Friday Favorite – Mr. Potato Head Shrine
27 Friday Apr 2012
Posted in Bike Life, Boston Moments
27 Friday Apr 2012
Posted in Bike Life, Boston Moments
26 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, Learnin'
My week has been bookended by the fastest dance footwork I’ve seen since my job’s annual Hip Hop Festival for children, and also the slowest dance I’ve seen probably ever.
First, the fleet: My partner and I were invited by a friend to check out India Jazz Suites, showing at the Boston ICA. All I knew about the show was that it featured a contemporary of Savion Glover, one of my favorite dancers. First we attended a half-hour lecture on the two choreographers, including a description of a classical Indian dance form called Kathak. Next, we were charmed and blown away.
Second, the slow. Part of Harvard University’s ARTS FIRST festival, Slow Dancing is an outdoor video installation by David Michaelek shown from April 20 to 29 (7-11 PM) in front of the Widener Library in Harvard Yard. I stopped by on a chilly Tuesday, just to take a peak, and stayed an hour. Lucky for me, I had an apple in my backpack and the folks running the show were kindly offering wool blankets to keep warm. As the artist explains, at first it’s excruciating to watch something go so slow (snails, anyone? paint drying?), but then the magic happens and you are transported to a place of exquisite observation.
17 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted in Bloggin Noggin, Boston Moments
I’ve been remiss in posting to Whole Heart Local. Not because I have nothing to say, but because I am doing too much, which leaves scant energy for writing or crafting. Good thing the HEAT descended on Monday (over 80 degrees . . . in April!) I thought I’d never have the opportunity to laze around the neighborhood, doing nothing, accomplishing even less…
Of course, it’s also true that my annual custom for Marathon Monday is to move as slowly as possible to counterbalance the twenty-thousand-odd runners thundering through the Brookline and Back Bay as part of the Boston Marathon.
So my day consisted of:
Snoozing under the Cherry Blossoms in the Arbs
Watching the laundry dry
Watching the cat, hotbed of activity that he is
Trying out a new two-person board game
To bed!
What did you do on Hot Monday?
13 Friday Apr 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, With Friends
{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
02 Monday Apr 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, Green Life
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Every year, just as the temperature outdoors dips towards reasonable, and the buds and leaves start to unfurl, I think. No! Wait! I’m not ready.
I resist spring.
You see, the problem is, spring just moves too fast. From the first crocus I spot, to the squirrels rocketing about, to the birds waking me up at 5 AM with songs I never seem to recognize from year to year; it could all move a lot slower. I mean, what’s the rush? Summer stretches, winter is the worst kind of hanger on.
Where’s the fire, Spring?
28 Wednesday Mar 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, Learnin'
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Recently, I joined friends on a trip out to Natick Community Organic Farm to check out Maple Magic Day. We missed the pancake breakfast (so sad!), but we did enjoy a tour of the grounds and stood inside a real sugar shack, bathing in the steam and sugary air. I was particularly pleased because, last fall, I read a book on maple sugaring, and so felt impressed to experience the workings in person.
An added bonus was running into two friends at the farm, both of whom, unbeknownst to me, work there!
Headed in for the tour with my companions for the afternoon, Megna and Heather (my third companion Alice is off-screen.)
Welcome sign out front the sugar shack.
Rabbit watches the crowd.
A young worker tends the fire.
My friend Donelle re-tells an indigenous-people’s story of maple syrup.
Sap captured. Later it will be combined with the sap of other trees and boiled, boiled, boiled. The wisdom goes that it take forty gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup.
09 Friday Mar 2012
Posted in Boston Moments
{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
07 Wednesday Mar 2012
Posted in Bike Life, Boston Moments
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Majority of my city bike-commuting experiences are positive –interesting, funny, beautiful, and so on. For example, the time when a MBTA bus pulled next to me on Mass. Ave., opened the passenger door and the driver called, “Do you want to race?”
Or the time when a tractor-trailer stopped beside me at a light and the driver honked the horn, pointed to my rainbow legwarmers, and gave me a thumbs-up.
Or spotting tiny frogs on the path while heading up Olmstead along the J-way on a wet, rainy night.
Or the time when a 70-something woman passed in front of me on a crosswalk and exclaimed, “You’re awfully cute!”
And then there are the bike-commuting experiences that can best be encapsulated by the phrase: oh MY (insert favorite sacrilege expletive.)
Like yesterday when I witnessed two cars smash together in the bike lane on Hampshire Street in Cambridge.
Or yesterday when I passed two separate incidents of women weeping (one wearing scrubs and clogs, tucked behind a tree, another on a bench with a friend) along the Muddy River in the Back Bay Fens.
Or last week when I think I saw someone stealing from a car parked near the Riverside Whole Foods, promised myself I’d report it when I got to work, and then of course promptly forgot.
Like the aforementioned Incident Behind Jackson Square Station.
Like when there’s a full moon and everybody gets just a little bit odd –you’ll never seen more mid-road K-turns or multiple-car assorted contortions on tight side-streets, than during a full moon!
02 Friday Mar 2012
Posted in Boston Moments
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{this moment} – A Friday ritual (joining Soulemama.) A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.
29 Wednesday Feb 2012
Posted in Boston Moments, With Friends
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It’s the title of this post, but I’ll the first to admit that I do NOT like to live for the weekend. I don’t want to sound hopelessly optimistic, simplistic, or precious, but I’d rather live for the moment; have each moment as full with the beautiful things and awful things and odd/pretty/funny/quiet etc. things as possible. I just want things to be as they ARE (except when I don’t, which is fairly often.)
Yet, there are what I’ve come to think of as seasons of my life when I’m rushing towards the weekend. I mean, how can the work week compare to time with friends, family, free learning opportunities, fun-to-be-had? Some seasons are about fairness and balance, and some are all about the weekends.
Being silly with friends at a Chat ‘n Chew ladyfriends potluck/dance party.
Learning to knit mittens that fit with my friend Lucy, owner of Mind’s Eye Yarns.
Cat doing what he does best (besides leap on paper bags.)
Wild light on top of the record player (yes, I did receive it for my birthday when I was eight, or something.)
Finally meeting my friend’s chickens -and a gift of fresh eggs!