Lye-ing in Wait

Penn and I tried to steady our breathing. We mounted the last step and fastened the trap door of our fortress. We were in the attic of a small old barn that Sir Tim’s family was kind enough to lend to the cause. As was our custom we immediately fell to warfare. We tried other pursuits; don’t get me wrong, we really did. Basket weaving just fell through though and the guys never did take to Balinese dancing the way I had hoped. So we fell back to what we did well.
At the moment Shane, Gabe, Tim, and Foutch were outside laying siege to the small barn that had just moments before rested in the peace and serenity of the Valley. There was silence.
“Do you think it is safe?” Penn questioned as he stuck his head around a makeshift wall and looked out the hay loft at the field before us. Several bricks moving at high velocity promptly answered his question. He dove backwards and barreled against me.
“I guess not.” He panted. We quickly formulated a plan and put it into action. We hoarded a pile of rocks and signaled his preparation for action. I swung open the small door on the side of the barn and prepared to drop to the ground. We sprung. Penn began his rain of granite and basalt as I rolled to the ground. Foutch fell first and began to explain why this was unjust. No one noticed, except Penn who made a point of repeating his aim. On my descent I caught a glimpse of Tim crawling around the interior of the barn. He was no doubt making his way twords the second level where he could make an assault on our trapdoor. I grabbed for the 2x2 at my side that had served at a sword, only to find it missing. I stooped to locate it just as several rocks came to greet me.
“If you hold still it will be easier.” Gabe shouted. Penn answered for me with a marble sized piece of basalt to Gabe’s head. Gabe issued a series of expletives to make any sailor proud.
I rounded the corner and found the doorway. In front of me was Tim, slowly creeping along. I grabbed a local 2x2 and promptly made to insert it in the closest orifice. Tim acknowledged my accuracy with a sharp cry. Before he had time to respond with force I was half way up the wall and making for the window to the attic. Penn was still delivering our payload with passion. That’s when it happened.
I saw the bottle fly through the front of the barn as if time had stopped. A faint glimmer of tin foil shone from behind the dull green of 16oz.
7-UP bottle. Then there was silence. Small smoking balls of tin foil shot outwards like snarling lions in every direction. Tim was mimicking Gabe’s mastery of the nautical tongue as small projectiles launched in every direction. When they landed on solid ground they continued to issue smoke.
I am still uncertain where Shane or Gabe learned (though it never really surprised me) that the combination of lye and tin foil when mixed in water and placed under pressure creates an explosion of acidic projectiles that eat through wood, earth, flesh… you know. All I know is that my next vivid memory was Penn launching himself from the hay loft and chasing Gabe into the distance with a piece of pipe and a series of remarks about his mother and her pedigree.

© Capt C Staudinger 2006

Sweet Ellen

-03:02 November 7th- Curled against a tree in the forest.

Ellen, I think, who is Ellen? Is this body that pulls its self up and awake Ellen? There is a pain in my head, a tingling that drills into my skull boring deeper with each new movement. The room is dark. My face is dark. There is a whiskey blotch and a heavy hand laid across my face. Alarm clock, you let me down. My night watch guard you should have roused me. You traitor who conspires against me, blushing 12:00 again and again as you stare back at me. I smell his scotch, it’s inside me now. His scent, I feel it under my flesh like maggots crawling through spoiled flesh. I pray to god that’s all that’s in me. His scent is the last legacy. Nothing else crawls and pulses upstream towards secret places, sanctuaries left undiscovered. Ellen should focus. Focus Ellen I think.
My feet hit the floor boards and they scream out to tell of my escape. I put on clothes; abstract articles pieced together and move towards the door. The door snarls at my approach and bites with rusted hinges at my hand. He’s there, in the dark, I see him, see his eyes. Like pools of mist catching grey glints and rejecting them back towards me. A sound of bones breaking, brittle ancient bones, smashing under his weight as he leaps at me, and resetting as the pressure lessens. Rotted wings dropping flesh reach out spewing black feathers at me feet. Scream, come to me, come up from me, lash out. Nothing. My mouth opens and I gag. Vomiting on the floor I look down and his maggots swarm in my bile winking up at me with child faces, hundreds of tiny reflections of my nose and lips building a foundation for his hollow eyes. The tips of the wings begin to enclose me and I hurl myself against the breathing door. It splinters and I drop to the city.
Ellen, marshal your thoughts. I say. Rally your cortex army; call the handsome vanguard of synapses to the line. Fire at will, fire at will! I say. The sky shatters again in a snow globe torrent of glass swirling me up and setting me down in my shell. I pull on an Ellen shaped hoodie and slip into soiled Ellen scented underwear, rich in fertile fields on my blood. Who is this body I wear like a slip?
I look up and there is the city. My city. His city. The streets are empty. Tall buildings with weeping cherubs and mocking gargoyles stare up at a paper sky. I hear the snapping of bones and labored breathing rolls out from a near by alley.

-06:04- Dolby, Mrs. McGrath’s Labrador finds something off the trail.

Focus. Focus. Focus. I click my heels.
The Ellen, my Ellen, settles on me. There is a city. I pull myself up and look around. It’s Seattle. There’s the waterfront. In front of me extends the sound and I am in Pike’s place. The market is empty, only me. Papers scuffle across the street and no hearts beat. I walk past the fish market and the fish watch me. Their eyes lock on me and follow me as I walk past them and down the sidewalk. A drilling sensation hits me again, my head feels hot and there is a pain in my skull but I remain clothed in my skin this time. The grimy tiles slicked with translucent scales and disregarded flower petals remain firm beneath my pink Converse. I look down to make sure I’m still planted on the ground and I see blood running down my thigh and past the Converse star. The river pulses down my leg and I panic. I feel the monk fish watching me. He’s watching me bleed and curving his two thousand needle teeth upward to grin after me. There is no one else. “Hello? Is there any one there? Hello?” I shout. Not even my echo responds.
My heart pulses and a fleeting sound percolates up from some blocks away. A crackling, old joints throbbing in deliberate movement, comes stalking down the street after me. This isn’t right. This is hollow.
The city is empty. I walk past a radio left in a booth bejeweled in leather mittens and two dollar rings. The radio makes a huffing sound, the sound of a dog hyperventilating. It breathes harder, and then slower. Harder then slower. In and out, in and out, “He he he he he he he he ha ha ha ha he he he he ha ha ha he he he ha ha.” The puffing speeds up and speeds up and becomes a scratching like a record left on too long. I feel him behind me, I hear the crackling of decaying wings unfolding. Images of ravens lying dead on the road swarm my vision and I see his pinions engulf me. I run. Never looking back. Past Starbucks, as I run I see screaming faces etched into the window, the mermaid’s face is sagging like melted wax. The coffee smells burnt inside. Onwards I run. Past the Turkish delight, past the Cutlery shop and the rattling shapes that lurk behind the massive Swiss Army Knife pulsing in the window. My running feels slow, like running underwater, I can’t get away I fall and my eyes go dark.

