jack london's beauty ranch

A few weekends ago, I got to visit Jack London's Beauty Ranch in Sonoma.

This is where his ashes are buried. He was laid to rest on the same hill that is the gravesite of the children of the Greenlaw family, who lived there in 1870. The giant stone comes from the Wolf House.

 His piece The Valley of the Moon was inspired by this land.

His beauty ranch consists of 1,400 acres that housed his cottage, the winery ruins, silos, barns, the pig palace, the smoke house, the Wolf House, and the house his wife lived in after his death.

According to the blueprints, the Wolf House was going to be 3 stories, with 26 rooms and 9 fireplaces. Among these rooms were a stag party room, a manuscript vault, a gun and trophy room, a music alcove, a reflection pool, refrigerating and vacuum cleaning plants, and a special sleeping tower just for him.

Worried about earthquakes, Jack London hired Albert Farr to design a structure that would last a thousand years. Unfortunately, one month before the Londons were about to move in, the Wolf House caught fire. London always meant to rebuild it, but never got around to it due to his poor health. He died three years later. All that remains are these stone ruins.

London built the first concrete silo in California. 

I bought a copy of The Sea-Wolf in the London house and learned about the time the Londons sailed from San Francisco to Hawaii. It turns out that neither London nor the navigator they hired had any navigational training. The navigator had never even been to deep sea before that voyage started. They decided the best course of action was to just read a lot and figure out how to do it all in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This caused their trip to run late and they were presumed to be lost at sea when The Snark failed to show up to Hawaii on schedule.

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well."

much love,
hedgie

26

Today is my birthday. I am now 26.

On a completely unrelated note, did you know you can just mail sombreros? Like directly to my apartment? Crazy.



much love,
hedgie

the cuckoo's calling review

I just finished reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling.

I would mostly describe this book as a genre piece, one of those books you would see people reading on vacation while lying under an umbrella at the beach. The book contains the aspects that readers expect in detective novels--red herrings, plot twists, greed, jealousy, an assortment of resentful suspects, a jaded protagonist, and a pretty woman who gets in the way of him doing what he needs to do. Though it does read like a standard take on the genre without doing anything exceptionally new, the book is a fun read due to the plot and attention to detail.
The story takes place after private eye Cormoran Strike has moved into his office after he is dumped by his long-time girlfriend. His business is failing, but his luck turns around when a temp agency sends him a competent secretary named Robin and he is offered a chance to discover the truth behind the suspicious death of a world famous model.
One of my criticisms of the book starts with the Robin character, who I really hoped would do more than she actually did. Her story begins when she is in giddy excitement after becoming engaged. After that, she does not go very far from meek, female stereotypes. Her most memorable moments include her being grabbed by her breast, gossiping, trying on dresses, and putting up with an asshole fiancé she really should have dumped. With all other main characters, we get glimpses of their history and see what made them the people they are today. Robin does not get that. We do not see her as a child, we don't get any word about her family, she doesn't seem to have any friends outside of her jealous and controlling significant other, and she doesn't seem to have any interests beyond what she sees Strike accomplish in the book.
There were also moments when I was taken out of Rowling's world by her strange choice in descriptions, most notably when she kept describing cameras as "long-snouted". A lot of her comparisons seemed more fitted for a children's book than a gritty crime novel and made it hard to take certain scenes seriously. 
A lot of people also seemed to have been swayed by the pseudonym aspect behind the making of this book. While discovering the author was actually J.K. Rowling didn't change my opinion of the writing itself, it did make me more interested in her as a person, the idea of typecasting, and the ways people attempt to escape it. But as a lot of people set up certain expectations for this book upon discovering who it was written by, I feel the need to warn others that there are no wizards and witches here. 
Overall, the writing was solid. Rowling did a great job switching between past and present to give rounder presentations of her characters. This was especially true with the deceased model, Lula. With most crime books I read, the dead remain impassive and do not have much to do with the story besides kicking off the plot. Here, through interviews, we get a chance to see Lula as an actual person and feel like she was more than just a broken body on the pavement.
If this book turns into a series, I would definitely give them a try and hope that Robin amps up her game.




much love,
hedgie

june jubilation

This month, I found something new in my bookshelf:

And had my mind filled with questions that I did not want answers to: 

I went to an amazing Pints for Paws event where all proceeds went to Berkeley Humane: 

I am still completely convinced that there is nothing in this food truck besides rice and bitter melon: 

Good times were had by all: 

I got to see Judy Blume speak at the Bay Area Book Festival: 

And got fancy-ass chocolate: 

And I vowed never to let Nick live this down: 

I had my first soufflé and almost choked to death on powdered sugar: 

I got new glasses: 

And got to see Eddie Izzard in his Force Majeure World Tour:

We were briefly hypnotized: 

We went to The Jelly Belly Factory tour with some friends in our building: 

And visited Chinatown again for more delicious food: 

Addie put up with so much: 

Some art made for Burning Man got featured a few blocks away: 

And we got to enjoy a lovely day outdoors: 

Love wins!: 

And BFF matching bracelets win: 

Twinsies at Pride: 

RAINBOWS FOR EVERYONE!





much love,
hedgie

vignette review

I was recently published in the inaugural issue of The Vignette Review. It is an online literary review that seeks to publish brief, evocative moments in time told through the prism of fiction.

This is my vignette piece, Popcorn: 

"I stared at the frozen screen in the dark room without really seeing it. David had paused the show so he could go make some popcorn. The buttery smell drifted to my seat on the couch and I suddenly thought about Chris. I hadn’t thought about him in years, but suddenly his image came back clearly to me.
       He was my first boyfriend and he broke my heart. As much as a heart can be broken from an agonizing on-and-off relationship junior year of high school. Our first date had been at the movie theaters. I don’t even remember the movie.
       In the dark, he tore each piece of popcorn in half, handing me one part and waiting for me to place it in my mouth before he ate his. At the time, I thought it was romantic. Our fingertips brushing together with each and every kernel. The time and effort he was taking for me was intoxicating. It would be a story I could tell my children. The exact moment I knew I wanted to be with him. But at the same time, I knew how ridiculous it was. Popcorn was never meant to be eaten that way and soon his fingers were tired and my hands were buttery."

Read the rest of the story here.




much love,
hedgie

nick has a mac

It finally happened.
After years of trash talking my laptop and making fun of its lack of a backspace key, Nick has finally succumbed and bought a MacBook.

I just wish I could go back in time and show this to freshman-in-college Nick so I could watch his head explode.





much love,
hedgie

drinking like an author: judy blume edition

Over the weekend, I was able to stop by the Bay Area Book Festival. There, I got to hear Judy Blume speak about her latest book (In the Unlikely Event), her writing process, feminism, and yell "Fuck Ben Stein". So decided to drink in her honor this week.

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margarita:

Quote: "Point is, Margaret showed us how to face all of life's big ol' quandaries, from God to boys to bra size. Ninety bucks says when Maggie got to college, she faced an even headier question: how the hell do you make a margarita without a blender?"

Ingredients:
Coarse  salt
Tequila
Lime juice
Triple sec

Steps:
Buy the book.

Review:
Is it even possible to make a bad margarita? I don't think so.





much love,
hedgie