I've been working on Tuxedo's Eulogy and our trip to Corrie's family farm since returning from Clarendon.
Also, some books may finally be arriving from the printer...I've been busy of late as an artist who works in the medium of book.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Bad Dreams and Worse Realities
I was having a tough dream. It was likely the worst dream I may have ever had, but it changed in an instant, the last instant, and I was so overcome with positive emotion and relief that I awoke. I sat up in bed and looked around the room, trying to convince myself that everything had just been some kind of nightmare.
But the room, our living room in our studio+one apartment, was flashing red and blue. Cars were racing up our one-way street the wrong way, and they sounded like police interceptors. Sirens and police chirps were audible all around. The room itself kept alternating between red and blue light baths.
A conversation I'd had over the weekend in Texas was coming back to me as I tried to piece together those first two minutes after the nightmare. The conversation was more of me being a sounding board for my brother-in-law's fiance to discuss her comfort level with the possibility of shooting someone in the face. "For sure," I'd said, "mama bear with a gun. I get it. It's primal." It wasn't until later that I could put into words the shape of my reservations: that is, primarily, that I spend very little brain power on imagining what to do in case of home invasion where someone is attacking my kid. Home invasions are not a fear of mine, and thus, they take up very little of my attention.
But in the first hundred seconds of sitting up in bed in the red- and blue-lit room, I thought that maybe the cops knew something I didn't.
I got out of bed and checked the windows. The street was blocked off by police cars---that was the light bathing the living room. Cars zoomed up and down 3rd. Fire trucks were stationed up Lime and they'd already blocked off Atlantic down at 3rd.
In jut a few minutes the helicopter started buzzing directly overhead, and remained a constant sound effect in the zone for the next four hours, nearly all the way to 9 am. This was just after 4:30.
In the morning sun Corrie searched her phone for articles or notices or tweets or whatever about what could have happened.
And eventually the details came out.
Here's a link to the AP article.
A resident at the Covenant House, a high rise elder care facility I can look at right now, and the only place we've voted at in consecutive elections in the entire seven years living in this neighborhood, started a fire in his room and then shot at the firefighters as they busted the door down to make their rescue. A fire captain is dead, another had a graze wound, and a neighbor of the shooter is in critical, but stable, condition after surgery to fix his gunshot wound.
I'm guessing the shooter ran away and was needed to be found? That information is as yet not public.
I'm going to show the pictures that I found online from the various websites that chose to run the AP article, sine they're all different, with the exception of the picture with the above article. Many had that picture and one other, or just a different one. The one from the above article shows the firemen lined up as their captain is driven away in a hearse-like automobile.
I didn't take any of these pictures, just so we're clear.
This one above is taken from Atlantic, looking south as they rounded up evacuated elders and bused them to interview spots away from the fire. We live down the left of this picture down 3rd, and our grocery store's entrance is right there at Broadway and Atlantic, on the left.
This one is from earlier in the day, while it was still nighttime. In the upper right quadrant you can see the church's parking lot, the church right across the street from us.
The one above here is from Atlantic looking south from maybe 5th. All streets around the tower were blocked off.
Below is taken from the middle of the Atlantic and 3rd intersection:
This last one is from Lime St, looking north up to 4th:
That picture is close to home for us.
They apprehended the shooter, and a fire captain leaves two kids, aged 25 and 16, and his wife behind. Tragic...
And my dream has kept my imagination busy ever since yesterday morning...
But the room, our living room in our studio+one apartment, was flashing red and blue. Cars were racing up our one-way street the wrong way, and they sounded like police interceptors. Sirens and police chirps were audible all around. The room itself kept alternating between red and blue light baths.
A conversation I'd had over the weekend in Texas was coming back to me as I tried to piece together those first two minutes after the nightmare. The conversation was more of me being a sounding board for my brother-in-law's fiance to discuss her comfort level with the possibility of shooting someone in the face. "For sure," I'd said, "mama bear with a gun. I get it. It's primal." It wasn't until later that I could put into words the shape of my reservations: that is, primarily, that I spend very little brain power on imagining what to do in case of home invasion where someone is attacking my kid. Home invasions are not a fear of mine, and thus, they take up very little of my attention.
