Snoopy in Space Report

We had a good turnout, nearly filling the Schulz Museum's little theater. This is the beginning of the panel, when we were introduced by the museum's public program coordinator, Sara Merrick.

I had a nice afternoon at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, where my main job was to host a panel on "Snoopy in Space" with guests Bill Miklos and Dr. Jack Bacon, both of whom have decades of experience in the business of launching satellites and people into space. 

"Peanuts" has always been closely associated with NASA. The Apollo 10 command and lunar modules were named Charlie Brown and Snoopy, respectively. Also, one of the greatest honors a NASA employee can receive is a Silver Snoopy pin for their contributions to safety, which Bacon had earned. 

I see my job at these events as keeping the conversation lively and on-track, and helping the panelists make their points as best they can. You also have to keep the audience in mind; some will be very knowledgeable but others will be young and easily bored kids, which doesn't necessarily mesh with detail-oriented engineers. I think we clipped right along and put on a good show.

The panel was part of a whole day of space-related activity at the Schulz Museum, including an informational table staffed by my friends (and one daughter) from the USS Hornet Museum, as well as the museum's own "Snoopy in Space" exhibition that will be closing soon.

A good time at one of my favorite places with some of my favorite people. Got to touch base with Jeannie Schulz, museum director Gina Huntsinger, and a few friends who came out. Can't beat that.

Dr. Jack Bacon, Bill Miklos, and me. Looks like we're taking a question from the audience here. I'm wearing a t-shirt from the USS Hornet that says "Apollo 11 Lunar Team" with a picture of astronaut Snoopy. Please note that I was not actually on the Apollo 11 Lunar Team any more than Snoopy was. I'm just a fan of their work.

Snoopy in Space at the Schulz

This Saturday at 11, I will be moderating a panel at the Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center on "Snoopy in Orbit," with NASA expert Jack Bacon and aerospace engineer Bill Miklos, who is also a docent at the USS Hornet Sea, Air and Space Museum. Immodestly, I think I'm exactly the right person for the job because I know Peanuts, I know space, and I know the USS Hornet, whose Apollo exhibit I helped redesign several years ago. 

The panel is part of a full day of space-related activities at the Schulz Museum, including fun activities, another talk by Dr. Bacon, tables staffed by the USS Hornet and the Space Station Museum, and more! It's free with regular admission, and all the regular wonderful Peanuts art and artifacts will be there as well.

Brian says: check it out!

Graphic Medicine in Ireland

There will be a graphic medicine conference in Ireland this summer that I will not be at, but a few friends sent me this article about it from The Irish Times because they knew I'd be interested and also because I'm mentioned in it.

Mom's Cancer was in the right place and time to accidentally become a foundational text in the field of medical humanities called graphic medicine, meaning comics + healthcare. As the article describes, friends like "Comic Nurse" MK Czerwiec and Dr. Ian Williams pioneered graphic medicine after finding my book, and others like conference chair Jane Burns continue to discover it and find it helpful and inspiring. There was a time when "graphic medicine" comprised about a dozen people and we all knew each other. That's not true anymore. It's big and growing!

I remain astonished by the legacy of my family's story, not least because people still read it 20 years later. I give a few talks a year to medical students. It's routinely cited in academic journals. And it still gets mentioned in articles like this one by friends who are gracious enough to remember it. It's all enormously gratifying.

A Treasure Chest

My neighbor, Ted, is a master woodworker. His work wins ribbons at the county fair, and after the fire he made most of the tables, desks, dressers, bookcases, and other furniture for his and his wife Judy's rebuilt home. He does beautiful work.

Parallel track: I love and collect antique stereograph cards. They're like primitive ViewMaster pictures that were big entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th century. Victorians sat around their parlors peering through 3-D viewers for hours of fun. 

For years I've been looking for a little box or cabinet to store my cards in, but nothing's ever been the right size. I finally had an epiphany: maybe I could commission Ted to build me one. He jumped at the chance! With all he's built over the years, he'd never actually done a box and was eager to give it a shot. I gave him a drawing with some dimensions and encouraged him to spread his creative wings.

Here it is. I think it's fantastic. My cards fit perfectly, and I left room for more. 

Neither Ted nor Judy is on Facebook, but I wanted to acknowledge Ted's great skill and kindness publicly. It's a treasure. 

Serendipitous Art

 

I was putting my phone in my pocket after taking a photo when my finger slipped and I accidentally took another. Usually those are blurry shots of my fingers or feet and are instantly deleted, but I liked how this one turned out so much I kept it. It's a painted cinderblock wall seen through the pickets of a metal fence. If I made abstract art, this is the sort of abstract art I would make. Which I guess I did!

My Stalker

Don't look! Act completely calm and normal! Just blink twice if there's a giant Marilyn Monroe behind me. 

She's there, isn't she? I knew it! That dame just will NOT leave me alone.

Words, Images & Worlds

Here's that other podcast I alluded to: "Words, Images and Worlds" with Jason DeHart! I didn't know Jason before he asked me to guest on his show, but we have many mutual friends and he's just about the most prolific podcaster I've ever seen. Seriously, he's done hundreds of them, with some very impressive creative-type people. Also me. 

I enjoyed our conversation very much, and if you have 23 minutes to kill, you might too. Thanks, Jason.

October Sky By The Minute

I also drew their logo.

I seem to have a good side hustle in the prestigious, lucrative world of podcast guesting! I shared one podcast link a few days ago, and today drops the latest episode of "The October Sky Minute," the podcast that reviews the wonderful 1999 movie based on Homer Hickam's bestseller "Rocket Boys" one minute at a time, hosted by my friends Jim O'Kane, Hal Bryan and, for today only, me.

I love the movie and love Hal and Jim. The point of the podcast isn't to just talk about the minute of film on hand, but to invite interesting people for interesting discussions. To that end, they've landed many stars from the movie, Homer Hickam himself, and others including the president of the Estes model rocket company and an expert on picket fences (for an episode in which an errant rocket takes one out). Can't imagine why they asked me, but we ended up talking about parenthood, chemistry lab, model rocketry, and "Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow," so not the usual stuff from me. It was a nice genuine conversation and I think that comes through.

I did an entirely different third podcast that should be released soon. They were actually all recorded over a long stretch of time but are dropping pretty close to each other. I'm not doing ALL the podcasts, it just seems like it.