In the Rocket Garden

There I am in the Rocket Garden. Take a picture of a family taking a picture in front of a Saturn. Mailer was here 29 years ago to cover the launch to the Moon, Jules - blinded by the Sun, entranced by the alligators, stymied some as he tried to get the story from the Waspy Nasa of the day - another big anniversary is a year away, and here I am too. Mailer is dead in the last year. Here I am. Coming down here, knowing where I was going, reading Of a Fire on the Moon - [and smartly too, 2001 was showing on the Orlando TV] - thinking back to how the Moon quest was part and parcel of my youth - seeing how this Mailer piece, mere journalism at the time, for lucre at that, resonates like few tomes on tech - and seeing how the Space program had left its mark on the present day - no where more clearly than at the airport - with droning Midwest voice messages - with moving sidewalks and coolly alienated populace - with birds on tarpaulins. Red light glow of National Rental Car Pontiac dashboard. I went down to Orlando recently - the trip was a bit different than the two dozen before it. Besides going to a technical conference and staying on some patch of tract hotels, I went to Cape Canaveral. Sap that I am I cried in the Rocket Garden. Hello Redstone - model that got the best of me! And Atlas. Saturn of Buzz, Neal and Mike. Rockets that told my trajectory. You can see more pictures of this trip, and another trip to Las Vegas at my Flickr site.

Anyway, summer vacation is starting. If I post this summer it will be from shere desire. Otherwise will post on my Epitome blogspot [which is an occassional rumination on the Web] and RJ11 Wordpress blog [which is about advanced technology]. Have some good stuff I am working on though, might must recharge. Think about the Web. Clear head. Buy car. Read poems. Om-diddy-bop!

Bring it to the Root

Jeff DeMark saw fit to provide a view on his recent performance in old Racine. He provided a link to an excellent Journal-Times article...and there is a link you should see above to Jeff on YouTube.

Thought you might like to see this article from the Journal-Times if you haven’t seen it. It was an absolutely remarkable experience on both nights. The first night John Landaal organized bunch of people to go to Wells Brothers (I went, too), including Bob Henken, John Reutz, Bob Shenkenberg, Bob Stepien, Dick Ruetz, Ed Raymond and their wives then they all went to the show. Six or seven nuns came, including Sister Carol Wester and Jean Ferstl, Devon Hudson came, Jeff Montgomery, Carla Dougard, a bunch of my cousins and their mates….both nights sold out and there was such a warm, electric atmosphere. I was simply amazed at the response. Talk about bringing it all back home. I felt truly blessed to be able to bring it the Root (River).