But in the first hundred seconds of sitting up in bed in the red- and blue-lit room, I thought that maybe the cops knew something I didn't.
I got out of bed and checked the windows. The street was blocked off by police cars---that was the light bathing the living room. Cars zoomed up and down 3rd. Fire trucks were stationed up Lime and they'd already blocked off Atlantic down at 3rd.
In jut a few minutes the helicopter started buzzing directly overhead, and remained a constant sound effect in the zone for the next four hours, nearly all the way to 9 am. This was just after 4:30.
In the morning sun Corrie searched her phone for articles or notices or tweets or whatever about what could have happened.
And eventually the details came out.
Here's a link to the AP article.
A resident at the Covenant House, a high rise elder care facility I can look at right now, and the only place we've voted at in consecutive elections in the entire seven years living in this neighborhood, started a fire in his room and then shot at the firefighters as they busted the door down to make their rescue. A fire captain is dead, another had a graze wound, and a neighbor of the shooter is in critical, but stable, condition after surgery to fix his gunshot wound.
I'm guessing the shooter ran away and was needed to be found? That information is as yet not public.
I'm going to show the pictures that I found online from the various websites that chose to run the AP article, sine they're all different, with the exception of the picture with the above article. Many had that picture and one other, or just a different one. The one from the above article shows the firemen lined up as their captain is driven away in a hearse-like automobile.
I didn't take any of these pictures, just so we're clear.
This one above is taken from Atlantic, looking south as they rounded up evacuated elders and bused them to interview spots away from the fire. We live down the left of this picture down 3rd, and our grocery store's entrance is right there at Broadway and Atlantic, on the left.
This one is from earlier in the day, while it was still nighttime. In the upper right quadrant you can see the church's parking lot, the church right across the street from us.
The one above here is from Atlantic looking south from maybe 5th. All streets around the tower were blocked off.
Below is taken from the middle of the Atlantic and 3rd intersection:
This last one is from Lime St, looking north up to 4th:
That picture is close to home for us.
They apprehended the shooter, and a fire captain leaves two kids, aged 25 and 16, and his wife behind. Tragic...
And my dream has kept my imagination busy ever since yesterday morning...
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Rooting Interest Part 2
I was pretty sure I had a post with the title "Rooting Interest," and it was found, so my memory was accurate. That post was about the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals between the LA Kings and the NY Rangers.
This post is about the World Cup.
With the Americans not making the final, who can we root for, if we're interested in rooting for a futbol team?
This is a funny year, with many powerhouses not making the World Cup finals in Russia. The Italians, winners of four cups, and the Netherlands, runners-up a few times and a historically important team, both failed to qualify. The South American power Chile also failed to make the tournament, which is also a little shocking.
So the Americans, the Dutch, the Italians, and the Chileans all failed to make it.
In the past I've stated that I tend to root for South American teams over European teams, but that I do like the Germans and the Italians. And occasionally the French. The Belgians are always fun. And while I don't have a ate on for the Brazilians, I focus my rooting interest in the South American teams on Uruguay first and foremost. I fell for them back in 2010 and haven't given up hope. (They won again today, mostly assuring themselves a trip to the knock-out stages.)
The feeling in America is split, though, on whether or not to root for Mexico. People who do (like me), feel that with the Yanks out, why not root for our southern neighbor? In fact, I root for them each World Cup season, because, it turns out, I'm not as vested emotionally in the international game.
The Americans who are aghast at the call to root for Mexico aren't necessarily Orange Roughy supporters, rather, they are emotionally invested in local international soccer, and Mexico is the biggest rival of ours, and things haven't been pretty over the years. In terms I can wrap my head around, it works like this: back in 2007 when the Red Sox played the Rockies in the World Series was I rooting for the Red Sox? Just because they were from the same division as my team? HELL NO. As a G-Men fan, would I ever root for the Cowboys in the Super Bowl? HELL NO.
The fact that I do root for Mexico shows that my emotional investment is absent.
Anyway...sports!
