backattheranchwithpaula

May 8 2011

L’histoire du livre des dessins, 1980, en francais

by admin

Pour votre securite, ne prenez pas des photos de l’auto. Gorge du loup. photo, Paula Graves Adams

Je suis allée à l’école au musée des arts décoratifs à Paris avec Parsons School of Design, NYC l’été de 1980. Mais, il ne faut pas prendre le français pour l’école de dessin à l’université de Kansas. Après cinq ans de Madame Honig et Speidel au lycée, j’ai décidée que je n’est pas allée oublier les mots et j’ai pris les classes françaises tous les semestres à KU.

Je suis allée avec le département français à KU avec les étudiants du français avec qui j’ai voyagé pour deux semaines (les chauteaux au vallée de la Loire, Bourges, Morzine, Chamonix) restant aux auberges de jeunesses. Trois jours après qu’ils se sont départis des alpes français de Paris à l’autobus, j’ai eu être à l’école au louvre parce que les étudiants de New York etaient arrivés à Paris, et j’ai pris le train avec moi-même pendant la nuit.

Une femme d’un certain âge plus vingt ans prendre moi sur s’aile d’oiseau et dites-moi de prendre soin de rester loins des hommes noirs de France :). C’etait des conseils très utils pour tout l’ète (c’est seulement mon opinion, mais je pense que le français n’embrasserai jamais des mots politiquement correcte, pas un pays où le métro a dit “donnez votre chaise aux mutilisées de la guerre.”). J’aime le français.

Après l’été de France, j’ai rêvé en français.

Et après que je m’éloignais dans ma tête et au pays, j’ai rêvé de la France.

Quand j’ai fait du jogging au rivière Cimarron, j’ai rêvé à ma route aux bancs de la Seine par le Louvre.

Quand j’ai fait des baguettes pour les cowboys (trôp drôle, une femme qui bakes…il n’y a pas de mot en français!!! un peu moins du pain) j’ai rêvé tout éveillé de la boulangerie sur la rue du bac près de l’hôtel Cayré au boulevard Raspail ou j’habitais cette été.

La France, j’ai rêvé de toi toute la nuit.

Voila mon livre de cette été, la nourriture, les bâtiments, des peuples, les hommes étrangers, les professurs, mon épicerie, les boulevards, et les histoires de cette éte quand je pouvais être une jeune fille française de Kansas. Avec seulement moi-même, mais jamais seule.

Et maintenant, mes amis françaises sont retournées à moi à Kansas.

note: C’est tout en français pour maintenant jusque mes ingénieurs de website installent un plug-ins dans wordpress parce que les accents prendre plus longtemps. A bientôt…

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Apr 21 2011

2011 KU Phi Delt Mother’s Weekend, Wheel & Cave, Lawrence on the Kaw

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2011 Phi Delt Mother's Weekend

And it flowed through the Jordan’s that night at the cave….

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86fz5FYUToM&feature=related[/youtube]

I traveled the banks of the River Jordan

To find where it flows to the sea
I looked in the eyes of the cold & hungry
And I saw I was looking at me.

I wanted to know if life had a purpose
And what it all means in the end
In the silence I listened to voices inside me
And they told me again and again

There is only one river there is only one sea
And it flows through you and it flows through me
There is only one people we are one and the same
We are all one spirit, we are all one name

We are the father, mother, daughter & son
From the dawn of creation, we are one, we are one, we are one.

Peter, Paul & Mary, River of Jordan

And another great cameo…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usubHi9xcz8&feature=related[/youtube]
Just a few party pics…wish I had more. Ode to Sean Williams, party pic photographer extroardinarie, ’78-’82, of the Williams Fund clan.

The Stubes

The mixed breeds…some Kansas family genetics circa class of ’82…

The DeGolers...1/2 Pi Phi 1/2 Beta throws a Phi Delt

Salina Manhattan Beta Kappa migratory mix...

Theta mothers and SME cheerleaders throw....

...throw Pi Phi Phi Delt hurdler gymnast grandchildren...

More Kansas SMEast Theta linebreeding...

It’s amazing how attractive we all are…where I’ve lived this kind of thing throws a 6th finger and I’m not lying, ask Jack.

Whew…finally some new bloodlines.

And of course, up close and personal, friends sons daughters mothers and their body parts…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NikpOQQ_AA&NR=1[/youtube]
And tonight’s gonna be a good night!

Thanks to the Pres!

