Smyles & Fish - a museum, sort of

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River Allée (1988)

by April Gornik

Oh dear, I had a student coming in for an appointment, but all I wanted was to explore the magazine journal I'd just discovered on the book giveaway table in the hall on my way to get morning coffee. The "WHILE YOU WERE OUT" note below was inside the front cover. Please read it:

Then I leapt immediately onto the Smyles and Fish website.

What can I tell you about Smyles & Fish? It's a gallery of art (including the painting River Allée (1988) by April Gornik at the top of the post, "Love at the Planetarium" by Neil Swaab, and "L.A. Streetcorner" by Nick Weber, below) and writing that is irreverent and sometimes explosive, painfully creative, original, and insightful the way 4-year-olds are insightful.

For an additional, luxurious treat, click on the artists' names below their works to see their galleries. Wow.

"Love at the Planetarium"

by Neil Swaab

"L.A. Streetcorner"
by Nick Weber

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One of the links at their online "lounge" is for lists. Here's one of their lists, for top 100 Celebrity Baby Names, funny!

Top 100 Celebrity Baby Names

By: Shay Azoulay

Ultramodern
progenitors: Zowie Bowie, Maddox Jolie

1. Tek
2. Zapp
3. Syringe
4. Biofuel
5. Zynk
6. HTTP
7. Podcast
8. Blog
9. Tlön Uqbar
10. Orbis Tertius

Earthy
progenitors: Peaches Geldof, Apple Martin-Paltrow

11. Fungus
12. Spring
13. Crevice
14. Emu
15. Opium
16. Gizzard
17. Dingo
18. Saffron
19. Glacier
20. Pineapple

Geographical
progenitors: Brooklyn Beckham, Ireland Baldwin-Basinger

21. Bulgaria
22. Connecticut
23. Iraq
24. Gibraltar
25. Democratic Republic of the Congo
26. North-Northwest
27. Gaza Strip
28. Horizon
29. River Delta
30. Times Square

Classic
progenitors: Dylan Thomas Brosnan, Gabriel Kane Day-Lewis

31. Brandon / Brenda
32. Hamlet / Ophelia
33. Zorba / Zorbina
34. Rumrunner
35. Speakeasy
36. Gilgamesh
37. Muhammad / Muhammadina
38. Titanic
39. Jesus
40. Leopold / Molly Bloom

Tongue-in-cheek
progenitors: Moon-Unit Zappa, America Hoffman

41. Mini Me
42. Snickers^TM
43. Unconditional Love
44. Career Boost
45. Box-Office Gold
46. Mishap
47. Stupid (if parents have shirt "I'm with stupid")
48. Blank Slate
49. Work in progress
50. Tongue-in-cheek

Musical
progenitors: Melody Depp-Paradis, Lark Song Previn

51. Bluegrass
52. Mezzo Soprano
53. Honk
54. Tom-Tom
55. Fender Stratocaster
56. Xylophone
57. A Cappella
58. Punk
59. Tempo
60. Radiohead

Redneck
progenitors: Sean Preston Spears-Federline, Indiana August Affleck

61. Billy Bob
62. Donna Sue
63. Peggy Anne
64. Duke Earl Count
65. Colette Beretta
66. Pearl Opal
67. Dingus Dermot
68. Trevor Cassidy
69. Buffalo Springfield
70. Crosby Stills Nash Young

Sporty
progenitors: Sailor Brinkley-Cook

71. Jog
72. Steroid
73. Dunk
74. Hockey Puck
75. Homerun
76. Taekwon-Jitsu-Shido
77. Ping-Pong
78. Polo
79. Nascar
80. Rugby

Colors
progenitors: Blue Allman, Jade Jagger

81. Maroon
82. Vermilion
83. Aquamarine
84. Beige
85. Violet
86. Off-White
87. Burgundy
88. Turquoise
89. Cyan
90. Khaki

Exotic
progenitors: Shiloh Pitt-Jolie, Suri Cruise

91. Cashmere
92. Angostura
93. Snuffaluffagus
94. Porcini
95. Glubdubdrib
96. Absinth
97. Mango Chutney
98. Tenochtitlan
99. Ozymandias
100. Kuala Lumpur

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Visualize sleekness (and peace)

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Now that winter is over, words like shorts, tank top, and swimsuit spring to mind. Yikes!

Pasty white legs and, you know, extra . . . softness that I was squeezing into winter clothes.

Another spring word: diet. Oh, and: treadmill (or as Susan says: dreadmill).

But wait, I just read one of the best ideas I've heard about getting fit, and it isn't the Zone or Atkins, Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, macrobiotics or calorie counting. In fact it isn't dieting at all.

It's from the stuff about the law of attraction (such as in the book and film The Secret): What you focus on you attract more of to yourself. Rather than focusing on debt, for instance, focus on abundance. Or if like me, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza (etc., etc.) are driving you nuts, instead of focusing on what you hate about war, focus instead on peace. It really is a shift in perspective. And according to the law, you will begin attracting abundance and peace, or whatever it is you focus on. (I so appreciated Loring's post of the peace rally he participated in in Colorado Springs on the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war for how it focused on peace, and the words of MLK Jr: "Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that; hate only multiplies hate.") This is going to effect how, or if, I will continue to rant at huffing.