-06:38- An ambulance screeches through the streets of Seattle. An investigation begins.

When I open them I’m in a forest. The trees are dark, there is moss glistening in the moon light. Frost clutches the bark in a firm grasp and beams of pale light pour down from a brutally crisp sky. Some make it to the ground, other get plucked from the sky, mid-flight, by gnarled fingers enclosed in evergreen rings. Cedar is rich on the thin air, and my labored breathing tries to drink it in. I shake, uncontrollably. My scent is the only warmth I feel here, my rich and fertile scent pouring out from inside me. Boorishly pressing the crisp night air away from me and pooling at my feet. My hips ache. My hair is knotted and tingles towards the back. My face burns and I feel my blood stalling in its flow beneath my left eye. It hardens where he struck me. It pours where he tapped me, unceremoniously, poured me out to be gorged upon, like a keg full of cheap nectar. In front of me I see his eyes. Smell the rotting flesh. A shadow lurches. The sound of bones snapping rushes through the forest, the form straightens up on haunches and bones reset and form again. Eyes, glinting orbs denying light, reflectors repelling the moon level on my face and I am swallowed by my fear.
He, moves towards me, jutting out at angles all a Kimble as his internal structure splinters and reassembles with each move. Ellen please, I plead. Ellen please, I try to move but don’t respond. He spreads forth withering wings and engulfs me, the piece meal body trying to hold together as it advances, the scotch rolling on me, white capping and breaking on my face, assaulting my nose. He’s there, he’s inside me again. I bleed.
“No please, please, no more God?” I say. I shudder with my tears. My flesh tears.
Split away. I pull away, claw away, my body rips and I leave scored self on his long crows hands. I hurl myself backwards and am alone again. Where? Caporal street? I’m alone. I keep pushing open doors, an old motel. It’s hard to focus. Laboring to remember what happened? The searing pain in my head increases. I feel it bore into my skull and eat away my memories. I’m in Seattle. The streets are empty. Where are all the people? Windows are filled with darkness, no light, no movement, no bodies. I’m all that moves.
I wander the streets, calling out.

-10:21- Mrs. Janice Fairweather unable to contact her husband goes to the hospital alone.

I open my eyes. I’m in bed. Not my bed, just a bed. A tall four post cast iron bed. Sterile sunlight filters through cumulous gauze and leeches through the window. A rocking sound comes from the corner. There is a smell of nursing home, of brittle leaves, of scotch. I ask my hips to respond to me. They don’t listen. I tilt my head up and there in the middle of the creaking is an old woman wrapped in a thinning shall. She rocks slowly and nods her face muttering to herself. When her mouth moves the bags of skin that sag from her cheek bones billow. She has no eyes. Open sockets gape at me.
“Beep” she says.
“Who are you?” I say.
“Beep” she says.
“Please, what’s happening to me? I can’t hold on to anything.” I say. My hips still won’t hear me begging them to move. My toes won’t wave back at me when I ask them to. I’m so confused, I need to focus. Ellen. Please listen, Ellen please pull yourself to one piece again.
“With any luck she’ll be, beep, in a few months. There’s no certainty of, beep,” says the old woman. She rocks faster. I look down at my legs and I see my skin bubbling. I see the maggots beneath the pink, I see them eating down towards the bone defecating trails of scotch in my veins. The iron posts of the bed curl in towards me and pin my feet. I hear the bones breaking, smell his breath.
“Fairweather all together, black feather, whether or not she’s feeling better,” chuckles the old woman in a sign song tone. The bed coils a post down from behind my head and slithers down my throat. I struggle, I thrash, the bed post grows and coils and pulses downward, pushing my tongue aside and probing, fondling my insides with its cast iron sides. The old woman rocks faster.

-13:14 November 7th - Mr. Edward Fairweather puts the bottle down and sees several missed massages on his phone. He goes to the hospital to see his daughter.

He enters. Carrion and liquor on his breath, his putrefying wings wrapped around him and shifting shadow form with listless eyes stumble towards her on breaking legs, resetting and popping as he lurches at me. I can’t scream, I choke on the post in my throat. I cry, and struggle, but am held. I thrash, but only the maggots rove freely through me, descending my valleys, burrowing towards my sacred groves, wiggling and chewing. He descends upon me and I close my eyes. I bleed.
-19:02 November 19th- Ellen Fairweather remains in a coma. A lab test returns. An official knock sounds on the Fairweather’s front door.

© Capt C Staudinger 2006

The Apple Prince

What with the youth scammpering hither and yon on the Golf Cart, polos flailing in the wind, and the crisp budding fruit of paradise condensing on every branch, I feel the need to thank the harvest season. I think it is time to honor reprodcution.
Glory be people! Here's to the pistol and the stamen. While we, as a culture, spend so much time trying to disect why unrequitted lovers only hear what they want, (i.e. "I don't like you. I can't imagine ever wanting to date you because you are an emotionally unsound and grating person. Not now, not ever, you offend the very fabric of my soul." which translates to "...not today goreous, I'm too hot for you this moment to form the word yes like I want to...") or gripping about failied attempts to fly and scorned hearts, lets face it... the fruits of labor are well worth it. (Right? I myself have never been in labor but I've seen it. Oh god have I seen it...)
This is my tribute to passion, to polenation, to fruit hanging full bodied from the branch!

