January 23rd, 2007
My sis is meeting her chum Deb at Centre tonight for a MoLM performance. I taped the Lithgow made-for-TV version a while back, but never watched it. Joan says it’s worth viewing. Dana made a delicious chicken dinner for Joan and me before the show. We were planning to stay home and watched the SoTU on television, but Jeanne stopped by earlier with some Planet-made Rebel sweatshirts, and now I want to go watch Belle play ball. I’ll catch the C-SPAN re-air later.
I still regard the president as a genuine leader, but only one of three Americans is still following him, which isn’t a major problem, unless, of course, he turns out to be wrong. Anybody who talks as though his legacy is settled, or offers foregone outcomes about what he’s set in motion, is merely engaging in ideological speculation. The history of our era is far from having been written. None of us knows how this will turn out, and I can’t be convinced otherwise…
Posted in Current Events, Dana, Family, Jeanne, Joan, Political Affairs, Presidency, Television | Comments Closed
January 21st, 2007
During my early six-miler yesterday morning, I couldn’t help but brag on my niece to the other runners. Boyle’s Friday-night win over Lincoln was a huge upset, and, even though the opposing team played poorly in many respects, it was an extraordinary thing how, at a point in the basketball game when her team could have resigned themselves to a loss, Hayley took a leadership role on the floor and sparked an improbable, heart-pounding rally. Joan and Mombo were there, too, and it was fun to share the experience. With the newspaper write-up on Thursday, it was a big week for our Number 3.
Posted in Exercise, Family, Joan, Mombo, Sport | Comments Closed
January 19th, 2007
I think I understand why writers must write. It’s really no different than why sketchers must draw or why dancers must move, but why do we read? Why do we engage in this intensely self-centered activity with books? And what’s even more perplexing to me is why our society seems to exalt this particular kind of internal isolation, because, for the most part, it raises a collective eyebrow at meditators or deep, introspective thinkers. It wouldn’t be considered socially acceptable to spend much time playing golf by yourself, or going to movies by yourself, or drinking by yourself (certainly not), but almost all of us feel differently about reading.
My friend Danny would say we must read to train and develop the mind—to understand influences and work backward to the early sources, the original premises.
My “big sissy” is a librarian, so I asked her, and she said that reading makes us a more interesting person—reading may be solitary, but it’s not inherently selfish.
Watkins, Wolfe, Hammett, Hemingway, Twain . . . Why do I read their fiction? What am I looking for?
Every so often, I find myself listening to the lyrics of Eric, a talented friend. He writes:
You can seek your life to find
Answers that satisfy your mind,
But Jesus spared your life by giving his,
And, Brother— That’s all there is.
Posted in Angst, Creativity, Family, Fiction, Friends, Joan, Music, Personalities, Words | Comments Closed
January 17th, 2007
While at the library, I was mildly fascinated by a magazine interview with the creator of Deadwood—a television show I’ve never seen—about its connection to Red Harvest—by an author I’ve never read—so I decided to borrow the book itself and finally sample Dashiell Hammett for myself—to discover what all the fuss has been about.
Posted in Crime, Fiction, Nonfiction, Personalities, Television | Comments Closed
January 15th, 2007
Mombo made a nice entry in her blog about her memories of St. Henry, Ohio. You should go there. I mean the blog, not the town, although it’s really a pleasant place to visit, too. I’ve always liked to hear stories about her years there. We made some photos in St. Henry on the day of the Gels 70th wedding anniversary.
I just learned from my good friend Bill Barefoot that two of the buddies we fish with in Michigan, JD and Jack, both lost their mothers within the past week. Bill sent the following message to me (and anybody else listening):
Cherish your mothers while you can.
Left to right: Mombo at St. Henry Church (where she was baptized in 1925); Mombo with her brothers Jack and Art (at the corner of Columbus and Sycamore Streets); Mombo outside the house where she was born.
