April 27, 2015 by suzannesmom
I have a few more photos to share today. The first is of some early flowers. (I don’t know the name. Will have to ask mistersmartyplants.com.) Next is a long-necked character hanging out in my neighbor’s backyard. Then there’s an example of how Arlington artists are sprucing up utility boxes, followed by the gourmet Bee’s Knees grocery in Fort Point, a commuter boat reminiscent of the water taxis we sometimes took when we missed the Ocean Beach back in the day, and a new fancy building about to sail into the sky. (Construction in Boston is making up for time lost during the recession. The view from my office window has been completely altered in just a few years.)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged arlington, bee's knees, fort point, mister smarty plants, new england, photo, photography, postaday, wild turkey | Leave a Comment »
April 26, 2015 by suzannesmom
It was still chilly on Saturday, but a great day for the Musketaquid Parade celebrating the Earth. Bands, stilt walkers, homemade floats, drummers, tables for environmental advocates of all kinds.
Does the boy with the “forest” banner whose dad is on a cellphone remind you of the picture book Sidewalk Flowers?
In the afternoon, I helped my 3-year-old grandson dig holes for strawberry plants. (“It’s gonna be a flower. It’s gonna be beautiful!”)
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged band, banner, concord, drummer, earth, earth day, environment, float, massachusetts, Musketaquid, nature, new england, parade, postaday | 2 Comments »
April 25, 2015 by suzannesmom
Knitting seems to be coming back in style. I thought I had forgotten everything I learned from knitting sweaters during college lectures, but the basic stitch came back to me when I started tackling scarves as an alternative to doodling in work meetings.
Now I see that knitting is serving many positive social purposes among kids in a poor Chicago neighborhood
Lisa Suhay writes at the Christian Science Monitor, “Students are getting knitty in a gritty urban neighborhood on Chicago‘s west side, as they are learning to craft skeins of yarn into a blanket of calm that is making them more social – and fiscally sound.
“ ‘Three years ago, I started teaching kids here to knit and then I thought, “Let’s see if we could sell what they make at my church and give the kids some pocket money in the process,’ says Dorothea Tobin, a teacher at North Lawndale College Prep, in a phone interview from her classroom where she is surrounded by clicking needles and chatting teens.
“In the ‘BT Lives in the Stitch’ club, according to Ms. Tobin, students price their wares between $10 and $30 per item and reap the rewards of being able to socialize while earning enough profit to pay for prom tickets or sundries they might not otherwise be able to afford. …
“Of the 40 students in Tobin’s club a handful are boys. Asked if there was a difference between what boys and girls prefer to knit she says, ‘Boys prefer to knit scarves because those are good sellers. Girls tend more towards baby hats.’ … She has observed that the simple act of mastering a traditional skill and producing something has a profound effect on her students. …
“ ‘They’re always making fun of my rules, but I have club rules for a reason,’ she says. ‘I don’t want them to isolate themselves in the process.’
“The first rule of Knitting Club, Tobin says, is no headphones. … The second rule is to dance with her on Fridays. The third rule, she says is ‘Greet each other when new members come to join us in a session.’ ”
More here.
Photo: Casey Bayer
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Casey Bayer, Chicago, dorothea tobin, knitting club, lisa suhay, North Lawndale, postaday | 2 Comments »
April 24, 2015 by suzannesmom
New followers can be forgiven for not knowing that this is a blog for Luna & Stella, the contemporary birthstone jewelry company. The company owner is my daughter, Suzanne, and she lets me blog about anything that interests me. So I do go off on tangents.
But today what interests me is the Luna & Stella trunk show, scheduled to take place Saturday, May 2, 12 to 5, in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Talulah Cooper Boutique on Traverse Street (left).
I really love the new Luna & Stella charms, including the Blixt lightning bolt (which has a special association with Suzanne’s electrifying son), the delicate cross, and the anchor that is based on the Rhode Island state flag. And because I am pretty familiar with the great work of the folks at the Rhode Island Foundation, I’m also tickled that Suzanne is sending them $5 of every anchor charm purchased.