Thank you for a lovely weekend dolls and guys.

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Apr 1 2011

SME Cheerleading and Carolyn Howard: the Sue Sylvester archetype

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Howie Returning with the Spirit Stick, Summer Camp 2006

Coach Carolyn "Howie" Returning with the Spirit Stick, Summer Camp in Marshall, MO,2007

“Cheerleaders’ Travel Pays off; New Cheers learned at camp” by Britt Alexander, photo credits assumed.

WWCD? Another great woman, What Would Carolyn Do?
Jane Lynch had to have shadowed Carolyn Howard, the virgin Queen of the female worker bees of Shawnee Mission East for decades. Carolyn was our gym teacher, and ruled over the women and the women’s country club sports, swim team, tennis team, cheerleading, heralders and pep club. She counted the homecoming votes, she counted the balls, she tallied the grades, and gave us 5 minutes to peel off that wet lancer blue spandex swimwear before the bell rang for our next class. More about her old school fashion in the JV Cheerleaders, but you get her idea, very Betty Grable. Or was that ruching actually just the indentations in our flesh to girdle in our most socially prized teenage assets?

All my sister Gina’s friends turned out to vote for me as a sophomore, so I was one of the two sophs that made JV with Kathy Kindred and that commenced the relationship with Carolyn (see Kathy: The Sophs on JV with Sr. Bad attitudes). She gave me a B that semester in gym but not knowing who I was up against, I questioned the numbers that got passed on via my sister.

“Sophomores who make JV don’t get straight As.”

She ended up changing the grade which I lived to regret.

The Sophomore Cheerleaders, 1975, Carolyn below.

Carolyn was very pretty and had a great sense of humor. And most of all, she was brutal….5:30 am summer practices before work at the Village Pool at 7…the herkies and hamstrings and but always with a heart of warm iron.

Herkies at sunset...on our Kansas beach...

She always stuck with us no matter how spastic we were, the last girl on the tennis ladder (me) still got to play even if she hadn’t mastered her loser’s mindset as she went into the match. She kept me on, when I petered out after one week of swim practice and intense chlorine, giving Marthe, a great swimmer, and me, the quitter, the coveted jobs as swim team managers who passed out the Vitamin C. My hair has not yet recovered from the humidity.

Paula Graves and Sandy Clingan, Scott's sister. Junior McCall's, in McCall's Magazine. 1968.

Carolyn Howard saved her old tennis balls to give to my mother, Ginny Graves, for puppets in her art classes. Here is a published picture of one of these puppets in McCall’s by Sandy Clingan, Scott’s sister, with cropped partial Paula Graves burlap drawing and mention to prove I was once a famous artist. So back to Sandy’s, it had a green cone-shaped dress and was on a stick. Here’s my dad’s drawing to give you the idea of the function of the tennis ball.

A Ginny Graves-Carolyon Howard joint creation.

I just wanted to highlight Carolyn’s contributions to the Children’s Art World of Kansas City. from Ginny Graves Discover Stuff.

Carolyn Howard had two pets, Pam Hanslip and Julie Hise. Julie was miss all pro sports and this woman worked her @s$ off as she still does in her own career that’s something like boot camp I think. Julie Stram cornered me and Kathy (the two who had traditionally been in head cheerleader slot) and Julie about our stated credentials for the coveted position of Head Cheerleader. Julie won hands down, the first to the thrones demoted to the choir. Kathy and I compared our answers, but we’ve never actually cornered Julie at a reunion to see what she said to get the job, maybe we’ll have to do that next time.

Paula in her letter jacket pre-letters at a particular SME Cheer Party with Kathy, rosy glow from that tasty '78 Marsala, compliments of Graves cooking wine cellar frigidaire.

Julie did pick up on part of the problem right away our sr. year when she jumped us for having a bad attitude at summer camp, and by the way she was more grueling than Carolyn. It didn’t stop from first bottle of cold duck, port, or whatever was available from the Graves or Kindred cellars for toddies in the SMSouth parking lot ’til we brought down the girls of ’78 in a sr-squad pre-wrestling drinking violation when she was out-of-town. For that, Howie benched us for the Shawnee Mission South Game our Sr. Year, just the Seniors, so the Juniors on JV got to cheer.

This is what mostly what Kathy and I contributed to the guys as cheermaidens, good gossip.

a Shawnee Mission East Cheerleader Jumping Jill puppet

Drawings for Carolyn in her lancer blue tracksuit with her warrior women, Jumping Jack Puppeteer Design, by Dean Graves.

