The Fine Art Of Going Fast.
Passionate about cars, motorcycles and anything mechanical that started out well-made and has endured decades without ever being molested, Jeff is a product of the southern California hot-rod scene, his father, Allen’s, understudy. While Jeff didn’t inherit his dad’s mechanical skills, he did acquire the discriminating eye of an artist and the passion for historical significance. Indeed, it is each subject’s inherent blend of art and history that makes every Jeff Decker sculpture exceptional.
Yet it’s more than the motorcycle that makes Decker’s work so fascinating. As he tells it, “There is nothing that embodies the urgency of our age and the modern synergy of man and machine better than a motorcycle and its rider. It is a perfect marriage of mechanical and organic aspects of our world.” Decker seeks to capture the glory of the Golden Age of motorcycle racing. “These guys were every bit as colorful as Wild Bill Cody in the cowboy era. In fact, boardtrack racers played to bigger audiences than Babe Ruth. I am committed to giving them their due.” As you examine Decker’s work you see this commitment in the subject’s race face, their position on the bike, their grip on the bars and the detailed rendering of every valve tappet getting revved to its limit.
The research that Decker performs prior to creating each sculpture is a clear indication of his passion. Take, for example, the iconic “Flat Out at Bonneville” piece, where Rollie Free stretched his bathing-suit-clad body across his Vincent Black Lighting to ride 151.3 mph across the salt for the world record. The rider’s total commitment is clearly evident, but the historical accuracy of the sculpture came through exhaustive research.
“I uncovered a scrapbook that had been stored in the basement of the son of Rollie Free’s mechanic. With that archive I was able to trade with Herb Harris, Mike Parti and Jay Leno to assemble the largest source of reference on Rollie’s person. Jerry Hatfield, who was writing a book on Rollie, had to put off publishing for years because of the find. Thousands of documents and photos gave me the background I needed to sculpt. I also used his actual motorcycle, posing a model in the famous prone position to capture the image from all angles. Several details found during my research helped the restorer Herb Harris make his motorcycle more faithful to that famed day in 1948.”
This level of dedication caught the eye of Willie G. Davidson, who led the charge to name Decker as Harley-Davidson’s official sculptor. The most visible result of this recognition so far appears on the grounds of the H-D Museum in Milwaukee. Unveiled at the museum’s opening in 2008, this 16-foot-high, 5,000-pound monument to achievement is a life-plus-half-size 1930 DAH hill climber and rider that is considered Decker’s masterpiece.
Working from his own immaculately restored DAH—and within sight of the legendary Widowmaker hillclimb venue—Decker propped the bike in the position he wanted and had a model climb aboard, dressed with actual examples of the period’s helmets,
goggles and leathers. The dramatic pose came by looking though volumes of photos of early hillclimbers, where the guys who won reached the top while tossing the bike forward in a blaze of dust and glory. The sculpture came after more than a year
of sculpting, molding, casting, welding and patination.
From board and dirt track to speedway and road course, and to the back roads and byways in between, every sculpture’s goal is to capture the emotion of the moment for the rider and the machine depicted. In addition to his fine art pieces, Decker’s art is used for perpetual awards at the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), The Utah Salt Flats Racing Association (USFRA) and the Legends of the Motorcycle concours’ de elegance.
“The people who are collecting my artwork are passionate about motorcycling. But they also appreciate the work I put in. It takes months and sometimes years to make a piece and costs thousands of dollars just for the foundry work. Sure, the prices for my work aren’t small, but I love the look on peoples’ faces when they take ownership. And while I’m sensing a breakthrough in the fine arts world, I will always do this work for what it says about motoculture, especially in its historical sense.”
Rider, December 2009
Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales. The Wife Of Bath's Tale
An housbonde I wol have, I wol nat lette,
Which shal be bothe my dettour and my thral (154-5)
She uses her tale to extend this idea from being a personal preference, and a maxim to be followed by 'every womman that is wys' (524) to a universal truth. The knight of her tale is set the task of finding:
What thing is it that wommen moost desiren. (905)
When he gives his answer to a supreme court of women, headed by the queen, there is no disagreement at all:
Wommen desiren to have sovereinetee
As wel over hir housbond as hir love,
And for to been in maistrie him above. (1038-40)
In al the court ne was ther wyf, ne maide,
Ne widwe, that contraried that he saide, (1043-4)
The fact that the knight's life is in the hands of the queen rather than the king is in itself a sign that the tale is a product of The Wife's imagination. King Arthur has condemned the knight to death, according to the law of the land, and yet in response to the pleas of the queen and other women,
. . . yaf him to the queene, al at hir wille,
To chese wheither she wolde him save or spille (897-8)
Thus even The King of England is subject to his wife.
