The Times Quotidian

On the Ground with Occupy Oakland
Photography by Naomi Pitcairn
Text by Nancy Cantwell

Naomi Pitcairn, activist, photographer and contributor to Times Quotidian, has a choice—and she chooses Oakland. When my husband and I were contemplating a move to the Bay Area she was begging us to please be open to the East Bay with it’s diversity in art and culture. When the community calls she left the comfort zone of her sequestered studio work and took her camera to the streets to be a part of Occupy Oakland. Naomi is also a long time member of the Fresh Juice Party , “a politically prejudiced media group who produces custom media packets for causes we believe in.” FJP sponsored two free vegetarian lunch programs for the protestors via the sympathetic Fountain Cafe. The Fresh Juice Party Band has also been invited to sing on stage at several occupations.

Here is FJP’s song OCCUPY WALL STREET Occupy Everywhere. Solidarity.
Music: Craig Casey, Lyrics: Prathibha Gautam, Vocals: Jessica Czeck

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You can download FJP’s OCCUPY WALL STREET from iTunes here.

Protesters here have renamed Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, the site of their encampment, Oscar Grant Plaza. Oscar Grant, 22, was shot in the back by policeman Johannes Mehserle, 28, while lying on the platform in a railway station on January 1st 2009. Mehserle claimed he had thought he had his Taser in his hand rather than his gun. The shooting, which was shown on YouTube, led to a riot in Oakland, and there were fears of further trouble if Mehserle had been found not guilty. The verdict meant the jury thought Mehserle had been criminally negligent but had not intended to kill Grant. The trial was held in Los Angeles because of the tension in the Oakland and neighbouring San Francisco over the shooting.

The Nests of the Lindsey Wildlife Museum
by Naomi Pitcairn

This is the second installment of a three part series on the Nests of Lindsay Wildlife Museum. Part 1, “First Encounter” tells how the author-photographer first became a part of the museum’s conservation efforts. Part 3, “Outreach” is an interview with the museum’s Natural History Curator, Marty Buxton.

Behind the Scenes
The word curator comes from the Latin word cura, which means care. Also known as a keeper, the museum curator needs to be an authority on the subject of his/her collection to not only assure the collection’s good condition, but to organize, and interpret it’s contents for the public. By designing meaningful ways for others to interact with the subject matter the curator’s expertise is manifest whether through exhibitions, catalogs or commissioned programs for use by educational institutions.

A curator of a natural history museum requires knowledge of an extremely broad topic: the entire natural world. The basement of the Lindsay Wildlife Museum is bustling trying to keep pace with all that requires. Specimens are identified, inventoried, and lent back out for educational purposes. Exhibits are researched, designed and prepared. Educational games and teaching programs are created. Mounts have to be prepared and repaired, bones cleaned of flesh by a team of carnivorous beetles. Destructive beetles and moths must be eradicated. Calls from the public are answered when bats invade a home, a marmot is mistaken for a beaver-out-of-water, or what appears to be a meteorite lands in someone’s yard. A visiting entomologist stops by to help with a difficult identification or an expert on Native American basket-weaving comes in to advise on an exhibit.

The large part of the items in many museum collections are stored behind the scenes. The Lindsay Museum’s collection contains about 17,000 items. Photographing something of that size may take more than what I have left of my lifetime, but it’s pleasurable work, communing one on one, one by one, with such compelling objects. Most of the collection is native to California, not only nests, but rocks, minerals, fossils, bones, fur, nuts, insects, animal mounts, (including a passenger pigeon), human artifacts, and of course books on all these subjects as well.

Birds nests in particular, frequently host parasites and other potentially destructive insect or arachnid visitors and need to be frozen, in order to kill such things before they can be mixed in with the other specimens. The sight of a fluttering moth would cause considerably more stir in the Lindsay basement than a poisonous spider, wasp or scorpion would cause. Shouts of “kill it, kill it” will ring out, although nobody you will find there the least bit afraid for their own safety. The nests are blissfully free of feces though, I am happy to say. The mother bird takes that away in her beak. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

Please click to enlarge to observe the arresting intricacies of these nests.

