Streaming hit of the week

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Another classic Lizzy movie:)

Love this lady

So great to get more time with family in Southern California this past weekend. Loved my beach walks with my sweet mom.

Spring scenery

One the things we most love to watch in the spring is all the birds loading up with food in their crazy bird propagation efforts. And it is especially wonderful to think of these big, beautiful woodpeckers living in the woods nearby. This mama is wary, but way braver than her husband, let me tell you!

Stones into Schools

How did I miss that Greg Mortenson had a new book out when I wrote about him back in January? I'm reading Stones into Schools and loving it! Here's a wonderful new Bill Moyers interview with Mortenson. Enjoy!

Six word story 9

What smells spring-ier than a hyacinth?

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

I've been looking forward to John Krasinski's adaptation of David Foster Wallace's book, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, since I learned about the project quite a while ago. The other day I was delighted to see it was streaming on Netflix, even before the DVD was due out. And I really enjoyed it! I think I made it about halfway through the book - just too bleak for me. And it's a tough view of men, that's for sure. But the film is very well-acted and I think a really excellent adaptation of the book. See what you think.

Paper world

Have to admit, I can kind of relate...:)



So delighted to have seen this recently on Jessica Swift's wonderful blog.

Afternoon of a Faun

Back to my college reminiscences. Rodg put this on the other day and I thought, how did I forget this one?

Sudoku - who knew? or, Nonie - is that you?

So I'm pretty much always one to stay away from a fad. I watch most popular movies years after they come out, if at all (never seen Titanic...). And I'm not really a puzzle person, although I'm sure Rodg remembers me sometimes doing the TV Guide crossword puzzles all those years ago when our cable actually worked and our priorities still needed some fine tuning ("Bosom __"). But recently some wonderful friends sent us a big care package, which included among many fabulous things a Dalai Lama quotation of the day calendar. And the only thing better than a Dalai Lama quotation of the day calendar is a Dalai Lama quotation of the day calendar that has puzzles on the back of each day's quotation. And this is where Sudoku walked into my life.

I think everyone chalks at least some of my now late grandma Nonie's longevity and mental sharpness up to her love of crossword puzzles. Sadly, other than TV Guide's puzzles, I'm totally hopeless with them. BUT I do have a secret fondness for numbers. And back before PacMan I had a Merlin, which I loved and could play with for hours. And my hunch is that a lot of that was math. I was amazed at how my brain and the game seemed to communicate without me really understanding why, if that makes any sense. I just think I have an intuitive feeling for some kinds of math-y/logic-y games like this, which is maybe why when I flipped over a recent Dalai Lama quotation of the day and saw a Sudoku puzzle rated easy I picked up a pencil, googled the basic rules of Sudoku and jumped in. And I have to warn you, I'm slightly addicted. But what I wonder if this is just coincidence or if Nonie's passions are being spread out to other people in the family, too. It looks like I got puzzles. Who's started craving Cream of Wheat for breakfast?

Tranquil lake

Fun to have this (altered) memory of a beautiful winter day at Radnor Lake, as spring starts to creep into Middle Tennessee.

To market, to market...

More fun pop-up play!

Squam dreaming

Yes, pop-ups have re-entered my life, with this delightful cast of characters!

I'm headed to Squam for the first time this fall, which is a wonderful thing to have to look forward to, let me tell you! And I'm hoping to participate in the art fair they hold as part of the festivities. Last year, while green with envy over everyone's blog posts and pictures from this incredible art workshop weekend in New Hampshire, I'd read about Jen Lee's experience at the art fair and thought it would be such a cool thing to be part of. I've sold my lightcatchers and pillows in shops in Boston and Nashville over the years, but I think it would be great fun to have the personal contact of a fair, especially with this amazing group of people. So I'm putting in my application to sell these tiny (smaller than a business card when all folded up) "Pocket Pop-up Pals". I'm loving playing with photographs Rodger and I have been taking and little vintage (public domain) illustrations. Making these would be a wonderful way to spend the next several months as I look forward to this special experience!

Good-bye!

At the end of every trip saying good-bye to my sweet family has a way of breaking my heart. But I feel like I'm becoming more comfortable with that struggle. It doesn't have to go away and I don't have to like it. That's OK.

More walking... and listening

What a walk!

