be alone out in the woods overnight.  So rejuvenating.

By “lazy man’s bivouac” I mean hauling only the extremely lightweight bare essentials:  sleeping bag, mat, water filter, etc.  No tent, cooker, etc.  (Ok, I admit it, my sleeping mat is one that converts into a lounge chair at ground level, a Therma-Rest “Therma-Lounger”, a decadent luxury at only one pound of extra weight in the pack.  I will not apologize.)

I was entertained by chipmunk Olympics in the afternoon as four or five of the little critters chased each other and tumbled together.  Then birdsong at dusk, the song of the Thrush (Wood Thrush?).  After complete darkness the fireflies provided an astonishing display.

I was in ecstasy as I simply sat in the woods, watching and listening.

Blessed coolness.  Zen delight.

-Zenwind.
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Moonlight Return on Back Roads

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The Moon was a waxing gibbous one, rising in the late afternoon well before dark in the southeast.  I was visiting one of my dearest friends from my youth, and they provided me with precious conversation and companionship all afternoon and evening, also cooking me a fantastic pot roast.  It was an incredibly high time of friendship and direct communication, a priceless memory that tapped into old memories.

I had planned on walking, on back roads, the three miles or so back to my SG lodgings and had hoped to be under way while the Moon was still high and bright.  At about 01:30 hours I noticed that the Moon had peaked and was descending low into the southwest, so I headed out (“to the territory ahead”, as Huck Finn put it).  It was a very fine walk in the moonlight.

It took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to cover the ground.  By the time I reached the farm – at 03:00 hours – Mars was sinking out of sight in the southwest and the Moon was following.  What amazed me was that not one dog barked as I walked by numerous farms on the back roads.  (And not one car went by – on a Friday night!)

The day with my dear friend and the moonlight walk home is a high point of my sojourn in the USA.

-Zenwind.

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Pine Tree Bend: re-discovered

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Pine Tree Bend is an old secret bivouac site of mine close to home on the hill above the S.G. gravel pit, and this entire area was my old stomping grounds from the 1960s on through the decades following (on motorcycle, horse, and mostly on foot).  Today I found the site again after so many years in exile.

This little bitty site is off the trails and in a very small obscure streambed’s gorge.  The stream bends around the bank on which the big old pine tree stands.  The little ledge near the tree is big enough for a tent or two, and the stone fire-circle that I built long ago is still there.  It is a hermit site, dear to this hermit.

The entire site is long-neglected and littered with leaves and branches, and it will take some cleaning up.  The old pine tree is still alive, but its dead branches now go up higher than ever toward the fewer live ones at the very top.  I think that one will still be able to hear the wind through the pine when the wind is wild enough, but the pine tree probably has only a decade or two left before it dies out.

Finding the spot was an exercise in lone wandering, to ramble from one possible path to another.  It is great joy to encounter old trails, some abandoned, some still used  but with both old and new variations.  I have always thought that Exploration is the very Soul of Man.  I love such rambling – pure hobo joy!

-Zenwind.
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Machete 101

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I always thought that I was extremely knowledgeable and competent with using a machete, from use in Vietnam and in the many decades since, hacking my way through stubborn brush and bush.  Alas, I have been but a rank amateur.  I only learned to properly use the machete blade just this last week.  I had been trying to cut a path through brush to connect to a hiking trail.

I had always relied on  brute strength, chopping as if with an axe.  But this week I lacked the strength because of a bad injury to my left arm and elbow (possibly because of machete work the week before or from manhandling heavy boxes of books and gear in my sister’s attic or from both).  And my right arm was not strong anymore, so I had to operate from weakness.

I sharpened the machete blade extra well, and I took the sharpening stone along for constant re-honing.  I found that I had to use “wrist English” to cut through the grasses, brush and briers, flicking the blade in a slicing motion rather than a chopping one.

I cut smaller swathes with patience, like my father taught me to do with the long scythe and the short sickle.  My lack of strength let me discover how to exploit the machete’s ingenious design, from letting the blade’s slicing swing lead from the handle end to allow slicing progressively toward the blade’s point end, with a finishing flick of the wrist utilizing the blade's wide-curved tip end.