Let us drink a warm toast to that sweet friend Autum, who's auburn hair frames Her swollen belly, and who's fragrant pumpkin spice reminds us of that now is the time to rejoice in what we've accomplished. The great fanfare and exulltation before that hard bitten neighbor Winter bangs on the wall and tells us to keep it down. After toiling in the soil and the sun, laboring in the dry heat of Summer we can now, in good conscious, spice the wine, heat the mead, pour the vodka, and give thanks to the great miracle of existence.

So my friends, pluck the fruit of the vine, savor the rich and vibrant flavors that ride full force on crisp winds, pull fragrant lovers in close and give a ruckous thanks to the bees, to the birds, to the stout fruti bearing trees of the sweet sugared empire, raise your glass of applejack to the muses of propogation.

Glory.

Sheered... Like Samson.

A tribute to the Journey

For the Good Doctor and the Admiral

for 21 years of dedicated service.

And we called him Santiago
By Captain Christopher M. Staudinger

© All Rights Reserved

Mahi-mahi bond for life. Once bonded, they will spend the rest of their five to six years swimming side by side through the yawing abyss of the tropical seas. At first you think that the sea must be teaming with life, near brimming over. That really isn't the case. Ninety-seven percent of all life in the ocean is found within two-hundred nautical miles of the shore. One percent are creatures that lurk deep in darkest parts of our mind and seas. The remaining two percent fight for existence in the barren waste-land that scarcely supports life. Mahi take this chance. With its partner by its side, Mahi roam the heavy heaving desert of sea reaching speeds of 50 knots (57.5 miles per hour to the lubber). They’re gorgeous, flaming rockets of crimson and gold with electric green currents chasing along their sides.
The simple fact remains that you’re more likely to catch a glimpse of the Pope’s private yacht than a Mahi. We went three months without sight of land or vessel, nothing but the endless drone of horizon spattered by the brooding temperament of the skies. For three and a half months, our world was bound by the wooden planks and steel hull of the SSV Toronto Star, 134.5 feet in overall length, 250 tons, 14 feet of draft, 2 masts, 11 sails, 34 souls. We were assigned a shoebox-shaped coffin, 6 feet, 3 inches in length,to stow our gear and stash our bodies when not on watch. For three and a half months, we clutched our duffels and sea bags against our sun-ravaged skin like spouses or once ago lovers. For three and a half months, we hid our secrets and flaws, hoping they wouldn’t spill out of our bunks when we heeled over.
We were scientists. We were students. We had projects to be developed and theories to be tested and egos to be soothed. We had stood on shore a season prior in the conference hall and explained how we would better the scientific community through our arduous endeavors across the Pacific. We extrapolated, and pontificated, and inflated just as much. We came from New England upper crust, and donated to Green Peace every year. We were known by name in the labs back home and were expected to bear doctorial titles within the decade. We were the hope of the future. And then there was Danny. Danny DeMio.
He stood in front of us wielding a yard-stick like a broadsword. He jabbed at a picture of a fish drawn on the chalk board, and then traced the bold bubble letters: SAVING THE YELLOW-FIN TUNA.
“So, I intend to prove that there are fish in the ocean.”
We paused.
“I mean, I’m going to fish for yellow-fin tuna, along our cruise track, and
then I’ll plot where I find them and at what times of day and stuff. When I’m done, I’ll be able to know what the popular areas are for the fish -- showing that there are fish in the ocean still.”
Georgia, who had strangely sharp and dazzling teeth, raised her hand.
“So… what are you going to be accomplishing for the scientific community?”
Danny let an absent-minded hand fall below his waist and stroked himself.
“Once we know where the fish are, we can let commercial fishermen know, and that way they will be able to stop over-fishing.”
We paused again, as if waiting for some hidden punch line. It never came.
Veronica, who was top of her class in cephalopod biology and reproductive technique, chimed in,“You’re going to save the fish by killing them?”
We all chuckled at her jab.
“No, I’m going to, you know, sample them.”
“On a plate?” said Justin, who loved to surf.
Danny started to look angry. He charged at each question and missed each one by a fraction of an inch. Most of us took a stab at him; the rest cheered us on. Then came Greg, whose large nose was frequently dabbed with crumpled Kleenex produced from some hidden pocket.. He came striding into the conversation like the matador toying with the broken bull, smiling at the ladies.
“So you’re going to fish for three and a half months?” he asked, his voice like burned sugar.
“Yeah.” responded Danny.
Greg side-stepped the first charge.
“And then you’ll spend your down time taking advanced readings of the biological construct of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone?” He fluttered his cape.
“Well, no.”
The sword came out.
“I guess I just don’t understand the purpose of your project.”
“To stop over-fishing in the ocean.”
“Are you going to stick a Budweiser on the hook and pull the fishermen out of the water?”
We all held our breath.
“Or are you going to stop the rape of our sea by pulling the fish out and relocating them to the projects?”
The room erupted.


We crept across the Pacific at an agonizingly slow four knots. The sun lashed our backs and broiled the deck. We prayed for a night watch; any of the four hour shifts that were served between 1900 and 0600 gave you a chance to balm your burns before returning to one of the brutal six-hour day watches.
Everyday when not on watch we would sacrifice ourselves on the altar of science. Those of us who were interested in probing the depths on the sea would be present four times a day to lower the 250-pound Conductivity Temperature Depth scanner and her twelve sample bottles. We would heave-to, winch the carousel out, and drop the CTD down 4000 meters. Others would be counting copepods under the microscope or probing spoonfuls of sea snot with a steel toothpick and looking up every third organism in the NOAA manual to ensure we had identified it correctly. Others still were preserving squid gonads in formalin every thirty minutes.
The lab was below deck, tucked alongside the churning generators and oil lines like the boiling stomach of the ship. Constantly heaving and rocking, and reeking of chemicals and squid, the lab was relentlessly barraged by the four-second throb of the depth scanner that constantly checked in with the carbon on the ocean floor.

