There must be more than this provincial life…
California Condor by John Audubon
California boasts the most expansive state park system in our country, which attracts 80 million visits every year. Unfortunately, our state parks are chronically under-funded.
Proposition 21 would help secure funding for state parks and wildlife conservation programs by establishing an $18 annual vehicle license surcharge. By paying the surcharge of just a nickel per day, California drivers would get free day-use admission to all state parks all year long.
This initiative would increase funding for state parks and wildlife conservation by at least $250 million annually. If you’re a California native, please vote yes on Proposition 21 when you go to the polls tommorow.
P.S.- Sorry guys. As most of you know Prop 21 didn’t get passed in California. In fact, only ten out of fifty two counties approved it. But this doesn’t mean that our state parks or the wildlife that calls them home are any less important.
Blue-tongued Skink at the drunk baseball game in Valencia, California.
WHAT I DID WHEN I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING MY ECOLOGY PAPERS pt. 1
Yesterday I was trying to drown my sorrows in comics at the comic book store but there was nothing that I was really ready to fork over three bucks for. I got a text on my phone that said there was a barbecue at the house I’ve been crashing at. I bought the new issue of Secret Avengers and drove back to the house. On the way I blared a chopped and screwed version of Ride by Ciara and screamed along angry and crying a little bit.
Earlier that day I’d gone to the pet store at the mall because I wanted to see what they were doing in there. They let me play with a $1600 pug puppy for ten minutes and I sang her Running up that Hill by Kate Bush. The puppy had a lot of energy and sat in my lap pretty good but she was sneezing a bit. The people there said she came from a breeder and showed me all her paperwork and things looked legit. It was one of those things I did because I wanted to know more about what I think tends to be a fucked up situation (pet stores that sell dogs) but also because I wanted to cuddle with a puppy. Sometimes I wonder if that’s sort of the nature of some of the stuff I did in South America. I think it’s really fucked up that people keep monkeys as pets and so I go to South America and take care of monkeys like they were pets, and then I try to show people that they shouldn’t keep monkeys as pets because they’re smart, incredible, potentially loving creatures which is why they wanted to have them as pets in the first place.
When I finally got to the house I listened to Ciara one more time in my car and then went inside. There were a few people out for some BBQ but it was barely sixty degrees so it wasn’t much of a pool party. California’s been pretty much freezing since I’ve been back. A certain town drunk showed up and stayed for an hour after everyone had left. We all got high and played Mega Man X on a Super Nintendo that my friend Danny bought at Game Dude. Then Danny and the drunk sort of talked me into calling this guy friend of mine up and asking him if he wanted to be my boyfriend. He had been at the party and seemed really sad. I told him that I’d be the best fucking boyfriend he’d ever had and I’d make him breakfast and listen to the story of his life and drive him places when he was drunk.
BLESS THIS MESS (FOR MARCOS)
LOOKS LIKE EVERY VALENCIAN´S FAVORITE IRISH AMERICAN PUB HAS OPENED UP SHOP IN THE CAPITOL OF ECUADOR!
POST-COLONIAL SIDE NOTE: I MADE THE LITTLE FLAG BECAUSE THE BRITISH FAMILY SITTING ACROSS FROM ME AT THE TEX MEX RESTAURANT WAS HAVING A HORRIBLE FIGHT AND I NEEDED TO LOOK BUSY. SOME KIDS JUST DON´T THINK THE GALAPAGOS IS A COOL PLACE TO GO I GUESS!
TOUCHED
The first time I saw you I was sitting by the window in my friend’s dorm room. There were two of you and it was about eleven at night. Seeing the two of you cross perfectly manicured grass was like watching shoplifting sympathetically.
The second time I saw you it was in the road in the entrance of my town, I was driving home at around 1, there were three of you in my headlights. My roommate hates you because you kill his chickens. One time he heard you out back making noise but by the time I got him his flashlight you were gone. The last time you got at the chickens you were cocky enough to shit all over the place too.
The third time I saw you, you were moving towards the studio where I make art. I was driving home. I always see you when I’m driving home and I’m told you´re bad luck. Apparently I’m supposed to pull over to the side of the road and let another car pass me so they can get your bad luck. But I´m not like everyone else. I want whatever you´ll give me. Everytime I see you I feel like I’m licking the pointed muzzle of the underworld and I love it. If your bad luck then I want to be the god of bad luck.
The 4th time I saw you was a lot like the 2nd. It was at the same place on the same road at night in my headlights. I heard that sometimes a single coyote will get a dog to chase it to a place where there are other coyotes. Then the other coyotes will all gang up on the dog and eat it. I wonder if you coyotes have ever done that to the dogs that sometimes run in the streets in my town.
The fifth time I saw you, you were halfway across the street at 2 in the morning by a vacant gas station that doesn’t have any attendants. I was listening to Loveless. When you saw my car you turned around and started going back into the dark. You stopped and looked over your shoulder at me.
“Come over here. I’ve got something to show you.”
-JOHNNIE JUNGLEGUTS
