Gyroscoping

The Salon du Chocolat is featured on Eric Tenin’s Paris Daily Photo blog today. It's everything a chocolate lover could want; a fashion show featuring chocolate designer clothing, Choco Demos (chefs demonstrating outstanding recipes), "tasty" exhibits, the history and culture of chocolate, beauty and health items from cacao and cocoa butter, an art and poetry exhibit to portray the love and passion of gourmet chocolate-eaters, and a job fair for those wanting careers in the "chocolate professions." There’s even a wall of chocolate graffiti. How cool would it be to attend this! And take photos!

And on the subject of photos: The National Gallery of Art is showing "The Art of the American Snapshot," an exhibit made up of over 200 snapshots taken by people like you and me. Can’t hop a jet to D.C.? The NGA also has virtual exhibitions you can view by using Quicktime. One of my favorites is the work of Alexander Calder, who made lyrical, dancing mobiles and sculpture. Some of them bring melodic riffs to mind. I also see that the Museum of Modern Art currently has a Calder exhibit on display.

For those who have a "shoe fetish," the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has an extraordinary exhibit of shoes—women’s and men’s, from ancient times to the present day. (Look under current exhibits, "Walk This Way" and the photos from the exhibit.) You think we wore high platform shoes in the 1970s? Check out the Venetian chopines they were wearing in the early 1800s.

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Chocolate is nature’s way of making up for Mondays.

~Anonymous

If the shoe fits, it's too expensive.
~Adrienne Gusoff

The underlying sense of form in my work has been the system of the Universe, or part thereof. For that is a rather large model to work from.
~Alexander Calder

Fall prisms

After the rain and the sun
bursts through clouds
a patch of blue
captured within the

orange and yellow
fall prisms
of maple

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Words are the leaves of the tree of language, of which, if some fall away, a new succession takes their place.
-French proverb

Man's life is like a drop of dew on a leaf.
-Socrates

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
-Walt Whitman

Triple action at work

Eclipse:

~ To obscure; darken. A lunar eclipse is caused by the moon passing through the earth's shadow; a solar eclipse, by the moon coming between the sun and the observer.

~ To obscure or diminish in importance, fame, or reputation.

~ To surpass; outshine: an outstanding performance that eclipsed the previous record.

~ Overshadow: exceed in importance; outweigh; "This problem overshadows our lives right now."

~ The consequences of an Idaho senator’s "terrible mistakes" that are "triple action and "long-lasting", but don’t "freshen" or "neutralize" (except to provide comic relief):
http://nationalbanana.com/video/53

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It's only during an eclipse that the Man in the Moon has a place in the sun.
-Anonymous

Politicians can do more funny things naturally than I can think of to do purposely.
-Will Rogers

Music for fall

Dreamed about guitars last night and a room full of people.

Spectacular trees with so many oranges and reds. Today, their colors glowed, iridescent against the stormy sky. Like the beginning of a song…

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With what voice,
And what song would you sing, spider,
In this autumn breeze?
-Basho

Lean your body forward slightly to support the guitar against your chest, for the poetry of the music should resound in your heart.
-Andre Segovia

Where's a shovel?

Some people just keep digging themselves in deeper. And our industrious senator, Larry Craig seems to be determined to do just that. To try and exorcise his "terrible mistake," he has now filed an appeal to overrule the Minnesota judge who refused to overturn his guilty plea in the "bathroom incident." Legal experts say he’ll have "a steep hill to climb" in trying to win this appeal. Seems like the more he digs, the higher the hill becomes…

Speaking of digging, a new species of dinosaur was unearthed in Argentina, one of the largest dinosaurs ever found, at 105 feet tall. Paleontologists believe it was a vegetarian rather than a carnivore. Now, that’s intelligent digging!

And from England: In a poll of comedy fans in Britain, Oscar Wilde was voted as the country’s greatest wit; a man who knew how to give a good "dig"…

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To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity.

I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

--Oscar Wilde

Living in music

In a different frame of mind lately while recovering from being sick; been hearing music in my mind. Melodies, demanding notation, demanding to be heard in their entirety. Been at the piano the last three days, playing them out, penciling in the notes, chords, rhythms. Pulled out the tape recorder to capture what I couldn’t notate while in the flow of the songs.

Went to a music store yesterday to buy guitar strings. This store specializes in pianos; has Steinway, Kawai, Boston, Pearl River, Essex. A huge showroom filled with uprights and grands. I played nearly every piano in that showroom; checking out the feel of the keys, the tone and timbre of each one. Played bits of various songs and arrangements I’ve been doing for the past few years. Amazing to hear the room ringing with my music, especially from the grand pianos.

While in Ketchum, we went to an exhibit at the local arts center which featured maps. One piece was about 9 feet tall, built as a globe. Walk inside and you see maps covering the inner walls. If you stand directly at center and speak, something unusual and wonderful happens acoustically. As C talked with one of the staff, I went back inside the globe, stood in the center, and softly sang, just to hear the way different tones sounded, reverberated. This particular artwork was actually created as an exploration "on the relationship between cartography and war," according to the brochure. But for me, it was an exploration in sound.

And while talking with a friend today, she mentioned a book, "This is Your Brain on Music," which explores how the brain reacts when hearing music; what parts of the brain light up when listening, when composing, when performing; how it reacts to tonal dissonance and resonance, and more.

