2 comments Tuesday, July 12, 2011





0 comments Monday, July 4, 2011

Q: What are the two best things to come from England?
A: The Beatles and America



The Big Rock Candy Mountains

On a summer day in the month of May,
A burly little bum come a-hikin',
He was tavelin' down the lonesome road,
A-lookin' for his likin'
He was headed for a land that's far away,
'I'll see you all, this comin' fall
In the Big Rock Candy Mounains.'

In The Big rock Candy Mountians
You never change your socks,
And the little streams of alkyhol
Come a-tricklin' down the rocks.
Where the shacks all have to tip their hats,
And the railroad bulls are blind,

There's a lake of stew, and whiskey, too,
And you can paddle all around'em in your big canoe,
In the Big Rock Candy Mountians

Chorus
O. . . The. . . buzzin' of the bees
In the cigarette trees,
Round the sodawater fountains,
Near the Lemonade springs,
Where the whangdoodle sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
There's a land that's fair and bright,
Where the handouts grow on bushes,
And you sleep out every night.
Where the box cars are all empty
And the sun shines every day,
O I'm bound to go, where there ain't no snow,
Where the rain don't fall and the wind don't blow,
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
The jails are made of tin,
And you can bust right out again
As soon as they put you in.
The farmer's trees are full of fruit,
The barns are full of hay,
I'm goin' to stay where you sleep all day,
Where they boiled in oil the inventor of toil,
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

-Anonymous C.1885

0 comments Friday, June 24, 2011

"And God created great whales"
Genesis.

Let it been known to all principalities, kingdoms, and nations– to all men, women, and children–that I have accomplished a most horrific feat. A feat that most men either lie and say they have championed that beast, or feign interest to attempt. For you see– I have been swayed up to the top of the mast in the hempen basket. I have spotted the spout three points off the weather bow. I swear before this court that on the eighteenth of June in the year of our Lord two-thousand-eleven I did indeed finish reading Moby-Dick or The Whale.

Mr. Melville I awe.

"...Death is only a launching into the region of the strange Untried; it is but the first salutation to the possibilities of the immense Remote, the Wild, The Watery, the Unshored; therefore, to the death-longing eyes of such men, who still have left in them some interior compunctions against suicide, does the all-contributed and all-receptive ocean alluringly spread forth his whole plain of unimaginable, taking terrors, and wonderful, new-life adventures; and from the hearts of infinite Pacific, the thousand mermaids sing to them–"come hither, brokenhearted; here is another life without the guilt of intermediate death; here are the wonders supernatural, without dying for them. Come hither! bury thyself in a life which, to your now equally abhorred and abhorring, landed world, is more oblivious than death. Comber hither! put up thy gravestone, too, within the church yard, and come hither! till we marry thee!"
Hearkening to these voices, East and West, by early sunrise, and by fall of eve, the blacksmith's soul responded, Aye, I come! And so Perth went a-whaling."

-Chapter CXII. The Blacksmith

0 comments Friday, June 17, 2011

The high line in New York City has expanded. This elevated park use to be an elevated railway making deliveries to businesses along the Hudson River. No longer used, the tracks sat fallow. Then some rich people donated a lot of money and the public benefited with an amazing new place to perambulate. It's been open for over a year now... but just last week they expanded it further up the track. Here a some pictures from and of the recently opened areas.







4 comments Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Remember how I told you that I was on that new pass-a-long card? Have you ever wondered what it would look like hanging in Times Square

The Salt Lake Tribune did and they wrote a story about it. Click here for the link.

0 comments Monday, June 13, 2011

A while ago it was announced on this blog that I was working on something big. Also announced was that you all would know just how big. It's so big that I had to sneak it on to Governor's Island, located in New York Harbor, and when the park rangers were not looking... I ran it up a vacant flag pole.

