singularity

Laugh (December blogfest)

2009-12-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

Laugh. What was your biggest belly laugh of the year?

Too many to single out just one. As the four of us have grown together and developed our own, individual, comfortable sense of self, we've had so much joy over the last few years that it seems like one long laugh, punctuated only infrequently and stochastically with occasional sadness or sorrow, like the death of my father.

In stark contrast to my younger self and life, I am a happy person. My wife and kids are responsible for that remarkable transformation. And that makes me happy, too!

L'homme qui rit! I should have my own cheese.

Stationery (December blogfest)

2009-12-28T23:42:00.000-08:00

Stationery. When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationery find of the year?

Well, it's not new this year but I'm a traditionalist as well as a classicist so I've always had personalized stationery. The stationery I use now is a design I've had for a lotta years. I like it. There's something very civilized about using quality, personalized stationery. If my handwriting weren't illegible, I'd use a fountain pen as well; but, alas, even my printing is barely decipherable so I simply use a ballpoint pen for clarity's sake.

Gift (December blogfest)

2009-12-25T23:34:00.000-08:00

Gift. What's a gift you gave yourself this year that has kept on giving?

I guess that would hafta be Marty and Wolfgang, my electric guitar and amp, respectively. Music has charms to soothe my savage breast.

Marty:

Wolfgang:

Project (December blogfest)

2009-12-21T10:31:00.000-08:00

Project. What did you start this year that you're proud of?

This is an easy one for me to answer this year: The Greybeards.

I hadn't played music in front of an audience in almost twenty years and then Jeff and Russ accreted to initiate the inescapable gravity well of The Greybeards. I was pulled in, unresisting, closely followed by some Hot Backup Chicks. Playing with The Greybeards and Hot Backup Chicks has been a fabulous experience and an onging project which I hope will continue into the indefinite future.

Our incarnation at LIFE is Good 2009 without drummer Alex:

Here's one at Good Vibrations 2009 with Alex but without the Hot Backup Chicks.

Shop (December blogfest)

2009-12-17T23:57:00.000-08:00

Shop. Online or offline, where did you spend most of your mad money this year?

The thing that comes most directly to mind for this past year is music gear. We disposed of a great deal of income at Guitar Center, Kennelly Keys, craigslist, and even got some stuff from eBay. Overall, we bought:

Guitars: 2 acoustic-electric guitars, 1 electric guitar, and 1 electric bass.

The four facing the camera are the new ones. From left to right: MJ's acoustic-electric (Isolde), Ronnie's acoustic-electric (nameless), Chloe's bass (Cornelius), and my electric (Marty).

Amps: Fender Princeton combo amp, Fender 100B (Bassman) amp head, Peavey Centurion amp head, Fender cabinet (2X15), and another cabinet with one 12" and one 10".

The Fender Bassman head powering the Fender cabinet.

The Fender Princeton (named Wolfgang) sitting on the additional speaker cabinet.

The Peavey amp head under my synthesizer (Synthia), who is 20 years old and, therefore, not part of this year's purchasing.

Percussion: A coupla djembe drums (one seen clearly and another half-hidden by the keyboard stand above, under Synthia and the Peavey) and an assortment of other rhythm devices, many of the small ones in the orange bag seen above.

Plus an assortment of peripheral and/or miscellaneous extras like cords, stands, etc.

Word of the year (December blogfest)

2009-12-17T11:40:00.000-08:00

A word that encapsulates your year. "2009 was _____."

My fellow dudes and dudettes, if your year can be encompassed by a single word, YOU AIN'T LIVING! Get out there and do something. Or investigate inside your own head. Just please, c'mon and show me something: think something, learn something, watch something, explore something, try something, rediscover something you'd forgotten you love, Hell!, fuck something up (I excel at that one!), but don't just sit there merely existing in a one-word state, Mr. A. Square of Flat(-affect)land. LIVE fer gawd's sake!

This past year for me was, like most years, encyclopedic. Dictionaryous? Lexiconic? Thesaurian?

Busy.

Tea (December blogfest)

2009-12-16T23:11:00.000-08:00

Tea of the year. I can taste my favorite tea right now. What's yours?

Mine is the unseasonal, cool-down treat lemonade-tea. This drink is sometimes called an "Arnold Palmer" but you'll never hear me say that. Apologies to my friends who like the sport, but golf? Just kill me now. I enjoyed watching golf just once - during the movie Happy Gilmore.

