Blog No. 184: Pete Muller House Concert, Practical Things You Might Find Useful, More Mary Oliver

June 28, 2024

CORRECTION: Sonabai Rajawar: Indian Folk Artist coming next week

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links. And scroll all the way down for previous blog entries.

Pete Muller House Concert

I held a really cool house concert last Sunday with Pete Muller and his band the Kindred Souls (Martha McDonnell on violin, Andy Mac on drums). I got the idea many years ago when I attended a David Bromberg concert in the Ann Arbor living room of Dave and Linda Siglin--they called their place The Ark (after Noah). The Ark still exists but now in a much more official, larger space...At that time, and still now, they attract the big names in the singer/songwriter folk roots blues genre...

I hosted my first house concert just before the pandemic--I had my friend Sloan Wainwright come play in my living room and it was a big success. I wanted to continue the trend but covid got in the way. When Pete Muller put out a call that he loves doing house concerts, I jumped at the occasion.

I personally love this informal approach. It is the way I sell my art, going into people's living rooms and showing my work in that informal setting--it is the direct contact with an audience and the intimacy that has meaning for me (and obviously for Pete too).

I took some video which I will share with you here. And if you like what you hear (they are really good!) and you are in NYC on July 10th, you may want to catch them at Joe's Pub. They are playing all over these days so check out their facebook and instagram for more information and future concerts.

Practical Things You Might Find Useful

Here are a few practical life tips I didn't know. Hope one of these comes in handy for you too one day.

And here are a few more:

How to Grow Vegetables from Vegetables

How to Easily Hang a Picture

A few more general tips

How to Put on a Duvet Cover

Miracle White Vinegar

Natural Bug Repellent

Dogfish by Mary Oliver

I just can't resist sharing these Mary Oliver poems I come across. So beautifu, so seemingly simple and yet so profound. And accessible...

DOGFISH
By Mary Oliver

Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing
 kept flickering in with the tide
 and looking around.
 Black as a fisherman’s boot,
 with a white belly.

If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile
 under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin,
 which was rough
 as a thousand sharpened nails.
And you know
 what a smile means,
 don’t you?

I wanted the past to go away, I wanted
 to leave it, like another country; I wanted
 my life to close, and open
 like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song
 where it falls
 down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;
 I wanted
 to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,
whoever I was, I was
alive
 for a little while.
It was evening, and no longer summer.
 Three small fish, I don’t know what they were,
 huddled in the highest ripples
 as it came swimming in again, effortless, the whole body
 one gesture, one
black sleeve
 that could fit easily around
 the bodies of three small fish.

Also I wanted
 to be able to love. And we all know
 how that one goes,
 don’t we?
Slowly

the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.
You don’t want to hear the story
 of my life, and anyway
 I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen
to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.
And anyway it’s the same old story – – –
 a few people just trying,
 one way or another,
 to survive.
Mostly, I want to be kind.
 And nobody, of course, is kind,
 or mean,
 for a simple reason.
And nobody gets out of it, having to
 swim through the fires to stay in
 this world.

And look! look! look! I think those little fish
 better wake up and dash themselves away
 from the hopeless future that is
 bulging toward them.

And probably,
 if they don’t waste time
 looking for an easier world,
they can do it.
-– Mary Oliver

Photo of the Week

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 183: Usonia Video, National Dance Institute Event of the Year, Two Strawberry Recipes

June 21, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links. And scroll all the way down for previous blog entries.

Usonia Video

Many of you know that I grew up in a cooperative community called Usonia, founded by Frank Lloyd Wright and disciples of his in the 1940s. It was a truly unique place! Last summer many of us past and future inhabitants gathered to celebrate 80 years of this amazing community that endures to this day.

I felt it was very important not to let this opportunity go by so we hired a film crew to come shoot footage to document the event and conduct interviews with Usonians, past and present.

It has been a long time coming but we finally have a short video/teaser which is an overview of the community and what it means to all of us that have been connected to it over the years...

Have a look and let me know your thoughts. I welcome the feedback! My hope is that turns into a bigger project...

National Dance Institue Event of the Year Excerpts

These videos below are really worth watching!

Just coming off a high of spending the weekend immersed in the wonder that is National Dance Institute, New York's premier non-profit arts education organization that brings children together through inclusive dance and music programs in the New York City public schools and beyond.
This week was the performances of their Celebrations and SWAT teams entitled Earth Song. It was the culmination of a year of study on the environment. Below are a few videos for you to feast on--there is nothing like seeing them live but this will have to suffice. I have seen them perform ever since my daughter particpated in their amazing program beginning 21 years ago. I can honestly say I only missed one or two annual events that take place every Father's Day weekend. If you are in town then next year or thereafter, you won't want to miss it. People literally walk out of there saying this is the best thing I have seen in NY this year, not just the best kid's program...It is a shot of joy straight into the heart...

2 Strawberry Recipes

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
by Betty Crocker (remember her!)

INGREDIENTS
4 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/3 cups Bisquick™ Original Pancake & Baking Mix
2/3 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

INSTRUCTIONS
Heat oven to 425°F.
In large bowl, mix strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar; set aside.
In medium bowl, stir Bisquick™ mix, milk, 3 tablespoons sugar and the butter until soft dough forms.
On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by 6 spoonfuls.
Bake 16 to 17 minutes or until golden brown.
Meanwhile, in small bowl, beat whipping cream with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.
Split warm shortcakes; fill and top with strawberries and whipped cream.

STRAWBERRY GINGER LIMEADE
by Millie Peartree
Courtesy New York Times Cooking

INGREDIENTS Yield: 8 servings
1 tablespoon zest and 1½ cups juice from 12 to 14 large limes, plus 1 for garnishing
¾cup honey
1(3-inch) piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 cup mint leaves picked from 1 bunch
1 pint strawberries, hulled and quartered
Ice, for serving

PREPARATION *
1 combine lime juice, honey and 4 cups water in a large pitcher. *

2 To a blender or food processor, add ginger, ½ the mint leaves, all the zest and ½ cup water, and blend until smooth. Using a fine-mesh sieve, strain the mixture into the pitcher, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. *

3 In the same blender or food processor (no need to clean), add strawberries and ½ cup water. Blend until smooth and strain into the pitcher. Stir and chill until ready to serve. *

4 Taste for sweetness and add more honey (or sugar) if need be. Muddle remaining mint leaves in glasses, add ice and pour limeade over. Garnish with slices of lime.

Painting of the Week

Orange Fantasy mixed media on canvas 60” x 40”

Charity of the Week:

Blog No. 182: Krista Tippett Interview with Ross Gay, An Interesting Reincarnation Story, Songs I am Listening to These Days

June 16, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links. And scroll all the way down for previous blog entries.

Still time to attend this joyous performance…click image for tickets

On Being: Ross Gay, On the Insistence of Joy

When I am in search of wisdom, Krista Tippett, creator of the podcast On Being is someone I often turn to. She introduces me to many interesting people, and through the interviews she conducts, I walk away a little wiser.

In this week's episode, she poses the question: How can we possibly be joyful at a time like this? If you seek the answer to this question like me, you might want to listen to this interview with Ross Gay, poet, essayist, gardener, professor, and ex-college football player Ross Gay.