Left:  Western Flycatcher or Pacific-slope Flycatcher —This species of flycatchers is member of the tyrant flycatchers family, the Tyrannidae, a new world family considered the largest family of birds on earth with more than 400 species. Like most flycatchers, the Pacific-slope Flycatcher is a dullish, -brown,, small and not particularly distinguished looking. There are notable exceptions in the family including the gorgeous Vermillion Flycatcher, the Ornate Flycatcher and the Royal Flycatcher, below. The tropical Royal Flycatchers spectacular crest is not often seen outside of mating season although if the one pictured here in my friend’s hand is any indication, they may also raise them when they are really angry.

In spite of their drab coloring though, our local California flycatchers are cute, acrobatic and are voracious mosquito eaters. They can be quite delightful to watch as they sally out and back from a favorite tree branch hawking after their prey.

Right: Oriole —Unlike the old-world birds also known as orioles, the new world orioles are a member of the Icteridae, or blackbird family, so they are related to brewers blackbirds, red-winged blackbirds and other, tropical icterids like the fabulous oropendolas who’s remarkable vocalizations are among my favorites.

Like most icterids, they build remarkable hanging, basket-like nests, woven out of fine materials. The nest in the photograph has been opened up and you can see the round, bird-body-shaped interior. I have always wondered what you do with your long bird tail when entering a saclike nest of this sort. It must be hinged much more flexibly than I could have imagined.

Left: Bell’s Vireo —The Bell’s Vireo is a smallish, pale gray bird with a whitish gray belly. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology mentions the interesting fact that the Bell’s Vireo has not been observed drinking water. It may be able to obtain all that it needs from its food.

The Least Bell’s Vireo is an endangered species in Southern California, mostly due to a loss of riparian habitat and brood parasitism by the Brown-headed Cowbird. Cowbirds, a member of the blackbird family (Icteridae) mentioned below, who have the ungracious habit of laying their eggs in the nests of smaller bird species. They then go on their merry way, leaving the poor victim to care for their offspring who quickly takes the lion’s share of the food, thus starving the legitimate babies.

Right: Brewer’s Blackbird —Brewer’s blackbirds are common visitor at California supermarkets, my bird watching, East Coast cousin was nonetheless excited to see one. The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior explains that Brewer’s Blackbirds “have learned that car grilles are wonderful places from which to pick off nutritious insects. Within minutes of a car being parked, a Brewer’s Blackbird may begin to investigate the grille and clean it of anything edible” Many female icterids, including Brewer’s Blackbirds are known to sing, a behavior limited to males in many other species. While female Red-winged Blackbirds sing a very different song from the males, the song the female Brewer’s blackbirds sings, is similar to that of the male.

Left: Tufted Titmouse — The Tufted Titmouse is a close relative of the Chickadee, but mostly a soft gray, with a little crest, on top of their heads. Like chickadees, they love sunflower seeds and are common visitors at birdfeeders on both coasts. They are quite enjoyable to watch with their tiny size and cheeky personalities.

They are cavity nesters, taking up in an old woodpecker-excavated or natural cavity and lining it with moss, fur, bark, leaves grass, feathers and snake skin. They form long-term pair bonds with the young of a previous brood occasionally helping at the nest. Their diet includes spiders, spider eggs and a few snails, although their primary food is acorns.

Right: Brown Towhee or California Towhee — Available materials, my neighbor’s Malamute’s fine, long hair has been a favorite source on my property. Towhees like to build their nests dense chaparral, particularly in poison oak, where they can feast on the pale, white berries. They also eat berries such as elderberry, coffeeberry, acorns, and garden produce like peas, plums, and apricots. May also eat spiders, millipedes, and snails. You won’t see them at feeders often unless you put out millet.

They forage mostly on the ground, and have an ungainly appearance in flight, using lots of wing power to travel short distances. They always look a little panicked to me, when I see them taking off of the ground. They are one of the most common birds in California although they don’t live much further East than the central part of the state.

Left: Western Flycatcher —Unlike the Western Flycatcher nest in the top row, which is uses oak and birch leaves along with grass and feathers, the flycatcher who built this particular nest relied heavily on oak flowers. There is also a fair amount of shredded redwood bark present. This is probably the garden mulch I call gorilla hair. It was a huge with my garden birds. I found it in more than one of my nest boxes. The group of New World flycatchers or tyrannids, tend to favor sheltered nesting spots. The person who collected the nest describes observing “a bird flying up under the peak of a roof, carrying nesting material throughout the day. A high wind came up and the nest was found on the steps below.”

