HOME

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Trying to stay informed and sane at the same time seems impossible. Just when I'd spent five days following the Iran protests (even started a Twitter account to do that), I watched a movie about how close our planet is to being utterly depleted. By us. At the Group of 8, China and India refuse to commit to a plan to reduce carbon emissions and lower the global temperature by two degrees. Remember who else refused to participate not too long ago? Oh yeah, there are other problems in the world too (stretching my neck side to side, right shoulder, then left). I don't mean to be harping on this being overwhelmed thing. It is what it is: a devastating, overwhelming planet.

Peter in Paris had told me it was to be June 5 - World Environment Day - when Yann Arthus-Bertrand (of the NGO GoodPlanet) would release his film HOME that had taken 18 months to shoot in 54 countries entirely from a helicopter and is completely copyright free and not-for-profit. I could have watched it then on my computer, or on TV, but I waited for it on my Netflix queue.




In the first few minutes the photography was gorgeous, but the pace felt plodding and the mystical Gaya music a tedious cliche. I started folding laundry, telling myself to stick with it, it was my duty. Then Glenn Close's voice and Arthus-Bertrand's saturated images slowed me down seductively, horrifyingly.




I left the pile of towels and took a seat. Don too sat down to watch and listen. As we watched we continuously paused the DVD to absorb what had just been said or shown, to lock eyes in stunned disbelief, or to discuss.

Synopsis

In 200,000 years on earth humanity has upset the balance of the planet, established by nearly four billion years of evolution. The price to pay is high, but it's too late to be a pessimist: humanity has barely ten years to reverse the trend, become aware of the full extent of its spoilation of the Earth's riches and change its patterns of consumption. By bringing us unique footage from over fifty countries, all seen from the air, by sharing with us his wonder and his concern, with this film Yann Arthus-Bertrand lays the foundation stone for the edifice that, together, we must rebuild.

The photography itself is extraordinary art. Entirely shot from a bird's eye view, some scenes appear artificial, such as the iceberg island in the top photo or the heart below.



Like me, you'll choose to watch this or not. But let me say, I thought it would be "preaching to the choir." I mean, I'm already convinced we have to change our carbon emitting and consumer driven ways. But this film puts visuals on the data, and it's chilling.

The movie HOME isn't just about eating sustainably and locally grown food, but it's one issue I can focus on. I am more convinced than ever to buy every morsel of food locally that I can. One protein source for us that uses land more efficiently than beef or pork (as for chicken, Don raises our own) : Michigan beans. Check out a big list of delicious-sounding recipes from the Michigan Bean Commission (which allows no GMOs, by the way). One of them is below, though I haven't tried it yet.

I was happy to learn from some post-HOME-movie digging that wild caught Pacific salmon is pretty much sustainable. I'm still not in love with having it shipped all the way from Alaska to my door in Michigan, but at least it's riding on a plane with a lot of other goods. I hope.

It's an overwhelming planet we live on. It has abilities to heal itself in ways we haven't discovered yet, almost miraculously with its dazzling Life. I hope it isn't too late for us human beans.

Navy Beans and Eggplant Curry


1 (16-ounce) can navy Beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons oil, divided
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 cup vegetable stock
2 carrots, sliced
2 cups potatoes, diced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
2 cups onions, chopped
2 cups cauliflower florets
2 medium zucchini, sliced
2 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped, reserving liquid
1/4 cup raisins
8 tablespoons plain lowfat yogurt

PREPARATION
Place eggplant cubes in a colander and sprinkle evenly with salt. Set aside for 30 minutes to dry. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet. Add eggplant and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Remove eggplant from pan and set aside. Heat remaining oil in skillet and add curry, cumin, garlic, and pepper. Stir in stock, and cook for 2 minutes. Add carrots, potatoes, green pepper, onions, and cauliflower. Cover and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. Return the eggplant to the pan and add beans, zucchini tomatoes, and raisins. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with a dollop of yogurt.

