of long away and far ago …

At first thought I’d have suspected it would be like separating the wheat from chaff, but it has not turned out that way. I started late last fall to finish the organizing (or culling) of the items of my life that I have been dragging along in boxes and containers, and reminiscing on their importance to justify keeping them around in my old age to admire during my “ending years”.

To be able to look forward to retirement years with a clean, simple, organized home front seemed a proper way to start the final phase of my life. One thing was to do the ‘necessaries’ such as a living will, and the esteemed “last will and testament” which at first glance were for me, then you conclude they are simply to make your coming demise easier for those who will remain after you. So be it ,,, I shall dot those last few I’s and cross those T’s in the next few days and get the nagging relatives back in their burrows where they belong.

So I spent the winter remembering old loves, and great times spent doing things good & bad, and such as that so that I could judge the volume of my keepsakes and build the last of the shelves and cupboards for their display. I am doing the last task today, the Sorting Of The Books. Here is where I was a few hours earlier today:

Headed to the library

These books are now sorted by author, typed into an email by author and title, stored in several boxes. I love that wonderful smell that old books acquire with age, but like all the other trinkets, and letters, and photos that I have sorted thru this winter most all of these books will be delivered to the local library in the next few days.

The reason being, that despite my bloated opinion of myself or my self-worth, none of these items are important or meaningful. Nor will they fit thru the ‘eye of the needle’ so it makes no sense to put much of anything on a shelf, so I have saved myself many days of wood working over the next few weeks. Whew!

Neither is anyone clamoring to have me explain the importance of these items and to learn from the vast wisdoms that I surely possess. Nor are the multitudes stopping by to thank me for the items I’ve left them in my will, since it is considered in bad taste to make those announcements before your death. It certainly gives a new meaning to “delayed gratification”.

It is not a sad thing I describe, but a simple if brutal truth, things ain’t important (mostly), and if there is any importance at all it is in the minds of people, acquaintances, friends and family and requires no room on a shelf and need not to be seen or watched to be admired.

May he go forth in the sunrise boat,
May he come to the port in the sunset boat,
May he go among the imperishable stars,
May he journey in the Boat of a Million Years.

–The Book of Going Forth by Daylight
(Theban recension, ca. 18th Dynasty)

fire in the sky

Over the road

I’d called an end to the workday and had started a fire to fend off the coming chill this evening and was sipping a beer as the fire got rolling. Then I heard sort of a growl and thought I’d check the stove, as it can make noises when it’s drawing well.

After hopping the fence

I got up and then I heard a different sound, the clear burn of open propane flame and I knew a ballooner was right above the cabin. Down low on the creek it was a quickly cooling evening even though it had been 60+ just an hour or so ago. I stepped out on the back deck to scan the sky and it was apparent that my neighbor Allen Lawson was landing in the road as he was making tender pulses of burn to land rather than larger ones to make it ‘over’ the hill into Stanton, Salee or Pardo’s bottom fields.

I grabbed the camera and took the shot above then went out to see if this was going to be a ‘quality’ set down or a mess since the road is about as wide as a balloon and there is new barbed wire fencing there which cannot be good against the light fabric. He is a good flier, and the wind is dead, so when I get to the road I watch him drop on the wrong side of the fence and with the help if his ground crew, he burns & hops over the fence like a deer and drops the whole kit smack on the safe side of the road.

Packing Up - Sis & Steve

Course by then, even as sparse as people are out in the middle of the Mark Twain forest are, we got a block party going. Sis has ventured out from down the road, her husband arrives home from work, and Mike and his wife have also arrived. We all help bag the chute and Allen books a demo at the high school next week, then we all go home dinner.

Now, with a crowd there Allen cannot help but mentioning the “incident” last year where I had to ride bitch on his KTM ’cause I had poured ancient gas in the Beemer for a test ride and it had crapped out down at the bridge. Thanks Allen no need to let a good story die a quiet death.

