Decoration Day Blues

 

Today we have another Decoration Day, or as it is now known, Memorial Day.  All the places I normally go are closed today for the holiday, so not much to do except write to this blog.  So I listened to Howlin' Wolf sing about Decoration Day, and skipped the local parade (from what I heard, they started late anyway).  In the past I have written about my connection to the holiday through the blues, and through having lived in Carbondale, but I have other connections to the military, though somewhat indirect.  I have never served in any branch of the military, though like all males my age I was heavily recruited.  (used to get a weekly call from Sgt. King of the army, who was always disappointed that I planned to go to college, and I did talk to the Navy guy about nuclear training before deciding not to go that way, and like all males my age, I registered with selective service, but there was no draft in the years I would have been eligible)  I did have two roommates who were ROTC, at least one of whom did a tour in the army during the Gulf War and had enough of army life, and a few more housemates who did ROTC (their big highlight was coming home from maneuvers and eating all the MRE's that they didn't consume in the field) but I was never a part of that either.  

What I did have was some college students who were veterans and reservists, with mixed results.  Some actually wondered if I was former military myself (don't know if this was good or bad, but I guess something about my bearing suggested this) but as written earlier, I wasn't.   Students who were veterans were taking classes I taught on their GI Bill I guess, and as said earlier were mixed results.  Some were great students, and some were terrible students who caused a lot of problems, but thanks to that guaranteed  funding, got more chances that I would have given them.  But that was in grad school.  By the time I had become an adjunct professor, I was mostly dealing with reservists.  These were students who had joined the National Guard or were Army reservists and were taking advantage of the educational benefits that came with that, but had their units called up to active service, and not at times convenient to their college education.   They would have to leave my classroom, and head off to tours of duty, mostly in the Middle East or Afghanistan, and there was not much I could do about it but wish them good luck and give them an Incomplete for the semester, and hope they would come back in time to finish the class.  (there is a time limit on incomplete grades, after which they shift to F automatically) 

The only student I ever had who came back to finish is incomplete after serving a tour in the army (in Jordan I think) was someone in that classroom seen above.  A good student in my 2D class that I had in that print room, and who had done much of the work for that class before he had to go.  I accepted his reason for why he couldn't complete the semester as scheduled (I always did for people who were called up to serve), but he was the only one who ever came back to finish the class.  Being a good student, I was glad he did.  He brought in the missed work and I filled out the form to change his Incomplete to an A.  But he was the only one.  I had an incomplete for a student who was in a vehicular accident who made up his incomplete, but the rest who were called up, either didn't make it home, or didn't care about the class.  

So on Memorial Day, I don't have to think about any family or friends who died in defense of this country, but I do think about my students and hope that those I never saw again decided to go another route, but made it home alive.

A Change of Environment

 

Heard some sad news from my mother the other day, the Casino building in Asbury Park has been closed down to foot traffic.  It's a whole complex of buildings, attached to each other, and the Casino itself is long gone.  Once upon a time there was a section with amusements and such built on the beach.  That has been gone since before I had the Studio, which started about 15 years ago.  The big hallway, which covered the boardwalk itself, was still there, and passing through this got you from Ocean Grove's boardwalk to Asbury Park's boardwalk.  The doors that had been at each end were gone, but the wooden framework above, complete with panes of glass, were still there.  However, those have been gradually removed (perhaps a safety issue), and now it's just a roof.  On the other side of this hallway, plywood had been nailed up, and murals sometimes were attached to this, providing some art to the space.  And there were occasional puddles on the floor, so you had to watch where you walked, but it was possible to pass through safely.  Further to the west, was the round carousel house, which in past days contained a carousel.  That is also long gone, but in my days the space was cleaned out and has been used as a roller rink, a home to arts and crafts shows, and hosted a few flea markets.  That space is best known for the metal sunburst shapes that appear at the top of each door of curved front of the building.  I used to know a model who had it tattooed on her upper arm, as can be seen below (click on the photo to enlarge it):

I also used this building as the inspiration for my postcard image that was sent to my assigned partner first, and eventually to a show in Estonia. 

 Actually I don't know if my image ever made it there, as the only photo of the chosen cards I've ever seen in the one here, and all I can see is the other card we worked on.  (front stack, at the top) As these are collaborative prints, I still had work in the show.

Anyway, I walked through this breezeway many times, a common way of getting to the Asbury boardwalk, especially when walking from my Studio, and not from the paid parking in Asbury.  I had considered participating in a walk organized by the agency that I am attached to now (which will start from Convention Hall, much further up the boardwalk), but now I am not sure about the length of the walk.  

What remains to be seen is what happens to the building now.  If memory serves, once upon a time there had been a plan to rebuild the Casino (the area it had been on the beach is still fenced off), but I don't know if that is still in the works.  I don't even know if the covered walkway/hall will stay.  An inspection showed a lot of corrosion in the metal supports that hold up the roof, which is why the passage is closed now, but the developers who control the space now have done nothing over the last decade to fix this or stop this, so I have little faith they will do it now.  For now, pedestrians are being rerouted to the bridges over the lake that separates the two towns, but that's a walk I'm not sure about, and at the time of day those bridges are closed, one would have to walk all the way down to Main, a very long way.  Will this be fixed before the summer season begins, in about three weeks?  There's more to this story I'm sure.

