Monument Valley, or "Oh Yeah, that place!"

You've seen more of my humble berg than you know, you sly dog.  Tonight we go to Monument Valley, seen in every western ever.

You do recognize it right?  NO?  Well how about this?

Hrm, you are stubborn.  How about this?

Wait, that one is a video game.

Thanks to our relative closeness to LA thanks to the grand I-15, a handful of other major roads and the fact that it is an absolutely spectacular natural location.  Monument Valley has appeared in at least 30 different films.  It is a solid icon of western America.

It is five square miles.

That's it.  That little plot of land on a Navajo reservation has defined Westerns and cowboy culture for getting close to ninety years.  That is pretty good by any metric.  It should be said that Utah does not hold it entirely.  Arizona holds some of it as well in their borders.  However the park is strictly Native American held.  The Navajo name for it is Tse'Bii'Ndzisgaii or Valley of the Rocks.  Rather apt, no?

Films that have been shot here include Easy Rider, Forrest Gump (see above), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (see the beginning of the movie) and Back To The Future pt III.  The drive in movie theater that Marty drives through was constructed specifically for that scene and torn down after.  Apparently no movies were shown and that is a shame.  That would've been a wonderful backdrop for an old west film.

TV has been no slouch when it comes to the Valley either.  Recently a few episodes of Doctor Who were shot in part at Monument Valley and we now hold the coveted "the Doctor kindof almost died here, for realsies" trophy.

It is a place that should be seen if you are on the great American road trip as there is little else that can humble you in quite the same way.  The natural beauty of the place is certainly something to marvel, or in my case gawk at.  (I gawk with the best.  Mouth agape, slight drooling, the whole thing.)

Additional fun note: In writing this I found that Wikipedia has Navajo as one of their languages

The next Utah in Pop Culture will deal with music I think. Yeah. Perhaps SLC Punk, perhaps just songs.  We'll see.

Utah, not as oppressive as it used to be.

Well, not all of Utah anyway.

I am writing of course about the Supreme Courts non-action regarding the appeal our local government tossed against the ruling that decided gay marriage bans were unconstitutional.  Our AG and Governor fumbled about quite badly following that decision as our AG was being arrested for bribery or somesuch.  It has been... interesting to say the least.

With the Court deciding not even to look at the appeal it essentially means that those that were married on Dec. 20th are still married, legally and binding as any other contract.  (side note, my wife and I also have a Dec. 20th anniversary.  It will be interesting to try and get a dinner date now).  Utah, specifically Salt Lake City has been more LGBTQ friendly in the past decade and this ruling helps a couple of couples I know feel better about life in general.  Good times.

It is interesting though, Its been like a day since it has become fully legal and I don't feel a need to leave my family and gay marry someone.  It's like I was being lied to when some prominent pontificators proclaimed profusely persistent platters of perpetual peril if something like this happened.

Buddha Machine

Some people cannot deal with repetitive sounds.  Drives them up the nearest wall, bonkers I tells ya.  I know a few who seek these sounds out with a fury usually reserved for household pests or political campaigns.

I don't mind them at all.

In fact at times I search them out.

Occasionally I find one that is wonderful.

Case in point, the Buddha Machine (available in the App store) is an ambient noise generator with different configurations you can play with to create looping repetitive musical background noise.  The reason why I find this so wonderful is the fact that I can get some really trippy dreams from listening to this during sleep.

From what I've read this happens because your brain starts to wander with these sort of noises.  White noise along with some other sensory deprivation has been shown to be able to create hallucinations quite reliably.  Once you've cancelled these other senses the brain just gets... bored?  It goes and starts chasing rabbits down holes if you will.  Sleep already is a form of sensory deprivation so it is logical that I can add other elements to get some vivid dreams.

I think the Buddha Machine works for me so well in this regard because you can alter the "texture" of the sound produced.  Looping guitar or piano combined with clicks or whooshes vs. wind or sea and hums. Experimenting with the different combinations and volumes can provide a vastly different experience for every listener.

Utah in Pop Culture

I think I will start a new feature here on this site where I will provide an example of Utah through the lens of pop culture.  I will provide clips or descriptions or links to things you may or may not have seen that my home state played some kind of a role in.

With that in mind I bring you DAMNATION ALLEY.

I'm sure that one of the first things you think of after an apocalypse is a road trip through America, am I right?  D.A. follows some of the people responsible for BILLIONS of deaths on their jaunt through the country on their way to New York.  Along the way they come to SLC and fulfill the unfortunate trope of The Black Guy Always Dies.  Clip below:

Judging by that clip I can see that it was filmed either on State Street or Main however it looks like it is either a composite shot or the statue that is visible at the beginning of the clip was moved at some point in time.  I would lean heavily towards composite as that statue is not that big.  

Damnation Alley, well, it didn't do well and as you can see the special effects were sad.  The swarms of cockroaches being pulled towards our heroes via piled sheet are vying for a top spot in my "least menacing ways to approach something menacingly" award.  Right up there with slow unicycle or juggling mime.

If you decide to watch the whole thing the SLC part comes up at about 47 minutes in.  As you would expect with a movie they play a bit with the geography so other than the piles of rubble and vicious bugs it is not an accurate representation of my current city.

Truthfully it is a little amusing to think that everyone in Salt Lake was devoured by radioactive flesh eating cockroaches.  There are some people here that fit that mold quite nicely.  I don't mean to say that all of my neighbors are radioactive horrors.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of nice people here but it is one of those "if  you've lived here, you understand" sort of things.

Next week I think we'll go south to Monument Valley.

The pros and cons of a snuggly child.

Our first child, The Boy, was not a particularly snuggly baby.  He was fine in a seat or a crib or whatever and though he did grump at times he was much more at home on his lonesome.  This may be due to the fact that at the time The Wife was going to school and driving 80 miles a day.  As such he was not held as much as we would've liked.  You wouldn't know it now though, he is a hug monster and full of crazy energy.

The Girl though, she is already showing signs of being as different from her brother as she can be.  She is a snugglebug of the highest caliber.  The wife and I have both held her for HOURS while we play our different console games.  Wife is working through Skyrim and I am going through Dragon Age Origins all the while holding this little bean in our arms that will certain let you know that she does not like being put down.

A bit of grand news to finish with.
The Girl had a blanket that we first swaddled her in, blue with stars on one side and sleeping animals in nightcaps on the other.  Unfortunately we only had it for three days.  We were heading to The Wife's family home to celebrate a birthday and Wife didn't tuck the blankie in with the baby or secure it in her purse.  We are both tired so don't notice that the blankie went AWOL until about two hours after we leave.  When we got back I scoured the parking at our apartment, I looked in the rubbish bins, I walk around the block to see if I can find this blankie.  It was gone.

So that evening I put up notes in our apartment's common areas with my phone number but no one responds and weeks go by with no word.  I noticed on Friday coming home that the note was missing from the board and I assumed that someone had taken it down to make room for another notice.  It happens, I sigh and move on.  That Saturday morning I get a call, someone found the blankie!  They have had it for a while and apparently just saw the notice.   We had hoped that whomever ended up with the blanket was happy with it but we had lost hope of it coming back.  Sometimes the Universe gives you a little back.