… page 3… “Dang it, I can’t accept that it’s the God that people in church talk about. It’s bigger than God. It’s . . . God’s God!” John’s father sat passively through this, without any change of expression. Then he got up and came over to where John and I were half-leaning, half-sitting on the railing. Speaking without haste, he addressed his son and me at the same time.
“Well, you have these questions. You young men have taken this LSD and you have a lot of questions. You saw something, and it’s hard to put whatever you saw out of your minds. But let me tell you how, in my experience, life works—how it works for a man.
“For a man there’s an order in life. First he needs to get himself a good truck, and by that I mean a job—something he’s naturally good at that earns him a living and connects him with the world, with other people. First, a good truck.
“After that, with any luck he attracts a good woman. Maybe he’s got to look for one and maybe one just shows up. But you need to go at life in the proper order to be sure of finding one. If you mix up the order, things get harder. Maybe you find the woman first and then the truck, or maybe you don’t find much of anything. Either way, putting these big questions you like to ask before you get your truck can be risky. You’re apt to never find very much you can live by. Very big answers have a way of slipping through very small fingers. You know, boys, a man can get stuck looking at the cosmos, as you call it, or at other men’s wives. Sometimes a person doesn’t end up with a real grasp of the big things he thinks he’s after, and doesn’t get the most basic things right either.
“A man needs what he really needs. No one can change that. First, get yourself a truck. Then a good woman. After that, you’ll be surprised how these other things, the cosmos and everything, find a way of working themselves out. Then you can question things from a patch of ground you’ve earned, and everything means more to you. From his own patch of ground a man can see a long way.”
I just loved this.. so I am sharing it here… but please look at the ENTIRE story in UTNE and PARABOLA.
… page 3..John and I were silent. Not wanting to stare, I glanced at Oldie, trying to comprehend what he had just said.
Did he know, somehow, that at least one of us was ready to hear that?
read the whole thing. i just loved it…
http://www.utne.com/2008-03-01/Spirituality/For-a-Man-Theres-an-Order-in-Life.aspx
April 16th, 2008
April 6th, 2008
In 2008, the Internet is how we find anything, advertise anything, share anything, and depend on for everything. Whodathunk? The “World Wide Web” has actually arrived!
In the 70’s, when I was in high school, there was one very clunky computer sitting in the main office. We were allowed to type on it and watch the screen fill with mysterious hieroglyphics.
I quickly decided that I was NOT a computer kid.
Anyway, that has all changed, as it has for most of us who still had enough flexibility in the learning center of our brain mass to absorb and process digital tasks.
My son is trying to decide whether or not to go to college. He cannot figure out why he would go to college if he were not studying to be something specific – a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher - all of which require college degrees to further the path that society has dictated. He does not really know what he wants to be. He only knows what he likes to do.
So, this morning at breakfast, we talked about the fact that he loves woodworking and he loves music. We have talked about this before, but this morning I think it actually made sense to him that if he began to take community college courses in these 2 subjects, his knowledge of these 2 subjects would become increasingly broad, making him happier and ultimately creating a possible source of income from whatever he chooses to do that relates to these 2 subjects.
So I said to him “Even if you decided to do something as mundane as opening a music store, you would know more about music, making you more valuable to your customers, thus making you a better and more desirable store to buy stuff from.” When I was a kid, owning a store seemed the most ludicrous, anti-art, un-intellectual, commerce based, commodity driven career and I would not have anything to do with it!
Sigh…
But that has all changed… I have a store. I have had a version of a store for the past 15 years. I sell my art, others artists work, but mostly I sell tee shirts that have my images printed onto them. I LOVE MY STORE! In my store, I teach all the time. I teach people about the work I do, talk to customers about the ideas I have, they talk to me about theirs. I am always learning from them. I am always making art. I am always selling something that is related to art. I am connected to my community in an amzing way.
I have confidence about the imparting of knowledge and the creation of my product much because I have an education in my field. I am not wondering if there is some secret art making language that I am not privy to. I am privy to it. I have made art in the most sophisticated of places. I have made art with the best of them. So getting your education, then choosing where to live, is filled with more options than ever before.
