double-dipping

sorry, there isn't going to be a lot of blogjamming this week, i'm double-dipping jobs for the next several days. i found this book cover which is just eerie in several ways; first that looks exactly like a young me engaged in two of my all-time favorite activities: eating ice cream and sitting. secondly that looks a bit like a young shauna with the ice cream down - she has a childhood story i've heard several times about ice cream falling off of a cone while she was walking around a store (***spoiler alert***) she put it right back on the cone and continued to chow down. finally the book, double-dip feelings is for helping children work with two contrasting feelings at the same time; much like the pleasure i experience cashing multiple paychecks versus the pain of working not one but two jobs in a single day. i'll post when i can, enjoy the week.

spring training part 5

this is not a photo from a spring training game, it is however yet another photo of ted williams. this is from comiskey park in 1957:i absolutely love this picture; williams basking in the glow of god-light while waiting for the pitcher to warm up, the ball frozen in mid-air, the chesterfield ad on the scoreboard and the mist that fills the ballpark all lend a certain enchantment to the proceedings. super magical.

spring training part 4

this is an undated - and only color photo from the archive - of ted williams taking batting practice during spring training:the term triple threat is is thrown around a lot to describe performers who show a modicum of ability to sing, dance and make appearances in crappy movies. rarely do these so-called triple threats truly excel in all three disciplines - i'm looking your way madonna, you leathery bag of gristle. where is this going? was ted williams some kind of triple threat? hell yeah he was, in a non-traditional sort of way. i've established his hall of fame baseball and angling careers - and despite how threatening his fishing was to fish - his third career was perhaps the most "threatening" of all; a u.s.m.c. avaitor who served in both the second world war and korea. when williams initially went into the service during ww2 he was desribed as being too good - his reflexes and aptitude making him one of the best the military had ever seen - to send into action and was used as an instructor. When williams was recalled at age 34 to serve during the korean war he was given the option to play baseball for a service team; he refused and went into active duty flying in 38 combat missions. this is a photo of williams being sworn into the military in 1942:williams' hall of fame baseball career was twice interupted by war, missing all or part of five seasons and he is still one of the top five hitters in history. that friendo is a triple threat.

spring training part 3

this is a photo of williams working out during spring training in 1956:i can't help but think that they do things a little different in today's spring training facilities. seeing him hang there like a slab of meat is reminiscent of this other photo of ted:while most people are at least aware that williams was a hall of fame baseball player - arguably one of the top five hitters in the game - what a lot of people don't know is that he was a hall of fame angler as well. even if you knew he was a prodigious fisherman, you might not have known he was a hall-of-famer because who the hell knew there was a fishing hall of fame. that right there is a lot of fish.

spring training part 2

this is a photo ted williams from spring training in 1948: if this week's blogjammin' was only about ted williams i would have saved this post for friday. beyond the start of spring training my interest in ted williams was rekindled by the recent passing of john updike. updike wrote a&p, which is not only my favorite short story - non-sedaris category - but also one of the few things that i read while at syracuse i truly enjoyed. reading about updike's life reminded me of an article he wrote, hub fans bid kid adieu, that was first published in the oct. 22, 1960 issue of the new yorker. hub fan bids kid adieu is the story of ted williams' last game at fenway park; a game made legendary by the fact that ted williams hit a home run in his final at-bat. you can see the at bat here:
ted never came out and tipped his cap. while most people attribute william's refusal to acknowledge the crowd to aloofness, updike explained it by writing that "gods do not answer letters".

spring training part 1

for as much as these posts were to be about honoring spring training and showing some cool photos from the life mag archive my selections have more or less turned it into a ted williams - a.k.a. the kid, the thumper, teddy ballgame or the splendid splinter - love fest. we'll see how this shakes out as the week goes along, for now this is a shot of the aforementioned "splinter" arriving at the first day of spring training in sarasota florida in 1956. the one question i have is why did he arrive in his uniform? was he so excited to play he slept in it the night before? tune in tomorrow for more olde tyme spring training fun!

spring training is here and i'm so excited i could pee my pants!

with the arrival of baseball spring training this week i've decided to do something a little different with blogjammin'. several months ago google images digitized and made available 10,000,000 pictures from life magazines archive. since i first learned about it i have found myself geeking out on how vast and impressive a historic record it is. this week i will be posting a baseball image - mostly red sox of course - from the archive. this first one - not a bosox picture - is from dodger town in 1948; it seemed like the perfect picture to kick of a spring training bonanza.

shauna, a.k.a brainiac, a.k.a. the leader

all winter long i've been teasing shauna that she looks like brainiac when she wears her down coat with the hood on. this is brainiac: in all of my comic research and reading i've come to realize that that i've confused the brainiac - a superman villain - with the leader - a hulk villain. this is the leader: hold on to your hat here because i'm about to depart from my usual geekiness into a rarely seen comic book super-geekiness. my confusion could be easily enough explained by the fact that they both have big green brain-filled heads. brainiac is an alien however, while the leader, much like the hulk, is a man that gained his powers from exposure to gamma radiation. so when i snapped this photo of shauna in full-hooded glory while walking home the other night the hamster wheel in my head began spinning. i started doing research and here we are right now. it was that fallout shelter sign, with it's familiar radiation symbol that inspired the investigation and this post. despite the uncanny resemblance to the leader i'm going to continue to call shauna the brainiac anytime she dons that hood. it just works better. as a final eerie note, a first grade student in an art class i substituted for on monday did this drawing: sorry shauna, the leader ranks only thd (3rd) best to that boy. hey, look on the bright side, you and your big puffy brain are number one with me.

koched!

this saturday shauna i joined my sister and her friends for a fancy brunch at capsouto freres. that's when shauna got hizzonered. i think ed might be catching on to the fact that i'm taking his picture in this second shot.

papi in pencil

another week lost to teaching. don't hate on me, blame my lack of blogging on the educational needs of the privileged youth of nyc. avionics and design, math, english, science and art all in one week; versatility is alarming. i managed to sneak in a few minutes to do some drawing today - i'm really trying to keep this comic book alive. i was working from the same photo i used to make this wax collage. see you later in the week.