Day Fifty Six - Devil Cover

The New CD Cover, unreleased.

Day Fifty FIve - Video Summer

While I am on the Mallman roll, let's keep it going. He is about to have a smashing new cd out so we are planning a killer new video.

Here is a sneak preview of one of my storyboards for it. I'll be shooting this one, as well as another video for the Owls ( not these ).

Again, in Mark's video, piano cruelty is involved, so beware!

Day Fifty Four - I'd like to say that no pianos were hurt during the making of these photos, but that would be a lie.

We drove out to Stewartsville. We loaded up a piano. We took it into a field and burnt it to the ground. Why? Well, it was for a Mallman photo-shoot. Here are a few quick highlights.



Look here at YouTube to see some video of the whole event. Some video that I did not shoot, in case you were wondering.

Day Fifty Three - Flabbergasted!

I don't eat much fast food, but yesterday I was out and very hungry so I stopped by a Subway. As I was waiting in line I picked up a little flyer that was sitting on top of the counter. Can you believe the surprise that I felt when I looked at the advertisement that was printed on it? I mean, I know that competition is stiff, but play fair already!

Day Fifty Two - Snap!

Smile! I was up until 2am last night working on a phototshop. A piano lost it's life. Details to follow.

Day Fifty One - Inventions

So, from time to time I come up with some great inventions. Many of them have to do with vacuum assisted technology for some reason. Others, such as this one, are simple and elegant. I have decided to let you in on some of my ideas. What is it this time, you ask?

Well, before I tell you what it is, you should know that a truly great invention must also have a truly great name.

I call this the "Munch-Box".


It is for cat, or small dog, owners. It is a divided plexi-glass box with a handle on top, without any bottom. Here's how it works. You put your cats (or small dogs) food down on the floor. As they begin to eat, you place the Munch-Box® on top of them. This way, if you have multiple pets, they can eat in peace without fear that their food will be eaten by others.

Ok, so maybe it isn't great, but neither was the Flowbee.

Day Fifty - New to US

There is a new cat in town. Her temporary name is Baby. She is about 9 months old and we are attempting to slowly indroduce her to our older kitty. Check out the big feet! Pretty cute, huh?

Day Fifty - The Big House

I work with hardened criminals. Criminals that love Skittles.

Day Forty Nine - Cars, Pt.2

So I ran Dolly (1969 VW Squareback) into the ground during high school. It went back in to my Grandmothers garage until my friend Shawn needed a car while he was in the service. Another friend of mine, Brian, had an Opel Manta at the time. I liked it. It was low, sporty, and you didn't see them very often. I found one in the paper and bought it shortly after.

Mine was 1974 forest green with a black hood. It was a fun little car while it lasted. Something was slowly going wrong with it so I took it to a garage. They told me that the firewall was rusting out and it wasn't worth fixing. I gave it to my friend William and in return he was suppose to give me some $ when-ever he got some. Well, he never gave me a dime and said that he crashed it into a tree out in the country somewhere when a deer surprised him.

I really wanted an Opel GT, and almost bought one from a place that restored them in Vermont. Wow, those are sexy cars, I still want one! They called them the Mini-corvette for obvious reasons.
I'll look for a photo of my Opel and post it if I can find one.

Day Forty Eight - Run for Cover

American the Beautiful.

Day Fourty Seven - At Work

Here is what I look like when I'm working.

Day Forty Six - Mother's

Everyone says that their Mother is the best.

I'm here to say that I know what you mean, but he real truth is that my Mom is! My feelings on the matter were materialized on the side of her new garage at 6am this morning, as you can see in this photo.
She and her partner are moving all the way across the country to live just 5 blocks away. They close on the house later this month, which means that I had to get up really early this morning and sneak into the current owners backyard to show my love and thanks.
The way I see it, the current owner's husband will also benefit from my good deed, so it's really a win/win.

(as you can see) I love you Mom!

Day Forty Five - Cars, Pt.1

This photo is of my friend Darin and I checking out some classic cars at Back to the Fifties. I guess that you would say that Darin is the one really checking them out in this photo. He's a stickler for details. Anyways, it has given me the idea to write about all the cars that I have had. I know, that is way I am telling you this; as a warning. Maybe you aren't interested in cars, that's ok, I'll still like you.

Car number #1: 1969 VW Squareback

This car was my first, and will perhaps be my last. My Grandmother bought her (yes, my Grandmother named the car DOLLY, so it is a female for that reason) brand new on July 25. 1969. I believe that she traded in a little blue VW bug as a downpayment. While Dolly was getting a check-up, shortly after she was bought, some thugs stole her off the VW lot. She was found a few miles away, where the same thugs had dislodged the transmission by attempting to ride over a concrete parking stop. The dealer tried to get my Grandmother to take another car, but she still wanted Dolly. She drove Dolly for over 12 years, always bragging that Dolly still smelled like a new car, and would start right up in the coldest of winter days.


My Grandmother replaced Dolly with a 1984 Subaru in 1984, which allowed me to have my first car. I was in high school and loved to drive a car that I was always around as a child. I must admit that I knew very little about working on cars at that point, and most likely didn't take as much care with her as I should have. In fact, I remember using Dolly to push my friend William's (see earlier post) Hearse up a big hill because it has stalled out. That alone probably put the nail in the coffin to Doll's engine troubles.

Early in my Blog there is a picture of me and Dolly in NYC. Check under the title "Ouch, again!" in April. Here is a more recent photo, before I added the ragtop.


I'll add more to this later! Bye.


Update: My uncle wrote to me to clarify some details: "Actually, she 'gave' me that VW (a blue 1960 bug) and I made a pretty good size down payment on Dolly. I had that bug through college and for many years after (I and some friends rebuilt it around 1970). I sold it with 312K.