Danny remained on deck. When he ventured to the lab, it was to pick up a bucket of chum for his hooks. Greg, who was seasick for the first week, once vomited in the bucket of chum before handing it to Danny. He dabbed his behemoth nose with a rag as he handed it over. For two months, Danny lounged on deck watching his line. Nothing came.
“Of course he’s not going to catch anything,” Veronica said one day when the heat was heavier than usual. “There are no fish this far out. He’s just fucking off up there.”
“He’s getting really good at baiting a hook.” said Thomas, who didn’t say much.
“Yeah, he’s a real master baiter,” said Greg, casting invisible dice in the air next to him.
We all paused from our quest to better humanity to laugh.
“You hear the Cap’n calls him Santiago?” he said through his nose.
“Santiago? If Hemmingway knew, he’d kill himself again,” spat Georgia.
At that moment, Danny pushed the hatch open and came in with a bullish look on his face. When he caught sight of Greg, he puffed up.
“Hey, I need more chum.”
Greg spat on the sole and then handed Danny the scalpel he was using to dissect one of Veronica’s squid.
“Here, I suggest using your temporal lobe, it’s for higher functions.”
“What?”
“Your temporal lobe. For chum. I figure you should use it at some point in your life.”
Danny held his ground without letting his gaze falter from Greg.
“Still nothing, Santiago?” asked Justin, who hadn’t stopped talking about surfing since we cast off.
“If you can tell me what book that came from, Santiago, I’ll give you this squid testical.” Greg produced a small marble from the longest of the squid’s tentacles. “Think of it like a worry stone, so that you don’t have to keep touching yours.”
Danny recoiled his hand from its native position on his groin. He shifted from foot to foot and then spun to leave.

We herded him around the ship. There’s nowhere to hide on a ship and the 134.5 feet of his paddock began to cinch around his neck. We would mock falling on swells too small to note and cow him into bulkheads as we caught ourselves, or grumble “Santiago” in greeting as we passed. The golden key to his freedom swam hundreds of knots away, disinterested in his single piece of chum dangling behind the Toronto Star.
And then it happened: under the most oppressive of days, when the air refused to whisper the faintest relief, Danny’s pole dipped and broke. He was there to grab it as the line raced deeper into the dismal depths. The bells sang out and the pulse of his excitement spread like a drug through the veins of the ship. We all rushed to the quarterdeck. With the pole broken, Danny had pulled the coil of line from its spool and was holding on with his hands. As we watched his shoulders ripple under the strain of the fight, his palms wept crimson tears onto the parched planks of the quarterdeck. The sea heaved with discomfort beneath us and Danny had to grab at the rail to prevent following his prey to the depths.
The third mate (who was arrogant and boyish) leapt to Danny’s side and helped him coil the line. They thrashed and tugged, cursing heathen prayers to physics that the line would hold. Danny was heaving still, as he had been from the start, when at last we saw it. Beneath the water shot a bolt of color like a rocket. First it bolted away from the hull at what must have been 40 knots, and then down again towards the darkness. We watched the line sigh and sing under the force. Danny raged vehemently and planted himself with each new attack. The line suddenly gave the most imperceivable of movements and seemed to slack. Danny dug in. The fish soared on deck.
Forty pounds of fury thrashed and spurred. The third mate straddled the four feet of gold and crimson that mauled mauled the planks with color and rage. From some secret spot, Danny produced his deck knife and plunged it into the Mahi’s skull. Its flanks blazed to life with wildfire and sunsets. Its eyes sought wildly for its attacker. The knife bored deeper; squelching sounds assaulted us with each twist. The Mahi’s open mouth let loose silent gaping screams as she flared even brighter. There was a sickening twist and a pop. The Mahi went limp and the color in her flanks faded, starting at the tail and bleeding upward towards its own blank stare, and finally leaching out at Danny’s knees. We saw the color pour out with the blood that ran into the hawseholes and back into the sea. The fish that remained behind was a slate grey and still as stone.
The only sound was Danny and the third mate slapping one another and laughing. Slowly, we tore ourselves from the scene and returned to our duties.
Justin was the first to notice the fish that bumped into the side of the ship. He was watching Danny and the third mate cleaning the Mahi and chucking the innards back to the sea when he caught sight of the second Mahi. From the slope of the forehead, this one was clearly recognized as male, and he trailed along side the ship, rising to the surface and casting searching glances up, but finding only chum and the silence of an alien world.
For four days, the dead fish’s mate slowly swam by the side of the SSV Toronto Star, waiting for something to drop back from the sides of the ship and return. Day and night he kept his vigil, sometimes patrolling the starboard side, other times trolling along the port side. Veronica had trouble sleeping at night because she could hear it bumping against the hull along her bunk. By the fourth day, its dazzling crimson had begun to fade. On the fifth it took the hook Danny single-mindedly dropped in front of it. No one watched as he bled the color dry.









© Capt C Staudinger 2006

28 Hours

1 lilting voice
10 vodka shots
1 by 1
15 minutes?
4
1 perfcet conversaasion
2
3 hours of solitary respite
(and i 8 nothing before 1/5 poison)
20 tributes to a porcelain god
28 hours of pennace
40 lessons learned
1 night before
21

missing pieces ~

i leave a paragraph for most
a page at times
i spent a chapter in India
a volume for ships and seas
i knew a girl who claimed a novel for her own
some jotted notes in Arabic and a dictionary of Spanish
for you:
i left a printing press
i stalled my publication of adventure classics and romance novelettes
swathed a forest clean and bled my ink wells dry
awaiting a daily publication for my illiterate heart
a trilogy, a book, a pamphlet
a god damn note saying why

i got an epitaph
a stone carving goodbye

-caustic-

So I light cards of fire

make them disappear

reappear

It's a poetry really.

