Update Winter '08-'09

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Here is the big update on where I've been and what I've been doing for the past few years.

Winter ‘08-‘09 I’m living part-time in Aspen. This is possibly the most unlikely turn of events that I can possibly think of happening at this point in my life. But it might be okay.

I know, everyone says that the natives always return but I never agreed. I left Aspen in 1986 and never really looked back.  Fifteen years were spent in Basalt as that rough and tumble community changed. I raised a family, ran a business, renovated an old Victorian, and planted extravagant gardens. Basalt was the Wild West when we moved there, and when we left it was sleek and gentrified.  That kind of made me happy but I didn’t want to live there anymore.

Downtown City Park, Bellevue WA

We moved to Bellevue, Washington in 2002 (ironically the most gentrified place on Earth) and then Seattle. My son Tamas Bates, a Waldorf graduate, blossomed in that techie environment. He finished High School and his AA degree concurrently, and then was accepted as a Distinguished Scholar to the University of Washington; Computer Science program in Bellingham. Last summer he had an internship sponsored by the Google Summer of Code on the open source WorldForge 3D interactive game engine. He’ll graduate from college in 2009. Go Tamas!

During that time I went back to school In Redmond, WA and earned a degree in 3D digital modeling and animation from the Digipen Institute of Technology, with my main interest in 3D World building and lighting for interactive video games. The Pacific Northwest has very few areas of concentrated employment and competition for jobs is fierce. While in school I took what I could get and spent two years as a bicycle mechanic at one of the area’s better shops (Gregg’s Cycles Bellevue) I have to shamelessly admit to enjoying that job more than you would think, and the mountain biking in the Eastside hills and forests was sublime. Unfortunately I sustained a serious back injury in an accident at work which ended my mountain biking and wrenching days for quite some time. Just prior to that I had built  a 21-lb Santa Cruz Ultralight, full XTR.  I was never able to ride it. Waaah! 

With effort I broke into the video game industry in Seattle and worked as a lead artist and Lead Technical Artist for a couple of years on many different game platforms. The work was gratifying from an artistic, intellectual and egotistical standpoint, but I didn’t fit into the under-30 all-male industry culture, and it was 15 hours a day in front of a computer screen in a dark room with no windows. I found the companies predatory, and after a lifetime as an entrepreneur I was frankly disturbed by the corporate environment; there is no love there. Plus the immersion into the 3D digital environment was so complete that sometimes when I left the building after work I didn’t know what season it was in the real world.

Still, I liked Seattle. I took up fencing, and gave up my car and exclusively bicycle commuted on my road bike. I lived in many different neighborhoods.  The parks and music were unmatched. As someone from the arid mountains I felt endlessly entranced by the ready access to waterfront everywhere. 

In 2005 my long-time partner Steve Solomon and I split. We had been together 24 years and while I think we were both ready for that period to end, the reality of such a profound lifestyle change was bluntly traumatic. I made it about nine months before completely disintegrating.

Facing a breakdown I put my things into storage, sold my Santa Cruz dream bike and moved to Maui in 2006 for a six month work-exchange program in the jungle on the North Shore. I just needed to be kept busy while I tended to healing my soul. Maui is a strange, heavy place. I had unexpected and wonderful experiences there. The best thing that happened was exposure to 5 Rhythms Dance at The Haiku Studio.

When I went back to Seattle I found 5 Rhythms there every night of the week. I frequented a dance jam group who called themselves the Flying Turtle Dancers, and I began Tango and Aikido and did a little Orienteering. I had a studio in the Greenlake area and painted some portraits and rode my bike around Lake Washington and the City. I bounced back and forth between Seattle and Maui for two years.

Meanwhile my parents in Aspen were aging; my mother had turned 80 and my dad was approaching 90. I started looking in on them twice annually and would come to catch up Jim's silverwork orders.

Aspen had a lot of ghosts and challenging memories for me and I found it very difficult at first to spend any time there. I kept it simple for a couple of years: go there, work a lot, leave. 

But the nomadic lifestyle was wearing on me.  Why do any of us stop anywhere? For Love. Essentially I am in Aspen to support my parents and run the family business. This past year Jim stopped working completely and is in very frail health. I believe in love and that  this is where I should be at this time.

While I'm here... I've forgotten how beautiful Aspen is in the summers, and somehow I’ve missed a lot of hiking and biking in this area while I was growing up. Now I’m enjoying exploring the surrounding mountains and valleys. Last summer I borrowed a mountain bike and started to ride again for the first time in 5 years following my back injury; anywhere, by myself. At the end of the summer I bought a heavy used bike which is now lurking in the corner of my apartment and I’m spinning three mornings a week to be ready for the next season. It’s all I can really think about. I’m wanting to ride. 

I ordered some lighter bike parts for the evil MTB, next I need to go to Seattle and collect my tools and also get my road bike.

It’s nice to be back silver & gold smithing and I enjoy the contact with the community which that brings me. It’s also satisfying to be doing something daily which I’m very skilled at; I don’t always take that route. My efforts helped to build this business' momentum during the ‘80s and ‘90s and I want to see it continue; it’s part of this community’s heritage,  part of my family’s heritage, and important to me personally.

This fall I added a couple of websites :
For the Aspen Leaf Belt Buckles:  www.hayessilver.com
and for Mary's photographs: www.mehphotography.com
Mary Hayes' website will be the first time her catalog of historical photos has been available to the public. I hope to add more content in the spring.

I'm not sure what I think about being back in Aspen. After a 22-year absence I know a few people but we’re no longer friends. In Aspen the social dynamics have changed. I’ve changed. I’m not sure where I fit in. The incredible traffic on Highway 82 has made it impossible for me to consider  re-connecting with the Mid-valley community. I have a very weird situation of being familiar and a stranger to this place all at once. I feel isolated. I know it will  take time; to get out and do the things I love doing and look for other people doing the same. 

I'm learning to skate-ski, and will see how much I enjoy downhill skiing after a 29-year hiatus; so far it's a lot of fun. The mountains are beautiful, but there aren't many people in my age group here, and it's obvious  the community is fairly dysfunctional in a number of disturbing ways. It doesn't seem realistic for me to fall in love with this place for the long-term.

But I'll enjoy what I can in the meantime.
Want to Bike? Dance? Hike? Ski? Call me.
206-393-2689

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Updated 01/15/09