Many years ago I met a fascinating man who, like me, had a
great love all All Things Interesting. He would happily disassemble a television set in
his living room, and rebuild it into a sculpture, just because he'd never done it before.
I admired that willingness to take something that as nebulous as a thought or an idea,
and make the jump to the physical - molding something in the "real" world to match a though.
Later, as I began to understand my own philosophies, and explore the things that I found Interesting, I started seeing the patterns and motion in everything around me. In the way wind moves the leaves on a tree, or simply touches water and makes an infinate variety of patterns, swirls, and motion... and, strongest of all, the beautiful curves and motion of music. I visualize music as beautifully structured waves in motion, each one perfect, interracting with others around it, adding, changing, always fluid. Somewhere along the line, I became fascinated with expressing my own views like this in as simple a form as possible. Symbols and carvings, primitive as they are, can express, in a few lines, what may take a modern author pages to spell out on paper. I wanted to come up with a symbol that expressed where I saw myself in relation to all these patterns around me. I'm still digging, but this is very close to where I see 'me'.
The circle is me. The lines represent all the patterns around me. All touch me in some way, some go through me, and affect who I am, some simply guide me. They are a part of me, but exist whether I am there or not.
Rhythms are the heart of any musical pattern. For what I look for in music, if there's
no underlying rhythm, then the music holds no magic. I'd always been drawn toward the melodic
side of things until I happened upon a group of folks drumming at a local Rennaissance faire. I
was really taken in by the patterns they were making, with such a simple instrument.
Talking it over with Catya, she said she had always wanted a drum. So, seeing opportunity at
hand, I bought a 12" Great Ashinko from Lark in the Morning. At first I was intimidated by
the strength of the instrument, but after a bit, realizing I -could- be a part of the pattern
without destroying it, I found it a very powerful way of finally not just being a passive
listener, but actively adding to the music, with the music now being a little more than it was,
because a little of 'me' is in it.. If you've
never been in a drumming circle, or at least heard one where there are a set of strong
drummers playing, I highly recommend it. There's something supremely magical about them.
When I was younger, I kept hearing stories from my parents about the times they
would go out sailing with my dad's cousin Eugene. Dad and Eugene had been sailing
together since they were little kids, learning to sail on dinghies first (essentially
small rowboat sized boats with sails attached), and later on larger and larger boats.
Eventually Eugene's boats got larger, and they started doing longer cruises together.
Along with this, Eugene assembled (with my dad), a racing team, and together, they
raced all over Long Island Sound and around Block Island. I heard a lot of these
stories, and even participated in some of the sailing, and a little of the racing
until they stopped sailing together when I was about 13. But those stories and
images kept with me, and nowadays I am drawn to sailing and racing both from the
memory of the stories my father told me, and of my experiences sailing on my own.
Unfortunately, I haven't had nearly enough time to get to do the big boat sailing
that I've always wanted to. A few years ago, I joined the
Boston Sailing Center and got to spend
a lot of time sailing J-24's on Boston Harbor.
These are wonderful small zippy racing boats (okay, small is relative. 24 feet is not
small for some people, but I still have visions of racing 40' boats from my dad), and
I had a wonderful summer on them. Alas, the cost was too high, and I didn't renew my
membership. Fortunately, I did gain enough experience to finally take the dream vacation,
and go to the British Virgin Islands, where we chartered the 40' Beneteau sloop 'Ahto',
and sailed for a week. We spent too little time there, but the experience just makes me
want more. Some day...
February of 2000, we made it down the BVI's, and chartered the 54' ketch Buds Four. More
detail on this shortly.
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