These are some of the masks in our house. I used the scanner as a camera and draped a black t-shirt over the masks to serve as background.
And then after a bit of manipulation…
by James Brush
Category: Random Stuff
The catch-all category for random things about life in Austin, food & drink, politics, the occasional rant, whatever else.
This is the Notre-Dame de Montreal Basilica in Montreal, Quebec. The collage of eight (I think) images was done during the summer of 2001.
We got back from Camp Periwinkle (a camp for childhood cancer patients and their siblings) on Saturday afternoon and have spent most of the time since recovering. I’ve been going to Camp every summer since 1990, which is possible since it’s only a week long.
The underlying philosophy of camp is selflessness. All the counselors and staff are volunteers, the kids go for free, everything there is donated. For one week, and sometimes for the last time, the kids at camp get to feel normal, and they get to have fun, and they have the time of their lives.
The smiles and the laughter at Camp Periwinkle are things that keep those of us who’ve been doing it for so long coming back year after year.
It’s typically one of the high points of any given year. It’s a chance to spend a week living in a perfect world, a world of patience, selflessness, love, compassion, understanding. It’s a chance to see kids and adults truly be their best selves. Where else can you see kids in a relay race cheering on the kid in a wheelchair who will cost them the race, yet no one cares about who wins or loses? Where else can you see adults put aside every aspect of their own comfort and convenience so that kids will feel special?
I’ve never been anywhere or done anything else that focuses what life should be about and how we should interact with one another more clearly than Camp Periwinkle. It’s a place where no expense is spared, no opportunity missed, to make kids whose lives are a daily struggle feel special, feel normal. It teaches kids that they can do what no one thinks they can. It helps them survive.
In the past seventeen years, I’ve seen kids laugh, smile, dance, and play who might never otherwise have found a place to do those things. I’ve watched kids crawl out of wheelchairs to climb a wall on the ropes course. I’ve seen kids fresh from brain surgery lean on their crutches and dance.
It’s a powerful place and it changes a person’s way of thinking. It reminds me of how special life is, how lucky I am, how important it is to work everday to make the world a better place for everyone.
It’s a chance to see what life could be like in a world ruled by love, where nobody ever wanted for anything.
Did I say it is a perfect world?
* * *
Note: This was republished as a guest editorial in the Nov/Dec 2006 Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing under the title “A Perfect World.”
This was taken in Round Rock, TX in the vicinity of I-35 and McNeil Road sometime around 1989-1990. I think it’s a church again these days, but I always thought the idea of a Church of Karate was kind of funny.
If they celebrate Festivus, it would certainly make the ‘feats of strength’ portion of the holiday especially interesting.
We actually went to a theater!
Lady in the Water (M Night Shyamalan, 2006)
Perhaps I’m the only one, but I really liked Lady in the Water, the latest offering from M Night Shyamalan. Reviews of Shyamalan’s films tend to begin with praise for the Sixth Sense and then a comment about how it’s all been downhill from there. Frankly Sixth Sense, while good, is not my favorite of his films. That honor goes to Unbreakable.
Lady in the Water is a bit of a departure for him. It does not have the Big Twist that is the hallmark of his films (especially Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, The Village) in fact, it’s pretty straightforward as to what is going on.
Cleveland Heep is an apartment manager trying to find out who’s using the pool after hours. He falls in and is rescued by the midnight swimmer: a water nymph straight out of an old bedtime story. She’s here to help save humanity, but she doesn’t know how and so Cleveland must help her before she gets killed by a scrunt. It sounds silly and we know all this before the credits even roll, so where’s the fun?
For me it’s that once Lady gets past a slow start, it’s really very funny. Most of Shyamalan’s films have moments of quirky humor, but Lady in the Water is full of it. It’s a funny movie that is at once beautiful and whimsical, not meant to be taken too seriously, and yet it speaks eloquently to the unseen potential that we all carry around with us and are often too blind or afraid to see.
(Buzz Aldrin on the Moon – from Great Images in NASA. Click here for more.)
July 20, 1969, the day Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, is probably one of – if not the – most important dates in human history. Years after all of us who lived through it are gone, the Apollo Moon landings will probably be the main thing that school kids know about the 20th century.
Or they’ll remember the atom bomb, but I’m hoping that it’s to be the former.
When I think about how the Apollo program will be remembered, though, I think of historical analogies, and the exploration and colonization of the Americas by Europeans comes to mind. There was a time when I considered Apollo 11 to be analogous to Colombus’ voyage in 1492, but the way that manned space exploration has stalled in Earth orbit makes me wonder if it will be more of an historical footnote like the voyages of the Vikings to Newfoundland in the tenth century.
There is an editorial called “We Should Reach for the Moon” by Buzz Aldrin in today’s paper. He calls for a return to the Moon, a return to the kind of big space programs that challenge mankind to push past our limitations. There are so many benefits in terms of technology, medicine, science, and probably most important: inspiration.
We need to see things like this again.
(Earthrise – Apollo 8 – from Great Images in NASA. Click here for more.)
