I’m still sorting through my feelings of re-meeting many old friends with whom I had lost contact over time.  Recently, in a few cases, we have been able to reconnect via Email and Facebook.  Now, half-a-century later in person, it’s impossible to fill in what’s happened in a ten-minute conversation.  One of our class collected brief biographies and bound them in a book for us all.  Very nice, although 2/3rds of the class were missing, but fascinating as much in what was written as what was not.  Thanks, Judy.

After the reunion, we drove SE in a rented Prius (my first experience with a hybrid) to Falmouth, MA where my old pal George from college days is spending the summer.   Cape Cod is well traveled but still charming – one of the country’s most pleasant regions.  Yeah, it’s a little expensive and tourist tacky in places but balanced by some quiet little towns like Wellfleet; we are enjoying the ride.

George, whom we visit occasionally at his home in Key West, has just bought a sailboat.  A lifelong sailor, this is a rare “splurge on himself” that has widened his normal trim grin into a wide spinnaker ear-to-ear smile.  He and bosun John took us and two other friends on an eight hour cruise out into Vineyard Sound and then around a protected bay called Waquoit Sound where we briefly went aground and didn’t care.  A perfect day.

Town Mountain Road climbs up to the NE into the hills above Asheville.  We enjoyed a dinner party there with friends from the UNCA Reuter Center (I’ll do a post on that later) hosted by rock star instructors Mary and Tom.  A beautiful evening up in the tree tops looking west at the sunset.  Great food and conversations…

Fast-forward 24 hours.  We arrived in a downpour at the Brevard Music Center (link) with pals Suzanne and Frank to a sold-out performance of Garrison Keillor’s Summer Love concert.  He and the All-Star Shoe Band, Fred “bang, swish, sputter, bark” Newman and singer, fiddler, ukulele player, Sara Watkins, performed for three solid hours – even during the break.

Upon our return from my “break,”  Mr. Keillor and Ms. Watkins were strolling up the aisle singing and as we approached our row they stopped!  There SAM and I stood, right between them, singing three stanzas of “America the Beautiful.”  He’s quite tall in his red shoes and looks just like his radio-punim caricatures.  She was a foot shorter in heels.  She carries the melody, while he sings harmony with the mike at his throat and his eye on the band leader down on the stage.  His  music is macaroni and cheese and home-cooked meat loaf.  The Prairie Home Companion and Lake Wobegon story lines are funny, provocative (while never offensive), topical and nostalgic.  Everything resonated with this crowd of baby boomers who listen to NPR.  Isn’t that everyone?

Next day we were off to the Sourwood Festival at nearby Black Mountain.  This is the best of the local outdoor food art music events, IMO.  Dave Washburn was up from Atlanta doing his great comic portraits. 

The food always looks great, but there was a cardiac team standing by.  Clear!  This pics for you Anyta.

The Asheville Citizen-Times used another of my Ed-toons this past weekend.  Thanks.

Next year, last weekend in July, try it out.

The Xpress commissioned some cartoons (link) for their web site

SAM and I attended all 3 days, parking close in by getting there early.  We finished up yesterday afternoon at Magnolia’s and listening to (and sketching) Reverend Billy Wirtz – sort of a potty-mouth Victor Borge playing boogie-woogie blues and smoking a cigar.

We had just finished a very nice visit with friends Kathy and Jon who drove down from Washington.

This spring, vines began to appear from that location that seemed determined to assert themselves.  No one remembered planting anything, but the thick, wandering, prickly stems, huge leaves and large yellow flowers were attractive and interesting to me, and so they were allowed to stay.

Today, the connection came to me with a big smile.  All my life plants were OK, but more trouble than I cared to to fit into my self-centered existence.  I love trees and all kinds of wild vegetation.  My thinking was: that half of the biological world should also be free and not forced to live in little pots and slowly die of dehydration.  Then recently I began growing things outdoors like a few herbs, no hassle and they really do add a punch to a stir fry or a salad.  So, that was it.   Little plants you don’t have to water and with some real utility would be OK.

