[Andrew Chamblin Memorial Website]

Jo Ashbourn's area

A LIFE IN SEARCH OF MEANING
[HAC smiling]

  "The Great Chamblin"

One of Andrew's favourite authors was Kurt Vonnegut, who had a similar philosophy:

"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, (1922-2007)

Some of Andrew's favourite things

This is one of Andrew's favourite road signs from many with similar surreal messages scattered in and around his hometown of Amarillo in the Panhandle of Texas. This photo was taken at sunset on the old Route 66 outside Amarillo. Whenever Andrew was back in Amarillo, he used to go for long runs carrying a camera and take photos of any of these signs which he liked.

The message on this sign (see right) sums up the idea of Andrew's memory and legacy continuing onwards into the future.

Here are eleven more of Andrew's favourite road signs .

   [signage: ROAD DOES NOT END]

Song in Andrew's Memory - Hey Andy

This song was written for Andrew by Johnny, who's married to Andrew's cousin, Kim, and who lives in Amarillo, where Andrew grew up. It was penned the day after Andrew passed away and has now been recorded into this mp3 file with the lyrics included below.

Click here to hear Hey Andy (MP3 format)

Hey Andy
7th February, 2006

Hey Andy, I heard you went away
I didn't get to say - some things I wanted to.
Hey Andy, I think you left too soon
You could'a owned the moon - but now we've gotta give it away.
I don't think we'll ever find another you
No matter where we look.
I wish we could change the way your story ends
But you're the one that wrote the book.

Hey Andy, I heard them cry for you
And after they were through - they tried to act like it was OK.
But now, the tears have all run dry - we're left with hollow eyes
And promises that life goes on.
I don't think we understood the pain you felt
We never lived inside you.
Bigger men than me will say they knew you well.
But they weren't there
The day you took your first step,
The time you said your first word.
The second you opened your eyes we all knew you were light years ahead,
You were light years ahead...

Hey Andy, I guess this is goodbye
To all the tears you cried - and all the fear that tied you down.
But tell me, how's the view from there?
Is Isaac in his chair? Did Albert ever find his way home?
I don't think we'll ever see another you
No matter where we look.
I wish we could change the way your story ends
But you're the one that wrote the book.

Hey Andy....

Hey Andy....

Hey Andy....

Hey Andy....

A selection of Andrew's lectures

Here are some of Andrew's lectures given at KITP Santa Barbara, Caltech, MIT, and Los Alamos.

Note: audio for each talk requires sound hardware, and RealPlayer or RealAudio by RealNetworks .

Search For A Realistic M-Theory Cosmology (1999) Brane-World Black Holes (2001) Holographic Weyl Entropy Bounds (2003)

Andrew's physics problem for the next millennium