Soundtrack for the moment

It's Friday, November 25th.

Soundtrack for the moment is Melvin Wine's "Hannah at the Springhouse." That tune always gets me. Mean and gritty but haunting and hopeful. Sounds like a misty cold morning with a hot drink and warm fire waiting on the other side of the mist. The tune has been quite elusive for me, over the years I've attempted to play it on the fiddle, but it has always been out of my league. This evening I had a bit of break through. I had the bow working in a way that flowed a bit, and sounded a little closer to Melvin's playing.

Pictured above is the "fiddleink" Linotype model 31 machine located at its former digs on North Interstate Avenue in Portland. A keyboard close up, showing the famous Etaion Shrdlu arrangement.

Musing: Lizard not Salamander

Today I discovered that lizards live in this part of the world. In the cold rainy Pacific Northwest. Approximately 45 minutes from where the film "Goonies" was shot. If that helps you get a picture of how very un-lizard this environment is, or at least one would think so. But, sure enough. Lizards. Not Salamanders. How did I learn this? Our resident lizard told me. I'm at the new location of the print shop, also the new location of the C.C. Stern Type Foundry. Or rather, soon to be. Construction is under way. It's a place we're calling "Type Hive" in part because two owners of the property are beekeepers, and in part because it is a "hive" of print activity. But now, it's quiet. And this lizard tells me that we disrupted its house during our construction. Which was a strange thing, because the lizard and I don't speak the same language, but I knew. We are making a path from the new Type Foundry building to the Print building. That's where the lizard was living. Under some bricks which were recently moved. Of course we didn't know that before we moved the bricks. After the lizard confronted me, I realized that its home was quite nice. Those bricks held whatever southern sun warmth was available in this otherwise cold and wet environment. The lizard is a Northern Alligator Lizard. Life span up to 10 years. Imagine that. The brick move happened about 5 days ago. The lizard had "words" with me today. It didn't leave the area where its original house was. I'm hoping that this means the lizard will find its new digs acceptable. I re-built a brick house for it, near the original home but out of the way of the direct path of the new Type Foundry building. I made sure that the new structure is south facing, and added multiple entrances and pathways to the new home. It's a decent place. Or seems to be. I hope the lizard moves in.

Resident Northern Alligator Lizard near the new C.C. Stern Type Foundry Building

Musing: Pat Stan*

* Beware of amateur use of the term "stan."

Several weeks ago while waiting in line to punch the clock and close out my graveyard shift at the train yard, I was gray-eyed-zombie-scrolling through tweets on my phone along with my fellow zombie-scrolling co-workers. Yeah, you don't have to tell me - it's a bit of a sad scene. But, the smiling face of Pat Randle rolled across my phone screen in the form of a tweet, and man, that cheered me up. It was so good to see that guy first thing in the morning, minutes before I was to conclude my work day.

I've been thinking of him a bunch recently. And thinking about reaching out to him, but for some reason, haven't managed to actually do it. So, look, I'll do it now. Perhaps before, or maybe after this screed posts.

Anyway, the tweet was posted by Angie Butler during the socially distanced 2020 Print and Book Festival hosted by Centre for Fine Print Research. Thanks Angie for putting the word out! Here's a link to it. You can see what Pat has been working on recently. He discusses the production of "2020 Vision." As always, it's beautiful stuff. Considering the variety of wood engravings included within those pages, I'm in awe of the production that went into this book - it certainly would require extensive and meticulous make-ready. Fantastic work, Nomad crew.

After viewing the short video from Angie's link, I went on a Pat Stan fest, or a Stan Pat fest(?). Here's his website so you can go down that path, too. You won't be disappointed. Check out Pat's Monotype Border series - the prints are an excellent example of how classic hot metal composition is continuously re-imagined to create current innovative designs.

Aside from the website prowling and zombie scrolling, once I arrived at home, Angie's tweet inspired me to pick up and re-read the real life and very much not in the zombie world Double Dagger number 3 of which Pat and Nick Loaring are editors, printers and designers. Again, it was an inspiration to hold those oversized pages created from hot metal and hand craft. Printed with love and sacrifice. Check Double Dagger here.

This all reminds me to report that way back in February 2019, Mr Randle made a trip up to Portland for a visit after attending the Codex book fair. This was shortly after I started the 3rd shift train yard job, and shortly after it was necessary to hastily downsize our commercial print operation and move much of the equipment into storage. I was a bit shell shocked by the time Pat arrived - but I imagine that my state of mind was a good match for Mr. Randle's likely jet-lag, though he seemed to be in good form. Regardless, we still managed to have some good times. We took a drive out to the Columbia Gorge, viewed some spectacular Pacific Northwest Scenery and talked to some locals who were very intrigued by Pat's accent and charm. We then meandered to a small-town brew pub located in the shadow of the Bridge of the Gods where we sampled some pacific northwest style IPAs. Then it was back to Portland to drop off the car, go for tacos, tequila, and embark on a proper bar crawl while discussing type, print, future projects. When it was all said and done, we both made it back to our places in one piece, so the day was a success. Later that weekend, Pat was the featured presenter at a C.C. Stern Type Foundry "Type Jam" where local type casters and printers were happy to share shop talk and print work with the exotic world traveler.

We very much appreciated his visit to our part of the world - it was a good follow up to our visit to his Gloucestershire stomping grounds back in 2015. We look forward to crossing paths again.

Signed, Brian Scott Bagdonas, member of the Pat Randle Stan Club. Can I just say "Fan Club?" I don't get it.....

Musing: Toilet Flush Swirl

As 2020 continues its excruciatingly slow toilet flush swirl towards the clogged drain that is November and the United States Presidential Election, many of us are finding ways to catch our collective breaths and imagine a life again free from clogged toilets and their contents (apologies for that laborious and perhaps too pertinent metaphor, brother Eric). Oh well. Tedious or not, I'll continue with the toilet metaphor. (My brother is very generous and forgiving in that way) It takes a lot of effort now-a-days to keep your head out of this poop swirl. Baby steps, my friends. But you gotta take care of yourselves before you can fix all of the corroded pipes of 2020. Here's some suggestions on how to do it: Write a note to a pal. Write a thank you note to someone you may or may not know. Read printed words, give the phone and computer screens a rest more often. Put more music into your ears, reduce the amount of talking heads going to your brain. Go explore Bandcamp to find your new favorite music. Practice identifying birds that you see in your neighborhood. Catch up on writing. Perhaps catch up on writing blogs. These small things are helping me keep my head up, I hope that you can find similar activities which help you stay out of the swirl, at least to give yourself a bit of a break. I'm not suggesting that we keep our heads buried in the sand - not at all, now is the time to speak up, call out the poop swirls when you see them. Just don't fall in. Balance, buddies. Onward!