Pent-up creativity can cause illness, says C. Perhaps it’s like a flood-high river pounding against an earthen dam. Sooner or later, the river will explode through, and in the process, create a new channel.

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Without music, life would be a mistake.
~Friedrich Nietzsche

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
~Maya Angelou

i live in music

is this where you live?
i live here in music

i live on c# street

my friend lives on b-flat avenue

do you live here in music

~ Ntozake Shange

Mosaic of them all

October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.
~Nova Bair

He is outside of everything, and alien everywhere. He is an aesthetic solitary. His beautiful, light imagination is the wing that on the autumn evening just brushes the dusky window.
~Henry James

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.
~Stanley Horowitz

Vacation and celebration

Snowfall in the mountains as we arrived in Ketchum; later it cleared and the air was crisp and fresh.

Fine art, excellent food, bookstores to browse in and lose track of time. Walked the halls of the Sun Valley Lodge, eyeing all the photos of celebrities who have visited over the years. Mornings on the greenbelt alongside the Big Wood River, shaded by leaves of golden and orange.

The trip, too short. But the memories, lasting, of a wonderful anniversary celebration.

Politics and art

Well, the bet-makers were right. Even though Minnesota Judge Porter denied Larry Craig’s motion to overturn his guilty plea, Larry has "vowed" to continue serving his term in D.C. Now Larry says he will not run again in 2009. Any bets on that one?

Then, I visited the website of the Times-Picayune to see what was happening in the Crescent City. What do they have as a leading headline? That a St. Bernard Parish Councilman, Joey DiFatta, was detained by police twice for the same bathroom behavior as Larry! Only DiFatta’s preference was shopping mall bathrooms. At least DiFatta is showing a little common sense; he’s dropping his bid for State Senate, citing "health reasons".

Since we’re already in the potty tonight, here’s another news item, about an art teacher in Virginia who was fired because he made "butt paintings" during his off-work time. (He is now suing the school district). Apparently, he applies paint to his "cheeks" and other body parts, then "prints" the images on canvas to create paintings of flowers, birds, and other homey images. He was fired after a video was posted on YouTube showing him demonstrating his painting technique (he did have enough sense to wear a mask and a turban to conceal his ID). He sells the paintings through a personal website. I checked out his site and the paintings. Personally, I think they should be donated to MOBA (see the link below).

http://www.museumofbadart.org/

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Neither give cherries to pigs nor advice to a fool.
-Irish proverb

Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.
-Woody Allen

Blazing thru the news

-Seems that a chili sauce being cooked at a Thai restaurant in London was so spicy that the Fire Brigade’s Chemical Response Team was sent out. Apparently, the smell burned the throats of passers-by and they called the cops. Roads were closed off, other buildings sealed off, then the response team crashed through the door of the restaurant, only to find extra hot chilis in a deep fryer and the makings for a chili sauce. Fortunately, no one was arrested.

-And in the countryside of Northern England: A mysterious sculptor is leaving carved stone heads on people’s doorsteps during the night. Attached to the heads is a card with a riddle: "Twinkle twinkle like a star, does love blaze less from afar?" with the word "paradox" written around the points of a star. So far, there are no suspects.

-Another solar system? Another earth? Using a special telescope, astronomers have spotted a dust cloud swirling around a young star. They speculate that within the dust cloud, planets are clumping together—much like our solar system was formed eons ago.

-People in Iowa and Minnesota reported seeing a bright, flaming object zipping through the sky this afternoon. Scientists suspect it may have been a meteor.

-Speaking of flaming objects: We’re not rid of Larry Craig yet. His self-imposed deadline for resignation has passed—and he’s still in D.C. If the Minnesota judge refuses to throw out his guilty plea, will he then resign? Some bet-makers say no, that the legal wrangling he would embark upon "to clear his name" would take him right up to January 2009—the end of his term. How convenient…

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Think how many blameless lives are brightened by the blazing indiscretions of other people.
~Pope Paul VI

The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.
~Felix Adler

Language and oscillation

Understanding time and prices in a different language is a real challenge. I sit and listen repeatedly to the recorded voices stating how many Euros something is, what time el tren leaves and arrives, or the hours of el museo, and try to type in the correct numbers. The first time through the test, I failed nearly all the questions; had to try again. (When I took beginning French, I had the same problem.)

Maybe it’s because of the order of the words, or the way times and prices are thought about in Spanish (and in French) as opposed to English; nueve euros sesenta y ocho (nine euros sixty and eight, 9.68) or las diez menos cuarto (ten minus a quarter hour, 9:45). If I was in Madrid (or Paris), I’d probably miss el tren, show up at el museo at the wrong time, get snookered into paying too much for something. I’d be doing lots of hand motions, possibly writing words and drawing little pictures on paper. Providing comic relief for the locals.

But having a good time, having an adventure. Spice, exciting, something "to write home about." One I wish I’d had available when I was in college. Maybe one of these days it’ll be an adventure we can take.

Learning a different language; oscillation?

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Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas.
-Henry Louis Mencken

Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.
-Dave Barry

Educational?

