Month: June 2006 (Page 1 of 2)

That was posed to me yesterday after a visit to the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, MA to see “Painting Summer in New England.” The question referred to prints in my home, not any art I’ve produced. Today I walked around the house and discovered my taste in art is dark. Not in a dark-evil sense, but just… dark. Dusk, evening or indoor images dominate and are typified by Edward Hopper’s “New York Movie” and Childe Hassam’s “Rainy Day, Boston.”

There are a few exceptions to the “dark” theme including Hopper’s brighter “Rooms by the Sea,” “Flags on the Waldorf” by Childe Hassam and “In the Luxembourg Gardens” by John Singer Sargent.

At the show yesterday, I gravitated to Winslow Homer’s “The Artist’s Studio in an Afternoon Fog.” It was a fixating image. My friend agreed. It fits perfectly in the theme of most of the prints I have. They were purchased a few years ago when it was a darker time. Now I can’t really see myself going for this, now hugely popular in Great Britain, but this might work…

When is that process over? What does it mean? What are the elements that go into “building a life?” When we’re young it is literally about building… Building a body. Building a mind. Building values. Building friendships. Growing up. During this time, maybe the greatest lesson we learn is that it’s okay to fall. It’s painful to fall and scrape our knee, but once we learn to rise and walk again, we soon discover the pain goes away and we’re stronger for it. We’ve grown.

As young adults, or sometimes earlier, children are born, but that does not equate to “building a family.” That labor of love takes work and is too often derailed. Building a body can continue and depending on ones approach, that building process can be positive or negative. Career building begins, but not all vocations are a career and not all ladders are worth climbing. (See “building a family”) With the advent of work, building for retirement and building bank accounts begins…or not. Sometimes we choose to build those things for the local liquor store owner or drug dealer. That choice will impact whether building of the mind continues, or if the inevitable deterioration begins earlier. As we exit this stage and move into “middle age,” (By the way, how can we really know the middle until it’s over and we do the math?) we’re lucky if we have a few true friends. Most will have many acquaintances we’re friendly with.

Where I am, somewhere probably past the shadowy middle (I don’t know if I will or want to see 94, but I may feel quite different about it when I’m 93…) is a good place. I’m still focused on and quite busy building a family, and I’d still consider building on an addition if I felt it would strengthen the original foundation. Part of that building involves teaching my children the values I’ve built. Overall it’s going well, but in the course of any building projects, there are bound to be some industrial accidents. We try to learn from those and not repeat them. While building a body can continue, especially with the miracle of HGH and cosmetic surgery, I’m for the most part in active preventive maintenance mode, doggedly pursuing consolidation. Body and Mind. Or is it Body and Soul? My mind is in a constant state of renovation, but sometimes I feel like it’s run by an early version of Windows, occasionally freezing especially when it’s attempting to perform voice processing with an attractive female. Maybe it’s time for an upgrade. Soul. Hmmm… Isn’t there a rule about never blogging about politics or religion? No? OK, well, let’s just say I can “feel it” when I hear Al Green sing “Let’s Stay Together,” so I know I have soul. As for friends, I have a few and many more social or professional contacts. My friends have my confidence and trust, and I have theirs. That’s the difference.

So, where do we grow from here? Am I still building a life? Yeah. I recall seeing an unfinished Michelangelo at the National Gallery in London. I found it was amazing to get an insight to how the man constructed a painting. How he built it. I think I’ll always remember it and it dates back to around 1497. I guess ones success in “building a life” is measured by their impact on others… and that can go on forever. Now get out there and have a positive impact on someone today… or start a painting… or a song… or a book… Just keep building.

I’m glad I got out to see the Bottle Rockets last night. Well, more specifically, I’m glad I got out to see them with my long time friend, Jeff. It seems shows are the events that get us to hang out, and they occur far too infrequently. Just like the time I spent with Dave last week in Chicago, any time I hang with my business partners from Tar Hut Records is good time. Oh, and dinner at the Sunset Grill in Allston is highly recommended, as is the appetizer sized Blackened Chicken Quesadilla.

So, the music. The band opened with “Better than Broken” from their latest record, Zoysia and proceeded to plow through all 11 songs from it in order. That was sweet for me, but not so much for the many in attendance who had never heard the new music and came only to hear the songs they knew from ten or more years ago. As Jeff remarked later, “I would have been content if it ended right there.” It didn’t, and I was bored through much of the second half of the set. It seemed to me the band, and head Bottle Rocket Brian Henneman just weren’t into playing the old “hits…” again.

It seems many people, myself included, get caught in a bit of a musical time warp and never move forward. I mean, how do you explain the success of “Classic Rock?” There’s so much great music produced every single day, yet for millions, hearing “Won’t Get Fooled Again…” again… will suffice.

