Dilly Bob and Tennessee. Two drunks, ruling the country...

John Will Miller passed away on December 16, 2019 at the age of 69.  He was commonly known as Johnny, Speedbump, Santa, and best of all as Dilly Bob.  It was his chosen name, but it was also a verb, adjective, adverb and a way of life.  He taught me more about being a good person than any other teacher and mentor has.  He didn't have much, but his best quality was he generous spirit, and what he did have he was always willing to have shared.  One of the best gifts he had was his stories and his legend.  There are enough stories about the bar in Tulsa, and the Romanichal Gypsies, and the river floods in my head to write a feature length film.  From the Santa Parties ("always tip your Santa hat to the right"), to the affectionately fun nicknames ("Tennessee", "Worker," "Trash Bag," "Omaha"), to the late night phone calls discussing world events ("Impeach Trumpler!"), your presence and wisdom will be missed.  

St. Joseph lost a vibrant spirit this Christmas and one of it's truest legends (https://twitter.com/dillybobdrink/status/975431453080244224?s=19).  You weren't perfect, nor did you claim to be, but you taught me what it meant to live life fully as a bachelor and not put all your happiness in a yamen ("but Dilly Bob love them yamen").  The real importance was in family and friends, even if you don't always get along.  One of the most important lessions you taught me was forging positive relationships with animals.

You gave Drools the best life you could, and your friendship with him inspired me to get my own dog, producing ten of the most magical years of friendship with Bull ("you'll never have a better friend than a dog").  You also loved Fritz too and cared for him, despite him being a mean son-of-bitch, because he was your friend.

You have been one of the most instrumental influencers in who I became over the course of our fifteen year friendship.  From the person I was when I met you through Worker, to our most recent late night drunk calls talking about Trumpler, you've helped me live a satisfying life as an aging bachelor.  You are a bold reminder that a life fully lived is achievable despite bouts with loneliness.  I will continue to live my life by the Yule standards that you so graciously laid down for me.  You are the real Santa Claus and your gifts will live on for my lifetime.

It's hit me pretty hard that you were gone, especially finding out on Christmas, but it was kind of fitting, seeing as you're the real Santa and all.  I'm happy your pain is over after our last conversion.  A person doesn't throw around ideas like rejecting hospice care lightly.  I guess I just didn't know it was going to come before I saw you again, and I hoped we would have more conversation.  I'll really miss you not keeping me up to date on why KQ2 has gone to shit since I left.

You taught people to always love who they were because they were good people, even if people were talking shit about you ("Well, ya see, I'm a drunk, but a good drunk!").  You were so stubborn it became one of your best virtues, but it wasn't your best, those were your sense of humor and storytelling skills, and your compassion.  I aspire to have your magickal quality of lightening the mood of every group you were a part of ("you gotta be jollyful!"), even when you when you accidentally let a fire get out of control ("it got a bit out of hand, almost burnt the house down, but we got it put out").

Good bless you John "Dilly Bob" Miller, of Oregon, Missouri, son of Orville and Florence Miller.  It's going to take awhile to get used to not having late-night and early-morning drunk conversations with you every few months.  I'm a better person now than when I met you, because of our friendship, because of you.

Rest easy, dear friend.  We all know you're only napping between drinks.  Until we meet again, Dilly Bob, 

PARTY!

Reflection After a Revolution

When I was leaving KQTV one year ago, I felt I was probably leaving behind the feeling of having a work environment that was akin to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."  Little did I know how that feeling would be even more real in the position I was embarking one.

This marks around the one year anniversary of when I made the decision to take a position with KFSM television in Fort Smith.  Reflecting on my decision now, it is one of the best I have ever made.  It's given me an opportunity to shed myself of the previous cobweb of associations I had built-up and essentially start anew for the first time in my life.  The only lifeforms that have been day-to-day constants in my life from my previous to current is my animals, who have been my rocks through this sometimes difficult and lonely transition.

Meeting people has been harder than I anticipated.  The "Arklahoma" river valley region is unforgivening and unhappy in general.  I am forcing myself to go out.  I've both taken up Uber driving as a business decision to make having a reliable vehicle possible, which has also forced me to meet people.  I've found a nearby bar(Lost Beach) I can escape to once or twice a week if I see the need, and a nearby music festival(Byrdfest) in the region I can escape to once or twice a year.  Having the options for social catharsis are essentially to a happy life.

