Judith Ross has a beautifully written and photographed WordPress blog she calls Shifting Gears. Recent posts have covered a visit with her younger son, who is a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco.
I was particularly taken with an entry in which Judith captures a luscious blue color that is reiterated all over one picturesque town, on everything from fishing boats to bread baskets.
She writes that one morning, she and her husband and son “climbed into our rental car and headed to Essaouira, a beach town. Much less intense than Marrakech, it was a good place to start our journey. [Our son] has friends there, who are also in the Peace Corps.
“The name of the riad where we stayed, Les Matins Bleus, reflected the town’s color scheme. …
“At the docks you can buy fish directly from the fishermen. Then, back in the medina, stop at the market for vegetables, before taking these purchases to a restaurant where they grill your food to perfection and serve it to you with bread – which also functions as your knife, fork, and spoon.” More.
Photo: Cassandra Giraldo / Wall Street Journal Slow Art Day host Phil Terry, center, points to El Anatsui’s installation ‘Gli (Wall).’
Thank you, Anna, for pointing out reporter Rebecca Bratburd’s cool story in the Wall Street Journal.
“If art-museum crowds appeared to be moving at snail speed on Saturday,” writes Bratburd, “it’s because they were celebrating Slow Art Day, during which participants in 274 museums around the world got a new, slower perspective on enjoying art.
“Inspired by the experience of gazing at Hans Hofmann’s ‘Fantasia’ and Jackson Pollock’s ‘Convergence’ for hours, Phil Terry launched the art appreciation day in 2010. …
“Mr. Terry, CEO of the New York City-based consulting firm Creative Good, noticed that no one had planned to host an event at Brooklyn Museum this year, so he did the honors. On Saturday, he handed instruction sheets to each of the 35 or so participants. They included straightforward tips, including but not limited to: “Look closely. Back up. There is no wrong way.’ …
“The group then set off at a turtle’s pace to meditate on five of the museum’s roughly 1.5 million works: El Anatsui’s ‘Gli (Wall),’ ‘Waste Paper Bags’ and ‘Peak’; Valerie Hegarty’s ‘Fallen Bierstadt’; and an untitled work by Richard Pousette-Dart. …
“Part of the point is to counteract the rapid pace of modern life, as much as the often overwhelming museum routine, said another participant, Sam Davol, a musician in the band the Magnetic Fields. ‘I felt like I was in slow motion and everyone was whizzing by,’ he said. ‘I began to become self-conscious about it, like a guard would think it was weird that I was standing there for so long.’ …
“Elizabeth Ferguson … said her smartphone complicated matters. ‘I wanted to focus on the piece of art in front of me, but in the midst of it I was getting texts, I wanted to Instagram it, check in on Foursquare and tag #SlowArtDay,’ she said.”
Read more — and try moving slower in your next museum, too.
Sitting high up in the nosebleed gallery at the Shubert Theater (aided by great, great Aunt Julia’s opera glasses), we watched the Scottish version of Wagner‘s Flying Dutchman today.
“A sea captain doomed by a curse to an existence of eternal wandering, a yearning heroine desperate to escape her restricting world – set against the uncontrolled violence of the sea.” Thus the Boston Lyric Opera. More.
GiltCity.com had this take: “With her free spirit constrained by the rigid confines of society, one woman yearns for escape. … Taking off on an adventure of a lifetime, with the mercurial sea as violent backdrop, she encounters a captain doomed to wander the endless waters for eternity.”
Enjoyed the production, said to be the first in America using the original version of the opera, which Wagner kept tinkering with over his life. The sets were striking — spare suggestions of ships like bleachers, bathed in blood-red light, and a movie of raging seas across the whole back wall. I liked the psychological take, with Senta [Allison Oakes] responding to yarns about a Flying Dutchman [Alfred Walker] at three different ages (and portrayed by three different performers).
The opera was sung in German, with English on two video monitors.
This morning after tai chi chuan, I went with the oldest grandson and his friend to the muffin shop. They each had a corn muffin and gave the lady the money. The friend’s dad pulled the wagon until these not-yet-three-year-olds decided they wanted to pull it themselves. It took cooperation.
In the afternoon the younger grandson stopped by and did a bit of exploring.
Then I took a walk.
Here are a few scenes. (I have no idea why that band sprouted where it did — unless it is tied to the production of The Sound of Music, which opened last night. It does have a rather Alpine look to it.)
The Design Museum Boston — which, like Erik, has participated in the start-up accelerator program called MassChallenge — launched a challenge of its own. The results of the Street Seats Design Challenge are now available to all, and believe me, you have never seen park benches like these.