Let's take a minute to look at some of the kits (uniforms) from this tournament. One of my favorites, and an all-time great kit, are the Brazilian canary-and-blue:
They look so classic that the Swedes have tried to nab a conceptual design idea from them, taking their own blue-and-gold color scheme and "Brazil-izing" their outfits:
And then we get to my favorite, the home Uruguay, the solid (with a design seen here of the Inti, the sun-god on their flag) powder blue top and black shorts:
I'm biased for powder blue, and find this look more pleasing than the white and powder blue stripes of Argentina.
Also, I'm thinking about trying to find all teams that use the golden eagle in some form in their logo or identity. I thought of it during the Mexico-Germany game, since both use the golden eagle somewhere.
This post is about the World Cup.
With the Americans not making the final, who can we root for, if we're interested in rooting for a futbol team?
This is a funny year, with many powerhouses not making the World Cup finals in Russia. The Italians, winners of four cups, and the Netherlands, runners-up a few times and a historically important team, both failed to qualify. The South American power Chile also failed to make the tournament, which is also a little shocking.
So the Americans, the Dutch, the Italians, and the Chileans all failed to make it.
In the past I've stated that I tend to root for South American teams over European teams, but that I do like the Germans and the Italians. And occasionally the French. The Belgians are always fun. And while I don't have a ate on for the Brazilians, I focus my rooting interest in the South American teams on Uruguay first and foremost. I fell for them back in 2010 and haven't given up hope. (They won again today, mostly assuring themselves a trip to the knock-out stages.)
The feeling in America is split, though, on whether or not to root for Mexico. People who do (like me), feel that with the Yanks out, why not root for our southern neighbor? In fact, I root for them each World Cup season, because, it turns out, I'm not as vested emotionally in the international game.
The Americans who are aghast at the call to root for Mexico aren't necessarily Orange Roughy supporters, rather, they are emotionally invested in local international soccer, and Mexico is the biggest rival of ours, and things haven't been pretty over the years. In terms I can wrap my head around, it works like this: back in 2007 when the Red Sox played the Rockies in the World Series was I rooting for the Red Sox? Just because they were from the same division as my team? HELL NO. As a G-Men fan, would I ever root for the Cowboys in the Super Bowl? HELL NO.
The fact that I do root for Mexico shows that my emotional investment is absent.
Anyway...sports!
Let's take a minute to look at some of the kits (uniforms) from this tournament. One of my favorites, and an all-time great kit, are the Brazilian canary-and-blue:
They look so classic that the Swedes have tried to nab a conceptual design idea from them, taking their own blue-and-gold color scheme and "Brazil-izing" their outfits:
And then we get to my favorite, the home Uruguay, the solid (with a design seen here of the Inti, the sun-god on their flag) powder blue top and black shorts:
I'm biased for powder blue, and find this look more pleasing than the white and powder blue stripes of Argentina.
Also, I'm thinking about trying to find all teams that use the golden eagle in some form in their logo or identity. I thought of it during the Mexico-Germany game, since both use the golden eagle somewhere.
Monday, June 18, 2018
Fire in a Museum in Aberdeen
A museum in Aberdeen, Washington, burned so badly that the fire crew couldn't do much beyond evacuating and then waiting to make sue no one was badly injured. It looks like there weren't any injuries, so that's good.
Check it out here if you care to.
I only bring this up because one Kurt Cobain was from Aberdeen, and much of his original documents---notes, recordings, drawings, paintings, o.g. instruments, etc---were housed in this museum, and they were incinerated in this fire.
Bummer.
Check it out here if you care to.
I only bring this up because one Kurt Cobain was from Aberdeen, and much of his original documents---notes, recordings, drawings, paintings, o.g. instruments, etc---were housed in this museum, and they were incinerated in this fire.
Bummer.
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
The End is Nigh
This...
This is not a eulogy. That will come later.
Our cat Tuxedo has a gut full of cancer, and it's up to us to determine when the end actually is. How did we get here?
This is the end of the line, the full circle matriculating. This is the absolute single truth about being a pet owner. A pet will live an entire life with you. They grow up, and eventually grow old. And eventually die. And you get to have a say in that end.
