Out of the Blue!

Just a quick note tonight. A quick note that will reference both Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole and pop singer Debbie Gibson. Buckle up.

[Also, I’m blowing up my 217-word limit for this entry, and maybe future entries as well.]

When we were at the National Gallery of Art in Washington on Saturday, Chris and I made it a point to visit Thomas Cole’s quartet of paintings called The Voyage of Life. Cole had originally painted the series in 1840, but this second set was painted in 1842. I had to seek them out this time, as they’ve been relocated due to gallery renovations. But I found them and, as I do every time I am in the museum, I spent some time with them.

When I first encountered these paintings, I was in high school, which would have placed me in Cole’s second painting in the series, ‘Youth’. Decades later, I am deep into Cole’s third painting, ‘Manhood’. ‘Manhood’ is, of course, the stormiest, most treacherous of the four paintings. Yeah. I get that. "‘Manhood’ is followed by Cole’s mediation on mortality, the mystical ‘Old Age’.

How does Debbie Gibson figure into this? I was looking at the Discogs database of my music collection just now and I hit the “random item” item. Up popped my fake-autographed copy of Gibson’s debut album, which is appropriately titled Out of the Blue. On Discogs, this album is filed in a folder that I call “Ridiculous Things I Am Keeping for No Other Reason Than That They’re Ridiculous”. The album is perfectly fine ‘80s teen pop, but it is the fake autograph that makes it ridiculous.

So, as I sit here listening to this sparkling 1987 gem of a bubblegum pop album, I’m thinking how, yes, out of the blue, over the last several months, all kinds of bits and pieces of my life – my past, my present, and even my future – have begun presenting themselves in unexpected, unusual, and often evocative ways.

I have noticed this in my recent travels, in conversations I’ve had with friends and family, in new people I’ve met, ideas I’ve had. This feeling, which I may not be describing well, is coming at me from all different directions. And often, yes, from out of the blue.

I can ascribe this all to mere coincidence, but I am too much of a “plate of shrimp” guy to not try to determine how all these threads fit together, and what they’ll mean when they are tied together.

Untangling these threads could become the big theme of this online journal in coming months. Plus, bowling. There will be bowling also.

More to follow.