Choosing a word at random from a set of Angel Cards and this is what I picked on a Sunday: Education. Of course, the word is most associated with receiving an education, as in going to school. It can also refer to someone receiving "an education" in life experience. Dealing with love, romance, heartache, heartbreak, dreams, successes, failures, what works, what doesn’t work. All that stuff of living our lives each day.

Education: The act or process of educating or being educated. The knowledge or skill obtained or developed by a learning process

educación en Español
éducation en Francais

Education can mean learning, although with the current emphasis on standardized testing in public schools, it sometimes means learning to take the test, so to improve those ever-important test scores. Not a balanced approach, IMHO.

But for me, education has mostly been a positive concept. I’ve always loved learning, and continue to do so, which is why I take online courses in French and Spanish. Or write a blog, read tech stuff, take photos, check out the news, play music. Books are vital. Art is vital, as is music.

Education, learning is vital—necessary for my sanity. Is it for yours?

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You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.
~Clay P. Bedford

Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.
~Mark Twain

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Webs and power

Some words to mull over...

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.
-William Shakespeare

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive.
-Sir Walter Scott

The bird, a nest; the spider, a web; man, friendship.
-William Blake

He is most powerful who has power over himself.
-Seneca

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.
-Alice Walker

The secret of power is the knowledge that others are more cowardly than you are.
-Ludwig Borne

Shadows and facts

Trolling the web for a few things to consider:

Why do leaves change color in the fall? Because as the days become shorter and cooler, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves, and they change to yellow and orange.

Butterflies can only fly if their body temperature is above 86 degrees. They sun themselves to warm up in cool weather until they are warm enough to fly.

Many say a cat purrs because they are contented and happy. But a cat also purrs when it is injured and in pain. It has been suggested by some scientists that purring, with its low frequency vibrations, is a "natural healing mechanism."

You can estimate the outdoor temperature by listening to how often a cricket chirps. To get a rough idea of the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37. The number you get will be an approximation of the outside temperature.

The light from a lighthouse can be seen for long distances because it is a concentrated beam of light. Fresnel lenses are used to capture the light particles and funnel them into very high intensity light.

Some scientists think the word "fact" should be banished, and that "theory", "observation" and "experimental data" should be used instead when discussing scientific phenomena. That we, perhaps, become closer to the truth as certain theories are proved false.

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There are no facts, only interpretations.
-Freidrich Nietzsche

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
-Albert Einstein

Beauty is a form of genius -- is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.
-Oscar Wilde

Gloves and other stuff

The change of seasons. Trees paint, then lose their leaves; flowers dry and turn brown. Days become shorter as shadows of winter approach. Cool in the mornings, warm in the afternoons. Possibility of frost at night.

Summer is over, and it’s that shift from freefall days to sitting in class and homework; from casual office days to the conferences, meetings, projects of Fall.

People pack up their things and move. Or lug boxes into their new digs and unpack. Some clean out attics. Some clean garages. And some their cupboards.

Seems to be a time of putting on the gloves and getting down to whatever the season brings.

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The cat with gloves catches no mice.
-Navjot Singh Sidhu

When archaeologists discover the missing arms of Venus de Milo, they will find she was wearing boxing gloves.
-John Barrymore

Gloves = las guantes

Imagination and the moon

After being away a couple of days, I’m back at the BBC Spanish course. This set is about food and meeting people. You first learn how to order food and drink, then how to use the friendly line: Quieres tomar algo? Which, since this is the BBC, means: "Fancy a drink?"

According to the cultural guide, you can dance the night away at the many discotechs (in the larger cities), then have un chocolate con churros or perhaps un café solo at dawn to start the new day.

As I looked through my photos, I see I have none of food, nor of disco dancing. So, imagination, daydreams, and a crescent moon (la luna) will have to do…

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He was my cream, and I was his coffee - and when you poured us together, it was something.

~Josephine Baker

Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another.
~Author Unknown

Starting another journey...

Hola!

Began taking basic Spanish online through the BBC language website. Tonight, I learned how to give directions to a cab driver, get my hotel room (habitación), order food and drink (un bocadillo el queso, y una Cervaza, por favor), and ask for directions to local sites (Dónde está la parque Camel’s Back?) Sounds like a breath-taking trip already…

The BBC language site is very well done; interactive, fun, features several languages, also provides extra tips and historical and cultural info. It’s well worth the "journey".

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Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Change your language and you change your thoughts.
-Karl Albrecht

Language is wine upon the lips.
-Virginia Woolf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages

Eye on the sky

A change of weather, rain, cool enough for jackets, leaves beginning to turn, golden slips fluttering from branches.

Halloween costumes, candy already out in the stores; we’ll probably see a Thanksgiving turkey before the end of September.

But for now, we’ll keep an eye on the sky…

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We'd never know how high we are,
til we are called to rise;
and then, if we are true to plan,
our statures touch the sky
-Emily Dickinson

A sky as pure as water bathed the stars and brought them out.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Hopscotch

A sample of "sidewalk art" we came across during one of our walks.

I remember playing serious hopscotch during recess on our school’s main sidewalk. It was wide and smooth; great for a big hopscotch board. Only girls. The boys didn’t want to play. They were more into leaping from the top of the slide or bashing each other while playing dodge ball.

