,
originally uploaded by washako16.

that their clothes are so beautiful and unlikely only heightens the sensation- this is a memory from decades ago.

Zigzag Vine against the light,
originally uploaded by cecile.johns.

As much as I love the aesthetics of the random, it is calming and so pleasurable to see the regular repeats of Zigzag Vine Lace undulating against a white backdrop.

there is a level of musicality that no amount of practice will get you to. everybody wants it, but only the lucky few have it. the rest of us keep on doing, cause music is good, after all. even if you aren’t a genius, there’s nothing better.

amy winehouse does have that gift, and to see her pissing it away makes me wish i could reach through the laptop monitor and wrap my fingers sround her golden, emaciated throat. i’m a singer too, so i know what she’s doing, and i know that, try as i might, i can’t quite do it. i’m good at what i do – but i’m not a genius.

i’m also old enough to be her mom, so i see that she’s fallen into that self-destructive once-in-a-lifetime lovetrap that so many of us do, and she can’t see choosing anything but the road that she’s on. but yesterday she was on a stage filled with incredible musicians who were taking a step back and listening to HER (she’s onstage with annie f’in lennox! ) and she had to diminish the whole thing (not to mention herself) just a little bit by substituting “free blakey, my fella” for ‘free nelson mandela” in one of the choruses. i’d bet you money blakey told she’d do that if she really loved him. he’s a sick little pimp, that boy.neither big, nor clever. and i believe she’s very aware of the pull she has, the one that makes me waste time writing about her when i’ve got better things to do – because, despite her addictions and her stupidity, i love the way she sounds.

I’m selling some brand new soaps. Yum.

The first soap is “Ginger Cardamom“. This soap is a delicious way to wake up, and has been a favorite among my friends. The ginger is warming, the cardamom spicy and sweet, and the hints of lemon and other fresh, greeny scents make “Ginger Cardamom” a spicy bath treat.

“Rose, Milk and Oats” is set in a goat’s milk base, and is delicately scented with both organic rose essence and the finely ground petals of roses. Oats for soothing the skin and fennel-infused coconut oil make for a truly divine bathing experience.

The offering I am most pleased with right now is the companion bath salt to the Rose Milk and Oats” soap, “Heavenly.”

People’s response to “Rose, Milk and Oats Elixir” bath “salt” has been very good indeed. I put the word “salt” in quotation marks because, unlike the sea salt-based bath products that I make, this one actually contains very little salt – it is mostly a combination of pure organic rose essence, organic rose petals, oats, and powdered milk; the resulting blue-green bath water lifts the spirits of any and all bathers.

with so much trouble in the world, i was ready for some good news, so imagine my surprise when i read this headline:

“Afghanistan Puppy Cultivation Skyrockets”.

the article went on to say that, despite dog-fighting rings and people rounding up the last buffalo, there are still folks who believe in being kind to animals. there is a global moral majority of people who oppose oppression and love puppies and flowers and the children of the world.

people like me and you.

i took my son to SFO today, and i’m feeling a little blue. so i cheered myself up with this recipe. i tried to make it last night, to celebrate his departure, but fouled the recipe up with baking powder. i guess that was too much chemistry. the kids were honest with their food critique, but they ate it anyway, so it wasn’t a total disaster.

anyway, this is the fixed recipe.

kids could make this with very little supervision, and what’s better, come mother’s day, father’s day, or the feast of midsummer, they could make it for *you*. as an enticement you might tell your teenager how impressed their future paramours will be if they bake their girl/boy friend a pie! cobbler’s practically pie, when it comes to affairs of the heart.

enjoy.

• fresh blueberries
• fresh raspberries
• 1 fresh peach or nectarine (optional)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1/2 – 3/4 cup sugar (more or less)
• coriander
• cinnamon
• lemon juice

A) First things first: blend the flour, cinnamon, and 1/4 cup of the sugar together. then cut in a tablespoon or two of butter at a time, with a fork. This means just smash the butter in until it is blended with the flour mixture. You’ll end up with a kind of crumbly mess in your bowl. No worries.

B) Wash and drain your lovely berries – you may pat them dry if you are feeling kind and motherly. If you are going to add the stone fruit as well, now is the time. Pour half the remaining sugar on the fruit, stir gently, and TASTE A BERRY. If there is any mistake you can make with this recipe, adding too much sugar would be it. Let this idea guide you – the sugar should enhance the slightly sour berries, not turn them into candy. You know what I mean. For this reason, don’t sample a peach or nectarine – try the berry. You’ll have a better chance of getting the proportions right.

Now pour in a tablespoon or so of lemon juice, and add a dash of coriander. Pour the fruit into a baking dish and sprinkle the crumbly flour mixture on top. Then put the pan into an oven pre-heated to 450F or so.

Now you have a few minutes where you can do whatever you like. I suggest whipping some cream* by hand (or electric beater, as long as it’s not store-bought aerosol whipped cream) – by the time you’re done, the fruit will be bubbling out from under the topping and the cobbler will be ready to eat.

the following picture is NOT of the cobbler i made – next time i make it i will be sure to photograph it before i eat it all up.

*Whipped Cream:

• 1 carton of heavy whipping cream
• 1 Tbl sugar – I’m not kidding, just 1 Tbl - no more!
• vanilla extract

I purposely don’t say how much vanilla extract because I don’t remember. I think about a teaspoon is right – but I usually add a few drops more because I love the taste.