She writes, “Our Hope Anchor Charm Necklace is inspired by the anchor on the Rhode Island state flag. $5 of every Anchor charm ordered goes to The Rhode Island Foundation’s Fund for Rhode Island, serving the state’s most critical needs since 1916.”
Oh. Did I mention that Mother’s Day is really soon, May 10? I myself have been dropping broad hints about needing my new granddaughter’s birthstone.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anchor, birthstone, birthstone jewelry, blixt lightning, boutique, contemporary, cross, donation, Luna & Stella, postaday, rhode island foundation, state flag, talulah cooper, traverse street | Leave a Comment »
April 23, 2015 by suzannesmom
Today would have been Shakespeare’s 451st birthday, and I am seeing testimonials all over Facebook and twitter. So it seems like a good day to write about the Sonnet Project in New York City.
Stuart Miller wrote at the New York Times about “an ambitious project to create a short film for each of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, with each movie shot at a different New York City location.
“ ‘It brings Shakespeare to people who might not be in touch with it, and we can use social media like Twitter and Instagram to spread the word,’ [actor Billy] Magnussen said. The endeavor, called the Sonnet Project, grew from the work of the New York Shakespeare Exchange, a local theater group.
“The group, which started the project in 2013, just completed its 100th film: Sonnet 27, starring Carrie Preston, an Emmy award-winning actress, and filmed on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge [and premiering] April 8 on the Sonnet Project website and app. …
“Some directors found inspiration at the location where the films were shot. At Leidy’s Shore Inn, a 110-year-old bar on Staten Island, Daniel Finley, who was making Sonnet 19, filmed Laurie Birmingham, an actress who works mostly in regional theater, as a world-weary regular musing over her drink.
“ ‘We walked in at 10 a.m. and the regulars were there watching OTB and scratching their lotto tickets,’ he said. ‘We learned some of their stories and Laurie based her character on those impressions.’ ” More at the New York Times, here.
Photo: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
A crew filming Sonnet 108 at the John T. Brush stairway. 
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged app, billy magnussen, carrie preston, Daniel Finley, film, John T. Brush, Laurie Birmingham, Leidy’s Shore Inn, movie, New York Shakespeare Exchange, postaday, shakespeare, sonnet, Staten Island, stuart miller | Leave a Comment »
April 22, 2015 by suzannesmom
At Global Envision, Seth Heller blogged about an organization that provides inexpensive eyeglasses to poor people in the developing world.
“We often take clear vision for granted,” writes Heller, “but Peter Eliassen knows that eyeglasses can be the difference between financial security and poverty for many in the developing world. As the chief operating officer of VisionSpring, Eliassen travels the globe making reasonably priced eyewear available for people who cannot otherwise afford them. …
“VisionSpring estimates more than 703 million people around the world need eyeglasses. Without vision correction, people are unable to secure employment during their prime working years, and supporting a family becomes almost impossible. …
“VisionSpring’s eyeglasses are priced around $4 and typically boost the wearer’s wage by an average of $108 per year – a significant amount in many developing nations. …
“However, a worker’s clear vision can be life-changing to many people outside their family. …
“The correlation between good public health and economic growth in developing nations is strong. If developing nations can reduce unemployment by solving ongoing public health problems such as impaired vision, the socioeconomic benefits can improve the lives of a nation’s entire population.” More here.
The story came to me by way of the Christian Science Monitor‘s Change Agent listserv.
Photo: Thatcher Cook/Mercy Corps
Eyeglasses from VisionSpring.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged afford, correction, developing, eyes, glasses, global, mercy corps, Peter Eliassen, postaday, poverty, security, seth heller, spring, thatcher cook, vision, visionspring | 2 Comments »
April 21, 2015 by suzannesmom
Hours in an icy rain madly cheering family and strangers along with four grandchildren under the age of five. Erik made his best time, coming in under three hours. John looked on the web and found that Erik’s sister was the fourth woman from Denmark to cross the finish line yesterday, and Erik’s cousin was the fourth woman from Sweden. Erik’s mother waved a makeshift Swedish flag, which bled onto everything in the rain but elicited delight from unknown Swedes who also were running in the Boston Marathon.
Mile 19 in Newton was our meeting place, next to the hot-dog vendor. Suzanne got stuck on the wrong side, but the police knew this would happen and had little cards already printed out to tell people how to drive to the other side. She got there in time.