My own musical time warp is a decade old. The music I got into back then was therapeutic in many ways, but eventually one moves on from therapy, no? Well, Woody Allen doesn’t, but many do and I want to. Last night was an example of the old medicine no longer working. Why? I’ve changed. They’ve changed…literally. There are only two original members of the band I fell for over ten years ago. Back then Brian Henneman was fat, drunk and full of angst from who knows what. I was full of angst and I fed off of his and that of others like him. Now, he’s Atkins trim and seemingly angst-free. It shows in a lack of edge in those old songs. It seems he plays ‘em because he has to, not because he feels them anymore. Customer retention and loyalty, you know?

As for me, I heard some cool new music from Jeff’s iPod last night so I’ll be sampling some Drive By Truckers, Built to Spill and Spoon. They’re not all new, but they are to me. And I’m going to try Atkins (technically South Beach)… again.

…from last week’s visit to the Chicago Art Institute:

Greyed Rainbow – Jackson Pollock 1953 – I got lost in this painting for about 10 minutes. The amout of emotion spilled onto that large canvas is amazing.

Abstraction – Juan Gris – It’s cool to discover a new artist and I did here with Cubist Juan Gris.

Chicago Stock Exchange – This beautiful room is the original, moved to the museum when a modern facility was constructed in the 1970’s. I stood in the middle of it and tried to imagine what a working day was like there back then. What went on behind the doors? How many lives changed for better or worse right in that room?

Speaking of Leftovers, it’s a CD from the Bottle Rockets, in town tonight for a couple hours of the best rock ever to come out of Festus, MO!!! Hep!

Recently I received a text message from someone at a bar suggesting all I was missing was “priceless.” I guess what the person meant was like one of those MasterCard parodies you see on the web:

• St. Patrick’s Day Hat: $10
• Shots: $200
• Not learning a lesson from ignoring any sense of dignity and making a complete ass of yourself: Priceless

As I sat alone staring at the message glowing brightly on the phone screen, I thought about what I had done while I missed all the fun. Well, I met for about 90 minutes with Kyle’s mom so we could prepare for his school IEP meeting the next morning. I also spent time explaining to Kyle the difference between quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. Finally, I helped him with his physical therapy. He’s been having trouble lately with his legs and he’s fallen down a couple times. The PT is designed to increase the flexibility and strength in his legs. One that he has particular trouble with is toe raises. He is severely flat-footed and his ankles are collapsing inward, so toe raises are painful for him. I stood in front of him with my hands held up clasping his. “Dude, let’s do them together.” “No, Dad” was the response. “It hurts.” Now if there’s one thing I’m going to accomplish in this life, it’s to help my son progress and to help him maintain his state of happiness. For all his challenges, he is sunshine, and that son is going to keep shining.

In my best “Hanz and Franz” imitation, I extolled, “Oh, don’t be a giiihhhrly-mon… Do your exercises so you’re not all flahhhhby like a giiiihhhhhlllll…” Kyle laughed and extended onto his tip-toes. Several times he wanted to quit, But Hanz and Franz pushed him on. He got it done and had fun doing it. Now THAT was priceless.

Last night I skipped the gym so I could meet Megan before she finished work at her new job. I knew she was just finishing, but as the clock approached 6, I hoped to surprise her even if only to see her for a couple minutes. She had morphed into a customer by the time I arrived and was enjoying a teriaki steak sandwich that the beautiful young woman from the previous shift had made her. She looked so happy. Life seems good for my girl right now and I’m so proud of how she’s grown. The gym will always be there. These moments… well, you never know. I just don’t want to miss any.

Recently Jeff asked a question in response to the US air strike that killed Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: “What the hell is the point of all this?” There are a number of possible answers to this far reaching question, including:

• There’s oil in them there hills, Dubya!
• We’re Imperialists who will take advantage of any third world country’s resources because we can
• They hit us first
• al-Zarqawi was a cold-blooded killer who deserved it
• War is good for the American economy… Always has been
• They’re gonna kill us unless we kill them first
• We’re humans and we’ve been fighting since the beginning of time

That last one really struck me when I was touring the Chicago Art Institute yesterday. A couple times as I was maneuvering around to see all I wanted to see, I happened to walk through a long section filled primarily with medieval body armor. Rows and rows of it. Point is, we’ve been at war forever (well, some evidence suggests since 35,000BC) and probably will as long as humans exist. We’re flawed. We’ll try to talk it out for a while, but then we get to a point when the sticks and stones start flying. I don’t have an answer except to say that if we teach our children to treat each other with mutual respect, resolve conflict peacefully and embrace the differences in people and their beliefs, then maybe in 35,006 our descendants will have evolved enough to have figured it out.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about how my friend Barb had chastised me about missing out on a “window into our culture” by not listening to radio. Well, two things. First, the FM in my car doesn’t work, so I’m limited to CD’s and AM. Second, I get so much great music from Dave and Jeffro, why should I listen to the crap on the radio? Anyway… I’m now at Dave’s place in St. Charles, IL, but over the past couple days, I have been on the road between Chicago and Milwaukee and have tuned in. Wow. Barb was right. There is something about spinning the dial and hearing what’s playing and what’s saying. The DJ’s were a trip. One favorite moment was when a hip-hop DJ did a big hip-hop slang intro for the traffic guy who could not have been more white and vanilla. It kinda ended with “So wha’s sup, man? Well, Diddy, there’s about a 3 mile backup…” What a hilarious transition!

