Tony Tony Macaroni

Saint Anthony
Oh Tony, oh Tony. My friend of choice all these years. Tony brought an old violin to a made-up string class at Davidson in 1955, I think. I was a busy sophmore and Tony was a Freshman. Maybe it was a year later, I do not remember clearly. Doris West and Betty Goehring, fiddle playing wives of music faculty agreed to have a class. I found an old viola and wanted to see if I could learn a stringed instrument. Found I did not have the time, but got to know Tony. He struck up a friendship with my homey friend Morrison, and we became pretty close as the years went by. After I started taking art from Doug Houchens, Tony seemed to take an interest in what I was doing. He started his art collection along with Morrison and myself. Prints from the Baltimore dealer, Ferdinand Rotin, who brought affordable prints and works to College campuses back then.

The reasons I like Tony and am grateful for his long-time friendship:

1. His wife, Marian. The grandest girl you can ever meet....

2. Always patient with my folies

3. Always interested in music and art. Two things that are high on my list.

4. Maintains beautiful premises full of art and music.

5. Has great kids and grand kids....

6. Invites me to the beach with him every year...

7. Supports my interests and passions. Or at least indulges them.

8. Has stuck to his ideals all these years.

9. Teaches what he believes, practices his principals....

10. Sifts his life as carefully as his money.

11. Has values of utmost worth and purity....

12. Has fathered two splendid boys, who now have two youngsters each....

13. The way those boys love their dad and mom is simply astounding.

14. This family has so much love between the members....

many more later......
We stayed in touch.....

Children at the Beach

There is a certain slant of light
on Winter afternoons....

but it is summer at the South Carolina shore. The water is warm but refreshing, and there are clouds. A gentle land breeze turned the waves to rollers and the water surface calm and clear. It rained last night and there was thunder and lightening. Now, I sit at the computer at the Pawley's Library and am about to go to sleep it is so serene. Been reading tales of the terrible great Alexander Magnus and Anals of a former World, John McPhee's story of the Earth and the US in particular. Glorius geology lessons. Roadcuts will never be the same again.

Marion's beach place, called Sandycott is full of children, her's and Tony's grands. And some others of Alice Carol and Price. A good time. Crabbing parties, cooking up great dinners. Relaxing on the beach. Some go serfing, other's ride the waves. And read read read....

Last night we had stir-fry pork and rice. Left-overs. In a make-shift wok, heat corn-oil and sautee onions and garlic, add chopped bell peppers, sliced carrots, chopped ginger root. Just before browning occurs, stir in a goodly amouth of chopped roast pork, mixing well. Season with plenty of soy sauce, some terriaki etc... add a can of chicken stock. Break three eggs in the mixture, keep temp high, but stir to prevent burning. Bean sprouts would be good in this, and a hot pepper or two if everybody likes it hot. Then add lots of rice. Serve warm, or let everybody dig out of the pot at will. Our Louisiana friends called it Jumbalaya. And maybe it was, but it got eaten!!!!!

Where I was when the Balloon went up

The Big Bang

I read this today:

"On this day in History:
First atomic bomb exploded near Alamogordo, New Mexico

1945: The Manhattan Project, a joint effort by scientists at Los Alamos, New Mexico, culminated in the explosion of the first atomic bomb at 5:30 AM on this day at a site on the Alamogordo air base, 193 km (120 miles) south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The bomb generated an explosive power equivalent to 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT, and the surrounding desert surface fused to glass for a radius of 730 metres (800 yards). The following month, two other atomic bombs produced by the project, the first using uranium-235 and the second using plutonium, were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan."

Then it was this day in 1945, when I was 9, that Daddy, home early from work, took me aside and said something very important had happend. Namely, that the government had exploded the biggest bomb ever out west in New Mexico. It had melted the tower it was exploded from, and created this huge ball of fire and a cloud that could be seen in other states. Daddy did not often talk seriously about this sort of thing. I think he was trying to soften or prepare the news I would be hearing in a few days about, first, the destruction of a whole city, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, Japan a day later! He was telling me the world had changed again forever....

The effects on those like me, (I was 5) in December 1941, when the Japanese destroyed Pearl Harbor (on Daddy's birthday). I only understood later. And certainly later when news of the Austwitz-style concentration camps in which Jews were gassed by the thousands, the news-reels of the blitz of London, people sleeping in Subways, all men of a certain age gone to fight, my uncles and a cousin brought it all home. Dad was given a 4F, because of a heart condition, and his age, 36. But on the home front he was an air-raid warden, with a flashlight covered with blue celophane. When we had an air-raid warning, and the terrifying wild-cat whistle on the Lock Hosery Mill sounded off, all terror broke loose and lights were doused. Dad and some other men his age were on the streets shutting off the give-a-way powerMaking sure the enemy could not see us. We did not know if it was practice or real!!

By that summer of 45, though, Germany had already surrendered, Hitler had committed suiside, troops in that theater were sent to the South Pacific for what looked like an invasion of Japan. Then the bomb. And the surrender of Japan.

The days of all the flag waving, fund drives like saving bonds and saving stamps sold at school, Kate Smith singing "God Bless America", Irvin Berlin's anthem many thought should become the National amthem... every night somewhere on the radio, were coming to an end. There was not a TV anywhere I knew of for four more years. We got it all on the radio, anyway. Such things like rationing were ended. We all hated rationing, since everything from Coffee to shoes required rationing stamps. Gas was available depending on your job sensitivity and importance!

Boy Scouts had paper drives. There were copper drives. Once, the Cabarrus Theater, down town, had a special showing of Bambi, with the price of addmission, something copper scrapped from a junk pile. Nobody could find anything like that around our house, so they gave me copper pennies. It cost nine of them to get in anyway, if you were under 12 then. My, how times have changed!!!!
Bambi made me cry. I had not seen it before.