But hopscotch was first created by men for men. Did you know hopscotch began as a military training exercise for Roman soldiers? It was supposed to help improve their agility so they could go out and conquer more land for the Caesars. Apparently, children imitated what they saw the soldiers doing and created a new game for themselves.

Hopscotch is played all over the world. According to a website by Dagonell the Juggler:
"The game is called "Marelles" in France, "Templehupfen" in Germany, "Hinkelbaan" in the Netherlands, "Ekaria Dukaria" in India, "Pico" in Vietnam and "Rayuela" in Argentina."

And the word, "hopscotch" is a combination of English and French.

Check out this site for more information and diagrams of hopscotch boards:
http://www-cs.canisius.edu/~salley/Articles/hopscotch.html

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Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules.
-Ashleigh Brilliant

You give 100 percent in the first half of the game, and if that isn't enough in the second half you give what's left.
-Yogi Berra

The score never interested me, only the game.
-Mae West

Don't it go to show ya never know...

A rich weekend with the local Hyde Park Fair and seeing Little Shop of Horrors (the musical) at the outdoor theatre. As we watched Audrey 2 grow larger and more demanding, a storm blew in. Dust, leaves, grit, but no rain. The storm in rhythm with Seymour and crew singing about getting richer, the sadistic dentist sucking gas, and Audrey 2 shouting, "Feed me!"

A weekend of smoke and fire and music; coffee, chocolate, wine. Flames and glass; stories and encounter. A little hope here, a little luck there, working for something good, something nourishing.

(And not plant food…:-)

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One day you're slinging hash

Feeling so rejected

Lightning flash, you get resurrected

Make a splash-now you rate the big

Bravissimo

And with a thunderclash-

Crash kerplunk, bam kerboom,

Zang kazunk, zam kazoom

Zowee powee holy cow he

Ordered up a rainbow to go

Wow! Pow! Look out below!

Don't it go to show ya never know?
-Howard Ashman

chimes.wav

C pointed out the shadow play of the "Victorian gable trim" on this house. I learned the "proper" name and more info on the Cumberland Woodcraft Company website. They have a feature called a "Porch Builder," where you can design your own Victorian-style porch through their site. They also have other informational tools, like "How to measure roof pitch." Everything you need for decorating your home, inside and out, the old-fashioned way.

I like this gable trim; it reminds me of musical notes or small chimes that might ring when the wind blows. Maybe if we listen hard enough on a breezy night…

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We have heard the chimes at midnight.
-William Shakespeare

Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect.

-Paul Muldoon

The command line entry looks like this. > sounder.exe chimes.wav ...
-kmeleon.sourceforge.net

The worth of a picayune

Yes, real estate sales have been down this summer. IMHO, prices became way over-inflated during the housing boom. Even though they’ve come down a little, they are still too high in some areas of town. A small bungalow in Boise is not worth $300,000+. This is not the Bay Area or Seattle.

But what do I know? We rent…

Every so often I read the New Orleans Times Picayune website to see what’s going on in the Crescent City. It occurred to me that I was hazy on what "picayune" actually means:
Picayune: Of little value or importance, trivial. Petty or mean. It also was the name of an old Spanish coin that was worth about the same as a U.S. nickel.

A Spanish-American version of the coin was used in the U.S. South during the 1800s, but they stopped minting it in 1873. Thus, the saying, "not worth a picayune," which is similar to "not worth a plug nickel."

Of course, the opposite of picayune would be words like: value, importance, worth, significance, appreciate, cherish.

Let’s take Value. It’s slippery because the value of something, like a house, is subjective to whoever is doing the appraisal—and what conditions they are operating under, such as the "marketplace." And each person values certain things differently than others; hence "one man’s trash is another’s treasure."

This brings up questions, such as: Why is gold more valuable than silver? "Designer" clothing more valuable than non-designer clothing? Why are thrift stores so popular? And "dollar stores"? Why was it that Van Gogh lived in poverty because no one would buy his paintings, but now they sell for millions of dollars?

And what would a picayune from 1803 be worth today?

$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs.
-Gloria Steinem

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values.
-Ayn Rand

Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values -- and witnesses.
-Franklin P. Jones

A card for you...

These gift cards were placed on objects along the street. They were stuck to trees, fences, and cars parked in driveways, like strategically placed bread crumbs leading to a destination of questions.

One never knows what will be found during a walk through the neighborhood.

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Wisdom at times is found in folly.
– Horace

Every exit is an entry somewhere else.
--Tom Stoppard

Yard art

The Wired Ones nestle in the bushes. Perhaps at night, they take turns rolling the dice to see who gets to roll out on the town.

Whoever lives here has created several of these beings in various sizes. The ones sitting at the curb look like large dry shrubs, at a glance. But upon closer inspection, you find they are made of twisted wire hangers (like the ones from the dry cleaners).

Many people like to do "yard art." Although some is more conspicuous than others, and can cause problems with the neighbors. For example, a man in the Midwest created a "tropical golf vacation" in his yard, complete with putting greens, gazebo, a running stream, and palm trees. Another man from a different town displays his seven vintage Rolls-Royces around his front yard, and has his back yard filled with statues of partially-clad women. Then, there’s the woman who built a giant nest in her back yard, complete with eggs, to work through her "empty nest syndrome" when her son left for college.

In these cases, city officials were called and compromises had to be made, usually in favor of the neighbors who complained.