Now you say... that's a big Union Jack... but just take a look at the scale when I stand next to it.
It's big right? 5ft x 10ft of United Kingdom glory. Commission for the flag came from a prop stylist for a Vogue Bambini editorial. The theme was inspired by a The Who album cover. The magazine featuring the flag will be published later this summer. When it is–you will know. Assuming that you keep current with the latest 4butler.blogspot.com posts.
This is the Union Jack. The flag of the United Kingdom. Scale of the flag is 1:2. As stated before this particular flag is 5ftX10ft. This version of the Union Jack has been the official flag of the United Kingdom since 1801. It is the amalgamation of three other flags. St. George's Cross is the white background with the red cross located in the center; St. Andrew's Cross is the blue background with the white cross from corner to corner; St. Patrick's Cross is the white background with the red cross from corner to corner. England, Scotland, and Ireland make up the Union Jack.



0 comments Thursday, June 9, 2011

1 comments Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Ask me the best thing that happened in 2010 – my answer would be this bicycle.

Made from vintage parts scoured for on ebay and other sources, my big brother constructed and sent to Brooklyn this amazing bike. Single speed, single brake, ram handle bars, with a suede seat, it is a joy to ride around NYC. Often serious bikers on the street will take a double look summing it up. The Klein frame is a road bike but has been converted into a single speed. Stripped of all inessential components it is extremely light. On the street I am more likely to pass then to be passed. Travel time from my Brooklyn residence to Central Park is around 45 minutes. Only downside to the bike is getting less value for my monthly subway pass.
Here is to fast, sleek bikes and here is to big brothers! Huzzah!

0 comments Monday, May 30, 2011

Sheep's Meadow in Central Park was the scene of a delightful afternoon picnic/gathering. Carol, Suvi, & Ben were all in attendance.

... Later on Brigham showed up.


3 comments Sunday, May 29, 2011

Did I mention that I'm on the new pass along card?


It's true. Can you tell which one is me?

0 comments Thursday, May 26, 2011

I Think I Love You With Roller Skates from Jeffrey Butler on Vimeo.

2 comments Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Tyranny!

My lifestyle is being assaulted. Over the last two years I have steadily increased the size of my reference library solely on purchases from the Strand Bookstore dollar rack. Let's review a few of the books that I have come across on those blessed racks:

The Red Air Fighter by Manfred Von Richthofen
The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman
The Pocket Encyclopedia of Spaceflight In Color, Manned Spacecraft by Kenneth Gatland
Democracy In America by Alexis De Tocqueville
The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant by U.S. Grant
John Brown's Body by Steven Vincent Benét
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Captain Ted Lawson
Gramatica Primer Grado by Dr. Vicente Tena
Hell Among The Yearlings by Edmund Randolph
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence
Commercial Correspondence by Albert G. Belding

The days of the huge book hauls are over! You see... Strand has doubled... yes I'm talking about a 100% price increase of the dollar rack for hard back books. It's now two dollars. It is ludicrous that they presume to believe that they can double the price over night and that we – the literate – will not raise up in anger and strike down the oppressive book peddler.

I digress. There will be no revolt. There will be no sticking it to the book seller. Only a decrease in my purchasing. It's okay though. As you can see. My bookshelf is full.
The radiator is stacking.
and the table is overflowing with books.
it was good while it lasted... and I rode it as long and as far as I could.

0 comments Tuesday, May 24, 2011

When on adventure it's always fun to have unplanned adventures. On the ER adventure I happened upon The Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park. The Walkway Over the Hudson bridge was planned before the start of the civil war as a railroad bridge. It was completed January 1st 1889, just six years after the completion of the greatest bridge in the world, the Brooklyn Bridge. The Hudson bridge was used by the railroad until 1974. It underwent renovations and was opened in 2009 as a pedestrian and cyclist bridge.