This is a very flexible drink which can be biased toward the lemonade or the tea, can be strong or weak, etc. I like it best when the lemonade is made from fresh-squeezed lemons sweetened with a simple syrup made from super-refined white cane sugar and the tea is a somewhat strong brew of a black tea like Irish Breakfast. My personal mix favors the lemonade side a bit. Serve it in a tall glass over ice with a slice of lemon as a garnish. Me, I don't like mint in my drinks, but if you do, feel free to add a sprig. Ahhhhh!

Feeling festive? Add some vodka. Or feel a bit more Southern by adding bourbon. Or do it Noo Awlins-style with Southern Comfort. Or go all the way down to the islands with added rum.

NOW we're drinking lemonade-tea!

Late addition: Ronnie suggested that I add my "recipe" for quick-and-dirty lemonade-tea made from powdered mix(es). Here 'tis:

3/4 of the recommended amount of powdered lemonade to make a half-gallon.
1/2 of the recommended amount of powdered instant (sweetened) iced tea to make a half-gallon.
1/2 gallon of water. [Sparkling water is an interesting variation].
Stir.

Yes, you did notice that this mix is "richer" than recommended. That's how I roll. Can you dig it?

Best packaging (December blogfest)

2009-12-15T00:10:00.000-08:00

Best packaging. Did your headphones come in a sweet case? See a bottle of tea in another country that stood off the shelves?

I intended to do a rant about packaging in general - the expense, the waste, etc. But my friend Denise, a New Orleans area unschooler, just did a Facebook link to famous New Orleans cocktails. One of the offerings was an Ojen cocktail and that resulted in a discussion of the fact that Ojen was used as a substitute for Absinthe after it was outlawed. All of New Orleans wept on that day and began bootlegging and smuggling genuine Absinthe while simultaneously looking for legal substitutes for the lovely and seductive Green Fairy. If nothing else, emptied Ojen bottles served as an excellent beard for serving real Absinthe.

But we're in a brave new millennium and Absinthe is no longer (completely) illegal in the land of the free. So my favorite packaging of the past year is not a fancy bottle of tea but a happy new bottle of Absinthe, purchased from my local Washington State Liquor Store.

Try the classic preparation a la louche or be brave and sample my own concoction the Zombie Princess Cocktail.

A votre sante! Suivez la Fee Verte!

P.S. Amusing factoid. Wormwood is used to make Absinthe. The Russian word chernobyl can be translated as wormwood, if you stretch just a bit. Don't worry; I don't think Absinthe is responsible for that event. Like Neil Young said, "Don't let it bring you down; it's only castles burning."

Rush (December blogfest)

2009-12-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

Rush. When did you get your best rush of the year?

I had a lot of emotional "rushes" this year but I've mostly covered those already. Besides, I'm taking this prompt to mean physical, adrenaline-type rushes. I didn't do anything with a huge adrenaline component this past year. SpaceShipTwo has not quite begun flights (and I don't have a loose $200K lying around to fund my presence on one of those joyrides). No spinnaker flying. No glider time. Haven't bought that Velocity airplane yet. We were busy doing social stuff in the Summer and didn't do any rock climbing. (Falling is always good for a lovely rush. Big fun!) Etc. Some exhilirating sailing was probably my biggest rush in '09 with two lovely instances.

I spent the New Year's holiday on the beautiful catamaran of my pal Laureen and her fabulous family. We went for a zippy sail under the Golden Gate Bridge. Yes, it was pretty damned cold but it was an exquisite sail with a lovely family on a big fast cat. Delightful.

The second instance was in March when MJ and I drove to New Orleans. My friend Bob's boat, GORT, was about ready to be relaunched after some work in the yard and we went for a couple of sprightly sails on Lake Pontchartrain. I love that boat; a total rush to sail!

Me up forward.

Not on Lake Pontchartrain but a good boat shot.

Change (December blogfest)

2009-12-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

What's the best change you made to the place you live?

No contest on this one; this is easily the best thing I did to improve the place I live: Inaugurated a new president who is neither insane, nor a traitor, nor a war criminal.

Although we may hafta wait and see about that last one. Why is the current Justice Department defending John Yoo? This man, along with Bush, Cheney, et al. is clearly as guilty of war crimes as the Germans and Japanese we tried and convicted after WWII.

Welcome, Connor Lewis!

2009-12-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

Jerry (my sister Judy's son) and Cori say: Connor Lewis is the newest addition to our little family he is 8#11Oz 20.5 inches.

Ready to make his appearance:

He's here:

Molly says, "Hi!"