That’s how we roll down here. It was a good and adventurous day, and a very lovely and talented lady got recognized by very few by winning a Grammy for the best new artist. Ms. Esperanza Spalding

Allen, wife and daughter

the fate of marban

“Crack”

A sound that was gone before the mind could register it.
A short singular tone.
Missing the attack or delay of a bell or piano string.
No overtones.
A photon of sound.

marban tea cup

Then a dribble onto the counter top, showing a feint color of traditional English Breakfast tea. Coming from a break that has been there for almost 12 years, an old and friendly scar to me. It is no longer a surface break, the dribbles attest to its final maturity.

I reach for the Mark Twain cup and press it into service, swapping steeping tea and moving the seine full of tea to finish. Three minutes for proper tea is time to consider the future for the marban.

I am now a decider of fate. Power in my hands. I am like a god, to decide the future if one will be. Yet, I’ll miss all those cracks in the glaze. I’ve watched them grow over the years and appreciate the ‘character’ that emerged. Old age approaching in contrast to the modern graphic used by the mysterious marban. Located somewhere in Korea the bottom of it claims.

I can’t demote the soapstone pencil holder on the writing desk. That holder of pencils was designed for holding pencils, purchased to hold my pencils, still holds my pencils …. you don’t abandon such long term commitments. Yet I have to give up old marban and that was certainly long term, and satisfying, each time a properly hot tea. Some consistency is good.

No you can’t see the death crack, it’s on the back side, no need to glorify it or frighten the children. Nor will examining it resolve the issue of “what happens to marban now?” or how I will finally wield the power of my decision.

“Horns of a Dilemma?”, no, I don’t think that leaking elevates it to that plane.

“Situational Ethics?”, no, that involves deciding that making a decision that you know is wrong, but not wrong since considering the circumstances you’ve decided that you think it is justified to do the wrong thing.

No need to make being the god of marban fate that complex.

Perhaps it could hold pencils in the shop.

It is just a cup.

of mark twain and moon crickets

Dear Mr. Mencken,

Your letter concerning yesterdays BAITA* get-together arrived in the morning post, and I much appreciate your catching me up on those proceedings. I had prior engagements so I sadly could not attend. Mr. Clemens also dropped in this afternoon for a bit of coffee & cobbler talk, and we both delighted in your written comments and rapier wit.

Mark Twain - 1909 photo

Having an authors’ book (or comments) placed on the ‘banned’ list is a great distinction, plus it assures that the book is constantly mentioned even if it’s read less often. We all know how much work it takes an author to craft and sharpen each word, and sentence, and paragraph of a book before he submits it to the lancet of the editor/publisher. But to endure that and finally reach publication, then acclaim of the masses, and then have those actual words further impaled and changed by a so called “editor and Mark Twain scholar” Dr. Alan Gibbons, well Mr. Clemens is feeling quite esteemed over the full issue.

Eulogized at his death for “not having written a book that any father cannot read to his daughter”, Mr. Clemens is delighted to watch Dr. Gibbons attempt to whitewash [pun intended] the classic tale to make it palatable for modern youth, or at least those youth whose minds have been twisted by those of Dr. Gibbons ilk.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that you read the ‘EXPLANATORY’ from the Huck Finn into your minutes, since the book is primarily a work of dialect and the word ‘nigger’ was central to many of its themes, bein’ as the word negro is spelled differently depending on how you talked in your section of the country.  No need to quote it all in this letter but;

“In this book a number of dialects are used to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; ….. The shadings have not been done in hap-hazard fashion, or by guess-work; but pains-takingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. THE AUTHOR”

Again, thanks for sending the notes, it made for a charming afternoon. I do worry about this modern society and their odd way of thinking. I wonder what other Orwellian misadventures will be be perpetrated? And what if this thinking is extended onto the art world? How will they defend something such as this?

by Marcel Duchamp 1919

Sincerely,
Barney (BCM) Farthing

* Banned Authors In The Afterlife

garbonzo bean band

Garbonzo Bean Band Event Poster

My sister sent me a link to a video she’d found on YouTube which brought back some old memories of gigs I’d done and bands I’d played with.

Everybody in town knew these guys and I ended up sitting in with them outside of Lindberg’s at the St. Patrick Day parade. Almost every musician in town played with them at one time or another, but especially drummers. John and Chris were the core members and quite often played “walk around” gigs, so drummers were ‘optional’.

