2.12.2007
feeble warning

Just a quick note. The other day we were watching some Warner Bros Looney Tunes cartoons, of which there seems to be a vast resurgence of interest in and Jack was explaining out loud what was happening at the point in loading up the DVD. He said something about the "feeble warning" and I realized and almost lost that he was talking about the FBI Warning! at the h beginging of every dvd known to man, I think. Anyway, I just thought it was a great maplapropism.

---

2.5.07
ftx sm #44

 

Yesterady was a pretty special day for my son Jack. It was the first ftx event to be held in Southern California. After a one week push due to rain and a lot of disgruntled meanderings about how no one was gonna show up on StuporBowl whatever it is, we had a our plan.

Let me back up a wee bit. If you want to catch up on what ftx is go here, if you want to read little bit about my personal involvement, then here is where you shall go, but if all you are here to read is about Jack (it is his his area of my website as you know), well then by all means read on.

A little while back I told Jack about the whole ftx sm event and asked if he would help me with it. He said yes of course. Somewhere in there I must have mentioned the tee shirts, the french toast logo beret dude and the all important numbering system. After Jack absorbed all this he asked me if I would ask Shyam (ftx's front runner) if he could have an ftx tee shirt? It was a bold move on Jack's part, but it seems to have paid off.

Over the following weeks there were numerous occasions where Jack would ask me if I had heard from Shyam about the request. All I told him was what Shyam said. Giving out numbered ftx shirts is a big deal for him and is usually reserved for people that have proved themselves to the toasty cause. He claimed he would take it under serious consideration and on the day of the event would make his ultimate decision (he is not as tough as I am making him sound)

More time passed, at one point Jack got a letter from Daisy and Send-a-hug, and while he was opening the letter he looked up at me and said, "Do you think this is an answer from Shyam about the shirt?"

Let's just say it was on his mind a bit.

Jump cut to yesterday and Jack was all business. he was a real trooper because not only was he helpful in setting up the food and pulling the amazing Hawaiian bread out of there snug boxes, but all in all we were there over three hours, which is a LONG time for Jack to be hanging out. Luckily for him, two of his friends from school showed up to slam some toast as well.

The end of the story is really the begining. We got there, helped get all the food out onto the tables, set up the dual grill situation to handle the needs of the hungry crowds and then Shaym asked Jack to join him for a moment. He kneeled down and told Jack all about what it means to bring someone into the french toast and hugs gang and without too much folderol he produced the one of a kind, limited edition, sky blue baseball shirt with the number 44 on the back.

It was a really touching moment and Shyam told me later it was one of the two favorite things that happened that day, he never told me the other? Here is the unfolding in Shyam's words:

my first magic moment was at the beginning when i got to give jack cline his ftx #44 gang member shirt. for those that don't know jack, he's 5 and hardcore. besides being a good name for an album it's a fit description of this guy. a couple of weeks back thru his dad henry, our 2nd chef in the early morning, he told me that he wanted to be in the gang and that he felt he'd have a lot more luck if he was. that's it, direct and to the point. so yesterday morning we were just starting to set up and people were looking for jobs. they were ready to go but they would have to wait. this was serious business. i got down on a knee and told jack i needed to talk to him. i fixed his eyes and he with mine and i told him that i knew what he told his dad. i told him there was only 1 requirement to get in this gang and that was to be 'stone cold'. now stone cold to me and daisy mae means only one thing: to only be who you are, and who you are only adds to this planet. i told jack that telling people, including yourself, what you want in this life is stone cold. it's putting you on the line regardless of the answer. i told him that type of attitude would get him far. he told me he wanted in. so he's in.

If you would like to read more of Shyam's thoughts on ftx sm, freindship, cars, and giant seahorses, check out his blog here. As for Jack, he was thrilled. Thrilled to the point where I saw look on his face I have never seen before and cannot find words to express. Happiness mixed with awe and excitement, there is a glimmer of it in this photo, but not the full force.