The Wife uses her tale as a vehicle for her own views, and often she leaves the tale altogether and resumes the self-centred theme and colloquial style of her prologue. She lists all the alternative answers the knight received to his question, the list including everything which, in her prologue, she has shown that she demands from a marriage as well as 'sovereinetee'.
Somme seyde wommen loven best richesse,
Somme seyde honour, somme seyde jolinesse
Somme riche array, somme seyden lust abedde,
And oftetime to be widwe and wedde. (925-8)
. . .
And somme seyen that we loven best
For to be free, and do right as us lest, (935-6)
Her inclusion of herself with 'we', and the unusual inclusion of 'oftetime to be widwe and wedde' make it clear that this is The Wife's own interpolation, beyond the requirements of the tale.
The Wife digresses from her tale after the first half dozen or so lines to air her views on another subject close to her heart, 'limitours and othere hooly freres' (866). Her grievances against the church are many. The church's solemn repressive attitude towards sex, and most other forms of enjoyment, conflict strongly with her robust hedonism. In the prologue she exclaims
Allas, allas, that evere love was sinne! (614)
The church was also responsible for the dissemination of anti-feminist literature and attitudes, and here The Wife, an arch-feminist, is in direct conflict.
For trusteth wel, it is an impossible
That any clerk wol speke good of wives, (688-9)
If we turn to the character of the Loathly Lady of The Wife's tale, we find some differences between her and The Wife, and some similarities. The main characteristic they have in common is the wish to dominate their husbands. There is also a marked similarity in their tactics for achieving this goal. Both make their husbands suffer, and both use the persuasive techniques of argument. Both also draw upon authorities in support of their arguments; The Wife from The Bible, Ovid, and many others, and The Loathly Lady from Dante and Seneca.
Just as, in the prologue, The Wife puts up the husband's assumed complaints against her, putting him in the wrong, and knocking his arguments down one by one, so the Loathly Lady puts up the knight's objections.
Thou art so loothly, and so oold also,
And therto comen of so lough a kinde (1100-1)
She adds the fault of being poor, not even mentioned by the knight, and by pseudo-logic presents the faults as virtues. Both women succeed in gaining the submission of their partners for the same reason - the husbands are so frustrated and exasperated that they give in to get some peace.
The chief difference in the approach of the two wives is that whereas The Wife argues almost entirely on personal grounds, The Loathly Lady argues on the more objective and moralistic grounds of living up to the claim of 'Nobility', the true source of which was a much discussed subject in the middle ages. On one level we can assume that Chaucer has introduced this theme for the edification of his audience, but it is also likely that The Wife has included this serious subject in order to comply with The Host's original request in The General Prologue for,
Tales of best sentence and moost solaas (800).
In her prologue The Wife demonstrates herself to be an intelligent woman, and good at dissembling. At the funeral of her fourth husband, for example, she acts the part of the grieving widow, so she would undoubtedly be able to act out the serious tone necessary for the Loathly Lady's 'Nobility' argument. Putting herself in the role of The Loathly Lady also serves The Wife's purpose of championing the cause of women, in that to subjugate a knight and prove him to be ignoble would be a greater achievement than the real life subjugation of her first three elderly, feeble, husbands, and it is achieved by a more acceptable means than her childish deceitful attack on Jankin. In this way, and in the final transformation of The Loathly Lady into a beautiful young woman, the tale can be seen as a wish-fulfilment on the part of The Wife.
Thus The Wife's tale is more than appropriate to the prologue; it is essential that we know the character of The Wife through her prologue before we can fully make sense of the tale.
Bibliography
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. Ed. James Winny. Cambridge University Press. 1965.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Ed. James Winny. Cambridge University Press. 1965.
Ian Mackean runs English Literature Resources & Essays, (where his site on Short Story Writing can also be found), and Books Made Into Movies.com. He is editor of 'The Essentials of Literature in English post-1914'. He is also a keen amateur photographer and has made a site of his photography at Photo-zen.com photography
Class Act: Top 10 Tips For Using A Motivational Speaker To Inspire Youth
Now, more than ever, they need the courage, ethics and critical thinking skills to solve complex problems. Adults the world over are counting on them.
The reality, however, is that many of today's youth, from the tween to the twenty-something, are disillusioned and disenfranchised. Today's adults are leaving them with a legacy of war, environmental degradation and poverty, where a person's worth is too often judged by the size of their bank account.
How can adults help them rise to the challenge?
Many teachers, administrators and community leaders are turning to motivational speakers as a way of reaching and inspiring youth. Rich Libner, president of MCP Speakers, has worked with school boards, college administrators and youth leadership to bring messages of hope to young people. They need to feel they can make a difference, says Libner, and motivational speakers have proven time and again that the actions of one person matter. It's the kind of learning that goes way beyond the classroom.