ODE TO SLEEPING IN MY CLOTHES
by Ross Gay

And though I don’t mention it
to my mother
or the doctors
with their white coats
it is, in fact,
a great source of happiness,
for me, as I don’t
even remove my socks,
and will sometimes
even pull up my hood
and slide my hands deep
in my pockets
and probably moreso
than usual look as if something
bad has happened
my heart blasting a last somersault
or some artery parting
like curtains in a theatre
while the cavalry of blood
comes charging through
except unlike
so many of the dead
I must be smiling
there in my denim
and cotton sarcophagus
slightly rank from the day
it is said that Shostakovich slept
with a packed suitcase beneath
his bed and it is said
that black people were snatched
from dark streets and made experiments
of and you and I
both have family whose life
savings are tucked 12 feet beneath
the Norway maple whose roots
splay like the bones
in the foot of man
who was walked to Youngstown, Ohio
from Mississippi without sleeping
or keeping his name
and it’s a miracle
maybe I almost never think of
to rise like this
and simply by sliding my feet into my boots
while the water for coffee
gathers its song
be in the garden
or on the stoop
running, almost,
from nothing.

An Interesting Reincarnation Story to Consider

I found this story on Facebook in a group called Signs of Reincarnation: Experiences and Research that I joined a while ago. It is hosted by a man named Jim Matlock, someone like me fascinated with this subject and unlike me, has become a real expert in the field. This particular anecdote was written in by a woman named Anne Ward and it struck me as particularly compelling. Judge for yourself:

"My adult son brought a young lady he was seeing over to my house one evening. We were talking about various subjects when out of the blue she said, "I have something to ask you. I understand you have abilities and I need help with something that has been bothering me for years. " She went on to say that she knew she had lived in the south in a previous life and she felt she had lived during the 1960s because she recalled watching tv shows that were only in the 60s and she remembered many other things about her childhood. She felt that she had lived in either Alabama or Georgia. She had never been to either state and was born in Arizona. She said she remembered having long red hair because she drowned in a swimming hole and she could see her hair flowing in the water as she was drowning. She also recalled that she was a young teenager when it occured."

At first I didn't know how to help her so I told her that I would mediate and see if anything came to me. Later, I did a meditation and requested help. Quite unexpectedly, a message came from the other side that her name was Joy Morgan (I'm not listing her real name) and that she died in 1978 in the state of Georgia. I was excited and immediately began my research the following day. It took some time but I found the grave in Georgia through a great website called Find a Grave The name and the age were spot on. I contacted the newpaper in Augusta GA and asked them for a copy of the obituary. Still, it didn't say how she died. I then contacted the name of the person who entered the memorial info on the cemetary site and she was very forthcoming with info. She said that Joy was her first cousin and that she was a zany kid with long red hair. The 14 year old had gone with a friend to a local swimming hole (common in the southern countryside). She wanted to get the attention of some boys there by pretending she was drowning and she actually couldn't swim well. She went under and didn't come up. The red hair was the clincher. I knew for sure that it had to be her. Another interesting tidbit....her initials then and her initials now are the same, except in different order. Her photo was on the site and there is a resemblance in the eyes. I continued and found her old residence and copied the photo. I showed it to her to see her response and her first reaction was, "that's the tree I used to play in." She was amazed and so relieved to know that her memories and feelings were now authenticated. I feel this is truly a verifiable case. I have others with family and pets but this one is unique

A Few of the Songs I am Listening to These Days

Theme Song from Big Little Lies

James Blunt & Iam Tongi, Monsters

Michael Kiwanuka Cold Little Heart

John Hiatt What Do We Do Now

Bruce Hornsby Big Swing Face (the whole album)

Shakira, Hips Don't Lie

Leonard Cohen sung by Jennifer Warnes, First We Take Manhattan

George Harrison, sung by Astrid Samuelsen, Beware of Darkness

Los Lobos, Kiko and the Lavender Moon

Uniontown (whole album)

Tracy Chapman, All That You Have is Your Soul

Sergio Mendes, Mas Que Nada

Painting of the Week

Charity of the Week:

Blog No. 181: Ezra (the Movie), Nobel Laureates Doris Lessing and Kazuo Ishiguro, Art by Diana Arcadipone and Susan Hostetler

June 8, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links. And scroll all the way down for previous blog entries.

It’s that time of the year when I look forward to National Dance Institute’s Event of the Year! Don’t miss this—one of the wonders of New York City…Trust me—you won’t be sorry…

Ezra, The Movie

Went to the movies last night--my friend called spur of the moment to see if I wanted to go--and I realized it had been a long time since I was in an actual movie theatre...it really does beat netflix at home...And by sheer coincidence, or I prefer synchronicity, the movie theatre was designed by the same architect, Benjamin Schlanger, who designed the Waldo Theatre, where I go often for concerts, in Waldoboro, Maine....

I had no idea what the film was about but EZRA is a sensitive tale about a comedian (Max) and his ex-wife coming to grips with the struggles of raising an autistic child (Ezra), whom they love dearly. Trying to do the best and protect their kid, they are "forced to confront difficult decisions about his future, which leads the father (maybe on the scale himself) and his son to flee on a cross-country road trip. This has a transcendent impact on all of their lives."

EZRA is not an easy film to watch (I had to cover my eyes a few times, not because of violence but because of emotional pain), but the movie does have moments of humor carefully laced in to provide some relief. Robert DeNiro puts in a commanding performance as Ezra's grandfather, as does Bobbie Cannavale (the father Max) and his real life partner Rose Byrne (the mother Jenna). Whoopi Goldberg has a small part as Max's agent but the star of the show is William A. Fitzgerald, a first time actor who in real life is autistic.

I don't want to give the whole story away but suffice it to say that the film, as described by Deadline Magazine is "a touching testament ot the power of love", and it moves us and presents what I think is a realistic and very tender nuanced portrait: of autism, the entire family and what they are all going through. What makes EZRA even more compelling is the fact that it is based on a true story and is a labor of love between the director, Tony Goldwyn, and his real life best friend, screenwriter Tony Spiridakis, whose son is autistic.

There aren't many movies like this these days anymore--they were popular in the sixties and seventies but now the movie houses go for the big bang blockbusters and the sensitive, emotional pieces just don't sell out and bring in the big bucks...I am hoping to see more movies like this in the future.

Nobel Laureates Doris Lessing and Kazuo Ishiguro

Here are some thoughts on two of my favorite writers: Doris Lessing and Kazuo Ishiguro. What they have in common is that they are both Nobel Prize Laureates so I give myself credit for knowing how to pick them...

I have read multiple books from each of these authors but the two that stand out for me are Shikasta, Doris Lessing's foray into science fiction with her Canopus in Argos series (actually canned by many critics but I just found out through an interview that she thought were among her best) and the classic Remains of the Day, also made into a movie starring Anthony Hopkins, by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Doris Lessing does not have a conventional mind and has written many series of books exploring the themes of male/female relationships, political disillusionment, and the social and political issues of our time. All I can say about Shikasta is that it really had a major impact on me and in fact what used to cause me great angst by the end of the book gave me great comfort--not about the future of our particular planet but of the expansiveness of the universe..."Blending myth, fable and allegory, Lessing's astonishing visionary creation both reflects and redefines the history of our own world from its earliest beginnings to an inevitable, tragic self-destruction." As is often the case, science fiction can be a predictor of the future and it will be interesting for me to reread this book (it was originally published in 1979) to see if that is true. I fear it is...

Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day brings us back to earth in a slow moving, profound reflection on what it is like to be human, aging, and to look back and question one's life. Seen through the eyes of a butler that has sacrified his body and soul to service, it is a moving story that explores themes of dignity, integrity and emotional repression....

Both these authors are interested in the need for individuals to "confront their fundamental assumptions about life in order to transcend preconceived belief systems and acquire self-awareness." Their work has stuck with me, even though I have read their books many years ago. I find myself wanting to revisit them again...

Here are some interviews if you are interested in delving further:

Doris Lessing on Dreams and the Unconscious
Doris Lessing long interview.