Right: Brewer’s Blackbird – Although the Brewer’s Blackbird nest here resembles those of Jays and Crows, the blackbirds are significantly smaller and They are just smaller than a robin, the males, a glossy black with a sheen of iridescent midnight blue, metallic green and purple when seen in full sun, accented by a striking, pale yellow eye. The females are a modest, brownish gray with a dark eye and slightly darker wings and tail. You can see them in large flocks sometimes, performing feats of synchronized flying or settling down noisily at night in a sheltering tree. Like pigeons, they can nest on cliffs, which is what may make them able to successfully colonize urban areas. As the paper straw sleeves testify, they make use of available local materials.

The Nests of Lindsay Wildlife Museum
by Naomi Pitcairn

This is the first installment of a three part series on the Nests of Lindsay Wildlife Museum. Part 2, “Behind the Scenes” will take a look at how the nests are collected, categorized, conserved and studied before display. Part 3, “Outreach” is an interview with the museum’s Natural History Curator, Marty Buxton.

First Encounter
I am not a birder, too much looking through binoculars and neck strain, but that doesn’t keep me from being fascinated by their lives. I first came to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum and Hospital with a small finch, a pine siskin, that had flown into my house, having been attacked by my cats. After delivering my bird, who sadly did not make it, I walked around the museum, fascinated by the live collection of Raptors and Owls. These are birds that could not be released because of some kind of permanent damage they have experienced that prevents them from being able to survive in the wild. Most birds I see are either far away or pass too quickly to allow any kind of detailed observation. It still amazes me to see them in such close proximity, although it is sad to see such fabulous creatures unable to fly free as they were intended to by nature.

I was working on my “Exquisite Corpse” series at the time and always looking for subjects that were in good enough condition to meet my standards of exquisiteness. I thought that volunteering at the hospital would perhaps not only be an interesting and useful way to spend time, but also could perhaps avail me of a steady supply of less fortunate patients. After thorough training and indoctrination, that spanned over months of weekends and ended in an exam, I began volunteering as what pretty much amounted to an “orderly” in the hospital. People that commit large chunks of their time over years, can acquire skills that rival those of a veterinarian, but I decided to limit myself to one shift a week at the hospital and one a week doing taxidermy for the non-live collection that is used to help educate the public, figuring that what didn’t survive the hospital would eventually end up there, in the basement.

Not only does the museum house a live and a stuffed animal collection but the ~17,000 items in their collection include insects, rocks, minerals, bones, nests and fossils as well. When Marty Buxton, who is in charge of the collection offered me the opportunity to photograph it in its entirety, I jumped at the chance to commune with so cool and interesting things, up close and personal, to be able to touch them, turn them around, play with them and learn from them. I started with the bird nests.

Please click to enlarge to observe the arresting intricacies of these nests.

Left:  Steller’s Jay — Is a member of the Corvid family, which includes Crows and Ravens as well as Jays. Jays tend to be colorful, ranging from blues to grays and greens and they hop on the ground unlike the crows, who walk. (Hopping is thought to be more energy efficient for certain kinds of leg anatomy. Many songbirds hop rather than walk.)

Jays are among the most recent line of birds to evolve and one of the most intelligent. They are great mimics and their problem solving skills have been the subject of many an experiment in bird intelligence. The ones who live around my house seem to delight in imitating the food cries of the Red-tailed Hawks and watch the small birds go scurrying for cover. They run in a noisy rowdy gang are also notorious nest robbers eating not only the eggs but the nestlings of smaller, song birds.  They are my first warning that a predator, be it fox or raptor, is in the area.

Right:  Orange-crowned Warbler — Warblers are a large family of little migratory birds that are one of the main attractions for North American birders in the spring and fall. Peterson’s Western Birds lists about 50 different species describing them as “active, brightly colored birdlets, usually smaller than sparrows, with thin, needle-pointed bills. Most warblers sport some yellow although the Orange-crowned Warbler is one of the duller species, described by Peterson as “dingy” and their orange crown as “seldom seen.” Their summer and winter ranges overlap in California, which is the southern part of their breeding range, which reaches all the way to northern Alaska.