The Wired Ones have been there for a while; this neighborhood is usually more tolerant of yard art than those that have neighborhood covenants. And we have the 6th Street Dude, who has had giant puppets, a dragon, and a flying tie machine in his front yard.

Yard art is a good thing; it brings soul, humor, and a little spice. Lord knows we have enough "beige" neighborhoods throughout America, where all the houses and yards look the same.

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If Jack Kerouac had set out to find a real bookstore in the suburbs, he would still be on the road, Phileas Fogg would still be in the air, the Ancient Mariner wouldn't have had time to tell anyone his story.
-Michael Winerip

The artist's task is to become a successful eccentric, a strange but wise duck able to venture out of solitary confinement and mingle among society.
-Eric Maisel

Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
-Cecil Beaton

Gone to the birds

Some bird names sound like songs:

Finches, blackbirds, crows, tanagers, Stellar Jays, Magpies, hummingbirds, larks, swallows, chickadees, sparrows, wrens, thrushes, waxwings, grosbeaks, starlings, nuthatches, pipits, kinglets, gnatcatchers, pelicans, herons, loons, swans, geese, pheasants, falcon.

The peregrine falcon is on the back of the new Idaho quarter. The design features a large falcon looming over a tiny Idaho, along with the State motto, Esto Perpetua (Let it be perpetual).

This could be interpreted in more than one way…

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.
-Henry David Thoreau

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is a very simple and effective one: be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.
-Elbert Hubbard

A wise falcon hides his talons.
-Proverb

Wise cats and fools

Seems that Senator Larry just can’t make up his mind whether or not to resign; even though he already said he was going to resign so he can fight to overturn the guilty plea he already made. Today, one of his PR guys said that it was "very, very likely" that Craig would resign, but that he wanted to "leave the door a little bit ajar." (Where’s a decent picture of a weasel when you need one?)

However, tonight, Rep. Mike Simpson finally publicly called on Craig to "make it clear he will leave his seat by Sept. 30th." Yay for Mike!

The cat in this photo looks like a judge, don’t you think? He probably doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Perhaps he could assist the Senate Ethics Committee or the Minnesota legal system…

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Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.
-Plato

The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.
-Mark Twain

The gift of a storm

A storm, we had a storm with rain today, badly needed rain. And more than just a few dusty drops. C and I stood out on our tiny stoop for a bit, just to listen to the rain and breathe in its wonderful aroma.

As a little kid, I was terrified by the powerful thunderstorms during summer nights in the Midwest. When a storm came, I’d bury myself in my bed, hiding under the pillow and blankets until it passed.

But later, I began watching the storms. If it were during the day, my brother and I would run out into the front yard and watch the storm roll in, the wind beating our faces, blowing our hair straight back. We’d stay out there until the rain began, then run back into the house, laughing, totally soaked. If it were night, I’d gaze out my bedroom window, counting the seconds between lightning flash and thunder rolls, fascinated how eerie and magical everything looked in the brief burst of a lightning flash. And I began to understand it as weather, instead of the end of the world.

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I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
-Louisa May Alcott

Good luck has its storms.
-George Lucas

You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured.
-Bertolt Brecht

Mushrooms and more

Mushrooms like these have suddenly popped up in various places throughout the neighborhood. Not being a mushroom expert, I don’t know what kind these are, but they probably aren’t edible.

Unlike the delicious portabella slices we had on baguettes tonight, expertly prepared by C, my favorite chef...

I recall "magic mushrooms" from years ago, when the group I used to run with occasionally went on ‘shroom hunts in the morning, then prepared spaghetti with "mushroom sauce" for dinner. This provided entertainment well into the early morning hours.

But none of us ever overdid it. Not like the kid I saw a few years later when I worked in ER. He was 13. He’d ingested enough ‘shrooms that he was no longer in our reality. He kept leaping about, trying to catch something only he could see, all while calling out numbers. "Seven, seven, thirteen, eleven, nine, three." He eventually returned to this reality as the night wore on, and was sent home with his chagrined parents. Perhaps he later became an accountant, an engineer, or a professional sports broadcaster…

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Mushrooms are commercially produced in nearly every state. Pennsylvania, however, still accounts for over 55% of total U.S. production. (National Agricultural Statistics Service)

One portabella mushroom has more potassium than a banana. White and crimini mushrooms are also good sources of potassium. Potassium helps the human body maintain normal heart rhythm, fluid balance, and muscle and nerve function. (USDA)

The Critique

He hands the story back to her. It had been a short story, now made longer by the remarks scribbled throughout the margins.

She reads through it in silence, sets it on the table when her hands begin to shake too much.

Opening is weak; where’s the hook? Whose story is it? Who is the main character? Why should I care about her? Cliché, cliché, cliché. Show me; don’t tell me about it. Be more specific; you’re too vague here. Metaphor doesn’t work. Use of symbolism here seems clunky. Writing style is too stilted throughout; let your own voice come through. Events don’t seem plausible. The ending is too predictable; I knew what was going to happen.

When she finally looks up, he is watching her. "You’ve got a good start," he says, "with a little more work—"

"There is no start. There is nothing. You’ve left me with nothing."

He gazes at her. "Oscar Wilde said, ‘Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.’ Sometimes nothing is the start."

