Knot a Blog: 2006年11月

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11月30日

It's Starting to Look a Lot Like...

Tomorrow (December 1), we'll have our Christmas party and graduation for the students who have worked with us at the Lighthouse this year. Good food, good company, good memories...

I like to wear a tie with a computer theme when I am introduced at Lighthouse events, since I am one of the computer people there. So, although I have previously expressed a distaste for holiday-themed neckties, this one (The Saturday Evening Post, © 1997 The Curtis Publishing Company, silk, Canada) is one I am looking forward to wearing... the only Christmas tie I'll wear this year.

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11月29日

Last of the triangles

When I selected this necktie, I thought I heard little voices in the drawer saying, "Take me, take me," because this (11-30) will be the last chance for ties with triangles to be worn for some time.

This is certainly a grand finale. One label reads, "Designers in Motion, Paul Klee." Another reads, "100% Silk, Hand made, Designers in Motion, Miami," and another label reads, "Made in Korea." So, I guess it is designed in one country and made in another. Printed on the back of the tie itself is "New Fortress - 1919." Google doesn't turn up any connections, but I very much like the design, which seems to move up from a fairly complicated pattern of triangles to a sort of resolutoin of triangles making quadrangles. The browns and greens are pleasant, a rather odd combination.

All in all, I think that this tie is a particularly pleasant way to say farewell to the triangle, a figure which may remind us of a terrible event in US history... or of a fundamental concept of Christian theology.

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11月28日

Eternal Triangles - 5

The triangles keep coming up with new moods, new colors.

Today (11-28), I wore a necktie made elegant by its severe black, gray, and white. But the severity was undermined by the jazzy triangles and strange filler designs. (Mondo di Marco, Firenze, made in Italy, silk)

The more I looked at this tie, while wearing it all day, the more it reminded me of The Devil Is a Woman, the last of the Marlene Dietrich / Josef von Sternberg collaborations. Although it is in glorious black and white, I have read that people remember it as being in color. The same thing might happen with this necktie.

Tomorrow, I'll get some color, with red and white lines, and, yes, I know those probably aren't triangles. They are shaded to look more like cones, but I am pushing the limits of triangles, the focus on which will end this week. (Bellagio, US, silk).

It's time to give triangles their due with a quick trip to Wolfram Mathworld, where one page has probably more than you ever could have imagined about the triangle.

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11月27日

Home Run

Or, a run home. It is a long story, but I returned to my home town in Georgia to visit my mother, who moved back there after being away for five years. I suggested we go to the church which I first attended in 1961, so it is the church where I in some ways grew up and also the church which I in many ways outgrew. It was eerie to see a couple who were there the first time I visited it, someone who graduated from high school with me, a student of mine, co-workers of mine, various friends of my mother.

I wore a necktie with a classic design, a repeated figure organized in diagonal stripes, in a classic color, burgundy, but not in a classiic fabric - polyester. The point of it was that the repeated figure was a map of the state of Florida, where I now live. There is no manfacturer's label, just a store label, "Nic's Toggery (since 1950), Tallahassee, FLA." No one mentioned it.

I took off today (Monday), so that I could drive home (about halfway down the map of Florida) the day after the Thanksgiving holiday rush. Oh, I was so smart about that. I drove up Interstate 75 on Saturday, the day of the big football game between the University of Florida in Gainesville and Florida State University in Tallahassee... and guess which road joins the two universities? Right, Interstate 75, which I shared with about a gazillion fans.

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11月21日

Eternal Triangles - 4

Tomorrow (11-22), I'm wearing a fairly calm celebration of triangles. Yet, it has a pretty wild range of colors: on a purple background, green triangles wiht yellow borders. Purple, green, and yellow? Yet, everything blends together rather subtly.

Today, I heard an interview with Tom Waits who was talking about writing songs for films. He said that the song should not simply repeat the theme of the movie. I am coming to feel that way about ties. The shirt should add something to the tie, or is that vice versa? I'm not sure yet whether I shall wear a green or yellow shirt with this tie... purple tie, green shirt?