Each card having a distinct meaning and flavor

placed and handed out in the right order

making a pattern

that only I (i think) am watching

The Evolution of Chris

Coronation of the Forest Lord

And through the swirling transient nodes of perpendicularly parallel paradoxical articulated venerable comments based primarily within the illicet and intangiably emaciated (of verable vengence, verdict, vigilance, victory, vagrance, villany, and voice) nodes of cerebral tempests cascading lucidly upon shirking shadows of probable location I assume in gaurded stance and prose... though heavily laden with bombasted jibing prose... a chance to gaze into verbal metaphorical prominent venerated projected portent text a certain clarity not often expected nor seen.

Falcon-esc

falcon-esc
i'm bone hollow, fierce down, and weightless grace
so that i can better saddle the
full bodied tradewinds and go
where plump warmth won't allow
what a heavy thing comfort is
soft and gratuitous around the gut;
such merry men posses great gravity
but i'd miss my ferrel wandering
and the complete, barren freedom
of the flight.

On the Eastern seaboard of India there lies the industrial rural village of Mamallampuram. I was trekking down the cast of India not long ago when I encountered a brutally hot stretch of sand and shrub land. The only oasis was a hump of granite that rose from the coast and took stance against the endless stretch of sand. I made it past the emaciated bovine guards that stood munching cud on the edge of town and entered a historical labyrinth of limestone, marble, and stone dust. For the last 1200 years Mamallampuram has been a stone carving village. Through out the entirety of its existence Mamallampuram has been fought over by the various Hindu and Buddhist rulers of India. As each new ruler would come to power they would take the inhabitants of Mamallampuram and put them to work to construct great superstructures and testaments to their respective faiths.
Mamallampuram is a tiny village of shacks and mud homes that provide a palisade for the ghost empire inside. At the inner core of the village there lies a massive city hewn from slabs of granite that could swallow city blocks. Everywhere that one of these rocks loomed up from the earth the citizens of Mamallampuram carved temples and buildings straight from the side of the stone and erected monuments to their industry from the very bellies of the behemoths they dwelled with. Stone moves in the blood of the people here. Each man of this town is a stone worker and has been since birth. His father was a stone worker and his father before and so on for the last millennium. With century after century of each dawn bringing a new day to learn each nuance of the stone they work with and each craft to master it the men of Mamallampuram have become a class apart in realm of stone craft. For hundreds of years they have been sought after by all of India’s populace to craft for them works to challenge time itself. For they do more than just mould stone with precision and speed, the denizens of Mamallampuram breathe life into each piece and sculpt it with the skill of generations.
It was wandering through the vacant corridors of this timeless city that I met Rajaram, a young student who bears the burden of being the newest member of an elite stone crafting group that has prospered in this area since the first kings of India requested the talent of these men for Temples to worship in. I was broke and in condition to march once more through the daunting stretch of sand that coiled around Mamallampuram. He gave me a place to stay and I had the honor of eating with his family; though they had little to spare.
The vast majority of Mamallampuram’s income is from tourism these days what with a recent decline in the Indian governments need for stone monuments. However the recent Tsunami has caused a drastic decline in visitors to their region. Times being hard Rajaram and his family all bore their hardships with great pride and a deep love for the work they do.


Now however we have a chance to help. If you and yours have any desire for any stone craft let me know. If you find your life lacking a perfect gift, pendant, statue, piece of culture or merely an act of philanthropy call me at
509.521.9379
and place an order. No matter what you are looking for describe it in full detail and I will see that Rajaram is informed. The port authority of Madras and I are old friends and I’ve secured the safest shipping for the least amount of money. For a fraction of what it should cost for hand crafted art from the other side of the world you can seize this chance to not only help a family but provide yourself with incredible personalized heirlooms that will linger into the future generations.

Folowing the Zen Trail

This is a letter of apology.

I may never return from Japan. I would love to have written sooner but each key on the key board has at least 7 different characters it can produce and I couldn’t find the English ones for a good long while.

For the last four days I have been trekking through the mist burdened mountains of this sublime country, fasting and reflecting at the Zen monuments that nestle in the evergreen folds of Japan’s empire. After pacing the bright action packed streets for a day or so I realized that I would never be able to afford accommodations, what with a youth hostel running at $50.00 a night. So I packed up my satchel and made for the paths of enlightenment seldom trod in the winter months. Winter has been a forgotten delight, and one that I now gorge myself upon. The still courtyards of ancient Samurai temples are filled with freshly blooming cheery blossoms and bejeweled with snow lightly falling from the marbled sky.

If I don’t return, look for me trekking the lost trails of a foreign empire chasing the shadows of my soul.

The Machine That Is

China.

I’ve been caught up in the grinding cogs of a gargantuan factory. I hear only sounds, but no words. I met more people in secluded, sealed Myanmar who spoke English than here. China grinds and galumphs with churning, burning, spewing sounds crashing through the gridded cityscapes. There is no setting between off and max with voices, no inflection, only screaming, screeching, tearing words that thunder across you with rhythmic stride. Trains, and smog, and snow pulling, sinking, crushing on the same beat as the cars that push and pulse down the street.
There are no names, only ID tags with bold numbers pinned to the chest of every employee. As if each person were but a piece installed into the great red beast; labeled teeth gnashing in a yawing iron maw. Every where there are sparks faltering in the bitter cold as steel grates on stone.

A woman came up to me selling maps on the street. Fear flooded her eyes and she dropped the maps and spun off from me as a pod of men (all alike in height and breadth) strode past with equal stride and grabbed her. They didn’t struggle or hassle her, they didn’t even break pace, they just kept moving as they latched on and propelled her down the shifting corridor. People every where churned on unaware. They tugged her, pulled her, plied her onwards, down a cluttered shaft of an ally and beat her. The wall of figures shifted and the scene was swallowed.

I swirl alone on the crimson streets seeking some glimmer of warmth. I find scorpions on sticks freshly roasted; some brittle and poisoned heat to gnash between my chaffing lips. Wandering North I find a wall that never stopped anyone… except tourists. It’s pretty great, but also frigid, frigid and mechanical.