My recollection of Dolly being stolen was that they never offered another car and
my mother actually had to fight Heischmann (the Dealer) to have them pay to fix it. They claimed they had no responsibility in it being stolen."

Thanks John!


Here is an 8x10 photo that I took of Carolyn and I, with Dolly, around our wedding day.

Day Forty Four - Hand History

My finger was cut, the knife slipped from attempting to pry off a piece of toast from the bread loft that lived in the freezer when not in use.

I stabbed myself with a pencil, right in the center of my palm. The teacher was out of the room, and all of us kids went crazy. I thought the lead side was pointing down, but I was wrong.

Many sprain-like feelings in most fingers from playing basketball and other sports.

One fingernail came off after I hit it square with a hammer. Before the nail left me, blood gathered under the nail, making it dark red for a few weeks.

Big blister on right palm from gardening with a spade that had a rough end of the handle.

Perhaps the worst of all. I was feeding my cats and had lid had not been entirely cut by the can-opener. I grabbed the sharp, jagged edges of the top and started twisting it side to side in order to break it off. I guess that I pulled up a little too hard because my middle finger of my right hand slipped upwards, cutting a very deep slash along the entire width. It still bothers me from time to time when I touch certain surfaces. It feels very uncomfortable like the way your teeth feel when you hear finger-nails on a blackboard.

Day Forty Three - Chauncey Gardiner

The weeds are under control, for the moment.

My garden produces weeds at an alarming rate. It's very good at that. The creeping charlie and the mint must spread at over a foot a day, that stuff reminds me of the red veins from that lame remake of War of the Worlds.
It hit me while I was pulling weeds that gardening is much like relationships in very obvious ways. If you don't keep a close watch on them both, nurturing and caring for them as you go, then the results can all the sudden overtakes you, leaving a sense of confusion about how and where to start again. If you do constantly maintain and feed them, the results will all the repetitively amaze you.

Deep, huh?

Day Forty Two - Look Up

Day Forty One - Mystery Man

Anybody know this guy?

Day Forty - Pass with Care

Now, if you were driving this car, wouldn't you back off a little more? That's what I thought, but the driver did not!

Day Thirty Nine - Older Alteration

Day Thirty Eight - Slow

Sometimes you find yourself forced to take the day slower. Your body just wants to move at a different pace after weeks of not sitting still. Today was that day. Coupled with the fact that it was chilly outside, and I was up late last night, no part of me wanted to rush today. I let some things go, things that I would otherwise have jumped on, hurrying thru one task after another. The list went unchecked today, and I left a lot of chores unfinished, and I'm quite alright with it.

Day Thirty Seven - Quick Trip

I just got back from a 11 hour road trip with Mallman. He played in Madison. The High Noon Saloon was packed, but the rest of the town was empty, except for this bird.

Day Thirty Six - Hole

I never looked forward to burying you.

My grandmother took care of a lot of animals. As a Humane Society investigator the rural areas where she lived were loaded with many needy cases. Often she would end up taking in abused, lost, or neglected pets and try her best to nurse them back to health. If all those animals weren't enough there were plenty of wild ones that accepted her charity as well.

As happens from time to time a pet or wild animal would let go and die in her care. She would carefully wrap them up, and if there was room, put them in her second freezer on the porch. One of my jobs, shortly after arriving for a visit, was to find a place on her property and then to put them into their final resting place. It was a job that I never looked forward to but knew that she would have liked to do even less.

Up until now, the hardest burial that I had to perform was for my childhood dog, Trudy. She was a beautiful white dog of medium build, and was highly protective of me her whole life. Trudy was put to sleep while I was at school, where I was probably trying to pay attention or else trying not to get caught by pretending to pay attention. It might be sappy, but I feel that she alone taught me how to measure true friendship.

I can clearly remember going to the vets, with my friend William, and picking up Trudy's body. They had put her into a large trash bag. I could feel her cold body as I carried her to the car. She felt so small and fragile, and I couldn't understand why. The thinness of the bag allowed me to feel the curve of her stomach, her legs, and her head, all with too much detail. It was a deeply empty feeling carrying her thru the yard and then into my Aunt's backyard, where I had found a shady place, and where I had dug another hole. I knew at that moment that I could do nothing as difficult as to bury a friend.

It is now time to dig another hole, for another friend, this time in my own backyard. I will put you under the bush, where you liked to sit and watch the birds. That bush bloomed for the first time this year. I know that nature was most likely responsible for the small yellow flowers that have never been there before, but I like to think that perhaps it was you.


Cleveland

Day Thirty Five - On the Road

It was late when I called.

You were studying and I was working. Months had gone by since we last spoke but it didn't seem that way after just a few minutes. All the ghosts quickly came out as the walls crumbled down, leaving them with nowhere to hide.
Nothing was unsafe, as it was when we were together, together in the truck, together downstairs and later together in other states.

Only recently I realized that I only have one decent picture of you, one frame of you without family or friends. I used to take a lot of photose. You would think that I would have at least a few more where you where the only subject.
In this particular image you are on an empty corner, overlooking a valley. Next to you is a street sign. You have on my wool surplus jacket so it must have been in the fall. Not only was it chilly, but the colors were soft, in the way that dusk slowly mutes everything as daylight sinks away.
I must be in the street taking your picture. Even then we were comfortable being apart. I liked my time alone, and you, well you were one of the most independent people that I knew. That never bothered me for it added to the feeling of security in an odd way. I didn't have to hope for anything, because I knew back then that you wouldn't stay still. I also knew that time changes much of what you forget to stop planning for, and that as the days string out, the events that fill them can never be fully known until the day is over. Even then, the effects can slowly linger and bubble for lifetimes.

Day Thirty Five - Renew

12 hours of sleep can do a lot for a guy. I no longer feel like the white ball below.