Betsy Robinson

Theo Kamecke lives alone in and on five acres of breathtaking art in the Catskill Mountains. The man simply must create art — whether it’s a garden, a home furnished with handmade everything, a meal for guests, or a log bench overlooking a roaring, foaming brook so powerful that it could sweep you to your death in a nanosecond.




In his barn-size studio, Theo makes sculptures, wall pieces, and functional art objects from the collection of electronic circuit boards he began accumulating forty years ago for no reason other than he thought they were beautiful. With patterns that look like hieroglyphs and names like Nefertiti and Isis and Manifest Destiny, his child-size treasure chests and majestic pyramids, cabinets and jukeboxes, tables and wall plaques feel simultaneously ancient, familiar, and futuristic (see TheoKamecke.com). “I like to understand how things work,” he says, to explain what drives him.

So it makes sense that he would create a poetic, totally unexpected documentary about the first moonwalk. It makes sense that this chain-smoking seventy-two-year-old would choose to see such an event through the eyes of all humanity, rather than focus on the personalities of the astronauts and the hype that a younger filmmaker might choose. But what’s surprising is that Theo made his award-winning documentary with the eyes of a seventy-two-year-old at the age of thirty-two.

Forty years ago, six months before the launch of Apollo 11, NASA called. “Do a time capsule,” said the head of their PR department. The result is a visionary film called Moonwalk One that has just been restored and remastered as a two-DVD “Director’s Cut” that includes a stunning explanation from the seventy-two-year-old illuminating the thirty-two-year-old’s birthing process. For Theo, this event was about much more than a walk on the moon. It was about our culture and the millions around the globe who gathered in front of TVs, the thousands of campers who made the pilgrimage to Cape Canaveral even though TV offered a closer view, the half-million people who made the launch happen, and the three billion earthlings who went about their daily lives unaware of the event. “They were involved even though they didn’t know they were,” says Theo. “They were the same humans.”

With a film score by conceptual composer Charles Morrow that sounds contemporary — sometimes spine-tingling, sometimes unexpectedly sacred … or silent — the film makes you feel as concerned today for the astronauts’ welfare as were the motherly sewers who stitched their spacesuits: “When they’re up there in space, you know what parts you’ve worked on and you just say, ‘I hope that part don’t fail because I’d feel it was my fault if it did.’”

Bracketed by scenes of Stonehenge, the film takes off with the violent launch of Apollo 11 on a roaring, fiery tail of pure power that could incinerate you in a nanosecond, and lands with ticker tape parades — presenting the events in the wide-angle context of our common search to understand who we are, what we are, and where we are on this “fragile bubble of life, afloat on a sea of nothing.”

“It was a moment sensed more than understood,” wrote the thirty-two-year-old filmmaker.

“I realized that in order for this film to be effective, the audience now or fifty years from now or three thousand years from now has to understand what’s going on,” says the seventy-two-year-old artist. “If they don’t understand what’s going on, they can’t absorb the poetry of it.”

Photo by Albert Dorr; © Terry Dorr
click on photo to see larger

May 1959. The Barbie doll had recently debuted; so had Sleeping Beauty; and Alaska had become our forty-ninth state. People left their doors unlocked; nobody’s parents had gotten divorced yet; and every evening Walter Cronkite delivered news that I and the other eight-year-olds in this photo didn’t understand, but we knew from the sound of his voice that all was well and nobody murdered Presidents because grown-ups were good and knew everything. (more…)

I’m upset (that’s a lie, but it’s a good opening line). I’m not really upset, but if I were upset, I’d be upset that it’s blog time and I have absolutely nothing to say. Ergo, here is an old column I wrote several years ago for UPI. It’s a piece that seemed to either help or annoy an awful lot of people. Read at your own risk. (more…)

There is a new trend in business. It’s a sometimes-desperate scramble to pinpoint the latest trends in order to be on the forefront, the cutting edge, the winning team … in order to make lots and lots of money. But there may be a problem with this. There may be a problem because what appears to be one of the newest and most widespread trends (harnessed with awe-inspiring efficiency by the Obama campaign) is for individuals and small groups of passionate people to do good deeds with no concern for financial returns.

“We set up tables with cookies and candy in the park and give out Smile cards,” explained Shephali Patel, a 30-year-old volunteer with the Smile Card project. She is one of 20,000 volunteers who have been playing a form of global altruistic tag: You do a selfless “Radical Act of Kindness,” then leave a card encouraging the recipient to do something nice for someone else and pass the card along.

And this was just one of the examples of easy-to-do selfless service actions discussed at last night’s second meeting of an organization called Stay Inspired (see March 30th blog) held at Gallery 138 in New York City, where about 40 people gathered to eat good food and share ideas about how to remain inspired during hard times.

“Inspiration literally means to breathe life into something,” said Charlie Hess, the founder of Stay Inspired (link to be up and running soon). And the goal of inspirational action is not to get something back.

“Instead of savings, it is the circulation of the unconditional offerings within the community that leads to increase,” says Nipun Mehta, the founder of the Smile Project through his organization, Charity Focus. Unconditional offerings lead to an increase in connections and an increase in relationship strength.

The Stay Inspired invitation had promised a panel of inspiring people: Nipun Mehta, Laura Simms (storyteller and activist), Jullien Gordon (inspirational entrepreneur), and Brookie Maxwell (Gallery 138 founder, visual artist, activist). But the group quickly devolved into a bubbling, nutritious, and extremely tasty inspirational stew. Following is the recipe. Mange!

The Meat: Helping others helps you feel better — no matter what level of personal crisis you might be in.

The Vegetables: Good company. Find others who can add to your clear intention to do good. Hang out. Have pot luck dinners. Expand the circle by asking friends to bring friends.

The Cooking:
Pay it forward. Do small acts every day to make somebody else feel good. If you can, encourage them to do the same.

Keep track of your efforts. Save your “to-do” lists and re-read your efforts to buoy yourself up when you need it.

Listen to the inspiring stories of others.

Look for the beauty in everything and everybody.

Practice the daring activity of being present for others. When you’re distracted, angry, or impatient, take a pause and breathe, interrupting your negative impulses.

Make a “WWW” list at the end of each day of “What Went Well.”

For Procrastinating Cooks: Plan an event where you will be expected to do something. Set a time and date, and invite people. You may let yourself down, but it’s harder to let down a whole group of expectant people.

“Inspiration is a contact sport,” said an extremely pregnant woman at the end of the evening. “And now I have to go home and put the baby to bed.”

A provocative title, huh? I’m trying to get attention. Did I succeed? Are you still reading? (more…)