Episode 095 - The Road Traveled

08/18/13 • -1 min

Recorded: 12 August, 2013

Participants: Steve Harlow, Emory Holmes II, Jim "Jimmy The Peach" Aaron, Ruth Parson, Allan Ludwig, Ferrie Differentieel, Anneke van de Kassteele.

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Desmond says being moderator for this episode, "really went to his head." He will lead the discussion on travel, what it means for us.

There are two kinds of travel, that which feeds the soul and that which is academic or work related and so, does not contribute to substantially to our development.

Desmond says he loves travel because he can see people, similar to him, acting in different circumstances.

He recalls reading a book by Nevil Shute which included the suggestion that democracy could be furthered by requiring education and travel as prerequisite for voting. Desmond says he thinks people who have traveled, generally, have a more empathetic view of humankind.

David says he is not much of a traveler. He's never been on the European continent. He went to China once, to act in a propanda film made by the Red Army. "We were well looked after, with an interpreter everywhere we went " He wrote an article about his experence for The Vancouver Sun. After that, he thought writing travel articles could be interesting,, but, "went back into my head, where most if my travel takes place. It's quite expansive."

Desmond recently returned from a fiftysix year reunion of his class in Elementary school. After returning from that trip, he went to Gasbay to a friend's summer home. These travels were, for him, preparation for a grand journey back to his birth city, Dublin. The last time he went there, it was not a good time in his life and not a good travel experience. He's looking forward to this trip, he thinks it should be good.

p0ps Harlow's San Francisco Set on Flickr

Steve says he was born in L.A. and always wanted to be somewhere else. He went to San Francisco in 1957 at age of 13, really liked it there and wanted to move there as soon as he could.

Bien Hoa Street

When he got out of highschool, he thought he had to go into some military service, joined the Navy Reserve, he spent his age 18 thru 20 on a small ship going to Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Phillipines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Also the ship spent time in Portland, Oregon and British Columbia. He says he did not enjoy being a military person and thought that briefly visiting exotic locales was not what he wanted, he vowed to any travel he would do on his own would be by moving to a location for a year minimum. Since then, he's lived in rural Central and Northern California, Hawaii, San Francisco, Dallas, Texas, New York City, and he's briefly visited Denmark.

Ruth says she spent most of her life traveling within a 100 mile radius in Northern California, then lived in NYC from 1997 to 2010, during her time there, she had the opportunity to travel for her mental health job a few times in Scandinavian countries. NYC was big and crowded and fast, but, for her, seemed to be, "a terriffic fit." Traveling in Scandinavia she loved, "because she found more like-minded people there. It was brilliant, my whole perspective changed."

Four Women Moving Earth In Wheelbarrows

She continued saying a r...

Recorded: 12 August, 2013

Participants: Steve Harlow, Emory Holmes II, Jim "Jimmy The Peach" Aaron, Ruth Parson, Allan Ludwig, Ferrie Differentieel, Anneke van de Kassteele.

Audio
Download Mp3

Desmond says being moderator for this episode, "really went to his head." He will lead the discussion on travel, what it means for us.

There are two kinds of travel, that which feeds the soul and that which is academic or work related and so, does not contribute to substantially to our development.

Desmond says he loves travel because he can see people, similar to him, acting in different circumstances.

p0ps Harlow's San Francisco Set on Flickr

Steve says he was born in L.A. and always wanted to be somewhere else. He went to San Francisco in 1957 at age of 13, really liked it there and wanted to move there as soon as he could.

Bien Hoa Street

Four Women Moving Earth In Wheelbarrows

She continued saying a r...

Next Episode

Episode 096 - Origin Stories

Recorded: 19 August, 2013

Participants: Steve Harlow, Emory Holmes II, Jim "Jimmy The Peach" Aaron, Ruth Parson, Allan Ludwig.

Audio
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Steve says he doesn't want to, "hog all the fun," of moderating the podcast. Artistically, he says he admires the directoral style of Andy Warhol, "turn on the camera."

"And take a nap," Emory completes.

Steve says he likes the awkward pauses and people fumbling for words, "that's the best part."

Allan says he's in mid-coast Maine. Emory asks if he's been fishing? Allan says he's been photographing circles. He likes perfect circles, he thinks imperfect circles are grotesque.

Jim suggests a theme of touchstones or starting points for this episode. What caused you to be a creative person? What Is your "pole star," your guide?

Emory says he relies on the Blues. When he started reading Nietzsche. He was impressed by the wit, savagery, and generousity of his thinking. He thinks the Blues is comparable. Funny, tragic, violent, and full of shifting moods. He says every story he's written has drawn from that fountain of expectations.

"Our lives are tragic and we have the ability to bring some light, some texture to our time living here," Emory says. He relies on the Blues to inform him and give him a field of play.

Jim asks if it is the "call and response" of Blues that Emory connects to.

Emory says no, but when he gives a reading of his work, it is always fun to hear the audience give response. When he was on a press junket to Fort Smith, Arkansas, for the movie, "A Soldier's Story." reading a piece, he had written on one of the stars, Howard Rollins, who has in the audience punctuating Emory's lines with, "ah hums" and "well ahhs" like it was a church sermon. The call and response there was appropriate, but a surprise. Emory thinks the concision, the emotion, the storytelling of the Blues is his touchstone.

Ruth says her beginnings as a writer was a story she wrote she was eight years of age. At that time, she was writing to, "hear what I was thinking and it hasn't changed, that's still why I write." Her interest in sculpture started with seeing Rodin's work at Stanford University. She was on her knees hearing the "Les Bourgeois de Calais" whisper.

Les Bourgeois de Calais Musee Rodin

Jim says he enjoyed Les Bourgeois de Calais at The Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden

Balzac at MOMA by dominotic, on Flickr

Ruth also learned from Rodin's waxes in San Francisco, at Legion of Honor, then saw some again in Paris, at Musee Rodin. Balzac was her favorite, "such a mountain of a man."

Allan commends the sense of permanence in the placement of public sculpture in Washington, D.C., saying, each piece there, large or small is in a well considered environment. In New York City, there's so little land, they plopped these things down in tiny spots which spoil the effect of the sculpture. In NYC, the Parks Department thinks that public art is a burden, they rotate sculptures in and out. There was one of Andy Warhol in Union Square, but it's gone now.

The Andy Monument, 17th & Broadway, NY, NY

Regarding motivations, Allan says ...