It's clearly black and white

Howdy all,

It's been a while since I've written anything-- never mind one of these little ditties-- and while I never promised a timetable on when I would post something, under normal circumstances I would have written about all sorts of things since my last post. Things I consider interesting, like why ESPN Sportcenter is still interesting after the 6th time in a row that you watch it, or who come up with the universal picture symbols for digital cameras. Well, interesting to ME, that is.

However my time and my focus has been shifting towards the health of my Dad who unfortunately has been diagnosed with some sort of mysterious illness which has hospitalized him for the last month or so and has impaired his speech, vision and motor skills. On the surface, it sounds like he suffered a stroke yet the tests he's had shows that this is not the case, so now they believe that there is a form of lymphoma and he's undergoing chemotherapy to treat that.

So how am I doing? Surprisingly well. Of course, the whole situation sucks, but one thing I can do well is keep an optimistic outlook on things and remain positive. I'm a firm believer that people's thoughts about someone, either positive or negative, change their "energy" so the more positive the thinking, the better. And fortunately, I'm surrounded by many positive people in my life including some I know are more prominent in my life for this reason!

So why am I writing about this? Well, they say that things happen for a reason, and as I went out to help my mom with a bunch of things around the house, I used my Dad's computer and realized that his project he had worked on to scan all of the old black and white slides and pictures had been finished. At least I assume he was finished with them all-- I had never seen most of these before and there are a ton of them. My dad is an incredible photographer and in the late 60's bought a Mamiya/Sekar 35mm camera (don't bother trying to find one, they are long out of business) and learned how to develop his own pictures as well. Much like those of you with kids make sure you have a good digital camera or camcorder, he wanted to make sure that he would be able to get these memories on film. And some of these pictures are rather cool and not just because the feature subject was me in a great majority of them. So I thought I would write about some of them, post them as well, and share them with you.

Before I begin, this isn't a call for your pity or sympathy or anything like that or some sort of therapeutic exercise on my part... well perhaps that last part has a little truth to it. In fact I wasn't going to write about these pictures at all but rather some of the albums that I found of his that I have and how incredible the year 1977 was for music (well, at least for these albums. I guess that the hits by "Player" and "Ambrosia" from that year could be argued against calling them "incredible") and still plan on doing so. Yet here goes with some pictures that I got a smile out of and perhaps you will too (caption after photo):


They say that a sense of humor is something that is not genetically transferred from generation to generation however this picture of me circa 1972 or so has me wearing a sweatshirt that says "I am a tax deduction". This is not only hilarious but something I would totally put on my kid, to which all of you are collectively sighing a breath of relief that to date, I do not have any kids (that I know about).



I wasn't going to roll out the "awwww" pictures this early... however this picture of me and my mom is not only purposely trying to drag the "aww what a cute kid-- what the hell happened?" comments out of you but also hopefully shows the warmth that film can capture in a picture-- something that digital pictures simply cannot do (I am convinced).



Someone call DSS!! My mom is giving me a Schlitz. You all wonder where my love of cheap beer comes from? Well now you know.



What is the significance of this picture? This picture was taken around 7:15am on November 6, 1971. I was about two hours old.



I like this picture because I believe it was the last time where I was smiling while shoveling snow.



My first set of wheels, license plate and all. It ran far smoother than my first motorized set of wheels, a 1977 Plymouth Volare. Go ahead, sing it, everyone does... "Voooo-larrr-e". Gag.


I love this picture because it captures several action points at once. My grandfather is on the right, pensively passing sugar to someone, my mom is on the left talking to no one in particular (ah, how things remain the same over time) and my aunt Julie ponders another piece of Bundt cake.


Vaudeville runs in my family and my wacky aunts are no exception to that fact. As they put on some sort of broadway show, I apparently don't seem too interested as for me, it's all about the bottle.


I love making funny faces and while I like to think that at age 1+ I was making one for the camera, I think it could have been because I am apparently teething.


This would have been a totally cool abstract picture had it not been for the reflection of my dad in the water below.


One thing about my Dad-- he loves to read. And I am totally sure that this article about the upcoming '72 Election is captivating him to the point of making a rather ominous face. Hey, at least he's not holding the magazine vertically.

OK that's it for now... expect something soon about 1977 and three albums that you should own if you either lived in 1977, were curious about 1977, or if you need to cover a hole in the wall and would like an album cover to do the trick!

Mike