At every check point there is a scanner that reads your sore temperature. They are scanning feverishly for those with any thermal anomalies. The dark blue uniforms with silver number plates are seeking dieses, and stopping in their route those who are burning too bright.

Everywhere there is movement. Everywhere there is pulsing, throbbing, grinding, thumping, stuttering, shaking, pounding, silence.

China.

Action Hero Typing

Ladies, Gentlemen, Friends, Loves, Former Collegues, Enemies and Kevin...

I offically have my own apartment. Of course, do I live there? No. I'm just cool enough to live that wandering vagrant life of a Jack of All Trades that all men yurn to tatse in their youth... yet so few are privledged enough to sample. It is because of my fortune that I want to apologize that my last two posts so closely resembled a Dashboard Confessional song...

...it won't happen again...

If you didn't read them don't try to find them, I sent both back into the Emo abyss from whence they crawled with baggy jeans and poisoned talons of literary spite.

The good news (and there is much of it) is that I will be writing quite soon. I will meet the deadline and it will be quite charming and comical, as always. (Please hire me)

One last note... Who ever has been cutting the flowers in my garden and leaving them on my doorstep, stop. I mean really, buy some friggin flowers...

Uh... Mauritus, India, Myanmar...Singapore... *sigh*

I want to be some sort of mysterious golden god. “Wouldn’t that be nice” I think to myself. Oh yes, sure it would…. Even better it would be great to be wise. If indeed wisdom is a talent bought with experience then I am well on my way to Solomon standards. What the great stories of old never tell you is that all of the stout hearted, well respected, figures of timeless stories bought their wisdom with darkness and tears.
I’m in the Straights of Malacca. One of the few remaining locations in the world plagued with piracy. Even as I sit typing the crew stands on deck gazing across the bleak waters with fire hoses coiled about their feet hissing softly in the eerie mist. They’re waiting…. Waiting for some small boat to come purring through the gloom towards us breathing flame and spewing RPGs at our hull in the hopes that the countless treasures of her belly will spill forth. And who can blame them, the Nation’s wealthiest have sent forth their children into the world bejeweled and naïve. We are a golden cradle pulsing through the Orient, dollars signs puffing from our masts.
I digress.
I made it home from South Africa, clearly. We ended up hitch-hiking across the country, riding in anything that would pick us up. By the time we strode into Cape Town we had traveled in everything from the flat bed of a semi to the back seat of a Volkswagen Golf as it blared Savage Garden bearing its owners to meet their internet lovers.
We made it… poor and hungry, but alive with adventure. I spent the last day in Cape Town with Lianne. The very same Lianne who came to the Tri-Cities four years past as an exchange student and who now works as the camera woman for a group making nature films in the Serengeti. We passed the time reminiscing about the days of old.
I’ve been to India, where my old friend (the ever charming and verbose) Smita’s father was the port authority of Chennai. I spoke to him for a time before venturing off into the wilds of the most foreign port I had yet to encounter. It was the small stone carving village of Mamalampuram that halted my forward motion and housed my weary soles for few nights. I made friends with a few local students and together we explored their home town. As the days flew past I found my way back towards Chennai and eventually to the ship after traversing the ancient paths of the Hindu faith.
Shortly after we made our way to the dictatorship of Myanmar. A place I still find myself to close to talk about. I would have stayed there for a great deal longer if not for the fact that for now my duties lie aboard the good ship Explorer. Well, that and I was also a governmental felon due to the length of my hair. Another series of rather untimely events led me to finding a need to employ a black market driver to speed me across the border and back to the ship sooner than we had expected.
This much I will relate, of all the countries to date… Myanmar was by far the most beautiful and serene, though under the sway of a military dictator. I will be posting my thoughts on this country and the adventures held within shortly; however I have class (strangely enough…) and should go do some real work I suppose.

Until next time.

Terrosist Attacks in India

I’m sure that most of you have heard about the terrorist attacks in Vernasi, India. This might be causing some concern with some of you as this is the country that we are currently coming into. I wanted to assure you that I am taking all necessary precautions and will be safe. For my time in India I will be traveling in the Southern half of the country and staying with friends who live there. One of which is the port authority of Chennai (Madras). I will be doing my best to keep you all updated with any new developments but I am hopeful that there won’t be any new news of a negative origin and that the trip will be a success. Any questions or concerns feel free to ask as I will be checking my e-mail more regularly.

With Honor-

Captain Staudinger

South Africa: Chapter I

South Africa… The grandest adventure to date. (That is, on Semester at Cruise)
Following suit with my usual disposition towards life I realized that if I were to have any understanding of this country in the sparse seven days that I had allotted to me I would have to act fast and live large. So Thor (well Dan but the Thor Loki dynamic lives on… I’m Loki in case you didn’t immediately pick up on the similarities…) young Paige and I took off into the African wilds. Our goal… the majestic Addo National Elephant Park. Our constant guide “Lonely Planet” told us about Addo, a place where you get to the gate and rent a horse for one hundred Rand (in US currency something like 16 dollars). Then upon your new steed you ride about the park amidst the Zebra and Elephants while the theme to the Lion King plays on loop.
We left that night around 0600. After 12 hours of South African bus and another four of random sudo-bus, plus some 11 km. of walking what we found was Addo National Retirement Park. Where the wealthy tourists of the world go to die among elephants. This was devastating, not only because the immortal Lonely Planet had lied to us, but because I mean seriously these people were old and withered. It was like watching dehydrated food products pushing them selves around the Disney Land of Africa.
I wept.