Re-sharpening every five minutes and pacing myself to the long job, I now understood the philosophy of the machete for the first time.  Enlightened menial labor.  I get it!

-Zenwind.
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Back in the U.S.A.

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"I'm back in the U.S.A." (as Chuck Berry sang in 1959) -- at least temporarily -- arriving early for a family reunion of cousins in July.  My sister and her husband met me at the Buffalo airport in the late afternoon of the 12th, and I'm having a great stay with them.  Conversation with them seems like picking up threads that were not interupted all that long ago.  But I'm experiencing this climate as being rather "cool" after a full decade in the Tropics.

My first urgent goal was to explore the old farmhouse attic and find my gear:  hiking boots, warm clothing, etc.  So on my first morning here (Friday the 13th) I waded into the mounds of junk.  I stopped when I finally found my prized broken-in pair of L.L. Bean hikers.  (First shoes/boots I've worn in nine years!)  I also grabbed some favorite fleece jackets, which I layer.  But I did not yet find my long-john bottoms or fleece pants, and I'm cold without them.

The intense work of sorting and wrestling with heavy boxes of books and climbing hardware -- in a small cramped space under the low attic roof -- has made my aged body a collection of knots of raw pain.  My back hurts so bad that it is painful to breathe.

After that morning's work, my first full day here in NW Pennsylvania was beautiful.  May was blooming and the scents were wonderful.  I haven't smelt such rich temperate zone vegetation in a decade.  I was outside with my brother-in-law as he worked around the farm's trees and future garden, but I wasn't of much help because by then I was walking around like an old man.  The wind was fresh, and I had enough proper layers on to feel very comfortable in it.  It was not like the 100*F temps and high humidity that I'd just left.

Then yesterday it got colder and rainy.  Today it is actually snowing in the early daylight hours.  Wow, snow on the Ides of May!  I must look for gloves in my next foray into the attic.  Our hope is that no more frosts occur to ruin this year's apple crop.

07:30 on a Sunday morning, and I had just looked out the window to see an Amish buggy go by.  Now that proves I'm really back on the old home ground.

-Zenwind.
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The Whipping Post

“Sometimes I feel,

Sometimes I feel,

Like I’ve been tied to the Whipping Post,

Tied to the Whipping Post,

Tied to the Whipping Post,

Good Lord I feel like I’m dying.” 

The Allman Brothers Band.  Southern Blues-Rock at its best.  Yeah, right now at this moment it feels every bit as much down-and-out suffering Blues as that, and the Allman Brothers manage to identify this existential predicament spot on.  I’m in physical pain, and these Blues help. 

My count-down to my travel to North America is only a couple of days away, and I’ve been struggling to tie up loose ends. I ventured out to Bangkok to get Tuk some necessary items and also to get myself some stuff – like these Noise Cancellation (NC) earphones, which are phenomenal when reproducing music!. 

In this hellish hot plus-100*F heat (without the unspeakable humidity even factored in), I ventured out, primarily for Tuk but secondarily for my Music.  The excellent music reproduction of the NC headset surprised my highest expectations.  I’m hearing details of the music that I had missed for several decades.  This is rich musical experience. 

I took the express boat home.  It was crowded and I only found a seat (on the starboard, i.e., East, side out of the afternoon sun) right up front beside the pilot.  He was a master who took his responsibilities seriously.  I watched in awe as he carefully nudged his craft into the river channel, which is only about 70-80 meters wide and full of crazy boat traffic.  He continually looked all around, to the left and right and behind, to chart a safe course.  I was impressed. 

I was in great physical pain.  I had a heavy backpack full of shopping stuff, and even the simple travel into the city heaps pain upon pain.  I had the foresight to buy a small quantity of booze as pain-killer, and I took a double-shot before heading for the river boat. 

Once cruising northward – homebound – I plugged in the new NC earphones and sampled from my collection of music.  The Allman Brothers Blues Band looked appealing, and I played it over and over.  Although I was northbound, I appreciated their song “Southbound”, “coming home to you.”  Their song “Blue Sky” is another song about heading home. 

But the physical pain I experienced, even tempered a bit by the booze, made “The Whipping Post” the most relevant song of all.  Again, the music quality was extraordinary. 

