Camp Brosius, 2024 (Part 2)

[As we began in Part 1, Celia and grandson Tom on a Sunfish at Camp Brosius in Elkhart Lake (photo credit to nephew Chris) . . . ]

This was the year of the Paris Olympics. They made my camp stay comfortable. If not for Ruthie, I likely would have stayed home this year. I’d had carotid surgery a month earlier and lost my voice (projected to come back by February). Of course that made communication a tad difficult. I also felt like I had a low grade flu which made it difficult to breathe outside in the warm, humid air of summer. The TV room was in one of the few air conditioned areas in camp. I spent a lot of time in there watching the Olympics . . . ~ Me

July 29

Everybody denies I am a genius – but nobody ever called me one! ~ Orson Welles (for further explanation, Orson Welles was a Wisconsin native)

[Dining at the lake . . . ]

July 30

They teach anything in universities today. You can major in mud pies. ~ Orson Welles

[Ruth’s Camp Brosius universal bag crafted by past camper and frequent cruising mate Kathleen Gross (RIP) (Ruthie photo) . . . ]

July 31

I have a great love and respect for religion, great love and respect for atheism. What I hate is agnosticism, people who do not choose. ~ Orson Welles

[Let the camp games begin – grandson Tom flipping a cornhole bag (Ruthie photo) . . . ]

My mother and father were both much more remarkable than any story of mine can make them. They seem to me just mythically wonderful. ~ Orson Welles

[Ruthie photo . . . ]

At twenty-one, so many things appear solid, permanent, untenable. ~ Orson Welles

[Ruthie photo . . . ]

The two things you cannot do effectively on stage are pray and copulate. ~ Orson Welles

[Ruthie photo . . . ]

My kind of director is an actor-director who writes. ~ Orson Welles

[Yo, it was camp tie dye day (Ruthie photo) . . . ]

I am essentially a hack, a commercial person. If I had a hobby, I would immediately make money on it or abandon it. ~ Orson Welles

[Celia as Tom’s cornhole partner (Ruthie photo) . . . ]

Living in the lap of luxury isn’t bad except that you never know when luxury is going to stand up. ~ Orson Welles

[It’s airborne (Ruthie photo) . . . ]

Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations. ~ Orson Welles

[Ruthie photo . . . ]

I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time. ~ Orson Welles

[A camp staple since the Jurassic Era is euchre. There is an annual camp tournament and some games are just for fun – here Shane and Charley took on Tom and Celia. For the record, Ruthie and Rita are historically famous in camp as the Dreaded Callecod Sisters . . . ]

I don’t say we all ought to misbehave, but we ought to look as if we could. ~ Orson Welles

I started at the top and worked my way down. ~ Orson Welles

[And in this corner, the Dreaded Callecod Sisters were taking on Chris and Ed (who with Elke, the 5th person in the photo, are Chris’s parents . . . ]

I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard and am sitting in the back of the theatre, you expect me to tell you the truth about something. These are the cheap seats, not Mount Sinai. ~ Orson Welles

[The camp Sunfish in full display . . . ]

The notion of directing a film is the invention of critics – the whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room. ~ Orson Welles

[And next to the Sunfish, the Hobie Cats . . . ]

[Deniece (Beth) and Denephew (Chris) enjoying, as we all do, the camp waterfront . . . ]

Only very intelligent people don’t wish they were in politics, and I’m dumb enough to want to be in there. ~ Orson Welles

[The pontificating of the ancients, Rita and the DOM (from Fort Wayne, a camp attendee for over 40 years). In the foreground, the DOM’s youngest granddaughter Mabel . . . ]

Race hate isn’t human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature. ~ Orson Welles

Movie directing is a perfect refuge for the mediocre. ~ Orson Welles

[The camp pier with the Elkhart Lake water tower on the far side of the lake . . . ]

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason. ~ Orson Welles

[Where the great issues of our time come to conclusion . . . ]

When television came along, I’d already done more than 10 years of radio work and I thought everyone would want me. I sat around waiting for the phone to ring – and it didn’t. ~ Orson Welles

[Meanwhile, back with Beth and Chris . . . ]

It used to be that we disagreed over the basic facts we were fighting over, and we had different opinions about them. Now I think we accept different sources of authority. … And people can establish credibility on their own say-so as long as nobody follows the trail and calls them out on it. ~ Rachel Maddow

[The DOM completed Rachel Maddow’s Prequel at camp and referred it to me. I too was able to finish the book at camp, though this was my continuing expression throughout . . . ]