Each imaginative public outdoor seating creation is harnessed to a kiosk that gives background on the designer, the materials the designer chose, the ideas behind the competition, and the sponsors.
You can go from bench to bench along Fort Point Channel like Goldilocks testing them out (too hard? too soft? ju-ust right?).
Here is a bench I can see from my office, the Wright bench. It is made of a reconstituted wood that lasts for decades without treating and is combined with a bike rack. Designer Eugene Duclos of Appalachian State University in Cary, North Carolina, explains his approach in the video.
Be sure to check out the other benches at the museum’s Street Seats site, here. One bench is made of rope. Another lets you sit on plants. All are beautiful.
I’m so glad Kai put this on Facebook. He linked to photos of beautiful places. But at Bored Panda you can also find a bird that looks like Salvador Dali, a dad who illustrates his kids’ lunch bags every day with cute cartoons. and a do-it-yourself Porsche made of plastic pipes and aluminum foil. Or you can watch a video of an astronaut crying in weightless space.
I thought, “What the heck?”
Here’s a bit of explanation from the About page.
“Boredpanda.com is a highly visual art and design magazine dedicated to showcasing the world’s most creative artworks, offbeat products and everything that’s really weird or wonderful. …
“We got popular among pandas in a very short time, and now we have an average readership of 1 million unique visitors per month generating ~2 million of page impressions. Most of them come from USA, UK and CANADA .
“So, if you have a story, a product or some weird artworks that are cool enough for pandas – it is a perfect opportunity for you to get noticed. Click here and share it with everyone else!” More.
I myself am going to read up on Thomas Lamadieu. “Every time he looks up, Thomas sees a potential canvas where the building rooftops frame the sky. He photographs it and uses the odd sky shapes to create whimsical line drawings.”
Here are two of those beautiful places I mentioned.
This post’s for my daughter-in-law, who not only loves to cook but is also pretty savvy about healthful eating. I should know. I had a yummy something with orzo and mushrooms for Tofu Tuesday at my son’s house last night.
Today’s story from the NY Times is on the expanded distribution goals of a company with inventive food options currently popular with celebrities.
And, as Stephanie Strom writes, the offerings are not just for vegans.
“Organic Avenue, the tiny purveyor of high-end juices, fresh salads and specialty foods like cashew scallion cream cheese and Thai collard wraps, has hired a new chief executive with the goal of turning its new owner’s dreams of a national chain into reality.
“Martin Bates … will take charge of Organic Avenue in June. …
“ ‘I drink green juices and have done for the last year or so, but living the life of a vegan is not for me. I think there are lots of other people like me out there.’ …
“We want to grow this business around helping people who want food that’s better for them,” [investor Jonathan] Grayer said. ‘That doesn’t mean they have to be vegan. They certainly don’t have to favor raw. They don’t even have to be organic; they just have to want to be healthier.’ ”
Bates, who turned around the Pret a Manger chain, said that he is up for the challenge.
“Perhaps tellingly, he said his favorite Organic Avenue product was Dragon’s Breath, a juice that incorporates ginger, lemon and cayenne pepper. ‘Caution,’ the company’s Web site warns. ‘This shot is not for the faint at heart!’ ” More.
We are into dragons around here. I’ll have to see if I am brave enough to drink Dragon’s Breath.
Photo: Michael Falco for The New York Times Organic Avenue, which caters to a celebrity-studded clientele, hopes to appeal to a range of healthy eaters
The Science section of the NY Times today featured some research on babies.
Sindya N. Bhanoo explains that “In Parents’ Embrace, Infants’ Heart Rates Drop.”
“New mothers quickly learn that babies quiet down when carried and rocked. Now researchers say that this calming response is actually a coordinated set of reactions, involving the nervous, motor and cardiac systems.
” ‘Dr. Kumi O. Kuroda, a neurobiologist at the Riken Brain Science Institute in Japan, led a team that used electrocardiogram measurements to monitor the heart rates of babies and mice after they were picked up and carried. Their heart rates slowed almost immediately.
“ ‘It’s very difficult for adults to relax so quickly,’ said Dr. Kuroda, whose study appears in the journal Current Biology. ‘I think it’s specific to infant physiology.’
“In the case of the mouse pups, it took only one second for the heart rate to drop. In human babies, it took about three seconds.
