Archive for the ‘Joan’ Category
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
While at Kelly Ridge, Joan let us pick out some of Joe Wood’s old fishing poles for our trip to Michigan. She also handed me a book by Harlan Hubbard titled “Payne Hollow.” I pointed out to her the handwritten note on the front jacket flap that said, “Not for loan.”
“Too bad,” she replied. “He should’ve stuck around to enforce it.”
I immediately began to read the small work, as Dana drove us north for a few Lexington errands. I’d never heard of this memoir—the heartfelt story of an artist-craftsman and his quest for an isolated, unconventional life close to the earth, but I quickly understood why it might have been one of Joe’s most treasured books. Hubbard describes his conviction that a longing to live an even more primitive, solitary existence is less important than the compromises necessary for the richer satisfaction of a married life.
The author did not win me over from the start, but rather by slow degrees. I’m struck with the parallel of my own experience with Joe himself. Perhaps he came to the same conclusions about a life alone. Perhaps this is my sister’s way of helping me better appreciate the natural course of their own love story.
Wow… and I still have the second half of the book ahead of me.
Posted in Art, Craftsmanship, Dana, Family, Fishing, Joan, Nature, Nonfiction, Personalities, Psychology | Comments Closed
Monday, July 10th, 2006
Lately it seems as though the more I try to get physically organized, the greater the resulting mess.
I’m sure she wouldn’t be pleased to learn this, but all I have to do to feel considerably less overwhelmed with my own clutter is to witness firsthand what my “Big Sis” is dealing with at her two unfinished properties…
Posted in Joan | Comments Closed
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
The “Etch A Sketch” came easier to me than it did to most, but I never dreamed of doing work like this guy. Joan sent me the link to his site.
I suppose I’ve always had fairly decent eye-hand coordination. My sax fingering wasn’t that good, though; it had to do with rarely practicing, in addition to being able to blow on a reed, which I always detested at some fundamental level. Actually, I could have been a great bulldozer driver, or operated one of those tall cranes they use to build a skyscraper. Maybe I could even fly one of those Predator UAVs… Video games? You better believe I could do that, but I’ve never really allowed myself more than a dabble with Marty now and then. For me, doing more than that would be about as wise as trying rock cocaine.
Posted in Art, Craftsmanship, Joan, Marty, Music, Technology | Comments Closed
Monday, July 3rd, 2006
I spoke to Chris P on the phone today and confirmed our reservation for the hilltop mobile home at Barefoot’s Resort this month. It’s ours from the 15th to the following Saturday morning. He said they’re having the best fishing season in over ten years. Lots of yellow perch and northern pike. Marty needs to pick out one of Joe Wood’s fishing poles for the trip. Joan was kind enough to offer him one a while back.
It’s clear that the cormorant control measures are finally kicking in, and the news is exciting. To restore the natural fishing pattern of the Les Cheneaux is the ultimate goal. As much as I love fishing for king salmon in the U.P., one has to recognize that the Michigan resource managers stocked those waters with salmon in response to the dwindling number of indigenous species. It’s only too obvious now that the introduction of non-native water fowl caused a devastating ecological imbalance that’s only now being successfully mitigated.
Posted in Fishing, Joan, Marty, Nature | Comments Closed
Wednesday, June 14th, 2006
Dana and I spent some time this afternoon having coffee with Beth, a good friend of my sister. She just finished writing a book and was celebrating with a big piece of chocolate cake when we arrived. I don’t know Beth that well, but sometimes you don’t need to know a person that well to realize she or he is observant, thoughtful, compassionate, and imaginative. It was nice to have such a respectful listener—someone sincerely interested in what we’ve learned from life’s experiences.
It’s refreshing to have a good conversation with a creative individual who can open herself to huge ideas and still be totally grounded in reality at the same time.
I hope I get to talk to her again.
Posted in Dana, Friends, Joan, Words | Comments Closed
Thursday, May 25th, 2006
My sis sent me word that it’s the birthday of Emerson (He’d be 203 today, in case you were wondering.), and also this characteristic quotation:
“Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote those books.”