And Kazuo Ishiguro interview about Remains of the Day
Kazuo Ishiguro official Nobel Prize interview

Susan Hostetler & Diana Arcadipone Art

Diana Arcadipone, mixed media on magnolia leaves

Susan Hostetler, mixed media on handmade paper

Diana Arcadipone, Triptych, mixed media on paper

I have lately gotten involved in helping to curate some shows for the Waldo Theatre Gallery (officially The Bill and Joan Alfond Gallery) in Waldoboro, Maine. The latest show, featuring Diana Arcadipone and Susan Hostetler will run for the whole month of June, 2024. Both artists are friends of mine--Susan going back to my Barcelona days in the 1980s and Diana being a relatively new Maine friend...But more importantly, they are old friends themselves from their college days at art school in Michigan and have maintained a life-long dialogue through their common artistic interests, their exploration of handmade paper, printmaking, painting and the natural world.

Diana Arcadipone lives in Otisfield, Maine and her passion lies in the use of natural materials and the combination of mediums including traditional crafts: embroidery, book arts, basketry in additon to paint and pastel.

Susan Hostetler works in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional arenas with a focus on animals, something both artists have in common. Most recently Susan focuses on birds and their murmurations.

To see more of their work which spans a lifetime, here are links to their websites: www.susanhostetler.com and www.https://www.arcadipone.com/

Painting of the Week

Gert Mathiesen, Purple Birds, mixed media on rice paper, available in various sizes in giclee form…

Charity of the Week:

Blog No. 180: Rock Paper Scissors Store, A Beautiful Simple Salad, Story Songs of the 70s (Copy)

June 6, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Rock Paper Scissors Store in Wiscasset, Maine

Erica Soule, owner of my favorite store, Rock Paper Scissors

I just simply love this store. Rock Paper Scissors, located in Wiscasset, Maine is an eclectic mix including housewares, accessories, art supplies, stationary, textiles, books, jewelry, children's toys, etc. etc.--all beautifully curated to include items of the highest quality and top notch sense of design...The owner of this small, independently owned shop, Erica Soule, has an uncany ability to choose the best of the best from all over the world. In her own words: "Over twenty years ago, I opened rock paper scissors in my hometown of Wiscasset Maine. Spending days as a kid on the coast of Maine with my ever-curious grandmother peering into tidal pools, I learned to look for the small moments of wonder in the world. Finding a perfectly smooth stone, oddly colored lichen, and searching for only the yellow periwinkles started my love of collecting, the search, the hunt."

Rock Paper Scissors is now online for everyone to enjoy. It has been one of my favorite stores for a long time now and a go to place for all kinds of wonderful gifts. It was a summer destination for me and my family. My daughter Morgan used to buy many of her school supplies there: Japanese folders, cool pens, interesting notebooks—not your usual Staples fare. My sister Judy would always get herself a special piece of jewelry every year on our summer vacations. And I would always find something unique: a cool mug, beautiful earrings, unusual patterned origami papers…

Erica has carried some of my Smilow + Mathiesen products over the years and I’m proud to be a part of the Rock Paper Scissors shopping experience.

Follow Rock Paper Scissors on instagram.

A Simple Beautiful Refreshing Salad

CUCUMBER MANGO SALAD
Courtesy @beeyawellness
Serves: 4 portions
Prep time: 10 mins

Ingredients:
✨1 english cucumber
✨1 ripe mango
✨2 green onions, sliced
✨1 green chili pepper, sliced
✨1 tsp grated fresh ginger
✨1 lime, juiced and zested
✨1 Tbsp fish sauce
✨1 Tbsp sesame oil
✨handful of cilantro

Instructions:
1️⃣ Use a vegetable peeler to create ribbons of cucumber and mango.
2️⃣ Toss ribbons with green onions and green chili pepper in a bowl.
3️⃣ Whisk together grated ginger, lime juice, zest, fish sauce, sesame oil and chopped cilantro to create a dressing.
4️⃣ Toss everything together. Add salt to taste if needed.

Story Songs of the 70s: Tom DiMenna with Eddie Holm

Click image to follow Tom DiMenna on instagram

I just got back from traveling for a couple days with my musician friends Tom and Eddie (sounds like a cartoon!) who were performing first in Cohasset, Massachusetts at the historic Red Lion Inn and then last night at City Winery in Philadelphia after a ten day tour in Canada and the Midwest of the United States.

Maine-based singer/songwriter Tom DiMenna has an impressive vocal range and guitar style, perfected by decades of stage performances. Accompanied by the talented bass player Eddie Holm, they bring to life Story Songs of the 70's, performing classics by Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Stevens and Harry Chapin. With their permission, I thought I would share some of the video clips I took of them from the last couple of days…

Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown

Cat Stevens, Father and Son

Harry Chapin, Cat's Cradle

Gordon Lightfoot, Race Upon The Ruins

If you would like to hear more, go to www.tomdimennamusic.com for their upcoming shows and follow them on instagram and on youtube.

Painting of the Week

Pam Smilow mixed media on canvas 50” x 80” approx.

Charity of the Week:

Blog No. 179: Rupert Sheldrake, Jacob Holdt American Pictures, Chicken Rhubarb Recipe

May 24, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Rupert Sheldrake

Rupert Sheldrake has been on my radar for a long time but only peripherally. I knew there was a lot of controversy around him so when I came across this banned Ted Talk of his from 2013, I was curious. In it, he challenges basic scientific principles, so I decided to listen to it and explore this interesting figure in more depth.

Sheldrake has been extremely controversial, mostly because he challenges scientific dogma and the foothold science has had on all of us for a very long time. Below are what he considers the mistaken assumptions/dogmas he is talking about:
1. The universe, nature, animals and people are machine-like.
2. Matter is unconscious—there is no consciousness in stars, galaxies, plants, animals, and humans, etc.
3. The laws of nature are fixed—and have been since the time of the Big Bang and will never change.
4. The total amount of matter and energy is always the same.
5. Nature has no purpose.
6. Everything you inherit is material and in your genes.
7. Memory is stored inside your brain.
8. Your mind is inside your head.
9. Psychic phenomena is impossible and illusory.
10. Mechanistic medicine is the only kind that really works.

In Sheldrake's mind, science must be set free and returned to being a legitimate system of inquiry rather than a rigid belief system.

In 2013 Sheldrake was called a heretic and condemned for these ideas as his Ted Talk was removed from the air. But this didn't stop him. Since 2013, Sheldrake has continued to operate at the margins of his discipline, looking for phenomena that "conventional, materialist science" cannot explain and arguing for a more open-minded approach to scientific inquiry." I would like to think we have made some progress in this arena nowadays. I wonder if he would agree...

Jacob Holdt, American Pictures

Click image above to hear Holdt talk about himself and his inspiration for the book.

Danish photographer Jacob Holdt might be a household name in Denmark but he is little known in the United States, even though the bulk of his work has to do with the study of culture and social issues in the United States. In the tradition of Frenchman Alexis de Toqueville, Holdt came as a visitor and in the course of his travels hitchhiking across the States, he photographed and wrote, witnessing the underbelly of life in America. It culminated in his book American Pictures, published in 1977--it is internationally renowned.

In the words of one reviewer: The moral and physical courage it took to do what Jacob Holdt did is just...staggering. How many people from a comfortable background would dare to travel through the economic underbelly of America, for years, depending for daily survival on the kindness of strangers? Who but a foreigner could paint such a portrait of structural oppression and its effects on the American underclass? If you haven't read Tocqueville, or Jacob Riis, or "Black Like Me", start here, with this book, whose emotional power is so much greater.

Although Holdt's American Pictures was published in 1977, it is sadly still very relevant today. To see the collection of these photos and more, click here.