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empty

Empty


I am always emptying something -
compost buckets, watering cans, coffee grounds,
refrigerator fruit drawer.

I empty things and they refill as if by magic.

The sink fills with dishes waiting for the dishwasher
to be emptied, dishes stacked in a cupboard
soon to be dirtied again.

Sometimes I sit and stare

at unopened work emails with a subject line
URGENT!!!!!

paralyzed, lacking will to finish one cycle and begin
a new one, opening up space
for another to enter
the emptiness

Emptiness that pulls at me
with primordial longing
as if it has existed forever
for just a moment or two.

Note: First I was thinking about an "empty mind" - wondering if you could take a picture of an empty mind, what would it look like? It was too esoteric. Then this came.

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golden raspberries

These beauties are growing amid the pines at the edge of the orchard where Lesley is getting married in a few weeks. They are a natural variant of red raspberries, which I eat most mornings with other berries in plain yogurt for breakfast. Raspberry preserves with the seeds spread on Monterey Jack cheese is a snack I remember eating in college. Very yum. I just ate a golden raspberry, and it was tart and not very tasty. Maybe it's not quite ready yet. But it wasn't as bad as raspberry flavored cough syrup.

The Golden Raspberries are also "awards" for the worst of Hollywood. Last year's big "winner" was Mike Myers' The Love Guru - worst picture, worst actor and worst screenplay. I didn't see it, did you? And worst actress was Paris Hilton in The Hottie and the Nottie. That last one was actually pretty good, I thought. And the plot is fascinating, about a man who wants to woo a beautiful woman (Paris) but her not-so-hot best friend is an obstacle.

Um, I didn't really see it.

If you have a few minutes, it's fun to browse the Wiki site for the Razzies and see the connections between the Oscars and the Razzies (which are awarded the day before the Oscars). The site shows many actors and filmmakers who won or were nominated for Oscars and Razzies in the same year. For instance, Jack Nicholson was nominated for worst actor in 1992 for his roles in both "Hoffa" and "Man Trouble" but was also nominated for Best Supporting actor that year for "A Few Good Men."

Have you ever walked out of a movie at the theater because it was so bad? We walked out of "Congo" when Tim Curry's character Herkemer Homolka said "Liar, liar pants on fire." Even our kids looked at us in disbelief. Hey, I just looked up "Congo" on the Golden Raspberries site and it got worst picture for 1995, Tim Curry got worst supporting actor and John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of Michael Chrichton's book got the worst screenplay award. Ha!

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posterization

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My brother Bennett, who died in 1996, would be gaga over technology now. He had a personal computer before most people and was close friends with one of the early technicians of the Internet (no, not Al Gore). Besides being a computer geek he was a stellar amateur photographer who serves as inspiration for everyone in my family who takes pictures. As a 14-year-old I sat on the floor of our parents' living room spellbound watching slides from his college trip to Europe in 1970, especially captivated by Lautterbrunnen, Switzerland, a tiny hamlet in the narrowest and deepest valley in the world at the foot of the Jungfrau. (I was so smitten I took the same study abroad trip five years later.) Then after he graduated college he used to stay up all night developing photographs in the dark room he'd set up in Mom and Dad's basement.

One of my favorite projects was when he posterized photos, including one he took of Rembrandt's Dutchmasters painting in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. The original is above, and Bennett's posterized image is at the right. It's very 1970s-looking. (Sorry, my photo of it has some lamp flare.)

Posterization - which can be intentional or not - is when tones that are gradual in a photo become more abrupt and distinct with flat areas of contrast. When it happens by accident and is unwanted, it's called "banding." When it's intentional, think Andy Warhol's silkscreen of Marilyn Monroe, below. Actually the process of posterization reminds me of silkscreening.