The day was a grand accomplishment for all concerned, not excluding four cold, soggy, cheering children.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged boston marathon, denmark, newton, postaday, rain, runner, running, sweden | 4 Comments »
April 20, 2015 by suzannesmom
It’s Patriots Day. Actually, it should be April 19, but everything gets celebrated on Mondays now.
Concord is ready for its parade. In front of the library, the Boston Children’s Museum has posted the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere on wooden stakes. The grandstand is set up for the dignitaries. The vendors are out in force.
I picture Paul Revere coming back for the celebrations and wondering if his ride was for the freedom to buy cotton candy, fried dough, and Sponge Bob Square Pants balloons on a stick.
Kind of like the hobbits who had all the wild adventures coming home and being a bit nonplussed by the pedestrian preoccupations of Hobbiton.
Actually, I think the adventurers did think they had fought for the freedom to have pedestrian preoccupations.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged april 19, concord, parade, patriots day, paul revere, postaday | 2 Comments »
April 19, 2015 by suzannesmom
My husband passed along a funny Ben Schott column from the NY Times. It’s about the slang that professional dog walkers often use. Here are a few samples. If you have others, please send them along.
A “bow wow” is the initial meet and greet with a new client.
“Sepanx” refers to a dog with separation anxiety.
A “cujo” is a very aggressive dog (after the dog in a Stephen King novel).
A “paper pusher” is a dog that likes to rip paper.
A “pupdate” is an after-walk e-mail update sent to the owner.
A “slumber party” is an overnight with a dog in the owner’s home when the owner is away.
More here.
I’ve noticed that dog walkers are quick to tell you when you have admired the dog, “I’m not the mother. I’m just the dog walker.” I wonder why that is.
Photo: http://www.earthpetsorganic.com
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ben schott, dog walker, postaday, pupdate, sepanx, slang, www.earthpetsorganic.com | 2 Comments »
April 18, 2015 by suzannesmom
Green sea turtles are being seen farther north these days, thanks to a very warm river in California.
Sanden Totten has the story at National Public Radio. “The green sea turtle typically lives in tropical waters, like the shores of Mexico or Hawaii. But recently, scientists have discovered a population swimming year-round in a river just south of Los Angeles. It’s the northernmost group of these turtles known to science. …
” ‘The small turtles have heads about the size of a golf ball or even a small lime, and the large turtles, their heads are about the size of a softball or grapefruit,’ [Cassandra Davis of the Aquarium of the Pacific] says.
“Her group has been carrying out this sea turtle census for about three years. She estimates there are between 30 and 100 turtles in the area. But why these large tropical creatures chose this place to settle down is a mystery. It’s a river sometimes mired in trash next to a busy road and a military base. …
“Dan Lawson, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration … says the river is a mix of salt and fresh water, which is good for sea turtles. It seems to have plenty of food. And it has another thing going for it.
“There are two power plants — one on each side of the river. They both suck in cold ocean water and use it to cool their generating systems. This process ends up heating the water before it’s dumped back into the river. This warm outflow results in a sort of turtle Jacuzzi. …
“But, he says, there’s a catch. Over the next decade or so, the plants will phase out this method of using ocean water as a cooling mechanism. That means, eventually, no Jacuzzi. It’s unclear how this will affect the federally protected turtles.” More here.
Reading about warm water from power plants reminds me that when we lived in Rochester, New York, we heard that there was good fishing near a power plant on Lake Ontario. But the unnatural heating of the water is really not considered good for the environment.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged green sea turtle, los angeles, npr, postaday, power plant, San Gabriel River, sanden totten | 2 Comments »
April 17, 2015 by suzannesmom
As we have noted in other posts on the subject, one of the most ephemeral forms of art is street art. Many street artists like it that way, but others hate to see the work disappear.
Deborah Vankin and Saba Hamedy write at the Los Angeles Times that Google has decided to do something about that.