Posted in Family, Friends, Mombo | Comments Closed
January 13th, 2007
Because I was out there moving before daybreak in that stinging rain, I guess it means I’ve managed to re-infect myself with the running bug. So far so good, when it comes to one 2007 resolution. On mornings like this I have to work at mentally distracting myself, so I was thinking about someone who recently talked about their dreams of flying. At the time I wasn’t sure I could recall one of my own. Last night I had a real doozy of a flying dream. There was nothing about the actually flying that seemed unusual. Since it was foggy in my dream, I was concentrating mainly on avoiding smokestacks, tower antennae, and power lines. There’s only one reason I can think of as to why I might have dreamed that—learning about the announcement of a proposed high-tension transmission line that will cross Garrard County. The map published in the newspaper this week appears to locate it uncomfortably close to Kelley Ridge. David confirmed my suspicion when I showed it to him. I’d assume Joan had heard about it, but found out she hadn’t when Marty and I stopped to have dinner. It was nice, very delicious, and a joy to spend time with her at her cozy home (the house that Joe built, but Joan burnished). The lad and I took the opportunity to visit on our way back from EKU. I had to deliver an artwork accepted to the “Compassion” show at the Giles Gallery.
Posted in Art, Exercise, Joan, Marty, Technology | Comments Closed
January 11th, 2007
As usual, I’m scratching along in my own analytical way, looking for “keys.” For me, that often involves attempts at integrating various “reality maps” I’ve encountered that make sense as individual systems. Numerology would be one example, but seems limited when I approach it in isolation. Feng Shui has appeal, but I haven’t totally bought into the premise. For a long time, Bruce has made references to Chinese medicine, but my investigation into Chinese thought has been confined to a study of the Book of Changes or I Ching.
Today I read a short magazine article by Mark Blessington. We must think along the same lines, because he’s made an impressive start at applying the principles of Chinese medicine to the relationships between money and people. There’s often a fine distinction between genuine insight and wacky diversion, I must admit, but I would say that Blessington’s ideas about achieving a balance in money elements deserves the benefit of the doubt.
And so we press on with our attempts to synthesize the unbridgeable gaps of knowledge and to learn the unknowable truths, like why you can’t find a missing object until you tell somebody else that you lost it. We’ll continue to look for the profound answers that elude us all, to understand why time always speeds up every Thursday night during NBC’s telecast of “The Office,” and to solve the many riddles of a mysterious universe.
Posted in Family, Nonfiction, Numbers, Personalities, Television, Time | Comments Closed
January 9th, 2007
— If you like Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, and the “Golden Age of American Illustration,” Paul Giambarba has put together a smashing collection of biographical notes, artistic comments, and rarely seen images. I just love this handsome stuff, and tip my hat to anyone who would spend the personal time to compile such an extensive reference site.
— I grabbed a few moments of “mind time” in Harrodsburg while Dana got a haircut, thinking LJS would be a relatively quiet place at that time of day, but the music was a bit more electric-70s than I was expecting. I still haven’t given up on achieving a new level of organization, and it’s that time of year anyway. Business development remains priority one. Nevertheless, I find myself pulled continuously in a different direction with so many art deadlines and volunteer responsibilities demanding my attention. I have another milestone facing me within a week as part of my contractual obligation to the Band Festival as 2007 featured artist. And I must make steady progress on preparations for a one-man show in May at the Community Arts Center. If I don’t find a way to more successfully block out my time, there are some intense experiences that I won’t be able to avoid this year. One good new client would take much of the heat off our situation, and that has to be my focus, one way or another.
— We had a full house at the B.I.K.E. meeting tonight, including our newly sworn-in mayor. It was an important kick-off for the year, a discussion of our first major proposal to the city for infrastructure enhancements and repairs. If I didn’t have so many experienced community leaders at the table, I think I’d probably spin my wheels a lot, but they have a way of making sure I keep getting the traction we need (I don’t know if that pun was intentional or not).
— Dana and I continue to chip away at our three hours of P.J. O’Rourke on tape. He says he dislikes memoirs, and so I can only assume he’s never read the extraordinary Paul Watkins book, Stand Before Your God. He really doesn’t like bloggers either. According to him it’s like “what I did last summer” for adults, and he seems to detest the whole phenomenon. As far as this blog goes, it appears we have an every-other-day pattern of entries developing and that suits me fine. It’s half the level of blogging I was doing a year ago, arguably a more reasonable pace for my current situation. If you desire more than that, dear reader, all I can say it this: you must have way too much time on your hands.
