All photo credits Margaret McDaniel.
UPDATED PHOTOS: Toilet Seat Museum of Art
All photo credits Margaret McDaniel.
Toilet Seat Art Museum (really!)
Margaret and I just returned from a great driving trip to Texas; Austin, Fredericksburg, San Antonio. Those cities make up a geographic triangle all within an hour and a half of one another. If you haven’t traveled to this area we highly recommend it…lots to do and see.
As is the case with most of our travels we try to do and see the things of particular interest to us, which are not always the usual tourist attractions. We seek out restaurants the locals frequent, the museums off the beaten path, and attractions suggested by one of our favorite travel guides, Roadside America, “Your Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions”. Our visit to San Antonio brought us to one of our favorite attractions to date, the Toilet Seat Art Museum.
Barney Smith is a 93 year ‘young’ retired plumber turned toilet seat artist. To visit his museum, 
which is housed in his garage off a quiet residential street, all you need do is call and he’ll gladly open up. When Margaret made the call I was thinking there’s no way this old man would pick up the phone and invite us over at 4:00 in the afternoon. But he immediately picked up, Margaret introduced herself and Barney said come on by…just like he’d been waiting for our call all day. We arrived a few minutes early waiting for Barney to open. Minutes later here he comes out the back door of his home, hunched over his walker barely able to walk the few steps to his garage/museum. I’m thinking we’re going to be dealing with some senile old man who will just sit there while we spend five minutes looking at his ‘art’. Boy was I wrong!
As soon as Barney unfolded the two big aluminum garage doors he lit up like a fourth of July sparkler. We immediately noticed the toilet seats with the license plate motif and pointed out we were from Georgia. Barney went into an explanation of who gave him that plate, who was the last person from Georgia to visit and who had signed the back of the seat (as we had the pleasure to do). When Margaret mentioned that we were cyclists he showed us a toilet seat with a ‘cycler’ theme and explained its origins and again 
who had signed (which he insisted we do too). As the tour continued he came to a seat he said had come from one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces brought back by Barney’s neighbor who was involved with the invasion of Iraq. It had photos of American soldiers along with other artifacts. I’m thinking “right, that seat came all the way from Iraq”. Well, not ten minutes later a man walks in, introduces himself and informs us he’s the soldier who brought that seat back for Barney. He said he went into that palace, saw the toilet seat and knew it would be coming back to San Antonio for his friend.
I can go on and on about the hundreds of toilet seats, Barney’s collage art which adorns them along with his intricate carvings, his notoriety from interviews on The View, Montel, numerous local news shows along with scores of magazine articles. But what most amazed us was Barney’s continued love of life at the age of 93 (94 this month). He’s obviously lived his life with much passion, probably for his work, his art, his family. While most of us would be content to sit in a chair watching reruns, here was a man who wakes up every morning with a passion for life….I can only think this is what has kept him living so vibrantly well into his nineties. We can all take his life as an example of how to live; the simple, unromantic toilet seat has kept his passion for living strong…whatever it takes!
Here’s a short movie of Barney’s museum (I’m no videographer…sorry if it makes you dizzy); https://vimeo.com/126797956
Never Trust Anyone Over 30
Earlier this week Margaret and I saw the recently released movie While We’re Young. The movie features a good cast of popular actors including Naomi Watts, Ben Stiller, Amanda Seyfried and a very old looking Charles Grodin, among other faces you’d recognize. Following is the Rotten 
Tomatoes description; “Noah Baumbach’s comedy While We’re Young stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as Josh and Cornelia, a childless New York married couple in their mid-forties. As their other friends all start having children, the couple gravitates toward a young hipster couple named Jamie and Darby . He’s an aspiring documentary filmmaker, a vocation Josh already has. Soon the older couple begins enjoying the energy they feel hanging out with the younger generation, but eventually Josh begins to suspect his new best friend might not be as straightforward and trustworthy as he thought.”
