John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, that is.
Born this day in 1892.
Coincidentally, I just finished reading The Hobbit in the wee hours of this morning. I rang in his birthday in style, without even knowing it.
Join me in toasting him at 9:00 pm, with the traditional toast of the J.R.R. Tolkien society:
"The professor!"
The vendor hall at ChesterCon 2011! That's my table at the left. I inadvertently dumped the contents of my camera's memory chip, at one point, and lost some good stuff, but was able to hastily grab a few shots before bugging out.
Shocking, I know, that this report should be so tardy and incomplete, but my trip to the annual convention of the American Chesterton Society (ChesterCon) was, predictably, a blast and a privilege from the start.
First, I got to travel from the Northwest Arkansas Ozarks to St. Louis with a couple of members of our local Chesterton society, Tom and his daughter Michelle. Tom is the one who, incredibly, pulled together the local Society. We have a group that ranges from about 8 upwards to 12 or 15 on a packed night. From what I've heard, that would be an accomplishment even in a much more populous area. Tom and his wife have raised a wonderful Catholic family who are delightful to be around. Daughter Michelle is a real distributist, with a large garden and a beehive. She also brews her own beer. They kept me alert and awake while driving with some great conversation, and provided valuable navigation services.
I had asked a while ago about setting up a table at the conference, just thinking I might sell a few prints of some recent Chesterton artwork and help defray the cost of the trip. It was all very informal, and Dale Ahlquist made it simple and easy, which is good. Complexity makes me perspire and develop tics.
So, I arrived to find a very nice table, in the very nice hotel (I had under-dressed, it turns out) very near to the Versailles Ballroom where the conference was mostly held. Just two tables down was fellow artist Daniel Matsui, who - as you can see - had dressed much better.
The well-dressed and incredibly skilled Daniel Mistui
The conference was amazing, and too rich to recount very well in this brief post. Do I have a picture of me with Sean Dailey? Dale Ahlquist? Nope. But I did get this shot of Chris Check (with his son) who gave a great presentation with tons of helpful background on Chesterton's poem, Lepanto, topped off with a stirring dramatic recitation.
Chris Check (& son?)
There was, of course, great camraderie between talks, at meals and at the informal outdoor gatherings (the "afterglows") where home-brewed beer, homemade wine and a variety of cheesy comestibles were shared freely... and there was much rejoicing ("Yaaayyy..."). The conversations were a real highlight. At one point, Danial Mistui and I talked for more than a half-hour, and it was like getting another fascinating seminar speaker thrown in, gratis. What a kick to visit with him about his background and his approach to his philosophy and his art.
Leaguer Del was resplendent in his kilt as he talked with Dave, both accomplices from the Christian Pipe Smokers forum.
Del & Dave... both fellow CPS-ers.
It turned out to be a trip blessed many times over; as I said, I had mahhh-velous company on the drive, I sold enough prints to pay all my expenses, and even landed a very gratifying job offer, which it appears ever-more likely I will accept.
The cherry on top was getting the offer of a book-jacket deal from Ignatius Press for my Chesterton oil portrait before the paint was even dry. Here is how it looks;
Pretty bodacious, eh?
What a thrill to have my art on the cover of a collection of Chesterton essays! Thanks, Ignatius (especially John Herreid).
Next year, in Reno!
Cool! I remember these books from my youth, my parents having had them in their library. These are a couple of the once well-known Foxfire books, a series of 12 anthologies published in the 1970s, from articles published in the Foxfire magazine. I borrowed these from my Mom.
Wikipedia describes the series;
The Foxfire magazine began in 1966, written and published as a quarterly American magazine by students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, a private secondary education school located in the U.S. state of Georgia. An example of experiential education, the magazine had articles based on the students' interviews with local people about aspects and practices in Appalachian culture. They captured oral history, craft traditions, and other material about the culture. When the articles were collected and published in book form in 1972, it became a surprising best-seller nationally and gained attention for the Foxfire project.
I remember being fascinated with the articles and the Foxfire project itself. It's an entirely different educational paradigm from what we see in most institutional schools (public or private) that is based on learning traditions, history and culture first-hand (or as close as possible) from previous generations.
The Foxfire books are still as helpful as ever for learning how to, for instance, build a log cabin or butcher a hog (though one could recently have learned a good deal about hog butchering just from reading Gilbert magazine!). They would no longer be the best resource for this kind of knowledge, however, since we have the internet, now, and through it a whole universe of useful, esoteric information. I've gone to the internet recently to get instruction on everything from knife-sharpening to fixing our washing machine. Video makes these things that much easier to learn, too. But the books are still neat and fun to browse. The article format makes them great for bedtime reading, and the whole outlook of the books makes them inspirational. Seems like they would be a great supplement for home-schoolers or scouts.
Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. - G.K. Chersterton, The Observer, 1924
(NOTE: Foxfire is not to be confused either Firefox, the popular internet browser, or Firefox Starfox, the awesome video game, wherein I beat the evil Andross and saved the entire Lylat system. You're welcome...).
Check out the beard on Rutheford B. Hayes! One can hardly see where the moustache ends and the beard begins!
I found this on our local news web page; A slide show survey of presidential facial hair! As I said on Facebook, what we need is a presidential candidate with the breezy panache and chutzpah to sport a beard, without it appearing to be (as in the case of... oh, let's say Al Gore) a silly and desperate attempt at "gravitas".
Okay, some have called Michelle Obama the president's "beard", but I hardly think that's fair...
Change is Good
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