V & S
Posted in Art, Blogging, Business, Community, Dana, Nonfiction, Personalities, Studio | Comments Closed
January 7th, 2007
Good Grief. I just read Keillor’s first syndicated column of the year. For somebody who got famous being humorous and touching at the same time, it’s painful to cringe through something with that much self-righteous venom. He’s far too good a writer to inflict that on a reader, but it was my choice to partake. It’s like deciding to sit in front of Meryl Streep and have her look directly at you and weep.
Looking for an antidote, I sat down to watch a few minutes of P.J. O’Rourke on “In Depth,” who was talking about how much writers dislike the act of writing. He said something very close to this: “No writer who I respect says they love the writing part. I suppose the only people who love writing are bloggers. Blogs are free—and worth it.”
Yow. One of those days. I’d better go accomplish something.
There you have it, Ian. You just got your money’s worth.
Posted in Blogging, Ian, Nonfiction, Personalities, Political Affairs, Television | Comments Closed
January 5th, 2007
Wednesday was hardly “a modest resurfacing.” It must have seemed more like the gasping rise of an underwater swimmer, so I’ll go easy this time.
I was introduced to numerology in 1978 by a client, and make no excuse for continuing to consider it just about the most uncanny thing I’ve ever encountered. The key to its appreciation is tuning into the idea that there are fundamental “essences” at play in life, and that our species has come up with things like numbers, letters, and other symbols to represent their meaning. This process of abstraction we use to make sense of unseen forces is also at the root of mathematics and music, and yet numerology is regarded as the oddball disclipline of the three.
Today was the first vibratory six of the year, the essence of caregiving, responsibility, and selfless service. My Dadbo was fraught with sixes—no surprise. Because 2007 is a “six year” for me on a personal level, I was curious to see how the day “felt.”
It felt extraordinarily good . . .
Posted in Dadbo, Music, Numbers | Comments Closed
January 3rd, 2007
It sounds strange, but President Ford never seemed like an entirely substantial figure in my personal perceptions. I don’t mean in the sense of credibility or political weight, but in the literal sense of being a real person. I happened to have been living in Brussels as a student worker during the second half of 1974 and missed those supposedly multi-orgasmic constitutional spasms of the day that everyone else can usually describe in great detail. As a result, the culmination of the Watergate crisis has always felt to me like a hazy historical event, and, by extension, the 38th President like a big pretend creature from a B movie, as though one of Ian’s old Frankenstein drawings had been put in charge of the government.
They didn’t consider us “interns” back then. The term was reserved for medical trainees and I was called a “co-op,” just like Mombo was back in the early 40s. As I’ve probably described before, I remember listening to the Nixon resignation speech as it was piped by loudspeaker into the morning streets of Amsterdam, while I leaned sleepily from the open window of a youth hostel, during one of my weekend forays into that Dutch shrine of “70s-ness.” So when I returned to the States before Christmas and finally took stock of President Ford weeks later, it was like, “who the heck is this guy?”
Fast forward through the remaining two years of the Ford administration. Back then it didn’t take much to get me miffed about the national scene. I was still angry at Ford for endorsing mass inoculations to counter a Swine-Flu boogeyman, for his apparently feeble attempts to turn around the lousy economy that I faced as a university graduate, and his cold shoulder to the supreme Russian dissident of the century. I don’t remember what I thought about his pardon of Nixon—one more ghostly act from another dimension. I’d voted against Ford in ’76 while living in Chicago. Not really in favor of Carter (it was hard for me to take Jimmy seriously), I’d lost my enthusiasm for the campaign after neither of my two favorites, Eugene McCarthy and Ronald Reagan, had managed to prevail into the home stretch. As unfocused as they were, you can tell that my political attitudes tended toward the radical, and that was the one thing Gerry Ford indisputably was not. When Carter began to “self-destruct in five seconds,” I took an odd measure of pride in the fact that Ford had carried Illinois.
