34

I can't say why, exactly, but 34 strikes me as a rather attractive number. Looks good on paper. Not particularly significant in any mathematical sense, but it seems like a nice balanced figure, with its sequential digits and that low-middleness it has about it. I'll have to ask my synesthetic friend Laddle how 34 "translates" color-wise... probably a nice mix of dark blue and green, maybe on a dark red background. Solid, strong colors. Good number.

So, to put the last year of my low 30s into historical context, a look at what some of my heroes and influences were up to at age 34:

• Already a celebrated humorist known for his lectures on life on the Mississippi and his adventures out West, and following the widespread popularity of his first published essay, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Mark Twain published his first book, Innocents Abroad, at age 34.
  
  
• Wyatt Earp turned 34 the day after his brother Morgan was murdered in Tombstone in retaliation for his role in the OK Corral gunfight; Wyatt spent his birthday assembling a band of allies to help him escort his brother's body to the Tucson train depot, where he would kick off his bloodbath of revenge by brutally murdering Frank Stilwell.
  
  
• At 34, Edward Hopper had set aside his painting career for work as a commercial illustrator. He wouldn't achieve any measure of success with his brush until his 40s, when he turned out one of his first recognized masterpieces, House by the Railroad (which served as Hitchcock's inspiration for the Bates mansion in Psycho).
  
  
• Suffering from alcoholism, depression, and a failing marriage, Buster Keaton had just completed his final masterpiece, The Cameraman, and was working on what would be his last silent picture, Spite Marriage, when he turned 34 in October, 1929 — his loss of creative control over his films since his move to MGM meant his decade of unparalleled cinematic brilliance was effectively over.
  
  
• Alfred Hitchcock had just completed Waltzes from Vienna when he turned 34, and was starting work on his first production of The Man Who Knew Too Much, which (along with The 39 Steps the following year) would propel him into preeminence as the director of taut British thrillers. He was still six years away from Hollywood.
  
  
• At age 34, John Steinbeck had just published his first successful novel, Tortilla Flat. He had also started attending Marxist political meetings in San Francisco with his wife, Carol Henning, and was working on his next novel, In Dubious Battle, which reflected his strong socialist leanings at the time.
  
  
• Before he left Hollywood to pilot bombers in World War II, Jimmy Stewart had already secured a permanent spot on the A-list with films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Shop Around the Corner, and The Philadelphia Story (for which he won his first and only Academy Award). When he turned 34 in May, 1942, he was already training bomber crews for the Air Force. By the war's end, he would fly 20 combat missions over Europe and receive the Croix de Guerre, Air Medal, and Distinguished Flying Cross. His postwar film roles became much darker, starting with the despondent George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life.
  
  
• Already an established star with four Best Actor Oscar nominations, Gregory Peck was filming one of my personal favorites, The Gunfighter, at age 34 (this is the film Bob Dylan refers to repeatedly in the song "Brownsville Girl"). And his best roles — in Roman Holiday, Moby Dick, Cape Fear, and To Kill a Mockingbird — were still ahead of him.
  
  
• Edward Abbey was 34 when he did his first turn as a fire lookout on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and started work on his third novel, Fire on the Mountain. At the same time, his second novel, The Brave Cowboy, was being filmed as Lonely are the Brave starring Kirk Douglas. Abbey was still six years away from his first foray into nonfiction, Desert Solitaire.
  
  
• After a handful of B-movies and a successful turn on TV's "Rawhide," Clint Eastwood hit pay dirt at age 34 when he left Hollywood to accept the lead role in, of all things, an Italian western entitled A Fistful of Dollars.
  
  
• In throes of a painful separation and divorce from his wife Sara, Bob Dylan channeled his angst into his songwriting, the result of which was the sublimely melancholy album Blood on the Tracks, released just before his 34th birthday (and his strongest work since Blonde on Blonde a decade earlier). He also started work on his first protest song since the early 60s, a tribute to imprisoned boxer Rubin Carter entitled "Hurricane" — the song that first drew me to Dylan.
  
  
• Tom Waits was 34 when he recorded Rain Dogs — arguably his best album of the 1980s, and my personal favorite.
  
  
• David Byrne was 34 when the Talking Heads hit the zenith of their (mainstream) popularity with the release of True Stories in 1986.