And a final heirloom photo of the Carolyn Howard in Sweatsuit jumping Jack doll puppet, construction artist Paula Graves. But of course, Howie was really the puppetmaster until we toughened up and learned our own strings to guide through us through the she-life. And by the way, I earned letters in three sports at Shawnee Mission East; cheerleading, swim team manager, and debate. And I’m proud of it.

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Mar 30 2011

SME Reunion at Johnny’s at 119th this April, 2011.

by admin

Clint Eastwood Tom Rooker John Cusack Ogelthorpe Savannah

Midnight in the Garden...gets no better ...Tom, Clint, John and Ogelthorpe.

Do you think, at Johnny’s, at 119th and no there, there in Overland Park, that we’ll really be able to discern any differences between those of us who are truly successful at life and those of us who are truly delusional?

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Mar 29 2011

On the first day of Christmas….12 drummers drumming…

by admin

Eagle's Nest, NM. Rural America, maybe everywhere, seems to have a high tolerance for alcohol well into older age. I've never thought the happy time was the "8 till" but more when one is winding up singin' the blues.

Mostly about 12 drummers drumming….they work. For any chemical use or personality flaws such as being annoying, self-centered, narcicisstic, ADD, for having melt-downs at Best Buy, and in general for any defect of character that involves giving up control to a higher power. It’s my personal opinion that everyone could benefit from practice, regardless of habits, and hit a meeting now and then.

I am powerless over…
my computer
my iphone apps and ipod in the case of the challenged
talking about the digital world
my pleasure in my own humor
talking
desire to use the restroom in completely inappropriate situations like church, inherited from my father

Here is a good one from today on Humility:

“A bully ain’t have too much patience to read or write too much…
how to understand things…(s)he’s just mouthy.”
-Sharon

“I just go to hear the stories.” -Bob.

Bob is a well-dressed Cowboy in Delano who was hangin’ at the hood in the Seneca McDonald’s. When I was looking for some contract labor to put labels and stamps on my backattheranch.com Valentine mailer, he was on the way out for a smoke and said,”wait on me, I’ll come back here and hit on you”, lucky girl that I am.

Bob remembered me from photographing Barry a while back, so here’s a clip of Barry from November speaking on the need for 24-7 shelters.

I cut out the end where I lost him on the concept of the portable houses from architecture school at Marvin Hall. A ridiculous idea in hindsight, there weren’t too many homeless backgrounds in the student pool at KU to give a first hand account. Carrying a house around on your back I can imagine sounds ludicrous and backwards, heavier than a mortgage around your neck when you’re out in the field.

Apparently Barry had just had a heart attack a few days prior in McDonald’s, right in the corner where I’d taken his picture and he was in the hospital. Bob and I shared a cry and a laugh for Barry, as he noted that management “was maaad” and took Barry aside after he got out of the hospital, “you pull any of that $h!t in here again and you’re not coming back.” They welcome the cowboys, but that kind of advertising can’t be good for the quarter-# angus sales, which are delicious with swiss and mushrooms I might add. I know Barry was very ill and I fear has passed, bless Barry.

And, back to Bob. He lives with his brother who’s wife, a lesbian, left him long ago. He sleeps at the Shelter down the road by where I used to work at SJCF Architecture on the nights when he’s on the sauce since his brother and new wife don’t allow alcohol in their house. A painter by trade, Bob is from a military family with both of Bob’s brothers having done tours in Iraq, one now flying fighter planes in the desert.

In our discussion of drugs and alcohol and 12 drummer meetings, he also mentioned that the military was big on pharmaceuticals for those 72 hour flight missions. Anyway, it was cold, so I gave him a ride from McDonald’s to the Mission, always big on safety telling the night manager before I left that if I ended up dead in the Wichita papers tomorrow, get Bob.

My parting words were, “Bob, you’ve got to cut out the drinking to get the women, you’ve asked me my name 3x in the last 10 minutes.” And Bob’s last words were, “I think I’ll go to a meeting tomorrow.” So, one of the best things about 12 drummers is passing it along, even before you know much.

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Mar 27 2011

Dance Party Tonite at Paula’s

by admin

I thought it was “fat Girl is a freak….” like it better that way…

I couldn’t figure out how to post all the paying sites, but I thought this was a really good advertisment for thinking all that over the river and 23 highway through the Meade State Woods to piano wasn’t wasted. I just sang along.
Haven’t worked enough to feel it, but I’m a big supporter of the concept….

