Category Archives: art and music

Living in the moment…

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…this weekend encompassed every human emotion possible…

I’ll start with the good stuff…

Fortunately for me, my son is a Bob Dylan fan….so he treated his Mom to the concert here at Parkview Field Friday night.  It was wonderful!!!

It was one of those perfect summer nights that wasn’t muggy, wasn’t too cool nor too hot–perfect.

Dylan took the stage at 8:00 and played until 10:00 p.m. , dressed in white pants and blue jacket.  My son and I were sitting in the stands–I told him he should go down to the area in front of the stage and he said I should go down.  Okay, I’m not usually an outgoing person–I am the wallflower of all wallflowers (I know that sounds really funny reading this blog)….but I couldn’t resist and went down to the ballfield area–I am soooo glad that I did–the positive, warm energy there was amazing. (minus the drunk couple that started to get into it, but thankfully stopped before it got too out of hand.)

I was about twenty feet from the stage–close enough to see Bob smile.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photograph of him smiling–he seemed to be really enjoying playing as much as we did listening–magical. 🙂

The band was super–really together.  Bob played a baby grand piano, which was a thrill–I don’t care how much technology tries to imitate the authentic instrument–I can still tell when it’s not the real thing because there’s no soul to it.  And I loved that he also incorporated a cello in the ensemble–really added to the sound. (Bob didn’t play it–a band member (Tony?) played it.)

My son and I were debating whether Bob would play “Blowin in the Wind”.–he jokingly said he was going to request it if Bob took requests…

On that fateful day of the Big Storm here, I was at the main library, waiting on those hidden books in the storage unit to come up, and happened to see a book written about Bob Dylan.  I was flipping through it, and came upon a paragraph where Bob had an audience with the Pope and the Pope requested “Blowin in the Wind”….and Bob refused to play it for him.  Bwahahahaha.  Cracks me up still…

….so, I wasn’t getting my hopes up that it was going to be on the setlist…

…I had gone back to where my son was seated after they stopped playing the set.  I was hoping for an encore, but I was concerned about losing my son when the crowds started to leave, so I headed back to the seats.

…so you can imagine what happened…

Bob came back on stage and started playing a Rag Time tune…my son recognized it before I did–he was playing “Blowin in the Wind”, but in Rag Time.

Thank You, Bob Dylan, for coming here–please come again.  This concert made my whole summer year.

(I never knew there were so many cool people in Fort Wayne….where have they been hiding?)

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On to the rest of the weekend–

With my Dad unable to return to his place, it needs to be cleaned out, so I went over to help out.  A tough job. Emotions are running high and feelings have been hurt.  I guess that’s part of the process.

Then yesterday–

A resident came to my door with another lady I didn’t know, who was concerned about one of the residents.  She was a friend of hers and hadn’t been able to get in touch with her for a couple of days.  This resident was always up and about, so I was concerned.  I have access to the radio to contact the maintenance folks, so I called them to see if they could pop over for a wellness check.  Normally, the housing folks charge for non-emergency calls on the weeknights and weekends, so the maintenance guy said he’ d have to clear it with his supervisor.  (Yes, money is that tight, folks).  However, while we waited to hear back, the lady’s friend said that her car was in the parking lot and they normally talked every day, and she hasn’t answered her phone for two days.  I went back to the radio to tell the maintenance guy the new information, hoping that he would come over.

After awhile, the EMS showed up, but we were unaware that it was for this lady.  I followed them, wanting to ask them to check on this lady, but there was no need–they were headed for her apartment.  The maintenance guy showed up shortly afterward, to let them in.  When they didn’t come right back out, I knew that she was, indeed, in the apartment, but had not responded to us banging on the door.  Not a good sign.

Then the EMS came out and asked if she normally responded and spoke in complete sentences.  Also not a good sign.  When they brought her out, she was in the fetal position with her knees drawn up to her chest, and her head falling to her chest, as if she couldn’t lift it up at all.  And she was as pale as a ghost.

I haven’t heard any more on her status.  Adding to it is another resident that she was close to died just over a month ago, and I’ve heard that the police and EMS were interrogating her like she had caused her friend’s death…upsetting her even more.  They seemed to have lost the focus of their profession….

Repatriation of Shoshone Remains

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Well, after the last post, this is certainly brighter…

I cannot imagine how it would feel to have my family members’ remains on display for…entertainment?  …macabre curiosity?

Glad to see they are going home.

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From this article is a link to NCLB actually diminishing Native American children’s education.

It would be a freaking miracle for  a child to have truly been educated under the No Child Left a Mind Act…a miserable law that destroyed a well-rounded public education.  The law orders measurement of what can’t be measured.  It does not value art and music in education, even though it’s been shown that math skills are improved with music comprehension and art sparks creativity.

A link here.

Without creativity, one cannot think outside the box and innovate—the capacity to come up with creative solutions to problems is diminished.  Lastly, the school day is so controlled and so rigid that the teachers are constricted in their own personal teaching styles.

