Filed under: Art, Ballistics, Guns, Humor, Marketing, Podcast, Promotion, RKBA, SCA
Had an interview last night, about the Ballistics By The Inch project, with the fellow who does the “Gun Nation” podcasts that are quite popular. Sent this humorous bit to a friend about it last night after it was over:
Funny bit to share from the interview this evening…
So, it was for a podcast this guy does about gun stuff. It’s a good podcast. The guy is a bit of a nerd, materials science researcher involved in working on the next generation of ballistic cloth (Kevlar, et cetera), but he does his show for a general audience. Anyway, he *loves* our project, and has been a bit nuts about wanting to do an interview for about six months, but one thing and another always kept getting in the way. But it finally worked out that we both had the free time to do it, at the same time.
We get to do the interview, about 45 minutes by phone (Skype, actually), of which he’ll probably use 20-30 minutes for his show. Goes well. Get done, and we’re just chatting a bit about the whole project, et cetera. He asks whether we’ve gotten information about it up on Wikipedia yet, and I say that I hadn’t gotten around to it. He misunderstands, thinks I don’t really appreciate Wikipedia’s power to help spread the word. I say, “well, I do – a couple of years ago someone put up a Wiki entry on me because of something else I did – I just need to update it, and get other links on there about the BBTI project.”
“Oh, what other thing?”
“Well, about 8 years ago I did this odd conceptual art project, called Paint the Moon.”
Pause.
“Paint the Moon??”
It was my turn to misunderstand. But I’m used to having to explain about that project, so I start. “Um, yeah, see . . .”
“That was YOU????”
“Well, yeah.”
“Oh my God, I’m in the presence of greatness.”
No kidding, that’s what he actually said. Evidently made the guy’s night to find out that his favorite geeky gun science project also involved the nut behind his favorite crazy artistic project…
Nerds. Go figure. 😉
* * * * * * *
My friend was amused, sent me an email about it this morning. In responding, I said this:
My wife and I both thought it pretty funny. I need to decide whether I can write it up for the blog without sounding like a self-aggrandizing ass. Though it’s not like worrying about that has stopped me in the past . . .
And I’ve been thinking about that for the last couple of hours.
Now, one of the things about blogging, and in using this blog like I do, it that it is for promotion. So there’s a certain amount of self-aggrandizement that goes with the territory.
But the truth of the matter is that for the most part, I find myself bewildered by attention. Yeah, sure, I long ago learned (in the SCA, as a matter of fact) how to cultivate a ‘public persona’ which I could use in that regard – a simulacrum, as it were, who could do the public speaking, the interviews, that sort of thing. It gives me the psychological distance necessary to handle the attention, deflect it without letting it crawl inside my head.
And that’s mostly what you see when I post stuff like this to the blog (or elsewhere). Because while I understand the need for people to have heroes, or leaders, or favorite artists/authors, et cetera, I always find myself completely bewildered to be in such a role. From my perspective, I’m just doing stuff anyone could do, and am only very lucky to have it noticed.
And now *that* sounds like another bit of self-aggrandizement.
Jeez – there’s no winning. Ah, well.
Jim Downey
Filed under: 2nd Amendment, Alzheimer's, Art, Ballistics, Guns, Humor, Music, Publishing, RKBA, University of Missouri, Writing stuff
“Hello. Can I speak with Karen?”
“Karen? Who are you calling?”
“Is this Legacy Art & BookWorks?”
*sigh* “Legacy Art & BookWorks closed over 5 years ago. Karen had moved almost four years before that. Your database is at least 9 years out of date.”
>laughter< "Oh, sorry . . . "
* * * * * * *
Yesterday morning I finished work on "November" – the 11th chapter of the care-giving book I have been working on, tentatively titled Her Final Year. The conceit is that the book is divided into the months of a year, which track the progression of the Alzheimer’s and our experience in caring. The bulk of the material for the book is drawn from my posts here (and from my co-author’s similar blog posts about his experience in caring for his mother-in-law), supplemented with emails that my wife and I sent the family and friends, discussing the day-to-day realities of what was happening.
Anyway, November is dealing with the end-of-life experience, those final months of what we went through (not the actual passing – that is appropriately enough the final chapter). So I’ve been going through and editing/tweaking material from two years ago, when we were in the deepest and most intense part of caring for Martha Sr. Just reading that stuff leaves an emotional impact, calling up echoes and ghosts.
* * * * * * *
“So, Jim, what do you do?”
We were at the big dinner for my wife’s High School reunion this past Saturday. I went as supportive spouse. Another spouse across the table was trying to make small talk. I already knew that he was an engineer – he and my wife have worked together professionally, and they had exhausted that material for discussion.
How to answer that? I am sometimes amused at the options.
“I’m a book & document conservator.” I like this answer.
“I’m sorry?”
“I repair rare books and documents. Mostly historical stuff.”
* * * * * * *
We got an invitation to an opening reception over at the University of Missouri, for a show of portraits which included work of a friend. It was a good excuse to get out of the house a bit.
An interesting show, pairing up historical portraits with more modern work by notable artists. It was good to see our friend and his wife, some other artists that we know.
But I spent most of the time there talking with others about how much they missed my art gallery. It’s been five years, but still everyone wants to talk about how great it was, how much of a shame it was that we had to close it.
* * * * * * *
“So, where do you go shooting?” I asked the engineer, after he had mentioned that he and his son had been out that morning.
“Green Valley.”
“Nice range.”
“You shoot?”
