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Carrion Luggage
Carrion Luggage
 
Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.
This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.
It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.
It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."
I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.
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Almost done with my "Journalistic Intentions"  [18+] entries: one more after today's.
Barbican
I think Barbican would make an excellent band name. It would have to be one that plays rock. Because fortifications were made of rock? Yeah? Yeah? Come on, that was funny.
I'm not sure if they'd get to play at the Barbican. It seems way too highbrow for that kind of music. But then again, I don't know; England helped to elevate rock to high art. Okay, they made rock a high art, and we just kind of followed along over here.
All I really know about that particular complex, though, is that it exists. That, and what I just read on the Wiki page I just linked. Of all the London landmarks with distinctive architecture—Elizabeth Tower, the Eye, the Shard, Tower Bridge, the Old Bailey, to name a few—Barbican Centre is one I've never, ever seen in an establishment shot for scenes set in London. Perhaps there's one out there somewhere; I haven't seen every movie and show in existence, nor would I want to. (Apparently, it was used in some scenes in the Star Wars spinoff series Andor, which I've only seen part of, but that's not the kind of thing I'm talking about.)
The equivalent for the US is, I think, having a good idea of what the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building look like, but never having seen Lincoln Center. Which is understandable.
Historically, a barbican was a kind of fortification. Specifically, a "fortified outpost or fortified gateway." Like all defensive structures, they were useful until they weren't. The arms race that saw improved armor lead to improved weapons which led to improved armor which led to improved weapons, and so on, was mirrored in the defensive walls vs. siege engines race.
Sometimes I think that, if it weren't for war, we wouldn't have been nearly as inventive.
Oh, who am I trying to fool? Myself? No, I don't think that "sometimes;" I think that all the time. Even the Space Race was part of a war, albeit supposedly a cold one.
But sometimes, we can turn the language of war over to peaceful pursuits. Like, I don't know... the arts? We can still argue about their aesthetics and meaning, but at least we don't usually kill each other over the disagreements. |
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Thanks for posting this. I love stuff like this.
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