February 6th, 2005
— Last night Seth showed me a piece of his work that he’d done with a non-linear digital editor and I must say the young man has some clear talent for media. He achieved a nice level of dramatic impact by creatively combining words, music and existing footage. Impressive. The potential is there. I agree with Dana: Given these aptitudes and developing skills, his keen mind, strong voice, and natural good looks, he could chart a course in any number of broadcasting or communication fields. If he wanted to, and it appears that he might want to.
— I watched a stimulating presentation by Sam Harris on C-SPAN today.
First time I’d heard of him, so all I can think of initially to call
him is a “radical agnostic,” but I’d have to say he may be the most
thought-provoking non-believer I’ve encountered since Ayn Rand.
— Took part in the annual Super Bowl Sunday mountain bike ride in
Forkland. Can’t remember the weather ever being this mild, so Dan and I
opted for the longer 20-mile loop. We tackled some remote knobs I’d
never seen before, but fell behind the group, missing our last turn.
Ended up turning it into a 30-miler, with a stop at Penn’s Store. The
light was failing, but we warmed ourselves by the stove, had some good
conversations, and then set off to find our vehicle on Minor’s Branch
before it got dark.
Posted in Community, Exercise, Family, Friends, Personalities, Television | Comments Closed
February 5th, 2005
I was back out on Bluegrass Pike again as Dawn spread her rose-tipped fingers. Although I’m not as far along on my mileage as I expected to be by early February, there’s still enough time to prepare for the Kentucky Derby Festival Mini-Marathon. Nevertheless, I won’t enter the race unless I believe I can break my goal of two hours. To be honest, this may not be the year to try. Running seems to be the weak link in my tri-sport training so far this year, but that can be corrected, especially if the weather improves. On mornings like this I think of 101 ways to spend my weekend, and then I begin the process of weeding it down to reality.
Posted in Exercise, Priorities | Comments Closed
February 4th, 2005
One of my all-time favorite character actors died yesterday. A staple guest star in the silver age of television, John Vernon brought total credibility to every role I ever saw him play, especially as a villain. Probably best known as the scheming Dean Wormer in “Animal House” or for his parts in Clint Eastwood movies, I’ll remember Vernon more for his multiple contributions to “Mission: Impossible,” and the satisfying finale of “Kung Fu.” More than anything else, though, he’ll enter my personal TV Hall of Fame for his memorable “Colonel Josef Strom” in the M:I episode entitled, “The Exchange.” In a rare departure from the series formula, Cinnamon is captured during a mission and undergoes ruthless interrogation. Barbara Bain and Peter Graves deliver outstanding performances, but it’s the smoldering menace in Vernon’s superb portrayal that made this show the most gripping one I’d watched since the legendary pilot, and that’s saying a lot. I’ll never forget the intensity of the moment when Phelps admits to the other members of the IMF, “They’ll break her, and then they’ll kill her.” With Colonel Strom in charge, I couldn’t help but “believe” they would! I also recall the climactic shock of seeing Vernon’s Strom yank out a submachine gun and cut down our defenseless hero and heroine at the Iron Curtain checkpoint. His masterful wickedness was forever sealed in Mission Legend with the brutal act, prior to our realizing that Cinnamon and Jim were wearing bulletproof trench-coats. Oh, the relief! Cue that immortal Lalo Schifrin score!
Posted in Death, Movies, Music, Personalities, Television | Comments Closed
February 3rd, 2005
— Over nine thousand objects large enough to be tracked and catalogued? To a galactic neighbor, our planet must look like one of those Kentucky back-road junk heaps.
