On a Moment of Selfish Caution and Nagging Doubts

"Hiya doin', buddy - my car just ran out of gas on the corner and I was hoping you could sell me some lawn mower gas so's I can get it going."

This was the way the 40-something interloper approached me as I was watering one of my gardens this morning. Normally I go out of my way to help people, but something about this greasy-haired individual set off my "trouble" alarm.

Maybe it was the way he was dressed that jumped out at me, a style that might be described as "open-shirted, hairy-chested, linguine-overeating mobster," and a person for whom a quality eczema natural treatment would be a welcome addition to the daily personal appearance regimen. Perhaps it was his too-friendly manner, which at first reminded me of those panhandlers who hang around gas stations bumming spare change so they can drive their starving children back to Illinois or whatever bulls**t destination they come up with.

Or it might have been the fact that this guy was way too old to be driving a car to the point where it runs out of gas. Or the fact that a gas station was a mere three blocks away. Or the fact that if I relinquished my small gasoline hoard, I would have to make an extra trip.

And it was a bright, sunny Thursday morning, so it wasn't as if the guy was going to have to trudge through a foot of snow or a driving rain to get his car running again. In fact, the exercise would probably do Mr. Chunky some good.

Anyways, I felt no compulsion to sell (or to give away in a spirit of good karma) the half-gallon or so of gasoline stashed in my tool shed. Yet the longer I looked at his stalled car on the corner, the more I began to question my initial decline to help this guy, even if he rubbed me the wrong way.

Luckily for the man and his companion, their cell phones brought help in the form of a friend or relative who delivered them some gas. Another 60 seconds later and the 1992-ish Pontiac rumbled away, and my doubts about refusing to be a Good Samaritan also passed.

Or did they pass? The doubt lingered at least long enough to compose this blog post.

On the Aesthetics of Spring Colors

There is an almost infectious quality to the waves of bright colors that appear in springtime, and even the gloomiest of moods can be improved with a few minutes in the vicinity of April's flowering trees. My next door neighbor's trees are the principal subjects in the accompanying photograph, and I chose them simply because my own trees were dulled by evening shadows.

Well, he also has a more interesting contrast of color schemes, too, but I digress.

As I looked down the block I saw more outdoor colors than I can recall from the past, though admittedly my short term memory is not what it once was. Greens meet fuchsias and magentas and scarlets and corals and every other possible combination of hues under the still-warm later afternoon sun.

Add to this the bright blue skies and lazy white clouds, and the result is an explosion of color that borders on the surreal, like baby announcements painted by Vincent Van Gogh.

On the Miracle of Compound Interest and Consistent Investing

Left: No longer nickels and dimes

My wife and I have been much more aggressive in our savings efforts over the last decade, in part to make up for a boatload of cash we lost in a business we owned for most of the 1990s. We have a number of investment vehicles, including an IRA account we set up about six years ago with our insurance agent.

This account has always been more of an afterthought, and we only deposit $50 a month into the account. The convenience factor was an important part of this decision, as we have the house, car, and life insurance taken out via automatic debit on the first of the month.

Because this account is a relatively minor component of the Brooks Retirement Fund, I have not looked at a statement in a few years, and in the back of my head I had the round figure of "about five grand" as its value. I was quite surprised to see that this rather smallish nest egg had eclipsed the $10,000 mark this quarter.

The account also rode out the instability of the market the past few years rather well, given the fact that it is diversified between small cap, large cap, international, and fixed income components. While the lifetime returns have not been earth-shattering (something like 8 percent), the consistent deposits, compounded interest, and reinvested dividends resulted in a steady growth in our net worth in this and our larger retirement accounts.

So if you are reading this and kicking yourself for a failure to follow up on your intentions to start saving money, get up from the computer and get busy today. It took us only six years or so to accumulate ten grand in this single account, and $50-$100 a month is doable by even people with the tightest of budgets if there is enough will to sacrifice.

I suspect that Social Security payments will be a pittance by the time I retire, and I am planning on retiring on my own savings rather than hoping SSI somehow gets fixed. We will likely pass the grand-a-month savings rate pretty soon, and all those brown bag lunches and Goodwill clothing purchases start to add up to serious cash in short order.

Start saving, brothers and sisters.

On Remembering Forgotten Child Care Skills

Recently our 5-year-old nephew stayed with us for a week, and while it was fun to have a young kid around the house again, his presence reminded me how much I have forgotten about taking care of younger children. Our youngest child is now 19, and it has been more than a decade since I regularly dealt with a kid this young.