Work hasn't been all it was promised to be but it hasn't been disappointing.  I oversee produce 14 newscasts a week, with the majority being on the weekends and I really like the people I work directly alongside.  If I didn't absolutely love my career right now I probably already would've retreated back to Maryville for a hard reset.  While they are reactionary (as all management in the news industry should be), I feel I have a good report with my managers as well.  One of the most positive vocational aspects of my decision to move here is I have been able to focus entirely on what my job is, being a producer.  Management of talent, scripting and story selection/ordering.  Instead of editing the videos myself, I am essentially editing things together in my mind, communicating it to a co-worker, who then turns my vision into reality.  I am no longer forced to go out as a photographer for half my shift like at KQ2, and instead I'm now able to spend my entire shift inside of the confines of the television station.

My only real regrets since getting here in Fort Smith are putting too much trust in a few people I built romantic connections with that completely flaked out.  It's always disappointing when you get "ghosted" or rejected in any way.  With where I am now in terms of my life, I've begun to focus most of my energy now on meeting people in Northwest Arkansas and not trying to build any more connections in Fort Smith than I need to.

Overall, I am hoping to feel more inspiration to update this over the coure of the next year.  My life has been very uneventful in terms of things I want to share over the past year.  I felt since it had been a year since I reflected though, it seemed to be as good of a time as ever to put some of my reflections on the past year into words.

I hope the next year brings more friends outside of work and more music and art in my life that I can enjoy collectively with others.  Separating myself from society was exactly what I needed to regain my bearings, but now I feel like I need to re-emerge from my cave and once again take on the world and forge epic friendships.

St.Patrick's Day Protest

This March 17 is a holiday known as St. Patricks Day. This is the drunken celebration of the genocide of the true Irish (or Celtic) peoples and their culture by Maewyn Succat, who came from Roman England. He came to be Romanized as Patricius, which eventually became Saint Patrick as we know him today.

As a youth, Succat was captured by pirates and held in slavery, until six years later when he escaped. Succat then went to England and eventually France where he studied under St. Germain, the Bishop of Auxerre, for approximately twelve years. At the end of this period, he took Holy Orders and became a Bishop in the ROMAN Catholic Church. He was given the name Patricius.

After taking his Holy Orders, Patricius claimed that he had received a message from God. This message he claimed told him that he was to convert all of Ireland to Catholicism by any means necessary. With the Pope's blessing, Patricius was on a ship to Ireland to carry out this mission.

When Patricius first arrived, he was imprisoned for speaking out against numerous Druidic leaders and the religion these people had for generations. After his release, for the next twenty years Patricius traveled Ireland, a crucial leader in the church's movement to convert Ireland to a ROMAN Catholic State. Once the Catholic population was clearly in the majority in Ireland, the Pope gave Patricius orders to crusade against the peaceful and pagan Druidic people who remained in Ireland, a people who were native to this island, and to kill all of those who stood in his way.  And he did, and gave the nation of Ireland a distorted view of their own history that is celebrated today in St. Patrick's Day.

In short, Maewyn Succat, an either English or Scotish born slave to pirates, became a ROMAN Catholic Bishop, changed his name to Patricius, eventually became a Bishop. He said God talked to him and told him to go to Ireland and convert the entire country, got the Popes blessing and went to Ireland, a country he had no connection with, and took it upon himself to kill their native religion, as well as those who practiced because he and his religion deemed to be "of Satan"

My plea to my fellow Irishmen is this:
Do not accept this faux holiday this year as a celebration of our people!!! If you drink the green beer, drink it in PROTEST of this holiday and in honor of the true history and culture of our people! As this is truly a celebration of, to use the words of Bill ‘The Butcher’ Cutting in the excellent Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, Roman Popery and NOT THE TRUE HISTORY OF PAGAN IRELAND!

Instead of accepting these myths surrounding this holiday, inform yourself and if you see fit, protest it. This is truly the holiday dedicated to a non-Irish Bishop Maewyn ‘Patricius ‘ Succat and the Roman Catholic Church's attempt to commit genocide upon the innocent people of an island!

Photos from the NYC Protests

Interesting times these are indeed.  I have been fortunate enough to become involved with the Occupy Wall Street.  Here are some photos of one of the most beautiful weekends of my life.  Got to meet Eve Ensler(the author of the Vagina Monologues) as well, which was interesting to say the least.

After marching across Manhattan from Zuccoti Park to Washington Square Park, I was a part of one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life, when I heard one of the organizers of the Egyptian protests that this was molded after speak.  Normally I am not too big on political speech(I skipped a free Michael Moore speech during the Bush/Kerry election), but this was something totally different.

I absolutely love the mic check methodology...if you agree with someone or not, you still repeat what they say to reinforce their voice.  It is this type of respect for other opinions than our own that any new social structure needs to be built off of.  None of us can be free until all of us are.

Interesting times, a revolution is definately in the air...