The Hollow Men

We’re coming up on three months without one new comment or post.

Posted on June 29th, 2009 by Shotts
Filed under: Hollow Men | No Comments »

Check this out. Makes me wish I had an Eliot to go see this with. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=37520

Posted on March 30th, 2009 by Pete
Filed under: Hollow Men | 2 Comments »

Looking out to that horizon, today, on the release of a new U2 album, it seems appropriate to write to you all with a serious proposal. Namely, let’s look forward and think about a significant journey to Ireland.

I’m not suggesting this happen next month, maybe not even this year, but if there is interest from even just one of you, I’d like to get a date in mind on the calendar and start saving the money it will take to make this a real journey. You’ve got to dream out loud.

What I am proposing, what I am dreaming, is two weeks in Ireland–mapping out a course from Dublin, most likely, and spending the bulk of the time in the western wilds of the country. It would mean setting up lodging in bed and breakfasts and/or hostels, renting a car and braving the narrow roadways, eating in pubs and the like–doing it as cheaply as we can, but also not sparing out on any experience. I’m open to any road, but imagine spending 2-3 days in Dublin, and spending much of the rest of the time in the west and in Northern Ireland.

Certainly this is an expensive proposal, in terms of cost and time and planning, let alone a significant time away from home and family. It is likely cheaper to go in the off months, November through February, for instance. With that in mind, and looking at my own schedule, perhaps January or February 2010 would be a time to shoot for. I hate the idea of being away from Jen and Beckett for two weeks or so, and obviously this is just the beginning of a possible conversation, but I also hate the idea of time and youth so quickly getting away from us. And they are getting away from us. I know there was once a lot of talk among us, on a broken Kansas hillside, about just this very idea of a journey with whoever of us can make it. I’m not even certain I can make it. But I hope, and I scheme, and I instigate, and so I put it back to each of you to think seriously about this and to see what we can do in service to our friendships and lives.

Posted on March 3rd, 2009 by Shotts
Filed under: Hollow Men | 8 Comments »

Posted on February 21st, 2009 by Tobias
Filed under: Music | Enter your password to view comments

Part of a series of three I am doing. The others will be quite different.

Posted on January 29th, 2009 by Ned
Filed under: Hollow Men | 5 Comments »

I probably not the one who should post this, but John Updike is dead. I mostly read essays and reviews by him, but he had some great things to say about faith and belief. I always seemed to take his criticism with a lot of weight too. New York Times has an article, here.

Posted on January 27th, 2009 by Ned
Filed under: Hollow Men | No Comments »

Get On Your Boots, compliments of Bono and Gang.

More about the new album on Amazon.

Posted on January 19th, 2009 by Tobias
Filed under: Music | 1 Comment »

Though never as much of an influence on me as his father, Andrew Wyeth’s death does seem a bit like the passing of an era. The NY Times has a good look back.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/arts/design/17wyeth.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Posted on January 16th, 2009 by Ned
Filed under: Hollow Men | No Comments »

Eliot came home a couple of weeks ago and all of the sudden read me a book. It was quite a moment for me as you can imagine. We’re reading the Tale of Despereaux, which is better than the movie.

I just finished reading a book of essays by Wendell Berry, entitled, The Way of Ignorance (I got it for Christmas, unfortuantely, I didn’t get Life is a Miracle). One of the most interesting articles is by Courtney White on the revitalization of the western wild (his essay was included with Berry’s). I like Berry when he talks about farming, politics, and ecology. When he talks about writing and gets more philosophical, not so much. I also am enjoying Shaun Tan’s new series of illustrated stories, entitled, Tales from Outer Suburbia.

I enjoyed seeing Amanda and Peters over the break and speaking briefly with Toby. J.E., your package arrived and the ornament is quite striking. The kids were very excited. Shotts, I hope to get to the cities once the snow melts and see that little guy. It’s freezing up here. Hope you all had good holidays.

Posted on January 12th, 2009 by Ned
Filed under: Hollow Men | No Comments »

Everyone needs a dog or small child. The things they bring you are priceless. Usually Ernie brings me stuff from around the house and yard in a condition that requires a litttle pondering about its origin and purpose, sometimes we wonder simply what it might have been in its former life before becoming a chew toy. This morning, Ernie brought me a small tag. “Important Safety Instructions” it shouted at me in big, red(well, a little more orange than red now) print. I figured whatever it was had been operated for a fair amount of time without injuring me to my knowlege; but despite my laziness about reading such fair (also includes instructions and technical manuals unless I can’t get the device to work properly without them), I read the small tag. It read:

This portable lamp has a polarized plug (one blade is wider than the other.) Ok, I am following this so far, and I really want to be safe and teach safe practices in the peoper operation of our lamp, whichever one it may be. As a safety feature this plug will fit in a polarized outlet only one way, if the plug does not fit fully into the outlet, reverse the plug, if it still does not fit, contact a qualified electrician. Wow! How will that phone call go?! Sir, I can’t get my plug to plug in. Um, is it a polarized plug, did you try it the other way?
But wait this gets better: Never use with an extension cord unless the plug can be fully inserted, Do not attempt to defeat this safety feature. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DEFEAT THIS SAFETY FEATURE?! I love the wording on this. It makes it sound as though this the shape of the plug has become a mortal enemy on par with Galactus or Darth Vader- clearly a villian to dangerous to attempt to defeat. Leave that up to the Justice League or perhaps a qualified electrician. There’s more to the note following this, but I suddenly found myself hatching plots to defeat my new enemy. All I need to do now is figure out from which lamp this came and contact the A-Team. Happy NewYear! jp

Posted on December 31st, 2008 by Pete
Filed under: Hollow Men | 1 Comment »

Did any of you see that movie “Once”. Sara and I watched it a few nights ago, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. It’s been out for a while now so maybe some of you have seen it?

