The World of Nick Adams,..

"It was not his country but it was the middle of fall and all of this country was good to drive through and to see. The cotton was picked and in the clearings there were patches of corn, some cut with streaks of red sorghum, and, driving easily, his son asleep on the seat by his side,.." - Heminway: Fathers And Sons

On Monday evening my fiancee, Jill, and I went to see a production called The World of Nick Adams; A series of Hemingway semi-autobiographical short stories put into a script by A.H. Hotchner. It was at the beautiful Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The production was a combination of many art forms including music from the San Francisco Symphony, literature, and stage acting. A.H. Hotchner created this script for on stage performance by combining many of the famous Nick Adams stories many years ago while Ernest Hemingway was still alive and with his approval, Hotchner successfully created the script.
The World of Nick Adams was on Broadway in New York in 2002 for another benefit and was extremely successful. It was in San Francisco on Monday night to benefit an organization that the late Paul Newman put together called The Painted Turtle, it is said to have raised 1 million dollars.
Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco introduced the show along with his wife. The actors that contributed parts to the acting and reading of the script were: Jack Nicholson (as Hemingway and the narrator), Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis (as the main character in one of my favorite stories the Battler), Sean Penn, Warren Beatty, Danny Glover, Annette Bening, Billy Crystal, Joaquin Phoenix Danny DeVito, and finally an acoustic song at the end performed by Bonnie Raitt.
It was not only fascinating to see this talented group of actors live on stage, but it was great to see how dedicated everybody was to Paul Newman and all the incredible things that he did in his life and the cause that this supported. At the end of the show, all of the young ones who attend the Painted Turtle Camp came on stage and lined up to give thanks to the crowd.
It was a magical performance and the combination of music, live reading and acting, and the timeless words of a Hemingway made it an unforgettable experience.

Listening to Neil Halstead

Long time comin'...

I have been away from blogging for a while because I have been discouraged about the amount of people that would actually read my blog. My good friend Daren updates his blog often and he told me that no matter who reads it, blogging is a wonderful outlet and a great place to go to when the urge to write strikes you. View his blog here.
I understand that and with technology, we can blog from just about anywhere in the world. I decided against blogging when I was on my recent trip to Peru. I wanted to enjoy the people, below is a photograph of myself on the left, Falvio (an 80 year old waiter who lit our cigs) and my good friend Adam who I traveled Peru with in August.

I wanted to also enjoy the surroundings and not have to worry about when I would be at the next internet cafe. The serenity of the mountains in Peru, and the the technology that the Incas used to create Machu Picchu is much more creative and inventive than My Space and blogs and facebook. Not that these new technologies and programs are not creative, but Machu Picchu impresses me more and I know that long after the human race is gone, Machu Picchu will live on and My Space will be gone.


We have so many outlets through technology and I have grown exhausted of digital connections. It is more real to talk to somebody, through the phone, but even on the phone, we are so disconnected. To be with somebody, to celebrate the day, to look down on our lives after a long hike to the top of a mountain, from where we can see the world pass by. Or to spend all day walking around ancient ruins or even here at home, being at an outdoor concert listening to Greg Brown and Taj Mahal while camping, really getting to know our friends, dancing, drinking, eating good food, swimming, this is what i enjoy. This is what I think of as spending time with the important people in our lives, not typing what we are doing now or what we want to be doing, as people do on facebook.

Don't vote,..no wait, vote!

Five Friends Vote (Uncensored) - Watch more free videos

3/20/03 - 3/20/08

NO MORE WAR,..it is hard for me to think differently these days, five years of this war has made me sick every day, all the damage we are doing and have done.
Innocent lives lost.
An irresponsible administration.
The above video and song is written by an artist I admire truly and greatly, Ed Vedder. He wrote this song for a guy named Thomas Young. There is a documentary that is coming out called Body of War and it is about him. He is one of many that are treated poor, under the policies for veterans by our current administration , upon returning home from war. He returned with major wounds and in a wheelchair.
NO MORE WAR!

Listening to She & Him

Momentum

The energy is flowing and building up, up, up and up. No one knows who will win the individual parties primary elections or in the presidential elections between the two parties in November 2008. I have been a strong supporter of liberal politics in the way of voting for the candidate that demonstrates they will help clear a path, a path of change. Nader 00’, Kucinich 04’, Kucinich 08’, oh wait; they would not let him debate or even run a competitive campaign. Obama 08’ is the next best, electable, candidate who will create change and he had and will have my vote.
The past eight years have been a living hell. The United States has separated itself from the rest of the world and our administration has cut off many ties to coexist in a global community. I am ashamed to call myself an American under this administration. How do I live in a country with an admin that is irresponsible in their actions? How do I live in a country that creates and supports endless war? And how do I live with G.W.B. as my president?
We have to change. We have to end this war. We have to open our conversation with other countries and react responsibly and peacefully in this universal, global community.
After living with war for this long, this election feels like all the momentum that Obama has built up and will explode like the bombs that George Bush ordered dropped on innocent villages and childen, men and woman, but different, Obama's bombs will be bombs of peace, they will be bombs of change, and they will be bombs of fresh air, a fresh breath of air. Obama continues to build up this energy, and with the positive change he will bring to our nation, and if he gets elected, I will be proud to call myself an American once again.

No matter how cold the winter....

Late January. Buried deep in work, buckets and pales and cans filled with print, type, hard cover books, soft cover books, and click click click of keyboard text typing. All of this and long nights spent going through material, extracting information from resources once unheard of and now understood. From seven a.m. through nine p.m. Monday through Thursday is beating me up like a street boxer beating a frozen raw meat carcass hanging on a hook at the local butcher downtown sometown. Only to sleep and wake to begin it again.

It is not that bad, just feels like that sometimes, but at the end of the day,..to truthfully describe what a full day feels like, I should reference a blue sky and a fine grain white sand beach sun tan, a cool ocean dive off the coast of Mexico, a couple cold coronas on ice and a bottle of rum, a winters snow and a hot coco, a long night sleep and a 6:30 wake up to coffee and toast and eggs and bacon and the paper and another cup of coffee, a brisk Minnesota morning walking with dog down the road into the winds of the farm land frozen over, Life is good and there is no boxer beating raw meat,..there is a spring time ahead.

Listening to The Frames - For The Birds

"I feel my wheels are turning,..I see the open road before us stretch"