Challenge (December blogfest)

2009-12-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

I'm comfortable inside my own head. I'm uncomfortable trying to share what's in there with others. It has taken me so many years, decades even, of active thinking and reading and doing to integrate my body of knowledge and experience into my personal epistemology and teleology that I feel that I would typically need a thousand pages to adequately answer people when they ask seemingly basic questions. I mean, it took Bertrand Russell approximately 400 pages in Principia Mathematica (volume 1) to say that 1+1=2 and the proof of it is not completed until a hundred pages into volume 2.

So what am I to think, much less do, when some asks me what "unschooling" means to me? That's a concept which is a bit more complex than 1+1=2, after all. To respond adequately is a Herculean challenge; but about a year ago I gave in and composed my very first unschooling-specific post here, after being prodded by Jon Gold.

Since then, I've written two other unschooling-specific posts but both of those were defensive reactions to, and criticisms of, people who were claiming the mantle of unschooling for unpleasant, and in one case, vile, behavior.

The two critical posts were not so difficult to compose. That type of writing comes to me readily. However, writing that first one, giving my take on something important to me, was terribly challenging and scary as hell. Of course, that alone was a valuable lesson for me, to accept that fear was a significant part of my resistance to writing about unschooling. And that makes it the best challenge for me because I pushed through my fear into the place beyond. And that "place beyond" is, as Ronnie once wrote, a wide-sky life.

Lagniappe

2009-12-09T11:07:00.000-08:00

A fella named Sam Clemens called it "a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get." The dictionary gives a definition of it but culture gives it meaning. Bakers give it life in the phrase "baker's dozen." It's a little something extra thrown in for free after concluding a significant exchange of goods or services.

This post is a little lagniappe for my readers cuz I just realized that my last post about a moment of peace was my 200th post. I know that, for the prolific among you, that ain't much but I'm miserly with my writing. And slow. I'm kinda amazed that I've made so many posts. I have been many things and will be many more but I am always me.

And I sincerely hope, Dear Reader, that I will always be silly and, perhaps, entertaining, but that's for you to judge. For me, silliness is the achievement.

Moment of peace (December blogfest)

2009-12-08T18:10:00.000-08:00

Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

I was thinking about skipping this one but then decided to give my take on it. For me, the idea espoused here equates to internal stillness. I know people who meditate. I think I understand the concept. The closest I come to that is when I'm soaking in the bathtub/shower, my mind floating among the quanta. Otherwise, my brain is always gnawing at something. Always. Except...

Interestingly, I frequently achieve a significant, mind-expanded inner stillness during animated conversations among the four of us. Chloe, MJ, Ronnie, and I will be engaged in a spirited discussion which will then mutate to the point where the three of them are embroiled in some specific concept, leaving me in a quiet conversational eddy. As I sit and watch them attempt to unscrew the inscrutable, I find myself slipping into an exceedingly peaceful state, my awareness open but unengaged, not actively gnawing at anything, my needs nonexistent, my wants nonexistent, the flow of time nonexistent. Ronnie, MJ, and Chloe are intensely engaged, their minds integrating, synthesizing, their brilliant exchanges of energetic thought almost visible in their intensity; but in those moments I feel that I am a stillness at the center of things, the shanti of the East.

Fuck yeah!

2009-12-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Ronnie for twigging me to this. I hadn't seen it yet.

SpaceShipTwo rollout.

Hanging on her launch craft, WhiteKnightTwo, dubbed "Eve," the innovative SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise, is getting ready for commercial spaceflight. This is a seminal day for humanity.

Conference (December blogfest)

2009-12-06T23:52:00.000-08:00

Workshop or conference. Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?

We attended two wonderful conferences this year.

First, our perennial pilgrimage to the LIFE is Good Unschooling Conference last May in Vancouver, WA. Here's what I wrote after the '08 conference. Dunno if I can really add much to that narrative. This past year's conference saw our little family playing music together for the talent show. That was a delightful addition. Can't wait for next May!

Second, the first-ever Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference last September in San Diego, CA. An unschooling conference in warm, sunny San Diego with an appearance by The Greybeards and their Hot Backup Chicks. 'nuff said!

Night out (December blogfest)

2009-12-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

Night out. Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

I can see that there's gonna be some overlap in my answers to the prompts I choose to respond to. Dass awrite. Dat don' boddah me, no. Pas de tout!

