What (Else) I'm Reading ...

Two things have caught my attention recently ... One, 'The End', by Michael Lewis of 'Moneyball' and 'Liars Poker' fame actually explains, in English, how the large banks and financial companies have come to be where they are today. It was passed to me by one of my clients and I have shared it with friends and relatives who have been as stunned by it as I was ... It'll take about 20 minutes or so, but it lays it all out there .... read it and weep ...

2/25/09 The recent Wired magazine has a cover story called 'The Secret Formula That Destroyed Wall Street' that is another in the "I can't believe this really happened' series ... It's online now (3/14) ... A highlight .... "At the end of 2001, there was 920 billion in credit default swaps outstanding. By the end of 2007, that number had skyrocketed to more than $62 trillion. " How's that again ??? How many trillion? Whoa... we might be done for ...

On a happier and equally fascinating note, I recently read the new Malcolm Gladwell book, 'Outliers'. Mr. Gladwell has written two others, also in my local library, "Blink' and 'The Tipping Point'. 'Outliers' is a relatively quick read that purports to explain what forces laid the groundwork for folks like Bill Gates, The Beatles and Asian math students to succeed and excel in what they do, and how certain coincidental circumstances often contributed to that sucess. It's the little things that count according to Mr. gladwell, and after reading his book, I agree. I now think about how I ended up doing what I'm doing, (total coincidence) why I like it (meaningful work) and how I got good at it (The 10,000 Hour Rule). Check it out .... Great ending ...

PLUS ... You can never go wrong with a Robert Parker book... Will and I read 'Apaloosa' a couple weeks ago after Will saw the movie ... and I'm reading 'Gunman's Rhapsody' now, a historical fiction of the life of Wyatt Earp ... If your local library is like mine, they got about 25 of 'em. The guy is a master of witty and funny dialog ...

why we make things, and why it matters

hmmmm ... i think peter korn has been looking over my shoulder for the last 40 years ... and, he has the way with words to get what he has been seeing down on paper so i can understand some of the things that flit through my brain just below my level of consciousness ... like things i try to verbalize sometimes when people ask me about how or why i started making furniture , and 'do i like it as much as i seem to'? etc .. i didn't always know how to answer those questions, but now, some of it has kind of been explained it to me through mr. korn's book.  my friends bill and steve and pete and all the other folks i know who have been struggling through making a living as furniture makers, builders, potters, glass blowers, masons and sculptors for the last 35 years, are part of a cultural thing, and, as mr. korn says, most craftspeople he knows 'kind of stumbled into the party' while they were looking for 'a good life'.  amen to that.  in the 60s and 70s we were in fact searching.  'back to the land' .. 'self sufficiency' .. 'organic gardening' with sam ogden ... 'living the good life' with helen and scott nearing .. an alternative path to the life most people the generation before us, (our parents), were living.

when i started as a carpenter in 1973, like peter, i was fascinated by the problem solving aspects of the job. then the dexterity and skill thing relating to quality added another level of challenge and interest.  from there, it took just one short lay off from my carpentry job in 1979 to transition to full time furniture making, and ultimately, the good life i was seeking.  i have been lucky, i am the first to admit.  building stuff has been very good to me.  i have had the benefit of a supportive family and community, and amazingly, a steady supply of wonderful and interesting clients.  i have worked hard for sure, but it's never really, and still doesn't really, feel exactly like 'work' .. it's just what i do, and how my life goes.  peter's path was similar to mine to start, but along the way, after experiencing a bout with cancer, and a typical struggle to make a living building furniture, his path moved away from furniture design and building, and into education and school building.  but, his roots are my roots.  his background thoughts are my background thoughts.  the 'engaged pursuit of quality' is a rewarding pursuit that as furniture makers, or any other kind of artist or artisan, we get to buck up to everyday.  in my humble opinion, the 'engaged pursuit of quality' is a concept for everyone to pursue daily in his or her field of endeavor.  it's a great concept.