“A new worldwide database of public art aims to preserve — if only in digital form — street art, a medium that is often political, sometimes renegade and, perhaps most important, frequently fleeting. These are artworks that may get tagged by graffiti or fall into decay because of weather exposure. The accessible, populist nature of the medium — buildings and sidewalks as canvases — also is what makes them vulnerable. …
” ‘You never know when a mural will be scrubbed out or painted over,’ said Lucy Schwartz, program manager for the Google Cultural Institute, the umbrella organization that this week launched an expanded version of its searchable database of photos simply called Street Art. ‘Our goal is to offer a permanent home for these works so users today and tomorrow can enjoy them and learn about them.’ …
“The project launched in June 2014 with 5,000 images and 31 partnering organizations internationally. [In March] Google added 55 partners who have helped to document more than 5,000 more pieces of public art, all viewable at streetart.withgoogle.com/en/. The collection includes Australia, Sweden, Colombia, South Africa —34 countries in all. It also includes mobile apps and listening tours, as well as a map on which visitors can click to browse local art. …
“Google has said the street art in its online project cannot be downloaded, and the company credits all featured artists. Images in Street Art also include the title of the mural and the date it was created.” More here.
As you might imagine, some of the artists working in this form were highly skeptical of Google’s outreach to them. The sort of Buddhist acceptance of the transitory nature of all things certainly seems incompatible with a Google database. But for many artists, digital preservation is welcome.
Photo: Noel Celis / AFP/Getty Images
A mural by an unidentified artist in Manila. Jan. 26, 2015.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, database, deborah vankin, google, Google Cultural Institute, Lucy Schwartz, manila, noel celis, postaday, saba hamedy, street art | 4 Comments »
April 16, 2015 by suzannesmom
I went to the Museum of Fine Arts to see an exhibition on 100 years of American ceramics. It was a lovely show, but I would have liked to see an example of the late Anne Kraus’s mysterious tea cups there. If Warren McKenzie could give her a whole show at the Northern Clay Center when I was living in Minneapolis, I know it’s not just the gal on the street who thinks Kraus is major.
The MFA ceramics show was a very small show, tucked away in a corner. It hardly seemed enough to justify the admission fee and parking.
So I took a walk through a really big show there, one on the Japanese artist Hokusai (you know: “The Wave”). Unlike the ceramics show, this one was crowded and almost too extensive to take in, but I enjoyed what I saw — especially some colorful wall hangings.
I took photos both outside the museum and inside (a sign said it was OK — just not to use a flash). My Hokusai photos are mostly of large-scale reproductions. The originals were small and harder to shoot through glass.
The show is running until August 9, and if you go, I recommend that you pause for the wall of slides at the entrance, which is delightful and gives one a sensation of watching the art coming into being, like a waterfall swishing down a landscape.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anne kraus, art, boston, ceramics, hokusai, japanese, mfa, museum of fine arts, Northern Clay Center, postaday, wall hanigng, warren mckenzie | 4 Comments »
April 15, 2015 by suzannesmom
After work yesterday, I went with a colleague to observe a parent-engagement program organized by Lawrence Community Works (LCW) at the Oliver Partnership School, in Lawrence, Mass. I had long been interested in LCW’s use of circles to build a sense of community among strangers of very different backgrounds.
Lawrence is what is sometimes called a Gateway City, meaning it’s always been a gateway to the U.S. culture and experience for new waves of immigrants. It currently has a large Spanish-speaking Dominican population and foreign-born and native-born residents from all over.
The parent night was the third in a series. In the first two, facilitators had helped the participants to come up with agreed-upon ground rules (come on time, no cellphones, respectful attention to one another) and to choose an “obstacle” that they would like to address related to their children’s life at the school. They had selected recess, which is only 10 minutes. (Lunch is 15 minutes.)
Everything was conducted in both Spanish and English.
As the evening was getting going, Tony told me his children love school. He believes a good education is vital. He wishes he had more. He did learn Spanish and English in addition to his native Portuguese. The languages help him in his job working with troubled youth, a job he loves to go to every day.
In a warm-up exercise, we stood in a circle and stated our name, followed by our favorite fruit and the name and favorite fruit of everyone who spoke previously. It was fun and a great equalizing experience as anyone can be good at that and anyone can struggle with it. The people who went last had about 20 names and fruits to report and did really well despite language differences.