My boat pilot assumed that I was a tourist farang, and when we stopped at the boat pier for Kao San Road area he pointed it out to me in case I would miss my stop.  I replied in some of the only Thai I know that I would disembark at a pier further up the river.  When that pier finally approached, I thanked him and gave him my smartest military salute, which he returned.  We grinned and parted as friends. 

It’s a lovely country, if only it wasn’t so goddamned hot! 

Gotta stop now.  I’m still refining my packing for the trip to the States.  Lightweight, lean, and fast. 

-Zenwind.

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“Where the Fair Wind Blows”

Searching for coolness and for a fair wind that is not scorching.  Wish it would rain, but we’re in the middle of the worst drought in over 40 years here.  Dust and heat.  Every day this month of April has been 100*F or higher, with wicked humidity.  Even the Thais are complaining. 

We completed our annual Immigration Office ordeal and extended my stay here through to next April.  I am proud of myself for remaining calm while enduring massive bureaucratic idiocy – some of these “civil servants” were spending their time playing with their phones or standing around chatting and joking while we negligible petitioners sat waiting for hours.  (And people the world over think that governments have the competence and the will to help solve our problems and improve our lives?) 

With our paperwork at Immigration all finished except for one signature, the clock struck noon and then the entire Immigration crew closed shop for lunch hour, so we had to come back later.  (Sounds familiar, like the US Post Offices that close window service at noon – right at the one time when the “customers” might get a chance to visit the window.  Private businesses, if they are smart, have to cater to their customers’ needs, but monopolies like the USPS don’t have to bother.) 

Am I sounding cynical?  One of my favorite Jack Nicholson lines puts it in perspective: 

“Now I’m a fair guy, but this fucking heat is driving me absolutely crazy.” 

The only reason I didn’t lose it completely and go postal at Immigration was that their office was air conditioned. 

A song in the movie Jeremiah Johnson (1972) mentions the quest for “where the fair wind blows.”  Still looking for that place. 

-Zenwind.

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Songkran 2016 CE / 2559 BE

We are celebrating Songkran (year 2559 of the Buddhist Era) in this, one long hot holiday week.  Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year, although the official calendar here marks years from 1 January to keep pace with world calendars. 

Because this is the hottest time of year, the tradition is to sprinkle water on people – or to throw it if you are young and wilting from the blazing heat. 

This year has been the hottest in memory here.  Temperatures have been above 100*F for a week now and are forecast to be above 100 for the next week.  That is raw temperature without factoring in the Heat Index of “felt temperature” due to added humidity.  The last time I checked out the Heat Index it was 124*F, and I haven’t bothered to check it since because it’s too damned hot to think about. 

Tuk has had a lot of time off work for the long holiday, and we have been spending most of the time at home trying to stay cool – without much success.  The fans are turned up to the max day and night; I shower every few hours; but I’m still bathed in sweat.  We are consuming huge amounts of liquids to stay hydrated.  Yesterday we did go to a mall so Tuk could upgrade her SIM card to 4G from the fazed-out 2G she has had forever; she can now use her brand new Samsung smartphone, and she is having a ball playing with her new toy.  We also saw the movie “The Jungle Book”, and we were not used to the extreme air-conditioning at the mall’s theater, which had me shivering before the movie’s end. 

I have given up on all attempts at exercising, since it’s just too damn hot.  The treadmill has given me pulled muscles every time I’ve attempted it for a long time now, and it has crippled me for days at a time so that I can hardly walk; so I’ve given up on that.  And I cannot do weight training since the heat saps all my strength. 

I've been plotting my visit to the States -- first time in 10 years -- and I have my ticket to ride.  I will pack light.  No date of return to Thailand, but I'm sure the first frosts of Autumn will drive me home if I haven't already left.  

Stay cool. 

-Zenwind.

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April Heat

April is the dead center of our Hot Season, more unrelentingly brutal than usual.  So I’m not writing much of anything these days. 

In front of two powerful fans, I have been doing a lot of reading. 

