Ma'Toa's Silver Haired Wife

Dja’Ma’Nota’s dreams grew restless, troubled by a song that echoed through the waters and down into the deep black where his kingdom lay. The song pierced his ears and he tossed and turned, boiling the seas and driving fierce storms. Finally he could sleep no more.

Opening his eyes and waking for the first time since Esh-Lo-Ha’mong with a great hunger in his belly and curious to find the melody that now haunted him; Dja’Ma’Nota swam from the dark depths of his kingdom to the light of the world. The brightness of the sun and the dryness of the air cracked his skin and burned his eyes and he was angry, but the song became louder and Dja’Ma’ Nota would not rest until he found where it came from.
              He swam and swam and swam some more, and storms spewed forth from his wake. They crashed over many islands and made the skies as black as night. He swam so far chasing the melody that his anger slowly faded and he became tired. Stopping to rest by a great island he realized that the song was coming from the sheltered cove.

Dja’Ma’Nota slid through the water calming the waves and drawing a cloak of fog to hide him so that he could see who sang the melody.
              Digging Uah’a clams in the shallows was a beautiful woman with long silver hair; clear glass beads and fine gems decorated her perfect body. He voice touched something within Dja’Ma’Nota and he decided he must have her.

“Beauty, my beauty!” he cried. “Come with me to my kingdom in the deep black and be my queen. You shall be my greatest treasure and bear me many sons!”

“I cannot!” the woman said, dropping the Uah’a clams.

“I am Ma’Toa’s wife and mother to his thirty daughters. My place is here with my family and the earth and the air, for I am a child of Po-Gen’shoa and not the sea.” She said and ran away. Dja’Ma’Nota watched her disappear through the trees.

Dja’Ma’Nota became angry again and swore to himself that he would claim Ma’Toa’s silver haired wife and drag her to his kingdom in the deep depths. He summoned a great storm that surrounded the island and beat the land with harsh winds and cold rains. Crawling up the hills he followed the smell of a hearth fire and under the cover of the blackness of his storm he spied through the windows of Ma’Toa’s Ko-Uah.

Ma’Toa’s thirty daughters braided each other’s silver hair and sang songs to calm the storm and themselves while Ma’Toa’s beautiful wife cleaned the empty cooking pot. Ma’Toa stoked the hearth fire for the night and bade his family to rest.

Dja’Ma’Nota waited until the family slept and he could hear the snoring of Ma’Toa. Eager from his hunger he slipped through the window and swallowed up each daughter in one gulp until only Ma’Toa and his silver haired wife were left. In his greed to possess the daughter of Po-Gen’shoa, Dja’Ma’Nota threw the daughter of Po-Gen’shoa over his back and dove into the sea.

The daughter of Po-Gen’shoa cried many tears and tore at her glass beads and gems in her sorrow as Dja’Ma’Nota carried her away, leaving a sparkling trail behind her.

Upon arriving at his kingdom in the deep black Dja’Ma’Nota placed the daughter of Po-Gen’shoa in a cage of eel bones where her silver hair glowed like a lantern, the only light in the darkness.

“Your children are gone, swallowed by the storm and your husband will never find you. Now you have no children and you shall be my prize!” he cried. Ma’Toa’s silver haired wife wailed at the news and fell to her knees.

Exhausted from his journey Dja’Ma’Nota curled around his prize and fell asleep, but he would not be so lucky. The light from Ma’Toa’s wife’s silver hair pierced through his eye lids and her sobs troubled Dja’Ma’Nota’s slumber. He tossed and he turned for many nights and gnashed his teeth in his restlessness.

Seeing that one of Dja’Ma’Nota’s long teeth had come loose, Ma’Toa’s wife wrapped the strands of her silver hair around the tooth and slowly pulled it free. Gathering her courage and her rage she stabbed the tooth through Dja’Ma’Nota’s eye in revenge for the death of her thirty daughters.

Dja’Ma’Nota screamed and thrashed, smashing the eel bone cage and killing Po-Gen’shoa silver haired daughter. The light faded from Ma’Toa’s wife until only her silver hair glowed in the darkness and with his single eye turned away from her pale form, Dja’Ma’Nota was able to fall back asleep, exhausted from his struggle.

