Built from scratch

A journal to track the process of rediscovering what makes me happy: motorcycles, camping, anything to do with the outdoors, and building things with my hands. In other words, recovery and rediscovery.

[russtwilson]

Color Church Saints Peter and Paul Church, North Beach San Francisco, circa 1994. Oil on canvas

[russtwilson]

Little League

I always have a bit of my heart in my throat when my son is playing in a little league game. Sometimes he’s not the most confident of kids so it’s easy for me to know what’s going through his head out there. Most days he does great. Even today with his busted up finger, he hit the ball pretty well when he was at bat, and did a solid job at first base where he played almost the whole game. Of…

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[russtwilson]

Uphill Attraction

Dismay, can it go fastness. There’s ancient dichotomies to come, my friend.

Tone builds, stones curb shop corner.

STOP

Driving singing blue. But why? “Don’t pray for love, pray for cars,” he sang. Driving

dreaming red. Rogue gaspipe sighing. Death. Rattle.

Simon, not death.

Green grows my corn row now as I walk up 9th into sky.

I woke, off radio on. Towers falling on tv, one of my last times,…

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[russtwilson]

New Hermosa cafe I'd like to open

New Hermosa cafe I’d like to open

Hey Hermosa friends, a storefront opened up on Pier Avenue just down the street from my house. I have a vision to recreate a restaurant from San Francisco’s Mission District that I remember fondly. It would serve high-end coffee and tea, maybe roasting our own beans on premises, focaccia bread sandwiches, delicious salads, wood-oven pizza, wine and beer leaning heavily on local Southern…

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[russtwilson]

Lessons from a home woodworking project

Lessons from a home woodworking project

I built a coat hook rail for our entryway yesterday because the drywall anchors I was using kept getting pulled out of the wall due to the weight of our sweatshirts and hats, and more than likely, the weight of my 11-year old son who seems to enjoy hanging on the sweatshirts a bit when he’s waiting for something so patiently. The process wasn’t hard but I want to record my experience here so I…

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[russtwilson]

Wilderness

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. John Muir, 1838-1914

Wilderness from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

John Muir wrote that line more than a century ago and filmmaker Temujin Doran (accompanied by the music of the group A Winged Victory for the Sullen) recently set the feelings it inspired in him to pictures and sounds in such a beautiful way…

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[russtwilson]

Out to Play

I was little, probably only a kid of 5 or 6. I think my sister Sandra was watching me for my parents. From what I remember mom was still alive and probably at work, and I was out to play. It must have been after school because my neighbor, Roger, was home and hanging out in the garage with his friends. This was back in the day when kids were sent out of the house into the neighborhood to play,…

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[russtwilson]

Back to Shore

I lay and watch my bonny son frolic and flit among the waves, chasing balls to surf and shore, upon the wrack he runs.

His smile a beacon and a gale, his frown a tempest black and shrill.

I watch the boy with beginner’s mind yet try to hold these moments fast.

One day 8 the next 18, before I blink he’ll be away.

I try, I grasp, to stay right now, not wish any more time gone.

The mothers keep…

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[russtwilson]

Quote I’m pondering  "The best revenge is not to be like that." Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 121-180 AD, Roman Emperor

[russtwilson]

Scribbles on Butler Ave

Scribbles on Butler Ave

That night I lay in bed crying. I came to the realization while sitting with my dad as he worked at our dining room table and smoked cigarette after cigarette until a cloud hung down around the chandelier that these were going to kill him. So I cried and I cried until Diane came to check what was the matter.

“Daddy’s going to die,” I sobbed.

We were still in the house on Butler Avenue. Diane was…

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[russtwilson]

Alan Watts on what do to with your life Sobering after living more than half my life not heeding his advice as closely as I should:

[russtwilson]

Existence is weird

Alan Watts (January 6, 1915 – November 16, 1973)

Theodor Geisel (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991)

It strikes me that Alan Watts and Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) talked and wrote about many of the same things during their lives. They lived largely as contemporaries, though Watts died awfully young.

I tend to grow philosophical this time of year. The long holiday break allows me to relax and enter…

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[russtwilson]

Getting started with La La Land

Getting started with La La Land

We went to the movies last night as a family to see “La La Land” with Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. As anyone close to me knows I am not a fan of musical theater, and especially not a fan of movie musicals. In my opinion, “South Pacific” is probably the worst abuse of film and film making resources ever in the history of creating stories, with the possible exception of “Cats”. This distaste has…

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[russtwilson]

Grand Junction

For years we would take ski vacations in Colorado over the Christmas break. I was just a kid then and the drive to Colorado lasted an eternity for me. Sometimes it would get super cold and even a little snowy right outside of Los Angeles in the high desert. We’d stop for breakfast, or lunch depending on when we got on the road, at these little motel coffee shops off the highway. We were on the…

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[russtwilson]

Canto di Panigale

A small thank you to Italy for bestowing so much beauty on the world Nelle colline sopra Panigale vive Il Mostro Si entusiasma per l’asfalto e strade alberate – le sue sorelle che attendono il loro turno in basso. Bravo Azzurri!

  My brain is not a working garage door,

so tired at this owl it’s a wonder I can get anything accomplished.

In my mind I’m walking down Valencia Street

in the Mission…

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[russtwilson]

Tempis Cannoli

I’m not looking forward

to tomorrow and talking

with big oval dining room table.

It was a fun weekend,

though. Thanksgiving

was water slide,

which was surprising, and

we got a mini-vacation

by staying at the Westin,

then picking out the tree and relaxing

at home together

all weekend.

Pretty hamburger! I wonder

how many more years my family

will be able to do this

together?

The kids are 11

and…

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[russtwilson]

First collection of prose & poems UPDATED — It’s available now from the Writing page. Head over and check it out! I'm excited to announce that I'll be publishing my first collection of prose and poems "Father/Son" from recent work with the Los Angeles Poets & Writers Collective.