I played with them for a year or so and loved every minute of it. The ideal of the band was basically .. “If you’re gonna play for folks, then by gawd, it outa be fun”

These guys made it fun, and outlandish dress was part of the gig. It wasn’t just music, it was seldom serious, and costumes were required. **

My favorite was was a lime green, pleated, Empire waist pinafore with spaghetti straps.

Most gigs were a bit like performance art and they were all very unique. We played once in the back bedroom at a private New Years party (so we wouldn’t be too loud) and couldn’t see the audience. We quit at 12:30 and visited with them and they said “You guys were great!”.

I’m glad I got to gig with them and have lots of good memories. I’ve got to say that I do not remember recording this video below, but that is me at the set of drums provided for the video.

** I wore pantyhose one evening, and I now know why DRUMMERS DO NOT WEAR PANTYHOSE !!!

Thanksgiving

Taylor Swift

So I wake up on turkey day and I’m sitting here with cup of coffee and watching the creek shine in the morning twilight. Thanksgiving is (or should be) a rather contemplative day. I certainly have a lot of things to be thankful for and the many things I have.

The tv is on with entertainment news and “surprise, surprise” //say that with your Gomer Pyle voice// I hear that Kanye West is indulging in yet another dumb ass rant. I saw the fiasco he pulled at the VMA’s and saw the NBC interview a few days ago and, like, he’s under serious sedation or he just eats stupid for breakfast.

I don’t know, but being thankful that I am not a Kanye West is is kind of an anti way of being thankful.

The segment ends with an ad for this evenings NBC special featuring Taylor Swift.

That sort of balances out world karma real well.

Thanksgiving is gonna be a good day.

hottie for Prez

It thought it was interesting a few years ago when Sarah Palin the female Governor of Alaska was floated onto the McCain VP list. Since then the media has been delighted to make her a continual target for their fodder. Despite the media saying she is not ready to be president, is not running for the job, and couldn’t win even if she did run … the media is making a big deal of this. So much of a big deal that they are effectively running her for President whether she wants it or not !!

Well, all the media bullshit aside, we need to address the issue like adults, so we need to accept the fact that:

1) Someday we will elect a female to the highest office
2) That woman may be a really good looking babe

Sarah Palin

I think Ms. Palin is one hot babe, what else can I say? I have no doubt that a lot of guys would agree, and I’d imagine that she would get a big ‘thumbs up’ from the lesbian community as well.

So the media is going to feature her constantly the next couple a years and for me it means that on occasion a good looking babe will be on screen to feast the eyes on.

If she got elected we wouldn’t have to take any crap from the French, ’cause she’d whip Nicolas Sarkosy

and

that wimpy tart he runs with.

of puppy mills and pedophiles

I’m happy to run a “pet free” household. That’s my choice. Missouri, the long standing puppy mill capital of the good ole US of A, has bowed to something like 51% of the state dog-ooders (sic) and passed Prop B, and it’s a damned good thing. We are now gonna have NICE puppy mills, so take that!

I have no idea why we have so legally established dog manufacturing, nor why so many people need so much unconditional love, but I do know there is no shortage of dogs. All over the country animal welfare groups are begging for funds to care for all the dogs that are loosed upon the environs, Even though some organizations kill the overflow it hasn’t seemed to slow – the need of – the manufacture of – the disposal of – dogs.

I know it’s fun to demonize MO’s puppy mills, but they wouldn’t be operating if you all didn’t buy the damned things and then want to throw them away. I wonder who the real demons are?

A Do-Gooder elsewhere in the good ole USofA is doing his best to make a better world by self publishing an e-book on how to be a NICE pedophile: “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct “.

I ain’t making this up nor rippin’ this story off The Onion, it came to me via NBC’s Today show. I heard part of his interview, and he says he is not a pedophile so ….   Apparently he is honestly trying to make a better world? Ok, I applaud his sentiment, but this dude has his head so far up his ass he can see out his ears, he did nothing to make a better world.

