October 12, 2007
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1 Meet Mr. Natural.
2 Old school underground comix guy.
3 Yesterday Paul Long of the Heidi Chronz fame wrote and mentioned that some of R. Crumb’s illustrations would fit right in with the DN. I thought for around a twelfth of a second and concluded that Paul was right.
4 Years ago these comix were sort of the anti-comix. They were for a newer, hipper generation, designed for people with pretty off-beat senses of humor.
5 I don’t remember too much about Mr. Natural except that he was philosophical but silly in spite of it.
6 One of my favorite comix covers ever was this one of Mr. Natural moving down the street on a scooter with another character, whom I believe was named Flaky Foont, looking over the fence, frantic as always, and asking, “Mr. Natural, what does it all mean?”
7 And there you have it.
8 The meaning of life.
9 Or something.
10 I was always inspired by R. Crumb’s famous “Keep on Truckin’” poster.
11 Such a simple philosophy.
12 Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me. Other times I can barely see. Lately it occurrs to me, what a long, strange trip it’s been…
13 You’re right, Paul.
14 R. Crumb works well here.
15 Moving on: I had to pull the plug on both the Homecoming rally AND the decorating yesterday. Possible rain. Hugely probable. I had little choice, but what a tough go for the students.
16 These guys literally LIVE for this. I know; I was an advisor to two classes over the years.
17 Well in an uncanny act of synchronicity, R. Crumb and that very comix cover was being discussed with my family the other night. And when I googled it upon Paul’s request, I found this:
18 Yesterday’s DN had a reference to the Bee Gees. In a fun act of synchronicity, I googled Mr. Natural last night. Bee Gees. Mr. Natural. Coincidence.
19 I love that stuff.
20 We all got knocked down yesterday. I didn’t feel that bad because the students got to have a night rally the other night.
21 But still.
22 I had to make some fast decisions. Unpopular decisions, but logical decisions.
23 A bunch of students on the eve of their spirit night aren’t going to understand about logical decisions when they’ve poured their hearts into this one thing.
24 I made the call. Given the weather reports and everything else, I feel strongly that I would have done the same thing fifty times over. The school is made of stucco and glass, and severe dampness, rain and storms would just ruin all the props. The rally has to be outside, and 2600 students aren’t going to be sitting in the rain for an hour.
25 Still…furthermore, the cheerleaders told me last night at 6 p.m. that they wouldn’t be performing at the game. And the Marching Band put all of us on hold until they could see what the weather was going to do. This leaves our Homecoming Court, who think it’s okay to wear school clothes when they are introduced. That’s half-time.
26 We’re reporting live from Homecoming week. New schools. Yeesh. No vision. Looks like I have my work cut out for me.
27 We still have the Bar-B-Que and the game itself. The band said they’d be too loud for the cafeteria in the event of rain…
28 And finally, the dance. We decided to decorate the dance with the decorations intended for tomorrow, the idea being that everyone could come to the dance and see the decorations in all their glory and splendor.
29 Wish us luck. Hate to leave ya hangin’ but that’s where we are.
30 And thanks Paul, for the graphics.
31 Long overdue. Once again, this is coming to you live from Homecoming Week.
32 We’ll keep you posted.
33 Peace.
~H~
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