Once a month I highlight a piece of art I have created and posted on my Fine Art America site. This one is titled Thread And Shells from the Scanner Still Life Collection.
Thread And Shells
Category: Uncategorized
Kurt Vonnegut
My first exposure to Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) was not through reading his books but from watching the movie Slaughterhouse-Five, based on his novel of the same name. It was put on heavy rotation in the 1970’s on our local NBC affiliate television station, so I ended up watching it multiple times. Our hero, Billy Pilgrim, survives the World War Two firebombing of Dresden and goes on to marry and have children. At some point he ends up in a zoo on the planet Tralfamador. It is a quiet, thoughtful movie that tends to stick with you. When I figured out the movie was connected to a book I wanted to check out the author, and I’m glad I did. He didn’t only write science fiction, employing dark humor and satire in his novels. Themes of religion and war run through much of his work, as does pathos and religious hypocrisy. Reading Vonnegut for me is like sitting down to visit with an old friend and catching up with what has been going on. There is both familiarity and anticipation involved, but the main feeling is you are going to enjoy it. If you have not read him Slaughterhouse-Five is a good enough place to start as any. You might just make a new friend.
The Roundup
Wilderness Connect is a great resource to to learn more about protected public wilderness areas, “found in most states, but concentrated in the west, they protect lush forests, arid deserts, snow-capped peaks, dank swamps and sandy beaches. Yet, the reasons Americans love wilderness are even more diverse than the areas themselves.”
“As a permanent home for spontaneous art, Doodlers Anonymous is a modern art blog featuring a vast archive of creative inspiration, hand-drawn interviews by contemporary artists, doodle challenges and prompts, giveaways, and a catalog of art-based goods.”
StarDate offers a constellation guide, moon phase calculator, sunrise and sunset calculator, meteor shower schedule, lunar and solar eclipse schedule, when to view planets, a primer on the solar system and much more. A good resource.
Kanopy partners “with public libraries and universities to bring you ad-free films and series that can be enjoyed on your TV, mobile phone, tablet and online.” My library began offering it for free last month and I have really been enjoying it. If your local library does not offer it yet put in a request.
Journey Of The Painted Ladies
In early August there suddenly appeared en masse thousands upon thousands of painted lady butterflies flitting and flying about, so many that at first it seemed like a plague had hit us. Those not being smashed in traffic on the highways were lighting on crops, trees, weeds, bushes, our driveway and lawn. For several days hundreds of them would scatter away in front of us wherever we walked on the acreage. Now, less than two weeks later, they are mostly gone. Some research revealed they are found all over the world and migrate south to north in the spring then make the trip back in the fall. But since their lifespan is only two to four weeks none of the original travelers return, as it takes multiple generations to make the round trip. The butterflies reproduce along the way and each succeeding generation continues the journey, one that is ingrained, absolute and unwavering. They do what must be done to continue the species, completing their part of the migration cycle before dying. I wonder if we will be seeing caterpillars soon.
A Summer Reading List
I have had the habit of reading multiple books at the same time since childhood. The advantage of this practice is I can widely vary my chosen topics. The downside is it takes much longer to actually finish a book. If one turns out to be more interesting than the others I will usually spend more time reading it, but my ritual is so ingrained that I must give all the others in the stack at least a few pages worth of attention during the same session. I seem to have a better recall of the books I spend longer periods of time reading but I don’t know if that is because of the increased interest or the duration of attention. Maybe it is both. Anyhow, I enjoy making lists and reading those of others, so here is a snapshot of my current summer reading.
These Were The Sioux by Mari Sandoz. This little book tells of the customs and lifestyle of the Sioux, including personal observations by the author.
The Grass Harp and A Tree of Night by Truman Capote. I read In Cold Blood years ago and decided to try out this compilation. Not bad so far.
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. This is his original edition; he revised this book several times. I have tried off and on for years to make it all the way through this. I seem to like the idea of Whitman and his life more than his writing.
Living On An Acre (U.S.D.A.) edited by Christine Woodside. From deciding if rural living would be right for you, to how to do it if it is.
On Killing, The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. This is one in my collection I have avoided reading for years, the subject seeming rather dark and gloomy. Learning that most soldiers would rather do anything but kill during combat is a revelation, contradicting what is usually portrayed by the entertainment industry.