Of course, everyone wants to hold Amazon accountable for the book (ala puppy mills) but Amazon did NOT write the freekin’ book folks, in fact you might consider it a favor by letting you know the book existed!

We don’t need nicer pedophiles any more than we need nicer puppy mills.  I’d say “Think about it!” but obviously there’s alot of folk clearly not thinking, or not thinking clearly.  Take your pick.

The old proverb says something like ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’ and there seems to be no shortage of people out there making pavers.

successfully lowering the bar

Back in them ‘good old days’ of the 60′s & 70′s it was difficult and costly to get your rock ‘n’ roll group recorded, transfered to a copyable medium, and distributed to media outlets. Studio time, sound engineering, production and mixdown, and distribution did not come cheap so the universe selected a way to decide who could do that and who couldn’t. We always moaned about “the system”, and da man keeping us down, but all in all the music you could buy was pretty damned good.

Of course that was back when people sold platters, those round black records. Cassette tapes, when that tech became available, sure made copying music much easier. Roll the universe forward a few decades and now any bedroom musician can do the whole thing themselves for very little money, and that also includes an MTV style video to boot!

Nothing wrong with that per se, except for the little word “any”. That word almost guarantees that crappy musicians can produce crappy music and deliver it to the world and I’m sure somebody will like it. The public can pick what they enjoy as entertainment, but that doesn’t imply that the public has any skills in picking out quality music. It ain’t a cause & effect thing.

I guess I’m hinting at the definition of ART in terms of music. Art is entertaining in that it compels one to think, but just because something is entertaining, it does not magically become art or even good art. It just is, like … well I shouldn’t mention any names.

Our new technologies have broadened the playing field, making it easier for the cream to rise to the top, and the not-so-creamy to get out there too. Technology does not make the good better nor the bad good, but it is that much easier to find not-so-good music.

We have successfully lowered the bar.

MO primary voting ‘Prop C’

Local polling station

I love voting day! Your vote counts in America, sometimes what I want passes (or fails) and sometimes not, so it seems like sometimes my vote doesn’t count, but dammit I vote, so there. We do it the good old-fashioned way so we never have any “issues” like them idiots did down in Florida a few years ago. Good tech is tech that works. Last year they brought in a sample computerized polling station. It was (and is) a piece of crap and slower than a paper ballot.

We have 5 parties represented on the ballot for this primary so I’m looking forward to a rather cantankerous vote from Missouri come this November. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Progressive and Constitution. I don’t know much about the ‘Progressive’ party but the Constitution party platform sounds a bit like the American Taliban in disquise

Voting is a social event, not a chore!

We can be kinda crotchety for a bell-weather state, and I rather enjoy that. Prop ‘C’ is the hot issue right now as Missouri is (I believe) the first state to vote for/against the coming Obamacare. Admittedly, this Prop C vote is mostly symbolic, but for the first time the actual citizens of Missouri get to have their say. Voting is a big social event down here what with folk meeting at the polling station, then across the road to the Coffee Cup to yap at the the Liar’s Table. Man I love small town America.

So I voted YES on the issue which means I voted to let MO refuse the impending changes being made to our health care system, or lack thereof. My vote has nothing to do with my personal opinions on the real issue of our current setup or coming changes. We currently have a batch of idiots running/deciding/limiting access to health care and I have no doubt that a new batch of idiots won’t screw it up too.

But the idea that in 2014 the Health Care Insurance Police my come banging on somebody’s door in Missouri has way too much of a Gestapo feel to me. And a lot of other folks I’m sure feel the same way. That’s one more reason why it’s hard as hell to buy rifle shells around here. We’re pretty much ready for any size and duration of Armageddon down here, so ‘revenuers’ had outta watch their step.

It will be fun to watch the political bobble-heads on the news the next day or two as this will get lots of air play. ‘Course I got to ride the bike before it got too hot today. Then I went down to Scooters Express and had coffee and donuts and had a nice chat with a couple who had just finished touring thru northern Arkansas and the Quacita Mountains. Nice folks heading home to Joplin and they’d just come across the Peel Ferry. Good folk.