Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘postaday’

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 »

When the Temperature Stays in the Teens

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2014| 2 Comments »

WP_20140206_10_59_29_Pro20140206155526

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I lived in Minnesota for a few years, so I really shouldn’t make a big deal out of cold weather, but it sure has been hard to pry myself from a warm building this week.

Today I went out to take a picture of salt water starting to freeze in Fort Point Channel, something I hadn’t seen before. I got a bonus for my effort — a colorful bubbly sculpture in a tree in front of the Children’s Museum. Was the nearby Boston Tea Party Museum throwing its bales of tea into the channel as usual? Probably the tea would have bounced right back.

The flowers are by the wonderful landscaper in the building where I work. They make you feel like you are in a greenhouse (“växthus” if you are Swedish or have a bilingual grandson).

Note the weather outside the window.

Update 2/6/14. Today the ice in Fort Point Channel, covered with snow, reminds me of chicken fat when you take homemade soup out of the fridge. I added the photo up top.

fort-point-salt-water-freezing

bubble-art-childrens-museum

winter-window

warm-inside-cold-outside

Read Full Post »

How Charlie Brown Is Just Like You

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 23, 2014| 2 Comments »

Yesterday a colleague who has been taking a work-related class told me he finally sent in his latest paper. He said that he had kept taking it home, intending to work on it, but just couldn’t. Finally, on the day it was due, he came to work early and wrote the dang thing.

He said, “I always leave this stuff till the last minute. I work better under pressure.”

I said, “There’s a song for you. It’s called ‘A Book Report on Peter Rabbit,’ and it’s from the musical You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

And I went on YouTube and found the song for him. It’s sort of a fugue involving Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, and Charlie Brown. They each have their own way of approaching the task of writing a book report, and I think the four styles pretty much cover the different ways each of us approaches work.

Are you more like Lucy, counting up the words in order to do the bare minimum? More psychologically analytical like Linus? Wildly imaginative like Schroeder, who would rather be writing about Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham?

My friend identifies with Charlie Brown, who sings that there is no point in getting started when he’s “not really rested,” that he works “better under pressure.”

I suspect I’m closest to Linus. Who are you?

Read Full Post »

Junk Culture Features Amazing Replica

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2014| 4 Comments »

Someone on twitter linked to this delightful post at Junk Culture this week. It’s an extraordinarily detailed replica of a Boeing airplane — made out of manila folders.

Writes Junk Culture, “Using nothing but manila folders and dabs of glue, Luca Iaconi-Stewart has been putting together a very detailed model of a Boeing 777 that is almost as complex as the real thing.

“The doors open and close on paper hinges and the landing gear retracts up into the fuselage. The project which has been a labour of love for five years grew out of his passion for airplanes and the models he made from manila paper in a high school architecture class.

“Iaconi-Stewart told Wired, ‘There’s something rewarding about being able to replicate a part in such an unconventional medium.’ ”

A collection of amazing photos — some that move — may be found here. The retractable wheel carriage has to be seen to be believed.

Without meaning to suggest that there is anything bizarre about such remarkable precision in a young man, I have to say actor Benedict Cumberbatch’s version of Sherlock Holmes keeps coming to mind as I look at the photos.

This is an unusual mind at work.

Photo: Luca Iaconi-Stewart and Mark Mahaney

Read Full Post »

8-Year-Olds March to Demand a Library

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2014| 4 Comments »

I have blogged before about Sam and Leslie Davol’s library projects, including the Uni, a portable library (here). They were living in Boston’s Chinatown during the economic downturn and got an idea for a temporary library in one of the empty storefronts. Chinatown has not had a branch of the Boston Public Library since the 1950s.

(Read a couple stories about that at the BostonStreetLab, here, and the Boston Globe, here.)

Now it seems some 8-year-olds in Mattapan have become indignant about no-library injustice and have marched on City Hall.

Wesley Lowery writes in the Globe, “The voices were young, but they rang out in a synchronized and forceful chant as the children made their way through the downtown streets. Gloved hands held painted signs as pink and blue bookbags bounced on their backs.

