Neil Brake….  When I remember him, it’s with a smile — flashing back to his kind face and gentle presence.  The first time I met him was a photo shoot for Vanderbilt Law School.  It was around 2000.  We were doing a site redesign and badly needed some decent photos.  Neil came through with not just decent photos, but great ones: a dramatic shot from top-to-bottom of an obscure stairwell, a student curled up on a sofa, a pile of law books in the courtyard, and so on.

Fast forward to 2006 — doing a redesign for Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.  Guess what I needed and guess who came through again.  Of course, these too were beautiful.  You can see a small sampling here.  But what’s even more important to me, Neil was so gracious about sharing them.

I emailed him, concerned that for many photos I couldn’t find a way to include his name.  He wrote back – no problem.  “Thanks,” he said. “I will leave it up to you. You do what you need to do with the images.”

Like many, I was both shocked and deeply saddened to learn of his death and, like many, I will miss him, his generous soul and his beautiful art.

For more information about Neil, see:

Vanderbilt View

MyVU information on a12/3 service

So many people my age and older (over 50, that is) are intimidated by the web. With a hang-dog look, they’ll say such things as, “I don’t understand computers.” This seems to be particularly true of women.

I wish I could take them and breathe web confidence into the core of their beings. Almost all of these people adore books. And just as you don’t have to master book authoring and publishing to be a literary aficionado, neither do you have to be a brash young programmer or a web diva to enjoy the web.

Chances are if you are reading this, it’s not a big issue for you. But chances are even better that you know plenty of the people I’m talking about.

What’s the answer? I think it’s simple — play — wherever they want, as long as it’s the web. You’re never to old to play and it’s never too late to love the web.

Sixteen years ago today (on a not-so-Super Tuesday, 1992) the weather here in Nashville was abysmal. It was a cold downpour. As I exited the polling station, to my amazement there was a neighbor standing under a big umbrella, campaigning for Clinton (Bill, that is). I chatted with him for a minute — bowled over by his commitment. He was a good neighbor, whose opinion I respected. I hadn’t voted for Clinton that primary, but this made a big impression on me. The next time I voted it was for Clinton — and I was thinking of my neighbor.

Today as I exited the polling station, there was one lone person standing outside. This time it was a good friend from church, campaigning for Clinton (Hillary, that is). She wondered out loud why no one else was there. Was it because the polls are showing Tennessee will go for Clinton? I don’t know, but I do know her commitment, like my neighbor’s 16 years ago, made an impression on me. I expect if Clinton wins the primary, I’ll vote for her — and be thinking of my friend.