Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Creative Interventionists, San Francisco, 2/12

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on February 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

stealth-poetry-project

I like reading about — and sometimes initiating — little stealth projects like buying a box of Georges Seurat note cards and putting them one at a time on shop shelves so folks will get a subliminal clue that the Players are putting on the musical “Sunday in the Park with George.”

In 2012, I created the Stealth Poetry Project. Read about that here. I have also blogged about the reshelvers, who move bookstore volumes around  (if they think a politician’s autobiography belongs in the fiction section, for example).

So imagine my delight when a website I subscribe to, Good.Is, sent a message about an international group of people doing similar projects. They call themselves Creative Interventionists.

“The League of Creative Interventionists,” says an e-mail I received this week, “is here to insert the creativity and unexpected back into our cities. The League is a worldwide network of people working to build community through creativity. We create shared spaces and experiences in public space that break down social barriers and catalyze connections between people and communities.

“Each month we will get people together to carry out a creative intervention around a theme. We will also share our inspiration and the template for others to replicate the intervention or create their own intervention in their community.

“The League is launching in San Francisco on February 12 with an event and group creative action around the theme of love. We will be creating an installation in public space where we will share the stories of our first love on postcard-sized stickers. Random passersbys will be able to enjoy these stories and participate by adding their own story. We will also place these stickers in random places to be discovered by unsuspecting strangers who will then be invited to add their story to the installation.”

More at www.Good.is.

Read Full Post »

Baghdad Book Market

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 7, 2014| Leave a Comment »

In “Resurrecting the Book Market of Baghdad” at Narratively, Aditi Sriram writes that Baghdad’s Al-Mutanabbi Street once “appeared to be made of books: they littered the sidewalks, waved from tables and carts, sat on shelves inside bookstores, and peeped at passersby through the windows.”

In 2007, a bomb destroyed the street, and far away in San Francisco, bookseller Beau Beausoleil read about it.

“My bookstore would have been on that street,” he says.

He didn’t raise money. Instead he energized his contacts and their contacts in the literary and artist community to make broadsides and art about what had happened, give poetry readings, and spread awareness.

In addition, writes Sriram, “after several years of trying, Beausoleil finally got through to the director of Baghdad’s national library—which he described as a ‘gigantic moat around a public figure’—and was delighted when Dr. Saad Eskander immediately understood his hope to take the Iraqi people’s suffering ‘into ourselves and acknowledge it, and respond to it.’

“Beausoleil’s voice lightens as he recalls Eskander’s positive reaction. ‘He said, “I want these broadsides for the national library, for the archive. I think it’s important that the Iraqi people see this work.” ‘ …

“The 130 broadsides [will] start to be exhibited at the national library in Baghdad in late 2016 and anniversary readings [will] take place every year all over the U.S. and U.K.”

More here.

Photo: AP/Khalid Mohammed
Iraqi men look at books displayed on Al-Mutanabbi Street in December 2007, nine months after a bombing.

Read Full Post »

Got Candy?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on February 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

For a trip down Memory Lane, check out this Narratively essay on Jason Liebig’s candy-wrapper collection.

Daniel Slotnik writes, “It’s seven p.m. on election night, yet a steady flow of pedestrians are still streaming in to the London Candy Co. … Beneath the Upper East Side shop’s Day-Glo paintings and amid its colorful displays of Chupa-Chups and shelves stocked with Curly-Wurly bars is Jason Liebig, shuffling through a sampling of his personal collection of candy packaging—bright plastic and paper wrappers that most would consider trash, or at best a tease.

“Liebig, 43 … selects a glassine folder from the pile, containing several examples of Kit Kat wrappers dating back to the candy’s official incarnation in 1937, two years after its introduction under a different name.

“One of the wrappers is uncharacteristically blue. Liebig begins an enthusiastic disquisition on Kit Kat history, explaining that the cobalt wrapper dates from World War II, when the chocolate-and-wafer confection was impacted by rationing. …

“For Liebig, the London Candy Co., on Lexington Avenue at the corner of East 94th Street, is more than a sweet shop—it’s a treasure chest, an archive and an art gallery all rolled into one. Liebig is a die-hard candy packaging collector whose sprawling personal trove includes some 10,000 wrappers and boxes spanning from decades past to last Halloween’s special promos, stored entirely in his one-bedroom Astoria apartment. By his estimation, he has the largest, and possibly only, such hoard in New York City. …

“ ‘I figured out certain ways to open candy bar wrappers without ripping it,’ Liebig says. ‘And one of those ways is running it under hot water. And I’ve never questioned my sanity, but when I’m at the sink running hot water over a Snickers wrapper and my hands are burning, I kind of think, “What am I doing?  There have to be more productive ways to spend this time.” ‘ “

More at Narratively, a great place to read about curious characters you would likely never know about otherwise.