Harmony and equilibrium...

Nature is as arousing as a lover, as caring as a mother. She shows that beauty is everywhere and in everything. She is just as beautiful at dawn, at noon and in the evening because she incarnates harmony and equilibrium, in one word, she is life.
~ Auguste Rodin

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Today’s photo on Eric Tenin’s Paris Daily Photo blog features the Rodin Museum in Paris.

It brought to mind the Maryhill Museum, which has many of Rodin’s works as part of their permanent collection, including a small statue of "The Thinker". The Maryhill Museum is in a chateau sitting on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River in Washington state. It was built by wealthy entrepreneur Samuel Hill in 1914 and named after his daughter, Mary. Through his friendship with Parisian Loie Fuller, a dancer with the Folies Bergere, he acquired original works by Rodin. He later added a group of Russian icon paintings, and personal articles belonging to Queen Marie of Romania, who visited Hill at the mansion. Just down the road from the museum is a replica of Stonehenge, which Hill built as a memorial to local soldiers killed during World War I.

The museum is not in a town or city; it sits there alone, like a crown atop the bluff. Unusual to find such a fine house in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps this coined the phrase, "What in Sam Hill is that?" :-)

http://www.parisdailyphoto.blogspot.com/

http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/

Knowing when to bloom

Well, with Larry Craig’s escapades, we have more than fires burning in Idaho. A "cloud over Idaho" indeed…

At least firefighters are making progress with some of the big burns, including the Castle Rock Fire that’s been threatening Ketchum. Because of the number of million-dollar + homes in the Ketchum area, at least one insurance company sent a private firefighting force to protect the property of their customers (and their own bottom line). So far, no person has been injured or killed, and no structures have burned. Some of those folks are serious art collectors; Gail Severn, one of the local gallery owners, has been assisting people with moving their expensive art collections out of harm’s way. Artwork by such artists as Picasso, Renoir, and Georgia O’Keeffe. One homeowner she was working with has a $10 million collection.

And today was the sad anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Although there has been some progress and rebuilding, it sounds like those hard-hit Gulf Coast areas still have a long way to go. If another hurricane was on its way, I wonder if an insurance company would send a private crew down to shore up levees to protect their clients’ homes?

In other news, scientists have discovered through new-found fossil evidence that orchids existed during the days of dinosaurs. And when the dinosaurs were killed, possibly by an asteroid hit, the orchids "bloomed" and spread all across the earth. Imagine the earth after an asteroid hit; uncontrolled fires, upheaval, destruction, chaos, dense smoke. Conditions that apparently lasted for many years. And here, in the devastation, delicate orchids bloom and grow. Like the new growth that pushes through the charred ground after a forest fire. Or new life arising after a flood.

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When the emotions are strong one should paint bamboo; in a light mood one should paint the orchid.
~ Chueh Yin

Just another evening in August

It figures. What do I see in the news but that Idaho Senator Larry Craig, was arrested at the Minneapolis airport for lewd behavior in the airport bathroom. Great.

And speaking of politicians who have trouble managing their sex lives, Bill Clinton is going to appear on Oprah to promote his new book, although this one is not about his life (he already sold that story). This book is about "philanthropy and civic action," according to the article. Noble topics. Hopefully it will promote philanthropy and civic action where it is needed most.

A guard at a nuclear facility was found asleep on the job. Homeland security…

On the bright side: There will be a total lunar eclipse tomorrow night. If I were an astronomy die-hard and didn’t have to go to work the next day, I’d stay up and watch it. Or get up at 3 a.m. However, that isn’t my style, being a night person. I’ll watch for awesome photos instead.

And C has been playing Dave Brubeck’s newest CD, "Indian Summer," which is magnificent. Go out and get it. Pour a glass of wine, sit back, listen…

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Indian Summer
These are the days when birds come back,
A very few, a bird or two,
To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies put on
The old, old sophistries of June,
-A blue and gold mistake.

Oh, fraud that cannot cheat the bee,
Almost thy plausibility
Induces my belief,

Till ranks of seeds their witness bear,
And softly through the altered air
Hurries a timid leaf!

Oh, sacrament of summer days,
Oh, last communion in the haze,
Permit a child to join,

Thy sacred emblems to partake,
Thy consecrated bread to break,
Taste thine immortal wine!
~ Emily Dickinson

Thinking about secrets

This photo could be a book cover, don’t you think? With a title of something like "A Time of Secrets", or "Dark is the Secret", or "What Remains Hidden". Perhaps you can think of more titles…

Thinking about secrets, family secrets, how many stories we are told that are different than what we remember taking place. The stories that have gaping holes with no information. Incidents that came about, yet we were warned not to tell, or to forget they ever occurred. What happens when people are driven to find out "what really happened," and if that’s ever possible. Stories that birth novels. Story within story within story.

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We dance round in a ring and suppose,
While the secret sits in the middle and knows.
-Robert Frost

No one keeps a secret so well as a child.
-Victor Hugo

Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.
-Elbert Hubbard

A woman can keep one secret - the secret of her age.
-Voltaire

A lovely mystery

Is this a lily? Is it a type of spider lily? Is it part of the amaryllidaceae family?

It sat on a deck at a botanical garden amid many other plants, very near the carnivorous plants. Is it carnivorous?

