I Drove 26 miles south to Lee Lee’s Asian Grocery in Chandler to pick up 20 lbs of brown rice, a lot of fresh mint, green tea, Pak Choy, and a couple of boxes of Nag Champa incense. The next stop was the Guadalupe Farmers Market for some Mexican squash, tomatoes, strawberry’s, red onions, garlic, zucchini, and a dozen whole wheat tortillas. Off to DeFalco’s Italian Deli for lasagna noodles, tomato sauce and paste, balsamic vinegar, and some spinach tagliatelle. Back across the valley to Whole Foods where I picked up ricotta, fresh mozzarella, and a block of Asiago Mezzano Monti Trentini dry cheese to be used on our pasta dishes. Down the street to Henry’s, and I pack up some bulk products, 6-grain hot cereal, walnuts, flaxseed, quinoa, couscous, and rolled oats; closer to home is Food City for some apples, bananas, pears, jalapenos, and cilantro.
My Father Dies
This is my father, John Wise Sr., on September 23, 2000, after having his left leg amputated; the right had been taken off somewhere before 1995. Before they’d take his leg, they needed to bring his blood sugar down, which, from what I understood, was estimated to be somewhere in the 600’s. For a minute, he was a calm and focused man, relieved even that the pain of a rotting leg might disappear. But of course, the nerve damage brought on by raging diabetes was going to play its role in tormenting him for unrelenting belligerence my father knew how to own. For the next couple of years, he’d be in and out of hospitals. Dad is 56 years old in this photo. He was born on March 16, 1944, in Buffalo, New York.
Fast forward to June 2002 and my father is a shadow of the man I knew him as. He’s now 58, which will also be the end of his birthdays. By this time, he’d slipped into a diabetic coma and nearly died, but as he didn’t have a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order, he was kept alive. When he came to he’d lost a good chunk of his memory and lost the ability to understand what came after the number 5, both value or conceptually. When he learned of our visit, he felt he needed to clean up and had his wife Diana give him a haircut, and he shaved so he could look nice for us. In his last year of life, he’d finally mellowed and stopped with the anger and fatalism; he was actually kind of sweet. No matter his mood or pain, he was mostly happy to see us, though he always complained that it was never enough.
Today, February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry after 16 days in space, with all those aboard losing their lives. My father, age 58, also gave up his life today.
Alienzoo
Back in the summer of 1999, I kicked off a new company called Alienzoo with the help of Rick Buonincontri as co-founder. Rick is in the back row on the right. In the heady days of internet mayhem where everyone was on their way to being millionaires, we jumped on the hot topic of aliens intending to be a portal to all other-worldly phenomena.
This is Jim Dilettose, who was our resident UFO expert. At this time, Jim was featured in all media, from Art Bell to the Discovery Channel, who were all tapping him for his knowledge and connections in the world of the aliens.
Late nights and heavy partying created not only a dynamic, creative culture but also a highly volatile one. We were supposed to make money and make it fast, but our portal to outer space needed to be fleshed out and then built out; only time wasn’t allowing that as we needed cash flow NOW.
Grant Wiggins, on the left, was our primary creative writer and reporter at large. Caroline Wise in the middle was our chief programmer and Mike Devarennes was our artist responsible for the look and feel of the company.
It was Mike D. who created this incredible poster that 21 years later would still be hanging framed on my wall.
I was the first to leave the company, as the fact of the matter was that Rick raised the capital from friends and family and he needed to protect their investment. It was around this time in mid-August that I think I left while Caroline stuck around a few more months trying to help them smooth out some rough edges while they continued their best to monetize the company. The friction Rick and I encountered would estrange us for more than 15 years before we were able to once again say hello and sympathize with one another about the tumultuous time.
Dion Terry Digital Art
In late 1999, I asked Dion Terry, whom I’d met when we were about to open the Congo Internet Cafe back in 1995, to explore some digital art. We were busy with Alienzoo and Dion, like so many artists, was in need of paying gigs. I wanted digital stuff as I felt that the results with software distinguished things so they’d resonate with the exploding phenomenon called the Internet. This work, titled Peace Pipe, still stands out as one of my all-time favorite images created by Dion.
I was in love with Dion’s use of color as he was learning how to paint with Photoshop; sadly, he didn’t love the medium as much.
This was a sketch that never progressed further than this, as far as I know.
UFOs and Aliens
We just recently started a new company called Alienzoo. Its original name was supposed to be Alienzone, but somebody snagged it before I could, so we compromised. This new web entity was supposed to function as an all-things alien portal with an ultimate focus on an artificial intelligence-driven alien lifeform simulator that would one day migrate into a virtual reality world. Needless to say, we were far too ahead of what technology was able to deliver.
Along the way, we managed to attract some interesting talent, sponsor some raves, publish some books from Jim Marrs, and get featured on the popular radio program from Art Bell.
Memorial Day Weekend
Writing this in 2021 without a shred of notes nor dates of exactly when this was, the best we can figure is that this was during Memorial Day Weekend. This would have been our second trip to the Page, Arizona area, with our first one being with Ruby and Axel the year before.
On one of the days staying up here, we revisited the Glen Canyon Dam to get on a raft for a 15-mile float down the Colorado River.
Out on the river for the kind of Colorado River adventure we can afford.
Another part of this trip was a return to Antelope Canyon.
Finally, we got out on Lake Powell to go to Rainbow Bridge.
To the left in the background is Navajo Mountain, and directly behind us is the famous Rainbow Bridge. By the way, it was difficult to calculate where this trip fell on the calendar as neither Caroline nor I could figure out if we did these things solo the first time or did we went with Ruby and Axel. Pre-digital cameras, our film didn’t come with date stamps, nor did we always make notes regarding spontaneous travel. The giveaway was Caroline’s length of hair. When we moved to America had long hair just until after Ruby and Axel’s wedding. Initially, her hair was chin-length, and that was reflected in other scanned photos with us in some of these same locations. Here, with very short hair, we realized this had to be after that other trip.