Remember Diagramming Sentences?

Posted on December 20, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

It took some real carpentry skills to diagram sentences back in the day, didn’t it? Not only did you need to know grammar, but then you had to build a contraption on which each and every part of speech could rest in suspended animation indefinitely, correctly, and comfortably! It wasn’t easy. Imagine building this one!!!

I added this image/poem on Dec. 18, 2024 because I believe it helps deepen our understanding and appreciation of grammar and the architecture of expression.

“I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences.”
― Gertrude Stein, Lectures in America (1935)

Moving toward Moving

Posted on December 19, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

You will undoubtedly recall that the other day, I posted Our Place in the Country, a tribute to the contemplative lifestyle and excessive stuff. Well, when Ann texted me yesterday from California and confirmed that we would, in fact, be moving there in a couple of months in connection with a job offer that she accepted, I thought to myself, among other things, “Good Lord, what about all our stuff?!?” Perhaps I’ll make a mini pilgrimage to our secluded stuff shrine in the next few days, reflect on the words of George Carlin, reacquaint myself with our special collection of enshrined stuff, consider its earthly value, and fashion a few next steps if not a complete plan of action. Or maybe we’ll decide simply to walk away, and as my sister suggested, make an anonymous call to the reality TV series, Storage Wars!

Whew! Random TSA Pre✓™

Posted on December 18, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

Cowboy and I have been dropping Ann off at the Des Moines International Airport (DSM) pretty frequently over the last few months. This morning was no exception; although, we had a few extra minutes to gulp down coffee at home because she was somehow randomly selected for TSA Pre✓™, i.e., expedited screening. It’s the little things in life that make the biggest difference.

Actually, she wasn’t dragging a wheeled tote, because today’s round trip will end before midnight, theoretically.

Ann’s definitely no stranger to the friendly skies as illustrated in the following documentary from September 2011 of her first flying lesson:

Our Place in the Country

Posted on December 16, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

I refer to our suburban storage unit as our place in the country. Lately, I’ve been thinking about all the stuff we’ve practically forgotten about, stuff we continually pay rent to store. That makes it relatively expensive stuff that we don’t use and probably don’t need. I come here to clear my head once in a while.

What’s Rob Ryan ordering?

Posted on December 15, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

When I first saw him on TV pacing along the sideline, I thought, now there’s someone who would look perfectly natural walking around with a go cup, which isn’t as easy as it used to be in New Orleans! Rob Ryan, the current defensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints, has attracted quite a bit of attention from people of all ages.

I’ve been running around with this image in my head for far too long. It’s time I let it fly away! I should point out that I am now following @RobRyansHair1 and @RobsStomach1 on Twitter.

Honey, you must have ordered a picture of Margarita

Posted on December 15, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

My Spanish is rusty. I still love listening to it and reading it, but nowadays, when I open my mouth, there’s no telling what’s going to come out. Tell you the truth, I guess that goes for English too!

Evening with Parranderos Latin Combo (PLC)

Posted on December 14, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

Thought it would be fun to do a one, long, crooked line drawing, and then go back with just a little color. The subjects are the Parranderos Latin Combo, who performed last night at the Moberg Gallery in Des Moines, IA to raise additional money for their upcoming trip to record an album in San Juan, Puerto Rico with Grammy award winning producer, Ramon Martinez. My friend Fernando Aveiga, musician entrepreneur, animates this project in collaboration with a constellation of co-stars.

…but the hallway is hell (Part II)

Posted on December 12, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

A few days ago I posted this core drawing for which I had a couple of other versions. I went with the theocentric version. So I put them together in iMovie for the “hell” of it.

Might want to go “full screen” on this so the text doesn’t get chopped off.

Interlocution

Posted on December 11, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

The term “interview” suggests to me at least “seeing eye-to-eye.” It’s the “view” part of the word that does that for me. When Charlie Rose interviews guests, he looks at them, they look at him, and they talk to one another. They interact verbally. They up and interlocute. Rather than diagraming a sentence from one such interlocution, here I’m depicting a pause rectangularly.

Leadership Strings Attached

Posted on December 10, 2013 by portfoliolongo.com

Back in May of 2011 a colleague hosted a party in Clarinda, Iowa, which as I look back, was without a doubt the highlight of my Leadership Iowa experience, Class of 2010-11, Best Class Ever. I won’t name any names; folks’ll know who’s who, if there’s any knowing needed. Suffice it to say that the host invited a couple of exceptional guitar players, and another classmate and I brought along our guitars. It was a real treat to play along with them; the rest is history as long as we’re talking about unrecorded history, those tunes went up into the nighttime sky like incense smoke never to be collected or confined.

On a related and completely ironic note, what prompted me to drag out this fond memory, and I’ll include the photo below that helped refresh my memory, was an accidental discovery that had happened earlier this afternoon on my Roland GR-20/G&L S-500 guitar set up. I was using a midi connection, something I usually don’t do, and stumbled into a setting that enabled a visual display of the musical notation set in motion by the synthesized, guitar-driven signals. I videotaped a snippet of that before it went up like incense smoke.