Photo: Brad Horrigan
Select pieces from Jason Liebig’s candy wrapper/box collection

Read Full Post »

Making Commercials in Their 90s

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2014| 2 Comments »

Suzanne sent along a cute story by Steven Kurutz in the NY Times. It’s about a Valley Stream, NY, couple in their 90s who have become popular performing in a television commercial.

“ ‘I was retired for 30 years, until at the age of 90 I got swept up in this commercial bit,’ Morty Kaufman said.

“He was referring to the popular TV spots for Swiffer, the maker of household cleaning products, which he stars in with his wife, Lee. In a series of unscripted 30-second ads, the couple discuss their blissful 44-year union and their division of household labor. …

“In one spot, Mr. Kaufman addresses the camera, saying: ‘There’s only two of us. How much dirt can we manufacture?’ He and Mrs. Kaufman answer in unison — ‘Very little’ and ‘More than you think.’ …

“He remains mystified by their popularity. ‘I look at commercials very casually,’ he said. ‘It’s very hard to let it sink in that people are interested. My reaction was, “Why?” ‘

“For her part, Mrs. Kaufman found it strange to be recognized when she and her husband would go to Woodro Kosher deli and other local spots. ‘I didn’t understand why people would be looking at me, I really didn’t,’ she said. ‘I looked down. I thought my pants fell off.’ “

Their daughter, Myra Allen, had a friendship with a casting director, says Kurutz, and that “led to the couple’s unlikely late-life career as pitchmen. …

“Ms. Allen … said she has observed the way they readily compromise. ‘Each one at any given moment is willing to let the other one take the day,’ she said. ‘I don’t think anyone has a vested interest in standing their ground.’ ”

More here.

Photo: Robert Wright for the New York Times
The Kaufmans in their living room in Valley Stream, NY.

Read Full Post »

Illusion Street Painting, Trompe L’Oeil

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 4, 2014| 4 Comments »

Mary Ann put this trompe l’oeil art on Pinterest, bless her heart. She’s an endless source of cool stuff.

The online magazine Feel Desain has the story.

“In Potsdam, Germany, street artists Daniel Siering and Mario Shu have recently created a clever piece of illusion that depicts a surreal hovering tree. After wrapping a part of the tree truck with plastic sheeting, they made an amazingly detailed and realistic spray-painting of the surrounding landscape on it.

“The result is a brilliant illusion that the tree has been sawed through and is floating in mid-air over its stump.”

Watch the video showing how it’s done,  here.

Read Full Post »

Art Consultant Keeps Track for You

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on February 3, 2014| 4 Comments »


Lately, I have been following a very artistic art consultant on twitter called Liz Devlin.

Here is what her website says about her: “Since launching FLUX. in 2008, I have provided an online resource for local artists and Arts enthusiasts in the Boston area, and beyond. Through weekly event coverage, artist interviews, Open Studios recaps, and educational posts, the site enables readers to feel informed, engaged in, and connected to the pulse of Boston Arts.”

Here’s the part that floors me: “My 9-5 is in the corporate world as a Financial Analyst.” Gosh, how can she possibly have time for it all?

She continues, “My downtime, in-between times and restless nights are spent actively pursuing and supporting creative endeavors.”

A reason to follow her on twitter is that she keeps up on everything in the Boston arts scene for you. You can also check out weekly lists of events — with commentary — at her website. For example, here.

I especially like the nostalgic, off-kilter look of this piece in the current  Montserrat exhibit.

Art: Andrew Houle’s “Leaving East Gloucester.”
Montserrat College of Art Galleries, 23 Essex St., Beverly, Mass., through February 14

Read Full Post »

How Old Folks Pick a Hangout

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 2, 2014| 3 Comments »

Of the various articles written recently about the elderly Koreans hanging out in a McDonald’s in Queens, the one I liked best and learned the most from was Michael Kimmelman’s at the NY Times. He asks an intriguing question.