Now comes my pumpkin patch.  I’m feeling a little proud and protective and thinking about a harvest.   Gourd help me, I’m getting  soft.

Any and all comments ( +, – or otherwise ) sent to the Xpress are much appreciated!

Appalachia!  I’m taking a great course in the literature of the region – learning first that it’s “Appa-lahch (not laych) -ia.”  It’s full of surprises because we “foreigners” have believed all those media stories, some true but most incomplete,  over the past 40 years.  And then, there’s Deliverance and Lil’ Abner and Snuffy Smith.  Oh my.

Asheville is complex market, proud of its roots, progressive and determined to do their development differently.  There is a real spirit here, and for me, an exciting place to live, (and now work.)  Hopefully, I can contribute a few smiles.

I’m posting all my locally published cartoons and other interesting art around Asheville at a new web site:  Granola Park .

Memorial Day for the past twelve years has meant a fun weekend with my cartoon artist heroes and heroines at the NCS Reuben Awards.  This year we were on the Jersey side of the Hudson with great views of lower Manhattan.

We enjoyed the parties and seminars and chance to spend some time with pals Roy Doty (in top form again,) Barbara Dale, Rich Thompson, Brian and Diana Crane, Tom and Marie Stemmle, Gerry Mooney, Tom and Anna Richmond and Yaakov Kirschen from the Jerusalem Post (below, right.) Those old enough to know about George Booth will appreciate my excitement in meeting this master of hilarious characters and settings.

Bill Plympton was also there and shared some of his animated shorts and process.  (Click on the dog to view a trailer.) SAM seems to get all this, or at least goes along with my groupie-like enthusiasm.  She sure looked beautiful for the evening affairs.

Got a note from Chris Sparks, Rich Thompson’s web guru in Swannanoa, that the Citizen-Times had run a piece I’d sent in.  All work these days using Painter + Cintiq.  It’s getting easier, but still a long way to go.

Nah

Here’s a summary since my last post: my sons each celebrated birthdays – 26 and 28, so we enjoyed two catch-up dinners and jokes about getting old.  My Cintiq arrived! (for the civilians, it’s a digital drawing device that uses a touch-sensitive flat monitor and stylus for rendering graphics – similar to a piece of paper and a pencil.)  I’m in gadget heaven.  Some of us idiots still believe that our tools substantially improve our basic skills.  We’ll see.

We went on a John Wilkes Booth Get-Away Tour that retraces his last twelve days.  SAM and I had a wonderful reunion weekend with two college-era friends (Connie and Neil) that included activities in nearby Baltimore, Washington and Annapolis.  I enrolled in my first online course – Introduction to Painter 11.  Read Ron Powers’ Biography of Mark Twain and a fascinating book on “Birdology” (yes, birds) by Sy Montgomery.   Met up with caricature pal Mike and won a heat at a local Dr. Sketchy drawing event.  One of my editorial cartoons was published by the Asheville Citizen-Times, and (tah dah!) SAM agreed to go see Iron Man 2.  Heart be still.  There was also the same old screw-ups, things I forgot, and inappropriate utterances too numerous to note here.

Traveling 145 years back in time from Ford’s Theater to the site of Garrett’s farm  near Port Royal, VA, we experienced the story of Lincoln’s assassin’s last 12 days.  Was Dr. Mudd part of the conspiracy, and did JWB break his leg at Ford’s or later?  How would a second term of Lincoln have changed reconstruction?  History and the future are all around us in the present.  I was always a “future” guy. Since beginning to learn some of our past, I am appreciating the present a lot more.  A little late to the game, but grateful to be playing.

Few animals have musical experiences – whales, birds, and humans. Music has a way of tapping emotional memories – the soundtrack of our lives.  Today, music is so accessible and portable, duh?.  My entire life CD collection, that now resides on a sizable jukebox device, could fit on a singe SD memory card that I could loose between the sofa cushions.  Still, it’s impossible to beat live performances at a outdoor summer concert or a smoky jazz club.