As for the rest of ftx sm 2007? Well, against all odds, the weather was perfect, the Park Ranger who said in my presence "under no circumstances will I allow this event to continue" was won over by Daisy, There was a seven foot tall purple sea horse, hundreds of slices of french toast was served, and in the end, there was not even a trace of the Crepes and Gropes gang who threatened to open up shop across the street and rain on our parade.

---

1.21.07
Tint's

The other night Jack had his first taste-off. For the uninitiated, a taste-off is mini gathering, anywhere from two to a boat load of people all using there god given senses to determine which is the best of whatever the taste-off is about. There is a form that each taster has to fill out and the results are secretly tabulated in the labs of interactivehank and properly decimated to the tasters forever determining what was the best of the subject of that particular taste-off. Taste-offs have supplied the answers to at least one of the Hank Best Of page entries. Jack's first taste-off was for hamburgers. Not really the best burgers, but more a comparison of the four burgers that Jack is currently fond of.

Here is how it worked. I went to the four burger making establishments (Callahan's, Fatburger, In & Out and the fourth was supposed to be Perry's Cafe at the beach, but they were closed so I put a secret entry of Mani's Bakery) and bought one plain hamburger from each joint. Then I cut each burger into quadrants, put them on separate plates with the name of the actual location on a post-it underneath. On the surface the plates were labeled A, B, C, D.

Jack then had a form that had to have following information filled in.
Column one: Which restaurant did the burger come from
Column two: on Jack's scale of 1-24, what is your rating

Jack was all business as you can see form the picture, sharpie in hand. He spent a considerable time making his choices and after filling in one form three quarters of the way he decided to start over. Lucky for me I had four clean copies of the form available.

click to see full sized form

The end result? He got them all wrong, bad word, incorrect. He transposed Faturger for In & Out and rated them pretty much in the opposite order that I did. But THAT my friends is the beauty of the taste-off. It was a resounding success and before dinner was over we had realized that we could do another taste-off for desert since we happen to have three kinds of Lemon ice like sorbet substances in the freezer. A go cup from Ben and Jerry's, Zesty Lemon Haagen Daz Lemon Sorbet and his favorite, Dreyer's Lemonade Popsicles. Jack prepared the form this time and here it is.

click on image to see full sized glory

While In retelling the details of Jack's first taste-off to my pal Matt #2*, he kept saying out loud what a great concept it was. I told him about my past taste-offs and with each successive description he l kept saying "when can I be in a taste-off?". Well, the answer is soon my friend. It made me realize that I have indeed had a couple of pretty successful taste-offs in the past and that now was as good a time as any to include them in the ongoing fascination with all that is Hank. So, here are all the documented taste-offs I have had.

Jan 1999 was the first recorded taste-off, the subject was Tamales and it was a huge success. Luckily for you, I keep every single item I create on the computer. Here is the form we used for the Tamale Taste-Off.

click for full sized form, hey print it out for your own Tamale Taste-Off

Moving forward to December, 2001 was the time of the famous Banilla Ice Cream taste-off. This was a true winner and the results determined the best vanilla ice cream on the market as evinced by Hanks Best of page.

Yes, you can click this one as well

The there is a big jump in time to the production of the movie BeWitched. The writer director Nora Ephron has an uncanny sense of good food and is not afraid to express it. We had at least four full on ice cream sundae bars all concocted with ice cream flown in from Graters in Ohio. Outstanding! There was also something called Cake Wednesday that started as a piece of improv by Will Ferrell, but soon became an established part of our weekly eating schedule. Every Wednesday there were cakes, usually from one of the best confectionary bakeries in Los Angeles, Sweet Lady Jane. These two instances got me going and at some point late in the schedule I had an informal taste off to determine the best ice cream and best cub cake. Here is the form.

ditto

What can I say?, I love a taste-off, I promise to have one soon for my pal Matt #2 and wouldn't you know that when I picked up Jack from school the day after the burger taste-off, the first thing he said to me was, Daddy, can we have a taste-ff tonight? Before we got home we had determined what the next taste-off is going to be. Apples and Meatballs. I kid you not, it is currently set for December 12th, 2006. Jack is making the forms again.