Many teachers, administrators and community leaders are turning to motivational speakers as a way of reaching and inspiring youth. Rich Libner, president of MCP Speakers, has worked with school boards, college administrators and youth leadership to bring messages of hope to young people. They need to feel they can make a difference, says Libner, and motivational speakers have proven time and again that the actions of one person matter. It's the kind of learning that goes way beyond the classroom.
Inspire the youth in your life with our top 10 tips for using a school or youth-oriented motivational speaker.
1. Pinpoint what is holding your group back
2. Identify the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead
3. Seek expert advice
4. Remember that timing is everything
5. Choose a speaker who can connect with youth
6. Involve youth in planning the event
7. Get the most fame you can afford
8. Think of what personal experiences will have the most impact on your group
9. Inspire the adults so they can pass it on
10. Tie the speaker's lessons to ongoing projects and activities
1) Pinpoint what is holding your group back
Maybe it's poverty. Broken families. Lack of positive role models. Hopelessness. Fear of the future. Poor self-esteem. The more specific you can be about the needs of the youth you are trying to reach, the more successful you will be at finding a speaker who can make a difference in their lives.
2) Identify the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead
While it is important to recognize the power of the past, a good motivational speaker should provide the inspiration and tools for youth to succeed in the future. Think about the unique challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for your group and pass this valuable context on to your speaker.
3) Seek expert advice
You wouldn't expect to put together an event menu without the advice of a caterer or mike a conference room without the assistance of a sound technician. So don't hesitate to contact a speakers bureau when looking for a motivational speaker for your school or youth group, advises Libner. A speakers bureau will help take the uncertainty and guesswork out of speaker selection. The relationship is really a partnership, Libner notes, with both parties sharing the same goal: a standing ovation. A speakers bureau will also offer event planning support, including help with travel arrangements, audio-visual requirements and back-up planning in case a speaker must cancel. The host organization doesn't pay anything for the speakers bureau's services, since payment comes from the speaker.
4) Remember that timing is everything
Choose the right moment for a school or youth motivational speaker. Endings and beginnings are both excellent opportunities to employ a speaker--think graduation or during the first week of high school or university. At these important moments, young people may be more receptive to a motivational speaker's message, either because they are concerned about the future or open to possibilities. Motivational speakers can also be used to help celebrate successes--for example at an athletic banquet or an event to congratulate honour roll students--or as a way to motivate achievement prior to exams.
5) Choose a speaker who can connect with youth
Some motivational speakers use their young age to connect with the audience, but don't feel your motivational speaker must be a peer to be effective. It is more important that the speaker, regardless of her age, creates a believable bond with the students and quickly inspires trust. Humour and personal anecdotes are important ways to connect with youth, but beware of speakers who use controversy, obscenities or devaluing of adults as a cheap way of building rapport with the crowd. A skillful motivational speaker will orient the presentation to different learning styles so everyone stays engaged.
6) Involve youth in planning the event
Nothing gets buy-in faster than having the power to shape the outcome, so make sure that youth have the opportunity to contribute their ideas to the event. Not only will they feel valued but the final product will better respond to their needs.
7) Get the most fame you can afford
Young people are immersed in a celebrity-conscious culture so use this to your advantage. Know your budget and secure the most well-known talent you can.
8) Think of what personal experiences will have the most impact on your group
Motivational speakers typically share their personal journey as a way of teaching and inspiring others. Andrew Brash, for example, is a mountain climber who abandoned his own climb to rescue someone who was left for dead by another expedition. Matt Hill, actor, athlete and co-founder of Run for the Planet, speaks to audiences about fulfilling dreams against the odds and the power of a role model. Will an elite athlete who grew up in poverty, a cancer survivor, a mountain climber or a Paralympian be the most compelling speaker for your youth?
9) Inspire the adults so they can pass it on
It can be difficult to get all the middle schoolers or all the freshmen in your city together in one room to benefit from a motivational speaker. In-service the adults who spend time with the youth and you can multiply the benefits a thousand-fold. Motivational speakers can present to teachers, parents, professors and service agencies. They can even present to student leaders as a way of helping the leaders inspire and motivate their peers. Hosting a small in-service rather than a keynote event means those in attendance will feel more like participants than audience members. Increased interaction with the speaker through a workshop or discussion format can extend learning.
10) Tie the speaker's lessons to ongoing projects and activities
Revisit the principles, strategies and messages from the motivational speaker's talk during the rest of the year. This will deepen the learning and allow students the opportunity to try out techniques.
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