— Many, many years ago, when we were first allowed to operate the Sony reel-to-reel recorder, we taped numerous television theme songs and incidental music from our favorite shows. We became so familiar with the tape that each musical introduction seemed a natural part of the one to follow. We committed to memory lyrics and melodies, including those from obscure, ill-fated shows that we never even watched. Years later, Mombo surprised me by transferring that strange collection to audio cassette. To this day I occasionally pop in a tape when driving alone and I must admit that very few things in my life, including pop music contemporary to the time, will provide me such a visceral connection to my quirky adolescence. Love on a Rooftop, Mr. Terrific, The Shady Rest, Jean Gaston-Andre, Judd for the Defense, T.H.E. Cat, David Vincent, Rango, The New Number Two… I guess you had to be there. (“Ask the butler to lend you a buck, my dear!“)
— Before Mack went back into the hospital he was kind enough to look at my old Conn C-Melody saxophone (the one that used to belong to Uncle Luke), and became excited about taking it with him to Lexington for a discussion with his sax repairman. Turns out it needs very little attention to be perfectly playable, even after 25 years of storage. He had a setback in his healing not too long after that, but not before I had the opportunity to shoot his combo when they played at the open house for the new Community Arts Center in downtown Danville. I made a montage for myself and all of his friends as a focus for our positive thoughts and prayers for recovery.
Posted in Community, Family, Friends, Mombo, Music, Space, Television | Comments Closed
February 2nd, 2005
In the Scandinavian tradition, a house-elf guards the home when the human residents are away. In America we call them Yorkies.
Posted in Home, Pets | Comments Closed
February 1st, 2005
— Month of January workout totals: Swim-7; Bike-4; Run-3; Lift-6.
— Well, it’s the day to do that “first of the month” stuff: Total and evaluate the fitness workouts; adjust engine coolant and steering fluid levels; scan the hard drives; polish the cutlasses; check the hams.
— Bob and Meg sent me an article about John Evans (clipped from The New York Times) and his 37-year daily collage project. Synchronicity: Bob said that Meg had shown it to him on the same day he received my note about how I’d made the decision to gain control over my hand-made greeting card habit. At my 50th birthday party Bob suggested I scan my cards and publish a book. I’ve taken his advice on the scanning part. The article mentions that nobody was interested in doing a book on Evans because he wasn’t famous. After a publisher finally decided to produce one, he now admits it won’t make any money. Strange parallels. Like Evans, I’ve also had the recent urge to get rid of stuff, especially after helping to sort out some of the accumulation at the house that Joe Wood built. I might as well do it while I have the desire. It’s not my typical mode. But like Evans said, “What if my daughters and my wife had to deal with all this?”
— Josh has been staying in Kuwait and was scheduled to arrive in Iraq this week, so I wrote a note to him last night, thinking that he’d get it the first time he had a chance to check email after he got settled. My hope is that the atmosphere will have improved, now that the election has taken place, and that more Iraqi citizens will cooperate with the interim government and the coalition to provide information about extremists. Nevertheless, he’ll need to stay “on guard” for the duration of his deployment. I do look forward to hearing from him soon.
Posted in Art, Creativity, Current Events, Exercise, Family, Friends, Pirates, Political Affairs, Priorities, Time | Comments Closed
January 31st, 2005
After seeing The Aviator yesterday with our friends Lee and David, I was going nuts trying to think of another American who matched the personal attributes and range of talents possessed by Howard Hughes.
I woke up this morning with the same riddle in my head, and then I got it!
The other person in American History who best parallels the characteristics and achievements of Howard Hughes? Recognized as a leading innovator in the most popular arts and entertainment medium of his time, a known womanizer, rebel, businessman, scientist, inventor, and a technical pioneer who possessed enough daredevil in his nature to put his own life on the line when testing his concepts: Benjamin Franklin.
And when you think about it, if Ben was sitting across the table from Howard, he’d likely raise and call, because his winning hand would include diplomat and statesman, having helped orchestrate the founding of the most successful system of modern government.