i also like what peter has to say about design, and how 'it begins with two things, the intention to create and a problem to be solved'.  and how it is a 'skill like any other' and can be learned, which i can attest to personally, as i had not a clue about design when i started making stuff ... kit was the one with eye, and she painstakingly taught me how to 'see' ... four years of college and a degree, and not one single art course.  design can be learned, and some people take to it more easily than others for sure, but if you put in your time and choose your references carefully, you can most likely find you own voice.

another thing peter discusses that is important to me now is that as his focus changed from furniture making to school making, his work changed from 'working with things to working with words', and one of his biggest surprises was 'how much he took to writing'.  that has also been a surprise to me too after 700+ posts and six years of writing this blog.  i spent 16 years getting a formal education, during which i avoided writing pretty much at all costs.  now, for me, as for him, it is just 'another medium through which we think'.  as peter mentions for himself, (now that he has pointed it out), 'working with wood, words, (and for me the five other people in my shop), are all different forms of the same essential endeavor'.  anyway, the book is a good read if you're looking to think about why we make stuff and why that is a good and important process.  friends who have attended his school have good things to say about it, and at some point, i am planning to pay him a visit up there on the coast of maine ... enjoy!  you may not fold over as many pages as i did, but there is something there for everyone ...

more info, more book reviews, and interviews at this link

and lastly on the 'why we make things' subject, i remember reading something recently that bono said in rolling stone regarding lou reed's passing.  i can't find the exact quote, but he said something about lou like this:

 'the nice thing about people who spend their whole life making things is that 

after they go, we still have the things'. 

2/13/14 .. found it ... here's the actual quote

tell the story

i'm gonna leave this here for a minute and come back to it later.

it's an important thought and i don't want to lose it, (again).
my apologies for the bad image.  i'll have to borrow the book again.

ok, i'm back ... below is my attempt at on observation on the letter above:

so kurt vonnegut is one of my favorites.  like my father, he was caught up in world war II and made the best of it.  in kurt's case, you might say he made a career of it, and i go back to his books from time to time for his insightful writing and sense of humor.  i recently read the book of his collected letters, and while some are mundane, others are brilliant and totally make me stop and think .. the one above is a good one. click it to enlarge it an hopefully read it ... others are below at the end of this post.

what to make of the letter above.  hmmm  ..  i am a member of the the guild of vermont furniture makers, a group with 30 or so members throughout the state.  .. kate pace owns and runs a company called 'route 7 social' that is engaged in helping small businesses like ours market their products.  the guild recently received some state money in a grant designed to increase business activity and job creation, and we engaged her services to use social media to help us do that.   after imploring, (without much success), the list of suspects to add content to our guild of vermont furniture makers blog  , she has more or less taken over the production, (writing), and promotion of that web address.  in that effort she is visiting and profiling all thirty artists in their studios.   i had an interesting conversation with her on thursday, when it was our turn.   one of her observations from visits with other makers are that many of them describe themselves as 'not into self promotion', and 'want to let their work speak for itself'.  that's all well and good, and i understand completely.  but often, objects themselves don't have all that much to say and just sit there quietly, waiting to be 'discovered' ...  as kurt points out, "people capable of loving some paintings or etchings or whatever can rarely do this without knowing something about the artist."  so without the story, as kurt suggests above, 'there goes the ballgame right there'.  i agree that the object is only one half of the conversation.   i'm often curious why i write what i write and why i actually enjoy and look forward to doing it, and have come to the not unsurprising conclusion that, while it is not for everyone, i have a story to tell about the stuff we make, and sharing that story gives me some sense that what i am doing has an audience and is part of a dialog.  so, my humble advice to other artists is to 'tell your story'.  there's nothing more deflating in my experience than to drop off a piece, have the client say here's your check, thank you, see you later..  there's more to the ballgame than that.

think briefly about the 'famous funriture makers' .. krenov, wendel castle, nakashima, garry knox bennet ... while their work 'spoke for itself', they all spoke up for it too ... picasso, jasper johns, ai weiwei, story tellers all ..

some more of kurt's letters .. click the photos to enlarge them ..

 'we may end up miles from here' .. love it

one of the more poignant ones above, on the draft ...

and, on quitting smoking ...
and, last nut not leasgt

 

one of kate's photos from her visit thursday .. good one!

John Updike Has Left The Building

A man of words and culture has passed on. As a reader with a wide range, I haven't focused on his novels but was often entertained when I encountered his short stuff on golf, manners, and everyday life. I posted a short excerpt back in July which I will repost here in his honor and add a link to a thought provoking sort of short story from the New Yorker ... Worth a read if you like short fiction ...

His way of looking and writing about everyday life is a skill I admire and his often thoughtful critcisms of art and literature as well as his precise and wordy sense of humor are usually worth a read if you bump into them.

Here's the golf story ... click to enlarge it for better reading ...

And from yesterday's Times.... a more eloquent summary

perfect

well, building a new building, or for that matter, a new piece of furniture, or, in fact, building anything requires that we have a vision in our mind when we start.  usually, that vision assumes that we can execute our concepts perfectly, there will be no flaws, and that we will be 100% happy with our progress as we work.  not often the case. throughout the building process, and particularly,  as we approach the final few weeks before sam moves into his new metal shop, we have been "encouraged" by a number of realities that often rear their ugly heads to make some compromises.  don't get me wrong, i am THRILLED with everyone's efforts on this building from the first shovel full of earth to the last board nailed up on friday, but i have often worked on projects with more substantial budgets of $ and time, and therefore know this one could have been 'better'.  maybe.  we could have used the new, more efficient spray foam insulation ... +$2000 at least.  we could have gone for the fancier door units that i saw when i first entered the window and door showrom at miles ... +$8000., the next level up of windows ... $2500., and we could have finished the upstairs this year and been done with it ... + who knows? $15,000.?  more?  as mr. cheek's article from the times above mentions, we have arrived in the land of mr. wither's 'all right', and, as always, we're happy to be there. her's a link to the times article online if you can't read the one above.

 land of 'all right' .. fits into the existing landscape ok ... one of my builder friends commented that 'it will look like it's always been there'.  good enough for me ..

 where we are as of today ... i had always envisioned a pair of formal 'entablature like trim details' like the one on the main shop, but i personally never got around to executing them before matt and nat arrived there friday with the siding.  they were always 'off budget' items that i was going to add in on some weekend or other, with some sweat equity, but as we were all studying the situation friday, off the list they went .. move on ... 'all right'..

so, in the end, we did 'pretty good' .. the doors can open wide for work in the summer, check.  radiant heat in the concrete floor, check ... slate roof to match the other buildings, check, no posts in the main work area, check ... up to code wiring and welding fume exhaust .. check, soon ... we've definitely arrived in mr. wither's 'land of all right'.

for more of mr.cheek's thoughts on boat building, see this link 

his writing is full of little gems of observation, like the one below... food for thought.

"Mr. Greenley was never perturbed about a mistake; he simply set about finding the most efficient fix. He understood intuitively that surges of negative emotion not only interfere with problem-solving; they also get built into the object you’re working on."

and for a few interesting thoughts on moving your thninking skills forward, try this article in the new yorker from atul gawande ...

i'm back (sort of) ... spring in vermont

well, when it's springtime in vermont, you can't expect tooooo  much writing from me ... i do have a couple of good posts coming up, but i haven't quite gotten around to getting them together just yet.  soon, i suspect, like maybe tomorrow.  maybe.  if it rains or something.  maybe ... here's a sampler of what it's like outside here now ... like i said.  spring.  click the pictures to enlarge them ...

 you got your grass to mow ... nice change from the snow ...

 you got your hoseshoes to set up

 you got your magnolias ..

 and your phoebe nest ...

 and your fishin'...  sam with a big one from the mettawee ..

 your tulips  ...

and your wood to stack ... all done now ..

your big fat 800+ page book to read ... 400 years of natural history, well written.

your golf to play ... been out a bunch of times ... 

and so much more.

and oh yeah,  we still have to work ... we've been working on the new designs.  heading into it big time on monday ... more soon ... dan

"design matters" ... george walker

there's a lot to read about woodworking in the big old online world.  since i know from their comments that a lot of my readers are woodworkers, i think it only appropriate that i occasionally point out other worthwhile writers to ponder .. george walker is one whose musings i enjoy from time to time ... 'design matters' is his cleverly named and  nicely written contribution to the knowledge stream.  i encourage you to add it to your list.  i was particularly inspired by his recent post on 'learning to see', a subject i know i have commented on from time to time.  enjoy ...

those dam beavers!

i forgot about this one until i stumbled across in my email a minute ago :
and i am, originally, from pennsylvania ...

You’ll probably enjoy this, especially if you are from  Pennsylvania.

This is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries regarding a pond on his property. It was sent by the PennsylvaniaDepartment of Environmental Quality, State ofPennsylvania . This guy's response is hilarious, but read the State's letter before you get to the response letter, you won't stop once you start.  This guy is good! This is an actual letter: State of Pennsylvania 's letter to Mr. DeVries:  SUBJECT: DEQ ... File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec 20; Lycoming County Dear Mr. DeVries: It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity: Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond. A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity. A review of the Department's files shows that no permits have been issued Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated. The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris and flooding at downstream locations.. We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist all activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the stream channel. All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31, 2010. Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff. Failure to comply with this request or any further unauthorized activity on the site may result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action.. We anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter. Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions. Sincerely,  David L. Price District Representative and Water Management Division.  Here is the actual response sent back by Mr. DeVries:  Re: DEQ File No.. 97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County Dear Mr. Price, Your certified letter dated 11/17/09has been handed to me. I am the legal landowner but not the Contractor at 2088 Dagget Lane , Trout Run, Pennsylvania . A couple of beavers are in the process of constructing and maintaining two wood 'debris' dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond. While I did not pay for, authorize, nor supervise their dam project, I think they would be highly offended that you call their skillful use of natures building materials 'debris.' I would like to challenge your department to attempt to emulate their dam project any time and/or any place you choose. I believe I can safely state there is no way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their dam work ethic. These are the beavers/contractors you are seeking. As to your request, I do not think the beavers are aware that they must first fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this type of dam activity. My first dam question to you is: (1) Are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers, or (2) Do you require all beavers throughout this State to conform to said dam request? If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, through the Freedom of Information Act, I request completed copies of all those other applicable beaver dam permits that have been issued. (Perhaps we will see if there really is a dam violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.) I have several dam concerns. My first dam concern is, aren't the beavers entitled to legal representation? The Spring Pond Beavers are financially destitute and are unable to pay for said representation -- so the State will have to provide them with a dam lawyer. The Department's dam concern that either one or both of the dams failed during a recent rain event, causing flooding, is proof that this is a natural occurrence, which the Department is required to protect. In other words, we should leave the Spring Pond Beavers alone rather than harassing them and calling them dam names. If you want the damed stream 'restored' to a dam free-flow condition please contact the beavers -- but if you are going to arrest them, they obviously did not pay any attention to your dam letter, they being unable to read English. In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green and water flows downstream. They have more dam rights than I do to live and enjoy Spring Pond. If the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection lives up to its name, it should protect the natural resources (Beavers) and the environment (Beavers' Dams). So, as far as the beavers and I are concerned, this dam case can be referred for more elevated enforcement action right now. Why wait until 1/31/2010? The Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice by then and there will be no way for you or your dam staff to contact/harass them. In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention to a real environmental quality, health, problem in the area It is the bears! Bears are actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be persecuting the defecating bears and leave the beavers alone. If you are going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your dam step! The bears are not careful where they dump! Being unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam office. THANK YOU, RYAN DEVRIES & THE DAM BEAVERS

trout fishing in america

well,  what can i say ... i was trying to rehab my insulted rotor cuff at the pool table in my cellar the other night, but it was too much for me.  i sat down and started pulling things out of a bookcase at the end of the table.  hadn't checked it out in years. 'trout fishing in america' by richard brautigan caught my eye and i remembered what a trippy little read it was... inspirational as a creative writing example.  this guy was something.  it's been a long debate about exacty what kind of something he was, but for a couple hours you can really be entertained.  below are just two examples of the 40 or so short essays available in its 112, five and a quarter x 8 inch, pages.  catch it if you can ... click the pages to read them ...

 

and in case you were wondering ... i give you here, the 'mayonaise chapter'.

found some old 35 mm slides too ... we'll get to them later ..

imagine

so i finished this book a couple of weeks ago. i read a review of it somewhere, i don't remember exactly where, but i thought i would like it. i'm interested in how the mind works, as mine often seems such a mystery to me. aha moments and all. i've read other books on thinking and drawing and memory and i almost always seem to come away with something, at least temporarily. usually temporarily. but i have acquired a personal design library. a lot of the good stuff i like is in there and i think i'll add this one to it. i asked the librarian to buy it, which she was kind enough to do, but she also asked me to write a review of it, which this kind of will be. i'm sure it's more than she's looking for, but the book was more than i was looking for too ... anyway, you can see from my postits (there's a section on inventing them in here) that i thought some of it was important. i go to the library on saturdays and i'm late with it. i spent a half hour reviewing my postits, and now, here i am writing. i'm trying to hit the highlights. click the images to enlarge them ...
hold it up over your head when you need it ...
early on he talks about dylan and how he wrote like a rolling stone. well, actually in an interview with ed bradley that i was lucky enough to see when it ran, (you can see it here), dylan says he 'didn't actually write it'. it was a bit of 'penetrating magic', or as mr. lehrer says, it was like a ghost writing that song.
in the 60 ,minutes interview, bradley asks bob about that and can he still write like that? dylan famously responds something like 'you can't do something forever; i did it once, and i can do other stuff now, but i can't do that.' ... insight, inspiration, the creative process; always a mystery to me, even after this book.
next we spend some time with milton glaser, a titan in the world of graphic design, who discusses drawing and thinking and the fact that 'art is work'. amen. he also hits on the subject of 'drawing as thinking', a concept dear to my heart .. i wrote about that myself in 2009.
but then next, we have to think about stuff to get creative ... kind of absorb it all, let it rattle around in the brain and let the subconscious (right side of the brain) blend it all together for you and spit it out, someitmes fully formed, or not. that's where the work comes in.
and then, we talk with more musicians like yo yo ma, the cellist and brief discussion of emotion, and performance, grounded in acquired skills and then the risk of creativity, the casting aside of perfection, which brings to mind a couple of our favorite phrases 'perfectly executed' as in dead. 'the perfect is the enemy of the good' ,,, stuff like that. from there mr lehrer goes on to pixar and 'toy story', 3m and postits, a visit with david byrne and a discussion about 'letting other stuff in' as an inspiration. this guy is rangy ... i loved it .
and towards the end, he reinforces one of my main touchstones, the sharing of ideas. in our shop, we have the phrase 'all of us are smarter than one of us', and here lehrer reinforces that truth ... i could go on and on, and i have, but i think personally, for me, this is an important book. other people will disagree, and i have read at least one fairly critical review. fortunately, a book is different for everyone; maybe it will work for you, maybe it's not your cup of tea. try and get it from your library first ...

i leave you with two last thoughts
and

angle of repose

i read a book by wallace stegner a few years back called 'angle of repose' ... everytime i see a pile of dirt or sawdust like this one, i enjoy thinking about the term ...

from wikipedia "Explanation of the Novel's Title

The title is an engineering term for the angle at which soil finally settles after, for example, being dumped from a mine as tailings. It seems to describe the loose wandering of the Ward family as they try to carve out a civilized existence in the West and, Susan hopes, to return to the East as successes. The story details Oliver's struggles on various mining, hydrology, and construction engineering jobs, and Susan's adaptation to a hard life."
a good read, and an enjoyable, thought provoking, though only very occasionally, useful term ....

Tom Peters' Blog

I've known Tom Peters, the 'In Search of Excellence' guy, for 10 years or so, since he married a friend of mine back in the 90's. Lately, I've been reading other stuff that's out there on the web and I think his blog is one of the best for business related thinking ... It never fails to make me at least just stop for a minute (or laugh), and reflect on what's going on in the world, what I'm doing in it, and how I'm doing it. Soooo ... If you're in the mood for reflection (and who isn't these days) check out his blog here.. While I was reading there, he had a link to this inspirational and thought provoking post 'Nine Predictions for 2009' by Tom Asacker. All good reading ... enjoy! ....

and he claims he's innocent ...