Meanwhile, Ma’Toa had woken to find his Ko-Uah empty and the heath fire low. He called out for his wife and daughters but no one answered. He stepped out into the night and saw the trail of glass beads and gems that his silver haired wife and torn loose. He came to the cove and gathered his eel hooks and spear and sailed after the trail his wife had left in the waters.
              For many days and nights Ma’Toa did not sleep for his anger and his loss drove him like the fiercest currents. Finally the trail disappeared, but there was a single glimmer deep beneath the water. Drawing a great breath he dove into the waves and swam deeper and deeper into the deep black until he could see his wife laying in the coils of Dja’Ma’Nota.

Enraged, Ma’Toa stabbed Dja’Ma’Nota through the base of the skull with his spear and slit Dja’Ma’Nota’s belly before he could wake. From the belly of Dja’Ma’Nota spilled the bare skulls of Ma’Toa’s thirty daughters with their silver hair still clinging to the gone like seaweed. It was then that Ma’Toa realized his beautiful wife was dead and with his heart heavy with sorrow Ma’Toa gathered his daughter’s skulls and his wife’s body and he returned to his Ko-Uah.
              The song of Ma’Toa’s mourning filled the empty sky until it reached Po-Gen’shoa’s ears. The father drove his flying Uah’a shell ship across the sky leaving a cut through the blue in his rush to see the body of his beautiful daughter and the silver haired skulls of his thirty granddaughters. His heart broke at the loss and he hung the skulls from his belt by their silver hair and clasped his beautiful daughter in his arms.

“Please, please Po-Gen'shoa! Bring my silver haired wife and daughters back to me, back to life for your magic is great and your songs are powerful!” Ma’Toa cried.
              “Alas, I cannot bring their souls back from death Ma’Toa, for it is forbidden.” Po-Gen’shoa replied.

“Please Po-Gen’shoa! I cannot live in this world without my family!” Ma’Toa begged.

Po-Gen’shoa’s heart was moved by the loss and his daughter’s husband’s pleas. “I shall cast my thirty granddaughter’s skulls into the night sky so that they may watch over the earth and guide you through the dark.” He told his grieving Sha-son.

“What of my beautiful silver haired wife? What of your daughter? I cannot live without her in my life and she could never live without her thirty daughters!” Ma’Toa cried.
              “I shall place her funeral boat on the waters of the sky so that her path may carry her between the night sky and the day. That way she may watch over both you and her daughters.” Po-Gen’shoa told his Sha-son and climbed into his Uah’a shell sailing into the sky. With his departure the day grew dim and finally night fell as Ma’Toa could no longer see him, leaving Ma’Toa alone on his island.

Raising his eyes to the dark, empty sky he was startled to see small sparkling lights glow to life. As he gazed upon the stars he realized they were his thirty daughters, each dancing through the sky. His heart swelled with joy and sadness and he cast his eyes back to the ocean, in remembrance of his beautiful wife.

There, on the farthest horizon of the sea a silver sliver rose and swelled. He gasped as the sliver became a shell and finally his beautiful wife. She turned her face to watch her husband with a smile on her lips.

Po-Gen’shoa’s daughter casts her gaze between her daughters and her husband, waxing and waning as she smiles on both. Sailing on her funeral boat she passes through both day; visiting her father and night; dancing with her daughters. Always she sails across the torn sky so that her husband Ma’Toa will not be separated from her; for his love for her persuaded Po-Gen’shoa to create the stars and the moon.

Tuzigoot National Monument: a castle in the desert

while in the Cottonwood area on an adventure i saw a sign for the Tuzigoot National Monument. now in my many drives up and down i17 i had often seen signs for it, but i never had a chance to stop there until recently. honestly once i passed through old cottonwood and onto what looked like a pretty empty road i was not expecting much. even upon crossing over the Verde river and seeing what looked like a pile of rocks on a small hill, i will admit i wasnt impressed. but when i entered the information building to pay my whole five dollar entry fee (cheap as shit, and totally worth it) and proceeded to read about the people who called this stone city on the top of a hill home, i started to be impressed.