Going out is limited to the bare necessities.  I had to make my annual visit to the US Embassy for a notarized document to satisfy Thai Immigration for my late-April application for Extension of Stay based on Retirement.  Other than that, I only go out to get more ice, tea, milk, and Coke Zero.  Staying hydrated here in Sweat City is a grim ongoing battle. 

-Zenwind.

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Some Bad, Some Good

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On the Bad side, I’m in a lot of pain.  A lot of pain.  It’s physical pain, and it worries me as far as my hopes of visiting my sister and her family this year; the prospect of the extreme pain involved in travel haunts me.  It scares the shit out of me.  My back hurts all the time, and my hips and legs are failing.  It hurts to simply walk.  I’m not sure if I can do it. 

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It is hotter than Hell here.  There was no Rainy monsoon season last year and no “winter” either.  It is unbelievably hot and humid, far worse than any of the years I’ve experienced here in the last 10 years.  “More uncomfortable than you would ever believe” sums it up. 

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On the Good side, I did a rare Saturday night pub-crawl recently – pure delight.  As a full day’s outing, I targeted films in Bangkok theaters and live music gigs.  The timing of events is crucial since any public transit travel around Bangkok during the insanely crowded evening rush hour is something this Country Boy tries to avoid at all costs.  So I timed it thus: 

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The House Rama RCA Theaters.  This is an out-of-the-way theater with two screens, and they often host movies not shown elsewhere here.  (Thank the gods for Google’s GPS, because the taxi drivers don’t know where to go to find this obscure place until I show them the route on my phone.)  Arriving at House RCA in mid-afternoon, I saw, back to back, two films that were nominated for recent Oscars:  45 Years for which the incredible Charlotte Rampling was nominated Best Actress; and Son of Saul which later won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.  Both great. 

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The timing was perfect, for I had time to leisurely walk through the early evening from this theater (two or three klicks) to that great music venue, Nothing But The Blues, another place that is hard-to-find.  I heard the fantastic Bleusline Band for the first time and was completely delighted.  Their rendition of the classic Robert Johnson/ Cream song “Crossroads” was excellent. 

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I left before the third set of the Bleusline Band to meet friends at The Rock Pub.  My favorite Rock and Roll band, Mundee, played there from midnight on.  Three Led Zeppelin songs:  “The Immigrant Song”; “Stairway to Heaven”; “Rock and Roll”.  Wow! 

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Another Good side item:  Just the other day I had such wonderful relief from a long-standing money problem.  My very small pensions from teaching, etc., go to a US bank from which I have a Debit Card to use for ATM withdrawals and modest online purchases.  My Debit Card was blocked in the week before Christmas!!!, effectively crippling my finances through the holidays and till now.  They were “updating” their tech, they said.  The timing was pure Ebenezer Scrooge obliviousness.  They sent me a new card, but it was blocked again because of inept failure of delivery from a top international courier company here and I was unaware of the entire plan.  (We have a home address that is almost impossible to find, even by professionals.)  I finally got another card in a successful delivery, but it was blocked also, probably because of my odd and “suspicious” status as an expatriate living in this corrupt region. 

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Week after week, month after month, phone call after phone call, I have tried to straighten out the problem – with maddening results.  Bank operators pass me off to other operators who cannot speak English, or who at least cannot speak English understandably.  Total frustration and failure to solve the problem.  Well, I finally connected with a person who spoke English that we could both understand, and my card is now activated for modest use.  About damn time. 

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“Christ, you know it ain’t easy,

  You know how hard it can be,

  The way things are going,

  They’re gonna crucify me.” 

(-John Lennon.)

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-Zenwind.

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Winter in Thailand

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This is our second winter cold snap.  I wrote about the first one two weeks ago (26 January), and then we had almost a week of normal hot weather with temps up in the mid-90s and humid – until now.  The last two nights have again been down to 61*F, and I’ve had all the fans off for a couple of days – even in the daytime.  Downright chilly.  Again, bathing is a rude awakening. 

I wrote the following yesterday while sitting outside in the shade in our small courtyard in the afternoon:  

I had to go back inside to get a shirt, since it is down to 78*F (at 2 p.m.) and my normal minimal attire of only swim trunks isn't enough.  I initially buttoned up the short sleeve shirt, but that was too hot and I had to unbutton it. This is much like fine-tuning layers of clothing in temperate or very cold climates, except much simpler.