Admittedly, Howard did become a billionaire, but Old Ben kept his sanity and a glowing reputation for the balance of his life, and beyond…
Posted in Friends, History, Movies, Personalities | Comments Closed
January 30th, 2005
It would be encouraging to see us all reject the partisan mindset and simply acknowledge that what’s taking place today in Iraq is an enormously good and hopeful thing, and that it wouldn’t be happening without the bravery and selfless service of countless Iraqi patriots, no matter what external force or persuasion anyone else brought to bear to influence the circumstances or frame the opportunity. The will to self-determination is a remarkable thing, but too often taken for granted by those who—for whatever reason—become disconnected from such self-evident aspects of the human spirit. Let’s acknowledge today that, while we’ll surely debate the political factors for a generation, the product is something that a huge majority of Iraqis fundamentally understand and deserve at last (as have the citizens of India, South Korea, Eastern Europe, South Africa, Afghanistan, or Ukraine). Dear reader, did your birth come with relative ease and lack of trauma, or did you happen to inflict excruciating pain and drawn-out suffering upon your mother? In any case, you were born, but the meaning of your life will not ultimately be measured by the characteristics or deficiencies of natal phenomena, but how you manifest the potential of existence. So it is with a people. Behold the miracle of the ordinary Iraqi voter, laughing in the face of peril to cast her very first ballot.
Posted in Current Events, Political Affairs | Comments Closed
January 29th, 2005
Mario at Anacrusis reminds me of when my niece Kristi sponsored an interactive story at a defunct site called boards2go.com. I started an SF tale that lasted only 3 segments, without anyone else taking interest, before the whole thing imploded. Somehow I never mangaged to save any of it, but the directory still loads from the Wayback Machine, in case there’s a wizard out there who knows how to get deeper into the archive (if it even exists). I still remember that an embryonic plot idea involved the conflict between the commander of a secret brigade and a pompous Dr. Wesnick, the lead physicist on a government project to perfect the “Quantum Coil,” which could inject a paramilitary team into “the Outer Zone.” Wesnick presumed the Brigadier was being paranoid when he questioned the randomness of the energy profile captured by the coil’s “wave discriminator.” Why of course, reader, the signature was being proffered by sinister lifestreams, and the fun was about to begin…
Posted in Brendan, Creativity, Family, Fiction | Comments Closed
January 28th, 2005
I’ve come to learn that there are certain individuals holding jobs in the respectable business world who should never be allowed to come within 100 yards of anything created by a conscientious graphic designer. To say that these people don’t “get it” would be kind. Very kind. “Yes, madam, I understand your e-mail is down, but it would not be acceptable quality for publication if you photocopied their logo off a cocktail napkin and sent it by FAX…”
Posted in Angst, Studio | Comments Closed
January 27th, 2005
I was only half paying attention to a sound bite on TV featuring the new Mrs. Donald Trump, and in some sort of accent she gushed about “all the wonnerful mammaries” associated with her recent wedding. When I told Dana why I was laughing so hard, her reply was, “John, she was saying MEMORIES.”
Posted in Dana, Personalities, Television | Comments Closed
January 26th, 2005
— While watching a bit of today’s White House press conference, I thought about the meaning of leadership. Leadership is not saying, “We’re all in this together; I understand and appreciate where you’d like to go; Believe in me, because I’m the person to get us there.” Now, that may be the mark of an organizer, a facilitator, or a consensus builder, but a leader, by contrast, is one who says, “I’ve thought about this and I have a vision; We need to go where I’m pointing my finger; Do you see it, too? Follow me and I’ll get us there!”
— When I was in Middle School (used to be called Junior High in those days) I had a teacher who stayed after school to help young guys who wanted to start building their bodies… not the acknowledged athletes, but just ordinary guys who didn’t know anything about weightlifting (and who did in small-town Ohio in 1964?). He showed us how to make our own barbells out of scrap pipe and coffee cans filled with wet cement. He called it “Muscle Club.”
— Jack LaLanne turned 90 last year and he was still working out every day. Here are three of his maxims: 1) Do something healthy and positive each day; little things make a difference. 2) Concentrate on the moment; put all your energy into what you’re doing today and what you’ll do tomorrow. 3) Be a role model; motivate your friends and loved ones by being supportive.
— At lunch today I put a leftover salmon patty, tofu, broccoli stems, soy milk, and two raw eggs into a blender and mixed the resulting goo with oatmeal, wheat germ, and brewer’s yeast, hoping to create some type of health burger. I think I’ll just end this little story now, if you don’t mind.