One of the first things I notices was how slowly a short pair of kid legs can go. My nephew and I were walking to the neighborhood park, and I turned to see my nephew lagging about a house behind me.

I had to re-learn kid pace.

Then there is the issue of picky eating, a facet of childhood that has largely disappeared from our meals. If one of my adult children gets picky, well, too bad: they know where the bread and bologna can be found. With a smaller child you have to find a way to accommodate the limited range of foods the kid will even pinch his nose and eat.

I also ran into that "just-so" mindset of five-year-olds, in this case the way my nephew liked his shoelaces "not too long but not too short." He can tie them, but not in the perfect manner he prefers. We spent 20 minutes one day just trying to get the laces dead-on, and though I kept my cool, I have to admit my patience began to wear thin after about the 20th attempt to attain laced perfection.

After a week with us, my nephew went back home, and both my wife and I were a bit exhausted. I had forgotten how much physical effort goes into taking care of younger children, and though we will miss him until the next visit, my nephew's presence was also a reminder how glad I am that we are finished being full-time caretaking parents.

Chuckle: "Reporters Getting Owned"

I have seen a few of these clips before, but an unknown creative soul stitched together over a dozen clips of news reporters enduring a variety of painful, embarrassing, and dangerous scenarios:



I think my favorites were the professional wrestler putting the smackdown on the reporter who questioned the legitimacy of pro wrestling and the reporter who was upended by the toboggan.

Tips on Writing a Film Review for a History Course

The following is a handout I developed for my classes, and I thought it might have applicability to people searching the Internet for writing advice.

1. Understanding the genre of a film review.

A film review is much more than a summary of the plot of the film. Rather than a simple synopsis, a film review is a critical essay that evaluates historical cinematography. The purpose of a film review is to demonstrate critical thinking about the films you watch. You will be writing an articulate analysis of the film, discussing its strengths and weaknesses.

2. Choosing a historical film to review.

Select a film on a subject about which you have existing knowledge (unless, of course, you are assigned a specific film). If you lack knowledge on a given subject, instead pick a topic that intrigues you, because you will likely have to conduct some research in order to be able to judge the effectiveness of the director in capturing the history of the topic. If you have been assigned a film by the instructor, you may need to read up on the topic to make sure you have at least a working knowledge of the subject.

3. Actually writing the film review.

Think of your film review as a series of paragraphs. Each paragraph should represent a specific theme of your overall review. Begin your film review by discussing the subject matter of the film. Discuss the director’s scope in covering the topic, as well as any relevant qualifications. You will need to do some additional research to explore what other films the director has created. Assess if the film is created for a general audience, for a small group of film buffs, or for a narrow audience of people interested in the topic.

In your next paragraph, present the main points that the director makes in the film. What is the director saying about the subject and why did the director make this film (besides to make money)? Are the reasons for the film explicitly stated, or does the viewer have to dig to find the meaning behind the film? Do you think the director’s interpretations are sound? Does the film offer anything innovative, such as challenging perspectives or new insights?

Next develop several paragraphs that examine the implicit arguments in the film, using examples to support your arguments. Are there factual or historical errors in the film? Does the director omit or ignore important topics? Does the film seem biased, and in what ways? Do the director’s biases get in the way of telling the story?

Place the film in some sort of historical context. What other films exist on this subject? Does the director of the film you are reviewing seem to accept or reject other interpretations about the topic? Does the film offer new evidence, examine a topic from a new direction, or provide a new interpretation of the topic? Are the director’s assumptions about the history reasonable? How does the film compare with the knowledge that you have on the topic?

Evaluate the quality of the filmmaking, the performance of the actors, and/or the usefulness of the film as an educational medium. Are the characters believable? Does the dialogue seem appropriate for the time and setting of the film? You may have enjoyed the film, but you might offer some criticism as to how it could be improved. Make note of the directing style, camera angles and other visual aspects of the film, and briefly discuss some of the technical details of the film, such as the main actors, the studio or production companies, running time, and audience rating.

Blue Collar Impresario: Jerry Gray’s Mission at Bozart’s Gallery

This is an article I wrote for the cover of this week's The Star.

The balmy spring air that wafted in through the open front door at Bozart’s Fine Art and Music Gallery on South St. Clair almost matched the affable and contagious optimism that owner Jerry Gray exudes when talking about his goals for the site.

“We hope to be much more than just another place where paintings hang on the wall,” he said. “Ideally we will be a catalyst for greater awareness of the arts in Northwest Ohio, and our presence has already helped bring the work of dozens of visual and musical artists to a wider audience.”

Gray is an atypical gallery owner, and this is not just reflected in the roughhewn and sparse aesthetics of the building. He lives on site in a small apartment carved out of the space with his five-year-old German shepherd Jobo, and to help defray expenses he works as a bartender at nearby taverns.

“Bozart’s is really my life,” he said. “Everything I earn, I pour right back into the place.”

Passersby in Toledo's Warehouse District might mistake the unassuming building for a more mundane use, and among the more recent tenants at 151 S. St. Clair was a towing service. The building that houses the gallery was constructed in 1910, and the place also housed a cement mixing facility in the early 20th century. Gray noted that the 10,000 square foot structure required a significant amount of renovations before Bozart’s hosted its first show in July 2009.

“This is a crazy old building, and I’d have to describe it as a work in progress itself,” he said, pointing out odd angles in the structure’s beams and joists. “When we moved in there was just screwed-in sheets of Plexiglas covering the window openings, and we had to add a bathroom, replace doors, hang drywall, paint everything, and tuck-point the brickwork inside the place.”

Bozart’s is pronounced with a hard Z sound and spelled like what Gray called “an American bastardization” of the French architectural style beaux arts. In the past year the gallery has hosted a wide variety of shows, some featuring solo artists and others that were group showings. The gallery’s recent “Works” production in February utilized an unusual format.

“For three weeks in January a dozen artists worked on site to create pieces for the show,” he said, adding that the gallery relies largely on word-of-mouth and online social media for exposure. “In total we exhibited over 150 pieces to a crowd of hundreds of people who trudged out here on a Friday night in February with over five inches of snow.”

Gray, who is a native of the small town of Delta, has been a fixture in the Toledo arts scene since 2000, and he spent several years living and working at the Collingwood Arts Center. He also operates an art studio and production facility called Quest for Fire in the downtown Secor Building with local artist and producer Kerry Krow.

Gray sees Bozart’s as a “logical extension” of his concurrent work with Krow.
“Though I did not necessarily realize it at the time, everything I have been doing the past decade has been working toward a site like this,” he said. “Ideally we want to expand Bozart’s to include a storefront area so that we can further help artists find audiences and aficionados for their work.”

Among the factors that separate Bozart’s from other area galleries, said Gray, is that the site is “an artist’s gallery.”

“By that I mean that artists are invited to take control of and essentially create the space in which their pieces are displayed,” he said. “They have a great deal of control over the lighting, the music, the ambience, and even the food at the showing – we had vegan artists bring food that reflected both their philosophical and artistic aims.”

Gray said that while Bozart’s does not keep regular hours, the gallery is always available for showings by appointment. In addition, Bozart’s hosts showings that run two to three weeks in length.

“A lot is dependent upon the schedules of the individual artists,” he said, adding that many artists work “regular jobs” to underwrite their work. “We also open up for selected events in the area, like the Arts Commission’s ‘Gallery Loop’ and when there are other occasions when a crowd is likely to be nearby.”

The next major exhibition that is scheduled for Bozart’s is titled “The Bald and the Beautiful,” which opens May 7 from 5 pm to 12 am. The show features the works of local artists Michael Ziegler and Luke Ellison. Gray expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for the upcoming exhibition.

“This is going to be a really fun kind of show, definitely not the sort of stuffy elitist exhibition people sometimes think when they hear the word ‘showing,’” he said. “I think people will be amazed at the excellent work that is being created almost in their own backyards.”

Gray, whose own work revolves around mixed media pieces, said that he works with a “fairly large” circle of musical and visual artists in his quest to bring to light local talent.

“So far I have mostly been working with people I have known for a long time and who I trust,” he said, adding that financial arrangements between gallery and artists have been on a “relatively informal” basis. “People who might be interested in what we do should just stop by at a show and get a feel for what Bozart’s is about.”

Bozart’s Fine Art and Music Gallery is located at 151 South St. Clair in Toledo’s Warehouse District. For more information about upcoming shows or private viewing contact Jerry Gray at 419-464-5785.

On Railroad Crossings and Daydreaming

I deliberately park long distances from my destinations on my various journeys in an effort to force myself to increase my walking. Over the course of the past seven months I put back on 18 of the 25 pounds I lost last summer, and the more I walk, the more I lose.

Thus today I parked at least a half mile west of the BGSU campus and walked through some neighborhoods en route to my regular office hours. In the middle of my hike I began to think about some of the seeds I intended to plant today, and I also thought about planting some of the sunflower seeds I set out for the birds and squirrels to see if they would produce attractive flowers, and

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The railroad crossing I was approaching sounded its alarm and interrupted my perambulated reverie. After recovering from my momentary adrenaline rush, I looked each way down the tracks and decided to continue on my way. No trains appeared on the horizon, yet it seemed odd to be defying the vehicular maxim of never crossing train tracks when the boom gates are lowered.

My daydreaming, however, did not survive the aural onslaught of the railroad crossing, and I suspect that any future needs for products like Prevera just got bumped forward a few months.

Tulip Doubling

While working in the yard today, it seemed that the number of tulips in a section of one of my gardens seemed more numerous than I recalled. Sure enough, I pulled up an image from a post about tulips last year that I created on my photography blog, and the number of tulip flowers more than doubled, from seven to sixteen blossoms.

I wish that I had some horticultural tips to share for my success in doubling the number of tulips in this section in just one year. Unfortunately, I can only chalk this up to "dumb luck," with one possible additional reason being that this spot receives regular watering in spring and early summer.

In reading over some tulip cultivation websites, I learned that I also correctly practice the habit of letting tulip leaves wither and die, and that the relatively dry soil during summer and fall is beneficial.

So perhaps "dumb luck" is an understatement on my part, but I did not knowingly set out to double the blossom yield, as I might with the deliberate purchase of, say, hair growth shampoo. I do, however, enjoy the color they bring to my yard at a time when leaves are just starting to appear on the trees.

Trampoline Stupidity

I am not sure of the origin of this video, which I uploaded as a GIF animation. However, I never ceased to be amazed at the level of stupidity that trampolines seem to bring to the surface in some people.

The jumper appears to be a grown man, and the prevalence of toys suggest that he has indeed produced progeny. I can only hope that they did not watch dear old Dad make an Internet fool of himself by jumping from a second-story window onto the trampoline below.

Or perhaps it would be useful for his children to see their father's head smack the bricks of the house on the rebound. Maybe the apples will fall farther from the proverbial tree if they used Dad's idiocy as a learning tool.

UPDATE: On a video version of the trampoline jump out the second story window, it sounds like the person filming the jump says "Your mom, your mom, your mom" when the woman approaches. This suggests that the jumper might be a person in his late teens or early twenties and more interested in determining the best acne treatment, thus improving the chances that Captain Imbecile will not procreate.

Rapid Rhetoric: LITOTES

This is an irregular feature - both in frequency and oddness - dedicated to a word I came across that I have never previously used.

litotes (LYE-tuh-teez) n. a rhetorical device by which understatement is achieved by denying a statement's opposite.

Derived from the Greek word λιτότης (litotēs), meaning "simple," this rhetorical effect is easier to demonstrate than to define. For example, I might say that a beautiful woman walking in front of me is "not unattractive" if I were desirous of avoiding my wife's elbow in my ribcage.

I was previously aware of the method, but until I came across litotes in a book called Beyond Realism: Turgenev's Poetics of Secular Salvation, I never bothered to look up the term.

I suppose one could say I became not uninterested in learning more about the meaning of litotes after reading the word.

Dog Found: Secor-Laskey Area

We found a small dog in the Secor-Laskey area yesterday, and the pooch appears to be a mixed breed such as a Westiepoo. The mystery around this dog is that it came with a heart-shaped ID tag with the name "Peppers," and the dog appears to have been well cared for. However, neither the phone number nor the address on the tag pan out (5422 Harschel), as the property is currently vacant.

Peppers is younger, perhaps five years old, and she is a friendly little dog with a touch of Westie feistiness. Peppers is housebroken and gets along fairly well with the other dogs, though she is not hesitant to growl and put them in their place.

She has been romping around my backyard with our other dogs today, and here is a shot of Peppers bounding toward the fence to investigate a suspicious-looking squirrel:

As you can see, Peppers has a docked tail, and her grayish coloring has a few streaks of brown and white. Her bark is fairly high-pitched, almost squeaky rather than yippy, and Peppers has a lot of energy.

You can contact me at mebrook@bgsu.edu if you have information about Pepper's owners, as I would prefer to help her be reunited with this nice little dog. If we do not find her owner in a few days, we will probably work with Planned Pethood to get Peppers adopted to a new home.