Warm air

So it's blown up heat wise here and the biggest side effect of that is that the air smells, really good, like walking through syrup, that sweetness. Incidentally it's warm enough now that the honey flows properly which all feels like part of it. 

On the way in this morning you could smell the dew first, that freshcoolness. Then the sugar sweet flowers we walk by somewhere, they trailed the whole way up to the train station. Then hot oil and baked goods from the shops, and then I didn't notice anything on the train but the city has that sugar flower smell combined with like a hint of woodsmoke this morning.

It makes me feel more alive, this start of spring start of summer feeling. And reminds me a little of when I went to Mexico, my first time out of the country and felt like the syran wrap was taken off my life. Colors were brighter, sounds were louder, tastes were fuller, smells more rich. 

It's like when you're cooking something and it starts getting going and you can smell it from the other room. It's like that but with the world, the air starts to warm a little bit and you can just smell and feel the life stirring, everywhere.

Prison sentences

So there's a controversy in Iceland right now about a guy who was friends with the father of the prime minister. He raped his five year old daughter for twelve years and was sentenced to five years. His friend was writing a character letter to get his record expunged. But you know my top take away was, what the hell is he doing out of prison after only five years?

So then I'm trying out this new podcast ear hustle, broadcast from prison. The two hosts are doing 15 and 30 years respectively for armed robbery. "31 year to life for attempted second degree robbery."  But you know my top takeaway was, what the hell is he doing in prison for thirty years?

But you know, not to be reductive but I bet you can guess one of the differences between the two.

Stuff in the sky

On my walk today I saw:
A gala with its underbelly rose like the setting sun.
A bat flapping slowly, in fat furry flaps.
A crow quacking in a budding jacaranda tree.
It's evening now, probably time to head home.

Marley

When I hear Bob Marley songs now I think about Jamaica because of that Marlon James book.

It's silly I suppose because I never really thought of him connected to Jamaica before. He seemed bigger than that or whatever. You know he created/ popularized a whole genre of music. And he's maybe the most international star I've ever seen.

Seriously it was one of the lessons of my round the world trip. People fucking love Marley all over the world. Truck drivers in Peru, bars in Tanzania, clubs in Cuba, on the streets in the air. Mostly poor people. Everyone grooving out.

I never thought about him, with the crime, the corruption of Kingston. It adds a dimension. And while his music is political, I often don't think of him as that punk, but it seems I should.

Look this is my second blog about other random stuff and I feel like I should say, you know Jeremy changed jobs and said goodbye to his old co workers and it was a whole thing, he's at Skedulo now, it's going well, but of course there's been lots of feelings and this just feels a bit public for all that so just know that he changes and it was powerful and moving and good.

Voting

Democrats have not won the white vote since LBJ signed the civil rights act into law.

That kind of breaks me, I find it a staggering statistic. Did white people really just part company at that point? If you're going to call black people human, we're done. Is that really the world?

Leave

My leave just got approved. I am officially a free agent until 2019. I felt more ecstatic about it than I expected to. Really joyful here.