This Earthrise was taken in December of 1968 by the crew of Apollo 8, the first manned spacecraft to orbit the Moon. The crew were the first people to see the Earth in its entirety.
This is probably my favorite photograph; certainly the most beautiful, the most amazing image I’ve ever seen. The stark contrast between the dead moon and the living Earth hanging in the infinite void of space is something that should humble us all. It should remind us of how fragile this planet is.
We need to see things like this again. We need to see the bigger picture. We need to be reminded that this Earth is all we have. We need to be reminded that we’re all in this together.
When the Apollo astronauts went to the moon, it wasn’t just NASA or America or the West going with them. It was all of humanity. Every citizen of every civilization that ever existed took those first steps with Neil Armstrong. His steps were a new beginning, but they were also the beginnning of the end of the Apollo program.
It’s past time for a new beginning.
We need this.
This was taken at Wupatki National Monument near Flagstaff, Arizona.
My dad’s side of the family came from Phoenix and so when I was growing up, we visited Arizona whenever we had the chance. I guess the desert air got to me because as an adult, I’ve gone back many times to what I think is probably the richest state in terms of natural beauty and pre-Columbian history.
I also really like driving through the desert, especially in a place like Arizona where so much of the land is public and a person can just pull off the road and explore.
In 1996, my wife and I took a trip to Arizona and New Mexico. We went without a plan and just zig-zagged around the northern part of the state, camping and visiting as many of the national parks as we could, including Wupatki where I took the above picture.
The structure was most likely built by the Sinagua people sometime around the 12th century, but was abandoned by 1250 AD.
Ever since I first heard of the Anasazi people and saw their cliff dwellings at Montezuma Castle, I’ve been fascinated by the history of the region. The great thing about deserts is that so much is preserved.
I don’t know what it is about ruins in the middle of the desert, but there’s something about them that captures my imagination. Perhaps it’s because in the desert you can really see and get a sense of things like time and the infinity of space. You can feel the Earth’s long slow processes, the geology happening all around. Seeing ruins reinforces that and reminds me of how short a time we’ve been here.
Deserts create perspective. At least for me. That’s probably why my book is set in the desert.
I’ve also posted other photos of more recent desert ruins from a trip in 1992.
Last week’s Old Photo Friday lamented the passing of the one-day-only lemonade stands once run by enterprising young urchins out to make a bit of summer coin.
Today, I stand corrected.
While on my way back from driving a carload of cardboard to our local recycling facility, I came across three boys standing at a neighborhood intersection selling powdered high fructose corn syrup mixed with water. For fifty cents, the concoction is served up in a nice styrofoam cup with three ice cubes.
I bought a round and then headed home where I dumped it after a few sips. Too sweet. Still, it’s nice to see that some of the summer traditions of my youth still exist, rare though they may be.
Kids probably get tired of the same old boring juice box in their lunches everyday. Now, there’s something better… single serving boxes of wine.
The boxes are made by Three Thieves and probably aren’t intended for school lunches. Well, maybe grad school lunches, but either way when we saw these at Whole Foods it seemed like a cool idea, not because I like my wine in a box, but because here was a way to take wine to the pool, the campground, tailgating, wherever glass is unwelcome.
But, what of the taste?
Boxed wine tends to get a bad rap, but the 2002 Bandit Cabernet wasn’t bad. In fact, it was pretty good. Now, I’m not a wine snob, but I likes me a good red and while I wouldn’t serve this (from the box) at a dinner party, it would be great for a picnic at the park or dinner by a campfire.
The box claims that the packaging, which is made from renewable resources is not only convenient, but reduces packaging waste by 90%. I guess that makes this a green wine.
Cheers!
And no, you don’t use a straw.
They say crime doesn’t pay, but it can be pretty lucrative.
Employee of the Month (Mitch Rouse, 2004)
This was interesting. What exactly is Employee of the Month? Romantic comedy? Cynical black comedy? Journey through despair? Buddy flick? Crime thriller? Or something else entirely. I wasn’t sure until it was over, and I don’t want to give anything away but it was good. It seems muddled until act three at which point I saw everything clearly, realizing that nothing was muddled except my own expectations, as it hurtled towards a strange and satisfying conclusion.
On the surface it’s about a loan officer (Matt Dillon) who loses his fiance and his job on the same day. He seems like a good-hearted decent guy, but maybe he’s not. Whatever he is, he’s having a pretty bad day. Or maybe everything is going perfectly. Check it out.
Be Cool (F Gary Gray, 2005)
I hardly remember anything about Get Shorty, but that doesn’t matter in this sequel about the further exploits of goodfella turned Hollywood player, Chili Palmer since it works as a stand-alone film.
When Be Cool opens, Chili (played by John Travolta basically doing a more likable version of his Pulp Fiction role) has grown bored with the film business and wants to make it in the rough and tumble music scene. Naturally his background helps him navigate a world of thugs, playas, gangstas and wannabes as he tries to break an up-and-coming young singer and help her get a good record deal. It’s a good-natured and at times wickedly funny movie that’s worth the watch.