We ain't illiterate Joy, and we definitely think that writing is ART!

Do you think that Fahrenheit 451, Stranger in a Strange Land & The Electric
Kool-Aid Acid Test are taught to apprentices like "How to Weld Mild Steel"
?!

How about The Handmaid's Tale, The Chrysalids, The Poisonwood Bible?
Joy, Joy, Joy.

I believe it was John Ruskin who said:

A man who works with his hands is a laborer.
A man who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
A man who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist.

Merry Christmas anyway.     :)

On 12/24/06, Joy Hecht <jhecht@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>
> 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
> :::>
> :::>
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com