Friday, 22 November 2013
CAPISTRANO: Pumpkin Heads
CAPISTRANO: Pumpkin Heads: Post Halloween, symbols of the event can be found throughout towns and cities, discarded and forlorn, as they await garbage pickup. Lik...
Pumpkin Heads
Post Halloween, symbols of the event can be found throughout towns and cities, discarded and forlorn, as they await garbage pickup.
Like the guillotined heads
that rolled during the French Revolution, they exhibit the gruesome,
final facial expressions of an all too short life. A truncated
existence determined by the whims of others. Others who traded them
as commodities in the marketplace.
Metaphors perhaps, for the
human condition.
Pumpkins are thin skinned.
Their “meat” is prized as a dessert filling. They are hollow
inside but those cavities contain seeds. Seeds that guarantee their
future success in the natural order of the world.Seeds as sine qua
non for sustainability.
Enter Mr. Michael
Campbell. Some would describe him as a pumpkin.
He manages to escape the
social guillotine of marriage breakup. He also avoids the blade that
descends toward his neck released by his corporate superiors.
He seeks the seeds that
lie within as he builds an empire that trades in a commodity that is
of a tender age as well. The desserts that some, those of means,
gorge on. The sweetness, the seductiveness of youth cloaked under the
cover of night.
Come to the story of
Michael’s quest in the novel, CAPISTRANO.
Follow
his exploits, witness his personal fears, his fearlessness in the
face of adversity, his fulminations against the status quo. Emphasize with, and perhaps even demonize the man and as he struggles mightily
to farm his personal pumpkin patch.
Capistrano is available at:
Saturday, 26 October 2013
CAPISTRANO: HIGH FLIGHT
CAPISTRANO: HIGH FLIGHT: HIGH FLIGHT Behold the cormorant in flight. It is a carnivore. Everything about it has been adapted over eons of time to fulfill i...
HIGH FLIGHT
HIGH FLIGHT
Behold the cormorant in flight. It is a carnivore. Everything about it has been adapted over eons of time to fulfill its function of species propagation by feeding on fish. It is dominant in its chosen environment.
Search on line for stock photos of the Lockheed SR-70, Blackbird warplane and note the eerie similarities between the two machines, one of nature and the other of man’s creation, in flight.
Mach 3.2 at an altitude of 85,000 feet notwithstanding, the latter creation proved to be transient. The Lockheed was retired in 1998. But the bird in the photo continues to soar.
Enter Michael Campbell, the chief protagonist in the novel, CAPISTRANO.
He has fulfilled the words of the wartime pilot, G. Mcgee in his poem, High Flight.
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have never dreamed of…
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew-
Michael comes to dominate the environment he has chosen. He is the founder and driving force behind the success of Capistrano, the club for gentlemen in Metro Manila. And he wars with those who would unseat him from his throne.
His exploits model the musing of Alexander Pope when he wrote,
Man: the glory, jest, and riddle of the world.
Michael is everyman, yes everyman, and then some. Join him, laugh with him and cry with him and come to A. Pope’s conclusion,
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan:
The proper study of mankind is man.
CAPISTRANO IS AVAILABLE AT:
Saturday, 5 October 2013
CAPISTRANO: Who Is Driving The Bus?
CAPISTRANO: Who Is Driving The Bus?: In the dwindling gloom of early morning, the dashboard of a school bus and the country road it will follow are seen. The predawn ...
Who Is Driving The Bus?
In the dwindling gloom of early morning, the dashboard of a school bus and the country road it will follow are seen. The predawn commencement of the scheduled pick up of students is about to begin. They will be, quite literally and figuratively, driven down their road to learning via this vehicle and others like it, throughout the world.
Only an ambulance has more miles of electrical wire and cable to activate their many safety lights than do these ubiquitous chrome yellow transporters of young people. They dot and define the landscape with the arrival of each, new fall season.
“Who is driving the bus?”, is a question that has been a part of the lexicon of business language for some time. And the people who manage people in business, are those to whom the question is posed. It is a metaphor for the setting of direction, of goals, and the routes or strategies that will be followed to achieve a punctual arrival or business success.