Posted in Exercise, Food, Personalities, Political Affairs, Presidency, Television, Time | Comments Closed
January 25th, 2005
I’ve settled back into a decent fitness schedule that should have me back in triathlon shape by spring, and then I’ll start thinking about my first summer event. It’s back on the bike again tomorrow. Today’s morning swim went well, with my year-end concentration on strength training paying off with improved stroke pull. Swim coach mentioned to me that I should finish my workouts with harder sprints, so I’ve been forcing that on myself each time I get in the
pool. I refuse to just space out and not count laps, but I wish there was a better way to keep track, because I miss that feeling I got in my long lake swims last year, when I could just get in the zone and find a good endurance pace, like being out on the road running for distance, letting the imagination fire at will.
Posted in Creativity, Exercise, Time | Comments Closed
January 24th, 2005
After the open house for David’s retirement from National City, Dana and I had dinner at Freddie’s with David, Lee, Gary, and Trish. Afterwards we regrouped at the Town House for dessert, so I opened the 1997 bottle of Nichelini Cabernet, which had been waiting patiently for a celebration. My goodness, it was even better than I was expecting. RWB certainly knows his wine. We all enjoyed a welcome break from recent tensions. David asked me to show Gary and Trish my first wood engraving, and so I made my typical awkward attempt at juggling personal pride and sincere humility. You’d think that by now I’d feel more natural when it came to discussing my art.
Posted in Art, Dana, Family, Friends, Home, Wine | Comments Closed
January 23rd, 2005
This morning I decided to go out to the Jackson farm before sunrise to run some of the cross-country trails before friends gathered around the wood fire in the cabin for “shared silence.” I suppose I’ve run in more frigid conditions, but not recently. The raw intensity of these workouts are impossible for me to verbally capture, but they come loaded with rich sensory moments, like the crunch of refrozen thaw under foot, the visual pattern of animal tracks in the dusty snow, the sound of startled ducks temporarily fleeing the nearby wetland, and the massive heads of the horses as they surround and nudge me, wondering, perhaps, if I’ve come to deliver their overdue ration of hay.
It goes without saying that these stimuli make me feel very close to nature, and her power. I can’t say I particularly enjoy the cold. I realize I don’t have the same resilience as my father had. I know that, because I spent too many hours shivering, watching the steam of his breath, as he repaired rabbit pens or some other winter task, when I desperately wanted to seek the warmth. On mornings like today I think about whether he might have had similar experiences as mine, moving through nature on his cold, all-night ‘coon hunts (ventures that I was never equipped to endure at the time).
Years ago I came upon the words of Robert W. Service and shared them with Dadbo at Christmas, but we never got to talk about those poems of the Yukon. I just knew it was his life-long dream to visit the far North Woods. He never did, but I like to think that my gift enabled the same vicarious experience that Service provides for me with lines like these:
"The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb…"
On mornings like today I think about my friend Mack, the man who created the trails. As he confronts the foe of cancer, much too far from his cabin, I run them in the bitter wind for him, because I can.
Because I must.
Posted in Dadbo, Exercise, Family, Friends, Nature, Verse | Comments Closed
January 22nd, 2005
My grandson Marty has discovered Quentin Tarantino, so first of all he screened Kill Bill: Vol.1 for me and then Reservoir Dogs. I didn’t know what to expect, since I’d never seen one of his films, not even Pulp Fiction. Marty has watched an alarming array of violent action flicks, beginning too many years ago, and now, at the age of thirteen, he can calmly dissect and critique motion pictures that have trailers I might not be able to handle so well. I’m not quite sure what to make of Tarantino. Marty finds his work more complex and intriguing than the typical fare he’s been used to, and I don’t doubt that’s true. For me, his movies mesh artistry with depravity like the teeth of a rusty zipper. A generation ago they said the same thing about Peckinpah, I suppose. Good Lord, when I was thirteen I had my hands full with The Wild Wild West and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Posted in Creativity, Marty, Movies, Television | Comments Closed
January 21st, 2005
— I’ve gotten a week into this experiment and have yet to properly thank Brendan, my undaunted sponsor and kind host. So far so good. I managed to solve most of the anomalies I was experiencing by updating the firmware on our Netgear firewall/router. Although I began my first private journal in 1971 and have maintained regular entries for the past 20 years or so, this online record of thoughts is a new and stimulating venture. In time I’ll gain a better sense of how its public nature affects the tone and quality of my postings.