We really wanted to like this movie; excellent cast, contemporary subject matter, exciting locations. Unfortunately we were both disappointed. The principle characters were not likeable or believable. While I don’t have to like every character in a movie I do have to believe them. We also wanted to like the ‘vibe’ of the movie, the hip characters and setting, but it never grabbed us. For me the most believable character was that played by Charles Grodin even though he was sort of a bastard, but an authentically portrayed bastard.
So even though I didn’t love this film it got me thinking about how we age, how we compare our age to the generations in front of and in back of our own and how we relate to those generations. The advent of rapidly changing technology and how each generation uses that technology is the new generation gap. My baby boom generation grew up with a huge cultural gap brought about by civil rights, opposition to war and radically new fashion/music trends. Today it’s all about information; how we access it and use it. And even though we have the same concerns as we did in the sixties and seventies the ‘information age’ has caused changes to happen so rapidly we don’t have time to be involved in the same way we were forty years ago. However, I am not one to believe ours was the last great generation; every generation believes theirs is the best….that’s human nature. But I feel we shouldn’t pigeon hole ourselves into basing ones life in only one generation….while we share a time with others born within a given generation that doesn’t mean we need to live only by the beliefs of that particular period. There’s much to learn from those who came before us and those who have come after. For technology I love to ask my younger friends for advice while they look to me for answers they themselves don’t posses (financial, career, cultural, etc.). And if we listen we can learn from those older than ourselves, those who matured before rapidly changing technologies played such a dominant role in our everyday lives.
Where am I going with this post? I’ve thought about it all day and guess it really boils down to this; learn from those older than ones self…they have a life time of experience; learn from those younger than ones self….they have a different world and self view that may be enlightening. But most importantly keep learning to keep growing….keep yourself open to new ways of thinking and doing.
A Life Fulfilled
“Life had a different shape; it had new branches and some of the old branches were dead. It had followed the constant pattern of discard and growth that all lives follow. Things had passed, new things had come”. 
This quote comes from the excellent book by Beryl Markham, West with the Night, a ‘classic, engrossing memoir—a triumph of the pioneer spirit and an adventure-charged chronicle of a life lived to the fullest’.
West With The Night was brought to my attention years ago by our friend JoAnn. It had been on my Kindle for several months before I felt it was time to read. Written in 1936, it describes the life of this extraordinary woman, born and raised in Africa. In her younger years she trained horses, thoroughbreds, and later was struck with the passion to fly planes. She became a bush pilot in Africa and later took on aeronautic feats unrealized in the 1930’s, let alone by a woman. And on top of these accomplishments she was an outstanding author of beautiful prose, possessing a writing style that allows the reader not only to visualize her stories, but to feel her passion. In the movie Out of Africa (1985), Markham is represented as the outspoken, horse-riding tomboy named Felicity.
I find it appropriate to mention this book and author now, having just this week learned that one of my oldest childhood friends had passed away at the young age of 59. When we’re kids and young adults we experience death first with grandparents, lucky if we knew all four from both sides of the family (I only knew my grandmothers). Then we age into middle life and experience the passing of parents, at which time our own mortality awakens with greater clarity. And now this childhood friend has died and we’re the next generation on the chopping block. But I have always tried to live my life in the moment, to be present in the here and now, learning from the past but not projecting too much into the future 
(Be Here Now). Reading West With The Night I think about these life issues, question if I’m living a life fulfilled. I know I’m never going to fly a single engine airplane from Nairobi to London as Beryl Markham did, but am I challenging myself and living my life the way I want. No one ever does one hundred percent of the time.
A life fulfilled is an individual pursuit; some of us do it through our children, some through work, some through philanthropy, some giving ourselves to worthwhile causes. Sometimes it’s just living a good life, not taking advantage of others and being a giving person. Some of us find fulfillment in a game of golf, a bike ride or reading a good book; something to make us feel worthwhile, not for others but for ones self. My friend Victor died young, and from what I understand he had many unrealized dreams. Don’t wait for those dreams to happen, make them a your reality. I doubt many of us will say from our death bed “I did too much in life”.