Posted on December 22nd, 2008 by Ned
Filed under: Hollow Men | 1 Comment »

Don’t know if anybody’s reading this anymore, since there haven’t been many posts or comments. My last painting only received comments from Toby, but here I am undaunted. I infer that many of you have moved to Facebook, but since I am not “friends” with you, this is still the best way to get people’s attention. And I kind of like this mode. Recently, I have finished reading E. O. Wislon’s Concilience, a good challenging book which was a faculty discussion book at the University. I ended up discussing the book with a bunch of scientists. I watched a pretty cool movie called the Visitor, which personalizes the immigration dilemmas in this country. Eliot turned six and Claire will soon be three. James and Sarah will likely be parents, and Kathleen has a boyfriend. Here’s a new painting called Apex. I am going to relate a bit of history that means something to me.

This painting is, of course, about some of the reading on wolves I’ve done. They have studied them for about thirteen years with regards to their return to Yellowstone and their impact on the Ecosystem there. I could go on about this, but long story short, they’re very healthy for the ecosystem. So one Sunday night I was getting ready to read with Eliot, and Sara was checking the Internet to see if there was a mystery on PBS. She called me over to show me there was a program called “The Wolf that Saved America” starting in a few minutes. Of course, I ran downstairs with Eliot, and we watched it. It was fun to see how much Eliot enjoyed it.

It was a mix of history, science, and myth, as they retold the story of an outdoorsman named Ernest Thompson Seton, who was well-known for a time as a professional exterminator of wolves. He boasted that he could rid ranches of marauding wolves in three days. A wolf in New Mexico, that he called Lobo, evaded him for three months. One incident tells of the wolf collecting four chunks of meat Seton had carefully poisoned in a pile and defecating on them. Anyway, Seton was filled with such sadness when he finally killed the wolf that he had a bit of a conversion. He began to promote conservation of the west and influenced T. Roosevelt to protect Yellowstone. One incident about Lobo tells of their ploy to catch him by trapping his mate first. Supposedly, he cried all night, howling strangely. Doug Smith, the head of the Yellowstone project, was interviewed and related a similar incident in Yellowstone. He said, “You’ll forgive the expression, but he sounded as if he was mourning.” I brought this up in my book discussion, questioning why biologists aren’t allowed to anthropomorphize animals, but they must stress the links we share with animals biologically.

When I spoke to my dad, the only person who wanted to listen to my excited rant about the program and wolves, he told me that after Seton became a conservationist, he went camping with my grandfather Clell a couple of times in the Badlands and once down south. I guess Grael has several of Seton’s books dedicated to Clell.
Thanks for listening. If you’re curious about some of the articles that influenced this painting, I’ll be happy to post more.

Posted on December 12th, 2008 by Ned
Filed under: Hollow Men | 2 Comments »

Oh the long tradition. Much regret we are not gathering together. Many good wishes and gratitude to all of you on this Thanksgiving. A lot to be thankful for this year. A raised glass to you.

Posted on November 23rd, 2008 by Shotts
Filed under: Autumn, Family, Food, Holidays, Hollow Men, Nostalgia | 2 Comments »

A piece of Walt Whitman on this historic day:

From 1884

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

‘Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge

rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops

ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon’s white cones - nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes - nor

Mississippi’s stream:

This seething hemisphere’s humanity, as now, I’d name - the still small

voice vibrating - America’s choosing day…

Posted on November 4th, 2008 by Shotts
Filed under: Autumn, Beginnings & Endings, Ethics & Morality, Politics, Quotes | 3 Comments »

Ned, thanks for the quick examples of your take on the frightening theme.  About two weeks ago I started digging through my art from college because I had a hankering to start in on my work again.  I hadn’t looked at my work since college in many cases, and was surprised by what I thought was crap then didn’t seem so crappy.  I worked on "restoring" a couple of drawings that had gotten smeared from my few moves since an undergrad and fixing some parts that I wanted to alter.  A couple of drawings I thought would be fine contributions to Project Frightening.

I am hopefully going to post a couple of creepy things that aren’t mine and one that is mine in the comments later today.  Click on the thumbnails to see an enlarged view.

Study of Bernini’s Death on the Tomb of Pope Urban VIII

Box Elder, Part of the "My Icons" Series

I had to take photos of these both and adjust them in Photoshop, so they look much different in real life.  The Box Elder piece is at least five feet in height, so I had to take two shots and seam them together.  The Death study is on white paper, but I created the effect you see in Photoshop and thought it created a nice mood for this project.  Hope you like my additions!

Posted on October 31st, 2008 by Tobias
Filed under: Art, Autumn, Holidays | 1 Comment »