“Why that McDonald’s?

“The kerfuffle started when word spread that the police were repeatedly evicting elderly Korean patrons from a McDonald’s in Queens. The Koreans have been milking their stays over $1.09 coffees, violating the restaurant’s 20-minute dining limit. The news made headlines as far away as Seoul. Last week, Ron Kim, a New York State assemblyman, brokered a détente: The restaurant promised not to call the police if the Koreans made room during crowded peak hours.

“Still, the question remains. The McDonald’s at issue occupies the corner of Parsons and Northern Boulevards, in Flushing. A Burger King is two blocks away. There are scores of fast-food outlets, bakeries and cafes near Main Street, a half-mile away

“So, in the vein of the urban sociologist William H. Whyte, who helped design better cities by watching how people use spaces, I spent some time in Flushing. What I found reinforced basic lessons about architecture, street life and aging neighborhoods.” Read it all.

My key takeaways: older people, especially those with canes, think two blocks from home is OK, but not four; elderly people like picture windows and a busy street corner with a constantly changing scene; they like looking in to see if people like them are inside (the McDonald’s on Main Street has older Chinese, not Koreans); they like little nooks where a group can gather comfortably.

As a longtime booster of walkable communities, I find it all makes perfect sense. If such naturally occurring communities continue to appear, perhaps they should be encouraged, with some kind of compensation for the business owner. What if the city redirected some money for senior programs to a business that provided space in downtimes? Crazy?

My husband frequents a coffee shop group where folks hang out but not all day. That group has had its differences with the proprietor, goodness knows. There ought to be ways to make everyone happy.

Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times
Picture windows, lively traffic and easy access for the elderly: the McDonald’s at Northern and Parsons Boulevards in Queens.

Read Full Post »

Art the Tide Will Wash Away

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2014| 2 Comments »

Photo and Art: Andrés Amador

Much obliged to Paul for posting about this sand-painting artist on Facebook.

Andrés Amador, of San Francisco, creates lovely designs with a rake. He maintains that his work is “more about the process and less about the result.”

The website Viral Nova explains that Amador “uses a rope as a guide so that he can make the geometric patterns. … By raking up the wet sand at low tide, he is able to make contrasting sand colors.”

And he apparently takes orders — for marriage proposals (“Love Letters in the Sand”?) and even for corporate team-building exercises.

If I lived in San Francisco, I might ask Amador to create a message about something — maybe peace or kindness or helping the homeless. Some year, a sand painting could be my donation to the San Francisco-based Homeless Prenatal Program, an outstanding organization that Suzanne told me about.

Check out the collection of Amador’s other works is at Viral Nova, a site that bears watching.

Photo and Art: Andrés Amador
I caught my breath when I saw the inevitable happening to this painting. With sand art, it seems that “Ars longa, vita brevis” becomes “Memoria longa, ars brevis.”

Read Full Post »

Lunar New Year

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2014| 2 Comments »

Happy Lunar New Year, Spring Festival, and Year of the Horse!

I love any excuse to celebrate a holiday and went over to Chinatown at lunch in hopes of seeing a dragon dance or something.

As early as 11:30, the restaurant Bubor Cha Cha, here, was packed. I was the only non-Asian. I ordered spring rolls to go. At the Chinatown gate, a young couple (husband American, wife Chinese) asked me to photograph them with their baby. On Harrison Ave., someone was selling fresh produce.

My husband is the Year of the Horse. He says he’s a Water Horse, whereas this is the Year of the Wooden Horse.

Hmmm. Wooden Horse? Wherever you are this year, Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

Jan2014-Chinatown-gate

013114-welcome-lion

 

 

 

 

 

 

winter-market-in-Chinatown

 

 

Read Full Post »

Advertising and Poetry

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 30, 2014| 4 Comments »

The Telegraph notes how advertisers have been turning to classic poets to sell products.

Charlotte Runcie gives this example: “The new ad for the iPad Air features a voiceover from Robin Williams in his Whitman-toting Dead Poets Society incarnation. The Whitman extract in question is from Leaves of Grass:

“O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring;
“Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish

“… Answer.
“That you are here—that life exists and identity,
“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

Here’s another: “Levi’s chose an extract from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to reboot their advertising campaign for 501 jeans in 2005.

