Travel Log #1
I’m warm and comfortable now. But there’s a noise. Cars idling. Diesel fumes. Oh! I’m inside a hotel. It’s dark. Let’s see...where’s the bathroom? The toilet? Uh ooh...it’s on THIS side. I’m slightly shocked to realize that I spend more nights in Motels than I do in my own home.
Travel Log #2
The passing scenery outside my window preserves the illusion of freedom, even though I am a prisoner in this cell on wheels...prisoner to my commitment to be 400 miles away by sundown.
How Big is Space?
This is an excerpt sequence from my film, Texas Trails and Tales. It illustrates a sombre contemplation of just how significant we humans, and even our planet, is within the immensity of the Universe.
Margaret From Texas
We met in College, dated for a time, and then went our separate ways. After 50 years we were re-united. This is a paean to her,
Bill Bacon
This morning, my Ole Buddy Bill Bacon concluded his conscious time on this Planet.
We traveled a lot of miles together…in Alaska, Sweden, Grand Canyon, the Caribbean…making films in all those places. The memories are voluminous.
Letter from Ireland
Although English is used in Ireland, it can sometimes come across as a quite foreign language to me. They speak rapidly, and the accent is distinct, pronounced, and different. Even to my unpracticed ear I can hear distinct differences in accent from region to region.
In Northern Ireland, for example, the English monetary system is still used. When I got my first cash from the ATM there, I asked a lady the value of a particular coin. “It’s a poont” , I heard her say. When she repeated the word for me I understood it as ‘poond’ and then I finally figured out that she was saying ‘pound!
Inquiring for the ATM was also enlightening. It’s called a “hole in the wall” in Northern Ireland. I could understand the cashier in the restaurant very well as he explained this to us. He in turn, was puzzled by the term ‘ATM’.
I had not really realized that the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are two separate countries. I’ve been aware of “the troubles” (as it’s called here) in Ireland since the 1950’s, but only in a vague way. In simple terms it’s a struggle between Irish people who want to be a separate Nation, and those who wish to maintain strong links to England.
Historically the English treated the Irish people quite harshly, and the resentment about that still simmers…somewhat like Civil War sentiments in our own Country. Of course, here it often breaks down along religious lines, with Catholics wanting separation from Protestant England and Protestants favoring strong ties.
We have found many Irish people to be quite politically aware. Many of them seem to know all about politics in American and can even name some of our politicians. (Can you name the president of the Republic of Ireland? Or any president of any Country, other than the U.S.?) Bill Clinton is greatly admired over here, while Donald Trump is not. We’ve encountered quite a few people who are ready and willing to speak out on this subject.
Everywhere we’ve gone we’ve found the Irish people to be most friendly and extremely polite. I’ve wondered if extreme politeness may not be necessary in a land which has experienced so much internal strife. Politeness has become a way to circumvent trouble before it starts, perhaps.
In many of the smaller towns and villages there may not be a restaurant. Food is usually served in bars and pubs in these locations and can range from mediocre to very good on occasion. With our American view of bars, I was surprised however (almost amazed), to see a small collection box in some pubs and bars for missions collections, i.e. collections for missionary activities sponsored by the local church. To my Protestant eye this seemed quite incongruous, but illustrates the different way in which bars are used here. They are very much a social gathering place for the community and entire families may be found there on some evenings.
It rains in Ireland. During the time we’ve been here we had only partial days of sunshine…about 4 half-days for the month we’ve been here. If praying for sunshine will do any good, we have plenty of help. All of Ireland is sick of rain.
Ireland was an unexpectedly beautiful Country. I guess because of the constancy of the rain, even in drier years, it truly is an ‘Emerald Isle’. The fields marked by hedgerows or divided by stone fences present bucolic views every minute of every journey. (Except that the hedgerows often prevent any distant view for a few miles at times.) Trees are often allowed to grow right over the narrow roads and trimmed from below. This forms a charming ‘tunnel’ through the trees that can be most enchanting to drive through.
Driving is done on the left here. The left lane is the ‘slow’ lane when there are 4 lane ‘carriageways’. The car on the right always has the right-of-way.
China Rising
As youngsters we heard, “....if you drill straight down through the Earth you would come out in China”. That comprised just about the sum total of our knowledge of China. Perhaps the improvement in knowledge since then has been slight.
We all know of our foreign aid program for China. Not a Congressional act, but enormous amounts of U.S. dollars to China, sent through the conduit of Walmart.
At least some of the rise of the middle class in China can be attributed to our purchases of low-cost goods, although there are other reasons for the remarkable growth of their economy in the past three decades.
One American tourist remarked recently that what China has achieved in 20 years took the U.S. a 100 years to accomplish. He was referring to the upscale, modernist look of Shanghai with it’s 24 million people: four times larger than NY City.
There are 3000 buildings in Shanghai that are higher than 30 stories, and the Shanghai World Financial Tower tops out at 121 stories.
There are eight lane highways through the City and traffic seems to fill them all. This is true in all the cities I visited.