Any suggestions? email them here

*I have three friends named Matt. Jack refers to them as Matt #1, Matt #2 and Matt #3

---

12.4.2006

There must be one of these moments in every parents recollection of their offspring developing sense of humor. The first joke. I don't mean the first thing that felt like joke or the first time a rhyme was used for hours of nonsensical frivolity, I mean a joke. A joke with a begriming, a middle and an end.

Anyway, Jack made up his first joke a few weeks ago and if I dare say it is a doozey, it might even make into the annals of humor history and don the pages of some future joke-of-the-day website.

So here goes:

What's Big, Wide, fits on your behind?

And, smells like bananas??

...Monkey Underpants!!

---

11.22.06

Jack is really growing fast and his development astounds me at times. A few weeks ago was his fifth birthday. He had a blast and among other things was completely in charge of decorating and setting the table, icing the cake and inviting the guests. He made invitations, he instructed me specifically on where to hang each and every ribbon and he thoughtfully, methodically placed every knife, fork and spoon on the table. You can see photos of this in my photo area. These are two of my favorite photos taken that day, with an age old process of photo chemical silver halide light sensitive camera film.

One of the most inspired and astounding moments that I have had recently involved Jack's contribution to the send-a-hug campaign previously mentioned on Hank Right Now. When my friend Shyam came over to pick up and photograph Jack for his send a hug gift, there was this amazing moment after Shyam described to Jack how the note that Jack was going to write would be given to someone who really needed some love in their life and that even though he didn't know who it would be, that the love is what mattered. Jack sat down with the crayons and stickers that Shyam had brought over in his send-a-hug kit and while Shyam and I gabbed a bit, Jack wrote the letter.

Every once in awhile Jack would look over to me with a look that I had not seen before. It was filled with a sense of happiness, love, understanding and playfulness. He knew what he was doing and he was enthralled by it. At that moment I was so taken by his ability to be who he is. Of course I am his father and feel similar feelings quite often, but here was something unique in that moment and I will never forget the look on his face. There is a piece of it in the polaroid that Shyam took that goes in the send-a-hug package. And there is a greater piece of it in the letter that Jack wrote to the stranger who will receive his gift of Grover.

Thanks Shyam and thanks Jack and thanks to Daisy for doing the send-a-hug project. This photo was taken by Jack as Shyam sailed away in his ride in order to pick up more send a hug donations. I will say that after a slightly rough period of Jack having some difficulty in maintaining good headroom in his photos, he is all dialed in.

 

9.29.06

A few weeks ago we went to the LA Zoo. It is one of Jack's favorite outings. The maps and signs alone are more than enough to keep him happy as a clam. On this particular day we went with a friend of his from school named Avery. Part way through our tour Jack started taking pictures. He said he wanted to take a picture of every animal he saw. I told him that we could make a book later on the computer with the pictures and even give one to Avery. He was really excited about that. Anything that involves computer time is good with him.

As I watched him take pictures I was struck by something. Because he is exactly the same height as the railing along the top of the fence he was struggling to get an acceptable frame much of the time. He never said anything about it, just jockeyed back and forth between vantage points, looking through the lens, then with his eyes, all the while thinking. It was exactly what we do at work while searching for an angle that we believe is appropriate, tells the story. I guess it is just human nature of some kind, or at least it is if you the son of a photographer.

The other aspect of his shooting that I could not let go of was how perfectly framed some of the images are. I was again reminded of something we are always trying to emulate at work. When shooting a scene or a sequence of shots and you want it imbue it with a particular point of view, (in this case a 42 inch four and 11/12th year old boy), how to you demonstrate that? All I know is next time it comes up on the set I will certainly reference Jacks photos form the Zoo that day.

Book Cover
One of my favorite pages, Jack through and through. I was holding him up which accounts for the higher angle.
I think this is such a great picture. Oh, I forgot to mention, when Jack could not see the animal he was trying to capture, he just photographed the sign instead.

---

9.28.06

 

These span a good year of growth and only prove one thing. As much as I never thought I would tolerate my child putting on goofy glasses, these photos just slay me. All I can say is really I had nothing to do with it, kids like to put on glasses, that's it.