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Sunday, November 22, 2009

William Albert Narum

Bill Narum ( January 11, 1947-November 18,2009)

We were just getting into our El Pastor tacos at Fonda San Miguel when my pants vibrated. It was Tolleson, the music lawyer that I've known since Armadillo days. It was Wednesday and the week had already been pretty full. I had met with the EUC on Monday in Executive Session and on Tuesday with the RMC in another executive session. In both Committees, we received endorsements for the Generation Plan that will provide the residents of Austin around 55% of their energy from Renewable energy and efficiency by 2020 at a cost of about 22%.

I told Dana as we walked to dinner that night, how happy I was, and I remarked that just about now would be the time for something terrible to happen.

"I have bad news,"says Tolleson.

I almost quipped back, "What is Ed even more dead?"

"Bill Narum died this afternoon while out at Acorn."

Acorn was the 20 acres out in Milam County that Bill and Paula and Dick had purchased the last time the world was ending back in the mid 70s. I pretty much started my renewable career out there building Dick's passive solar house.

At the time that the land was purchased, we all lived in a old cotton baron's mansion outside of Taylor where we had Herbie the Weather Scan in our living room and a giant coaxial cable running from there out to the head end of the Taylor Cable System, thanks to its owner Gillis Connelly.

Taylorvision was an out growth of the video group Space City Video, which had moved from Houston to shoot the shows at the Armadillo. But at Taylorvision, we shot the football games, the fourth of July picnics, and we actually sold advertising to the merchants in town. For several seasons, I was the basketball voice of the Ducks, calling one season with my infant son resting in my tummy pouch.

Bill was the leader and artistic director of this group of vidiots. I joined the group as my advertising agency in Austin went Everwuchawe, and I fell in with Dee, who would become the mother of my children, and partner during our young adult years.

It was from this giant house that Bill art directed the Video Primer, a seminal book of the Guerilla TV movement. The Austin Sun's graphics were born here as Nightbyrd came out for several weeks to focus Bill on his project.

The video commune consisted of Paula, Dee, Mike and Kathy and their family, Dick, Mitch, John, and a few others. We didn't just connect to Taylor's cable head, a group would also be dispatched weekly to the head-end of the cable in Austin, thus giving ACTV its first presence.

Bill was one of the most unusual combinations of scientist and artist I ever met. A trip through his web site will give you the amazing breath of his body of work.

He was not just a music artist, even though that may be how the story will be written. He, in fact, didn't do a lot of Armadillo Posters. He did do the first ZZ Top poster for Armadillo... I saw it last night on the mantle in his studio off 360 while visiting with his partner Gloria. True. his work with Bill and Billy and ZZ Top was exceptional. He designed their logo, their albums, their stages, their trucks, and he created their visual image. He also designed their web page presence.

Even though Bill did do the "Silver Haired Daddy " Threadgill album design for me, most of our work was in promoting renewable energy. Bill was the Art Director for Spectra, the official publication of the Texas Solar Energy Society in the early 80s. He illustrated one issue which covered every energy technology known and still not known in a beautiful work called the Compendium.

He helped design my solar gas station, an advanced electric vehicle, a 100% self sufficient solar double wide, a wind turbine, and all kinds of things as we worked together thinking and plotting a new world and future.

When I wrote Silver in the Mine for the City of Austin, Bill did the design and illustrations for the book. Like any good project, we almost strangled each other over it, getting over it before it went to press. Bill also helped with my three other books, most recently doing the basic layout for Beyond Light and Dark.

The last time we saw him was on the east side. We bumped into Tolleson on 11th street across from the Victory. He invited us to come inside. There was Bill. Soon, Hoover delivered his smothered Pork Chop special. We chatted for a good bit and left him and Mr. T. to do their legal work.

Many years ago, Paula, Bill's partner at the time, told me she asked Bill who was his best friend, and he apparently said it was me. I would have thought he would have said Macho, his good friend in radio at KLOL in Houston.

I talked to Dan last night from Bill's studio. (Captain Macho) He had called Gloria to see how she was doing.

He was out spending the night at Acorn trying to sinc in with the vibes of his longtime good friend. He told me he even talked to Bill on the day that would prove to be his last.

Bill had a jillion friends, and almost that many clients.

He was a genius.

He merged the world of art

with the art of being.

His daughters, Michelle and Nico,

his brother Jon, sisters Heidi and Wendy,

were graced to have been his family.

As were we all.

As were we all.

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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Ceremony and Celebration

The plans for Edward Fales Alexander (November 25, 1942 – October 17, 2009) are finally shaping up.

The ceremony and celebration for Ed's remarkable life will take place on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009, 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. at Flat Creek Ranch (www.txsranch.com)

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Directions and Map are available here. (http://www.txsranch.com/directions.htm) It’s about an hour’s drive from Austin so start out early.
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Plans currently call for a Hilltop Ceremony that begins at 12:00 noon. After some story telling and blessings, we'll proceed in a line (with your instrument of choice) to Blue Hall for lunch.

Be sure to bring a chair or a blanket.