Fast forward again to a newly minted 2007 with one less Former President. Clearly it’s time to reflect on his rightful place in history, and I’ve softened my viewpoint considerably. I should have liked him more. He deserved it. Nevertheless, I can’t help but think that all the kind and appreciative things being said about Gerald R. Ford would still be equally true if he had not sought to retain the Presidency beyond his short stewardship, and, as confirmation of his quintessential unselfishness and towering decency, had stepped aside with the same dignity with which he had taken office—to have recognized his unique distinction as Healer among our chief executives, to have recognized the ascendancy of national conservatism over his frayed brand of Republican establishmentarianism, and to have recognized it was time to decisively pave the way for the next necessary phase of post-Nixonian resurgence—a fresh and bold style of visionary leadership for America.
Posted in Current Events, History, Ian, Mombo, Movies, Personalities, Presidency | Comments Closed
January 1st, 2007
— Year of 2006 workout totals: Swim-40; Bike-54; Run-27; Lift-56; Yoga-55
— An internal debate about whether to revive these journal entries came to a close on Christmas Eve when my nephew Ian asked me to start making them again. Over time, I might delve into my 14-week experience as a recovering blogger, but, for now, I just intend to make a modest resurfacing, and try to get some kind of rhythm back.
— It’s been ages since I got sick, or it seems that way at least, because I forgot what it felt like. I’ve missed the entire year-end celebration, but that’s the risk I took when I plunged into a sea of youth over the weekend, many of whom made no secret of having recently crawled from “the pit.”
— I was pleased with another variation on my thematic Grandy-bo series (the eleventh), which ended up in Crabtree hands at our Clan’s Chinese (Chine-Yine) gift exchange, but I took even greater satisfaction from a highly successful pencil and wash portrait of Marty for Terie’s Christmas present, along with the triumphant completion of Alyx’s large, mixed-media G-bo, which had me stumped for the better part of three years.
— The Butcher of Baghdad stretched twine before the end of the year, and, come on let’s face it, there was no way it wasn’t going to be controversial. As the Old Virginians liked to put it, “Sic Semper Tyrannis.” Happy New Year.
V & S
Posted in Art, Blogging, Current Events, Dadbo, Exercise, Family, Holidays, Ian, Marty, Political Affairs | Comments Closed
September 23rd, 2006
“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery
With a strict focus on our most urgent priorities, I must temporarily devote myself to creating a stronger and more stable business posture.
Click the “Archives” and browse a few of my past entries— January 2005 to September 2006.
From time to time I’ll continue to record my thoughts in a private book, just as I have done since 1971, because I concur with Harlan Hubbard in that I have always kept a journal for “myself changed and at a later time,” and, to use his words again, I would hope that I can someday resume this log as “a kind of memorial to the passing days.”
Until then, please do a few things for me…
• Don’t neglect your creative self.
• Read any Paul Watkins book you can find.
• Ride a bicycle, just for fun.
• Visit Anacrusis, Monday through Friday.
• Treat your body as your best investment.
• Put in a good word for Dixon Design.
“The education of the will is the object of our existence.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Once a pirate, always a pirate.”
— Frank the Fisherman
Posted in Blogging, Business, Fiction, Nonfiction, Personalities, Pirates, Priorities, Studio, Words | Comments Closed
September 23rd, 2006
Face it and deal with it.
If I don’t change everything for the better, everything will surely change for the worse.
Posted in Priorities | Comments Closed
September 22nd, 2006
Doing my best to normalize after an abrupt departure from Tipp City and late-night drive to Kentucky (in order to get Dana’s antique credenza from Sydne safely home before the rain arrives). I stopped often to close my eyes, playing it safe, worries of 1993 in my nerve endings. It was nearly 3 am by the time I found my bed. Today the dire situation with our studio workload is uppermost on my mind, as I make the harsh decisions to confine my energy to the necessary turnaround.
