Butisitart!
Originally posted on my blog Siliconundrum.
The question is … but is it art! It’s something I use to ask/say to my other “arty” friends back in Jr High back in the glorious(?) 70’s(?) … OMG! And so the question is raised today. I’m not trying to rekindle the age old battle about clay Art vs Craft. No! I’m saying it more tongue in cheek this time around.
I have to give a big shout out to Diana Fayt for turning me onto a very cool app called Hipstamatic for iPhone. She published a photo yesterday which I knew came from her iPhone, so I tweeted her asking what app. I knew there were billions an billions of apps it could have been. She was kind enough to tweet me back a reply. So of course I fire up iTunes and spent a whopping $1.99 and purchased a copy for myself. All I can say is WOW! It’s like my 1st gen iPhone dropped orange sunshine!
After meeting a downtown client this morning, (my day job is being a Mac computer consultant) I decided to take my new toy.app and re-explore the Pike Place Market. It’s been a long time since I had been or was inclined to take photos. One of the pitfalls of living in Seattle for so long is becoming apathetic to the innate beauty of the market. Tourists or not! 
Bruce Springsteen @ Keen University 1974
Crazy Janey and her mission man were back in the alley tradin’ hands
‘long came Wild Billy with his friend G-man all duded up for Saturday night
Well Billy slammed on his coaster brakes and said anybody wanna go on up to Greasy Lake
It’s about a mile down on the dark side of route eighty-eight I got a bottle of rose so let’s try it
We’ll pick up Hazy Davy and Killer Joe and I’ll take you all out to where the gypsy angels go
They’re built like light and they dance like spirits in the night …
Bruce Springsteen . Spirits In The Night
New Jersey September 1974. I had just started my first semester as a photography major at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in wonderful New York, New York … just like I pictured it … skyscrapers and everything. I was living in an apartment with my sister Diane in Rahway, NJ and commuting every day to the fashion district of NYC. Walk a few blocks. Hop a train at the Rahway station … four stops later … Linden, Elizabeth, Newark … arriving at New York Penn Station. It was an amazing time of learning and spreading my newly found seventeen-year-old wings to fly.
The A’s @ The Bottom Line NYC 1981
If you lived in or around New York City you knew of the legendary Bottom Line. Located at at 15 West Fourth Street between Broadway and Washington Square Park, the venerable music venue, owned by Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky, opened its doors February 12, 1974. One of the premier music clubs in Manhattan, was the birthplace of many music acts. Shows by Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, The New York Dolls, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, The Ramones, Hall & Oates, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Toots and the Maytals … and of course The A’s.
The Bottom Line also “introduced” many acts via showcases. You just got a record contract? You were courting the major labels? You probably played a showcase at the Bottom Line. Many a career was launched from this stage. The Bottom Line seated 400 people and had a no smoking policy long before that restriction became New York City law. It was one of the most intimate places to see music in NYC. No matter where you sat, or stood, you had a great view of the stage and the band.
Following are photos of Richard, Rocco, Terry, Rick, and Mikey from the stage of the Bottom Line June 9, 1981. Enjoy!
And The Hits Keep On Coming
It was an unremarkable Monday. Got up. Had my protein shake went to the gym. Did upper body & my physical therapy exercises for my “wounded knee”. Watched cute muscle boyz at the gym. Woof! Hey …. I might be aging … but I’m not blind! Went home cooked up another protein shake & eggs for breakfast. Then headed off to meet a client at Peet’s Coffee in Fremont.
Pretty typical Monday so far. Met with Dave & Greg formally of Passage Maker Yachts here in Seattle. Sadly Greg had to close shop because during the height of our “economic downturn” (read Republican cluster-fuck) he could no longer get loans from the bank he had been using for years. So he closed his door. But I digress. I picked up Dave’s MacBook. Got a cup-a-joe … some
Wounded Knee
A hummingbird flits at the feeder. Unaware that the rains of fall have come. The coolness of day changes green to orange red. Falling to earth like a shredded patchwork quilt. The flowers are few and nectar is rare, but those flying dynamos carry on. Such persistence. Such dedication to a singular effort.
The cats nuzzled together. Keeping warm through their union. The hummingbird persists. The cats unaware and uncaring of their industrious friend’s progress. They’ve had their fill. First eating. Then cleaning. Then sleep.
And here I sit. Friday mid-afternoon. The couch. My nest. Sleepless. How I wish I could be as industrious and relentless as that hummingbird. Or as unaware as said cats. But here I sit braced from pain. The pain of a wounded knee. It’s no allusion. No intimation. Just fact dressed in a black supportive shroud.
I was walking through the park one day. Well okay. Not so much a park, as my living room. And it was
Gym Life – Week 10 + Workout Sheet
Not a lot to report in week 10. I’m still at 260 lbs and holding. Though I had to go from my (dare I say it) size 42 jeans to my size 40 jeans which I had stored away for this occasion. Two inches is just the start … I hope. My 42 jeans were getting way too loose. So I climbed up into the attic and brought the 40’s down. In there was a pair or 36″ jeans … oh someday soon(?). Actually that might be a ways off. It took me a while to put the weight on. It will take a while to get rid of it too.
Still on the Men’s Health TNT plan. Never thought I’d eat steak, pork, or chopped meat ever again. But here I am, a week and a half into this thing, and I’ve found my inner carnivore. I forgot how much I LIKED steak! Yum! I’ve been cooking pretty much every night. Unless I’ve cooked enough pork chops or chicken for two nights. Protein. Protein. Protein. And so it goes.
