Monday, November 18, 2013

Journeys in America



Working with my family history has taken me down a few different paths. The first is my letters project News From Home: A Father's Letters to His Son, and the second is my YouTube channel featuring my grandfather's 8 mm home movies from the 1930s and 1940s.

I've finally found a way to merge them into one project. It's called Journeys in America. I have a web page now, in addition to Google+ and Facebook pages for the project.

The project will evolve, I'm sure. I'm excited to see where this venture will take me. And I'm curious to hear your reaction.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Prairie Path Books


So, check out Prairie Path Books. They are a new company based in Wheaton, a Western suburb of Chicago. A good friend is one of the principals. They have a unique concept in selling books through special events -- with no actual brick-and-mortar store front.

They have had a couple events so far as they get their feet on the ground and work out the kinks. They were really nice events.

The first featured Jenny Riddle doing a dramatic book review of Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In.

The second was a particular favorite. It was in The Vault in the basement of a restaurant in Wheaton called The Bank. Danny Ellis, an Irish singer-songwriter, was the featured artist. He told stories, did readings from his book The Boy at the Gate, and performed selections from his album 800 voices, all of which dealt with his years in a Dublin orphanage. It was truly captivating. His song Tommy Bonner still makes me tear up.

Anyway, so you might wonder why I'm featuring pages from their website as my art? That's because I took the photos for the website. (See the photo credit in the first screen capture up top? "photos by Haley Hughes")

It's been fun challenge for me, and especially rewarding to see the end result. It certainly gets me away from the landscapes and puppy photos that I've been concentrating on lately. 

Monday, October 14, 2013

Make me move -- better yet, come get me



So, we were on a little nature walk at Meacham Grove for exercise the other morning, and Odin decided to stage a sit-down strike in the flowers. I probably should have thought things through before taking a 3-month-old puppy on a mile-plus walk around the lake. I ended up carrying all 30 pounds of him for at least half of it. It was good exercise -- for me.