The Twilight Report

I Cannot Be Hurt by Anything this Wicked World Has Done

2004-12-31T13:13:00

What was 2004? It was a year of stolen and disputed elections in Georgia and the Ukraine, the rise and fall of Howard Dean and John Kerry, the first private space flight and the end of the "X-Prize," disaster in Darfur, prisoner abuse in Iraq, expansion of the European Union, the death of Ronald Regan and a month of flags at half mast, the return of Greek Olympics and a very smug presidential victory. In less political but tragic terms, the worst natural disaster in my memory has occurred in Asia as Tsunami death tolls top 135,000 according to CNN.com.

For me, the year started out as a bleak one in the coldest New York winter I have ever experienced. My mother came to visit me for her birthday. We stayed in Manhattan and it was bitterly cold.

Lowel and Johanna

I took a lighting class at Dutchess which was a blast. Some of my friends from Black and White II were taking the class and I met some other cool people. It was so much fun working with those people, including the teacher, Lowel Handler.

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In Short, 2004 was A Great Year and I have high hopes that 2005 will be even better.

Maine

2004-08-30T01:24:00

I arrived in Concord at about 8:30pm. Only half an hour late, and had I not been delayed at departure, I would have probably been on time. I circled around a couple of times while Sherry tried to describe where her apartment was over my cell phone, but eventually I found the place and parked in a slot marked "Visitor." I was on my way up to Maine and had asked Sherry if I could crash at her place on the way up so as to break up the long drive. That was what I had said anyway; my main reason was to see Sherry a friend of mine who had recently quit The Company to go to back to school to study patent law.

She showed me around her new apartment, which is entirely too cute, if a little noisy from the nearby street. She showed me her schedule for each week which was blocked out every weekday from 8:00am to 10:00pm, and then told me, without a hint of irony that she hadn't really gotten serious about school yet. I showed her my portfolio from my Color1 class, and we talked about numerous things, including what would happen to "The Group" now that Joanna had left the Hudson Valley for Berkeley. She told me how much her apartment was costing me, which was low compared with the Hudson Valley, but high for a student, which is pertinent, since she is a student now. I told her how excited I was for her in her new endeavor. I would have liked to have told her how proud all of us were of her, but the thought didn't come into my head until later. I slept on the floor that night and the traffic outside didn't bother me too much.

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Perfect Moment

2004-08-25T02:20:00

it rained last night, dispatching the bulk of the fire
up here.  i understand from the news there are some
south of here still.  the skies really cleared up today,
making today the best beach day i've had out here.  we
hiked up the skillion, basically this big chunk of earth
thrust up in complete contempt for gravity at the edge
of the ocean.  i wished i had brought my camera up
there, as the contrasting colors, dark blue ocean,
golden yellow beaches, blue-green australian overgrowth
and light blue sky were worth beholding.  maybe it was
just as well, because film, be it virtual or no, doesn't
seem to do the real thing justice, you know?
 
i hope you had a good vacation (or is it not over yet?).
how is life in america?  i will shortly have to
readjust to it.  i will give you a call from chicago, in
case my flight is delayed.  happy after now and good
future years.

I wrote that on January 8, 2002 from Gosford, Australia. Fires seem to happen in places which I call home, and there were some bad ones near Gosford at the time. When the rain cleared some of the smoke and I could see the blue skies for the first time in days, I had this perfect moment (maybe it was a moment of total clarity, whatever that is) at the top of the Skillion, and I had to share it with someone. My heart told me that I should tell this girl I liked back in the states. Thus the e-mail. Later I would find out that she had a boyfriend. It feels like it has been so long since I had a moment like that. I'm not even sure who I would tell if I did have another such experience.

Anyway, that's not a very happy thought. I'm headed off to Maine tomorrow, for the National Folk Festival and probably to do some hiking. I'm going to stop in New Hampshire to visit a friend who has left The Company to study patent law and get a degree. I will be sure to take lots of pictures and hopefully post some of them here. I will need all my low light skills to capture some interesting moments at the festival.