A book of mysterious things...

Another video experiment. I did this partly to see if I could format a video for Instagram's new video feature.

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Another video experiment. This is the first time I have ever done a 9x16 (i.e., cellphone specific) video. The music, once again, is by the fabulously talented Kevin MacLeod. Here is the Creative Commons notice: Music from https://filmmusic.io "Stay The Course" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Please check out my Amazon page, https://www.amazon.com/author/mtucker57

A post shared by Michael Tucker (@michael.j.tucker1) on Aug 15, 2019 at 10:25am PDT

No Shingles, Thank You

Spent much of yesterday sick as the proverbial canine. The reason? Because on Tuesday I went and got not one but two vaccinations -- for the flu, and more importantly, for Shingles. I had been meaning to get the latter for some time. I’m a prime candidate for that ghastly disease because I had chickenpox as an adult. Apparently, that means there is a strong, strong likelihood that I would get shingles sometime after middle age.

And I wasn’t planning on getting shingles...not if I could help it, anyway. It’s incredibly painful, can be a bit disfiguring (at least in the short term), and there is no known cure. And that’s just if you get garden variety. A friend of mine, a writer I’ve worked with, got it in her eyes. Feel free to shudder at that thought. I certainly did.

So, I got the vaccine. The problem is that I’ve got a strong immune system (apparently) and whenever I get a vaccine the old body swings into overdrive. It interprets the serum (as it should) as an attack and responds accordingly--i.e., it generates the antibodies which will give you immunity later on. The trouble being that may make you may feel sick in the short run. You may feel fever, aches, queasy stomach, and all the other things that are designed to make life impossible for viruses...and, sort of by accident, miserable for you.

Ergo, I spent pretty much all day yesterday flat on my back and feeling, to quote the immortal P.G. Wodehouse, like something rejected by the pure food committee. 

It wasn’t fun to say the least...but I knew the alternative was to court something a whole lot worse. Better to suffer a little today than much more more next week.

In other words, I was doing something mature.

Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

Video Note To Conservatives: Dump Trump Now!

Another video I did for LiberalResistance.net. This one ran on Friday.

Actually, I really believe this. Conservatives had made real progress in America, and, at least in places like American Conservative Magazine, had explored some interesting new spaces in the ideology.

But, Trump could take them down...hard.

If the Right wants to weather what's coming, it needs to find a way to disassociate itself from him, and do so gracefully but firmly.

Anyway, take a look and see what you think.

More Bill Rabbit

Hello, Everyone,

You’ll recall that I’ve been posting about a small collection of art that I inherited from my late parents, and which Judith Estrada Garcia was kind to place in her gallery in Taylor, Texas: https://estradagarciagallery.org/

I promised I would post images of the works as they became available. Here’s the second piece by the late Bill Rabbit, who was rather a big name in Southwestern art. You can see his Wikipedia entry here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Rabbit

This piece is When Shadows Fall and will be shown at Judith’s gallery in the near future. Before then, though, she’ll be displaying it online.

Oh, and please check out Bill Rabbit’s daughter’s work as well. Traci Rabbit has a webpage here:  https://billandtracirabbit.com/

Bill Rabbit's Art

So you’ll recall that I posted recently about art that I had inherited from my parents (when they retired, they ran a gallery in Albuquerque, NM). We were originally keeping it all in storage, but then Judith Estrada Garcia was so kind as to place the pieces in her gallery in Taylor, Texas: https://estradagarciagallery.org/

But, anyway, I thought I’d start posting examples of the art my parents collected. As you'd expect, they were very much into Southwestern themes and subjects.

Here, for example, is the late Bill Rabbit’s “Cave Of The White Shaman.” You can see more about Mr. Rabbit on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Rabbit

His equally talented daughter, Traci Rabbit, maintains a family web page here: https://billandtracirabbit.com/

This piece, Cave, will be shown at Judith’s gallery in the near future. Before then, though, she’ll be displaying it online.

Video: Death Is A Democrat

And here's some vicious Liberal propaganda ☺

This is from today's LiberalResistance.net.

What If He Resigns

Another video that was posted on the LiberalResistance.net page

Again, very liberal. This one is a little different though. I actually videoed myself for it rather than using stock footage.

A Tribute To Oreo

Just before we left Albuquerque, our little dog Oreo passed on...which was very sad, and I'm still sort of getting over it.

But, here is the video I did as a tribute.

Thank you Oreo, for all your years with us...






Oreo from MJT1957 on Vimeo.

The Monster To Come - A Video

I'm still doing short videos for LiberalResistance.net. They're very political, and (as you would expect) very anti-Trump, so if you're very pro-Trump then probably not a good idea to watch.

But, still, if you're curious, here's what I'm doing with my voice-overs and a little stock footage. This one ran today, and I'll post others once every Friday or so for a while.

cheers
mjt

A new blog?

I am toying with the idea of closing this blog down and starting a new one, or, at least, renaming this one. 

Why? Well, when I started the explosive-cargo ezine, all these years ago, the name fit. I was writing a column that was more or less funny, and which sought to slip a few “explosive” ideas in between the lines. There’s nothing particularly new or unusual in that. It’s sort of what people have always done when they’ve written about politics or society, particularly when they are trying to be comic about it.

But, now, that’s not the case. I’m not being funny any more, or not often. And, frankly, we no longer need explosives in our discourse. The bomb has long ago exploded. What we’re doing now is trying to pick up the pieces. 

So, maybe something new…

What is the antithesis of a firecracker? 

Judith Estrada Garcia's gallery (and my parents' collection)

My parents ran a little gallery after they retired. When they passed on, some of art came to me. I briefly thought about trying to sell them myself, but then, happily enough,  Judith Estrada Garcia kindly stepped in and offered to host the pieces at her gallery in Taylor, Texas. (Thanks so much Judith!)

Anyway, I thought I would share some pictures of the pieces on and off as they became available. Here’s one from William McGee. Judith did some research on him, and this is what she told me, “William McGee was a student at Black Mountain College in North Carolina (BMC)during the summer session of 1952. He studied painting with Jack Tworkov and Franz Kline, and was friendly with Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly who were also students at the college. Other people he mentions in his personal account titled "Some Memorable Personalities," which is included in the book Black Mountain College Sprouted Seeds edited by Mervin Lane, are the poet Charles Olson and the composer Stefan Wolpe.”

So do give Judith’s gallery a visit if you’re out Taylor-way. And, of course, you can see it on line here: https://estradagarciagallery.org/

Critter Ridder and Tabasco

I spent part of Saturday morning in the attic and on the roof with $40 worth of squirrel repellent—specifically, a bottle of a something called “Critter Ridder,” and a container of a powder that does the same thing.

Turns out they’re mostly hot peppers. It seems that squirrels and lots of other wee beasties hate the smell and taste of the stuff. (Basically, I spent the day dosing the house with Tabasco sauce.)

‘Course, given my luck, I’ll have the one squirrel in creation that’s a spicy foods freak. He’s probably up in the ceiling right now, munching on a ghost pepper and mixing up some margaritas to go along with a Chimichanga or two.

Bejing Scenes

An image from our trip to China in 2017...

copyright©2019 Michael Jay Tucker

Squirrels!

Phooey. Darn. And Pshaw.

We seem to have squirrels living in the attic. I’m not 100% sure but judging from the volley of scratches I heard early this morning, I’m guessing that we do, indeed, have guests. I’ll know more when I get up there later today.

One thing I hadn’t expected when I moved to Texas was the sheer aggressiveness of the wildlife. First it was the flies and mosquitoes. Then we jumped up to vertebrates, specifically deer. Even though this is a pretty settled suburb, the place is lousy with deer. Deprived of natural predators, and blessed with a high birthrate, they are everywhere now. And sometimes they can be a bit combative. The other day I saw one chasing a man down the street. No kidding. (I’ll tell the story later.)

Now it’s gawd dang homesteading squirrels.

At this rate I firmly expect that before the month is through, I’ll get mugged by a muskrat.

Sorry for the delay

Hey, All,

I know I promised that I'd be posting more here. And, frankly, I didn't. Sorry about that.

Things have just been really complicated here. Mostly good, but complicated.

I've already written about this, but I'll recap just to set the stage. Two months ago we moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the Austin-area. (Not Austin itself. Can't afford those kind of prices. But a town just a few miles away.)

The reason for our move? The usual one for people my age. Our son and daughter-in-law, and their brand new baby girl, live in Austin. They are basically the only family we have, except for some cousins who are miles away. And, now that my parents are gone, there wasn't much to keep us in New Mexico.

So, toward Texas we headed...

We rather like the area. Lots to do. Lots to see.

There are few small drawbacks. The traffic from our house to Austin itself is horrific. And the drivers here can be a little...um...confrontational. And then there's the awful heat, and the bugs.

And, finally, there is the little fact that Austin is a very young city. Lot of folks in their 20s and 30s are moving here to take advantage of the booming economy.

In fact, truth be told, I can walk into any cafe in the city and...all by myself...raise the average age of the crowd.

Ouch.

About Me

Hey, All,

So I've discovered that I need a place to identify myself and my various webpages. That being the case...here we go:

I am Michael Jay Tucker.