Tuzigoot was originally built between 1125 and 1400 CE by the Sinagua people. they built this city on the top of  hill, the highest point in the valley that they farmed- giving them an incredible view of everything around them for miles. there were over 110 rooms built and yet, doors werent very popular, instead they used ladders through trapdoor like openings.

walking up the steep, winding path to the ruins i must admit i began to feel awe. looking around me at the lush, green fields and the distant but distinct sound of the water of the Verde i began to see what was tactically speaking a fabulous location. off in the distance i could even see the city of Jerome.

the buildings seemed haphazardly stacked on top of each other and while i walked i began to see a layout that made sense to me. the walls are made of what looks like stones roughly shaped, but modern at the same time. the rooms sit on each other, tightly stacked and as you end up higher and higher in the complex the view becomes more and more amazing.

there is one building that they restored enough to have you walk on the roof to look out over the valley and its pretty awesome. honestly, the inside reeks of bat guano, but with it totally open to the elements it makes sense that they would make a home there.

 

some of the details i found really interesting were the importance of the valley for trade routes, the pottery, and the mining history of the area. seriously, now shit. without the use of modern technology the indigenous tribes of the area had mined 20 feet into the solid rock mountain side to harvest minerals to decorate pottery, make dyes, create jewelry and make up for the lack of salt in their diet. badass, considering that was accomplished with rocks on rock violence.

also, the trade of the pottery was really interesting. the pottery done by the original indigenous people was very simple and utilitarian, but there were gorgeous pieces decorated with lovely patterns that were from other locations and were obviously highly prized by the families that lived there.

The Domes: urban decay in the middle of nowhere

there is a place near Casa Grande in Arizona that holds a great deal of stories and embellishments. of course because of its current state of decay and off beat location it has also developed a bit of an odd reputation. this place is the Domes, and not a whole ton of information is known, but wild mass guessing is quite prevalent.

i first heard of this place two ways, one was by a bike friend of mine who just love riding any and every road he can. his current goal is to ride every paved road in arizona. more power to you man, good luck and be safe because im a bit jealous of your quest.

the second way i heard about the Domes was through a website called Atlas Obscura (www.atlasobscura.com) that i enjoy haunting because it has helped me plan some interesting trips. i highly recommend going to the site and looking up your home area because it might blow you away to see whats hiding near by.

 

now the atlas says the Domes are haunted, used for satan worships, teenage beer drinking and graffiti- i would say yes to 90% of that. i find the satan worship a little hard to believe but thats mostly because im from new england and when i think satan worshippers i think stepford smilers which makes me think WASP families hiding their evil ways behind perfectly maintained colonial styles homes build on the edge of the national seashore under the veneer of protestant christianity and old world blood/trust fund life styles.

 

what i did note while there was that the was certainly a lot of garbage abandoned there, there was a ton of graffiti, what looked like the camp of some squatters and probably the most awesome acoustics ever. i was also surprised by the lack of structural supports of rebar to reinforce the concrete buildings- so the collapsed holes in the wall and ceilings were quite unsurprising. i would also was the site is fabulous for a backdrop for a shoot.

after digging on the net i found an article that said the site was originally built to be a computer technology and manufacturing site owned by Patricia Zebb back in the early 1980s. searching for more information involving her does pop up, even the business she owned back then and planned on moving to the Domes- InnerConn Technology Inc.. so having found that she is in fact real i have more interest in why the idea and site was abandoned. apparently a loan was defaulted on, as well as contaminated ground water was found.

i will say it is private property. so trespassers understand that you can be persecuted for exploring. i will also stress that there is a lot or sharp broken glass and rusted debris all over the place as well as a tunnel system- so be very careful.

p.s. i will be going back to take better photos. sadly that involves me buying a better camera.

When life drives you to a glass house: the Biosphere 2

the Biosphere 2.

i cannot ever stress enough how much this place blows my mind. i drive two hours and over 100 miles to see what i have always thought of as a temple of human dreams driving achievement.