Some people don’t care for quotations, but I like one now and then. Emerson used them often, but you can bet they weren’t hand-me-downs. Reading an Emerson quote is for me like watching a good trailer. You have to see the movie.
That’s why, once Joe Wood got me started on RWE, I won’t ever stop digging behind those quotations.
Posted in Joan, Nonfiction, Personalities | Comments Closed
Friday, May 19th, 2006
Joan made a special trip to Danville this morning to meet the application deadline for an employment opportunity here. I’m glad she did it. Nothing may come of it, but, in my mind, she’s uniquely qualified to excel at this newly created position, and it would be a job she could enjoy—something she deserves. Actually, I just like the idea of her working only half a block away. That would be cool.
Posted in Community, Family, Joan | Comments Closed
Thursday, May 18th, 2006
Last night before bed I read Ian’s post about his mother, and it would’ve buckled my knees if I hadn’t been sitting down. And then I had this dream where I was swimming in a pond and there was this powerful suction hole at the bottom that carried water a good ways off, and I got up the courage to swim into it and it sucked me through a tunnel and spat me out down a hill. Then someone else decided to try it (I won’t use a name), and they didn’t come out the other side. I had the horrible realization that the person had become stuck and was probably struggling and holding his breath, so I had to decide immediately whether to go in, too, with the hope of possibly dislodging him and forcing us through, but having the clear awareness that we would likely both be stuck and drown—or whether to do nothing—and I had to decide NOW. It was so frightening that I woke up and I haven’t forgotten about it yet. Sorry, I promise I won’t make a practice of recording my dreams here. Maybe all this is because I was talking to Mombo about that bad dream I had back in January.
Posted in Angst, Family, Joan, Mombo | Comments Closed
Wednesday, April 19th, 2006
Dana just left to drive Bruce back to his home in Indianapolis. He seems very weak, but in reasonably good spirits.
I could accept that few members of my extended family were able to make the same trip while Bruce was in the hospital for the better part of a year. It’s much harder for me to understand how only three of them—Joan, Brendan, and Caitlan—could manage a visit while he was in the hospital for more than a week, right here in Danville. Mombo stopped by today, but just missed them. I think she feels very sorry about it.
Nobody likes hospitals, except perhaps for some of the people who work there… perhaps… However, there’s got to be more to it than that.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m part of a wonderful Clan, but life can be strange, and certain things happen that just don’t make any sense, and probably never will.
Posted in Angst, Brendan, Caitlan, Dana, Family, Joan, Mombo | Comments Closed
Saturday, March 11th, 2006
March experiment—day ten— Tackled the lopsided landscaping in front of the Town House porch (between thundershowers) for most of the day until it was time for our trip to Richmond. We had a pleasurable “first-date observation” at the Punjab, and then attended the St. Mark’s annual theatrical performance—my sister Joan’s last to organize there, before she moves on to new adventures.
Today’s sight bites— Pre-teen waiters with slabs of cake—c-l-i-c-k—greasepainted faces caught in a spotlight crossfire—c-l-i-c-k—button-breasted singing maidens—c-l-i-c-k—a wide-mouth “Master Colin”—c-l-i-c-k—and the joyful expression of a mentor surrounded by her proud students.
Tomorrow— Early morning ride to Mack’s cabin, as well as a few stubborn issues in the studio to solve…
Posted in Art, Dana, Education, Home, Joan, Music | Comments Closed
Friday, March 10th, 2006
March experiment—day nine— An unremarkable yet productive Friday, with the new schedule beginning to feel like routine.
Today’s sight bite— The rolling pastures of Garrard County along Highway 52—c-l-i-c-k—ready to burst into verdant hues with a few more days of full sun.
Tomorrow— Solid day of activity, a delayed celebration, and my sister’s secret garden…
Posted in Joan, Nature, Time | Comments Closed
Saturday, March 4th, 2006
March experiment—day three— Hard work interrupted by hard work of a different sort, and then spending an evening with the rifle competitors, securing an assignment to produce the match program.