“The magical fairy forest became downtown LA, with Bottom – played by Joshua Alba – getting grabbed by a member of a nearby gang, who exclaims: ‘Oh Bottom, thou art changed! What do I see on thee?’ At this point in the play, Bottom has grown donkey ears. In the advert, he has bought new jeans.

“Then fairy queen Titania arrives, and says:

“Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note;
“So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape…” More.

All good fun. But I think companies should reach out to contemporary poets the way Ford once reached out to poet Marianne Moore. It would be a good way for poets to earn a little money doing what they love. Then again, companies may prefer the “free” aspect of dead poets.

Read Full Post »

Fort Point Boogie

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2014| 4 Comments »

When John played saxophone in high school, I got it in my head that I should set a good example about practicing by going back to piano and seeing if I could make more progress than I did as a child.

In the first lesson, the teacher asked me what what I wanted to learn to play, and I said Boogie Woogie. So we did a little bit of that, and I thought I would really learn it. In the next lesson, she said, “You don’t want to learn this, it’s so repetitious.” So I studied what the teacher liked, which was classical. It fizzled out after a few years because I didn’t like to practice any more than John did.

Anyway, I still like Boogie Woogie, and was tickled when the FortPointer tweeted this new Boogie written especially for Fort Point. What happy music! It makes you want to jump right up and — well — boogie.

https://soundcloud.com/tysavias/fort-point-boogie

Read Full Post »

The Remaining Textile Industry

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 28, 2014| 2 Comments »

Photo: The Slater Mill, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, bears the name of Samuel Slater, the father of the American Industrial Revolution.

Suzanne is interested in textiles as well as jewelry. (Check out the little purses she had made for Luna & Stella using weavers in Bhutan, here.) So I wasn’t surprised when she passed along an article from the NY Times on the U.S. textile industry today.

It seems that in addition to artists who create textiles for artistic purposes (see yesterday’s post), niche textile businesses still exist in the United States.

Rivka Galchen writes, “In 1776, America didn’t have a single textile mill. There were no spinning mules, no water-powered looms. There were only rumors of what such things might look like … Nearly every American woman, except the wealthiest, knew how to spin her own yarn and weave her own cloth …

“Samuel Slater was 14 when he began working at a cotton-spinning mill in Derbyshire, England. Seven years later, in 1789, he disguised himself as a farmer to pass English customs and board a ship to the United States. When he arrived in America, he got a mechanized loom up and running, then a textile factory and later factory towns, eventually becoming known as both Slater the Traitor and the father of the American Industrial Revolution.”

In 2010, Galchen continues, photographer Christopher Payne “came across a yarn mill in Maine and was transfixed by the way it seemed to exist both in the past and the present; it became the first textile mill he photographed.” He has since photographed more than 20.

“Langhorne Carpet Company, in Penndel, Pa., used to share its building with a hosier, but that business closed long ago. … On the day I visited, a young man in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans was making a five-color runner on one of the narrow looms, while an older man in a denim smock was restringing a broad one; 5,040 spools of yarn needed to be knotted on.

“ ‘We’ve stayed in business because we’ll take a 20-yard order, that’s our niche,’ said Langhorne’s president, Bill Morrow, whose grandfather and great-grandfather founded the company in 1930. … Langhorne has made reproductions of historic carpets for the Frederick Douglass house in Washington; the Congress Hall of Philadelphia; and the Rutherford B. Hayes home in Fremont, Ohio. …

“Langhorne employs about 40 people, whom it trains in-house. When a machine needs a new part, it is specially forged. ‘We’ve bought a lot of [our] machinery from other companies that have closed down,’ Morrow said.” More here.

Kind of nice to know that not all manufacturing has gone overseas. American ingenuity still can create jobs doing specialty work, training people in-house.

Read Full Post »

Ann Ribbens, Quilter

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Above, “I” Formation, by Ann Ribbens
Ann says, “This piece is a combination of a purchased hand-dyed top panel and an Arashi (pole-wrapping) shibori piece that I made. The panels were assembled, heavily machine quilted and embellished with beads.”

My ex-boss in Minnesota is a very fine quilter. That doesn’t mean that I’m a quilter. It means that she was my boss in her day job.

Ann is exhibiting the piece above in the show “A Common Thread” at the Textile Center in Minneapolis, here, through February 26. She has a number of other pieces available for viewing at the Minnesota Artist website, here. I think you will find the variety quite remarkable.

