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The pleasure of risk is in the control needed to ride it with assurance so that what appears dangerous to the outsider is, to the participant, simply a matter of intelligence, skill, intuition, coordination—in a word, experience. Climbing in particular, is a paradoxically intellectual pastime, but with this difference: you have to think with your body. Every move has to be worked out in terms of playing chess with your body. If I make a mistake the consequences are immediate, obvious, embarrassing, and possibly painful. For a brief period I am directly responsible for my actions. In that beautiful, silent, world of mountains, it seems to me worth a little risk.

—A. Alvarez

Fear… the right and necessary counterweight to that courage which urges men skyward, and protects them from self-destruction.

—Heinrich Harrer

Many years ago, I climbed the mountains, even though it is forbidden. Things are not as they teach us; the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky.

—from Startrek

Short is the little time which remains to thee of life. Live as on a mountain.

—Marcus Aurelius, (Meditations)

If the conquest of a great peak brings moments of exultation and bliss, which in the monotonous, materialistic existence of modern times nothing else can approach, it also presents great dangers. It is not the goal of grand alpinism to face peril, but it is one of the tests one must undergo to deserve the joy of rising for an instant above the state of crawling grubs. On this proud and beautiful mountain we have lived hours of fraternal, warm and exalting nobility. Here for a few days we have ceased to be slaves and have really been men. It is hard to return to servitude.

—Lionel Terray

I hope I die before I get old.

—The Who

Edmonton, Alberta

Truth is where you find it… and sometimes in the most unexpected of places—such as the tailgate of this beat-up pickup truck that I encountered a few years back while in Edmonton (capital of Alberta, Canada’s equivalent to Texas—with cowboys, red-necks, and rig-pigs* from the oil industry in the majority) to give a lecture at the University of Alberta. Pleasant surprises and “exceptions to the rule” are thankfully everywhere…

*Seriously. That’s what these guys call themselves.

(from today’s New York Times ‘Op Art’ by Ji Lee)

(lovely masking-tape graffiti from down-under… found here)

callipygous (aka callipygian)

For many years I have collected dictionaries—in printed book form, and also online. I take great delight in discovering new words, and in understanding their roots and etymology. “Callipygous” crossed my desktop recently, and I couldn’t help but ‘share’ this lovely, voluptuous word that means: “of, pertaining to, or having beautiful buttocks,” 1800, from Gk. kallipygos, name of a statue of Aphrodite at Syracuse, from kalli-, combining form of kallos “beauty” + pyge “rump, buttocks.” Sir Thomas Browne (1646) refers to “Callipygæ and women largely composed behinde.”

Gluteous maximus triumvirate image from unknown sources: Cooper Black (typeface) seemed to fit just right… (with a nod to Matt Warburton).

(just passing this on…)

“Tack’s Cartoon Tips have been prepared for the purpose of aiding those desirous of entering the field of Comic Art…”.

From a Flickr slideshow (scan of B. ‘Tack’ Knight’s 1923 instructional book on cartooning). 

Barcelona, Spain

I shot this pic of an elegant and clever sign hack (No Stopping becomes No Bombing) back in 2003, as the U.S. was raining down bombs on Iraq.

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A simple decision flow-chart… (link to source no longer works).

(Not trying to rob therapists here… just saying).

(go ahead… say it)

Merry Christmas. Fun Festivus. Good Goru. Happy Hanukkah. Kick-ass Kwanza. Jolly Juletid. Mirthful Mummering. Sanguine Saturnalia. Just name your Yule-type… I wish you well.

Peace on earth… and, Cheers!