Journal of a Sabbatical

June 16 & 17, 2001

hipper than ever

Today's Reading: Tibetan Trek by Ronald Kaulback

2001 Book List
Plum Island Bird List for 2001
Plum Island Life List

Back in the ancient days when Mark, Charla, and I used to go into Davis Square to hear music at the Somerville Theater or Johnny D's, or see weird movies (Somerville Theater is where I saw my first Miyazaki film - Laputa) and eat dinner at Redbones, or India Restaurant, or Johnny D's (most people still don't know the food there is terrific) the square was sort of pre-hip.

I mean we're extraordinarily hip people but the truly kewl had not yet discovered Davis Square. After all, this was before the Someday Cafe opened. I remember when they used to have an espresso cart sitting in the lobby of the theater advertising that a cafe was going to open next door someday.

Even once the Someday opened Davis Square was on the cusp of achieving its current level of hipness. In those days the Someday only had three tables and you basically had to sit with strangers if you were going to drink your coffee there instead of to go.

The theater used to have all the animation festivals - not just the Sick and Twisted, which is the only one that makes the rounds of theaters now. I first saw Luxo Jr. there.

This was the 1980's. Gawd do I feel old. Since then, according to Utne Reader (arbiter of all hipness?) it's become hipper than hip. It figures. Just when I stop going there it becomes hip.

So Nancy and I hadn't been to Davis Square in quite some time. Maybe since we heard Natalie McMaster at the Somerville Theater sometime in maybe '97 or '98 - I really don't remember. When we had to spontaneously change plans because her bus was late arriving from Providence, used books naturally came up in the conversation. I mentioned that I had not been to McIntyre & Moore since they left Harvard Square (which hasn't been hip for some decades now) for Davis Square. Suddenly we had a new plan.

We had lunch at S&S (that's in Inman Square in case anybody is confused) and then headed to Davis Square. We finally saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Afterwards we got some ice cream at Denise's Ice Cream and sat on a bench in the plaza listening to a very young white guy play guitar and sing suggestive blues lyrics. The rest of the afternoon/evening passed delightfully at McIntyre & Moore, where, in total role reversal, Nancy bought two books (one about blues and one about jazz) and I bought nothing. That's right, I spent hours in a used book store and bought nothing.

Back home I read huge chunks of the books I bought last weekend, and tried to identify the pines that Ronald Kaulback mentions in Tibetan Trek. See the trouble with reading a book about a botanical trek but somebody who is not a botanist is ... he doesn't tell you the names of the plants. Kaulback simply describes the Lohit Valley as being lined with pines. What kind of pines? Other than the total lack of plant names, it's a wonderful book. It's just that since he was with one of the greatest plant hunters of all time I expected a better description of the flora.

Luckily, one of the chapters in Kingdon-Ward's Pilgrimage for Plants mentions the Lohit Valley trek and has a picture of some pines. As the essay is not about the pines, it doesn't give the name either. The picture isn't very good. However, Nancy insists that I try to identify it by coming up with a general description based on the photo and looking it up in Fenyok a fold Korul. We get totally absorbed in this project and finally come up with the conclusion that the only pine that looks anything like the picture and grows in that part of Tibet is Pinus armandii. I'm pretty sure we're right. Not bad for a non-botanist and a poorly reproduced black and white photo in an old book.

And we still got to bed by 11:30.

Sunday we watched it rain and rain and rain. Much rain fell. Much rain flooded the streets. It took me an hour and a half to drive Nancy back to South Station. She missed the 7:00 bus. The 8:00 bus was 35 minutes late. While she waited for the 8:00 bus I drove home in the rain. Traffic was backed up from here to bubinga. My car hydroplaned. I got home and the power flickered but never really went off. I dared not use the computer for fear of power unreliability....

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