Such extraordinarily low humidity and low dewpoint in the daytime make the air shockingly comfortable.  I still put ice in my drinks -- force of habit from 350 days of oppressive heat and humidity for the rest of the year -- today's mix in my big insulated mug being iced espresso, raspberry vodka, and Coke Zero.

A bit of wind picked up mid-afternoon, and I had to re-button my shirt. I still light a mosquito coil and place it on a plate between my feet on my lawn chair, since flies and mosquitoes still bother me in "winter", and mosquitoes carrying the dread Dengue Fever bite during the daytime.

It is Chinese New Year, and many of the vendors on the sidewalks are absent, probably visiting family. 

-Zenwind.

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Cold Snap in Greater Bangkok

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For the last two mornings the dawn temperature was 61*F (16*C), which seems incredibly cold after unrelenting hot weather.  Winter has finally arrived, although it will get hotter and hotter each day to a normal midday 95*F by the weekend. 

We had to scramble a bit to find our stored extra clothes that we haven’t used for years.  I didn’t locate any of my socks since we don’t ever wear them here, but they sure would have been nice for nighttime wear. 

Our place of course has no central heating or space heaters of any kind, nor a hot water heater.  Usually these are not problems except on exceptional moments like these.  Taking a bath now is a grim affair, and I am postponing mine today until the sun gets a little hotter. 

-Zenwind.

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Movies Seen, last half of 2015

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Movies seen in second half of 2015, from St. Swithun’s to New Year 2016:  

(Many of the older films are ones I’ve seen before but re-watched on video.)

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[Recent films in theater here since 15 July]: 

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Ant-Man (2015)

Kidnapping Freddy Heineken (2015)

Danny Collins (2015)

The Road Within (2015)

Pixels (2015)

Burying the Ex (2015)

Self / Less (2015)

Paper Towns (2015)

Amy (Winehouse, documentary) (2015)

Everest (2015) – excellent!

Cooties (2015)

Sicario (2015)

Crimson Peak (2015)

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)

Spectre (2015) good old-school Bond

The Lobster (2015) – bizarre, but with a great cast

In the Heart of the Sea (2015) very good
Irrational Man (2015) 

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[Older movies seen on DVD since 15 July]:

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Going Clear ((2015, DVD) – EXCELLENT!!! Scientology exposed

The Big Chill (1983, DVD) – an all-time favorite

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986, vd) – classic; still funny

October Sky (1999, vd) – a favorite

Jeeves & Wooster (1990-, TV series, DVD)

Foxcatcher (2014, DVD)

Con Air (1997, vd)

Mars Attacks! (1996, vd)

The Devil’s Advocate (1997, vd)

School of Rock (2003, vd)

American Psycho (2000, vd)

The Adjustment Bureau (2011, DVD)

Zombieland (2009, vd)

All the President’s Men (1976, vd)

The Breakfast Club (1983, vd)

Stand by Me (1986, vd)

Fear & Loathing in Los Vegas (1998, vd)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, vd)

Dreamcatcher (2003, vd)

Ed Wood (1994, vd)

Say Anything (1989, vd)

That Thing You Do (1996, vd)

Steel Magnolias (vd)

High Fidelity (2000, vd)

Dazed and Confused (1993, vd)

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-Zenwind.

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Books Read, last half of 2015

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A few of the books read in 2015 since the mid-year mark of St. Swithun’s Day 2015.   Many are re-reads. 

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Aldous Huxley – Island (1962)

P.G. Wodehouse – The World of Jeeves (short story collection)

Heinrich Harrer – The White Spider (1959/1964)

Plato – Meno

Lao Tzu – Tao Te Ching

Janet Reitman – Inside Scientology (2011)

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Charles Stross – The Laundry Files series: 

The Atrocity Archives (2004) with The Concrete Jungle

The Jennifer Morgue (2006) with Pimpf

novelettes:  Down on the Farm; Equoid

The Fuller Memorandum (2010)

The Apocalypse Codex (2012)

The Annihilation Score (2015)

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(And I’ve read many more not recorded here, mainly online or on Kindle.) 

-Zenwind. 

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