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In Context: Bridge Jokes
I collect bridge jokes. Or bridge anecdotes. Why is a little more obscure and not found on this journal page spread. Background: My parents are excellent bridge players—competition level in their heyday. In their 90s they are still talking, card for card, about hands they played in 1960! I don’t enjoy playing cards with my […]
In Context: The Beginning of One of Those Emotional Entanglements…
Another Delano Ames quotation. (Hahnemühle Travel Journal.) “He gulped sentimentally.” Ah to have written that, what a perceptive way to see a dog.
In Context—Quotations from Revisited Books
The one highlight of going through my books and culling things out is that I’ve been able to re-read books out-of-sight for 20 or more years. It’s like saying hello to old friends. With Delano Ames it’s a very insightful friend.
Annals of Downsizing: Why Not Fold Some Paper?
I’ve got 10,000 things to do, but why not fold 800 sheets of paper? While clearing out my storage room I found a box of pre-cut 17 x 11 inch paper with the grain running with the 11 inch side. I had it cut years ago to use for printing some zines I was making. […]
In Context: Ever Wonder What Happens to All Those Beard Portraits I Paint?
Here’s a quick sketch I made almost exactly a year ago. I was standing in the bedroom looking out through the next room into the studio at the wall of portraits I had hanging in the studio. The beard portraits I do in my journals for fun can’t be cut out and framed. But I […]
The Puzzle of Starbuck
Look, I’ve read Melville’s “Moby Dick” three times in my life—I’m not about to read it again. But that doesn’t mean I stop thinking about it. Growing up all I could think about was Queequeg, his coffin, his ability to see what was coming, sort of. Lately I can’t stop thinking about another character: Starbuck. […]
More Episodes of WILTY
I’ve been having serious withdrawl symptoms with no new episodes of “Would I Lie To You.” Then a couple weeks ago I saw it jumped to the front of my queue—more episodes. I’ve sped through them, unable to h help myself, and now of course want more episodes of “WILTY” all over again. But I […]
A Look Back at the Early Days of the Pandemic
Journals remind us of things. They provide a look back. They can be a great record of the events of our lives. They provide a look back, in this instance, to the early days of the Pandemic. The Digital Armageddon I’m going through since February 2, 2021 has resulted in some losses of data—I need […]
I’m So Predictable in Subject Selection…
I’ve been downsizing and that means things are going into storage. Sometimes I take a moment a peek in the journals as I box them up. Here’s a page from two years ago (2019). It had been 5 months since I’d been out of the house—this was pre-Covid—I had just had my cataract surgeries […]
Using Your Journal to Ask Questions
A journal is for asking questions. You can ask visually, and you can also ask written questions. To me, often the most interesting thing about my journal pages is not what I drew on the page or what I noticed as I went through my day and captured visually, but the questions and thoughts I […]