The Year’s Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois. Published in 1989 gathering the best from 1988. I started this last winter and am finally on the last story. A superb anthology.
American Heritage, October 1964. I have a small stack of these I have been going through. One interesting aspect of these slim volumes is reading the life stories and accomplishments of so many people who are now almost completely forgotten.
A Life Well Spent
“What constituents a life well spent? Love and admiration from your fellow men is all anyone can ask.”
Will Rogers
John
I remember John
Almost as a dream
After all the years past
His lightness of being
Now a low fog
That drifts close to my shore
Whispering
What if
What if
2008 By David Jacobi
Neil Young
The first new Neil Young album I purchased was Rust Never Sleeps, acoustic on side one and electric on side two. It was love at first spin. That summer he immediately became one of my favorite musicians, and I began buying his previous albums. The way he could alternate between a tender acoustic ballad and a scorching electric rocker was amazing to my teenage ears. Soon I was spending hours listening to After The Gold Rush, Harvest, On The Beach, the harrowing, dark Tonight’s The Night, and Zuma, to name my favorites. I bought all of the other earlier albums, too, sometimes two or three at a time. I felt like I had discovered a gold mine of great music that wouldn’t end. And then came Re-ac-tor, his 1981 release. A Synclavier? Jokey choruses, stammering singing and silly lyrics? What was going on here? Maybe this was just something he had to get out of his system. The next one will find him back in fine form, I thought, until Trans came out in 1982. Again, some of it was okay, but he went crazy with a vocoder, like a kid with a new toy. One album review I remember from the time likened his vocals to a singing microwave. When you have Crazy Horse as a backing band and put out something like this, well, what is there to say? Next up was Everybody’s Rockin’, a rockabilly album, and that was followed by a country album. None of them to me were bad, just not what I was expecting after the joy of listening to his backlog. I can’t help but applaud when an artist trys a new direction, but that doesn’t mean fans will follow. As the years went by I kept my eye on what he was up to, and I still buy the occasional album. I consider myself a fan, but not like that teenager who first discovered him years ago.
The Roundup
Want to make your favorite restaurant dish at home? Check out CopyKat Recipies to search for the recipe.
“Claiming inspiration from “old-school American values mixed with a little punk-rock idealism,” Mike Brodie, aka The Polaroid Kidd, hopped trains across the U.S. for seven years, documenting his friends, lovers, and travels with a Polaroid and a 35-millimeter camera and amassing a critically acclaimed body of images.” His own site is static and he has supposedly given up photography.
Maps of War “was created to help people understand current events, as seen on TV and in our newspaper headlines, as being one small chapter in the much bigger and longer story of human history. Each map is well-researched and based in fact, and none of the work is meant to be biased or political. No spin or opinion, just fact-based conclusions about the history of war.”
Raise “is an online gift card marketplace where you can sell gift cards for cash or buy discount gift cards to all your favorite brands.”
August Ambiance
Having lived in Iowa my entire life, seeing vast acres of corn and bean fields became commonplace even as a child. As a city boy I was used to driving around the crops to get to other places, but now that we moved to the country we live in the crops. We are surrounded by a swaying wall of corn on all sides of our property, a living seven foot high privacy fence. We can only see from ground level the tree tops of our two neighbors a quarter mile away to the east and west. Living on two acres in the middle of a vast cornfield tends to turn the eyes up or down. Up, one studies and admires the clouds and the big blue sky they float through, and down are the wildflowers, flowering weeds, dragonflies, butterflies and toads. To find them all in one spot we walk out to the ten foot wide ditch that separates our front yard from the gravel road. We decided not to mow the ditch to see what would come up, which most of our neighbors do as well. There are a wide variety of grasses, flowers and weeds that I have not taken the time to try to identify yet but we do recognize Daylillies, Queen Anne’s lace, milkweed and lilac scattered throughout. The toads are most vociferous after a rain and if water is left in the ditch. They vary in color from browns to greens, but always with some bumps and intricate patterns on their skin. They seem unconcerned when picked up, and many times will not even hop away when set back down. The rabbits have multiplied as usual, which keeps the two dogs busy chasing them back into the corn when they see them. Come dusk the lighting bugs begin flying and blinking by the thousands, making for a wonderful glowing show while the robins chirp and chatter as they sing down the sun.
Off The Back Porch 