“ ‘Books, access fairness, we’re marching to raise awareness’” the more than 50 second-graders declared as they marched from the Chinatown gate to City Hall Friday afternoon. …

“The youthful protesters were seeking to raise awareness of a campaign to bring a public library to Chinatown, which is the only Boston neighborhood without a library branch. …

“The protest was planned and carried out by students at the Young Achievers School in Mattapan, which as part of its curriculum has recently spent time learning about libraries. Upon hearing that Chinatown does not have a public library, organizers said, the students decided to stage the protest.

“ ‘They asked: “What can we do to help?” ’ said Kim Situ of the Chinese Progressive Association, which helped to organized the march.” Read more here.

And when the Young Achievers from Mattapan have gotten a library for Chinatown, maybe they could work on one for Fort Point. It’s something @FortPointer has been tweeting about for ages.

Maybe he should have been talking to 8-year-olds.

Photo: Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
Luis Pizarro, 8, was one of the students from the Young Achievers School who marched on City Hall.

Read Full Post »

Looking for Art in the Winter Landscape

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 20, 2014| 6 Comments »

You never know with winter. The weatherperson says “possible snow flurries,” and you get two and a half inches. Lichen-covered branches crash in the first high wind.

I’m posting a few pictures.

The tree in front of the brick bank will look just like this in the spring, but the white puffs will be flowers. I especially like the way the dogwood looks in winter — a Chinese scroll painting. The Assabet River is lovely from any angle. The tree between the yellow buildings has an elephant’s trunk.

Friends and family are heading off to warmer weather or just coming back and feeling mellow. But I think I kind of like winter.

011914-magnolia-in-winter

011814-fluffy-surprise

like-Asian-wall-hanging

lichen-on-sunny-day

woodshed

branch-snow-water-sky

winter-river-New-England

ripples-in-snow

reflections-on-the-river

trunk-like-an-elephant

Read Full Post »

This Is My 1,000th Post

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 19, 2014| 11 Comments »

This is my 1,000th post! Thanks to everyone for sticking around.

Back in May 2011, Suzanne and Erik asked me to write a blog for Suzanne’s birthstone jewelry company, Luna & Stella. They said I could write about anything that interested me.

Anything!? How could I resist?

Luna & Stella gift giving is all about relationships and relations, and I’m certainly a relation.

One time a woman who was nervous about buying online checked out the blog, felt like it helped her know the family a little, and decided Suzanne would be an OK person to buy from.

Want a gift certificate?

I’m going to list a few of my favorite posts. They are mostly recent because it’s hard to remember all 1,000. If you comment on your own favorite post from Suzanne’s Mom’s Blog before February 1, Suzanne will enter you in a drawing for a $100 gift certificate. She said we should do something special for the 1,000th entry.

Here are a few of my favorite entries.

In this post, I had fun trying to imitate Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories.

This one, here, is about a funny episode at the “On the Media” radio show, with songs that Broadway professionals wrote for corporate conventions.

Here you can read a story about an older couple celebrating their long-ago wedding with a theme from the movie “Up.”

“Iceland Has Elves” got me started on a whole Iceland kick. (If you can get your hands on the video Cold Fever, you are in for a strange but fun treat. Thank you, Asakiyume.)

The post about Suzanne’s 18-month-old son “training” his grandparents got nice comments on Facebook. And here is one on gratitude that I did at Thanksgiving.

Will you comment on a favorite post, too? Write your comment before  February 1, Suzanne says, and she will enter you in a drawing to win a $100 Luna & Stella gift certificate. Valentine’s Day is coming up, you know, not to mention Mother’s Day. And Luna & Stella has birthstone cufflinks for Father’s Day, too.

And thank you so much for hanging on for my daily posts.

Read Full Post »

Governor Boosts Creative Industries

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Poet friend Ronnie expressed admiration on Facebook for Colorado’s governor, who actively supports the arts, and she linked to an announcement about applying for the Governor’s 2014 arts awards.