“The researchers worked with babies under 6 months; the response was stronger in those 3 months and younger. …
“ ‘Lions sometimes carry cubs by the mouth, and it’s known that these infants look very limp and relaxed, with their eyes closed,’ Dr. Kuroda said. ‘But nobody measured the infant response until now.’ ,,,
” ‘By the way, she added, the mother is not the only one who can have this calming effect.
“We actually also did some preliminary studies with fathers and grandmothers,’ she said. ‘And basically they can have the same effect.’ ”
Worth noting, especially considering that the same Science section of the Times had a story on how people with slower heart rates tend to live longer than peers.
I liked this story by Penny Schwartz from the Sunday Globe. It’s about the painstaking work of restoring a magnificent synagogue built in the 17th and 18th centuries and destroyed by the Nazis in WW II.
“For the last 10 years, Laura and Rick Brown have been immersed in the art and architecture of Poland’s historic Gwozdziec synagogue. …
“Now, after a decade of research and building small-scale models, the Browns and their international team of 300 carpenters, artists, and students have created a nearly full-scale replica of the the triple-tiered roof and intricately painted ceiling and cupola of the Gwozdziec synagogue, considered one of the most magnificent, well-documented of the wooden synagogues of the era. …
“ ‘They really have done something miraculous,’ said Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, professor of performance studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, who was tapped to lead the museum’s exhibit development team. …
“The Browns’ approach to building, using traditional tools and techniques dating back to the time the synagogue was built, offered something beyond having a copy of the synagogue roof built as a prop, Kirshenblatt-Gimblett said. …
“Both sculptors, the Browns came to the Gwozdziec project as founders and directors of Handshouse Studio, an educational nonprofit in Norwell [Massachusetts] that replicates historic objects using authentic methods. …
“Looking back on the journey, Laura and Rick say they are humbled by the hundreds of people, including many MassArt students and graduates, who have given so much time to this project.
“They are grateful to MassArt for allowing them the flexibility to create courses designed for the project including a series of Lost Historic Paintings’ classes analyzing and replicating quarter-scale, then half-scale models of the Gwozdziec synagogue ceiling panels.
“The 85 percent scale replica represents more than the grandeur of a long ago synagogue, Laura said. ‘This object speaks to a very painful history that is still very alive,’ she said.” More.
Photo: Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff Artist Rick and Laura Brown at their studio in Hanover, Massachusetts.
Back in November, Jamie Smith Hopkins wrote for the Baltimore Sun about a group called Gather Baltimore, which “collects donations of food from farmers markets and schools and delivers them to organizations in the city for distribution to those in need.”
Hopkins says, “Gather Baltimore, the fledging group that organized the rapid harvest, does this work every week — collecting food that would otherwise go to waste and distributing it in city neighborhoods.”
“Arthur Gray Morgan, a teacher and urban farmer who founded Gather Baltimore, is a newly minted fellow with the Open Society Institute-Baltimore. His fellowship mission for the next 18 months: expand Gather Baltimore and make it sustainable. …”Morgan, who tends the Hamilton Crop Circle gardens in Northeast Baltimore, has collected and distributed free food for several years — ever since he saw how much went to waste at farmers’ markets. What couldn’t be sold wasn’t necessarily taken back to the farm. Frequently, it was tossed out.
“That bothered Morgan, who hears a frequent refrain from his students at Hamilton Elementary/Middle: ‘I’m hungry, I’m hungry.’ …
“Now he and his army of volunteers have the work down to a science — harvesting, picking up donations from local stores and stopping off at the downtown farmers’ market to cart off anything farmers want to contribute after the customers leave.”
You can help Gather Baltimore by voting for it at reddit, here.
Check out Big, Red & Shiny, “a non-profit arts organization and online art journal [set up to] commission and publish articles, essays and reviews that explore the theory, history and reception of art in its current conditions.”
A tweet sent me to BR&S, where I learned about a special art installation that was hung in the MassArt courtyard on Tuesday.
Stephanie Cardon of BR&S writes, “This is the story of how one student’s year long effort has brought solace and joy to a community when it is most needed. In spite of the crystalline air and brilliant sunshine, Tuesday morning was dark for Bostonians near and far. … Yet, serendipitously, it was on this day that Leah Medin poured a sheet of gold, soft as a caress and reaffirming as a cheer, onto many wounded hearts.
“Her gesture was simple, but took months of planning and painstaking work. While carefully conceived, her sculpture unintentionally came to represent the soaring expression of spirit many of us so desperately needed to find that very day.
“I met with Medin to talk about the timely unfurling of her piece, The Gold Divide, in MassArt‘s central courtyard. For those who witnessed it, the hushed voices spoke of awe and wonder and hope. I was curious to hear how the sculpture had come about, and how its transformation into a symbol affected her.
