“Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great.” – Cher
Idaho Candy for the Weird
I recently returned from a trip to Boise, Idaho. Although born and (mostly) raised on the East Coast, I lived in Boise as a child and for a year after graduate school. My parents returned to Boise in 1996 and have been there ever since. I visit every few years and always make a stop at Idaho Candy.
Idaho Candy is one of the few remaining independent candy companies in the country, and you don’t get to stay independent making knockoff Snicker’s bars or pseudo Kit Kats. Their candy is different and kind of odd. I adore it.
The signature bar is a Spud, “a wonderful combination of a light cocoa flavored, soft marshmallow center drenched with a dark chocolate coating and then sprinkled with coconut (Sorry, no potato!)”. Coconuts are a little like mushrooms and olives, you either love them or hate them. I’m in the former camp for all. They also make candy coated peanuts and a huckleberry candy bar, the huckleberry being well known in the area.
The original factory still resides downtown, and you can buy candy and t-shirts in their small store front. It’s old-timey and delightful.
If you want to learn more about Idaho Candy, how candy is sold and made, and independent candy companies in the US, I’d recommend Candy Freak by Steve Almond. Almond is currently known as the co-host of Dear Sugars, a podcast with Cheryl Strayed. I’d recommend it as well.
A Different Egg
My mom lost her favorite cousin Gary last month. He was 69 and died of a stroke suffered after the removal of a brain tumor.
Gary was the son of Paul “Rusty” Rostock, my mom’s uncle and oldest child of Elizabeth and Paul Rostock. Rusty was an entrepreneur and a very formal gentleman who was married his entire life to his college sweetheart. Gary was gregarious, informal, and very laid back. I have to think Rusty saw his oldest son as hatched from an entirely different egg.
Married three times, Gary could exhaust someone who operated on a strict schedule. His third wife would channel his talents when she put him to work as a sales person in her appliance store. He had recently retired from the business when he passed away.
When I lived in Boise, ID briefly after graduate school, my mom and I spent a day with Gary that would become my favorite memory. He was selling insurance at the time and had to visit a vacation home in McCall to assess its insurance risk. We drove the hour north to a lovely A-frame home with a spacious deck, which stopped about twenty feet from the edge of a meandering creek. After walking around the house, Gary announced he was tired and was going to take a nap in the loft before we departed. To be clear, this wasn’t a friend’s house. It was a potential client’s house. However, the mood struck him, and he wanted to nap to the sound of the water. And so he did. It was the kind of informal, off the cuff decision that I think of when I think of him.
As a person, I’m more like Rusty, who was one of my very favorite relatives and a great mentor and friend. I’m more structured and tend not to make snap decisions. Despite my best efforts, I am not laid back. I have an admiration for those who take life at a more relaxed pace though. There are different paths, and different speeds, for all.
Rest in peace, Gary.
Keep Growing
Recently, I had a tennis friend fix something for me that I had been struggling with for years. (Keep that left arm up when you’re serving. It helps you sight the ball.) I’m sure someone else had given me the same advice, but I didn’t hear it. When I was ready to hear it, it stuck.
This is how I felt after completing Lighting for Photographers at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design (PCAD). The basic concepts of photography finally came together and made sense in my mind. The class was twice a week for five weeks with an audience of five and one professional instructor, Ole Hongvanthong, of PhotoOle.
Ole graciously allowed us to use all his lighting equipment for the entire class, and now I have a firm idea of what I want to buy and full-on camera envy. That 5D Mark III will be mine someday! Every class was experiential. We learned by doing. When I lined up my photos from the first class to last, it was obvious that the lessons had been absorbed.
For the final night of class, we were invited to hear Ole speak to the League of Women Voters at the Candy Factory in Lancaster. More lessons. He was asked about removing scars in the final image and noted that he tells clients to embrace their imperfections because it makes them who they are. He talked about his own camera envy for a Canon Rebel owned by his cousin, and that she ended up giving him the camera and even named his business for him.
Finally, I couldn’t end this post without talking about the people. Justin was a passionate landscape photographer and the cousin of a good friend of mine. Mary Ellen was a reporter with LNP who was frequently tasked with taking her own photos. She was looking to improve. Rick was a former stay at home dad and teacher who once ran his own photography business. He was the most natural teacher of the group and was hoping to become an art instructor again now that his children were grown. I hope he does. At 19, Cameron was the baby of the group. She had started freelancing taking photos for friends and had some mad Photoshop skills. Her mom accompanied her to every class because she had seizures regularly and could not drive. She was a sweet and wonderful human.