Once again my prolific wife has been published, this time on the excellent Roger Ebert website. Click HERE to read her post; it’s just below the photo of Roger with his hand on his chin.
The Beach is a Bitch
Been out of town for the last week or so enjoying some more Florida warmth (I can get used to this!). This trip was with Margaret.
Some friends invited us to join them on a tandem (bicycle) weekend with a small group of other like minded cyclists in Niceville, Florida. They and the others were invited down to join a great couple they had met at tandem events in the southeast. George and Marti and their grown kids are an air force family that, after 30 years of service, had settled in Niceville now that George had retired (although he went back to work for the air force as a contractor). They cycle with others on their single bikes but tandem riders are scarce even with the year round warm temps.
To keep this brief all I’ll say is the cycling was fun, traffic low, roads flat (really flat!), seafood restaurants plentiful and the hospitality of our hosts outstanding!
One of the highlights on day two of cycling was a stop at the Air Force Armament Museum near Eglin Air Force Base. While we didn’t all have time to tour the indoor museum we were treated to a tour of the military aircraft outside. Our tour guide was our host for the weekend, George, who served as a pilot while in the ‘force’. What made this special was that George had flown the B-52 Stratofortress during the first Gulf War that’s on display at the museum . He told of the missions he flew and the capabilities of his plane and several of the others on display. As ‘civilians’ it’s difficult to have a connection to what we see on television and in the media, but standing next to a guy who risked his life for us was quite moving. Most of us go through our lives not considering the risks others take on our behalf, whatever their motivation….the fact is they do it. Here was a regular guy whose work was to protect us, regardless of our personal opinions of war and the politics that motivate it. I have a high degree of respect for all the “Georges” out there.
After the weekend in Niceville Margaret and I headed to Saint George Island, across the bay from Apalachicola. We had never visited this part of Florida and I had taken a chance on one of the two hotels on the tiny island (mostly home and condo rentals). The Saint George Inn is an old hotel that has that classic beach appearance. While not the Ritz it has an old world charm, plus it’s a two minute walk to the beach. With Apalachicola only a ten minute drive this is an excellent location for beach and seafood (Apalachicola has all the good restaurants). The bay produces some of the worlds best oysters which are served at all the local restaurants.
Being the dutiful husband I indulged my wife and joined her at the Saint George beach. While I’m not a ‘beach’ person ( after an hour I’m ready to do anything else) I admit that people 
watching at the beach is extraordinary. I spent much time just observing, and I discovered that, for reasons unbeknownst to me, people leave their inhibitions at home in exchange for time on the sand and surf. Consider; most folks wear the most unflattering clothing; they lug more furniture, towels, blankets, food, drink, toys, blow up devices, fishing accessories along with a multitude of devices to transport these items; they play a myriad of ridiculous games; they either lather themselves in sunscreen attracting a dusting of sand that takes days to remove from ones every crevice or they burn their bodies to a crisp; they argue, curse and rag at their partners and kids until exhausted and then do it all again the next day with as much zeal as they exhibited on the day of their arrival. Is it the sun that erases the memory of the previous day, or is life at home so mundane that they’d rather endure another day at the beach than the six hour drive home? I’m really not a beach person.
Traveling is such a great reward in retirement. It recharges the ‘batteries’, puts a fresh face on life at home and definitely keeps a marriage fresh and alive (Margaret and I fall in love all over again when we travel). Whatever the sacrifices we need make to keep traveling it’s worth the price!
Snapshots
Something for your ears, eyes, taste buds….