” ‘What happened Tuesday was everything I wasn’t expecting,’ she said about the overwhelming public response. After all, Medin had been planning this piece for over a year. It all started during her junior year abroad in Amsterdam, where she would ride her bike all around the city. As she biked, she took in the sun and the air.
“The fabric — 440 yards of gold crystal nylon organza stitched in 57 foot long panels — was inspired by these outings, by the sense of freedom and exhilaration they contained, by the light. …
“On the day of the Boston Marathon, Leah Medin was still hard at work in an empty school, putting the finishing touches on the cloth, reinforcing its seams. When she heard what had happened off campus, while she was quietly and solitarily working to meet her deadline, she had a moment of doubt. ‘I called my mom. I wasn’t sure I should stick with it. She told me that now more than ever it was important to bring something beautiful to people.’
” ‘I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Then, all of a sudden, there were all these eyes on it. On my baby! It was touching the surface and reaching inside the buildings, caressing the people, running along the ground.’ …
” ‘A lot of people have come up to me and said thank you. I don’t even know many of them. We give each other hugs.’ ” More.
Since Monday, I’ve been asking people what they do for comfort, to calm themselves.
A friend who had finished the race barely in time tried staying off social media and having her friends screen news stories to find the many heartwarming, “safe” ones.
Another spent a little time wandering among flowering trees.
Another cooks. Today I’ve been making chicken soup, which can take a long time and involve lots of steps if you want it to. (Barley alone takes an hour to cook.)
A third friend has been dropping off to sleep at night looking at happy family photos.
I like street art and have blogged about it a lot (for example, Slinkachu, Banksy, Egypt, Os Gemeos). It’s an expression of freedom, so even when it has a serious side, it is cheering.
I’m glad to learn about Street Art Utopia, an amazing site for browsing.
It’s not clear to me how you post something there. Although I see it has the supposed Banksy painting I photographed in Boston a while back, it’s not my picture. If you figure out how to participate at Street Art Utopia, let me know.
Today’s mild weather reminds me that May Day and Mother’s Day aren’t far off. Mother’s Day is a highlight of the year at Luna & Stella, Suzanne’s lovely birthstone jewelry company, for which Suzanne’s Mom blogs.
I hope you know about May Day, too. I’d like to see it revived, the ancient custom of leaving flowers at people’s doors in honor of spring. (I don’t begrudge the workers of the world their version of May Day, but they shouldn’t hog the whole thing.)
Why don’t Girl Scout troops do May Day? Why don’t florists? It mystifies me.
I still remember a May basket I made as a kid from a punch-out book. I thought it was a thing of beauty and kept asking my mother to get me another book like that. But they stopped making them.
Now I work from scratch if I have time. Last year I blogged about one kind of a homemade basket, here.
It’s always a surprise to see what flowers are available on May 1 any given year. Since these are in my yard now, I suspect there will be different ones by May.
In addition to poetry, art often brings comfort. (Artists don’t usually want to make anyone “comfortable,” which has a different connotation.)
One reason art brings comfort is that creativity generates surprises, and surprises may bring delight.
So although I’m still preoccupied with Boston, I’ll leave Boston for today and write about Cleveland.
Thank you, Mary Ann, for pointing to the Gwarlingo blog, which recently said of the art scene in Cleveland,”prepare to be surprised.”
Blogger Michelle Aldredge writes in part, “It is possible to experience the best of Cleveland culture entirely on foot. …
“According to Ann Craddock Albano, the director of The Sculpture Center in Cleveland, the 550-acre area that encompasses the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Botanical Garden, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Cleveland Symphony, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland Cinematheque, Cleveland Institute of Music, and numerous university and medical facilities is the most concentrated neighborhood of world-class cultural institutions in the country. …
“The latest jewel in the Circle’s crown is Farshid Moussavi’s new building for the Museum of Contemporary Art. MOCA is Moussavi’s first museum design, and also the first American project by the Iranian architect, whose firm, Farshid Moussavi Architecture, is based in London.
“A few blocks away from MOCA, at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management building, silver planes slice through red brick like paper in a windstorm. While Frank Gehry opted for flamboyance, Moussavi wisely chose a simpler, less ostentatious design for MOCA—one that is unique and engages the surrounding neighborhood.” More.
BTW, I wouldn’t mind hearing what other folks do for comfort.
Photo: Michelle Aldredge The zigzagging stairwell is the most eye-catching feature inside the new MOCA Cleveland
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