I showed my mother, a former vet tech, this picture, and her response was more a professional's response and not a mom's, specifically my mom:
Her diagnosis was exactly the same as our vet, with the same winces and sympathetic eyes
The last two years were an entire lifetime in this apartment, and he finally reached a level of peace in his life. That I can bear witness to.
Tux is ready.
We're almost there.
This is not a eulogy. That will come later.
Our cat Tuxedo has a gut full of cancer, and it's up to us to determine when the end actually is. How did we get here?
This is the end of the line, the full circle matriculating. This is the absolute single truth about being a pet owner. A pet will live an entire life with you. They grow up, and eventually grow old. And eventually die. And you get to have a say in that end.
I showed my mother, a former vet tech, this picture, and her response was more a professional's response and not a mom's, specifically my mom:
Her diagnosis was exactly the same as our vet, with the same winces and sympathetic eyes
The last two years were an entire lifetime in this apartment, and he finally reached a level of peace in his life. That I can bear witness to.
Tux is ready.
We're almost there.
 |
| 6/12/2018 |
Monday, June 11, 2018
"Cinderella Team" Discussion
I've been thinking about this recently: How sports teams become recognized as Cinderella Teams.
A Cinderella Team is a team that has defied all expectations and found success. Expectations may be low because a team may be young and inexperienced, or it may be the case that the team's star player(s) have been injured. And success can be liberally defined as to capture the true surprise of the team's performance, usually in reference to its expectations.
In American team sports the final game or series is the championship game or series, and their are semifinals with different names in each of the four main sports.
In the baseball season that ended last October, and the basketball season that just ended, in the case of each those seasons started in 2017, one of the semifinalists in each could have been considered a Cinderella Team.
In baseball, one of the American League contenders for the World Series was full of rookies and young players and performing beyond their expectations. 'Ahead of schedule' they call it. In the future the expectations would be high, but not for that particular season.
In basketball, one of the Eastern Conference contenders lost their two best players to injury and were lead by young kids, rookies, and a grizzled veteran.
In each case the team pushed their opponent to a decisive game 7 in the best-of-seven series.
In baseball that team was the Yankees and in basketball that team was the Celtics.
NEITHER OF THOSE TEAMS SHOULD EVER BE CONSIDERED A CINDERELLA TEAM.
The Yankees and the Celtics each hold the record for most championships in their respective sports, and have had different stages of wild success over the years. Some of the most iconic players ever played for these teams.
And yet both seemed like Cinderella Teams going into their respective championship series, 'playing with house money' another cliche goes.
But, neither the Yanks nor the Celtics should ever really be considered a Cinderella...
A Cinderella Team is a team that has defied all expectations and found success. Expectations may be low because a team may be young and inexperienced, or it may be the case that the team's star player(s) have been injured. And success can be liberally defined as to capture the true surprise of the team's performance, usually in reference to its expectations.
In American team sports the final game or series is the championship game or series, and their are semifinals with different names in each of the four main sports.
In the baseball season that ended last October, and the basketball season that just ended, in the case of each those seasons started in 2017, one of the semifinalists in each could have been considered a Cinderella Team.
In baseball, one of the American League contenders for the World Series was full of rookies and young players and performing beyond their expectations. 'Ahead of schedule' they call it. In the future the expectations would be high, but not for that particular season.
In basketball, one of the Eastern Conference contenders lost their two best players to injury and were lead by young kids, rookies, and a grizzled veteran.
In each case the team pushed their opponent to a decisive game 7 in the best-of-seven series.
In baseball that team was the Yankees and in basketball that team was the Celtics.
NEITHER OF THOSE TEAMS SHOULD EVER BE CONSIDERED A CINDERELLA TEAM.
The Yankees and the Celtics each hold the record for most championships in their respective sports, and have had different stages of wild success over the years. Some of the most iconic players ever played for these teams.
And yet both seemed like Cinderella Teams going into their respective championship series, 'playing with house money' another cliche goes.
But, neither the Yanks nor the Celtics should ever really be considered a Cinderella...
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