History

Remembering Old Boat Races

by John Hamilton Farr on November 18, 2011 · 3 comments

in America, History

Back in Maryland on the lovely Eastern Shore, long before the real estate bubble inflated housing out of all proportion and flooded our little town with people who thought going to the farmers’ market was the same as living in the country, way back when you could still find mouldering 18th century brick houses overrun [...]

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Days of the Dead [Updated]

by John Hamilton Farr on November 11, 2011 · 11 comments

in History, Personal

The other day I stopped yelling at my brother. Yes, whether he knows it or not, he’s a free man. With any luck at all, I may be, too. This came about because I finally realized I was angry, very angry, and had been for a long, long time, for all the years of parental [...]

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Ahead of My Time!

by John Hamilton Farr on July 15, 2011 · 11 comments

in Art, History

Something else to explain the strange course of my life. Maybe I wasn’t crazy, just too far advanced. When I was 10 years old in Germany, I built a rocket-powered flying wing. (A precocious little bastard from day one, even if the old man was afraid I was a pansy and kept threatening me with [...]

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Final Exam Pottery

by John Hamilton Farr on June 13, 2011 · 5 comments

in History, Personal

I had a friend once who was a crazy potter. He’s probably still my friend, but I don’t know where the hell he is. The man in question lived for a time on an old wreck of an Eastern Shore farm in Maryland that belonged to his wife’s father. They aren’t married now, he later [...]

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Sex Pistols Redux

by John Hamilton Farr on November 12, 2010 · 9 comments

in History, Music

Oh wow. Gotta love YouTube! On a whim, I just searched for a video of the Sex Pistols’ show at Randy’s Rodeo in San Antonio, Texas on January 9, 1978, and I found one! This blows me away. Naturally, I watched this very carefully, because my wife and I were there… Alas, we’re not in [...]

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Potsherd o’ the Day

by John Hamilton Farr on October 26, 2010 · 6 comments

in History

No long narrative here, but I thought you’d like to see this… This beauty was lying on the ground, painted side up, as obvious as anything. I found it just off the road, on my way back to the house after taking pictures. There were a large number of people living in this area up [...]

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Parable of Aunt Mary

by John Hamilton Farr on September 4, 2010 · 11 comments

in History, Personal

My 97-year-old aunt lives in Maine. So far, so good. While she’s thriving in her way and probably still dangerous, the community where she holds court is surely gathering around her now like the old ladies in “Zorba the Greek,” if that rings a bell, waiting for the last breath to signal the onset of [...]

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Interlude: Australia!

by John Hamilton Farr on October 22, 2009 · 6 comments

in History

It looks like just a little ol’ island on a map, but that’s because the ocean is so vast. I’ll bet most Americans don’t know that Australia is bigger than the 48 states. As for me, I’ve always had a physical and pyschic connection to the place. Just look at that ashtray, for example. My [...]

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My First Light Show

by John Hamilton Farr on August 11, 2009 · 3 comments

in History

Maybe you should hear the band first. Here’s a short, non-litigious clip of the opening of “Ebeneezer,” by Shiva’s Headband: They were my favorite local Austin psychedelic rock band. When an art student friend of mine asked me to help run a light show for their next gig, I was ecstatic! The year was maybe [...]

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Garages, Barns, & Boxing Gloves

by John Hamilton Farr on January 13, 2009 · 4 comments

in History

Living in this world, I hardly ever have to make things up. We used to live in a 75-year-old farmhouse on a rural road on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Whether the property had ever been an actual farm is questionable, although there was a rusty 1920s vintage John Deere corn planter in a shed [...]

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