I've said it before, music is a big part of my life. I always have a soundtrack going for my life's movie, even if it's only in my head. Some of my most fun times ever were my adventures playing rock 'n' roll in New Orleans and nearby areas in the '60s but that was decades ago. My most excellent night out with family and friends this year was playing music with The Greybeards and their callipygian Hot Backup Chicks.

I've told the background story of this group elsewhere on this blog. The specific answer to this prompt is the night of the Farewell Dance for the Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference where we were the house band, playing our hearts out for family and friends.

The energy of playing live music is unequalled when you're playing for/with an excited crowd of wonderful pepople who are dancing and grooving and enjoying the hell out of the experience. The bonus was that my wife was in the band with me, as a Hot Backup Chick, and my daughters were in the crowd having fun, except when they joined us behind the mikes for a group rendition of YMCA. Additionally, the crowd was composed of our unschooling friends of all ages and the room just glowed with fun and friendship.

Here is the YouTube channel with about a dozen of the two dozen songs we played that night.

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo from Good Vibrations with a clear view of Alex, our drummer, in it. If anybody has one, please share it with me so I can use it here. Thanks!

Here's one at Good Vibrations of The Greybeards without the Hot Backup Chicks.

Book (December blogfest)

2009-12-04T00:16:00.000-08:00

Book. What book - fiction or non - touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?

I know the intent of this prompt is to obtain a recommendation for a delightful or interesting book but I'm gonna go in the other direction. This book touched me in the bad way, the way they talk to kids about in grammar school. It made my personal places shrink all up and sent icky chills up and down my spine. I'm here to warn you off before you go to the effort of taking this sanity molester home.

My opinion of (not)James Patterson's Sail is here.

Yes, I'm doing some of these the easy way by linking to stuff I already wrote this year. Color me comfortably lazy. But participating!

Restaurant moment (December blogfest)

2009-12-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

Restaurant moment. Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?

I have two from this year.

1. January. After my dad's funeral on Friday (January 23, 2009), Saturday night we went to see my old buddy Big Daddy O play music while having a family restaurant get-together in classic Noo Awlins style. There were 17 of us ranging from my 60 years of age down to nephew Paul's new baby at less than a year. We ate po-boys and other delish Noo Awlins foods, consumed delightful adult beverages, and danced and/or just listened while BDO played his heart out. We toasted Marty (my dad) and celebrated his wonderful life with stories and memories.

2. August. We have kids so we don't really get to have "dates" very often. However, this past August, the girls were away at NBTSC when we celebrated our anniversary(#19!). We took ourselves to the Bellevue (Washington) Ruth's Chris Steak House for a lovely dinner for two. RCSH has become a national chain from its pedestrian solo beginnings on Broad St. in New Orleans. They don't offer Kobe beef (Tajima, Wagyu) but they serve a quality American steak and it was tasty. Add in a coupla champagne cocktails (I'm a sucker for kir royale made with M&C White Star.) and a decent wine, then follow it with a competent bread pudding drenched in whiskey sauce and you have a nice meal. What I enjoyed more than the food itself, however, was the experience.

I love it when Ronnie and I have time alone together to reconnect as a couple. I love to eat at quality restaurants, places where they understand the proper pace for a pleasant meal. I also like to dress well. Occasionally. Yes, you'll usually see me in shorts and a T-shirt or jeans and a T-shirt and you'll never see me in yuppie corporate casual "slacks" and "dressy" collared shirts (Dear gawd, how I detest that clothing niche!); but in addition to my typical seriously-casual couture, I do enjoy the feel of a nice suit or even my tuxedo with a hand-tied bowtie. It's just so civilized, especially here in the Northwest where people even go to the ballet, opera, or symphony in jeans. Sigh!

Anyway, the total experience of our anniversary dinner date was delightful and a highlight of the year in eating out.

December blogfest, kinda

2009-12-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

There's a December blogfest being instigated here. Not being much of a joiner, I'm not gonna officially link up and play along but I might do a few of 'em just for the hell of it.

Today's theme is: Trip. What was your best trip in 2009?

I tend to dislike comparison questions like this: best trip, best friend, best sex, etc. I find that concept as strange as the idea of dividing the world into the absolutes of good and evil. Really? I wish someone could explain that to me in a way that makes sense. Anyway, in terms of the theme, I'm gonna do a simple, easy laundry list, linking some of the trips I/we took this year and which I've blogged about previously.

Unplanned January trip to New Orleans for my father's death and funeral. "Best" in the sense of seeing my dad, which was always nice, being there for his death, which was important, and celebrating his life, which was crucial. I love you, dad.

