Glass Art and Strangeness in Different Flavors

So… as luck would have it, I stumbled into a fascinating show on PBS last evening directly following The News Hour (which is a daily habit of mine). The show was ostensibly about glass and glass art, but focused primarily on Hans Godo Frabel, one of the world’s best glass artists, ever. And Mr. Frabel has a web site, which is just totally mesmerizing. Here’s the introduction from the splash page of said web site:

The Frabel Glass Art Studio was founded in 1968 by Hans Godo Frabel and is widely considered to be the first glass art studio completely focused on creating glass art sculptures out of boron crystal. Some of the world’s most outstanding glass artists are collectively creating the most incredible works of glass art in the Frabel Studio in Atlanta. The glass crystal sculptures of this internationally famous studio with its contemporary glass artists are in the hands of many museums, private collectors and corporations worldwide.

And that’s understatement of the highest order. It’s extremely difficult to capture glass art…with all its nuances and ability to capture and play with light… in static photography. Which is why the web site is mostly video. But, Boy Howdy!… is it ever good! The only reservation I’d have about urging you to go is if you’re on dial-up. I’ll take that back, actually. While the video might be problematic, the catalog of “for sale” pieces is not. But otherwise? What’s keeping you? Go!

In the meantime…God Love YouTube… here’s a two-minute segment on Frabel’s display at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, which was featured prominently in the show I watched last evening.

And finally… There was a brief segment in the PBS show concerning the source of the glass used exclusively by the Frabel Studio, which is produced just outside of Prague in the Czech Republic. I’d long known the Czech Republic was renowned for its glass art and I made it a point to visit several museums and galleries featuring glass art during The Great European Divorce Tour of 1999 (an earthier taste of said tour here). As a matter of fact, I bought all the members of my EDS team small objécts (blown glass globes, in the map sense, in various colors) and several larger pieces for myself during said tour. All those pieces are gone now…surrendered due to space limitations in El Casa Móvil De Pennington.

More’s the pity.

―:☺:―

A strange coincidence… Both of you Gentle Readers know my real name is Norman, not Buck. Someone stopped in to EIP yesterday after googling me by my real name vs. my nickname. As is my wont, I checked out the google query and was surprised to find this as the first entry:

Master Sgt. Norman Pennington, Retired U.S.A.F., 73, of 2011 Azalea Drive, died Thursday morning at his home.

Norman was born in White Top, Va., to the late Ed Pennington and Stella Riffey Pennington. He served his country in the U.S. Air Force for 22 years which included service during the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War.

Wow. The two of us are both Normans, both retired USAF, both MSgts, both with the same time-in-service. So very strange, eh? Looks like I’ve got ten years left if the coincidences continue apace.

―:☺:―

Gentle Reader Amy got tagged with an interesting meme Monday, a meme that got me to thinking. One of the questions in the meme was “places I’ve lived.” About which… My father and I worked for hours…literally… in the waaay back when I had to complete my first DD Form 398 (Personnel Security Questionnaire). One of the questions requires the person filling out the form to list all residences, complete with address, in chronological order. I ultimately submitted the form with several “address unknowns,” simply because my father couldn’t remember the address of various and sundry places we had lived. I didn’t worry a whole helluva lot about those “address unknowns” since my father, being career USAF, provided the ultimate “get out of jail free” card when it came to background investigations. None the less, I used every bit of allocated space for addresses on that Form 398 and one full page of typewritten addendums for same… and that was when I was a young pup of 18 or so. The list has grown considerably since.

So…just for grins and giggles, here’s a list of places I’ve lived in, from the beginning up until the present. I cite the metro area, with the actual suburb and/or other place I lived (like an air base or air station) in parentheses.

• Atlanta, GA (birth to about age three)
• Sacramento, CA (various AF bases… from 1949 - 1952)
• London, England (age seven)
• Paris, France (age eight – 11)
• Ankara, Turkey (age 11 – 13)
• Washington D.C. (Forrest Heights and Marlowe Heights, Maryland. Age 13 – 14)
• San Jose, CA (age 14 -15)
• Culver City, CA (age 15)
• Torrance, CA (age 16 – 18)
• Biloxi, MS (Keesler AFB… age 18-19)
• Lompoc, CA (Vandenberg AFB… age 19 – 22)
• Biloxi, MS (Keesler AFB again. A recurring nightmare.)
• Wakkanai, Japan (Wakkanai AS. age 22 – 24)
• Boron, CA (Boron AFS, near Edwards AFB. One year…we’ll dispense with the ages at this point)
• Wakkanai, Japan (again…for way too short a period, i.e., six months. Or so.)
• Sinop, Turkey (one miserable year… or so I thought at the time. It was quite good, in retrospect.)
• Klamath Falls, Oregon (Keno AFS. three years)
• Tokyo, Japan (Yokota AB… two-plus years)
• Fortuna, ND (Fortuna AFS. one year, three days, eight hours and ten minutes)
• North Bend/Coos Bay, OR (North Bend AFS. Two years)
• London, England (RAF Uxbridge. Three years… my favorite place in all the world)
• Oklahoma City, OK (Tinker AFB. Two years. I lived in Moore and Choctaw.)
• Detroit, MI (Birmingham and Ferndale. Ten-plus years)
• Rochester, NY (Perinton/Fairport. Three-plus (four?) years.)
• One wonderful year (ten months) on the road in my RV… coast to coast and border to border.
• Berkeley, CA (one year)
• San Ramon, CA (one year)
• Portales, NM (five years. And counting.)

And there you have it… my life history condensed into 28 bullet points. What made filling out that first DD Form 398 difficult was the fact that there were multiple addresses at each of the earliest locations. The same would hold true for the later locations, as well. I’d hate to have to fill one of those damned things out today. So… I won’t.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: The scanner has sat idle for way too long, and I really need to get my motivation back and scour the archives for suitable blog fodder. So… here’s a start: Two pics from the one and only time I’ve ever performed in public, karaoke aside (and we won't go there, Gentle Reader). The occasion was the Fourth of July picnic at Fortuna AFS, ND in 1977. That’s my Bud Chip at the keyboards, the wife of a co-worker on guitar (whose name I don't remember)…and me trying my very best to croak out Warren Zevon’s “Carmelita.” My friends humored me with “not bad” sorts of comments, but Mom was right: I couldn’t carry a tune…even if I had a bucket. Which I didn’t.

Never again.