Looked through many photos of lilies and carnivorous plants, but did not find any that looked exactly like this plant.

So, for now, it’s a mystery. But a lovely one.

Perhaps it is one of the 800 species belonging to the amaryllidaceae family. They have names that could become a story: Belladonna lily, Naked Lady, Amazon lily, Snowdrop, Rain lily, Christmas Amaryllis, Spider lily, Snowflake, Hurricane flower, Narcissus, Sea Daffodil, Jacobean lily, Zephyr lily.

A painter’s blossom, a writer’s flower, a dancer’s stage…


Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
~ Matthew 6:28-29

Bird of light

Bird of paradise
Bird of light,

image bright
perching free
reminds me
how easily
one can fly

Brushstrokes

Brushstrokes of clouds across the sky
a vigorous canvas of imagination

It has cooled here in the City of Trees, at least for a bit. Windy, stormy, yet little rain. Lightning strikes ignite new fires in the forests and rangeland. Ketchum is under fire watch, with a huge blaze west of town.

Strange weather of this summer. Extreme drought and fires in the West. Too much rain, flooding in Texas. Temps in the Midwest have been over 100 degrees. A massive hurricane is churning its way to Mexico and Belize. Is it global warming? Naturally-occurring climatic change? Or a mix of both?

A scientist in New Mexico has suggested an idea to help cool the earth. Oliver Wingenter proposes to fertilize oceans so that more plankton will grow. Plankton gives off certain chemicals that creates cloud formation, thus more clouds, the more sunlight reflected back into space.

Other ideas from other scientists include launching giant mirrors into space and having fleets of jets spray out aerosols, both to try and deflect the sun’s rays.

Would they work? Would they cause problems we cannot now foresee?

Geo-engineering. Humans trying to use or modify the earth’s environment to create a better habitat, a better life. Nothing new. We’ve been damming rivers and mining for ages. Changing the land. Civil engineering.

Now, researchers are looking to the sky, as thinkers, writers, and artists have done for ages. Moving beyond what we know and can readily see, staring at this canvas with brush in hand. Modern day Michelangelos reaching for the hand of God.

Tribute

Train engines circling a full moon.
Nude naturists in the trees.
A fisherman fishing on cobblestones.
The kissing waltz.
Musical butchers.
The footbridge of steam.
A woman floating amid glass paperweights.
A links jinx.

The physicist at a blackboard searching for the mistake in the equations. He soon creates the theory of wave mechanics, which combines the physics of light and matter.

It’s all a matter of light and matter…

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The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.
~ Robert Doisneau

http://www.staleywise.com/collection/doisneau/doisneau.html

Three bowls

Three bowls,
an empty trinity
waiting

earth, fire, water
man, woman, child
too hot, too cold, just right

Nature abhors a vacuum
said Aristotle
but he was proved wrong

Nature abhors a vacuum,
says Henry David Thoreau
and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled.

Time travel

A weekend of purging old stuff, reconfiguring. The bright red eye of the bird through the lamp’s glow. Taste of iced coffee and chocolate. Writing out questions on yellow paper. Reading further of the story of Fos and Opal as the 1920s rush to a close, and people begin to notice the unseen effects of scientific wonders. Studying Doisneau’s photos of Paris, watching the sliver of a story surface with each one. Walking together, hand in hand, as the coolness of twilight gently settles over the neighborhood.

Moving back and forth in time, discovering or rediscovering. Planting seeds in the bed of an antique wagon.

Reflections on a Friday night

We spent Friday night supporting the local economy; going out for dinner, then shopping where we bought 2 new lamps to replace the ancient ones we’ve had. They are faux Tiffany lamps; fun to try after having boring traditional lamps for years. Adds color, warm glow, and good light.

This photo reminds me of Tiffany-style lampshades. Reflection of light through leaves, red berries. Ours have a tropical look; fruit and colorful birds. Reflection of humid places, where the forests are thick, lush, plants grow out-of-control. Heavy rainfall.

So, now each evening as the lamps come on, we’ll hear birdcalls, cicadas, frogs, and watch for lightning bugs to appear. Creating our little haven in the desert…

Swimming in circles?

A typical day--

Drove to work, checked the network, did paperwork, managed emails, phone messages, listened to Y as she vented about a family situation, did more paperwork, skimmed the local and national news, answered the phone and gave out helpful (I hope) information and phone numbers of various organizations to various callers, went to lunch with a friend, went to the other agency location to check that the backup I’d set up was working properly, fixed and adjusted a few problems on the server, fixed a minor problem on a staff computer, drove back to my office, searched for the file of a particular brochure because they need 330 by tomorrow morning and they hadn’t yet been printed, started printing the first 100 and realized I didn’t send it to the duplexer, cursed, corrected that mistake, cleared a paper jam, sorted through the first mistake to salvage paper, continued printing the brochures, turned on another computer so to speed the process only to find that the other computer didn’t have the right fonts loaded for the brochure and it was trying to send a fax for an unknown reason, tried to figure out why it was trying to send a fax but found no obvious reasons, continued printing the brochures and hoping I wouldn’t have to stay too long after 5 p.m., shut the other computer down, finished printing brochures, searched for a box to carry the brochures in, checked email one last time, shut down the computer and the office for the day, drove back home while some insipid Byrds clone band got their 15 minutes of fame on the radio, and arrived home to greet C, our cat, and talk about what happened during our day…

