Papa Smurf, Henry Winkler is a Ceramist, and the Orange Plastic Bottle Opener that Grandaddy handed out at their Lawrence, Kansas show in 2000 that I really wish I still owned.
or why I have 64,000 photos on my camera roll and most of them are of me holding things.
I have a lot of photos of me holding things on my camera roll. I rarely draw from life1, so when I am out and about, I treat the world around me as a potential scavenger hunt for future drawings. It has rubbed off on Hank because now whenever he sees something that he particularly likes, he always asks me to take a picture of it, so this means that I have many drawings of his hand holding popsicles, gummies shaped like burgers, and half-eaten ice cream cones.
My first camera was a 1984 Kodak Fisher-Price2. It shot 110 film, and I would take each finished roll to Chamber’s Department Store on HWY 63 in Vienna, Missouri, where they would mail it to the nearby town of Rolla, Missouri.
My photos were mostly pictures of cartoons from my tiny black and white television in my room. I was 7 in 1984, so this makes sense. My mom finally put a limit on paying for my film processing if I was only going to shoot grainy pictures of Papa Smurf, Smurfette, and Gargamel. Because of film and the price of processing, taking images started to feel precious. I don’t blame my mom for not financing my early photo career, but I am making up for it now by having 63,471 photos on my camera roll.3
The coffee shop I am sitting in is playing The Sophtware Slump by Grandaddy, and I find this notable because this is the second time in three days that I have heard this circa y2k album being played in a public place. Sophtware Slump is still in my regular rotation because I am 47, but hearing them in public spaces is a novelty in 2024, unless…is Grandaddy having a moment??
I saw Grandaddy open for Elliott Smith at the Granada in Lawrence, Kansas, and I can safely say it is a top 5 show. Everyone in the above photo had gone to college together. A few were still in school (Eda, Courtney, and Chris were in their senior year), but the rest of us had moved away. We met back together to see the show and take a road trip from our college town of Branson, Mo, to Lawrence, Kansas, a couple of hours away. As we got our hands stamped at the door, they also handed out tiny orange plastic bottle opener keychains branded with the hand-drawn Grandaddy logo. This lived on my keychain for years until it sadly fell off without me noticing it. I also think about this logo quite a bit. At the time, I wasn’t lettering just yet, but I am pretty sure I did doodle this a few times out of sheer admiration for the band. Also, I am totally into the cover… the vintage photo, the old keyboard keys, and the cut-and-paste application lettering. BE STILL MY HEART.
I searched to see if I could replace my long-gone orange plastic bottle opener keychain. No dice, but Grandaddy offers a blue plastic spork as a possible replacement.
Last week's drawings included one of the many vintage book purchases in the above-mentioned preschool estate sale. Also, who are we kidding? These vintage book purchases are for me. Hank and I are still very deep into reading the Wizard of Oz series (we are on book 7 out of 14), but he’s moved beyond picture books (gasp!). I am just so happy we are still on our nightly Oz adventure.
The best purchase of the week was a dinner at Camp Lazy Day. Hank was my date for this incredibly sweet backyard dinner pop-up, where he quickly made a new six-year-old best friend named Simone, and they spent the evening rolling around on the ground together and taking turns sitting on each other. As I watched them play, I thought how funny it would be if adults greeted each other like six-year-old kids do with intense hugging, rolling, wrestling, and chasing. However, since discovering the polaroid from 2000 of the pile of arms and legs and smiles of my friends, I realized we did that then, too.
I just returned late last night from speaking and workshopping at the East Carolina Legacy Conference. You can see more photos from my few days there over on Instagram, but trust that a good time was had by all. I loved being in such good company with Briar Levit and Rick Griffith and finally getting to meet and quickly adore Ramon Tejada. This was my last speaking/workshop trip of 2024, and I am looking forward to hunkering down for the fall and winter.
I will leave you with an image I shared in my presentation a few days ago. It’s an image of an article that I found on the internet about Henry Winkler’s favorite hobby being ceramics. I hope this is real. If it’s not real, don’t tell me. Please let me believe this fake news. If you want to read more about his favorite things, The Strategist compiled a list from a few years ago. Ceramics is not on this list, but heavy whipping cream is.
Also, fun fact: Henry Winkler is my celebrity twin. No matter what photo I use, it always tells me that my closest match is Henry. It makes sense because he does look like my actual dad.
And my three hours for writing this are up! Thank you for reading. I promise to share more of my favorite tools for making soon, and I appreciate all of the pen opinions lobbed my way this past week!
I have nothing against drawing from life. I would prefer to, but taking a picture to draw from for later is faster.
I have more to say about photography in general, but it’s not going to fit into my three-hour time limit that I have given myself to write this blog. I am sure you are on the EDGE of your seat for more photo musings from me, KBB.
zine of you (and hank) holding things please
I saw you wrote this last night, and was so excited to get up and read it with my coffee… it’s my new favorite thing to do. And thanks for the camp lazy day shout out! Can’t wait for the next post!