Day 25, April 10, 2020
The Beginning of Things
We aren't always aware when something new begins. I was talking with my son yesterday about graduate school, and how this new amazing thing will begin in the coming year... even if the end of his senior year feels strange and surreal with the socially distant cafeteria meals, and Zoom music classes.
But often times, we don't know when something new is beginning, whether it is an innocent conversation outside a poetry reading, an initial meeting of musicians, a first attempt at a sour dough loaf, or reading a book on guitar building... and the next thing you know, years have passed and that thing, that person, that interest, has become an ingrained part of one's life and it is hard to imagine things otherwise.
For better or worse, most people who know me, recognize that I am easily infatuated. I leap wholeheartedly into things and emerge hours, weeks, months, years later with a very specific, perhaps mundane to most, knowledge about certain things.
For a span of about a decade, I immersed myself in guitar building. I first picked up a book when I was in graduate school, and in between classes and teaching, I built my first guitar in the dining room of the house we were renting in Shutesbury. The author turned out to be from Northampton, and while he wasn't taking on apprentices, I managed to slowly work my way into the graces of Bill Cumpiano's friend, Ivon Schmukler. Ivon is a true craftsman, and in addition to guitars, he makes beautiful pocket knives and netsuke carvings.
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| The Sawmill River today at lunch time. |
Ivon wasn't looking for an apprentice, but he was willing to humor me and let me borrow a particular tool I needed. I returned each week and listened to his stories about doing guitar repair in New York City, the radical politics of the moment, and when he misplaced his glasses, I found them for him, when he needed a third hand, I provided it, and before long, between the stories about City College and lunch meals at Tong Sing, a Chinese restaurant in Easthampton, I started to learn about guitar repair. Ivon was always cautious about what he shared with me, he always made sure it was the process that I understood--why things had to happen a certain way. There was always a shorter, quicker way to just do a thing, but to understand why one did a thing, that was more complex, harder to describe, and harder to understand.
I like to think I did pretty well. I did well enough to ruin myself for factory instruments for a long time because all I could think about was the wasted wood that went into the creation of yet another mediocre instrument. But it has been a long time since I have been building instruments, and now I can pick up the cheapest guitar and find the joy in it. Someday, I will return to working with wood, not in the production mode I was trying to maintain back in those days, but for the love of pushing a sharp chisel along a spruce brace, the meditative attention to the direction of the grain, and the wonderful gleam of delicately shaped ebony bridge. As long as I keep my machinist toolbox with my skew knives and block planes, I'll still think of myself as a luthier.
I owe Ivon a lot, because he was there at the beginning of things. There are many people in my life who have played that role, who were there at the beginning. I am appreciative of all of them, and miss them each in different ways. Mentors, lovers, friends. I wish I could reach out now to each of them and touch them with my hand, for it seems, as easy as it was to become enmeshed in a thing, it is equally easy for time to pass, for distances to grow, and suddenly, it has been many years since I last sat down to eat lunch with my master craftsman.
I think that will go on my list of post-pandemic to-dos: go eat lunch with Ivon.
I hope you all have a wonderful and safe weekend.
Take care and be well,
Leo
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| Franklin was a good boy on our lunch walk today because I had treats in my pocket. |
From Our Friends:
From the AAG:
Some of you may know my Ph.D. is in Geosciences and the American Association of Geographers (I was slated to be presenting in Denver right now) conference was cancelled, but they have created a virtual conference with a limited number of sessions. One session is a video with environmentalist and author, Bill McKibben. It sounds like a daunting topic about the challenges facing broader humanity, but I intend to watch it when I have a chance.
From Thom Simmons:
He shared a video about Wicked that highlights GCC's Presidential Fellow Joe Dulude's make-up transformation of Elphaba.
From the Montague Reporter:
This weeks issue is up... all the local news that's fit to print. No pay wall.
From the Vermont Studio Center:
Today's Online Teaching Tips:
From Mass Humanities:
April 14, 12-1:15, a Zoom lunchtime panel for organizations wanting to offer online programming... and how to do it well. I think this would be good for departments too who want to put on reading, visiting speakers, etc. in a time of social distancing.
From Campus Technology:
"7 Ways to Improve Your Online Discussions: White Paper" an attempt to encourage engagement in online discussions.
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| Debbie started a calendar to mark off the days. |
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