Speed of Life

Live at Ullevi Gothenburg 06/26/2023

by Gregg Chadwick My Uncle Jake looms large in my life. And not only because he has the build of a defensive tackle on the San Francisco 49ers. When Jake walks into a room he fills the scene like James Gandolfini in the Sopranos. Then the stories begin.  Jolly Green Giant Jake sets the scene. Imagine he is on a covert mission during the Vietnam War. President Nixon has launched a secret bombing campaign in Cambodia and Laos. From March 18, 1969 until May 26, 1970, code name Operation Menu targeted resupply areas that the North Vietnamese and their allies the National Liberation Front and the Viet Cong were using as bases of attack against the South Vietnamese and their American allies.  Heavy B-52 bombers from the US Air Force carpet bombed the Laotian and Cambodian borders in an attempt to interdict  North Vietnamese  supply lines.  Airman Jacob J Desch (Vietnam Era Photo) Airman Jake Desch was deployed in Thailand  where the massive B-52s were stati...

Gregg Chadwick Lightning (Edith Desch) 36"x 24" oil on linen 2018 Jersey Memories - Grandma Desch by Gregg Chadwick When I was little and my dad was off in Vietnam during the war, we lived in a small, rented carriage house behind a big estate. On the way to school each morning we would walk by the train platform full of commuters waiting for their ride into the city. I knew my Grandpa Desch drove trains and I often wondered as we passed over the tracks on the bridge on Ridgewood Avenue whether he was in one of the engines down below. It's only thirty minutes by train from Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to Penn Station in Manhattan. Yet, there seemed to be a world of difference between my town with its quiet gas-lamp lit streets and the bustling avenues in New York City. The train was the artery between those two worlds and I never forgot it.  The kitchen in Garwood was where Grandma Desch would spread her warmth.  In a similar fashion...

by Gregg Chadwick Dad (General Robert J. Chadwick USMC) circa 1978 photo courtesy USMC Peter Clothier  asked me a while ago to contribute to his series of Boyhood Memories which he is posting on his new blog site - http://www.boyhoodmoments.com/2016/09/hop-on-pop.html  and eventually working into a book.  I finally finished my story and it has prompted me to continue writing about my life as an artist.  Growing up as the kid of a USMC officer during the Vietnam era inspired me in unique ways. Please have a read and let me know what you think. Also spend some time  on Peter's site.  Masami Teraoka  's piece is timeless and magical and  Michael Provart  's writing is funny and poignant.  Peter Clothier  also adds his own childhood memories into the mix. Every story Peter has received is rich in memory.  Peter introduces my story with the following: "HOP ON POP Here's another "absent father" piece, this one w...

Jersey Rain  by  gregg   chadwick Via Flickr: Gregg Chadwick 30"x40" oil on linen 2015   Inspired by Robert Pinsky and Robert Chadwick  JERSEY RAIN by  Robert Pinsky Now near the end of the middle stretch of road What have I learned? Some earthly wiles. An art. That often I cannot tell good fortune from bad, That once had seemed so easy to tell apart. The source of art and woe aslant in wind Dissolves or nourishes everything it touches. What  roadbank  gullies and ruts it doesn’t  mend It carves  the deeper , boiling tawny in ditches. It spends  itself regardless  into the ocean. It stains and scours and makes things dark or bright: Sweat of the moon, a shroud of benediction, The chilly liquefaction of day to night, The Jersey rain, my rain, soaks all as one: It smites Metuchen, Rahway, Saddle River, Fair Haven, Newark, Little Silver, Bayonne. I feel it churning even in fair weather To craze distincti...

by Gregg Chadwick President Barack Obama comforts Donna Vanzant today in Brigatine, New Jersey (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)   The Megastorm Sandy roared into the Atlantic Coast on Monday night.  A thousand mile wide swath of destruction marked its path. The storm raged from the Carolinas to New England,  dumped a massive freak snowfall on West Virginia and  flooded much of coastal New Jersey and New York City. Hundreds of thousands lost electricity, buildings were washed away, homes burned to the ground, and many died. But it could have been so much worse. As the night of Sandy wore on, many of us were reminded of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the feeble efforts to save the city of New Orleans. I was on twitter most of the night, communicating via 140 character messages what we knew and how to reach help. People were scared, information was spotty and at times poisoned with fake news from a now disgraced  Republican campaign manager who cruel...

Krazy Kat caught in an alley  By Kent Chadwick                         ________                         ________                         ___   ___             Krazy Kat Caught in an alley                         caterwauling             night in Garwood                         New Jersey      ...