When Bennett did posterization purposely in his dark room, he had to create several separate high contrast negatives and positives for each layer of contrast. It took hours to create one posterized image. The negatives and positives have to be paired and aligned on the photographic paper. I remember several piles of discarded attempts with misaligned layers of color scattered around the darkroom floor.

I often wonder if Bennett were alive, what he would think of digital cameras and digital photo processing. He was so fastidious about his film images, would he have chafed at the easy manipulations I do on PhotoShop and picnik? And would he prefer that particular quality of film that is lost in digital? I appreciate film photographs, but I'm grateful I don't have to practice on film and can delete thousands of digital images without a care for expense.

My preference for a photograph is an image as close to what the eye sees as possible, but it is also fun to play with processing and create an image that enhances what you see in some way. I almost always adjust levels of light and dark and contrast before posting photographs.

Here is an untouched digital photograph of a clematis flower on our farm.















This second image is after cropping it in PhotoShop to make a more pleasing composition (although I kinda like it uncropped too), adjusting levels of light and dark, as well as some highlight/shadow adjustment. Then on picnik I used the Orton effect then desaturated it a little.

Below is my posterization of the clematis flower done on picnik. Still at picnik I added frames and then did that "tearing up" of the frame I like doing on PhotoScape.

I recognize and appreciate beauty in other people's work that I will probably never replicate - either because I lack their imaginative powers (for instance rauf for his eye, skill and human connection, and Claudia, for her craft, composition and imagination), or because their style isn't my style, though I might still love their work, like Garry Winogrand.

I am not a trained photographer. I use "auto" settings most of the time and am hopeless at learning the rules about aperture and the rest. The way pianists "play by ear" I "shoot by eye"with a camera. But until I take Photography 101, I guess passing a quiz isn't important.

If you want to play and pay use Adobe PhotoShop, or you can use free downloads like PhotoScape and online tools such as picnik. There are many other tools, and if you use one and want to share, please leave info in a comment.

Here is a quote from David Bailey (extraordinary work), to remind myself (but not to reflect negatively on my dear painter friends who need insight and imagination too):

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you can learn to see the extraordinary.

Here is Bennett in a rare photo.

Man, I wish I could talk with him.

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A white moth shoots past

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A white moth shoots past

as if blown
from goldenrod to grass,

and on the path a leaf lies,
yellow, a fallen wing.

Just this morning
I too was flying

like the leaf
that had been carrying the poplar

on its back
as ants do

that lift
their own weight times one thousand.

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Today is my mom's birthday

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. . . and Father's Day was Sunday, so let me remember them with a photo of the three of us. I think it was the year I turned three, making it 1959. I am the youngest of their eight children. Being forty when I was born they were old enough to be my grandparents. In 8th grade that embarrassed me when my classmates' parents seemed half their age at our school open house. Then again, when I was in 8th grade nearly everything embarrassed me.

One thing that strikes me about the photo is our three distinct facial expressions.

My father's smile seems stagy - the pastor, the preacher, the performer who had to please everyone and was ever diplomatic. He is the only one looking away from the camera. Maybe a parishioner caught his eye, one of the poor he cared for so well. Or maybe one of my brothers was acting up. He had just preached his weekly sermon and was no doubt exhausted. (I recall him practicing his sermons Saturday nights pacing the long upstairs hall.) He slept Sunday afternoons, preached again Sunday night and rested on Mondays. You can't tell of course, but his hair was red, and his voice Virginian - soft, lilting Southern with grace. I love the way he said, Mrs. Culpepper: "Mrs. Culpeppah."

Believe it or not, I remember feeling grumpy on this Sunday, after church. No doubt I needed a nap after playing hard in the nursery. I was normally a happy child, but I distinctly remember willfully not smiling for the camera even though I was being urged to. And I've remembered it because it got embedded in my Christian-guilt-ridden brain's memory. Nowadays I joke that I felt grumpy because I had to go to church at all - let alone three times a week. I wonder if my photographer brother Bennett shot this with a Kodak Instamatic when he was about 11. Or it might have been shot by a church member. I do know that ivy was growing on the side of our brick church in Grand Ledge, and this seems like a special occasion - maybe Easter? But where are my siblings?

