Visitors in the Quiet

     

The Back Roads of Mexico

2009...A Retrospective

 

John Prine played at Jackpine Junction back in the late 80s (the place has since burned down) as a fundraiser for our local community radio (KAXE...you can live stream)...it's a very small venue, logs forming a large outdoor palapa behind a bar...dance floor, etc. Perhaps 150 showed up, woods people all. In between his sets I was in the men's bathroom peein' in one of the two side by side urinals. John Prine walked in to use the adjacent urinal. I didn't notice who it was at first, but when I did...I switched hands and held my hand out to shake, saying how wonderful it was to finally meet him, even in such a situation...he switched hands and we shook (our hands)...while we continued peeing. It was my pseudo homosexual experience with John Prine...my touch with celebrity.

Fantasy Spray Paint Art...15 minutes

 

Welcome Back, Swamp Buck

Joe's Banana and Thanksgiving

The things you find archived on the internet

1967 College Fraternity Pic

The kitchen addition/world music

Kitchen/Pantry

A stag and one of his many offspring...a li'l nubbins

Settling in for rainy season

 

Butterscotch arch

 

Obama's Nobel Prize

I believe this award was as much to our country as it was to Obama the individual...that we have removed barriers against such overwhelming odds to not only elect a black man who has the ability to be a transformative figure..but in that election transformation came. To the world, Obama is much more, perhaps, than to us...we are here and now...too myopic to see what is...and what could be. The world gave us, as well as President Obama, an honor...can we prove we are worthy of the honor? Can we work together to transform our society into one of true compassion? Can we leave our imperial past? Can we, as a community, pull together instead of pulling apart? It's time to leave divisiveness and hatred behind. Can we do it? Or will we balkanise and turn against ourselves? "A house divided cannot stand." Time will tell...and the time is now.

another minnesota night

New Breakfast Bar Top

A little further along

War

If for some reason we decide it's imperative to go to war...every citizen is mobilised...every commodity is rationed...we go at it whole heartedly, hand in hand... If ever a President says, "Just go shopping" again...impeach him.

Less Killing....More Healing

Why is the USA an imperialist nation...seriously, we have military bases in most of the world's countries...as Ike warned in the '50s...beware the Military/Industrial Complex. Bring our troops home...close all overseas bases, with the exception of embassy guards...cut the defense budget in half...use the monies saved to bring a single payer/medicare system to all our citizens...and to pay down our deficit. At the same time...let's build up our infrastructure, our renewable energy sources...build automobiles and durable goods which are efficient and desirable...change our balance of trade from a deficit to a surplus. Create products that head the world into a positive, sustainable future.

Working on a new countertop for the breakfast bar

And a bit more...

Yesterday and Today

A moment of reflection to remember all that labour movements throughout history have given workers in this country, and others...and rekindled hopes that a middle class, which is not a natural state of being, will once again burgeon...sustainably.