“The 2014 Governor’s Creative Leadership Awards are now accepting nominations, through Feb. 27, 4 p.m. Formerly the Governor’s Art Awards, and given to locations or districts (Pueblo won one last year), this year it will recognize organizations and individuals who ‘demonstrated a significant commitment to Colorado’s creative landscape through civic leadership and volunteerism including advocacy, vision, collaboration or innovation.’ …

“Nominations are accepted under the following categories:

• “Arts and creative placemaking: Presented to individuals or organizations that use the arts to envision new futures through activities such as activating a public space, animating a community or sparking redevelopment.

• “Arts and community action: Presented to individuals and organizations that have demonstrated selfless service, inspired others to take action or catalyze change in their community using the arts.

• “Arts and social change: Presented to individuals or organizations that work to solve a critical social problem such as homelessness, drug prevention, abuse, poverty or racism using creativity and/or arts.”

In addition, you have until Feb. 3 to nominate Colorado’s poet laureate. More here on Colorado’s efforts.

Why don’t more states and cities promote the arts? I can think of places right now that should have their own creative arts districts. Or maybe a design district. Suzanne tells me that Helsinki, Finland, has attracted international recognition for its own design district, here. I like how they define it as a state of mind rather than by specific street boundaries:

“Design District Helsinki is a neighbourhood and a state of mind.  It is creativity, uniqueness, experiences, design and Finnish urban culture.”

Photo: Salida Creates
Downtown Salida is a Certified Colorado Creative Arts District.

Read Full Post »

Museum Hosts Birds “Playing” Instruments

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 17, 2014| 2 Comments »

Late update 1/26/14
The Peabody Essex Museum gives only a limited number of tickets out daily to this show. It was sold out when I arrived at noon today. I think it will be great, but be sure you can get in before you go.

At the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot is working with a veterinarian and a curator, among others, to ensure that his untrained zebra finches enjoy themselves while performing on musical instruments for the public.

Geoff Edgers writes for the Boston Globe, “The French artist-musician is quiet … but his bandmates won’t shut up. They’re birds — 70 chirping, swooping zebra finches. And Céleste Boursier-Mougenot needs them.

“You see, the artist doesn’t use his fingers to play the Gibson Les Pauls mounted around a white-walled gallery at the Peabody Essex Museum. He depends on his winged collaborators to create the wash of power chords that have turned his installations into a sensation from London to New York City.

“ ‘I kind of feel a sense of amazement every time I see it,’ said Trevor Smith, a contemporary-art curator at the Peabody Essex, where Boursier-Mougenot’s sonic exhibition opens Saturday. ‘You’re hearing these extraordinary sounds, and they’re made by these birds. It’s both primal and very unexpected.’

“So do birds landing on guitars count as art? Yes indeed, according to critics around the world. Boursier-Mougenot has garnered rave reviews, particularly in London, where he staged a version of the piece at The Barbican Centre in 2010. ‘Hate Modern Art?’ a headline in the Telegraph read. ‘Guitar-playing exotic birds will change your mind.’ ”

More here.

Read Full Post »

Rhubarb Batteries

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 16, 2014| Leave a Comment »

@OFH_John tweeted this cool article about making batteries from something like rhubarb.

CBS News has the story: “A cheap rechargeable battery that harnesses energy by using the electrochemistry of organic molecules rather than metals is being touted by Harvard researchers as a breakthrough for renewable energy.

“The Harvard team reports that the battery, which they say can be applied on a power-grid scale, uses naturally abundant and small organic compounds called quinones rather than electrocatalysts from costly precious metals such as platinum.

“Quinones would be inexpensive to obtain and can be found in green plants or synthesized from crude oil. The battery designed by Harvard scientists and engineers used a quinone molecule that’s almost identical to one that’s found in rhubarb.

“The technology is outlined in the Jan. 9 edition of the journal Nature.”

More here.

Photo: Eliza Grinnell, Harvard School of Engineering & Applied Sciences
Michael J. Aziz with metal-free flow battery made from naturally abundant, small organic molecules.

Read Full Post »

Ice Lanterns

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2014| 16 Comments »

Ice Lanterns on front stoop

 

 

 

 

 

My scientist brother makes ice lanterns, a useful skill for lighting friends to your door in a cold Wisconsin winter.