Always, have to have a little Sergio, here Bim Bom in Brasil.
After Val in the Doors, John said he didn’t do drug trips over 10 minutes in movies adding to his before 1940 rule. Personally, I enjoy the music…
Hot young Elton. Thanks, Big Bear and Debbie, for the great 50th birthday party and Elton at the Red Piano, Vegas Caesar’s sum 09.

Raina Rose, first encountered the lovely person at the Adobe Bar, Taos Inn, Nov. 30, 2010.

It’s the perfect time of year
Somewhere far away from here
I feel fine enough, I guess
Considering everything’s a mess.
There’s a restaurant down the street
Where hungry people like to eat
I could walk, but I’ll just drive
It’s colder than it looks outside.

It’s like a dream – you try to remember but it’s gone..,

credits, Adams family i-pod collection via the young Master DJ Adams.

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Mar 27 2011

Don’t fence me in….

by admin

I told somebody recently that if you’ve got your mind, you don’t ever have to be bored anywhere. I take it back, too much to think about in there, out there in those wide open spaces.

I’m afraid I have to go to town and maybe I’ll be bored for a while, take a break from the way I’ve been using the gray. You can get lost in there with too many speeding tickets and maybe lose your license…

Cowboy take me away...set me free hope I pray...closer to heaven above....John Graves Adams horseback.

in there, out there in those wide open spaces.

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Mar 6 2011

The Myth of the Campanile

by admin

1:25 am and I’m up here at Java Break, 1/2 block east of Mass & 7th St. on the south side, across from the Journal-World. I don’t think espresso had been invented in Kansas in 1982. Everyone working here was like negative 7 then, so they don’t remember the space’s former life, thought maybe a Dr.’s office. But it had opened by my second year of architecture school in ’93 and they are open all night with wireless, so here I am. You know the place, Liberty Hall a block north, Hobbs is now on the corner, and the grade drops off to the east, so you enter about 4′ below Mass St. level. So here’s a little ambiance…

Great color scheme.

And some good reading.

"Java Break" "Lawrence" "coffee house" "cereal bar"

And a nighttime snack, here's a great picture of the cereal bar.

Tonight was Rock Chalk Revue, a over fifty year tradition, the Glee Archetype. And I came to see all the shows, but in particular the women and men of Chi Omega and Phi Delta Theta now transplanted from Hoch Auditorium to the Lied Center.

Jayhawks Lied Center Rock Chalk University of Kansas Chi Omega Phi Delta Theta Bill Self

Go Hawk Arts!

Anyway, it’s my second annual KU parents visit. Just another night up here in Lawrence with all the parents….Bill Self & his son & family, Mike McCarthy, John and Paula, Carol and Mort Searcy, Stephanie and Brent Stuber, the Wilinsky’s…just Kansas family.

"John Adams" "Bill Self" "Rock Chalk" "University of kansas" "Lawrence Center"

John and Bill chatting it up about the kids and the game.

Featuring tonight, highlights of the Phi Delts and the Chi Omegas in Myth of the Campanile. Here’s the Phi Delt-Chi O intro video with Bill’s cameo from his living room about 1:30. Bill is a Chi Omega Dad of Lauren, a lost Student of Hawkland and Coach of the Kansas Jayhawks!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XukbO4PZk5U[/youtube]

Myth: if a student passes underneath the arch, he may not graduate in four years and the main characters are enticed to walk through, swirling through cosmic abyss to Hawkland where there are no classes (that we went to?) and no tests (that we studied for?), only carefree fun and Jayhawk Pride. Sound familiar?

Here’s a dance number:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YJZgFry3Pk&feature=related[/youtube]

And, presenting Ben Wilinksy, as new student tour guide. Ben went to Blue Valley in KC and we met his family now in San Diego and sister, a KU grad to East Village transplant working with ABC then Bloomberg. Go KU grads.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebq5LgEyMHk[/youtube]

Now I missed filming Joey Soptic’s scene where he is Truman the hero Hobo who falls from the Campanile on game day after a KU loss to MU Tigers. He is sat upon in my video and cannot be seen but he was great.