They feed not on seeds but by gleaning insects and eating fruit, nectar and tree sap and are known to feed at red-naped sapsucker wells. They are of scientific interest because they are the only host for a species of blood-feeding lice who’s reproduction is triggered by the bird’s own reproductive hormones. This “synchronized breeding by parasite and host, enables the lice to spread to other hosts especially the nestlings.

Left:  Wren — Known as “Troglodytes” or “cave dwellers,” wrens are cavity nesters. Because of a scarcity of “snags,” people tend to cut down the dead trees that many birds need for nesting, House wrens and Berwick’s Wrens often nest around humans, utilizing homes or outbuildings or provided nest boxes. My rotted out parking deck provided just such a hole for my Berwick’s Wren. I waited until the babies had fledged before starting the necessary repair and when it was finished, I placed a wren box as close to the original location as possible.

Every year since, my wrens have been back, using the box, now that their original hole is gone. They are tiny, brown and have a downwardly curved beak and a upwardly sticking tail. I generally get the impression that they are cursing me by their buzz-like squawk, which seems to defy their small size.

Right: Oriole — Orioles are gorgeous, ranging from yellow to a fantastic yellowy-orange, highlighted accentuated by deep blacks. They are also master nest weavers. Unlike most birds, whose nests sit, those of most American Orioles hang. “Attached at rim or secured at sides to a drooping branch; woven of plant fiber strips, lined with fine grass, plant down, hair” according to “The Birder’s Handbook” which I rely on for all kinds of behavioral information, including birds diets, nests, incubation and fledging schedules. It’s a great resource.

They build the nests, carrying one fiber at a time, hanging onto the nest twig with their feet, winding the fibers into complicated knots hanging from 3 or 4 places that will become the edges of the nest. Clinging to the tangles they have created, they proceed to weave a “skeleton” that gets thicker and thicker until they can get inside and wiggle around, shaping the nest to the size and shape of their breasts.

Lindsay, has a “tame,” un-releasable Bullock’s Oriole that they use for their “Animal Encounters” program but it is flighty in it’s cage and much harder to get to know than say, the Acorn Woodpecker, who clowns around his cage, hanging upside-down, flashing his white iris and calling out to people.

Left:  Red-winged Blackbird — Distant relatives of Orioles, blackbirds tend to also sport brilliant colors although red, yellow and black rather than orange, are their most common color combinations. Red-winged Blackbirds are common in swampy areas where they straddle their nests, often above water in reeds, cattails, rushes and sedges bound to the stems with milkweed fiber.

Their epaulettes or “badges” are not always visible and are believed to function as territorial warnings, primarily to members of their own species. Experiments where birds’ red badges were dyed black resulted in an increased difficulty in defending their territories. And they are territorial. I remember once, while walking through Central Park, hearing a loud squawking and looking up to see a Black-crowned Night Heron, fleeing the reeds with a Red-Winged Blackbird firmly attached to his rump.

Right:  Robin — Robins are everywhere. Although they are not seed eaters, they eat fruit in addition to insects and so are able to overwinter in northern climates. They can be seen feasting on berries in the autumn, my Pyracantha, for instance, although learned at Lindsay that the story that they “get drunk” on the berries is apocryphal. This was after I committed my erroneous belief to paper, by the way. This is, perhaps a good opportunity to correct that misconception that I, myself, am guilty of disseminating.  Robins are in the Thrush family, hence their melodic song. The Thrushes arguably sing some of the most beautiful songs of any bird. They use the syrinx, which unlike our larynx, is located where the trachea forks into the lungs, is capable of producing more than one note at a time, allowing thrushes to harmonize with themselves.

Robins glue their nests together with mud that they carry in their beaks and their eggs are a beautiful, greenish “Robin’s egg blue.” Methods for bonding the structural parts of the nests together vary considerably among species, saliva being another useful binder. Saliva from the swift nests is the prized ingredient of bird’s nest soup.

Left:  Western Flycatcher —A member of the Empidonax group of Flycatchers or “empids” and perhaps actually two species, Western Flycatchers are medium-small birds, mostly grey with a crown on their head and hard to tell apart.