Click! Krog Street Market; Old Fourth Ward. This is a great place if you live in the Atlanta area (sorry Chicago friends). If you live in the ‘burbs’ and are in need of a good reason to venture inside the perimeter (ITP) here it is. Krog Street Market (KSM) in the Old Fourth Ward (a popular in-town gentrifying area) is adjacent to long time restaurant Rathbun’s. KSM is “designed to be as authentic as the 1920’s warehouse it’s built into. With market stalls to sell produce, goods, and prepared food, along with a few southern-grown restaurants and retailers, the market will offer Atlantans a gathering place of sorts – a locale for taking in an extraordinary meal or picking up a few inspiring ingredients – a west coast-style market, right in the heart of Inman Park”. Margaret and I met our niece Jane and husband Stephen for lunch at the market a couple weeks back. They had moved to the area a few months prior and were only a five minute walk from KSM. They love to walk over for coffee weekend mornings or evenings for a draft at Hop City Store and Bar, a “top rated retailer of craft beer in Georgia and Alabama”. We all had lunch at one of the food court restaurants, Yalla (loved it!), and sat at one of the many communal tables among the weekday lunch crowd. We can’t wait to go back!
Click! I love podcasts; they’re free, there are an incredible variety available, you can listen on your schedule and you just may learn something. A new podcast I have fallen in love with is Invisibilia. “Launching in January 2015, Invisibilia (Latin for “all the invisible things”) explores the intangible forces that shape human behavior – things like ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions.” This podcast is produced and hosted by two veterans of another long time favorite radio show This American Life. The first 10-15 minutes of episode one held some interest, but no great shakes. But I kept listening as the hosts developed the topic of ‘Thought’ (broad topic) with a couple case studies that were absolutely engaging. The hour long podcast ended and I wanted more. I’ve listened to three more episodes, one titled Fearless (with an amazing case study) and another titled Our Computers, Ourselves (with an interview of the man who has had a version of Google Glass for fifteen years). Take a listen…I think you’ll like it.
Click! Here’s a website mentioned in an AJC article that really intrigued me. The Hidden South is “a photo journal, by Brent Walker, that documents conversations with the unseen. It was started on September 10th, 2014”. The website features photos and interviews of those living on the fringe of society, people we may see on the streets but quickly forget. We see them for a few seconds but once out of sight so has our thought of them. There’s a world of people who haven’t had the fortune of privilege, and this site documents their lives. Take a look…you can’t help but be moved.
Click! Another Day Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside LLewyn Davis”. This is a terrific recording from a “one-night-only concert held at New York City’s Town Hall in 2013 to celebrate the music of the Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis, featuring live performances by icons and rising stars of folk and Americana.” Even you haven’t seen Inside LLewyn Davis (not one of the Coen brothers most popular) don’t miss this soundtrack if roots/folk/Americana music is on your radar. There are performances by established and up-and-coming artists; Avett Bros., Joan Baez, Elvis Costello, Keb’ Mo’, Marcus Mumford (of the Mumford Bros.), Conor Oberst, Jack White, Gillian Welch…and one of my new favorite performers Rhiannon Giddens. She has an incredibly strong voice that will shake you to your bones.
Click! I’ve clicked a few photos over the last several years (after a long hiatus from photography) and decided that once retired I’d spend more time getting serious about this hobby. Well, a series I shot last year got published in on-line South x Southeast PhotoMagazine. One needs to pay a subscription fee to see the content (which I don’t expect anyone to do) but here’s a look at one of my published photos for their feature on Mother Nature….
Ooh, That’s Scary!
Many years ago I had an employee at one of my frame shops, a kid in his early twenties and still a student. I was probably in my early forties so the kid and I had some things in common but not a 
whole lot. I liked this guy; smart, ambitious, could carry on a conversation in an adult manner….must of come from a good home. I mention this kid (I call him ‘kid’ because for the life of me I can’t remember his name) because he said something all those years ago that I’ve never forgotten. Wasn’t sage advice from someone twenty years younger, just an observation that I carry to this day.