— Last weekend our family gathered at Kelley Ridge for a mighty demonstration of Clan-Power to achieve as much physical transformation as possible. Uncle James mused that it was the kind of event that could inspire Clan legend. With the bitter wind knifing through us as we split and stacked firewood at the edge of the ridge, Seth replied, “You won’t ever hear me talking about this day.”
— There hasn’t been much of a downside to my accepting an invitation to join the Rotary Club ten years ago, but I am beginning to notice something. One of the serious drawbacks to building relationships of affection with a bunch of great old guys pushing 80 is to witness their failing health. What have I gotten myself into?
— As true as it is that there’s no greater love than to lay down one’s life for another, I want Josh to accomplish in Iraq what he was trained to do and then safely return to his family. That is my simple prayer. I’m not precisely sure what he was trained to do, but I know that living and working each day in harm’s way is a given. I’m reminded of the closing line in The Bridges at Toko-Ri, “Where do we get such men?” The answer to that question is the same with every generation, and, as far as I’m concerned, no poet has described this vital breed more eloquently than Katharine Lee Bates when she wrote, “Oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life!”
Posted in Angst, Blogging, Brendan, Community, Family, James, Prayer, Verse | Comments Closed
January 20th, 2005
I’m glad that the President has been inaugurated for another term. Anyone who knows me realizes that my admiration for him has grown over the past few years. It can be too easy at times to expect perfect leadership from someone who holds this office. I have numerous friends who believe that the performance of George W. Bush has been a far cry from perfect, and perhaps a far cry from adequate, but it isn’t difficult for me to disagree with their assessments when “Dubya” supports so many ideas and policies to which I’ve long given my support. Am I always satisfied with his appointments and decisions? Of course not. I’m even certain he’ll do things over the next four years which won’t please me. Nevertheless, I won’t make the mistake I made with President Reagan and hold him to an unrealistic standard that, with maturity, I have lived to regret.
Posted in Current Events, Political Affairs, Presidency | Comments Closed
January 19th, 2005
Everything is entering the studio meat grinder at once: a Chamber of Commerce Website, a new visual campaign for the Great American Brass Band Festival, major volunteer projects for the Salvation Army and Rotary Club, plus several other jobs that have spilled over from 2004.
This is when I call in my crack team of talented design assistants and issue a few soft-spoken but well-chosen directives, delegating on the fly, sending them fully motivated to do battle with every deadline… One minor problem, though. Last time I looked I didn’t have any assistants.
Posted in Angst, Studio | Comments Closed
January 18th, 2005
Today’s Anacrusis story made me think of seeing Ben Shahn’s work for the first time as a callow teenager, when I took the Famous Artists School’s home-study Course for Talented Young People and discovered the concept of creating artwork in service to the advancement of social justice. The whole idea seemed so phlegmatically self-evident at the time.
Posted in Angst, Art, Brendan | Comments Closed
January 17th, 2005
On TV today I watched some clips about preparations for the inaugural celebration and I had to laugh when I saw a drum major in camo. Oh, I get it. “Was that a drum major? Wait a second. No, I guess it’s a shrub with a bear’s rump sticking out the top.”
Posted in Television | Comments Closed
January 16th, 2005
Well, I think I’ve made my point to myself here. Hmmm? Perhaps I need a blog like the proverbial hole in the head. But, come to think of it, Cap’n Lice did have that missing piece of cranium where a musket ball glanced off the side of his…
Posted in Blogging, Pirates | Comments Closed