So, back to getting fit, "the first thing to know is that if you focus on losing weight, you will attract back having to lose more weight, so get 'having to lose weight' out of your mind. It's the very reason why diets don't work. Because you are focused on losing weight, you must attract back continually having to lose weight." Here's a whole excerpt on fitness from The Secret. Basically, stop blaming food for how you look. Then decide what is the weight you want to be, and visualize yourself at that weight. Start feeling good about your body, and you'll respect it.

That's what that pretty lady taped to our treadmill is representing: the fit me. I'm never going to be 22 again, or look like her, but I must say this has worked so far. When I suddenly crave a PayDay candy bar mid-afternoon between appointments, if I visualize her, the craving fades. I think: she wouldn't eat that right now, so neither will I. (Well she eats one sometimes.) Now I try to go to work prepared with string cheese and an apple for snacks. And on the treadmill, I straighten and lift my spine. Doesn't she have great posture? So do I, darn it!

Now, what to do about pasty white legs?

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Easter

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In the Christian tradition, Easter Sunday is a happy celebration, when life triumphs over death. Winter gives way to spring. Baby animals are born. Christ rises from the dead. Yet as the calendar brings Easter around, I mostly remember the death part from church days, based on Christ’s words, Take up your cross and follow me.

A couple weeks ago my friend Gayla showed me a book she is reading titled Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire “offering a fascinating new lens on the history of Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, asking how its early vision of beauty evolved into a vision of torture, and what changes in society and theology marked that evolution.” What? In the first centuries Christianity focused on beauty? One part of the book explains that before a certain century (can't recall which) there is no art to be found depicting the crucifixion.

Thankfully I didn't grow up during the Inquisition or anything remotely close to it, but there was the cross before us every day. Daily choices between this and that gave opportunity to sacrifice desires and find instead a chance to serve God, people or a greater cause. In other words: death to self. Or: What I feel doesn't matter as much as what God wants. Understandably the result was that feelings and desires became the enemy.

As a person who scored 50 to zero in the feelings vs. thinking section of the Myers Briggs personality profile - that's 50 on the feelings end of the spectrum and -0- on the thinking end (no comments from the peanut gallery, please) - this teaching that my feelings didn't count for much was painful. I never quite got the hang of it. For instance, I couldn't run on the track team when the coach invited me, because track practice was on Wednesday nights, and we had prayer meeting at church that night. As a preacher's kid, you have to be in church whenever the doors are open, as an example to the congregation. Eventually, questions about the whole ball of wax led me away from church, back to what I had always felt down deep, even as a child: that I wanted the roots of spirituality, the cosmic “laws” undergirding all of Nature, not the human rules interpreted from sacred texts in any one religion, and often used to control people's behavior.

As beautiful as religious celebrations can be, when you stop following, it’s tempting to throw them out because they no longer bear the same weight of meaning, or because they have been co-opted by commercial enterprise to sell the next stack of goods in grocery store aisles. This Easter, I am trying to tune out old mental tapes and mantras and re-discover the essence at the heart of this holiday that reflects the cycles and laws of Nature. Some symbols remain - eggs, a sunrise, a baby chick - because they are Nature's markers for release from the dark of winter and death. Do I sound Pagan and goddess-y? Well maybe you do too if you color Easter eggs or fill baskets with chocolate eggs for your kids, or even use the word “Easter” since that word came from the Pagan goddess of birth and renewal “Oester” (or the Babylonian “Ishtar”). Check out this site about Easter, eggs and bunnies and their Pagan roots.

The point of Easter is: It's a new day. Live it fresh, live it alive, live it in harmony. No enemies allowed.

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design New York

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When I'm with our designer daughter in New York, I recognize my own love of design.

When I made quilts, it was designing them that brought the most joy. Secondary was the feel of the cotton and needle, and the weight of the pile of fabric in my lap. Primary was the juxtaposition of colors and patterns.

Even on the flight out to NYC, it was the patchwork below that pulled on me.



Arriving in her apartment in Queens while she and Brian were at work gave us a chance to snoop around and see how the tight space was stacked for storage. I find it very satisfying.





We got to see her office in Manhattan too, and the relatively small space was efficiently organized, with a human touch.





After her office it was Peking Duck in Chinatown. Talk about patterns and color!



Below is the window of a chopsticks store.




Although we didn't make it to any of the art museums (not yet, ever), we did get to the American Museum of Natural History, which has its own designs on display. Such intricacies in Nature's patterns, such as this python skeleton.



And in Central Park, one day in the rain, and another in the sun, more color and pattern.





And then back home in the Queens neighborhood where there is lots more pattern in small spaces. I had to run out of the restaurant where we were eating brunch to ask these girls' dad if I could take their picture.



Today Lesley's at work half a day, and we're giving Brian time and space to work at home. After we play some Catan tonight we will watch the final game of the NCAA tournament's Final Four, with our beloved MSU playing North Carolina (President Obama's pick to win in his bracket), so keep your fingers crossed for the Spartan GREEN!