My Amazon Author's Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KI3I6E

My Vimeo (video) Page: https://vimeo.com/mjt1957

My Blog: http://explosive-cargo.blogspot.com/

My Behance Page: https://www.behance.net/mtucker57564d

And more is to come :-)

Birds of the Air, Beasts of the Field, Bugs of the Backyard

So one thing that I did not expect was the degree of bugginess here in Texas. Of course, it varies according to the time and the season. Right now, it’s a hot, muggy summer and the little bastards are uniquely active. We have spiders everywhere in the yard (I’ve destroyed two Brown Recluse nests already) and insects of all descriptions -- paper wasps, mud dauber wasps, mosquitos (my feet and legs are apparently considered an all-night buffet), and flies. Particularly flies.

The mosquito bites are painful, but it is the flies that are the biggest problem. We have a lovely backyard here, and we’d like to eat outside. But, the flies have been so plentiful and so aggressive that they’ve been driving us inside. The first time we tried to have dinner in the yard, we found the flies massing like a phalanx on the other side of the table from us. At any moment we expected to get mugged. I had visions of them grabbing the plates and flying off with them. Sort of UFO meets Yogi Bear’s picnic basket.

I tried to at least reduce their numbers by purchasing two traps. These are basically just plastic bags full of water plus some really foul smelling scent attractant. The flies get in but they can’t get out again. They drop eventually from heat and exhaustion and drown in the water.

We had one in Albuquerque and it worked well. It kept our backyard pretty clear of the nasty little brutes. So, I figured if I could got two for our yard here in Texas, we’d be fine. I mean, how could it miss?

Answer: by a country mile. Apparently Texas isn’t like New Mexico. Its supply of black flies is, it seems, infinite. Its reservoirs of pests cannot be plumbed by modern man. Or woman, for that matter. One of the traps I’ve got in the backyard now contains a layer of dead flies, floating in the water in the bag, that is fully an inch thick.  And they just keep coming.

I guess the only thing to do is to wait out the fly season. Maybe by September, we’ll be able to dine, again, al fresco, as opposed to Al Insect. But that leaves me the question of what to do with a bag full of drowned flies.

Here’s a thought. Austin has bridge which is famous for its bat colony. Maybe I could drop the flies off there as a sort of gift. You know…

Kinda like an insectivore-ish version of Grubhub. Except without tipping. And no App required.

IKEA Revisited

So Martha and I played newlyweds and visited IKEA yesterday. I say play newlyweds because that’s what the store feels like to me, a place where people just starting out go to find furniture which is nice enough, but not too expensive, and which will fit comfortably into a limited area.

We did get a couple of items, but we didn’t visit the store’s famous cafe. That’s because of the meatballs. I really, really, really don’t like Swedish meatballs. In fact, truth be told, I figure that’s why Sweden has known peace for 200 years. All you’d need is a cranky boy scout with a slingshot and a pile of meatballs, and nobody would dare invade.

Grand-Parentization

So far we have been surprisingly comfortable in Georgetown and in the new house. Though, the move, and the house, have required us to confront some things, and that has not always been particularly pleasant. For example, we are finally forced to do the serious downsizing that is at the heart of...for lack of a better term...grandparent-ization.

You see, this house is quite a bit smaller than the ones we’ve had before. Don’t get me wrong. It is very nice, but it is cozy. Where, for instance, we had four bedrooms, a living room, a den, and a sunroom in Albuquerque, now we have three bedrooms and a living room, but no den and no sunroom. Zillow puts our square footage in the new house at 1570, where-as the ABQ house had 2379 square feet.

This has made us rethink what we own and what we really want to keep. We have already divested ourselves of a good many pieces of furniture. Now we have to figure out what to do with our paintings, pictures, prints, and, particularly, our books.

That’s been tough, and it will get tougher, but the really difficult thing is in reconsidering who we are and what we need. Today we were unpacking the rest of our kitchenware -- plates, dishes, coffee cups, etc. And that brought us face to face with the fact that, well, we are no longer in need of the twenty or so wine glasses that we’ve had for years. Four will do quite nicely, even if we have company. The same is true for coffee cups. I have a small collection of them dating from back when I was a journalist and was always getting mugs from trade shows. But, again, why do I need them? Four cups is more than enough, particularly since I merrily wash the dishes in our brand new (and incredibly quiet) GE dishwasher every night.

Of course, it is easy enough for me to take those extra coffee cups and glasses and what have you, rewrap them  in the same paper the movers used to ship them here, put them back in a box, and take them into the garage...where they will remain until (if) we have an occasion to actually use them again. But the point is that things have charged. We are no longer at a place in our lives when we are likely to have large gatherings for reasons ranging from the personal to the professional. We will have “grand-parently” gatherings of smaller groups, or, if they are large, then they will probably be someplace other than here.

This is not a sad thing. But it is a marker. We have left one stage of our lives and gone to another. And transition, no matter how benign, is unsettling…

Not a Dish Washer, but you get the point.

So much has happened...

Like it says. A lot has happened.

I will try to record some of it, but not right now.