In March, my older daughter, MJ, and I decided to take a surprise roadtrip to New Orleans for a coupla reasons. Chloe was in Atlanta visiting friends, Ronnie was interested in having the house to herself for "a coupla days," and we had a dink we weren't using while Bob in New Orleans needed a dink. Plus selling Bob the dink would pay for the trip. Perfect. We had a great visit and got in some nice sailing on Gort. I love that boat. My trip last Summer delivering Gort is detailed here.

In May, we attended the always-fabulous LIFEisGood Unschooling Conference. We put together a family band and did a song for the talent show there. That was supreme fun, playing music with my wife and daughters. As an added bonus, I fell in with a coupla other unschooling dads and we did a song, too, as The Greybeards with unschooling moms helping us out as The Hot Backup Chicks. Fantasy version of those events is here.

In June, we travelled internationally (to Canada, which is actually just a short drive for us) for some fun with friends. I don't seem to have blogged about it but Ronnie spoke of it here. It's a wide-sky life, indeed, with friends like these.

In September, we loaded up the car, and a U-haul full of music gear, and drove to San Diego for the first-ever Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference. I know it's limited and selfish of me to focus on this narrow aspect of that experience but my favorite part of the conference was playing music. After our performance at LIFEisGood, The Greybeards and Hot Backup Chicks wanted to repeat the experience. We negotiated our way into being the house band for the farewell dance on Sunday night at Good Vibrations and it was simply magnificent. I talked about that experience a bit at #3 here. Some of the two dozen songs we played that night are here.

I'm a firm believer in the motif of life as a journey. Life is movement. That's kind of an unspecified, peripheral theme of my #4 gratitude post. Keep on truckin', y'all!

Ronnie calls this shot "Yes we were cruisers!" no doubt because of all the crap festooning the deck. It was taken on Bayou Bonfouca, just a little way up the bayou from Lake Pontchartrain, on the North shore, across from New Orleans proper. It was taken after Katrina but before Rita, which we rode out at anchor in this spot. Now that was a trip!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T23:32:00.000-08:00

What? Based on my previous post(s) about this holiday you thought I was gonna be all Scroogey and not celebrate today? Well, I guess I fooled you, then.

I am a cynic, I freely admit it. However, remember that in may ways I'm a classicist and the ancient Greek philosophy of Cynicism differs somewhat from the simplistic "cynicism" of today. Historically, Cynicism gave rise to Stoicism. Interestingly, I came to my Cynicism, or cynicism, from [S/s]toicism. It seems I frequently do things ass-backwards. My dad could probably have had a career as an ascetic and the Jesuits profess a Stoic philosophy, at least superficially. The Marines... well, I think Stoicism is the official Marine philosophy. I definitely feel a kinship with the Cynics in the context of the importance of ethics, being critical of dogma, abjuring meaningless metaphysics, living in accord with nature, decrying social convention qua convention, etc.; but I was never, and am not now, into the whole "live on the street and beg" aspect of the original Cynics and I never masturbate in public. Not that I can recall, anyway.

Although I'm not above barking at someone who irritates me, just like the Cynics of old. [Kunikos (cynic) translates as "dog-like," an appellation they embraced.]

And I'm certainly not a full-time cynic or Cynic, especially when I'm being all maudlin and shit. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and so I have a simple, genuine wish for you today:

Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you and yours have a happy, healthy, fun-filled, and love-filled day.

Share the gratitude #6

2009-11-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

The final one in the series. Now that's something to be grateful for!

O xein!, angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti tede
keimetha tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi!
- Simonides of Ceos

Paraphrased quasitranslation:
O dear reader!, go tell Clint that I rest here all finished,
while obeying his initial injunction undiminished.

Yes, Clint is a modern Spartan (Lacedaemonian). You didn't know that? You mean you've never seen him in his spandex bodysuit with the big lambda on the front? Huh.

I'm grateful for:

1. Tom's health. FIL Tom has been dealing with some significant health and pain issues. It was pretty scary for a while but he recently got a diagnosis and treatment plan which seems like it should provide a good outcome. I'm grateful for "Papa" Tom in general because he's a wonderful person but I'm specifically grateful that this particular issue is looking like it's gonna turn out ok.

