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Transcript of the Marfa Mondays Podcast #16: "Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Finding Composition in the Landscape"

Marfa Mondays 16: "Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Finding Composition in the Landscape" was posted as podcast (listen in anytime on podomatic or iTunes) back in January, but the transcript has just been posted here.

I'm aiming to post transcripts of all my podcast interviews, both the Marfa Mondays and Conversations with Other Writers (for the latter, so far, transcripts are available for Rose Mary Salum and Sergio Troncoso). Stay tuned for Marfa Mondays 17, an interview recorded in Fort Davis with Texas historian Lonn Taylor.

> Your COMMENTS are always welcome. My newsletter goes out soon; I welcome you to sign up here.

P.S. If you want to just follow the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project and related posts, check out my other blog, Marfa Mondays.

Junípero Serra in Mexico's Sierra Gorda

Concá

The Missions of Mexico's Sierra Gorda, in the mountainous state of Querétaro several hours by car north of Mexico City, though physically very distant, are closely connected to those of the Californias. Beginning in the late 17th century, Jesuit missionaries began establishing missions in Lower or Baja California (that story retold in my book, Miraculous Air). In the late 18th century, when the Spanish King, for reasons known only to himself, expelled the Jesuits from the Spanish realm, it was Father Junípero Serra, the Franciscan missionary of the Sierra Gorda, who took over that enterprise, and continued marching north, establishing
missions up the Pacific Coast of what is today the state of California.

> See the Huntington Museum page on Junipero Serra and the Legacies of the California Missions.

This past Easter week, I had the great fortunate of being able to visit the missions of the Sierra Gorda-- to follow, as the Mexicans say, la ruta de las misiones. A delightful synchronicity: my dear friend and fellow writer, Araceli Ardón, recently published a beautiful book on this very subject: Los caminos de Fray Junípero Serra en Querétaro / The Paths of Junipero Serra in Queretaro (Gobierno del Estados de Querétaro / Valverde International / Fundación DRT). Texts are by Araceli Ardón and Andrés Garrido del Torral, with photographs by Gerardo Proal and Gonzalo Alcocer Fernández de Jáuregui. (Other than the museum shop in Jalpan, I do not know where the book can be purchased, but it can be found in libraries at this link. I hope to update this link shortly.)

The five Franciscan missions of the Sierra Gorda are Concá, Tancoyol, Jalpan, Landa, and Tilaco. Herewith a few of my own snapshots:

Concá

Tancoyol

Tilaco

Landa

Tancoyol

The plaza in from of Mission Jalpan

More about Junípero Serra:

> Brief bio on PBS apropos of a series about the West

> Journey to the Sun: Junipero Serra's Dream and the Founding of California by Gregory Orfalea

> And forthcoming this March:
Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary by Rose Marie Beebe and Robert M. Senkewicz

More about the Franciscan missions:
> UNESCO page on the Missions of the Sierra Gorda
> Misiones de la Sierra Gorda, Querétaro, in México desconocido, an excellent Spanish language Mexican magazine
> Museo Histórico de la Sierra Gorda in Jalpan de Serra

Among the other many sights to see in the Sierra Gorda are the Sotano del Barro in Arroyo Seco, a vast sinkhole with a colony of macaws; El Chuvaje waterfall; and archeological sites including Ranas,

Jalpan

Toluquilla and Tancama. For more about these and others, see:
> www.queretaro.travel
> www.facebook.com/queretaro.travel

Your COMMENTS are always welcome

Visit to Las Pozas, Xilitla, San Luis Potosí

(Poet and artist Sir Edward James' Surrealist Garden,

a place many visit on their way to see the missions)

Guest-blogger Jim Johnston:

5 Things to See with Your Feet Off the Gound in Mexico City's Centro Histórico

Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion

(includes a short story set in Querétaro by Araceli Ardón)

Looking at Mexico in New Ways:

An Interview with Historian John Tutino

A Conversation with Novelist and Memoirist Edward Swift

(very interesting throughout; of note,

he mentions his creative retreats into the Sierra Gorda)

A Conversation with Rose Mary Salum

About Making Connections with Literature and Art

Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

Marfa Mondays Podcast #15 is now live. Listen in anytime to my interview with Greg Williams, Executive Director of the Rock Art Foundation. Though the Rock Art Foundation's tours and website have been spreading the word, it still seems a well-kept secret that some of the most spectacular rock art in the world is tucked into the nooks and crannies of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Far West Texas (and into Coahuila, Mexico). I had the great privilege of being able to view some it, specifically, the rock art at Meyers Springs, through the tour offered by the Rock Art Foundation. My interview was recorded in the Meyers Springs Ranch house kitchen, just after the four hour tour (and target shooting had commenced).

Recommended reading:

Painters in Prehistory: Archaeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, edited by Harry J. Shafer

Rock Art of the Lower Pecos, by Carolyn E. Boyd

Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

Harry Crosby and Baja California's Magnificent Cave Paintings

12 Tips for Summer Day Hiking in the Desert or,

How to Stay Cool and Avoid Actinic Keratosis, Blood, and Killer Bees

Marfa Mondays #14

Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors

Marfa Mondays #13

John Tutino: Looking at Mexico in New Ways

Marfa Mondays # 12

"This Precious Place" An Interview with Dallas Baxter

> Listen in anytime to all the Marfa Mondays podcasts here.