After some wonderful time with our daughter and her fiance we head back home to the farm tomorrow (Tuesday) - where Peter will be waiting for us, home from his Caribbean gig. From one joy to another!

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ode to brown

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It's possible that one reason I am drawn to old treasures, the earth included, is a love of brown. Ah leather-bound book, let me feel your moist density, antique clock - your wormholes, crinkled white pages - your age spots.

Many colors are enhanced when paired with brown, have you noticed? Pink and white petals edge closer to appear more beautiful.

Bare branches against a blue sky, yellow forsythia blossoms on a khaki twig, a chocolate calf saddled in white lace teetering in a grassy field.

There is the glow of polished mahogany, copper, brass and hand thrown pottery, or the fleeciness of pussy willow buds, striped feathers, fur and corduroys. How about the smooth shine of knotty pine, or a button? Crisp texture of dried leaves or timeless yet changing shades of rock formations, the depth and layers of a squirrel perched on a tree hanging over a silty river. The deep, rich stripes of a farmer's furrows.

In the popularity of all things vintage, sepia photographs enjoy a major comeback. Is it because in the proliferation of technology we crave nostalgia?

Ironic, isn't it, that new technologies such as Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom help us turn our images back to an aesthetic created within the limitations of older technologies, before color photography was available to the public?

Our son Peter, in the middle above, in an image he processed in Lightroom, and his grandmother (my mom) below in a Bachrach portrait.

Dear brown, you recede and calm me, belying the life moving in you.

~ ~ ~ ~

Don and I are off to NYC Thursday for five days with our Lesley and Brian - HAPPY DAYS. I'll catch up with you soon!

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Grandpa Sidney, part 2

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In February I wrote a post about my grandfather, Sidney Bennett, aka Wynn the Astrologer, with Harold Lloyd. After that a friend asked if I would post the other photos I have of Sidney in Hollywood. So here you go.

In the top photo my mother's father is on the film horse Silver King, star of 1920s and 30s Westerns. Silent movie cowboy hero Fred Thomson (not to be confused with another actor and Congressman Fred Thompson), stands next to his co-starring horse. If Fred Thomson hadn't died of tetanus at age 38, he might have had a more lasting legacy than Tom Mix. He's pretty much forgotten today, but in his day Thomson was known as "the World's Greatest Western Star." This photo had to be taken within a few years of his death in 1928, since my grandparents divorced in 1922, after which Sidney moved to Hollywood. Thomson created controversy when he played Jesse James in 1928, because of his sympathetic portrayal of the villain. There were still people around who remembered the not-so-good-old days of the James Gang!

Below is a dilapidated publicity photo of Grandpa Sidney with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Again, as in the photo of Sidney with Harold Lloyd, he is holding Fairbanks' astrological chart. I don't know who wrote on this photo, but on the back is also written "why men leave Bayonne" - alluding to the city in New Jersey where Sidney had settled with my grandmother - Grandma Olive, and where my mother grew up (though like Sidney she was born in Chicago). I assume this was for a newspaper piece about Sidney in a New York or Bayonne newspaper.

Fairbanks Jr. was the son of silent film swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks and apparently never intended to take up acting like his father, but he did and acted in 100 films! But that wasn't enough for Douglas Jr., which you can read at his bio in his name link above. For instance, he launched a London hospital for war refugees during WWII and became quite a philanthropist by the end of his life.

I don't know who the director on the left is, as there were several different men who directed Fairbanks movies in the 1920s.

I leave you with a montage of still images of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. At about minute 3:15, has a woman ever been more gorgeous than Rita Hayworth?

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It's not so hard being GREEN

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My University is a flagship institution in the Earth Hour event, scheduled tomorrow (subject of my last post) - Saturday (always the last Saturday of March) - at 8:30pm local time worldwide. Earth Hour has been linked to the upcoming 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December. Regardless of whether you agree that human activity has been one of the main players in climate change, prioritizing and cultivating a respectful attitude toward our gorgeous planet and the natural kingdom can't be bad, can it? And to anyone who scoffs at being green as trendy . . . Huh? Isn't this the kind of trend we want? Trends can become habits that after a while we don't even think about. Cool!

Today at noon Inge and I shut down our computers and lights and walked with about 40 others from Spartan Stadium to Beaumont Tower as part of the DIM DOWN "be green" walk, to bring attention to tomorrow's event and to climate change.

Ashley, Yvette and Lauren planned today's walk.

Inge and I were surprised at the turnout. On a campus of 40,000 students and almost as many employees, we hoped for more.

Another GREEN event: Tonight the MSU Spartans men's basketball team plays Kansas in the "Sweet Sixteen" (16 teams left of 64, plus a couple of wildcard teams) round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) championship tournament. Hope I can stay awake - it's on TV late. As long as Tom Izzo has been coach, every player who has played four years on the team has gone to the Final Four (this year right here in Detroit 8 days from now), the final showdown of the last four teams standing. This is the one and only sports team I care about. Give me college sports any day over pro!

Ok, sorry to all of you who couldn't care less! :D

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