The Salton Sea
It’s like going to sleep not caring if you wake up. Here’s to one more endless night in a motel at the end of the world with nothing but a pile of ashes for a bed. The salt stings your eyes; the listless sun will handle the rest of you. A bloated bird, one-hundred thousand dead Tilapia, the endless stench. It’s in your sweat. There were dreams, once, at least for a little while. But you better be careful what you invest in. Keep your assets liquid so you can get out if—make that when—you have to. Don’t get too deep into anything or anyone out here.
I guess none of this matters now. You watch the day rise out of the scalding water and fall down the mountains, keeping company with the dead and the mad, pretending you’re different, not like them. Sure, you’re just a spectator, not a participant. Then why don’t you leave? Nope, this is it, the end of the line. You'd almost forgotten about Chinatown, Jake, but it caught up to you out here in the desert. It had to. So, welcome to where everything finally stops. Greetings from the Salton Sea.
posted by Jmhouse at 11:15 PM
5 Comments:
It's too bad that a few people come out here just to find that one trailer, motel and the other obvious trash. But that's really just a very small portion of what’s out here. Many people have bought property and others come out here because they fell in love with the beauty, which seems to have flown right over your head.
You missed all that because all you saw other photos of that trailer which has been photographed thousands of times and you thought that you could take a better picture of it. You could have saved a lot of gas by just driving a few miles in L.A., or wherever you come from, and can find a lot worse in your own neighborhood. I don’t say this to put down L.A., where I was born and raised, but to point out the obvious. Yes, it’s here, yes it should be gone, yes it gets very hot out here, but no, the water isn’t scalding and your other points are also greatly exaggerated.
It’s very easy to take a few words, string them together to tell a story that isn’t even true. What the hell has your juxtaposition of “Chinatown” got to do with anything out here?
It’s obvious that you hope to become a writer and spent more time trying to put some words together than you did in finding that trailer that some people find so interesting. I can tell you this, what you’ve written is a bit hard to read and your confusion shows your lack of knowledge for this area. It seems that your real point is to show off your writing skills and ability to snapshot.
Next time, you should do some research before you practice your desire to write and photograph. That way, you’ll avoid the future embarrassment you’ve caused yourself, and maybe you will get better at what you set out to do.
Everett English, editor of the Salton Seafarer
i digg the post, wish you updated more. keep it up.
me, too ! don't stop !
and very best wishes
Jeez, I was all set to move to a nice beach front condo on the Salton Sea, but now forget it! I shall be sending a terse letter to the Salton Sea Chamber of Commerce and let them know they have quite a bit of work ahead of them.
Good day sir!
Clearly my description of the "Salton Sea" is exagerrated. It's...what's the writerly term? Metaphorical. Just like Chinatown in the film "Chinatown." By the way, it's a great movie. Jack Nicholson plays a detective. I recommend it.
And, hey, people come out and take pictures of that trailer because it IS interesting to see a vehicle wholly rotted away by salt. And, if the photographs you see from the Salton Sea are largely abandoned motels, destroyed motor homes, and dead fish it’s because that’s a lot of what’s out there at the moment. I appreciate that sort of thing, but perhaps that makes me a liability.
I’d say the Salton Sea is a place in real trouble, despite the beauty inherent in the Sonoran Desert. The reality of what I wrote might be found in a Salton Sea that hasn’t seen a drop of agricultural water in ten years. Although I believe current "restoration" plans have the Salton Sea slated to stabilize at 1/5 its current size, not zero. Still, that plan will probably be just as devastating to residents of the area as it will be to the region's waterfowl, despite being couched as revitalization.
I had no intention of writing anything factual or historical here. I'll say I did take some inspiration from a couple fairly creepy things I came across out there, but I'll leave it at that. If you would like to write a completely factual/historical post on the Salton Sea, be my guest. There's plenty of space here for you and you can even submit your own photos.
Regards,
John
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