2. Bob's health. My old college gymnastics buddy Bob has had a couple of unpleasant health problems lately. I won't go into great detail but after two operations recently, he's finally gotten a kidney stone condition resolved after almost a year. Once he heals up from those surgeries, he'll go under the knife again for a hernia he's been living with for a coupla years. By the time he's done, he'll be out of pocket for the equivalent of a new compact car. It sucks to be without health insurance in this country but I'm grateful that my friend will have these problems corrected, despite the cost. Then, it'll be time for some new adventures for us crazy, and now old, idiots and our frequent companion, the infamous monkey bastard. Don't ask. Never mention the (infamous) monkey bastard. Never.

3. The Greybeards and their sexy Hot Backup Chicks. It all started at the fabulous LIFE is Good conference in May 2009. I don't remember exactly where the concept originated or who was the first to mention it but Jeff Sabo wanted to play some bass and Russ Anguish wanted to play some guitar. When they queried me, well, I'm always willing to play my organ (Synthia) and we had our music gear there cuz my family was doing a song for the talent show. So, in a progression as inescapable as the gravity well of a singularity, we formed up as the Greybeards and decided to play a song after the Maier family appeared as the Motley Penguins at the talent show cuz that way the gear was already set up. We did Gloria cuz it's an easy one and had Ronnie, Shonna Morgan, and Robin Bentley sing the chorus and backup bits as our Hot Backup Chicks. That effort is (mostly) recorded for posterity here.

It was tremendous fun and we glibly spoke of repeating the experience at the Good Vibrations conference in the Fall without any actual specificity to that brave talk. I enjoyed the experience so much that I did strongly wish for a repeat, whether at Good Vibrations or some other venue. Be careful what you wish for because once we entered the gravity well of the Greybeards singularity, things accelerated all on their own. First, we committed, actually and specifically, to do a song together at Good Vibrations. Cool! Talent show here we come! Then, somehow, it became a mini-set of a few, or a handful, of songs, maybe as an opening act for Amy Steinberg or perhaps as part of the Sunday night Farewell Dance or …? The next time I read my email, we were talking to Flo, the conference organizer, using the phrase "house band" in the context of the Farewell Dance. Ultimately, we wound up sending around among ourselves email lists of potential songs to fill out TWO COMPLETE SETS of music, approximately two dozen songs!

We lived in two different states and a province of Canada. We had no drummer. We did have a preliminary song list and a commitment. We voted for a core list of songs from our distribution list which would probably work for us. We decided on resources for and versions of those songs so we could listen and practice individually and we started looking for a drummer.

The Washingtonians visited Canada for some partial-group practice and further refined the playlist while getting some experience actually playing together. Later, the Canadians visited Washington for some additional practice and song refinement. Meanwhile, Jeff bought himself a beautiful bass and practiced alone in San Diego while trying to work in some together practice time with Marc Lavallee who planned to play guitar with the Good Vibrations incarnation of the Greybeards. Jeff's wife, Ginger, was also considering a position as one of the Hot Backup Chicks but ultimately decided that she had too many other obligations, assisting Flo with general conference stuff.

As we got closer to our play date, still without a drummer, we finally snagged Alex Hoeltzel through some desperate online begging. We emailed him the playlist and he started working through it with his drumming teacher. Despite his temporal status as a teen, he instantly became an official Greybeard. Phew! Rock band achieves completeness.

Eventually, we all wound up in San Diego at Good Vibrations, except that Russ couldn't make it there until Saturday; so the rest of us met together, some for the first time ever, on Thursday. We had a couple of get-acquainted practices in my hotel room and then on Saturday, with Russ' arrival, Flo gave us access to one of the big rooms where we had our first-ever practice all together with full gear. Sunday was the gig.

And it was wonderful. Obviously, we weren't fabulous. We weren't tight. We screwed up a lot. We won't be going on tour any time soon, earning zillions of $$ from adoring fans. But we were pretty damned good for a gang of near-strangers who had negligible practice together. Most significantly, we were good enough for rock 'n' roll and we, AND THE CROWD, had FUN. Marc didn't get to play with us because of family demands. Being unschoolers we all understood that but I wish he'd been able to. He plugged in and started to tune up but then he was called away. Maybe next time! Ginger did get to join us for one song as she sang lead on "Walkin' on Sunshine."

I love playing with the Greybeards and the Hot Backup Chicks and look forward with vast excitement to future gigs! I'm also grateful for our fantastic FANS. They are the best!