People who disagree on important issues don’t agree on the facts. ~ Rachel Maddow

I’m a national security liberal, which I tell people because it’s meant to sound absurd. ~ Rachel Maddow

Ecstasy is not really part of the scene we can do on celluloid. ~ Orson Welles

[Ruthie capturing the true essence of the pontificating ancients . . . ]

I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don’t think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money. ~ Orson Welles

If I ever own a restaurant, I will never allow the waiters to ask if the diners like their dishes. Particularly when they’re talking. ~ Orson Welles

[Last night we witnessed the result of the worst economy in history. Here in the wilds of Eastern Wisconsin, with the largest population in Elkhart Lake (population under 1,000), we stopped at two restaurants for dinner (Schwarz’s of St. Anna (unincorporated) and Three Guys and a Grill (Sheboygan Marsh State Wildlife Area) where the only thing to be seen in all directions were farm fields, but the wait for tables at each place was an hour and and half. So we went into downtown Elkhart Lake where the Lake Street Cafe opened up a new room just for us . . . ]

I’m not a walking extra in a Chekhov play; I’m no Slavic gloom or Irish gloom. ~ Orson Welles

[Three Guys and a Grill . . . ]

I worry a lot about taking care of my dependents, all those perfectly ordinary middle-class preoccupations. ~ Orson Welles

[Lake Street Cafe . . . ]

I have no great message to the world. ~ Orson Welles

[The view across the street to a village landmark . . . ]

I’m a provincial. I live very much like a hermit: reading, listening to music, working in the cutting room, writing, commercial work – which doesn’t take up that much time. ~ Orson Welles

[I have no idea what was on the ceiling?]

The laws and the stage, both are a form of exhibitionism. ~ Orson Welles

[7/13ths of the entire team . . . ]

If everyone worked with wide-angle lenses, I’d shoot all my films in 75mm, because I believe very strongly in the possibilities of the 75mm. ~ Orson Welles

August 1

I’ve spent most of my mature life trying to prove that I’m not irresponsible. ~ Orson Welles

[Leaving our cabin early in the morning, I find the bunnies find people to be neverminds . . . ]

If I don’t like somebody’s looks, I don’t like them. ~ Orson Welles

August 2

Look at the real prodigies, and I look like nothing compared to them. ~ Orson Welles

[Every year I try to catch a daybreak photo of the sails . . . ]

I feel I have to protect myself against things. So I’m pretty careful to lose most of them. ~ Orson Welles

[Chris’s sister Emily visits with Beth, a/k/a, her sister-law, on the penultimate day at camp which tends to be quite busy . . . ]

Everything bad that has ever happened to me has been caused by agents or lawyers. ~ Orson Bean

[Congregating around the beverage and ice cream stand . . . ]

There were centuries when civilization had no theater. ~ Orson Welles

[The DOM and Ruthie caffeinating in the mess hall . . . ]

I was spoiled in a very strange way as a child, because everybody told me, from the moment I was able to hear, that I was absolutely marvelous, and I never heard a discouraging word for years, you see. I didn’t know what was ahead of me. ~ Orson Welles

[Tom and Celia won the two-person Sunfish race . . . ]

The only reason for doing a play is to make a statement about it, and by that I don’t mean a conceit of the producer. ~ Orson Welles

[WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!]

Hollywood is the only industry, even taking in soup companies, which does not have laboratories for the purpose of experimentation. ~ Orson Welles

[Vicki (the DOM’s supervisor), Rita, and the DOM outside the Sputh Roundhouse lakeside . . . ]

I’ve always found it very sanitary to be broke. ~ Orson Welles

As a producer, sitting on the other side of the desk, I have never once had an agent go out on a limb for his client and fight for him. I’ve never heard one say, ‘No, just a minute! This is the actor you should use.’ They will always say, ‘You don’t like him? I’ve got somebody else.’ They’re totally spineless. ~ Orson Welles

[Tom, Celia, Ruthie, and Rita prepare for a Hobie Cat ride . . . ]

One shouldn’t ever be conscious of the author as lecturer. When social or moral points are too heavily stressed, I always get uncomfortable. ~ Orson Welles

[This has many opportunities for excitement . . . ]

I know people who have a much better recollection of their childhood than I do. They remember very well when they were a year and a half and two years old. I’ve only one or two daguerreotypes that come to mind. ~ Orson Welles

I’m never certain of a performance – my own or the other actors’ – or the script or anything… But to me it seems there’s only one place in the world the camera can be, and the decision usually comes immediately. ~ Orson Welles