Terry Kath

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…gone but not forgotten.  Not by a long shot. 🙂

What a strong spirit he had, and how artfully he conveyed that through his soulful guitar playing and his voice…

His daughter is trying to raise money for a documentary on his life.  Website here.

There’s a great video of Terry in 1970 (?) playing the hell out of guitar on Make Me Smile. It’s not on the official Chicago youtube now, unfortunately.

 

Newborns in Need

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I was re-reading some of my old “Sew News” magazines from back in the day…

In one was an article on a super group of sewing enthusiasts who made quilts for needy babies.  The group’s name is Newborns in Need, started by a lady by the name of Green (sorry, forgot to bring the mag with me to the library and can’t remember her first name) whom had read of stillborns who were being buried in paper bags.  The group of ladies she was with thought it was some spoof or sensational story like those found in the tabloids.  Green pursued the story, however, and tracked down the reporter.  Indeed, the story was true.

She decided she would sew burial outfits for these babies, for which the mothers were grateful.

Somewhere along the line, however, she decided she’d rather sew quilts for the live babies….the “Newborns in Need” was created.  She said that she didn’t know exactly how many quilts she and her circle of sewers made, but it was around 150 quilts per month.  Her children also helped when they were pressed to get quilts to the babies.  The article said her teenage sons would sew through the night trying to meet the need.

This article, like the magazine, was old–1997, so I wondered if the work was continuing.  Green said that she had made a nonprofit corporation when she started it, but soon it became about power and money and the focus of the organization was being lost.  She dissolved the corporation.  So…I was wondering if it was still going…

It is. And I found that a hospital here in Fort Wayne is part of the network.

When I was really ill from the mercury, I lost the ability to sew.  I used to sew my kids’ clothes and wanted to try quilting.  I had seen these beautiful watercolor quilts in sewing books and wanted to try it.  However, it coincided with the increase in mercury and my brain just could not wrap itself around the complexities of shades of color, patterns, and coordinating all of it.    Heck, I couldn’t even sew a straight line.  Seriously.  My eyes were dimmed and I couldn’t focus on the line on the sewing machine to keep the material straight.  Frustrating as hell, especially when I had previously sewn so many outfits.  I didn’t understand or know about the mercury at the time.

As I have gotten better, the skill is coming back, but it is like re-learning it all over again.  I don’t think non-sewers know or appreciate how difficult sewing is…you have to be able to cut straight (couldn’t do  that when I was sick–eye/hand coordination wasn’t there), sew straight, and be able to envision what the directions are telling you and what the garment is supposed to look like when you’re done.  Otherwise, it’s endless frustration with messing up over and over again.

So…I have a lot of fabric.  The old joke is “she who dies with the most fabric wins”.  Only a sewer in love with fabric and creativity would get that joke…:)

I think I’m going to try the quilting thing again…but I’m going to have to pace myself.  I was detoxing yesterday (I’m doing epsom salt baths every other day as recommended by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, to detox, and boy is it working.)–and this seems to affect my eye-hand coordination because I was once again messing up pretty badly.  I finally gave up after so many mistakes.  I tried again this morning, and viola!

But, along with the music ability, it comes in spurts and long periods of no progress…I’m nervously trying to push myself a little to go out on a limb to make this quilt.  I’m afraid if I get started, and then for whatever reason don’t feel up to it, that I’ll let people down. But I would like to sew these quilts for the babies in need.  Sounds like a neat group.

We shall see…

 

Philosophy of Life

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Cary Grant and Sophia Loren starred in a movie called “Houseboat”.

The script heavily played on Sophia’ figure and was a little uncomfortable in parts with how much it played on her.

There was plenty of sexist comments in the movie which didn’t sit well with me, but there were some moments that showed Sophia had a brain–she invented things to help around the house.  One was a paint sprayer attached to a long pole so that the trim on the houseboat they occupied could be painted.

In the midst of the sexist stuff was this gem:

Grant and his “son” Paul Peterson, were at odds with one another because Grant was always down on him.  (Grant was separated from his wife when she died in a car accident and the children hadn’t seen him on a regular basis, so their relationships were strained.)

Loren had implored Grant to lay off the kid and try to talk to him.  Peterson’s character is fishing off the side of the boat.  And Grant comes to him.  During the conversation, Grant tries to explain death to him.  He had a pitcher of water and tells his son to make it “disappear” (like death).  Peterson pours it into the river.  Grant says it’s not really gone, but is now part of the river.  Then Peterson pours it onto the boat.  Grant waits a moment, and the Peterson says “Oh, I get it.  It evaporates and then becomes part of the clouds, and then becomes rain.”    Then Grant says “Everything’s constantly changing.  Our souls leave our bodies and we go back into God’s Universe for the security of being a part of all life, all nature.  So for all we know, that life is very beautiful…”

Wow. In the midst of this non-serious movie was this great moment of depth.