The internet creates the possibility to know something – know someone – create a relationship of some sort – impart knowledge – share stuff – affect each other – without needing to be living in what happens to be the most trendy part of Brooklyn this year. It allows us to live where we are comfortable. Possibly where our family lives. Wouldn’t that be magical? To actually live down the street from your parents while you are raising you kids and be able to make a decent living? Maybe we can reclaim the inter-connectedness of our family life. Maybe we can reclaim some of our lost sanity that was stolen through the 20th century. That so-called “ANGST” created by the fragmentation of the family in the 19th & 20th century can possibly be undermined. Maybe we can reclaim part of our sanity, our birth right as human beings. Maybe we can finally place Nietzsche in the past – where he belongs - as a part of the time line of evolution. Maybe we can truly evolve into the genuine, compassionate, earth-loving, community embracing species that we began as. Maybe we can dissolve the psycho-insanity that pervades our culture.
It is now not weird to be from a small town and to stay there and work. We can stay in our small towns. We can buy local produce. We can support our local public school because our business is in the community. We can walk and bike more often. We can advertise in our local newspaper, talk to our community through our local paper. Sit at the local luncheonette, or by the river, or at a playdate with our kids, or in our kitchen over coffee, and read our local newspaper and KNOW our local community.
We can still make a living in the big world. We can still teach and learn from others. We can write about ideas, share them, make art, show it and sell it , play the drums at our local tavern, our local festival, play at a local open mike, and then post the video that our friend made of us on utube. We can still have all the best of what we absolutely love, what makes us happy AND can be connected in the most intimate ways the big, big world.
April 4th, 2008
Because submissions have been scant for this project, been reevaluating it and am coming at it from a different angle.
“A publication seeking to explore, expose and share the creative subtext that provides vital fuel and inspiration for our professions, our community and our spirit.”
I am adjusting my original seriously overcontrolled format.
JUST SENT ME SOME WRITTEN SHIT, GUYS.. so this can begin.
And I will happily lay it out and publish it on paper and online at no cost to you.
You can paste it into an e-mail, and attach a jpg… Then I will happily format it.
OR
You can send a .pdf or .jpg with text info and pictures and I will grab it and place it.
(remember that it is best if the resolution is nice and high 220 to 300 dpi if you want it to publish on paper without pixelating)
OR
scan or photograph something handwritten and I will publish it as is - it will be a welcome visual for the techno - weary….
OR
Bring in the thing (the words and/or the imagery to Civilian and I will scan it right then.
Right now I only have 2 items to publish. I need content.. GIVE ME CONTENT……..
March 19th, 2008
Got a couple of different valentine’s day shirts - and a couple of really nice cards. NICE GIFT - on the back is this: MY CIVILIAN VALENTINE 
January 31st, 2008
For the history … scroll down 
- It will be a standard 8.5 x 11″ publication because I cannot seem to get started any other way.
- It will be printed by the Postal Annex, in Frenchtown
- 1000 copies for the first publication date of April 1 2008.
- Deadline: March 15, 2008
- Submissions will only be allowed in PDF format Black & White only
- emailed to thefrenchtowncivilian@civilianbasics.com
- 8.25 ” wide x 10.5 ” high. BW PDF $75.00
- 8.25″ wide x 5.25″ high BW PDF $60.00
- 4″ wide x 2.5″ high BW PDF $40.00
- I will try to set up a PAYPAL button for this on my site this week. Otherwise, a check or credit card is fine. (Pay at Civilian.)
- Rememeber this publication has no sponsor, has not REAL advertisers, except you & me and everysone else & your content and WHATEVER you want with your pages. I am not an editor, yet a manager, more or less.
- The first publication is really test, but we need a first publication. You need to pay for this, as does EVERYONE ELSE, including me.
- Let’s do this!!!!
January 28th, 2008
Here is work done at Civilian with Danny Seo… Check out his Blog… 
I recently found an image of a pencil sketch deer head that I really liked and have my local screen printer make a silkscreen for me. Here’s what the finished image looks like printed onto a reusable canvas shopping bag. Isn’t it cute?The process of doing custom screen printing is surprisingly easy and not expensive at all. The best thing to do is to find an image you love, have a screen made, and then print lots and lots of shirts, bags, and fabrics with the image. The real cost is all the set-up, not the actual printing, so it pays to be prepared and show up with an armload of things to print on.MORE AT HIS BLOG: http://www.dannyseo.typepad.com
January 17th, 2008
I’m getting kinda convinced that these spirits are everywhere just waiting to become visible through some natural/elemental occurance… This was an ice formation on my car captured before my defroster took it from sight.
January 16th, 2008
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So, The new graphics are beginning to be generated. Some old favorite Handprinted Classic Civilian imagery - TRANSFORMED!!! into newer - 2-color more affordable renditions. They will keep coming. Keep watching for our spring images and some really nice new tee cuts… COME ON IN AND CHECK IT OUT !!!!