Lifting the (Very Heavy) Curtain

on the Leader of Mexico's 1910 Revolution

Why Translate? The Case of the President of Mexico's Secret Book

Rolf Potts on Time Wealth ( A Note)

ROLF POTTS

I first heard about travel writer Rolf Potts an eon ago, when he interviewed me about my travel memoir of Baja California, Miraculous Air, for his Vagabonding blog. Back then-- whew, it was maybe 2003 or 2004?-- the idea that another writer, on his own platform, would "publish" interviews was very avant-garde. How things have changed!

(In part in emulation of Potts, I started my own occasional podcast series of Q & A with my favorite writer friends. So thanks, Rolf.)

TIM FERRISS

With his books and blog, Potts has garnered legions of fans over the years, including Tim Ferriss. Ferriss, the super-buff, tango-dancing, Mr Viral-Video, tree-climbing, globe-trotting author of the best-selling Four Hour Work Week, is the sort of author I'm usually allergic to (well, I sniff, how else will I ever get through my backlog of Willa Cather novels?). But Tim, I send you a cyber shower of jpeg lotus petals! Because, actually, I did read The Four Hour Work Week and gleaned some nifty ideas from it, and I quite enjoyed your recent podcast interview with Rolf Potts. In particular, I was heartened to hear you guys talking about "time wealth."

(In addition to more podcasts)
On my wish list for more exciting
baking experiences: the Yeti oven mitt

(Speaking of time wealth, while listening in, I was baking a pumpkin cake. I hereby award myself a prize.)

But seriously, I think about time wealth-- though until now I wouldn't have used that term-- all the time. It's the hours, quality hours, of one's life-- how to maximize the number and maximize their quality? Most people assume that more money, more stuff, is the way. But as one climbs the curve of middle age, one starts to feel the drag of clutter, and the shrinking time-horizon.

As they say, "your stuff owns you," for every single thing, whether big (a house) or small (a pair of shoes) requires both care (of some sort, at some point) and physical space. Trips to the mall, the dry cleaners, the grocery store, getting that light fixture fixed... I'm always asking myself, is this where I want to be? Is this what I want to be doing? I have so many books I want to write, and time rolls by at a frighteningly fast rate.

One exercise that always brings me back to the best tactics to maximize time wealth is to imagine that I have, say, a hundred million dollars. Silly as it may sound, I recommend doing it seriously.

As "the Estate Lady," Julie Hall,
reminds us, "the hearse doesn't
have a trailer hitch"

Really, what would you do if you had a hundred million dollars?

Most people, once they get past their tittering at the helium in such an idea, blow through a long list of stuff-- a special car, a fabulous mansion, a this, a that... but then, past all the material objects, and a parade of imaginary butlers and masseuses (none of whom, ha, seem to require training, time off, any paperwork, inconvenient boyfriends or children, or annoying quirks), and then, oh yeah...

Giving away a wad of it to this relative, another wad to that charity... There's usually a long list of relatives, friends, and charities.

And then... then...

All of that exhausted, there is something else.

Something the heart yearns for, and that, usually, doesn't require much money, if any. It might be time to read, just read, on a beautiful beach. The chance to paint. To write a novel. Make a film. Volunteer to help [fill in the blank]. And very often travel often comes up: to cross the country on a bike, to see India, or, say, hike the length of the Appalachian trail.

The thing is, stuff-- whether the illusory lack of it, or the clutter of it-- has gotten in the way of seeing the heart's true, and for most people even of the most ordinary means, very attainable, path.

Dear readers, check out Tim Ferriss' podcast interview with Rolf Potts. (Don't mind Ferriss' nattering on about his viral videos and his underwear. As we say in Mexico, no hay dos.)

P.S. Tim, you're a strange dude. But I sincerely appreciate your gusto for both learning and most especially, for teaching. (And don't bother with an MFA. Write from the heart. If you like Naomi Shihab Nye's poetry, your road is golden.)

Your COMMENTS are always welcome.

30 Deadly-Effective Ways to Free Up Bits,

Drips & Gimungously Vast Swaths of Time for Writing

The Last of the Nomads by W. J. Peasley

12 Tips for Summer day Hiking in the Desert

(How to Avoid Actinic Keratosis, Blood, and Killer Bees)

The Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project:

Exploring Marfa, Texas & the Big Bend Region of Far West Texas
in 24 Podcasts

Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico:

Tijuana a Touch of Evil

Recommended literary travel memoirs

(from the workshop page)

Cyberflanerie: Epic Travel Edition

This is a Generic Brand Video (Dissolve.com)
Based on the poem by Kendra Eash (Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency)

Photos from John Snyder's Epic Crossing of Ethiopia (University of Chicago Magazine)

Time Travel

Wind Travel

By the Book: Wonderlands for Bibliophiles, collected by Bryan Kitch / AFAR Staff

Austin Butterflies
(See Austin Butterfly Forum to Stage Historic Gathering of Monarch Butterfly Flutterati)

Captain Erikson's Equation (The Archdruid Report)

COMMENTS

Marfa Mondays #6: Marfa's Moonlight Gemstones

Now live: my podcast interview with Paul Graybeal, owner of Marfa's Moonlight Gemstones, the 6th is a series of 24 podcasts about Marfa, Texas and environs apropos of a book-in-progress (as yet untitled).

It was no exaggeration for historian Walter Prescott Webb to describe the Big Bend region as "an earthwreck in which a great section of country was shaken down, turned over, blown up, and set on fire." In short, there is ample evidence of millions of years of dramatic geological activity, with the craggiest of mountains to rocks of all kinds, from mammoth piles of boulders to pebbles. In this interview with Paul Graybeal, owner of Marfa's magnet for rock hounds, learn about agates, thundereggs, and more.

>>CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW