posted

Marlin #3

30 June 1978 — Uh-oh, another age away. again, much has transpired ≈ 12,000 miles and many people later. I’m lying in my bunk now on Marlin Drilling Co. Rig #3 ≈ 150 miles due south of New Orleans. Today I slept in the car after arriving late in the evening (last) on a cruise from Colorado (only 1300 mi.). Awoke with the sun & proceeded to organize the car (& examine what damage my dropped muffler did to the car — messed up some frame molding on the bottom rear): drag — will have to get a new muffer (muffler!) next week on my first day off before I head to Anderson, SC & Richard’s place for our annual Chattooga River outing. The chopper left ≈ 0900 — I took a few photos (color). finally got to the rig & got started w/ work around 1030 — had to unload that 8″ casing since they’ve almost finished the latest hole. It was fairly easy — Albert & I upstairs & Robert & Jim on the boat w/ Peewee in the crane. Val was up rough-necking for the week, so he was unavailable.

approach, Marlin #3, Gulf of Mexico, July 1978

The trip to Colorado was more or less unpremeditated — was going to spend the week at the beach!

Went straight to Mike, Phil & Nat’s apartment up at Golden Ridge (arrived Saturday June 24th in the morning). pretty much surprised everyone. Spent the evening catching up. Got hold of my room-mate, Charlie, finally after getting myself evicted from my own apartment for having hair that was too long (the Landlady says, we don’t like yer kind).

I don’t feel like writing, if you know what I mean.

But let me summarize what I’ve got to cover before I split ↓ (over)

posted
  • place: Golden - Pueblo, Colorado

Vernon Holloway 1958 – 1977

Vern was my friend and next-door neighbor in Thomas Hall, 2nd floor, at the Colorado School of Mines during our freshman year. This portrait is from the day the semester was done and Vern was leaving for home in Pueblo, Colorado.

portrait, Vern, Golden, Colorado, May 1977

A day later he was diagnosed with terminal leukemia. I saw him next in a casket in Pueblo, a shadow. [ed: the following from the journal 30 September 1977]:

Well, it seems for the time being I have lost my somewhat atrophied ability to recollect the rest of August, so I’ll turn my mind to more recent events. The most tragic thing recently that happened to me, or, more correctly, that involved me, was Vern’s death. When I got back to school, Mike told me that Vern had gotten leukemia — he found out the day he got home from school in May. Spent the whole summer in the hospital, undergoing chemotherapy and all that kind of stuff. The weekend of 20 September, I think, Mike had gone down to visit him — reported back that he was doing very well — that he might even be able to go home for awhile. They had a good time listening to tunes and so on. Mike talked about him a lot. Well, it seems that on 27 September, Vern died. He was really doped up and that with the chemo was too much for his system to handle. more “Vernon Holloway 1958 – 1977”

posted
  • place: en route Anderson, South Carolina - Clarksburg, Maryland

road-trip

Well, got back from SC early this afternoon after a great drive. We stopped at 6:30 AM to see Cathy Barbano in Chapel Hill. She was surprised, though now quite awake. She has a really nice dorm — on the 7th floor, private bath, etc. Only stayed 1/2-hour & continued on home. Really had an excellent time at the Thomson’s — they’re a great family.

Yesterday (19 August) we (Karen, me, Richard & Randy (& John & Brian – a couple guys from UNC who we ran into)) canoed Section 3 of the Chattooga River. We left Anderson around 7:00 AM after forgetting our food, etc., & headed for the SC/GA border. After an enjoyable 1-1/2 hour drive (we took 2 cars — Richard’s VW & mine with the canoe), with Randy & Richard shooting bottle rockets at Karen & I). We made it to the outfitters. We met Brian & John there by chance & they teamed up with us, fortunately, since single canoes are not allowed to attempt Section 3. John had been down two times previously.

Good thing, as we probably would not have survived some of the Class IV rapids and a couple water falls that we had to portage around. The take-out had a cool chute where the whole river went through a place only a few feet wide. Richard was the first to seat-drop into it and then over a small waterfall into a huge pool. Everyone else followed, wild!

posted
  • place: Anderson, South Carolina

road-trip

Well, just visited Clemson—Richard’s alma mater (in January). It ended up that Randy and I decided to leave on Tuesday evening and drive all night. Needless to say, we’re having a really wild trip. Took the Bug—and the canoe. I again had the passenger’s seat out and replaced it with a bean-bag chair, extremely comfortable. The trip (drive) itself was not outstanding, but as we hit SC, we decided to stop at the Welcome Center to get a picture. They sure know how to welcome people. The hostess was beautiful and not over 20. She was really nice—her accent was truly alluring. We conversed or a short time—loved every minute of it.

Today, Richard is at transfer student orientation at Anderson College, Karen is at work, Mrs. T. is at the library with Scot, and Randy is outside playing b-ball with Loren.

posted

VEC Audio CD 0004 The Fallowfield Dilemma

VEC Audio CD 0004 The Fallowfield Dilemma
VEC Audio CD 0004 The Fallowfield Dilemma

1. FALLOWFIELD Written & read by Rod Summers 1977.

2. FALLOWFIELD ALSO Written & read by Rod Summers 1978.

3. FALLOWFIELD IN SPACE Written by Rod Summers 1979. Sonorization by Tom Winter 1993.

posted
  • place: Golden, Colorado

self-portrait with Collin, end of the frosh year

self-portrait with Collin, end of freshman year @ CSM, Golden, Colorado, May 1977

I think I got the sequence backwards — parked in front of Thomas Hall, Collin, having aced all his finals, was definitely packing up and heading back home to Gunnison in his venerable Toyota truck at the end of that first grueling year at Mines. Dig those ’70s Show shoes! I won’t comment on my grades … and I was heading back to Washington, D.C., first a job at Solarex, fabricating early photovoltaic chips; followed by a more lucrative graveyard-shift ‘mucking’ job in a local gravel mine.

posted

VEC Audio CD 0005 Scratch Symphony 1976

VEC Audio CD 0005 Scratch Symphony 1976
VEC Audio CD 0005 Scratch Symphony 1976

A Live Audio Event in Five Movements

this is the original scratch symphony
from vec audio’s first best room
to uher Royal live
no poking around at that def wave
in more ram than herr zuse ever dreamed of
scratch is about
getting together and making a noise
no pointing and clicking
til your eyeballs plop into your cold empty cup
and there’s no more feeling in the digits
scratch is about
booting from a fun partition
so remain happy
and spin the scratch
which is about just doing it
— t.w.

no sampler no midi no dolby no dub no remix no baseball cap on backwards

Featuring Seven Performers
coen eckhardt * jenne van eeghen * det huijbers * john miesen * rod summers * tom winter * lisette wissen

Twenty-Three Sound Sources
steel ruler*nanciphone*sheep-bell*chinese flute*musical box*soprano recorder*chromatic harmonica c*blues harps e and f crockery*hohner orkester bravo*cardboard box*doorbell*phillips and saba cassette recorders*grundig wireless*teleton tranny*framus e-guitar*glass rod*honeywell heater*martell miniature*plastic tubes*voices

recorded autumn 1976 in maastricht — a vec production

1. First Movement.

2. Second Movement.

3. Third Movement.

4. Fourth Movement.

5. Fifth Movement.

posted
  • place: en route Estes Park, Colorado - The Great Salt Lake, Utah - Wendover - Death, Nevada

First roadtrip – day three

portrait, Gary, Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, June 1975

We started off at 06:00 and went directly into the mountains. We went up to ≈12,000′ – it was quite cold & there was snow & a strong wind. We did some climbing on snow for awhile. Steamboat Springs was our next stop — we mailed some letters and got some ‘provisions’. We played some Frisbee in the park for awhile and then returned to driving. We got into Salt Lake City at 6:00 pm and after driving through the city, we stopped, because of the spectacular (understatement) sunset over the Great Salt Lake. Now I know why they call it ‘Great’. We went to the beach along the lake and parked the car on the sand. The water was incredibly warm even though there was a 40 knot wind blowing — the sun was somewhat obscured by haze and high clouds. It was a stirring & psycho-impressive scene. My senses overloaded. We stayed for awhile to soak in the unbelievable sights, sounds, stimulus,

self-portrait at the Great Salt Lake, Utah, June 1975

and atmosphere, and then we drove on. The road at this point was perfectly flat, straight, with nothing on either side. It was quite eerie. We played with the spot-light for awhile until some cops arrived and passed us a few times. We reached Bonneville Salt Flat at 11:30 pm & stopped for some refreshment at a gas-station-casino-store. After a tremendous meal consisting of a can of sardines, a can of vienna sausage, and a box of bacon thins, we continued. After reaching the point of total exhaustion, we pulled off the road behind a bill-board & stopped to sleep. I put the cooler outside so I could recline the seat. About an hour later we both woke bolt upright, and with an unexplained 6th sense of fear, I reached out, threw the cooler in the back seat and we quickly pulled out and drove off. We wondered & still wonder what entity was there in that desolate salt flat. I drove for another half-hour to Deeth, Nevada — just a dilapidated motel — and parked in the front dirt lot and slept. There were numerous noises around, but the next morning, I found them to be the product of an Irish Setter puppy wandering around, trying to get into our cooler. We slept (or I did) until Gary pulled the sleeping bag off & I froze. I started driving again. Then later in the night while Gary was driving, my nose started running, so I used the beach towel to blow it, it kept running, and I kept blowing, until finally I was trying to figure out what was going on, I turned on the Light and the towel was covered with blood from a bloody nose. Argh!

posted
  • place: MS Massalia, offshore, Mauritania

30 June 1973, Total Solar Eclipse

Total Solar eclipse 1973-06-30 10:38 UTC, frame scan, 16mm Kodachrome shot with a 150mm lens on the Bolex model SBM. ©1973 hopkins/neoscenes.
Total Solar eclipse 1973-06-30 10:38 UTC, frame scan, 16mm Kodachrome shot with a 150mm lens on the Bolex model SBM. ©1973 hopkins/neoscenes.

We experienced the eclipse from onboard the MS Massalia, approximately 100 km NNW of Nouakchott, Mauritania, [LAT – 19˚54’34” North (19.909444) / LONG 17˚15’42” West (17.261667), duration of totality was 05m46s]. The passengers on the ship were from a number of countries, mostly scientists, and the voyage was specifically an eclipse expedition (from Marseille, with stops in Palma de Mallorca, Málaga and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canarias, Spain; Funchal, Medeiras, Portugal; [the eclipse centerline off Mauritania], and finally to Casablanca, Morocco. The ship lost a gyro-stabilizer the day before the eclipse which caused problems with longer photographic exposures. I was shooting the eclipse with a manual Bolex 16mm film camera on a tripod. Although the sea was amazingly calm, the ship rolled slowly while stationary during the three hours of the event. Right when totality started, in the relative darkness, I ‘lost’ the sun in the Bolex’s viewfinder and couldn’t re-align it. I was actually swearing out loud as I panicked with the pent-up and deeply irrational excitement of totality until my father finally said, “Don’t worry about filming, just LOOK!” I did manage to film about a minute of footage up to the closing ‘Diamond Ring’ and Third Contact at the end of totality.

The lost gyro did end up causing big issues the next few days when a major Atlantic storm hit us broadside, from the west, as we were steaming north to Casablanca. The huge waves were breaking over the bow of the ship, absolutely terrifying, and almost no one showed up for the final ‘Captain’s Dinner’ for all the rocking-and-rolling of the ship: seasick, ugh. Glad to get off the boat, though the descent into Casablanca was intense: stand-out memory, sitting in a café having a warm Coke from a tiny bottle and looking around in cultural confusion.

posted
  • place: Ukiah, California

portrait, Lucien and Howard

A century ago, this image was made in the midst of The War to End War. The cover of the July 1916 Woman’s Home Companion features a young boy in military dress and hat. The baseball glove, a book-marked volume and the hilt of their grandfather’s Civil War sabre showing on the table, the flag and flag bunting, the shouldered toy rifle—two young brothers on the porch of the family home in Ukiah, California—all speak of different and the same other times.

portrait, Lucien and Howard, The White House, Ukiah, California, July 1916 [CBH?]
portrait, Lucien and Howard, The White House, Ukiah, California, July 1916 [CBH?]

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