Eyes as Big as Plates
June 5, 2013
I love these photographs of Finns of a certain age wearing garments and headgear provided by Nature Herself.
Hadley Mae (? 1997 – May 24, 2013)
May 28, 2013
One morning back in 1998, a young stray cat found her way to the side door of a high school in a Portland suburb. The elderly janitor happened to come out to deliver something to the dumpster, spotted the small cat patiently waiting for the door to open, and befriended her.
It was cold and rainy, so he took her inside and down to his office in the basement. After a few days of research, he concluded that no one was looking for a skinny cat with two cracked teeth, a soft, multi-colored coat, and a long, be-ringed tail with a velvety black tip.
The Crochet Coral Reef Project
May 15, 2013
According to the Institute for Figuring (IFF) web site, this internationally exhibited crochet project is a “woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world.” Read the rest of this entry »
Crochet
May 14, 2013
My grandmother Martha crocheted. Did your grandmother knit or crochet? Do you?
What is it, I wonder, that makes the idea of sitting in a corner with a hook and some colorful yarn suddenly so attractive? Alice isn’t interested, but I am (off and on).
Take a look at these antique crochet hooks (from the collection of Nancy Nehring).
Crochet hooks.
Public Service Announcement
March 28, 2013
A momentary break from regular programming. I feel compelled to say this after watching Alice struggle to understand what a visitor was saying to her the other day, watching her lips move as she tried to decipher the words forming on the visitor’s moving lips, hurting with her over how much she’d missed out on in the conversation after this person left. Read the rest of this entry »
The Rewards of Bloggery
March 21, 2013
Blogger Deborah Barker, who lives across the Pond not far from my favorite British actress/comedienne Dawn French (an irrelevant but interesting fact, at least to me) has nominated me for an award. It’s called the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award,” and by accepting you get one of these badges to post on your site. I will try to live up to it. Many are the days I have not felt inspiring, let alone very inspiring.
Oh, Just Because…
February 6, 2013
Sneezy in sunglasses.
Her name is Sneezy. She allows a Penn State freshman named Mary Krupa to make headgear for her.
Here she is in her propeller beanie.
She has her own Facebook page, and people write articles about her:
More about Sneezy, including a video.
Also, thank goodness it’s February. That’s all I’ve got to say (for the moment).
Freight Train
November 14, 2012
Sometimes a freight train goes by in the middle of the night and shakes the houseboats in their moorings and wakes all of us up when the whistle blows. Read the rest of this entry »
FYI
November 3, 2012
Given the destruction and loss of power in New York, perhaps not many people in the city will be attending events this week, but in case you are there and venture out, consider seeing the film, “The Peasant and the Priest.” This documentary, which I co-wrote with the director, Esther Podemski, will be screened at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 7th, at the Anthology Film Archives Courthouse Theater as part of the New Filmmakers Documentary Series.
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue @ 2nd St
New York City
Summary: The Peasant and the Priest tells the story of two Italian men in their eighties whose ways of life have survived from medieval Italy to the present. Sergio, a sharecropper, uses ancient farming methods that have become overshadowed by corporate agriculture. Father Oreste fights the tide of sexual slavery, which grows each day as more and more women from Africa and Europe are forced into prostitution in Italy. Each man tries to make his contribution to a world that moves relentlessly and carelessly forward. Both represent ways of life that are rapidly fading as the modern world closes in.
Trailer available on the web site: The Peasant and the Priest
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As we drove home from the dentist’s office the other day (see Goodbye to All That), Alice talked about how helpless she felt while watching news of the destruction on the east coast. Like many of us, she was concerned that any money she donated would not be well spent.
I shared with her some information I found online about how to donate wisely. If you plan to donate to hurricane relief, here are some helpful tips you can follow so that your money isn’t wasted.
My choice is the Red Cross for donations: www.redcross.org, or call 1-800-RED-CROSS.
A new Alice post will be coming soon.
Shine On
October 2, 2012
Moon
Open the book of evening to the page
where the moon, always the moon, appears
between two clouds, moving so slowly that hours
will seem to have passed before you reach the next page
where the moon, now brighter, lowers a path
to lead you away from what you have known
into those places where what you had wished for happens,
its lone syllable like a sentence poised
at the edge of sense, waiting for you to say its name
once more as you lift your eyes from the page
and close the book, still feeling what it was like
to dwell in that light, that sudden paradise of sound.
Harvest Moon 2012 (Photograph by Erin Shaw)
I hope you’ve been stepping out for a few minutes each night to take in this majesty.
I’ve been busy preparing a writing class—back soon with more Alice stories.
Women 1 to 100
September 6, 2012
This is quite wonderful. So positive. I may have posted it before when it was available as a poster, but this video is even better.
To learn more about Edouard Janssens and his 1 to 100 Years Project, go here. In the banner across the top of the page, you’ll find a video of men 1 to 100 (he’s #50).
Also, I highly recommend spending a few moments with his amazing project on irises (as in eyes). You’ll never look into an iris quite the same way again.
The Mystery of Meteors
August 30, 2012
After my friend Diane M. read the last two posts (Happy Birthday to Alice and And the Winner Is...), she sent me the following. It speaks to me. I’ve read it over many times these past few days. I thought you might like it, too.
Eleanor
June 24, 2012
Last week a wonderful friend, Eleanor Haas, died suddenly of a stroke. She was eighty-eight. Eleanor was part of a writing group I led for over ten years in her living room. (She disapproved of the original space we’d been assigned at PNCA and thought we needed something more comfortable, plus tea and treats.) Read the rest of this entry »
Two 90+ Yoginis
May 21, 2012
In case you haven’t been inspired lately:
What It Takes
May 12, 2012
I rarely add anything to this blog that is not about Alice, but this video by Antoine Wilson is for the writers out there, as well as for those who may not be interested in writing anything whatsoever but are curious about what it takes to write a novel.
Speaking of Shoes…
March 17, 2012
I have fantasies about visiting this place with Alice and a pack of friends. Toronto, anyone?
Elderly Animals
January 7, 2012
Filmmakers Mark and Angela Walley made a very short film about Isa Leshko, a photographer whose most recent work has focused on elderly animals.
Tell Our Daughters
October 10, 2011
I liked this and thought you might like it too. Read the rest of this entry »
More about Eve
May 11, 2011
Yet another version…