The main reason for this writing was to post my gym workout sheet for people to
Gym Life – Week 9
I’ve been doing this now for 9 weeks. I had lost only 15 lbs in the first 7 weeks and hit a plateau already. Okay did I just say ONLY 15 lbs! Oye! Let’s be real. That is pretty good! Having gone through this loss and plateau situation before I kind of knew what had to be done. A change up in my workouts or maybe get a trainer again.
At the end of one of my workouts last week I talked to one of the trainers at LA Fitness. What I found out, I didn’t like. The cost was rather prohibitive & I had to sign up for “X” amount of months and chose “Y” number of sessions per month. Plus I had to pay a $149.00 fee up front. Um … I don’t think so. So I did ask for my one free session.
On that following Monday Meadow worked me out. He was nice enough to put together a group of exercises for the entire week, even though he was only training me for one day. It was a good 30 minute workout of “super sets.” By the time I was done … I WAS DONE! So job well done Mr Meadow!
Gym Life – Week 6
I can’t believe that it’s been six weeks since I started working out again. In that six weeks I’ve dropped fifteen pounds. Yes FIFTEEN POUNDS! I have been workin’ my butt of figuratively and literally. And it feels good!
If I were a goal oriented kind of guy … I’d like to be 198 by my 53rd birthday. That might be unrealistic … but hey I sure can try! BTW … for those of you interested and wanting to lavish gifts upon me the date you need to mark in your calendar is January 20, 2010.
All this past summer I was feeling very self-conscious and very ashamed of how “large” I was. None of my previous bathing suits fit me & Chris went out and bought me a single pair of trunks XXL. Fuck! Whether it was the chemotherapy drug (Methotrexate) and the steroid Prednisone I was on last year, fucking up my metabolism & me just feeling like crap for so long … who knows! The end result was being 180 lbs … and not liking it one bit.
iCanHaz Battle Cat Action And Or Photos
Manx cats by nature are a playful lot. Rocky and Rose are no exception. This brother and sister tag team spend some part of every day, chasing each other all over the house. Then when it’s time to “play who’s dominant now” … it’s a trade. Sometimes Rocky … the big orange boy cat. Or Most times his little sister Rose. I never saw a cat that small be the alpha cat in a household. And poor Angel, the oldest cat out of them all … is certainly at the bottom of the pecking order. It’s really sad when both Rocky and Rose gang up on the old girl.
But don’t fret yet. Angel can get her licks in too, and also be the instigator of calamity and much mayhem. She and the Rock boy are best buds. They are forever playing with each other. Especially in the mornings. But Angel tends to steer clear of alpha Rose. Except when it comes time to nap. Then you might find both girls cuddled up in a ball
My Gym Life – Week 3
I joined LA Fitness two weeks ago, after having gone through a free week previously giving myself and the gym a test run. I can’t believe it’s been three weeks already. Wow! And it’s already starting to pay off. I wish I could say I already looked like my picture to the left, circa early 2002 … but I have lost 8 lbs already.
Way back in August of 2001 I started back to the gym “the first time.” Well at least the first time in Seattle. My weight then was around 242 lbs. It was the heaviest I had been at the time. My goal then was to be under 200 lbs by my 45th birthday, January 20, 2002. With the help of a great trainer, whom I worked with for a few months, I reached my goal weight. I was 198 lbs by my birthday.
This time around I have a similar goal … but who knows if it’s possible to lose almost 80 lbs in that same amount of time & do it safely. Right now I can’t afford a trainer. So I’ll give it another month using all the knowledge and routines
Waiting for the other shoe …
Sometimes I wonder where the time goes. Most times I’m so caught up in the mind-numbing sameness of the every day, that I often don’t realize time has passed. Or maybe I just don’t want to consciously recognize I’ve gotten another day older … and as the song goes … deeper in debt.
And to look at the line before, and the one in the song too … I’m also afraid I’m reaching the 16-ton mark. Okay maybe that’s a “little” exaggerated, but I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been. And that is certainly a frightening thought to an aging man. Well at least this aging man. I can’t speak for us all.
My vanity will not allow me to reveal my current weight. Well okay … I currently weigh 20 stones. You do the math! It’s with this in mind I figured it was time. Time to get back to the gym. My doctor has been urging me to. He also offered up this little nugget too. “Joe … you should get back to the gym. Especially now that you are being
Looking Inward
As you may or may not know, I was in an auto accident back in November of 2009. November 2nd to be exact. I was fully stopped and waiting to pull into the parking lot of our condo complex Bridgehaven. Both hands were on the wheel, left foot depressing the clutch, and right foot resting above but not pushing on the accelerator. Waiting. Within a fraction of a moment I would have been in the process of turning my wheels to make that left turn. Normally before this happens, I’d look at oncoming traffic, look into my rear look for people behind me, again at oncoming traffic, and if clear, making the turn. I’ve done this a million times with no surprises, eventually reaching my destination beyond the other side of the south bound lane of 15th Ave NE—the parking lot. On this day, things were different. Very different. Before I could finish my left turn “event sequence” / ritual, I got to the point of looking at oncoming traffic, the first time, and was about to look to my rear-view when BOOM! I was struck in the rear of my car by a woman driving a white Nissan. Did she break? No. Did she hit at (probably) 30 mph? Yes. Did she push my car 6 feet? Oh yes she did!