You probably don't want to explore this section unless you know me, or want to. You might find the stained glass or architecture sections more entertaining. If you live in the Norfolk-Virginia Beach Area, you might find my Study of Light Rail and the Quality of Life more edifying.

I have a large number of short comments on films at the Internet Movie Database. An index of them can be found here. I get positive feedback on these.

I've written a book, which is ambitious in terms of new ideas and perspectives. Accompanying this work were many presentations to people unfamiliar with the ideas. They did not want to hear about new ideas in their pure form. Most people do not, I was surprised to learn. They want stories.

So I conducted a personal project to learn the art of telling a story in such a way that you do not compromise real content. Most stories waste the opportunity, and entertain without communicating. Here are some exercises from that project. They are pretty personal. These were all read at the monthly "coffeehouse" gatherings of some good friends.

Marching

Marching. Some stories are created to be read by eye, and some aloud. My first exercise was a story to read aloud. The idea was to develop a fabric within the story that was about the act of coordinating and directing for a short time the imaginations of a room of people, to get their minds to march in step. It is reflexive--intended to be about the group mind and to create a group mind for a few minutes.

A Love Story

Love Story. Stories are concerned with story, characters and language. This exercise is concerned with the second. The challenge was to completely omit the story component and yet to be whole just using the other two. It is about myself and my wife of 30 years.

A New Jabberwocky

A New Jabberwocky. A focus on language--As part of a large project (GeoKabbalitter), I've been studying Lewis Carroll and the Beatles. Lewis as a child was very concerned with the state of the English language, which is an unlikely mix of French and Saxon. Carroll (actually his father) believed that the Saxon words had a magical power and the French were effete. So Carroll wrote a poem about eliminating the French words. French sounds are Frumious, whiffling and such. A "wock" is a Celtic wise man, "Jabber wock" his talk.(Victorians widely confused Saxon and Celtic influence.) The joke is that Carroll sets on his mission and kills the false wise men, only to find his father using the French words as well (frabjous, callooh), so he gets worked up again, presumably to kill his dad. John Lennon made his own version. As did I. All three are given here.

Left at Camp

Left at Camp. This is rather longish. The idea here was to weave several parallel narratives into one present.

On the Way to Gaudi

On the Way to Gaudi. As research for GeoKabbalitter2, I made a pilgrimage to perhaps the best piece of architecture in the world, a small, unfinished church outside Barcelona. The exercise here was to work journalistically.

Dangerous Chihuly

Dangerous Chihuly. This is another piece of interior journalism about perception.