SI-SI-GWA-D

“In each generation there will be a person who will hear the si-si-gwa-d,
who will listen and remember, and pass it on to the children."

After the last of the vodka at 4:00 am,
the dirty blonde moon would swing in
over the western spit like Island girls
caught on merry-go-round barstools,
that crooked yellow smile guiding us home
over the sandy Donegal Bay road well past
the sleeping loons tucked in on Font Lake.
Little Mike never understood the dunes,
good thing he moved on to Philadelphia
to take advantage of drunken eastern sluts.
The Perseid showers would scrub our hearts
white, guiding us through the blackberries
down familiar paths to broken cabin doors.
There was always an Indian or two
singing our names in the Stonehenge
of beech trees we inherited, oh those giant
smoothed skinned gods left standing guard
over us after your sudden departure.
We watched dead leaves weep through
the branches, rattling down like the bones
of generations of winter-kill deer, the sound
of a thousand Ojibway ancients exhaling.
We always fell silent on the high bluffs,
the Aurora Borealis poking smoky fingers
into the black eye of Lake Michigan.
The women would weep then
at the deep beauty and the simple
wonder of living through the seasons,
all of us filled with autumn’s anticipation,
a Canadian gift we never fully expected.

Good Night

Experienced YouTubers Kyla and Moriah experiment with night photography. With the help of a lightstick and a streetlight these two high school sophomores from Austin, Texas try out Moriah's new camera. They both take a photo class at Vista Ridge High School. See more images within this blog.

The Forgotten Founding Father (Uncle)

In John Trumbull's famous painting, good old uncle John Witherspoon
is the second seated figure from the (viewer's) right among those shown
in the background facing the large table. Apparently he should have
had the same publicist as his future niece, Reese.


"He is as high a Son of Liberty, as any man in America."
-John Adams on John Witherspoon, 1774

All my life I have enjoyed bragging that I am related to John Witherspoon, the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. My dad always enjoyed saying, “from patriots to horse thieves, quite a transformation”. I was told that when introducing Uncle John, I should use several greats before his name. The exact number was never quite clear to me. But, I do remember the day my mother told me the story and showed me a family tree proving our relationship to him. I was about ten and loved history, so it was a big day for me.

Most people have never heard of this former president of Princeton and member of the Continental Congress. He was a Presbyterian minister and was asked to America to run a distressed college in Princeton, New Jersey. He wound up introducing critical principles of the Scottish Enlightenment and helped preside over the birth of our country. During his lifetime Uncle Johnny enjoyed a reputation as an intellectual. He commanded immense prestige both in his native Scotland and, even more, in America. John Adams referred to George Washington as “Old Muttonhead, but called my Uncle John "a high son of Liberty”. High praise indeed. However, today his work goes unread and the name Witherspoon is more commonly associated with his, and my apparent, distant relative, the actress Reese Witherspoon. I’ve written her to ask her for some of her money or a part in her next movie, or at least the name of her dentist, but she has yet to respond.

As a native Scotsman, long wary of the power of the British Crown, Witherspoon soon came to support the Revolution. He was elected to the Continental Congress and, in July 1776, voted for the Resolution for Independence. In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence, according to tradition he replied that it "was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it." Not the stuff of, Give me Liberty or give me death, but not bad for a guy in a kilt

In 1789, when he was sixty-six, Witherspoon lost his wife of forty-two years. Two years later, much to the consternation of his neighbors in Princeton, he married Anne Dill, a twenty-four-year-old widow, with whom he had two daughters. I say, this seems like one of his greatest accomplishments. Fathering two kids at 68? Not bad. And he did this while running a college that produced one president (James Madison), one vice-president (Aaron Burr), ten cabinet ministers, sixty members of Congress, twelve governors, fifty-six state legislators, and thirty judges, including three justices of the Supreme Court. That's my great, great, great, great......uncle John.

A Flock of Peace

At the Screamer Company, a full service ad agency in Austin, Texas, we concepted this poster for our holiday greeting with hopes that our friends and clients would fold them into origami cranes for peace.

We at Screamer want to say,
“Let’s all wish for peace today.”
Here is a symbolic start
using origami art.

Japanese folklore explains
how one thousand paper cranes,
when created all anew,
help to make a wish come true.

While you fold to make a crease,
do it in the name of peace,
and as we create each bird
let our call for peace BE HEARD.

To download a pdf of the poster go to thescreamercompany.com

A Party of Two

I work as an art director at The Screamer Company, a full service, but different type of ad agency in Austin, Texas. Screamer is a group of artists and art lovers that also support the arts through our unique publications. Every quarter we publish, in print and online, a small art publication which we simply number. The last book was called TWO. (THREE is coming soon). We have a regular list of contributors, illustrators, artists, photographers and writers, from all over the world and we send out a call for submissions for each publication.

After the publication is printed we host a party to celebrate. We have the usual food, drink, music, and, we have collaborative art projects. We send out invitations and even post flyers around South Austin to attract a diverse audience. The printed publication is given away at our parties and placed around town in coffee shops.

It you want to submit, email publications@thescreamercompany.com to be added to our list.