| Some background on yours truly, a researcher, writer and student who is interested in many things in the many worlds: |
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| With a second generation American Polish and Hungarian heritage, I grew up the middle of three sons of grocer Joseph and registered nurse Virginia. This was primarily in Seven Hills, Ohio, a wooded suburb of Cleveland. Parochial grade school during the 60s didn't leave much time to learn about the social changes happening across this country, although I was only about 25 miles away from Kent State on that fateful May day. Since the mid-60s I'd helped my dad develop his vegetable gardens. |
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| I began doing creative writing in the 6th grade with a few chapters of a science fiction novel. In mid high school the first of three SF short stories were begun, none of which ever sold. (I do have a nice collection of rejection slips from all the big name specialty magazines of the time.) |
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| My freshman high school year had my introduction into bonsai with the discovery of a book by Ann Kimball Pipe in the local branch library on one late October after school visit. Initial attempts at bonsai with clay flowerpotted maple saplings from the neighborhood woods continued with small junipers when the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1971. During the rest of high school (Brophy College Prep), college (UofA and ASU), and afterwards, I generally had at least one tree every year. On and off, with little more than houseplant care, if truth be told, although these were kept [correctly] outdoors. |
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| Getting serious about bonsai in early 1986, I then wanted to learn more about its history and origins. Finding very little information in the first books I was reading at the time, I wrote down the, literally, one or two sentence histories per book which I came across in order to put together "a little history." |
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| My participation in the Phoenix Bonsai Society since that Fall has been as librarian (1990-1995), president (1995-1997), ongoing publications editor (c. 1994-present) and information junkie. |
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| That "little history" is now an approximately 600 page, 2 volume yet unpublished comprehensive examination of the origins and development of dwarf potted tree culture in Asia and elsewhere, with some of the philosophical, horticultural, and technological influences on this gardening art. (Parts of this work are being put on this web site.) While researching this Magical Miniature Landscapes, it was suggested that I write a few articles to get the ball rolling as far as public dissemination of the story which I had presented to the Phoenix club in two different lectures. Thus were born the following: |
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"Some
Bonsai Futures," American Bonsai Society Bonsai Journal, Vol.
25, No. 3, Fall 1991, pp. 20-21.
Second article written, first published (nine months after it was accepted). Editor Jack Wikle thought this would give me a better "entrance." We worked it back and forth a couple of times as he helped me focus my thoughts. It is written in my characteristic concentrated style: I cannot do a fluffy press release or quickie magazine article. Up until this time there were only four articles ever written about the future of our hobby/art, all in 1975 and 1976, and none really took an in-depth predictive approach. And this article contains two predictions (so far) that I was right on about: (1) "Computers will also help growers of specific types of trees communicate worldwide and support the development of clubs whose members don't have to be geographically near to each other." witnessed the April 1993 birth of the rec.arts.bonsai newsgroup, which gave rise to the Internet Bonsai Club two years later, and (2) "a Horticulture or Home and Garden cable network" came true when the HGTV cable channel debuted in January 1995. |
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"Hachi-No-Ki,
A Perspective," ABS Bonsai Journal, Vol. 26, No. 2, Summer 1992,
pp. 3-4, 23.
First written article (hence it holds a special place in my heart), second published. It is about the often superficially mentioned but little studied Noh drama whose name translates as "The Potted Trees." The historical sources for this play, the development of Noh theatre, and what we can gather from the play about bonsai culture centuries ago in Japan. With bibliography. Little editing was done by Jack here. |
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"From
Colonial Times to World War II: America Peeks at Bonsai," ABS Bonsai
Journal, Vol. 26, No. 4, Winter 1992, pp. 5-6, 32.
To answer a fellow club member's surprise at learning that bonsai were mentioned in this country before 1945... With bibliography. The late Texas gentleman, Arch Hawkins, was my editor for this one, although he felt it needed very little help. |
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"To
Boldly Grow: Some Celluloid Bonsai," ABS Bonsai Journal,
Vol. 29, No. 4, Winter 1995, pp. 143-144 and Vol. 30, No. 1, Spring 1996, pp.
14-16.
The first half deals with sixteen film and TV portrayals from 1941 through 1979. Twenty-five more sightings from the years 1980 through 1995 are touched upon in the second part. The nine episodes listed of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" which included bonsai as set decorations are the reference for the article's title. (My final count is that actually nineteen episodes of the series had some bonsai in them.) Various program episodes, commercials, special TV events, and a few movies are listed. (By the way, that first appearance is in a Cary Grant film, "Penny Serenade.") Jill Hurd was my editor here, again using an extremely light touch. |
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"Club
Tree Experience Survey," Bonsai Clubs International Bonsai,
Vol. XXXV No. 1, January/February 1996, pp. 69-70.
The last article in the last issue edited by Jean C. Smith, published as written, in "The Club Corner" section. |
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1997,
Pyramid Dancer Publications.
