52 Week Project: Week 4

Conversations With Myself (mp3)

The moonship waits outside the window
its now or never
she leaves the imprint of her self
no one notices
important meeting in the morning

music: jimmy | words: tom | photo: sharon

52 Week Project: Week 3

A Time to Move On (mp3)

The song title alludes to both the moving on of people in this life form after the death of someone they know, and, more particularly in this instance, to the dead person moving on to the next level of afterlife - wherever that may be.

The song was originally written just after the death of my father and then performed a few times by Subterranean Jazz as a pretty straight jazz tune. This is a version of it.

music: jimmy | copy art: steve

52 Week Project: Week 2

Pamphleteering (mp3)


music: jimmy | image: sharon

No Excuses

Yesterday morning I braved the 29 degree temperature to watch the P.F. Chang Rock-n-Roll Marathon pass by. Despite the lack of crazy costumes compared to the New York Marathon, I have to say these folks were pretty inspirational. Only one male ballerina ran by, but there were a ton of runners out there struggling for charity. I thought I have no excuses as I watched the lone last person in the field go by, although I had to fight every lazy gene in my body (and there more than a few) to get to the gym at 7:00 this morning. Halfway to my goal this month...

photo above: first pack of elite runners pass by
short video of marathon here

youtube kills the quality of uploaded videos; i'm working on mastering that

52 Week Project: Week 1

Anthem for the New Year (mp3)

before dawn i pass my hand through the current that runs from the teapot to the light bulb
blue light seeps ups from the crack in the floor and the room is a vista of a thousand archways

wordless voices sing over the tomb of an unnameable knight
and i take my tea


music: jimmy | words: tom | image: sharon

Reduce My Overhead to Fund an Exploration into Personal Mendelian Madness

Late in her life, my maternal grandmother and I became friends in addition to being relatives. I spent time with her socially, getting to know her friends which framed her in an entirely new light for me. One of my great regrets is that I did not spend more time learning my Scottish genealogy from her...and my grandfather for that matter. I remember bits and pieces of oral history: relatives dispersed on arrival in North America to Canada and Boston, family gone to South Africa. I recently freed family photographs dating back to the beginnings of photography from basement shoeboxes and have been using all of my professional skills to catalogue them. Without access to my grandmother's mental archive, I've been applying principles of archaeological seriation to identify individuals and places in the photographs. A very big project indeed.

Resolution #3 is to travel to New Caledonia, the place of my father's birth, later this year, while I can still collect oral histories from my grand-aunt and my paternal, biological grandfather. Through public records, I've been able to piece together a bit about my paternal grandmother's lineage back to Bretagne and Haut-Saône in France in the late 1700s...my living family may not even know of this. Makes sense, as many inhabitants of the island descend from French convicts sent to paradise or farmers sold a bill of governmental goods about paradise. Right now, I can only speculate about which stock I descend from...

My paternal grandfather's history is a complete mystery right now. My father only learned the identity of his biological father about ten years ago (a story for another post). I am intrigued by his surname, Stumpf, and by his South Asian features. I am hoping he and his family (my family) can fill in some blanks. For that, I will need to aggressively improve my basic French. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

This will be an expensive trip in terms of what I have to save and some inevitable un-paid time off. So, my sub-goals will be to cut what I spend and produce more income. I am going to be a socially-dull and professionally very busy friend this year. I'll still make time to read Julie's wonderful blog about life in New Caledonia, a source of great motivation.

Is it Worth $19.99 to Get the Unlisted Address of an Ex to Whom You Want to Return Christmas Ornaments Worth Only Cents?

While I was decorating the tree on Christmas Eve, I ran across a bag full of ornaments that belonged someone with whom I lived back east. That relationship ended on a pretty sour note some years ago, but I haven't been able to bring myself to toss these ornaments made by his younger sister and mother. It seemed so wrong to pitch things made with such care for this person, no matter how badly he treated me. I've meant to return them each Christmas I've unpacked my ornaments since then, but after eight or nine years now, he's a pretty hard guy to track down. In googling his name this year, I came up with a current address, but I'd have to pay $19.99 to get it. I started wondering whether, with distance (both temporal and geographic), am I really that forgiving, or am I forgetting how I was treated?