I rode my bike over it and back. It is so high that it spans over the town of Poughkeepsie. Here is looking north over the Hudson River.
This is looking south down the Hudson River.
This is the train station in Poughkeepsie. You can see the bridge in the back ground.
The train ride up and down Metro North was really beautiful. It ran along the Hudson river the whole way. From the train I saw West Point. It looks like a giant castle on a cliff over looking the Hudson. I also saw a castle on a island in the middle of the river. Did you know that there is a castle in the middle of the river. Weird right? Its called Bannerman's Castle. Click here for more info.On top of the bridge.
Here is a link to more info about the bridge.

0 comments Monday, May 23, 2011

Great minds discuss ideas.
Average minds discuss events.
Small minds discuss people.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

I'd been planning a trip to visit Eleanor Roosevelt house for months. May 14th was the planned date. It was easy to get everyone together to go because... well... I was the only one that went. I have a knack for getting myself where I need to be. Where I needed to be on May 14th was on a train going north along the Hudson River. The train left from Grand Central Station at 9:54AM. I rode by bicycle from my Brooklyn residence to Grand Central. I arrived with two minutes to spare. The train ride north was just under one hour and forty minutes. During that time I read The Right Stuff by Thomas Wolfe. Turns out... Chuck Yeager is a man's man.

Upon arrival at Poughkeepsie I mounted my bicycle and started peddling the remainder distance of 5 miles to my destination of Hyde Park Ny where the Eleanor Roosevelt home is located. Before reaching the site I had to take care of something vital to the success of the trip....
find two chilli and cheese hot dogs to purchase and consume.
On the road I found this hotdog truck. A seemingly nice old lady is the proprietor. Turns out that she is a hustling old lady. I told her I'd like a ('a' when used as unit of measure means one of such unit) chilli-n-cheese hotdog. She served me up two. I thought to myself, "well played old lady... I'm not going to complain just buy what I didn't order and never do business here again." She already knew this. She also knew that I'm not from these parts and wouldn't be a return costumer anyway.
The reason that I wanted to eat hot dogs is because of the historical significance of this porch. This is Top Cabin where FDR would go to get away from everything and everyone. It's located a mile behind Eleanor's house. This is the porch that FDR served King George VI of England and his wife (the parents of the current Queen of England) their first hot dogs they had ever had.
It was a lovely hike up to Top Cottage through the woods of upstate.
This is Eleanor's house. It is built inside the defunct furniture factory Val-Kill. The house is situated next to a stream and large pond. It is really beautiful with birds and trees all around. Eleanor had the most wonderful sleeping porch. You can see it on the left of the picture below. It over looks the wetlands that surrounds her house. This house was the get away house for Eleanor's family. There was a pool, tennis court, and bbq. FDR's main house was really his helicopter mother's house and so they had to follow her rules while there. But this house they could remove their leg braces.
It was so lovely to be out in the forest and breathe the fresh air and take in some historical sites. It was a grand day trip.

0 comments Sunday, May 22, 2011


I've been working on something big. In time all of you will know exactly how big.

1 comments Friday, May 20, 2011

In one of my dollar book runs to Strand Book Store I purchased The Faber Book Of America. It is a collection of essays about America. A few weeks ago I read an essay by Frank Lloyd Wright about Louis Sullivan. Sullivan was one of the pioneering architects of sky scrapers. In the essay Wright mentions The Getty Tomb which Sullivan designed.

He said, "The Getty Tomb in Graceland Cemetery was entirely his own; fine sculpture. A statue. A great poem addressed to human sensibilities as such. Outside the realm of music what finer requiem."

This interested me, so I did further research on Wikipedia (click here). Researching the tomb even inspired me and I sketched out some designs.

I had forgotten about the tomb. While in Chicago Brigham said that he wanted to visit Graceland Cemetery. It sparked my memory and I hoped that "this was the cemetery that that one tomb was in". It was a race against time as the ground keeper told us that he was locking the gate in 40 minutes. I rushed all over that place trying to find it. Finally in a back corner I saw it. I recognized it as soon as I spotted it. This tomb is a registered Chicago Landmark.