Samuel Clemens was a smart ass.  He lived in different times but survived into the 20th century and told stories that were appreciated and loved by both literary and ordinary folks.  I read his books as a youngster, but after visiting his Nook Farm home in Hartford, CT., became fascinated with his life story.    Mark Twain used humor to expose the American character and was a successful lecturer, but naive businessman.  He traveled extensively and collaborated with, and was a friend of, Thomas Nast and Bret Harte.  Who would he be today?  Will Rogers? Garrison Keillor? E.B. White, Steve Martin?

One of the present-future options of continuing education is online courses.  I attended a seminar on the topic back in the early 90′s and it was mostly powerpoints and academic blah blah blah about the concept.  Now that I have experience with one course, I’m an expert.  Highly positive for a four-week Painter 11 course at the Digital Art Academy (link) and Instructor, Skip Allen.  I did learn that many of Painter’s features seem geared for digital painters who enjoy clone or auto painting from photographs.  Still, there are many features for those who prefer to start from scratch.  You can achieve the same results from Photoshop, but with more effort IMO.  Skip uses Camtasia (link) to create his instructional videos – great tool.

Now comes Iron Man Deux.  Fun comic book adaptation – but too much action, not enough character development (probably on purpose…)  Scarlett Johansson as black widow was a bonus, as was Mike Rourke as one of the bad guys.  Nice cameos by Stan Lee and Captain America’s shield.  Iron Man is a great character for Mr. Downey, better than his Sherlock Holmes.  His house on the high cliff over the Pacific is now valued at about 60% of what Tony Stark paid for it.

Finally, Here’s the editorial piece that the Citizen-Times used (because they didn’t post it on their web site.)  It was inspired by a great new book, The Big Short by Michael Lewis (link.) And, I can’t forget pals Elsa and Adlai – very special friends who drove all the way from Fairfax, VA just to listen to me gush about my new gadget.

Rereading the stuff above, it sounds a little like those dreary old monthly progress reports.  Sorry.  I’ll try to be a little more creative in the future.

As we all know, a credit default swap (CDS) is a swap contract in which the protection buyer of the CDS makes a series of payments to the protection seller and, in exchange, receives a payoff if a credit instrument (typically a bond or loan) goes into default. (Thanks Wikipedia, for us civilians and anyone who just arrived from planet Zino.)  An “image” of a CDS can actually be found on Paul Kedrosky’s Blog (click on the ugly pic on the right.) These are the buggers that enabled some clever folks to make billions as the world economy went into meltdown. Then go read The Big Short and get angry enough to support some real reform of Wall Street.

Now, back to the real world.

From LA’s John Wayne (the nice) Airport, Southwest got us and our luggage “It’s On!” back to BWI.  Cherry blossoms and signs of spring are everywhere.  Read Dan Pink’s Drive, another big idea, delivered clearly, creatively and for a contemporary audience.  He keeps getting better ‘n better.  Cowabunga! My Cintiq arrived and I’m in digital graphics heaven.

My portrait teacher, Rick Casali offered a course in portrait sculpture at Maryland hall and I couldn’t wait.  The clay I bought was wrong, (water-based,) and my head-armature was “inadequate.”  Never-the-less, I was able to join four other students for this two-day workshop.  What I learned in this absolutely wonderful course was simply the 3D foundations of what I’ve been been drawing 2D for over 50 years.  Drawing and painting is really “seeing” and now I can see so much more under the skin.  The structure – bone and cartilage, muscle and fat – not only of the face, but the head and neck – now make so much more sense.  We all had fun as well..  Thanks Rick.

We each completed a full-sized clay head.  From top, L to R: Our great instructor, Rick, Yupari, Melissa, Susan, Dave, and moi.

Maybe it’s to be expected. Our representatives largely represent the special interests that help them get elected.  Maybe my expectations are too high. With the whole world watching, the representatives argued, shouted and postured raw politics and little else.  Shame on both sides.  Worse, it’s unlikely they’ll ever really change.

So, it’s up to us – every two years.  All we have to do is become, or stay, informed and then vote.  Otherwise, we deserve this godawful mess. Seriously.