And here’s a guy I know, Jack Graves Adams, as the Chancellor behind the scrim. He is a cowboy-engineer, plays a little Guaraldi on the piano, does a mean backflip, and is presently a Phi Delt at KU with a few Beta genes. And after a lifetime of benign neglect, and promises to keep my offspring for the most part out of my blog, I just had to play stage mom to all these sons and daughters for one night.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmnfj7ubicU&feature=related[/youtube]
I never really left KU, literally returning in 92 and 2001 for two more degrees, so I can walk those steps up to Marvin Hall and across the bridge to Art and Design in my sleep, though the training in studio for all those years now means that I do not need much. But, this is like taps….
We’ll call it a night.

Phi Delts post show

Credits
Chi Omega-Phi Delta Theta

Lead Cast
Brad Crawford and Lindsey Murray
Chris Pyle
Erin Robinson
Jack Adams
Joey Soptic

Costume Design
Sandy Murray
Deborah O’Neal
Linda Robinson
Kari Schulz

Directors
Lindsey Murray
Erin Robinson
Rachel Schultz
Jack Adams
Chris Pyle
Ben Wilinsky

Choreography
Maddie Estrada
Rachel Schultz

Set Design
Chris Pyle

Music:
too long to write all this out, but it was good.

The End.

an XIT-ARTS Production.

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Feb 19 2011

Just last year? A fun night with our groovy new Kansas guv and KC people.

by admin

"Sam Brownback" "Mary Stauffer Brownback" "Inauguration" "Kansas"

Mary Stauffeur Brownback and her husband at Paula Graves Adams and her husband's wedding reception....I don't know....doesn't look like a social conservative to me...

I thought I’d begin the story here. Mary Stauffer, Carol Zachery, Karen Majors, Kitty Wilson, Linda Warwick, Joy Plavidol, Leslie Yearick, Lisa Dickhaut and my older sister, Gina Graves, were the rat pack of Highlands Elementary School and all that entailed from girl scouts to teepeeing houses to ice skating on brush creek. Mary moved to Topeka after grade school but we re-connected when she was a Pi Phi at KU. She hung out in my bedroom at the Theta house with my pledge mom, Karen Majors, also my sister’s best friend and the main reason why I chose to plant myself at that pad. Mary then attended law school at KU with Diane Worthington Simpson where she met another classmate who she married, Sam Brownback. ‘Tis such a small world in Kansas.

A very nice speech. Alongside a great woman is a great governor.

I won’t go into the parents’ connections or Adams’ connections but as in the big scheme of life, we’re connected, and particular to this night, we’re Kansans.

Lots of people were all in Topeka at the Ball. My evening and experience of living in Kansas told me who was at the party. All religious denominations, political parties, fiscal philosophies, races, genders and gender preferences, states, ages, the business-creatives, all Kansas family, together for the gala event. The media labels…social conservatives…liberals…blue state…fundamentalists…were not here at this party, if they even exist? We were all celebrating in one way or another, all optimistic about Kansas past, present and future.

"Sec'y of Commerce Pat George" "Paula Adams" "John Adams" "Ed and Pam Condon" "Lori George"

Paula, the honorable Sec'y of Commerce Pat George, John Adams, Ed and Linda Condon, Lori George

The guy to my left invited us to the party. He was one of, and I think a head honcho of the party planning committee though he’d never say this, and he did all the tables. He is Pat George, Governor Brownback’s newly appointed Secretary of Commerce and a native of Dodge City. He is a businessperson and entrepreneur, a former football player, and a friend and business partner of Reggie Jackson, just to name a few things about Pat.

I became acquainted with Pat because he is a 2nd generation family friend of the Adams. He and his father sold us our first car, a sporty grey Buick wedding gift from my father-in-law Raymond Adams. He also gave us our first hunting dog on the e. XIT where we lived, George Lapsley Waugh Adams (see Tack Shop-Painting-his dogs for Lapsley’s portrait). Lapsley was a German short hair’d pointer puppy acquired in a car deal by Pat’s dad. Pat hunted on the ranch where I lived and we pal’d around together in the 80s in Dodge, eating burgers and calf fries (technically these were more like bull fries for they were cut into strips before the batter dip) at Cowtown on E. Trail Street.

He is everything you would want in a politician, a businessman and a fine person.

I don’t know how Pat and his friend Ed Condon met for Pat knows everybody, but Pat hooked us up with a great table of KC folks. A story: Ed’s license plate says CVN77, the tenth and final Nimitz-class supercarrier of the United States Navy.^[1] named for the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, who was a naval aviator during World War II. Ed’s admiration of the Bush family connected him to George W. Bush who said of his father that if Ed were to get his signature that he’d have the autograph of a great man.