Today’s sight bites— Jay’s grin as he tossed hibernating crawdads at me—c-l-i-c-k—Michelle and her massive bullfrog—c-l-i-c-k—“pack-mule Seth,” lugging 300 feet of pipe up the hollow—c-l-i-c-k—Joan dressed in Joe’s big “Willy suit” with rolled up cuffs—c-l-i-c-k—David and his Martini-Henry carbine—c-l-i-c-k—with too many images from the day cycling behind my eyelids as I drift off to sleep.
Tomorrow— Quiet time at Simpson Knob, and a break from my regimen…
Posted in Family, Friends, Jay, Joan | Comments Closed
Monday, February 13th, 2006
• She might’ve been my first teacher; I might’ve been her first student.
• We took the stage together, faced the crowd together, and danced in the hot lights together. We didn’t get paid, but it was “show-biz” all the same. We were an “act”, and we quit at the top of our game.
• Speaking of games, our first ones didn’t come in boxes, across a wire, nor on a disc. We invented them, and we’ve been “players” ever since.
• Together, we observed the strange world around us, and the language available was insufficient, so we made up our own vocabulary to augment it. We shared it with those who would listen, and it met with their approval. They made their own contributions and helped pass it on to a new generation.
• She blazed a trail of achievement, so I followed it into the peaks of the high country. “I can do this, too,” I thought, so I blazed a trail of experimentation, but my trail descended into the bogs of the low country. During my journey back, she never lost faith in me, nor placed conditions on her love. She always remains the teacher, through her joys and her heartaches, and now I’m only one of those who follow her trail. It’s never been an easy trail, but it’s always been a good one. Blaze on, my lifelong companion. Blaze on.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my “big sis.” I love you, forever…
Posted in Birthdays, Joan | Comments Closed
Friday, February 3rd, 2006
This is one of those moments when I think that I didn’t begin to get a real education until after the age of 50, when I finally settled for me as a teacher.
Me said, “It’s not too late to learn how to think.” I answered, “Ok, Me. Let’s get started.”
Joan was kind enough to make some of Joe Wood’s books available, and there was one I accepted with particular seriousness—“The Conduct of Life,” a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Perhaps true book-larnin’ doesn’t take place until one can center on an idea or theme after confronting it from multiple directions.
A good start, but there’s little chance a revelation will be internalized until put into actual practice.
Here is something I just read from the essay called “Power”—
When Michel Angelo was forced to paint the Sistine Chapel in fresco, of which art he knew nothing, he went down into the Pope’s gardens behind the Vatican, and with a shovel dug out ochres, red and yellow, mixed them with glue and water with his own hands, and having, after many trials, at last suited himself, climbed his ladders, and painted away, week after week, month after month, the sibyls and prophets. He surpassed his successors in rough vigor, as much as in purity of intellect and refinement. He was not crushed by his one picture left unfinished at last. Michel was wont to draw his figures first in skeleton, then to clothe them with flesh, and lastly to drape them. “Ah!” said a brave painter to me, thinking on these things, “if a man has failed, you will find he has dreamed instead of working. There is no way to success in our art, but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day.”
Posted in Art, Education, Family, Joan, Nonfiction, Personalities | Comments Closed
Sunday, January 29th, 2006
In spite of a lengthy planning meeting at the Clan Hall, our soldier celebrated being at home with his family. During a break in the deliberations, Rita took a group portrait outside, and then the cake was cut. Joan insisted on eating Joshie’s head. The long day ended with Dana taking Bruce to the ER after his visit to the farm. Jerome put in some overtime to help identify symptoms of medication withdrawal that were alleviated. Bruce improved so rapidly that he walked home from the hospital.
Posted in Bruce, Dana, Family, Jerome, Joan, Josh | Comments Closed
Saturday, November 19th, 2005
— I reconfigured the screen saver on the Mac G4 Mini to display a sequence of abstractions by Kurt Schwitters. I can’t say why, but, as far as motivating me to make art, nothing of late has been more inspirational to me than the rule-shattering creations of this early 20-century master. One could say he basically invented the medium we know as collage (he certainly was the first to perfect it), and it won’t hurt if I can subconsciously absorb a wee bit of his genius. Did KK really go to Newcastle? My God, that’s the repository of the Schwitters “Merzbarn,” one of the most genuinely innovative artistic concepts of the last hundred years! I may never get to see it myself… Go back there, Caitlan; it’s in the Hatton Gallery at the University of Newcastle!