4. My friend Mange and his killer stuttering guitar. (#31 at that link. Edited version reproduced below.)

THE G100

THE 100 MOST LEGENDARY U.S. 60s GARAGE 45s

31. Better Half Dozen: I'm Gonna Leave You/I Could Have Loved Her. [Link to "I Coulda" on YouTube. No online version that I know of for "Gonna Leave." I might hafta upload one.] A supreme 2-sided masterpiece which has everything. The A-side is a monster punker with frantic organ, basic pounding drums and a ridiculously effective stuttering guitar [Emphasis added] solo. The B-side combines a memorable haunting chorus with upbeat pop sensibilities, and more frantic organ and killer guitar [Emphasis added]... Hear both killer tracks on Sixties Archives 5: Louisiana Punk Groups from the 60s.

Mange is my remaining pal from high school and my music compadre. We played together thru the 60s then physically went our separate ways, although we kept in touch over the years. We played a reunion gig once, in '91, then returned again to our separate lives. Mange has just announced that he reactivated his guitars, amps, and accessories from a 10-year dormancy and he has returned to playing. For my part, as I said in #3 above, I've reactivated my musical life by playing with the Greybeards and the Hot Backup Chicks, which has been wonderful. And now I really wanna play another gig, even just ONE, with my old guitar pal Mange.

5. Knowledge. In contrast to bowdlerized and eviscerated school textbooks containing nothing but pablum, I've enjoyed reading serious history books from which I learned the harsh reality of the Pilgrims/Puritans/Separatists and the pogroms against, and wholesale enslavement of, the indigenous peoples of the American continents undertaken by the European powers from 1492 onward and especially the draconian increases in violence against the natives to the level of genocide by the newish government of the United States of America, compared to the more-reasonable interaction of the Northern European nations with the same native peoples prior to the formation of the U.S.A. For an Anglophobe like me, it really sucks to be morally inferior to the fucking British Empire. And, yes, I did specify Northern Europe cuz Spain was always the worst of the worst for enslavement for profit and wanton genocide under the umbrella and in the name of religion. Give Spain that, at least their purposeful, unadulterated evil made the emerging USA's casual genocide look decent and compassionate by comparison.

Speaking of religion, Thanksgiving Day is historically a day to give thanks to some mythical boojum, usually called "god," for giving us this land just like the Tetragrammaton gave Jericho and much of Canaan to Joshua; all Joshua hadda do was exterminate the current inhabitants. I'm happy that I don't believe in any kind of sky-dwelling superbeing, mystical juju, or Western cargo cult. Guess that makes me grateful to be an atheist.

The Pilgrims' legacy: strange fruit.

Me, I'm grateful to have ordinary fruit in a delicious pie with the family as a dessert course after our turkey feast, specifically, homemade, hand-picked blackberry pie luxuriating in grandma's perfect crust. Thanks, Mary!

Vivamus … atque amemus! - Catullus
Let us live and let us love!

Because, really, what else is there?

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Golden oldies:
Gratitude #1
Gratitude #2
Gratitude #3
Gratitude #4
Gratitude #5

(Meme)mento mori

2009-11-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

Another -ish meme. Hey, I couldn't resist the title.

Choose the sixth picture from the sixth picture folder on your computer and post it.

So, here's mine:

The folder is FrankSail08 and it contains photos from my trip helping my pal Bob deliver his boat from St. Augustine to New Orleans. This shot is from the "test sail" (aka sea trials) just prior to the final purchase paperwork. We spent the day after this running around provisioning the boat. The day after that, we started our 1200-mile sail.

Great memories.

TV show meme

2009-11-18T11:27:00.000-08:00

From -ish.

Rules: Bold all of the following TV shows which you’ve ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime. Italicize a show if you’re positive you’ve seen every episode of it. Add a * for particular favorites

I'm tempted to add a designator for shows I detest or would never bother to watch. Maybe later.

