Friday, September 21, 2007

Should have posted this on 9/9/07


I searched YouTube and MySpace and didn’t find anything on the person I met today and I’m truly shocked. So here’s a link to get you by.

We drove to Stamford today to see the exhibit The Motorcycle, Italian Style:
Riding the Curves with MV Agusta at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center
. Nothing like walking through gorgeous farmland with turkeys and chickens skittering about underfoot only to walk into open land filled with gorgeous Italian motorcycles. Since the show just opened, today’s shindig featured even more gorgeous bikes and the presence of Roosevelt “Rosey” Lackey. He is the 2006 Bonneville land speed record holder. What does that mean, in a nutshell? He went really really fast on salt. If you haven’t seen The World’s Fastest Indian, rent it. Even though it’s about Burt Munro who broke the land speed record in 1967, it will give you a general idea what Rosey has done and where.

Those that know me know I like motorcycles but don’t really want one. Though there are a few I covet. The point of this tome is to praise Rosey. I associate the word “gentleman” with humility – this man has accomplished A LOT and still remains humble and will gladly pick up some crazy lady’s HUGE baby when she asks if she can take a picture of him holding said huge baby. (Like you need to guess who that crazy lady was.) I asked what he thought of The World’s Fastest Indian, he of course, loved it. Then after we chatted for a moment, I went in to see the exhibit and there was a gap where his Agusta motorcycle will be once it gets shipped to the museum. I met the guy who rode the bike that is going to be in a rather important museum exhibit. Needless to say, upon leaving the exhibit, I had to go back to Rosey’s table and acknowledge that I may have downplayed his accomplishment by gushing over the movie about someone else’s similar accomplishment (he of course has met Burt Munro but that’s beside the point). I soon gushed about how impressive that gap in the exhibit was. He in turn, as any humble man would do, downplayed the gap while saying how much he loved the movie. I did the best I could to push the movie aside and thanked him for being there today.

70. The man is 70 years old.

I made an observation today. (Me? Go figure.) I really like people that are quiet about their accomplishments. Quiet a.k.a. humble. Because you don’t need to be anything more. Let your work speak for itstelf. I see it in my friend Jeff. Granted, "The Movie People" may be kind of getting to him, but fortunately/hopefully he has enough friends that will keep him in line if he gets too big for his britches. And even in me I’ve seen this silence (there are some of you out there going, “You? Silent???” but give me a minute to explain…) I moved to New York to be a photographer and I liked quite a few of the pictures I took but I realized I could not schmooze them enough to be successful so that combined probably with my laziness, made me give up the idea of being a photographer as a profession. Still though, I remember standing before people like Bill Westheimer, Howard Schatz, and other big, big photographers. I had to show my work after this guy that took gorgeous portraits of these $1 a night Venezualan hookers (seriously, they were shockingly beautiful pictures) and before the guy that followed Nixon through his Presidency and Watergate and took the clencher pic of Monica Lewinsky hugging Bill Clinton at that press junket (moral of that story to all photographers: don’t delete your digital pictures unless you’re SURE you’re not going to use them) and I was clicking through my slides like I was on a game show. Hello? Such a crowd makes a girl NERVOUS. And yet, said crowd made me stop and start over. Schatz even traded one of my pictures for one of his. I knew those pictures I shower were good, and yet, I stayed quiet. And I’m happy about that.

Sometimes quiet is good.

And yet, something tells me I'm going to cringe later for bringing myself into this entry because that wasn't very quiet after all, was it?

Seriously though, it was really, really great to meet Rosey Lackey.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Nerves

I am going to meet my new coworkers of my new part-time job today (we found all 3 seasons of The Office on DVD - this is not helping the job jitters even though it came with a free Dunder Mifflin lunch box).

I will drop off my son with the nanny for the first time today as well.

I just applied for a tax ID number for the small business I am dabbling in.

I am looking into trademarking the name.

Me. A nanny, a potential business, a trademark, and yet another new job.

I must go wash the dye off my hair even though I'm clearly giving myself more gray hairs.

Think happy, pink thoughts for me, would ya?