Ed’s wife Linda is an executive but currently serving as professeur to children she homeschools in Leawood. Only the best for the Condon kids and she is it. Not every family has this level of in-kind services.

I was so pleased to meet Lori George and her great crew that evening. She is beautiful, funny, and completing another degree in secondary education while holding down the fort for the George contingency. We shared a part-time gig, substitute teaching. She’s also good at sports, volleyball her forté

Ed Condon on 3rd try to hold kiss long enough for the picture

Ed wanted a picture giving a kiss to Lori George. “Hold it” ….”longer”….”don’t stop”….”there’s a delay between flash and photo” is Paula trying to educate her subjects with yet more information.

Here's Lori, exhausted, sometimes you just have to walk away with from the job but with a smile on her face.

Lori, exhausted. Sometimes you just have to walk away from the job but she does it with a smile.

We never got it, but the thought is there and we all felt the love, though I can’t speak for Lori.

We sat with Frank and Robin Sterneck and the Condons thanks to Pat, but I have no picture with the Sternecks. We were friends from our children together at Pembroke Country Day. Their son Trent worked on Governor Brownback’s campaign and Trent, Jack Adams, and Pembroke intern to Sterneck Jake Myron were high school buddies in KC. Some common family business ties to Tulane people and New York places and family and kids and education made for great conversation. Robin came to KC as major GE exec but I knew this from others, she never said a word. She serves on the Board for Pembroke Country Day and could not be a better addition.

Sterneck Capital Management, Conestoga Energy, southwest Kansas and Kansas City and Kansas ties make us all bedfellows that were able to meet, re-connect, have fun, and celebrate that evening. Thank you, Pat, for the invitation to the party and great piece of real estate at the function.

"Conestoga Energy" "Rock and Stephanie Ormiston" "Nick and Lisa Hatcher"

The Conestoga Crew.

Now we’re all neighbors, but here are our next-door neighbors and I cannot be more literal about that: Stephanie and Rock Ormiston, second from the right-front-to-back, décolleté and surfer blondie. Steph and I got to dance (women are always the best partners…we both get to lead and to follow in perfect sync) and we all looked mahvelous. Nick and Lisa live down the road and we were able to meet all of the Conestoga people.

John Adams and Andy Brownback

I spotted this handsome man right away from the Christmas card my mother had sent on to me the day before, a very sophisticated and artful card I might add. He has all the looks, poise, grace and charisma of his parents and the Stauffer grandparents that I know, I’m sure his others as well. He is working on a PhD in finance in California and could not have been nicer to take the time to connect with us, the “we know your parents” unknowns. I met his beautiful sister and when looking for Mary, his dad hooked us up with another young smiley Brownback who graciously ushered me on a search for First LadyMom at 10:45 who we never found. You know you’re in Kansas when the band stops playing at 11:00, so if I were her, I’d have been getting my wrap. They make it look easy, but I can only imagine the energy it takes to give of yourself to community, state, country and to serve in public office and raise a family. Mary gave a wonderful speech which I have in video but my cinematography so poor I’ll not post to utube. Here’s the point about the governor and first lady:

“If you mess up your children, nothing else you do really matters.”

Jackie Onassis

Family starts at home and this first family’s children are lovely and spirited and will carry it on as will their children and their children. We all have children and are children in one form or another.

Now, just a bit from Diana Vreeland.

Best dressed duo at the dance.

I am embarrassed that I do not know who this is at the time of print, but they could not have been more a more handsome and gracious couple to the woman with the camera. For anyone whose made it this far, please post.

Award to person who liked their party shoes the best: Paula. An honorable mention to Rock Ormiston.

And last, some credits to the wardrobe committee done by phone and email with project managers Genevieve and Erin, Brick’s, Wichita. It’s not easy getting dressed on the Cimarron River in Meade County, but this team of colleagues all get the job done. They open-mindedly listen to the funky suggestions of high maintenance creatives like suede boots but shape it into a tasteful and fashionable closet item(s) to last well beyond the event or year.

Thank you for the help.

And my last word about Kansas and politics and people and work and getting the job done and family…

“We’re all the same.” “We will meet again.”

-Butch and Dee, Taos Reservation, December 2, 2010.