They feed exclusively on insects. Their hunting style, known as “hawking” is to sit on a branch and fly out when they see an insect which they almost always seem to easily catch. They are also known to fly into swarms of mosquitoes, making them a helpful ally.

Their nests are found in a wide variety of situations including stream banks, roots of upturned trees, eaves, cliff ledges and cavities in small trees. There nests are build from moss, lichen, rootlets, grass and leaves and lined with shredded bark, hair and feathers.

Right:  Brown Towhee —Brown Towhees are common in California. Not as striking as their black, white and rust colored Rufus-sided or Spotted Towhee. Both species spend a lot of time on the ground, kicking up leaves in search of seeds, fruit and the occasional insect.

Their metallic “chink” can sound downright neurotic when they are anxiously raising their nestlings. They have reason to worry though, as the Steller’s and Scrub Jays are always eager to rob their nests. I learned this the hard way after finding a Towhee’s nest in a Bay tree and clipping one of the branches that was concealing it. The parents were very upset with me and I with myself when the nestlings quickly disappeared, victims of the Jays and my ignorance.

Mission District Wall Painting
by Naomi Pitcarin

I spent the most of the ’80s in NYC back in the heyday of the train graffiti. It was such an alive art form; fun, ironic, unashamedly bright, daring and political. Just the way the paint was applied had a living energy. You had to enjoy it in the moment because you might never see it again. Some of it ended up in books and galleries, but most was power-washed away or painted over. You never knew for sure who did it or why. I worked as billboard painter or “wall dog” at the time, which prompted my appreciation of these works of art in progress. There were similarities in the brash, temporary slickness of both mediums and they often competed for real estate.

Unlike more formal painting, walls are constant flux. Nothing lasts, it’s cleaned up, painted over, ‘vandalized’ or simply deteriorates in the elements. These inevitable changes wreaked by time, mischief, and sometimes hope tell a story that is of the moment. They are as fragile, temporary and disposable as flowers. Many signs that I worked on were on old, leaky walls. The chips that would occasionally flake off were like jawbreakers encrusted with layer after layer of different color. And fixed within those layers were King Kong with Faye Ray, Superfly, Rambo, the Bates Hotel and an occasional Dondi.

Wall Imagery is often in direct contradiction to its substrate whether it’s a portrait awkwardly straddling a chimney or psychedelic doors of perception held together by lock and chain, ads for an escort service cavort with Mickey Mouse. Anything can happen when new forces overlay older ones, changing meaning, restoring it, obliterating it. What kind of person puts their sloppy tag over a well-done mural? Who risks life and freedom to paint their name in giant letters? Why did the drunk’s faces fall off first and who was nice enough to come back and redraw the guitar?

© Naomi Pitcairn

Exquisite Corpse, Photography by Naomi Pitcairn
by Nancy Cantwell

On this the 55th day of BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, as tens of thousands of gallons of oil continue to pour into the Gulf of Mexico, the heartbreaking vandalism of the sentient ocean’s population is unimaginable. According to the Center for Public Integrity, BP accounted for “97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the refining industry by government inspectors.” This willful and egregious trespass against wildlife of the Gulf Coast of Mexico amassed in the name of high speed gross profit is truly unconscionable.

I have been holding on to these Exquisite Corpse photographs by Naomi Pitcairn, waiting for larger meditation to take shape in my mind, but I keep returning to these portraits of prematurely deceased animals for their simple beauty and sympathetic tone. They are a fitting elegy to all those who will fall prey to the waste of this heedless corporate catastrophe.

There are further associations that come to mind as I examine Pitcarins’s work, that feel appropriate in light of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. The Exquisite Corpse series closely resonates with the Schiller poem and subsequent Brahms choral work Nänie Op. 82, 1881, whose opening line reads, “Auch das Schöne muß sterben!, Even Beauty must perish!” Brahms set to music Schiller’s text to honor the death his friend, artist Anselm Feuerbach, a painter of classical antiquity. The title derives from the ancient Latin term noenia, a funeral song traditionally sung by the surviving parents of the deceased, implying that the lamented dead were not only beautiful, but most likely young. This Brahms is no torpid dirge, it is, in fact, most remarkable for its loveliness. The opening solo oboe affects a calling to another world, a fearless crossing over. The music of Nänie invites the listener to contemplate ceaslessness, with acceptance.