 

Around the Fort

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(SORT OF A PERSONAL BLOG–LOCAL STUFF)

It was announced today that Bob Dylan is coming to Fort Wayne on August 21st–he’ll be playing at the downtown baseball stadium.  Sounds like a nice time.

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FW has festivals coming out the wazoo–

Right now, there’s Ribfest going on, and in about a month, there’s the biggest –the Three Rivers Festival.  In September, the Johnny Appleseed Festival, celebrating the folk hero who planted apple orchards.  It’s kind of an “old settlers” festival.  I haven’t been to any of the festivals, so I can’t really comment on them from an experience perspective.

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In the local news, I see the link “Batman needs a home”…intrigued, I clicked on it:http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20120615/BLOGS22/120619763/0/FRONTPAGE

Haha…not what I was expecting. 🙂

He’s a little cutie, eh?  He looks almost exactly like a kitty my son brought home one day.

The story goes like this:  My son used to go jogging in the area we used to live in, and he said this kitten followed him home one day.  The oldest story in the world, folks, and I fell for it….:)  The truth came out later–he said that the kitten meowed at him, and he was afraid it was going to get hit, so he picked it up and brought it home.  Not that I minded.  The other cat we had, Sammy, did mind, however. She had an issue with sharing. Haha.

Anyway, we took Zeus in and he was apparently much older than we thought–he wasn’t taken care of and it was apparent that someone had dumped him (we lived in the country).  He was such a character–full of life and such a little imp.  He was the first cat that I ever allowed to go outside on a regular basis.  All my previous kitties had been housecats…but Zeus–he heard the beat of a different drummer, as they say, and it would have killed his spirit to be indoors.  He loved the freedom of running around outdoors.  I remember once when i went outside to tend the little garden I had (organic, of course), and I played a little game of hide-and-seek with him–I “hid” behind a tree, and to his delight, would pounce when he would come running past.  Heh.

His love of outdoors was his downfall, however.  One morning, after I had taken the kids to school, he was at the back door and he didn’t look right.  He was dragging his rear end lower than normal.  I didn’t see anything, like blood on him, but I knew something was wrong, so I took him to the vet.  The vet said he was struck by a car….which didn’t make sense because there was no dirt or blood on him or marks of any kind.

So, I took him home and watched as the poor thing got worse.  I called the vet’s office and got the assistant.  When I told her I thought he was worse, and that he was panting from pain, she said that there was nothing we could do for them–you couldn’t give cats anything for pain.  I just had to wait for him to work through it.

The next day, he ate a little so I was optimistic that he was going to recover.  However, as the day wore on, his status grew shaky. He wanted to be let out, but I refused.  I would realize later that he knew he was dying and he wanted to be alone.

The next morning, just before 6:00 a.m., I heard him meow in my bedroom.  I thought he was doing better–what I didn’t realize was that he was crying out before he passed.  My daughter said “Mom, something’s not right with Zeus’ eyes.”  The light had gone out of his eyes.  We cried for the little imp that was with us only a short time and buried him in the garden that he loved.

I strongly suspect that a crotchety old neighbor hit Zeus on the back and that was what caused his death.  Zeus had always been afraid to come near me when I was sweeping the back patio area.  I couldn’t understand why…and the only thing that makes sense is that someone hit him with a broom.  My neighbor detested me because I stood up to him on a few occasions when he was trying to bully me and he hated Zeus, too.  I wouldn’t be surprised to know that he had struck Zeus.  It’s just a hypothesis…I’ll never really know what happened.  Rest in peace, little man.

 

When comedy isn’t funny…

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A family member went to see the move “Bernie” over the Memorial Day weekend…starring Jack Black and Shirley Maclaine.

When he described the plot to me, I was appalled.  It would seem that I’m not the only one…on the wiki site describing the movie, town residents were also appalled at making a comedy out of murder…a real murder, folks.  I cannot understand why Shirley Maclaine would be associated with a movie that applauds murdering a woman because she was a bitch (from others’ descriptions of her treatment of people).

Yeah, women who are bitches *deserve* to be murdered, the murderer even applauded for it.  Only *nice* girls’ murderers should be condemned, right?

Misogyny, anyone…?

Maybe Jack Black and his band can write a song about it….Kill Her Gently…

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UN statement on violence towards women.

And there’s the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.   (hat tip to this poster)

Passing it grudgingly…is there no end to the callous disregard for basic human rights in the Repub party?

Lastly, here is a research paper on violence against women and the media.   Being a Communications Major, I know that the media has an effect on people’s attitudes for everyday life–shaping their beliefs…so why wouldn’t it also be true with violent films?

And why have a Violence Against Women Act to help “mop up” after the fact, when this kind of “entertainment” should be addressed?

Violence against anyone is the dark side manifested in the material world.