Achluophobia part 11

 Once I get a block cut, I like to get it printed and see what I have.  So with that in mind, I headed up to Ocean Grove a little earlier than usual, but that was so I could stop and see my insurance agent first.  (no problems- just paying my bill)  Stopped by the office to say hello, then to my space to work.  I brought my printmaking go bag in from the car, and thanks to our recent warm weather, I didn't have to worry about warming things up first.  I figured I had enough paper and ink to pull a first proof of my new block, so I took care of that first.

Ready to print.   Put on my Wipers disc, a home burned collection of favorite songs from their first phase of existence (1978-1988), originally made for my Texas trip, but good to listen to any time one has a print project to work on. (they are called the Wipers after all)  Music has the power to transport to a time and place like nothing else for me, but this collection does it more than anything.  (written about back on July of 2019 if you want to know more)  I purposely cut this block to be the size of one of my supermarket prints, mostly so I could easily use the same frames and mats.  I put out some Outlaw Black, which is starting to run low, but I knew had enough for today's plan.  Here are the results of the first proof:

Overall, I like it so far.  There are some stray marks, but they kind of fit in with the atmosphere of the basement.  The place looks pretty terrible, but that is what the place looks like.  Many who came to the Open Studio remarked that the Studio was much more warm and inviting than the hallway was, certainly much brighter.  I'll look over the image and see if I spot anything that needs changing, but at this point I don't see cutting any more.  Meanwhile, that one disc was enough.

Achluophobia part 10

 

I had the mid-day free today, so I decided to go to the Studio and maybe finish cutting my new block.  Left around 11, made no stops, so up there in the morning.  As I approached the key pad for the code, another tenant was going out the front door, struggling to hold a bunch of canvases.  I was happy to hold the door open for her in exchange for not having to try my ID and code.  I had brought with me the block and my good tools, having done a little work on it while I had it at home.  I also brought with me my rock/pop book of discs.  Dropped off stuff in the Studio, then stopped by the office.  However, there seemed to be a meeting going on, so I went back to the Studio to get some work done.  

I started by putting on some music, and what I went with today was a 2 disc set, my home burned copy of the Beatles self titled double album from 1968, generally known as the White Album.  It was the first disc I ever bought, when it was finally made available, and I wrote about it here back in January of 2020.  What I had done at home was work more on the woman seen in the dark doorway in the hall, like the upper half, the lower half taken from a still from a video for an old song.  T|hat still left me with three major areas to cut.  I started with the rest of the bricks in the hall, hollowing them out and making a few adjustments to the outlines.  That took up until the end of the first two sides of the White Album (I still think of it in terms of LP records, how I first owned it) although I filled up the rest of that first disc with outtakes of that same album from the Anthology collection.  I put in the second disc, and did the last two pieces- my flier on the wood panel, and the furnace built into the wall back in the 1800's, just around the corner from my Studio.  The latter item is painted gray, so I made it gray myself, my standard way of doing that, cutting fine vertical lines with a sharp v-gouge.  For now, the cutting is done.  Next step it to ink it and proof it, and see what I have, but that will wait for another day.  Meanwhile, here's what it looks like now:

Stopped by the office again on my way out, and the meeting was broken  up.  I had found an envelope for Molly on the floor of the Studio, with a new photo ID and a four digit code, which I assumed was shoved under the door.  I saw no evidence that she had been in the Studio over the past week, so I'll send her an email later letting her know what is waiting for her. Meanwhile, I let the office know I had found it and put it on one of the tables she uses.  Then I went home to get some lunch. 

Achluophobia part 9

It's been a while since I was in the Studio.  The past few days have been taken up with medical appointments, including one today.  However, they are still not satisfied with the CT scan they took today, so it looks like I have to go back tomorrow for another try.  I had planned to go up to the Studio tomorrow to work on the new block, but that's out now, so after lunch I went up there just to make sure I didn't waste the whole week on various scans.  (MRI was on Monday) I had put gas in the car in preparation of tomorrow, so no problem getting there.  The biggest issue was finding my photo ID, which is part of the key to the building, not where I expected it to be.  But eventually I found it.  

Got in the building on the 2nd try of my ID.  Stopped by the office, but hardly anyone there, and no big things going on, so I went to my space.  For music I had brought my home burned disc of Matthew Sweet, written about back in June of 2020, for no particular reason.  On the block I decided to work on all those bricks, and hollowed out all the bricks on the left side of the door and above the door, as well as the wooden board attached to the brick wall.  This is how it looked as I finished up:

Since I don't know when I'll be there next, I decided to bring the block home with me.  That way I can do a little cutting at home if I don't get up there the next few days.   What remains is the rest of the brick wall, the furnace, the Arrabbiata flier on the wall, and the figure looking out of the doorway.  I have plans for each.