Posted in Business, Dana, Priorities, Studio | Comments Closed
September 21st, 2006
Ah, the Salmon Lords have smiled. Bill and I made our final trip over to the dolomite port last night and caught three fish for the freezer— 10lb-4oz / 12lb-8oz / 13lb-14oz. We’d decided to divide up the two sides of the boat between us, two lines per side, but after Bill had two straight catches on the starboard downrigger, he granted the next fish to me, regardless of location. It hit on the very same pole and was the biggest of the three! And so there we have it—another evening for the fishing log, and the kind of event that will keep us loving this sport and coming back for more. The fresh memory of it seems a bit unreal as we head south today through Michigan, and I try to jot a few notes for the record, with an image before me similar to that old Jackson Browne album cover, clouds like marshmallow baguettes lined up as an invasion fleet in a milky-blue sky, and golden-green trees stippled with burnt orange marching by, with an ochre crust of fading ferns beneath the old-growth cedars, punctuated by unreformed “dickhead” drivers cutting around us at high speed, as if it’s the only way to move with traffic, all the time LaSalle’s soft black head resting comfortably between us, holding her contented dog-thoughts of home…
Posted in Fishing, Friends, Nature, Pets | Comments Closed
September 20th, 2006
Phoned into the KBBC conference out on the dock this morning, reminding me of taking the July call when I was here, while out on a boat with Marty. This kind of technology has just sneaked up on us, but would have seemed like Star Trek to me not that long ago. After that, Foot and I mounted our last perch run across Muskellunge Bay to the Point. I had one 11-inch baby that made the outing for me, although we were still hoping for a limit catch. They just haven’t bitten like that on this trip. Foot was miffed at hooking little channel cats and sunfish. I cleaned and froze the batch when we got back. Now we’re cleaning, organizing, and packing so we can leave as early as possible tomorrow morning. I guess I’m ready to depart, but I sure would like some “final night luck” later this evening and bring in a nice salmon.
Posted in Fishing, Friends, Marty, Public Service | Comments Closed
September 19th, 2006
A few days ago I sat out on the dock and wept without tears. It didn’t last very long. I wasn’t able to remember when or why until just now— I was reading the words of Paul Watkins. I should have known. Today I convinced myself to put on my wet-suit and get back in the water a second time. I needed some exercise and I figured it might be my last chance to do a channel swim. The water was quite cold but tolerable. I covered more than a half mile. Bill had driven into town. I honestly felt like I had that entire part of Michigan to myself, except for the geese, swans, and cormorants. The air temperature getting out of the water was more shocking to the system than the experience of getting in. The wind has continued all day and discouraged any fishing outings. Yesterday we caught several yellow perch, including Bill’s 11-and-a half-incher, probably the largest one any of our gang has ever hooked up here. Later, we reverted to salmon trolling again and that proved just as fruitless as Sunday’s session with casting rods. With a cold front predicted, we had to keep a constant eye on a changing sky. The two of us fished until dark and then came back to a deserted resort. I had to hold the spotlight so Bill could see the pier.
Posted in Exercise, Fiction, Fishing, Friends, Nature | Comments Closed
September 18th, 2006
Foot sounds serious about starting his little house next year, talking to Mr. Hill when he stopped to discuss sand-truck access to the adjacent property (apparently the neighbors want to create a beach like the natural one here at this resort). The contractor said he was no relation to the Hill who originally owned the entire island. He and Foot looked at the spot where the A-frame will be sited. Hill said that code compliance and getting a permit will be more difficult than the excavation. He seemed like a nice man with helpful advice. His own father also bought lake frontage not long after Bill’s parents first came to Hill Island in the 1950s. My friend hopes to sell his business in Ohio and move up here to manage the resort within five years. His dream excites my own desire to have a retreat in the woods, but the inner determination to reverse my personal downturn and accomplish that goal must come from inside me. At the same time, I have concerns for my friend. Earlier this year, Bill quit smoking for 12 weeks—long enough to live as a nonsmoker—but he started up again after a quarrel with Amy (their first?). Much buried tension in the man, like there was in my dad, and perhaps more than a little rage; it bubbled to the surface last night when I touched on a political subject. Like most proud Americans, the direction our country is moving disturbs him and he takes it personally, and then hides it inside. Stress and cigarettes—an unhappy combination. There’s little I can do about it, of course, and the same is true for my family members who smoke… too many of them… but how can I be judgmental when I have unmanaged problems of my own? Ok, where do I start? Review priorities and take even greater control over my use of time. Should I curtail many of my extraneous activities? Should I suspend this online journal? Is it time to set a few simple, practical goals and then banish all conflicting objectives until they’re achieved? Mike spoke to me about the misconceptions of setting priorities and defining daily tasks. He has decades of experience and impressive, tangible results to show for it, so put his advice to the test, and for God’s sake forget about sharing it in a public log. If I don’t take this last opportunity to gain command over my financial status, I’ll face radical changes over which I’ll have minimal capacity to direct. I must prove I can make a few specific things happen in my life that are essential, and that means everything else has to be put on hold. Period.