China does indeed have cars...lots of cars. There are at least 20 Chinese companies that manufacture autos, and many of the World’s auto builders also make or assemble cars in China: companies such as General Motors, Chrysler, Audi, Volvo, Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, and others. Last year (2013) more cars were purchased in China than were purchased in the U.S. You can see the manifestation of that buying spree in the traffic.
We often use the term ‘unbelievable’ in our conversation, but traffic in China truly is ‘unbelievable’ to our American sensibilities. Vehicles casually pull in front of other drivers with impunity, trusting that the driver behind won’t actually crash into him. In our Country a driver would be outraged at such an act, and you might possibly get shot for such an action here. But in China, drivers just ebb and flow ‘with the traffic’ as it were, and everyone accepts such driving behavior with equanimity. Even bicycle riders will pull out into pretty heavy traffic with calm assurance that no one will do them in.
In the same way that you and I will walk through a crowded shopping mall or airport, sort of making way for other people, giving a bit here, or taking a quick step forward to avoid colliding there, so goes the flow of auto traffic in China. But it’s a sphincter tightening experience for us to engage in or to watch as an American driver.
I learned that China has more millionaires than any other nation. The richest woman in the World is a Chinese lady who has built a fortune on recycled waste from America. However, as you will sur- mise, there are still many Chinese at the very low end of the economic scale. But a rising middle class is upending the traditional view of China as a very poor country.
In one upscale mall there were items that most Americans couldn’t afford to purchase. An ordinary living room chair, for example, might cost $6000. The upscale has gone very upscale in some sectors of China and such retail outlets seem to be thriving there,
I had expected China to be sort of a dirty place with littered streets. Not true. Not true today. At five in the morning, street sweepers will be working the streets of the major cities I visited. In Harbin for instance, one of the smaller cities of China (eight and a half million, but still larger than NY City), after the streets were swept, motorized tank trucks would pass through, washing the streets. This continued throughout the day.
In the northeast part of China we traveled to the Heilongjiang Province, a major agricultural region. We were almost to the border of Russian Siberia. Driving through this area reminds one of traveling in Iowa, with vast reaches of corn fields and soybean fields.
It is still a region of small farmers who have a plot of land to farm, but the farmers live collectively in villages scattered throughout the province. Some larger farms are being developed now however, and we visited a 40 thousand acre enterprise where modern farming equipment is being used in ways similar to what is done in the U.S. John Deere has a large plant in this region and is looking toward a growing and expanding market for their products.
There are virtually no fat people in China. I suppose we always attributed that to the notion of many poor people in China. But there is a distinctly affluent class now, and they remain unfattened, so to speak. There seems to be an abundance of food today, but the the diet is different than we are accustomed to.
There is very little meat in Chinese cuisine. They use almost no sugar, but lots of vegetables. Even when meat is served, it is usually mixed in a vegetable dish. In a Chinese restaurant there may be 20 dishes on the lazy susan in the center of the table and most will be vegetarian, or rice and tofu. Some meat is served of course, and it is most often small portions of pork. For American tourists, there will be exceptions.
Everywhere there are tourists by the hundreds. They are Chinese tourists: not so many are foreigners. The Chinese in great numbers are visiting all the monuments and historic places in China today. On the Great Wall (which the Chinese call the Long Wall) people are everywhere...Chinese tourists.
The Great Wall is about 4000 miles long, stretching from the Yellow Sea, or the East China Sea, to the western barrens where the Wall is now almost unnoticeable, almost indistinguishable in the landscape. In those far reaches of China the Wall is now only a few feet high in some places, it’s stones and brick having been scavenged for other building projects.
North of the Capital of Beijing it has been restored and this is the part of the Wall most often visited.
You may have heard that the Great Wall is the only man-made object visible from the Moon. Not true. It’s not as wide as a four lane highway and there are many other man-made structures that are larger.
China is now the second largest economy and still expanding. It’s rate of growth is slowing now to single digit percentages rather than the double digit rate it has sustained for two decades. It is still a Country worth watching, and a Country worth knowing. A fascinating People with a vibrancy, hunger and ambition to make things happen.
Assassin Bug
While filling my auto gas tank recently, I saw an insect moving around on the pavement. A large insect, about an inch and a half in length.
He navigated around a metal support beam next to my car, and was obviously in a repugnant and dangerous environment for him. He began to climb up on the metal housing of the gas pump.
So, I collected him into a paper coffee cup, covered it with a napkin secured with a rubber band, and brought him home.
In the studio, I brought in a cotton plant I had growing in a pot for another project and set it up in front of a large photo of a cotton field I had made earlier in the season.
He turns out to be an assassin bug, sometimes known as a wheel bug because of the unique shape of the extrusion on the thorax. He is a welcome presence for gardeners because he eats harmful insects, such as aphids, tomato worms, caterpillars, etc.
He’s a fearsome looking creature, with curved dagger-like mouth parts folded up underneath the head. It is these that he will stab into an insect and inject into it a dissolving fluid which then allows him to suck in the liquefied parts into his own digestive system. His bite can hurt, but isn’t seriously threatening. As you will see, he can fly.