This is the last tie I'll wear for a few days. I'll have a four day weekend off, and I'll also be off Monday for personal leave. So, for now, happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have much to be thankful for. As for me, I'm feeling more and more thankful for this elegant necktie (Ferrell Reed for Gentry House, "Hand printed in England, 100% silk," no information on where the tie was made).

Update: To my amazement, when I got to work, one of my co-workers was wearing a beautiful purple sweater with a green design on it.

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11月19日

Eternal Triangles - 3

After a quiet weekend, with a very clean house (and unhappy animals) and a great jacket, I am ready to face a new but short week at work with two neckties full of triangles to help me on my way. These two ties show triangles that seem to be a little more solid, a little more at rest, at least to my eyes.

Monday (20th), the tie (Bachrach, silk, Italy) seems to be right out of a geometry book, with more figures than just triangles, and with all of them showing up in ghostly other dimensions of brocade.

Tuesday (21st) has a really fun tie, with a rather unusual color, an asymmetrical border, and some eye-twisting lines and angles. (Amore, silk, US)

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11月16日

WHAT a blog... uh, website!

Tomorrow (Friday, 17th), I'm taking off to do some serious house-cleaning, so no tie will be worn... and if I don't get much house-cleaning done, then it will be a day off to celebrate recently finding a Harris tweed jacket - that fits me - for a dollar.

So, this is a good time to celebrate a website that I just found: Academia Cravatica, " a non-profit institution founded on 26th March 1997 and it studies, preserves and improves the cravat as a part of Croatian and world heritage." You can download video (I haven't, yet) and send cravat-themed e-cards.

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11月14日

Eternal Triangles - 2

These two neckties almost got worn a few weeks ago, when I was looking at ties with the same design but different colors. I don't remember how I got distracted then, but these two ties are welcomed after the first two triangle ties. These two ties have classic colors - burgundy or navy blue backgrounds - and a restrained range of colors. There are also a number of rectangles and pieces of circles to tame the triangles.

Strangely, at least according to the labels, these ties come from two different companies and countries and are of two different materials. The navy blue one is silk (Como Colleczione, US), while the burgundy one is polyester (Manhattan, Dominican Republic). But on both ties, there is for me not so much the energy of the triangle as something quiet, threatening, somehow out of an old sci-fi film.

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11月12日

Eternal Triangles

I have included a few weeks on the themes of quadrangles, but - perhaps to give a little equal time - I am going to be wearing neckties with triangles for a few days.

I don't know why, but although quadrangles, especially squares and rectangles offer a sense of balance and solidity, triangles seem more energetic. They always seem to be pointing, suggesting movement.

I'll reflect on triangles more as I wear them, but these two neckties certainly convey energy, not just because of the triangles pointing in all directions but also because of the vibrant colors and the whole jumble of shapes.

On Monday's tie (Zylos/George Machado, Italian silk, US), I can't blame triangles for the real mess here: colors, shapes, angles. In fact, there are some prominent quadrangles along with everything else. Pretty much the same thing could be said about Tuesday's tie (Pat Argenti, silk, China). It is easy to overlook the triangles.

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11月11日

Veterans Day - and more birds

Today is Veterans Day, and I decided to wear another Saturday necktie. This silk tie is, appropriately, red, white, and blue... but it is by Pierre Cardin, one of the French who have become so reviled in recent years. Ah, sweet irony....

Yesterday, the last day of a week of ties with birds on them, I visited in a home with three birds, including a cockatiel who was out of the cage. He would not settle down until he was on my shoulder.

Today, at the Veterans Day activities in downtown Lakeland, I saw a man and a woman sitting on a bench. The woman was holding a baby, and on the baby's stroller perched a sun conure with clipped wings. I spoke to them, the bird became agitated, I held my hand down to the stroller. He stepped up and headed for my shoulder, where he sat while I talked with his featherless flockmates for a few minutes, and he acted as if he did not want to go back to them.

This was a special Veterans Day for me, a time once more to remember my father and a friend, two World War II veterans whom we have lost this year, a time to remember all the veterans I work for, bringing hardware and software to help them cope with their vision loss, and to thank my friend, the Designated Shopper, who is a veteran not only of thrift stores but also of the Vietnam War.