Never the less we decided to give it a go. While we had no car in which to travel through the park and we couldn’t afford any of the horse back safaris we could afford a camp site. That is to say that we could pool all of our money to rent for one night a ten by ten patch of gravel upon which to sleep. At least we found one with a tree so that if it rained we could at least give the lightning a better chance of striking us and keeping us warm as we huddled together exposed to the elements.
As night descended we found a small trail leading off the beaten path marked “Game Trail”, I hadn’t played Monopoly in while so Thor and I decided that it might be worth a go. (If you didn’t get the subtle humor of that last line then stop reading this page now, it really isn’t worth it.) In a matter of minuets we encountered a small trail marked “Do Not Enter” so of course we took it. I mean come on. Following our trail as it coiled through the spiny brush looming over our heads we crawled like plump field mice through the thick air of African night. When with out warming a gentle murmur alerted us of a 14 foot tall fence a few yards in front of us. With steel posts the like of tree trunks connecting wire cable the size of a man’s fore arm supporting a system of fourteen periodically placed humming wires we were confronted by a fence strangely reminiscent of Jurassic Park. Along its pulsing border was a path for the rangers.
Motivated by curiosity (a bad sign), a desire for adventure (and increasingly worse sign), and our own poverty (not unlike the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet or the peasants of the French Revolution) we followed the trail. Thor armed with his head lamp, I sporting a handsome camera capable of blinding a bat and both of us armed with the fact that we could easily out run Paige. We walked for some distance after ensuring that if we fell over (because that happens all the time…) we wouldn’t end up as a cooked treat for our carnivorous friends rotating conveniently on the electric fence. I plucked a blade of grass and laid it across the wire to test its current. Finding it to be mild I was both comforted until I looked through the wires to the darkness of the African plains smiling back at me with shrouded fangs. Still we marched on.
We didn’t have to walk long until we soon came upon a crashing sound in the bush. I cocked my camera and readied for the charge when a massive heard of Elephants came slowly plodding into view some forty yards away. They were on their way to a local watering hole illuminated by a lamp post near by and were soon joined by a herd of Water buffalo. My companions and I sat down and began clicking shots of our new found companions. After sitting there for a while captivated by the majesty we made our way back to our tree.
When we returned we all sat down and pulled out our meager food and tallied our supplies. While we were eating peanut butter and bread I decided to visit our neighbors. A pair of couples in their mid-fifties traveling trough South Africa. They were South African but had never taken the time to see their own country and finally found the time. They invited us to coffee and we ended up talking late into the night. They were thrilled to meet people so young with a passion to understand the world and such a bold spirit of adventure. One of them told us that her own son was hesitant to even leave town let alone go abroad. Realizing that we had nothing to repay them with I offered that we could repay their kindness and act as guides our even just offer a place to stay should their children ever come to the states. Delighted they accepted.

That night I laid out my towel (thank you Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and prepared for the long night. I woke up around 0300 freezing and looked over at Paige wearing all of her extra clothes and balled up, and then I saw Thor with his shirt off snoring loudly as he hung out of his thermal sleeping bag. I reached into my pack pulled out a few of the heaviest cans of peaches and a bottle of water we had purchased and put them in Thor’s pack. I put on another shirt curled up and went to sleep.
When dawn came slowly grunting to the Savanna like the warthogs some ten yards away we packed up our belongings and bid farewell to our new friends and began the long march towards Addo. Paige shivered and said “God I slept terribly” Thor smiled and began happily chatting about what a wonderful night he had. Paige and I just looked at him as he made polite commentary about how hot it was with his sleeping pad and bag. We began hitchhiking and we fortunate enough to get picked up a few kilometers from the park. A young man who worked at the park was only too happy to make conversation as we rode along. He himself used to have to hitchhike a few months before because he was feeding his family and couldn’t afford a car. We talked about how difficult it was to get a ride and the heart of South Africa until at last we arrived at the township of Addo and he dropped us off. As we waved good by I miss stepped and felt something strain around my fifth metatarsal. Great… now we were screwed. We had some 1600 miles left to go to get to Cape Town and almost no money… and I went lame. We stopped for a few more supplies and I did what I could to bind my foot.
We ended up walking through some of the poorest parts of South Africa along the highway with convoys of people from the townships marching the 10 to 14 km they had to go every day to find work with bundles of wood, textiles, and produce on their heads. We spoke about their homes and life. After a while (some 47 cars later, all BMWs or Mercedes) we decided to try something new. So I taught them the Sea Shanty of Luck. When we finished the chorus a small truck pulled over. Thor and Paige jumped in the cabin in back and I rode shoty with Greg Nelson, the distant relation of Lord Admiral Nelson. Ironic I know.
Regardless, he took as far as Port Elizabeth where we managed to find a cheap bus to the township of George. When we finally arrived in George it had been three days without a bed. We began our walk towards the outskirts of town looking for a park bench when a taxi pulled up along side us and called “Eh, you missed it.”
We just stared blankly at him. “Back packers?” he questioned undeterred by our silence. “Yes?” I ventured. “Op in, free of charge, I’m on my way that way anyow.” We did and he took us to a youth hostel where we found beds, coffee, and a hot shower for ten dollars. The next morning was a particularly bright one and things looked up. We found out where the nearest bank was and went to change the last of our money into rand so that we could get a bus back to Cape Town.
Walking into the bank I pulled my emergency one hundred dollar bill out (as it was the last of what we had) while Thor tried to pull some money out of the ATM. Paige had only a little bit left. I was waiting for the attendant to return when Thor comes raging up and tells me that Semester at Cruise had charged his card for his expenses when we got into Cape Town leaving him with nothing. He and Paige looked at me with expectant eyes. “Oh, so I am buying the tickets back then?” I questioned. They continued staring. “Ok…” I was cut off by the clerk returning and announcing in her Fran Drescher way “Forfeit” “
“I beg your pardon?” I asked.
“Your bill, I can’t take it, it is counterfeit.” She stamped something and looked away.
Can you all see the expression on my face? I hope so, it was a shame to have missed it as she handed me my bill back. It only got better with the next three banks. Yeah…
Paige looked at me and asked “So how far do we have left to make it before Cape Town?”
“About 900 miles left.”
“How much do we have” Thor asks. We took a moment to count.
“A little under two hundred Rand (33.3 dollars USD)”
We looked out the window.
Thor wept.