Posted in Business, Dadbo, Family, Friends, Political Affairs, Priorities, Psychology, Time | Comments Closed
September 17th, 2006
I guess we can say history was made yesterday when JD and Bob came back from the waters near the dolomite port with two large King Salmon caught by casting with light tackle from a small aluminum boat. Now everything we’ve learned about salmon fishing has been turned upside-down! No one has ever caught salmon with any other method than trolling in the conventional manner. With both fish to his credit, JD takes the 2006 Fish-Off Championship hands down. For the record, the method was Bob’s idea, and they waited until their last day to test it out. What a shocker! They endured rough conditions on top of it all, and reportedly had an anxious time motoring back with their life jackets donned. Well, it’s all documented now; Foot and I said good-bye to our chums today, anticipating the traditional “phase two” of our stay. We wasted no time using the Sartoris Technique out in the channel, but no nibbles, no nothin’ was the result, so we shifted gears and set off for Port Dolomite in a small craft, intent on duplicating or outperforming JD’s effort. We worked and worked, saw salmon rolling at the surface, even jumping, all points of the compass, cast after cast, with pike poles and dipsy-diver rods from the Sylvan, wrists getting tender, my hands on the verge of cramping. We watched the “Maumee” out of Cleveland come in and dock. I never knew exactly how these big ships did it—they come in fast, spin clockwise and then back into the loading area, with empty holds ready to be filled with high-grade dolomite for the steel industry. We kept fishing the entire time without a single strike, even though we knew the elusive creatures were close at hand. We saw them, breaking the water, as if to mock us. JD’s extraordinary “final night luck” was beyond our acquisition.
Posted in Fishing, Friends, Technology | Comments Closed
September 16th, 2006
JD and Bob had a long and disappointing early excursion that took the wind out of everyone’s sails, as far as any enthusiasm for fishing, and so college-football-watching took over as the main activity of the day. When Bill, Mike, and Jack decided to go into town after the first round of games, JD and Bob proceeded to go on their “casting for salmon at the dolomite port” mission, which they’d been talking about all summer. I have to hand it to them—they haven’t given up. They’ve been gone for a while and what they’re trying to do is totally unprecedented in the fishing annals of Barefoot’s Resort. I was happy to stay here with my drawing tools and a Paul Watkins novel.
Posted in Art, Fiction, Fishing, Friends, Sport | Comments Closed
September 15th, 2006
When I overheard Mike and Bob discussing sales goals, Mike said something so clear and plain-spoken that it hit my brain like a laser— “First you set an objective, and then you devise the strategy and tactics to achieve it.” I realized how reactive I’ve been in my professional life, rather than proactive. Mike knows what he’s talking about. After years as a leading sales executive for M&M/Mars, he now works directly with the owner of a top food distributor in the Midwest. We talked a lot today while Bill, JD, and Bob were out fishing. I know I can learn a lot from Mike if I open up. He’ll be more than pleased to give me advice, but do I have the discipline to use it? During a 90-minute phone call with Dana we confirmed the do-or-die aspect of what we face together, and the need for total open-mindedness in our problem solving, to turn the situation with our studio around.
Posted in Business, Dana, Friends | Comments Closed