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Date:         Sun, 24 Dec 2006 16:11:31 -0500
Reply-To:     Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joy Hecht <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Come out of the closet, all  (absolutely NVC!)
In-Reply-To:  <C1B41E8F.25FF%mwmiller@cwnet.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Yipes, who knew that vanagonauts were so illiterate??? Dear me, get that DVD player out of your van, and get yourself a pile of books!

John McPhee is a very famous writer of what he calls "creative non-fiction." He has written for the New Yorker for as long as I've been reading it (since I was a kid in New York and my parents subscribed), teaches writing at Princeton. Let's see, books you might have heard of? Coming Into the Country, about Alaska. The Control of Nature, about the Army Corps of Engineers' attempts to channel the Mississippi River, and other human attempts to control water. Annals of the Former World, about geology and geologists. Encounters with the Archdruid, about journeys into the natural world and people engaged in such activities - including an environmentalist (David Brower), a mining person, a resort developer, and an engineer who builds large dams. Most of McPhee's work focuses as much on the people engaged in the activities he studies and what makes them tick as on the activities themselves. For more info see http://www.johnmcphee.com/

And Bill Bryson is an only-slightly-less-famous writer of very funny memoirs and travelogues. I recently read his book on Australia, In a Sunburned Country, which was so funny that I sat in my living room by myself laughing out loud. Seriously. That got me on a roll (OTFL, of course), so I read his most recent book, a memoir of growing up in Des Moines in the 1950s, Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Other famous works include Notes From a Small Island, about England, and A Walk in the Woods, about hiking the Appalachian Trail. And there are lots more. See http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/.

So I guess instead of my technical writing, I wish I were like John McPhee, and instead of my website stuff, I'd rather be like Bill Bryson!

Joy

:::-----Original Message----- :::From: Mike Miller [mailto:mwmiller@cwnet.com] :::Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 3:10 PM :::To: Joy Hecht; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM :::Subject: Re: Come out of the closet, all (absolutely NVC!) ::: :::OK who are John Mc and Bill B? ::: :::Inquiring minds... ::: ::: :::On 12/24/06 10:34 AM, "Joy Hecht" <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU> wrote: ::: :::> Hey, I once apprenticed to a craftsperson too! To a bookbinder, at the :::> Metropolitan Museum of Art. Naah, we weren't working on the Gutenberg :::> Bibles, or whatever they have in their rare book collection - just on :::the :::> ordinary library books. :::> :::> The most fun, actually, was her industrial paper cutter, for cutting :::through :::> a whole book (used to trim edges and other things). It was a rather :::> powerful contraption, which could easily as a guillotine or for rapid :::> amputations. So the only way it would work was if you had each hand :::> pressing down on a different lever, so you couldn't possible have one :::of :::> them making last adjustments to the placement of the book before you :::made :::> the cut. :::> :::> I always thought that was pretty creepy. I must have, if I remember it :::in :::> such detail 33 years later! :::> :::> It sounds like more of us are craftsy than artsy - I've also done a :::fair bit :::> of sewing, quilting, graphic design, and layout and paste-up back when :::it :::> was about x-acto knives and rubylith and transfer type and hot waxers. :::> (Anyone else remember all that stuff?) Lately I've been fooling around :::with :::> photography (which you know, if you've read my website) and drawing and :::even :::> water colors. Those last two take a lot of skills I haven't yet :::mastered, :::> though. :::> :::> Yeah, and writing, though I don't quite think of that as artsy. :::> :::> Of course I make my living mucking with data (GREAT fun!) and writing :::> analytical reports (definitely not artsy), mostly in weird places like :::> Mongolia and Malawi and other countries beginning with M. :::> :::> I used to what to be John McPhee when I grew up. I've changed my :::ambition, :::> though, now I want to be Bill Bryson. :::> :::> :::> :::> :::> Joy :::> :::> :::> :::> **************************************************************** :::> Joy Hecht :::> now living in a real house in northern Virginia :::> and Matilda, 1989 Burgundy Vanagon :::> now living in the driveway and resting after two and a half years :::> lugging Joy and her stuff around... :::> :::> For musings about life traveling in the van or living in one place: :::> http://www.joyhecht.net :::> :::> **************************************************************** :::> :::> :::> :::> :::-----Original Message----- :::> :::From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On :::Behalf :::> :::Of neil :::> :::Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 12:55 PM :::> :::To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM :::> :::Subject: Re: Come out of the closet, all :::> ::: :::> :::Oh yah forgot to mention this part of my art. :::> ::: :::> :::I actually apprenticed (had already gained a few years experience in :::> :::brass and some woodwind repair) with a local fellow making trombone :::> :::bells. Yes it's true! This guy had actually designed and made his :::own :::> :::mandrels for the bells and associated tubes, for a tenor/bass and :::> :::trumpet bell. (the most crucial part of the instruments acoustically :::> :::speaking) I mean talk about an artist. This guy (Joe) was a :::musician, :::> :::designer, manufacturer, and repairman amongst other things. :::> :::Anyway....... :::> ::: :::> :::I learned to acutally make a trombone bell from scratch (with his :::> :::tooling. Quite archaic. i.e. Drawing conical tubes through lead!). :::> :::Trumpet bells were another thing. Hand hammered they were.......... :::> ::: :::> :::Although my memory of the manufacturing process is a little sketchy :::> :::now, this knowledge has contributed a lot to my music, my skills as :::a :::> :::brass playing instrumentalist, (my art) and in fact has helped with :::> :::repairs to my Westy. I don't repair brass/woodwinds anymore, but :::would :::> :::love to get a lathe etc. and keep what I learned alive. :::> ::: :::> :::As for "artsyfartsy", I don't like that term. Especially coming from :::a :::> :::layman. If another muso/artist used that with me, I'd understand :::that :::> :::it was being said with "tongue in cheek". Or sarcastically. :::> :::(musicians? sarcastic??) Hearing it from the layman is like hearing :::> :::them refer to a "gig". Another term reserved for musos/artists. :::> :::Anyhoo....... :::> ::: :::> ::: :::> :::Cheers, and Merry Christmas/happy holidays all! :::> ::: :::> ::: :::> ::: :::> :::-- :::> :::Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia. :::> ::: :::> :::http://web.mac.com/tubaneil :::> :::>


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