The kid and I were having a conversation about his future desires, and number one on his list was to through-hike the Appalachian Trail solo. I’d heard of the AT but knew little about it. He filled me in on the distance, time it would/should take to hike, what month to start the hike and what direction to travel. I probably didn’t know that the trail started in Georgia, just a short hike from the top of Amicalola Falls, an hour and a half from where we stood talking. After this conversation I asked why he wanted to do it…..what was the motivation. His answer was what has stayed with me all these years. He said he wanted to do it because it scared him to do it, that anything life changing had to be scary otherwise it wouldn’t be life changing. Pretty smart for a twenty-something. Read more
The Chieftains
A couple weeks back I received an email from an outfit that offers discounts on entertainment 
and products in the Atlanta area. The headline offered discounted tickets for the Atlanta Symphony Pops concert featuring The Chieftains, the 50 year old Irish band created and lead by 76 year old Paddy Moloney. I’ve heard their music over the years, seen them at the Grammy’s, read about collaborations with the likes of Mick Jagger, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello and many others too numerous to list.
The Atlanta Symphony Pops series is more lighthearted than the Symphony concerts. There’s usually a theme and guest(s)….an evening of classical and ‘pops’ music popular with serious and casual listeners. Neither Margaret nor I knew what to expect from The Chieftains, just thought it would be something different to do on a Friday night. Well, what a great evening it was. The band strolled on stage, Paddy in the lead with eight or nine other musicians, some long time members, some young guns. There was a woman on harp and keyboard, a couple fiddle players, guitarist/squeeze box, mandolin, flutist and a couple others. Paddy played a tin whistle and the Uilleann pipes (he’s a master of both) and he MC’d in his thick Irish brogue that needed subtitles. These are all serious musicians who play with great passion.
We were treated to more than just music; after a couple numbers out came a lithe female dancer whose feet were a blur as she danced a jig with the male violinist and another dancer sporting red pants that looked like fire as he flew the air. This trio performed off and on during the night. There was an excellent female singer along with the band’s bodhrán drummer who had an excellent voice. But wait, there’s more; there appeared a 15-16 person choir from Atlanta, the Atlanta Pipe Band, another group of five dancers, a film of a female astronaut playing a tin pipe while floating around on the International Space Station with the live band accompanying her….and then the Atlanta Symphony took their seats and played another great set of songs with The Chieftains, the highlight being a call and response with the principle french horn playing a very quick tempo Mozart piece and the Chieftains responding with a similar Irish tune. At one point during his performance the animated french horn musician sat down on the conductors podium feigning exhaustion….very funny.
Regardless to say the audience was totally invested in this great evening of entertainment. After over fifty years of performing one would think it would get old and stale, but Paddy knows how to keep it fresh and fun by recruiting a wide variety of talented entertainers while staying true to his traditional Irish roots. I chose this show on a whim, without expectations, and we were treated to a great evening of entertainment. As Margaret said at show’s end; ‘I’m worn out’! We definitely got our money’s worth and then some. I know it’s late notice but there’s one more show tonight…if you can get tickets do so!
Love movies as we do, you had to assume there would be a “mini-Oscar preview” from Margaret….so here it is; her predictions, faves…
First predictions; “Sunday night….The Oscars. My fave night of the year. I have seen all the nominated films. My predictions (see below for my faves/picks):
Best Picture: Boyhood; Best Actor: Michael Keaton; Best Actress: Julianne Moore; Best Supporting Actor: JK Simmons; Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette; Best Director: Richard Linklater; Best Foreign Film: Ida; Best Cinematography: Birdman; Best Costume Design: Grand Budapest Hotel”
Her Faves; “Now……my Oscar “faves” for a few categories:
Best Picture: Whiplash – wonderful little movie with something for everyone and not a bit of controversy; Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne (Theory of Everything); Best Actress: Juliane Moore (Still Alice) no competition here; Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) she had NO vanity here, what woman would want to watch herself age over 12 years in “real time” and no botox/surgery?!; Best Supporting Actor: JK Simmons (Whiplash) best SOB in years; Best Foreign Language: Ida (personally, one of the BEST of any category); Best Documentary: Life Itself (doc of Roger Ebert’s life – which btw was not even nominated – what a travesty!) Now on to 2015! ; )”
And Peter says; I mostly agree with Margaret’s predictions for winners in the big categories. Unfortunately winners seldom mean they’re the best in a category; often it means the studio or producers spent the most to promote their film with the Academy voters, which I don’t agree with. Let the films, actors and production people stand on their own merit (guess I’m an idealist). That said, this year has no big studio blockbuster up for best picture….mostly smaller films, which is good. We haven’t seen all the foreign or documentary films…regardless I agree that both Ida and Life Itself are excellent; see them!
