SKYFALL

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SkyFallBaja

Jae’s birthday is 4 January, and he decided the first thing he wanted to do when the date rolled around — like, a few minutes after midnight — was to jump off the top of a tall building.  The Stratosphere Casino made this possible, with its Sky Jump attraction.  You are harnessed to wires, of course, but you still have to step off a ledge with a 100 story drop below you.  (The Stratosphere is the tallest structure west of the Mississippi.)

That birdlike figure in the picture above, just to the right of the tower, is Jae.

Jae stuck his landing and had a goofy smile on his face for quite some time afterwards.

JaeStickstheLandingBaja

I got a little nauseated just watching him do it.

Click on the images to enlarge.

A PICTURE FROM THE ROAD

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Flying Dolphin Baja

. . . by Jae Song.

We saw this object in the sky from some distance away on the road to Marfa.  At first I thought it was a small airplane until I realized it wasn’t moving.  Then I thought it might be a hot-air balloon, except that those are usually brightly colored.

As we got closer we realized it was some sort of tethered dirigible, which seemed to be in the shape of a dolphin.  As we passed it, it no longer looked like a marine mammal — just a miniature airship with a small enclosed gondola beneath it.

Since we were near Mexico, we concluded that it contained equipment for monitoring illegal border crossings — but who knows?

Click on the image to enlarge.

[See the comments for the solution to the mystery . . .]

PRESENTS

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TreeandAngelBaja

I don’t open presents before Christmas Day.  Since I’d be on the road then this year, I just took a few presents to open in whatever motel I’d be staying at when the day rolled around (you can see them here) — the rest I left at home to open when I got back.  It would still be Christmas, of course, which doesn’t end until Twelfth Night, 5 January.

The haul was rich.

Mary and Paul sent me two choice Criterion titles:

ZahlsChristmasPresentsBaja

Adrienne and Bill sent me this terrific Robert Crumb art book — for adult intellectuals only:

CrumbArtBookCoverBaja

J. B. sent me a CD of new tracks he’s been recording over the past year in Nashville — they might be available on iTunes before too long and if so I’ll let everybody know, because they are magnificent:

AlphabeticalNashvilleBaja

My sister Anna sent me a gift basket of treats from North Carolina — which are mostly eaten and so can’t be photographed:

AnnasGiftBasketBaja

My sister Libba sent me a supply of smoked salmon and tuna, which her family makes in Upstate New York — the best in the world:

SamakiSalmonBaja

Jack White sent me a complimentary LP from his label Third Man Records, as a beau geste because a larger set of LPs I’d ordered was delayed:

MississippiSheiksLPBaja

My cup runneth over — thanks to all!

Click on the images to enlarge.

MIRACLE

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CrosbyAlbumsBaja

I just cleaned a disc from the soundtrack to The Bells Of St. Mary’s and spun it with the new 78 cartridge and stylus I ordered from Japan.  It played perfectly — a few pops and clicks which I expect a more thorough cleaning will mostly eliminate.

These 78s are more than 68 years old.  They’re made of one-third shellac and two-thirds finely pulverized rock, with a bit of cotton fiber added for tensile strength.  Their surfaces are super-hard but the discs will snap in two like flatbread if bent even slightly.

The fact that they’ve survived in this condition between 1946 and today really is a kind of miracle.

Click on the image to enlarge.

NEW YEAR’S DAY DINNER

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NewYearsDinnerBaja

Jae and I decided to have the traditional Southern good luck dinner for New Year’s Day — collard greens, black-eyed peas and cornbread.  The greens supposedly represent cash, the folding kind, the peas coins, and the cornbread gold.  Quite apart from that it’s a damned good meal, as basic as you can get but as likely to be eaten by princes as by paupers down in Dixie.

It certainly took me back to my childhood.

Jae did all the work.  He steamed the greens until they were tender then sauteed them in olive oil with garlic, shallots and lemon juice, adding a dollop of butter to the skillet at the end.  They were perfect and we ate them so quickly and completely that they couldn’t make the group portrait above.

He boiled the black-eyed peas in vegetable stock with garlic and shallots, and he made a superb cornbread round in my cast-iron skillet in the oven.

I’m starting to feel lucky already.

Click on the image to enlarge.

A NEW YEAR

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LloydNewYears2015Baja

A splendid New Year’s Eve . . .

A hearty meal of ramen on a very cold night, washed down with a pitcher of Sapporo on draft.  Back home for wine and then vodka and grapefruit juice.  Some excellent Chandon rosé Champagne on the terrace where we had a fine view of the fireworks along The Strip, whose aftermath was lovely.

AftermathNewYears2015Baja

A bit of caviar to celebrate the start of the the new year properly, then up all night talking with Jae about art.  In the wee hours we concluded, with drunken certainty, that when people who make things call themselves artists, it’s usually because the things they make are not quite as good as they ought to be or could be, and the people who’ve made them want a pass for this because of “who they are” rather “what they do”.

We’ll have none of that in 2015!

[Photos by Jae Song]

Click on the images to enlarge.

REMEMBER

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HoldingHands

I’m old, so I can say this with authority — one smile, one kiss, one hand warmly held can leave an imprint on a whole lifetime, like a watermark on a sheet of paper.  In the end it won’t matter what’s written on the paper, scribbled records of ecstasy or despair — the watermark will endure as a faint reminder of what’s eternal.