For lunch, bring potluck side dishes, desserts, and beverages. There will be meat, potato salad, and cobbler provided.

A family photo album will be available if you want to add a picture, write something, or include a memento.

Camping is available beginning Friday, 6:00 p.m.- Sunday 6:00 p.m. and overnight accommodations for cabins and rooms are available Friday and Saturday nights.

For Camping and/or Accommodations
Contact James Strickland by E-mail at: Strick@childinc.org

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Friday, October 23, 2009

Edward Fales Alexander

Last Saturday morning, while enjoying the fine sheets and comfort of our XV Beacon Street Hotel room, we received a phone call from a close friend in Austin. "Ed is dead", she said. "How", we asked? Somehow, this Billy Goat of the high mountains and Jedi Master of dark dangerous caves had managed to hit his head while entering the relative tranquil waters of the Medina River.

Here is the obituary that will likely end up in the papers this weekend. It's a product of several contributors. I edited it slightly:

Edward Fales Alexander was an extraordinary person and a special friend to each and all who knew and loved him. His sudden, tragic passing on October 17, 2009, leaves a void in the rich tapestry he wove during his much too short but brilliantly traveled journey.

Ed never met a stranger. And together, he and his beloved wife Brigit joyfully welcomed all comers to their enchanted homes in Real de Catorce, Mexico and Austin, Texas. Ed had more friends than there are stars in the Texas sky and all who were blessed to have known him are better, happier people for the experience.

Ed was born in Amarillo, Texas on November 25, 1942. He loved his Lone Star roots, a favorite topic for his endless tales. He graduated from Vanderbilt University and received a graduate degree in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1968.

Ed was always in the middle of fun, ever the kindest and most cantankerous of the bunch, at once a shining light on your shoulder and a practical man of the earth. A traveler at heart, he trotted the globe the way some people walk around the block.

In the early ‘70s, he drove across the Sahara Desert with his longtime pal Charlie Loving, narrowly avoiding being held captive by a group of spear wielding locals. Ed traveled the road from Austin to Real de Catorce and back with his family and friends many times. If night fell and they were tired, they would pull off the road, put down their sleeping bags and sleep under the stars. Sometimes, he would take the three hours to stop in Bustamante just to get fresh pecans.

On one trip around Mexico, Ed met and fell in love with Brigit, whom he soon married. Of his adventures, perhaps Ed loved those involving caves most of all. He fell in with a circle of spelunkers in 1964 and those adventurers remained friends to the end, with him at the Austin Cavers reunion camping on the Medina River in Paradise Canyon the night he died.

Before moving back to Austin in 2008, Ed lived for twelve years in Real de Catorce, Mexico. Ed continued to explore, traveling and camping around Mexico and hiking the Sierra Catorce Range with family and friends and his dog, Cleo. He would load up the red Izuzu Trooper with Brigit and put his daughter Mimi on top with Cleo running behind as they climbed up the rugged mountain roads to scenic and wonderful places.

If Luc found a snake in the road, Ed would pick it up and everyone would have a good look and then later Ed would preserve the snake in the freezer for later dissections with the kids. Learning was an every day adventure at the Alexander home.

Ed’s children, Thomas, Mimi and Luc—kind, compassionate, and curiosity-filled—are a testament to the great care and tremendous love Ed poured into them.

Ed had so many special memories with so many friends that the stories and the names can’t possibly all be noted. It would take ten books to capture just the highlights of Ed Alexander, a legend in his time.

Ed was preceded in death by his parents Kleim and Myrtle Alexander and his brother Charles. He is survived by his wife Brigit, daughter Mimi and sons Thomas and Luc; nephew Chuck and niece Susanne.Vaya con dios, Eduardo.

We already miss you so much.

A celebration of Ed's life will be held in Austin on a date and place to be determined. Friends are encouraged to bring a picture, a written memory or a memento to be included in a book for his family to keep."

Ed was like a brother to me. Even though we only became close in the last 9 years, we had been acquainted for almost 35. On Monday night, after spending time with Brigit and Luc and the others who had gathered in his incompleted house renovation there at his sprawling Riverside Farms, I came home to find that The Mexican was on one of the movie channels.

We watched, and in a few minutes, there was Ed in that white suit snoozing in that rocking chair waiting for his passport. Not too many of us get immortalized on the silver screen.

Even fewer deserve it.

Ed most certainly, definitely did.

And that passport apparently came in

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Thursday, October 08, 2009

Furniture Man at ACL

Click on the image to enlarge.

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Labels: culture

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Furniture Man II

click on the graphic to enlarge

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Labels: climate change

Monday, August 10, 2009

Furniture Man

Our cartoonist friend, Charlie Loving, left this on my desk last week. It's another edition of the continuing adventures of the unlikely super hero, "Furniture Man."

Click on the strip to enlarge.

If you want to know how this is going to turn out, watch the network news some night. Big Pharma is all over the news with their advertising. We'll get a new health plan alright. And, they'll do everything they can to kill the public option. (forget about single payer)

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