We saved bacon fat in Crisco cans, and turned it in at certain food stores, for the war effort. We saw movies like "20 Seconds over Tokyo" and "Guadacanal Diary", and cried for the dying and the dead on the battlefields. We had days of prayer for the troops. Every house that had a son or father serving overseas had a special sticker for the front window. The pledge of alliagence to the flag did not contain the words "under God" but we prayed and read the bible at school anyway. Around our house, it was God and Franklin D. Roosevelt that will see us through. (It was only later that I found out that Dad was not a Democrat, and disliked FDR! But he was a strong beliver in God.)

War. What is it good for????

More WW2 memories.

exhileration and depression

Star Sizes

Saturday Morning. After being up pretty late, I wake at 7. Or was it 6:30. checking e-mail, Ronnie still up... Brittni had sent me this sentimental message at some time around 2:00AM. Like her dad, she loves to stay up late.

The birds are drinking from the bird bath, but the water there is hot and not refreshing, I guess. Chick-a-dee dee dee.

I call Alice and plan to come over to pick up the clothes I washed Wednesday and left for her to dry. There were some other things. I call the Huggins. Marian sounds chipper for 8:00 AM EST, and tell her the latest that we will get to join them at the beach mid week. Downloads are so easy with broadband... amazing.

I like to cook over there. She has this nice kitchen and stove. And the random items in the big refridg are a challenge. There were some mushrooms going bad fast, some sliced ham, some left-over tomato/pepper sause in two containers. Plus, a garden full of tomatoes and peppers and fresh herbs just getting ripe.

I put them together like this.

half cup chopped red onion
5 or 6 large mushrooms, coursely chopped
a variety of peppers, chopped
chopped ham....

sautee slowly in olive oil

add chopped fresh parseley and basil
when the onions are soft, add 2 cups of chopped tomatoes and some juice will form, but add a little water and a spoon of chicken base.

I wanted to add a half cup of white wine, but there was none, but Alice offered some good cognac, French, Coivoisier (sp?) A little dab will do you!
Then poached the three eggs. Two of them broke, damnit. But when done, put them on toasted red corn tortillas. Goodness, how delicious. Instant coffee made with milk and a bit of sweetened condensed milk... Oh. And cut up melon and mango....

Back home with some chores to do here, and trying to set up e-mail from my new server's address. Found an opera to listen to on Radioio http://www.radioio.com Porgy and Bess came belting out. The complete opera! It was wonderful. Saturday and the opera once more. Ricardo Mutti conduction and singers of exceptional beauty. I love that one more each time I hear it. I think Gershwin turned in the Great American Opera, so satisfying and complete, rich in melody and rhythm, and a deeply felt story of realism and hope.

7/4/2006

HAPPY FORTH OF JULY, Y'ALL


Main Street, Crawford, TX? 2005

A PERSISTANT QUESTION: Why is the word "free"? (as in "land of the free" in the National Anthem)? set to a note so high few can reach it????

WE ARE A NATION, DESIGNED IN PERFECTION, AND ARE STILL TRYING TO MAKE IT LIVE UP TO ITS PROMISE. (Someone once said: "we were conceived perfect, and we keep on trying to improve...")

Some have to leave our land to find it's promises realized:

A US expatriot writes in Salon::

10 Great Reasons to Live in Belgium

1. You can get as sick as you want, and even die without worrying about how you're going to pay for it.

2. You can have a same sex marriage, and it won't be revoked

3. You can have an abortion, and no one will harass you

4. Chances are, King Albert is probably not listening in on your phone calls

5. You can drink a beer in the park, on the bus, or walking down the street and not get arrested

6. You can get a university education without paying anything more than the cost of books

7. The streets are too narrow for cumbersome SUV's

8. If you have a baby, it doesn't cost you anything, and a private nurse will come to your house once a day for a week to teach you how to care for your enfant (for free!)

9. It is legal to possess marijuana for your own consumption

10. The national legal minimum number of vacation days per year is 20 days, for everyone, whether you are a lawyer or work at McDonald's

These 10 things contribute greatly to my pursuit of happiness. To me, these things represent liberty and independance. Although many of these don't pertain to me, I like the idea of living in a place that accepts that just because it may not be right for one person, doesn't make it wrong for another.

-- US Expat

Meryl

New Streep flic

Seeing "Prarie Home Companion" this week reminded me of the seeing "The Deer Hunter", Cimino's 70's anti-war classic. the first time I saw Meryl. When Streep appears at the wedding celebration, the camera is drawn to her radient image image, and in many ways has stayed there in my mind ever since. I think it is her nose. An unmodified, anti Holywood glamor nose. A real nose that gives her a real face!!! Her presense in a film is an excuse to go see it. The camera seeks her. The camera loves her. Sophie's Choice, Out of Africa, French Lieutenant's Woman, Postcards From the Edge, even those I did not like, I could admire with awe the presence, the subtile beauty, the nuance of body and voice in every frame, every tic, every jesture of this remarkable actress. I have this new one to look forward to: The Devil Wears Prada. She is so good being good (Silkwood) and bad (Manchurian Candidate) I know I will love it. I am her fan for life.

Of course, Deer Hunter was Cimino at his best outweighing his worst. John Cazale and Chris Walken propping up the great champ De Nero... They do not make movies like that any more.... and maybe we do not need them. But we do have Good Night and Good Luck and Angels in America....

There!! I have broken my silence on this BLOG. Maybe when I get the Nikon to working again......
I