 

 

i have always been a science geek, a science fiction enthusiast, a bit of a space exploration nerd and an engineering buff. i like seeing how things go from people talking about how awesome it would be, to drawing on a napkin, to finding the money and then building it. now the Biosphere 2 is a little bit of all of this, from a science fiction space colony on an alien world, to an engineering fete of mind boggling proportions, to a fertile ground of imagination what ifs.

 

ive always wonder as i walk the pathways if someday years down the line if generations removed from me someone is going to walk the paths of our first colony is a strange echo of a memory or maybe architectural child of the Biosphere 2. but if im honest the part of me that is in love with the movie The Thing and the Lovecraft Prophecies then runs wild and thinks of it as a survival or containment chamber of the things that shouldnt be disturbed.

 

Originally the love child of Ed Bass, a philanthropist, businessman and environmentalist, who committed to financing the construction and experiments of the Biosphere 2 in 1984. he did this as a way to experiment with the plausibility of settling on Mars, self contained ecosystems, green energy and environmental studies in sustainability.

 

 

 

the world looked on in 1991 as the environment was sealed with a crew of eight people consisting of Roy Walford, Jane Poynter, Taber MacCallum, Mark Nelson, Sally Silverstone, Abigail Alling (who replaced Silke Schneider), Mark Van Thillo, and Linda Leigh for the first 2 year mission. now i know some of you will think, 'huh, wasnt that a movie called biodome?' and then stoner humor will ensue. kind of. obviously hollywood needed a way to make money off of tits/violence/and a stretched connection to a current event.

 

at this point the public mind will remember the first mission as a failure- which it was not. the scientific data alone was a gold mine. what they did however learn, was that humans are shitty and will preen and politic over the stupidest shit. so while sealed in the group grew to have difficulties and formed cliques, and the outside groups involved in the management and financing of the experiment began to have trouble that would eventually boil over during the second mission.

 

 

 

i dont think ill go too deeply into the history simply because its all over the net in a much nicer form than i could write and far more scientific information about the experiment, habitats, diets, flora and fauna, sunlight, carbon and oxygen issues and of course, the infamous injury. so i will continue with my quickie with just enough to leave you curious to explore on your own.

 

 

 

 

the second experiment that sealed Norberto Romo, John Druitt, Matt Finn, Pascale Maslin, Charlotte Godfrey, Rodrigo Romo and Tilak Mahato was however a failure. But not entirely due to those inside. the financial and management team melted down due to many issues and forced a closure on the experiment. with their collapse Columbia University took over and the Biosphere 2 eventually passed from Columbias hands to the University of Arizona.

 

 

 

a few of the details i found most interesting during my multiple tours through the Biosphere include in no particular order...
many insects need ultraviolet light to survive- partially because its how they see and in some cases their body needs to absorb it just like humans need the vitamin d from the sun.
the crew quarters have their own small spiral staircases to their living lofts and have a stunning view of the area that they grew their food.
the air inside the Biosphere actually smells different from outside, and even more specialized inside from area to area.
the vegetable heavy diets that were high in nutrition and low in calories caused the scientists to lose over 10 percent of their body weight and though they were very healthy- they looked gaunt and were often fatigued.
to combat the chance of the expansion and contraction of the heated air within the Biosphere they created two giant 'lungs' that consist of humongous rooms at the end of a long and steep, very claustrophobic tunnel that leads into a chamber with a huge concrete disc suspended by a rummer diaphragm that will rise and fall with the internal pressure to regulate it so as to keep the glass walls from exploding from the pressure.
that chamber has a pool of water (to help cushion the drop of the concrete disc) that looks like a portal to hell or another dimension that Cthulu will emerge from- or at least giant tentacles that in my imagination the concrete disc is dropped onto to seal it off.
i want to live inside this Biosphere more than any other piece of real estate i have ever seen in my life but im bringing my cats and books with me if i can.

in conlusion. go, give them your money. its a small price to see science, the future of man and the dreams of life not limited to a single planet.