Yogi The Bear Ain’t No ‘Yogi’ (neither is boo boo)
Yogi, from the Urban Dictionary; “One who practices yoga and has achieved a high level of 
spiritual insight” or this; “to have sex with a girl using no condom” (never heard that definition!), or this; “One who is of yogi bear resemblance, got a yogi swagger to him. Stealing piknik baskets is a metaphor For he gets what he wants. Sleek style” (I like that one). For our purposes the first definition is the one we want.
One activity I wanted to take up upon retirement was yoga, and that’s what Margaret and I have done. The principle reason was to strengthen my core, work on flexibility and relieve some of my lower back pain I experience mostly when getting out of bed in the morning. (As an aside, even though I still have lower back pain getting out of bed, since retiring it is much better, ie. less stress). So we asked advice from some friends who practice yoga and found that everyone had different opinions. Some like (love, actually) hot, or Bikram yoga while others were fond of more traditional yoga such as Hatha, Vinyasa or Restorative. After some research we chose a Vinings yoga studio that offered a class simply titled Yoga For Beginners….perfect!
We’ve taken 4 or 5 of the beginning classes taught by a very patient young woman. We do some ‘positions’ that are fairly easy, and we do some that test our balance, strength and flexibility. Margaret has an easier time with some positions while I have an easier time with others. We also took a partners yoga class on Valentine’s Day that was great. There were about 15 couples in the class with the studio owner as instructor. All the positions and 
poses were done as a couple…many were quite difficult requiring more strength
and balance than if attempted individually. The class was light hearted and fun with lots of laughter throughout, although we both had a good physical workout. As an example of the poses there was a double plank (we took turns being on top) and the double chair pose (much more difficult than one would think).
So while still in the infant stage as practitioners of yoga I must say we’re hooked. I was somewhat intimidated by the prospect of going to a studio because I’d be so new at it. Taking a beginners class was definitely good, although we have not experienced ‘judging’ by others in the class. Instructors seem to be very supportive of their students whether one is new or experienced, as this is one of the tenets of yoga; to create a stress-free environment for the hour to hour and a half one is in class. The added benefit I wasn’t expecting is the meditative benefits for both mind and body. Now I don’t want to get all metaphysical or spiritual, but there are definite benefits to practicing yoga in terms of helping to calm the mind (and thus the body), that is similar to meditating (which I do on a daily basis). I feel Margaret has gotten a great benefit not only from the physical but from the meditative benefit, as in every class there’s some form of meditating whether coming at the beginning and/or end of each session.
We’ll keep taking a class or two a week and see where this takes us. As new as we are to this, at present I feel we’ll stick to it. We’ve already experienced the physical and mental benefits, plus we like the people who teach and take classes. The instructors truly believe in what they’re teaching and students are there because they want to be, each for their own reasons. At the end of each class there’s a group bliss as we float out of the studio, and I for one like it! Comments? Would love to hear about your experiences with yoga.
As that famous quote from Yogi Bear goes; “Boo Boo, you’ve tried to stop my brilliant ideas with common sense a thousand times. Has it ever worked?”
Speaking Of Life 