HOME PAGE FOR FRANK CUTA


Welcome, this is the web page of Frank Cuta. However, it is of course more than that. if you were searching for something other than my short bio such as information on Judy Mace Cuta or some other cuta or something related to blindness or folk music or other things that are a part of my life you may find something of interest to you in the links below.


Topic Index
Welcome HSHS class of 67 a short audio clip
Frank Cuta in 5 Paragraphs
Being Blind and Being prepared
The CD Sampler Project
Victory Music review of Front Row Seat CD Sampler
Are You Looking for Some Other Member of the Cuta Family?
Poem: The Birth of the ADA


Frank Cuta - in 5 Paragraphs




I was born and raised in Helena, Montana. In 1951 Dad built us a house on the west side of town high on the side of Mount Helena. Immediately above our yard was a wide expanse of steep prairie hillside then thick pine forest and far above that a sheer vertical cliff. There is no mountain here in south central Washington that comes anywhere close to the perfection of Mount Helena and not a single day goes by that my nostrils don't yearn for her heady sweet perfume.

I spent most of my childhood exploring, camping, chasing wildlife through the fields and timber and making mischief in the caves of this dream playground. In 1966 when I was a junior at Helena Senior High a friend, Bob Nash, and I attempted to play the ultimate prank with a bomb that we planted up on the side of Mount Helena timed to go off at midnight new years eve. Bob paid for this prank with his life and I with my eye sight. Or at least so I thought at the time. Although I suspect that death will always be a mystery to us mortals I no now for certain that blindness is not in itself a tragedy. The worst thing about being blind is that many people think of blindness as just having their eyes disconnected. They do not believe or even want to believe in a healthy adjustment process. I have lived a fairly normal productive life and have devoted much of the past 40 years of it to working with other friends that are blind to pass laws to strengthen state rehabilitation services and to increase job opportunities for persons who are blind or losing their vision. But the tougher battle that we wage is against the entrenched negative attitudes that persist in the minds of the general public. Although I feel fine about being blind every day I struggle to convince the people around me that I can function independently and not only help myself but also help sighted "normal" people as well.

For 2 years after I graduated from MSU I struggled to find employment and was finally hired by Battelle Research Labs here in Richland. In my present position I assist other staff members to solve their computer problems. Over the years I have contributed to hundreds of projects from lung cancer research to the design of the space station, and from robotic bomb disposal to improved household hot water conservation but always made time to assist other staff with their computer problems. Ten years ago my project work pretty much dried up and I jumped at the chance to switch to full time customer support.

Judith Mace and I were married in Bozeman in 1973. Over the years we have participated together in running, fencing a great books group, back packing, the local wine tasting organization, science fiction conventions in the northwest, the democratic party and our local folk music organization. Lately Judy devotes her personal time mostly to quilting, writing and her horses and I continue my work with the American Council of the Blind and the 3 Rivers Folklife Society. What do we still do together? We read! You Know, those real book things loaded with lots of pages covered with funny little squiggles!

What is in my head? Well not a whole lot. I wish that there was a whole lot less. I listen to the words of Murti and Eckert and I feel that they are right about the unimportance of thought. At least the mind chatter that constantly goes on in your head justifying yourself, comparing yourself with others, judging yourself and others and blaming everybody else for anything and everything that happens in your life. I would like to stop doing these things. I have a ways to go. I believe in freedom and that the only true freedom that you have is to choose what your attitude will be at any specific moment. It is your outlook on life that carries you or fails to cary you forward. As the Buddha said on his deathbed, "make yourself a light in the world." Lastly, I believe in detachment. Nine tenths of the trouble in this world comes from a lack of detachment. The roots of violence are in the belief that what is right for me is right for you. Up until about 15 years ago these ideas were all just words to me. But then I came to a point in my life where they made perfect sense This is a sweet thing and I hope that each of you have also identified personal truths in your life that assist you to stay grounded.

If you are interested in looking at yourself and in becoming a more effective person I recommend the seminars offered by Wings. See:

http://www.wings-seminars.com

You can reach me via email at:
Frank at cuta dot net
(You need to rewrite it, Deliberately written strange to throw off web crawlers)



The CD Sampler Project





January 2007

Well it has finally happened -- I have produced a music CD!
For the last 15 years I have been the principle sound man for our local folk life organization, the 3 rivers folklife society. We produce acoustic music concerts at the Kennewick grange hall and at a Richland coffeehouse venue. The performers come to us with only their fiddles, banjo's guitars etc and they depend on me to bring, set up and operate the necessary microphones amplifiers and speakers to make it possible for them can sing and play. I love doing this work for them and as a kind of perk they usually do not object to me making a professional quality recording of their performance directly off of my system.

For many years I dreamed of compiling some of my favorite recordings of this kind and producing a cD. Ffinally I put a couple hundred hours into a first attempt about 5 years ago. However, I gave up in frustration when I realized that such a project involves more than just technical engineering -- there ar a lot of administrative issues such as obtaining rights and permissions from the artists , producing the CD liner and booklet and working out the stamping and assembly details with the factory.

This summer the project rose from its ashes when the organization decided that they wanted to produce a retrospective compiliation as a fund raiser. I gladly took on the task of selecting the individual performances and editing them all together into a cohesive professional product. There is certainly value in stumbling a little the first time down the path since I learned a lot from my earlier efforts. This being an organizational project other members assisted me by taking on all of the supportive jobs that did not involve working directly with the music and electronics. Also the organization paid the substantial initial factory pressing costs.

For about 5 weeks in september and august I thought of little else as I put in my 40 hours a week at Battelle and then another 60 hours a week doing the editing and production for this project. Call it a labor of love if you will I am not sure what exactly happened to me for those weeks. It it is hard to describe the pleasure of working so intensely so passively on a project that totally grabs you and reinforces your interest as you make measureable progress each day.

The result is a double CD with 31 performances on it that span a period of 13 years. We got it it out on schedule and under budget I am giving away a few to friends but of course we actually hope to eventually break even with the project and -- dream on -- actually make a few bucks for the organization.

Details on this recording are available at

http://3rfs.org


Victory Music review of Front Row Seat CD


(coming soon)




Are You Looking for Some Other Member of the Cuta Family



Contact me with your email address if you want to be put in touch with Sallie Cuta, Jim Cuta, Mike Cuta, Linda Cuta, Rachael Cuta, Josh Cuta or Justin Cuta
You can email me at:
Frank at cuta dot net
(You need to rewrite it, Deliberately written strange to throw off web crawlers)



Poem: The Birth of the ADA


by Frank Cuta


I wrote this ten years ago at the tenth anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is designed to be read by a black woman who would drive through it with determination, strong and powerful--chewing through each line word by word. The tone starts out slightly angrey and winds up jubalent at the conclusion. I never did corral Maya Angelou but with the proper setting on your screen reader and a little imagination you can probably get the general idea. Please do not read it with your screen reader speed turned up--it really ruins the effect completely.
In Jaws you can temporarily turn down your speech rate by holding down control+alt and hitting the page up key a few times.

Frank

Access denied rights stripped ripped off out raged dreams shattered righteous wrath.
Shackled cast aside special treatment smothered bitter pill lynch mob math.
No ramps no trial no rights no Braille no doubt no clout legal rape.
hell fire burned bad endured forever fuse ignited now fire inside virgint state.
Rallied round ground swell byte it off out in front fears ironed out must not fail.
Not diverted not divided not denied determined directed pressure will prevaile.
1990 pulled it off glorious new world give us wings everybody wins sweet victory.
Reveared prize red rockets ablaze blue bunting awesome all american alabaster ADA.






Additional Personal Information