The commemoration was made unpleasant by the speaker, Adam Putnam, a rich racist Republican who has never served in the military and has never worked (as far as I know, except in his family's business) but somehow continues to win votes of people whose lives he does not know and whose needs he does not address.

Dory Previn's great song, "The Veterans' Big Parade" sums up the day quite well. The weather was beautiful.

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11月9日

Countess Mara sighting

I just finished reading (with my ears, while driving) Middlesex: A Novel, by Jeffrey Eugenides. On the day of one of the most important days of his life, the father of the narrator gets all dressed up, even "around his bullfrog neck, a Countess Mara necktie." Well, if one is going to find out that one's beloved daughter is really one's beloved son, one should at least have a hug from the Countess.

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11月5日

Ties of a Feather

First things first, Tuesday the 7th is Election Day.

I'll wear my tie and hope for the best.

It has been some time since I wore ties with birds on them. My little boss in gray feathers would, I am sure, be unable to imagine that I would have to have a reason to wear bird ties, but I'll associate the birds with what happens in other parts of the country, birds flying south for the winter. (Many of them end up here in Florida.)

The four ties I'm wearing this week cast birds in a variety of lights. On Monday the 6th, the tie (Club Room, silk, Italy) shows pairs of quail on a predictable diagonal stripe. Quail and striped tie... hunter... macho bird tie. On the other hand or neck, on Wednesday the 8th, the tie (Churchill Collection, silk, US) is lush, elegant, almost Asian with its swirls of feathers and colors and botanical elements.

On Thursday the 9th, I'm wearing something that is a favorite of mine, a home-made tie. This one has a spritely design of blue and brown birds with incongruous red lines and dots. The person who made this tie hadn't quite gotten things right, since both pointed ends are somewhat irregular, but that adds an extra charm for me, and I shall wear it with gratitude for whoever made it.

I'll finish up the week with birds of a different feather on Friday the 10th (Ralph Marlin, polyester, US). There is a printed name, Blane or Blake Heilman. Rather severe black, white and gray bird faces with piercing red eyes create a sense of mystery, almost threat. I suspect we aren't far from Jerzy Kosinski's haunting novel, The Painted Bird. Snooping around the Internet for some appropriate links, I found a hymn I had never heard of, "Flee As a Bird." But, do come back in time to vote and to check the next installment of the blog.

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11月4日

Dia de los Muertos

We all know that October 31st was Hallowe'en, the eve of All Hallows or All Saints' Day on the 1st of November. The next day, All Souls' Day, is best known in this country as the Mexican Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Over the years, it has become one of my favorite holidays, as I pause to remember those who have died in the past year.

This year, I lost two members of my family, my father Leeon and my cousin Grace, two members of my "adopted" family, Lewis (father of three friends of mine) and Anthony. I should mention that I am following the church tradition here of remembering them by their baptismal names, not their surnames with title of respect. Three other friends of mine lost parents. There was Rose, whom I never met, but whom I talked with on occasion about children with visually impairments with whom we were working.

One of my fellow tie-bloggers lost his grandfather this year, and I got an email from a gentleman whose recently deceased cousin Ken had collected neckties and written elegant little fictions which I want to write more about later. Check K R Mullin in Google for the pleasure of reading his stories. Perhaps you'll understand why I feel a particular twinge of sadness at the loss of this funny, insightful gentleman whom I never met.

My favorite part of my job is setting up closed circuit television (CCTV) magnification systems for people with visual impairments, mainly elderly people with macular degeneration. It is such an easy way to make such a big difference in a person's life. My least favorite part of my job is picking up that equipment after the person dies, and I have had a few instances of that unpleasant task this year, two in the past week, one - in fact - on All Souls' Day.

In both instances, I remembered the name but could not associate it with anything. Then, when I got to the first home (what a privilege it is to go into the homes), I recognized the wife and her doll collection, their dog, his portrait taken when he was getting recognized for his work in a well-known social service organization. I remembered how he insisted on helping me. I would not let him carry the equipment into his home, but he would not let me carry the boxes out. In the other home, I remembered that the couple had offered to make me lunch, and I remembered their granddaughter, who - the man's wife said - was taking the death of her grandfather very hard.

There is no reference to my neckties in this entry. But, I wanted to include it anyway.

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