24
7th Heaven
ALF
Alias
American Gothic
America’s Next Top Model
Angel
Arrested Development
Babylon 5
Batman: The Animated Series
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Baywatch
Beverly Hills 90210
Bewitched
Bonanza
Bones*
Bosom Buddies
Boston Legal
Boy Meets World
Brothers And Sisters
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Californication
Chappelle’s Show
Charlie’s Angels
Charmed
Cheers*
Chicago Hope
Chuck*
Clarissa Explains it All
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
DaVinci’s Inquest
Dawson’s Creek
Dead Like Me
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dexter*
Dharma & Greg
Different Strokes
Doctor Who (original series)
Doctor Who 2005
Dragnet
Due South
ER
Even Stevens
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Facts of Life
Family Guy*
Fantasy Island
Farscape
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly*
Frasier
Freaks and Geeks
Friends
Fringe
Futurama
Get Smart
Gilligan’s Island
Gilmore Girls
Glee
Gossip Girl
Grey’s Anatomy
Grange Hill
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Happy Days
Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
Heroes
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House*
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Invader Zim
Invasion
Hell’s Kitchen
JAG
Jackass
Joey
Kim Possible
Knight Rider
Knight Rider: 2008
Kung Fu*
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues*
La Femme Nikita
LA Law
Laverne and Shirley
Law and Order: SVU
Leverage
Life on Mars (UK)
Life on Mars (US)
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost
Lost in Space
MASH
MacGyver
Malcolm in the Middle
Married… With Children
McLeods Daughters
Melrose Place
Miami Vice
Mission: Impossible*
Mod Squad
Monk
Mork & Mindy
Murphy Brown*
Mystery Science Theater 3000*
My Life As A Dog
My So Called Life
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
Mythbusters
NCIS*
Ned Bigby’s Declassified School Survival Guide
Nip/Tuck
Northern Exposure
Numb3rs
One Tree Hill
Oz
Perry Mason
Power Rangers
Press Gang
Prison Break
Private Practice
Privileged
Profiler
Project Runway
Psych*
Pushing Daisies*
Quantum Leap*
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)
ReGenesis
Remington Steele
Rescue Me*
Road Rules
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Sanctuary
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seaquest DSV
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Slings and Arrows
Smallville
So Weird
South of Nowhere
South Park*
Spongebob Squarepants
Star Trek*
Star Trek: The Next Generation*
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1*
Starsky & Hutch
Superman (For me, the original series from the 50s)
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor
Taxi
Teen Titans
That 70’s Show
That’s So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Amazing Race
The Andy Griffith Show
The A-Team
The Avengers*
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Brady Bunch
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show*
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
The Dead Zone
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls
The Honeymooners
The Jeffersons
The Jetsons
The L Word
The Love Boat*
The Magnificent Seven
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Monkees
The Munsters
The Office (US)
The Office (UK)
The Powerpuff Girls
The Pretender
The Real World
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Twilight Zone*
The Waltons
The West Wing
The Wonder Years
The X-Files*
Third Watch
Three’s Company
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Torchwood
True Blood
Unfabulous
Ugly Betty
Veronica Mars
Weeds
Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)*
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)*
Will and Grace
Wings
Xena: Warrior Princess

Share the gratitude #5

2009-11-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

Unlike my last coupla gratitude posts which were long and thematic, this one is gonna be short and stochastic. Kinda like me. Stochastic, not sarcastic! This is gratitude time not grumpy time. I'll be short and sarcastic tomorrow. Maybe. Everything is possible.

Oh, and I promised/threatened that this post would be spicy because the last post featured no colorful language, unlike my usual writing style. So, because I keep my promises: Shit, fuck, piss, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Now that's colorful language! With gratitude to George Carlin, R.I.P.

I'm grateful for:

1. Our unschooling tribe. From our very first interactions, our fellow unschoolers welcomed us and accepted us and made us part of their group, seemingly instantly. That's something I had never experienced in my previous half-century of life. I love my tribe of unschoolers and I'm grateful for the love and support and friendship they provide.

2. Mambo #5, in honor of this being Gratitude #5 and symbolic of music in general. Music has always been an important part of my life. I love music. It has charms to soothe my savage breast.

3. Johannes Gutenberg. He made the mass production of books possible, bringing information to all the people, not just the elite. When I was a child, books brought the world to me: The physical world, in books describing distant lands. The intellectual world, in books by great minds from the invention of writing til the present. All the various universes of the human condition, as if they were spoken directly to me by the original experiencer. Books are a huge part of my life.

4. Snopes.com, with a nod to factcheck.org. Some folks used to use me as a fact-checking resource. Sometimes I could give them a satisfactory answer in a few minutes but sometimes it took me hours to marshal the history, facts, and arguments to explain their conundrum to their satisfaction. With the advent of snopes, most of the time my response effort was reduced to a few seconds of search followed by a copy-and-paste in a return email. Voila! The smart ones even figured out that they could use snopes themselves without bothering to send the material to me first. Hooray! Although I do confess that I once sat and did some figuring and it turns out that Bill Gates actually did pay me circa $5 for each and every email I sent (while I was working at Microsoft). Context is important for facts. The "money for emailing" idiocy is debunked here.

5. Last, but certainly not least, and because this is the spicy gratitude post, I'm grateful for Hot Dinosaur Sex because, let's face it, who isn't?

You know they're about to have some!