I often wonder if an artist is better off finding a way to make a living from art or doing art on the side. The first way means doing art all the time but maybe compromising to please clients.

The second means never having enough time but always having freedom. Ann is an example of someone who has made the latter approach work. Her day job is completely unrelated to quilting. But I suspect that while she is focused on it, her unconscious is working away on her next textile project.

Sometimes it’s not a bad idea to let one part of your mind lie fallow while the other is busy.

Below, “Carnelian Sunbursts,” by Ann Ribbens
Ann says, “This work incorporates shibori dyeing. It is intensively machine quilted. It was completed in 2011 and is a table runner, 15 x 43 inches.”

This work incorporates shibori dyeing. It is intensively machine quilted. It was completed in 2011 and is a table runner, 15 x 43 inches.

Read Full Post »

Why a Radio Host Is Like a Blogger

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 26, 2014| 4 Comments »

Listening to the lone WICN radio host early Saturday morning reminded me of when I was a WGMC radio host in Greece, New York — until Suzanne was six months old and starting to reach over the baby seat to grab the turntable.

I was never sure if anyone was out there listening, but I liked doing it anyway.

Kind of like blogging.

At 5:30 a.m., the WICN host was playing a series of mellow tunes. He seemed to be enjoying the music, which means he didn’t talk much. I appreciate that kind of host so much more than the ones who love to hear themselves talk.

WICN, “Jazz Plus,  for New England,” is a rare boon to jazz lovers. Having been to the studio recently to donate school instruments, I couldn’t help thinking that the hours before dawn on a Saturday must be pretty bleak and lonely in that industrial part of Worcester.

The only thing I was able learn about the host after Googling around was that his last name is Chandler. It was nice to think of Mr. Chandler enjoying the music in that barren neighborhood before 6 a.m., and I wish I had told him that someone was listening and appreciated the way he rode the records, transitioning so smoothly.

You can listen to WICN online, here, if you don’t live near Worcester. Send the station an e-mail to tell a host you’re listening. It’s a small outfit. I’m still waiting to hear back from my own e-mail.

If you are free during a weekday, be sure to catch a live performance by Pamela Hines and Arnie Krakowsky (below) on January 29.

Update 1/27/14: WICN General Manager Gerry Weston e-mails that the early morning host was “Osay Chandler, he’s out of Pittsburgh.”

Photo: WICN
Join pianist Pamela Hines and her special guest on January 29 at 2 p.m. Arnie Krakowsky, a  professional tenor saxophone jazz musician, will perform live with Hines in the WICN studio.

Read Full Post »

Be a Stowaway

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2014| 2 Comments »

Asakiyume put me on to this offer from the nautical museum in Mystic, Connecticut. They have just finished restoring a whaling ship, and the public is invited to apply for the role of stowaway on its first trip.

Now, as we all know, stowaways stow themselves away in secret, against the wishes of the boat’s owners, but the museum has decided to put a new spin on an old concept.

Here’s what the Providence Journal reports: “Mystic Seaport is looking for a stowaway for its restored 19th century whaling ship. Whoever is hired will sail with the Charles W. Morgan ship next summer on visits to ports across New England. The stowaway will receive a stipend and will share the experience through videos and blog posts.

“The museum in Mystic has spent four years restoring the ship that was built in 1841. The Morgan’s last voyage ended in 1921 and is the world’s only surviving wooden whaling ship.

“The ship … will sail with a mission to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the oceans and its species.” More here.

Kind of counterintuitive to use a whaling ship to promote preserving the ocean and its creatures, but I guess no one is going to hunt any whales. Good thing, too. I read Moby You-Know-Who finally in 2010, and I wouldn’t recommend the life aboard ship.

Stowaway entries must be submitted via e-mail to stowaway@mysticseaport.org by 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on February 18, 2014. I like the idea that the stowaway is expected to blog about the trip. S/he just better not be prone to seasickness.

Update 5/11/14: Read here how the whaling ship restoration benefited from special timber stored upright in saltwater at Charlestown Navy Yard in Mass. and rediscovered during the construction of Spaulding Rehab.

Photo: Bob Breidenbach/The Providence Journal
Matthew Barnes of Mystic Seaport examines the billet head on the bow of the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »