Miscellaneous Threads from Various Topics

A few years ago, on a  flight home from Ohio, I sat next to an astronaut who was on Gemini 2 and 10 and an Apollo Mission. Tom Stafford was the first human to circumnavigate the moon. In the course of our conversation I asked him what thoughts went through his head as he looked at the earth from the moon. He smiled, looked at me, spread his thumb and forefinger about two inches and said, "I saw that all the problems in the world could fit between my two fingers."

This morning I thought about that incident and it occurred to me how many gazillion things there are going on simultaneously on this planet of ours, in spite of how tiny this sphere appears from a distance. It's an incredibly busy hive. In the same way, no matter how you slice it if you're a writer there's always more to write about. As Dylan once sang, "I got a head full of ideas that are driving me insane." Here are few items I have intended to touch on but never got to recently.

1, The Bowie Exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. I had his early albums, watched the arc of his early career. While in college I did a small original painting based on one of his costumes from a concert, which for years hung tucked away in the basement of my parents house. I occasionally wonder what happened to that painting.

2. Ode to Billy Joe. It's a Deep South story that is a deep mystery according to this account. I remember discussing the song in English class in high school. I thought we had it figgered out then, but maybe we was wrong.

3. Italian 16th century philosopher Giordano Bruno.

4. Visual artist Catherine Meier.

5. The exploding Steampunk Scene in Seoul, South Korea.

6. The Revere Beach Sand Sculpture Contest. I had intended to write about it in early summer so you could go be part of it... if you lived anywhere nearby. Guess we missed the deadline for entering. An East Coast version of Burning Man? Not exactly. Just a happening.

Magic Marc makes a bouquet unexpectedly appear out of thin air for Zane Bail.

7. Planning for next year's Dylan Days is underway. When Zimmy's closed in Hibbing early this year it snuffed out the Hibbing component of Dylan Days. The Duluth wing is preparing to take up the task of carrying the ball forward. Headed by Zane Bail, a small contingent of friends has been meeting in preparation for the year to come.

8. Ideas about time management while under stress, based on a lifetime of watching NFL football and the number of games won or lost because a team fails to "manage the clock" during the last two minutes of the game.

9. I have a few notes here about Odessa. Crime fiction author Elmore Leonard had a character named Linda Moon who was a music star in L.A. who came from Odessa, Texas. I'd especially enjoyed Get Shorty and Be Cool, (I've read at least twenty or more of his books, some several times) in which Linda Moon was featured. While reading about Bob Dylan's family, I discovered their roots before coming to America included Odessa, Russia.

10. Goin' Postal 2014 Fall Art Show. Will undoubtedly share more about it after the event than before. Friday evening at Goin' Postal, 814 Tower Avenue in Superior.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Indeed!

*Photo by Ivy Vainio