Please find the Schiller poem and Brahms Nänie .mp3 directly below the Exquisite Corpse presentation.

Exquisite Corspes

© Naomi Pitcairn

Johannes Brahms
Nänie for Choir and Orchestra Op. 82, Bamberger Symphoniker – Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie, with the Bavarian Radio Chorus, Conducted by Robin Tocciati

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Nänie, poem by Friedrich Schiller

The beautiful, too, must die! that which subjugates men and gods
Does not stir the brazen heart of the Stygian Zeus
Only once did love melt the Lord of shadows,
And just at the threshold, he strictly yanked back his gift.
Aphrodite does not heal the beautiful boy’s wound,
Which the boar ripped cruelly in that delicate body.
Neither does the immortal mother save the dive hero
When, falling at the Scaean Gate, he fulfills his fate.
She ascends from the sea with all the daughters of Nereus,
And lifts up a lament for her glorious son.
Behold! the gods weep; all the goddesses weep,
That the beautiful perish, that perfection dies.
But to be a dirge on the lips if loved ones can be a marvelous thing;
For that which is common goes down to Orcus in silence.

Auch das Schöne muß sterben! Das Menschen und Götter bezwinget,
Nicht die eherne Brust rührt es dem stygischen Zeus.
Einmal nur erweichte die Liebe den Schattenbeherrscher,
Und an der Schwelle noch, streng, rief er zurück sein Geschenk.
Nicht stillt Aphrodite dem schönen Knaben die Wunde,
Die in den zierlichen Leib grausam der Eber geritzt.
Nicht errettet den göttlichen Held die unsterbliche Mutter,
Wann er am skäischen Tor fallend sein Schicksal erfüllt.
Aber sie steigt aus dem Meer mit allen Töchtern des Nereus,
Und die Klage hebt an um den verherrlichten Sohn.
Siehe! Da weinen die Götter, es weinen die Göttinnen alle,
Daß das Schöne vergeht, daß das Vollkommene stirbt.
Auch ein Klagelied zu sein im Mund der Geliebten ist herrlich;
Denn das Gemeine geht klanglos zum Orkus hinab.

Astroboy Unbound
Photography by Naomi Pitcairn

The photographs of Naomi Pitcairn’s Empty Nest series remind us that deconstruction is immanent. That inherent in all possibility is also the inevitable demise. These packages, once disembodied, cease to hold it together.

Take Astroboy. He is first seen forward facing, standing at attention, full of potential. But when next spotted he has become Icarus, back now turned away, heading towards his destiny. How quickly promise can turn into ambitious defeat. Fated, singed by aspiration he floats away untethered on his space walk into the sunset.

Initially designed to preserve and protect, a few of these leftovers possess a built in means to inflict injury. Child endangerment is a congenital condition for some. And other remains just clearly communicate what’s gone missing. In this world of discards there are Power outages, Happy Little Homes have been vacated and Foil Families are broken apart. Even rainbows can come to a crushing end. Creased and pressed like a Chamberlain sculpture these containers that once held a “somewhere over” commodity now reflect upon a slightly more compact finish. — Nancy Cantwell

Please click to enlarge for titles.
All photographs, 15″x15″, Ink Jet prints on Hahnemule fine art paper, 2008-2009

© Naomi Pitcairn

Empty Nests
Photography and Artist’s Statement by Naomi Pitcairn

In this photographic series entitled “empty nests” I focus on a set of ordinary objects – the packaging of children’s dolls and action figures. Removed from their larger context these items of material culture become extra-ordinary, providing a micro-context of their own – one that is emotionally manipulative, sensorial-ly seductive and ultimately, persuasive.

Though often manufactured abroad, these “fictionalized” mini-environments for plastic homunculi bear surprising truths about our culture of consumption and the western world view. Sans “toy” the packaging can be viewed for its semiotic quality where it works on many layers to reify culturally constructed gender stereotypes i.e. male power and dominance and female beauty and domesticity. Color, style and symbols forming realistic and fantastic images of the magical places we apparently want to live, as well as reminding us that choking is always a hazard when small parts are involved.

Please click to enlarge for titles.
All photographs, 15″x15″, Ink Jet prints on Hahnemule fine art paper, 2008-2009

©Naomi Pitcairn