— Don’t know any details, but it seems as though conditions are imploding at the school where my sister Joan has worked for many years. I feel bad for her because I think I know what she’s going through. Dana and I still refer to the “Golden Age” at Wright State University Communications (where we first met) before that department went into a nose dive. Things were never the same. Some of our coworkers saw it coming early and escaped most of the madness. Dana and I saw the handwriting on the wall before many in our group, but we still had to endure six months of collapse until we made the leap and started our partnership and studio. Several of our friends tried to make the best of it and had to experience a lot of nastiness before what was left of our creative “dream team” had been totally dismantled. A few of us from those years started our own companies and continued to work with each other sporadically, and we keep in touch as friends to this day. Since then I’ve learned that good working relationships and situations can rarely be sustained indefinitely. Everything always changes. Undesirable situations can improve, but, unfortunately, great situations inevitably decline, or even crash and burn. There’s been quite an ebb and flow in our clientele since those days (26 years ago). It’s not that existing relationships will sour, but it’s more often a matter of the natural, dynamic flux in any organization’s personnel equation. Never underestimate the wake of change that can occur when outstanding people move on with their lives. It can cause a “brief, shining moment” to fade into personal mythology. The silver lining for me—I still have my “partner in all things” and my Clan, and that’s as close to permanent as I’ll ever know.
— Today Dana told me that Bruce had a bad night, but pulled through without having to go back to the hospital. He gets into vicious cycles of fever, nausea, low red cell count, weakness, low blood pressure, and then sometimes passes out when he tries to stand up, if he has the energy to move at all. I don’t know the actual sequence of it, but he manages to will himself forward, or he relies on his mother or Pam for the encouragement to ride it out when this happens. It apparently has something to do with dialysis, or the lingering infections, or another factor I’m not aware of. He told Dana this past week how much he wants to feel good again, and that he’s not giving up. Dana will stay with him until he improves enough that she can turn her role over to someone else. Until then, she must be there while Pam is at work. Meanwhile, I continue at the home-front and make my effort to get work, be productive, juggle the volunteer commitments that have a momentum I can’t control, and resist the kind of distractions I’ve always invited to avoid facing—right now—the full emotional impact of bearing life’s load (for example, making overly long blog entries).
V & S
Posted in Art, Blogging, Business, Caitlan, Creativity, Dana, Family, Friends, Home, Joan, Personalities, Priorities, Studio | Comments Closed
Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
Almost two weeks ago Joan alerted me to E-Ring and thought it might be shaping up as a 21st-century COMBAT! replacement. I finally got around to watching the last half of it tonight. It has a dynamite ensemble cast, but the minutes I saw were a far cry from the classic WWII squad series that starred Vic Morrow and Rick Jason back in the 60s. The best surprise was to see that Kelly Rutherford had surfaced again. If Joan had told me about KR being on the show, THAT would’ve gotten my immediate attention!
Posted in Family, Joan, Personalities, Television | Comments Closed
Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
One of the most interesting conversations I had at my recent high school reunion was with a classmate I knew as Terry. I once directed him in a one-act play co-written by my sister Joan. He later changed his name to Cliff, got a degree in aerospace engineering, and became an Air Force fighter pilot. He flew F-16 combat missions in the first Gulf War, even though he was probably too senior in rank.
I told him I couldn’t begin to imagine the level of information processing that would require. He replied, “You know, I’ve tried most of my adult life to find a way of explaining it to someone who has never done it, and the best thing I can come up with is that it’s like playing two video games at the same time while riding a roller coaster.”
“In addition to somebody trying to kill you,” I added.
“Yeah, that, too.”
Posted in Family, Friends, Joan, Technology | Comments Closed