My mother's smile is a moonbeam -- look how beautiful she is in her goofy '50s perm and nerdy glasses. I saw a family movie of her when she was 12 - called "Bobbie" then, and she flashed this same triumphant smile under a straight shiny bob - as she bounced like a puppy around her staid parents. She leaped into being Best Athlete in all her schools, including college - playing field hockey, tennis, swimming and basketball. In this image of her I see a woman who is spent after playing piano for the church service, leading the choir, being the perfect pastor's wife and mother of eight, on her way home to put dinner for ten on the table. I remember having either roast beef or roast leg of lamb on Sundays, and peppermint candy ice cream with real chunks of hard candy for dessert with every place set perfectly (by us kids) with the fork, knife, spoon and napkin in their proper positions. But that was only until I spilt my milk - invariably - and everyone grabbed their tableware and placemats out of the white river, letting it drip between the table leaves. Then I ran from the table bawling with embarrassment and humiliation. Is it any wonder I am only now becoming a confident person? (Thank you, friends and family.)

My father died in 1995 at age 78, Mom died in 1997 when she was almost 80. Bennett the photographer died the year in between at age 47. Today Mom would be 93, and Sunday Bennett would be 61. I feel them acutely, as if birthday balloons are bobbing inside, urging me to smile.

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more inspiration, antiques, oddities and a memory

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I am not immune to the pleasure of treasure hunting, even though my husband is the king. But after years decades of antiquing, flea marketing and garage sale-ing I don't have the drive for the hunt any more. Neither do we have room for more things.

However there is one store that will get me out of the Aveo even on the hottest of days (like Sunday/Father's Day this week) for a dose of inspiration. In our little resort town of Saugatuck (two hours away), gorgeously seated on the Kalamazoo River close to Lake Michigan - resembling Hyannis or Yarmouth on Cape Cod - is Amsterdam Antiques & Oddities on an acre of land that erupts with beauteous artifacts both new and old.





Modes of display inspire with surprise and simplicity - like these new cups nestled in a wire basket at least 50 years old. Many displays are outdoors under a porch roof.

New items are extremely inexpensive - like teacups and saucers imported from England that run $8 for service for 12 - while vintage ones are pricey, but probably still well below market value. (I didn't find a price on the cups above, or these sweet pitchers overflowing from drawers in what looks like might be an old post office or general store cabinet. I'm guessing a mere $3.)



I have found innovative serving platters for less than $10 in the past, like this one for serving pesto.



Inside one of two Amsterdam buildings (the other has mostly new goods), there are more antiques and novelties. I never had pompons on my ice skates like these, but I thought they looked fetching on my sister's twirling skates. You have to skate well to wear pompons, or you look ridiculous. (Loring, did you iceskate downtown G.L. on the ice-covered baseball diamond under the bridge by the river, at night under lights to Petula Clark singing "Downtown" over loudspeakers? If you did, I'm guessing you didn't wear pompons either, and in fact maybe you were with the boys behind the rope playing that dreaded hockey? Somehow I don't picture that, though. And did we circle each other, not having met? Or was that you who pulled off my 5-foot-long trailing stocking cap??)



Oh! Look who I found entering stage right out of the theater pillars, Hamlet's ghost! Oh, no it's Don. Phew. We managed to leave without purchasing this set (didn't see the price, but I'm guessing around $1500), or anything else, but we both left with fresh inspiration for designing the farm wedding.



I leave you with sexy Petula Clark singing "Downtown" in 1964. From this awesome video I'm pretty sure of two things: 1) The male dancers are wearing pompons on their shoes; and 2) Mike Myers studied this video for his Austin Powers choreography. If you miss the first couple of seconds, please rewind and start it again. But there will be more to come in the short two minutes.

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