This is my first completed and published book. It originated from a few interviews with the club's teacher, Leroy Fujii. Some of that material was in the first few issues of our club newsletter, Fujii Notes. The articles were well-received and our 35th anniversary was approaching. As we hadn't done anything for our 25th and I was now president, I decided to put together a commemorative history. More interviews with Leroy and others, background on the Phoenix area's climate, landforms, and development (for my out-of- state and out-of-country friends), and material from Magical Miniature Landscapes to put our club in perspective. Even despite the small handful of typos that I've since discovered slipped by me, this is a very interesting and well-researched document. I am very thankful that I took the opportunity to learn a little about Fujii-san and was able to share it with the world. |
| Some work was done on my high school student newspaper and yearbook. I was involved in two different attempts at long-distance co-authorship, compiled a corporate history and three procedure manuals, have a couple of unpublished monographs (on fruitarianism and on the Chinese pyramids), and write some poetry. Verse has been published in the Sunbow Coop Newsletter and Omega New Age Directory. Six pieces of verse were sold to but never published in Arizona Highways. A few articles did get into the Gentle Strength Coop Newsletter. I've done a few graphics in varied media for myself, at least two quick but detailed going away memory sketches for friends, and a health care instructional flip chart. |
| My longest running bonsai is an approximately 50 year old, 17" tall, 10" diameter base, "Hand of Buddha" style Elephant food (Portulacaria afra) which has been shown many times locally during the fourteen plus years it has been in my caring and styling. It currently is in a 13"W x 9"D x 3"H blue glazed oval pot. |
| Other interests of mine include |
| cats (especially Maine Coons: a beautiful one, Dance, was my companion from the time she was less than a week old until I gave her fifteen and a half year old recently debilitated body its final rest); |
| fish (tropical most years since March 1968 and saltwater with mini-reef since May 1998); |
| languages ( I can understand and communicate a little in French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese, besides being able to recognize by sight or sound several others); |
| Daoism (going with the flow of the complementary principles. Particularly evocative is Red Pine's 1996 translation using the Mawangtui texts with multiple commentaries.); |
| natural science (I collected rocks and fossils during my grade school era exploration of the local woods and pond with the family's beagle/cocker spaniel, studied the heavens with a telescope, and planned on being a delphinologist when I grew up. Well, maybe in another parallel world I am, when I'm not being an award winning science fiction author...); |
| history (so relatively thin highlights, let alone details, of what actually happened to and was attempted by humans have ever been recorded or rediscovered. To say nothing of the histories of our fellow earthlings of the five kingdoms...); |
| classical music (a multi-LP set Treasury of Great Music which my folks had was voluntarily listened to while I was growing up. My home radio has long been set to the different local classical stations. I do have some clarinet, piano and choir training/experience.); |
| among many other things. |
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http://www.thehungersite.com/ |
| Just a very few of the many people -- very few gurus or saints among them -- who've influenced/touched me emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually include: |
| Mohandas K. Gandhi (the nonviolence saint of the first half of the 20th Century); |
| the Dalai Lama (the nonviolence saint of the second half of the 20th Century); |
| John Lennon (the same birthdate as mine, but fifteen years older: "Imagine" that, "Across the Universe"); |
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Alice
Cooper (twenty-three times between 1973 and 1975 in Phoenix, Tucson,
and Cleveland I did my full makeup and costume imitation at parties, bussing
tables at the pizza parlor, and other. His energetic rock music
and theatrical persona moved me past high school, a gentle rebellion from my
clean-cut image. Finally actually met Alice the day after Christmas
'98 at his new downtown rock and sports themed restaurant/bar, Cooper'stown.
Good food. Me very very happy. And then I attended the Glen
Buxton memorial jam session which was held there on Oct. 23, 1999. It was
the first time the original surviving members had played together in almost
25 years. Way cool blast from the past. For Halloween
2000 at work I staged my own revival by donning wig and greasepaint one
final(?) time. Oh, then on March 21, 2004 a friend of mine in
Kansas City, MO e-mailed me with the following note:
"I was watching an
interview with Alice Cooper and his daughter Calico the other night
that apparently was taped at his house. On the table behind the
couch was a very nice looking bonsai tree. I thought to myself,
"I gotta' tell Bobby this!" Alice apparently has a fondness for
the bonsai also. I guess the whatever doesn't fall far from the
bonsai tree! LOL." See Dec. 7, 2003 entry in
Boldy Grow Part 4.)
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| Jim Croce (my most favored song, period, is "I Got A Name." He recorded it about three months before his plane crashed, which was then about the time I happened to first become aware of his music.); |
| Harry Chapin ("Taxi," "Sequel," "Circle"); |
| John C. Lilly (from dolphins and metaprogramming to the extremes of inner space, ever The Scientist); |
| Joseph Chilton Pearce (Exploring the Crack in the Cosmic Egg and The Magical Child); |
| Dick Sutphen (metaphysical author and past life regressionist); |
| Richard Bach (Illusions and The Bridge Across Forever); |
| Caroline Myss (Anatomy of the Spirit and the Energetics of Healing); |
| Jane Roberts (Seth's channel for The Nature of the Psyche and The Unknown Reality, etc., plus The Education of Oversoul Seven) [for an alternative to the Big Bang/Genesis dichotomy, see his Conscious Creation Myth], and |
| Mary Chapin Carpenter ("This Shirt" and "John Doe No. 24"). |
| Compensated jobs and occupations I've held include supermarket carryout, pizza maker, security guard, theatrical make up person, stand-up comic, comedy writer, community theater actor, gardener, tree trimmer, tutor, church youth group minister, counselor, genealogical researcher, psychic reader and consciousness researcher, filing clerk, shipping clerk, data entry clerk, inventory control clerk, database manager, purchasing agent, job estimator, proof reader, customer service representative, videographer, group health insurance medical underwriter, premium accountant, hospital education center assistant (including Safe Sitter and Boot Camp for New Dads teacher), medical historian, bonsai historian, web site designer, and food and beverage purchasing manager for a five-star resort. A father and a stepfather in my own right. With many erroneous beliefs yet to be recognized and unlearned. Some alternative paradigms to consider. |
In my spare time I enjoy -- oh, yeah -- list-making.
: )
Hey, thanks for your curiosity. Now go do something practical and of service...
Blessed be.
Namasté.
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