And ducks have their day, too, a list of their own: hunt for food, swim, rest on a platform, preen, search for food, preen, swim, fly across the pond to another location, hunt for food, hide from people coming down the path, fly to a safer location, rest on a platform, preen, nap…

And then evening comes. And some of us rest, some of us party, some of us work. Some of us nestle together and sleep. And as we drift off, the nocturnal ones arise, take up where we diurnal creatures left off…

What's left behind

Things left behind
when someone moves:
a cup, a shirt, broken fan,
some books, scratched CDs,
a cracked-back chair
now scattered on the lawn

Things left behind
on the moon:
abandoned spaceships, tools,
moon rovers, landing pads,
a dead TV camera,
U.S. flag
now scattered amid lunar dust

seems like wherever we tread
something is left behind...

Caught in a force unseen...

Reading a novel, "Evidence of Things Unseen." Weaves such a spell I didn’t blog last night. Caught up in the story of Fos and Opal, over-arching images of luminescence, the lyrical prose, the feel of the rich, humid air of Tennessee, life in the 1920s. Fos and Opal are of the era of my grandparents; many little details remind me of where I grew up and the feel of the rolling Missouri countryside dotted with farms and small towns.

I’ve been living in the West for over 30 years, yet there’s some part of that past that continues to reside inside me. Like the deep color of a shell you find on a familiar shore.

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Emptiness is nature’s strong attractor, she learned as Fos showed her how vacuums attract. She watched the fields of energy subtend between voltaic cells, she watched the way the stars fell through vast distances in patterns of attraction. She learned that attractive force resides in every form of matter, latent, waiting for the single spark to fire it with life.
~ from "Evidence of Things Unseen," by Marianne Wiggins

Listening to presences

Listen to presences inside poems,
Let them take you where they will.

Follow those private hints,
and never leave the premises.

~ Rumi

Diaphanous potpourri

Here it is, Friday night. Smoke has cleared out somewhat, so taking a walk was not such a "lung-burning" experience. And we could actually see the sky instead of haze.

We went out to a local Middle Eastern restaurant. There, we ate babaganoosh, gyro, dolma, Basmati rice, kabobs, and talked about the week. Scenes of Jordan on the wall, along with framed needlework pieces done by the owner’s mother. It was busy enough, but not too crowded. Good place for conversation. Afterwards, a short drive so I could show C a strange house being built near my office. The streets were fairly quiet; our walk also peaceful. It looks like a lot of folks left for the weekend.

It was a relief to hear that the number of deaths and serious injuries from the Minneapolis bridge collapse is much lower than they thought. Still, it should not have happened in the first place. (See my comments on last night’s blog entry).

I see in the news they have found the tomb of an ancient Aztec emperor. I wonder what they will discover as they continue excavation? Also, the Yankees beat the Royals. (My mother will not be pleased.)

In perusing the dictionary, I came across "diaper" and found it has other meanings than something odiferous an infant wears. A diaper is also a fabric with a distinctive pattern, often used for tablecloths; and refers to a pattern of small repeated geometric shapes.

I also found "diaphanous," as in "she floated down the staircase, wearing various diaphanous garments" (from a book I read long ago by an author from England.). It refers to sheer, delicate fabric which can be seen through. Think ballerina’s tutu. Diaphanous can also mean "vague, insubstantial." How my minds feels sometimes—gauzy. Like on a Friday night…

A time to repair

Not a good view from this part of the world today. We’re socked in with smoke from fires. The city in a haze, red air alert. Two small towns east of here had purple air alerts.

But this is nothing compared to the tragedy in Minneapolis. To have a busy interstate highway bridge just collapse like that—something is seriously wrong, far beyond the structural problems of the bridge. At both the State and Federal levels. Sometimes it seems like we’re so busy going after the next new thing (or conquest…) we forget about taking care of the old infrastructure systems already in place. Systems our daily lives depend upon.

I hope this forces budget-makers to divert more dollars into upgrading our bridges, levies, dams, and the like. Perhaps a start would be to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and use the "savings" to take care of what we need to fix at home…

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A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.
~ John F. Kennedy

Smoky inspiration

Smoky days sometimes result in sunsets like this; as if the clouds are reflecting the flames raging throughout the West. None are raging in Boise itself, but in the surrounding range and forest lands. The hottest July on record for Idaho.

Smoke carries several meanings, double entendres. Creating a smoke screen to confuse or for escape. A smoking gun. Nothing but smoke and mirrors. That Alfa Romeo really smoked the competition. "Went upstairs and had a smoke; somebody spoke and I went into a dream…"

Ah—to have a dream that isn’t just smoke, isn’t just a beautiful sunset. Still going down the road trying to make out what’s up ahead…

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One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever comes to sit by it. Passersby see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.
~ Vincent Van Gogh

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.
~ Arthur Polotnik

My land is bare of chattering folk;
the clouds are low along the ridges,
and sweet's the air with curly smoke
from all my burning bridges.
~ Dorothy Parker

Leaf glow

The glow of inspiration warms us; it is a holy rapture.
~ Ovid

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
~ Thomas Jefferson