To appreciate this Depot Bell entry, one of the one hundred things that make me happy, you have to forget everything you’ve ever known, associated or felt about this piece of music.

Oh, and you know this piece of music, even if you think you don’t .

It is one of those pieces of music that is overly used in movies, movie previews and crass advertising. And it is a damn shame, because taken on its own merits, it is one of the most significant works of art in the 20th century. You will recognize the opening notes instantly, and it is a shame that these notes, a mere fraction of the long vocal piece, are but a moment, and not necessarily the most interesting moment, in a musical journey that visits such a wide range of moods, styles, tempos and subjects.

Well, maybe it isn’t such a wide range of subjects. The piece is basically a testament to one single basic idea. That idea might be best summed up like this: To hell with vows of chastity. Life is a carnival of physical pleasures. Let’s all drink and fight and screw until our hearts are content.

You know, that is a sentiment I can get behind. Read More...

I’ve been wanting to get back to my “Depot Bell” series for a long time. To newcomers, the Depot Bell articles were to be a list of one hundred things that have brought me happiness in my life with a little blog post for each item in the list. So far, I’ve written six.

And now I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish the ambitious project. So, in the interest of expediency and completion, I’m posting an abbreviated version of the list here with only a sentence or two for each entry. If time and good fortune permit me, I may still return to give these topics the love and attention they deserve.

In no particular order, here are the first ten of one hundred things that have made me happy...

1. The Waiting by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Pure rock and roll without compromise or pretension. Perfect.

2. Star Talks at Oliver and Amélie’s school
Teaching twenty 6 year olds about the night sky using marker board doodles and telescopes. Possibly my finest hour.

3. The Golden Girl
My first crush under windy Nebraska skies.

4. Pure Imagination from the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Gene Wilder is a national treasure.

5. The artwork of Edward Gorey
Intelligent, sarcastic, literary, and morbid, a joy to behold.

6. The television show Taxi
“What does a yellow light mean?”

7. Drawing Comics with Phill in High School
My first creative collaboration and still the best. We wrote stories together and drew together, sometimes combining his characters against my backgrounds in the same frame. There was no clash of egos. We simply wanted to make great comics that we would enjoy reading. We produced hundreds of pages, all of which, I'm happy to say, still exist at Phill's house.

8. The computer game Grim Fandango
The greatest adventure game that no one played. This game satisfies on so many levels it is hard to believe it is real. I became so attached to the characters that I actually teared up when I reached the dramatic ending. For art direction, dialogue and musical soundtrack in a computer game, it is still unsurpassed.

9. Fresh blackberries on real (remember BREYer's, not DREYers!) vanilla ice cream
It tastes better when the berries are stolen from other people’s bushes.

10. Cows on a hillside
There was a day about five years ago I took a bike ride in the wine country. I came upon a steep rocky hillside, on which there were thirty or forty cows scattered all the way up to the very top. The golden sunlight of sunrise gave the scene an otherworldly quality and made everything feel like a John Singer Sargent painting. I was transfixed.

More Bells coming soon.

It is funny how the music of our youth can have such a powerful hold on us in our later years. Speaking for myself, I would say that many of my favorite songs are the songs that were played on the radio between 1979 and 1984. Maybe that’s not the most notable period for musical artistry, but what can I say? I’m a product of my times. My theory is that a person’s formative musical period lasts five years, and then, while some new material might sneak in in the ensuing years, it never really has the power of music during your five year block.

While I’ve shared this theory with my friends over the years, it really hasn’t occurred to me until today that the same might hold true for a person’s style of humor. I mention this because, through the power of YouTube, I have become reacquainted with the brilliant T.V. show, Taxi. And, while watching the clips I’ve included below, I came to the conclusion that there is nothing on television today that is anywhere near as funny as this show, at least to me. Read More...

I was rummaging in the back room of a soon to be closed used book store in Kansas City. I don’t remember why the owner let me back there. I was rapidly scanning the stacks when I came across three small books with illustrated covers. Their titles were incomprehensible nonsense. They were called...

The Gashleycrumb Tinies
The Willowdale Handcar and
The Curious Sofa

Read More...

I don’t have a lot to say about this scene. It speaks for itself. I don’t think there is a person under fifty who doesn’t hold a special place in their hearts for this song and performance. Gene Wilder is a national treasure, and it would be hard to pick a favorite movie or a favorite scene, though this one ranks very highly.

Now for my part, I would make a beeline right for the gummy bear tree. You?

Today, I ring the Depot Bell for Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I’ve watched this scene maybe a hundred times and it still has the power to charm and amuse, and so qualifies to be on the list of the one hundred things that make me happy.

photo by dusipuffi

Today we’re setting the Way-Back machine for March 1977. The place, the western suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska, specifically, 139th street and Kingswood Drive. And more specifically still, the little sidewalk in front of Willa Cather Elementary.

The Google Maps satellite image of today just breaks my heart. The little elementary school I remember so well is bounded now by an enormous and ugly shopping mall, and miles and miles of continual sprawl. But when I was in the sixth grade, the view from the schoolyard resembled the photo I’ve included above. I remember setting the tips of my shoes to the edge of the playground blacktop, and slowly raising my eyes to the horizon. It felt like I was on the edge of the world.

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It was such a pleasure meeting O’s first grade teacher, Mrs. V. last year. She had a deserved reputation as a teacher who was devoted to science and nature and had a classroom packed with bird nests, insects, tree ring samples, and even a real chicken coop. She is also one of those people who are so good at what they do, and it is such a natural extension of who they are that they have no real sense of just how special they really are.

Mrs. V. ran a little classroom program called “Meet the Experts” where a parent or other community adult would visit the class and talk about their job or area of expertise. These visitors might be park rangers, doctors, firemen, etc.

At the end of the first parent teacher conference, I found myself volunteering to take part. Mrs. V. has that effect on people. I told her I was interested in astronomy and that I’d like to talk a little about it with the children. Of course, we realized that it would be so much better as an evening activity so that we could actually go out and see some of the things I was talking about. And so it was conceived.

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This is the first in a series of little love letters I am writing to things that make me happy, or have made me happy in the past. Today, Depot Dad rings the train bell for The Waiting by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.

You can have your Beatles. You can have your Stones. For this child of the 70s, Tom Petty is the center of my rock and roll sensibilities. And for my money, it just doesn’t get any better than his 1981 album Hard Promises. Now Tom has been making great music for over thirty years, so I am well aware of the absurdity of singling out an individual album, let alone a single song to represent his amazing talent. But I can’t help it. Though I love almost everything Tom has done, one song stands apart as the Capital City of Tom Petty Country. That song is The Waiting.

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As I have mentioned here before, last summer I made a list of one hundred things in my life that have brought me happiness. I thought it would be a good idea to post those items here, one at a time, and write little love letter blog posts to each thing. It will help me balance the tone of my blog lately, as well as provide some positive energy for myself. It is good to remember the things we enjoy, and it is very good to share them

Hopefully, I can turn some of my readers on to joys that they might not have otherwise discovered. That would be really cool.

Some of the items are people I have met, like my friend Phill. Sometimes it is a single song, like Tom Petty’s The Waiting. And other times it is the entire output of a single artist, like Paul Klee. Some of the items are favorite memories, like banging on my Aunt Ella’s piano as a three year old. Others are joys I continue to appreciate at this time of my life, like banana cream pie.

Each of these things deserves at least a paragraph or two describing its importance in my life. I hope you agree.

I won’t be posting them in any particular order. I’ll simply write about the ones I’m in the mood to write about. I plan to start tonight, so look for these entries to appear now and then.