I am the proud older sister of two of the finest human beings on this planet. My connection to them is one of my life's greatest pleasures. And when I get that rare time with them in person it makes my heart sing. Really looking forward to time with my amazing sister next week! And more beautiful ocean views...

Attacking my heart

Lovely trip

I think I've finally found a good way to share some of the fun from my recent trip, so this will be the theme here this week. Hope you enjoy!

Fun with the fam

LOVED getting time with these cuties recently. Hoping their current adventure is going swimmingly!

Six word story 8

So grateful for this amazing place.

Dancing on the path

A couple of great quotations arrived in my life this week from that fabulous rascal, Chögyam Trungpa. They really spoke to my heart. Hope you enjoy them, too.

March 10, 2010
Tricycle Daily Dharma
Dance with Reality

Sometimes people run away from you because they want to play a game with you. They do not want a straight, honest, and serious involvement with you, they want to play. But if they have a sense of humor and you do not, you become demonic. This is where lalita, the dance, comes in. You dance with reality, dance with apparent phenomena. When you want something very badly you do not extend your eye and hand automatically; you just admire. Instead of impulsively making a move from your side, you allow a move from the other side, which is learning to dance with the situation. You do not have to create the whole situation; you just watch it, work with it, and learn to dance with it. So then it does not become your creation, but rather a mutual dance. No one is self-conscious, because it is a mutual experience.

– Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, "Love Story" Tricycle Winter 2009

Ocean of Dharma Quotes of the Week
March 11, 2010
THE PATH IS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

The path of dharma, the dharma marga, provides all kinds of problems, and we work along with those. Without that path, we would fall asleep. Suppose highways were without any bends, just like Roman roads, a one-shot deal straight from New York to Washington, 100 percent straight. The drivers would fall asleep. Because of that, there would be more accidents than if the road had bends in it with road signs here and there. The path is personal experience, and one should take delight in those little things that go on in our lives, the obstacles, seductions, paranoias, depressions, and openness. All kinds of things happen, and that is the content of the journey, which is extremely powerful and important.

From "The Only Way," in THE PATH IS THE GOAL: A Basic Handbook of Buddhist Meditation, pages 12 to 13.

Hooray for Poppy!

I have found a kindred spirit! So grateful to have been encouraged to check this one out:) Streaming on Netflix...

Pure joy!

Black Rider

I really want to see this piece. I mean Tom Waits, Robert Wilson, and Bill Burroughs!! But at least there's a documentary! Now, if only I spoke German...

Finnegan again

Can you tell I love this artistic period?
"Modernism"
And this just feels like it belongs here, too.


(Might take a minute for it to get going, but worth the wait. Yep, that's Joyce reading!)

Pirate Jenny!

I've always wanted to post a video of Lotte Lenya here and look how long it took me!:) This is from Brecht's wonderful Threepenny Opera. Love it!

And just when it gets too dark...

Sorry! I love all that darkness, but here's something fun we studied, Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges.

Lulu

This is a visually stunning bit of a performance of Berg's Lulu. Sorry about the foreign subtitles...

Wozzeck

I remember that the end of this piece by Alban Berg totally devastated me. Took me a while to find it. Pretty dark.

Die glückliche Hand

You have no idea what a pleasure it is to get to see performances of these pieces that have just lived in my mental imagery for decades. Hope you're enjoying them, too!

Erwartung

Totally loved this fabulous Schoenberg piece. Amazing to see footage of a performance, which is remarkably very much in keeping with my mental image of it.



And for something pretty unrelated, but really wonderful, go check out this post on Rodg's blog. It's definitely worth it!

The Rite of Spring

My "European Musical Theater of the Early Twentieth Century" class with the wonderful Gerry Moshell was hands-down one of the best experiences I had in college. It opened the world up to me in an amazing way. I fell totally in love with this music that pretty much everyone else in the class hated. Maybe that's why?:) But really it just spoke to me. And now I can actually see some great performances of these pieces thanks to You Tube. That would have been amazing at the time. Although honestly I loved the ritual of going into the basement of the Austin Arts building and getting a cassette tape of the listening assignment and a key to a listening room and getting lost in the music. It must be such a different experience now. I imagine it's all online and the students can listen anywhere. I loved the sensory deprivation aspect of the basement listening rooms. Just listen. And listen. I loved it.

Here's a recreation of Nijinsky's original choreography for Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps by the Joffrey Ballet.