To discuss the recess issue, we separated into two groups — those who felt comfortable speaking English (which included the two teachers in attendance) and those who felt comfortable speaking Spanish. At the end we came together with the results of our investigation of three questions: why having a longer recess is important, why it might have been set up that way, and what parents themselves could do about it. (Asking the administration’s help was to wait for a joint meeting in June.)
I won’t make this post much longer, but I do want to say that I thought the way this was handled was very good. Parents appeared to feel that their opinions were welcome and that they could accomplish something. Continued engagement with them will be important as the work is a piece of a much bigger project by LCW that aims to help parents get skills for jobs. Unemployment is a serious issue in a city where many of the people are poor, have not had good educational opportunities, and are still learning English.
Photo: Family literacy night at the Oliver Partnership School in Lawrence, Mass.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged circles, dominican, education, empowerment, equalizing, gateway, immigrant, jobs, lawrence, lawrence community works, lcw, leveling, massachusetts, oliver partnership school, parent engagement, spanish | 4 Comments »
April 14, 2015 by suzannesmom
Photo: Wikimedia
You know how in spring you start noticing things that winter’s sense of being closed up even when you’re driving around outside hides from you? When we lived in Pittsford, New York, for example, after going by the same spot for months, I suddenly noticed several unusual fruits or nuts lying on the side of the road. I had to go back, park, get out of the car, and pick one up. It was an Osage orange, a weird, bumpy gift of nature that the Works Progress Administration planted all over the Dust Bowl to counteract soil erosion.
Well, last weekend I saw with new eyes a tree I’ve driven past thousands of times. Suddenly on Saturday it made me think of illustrations of the naiad Daphne turning into a laurel to escape Apollo. (Definitely a case of limited options: give in or be a tree.)
Here’s a refresher from Wikipedia:
“Daphne (//; Greek: Δάφνη, meaning ‘laurel’) is a minor figure in Greek mythology known as a naiad—a type of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of freshwater. There are several versions of the myth, but the general narrative is that because of her beauty, Daphne attracted the attention and ardor of the god Apollo (Phoebus). Apollo pursued her and just before being overtaken, Daphne pleaded to her father, the rivergod Ladon and Ge for help. So he then transformed Daphne into a laurel tree.”
More here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged apollo, daphne, dust bowl, laurel, osage orange, postaday, river god, works progress administration, wpa | 4 Comments »
April 13, 2015 by suzannesmom
I really enjoyed what Siddhartha Mitter wrote in the Boston Globe recently about a collaboration among musicians from several different African countries.
The countries themselves tend to be focused on their own internal issues, Mitter says, and the cultural activities mostly stay within national borders as well. “This makes the Nile Project, a collective of musicians from 11 Nile basin countries (from Egypt to Burundi) … more than a fusion project. It’s an intervention, aimed not just at making music, but also at driving concrete work on shared issues like water rights, food security, education, social empowerment, and climate change.
“A tall order for mere artists, maybe. But Egyptian ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis, who founded the project in 2011 with Ethiopian-American singer Meklit Hadero, sees a natural fit. ‘We’re finding ways to use music to solve challenges beyond music,’ Girgis says. ‘Music can play a role in the sustainability of the basin.’ …
“The Nile Project’s music-making is an equally deliberate process. The traditions of the region share instruments — flutes, lyres, percussion — that are related but used in very different systems of scales, rhythms, and song. At the Nile Gatherings, musicians find themselves on turf at once familiar and foreign. ‘We are so close, as African neighbors, and yet there is not much sharing,’ says Ethiopian saxophonist Jorga Mesfin.
“Using a modified version of Theory U, a group collaboration model devised by MIT professor Otto Scharmer, Girgis says the gatherings begin by putting musicians in small groups, then gradually merging their ideas through composition and arrangement. Most of the artists are bandleaders themselves; here, they must check their egos.”
Read more at the Globe.
Photo: Matjaz Kacicnik
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged africa, burundi, collaboration, egypt, ethnomusicologist, Jorga Mesfin, Matjaz Kacicnik, Meklit Hadero, Mina Girgis, musicians, nile project, Otto Scharmer, postaday, Siddhartha Mitter, theory u | Leave a Comment »
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