Above all – err on the side of caution with the sugar, and you will be amazed at how much better everything tastes. There is sugar in dairy to begin with (lactose = milk sugar) and then add that to the natural sugar in the fruit, the added sugar in the fruit, and the added sugar in the crust/topping, and you’ll see how easily the sugar can overwhelm the berries, which is the bottom line.

well, i know i feel better.

would you like to purchase some lovely photographs?

click the link – i would surely appreciate it.

and here’s my first online portfolio.

thanks for looking.

the radio can be like some mandala, like a wheel of aural fortune that points to something bubbling under the surface of your mind. like that compass in “pirates of the caribbean” whose polar north is your innermost desire.

yesterday, i heard a song i thought i must have dreamed up, it sounded so familiar. i knew the melody, without knowing the words – i knew the idea. it was like standing in a room filled with mist, and the mist cleared, and the edges of things surfaced and thier colors kind of dawned on me, and the song was

radiohead’s “high and dry”

performed by jorge drexler

Two jumps in a week, I bet you think that’s pretty clever don’t you boy.
Flying on your motorcycle, watching all the ground beneath you drop.
You’d kill yourself for recognition; kill yourself to never ever stop.
You broke another mirror; you’re turning into something you are not.

Don’t leave me high, don’t leave me dry
Don’t leave me high, don’t leave me dry

Drying up in conversation, you will be the one who cannot talk.
All your insides fall to pieces, you just sit there wishing you could still make love
They’re the ones who’ll hate you when you think you’ve got the world all sussed out
They’re the ones who’ll spit at you. You will be the one screaming out.

Don’t leave me high, don’t leave me dry
Don’t leave me high, don’t leave me dry

It’s the best thing that you’ve ever had, the best thing that you’ve ever, ever
had.
It’s the best thing that you’ve ever had; the best thing you’ve had has gone away.

Don’t leave me high, don’t leave me dry
Don’t leave me high, don’t leave me dry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

muchas gracias a la mujer fabulosa, Rosi Reyes, who played this song on Ritmos De Las Americas . thanks for taking time to catch up with me while board-opping your own show at the same time. you rock, dude.

(Bob Dylan’s Dream)

While riding on a train goin’ west,
I fell asleep for to take my rest.
I dreamed a dream that made me sad,
Concerning myself and the first few friends I had.

With half-damp eyes I stared to the room
Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon,
Where we together weathered many a storm,
Laughin’ and singin’ till the early hours of the morn.

By the old wooden stove where our hats was hung,
Our words were told, our songs were sung,
Where we longed for nothin’ and were quite satisfied
Talkin’ and a-jokin’ about the world outside.

With haunted hearts through the heat and cold,
We never thought we could ever get old.
We thought we could sit forever in fun
But our chances really was a million to one.

As easy it was to tell black from white,
It was all that easy to tell wrong from right.
And our choices were few and the thought never hit
That the one road we traveled would ever shatter and split.

How many a year has passed and gone,
And many a gamble has been lost and won,
And many a road taken by many a friend,
And each one I’ve never seen again.

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
That we could sit simply in that room again.
Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat,
I’d give it all gladly if our lives could be like that.

Elizabeth Eckford (born October 1941) is one of the African American students known as the Little Rock Nine. On September 4, 1957, she and eight other African American students attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School, which had previously only accepted white students. They were stopped at the door by Arkansas National Guard troops called up by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus. They tried again without success to attend Central High on September 23, 1957. The next day, September 24, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent U.S. Army troops to accompany the Little Rock Nine to school for protection.

In 1958 Elizabeth Eckford moved to St. Louis where she achieved the necessary qualifications to study for a B.A. in history. After graduating she became the first African American in St. Louis to work in a bank in a non-janitorial position. Eckford returned to Little Rock in the 1960s and was employed by the First Division, Pulaski County Circuit Court in Little Rock. In 1996, seven of the Little Rock Nine, including Elizabeth Eckford, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. They came face to face with a few of the white students who tormented them as well as one student who befriended them. A reunion in Little Rock in 1997 provided an opportunity for acts of reconciliation, as noted in this editorial from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on the first day of 1998:

One of the fascinating stories to come out of the reunion was the apology that Hazel Bryan Massery made to Elizabeth Eckford for a terrible moment caught forever by the camera. That 40-year-old picture of hate assailing grace — which had gnawed at Ms. Hazel Massery for decades — can now be wiped clean, and replaced by a snapshot of two friends. The apology came from the real Hazel Bryan Massery, the decent woman who had been hidden all those years by a fleeting image. And the graceful acceptance of that apology was but another act of dignity in the life of Elizabeth Eckford.^[1]

[edit] Family tragedy

On the morning of January 1, 2003, Elizabeth Eckford’s son Erin Eckford, 26, was shot and killed by police in Little Rock. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that the police officers had unsuccessfully tried to disarm him with a beanbag round after he had fired several shots from his military style rifle. When Mr. Eckford pointed his rifle towards them, the police officers shot him. His mother feared that his death was “suicide by police”. Erin, she said, had suffered from mental illness but had been off his prescribed medication for several years. On June 18, 2003, the newspaper reported that prosecutors investigating the fatal shooting had decided that the police officers concerned were justified in shooting Mr. Eckford.