Here’s how. “Large 9” water balloons are frozen out on my deck, then emptied of liquid water, candled, & lit.

“The only tricky part is knowing when they are ‘done.’ Ice should be not too thin, and not too thick. Also, you need to blow air into the balloon after you fill it with H2O, so there will be a nice flat surface on top. That’s where you punch a hole in the ice to empty the liquid H2O & place the candle.”

You gotta grab all the gusto and try to enjoy the cold weather we have been having. I remember that when we lived in Minneapolis, it was a hoot to pour water off the balcony and watch it freeze in flight.

You might also want to check out how Asakiyume makes her frozen soap bubbles, here.

Closeup Ice Lanterns

Read Full Post »

Your Thesis Is on What?!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on January 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Carolyn Johnson’s science column in the Boston Globe yesterday had a funny bit about the blog, LOLmythesis, “a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the futility and incrementalism that can seem to be at the root of a project that has basically co-opted a person’s life.” She means science projects.

“Harvard senior Angie Frankel told the origin story of LOLmythesis on National Public Radio,” writes Johnson, “explaining that ‘I have killed so many fish’ sometimes just feels much more accurate than the true title of her thesis, “Characterizing the Role of [A Specific Gene] in Second Heart Field Progenitor Cells — A Close Look at Zebrafish Embryonic Cardiogenesis.”

There are other funny thesis titles at LOLmythesis from universities around the world. Here are a few.

“Rocks that are next to each other in Massachusetts now were also next to each other 400 million years ago.” — Geology, Amherst College

“A newly discovered worm protein does the same thing as a more well-known worm protein.” — Biology, MIT

“People reach faster and straighter to [take] pictures of cake than pictures of vegetables.” — Cognitive Neuroscience, Brown University

“Turns out my 3 years of research made zero ripples in reproductive biology. But spending 3 years researching bull sperm serves as a great first date and bar topic.” — Reproductive Biology & Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University

Read more here. And how about sending me your own? I remember making up silly titles for possible papers when I was in college, but the funnier part of my fake title “Soap Imagery in ‘Troilus and Cressida’ ” was that someone actually thought it could make a good paper.

Photo: DoctorMacro.com
Pick a thesis title for this research. How about “People from similar backgrounds tend to be wary on first acquaintance.”

Read Full Post »

Inmates Helping Inmates

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 13, 2014| 6 Comments »

I liked an op-ed Stan Stojkovic wrote for the NY Times about a positive sort of prison program founded by a warden.

“It’s the singular guest at a prison who receives a standing ovation from inmates,” writes Stojkovic. “I’ve heard of only two: Johnny Cash and Percy Pitzer, a retired warden who in 2012 started a nonprofit corporation to award college scholarships to children of inmates.

“I sit on the board of Mr. Pitzer’s group, called the Creative Corrections Education Foundation. I recently went with him to visit some of the inmates at the Milwaukee County House of Correction. …

“He started in H6, a 60-bed women’s dorm. ‘Good morning, ladies. I’m Percy Pitzer, from Beaumont, Texas,’ he began. He told them that he had made a living for his family by working for the Bureau of Prisons, and that he and his wife wanted to give back. So he’d kick-started a scholarship fund with $150,000 of his own money. But he wanted it to become an inmate-funded venture, and said it would not work without their help.

“ ‘Will you help me with the price of a candy bar a month?’ he asked.

“His audience probably had a sense of the odds working against their children. Close to seven million children in the United States have a parent involved in some form of correctional intervention — jail, prison, probation or parole. …

“ ‘I will,’ one inmate said.

“ ‘I will,’ said another.

“ ‘I will.’ …

“In all, 13 women in H6 donated $41; one signed up to donate $5 per month. …

“At some correctional facilities, inmates earn $10 a day. Either way, this is money that would otherwise go to small luxuries, like snacks and deodorant. And yet about 300 inmates in Texas, New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin have donated. Thanks to that money, in addition to private contributions, by the end of this year Creative Corrections will have awarded 40 $1,000 college scholarships.”

More on the program here.

Photo: Creative Corrections Education Foundation

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »