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Joshua Bell, street musician

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20120206-202349.jpgJoshua Bell is widely acknowledged as one the the worlds greatest violinists.

In January of 2007, in an experiment organized by the Washington Post, he stood on a street corner near the subway in Washington DC and assumed the role of street musician.

Playing a 3.5 million dollar Stradivarius, he performed six Bach pieces for about forty five minutes.

Two days earlier he sold out at a theater in Boston where the average cost of a seat was $100.

His forty-five minute street performance earned him $32.00. Rather than his customary standing ovation he didn’t even receive any applause.

There is a lesson to be learned from this, but I’m not sure what it is.

What do you think this says about our lives, our society, and our culture?

Artist Inventor, Francis Gabe

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Francis GabeFrancis Gabe, inventor of the Self Cleaning House, was my mentor.

That might explain, in part, why some people consider me a tad eccentric.    I had a good role model.

Francis was an amazingly creative artist, writer, and inventor.

She designed and built buildings out of scrape materials, created beautiful panel sculptures of dragons out of concrete, painted, drew sketches, made pots in her kiln, and, most notably, invented the Self Cleaning House.

When I was in my twenties I lived alone in a cabin in the rural outskirts of Newberg Oregon.    Francis Gabe was my neighbor, my only neighbor.

We were both loners who did not particularly like or relate well with people.    Fortunately we did relate well with each other.    We both recognized our common estrangement from society, and that was our bond.

I eventually adapted to society by developing modicum of social skills and enough grasp of psychology to survive.    Francis adapted by assuming the role of a minor celebrity.

For a time Francis was very popular with the media.    She and her Self Cleaning House appeared on radio, television and in print.   She was a guest numerous times on David Letterman, along with many other television talk shows.

Many articles were written about her and her inventions, including one in the New York Times.   You can still find quite a bit written about her on the web.    Much of that information is wrong, but it is consistent with what she wanted the public to believe.

Perhaps most interesting was a video done of Francis for the web site Weird American Video.   Though the video makes fun of her, which I dislike, I have to admit it captures the essense of what made Francis Gabe so intriguing as a person.   She is, without a doubt, the most interesting person I have ever known.

If you have a minute, watch the video.    Pay particular attention to the house.    She built the entire house out of cinder block and discarded materials … by herself.

This was thirty years before the recycling/rebuilding phenomenon took place.

Francis was always an original thinker and a woman ahead of her time. They don”t make them like that anymore.

Bill Whitney, Actor, Director, Artist

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Bill Whitney
This is a picture of my friend Bill Whitney.

Bill is a former child actor who played, among other roles, Kimba in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman.

He also once lived behind the L in the big HOLLYWOOD sign in Hollywood California, which is something most people can’t say.    I find this very noteworthy and bring it up every chance I get.

Bill is very big in Senior Theatre.    He produces and directs script-in-hand plays all around Portland and its outlying areas.    You can visit his web site at billwhitneyseniorplayers.com.

The Bill Whitney is also an artist that has created a whole slew of paintings.    You can see his work at the Bill Whitney Art web site that is at: http://www.billwhitneyart.com

I am not allowed to say how old Bill is, but he is over twenty years older than I am.    None-the-less, he has twice my energy and three times my enthusiasm for life.

I am trying to become more like him.