…to be continued…

Two Boys I Love

You know, it would be nice to have my brothers along for this adventure around the world. Of all those that I would want with me by my side as I wander through the streets or foreign ports and crawl through the forests of the world I would choose my brothers for this one. They keep me open.
Now don’t get me wrong I would love to experience the dew bejeweled village of Lençoís at dawn with a young woman, sipping our acaí in the morning as the mist recoiled from the grumbling sun. Likewise I think often think of traveling the length and breadth of Sur America with a home town friend whose company made the halls of high school an adventure, or of sailing the jagged coasts of Africa with a cousin whose absence has been harder to deal with than expected. As I walk along steep slopes I think of a father that once taught me to seek sound footing… but for this one I would want my brothers.
They don’t wait for time like I once thought they would. They don’t even wait for me to blink, this moment, this second, this present are too slow for them. I find myself wondering why I haven’t thought to call them back from their bold assault of the future until now. I keep turning and finding them having their childhood chiseled from them by sharp edges and rough falls. With each new skinned knee or passionate battle, whose cause is beyond the grasp of older men, the world seems to beat their youth away leaving something dangerously more like me.
I keep charging off on adventures and quests looking to fulfill that burning desire to trek the world over and seek the mystery of life and taste its more subtle truths. While all the while I’ve been setting my course by the wind I seem to have neglected the fact that my brothers are doing the same, and that someday when I return to port they might not be the glossy imps I see smiling back at me from my wallet photo as it goes from hand to hand; girls sighing as they ogle my brothers charm. It is becoming an all too real thought that I will return and find young men gearing up and preparing to cast off as I do now.
For this one I would want my brothers there to help me see with younger eyes everything that my harder view may have missed.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOEL! I hope your swordsmanship is coming along. I’m sending you the homework you sent me off with, completed as you requested.
David, stop making all the girls fall in love with you… you’re killing me.

Brazil

Weekly updates huh… Yes, okay I’m late. Its true but you know… I uh… I am late. Regardless, here I am now and I am ready to provide any who are actually still interested in my life with a discourse of gripping details and pulse pounding adventures. Or at the very least I can provide some mindless distraction from the daily norm.
I wandered around the city of Salvador for a while when we came to port before deciding that I really needed to get out and experience the countryside. My first move was to buy a new back pack for my journeys. Something rugged, something that commanded respect and pronounced to all that viewed it “This man is and Adventurer, rob him not”. Well, something like that. It took me under a fraction of moment to locate the perfect bag. It was constructed of leather and reeked of sex appeal, not to mention is was in my budget (somewhere between stolen and begging) so I pounced on the opportunity. As I strode away sporting my new acquisition I looked to my new buddy Dan and asked smugly “So, what do you think of my new bag man?” Glancing causally over his shoulder he remarked “It looks like a woman’s handbag.”
Sure enough. As I raised the object that clung to my back like a demon possessed child I saw with horror that his words rung true. I had indeed purchased what could easily be misconstrued as woman’s handbag. I panicked. “Dan, what do I do, what have I done?” Dan regarded me calmly and said
“Perhaps you could get a nice dress to go with it.” That was it I stumbled out into the streets clutching my handbag to my chest and gazing out onto the cobblestone streets of Brazil I new what I had to do.
I spent the next few hours dragging the bag through the streets, playing soccer with local children, and using it to play tug-o-war with any street dog that came my way. By the end I had a rugged, weathered looking bag that had held up to the ultimate test of endurance and said something along the lines of “This man is crazy and possibly very dangerous to himself and others, rob him not.”

The remainder of Brazil was far more moving and majestic, though no less fraught with peril. A small group of us found a bus going to the village of Lençoís (some seven hours to the West of Salvador). We all geared up and boarded our new transport around 2300 that night. I rode shotgun and tried to pick up as much Portuguese as I could while our driver attempted to glean some fraction of English from me.

As we pulled into the sleepy little village the sun was just peaking the horizon. We found a local hostel and slept for a few hours before locating a local trail head and heading out into the wilds. The countryside that comprises Lençoís is arid forest, almost entirely tropical trees and cacti nestled in rocky terrain and sandy hills.
Our convoy hiked through the forest for several hours before we happened upon the oasis of Lençoís. Here we found massive pools of water with no visible bottom, cascading waterfalls and endless river beds with cool caves and smooth rock. The crowing centerpiece however was the main water fall which created a smooth slide down the 70’ slope of soapstone which could easily be ridden (provided you treated her with respect). Of course nothing is a s perfect as one hopes in the begging.
Within half an hour one of our number, a young woman named Jasmina, managed to tempt fate and the waterfall took her and flung her to its base, none to gently either. When we met her at the bottom most of us were stunned she was alive, let alone able to swim back to the group. We sat her down and I finally found an opportunity to employ my wilderness first responder skills. Which is of course a mixed blessing. Not many people really like to reattach someone’s leg, but its pretty sweet to know how. Lucky for us, that wasn’t the skill needed. Turns out she fractured her lateral malleulous. (I’m sure I’m spelling that wrong but role with it, the point is I know where it is and how to treat it… even more impressively I knew how to properly diagnose it over a sprained ankle.) Well we hiked her out and the day was saved. This of course is a slightly blander version but I’m trying to keep time in mind.
That night we all enjoyed an evening in the village tasting the local culture…some more than others…
Myself, I broke off from the main group and wandered the streets savoring the moment and letting the fact that I was there, in Brazil, sink in just a little bit deeper.

The next day we made for the valley and spent our remaining time in Lençoís hiking through the wilderness. We went a good 20 km. into the wilderness and then turned around. Setting up camp about ¾ of the way back we made a fire in a an old river bed near one of the local waterfalls and talked deep into the night. Once it was about ten in the evening we geared up and hiked back out under the stars.
We when returned the locals that served as guides couldn’t believe we were alive, it was literally shocking to them. Which in retrospect is rather flattering… and discomforting. Regardless we waited until 0330 that morning and then began the bus ride back to Salvador and our return to the open ocean.