This class ended but another one will begin shortly. Provided I can secure some equipment, there are two I am considering for the fall.
Get yourself out there and learn something new!
Every Strike
“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” -Babe Ruth
What you stand for
“Slavery, the Holocaust, the Movement for Civil Rights…this moment is but another in a chain of opportunities to choose what you stand for.” – LeVar Burton
It’s part of the landscape
“Fear is one of the ingredients of being a human being. I want all of the ingredients in my life. I want to be a complete and whole person. That means….sometimes being really afraid. That’s ok. It’s part of the landscape.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
Alis volat propriis
I had dinner with a former colleague, Ben, last month at a charity golf tournament. I was the event photographer, so I arrived near the end of the tournament for a quick tour of the course, portraits, and dinner photos.
Ben’s second wife, Mary, has a daughter that lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and several children. Between them, Mary’s daughter and her spouse have seven degrees. When Ben first met them, the couple were both working in the university system but rapidly moving to a frontier lifestyle. Now, they’re fully off the grid and teaching others the ways of self-sufficient living that extend to making their own mayonnaise.
“What does homemade mayonnaise taste like?”
“Terrible,” Ben reported and then listed a litany of labor intensive things the pair only make themselves.
“There is no bartering. No trading of services? No one they know that makes better mayo?” I asked.
“No, they make it themselves. I bought some at a store, but they threw it away,” Ben noted.
I think what confounds Ben is that the pair have made such an investment in their education only to spend their hours doing things that are more easily and expertly completed by others. It’s the sunk cost that irritates him.
I tend to think of division of labor as one of the most wonderful things about modern society because each of us is endowed with different talents and interests. Currency allows us to trade services so that I can give you my labor in exchange for money or for equivalent labor in a field that I do not excel at like masonry, medicine, or mayonnaise making. We both gets things of value completed by experts in their field, and the time spent not learning to poorly build a brick wall can be better spent in leisure or another pursuit of interest. Everyone wins.
But here is another school of thought that says, I can do it better myself no matter what. I don’t understand it, but I don’t have to. I’ll continue to learn new things but rely on experts for those pursuits I have no interest in but still require. Like mayonnaise. I do like a good mayonnaise.
In writing this post, I looked up the state motto of Oregon. It is Alis volat propriis, “She flies with her own wings.” Portlandia, indeed.
Don’t miss a step
“I don’t give a fuck what anybody thinks. When you’re a race horse, right. The reason why they put blinders on these things is because when you look at the horse on the left or the horse on the right, you’re going to miss a step. That’s why those horses have fucking blinders on. And that’s what people should have. When you’re running after something, you should not look left or right. What does this person think. What does that person think. No. Go.” – Jimmy Iovine, quoted from The Defiant Ones
Some Brands Own Colors
Unlike some women in her generation, my maternal grandmother worked outside the home. Always. There was never a moment when she was a stay at home mother largely because my grandfather died before my father was born. Not a terribly independent person my nature, she didn’t have a choice, and she rose to what was a formidable challenge of single parenthood in the 50s. She’d work her entire life for a John Deere dealership. This meant many of our holiday gifts came from that storied American company with this green and yellow logo.
Enter Subway, who recently rebranded their stores in John Deere green and yellow. “Stores” is a stretch because the remodeled stores are really quite lovely. They kept the subway motif wall coverings that defined their earliest branding when they played on the concept of a literal subway. However, they added more comfortable seating and earthen tones on the walls and tables. Some stores even have a purring fireplace and plush sofa if you have more than 30 minutes to spare at lunch.
The logo, however, is pure John Deere. Is it me? Take a look.
I can’t say I dislike it entirely. The “S” is encased in arrows, which references both the moving subway cars of the original brand and the speed the stores want to be known for. The yellow references the previous logo, which is usually a sound idea in a rebrand. The green is a natural fit for a store that bills itself as healthy eating and offers largely healthy fare, but did it have to be *that* green?
Some brands just own colors, and I think John Deere is one of them. I can eat in Subway without thinking of lawn mowers, but I do get a whiff of nostalgia every time I pick up their cup. The straw, I will admit, is just lovely.
July 30 Update: More on Subway’s stores via GD USA.