Cyberflanerie: Solitario Dome Edition

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Inside The Solitario
Photo: C.M. Mayo
March 2015

For my Far West Texas book-in-progress and the Marfa Mondays Podcasting project, I am working on an interview with Texas historian Lonn Taylor, plus a short piece about the Solitario Dome of Big Bend Ranch State Park in Far West Texas, which is to say, US-Mexico border country. 

Meanwhile, a few links about the latter:
Chase Snodgrass's flight over the Solitario:

Flora and Vegetation of the Solitario Dome
by Jean Evans Hardy, Iron Mountain Press, 2009
(Whoa, call the chiropracter, I brought this one home in my carry-on.)

Geology of the Solitario
by Charles E. Corry, et al. Geological Society of America Special Paper 250, 1990.

"Igneous Evolution of a Complex Laccolith-Caldera, the Solitario, Trans-Pecos, Texas:
Implications for Calderas and Subjacent Plutons" 
by Christopher D. Henry, et al. Geological Society of America Bulletin, August 1997
(Super-crunchy PDF)

Google Maps screenshot

"The Solitario: Sentinel of the Big Bend Ranch State Park"
Megan Hicks, The Big Bend Paisano, Winter 2004/2005
(PDF)

"Geology at the Crossroads"
By Blaine R. Hall, Big Bend Ranch State Park
(PDF)


"Solitario: A Separate Place" and "Fresno Creek:" Desert Cloister" Texas Monthly, April 1977

Entering the labyrinth of the Solitario via Los Portales
(That's my guide, Charlie Angell, he's the best,
check him out on Tripadvisor.com)
Photo: C.M. Mayo, March 2015

>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

>Listen in to all the Marfa Mondays Podcasts anytime. The most recent is "Tremendous Forms: Finding Composition in the Landscape," an interview with Paul V. Chaplo, author of the magnificent Marfa Flights.

> Marfa Mondays #2 Charles Angell in the Big Bend

Links Noted: West Texas Mini Clips, Literal, San Miguel, Honey, Glass Future, David Abram, Berlinica, Viral History, Listen Well, Burro Hall

My various mini clips (videos) of West Texas
(several new ones posted, starring Charlie Angell)


For Literal Magazine Blog, Rose Mary Salum interviews Yrs Truly about my translation of Francisco I. Madero's secret book of 1911. I'll be reading from and discussing this book in San Miguel de Allende for PEN / Sol Literary Magazine on February 22nd. More info about that event here.

Speaking of San Miguel de Allende, I'll be at the writer's conference the weekend of February 18 and 19 (with Margaret Atwood, Joy Harjo, Elena Poniatowska, Araceli Ardón, Michael K. Schuessler, and many more) and then teaching a two day Techniques of Fiction workshop February 20 and 21. More info here.

Watch the Future According to Corning Glass, the upstate NY glass co. Bizarrely but crisply narrated by a British actor (uh daye en tha fyu-cha)

Oh, you thought you were eating honey? Think again (ewww).

The Author's Guild Says Publishing's Eco-System on the Brink (Oh well!)

Lyn Buchanan sees a lot, tells a lot (seriously good interview)

Listen in to Margaret Dulaney's Listen Well

Eduardo Jimenez Mayo (are we cousins? could be!) and Chris N. Brown, editors of Three Messages and a Warning guest-blogging at Large-hearted Boy
P.S. My translation of Agustin Cadena's short story "Murrillo Park," in this collection, and I blogged for Large-hearted boy myself back in 2009. It was a most interesting musical exercise.

Texas State Drought Monitor Map
(ouch)


Photos of the Egyptian house on Casa Piedra Road (near Presidio TX)
P.S. You can really surf around in there, quite interesting. I like the star-gazing platform.

Newt Gingrich, Spicey Dude! Courtesy of Ken Ackerman's Viral History blog

David Abram on Storytelling and Wonder: On the Rejuvenation of Oral Culture

The Flower Girls: Mennonites in Mexico

Berlinica is now in the e-book game, check out their latest iBook
P.S. Read founder Eva Schweitzer's guest-blog post for Madam Mayo here.

Burro Halls Posts Even More More Pug Pix!
(It has yet to top this one, however).

Brutal Journey: Cabeza de Vaca and the Epic First Crossing of America by Paul Schneider

It's peculiar that Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca is not better known. That old saw, "truth is stranger than fiction" applies in his case, or at least his version of events, which one might as well believe because the fantastic fact is, Cabeza de Vaca did reappear in northern Mexico in late April of 1536, one of only four survivors of the 400 who participated in the Narváez expedition to Florida in March of 1528. He left a memoir, translated as Castaways, and based on this, as well as other documents and archaelogical research about the peoples he encountered, Paul Schnieder has written a jaw-stopping story that reads like a novel. It's only January, but without a doubt, Brutal Journey will go on my top 10 books read list for 2012. A few links for surfers:

Paul Schneider's website

The Journey of Cabeza de Vaca 1542, translated by Fanny Bandelier, 1905

Nicholás Echeverría's movie, Cabeza de Vaca, on Netflix

A bit about Guillermo Sheridan's screenplay for that same movie

Angell Expeditions, owned by Charlie Angell, expert wilderness guide, who is very knowledgable about the areas Cabeza de Vaca visited in the Big Bend region (La Junta de los Ríos and northwest).


UPDATE : Listen to my interview with Charles Angell.