To effectively “drive the bus” a manager, like his or her counterpart behind the wheel, must know the rules of the road, the societal or governmental regulations that apply. The manager must look to the wellbeing of those for whom there is a responsibility and all the while, maintain order among those whose agendas might differ from the direction that has been set.
Michael Campbell is a man who is driving such a bus. He knows enough, just enough, of what must be done to arrive at his destination. And the rest requires his common sense, his true grit, elements of personality that he has in abundance.
Come join Michael, in the novel, CAPISTRANO, and experience the ride of your life as he negotiates both the paved and the rocky roads to achieve his dream.
CAPISTRANO is available at:
amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, xlibris.com, chapters.indigo.ca, ebook format at kindle & kobo
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
CAPISTRANO: Bold Designs of The Heart & The Brain
CAPISTRANO: Bold Designs of The Heart & The Brain: Sunlight is seen revealing the pattern of folds in brain coral. It is resting on the bottom step of many that ascend upward to a h...
Bold Designs of The Heart & The Brain
Sunlight is seen revealing the pattern of folds in brain coral. It is resting on the bottom step of many that ascend upward to a higher level.
The human brain, when looked at, in the same light as the coral, is a simple organ to define. It weights about 3 lbs or 1.5 kg. The brain is high in fat and cholesterol. It was eaten by primitives to create a sense of immortality.
The brain is the center of our nervous system. The cerebral cortex has more than 25 billion neurons that are connected to synapses and then to several thousand other neurons. A complex work to be sure.
From the beginning of recorded time a debate has raged concerning the brain. Is it merely the regulator of body function and perception or is it, as well, the seat of the soul.
Aristotle felt that the heart was the center of the soul. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, believed that from the brain came the joys and laughter of life as well as the sorrows and the grief. Rene Descartes held that the mind existed independent of the brain.
Modern research seems to suggest that Hippocrates was on the right track. But in the panoply of emotions and actions played out daily by human beings, maybe it doesn’t matter.
Michael Campbell is an individual practiced in the parade of the human condition. He sets a goal for himself, and, in the process of striving to achieve it, tests both body and soul. And, like the brain coral, he starts off on a bottom step. Follow him as he ascends the staircase to realize his dream.
Capistrano is available at:
amazon.com barnesandnoble.com Xlibris.com
chapters.indigo.ca
Sunday, 18 August 2013
Thursday, 18 July 2013
CAPISTRANO: Bird On A Wire
CAPISTRANO: Bird On A Wire: www.capistranoBook.net Bird On A Wire Observe the bird perched on the bow line in a harbor. A cursory look at the photo mig...
Bird On A Wire
Bird
On A Wire
Observe the bird perched on the bow line in a harbor. A
cursory look at the photo might suggest however that the feathered
creature is instead, resting on the reflection of the main sail cover atop the boom.
What we choose to see is what we believe to be true. And
belief spawns action in all of us.
Think of the observer on the ground staring up at
aircraft in the sky. Frequently they appear to be on collision
courses when, in reality, the planes are thousands of feet apart.
Perspective as precursor to reality.
I
saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
He
called out to me, you must not ask for so much.
And
a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She
cried to me, hey, why not ask for more.
Leonard Cohen
Michael Campbell, the main character in the novel,
CAPISTRANO, is a man more inclined to listen to voices in darkened
doorways. He tires of the toil needed to satisfy the desires of
others. He abandons corporate life and sets out on a great
adventure. And he is the only man in possession of the blueprint that
will give form and meaning to his new reality.
Like
a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir,
I
have tried in my way to be free.
Leonard Cohen
Michael
does gain his freedom as the enterprise takes shape but, as with any
choice made in life, it comes at a cost.
Join Michael in his sensual tale of desire, of defeat
and of the capacity of some, like him, to ultimately prevail.
Capistrano the novel, is available in hard cover, soft cover & e-book formats through:
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