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.