Louis Sullivan is laid to rest in the cemetery. I didn't know that and I didn't see his tomb, but others in our cemetery party had come across his grave.
Brigham found the spookiest tomb he could and documented it.

P.S.– Frank Lloyd Wright lived and worked in Brig's parents neighborhood. The 'hood' is packed with original Frank Lloyd Wright homes around every corner.

0 comments Thursday, May 19, 2011

The first morning in Chicago we were ravenous with hunger and needed nourishment. However, we were in a strange and foreign land with a food all it's own. Although there is a menu, it might as well be written in Greek. Brigham instructed us in the locals way to order food. My order sounded like this, "combo, hot, juicy.... fries"

This is what it translates too:
Combo=Italian Sausage topped with beef.
Hot=Hot Peppers
Juicy=Some sort of juice splashed on the finished product
Fries=Fries
This thing was so hot I hallucinated for a bit. This was a great opening culinary event in a trip full of culinary delights. Long Live The Chicago Way of Food!





0 comments Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Rumor had it there was a Darth Vader House in Brigham's neighborhood. We set out to investigate...

The thing that you need to know about my friends and I is this... We love the Star Wars. Like many of our age group and gender we are attached to Star Wars as kids from the 20's and 30's are stuck on Babe Ruth.

Our love for Star was is so great that for birthday gifts Collin painted Brig and I Star Wars character portraits to adorn our homes with!
Brigham got Jabba holding a heart shaped pillow.
I got Admiral Ackbar.


Here is the artist with the highly honored and happy recipients.
Oh we did find that Vader house. As reported... it looked like Vader.
Jeff R. leaned over to Collin and said,"Collin... I am your father."

And Collin said,"Nooooooooo...... that's impossible!!!!"

0 comments Tuesday, May 17, 2011

There are two Chicago spectacles that have been on my "must see list" for some time.

1. Go to Wrigley Field and see a Cubs game.
2. Go to the Museum of Science and Industry for the U505 exhibit.

I have accomplished one of these and it did not disappoint.

The Cubs were out of town when I was in Chicago for Brigham's birthday bash, but the Uboat was in port. Because.... well.... it's 5 stories underground in the museum's basement and it isn't going anywhere.

This is what you need to know. The Uboat, U505, is one of the coolest things I have ever seen with my eyeballs and one of the greatest things I have walked through with my feet. The U.S. Navy Captured U505 off the coast of Africa on the 4th of June 1944. On board the Navy found a mighty bounty of intelligence in the form of code books and an enigma machine. Also the Navy captured torpedoes. Which was a treat because the Allies up to that point did not know the technology that enabled German torpedoes to track their targets.

I could go on and on with stories about U505, but I will tell you only one. Then let you get to the good stuff... the pictures. The Navy had possession of U505 for about ten years before it was donated to the Museum. In that time parts and pieces of the boat were taken as souvenirs. When the museum prepared the boat for exhibit they contacted the original manufactures to see the possibility of having replacement parts made. The manufactures realized that the boat would be on display, wanting to show the excellence of German engineering, they agreed to make replacement parts and they did it for free.




Here Brigham is preparing for the exhibit by reading up on the headlines of the early 1940's.



Here is a code book that is edged with lead. This way, instead of getting into the hands of the enemy, the book would sink to the ocean floor. I am currently converting all my note books to do likewise.
Here is Brigham putting his knowledge that he learned earlier by demonstrating what it would be like to be a cook on U505.
This is the rudder of U505. It's wood covered in sheet metal. This reduced the weight, making it easy to swivel back and forth.
Here is a weather beaten US flag. This is a WWII flag which means 6 rows of 8 stars. Do the math and what do you get?... 48. Stars for Hawaii and Alaska where not added until 1959 when they were made states.


You do not want to be where this torpedo is going.
Brigham finds out what made these torpedoes so great.

The boat sat outside of the Museum from 1954-2004. It was then moved and placed in it's new exhibit as it sits today. As you might have guessed. It takes a lot to move a Uboat.


for further reading of this trip click here