Each multiplex has screens allocated to each studio. The screens need filling. Studios have to create product to fill their screen, and the amount of good product is limited. ~ Orson Welles

Anybody who speaks quietly and shrivels up in company is unbelievably arrogant. ~ Orson Welles

I don’t like television when it gets near to photographed plays. ~ Orson Welles

[It’s sailing until you hit the doldrums – give me a big comfortable pontoon every time . . . ]

Film is like a colony and there are very few colonists. ~ Orson Welles

[The end is nigh, staff photos begin . . . ]

When I was ten, I won the horseshoe-throwing contest at summer camp. I was also the Wiffle ball champion in my town. ~ Dwayne Johnson

Criminals are never very amusing. It’s because they’re failures. Those who make real money aren’t counted as criminals. This is a class distinction, not an ethical problem. ~ Orson Welles

Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that’s printed about him. ~ Orson Welles

I broke my wrist at summer camp playing a game called ‘volleybat,’ which was baseball but with a volleyball. It is as dangerous as it sounds. ~ Josh Gondelman

Now I’m an old Christmas tree, the roots of which have died. They just come along and while the little needles fall off me replace them with medallions. ~ Orson Welles

Good artists copy, great artists steal. ~ Pablo Picasso

[The last night party on the patio . . . ]

The best artists know what to leave out. ~ Charles de Lint

[Chris, Emily, and Beth at the par-tay . . . ]

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. ~ John Steinbeck

[The dancing was made much easier when they replaced the old flagstone patio with pavers in the last year or so . . . ]

We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. ~ Langston Hughes

When artists make art, they shouldn’t question whether it is permissible to do one thing or another. ~ Sol LeWitt

[The camp celebrities . . . ]

Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons. ~ Al Hirschfield

[The last campfire and awards ceremony . . . ]

The fire is the main comfort of camp, whether in Summer or Winter. ~ Henry David Thoreau

All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike. ~ Maya Angelou

[Awards given to the Dom’s and Vicki’s granddaughters . . . ]

We have to support our local artists. It’s just that simple. Otherwise, we will have no art. ~ Al Jourgensen

[Ruthie, the DOM and Vicki, and Tom and Celia are in the picture . . . ]

Archimedes was my ideal. I admired the works of artists, but to my mind, they were only shadows and semblances. The inventor, I thought, gives to the world creations which are palpable, which live and work. ~ Nikola Tesla

[Tom takes a final stroll around the campfire . . . ]

Artists live in unknown spaces and give themselves over to following something unknown. ~ Kiki Smith

[It must be a photo from Ruthie because she caught me in the upper left hand corner . . . ]

August 3

The affirmative action of generational wealth. ~ Michelle Obama

[Lining up to go home . . . ]

Artists can color the sky red because they know it’s blue. Those of us who aren’t artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we’re stupid. ~ Jules Feiffer

I like kids’ work more than work by real artists any day. ~ Jean-Michel Basquiat

[And goodbye to the relatives from England . . . ]

Artists are losing the choice to use film. People have a love for it – the grain, how it feels, the texture. – Keanu Reeves

[If you leave camp by the back door, you will visit a big property in constant change . . . ]

Dance is certainly a sport, and they are phenomenal athletes, and they’re also artists. ~ Neve Campbell

[The gardens keep growing . . . ]

The best advice I’ve received is to be yourself. The best artists do that. ~ Frank Gehry

I love watching live shows from different artists from different stages of their lives. I’m always interested in the mastery of the live performance. ~ Stjepan Hauser

Bob Marley was one of my favourite artists. He sang politically conscious lyrics, yet he sang love songs, too. ~ Gregory Isaacs

[It’s a 7 1/2 road trip home. The St. Cloud sign popped up way too early – until I realized we were still in Wisconsin . . . ]

People don’t remember each tree in a park but all of us benefit from the trees. And in a way, artists are like trees in a park. ~ Yoko Ono

[Goodbye from the kids (photo credit again to Chris) . . . ]

History shows us that in times of people feeling like they are in need of some sort of rebellion or protests, the artists rise because the poetry we create about pain and its relationship to culture in the world begins to soothe and heal people who are feeling confused or afraid. ~ Lady Gaga

Things like ‘mad as a hatter’ or ‘grinning like a Cheshire cat’, are so powerful that music and songs incorporate the imagery. Writers, artists, illustrators, a lot of them have incorporated that. ~ Tim Burton

Without music, life would be a mistake. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Up Next: Whatever will be will be . . .