“Yeah, a bit.” I looked up with a smile. It’s always fun to see how guys will react to this. The more macho types will sometime use it as a cue to start talking about their big, powerful guns, or bragging in some other way. But I figured this engineer would be more subtle. “Handguns, mostly, for me.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I do a fair amount of that, too. Even reload.”
Reloading is a measure of a fairly serious shooter, and someone who has the patience and attention to detail necessary. I nodded. “Yeah, me too.”
His eyebrows went up a bit. I took a business card out of my jacket pocket, flipped it over and wrote down a url on the back. I passed it across the table to him. “You might be interested in this.”
“Ballistics by the inch dot com, huh?”
I smiled, explained.
* * * * * * *
“This is James Downey.”
“Um, is this Legacy Bookbindery?”
“Same thing. What can I help you with?”
“I wasn’t sure this number was any good. I got it out of a magazine article from 1993. Do you still do book conservation?”
“I do indeed. What can I help you with?”
* * * * * * *
Last night I finished the revisions for Chapter 11 of Communion of Dreams. Trimmed another 1,449 words from the text, bringing the total I have edited out in this rewrite to over 17,500. It still takes a lot of attention to get through it, but from here on there will be fewer actual sections/passages trimmed out.
* * * * * * *
He flipped over the card before he put it in his pocket. “Communion of Dreams?”
“Yeah, a novel I wrote.”
“Published?”
“Well, not yet – not conventionally, though I have a publisher interested. But over 19,000 people have downloaded it.”
He looked at me.
I shrugged. “I’ve led an odd life.”
* * * * * * *
Jim Downey
*With apologies to Ian and the gang.
Filed under: Art, Humor, Music, Predictions, Science Fiction, Star Trek, YouTube
I had occasion to be poking around on YouTube this morning, looking at some vids of William Shatner. And I came across this odd little item:
OK, now think – how would you explain what this was, and why it was funny/interesting/artistic, to someone in the 1960s when Star Trek was first being broadcast? Hell, I’ve grown up with the culture and I can barely understand it myself.
This is why it is so incredibly difficult to make any intelligent predictions about what sorts of art/music will evolve in the future, and why just about every time I have seen someone attempt to do so in SF it either seems entirely contrived or just absurd.
And if we can’t do this with something as relatively self-contained as art over 40 years, what does that say about making predictions about larger aspects of society over even longer time frames?
Jim Downey
Jim Downey
. . . this would make for a fascinating take-off point:
Largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure found in UK
LONDON – An amateur treasure hunter prowling English farmland with a metal detector stumbled upon the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure ever discovered, a massive seventh-century hoard of gold and silver sword decorations, crosses and other items, British archaeologists said Thursday.
One expert said the treasure would revolutionize understanding of the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people who ruled England from the fifth century until the Norman conquest in 1066. Another said the find would rank among Britain’s best-known historic treasures.
* * *
“It looks like a collection of trophies, but it is impossible to say if the hoard was the spoils from a single battle or a long and highly successful military career,” he said. “We also cannot say who the original, or the final, owners were, who took it from them, why they buried it or when. It will be debated for decades.”
You can see images, and get more information, from The Staffordshire Hoard (I’m impressed that they got a nice website up and running in time for the news of this to break.)
Jim Downey
Wow – the MacArthur fellows were announced this morning.
And one of them is an old friend and mentor: Tim Barrett.
I spent several semesters with Tim, studying papermaking, at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, as part of my training as a conservator. I can honestly say that without his help, I would never have become the book conservator I am today, because Tim did such a thorough job of teaching me about how paper behaves and how to use it intelligently.
Wow – I’m just gobsmacked!! I’ve never known a MacArthur fellow before!
Jim Downey
Just when I was trying to be good about not buying more geeky SF stuff, BB had to post this:
Two of the many great selections from here: Last Exit to Nowhere
And they even ship to the US . . .
*sigh*
Jim Downey
In spite of what a lot of believers think, I am not actually allergic to going into a church from time to time. Which, when you think of it, should actually be considered some kind of proof that God does not exist, since I haven’t been struck down by lightning or anything on these occasions. But anyway, I’ll go into a church for weddings and funerals, for public events, even just to enjoy the architecture and artwork.
Now I’ve found a new and much better reason, however: beer.
Yup, I have seen the light at The Church Brew Works. From their website:
By far, the most breathtaking element is the position of the brew house on the altar. Because the altar was built as a centerpiece of the church, the steel and copper tanks gleaming in the celestial blue backdrop is nothing less than captivating. This extraordinary view is only paralleled by the quality and taste of our beer.
Amen, Brothers & Sisters! Amen!
Too damned bad it is in Pittsburgh. Or I’d be a regular church-going fella.
OK, seriously, while we were in Pittsburgh last week/end for a performance of my wife’s choir, this was one of the places I really wanted to check out. We had some time free one afternoon, so drove the couple of miles from our hotel to the Church. It really is quite the place – not just some little local church, but a substantial parish church that can now seat something like 400-500 people. They have done a very impressive job with the restoration work of the church (which had been decommissioned by the local Head-shaman prior to being turned over for the holy work it now serves) – check out the photos on their website.
The beer and food is good, too – much better food than you would expect to find in most brewpubs. The “Pious Monk Dunkel” I had was tasty and very much in the tradition of the German beers I have always loved.
So, if you find yourself going anywhere near Pittsburgh, hie thee to church. Really, it won’t hurt at all.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to UTI.)
Communion Of Dreams 