The trip North on I94 is pretty boring, but a couple highlights include the picture here which speaks for itself and the “Mars Cheese Castle.” Oh, how I wish I could have stopped in there… So, the music. I was all over the dial from NPR to Jazz to a healthy selection of God talk… Christian God talk, of course. Some of the musical highlights included:

• Sounds of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel
• With or Without You – U2
• Here I Am (Come and Take Me) – Al Green
• Signed, Sealed, Delivered – I’m Yours! – Stevie Wonder
• Some Hip Hop Songs I don’t know but had me rockin like the guys in the AVIS commercial
• Can’t You See – Marshall Tucker Band
• WXRT 93.1 – Chicago
• An AC/DC “Twofer:” Girls Got Rhythm and Honey, Whaddaya do for Money?
• Band of Gold – Freda Payne
• Bennie and the Jets – Elton John
• Slip in to my Sleeping Bag – ZZ Top
• 92.9, “The Hog” in Milwaukee
• A little Mozart
• Bullet With Butterfly Wings – Smashing Pumpkins

Yeah, it was a magical mystery tour up and down I94… Up in Milwaukee, actually Waukesha, I was holed up at the Country Springs Hotel while Southern Wisconsin was under a tornado warning. Down in the pub, I discovered they had a selection of 100 bottled beers on tap! I mean, if you’ve got to suffer through a tornado warning, it’s cool to be in a place with 100 beers. I went local with 3 from the New Glarus Brewing Company:

1. Spotted Cow
2. Fat Squirrel
3. Totally Naked

Yep, and that’s a good way to end any night.

Pal Jeffro just blogged on the auto industry a bit and prompted me to begin what should be a long and excruciating process to buy a new car. Well, new for me. I think I’m done buying “new” new. First though, let’s stroll down the memory lane of my personal car history.

It was a dark and stormy night… no, wait, that’s how my first novel will begin. Sometime in the summer of 1975, my mom passed down one sweet ride in this 1968 Plymouth Belvedere Convertible. It was a hunter green with the exception of the left front fender which was white. That summer I installed a Jensen AM/FM 8-track player with 4 speakers. Yeah, it was as cool as you’re imagining right now. That fall, while parked at Wakefield High School, Tommy Perry*, a bully Senior slashed 2 tires and the convertible roof. I was so bummed until I discovered the beauty of insurance. A couple weeks later, I had a brand new rag-top… sweet! One still fond memory of that time was driving with my high-school sweetheart up the coast on the North shore near Gloucester. I had repaired the roof with some duct tape, but wind and rain had their way and it began to leak on us. We didn’t care. Unfortunately, the old Belvedere succumbed to a failed transmission and off to the junkyard it went. Yeah, bad move, Mom. Someone probably still has that beauty today.

Ah, maybe the first is always the best, but in any event, here’s the um, rest…

• 1968 Chevy Impala – It was red and boring.
• 1970 Ford Mustang – Commuted to Boston in this 427 “Cleveland” engine equipped speedster. That is, until the water pump fell forward, pushing the fan into the radiator, pushing tiny fragments of the radiator all over my windshield and Route 93 North.
• into the radiator and
• 1974 Mazda RX3 – Drove it once, then let my brother use it… Once.
• 1974 VW Rabbit – Worst piece of crap I’ve ever owned or driven.
• 1986 Subaru GL (236K) – My first new car. About 20 minutes into my ownership, I attempted a demonstration of the rear wiper blade which proceeded to fall off and scrape the paint… That sucked.
• 1996 Volvo 850 Turbo LE (202K) – Purchased in 1999 with 42K on it. If she plays her cards right, Megan may be driving it soon.
• 2006… I love the Infinity FX35. In black, it looks like the freakin’ awesome Batmobile from “Batman Begins,” but with gas heading nowhere but North, I’m leaning toward a vintage 2004 Acura TL.

* I got even with Mr. Perry a few months later in a school floor hockey game when I slammed him through the gymnasium doors, through the hallway and into some lockers. He didn’t get up for a while. It was very Terry O’Rielly. I still can’t believe I got a major penalty for that one…

I’m going to see Dave this week and I’m pretty psyched. We’ve been friends now for over ten years and the guy has brought music, laughs and a lot of perspective to my life. Every week I get a couple emails from Dave listing all the new music he’s got and willing to share. Yep. Sharing the love through music. I think Dave lives to do that and I couldn’t be more serious. Just now I clicked over to his myspace page and got blown away once again from hearing a song from Dave. This time it was “Winners and Losers” by Social Distortion. I guess I’ll be getting more of their stuff. Thanks man.