I have a lot of family and friends back east - and around the country - who have treated me much better, who I really fear I'm forgetting. Since moving west, I have been a real slacker when it comes to keeping in touch...returning phone calls, answering emails, sending Christmas cards. Hell, I've sucked at this even with my friends nearby. Not one excuse I've considered, no matter how reasonable, explains this away. Resolution #2: I am going to be a better communicator, a better friend and family member. I am going to answer emails and return phone calls on the same day, even if it's just to make a time to call or write later. I'm going to call my Mom and my Dad once a week. I'm going to try to make amends with my sister. I'm going to return my Aunt Lin's phone call. I am going to get baby gifts off to my friends Kat and Donna. I am going to send an email every week to one person with whom I feel I haven't kept in proper touch. I think I know at least 52 people to fill up the weeks...

To kick things off, I leave Thursday night for the greater NY/Philadelphia area for five days to see a movie and have some meat pies with Mom, go to Monk's with Mel, to have a glass of wine on the stoop with Jane, and drive around with a case of Glenmorangie in the trunk with Dad. This should be a cake-walk compared to Resolution #1 (did someone mention cake?).

Develop the Perfect Whisky and Low-Fat Whipped Topping Dessert to Pack to the Bottom of the Grand Canyon

'Lose weight, exercise more' must be the top New Year's Resolution and the one most broken, particularly for those who opt for the Cabbage Soup Diet or who, like me, refuse to give up gin, wine, and whisky. But, here I go anyway, with Resolution #1, the most challenging proposition I am going to make for the New Year: I am going to lose ten pounds per month for the next five to six months. Without giving up gin, wine, or good scotch. I will keep my promise not to bore our gentle readers by posting my daily food intake or exercise output, but I am going to be soliciting advice on how to craft the perfect cranachan using no-fat whipped topping to negate the inclusion of whisky in the recipe. Then I have to figure out how to keep it chilled en route to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, a trip Melissa and I talked about making and must plan, as soon as I am fit enough not to need rescuing (May or June). But, first things first...

I know how a lot of my friends and family feel about 'dieting' and I know this is an uncomfortable topic for many people to ask friends about. But, my longevity is at stake here and making small lifestyle changes is not going to cut it. This is an invitation to ask me about my plan (in place today) and progress (mostly offline for readers' sakes) knowing that I will appreciate the interest and not be offended by it. Besides, my progress can be monitored through the currently horrifying photos on Jimmy's blog, which he continues to post despite my protestations. I will briefly post milestones, but I really like Jimmy's idea about focusing on the creative...I imagine my updates about this resolution will be about music (crafting the perfect treadmill mix for aging punks), recipes (the cocktail-lovers low-fat test kitchen welcomes exchange), and writing and art (the search for inspiration will certainly equal a less sedentary life).

Resolution #2 coming soon...

52 Weeks

Resolutions for the next year? In the past I have always made resolutions because I see the New Year as a new start. Everything is always brighter and more in focus for me on New Years Day - yes even with the obligatory hangover!

This year I have been a little less clear of my resolutions. All my usual ones - eat more - exercise less - hold no appeal to me. I want the time ahead to spotlight creativity. I do know I want to record more music in the year ahead. Not so much with other people though I have a few of these types of projects coming up. No, I want to record my own music and be prolific about it. Last night I recorded a piece to reflect the end of the year. It was my personal reflection, totally me, and summing up how I felt at the end of the year. This is what I want to do more of. So with that in mind I came up with the concept of recording a tune every day of the year for the next year. Brilliant concept - but after considering the challenges I changed it to a tune every week for the next year. 52 tunes. Cool!! That would satisfy my particular desires for a while.

Then I as I was thinking about this I thought "wouldn't it be cool if we could get a bunch of contributors each contributing something on a weekly basis to document the year." Be it artwork, poetry, writing, music, recipes, photography etc., whatever the individuals bag is. So with that in mind...contributors are welcome!!

Perhaps we can start the 52 Weeks Project or something like that and have a place to post and document our work. Anyway, now my goals are clear - the work begins.......