Pan Seared Chicken with Rhubarb Thyme Sauce

I met Linda Augustine in Seattle at one of my shows out there. She is a talented writer who writes her own beautiful blog called A Year at the Table, where she celebrates and shares seasonal food recipes.

Linda recently sent me this Pan Seared Chicken with Rhubarb Thyme Sauce recipe. I never really know what to do with rhubarb aside from the typical rhubarb pie, and since it is in season right now, I thought it apt to include it in this week's blog. Doesn't it look delicious! I haven't tried it yet but plan on making a meal of it someday soon...

PAN SEARED CHICKEN WITH RHUBARB THYME SAUCE (Serves: 4)

INGREDIENTS
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 5-6 ounces each (see note)
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
½ cup all purpose flour, optional (see note)
2-3 tablespoons butter
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup chopped sweet yellow onion
2 cups chopped rhubarb (2 medium stalks, about ½ pound)
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic (1 medium clove)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup chicken broth or stock
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon lemon zest

INSTRUCTIONS
Place each chicken breast between two pieces of wax paper or plastic wrap and pound to ½-inch thickness or cut in half widthwise
Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper
Dredge in flour and shake off excess
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter with olive oil. When butter starts to sizzle, add chicken and cook for 3 to 4 minutes (do not move chicken – allow it to brown).
Turn chicken and cook until browned on other side, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate and keep warm
Add onion to the same pan, adding additional 1 tablespoon of olive oil if needed and cook and stir until softened, about 2 minutes.
Add garlic and cook and stir an additional 1 minute.
Stir in rhubarb and brown sugar, then add chicken broth and thyme;
bring to a simmer, then return chicken to the pan (chicken on top of rhubarb), cover partially, and cook on low just until rhubarb is softened and chicken is cooked through, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Transfer chicken to serving plates or a platter.
Lightly mash part of the sauce with the back of a spoon, leaving some of the rhubarb in the sauce in pieces.
Add lemon zest and season with salt and pepper.
Spoon sauce over chicken (chicken can also be thinly sliced and sauce spooned on top of it). Makes 2 cups sauce.
Notes
Two large chicken breasts (weighing in the range of 10 ounces each) can be cut in half, lengthwise, and then pounded to get 5-6 ounce size breasts. Dredging the chicken in flour can be eliminated for those avoiding flour.

The only other thing I know about rhubarb is that my late husband as a kid used to treasure his summer afternoon naps under the giant leaves of a rhubarb plant in his father’s garden.

Painting of the Week

Charity of the Week:

Blog No. 178: Another Mary Oliver Poem, My Sauna Friend Graham Waltz, Crows vs. Ravens

May 18, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Mary Oliver Poem from the book Thirst

I don't think I will ever get tired of Mary Oliver. Here is another of her beautiful poems:

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird--
equal seekers of sweetness.
here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished. The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.
--From Thirst: Poems by Mary Oliver

My Sauna Friend Graham

One thing that makes me feel richest of all is the fact that I talk to everyone and value the daily connections I make just about every day of my life. By being open, I am always running into interesting people with stories to tell. And I realize that much of life is made up of these little, seemingly insignificant encounters we have every day--with the UPS delivery guy, the person serving us our morning coffee, the kid who overheard I needed bug spray and ran and got hers from her mom...

What better place to strike up a conversation than by sweating in a 180 degree (yes you read that right!) sauna at the Penobscot Bay YMCA. That's were I met Graham, who shows up just about every day with energy and a positive attitude, despite the fact that he lost his leg as a result of that rare condition called necrotizing fasciitis, the flesh eating bacteria that gets into your system through a break in your skin and proceeds rapidly, destroying muscle, skin, and fat tissue.

It was a seemingly minor injury that caused Graham to lose his leg. A slight fall in an otherwise very active life caused a rupture in his quadriceps tendon. It required surgery but a simple one. It went smoothly and he was home in just a few days. Three days later he got a high fever as an infection set in. Turns out 97 percent of the people who get this die...But Graham was a fighter.

His surgeon explained the amputation left very little residual limb. Not enough to support a prosthetic. Graham, obviously strong of mind, nodded his understanding and thought, let’s get on with it. And with the support of my wife, nurses and physical therapists, his many days, weeks and months afterward became consumed with hours of occupational and physical therapy.

Graham shows up now every day at the Y in Rockport for daily exercise, going between the gym, the pool and the sauna. In his own words: "Forty years of handball and biking are now a memory. Our home in Hope, Maine (aptly named) is one level and has a ramp. I do get out on Church Street for exercise weather permitting. Seventy years of life in Chicago and Minneapolis didn’t exactly prepare me for rural Maine. My wife has a beautiful garden. We read, listen to Classical music, and subscribe to Netflix shows. I am a sports junkie. Friends from many cities come to visit. I do realize how many elderly people kind of shut down over time. I’m not one of them!""

I am writing about Graham here because he inspires me every time I see him--he always has a smile on his face, a positive attitude and a will to go on no matter what. It is that indomitable human spirit I celebrate here--thank you Graham for reminding us!

Crows vs. Ravens

This is a crow. Click image to learn more.

This is a raven. Click image to hear a fun story.

Photos clockwise from top left: Common Raven, Ed Oakes/Audubon Photography Awards; American Crow, Brian Kushner; American Crow, Arend Trent/iStock; Common Raven, Andrew Lunt/Audubon Photography Awards

How to Tell the Difference Between a Crow and a Raven

I always wondered about this. Maybe you did too. The Audubon Society, that great nonprofit organization that is dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats has provided us with a guide on how to differentiate these two bird species.

Here are a few tips for starters:

A crow makes a cawing sound--caw caw caw whereas a raven's voice is lower pitched and sounds more like croaking.

A crow's tail feathers are the same length and spread out like a fan whereas a raven's feathers are uneven--the middle feathers are longer than the outer ones.

Ravens travel in pairs while crows are usually seen in large groups.

Ravens kind of hop around on both feet at the same time.

Ravens beaks are larger and more curved.

Painting of the Week

Living Green (in progress) mixed media on canvas 54” x 84”

Charity of the Week:

Blog No. 177: Jimmy Fallon/Nicole Kidman Funny Story, Wall Street Article on Past Lives, Poem by Billy Collins

May 11, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Jimmy Fallon/Nicole Kidman Story

This is a cute story that defintely put a smile on my face. It made me realize once again that in this starstruck society of ours, celebrities are just people like you and me...with real human emotions and vulnerabilities. Both Jimmy Fallon and Nicole Kidman come across as delightful and real...Enjoy!

Nicole Kidman, **(Photo: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)**

**Jimmy Fallon, (Courtesy Getty Images)**

Even the Wall Street Journal is Talking About Past Lives!

I hope by now you are not rolling your eyes at last week's entry about the television series The Ghost Inside My Child and that you have at least kept somewhat of an open mind. So now here goes something that might just clinch it for you—and from the Wall Street Journal no less! Funny how this article entitled The Children Who Remember Their Past Lives just came out on May 2, 2024 (in one of the straightest business publications no less)-—should we chalk that up to coincidence or is it just another example of a synchronicity?…

I am encouraged that these ideas and discussions are becoming more mainstream….

P.S. After my husband Gert Mathiesen died, I visited a medium. Gert came through loud and clear and said that he was happy I believed in the idea that consciousness survived death. He said he hadn't believed that himself before but that he was happy that I did because it turns out I was right..."

Poem by Billy Collins

The Lanyard
BY BILLY COLLINS

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

“The Lanyard” from The Trouble With Poetry: and Other Poems by Billy Collins, copyright © 2005 by Billy Collins. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

Painting of the Week

Tree of Life Series (Purple and Blue) 60” x 22” mixed media on paper

Charity of the Week:

Blog No. 176: The Ghost Inside My Child, Michael Singer Quotes, Summer Drinks

May 4, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

The Ghost Inside My Child

Those who know me know that I am fascinated by paranormal phenomena and I am particularly interested in what happens after one dies. This is not the first time I have written about children who claim to remember being a previous person in a past life but here are some new stories to me taken from a telelvision series called The Ghost Inside My Child. There are two seasons of the series available on Amazon, and though the name choice seems to trivialize the stories, they can be hard to dispute...

Quotes from Michael Singer

This is the book of Singer’s I found most useful, published in 2022.

I can't always practice what Michael Singer has to say about life--It seems easy but it most certainly is not--but he is the place I go to when I am feeling like I need to gather myself and be reminded of what is important in life...

In researching special quotes from Singer's books for this blog entry, I came across this from Deepak Chopra: "In the book The Untethered Soul, Michael Singer takes you step-by-step through the process of Gyana, the yoga of the intellect, to the Source. Moreover, he does it with elegant simplicity. Read this book carefully, and you will get more than a glimpse of eternity." I guess I am in good company admiring him.

Here are some quotes from Singer's books that have helped me understand myself in a deeper way and a reminder of the direction I need to steer myself towards.

"The mind is the place where the heart goes to hide.''

''If you spend your time hoping that it doesn’t rain tomorrow, you are wasting your time. Your thoughts don’t change the rain. You will someday come to see that there is no use for that incessant internal chatter, and there is no reason to constantly attempt to figure everything out. Eventually you will see that the real cause of problems is not life itself. It’s the commotion the mind makes about life that really causes problems.''

''To be aware that you are watching the [mental] voice talk is to stand on the threshold of a fantastic inner journey. If used properly, the same mental voice that has been a source of worry, distraction, and general neurosis can become the launching ground for true spiritual awakening.''

'Will you dare to do this experiment?... Just try to get to know what you live with inside by externalizing the voice [in your head]. Give it a body and put it out there in the world just like everybody else.Let it be a person who says on the outside exactly what the voice of your mind says inside. Now make that person your best friend. After all, how many friends do you spend all of your time with and pay absolute attention to every word they say? How would you feel if someone outside really started talking to you the way your inner voice does? How would you relate to a person who opened their mouth to say everything your mental voice says? After a very short period of time, you would tell them to leave and never come back.''

'What it means to live life is to experience the moment that is passing through you, and then experience the next moment, and then the next.''

''Two kinds of experiences can occur that block the heart. You are either trying to push energies away because they bother you, or you are trying to keep energies close because you like them.In both cases, you are not letting them pass, and you are wasting precious energy by blocking the flow through resisting and clinging.The alternative is to enjoy life instead of clinging to it or pushing it away. If you can live like that, each moment will change you. If you are willing to experience the gift of life instead of fighting with it, you will be moved to the depth of your being. When you reach this state, you will begin to see the secrets of the heart.''

Quotes courtesy of https://bestbookquotes.blogspot.com/search?q=michael+singer

Not Quite Summer Drinks

Blood Orange and Kombucha Mule Recipe courtesy of Marianne Williams, Real Simple. Photo courtesy of Stephen Devries

Recipe Courtesy of Liz Mervosh and Real Simple, Photo coutesy of Victor Protasio

I think I am probably pushing it a bit up here in Maine but isn't it about time to pull out the refreshing summer drink recipes...

Here are a few that seem particularly interesting to me:

APEROL SPRITZ
Yield: 1 drink Ice, for serving 3ounces dry Prosecco 2ounces Aperol 1ounce unflavored sparkling water or club soda Orange slice, for serving

BLOOD ORANGE AND KOMBUCHA MULE
(Courtesy Marianne Moore, Real Simple

Ingredients 1 ½ cups ginger beer 1 cup ginger kombucha 1 cup fresh blood orange juice, plus slices for serving (from 4 blood oranges) ¾ cup (6 oz.) vodka ½ cup fresh lime juice (from 4 limes), plus wedges for serving

Directions

Fill 4 copper mule mugs with ice. Add 6 tablespoons ginger beer, ¼ cup ginger kombucha, ¼ cup blood orange juice, 3 tablespoons vodka, and 2 tablespoons lime juice to each mug; stir to combine. Garnish with blood orange slices and lime wedges.)

CUCUMBER SPRITZER

Ingredients 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup mint leaves 2 medium English cucumbers, coarsely chopped, plus slices for garnish 1/3 cup fresh lime juice (from 5 limes) 3 cups chilled club soda, plus more for topping off 8 oz. (1 cup) gin (optional)

Directions
Bring sugar, mint, and 1/2 cup water to a gentle simmer in a medium saucepan over medium, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar. Simmer, undisturbed, for 2 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Process chopped cucumbers, lime juice, and cooled mint syrup in a blender until mostly smooth, about 30 seconds. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium pitcher, pressing gently to squeeze out juice (do not push solids through strainer). Discard solids. Stir in club soda and (if desired) gin. Serve over ice topped off with more club soda and garnished with cucumber slices and mint.

Last Minute Products for Mother's Day

Charity of the Week:

Blog No. 175: What Makes a Good Life, Ben and Jerry's Oreo Bar Graph, Traditional Women's Dress

April 26, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

What Makes a Good Life?

Robert Waldinger is the fourth director of the longest longitudinal study on happiness. The comprehensive Harvard Study of Adult Development began in 1930 and is ongoing--it has lasted over 85 years, following 724 men (60 of them are still alive today) and the research continues on their children as well).

Waldinger's Ted Talk spells out the results and what they have found might surprise you. Contrary to what most people might think in America, the secret to a happy life has nothing to do with money or fame.

The cliff notes on this talk is that good close relationships are what makes for a good long life. Mark Twain just about sums it up: “There isn't time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that.”

Ben and Jerry's Oreo Bar Graph

How to illustrate concepts where the numbers are just so big that it is hard to picture? How to combat all the fake news out there?

What better way than than through easy to read, straightforward bar graphs that show comparisons throughout history of what is really going on with our budget, gdp, unemployment, immigration, etc. It is a clear way to separate truth from propaganda--looking at cold hard numbers in a very easy digestible way...What policies work and under what administrations have we made the most progress?

Ben and Jerry were on to something when they created this U.S. Budget Oreo Chart, which is simplified here in cartoon form. Although it is ten years old, I think the gist of it is still very valid.

I just wish more of the news was conveyed in this way...

Traditional Dress

This short video This is Not Our Traditional Dress has been making the rounds on social media. Thought it was important to repeat here as a reminder that we have backpedaled and need to fight to combat that. Women Unite! We have the Power! How to stop this horrific trend?

Painting of the Week

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 174: Wayne Dyer's Butterfly Story, Longevity Soup Recipe, Sweet Animal Story

April 20, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Wayne Dyer's Butterfly Story

Wayne Dyer, who I have always greatly admired, calls this the signature story of his lifetime in connecting with spirit. It's the tale of his encounter with a monarch butterfly and it literally blew his mind...I stumbled on it this morning while roaming around youtube and it was a great story to wake up to. Hope you enjoy it too.

Longevity Soup

I don't know if you do but I've decided I do want to live to be 100. So when I came across this soup, I thought I might give it a try...There are many versions of it so feel free to improvise. This particular recipe is courtesy of Dan Buettner of Blue Zones fame and Toni Scaglione.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of black beans
1 cup of kidney beans
1 cup of navy/white beans
1 cup sweet corn
7 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped white or yellow onion
3 medium peeled and chopped carrots
4 medium chopped celery stalks
1 cup chopped fennel
2 slided leeks
5 sliced mushrooms
4/5 chopped cloves garlic
8 medium tomatoes (or 1 can crushed)
1/2 cup italian flat parsley leaves
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
6/8 cups vegetable broth/water
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. tumeric
or any other italian seasonings
top with cilanto or avocado

DIRECTIONS
(Soak beans overnight if using dry and then rinse).
Sauté garlic and onion in olive oil. Add celery and carrots and cook for approx. 5 more minutes. Add fennel, leeks, tomatoes and any other vegetables you have and the beans.
Add 6-8 cups stock/water and add herbs and salt.
Bring to boil, then simmer for 40 minutes to an hour.

Sweet Animal Story

I grew up with dogs and know the meaning of love one can have for an animal. And that love definitely goes both ways.

This nine minute video captures that love and tells the sweet story of a dog, its owner and the pandemic...

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”
--Anatole France

“I don't believe in 'ownership' of a sentient life - I think we undertake volitional guardianship and that this bringing forth can be one of the most rewarding and reciprocally loving relationships that a human being can ever experience.” ― Noel Fitzpatrick, Listening to the Animals: Becoming the Supervet

"You can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant

Painting of the Week

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 173: Temple Grandin's Brain, Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Apples Don't Fall Mini-Series

April 13, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Temple Grandin's Brain

I have long been fascinated by minds that are not neurotypical and have read a lot about autism, savants, and adhd to name a few. For me, it is the "quirky" people I am most interested in because they stretch the imagination of what the human mind can do and is capable of.

I have written about Temple Grandin before—she is helped us so much to understand how the autistic mind works. Her mother accepted her where she was and nurtured her from early childhood on. Grandin is able to communicate from the inside out what it is like to be her and has written and lectured extensively about it. Here is an article she wrote for the National Library of Medicine that I found particularly useful in understanding her neurodivergent brain and that of other people on the autism spectrum, and the minds of animals as well.

Edna St. Vincent Millay Poem

SPRING
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

Apples Never Fall Peacock Series

This is the trashiest thing I ever put on my blog but I figure trashy is okay once and a while, especcially on a very stormy day on the coast of Maine when the waves are spraying up and the ocean is furious and the skies are grey. I binge watched this series Apples Don't Fall and I have to say it is a good mystery, kept me entertained and had me guessing until the end. You might enjoy binge watching it too on a rainy gray cold day...

Painting of the Week

This large painting hangs in an inn in Round Top, Texas.

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 172: Wanda Sykes: A Good Laugh, 3-D Art, e.e. cummings poem

April 6, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Wanda Sykes: Very Funny!

If this doesn't get you to laugh out loud, nothing will!

Wanda Sykes is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. This bit she did is all too familiar--haven't we all done this one time or another.

True laughter, from deep in the belly, is such good medicine and we don't do it enough...God knows we all certainly need it these days!

And while we are still laughing, let's go back to better times. Here is Wanda Sykes performing at the White House Correspondent's Dinner in 2009. And Barak Obama himself performing at the same dinner in the last year of his presidency. And one more: the best of Trevor Noah.

Road_art1

The artist known as Road_art1 instagram.com/road_art1/ is a creator of these great optical illusions with chalk. Have a look at some of his amazing creations that can fool just about anybody or anything….

Poem by e.e.cummings

O sweet spontaneous

O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting

fingers of
prurient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

beauty .
how
often have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and
buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
(but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

thou answerest

them only with

spring)

Painting of the Week

Just finished this painting in my studio in Maine

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 171: John O'Donohue Poem, The Last Repair Shop, Chicken Marbella

March 30, 2024

Upcoming Show this coming weekend April 5 in Houston!

If you have friends in Houston who you think will enjoy my art, please forward this invitation to them.

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

John O'Donohue

Poem for a New Beginning
by John O'Donohue

In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

~john o donohue~

Documentary: The Last Repair Shop

In a world where we are more and more dependent on screens and technology, where hardly anyone does anything with their hands anymore, the 2024 winner of the Oscar for Documentary Short celebrates the beauty of music and the whole down to earth, hands-on world around it. This beautiful short film, The Last Repair Shop is about a workshop in Los Angeles that repairs musical instruments and provides them free of charge to all LA public school kids. (Los Angeles is one of the last cities in the United States to provide this service to all kids who want to play an instrument of their choosing.) More than that, the film tells the moving tales of the people who work in this repair shop, and the touching stories of the student recipients who fall in love with their instruments.

There is beauty in repairing something that is broken and making it whole again. And you can see the transformative power of music and how playing a musical instrument has the ability to heal people and elevate their souls.

Chicken Marbella Recipe

This is defintely a lot of people's go to recipe from the famous Silver Palate Cookbook, a staple in many people's kitchens...It is delicious and not that complicated to make.

CHICKEN MARBELLA
6 to 8 servings

½ cup olive oil
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 cup pitted prunes
½ cup pitted Spanish green olives
½ cup capers, with a bit of juice
6 bay leaves
1 head of garlic, peeled and puréed
½ cup fresh oregano, chopped (or ¼ cup dried)
2 teaspoons of salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 chickens, 3½ to 4 pounds each, quartered
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

* Step 1
 In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, vinegar, prunes, olives, capers and juice, bay leaves, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Add the chicken pieces and turn to coat. Refrigerate overnight.
* Step 2
 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the chicken in a single layer in a shallow roasting pan; spoon the marinade over it evenly. Pour in the wine and sprinkle the chicken with the brown sugar.
* Step 3
 Bake until the thigh pieces yield clear yellow juice when pricked with a fork, 50 to 60 minutes, basting two or three times with the pan juices once the chicken begins to brown. (When basting, do not brush off the sugar. If the chicken browns too quickly, cover lightly with foil.)
* Step 4
 Transfer the chicken pieces to a warm serving platter and top with the prunes, olives and capers; keep warm. Place the roasting pan over medium heat and bring the pan juices to a boil. Reduce to about ½ cup. Strain into a heatproof bowl, add the parsley and pour over the chicken.

Painting of the Week

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 170: Jon Batiste, Bernard Langlais, Pro-Choice Women Candidates

March 24, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Jon Batiste

Jon Batiste with his wife Suleika Jaouad

Jon Batiste is a man that beats to his own drum, literally. Born from modest circumstances into a family of renowned musicians in Louisiana, (his Dad was a bassist, and his mom insisted on classical piano lessons for him and his sister), Batiste, who plays multiple instruments, defies any categorization. In his own words, "I don't even think genre exists. Self-curation and the free exchange of information and content creates a lack of genre adherence. That kind of diversity and access changes listening habits and changes the way people perceive music."

He's an ambitious guy. With an undergraduate and master's degree from Juiliard, it was clear right away that he was going to forge his own path. Defying convention, Batiste played in subways, at times on his cartoon-like harmonium, and was more interested in integrating the community into his music rather than playing in more conventional settings.

All this is made clear in American Symphony, an Academy Award nominated documentary by Matthew Heineman (produced by Michelle and Barak Obama as part of their Higher Ground film series), available on Netflix. The film covers the making of Batiste's first full length symphony involving over 200 sounds and musicians, a patchwork of American diversity and musical traditions which culminated in a one night production at Carnegie Hall in 2022.

As fate would have it, many things happened in the life of Jon Batiste that year of 2022. Aside from winning five grammys including Album of the Year. He married his wife Suleika just as she suffered from a reoccurence of cancer. And he indeed did perform his symphony at Carnegie Hall, complete with a brief power outage in the middle of it! All this is beautifully illustrated in Matthew Heineman's film, well worth seeing. It is a musical journey as well as a touching love story and a tribute to a man who believes music has the magnificent power to bring us Americans together as a nation to save our democracy...

Bernard Langlais

Bernard Langlais, Courtesy *Photographer David Hiser, and the Georges River Land Trust, Rockland, Maine*

So many good artists in the world and many of them were born and/or live(d) in Maine! Meet Bernard Langlais (1921-1977), although you will have to know him through his art since he is no longer alive. I have seen his work before but recently came upon it again on the top floor of the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine. Langlais makes these really cool raw wood sculptures. He began as a painter in oils but soon became fascinated with sculpture and wood as he was renovating an old barn in Cushing, Maine, after getting fed up more or less with the New York City art world. He soon changed to working in that medium and called his process "painting with wood." Langlais's subject matter is often images from the animal kingdom although he has done figurative sculptures as well.

Children’s Book, part of the Maine Art Series for Young Readers

Pro-Choice Women Candidates

I don't usually like to get too political in this blog but some things are just too important to ignore. This is probably the most crucial year in the history of the United States--will we remain a democracy or will we succumb to dictatorship and autocracy? This is no election to sit out and I encourage all of us, myself included, to get involved in any way or we can.

Let's start with these women, all of them running for the house of representatives, all actively pro-choice and fighting for our right to control our own bodies.

Painting of the Week

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 169: Wim Hof, The Traveling Wilburys, Animal Stories

March 15, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Wim Hof: The Iceman

My friend Eddie has been going on about Wim Hof for the past month or two and although I have been listening, I have to admit I took a little of what he said with a grain of salt. It is not that I didn't believe him—he is usually a pretty reliable source but this story sounded totally crazy to me: a Dutch guy climbing Mt. Everest in shorts, running a 1/2 marathon in bare feet on ice and snow, immersing himself in an ice bath for shockingly long periods of time, at the same time practicing a special breathing method whose goal is to increase the amount of oxygen in your body by controlling your breath in specific ways. Hof's Method claims that we can control from within our own autonomous systems and this possibility has enormous repercussions for health and wellness, while skirting big pharma, whose drugs, according to NIH: National Library of Medicine are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in our country!

Well, I just watched this Mulligan Brothers documentary on Hof and I have to admit I think there might be more to do this than what I thought.

The crux of Hof's beliefs are based on the idea that exposure to cold and cold water immersion drives a significant percent increase of norepinephrine and adrenaline, triggering the sympathetic nervous system while not raising the release of the stress hormone cortisol. Combining that with meditation and the Wim Hof Method of breath-work, Hof claims he can affect our nervous, immune, endocrine and the cardiovascular systems in ways thought impossible before. Hof has been studied by science, described in an interesting article I came across in the Smithsonian Magazine of all places, worth the read.

Wim Hof is a controversial figure and not everyone is on board with his methods. It would be remiss of me if I didn't cite this article from Scott Carney, a journalist who formerly touted Wim Hof and his message, only to doubt and question his previous admiration for the man and his methods after further investigating deaths associated with practicing the Wim Hof Method. One very important cautionary note, which needs to be heard loud and clear, according to Carney, is not to mix the hyperventilating breathing with water, even in the shower.

The Traveling Wilburys

The music of The Traveling Wilburys, the winning combination of George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Jeff Lynne, never gets old. They came together rather haphazardly beginning in 1988 and not a lot of planning was involved ahead of time. They just decided to gather in a house and proceeded to go to work.

Here is a selection of their music which I keep enjoying over the years…I am sure our daughter Morgan has these songs imprinted on her brain--we listened to these songs over and over again in our studio when she was growing up. Sad to know that only two of them are still alive today but what a great legacy to leave with us.

Handle With Care

Heading for the Light

Last Night

Tweeter and the Monkey Man

Congratulations

Dirty World

And for those who want to delve deeper, here is an interesting documentary on the group.

Animal Stories

And now, here are a few animal stories that made me smile and brought me joy, just in case you still hold the false belief that humans are the only ones in the animal kingdom with intelligence and deep feelings:

Animals who never forgot their human friends.

A raven named Walt…

Darling the Crow

Paintings of the Week

B&W Trees I, II, III mixed media on paper 90” x 22” each

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 168: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, Miso Black Cod Recipe, Full Grown Furniture

March 5, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Watch the full length documentary by clicking above.

Sounds boring--one and a half hours of footage inside a half-lit Estonian smoke sauna listening to women talking while they partake in this ancient tradition of communing and cleansing. Yet this film is anything but boring!

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a multi-award winning documentary by Anna Hints that pretty much sums up the experience of womanhood in the most poetic of ways. As viewers, we bear witness as the women share intimacies, speaking about their bodies and their self image, their relationships, and their experiences of growing up in a male oriented, patriarchal society.

Traditionally the Estonian smoke sauna is a sacred, spiritual place that dates back to pre-biblical times--where women give birth, wash the dead, smoke meat and heal. It continues to this day and UNESCO has in fact included the Võrumaa smoke sauna on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is available on Apple TV and on Amazon. Upon receiving an award from the Sundance Film Festival, Anna Hint said "In Estonia we don't speak too much but we do sing. Here is a song for you."

Miso Black Cod Recipe

Courtesy Eat With Carmen https://www.instagram.com/eatwithcarmen_/

INGREDIENTS

4 pieces of black cod fillets (16 ounces)
¼ cup red miso paste (you can use white miso)
¼ cup sake
¼ cup mirin
¼ cup white sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

*In a small saucepan, on medium heat, heat your sake, mirin, red miso paste, and white sugar.
*Bring to a slight boil and remove from heat after 10 minutes or until your sugar has dissolved. The sauce should be thick.
*Preheat the broiler. Make sure the oven rack is 6 inches away from the broiler.
*Line your baking sheet with foil for easy clean up.
*Place fish onto the tray. Use paper towels to dry the fish.
*Pour half of the sauce on the fish. Broil fish for 3 minutes.
*After 3 minutes, remove the tray and pour the remaining sauce on the fish.
*Put it back under the broiler. Broil for another 8-10 minutes. The fish should be beautifully caramelized.

How To Grow a Chair

Gavin Munro had a lot of time to think as a kid as he lay in and out of a hospital bed, over a period of eight years, to straighten a crooked spine. He had a perfect view from his bed to stare at the forest and the trees. If ever there was a story about making lemonade after being dealt lemons, this is the one.

Today, in Derbyshire, England, Gavin Munro is the proud founder and owner of a business called Full Grown, which is revolutionizing the way we think of manufacturing furniture and collaborating with nature. He is growing trees to make chairs, tables and lamps, coaxing them into workable shapes, forming them into one solid piece, a zen 3-D printing process so to speak. His process, combining art, design and horticulture, uses the least possible intervention with nature in order to get the things we want.

Hear Munro talk about his project here in a Ted Talk.

Photo of the Week

View from my window. Dream come true. Pinching myself.

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 167: Nick Cave, Mary Oliver Poem, What I Listened to on My Ride to Maine

March 2, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

Nick Cave

When I am looking for a good podcast, one of the places I head to is On Being by Krista Tippett. Her recent conversation with Nick Cave was particularly interesting and moving to me, covering a multitude of issues including love, death, grief, and religion--a full gamut of topics that plague the human condition.