And…

Helianthus annuus and Steve Jones lovely home at Spring Hill-Z Bar-Kansas Tallgrass Prairie Reserve

Dear Governor and Mary Stauffer Brownback and Secy’ Pat,

Thank you for the evening to remember. We enjoyed your good film, good food, good friends, good funk, good fun, good family, good future, good favor: Love the postcard and the sunflower lives on in Kansas.

Sincerely,

Paula and John Adams

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Jan 23 2011

Arm Art at Billy’s in Liberal

by admin

fig. 1.1 Subject: Vizcela dog owner, gentleman, photographer, agriculturist, beast of burden on the jukebox, and boasts a firm man-hand on the two-step. Later.

Fig. 1.2 "Get that Pellligrino bottle out of here, my boss will get mad."

To start, the subjects here have not all been in the Big House, most importantly not Fig. 1.1.

B) the setting is Billy’s Mexican BBQ in Liberal, Kansas. Go here to hang out with

the youngins’
the “hope no one at work or dad got deported this week because the taillight was out”
the frat boys when they’re home from college
a few Liberal Country Club people who want to have fun
beautiful hispanic girls
the aggies under cover, urban relative term (a Wal-mart), Liberal is it. A nice shirt and pressed jeans doesn’t impress, Hi-Plains ghetto the current chic.
people who want really good food: bbq, beans, baked potato salad to name a few.
and, the real thing, a tattoo Artist just out of the pokey.

I’ll quit talking (so much), here’s some bod(ies) art.

Fig. 1.3 How could I not notice this one....

Fig. 1.4 Left guy said he had tattoos all over his body, friend at right sitting back. But, when I asked him to go in the backroom for a pic he backed out. Chicken.

Fig. 1.5 But his buddy fearless. He's knows he's a star.

Fig. 1.6 A smile and bicep makes it even better.

Fig. 1.7 Hmmm...kind of depressing...

This tattoo’s owner had worked for Best Well Service in Oil field. Slow economy, so temporarily out of regular work. Thinking ahead about what to get pictured on the internet but still shared. It says “Death.”

Fig. 1.8 The Yin and Yang.

Life: how can you really appreciate one without the other? He wouldn’t let me take a second (awkward upside down arm pose) photo, I like the cool. “Rotate your picture.” And he knows i-photo better than I do.

Now for the specifics on the Artist and how he revealed himself:

Paula: “are you all using the same artist? It’s a similar style.”

Artist: “no, I did these myself.”

Paula: “where did you learn how to do this? Did you go to school?”

Artist: “in prison.”

Paula: “Whoa…(pause). Do they just give you the supplies?” (thinking a little rehabilitative craft project…license plates…)

Artist: “no we just get them.”

Paula: “how do you do it?”

Well, I’ll summarize the technique here. In lockup, one can have hair grease which looks really good in ethnic hair, I might add. Hair grease from the brilcream is lit with a match (a prison network item) to provide ashes: the ink. The ashes are pressed into the skin with a needle (inter-prison commissary). And then, all the thought and artistry, zen time.

Very impressed with time use for an otherwise boring day in confinement. Idle minds are the devil’s weapon.

Paula: “so, how did you get in prison?” …..(+ a little more coaxing…)

Artist: “they said for burglery.” (who can afford a good lawyer these days?)

Paula: “did you do it?”

Artist: “Well, someone got killed.” (he only did a year, so I don’t think it could have been him, not to make light of this).

Paula: “so… are you still hanging out with these friends? A word from mother, “you are the company you keep.”

Fig. 1.9 The Artist's friends chose for his signature piece. Note to self: ask about laser hand treatments.

So, I can’t give the handsome Artist billing on his exact visage above because he was concerned about the coverage. For the record and parole officer, he wasn’t drinking. He and his companions could not have been more lucid and gentlemanly. I was at a midwestern college so I can discern.

I have no worries, I don’t think the burgler-Artists become the Unabombers or on a Tucson tyrade, that’s takes suburbia or a higher education to bring it on. He’ll be fine.

Jody's friend in Paula's scarf, Paula, Jody, Pelligrino.

And last, credit to Jody’s friend for the fun evening of inviting me to sit down, people sharing, and encouragement. He wouldn’t tell me his name, but he did tell me his age, less than half mine. I love it when people ask if I have a daughter. Better than when the hairdresser asked if Lace was my granddaughter, but I blame this on the culture and region, Wichita.

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