make melonade

Ah, Sometimes We Just Gotta Play

I love the little boulder legs.

video: Improv Everywhere / #2 of Movies in Real Life series

Play

'You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.'

 - Plato

to be faster than an angry elephant

Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.                - Michael Pritchard

 












- and from Rules of the Wild, Francesca Marciano:

It was as if the silence of wilderness had seeped into me and had quietened the useless noise of my fear.

The incredible thing was that the more we ran, the more we laughed. We kept holding on to each other, laughing hysterically, like children playing a game. We burst into camp panting and shaking with laughter."

"Huyu, anaweza kukimbia sana," said Lenjo to Adam and the other guys, pointing at me and shaking his head with a smile.

"Of course I can run, what did you think?" I replied jokingly, wiping the sweat from my forehead.

And suddenly I felt victorious. It was fun, after all, to be faster than an angry elephant.

 
































 Train Window: Lura Astor Art

Woman with Baby Elephant: credit unknown
Elephant Reading: credit unknown

a beautiful fix

"What a beautiful fix we are in now; peace has been declared."

- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) after the Treaty of Amiens, 1802

Hold Hands

I honestly don't know if this is true, but the idea provokes thought.

Touch can be a healer. Touch can create empathy. 

Comedian Louis C.K. speaks with Conan *click here* on smartphones. He says it is important that young people are able to look people in the eyes and create empathy, rather than just text and be on a phone/computer. Of course google glasses and others say the phone is going away.

a moment of respite in a cup

The names of the teas were relished and recited:  Gallant Mask of Mirth, Down of the Damask Dove, Lair of the Green Dragon, Wistful Glen of Pewter Fog, Pirouette of the Dancing Cloud, Shy Panda, Lazy Water Lily, Evening Snow Diamonds ...

We were all comfortable by now and began to enjoy ourselves, throwing adjectives and descriptions aorund more confidently. One tea was pungent, alfalfalike, vegetative, wtih a deep nose. Another was rich, mild, elegant, with a lingering sweetness and a liquor color of a pale avocado.

-from The Agony of the Leaves: The Ecstasy of My Life With Tea  
a lovely book by Helen Gustafson, champion of fine tea in America, tea buyer, introduced the art of tea onto Chez Panisse's menu, taught afternoon tea, and enjoyed mis-matched sets of tea cups and saucers
RIP

Lapsang Souchong  by Lura Astor

Exhibit: Reflections: Portraits of the Elderly as They Once Were

A lovely exhibit of photographs of an elder looking at versions of their younger self through the mirror.

What a concept!

Which images of your life would you choose?

click here

photo: Reflections: Portraits of the Elderly as They Once Were

Death * Songs * Solstice Turning

 

Died a million deaths 

Sang a trillion songs

watercolor: Empoire Lura Astor

Vision

The strange thing is that now,
as my vision is less good,
my visions are getting clearer.

-Katharine Hepburn

from I Know Where I'm Going
by Charlotte Chandler





illustration: Visionary? lastor

We Are Exploding Stars

Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics. You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded. Because the elements, the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars. And the only way they could get into your body is if the stars were kind enough to explode. So forget Jesus. The stars died so you could be here today.

~ Lawrence Krauss


Star Light Star Bright I Make a Wish Tonight

illustration: Thread Stars Lura Astor
assemblage detail Startle Lura Astor

Paul Hunt for Laughs - Paulette Huntinova

Anyone who has ever done comedy or parody knows that a key is to make your mistakes look so simple. You actually have to be better at what you do in order to make fun of it. Enjoy!

Playful Universe

Those critics are mistaking dullness for depth.

The universe is playful; quantum physics teaches us, among other things, that the universe is made up of irrevocable laws and random playfulness.

Evolution is playful. It's always going off on adventures, playing games, taking chances.

Evolution frequently does things just for the hell of it - why not writers, too?           - Tom Robbins

illustration: haHah lastor

Do You Get Inklings?

May be it's because I grew up with a mom where inklings are the norm. She'd say, I had an inkling, or, I have an inkling. It was just normal.

I've heard it called spidey sense, intuition, 6th sense, 22nd sense, other sense, inner sense, guidance, gut feeling, heart feeling, goosebumps and more.

What's yours?

I like the word inkling because it twinkles. It has a bit of spark and sparking.

Mom got inklings, always a nice think, I have an inkling.

illustration: Surf on Sparks detail Lura Astor

Trashed - the film

Kids of all ages - here's a problem requiring creative solutions.

We humans still don't know what to do with our trash!

Trashed - a film with Jeremy Irons, writer/director Candida Brady




other ideas
The visible trash society blog 

Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority Trash Museum in Hartford

Haute Trash including fashion exhibits


Gene Pool creates suits of cans, corks, coins and more

Intuition Binds

 
Intuition is the binder between art and science. It is the part that pulls it all together. It is what gives it that life, that spark.       - Frank Bender

 - Frank Bender (1941 – 2011) forensics modeler (facial reconstruction) DNA Mysteries: The Search for Adam National Geographic

Mr. Bender was one of the world’s few forensic sculptors. He used art, crime solving, science, archeological reconstruction and intuition as he worked with skulls to render faces as they might have looked in life.

Calling himself a Recomposer of the Decomposed, the FBI, INTERPOL, Scotland Yard and National Geographic archeologists called on him to solve difficult cases, including many cold cases.

Karen Mintz made a film The Man Who Faced Death: Forensic Sculptor Frank Bender click here

In The Search for Adam Bender said, "I picture this person very much alive, with a lot of the basic feelings we have today, confidence at one point, insecurity or hope at another."

And he said, "When it comes down to it, art has to supplement science."

Good articles: click here

and here

I love how human intuition is,
how much a bridge between life and death intuition is.

What Amazing Time

Experiment. Certain classical musics are said to elevate our learning, subliminally or consciously. So, listen to some while working on a project, studying.

The amazing thing, to me, is the telepathy. Beginning life as a dancer, my body and nervous system were the receiver and transmitter of music. Think about it. We hear story, we hear music created in another time, now. We have access to so many brilliant stories now, in so many mediums. We are indeed lucky, lucky, lucky.

Be Excellent Unto Each Other

Be excessively nice to each other

Be adorable to each other always

Be excellent unto each other

I love these phrases.

They are some of the good-byes Stephen Fry speaks at the end of shows of Qi Quite Interesting BBC-2.

Mr. Fry uses language in juicy, twisty, funny ways that a brain, heart, emotion loves.

So,
be delightedly excellent among each other today! and tonight!

photo: of Stephen Fry, creative commons 9/2008

2013 Stretch!

photo: Southern Way of Life