Nick Cave is an Australian musician, writer and filmmaker whose intense life has been full of ups and downs including devastating loss. His emotional opennesss and vulnerability has had a healing effect on many. His new book entitled Faith Hope and Carnage documents that emotional journey. In addition, he writes a blog entitled The Red Hand Files where readers ask him questions and he attempts to answer them. Amanda Petrusich conducted a recent interview with him in the New Yorker and there is a full length documentary entitled This Much I Know To Be True about Cave's life on youtube should you want to learn more. His creative rich life is definitely worth examination.Here are a few of his songs:

Into My Arms

Red Right Hand

Waiting For You

Mary Oliver Poem

Drifting by Mary Oliver

I was enjoying everything: the rain, the path
 wherever it was taking me, the earth roots
 beginning to stir.
 I didn’t intend to start thinking about God,
 it just happened.
 How God, or the gods, are invisible,
 quite understandable.
 But holiness is visible, entirely.
 It’s wonderful to walk along like that,
 thought not the usual intention to reach an answer
 but merely drifting.
 Like clouds that only seem weightless
 but of course are not.
 Are really important.
 I mean, terribly important.
 Not decoration by any means. By next week the violets will be blooming.
 Anyway, this was my delicious walk in the rain.
 What was it actually about?

Think about what it is that music is trying to say.
 It was something like that.

A Few Songs I Listened To On My Ride to Maine

I am back in my favorite spot. These are a few of the songs I listened to on the six hour ride up:

Clay Pigeons sung by Michael Cera, written by Blaze Foley

Song for a Winter's Night written and sung by Gordon Lightfoot

Whistle Stop sung and written by Jim Sullivan

Hero by Family of the Year

Bluebird of Happiness by Mojave 3

Kiko and the Lavender Moon by Los Lobos>

Shotgun Never Aimed by Uniontown

Beware of Darkness by George Harrison sung by Stanley and Astrid Samuelsen

Texas Hold Em by Beyoncé

Painting of the Week

Spring is Coming mixed media on canvas 54” x 32” $7500

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 166: National Dance Institute's Dream Project, Poem by Aurora Levins Morales, Teriyaki Chicken Cups Recipe

February 23, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

National Dance Institute's Dream Project

Today I attended a performance of National Dance Institute's Dream Project, an inclusive dance program within NDI that provides children with disabilities the opportunity to perform.

In this unique program, children with disabilities and a group of age-matched, neuro-typical peers dance in partnership, with the goals of maximizing participation and challenging every dancer to achieve their best through teamwork, creativity, empathy, and discovery.

DREAM stands for Dancers Realize Excellence Through Arts and Movement and this is the 10th year of its existence. NDI believes that dancing enriches the soul and brings joy and expression into every person's life…and that every single child in a room has different levels of ability that should be recognized and celebrated. The Dream Project is living proof of that. To say it has made a tremendous difference in the lives of so many children and their families is an understatement. One has only to look at the faces of the participants to see the joy it brings to them, their families and to any audience who sees them.

Poem by Aurora Levins Morales

Aurora Levins Morales is a Puerto Rican writer and poet. She takes part in many social justice movements with an emphasis on Latina and Third World feminism.

Summons
by Aurora Levins Morales

Last night I dreamed
ten thousand grandmothers
from the 12 hundred corners of the earth
walked out into the gap
one breath deep
between the bullet and the flesh
between the bomb and the family.
They told me we cannot wait for
governments.
There are no peacekeepers boarding planes.
There are no leaders who dare to say
every life is precious, so it will have to be us.
They said we will cup our hands around each
heart.
We will sing the earth's song, the song of
water,
a song so beautiful that vengeance will turn
to weeping.
The mourners will embrace, and grief replace
every impulse toward harm.
Ten thousand is not enough, they said,
so, we have sent this dream, like a flock of
doves
into the sleep of the world. Wake up. Put on
your shoes.
You who are reading this, I am bringing
bandages
and a bag of scented guavas from my trees. I
think
I remember the tune. Meet me at the corner.
Let's go.

Teriyaki Chicken Cups

TERIYAKI CHICKEN CUPS
Courtesy of kalejunkie on TikTok
Makes 4 servings

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
3 sheets nori cut into 12 inch squares
1 lb. chicken without skin cut into small pieces
You can substitue with salmon or shrimp
1 tbsp. olive/avocado/or sesame oil
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
3 tbsp. mayo

SAUCE
2 tbsp. mayo
1-2 tsp. sriracha
think with water if needed

Garnish with scallions and toasted sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cook rice and set aside (could be sushi rice or any rice will do).
Cut chicken into small pieces and toss with oil, mayo and teriyaki sauce and set aside.
Cut nori in 12 inch squares and in a muffin tin, place nori and press down 1-2 tbsp. rice into it.
Add 2 tbsp. chicken mixture.
Bake for 15-16 minutes, then broil for 2 minutes to get top a little browned.
Make spicy sauce and spoon a little onto each
Top with green onion and sesame seeds.
Best to eat immediately after cooking…

Quote of the Week

Painting of the Week

Private Collecition, New York, NY, Purple Tulip, mixed media linocut

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Blog No. 165: NYC Ballet Copland, Queer Eye: Clarinet Queen of New Orleans, Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark

February 17, 2024

You can find additional content by clicking many of the images and photos below as well as the underlined links.

NYC Ballet Copland

I went to the New York City Ballet last week based on some photos I saw of the costumes--luscious colors, pure clean set, beautiful figures seeming to fly through the air. The program was Copland, a full ballet choreographed by Justin Peck, dancer, director and resident choreographer for the NYC Ballet. It was inspired by and set to compositions by the wonderful music of Brooklyn-born, American composer Aaron Copland and includes vibrantly colored sets by artist Jeffrey Gibson.

Peck knows the the dance world from all angles, affiliated with the NYC Ballet since 2006 as a dancer for the company and choreographing his first ballet in 2008. Alastair Macaulay, the chief dance critic at The New York Times, described Peck in an article as "the third important choreographer to have emerged in classical ballet this century."

Those of us lucky to live in New York City and vicinity have one more chance to see Copland this season, on Wednesday February 17th at 7:30pm at Lincoln Center. Words that come to mind are exhilarating, fresh, and joyful. An antidote to our world right now and a cold winter's night...

Below are a few of Copland's most famous compositions that Peck drew on for this ballet:

Fanfare for the Common Man

Simple Gifts

from Rodeo

from Billy the Kid

Ballet 422 is a documentary of a behind the scenes look at Justin Peck and the New York City Ballet in action. Available on tubi, amazon, etc.

Clarinet Queen of New Orleans

Queer Eye is one of those television shows on Netflix that just expounds good, in a world that is intent on spreading the bad. And lucky us, a new season is out of the Fabulous Five for our enjoyment and inspiration.

One of the new episodes in Season 8 features the legendary street musician Doreen Ketchens, official Queen of the Clarinet from New Orleans. You just have to listen to her play to realize she is the real thing, rivalling the best of the best of the jazz musicians of our time. When home in New Orleans, Doreen can often be found on Royal Street performing for tourists and other French Quarter strollers but she is also an international attraction at festivals and concerts throughout the world and has performed for four United States presidents. She is also one of the first female bandleaders in New Orleans, and also a musical educator to boot. No wonder the city of New Orleans has celebrated her with a honorary degree.

Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark

The town of Gilleleje, the town most known for standing up to the Nazis

**Henny Sinding Sundø was behind the rescue of over 300 Jews.**

The Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in downtown Manhattan has a current exhibition (October 2023-ongoing) entitled Courage to Act: Rescue in Denmark. The show is geared to young people and makes use of state of the art technology: talking holograms and creative storytelling that bring this important chapter in history home to viewers of all ages. We get to know enactments of children affected by the German occupation, their personal experiences and how they survived during that time.

In this day and age where anti-semitism is on the rise all over the world, I think this is an important show that illustrates how, despite enormous risk, neighbors mobilized to create one of the most effective—and exceptional—examples of mass resistance and escape in modern history. It is the curators' hope to help young people make connections to their own lives and reflect on the dangers of prejudice.

Click here to listen to some real accounts of survivors during that time.

Quote of the Week

Paintings of the Week

Charity of the Week:

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by the Hammond Museum's Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.