Book Beast

This "discovery" is filed in the "where have I been?" category. I'm sure I heard about its launch, but forgot until I recently heard an interview with Tina Brown (former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker) on NPR: Book Beast and Art Beast at Tina Brown's omnivorous web magazine, The Daily Beast, are not to be missed. Neither is the news and opinion coverage.

The Daily Beast Twitters, it Facebooks. Friend me!

The Ninth Day of November

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall November 9, 1989. This date has marked highs and lows in Germany's history, and the history of the Jewish people. History is a slippery slope, tyrants come and go, walls are built to be torn down, each generation is witness to unspeakable horrors and glimmering triumph. Nobody needs to be schooled on Germany's role in WWII, the resulting Cold War, and reasons for the Berlin Wall's construction, nor does anyone really need a lesson on bigotry with the Jews as scapegoat the world over, down the centuries, or the atrocities of Hitler and his henchmen. Even so, a few reminders of events from world history are provided here, and also, the following excerpts are from the Vancouver Sun's article, Speeches by world leaders on Berlin Wall anniversary.
"Today marks a truly happy moment of the German and the European history. Twenty years ago the door to freedom opened up and a seemingly invincible wall that divided a people and an entire continent suddenly became permeable.
... Let's use the gift of freedom . . . it is in our hands to overcome the borders." -Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

"Today we don't have the USSR and the GDR on the political map of the world... Today in Berlin I want to say that the confrontation is in the past. Today we want to build a different, new, better world." -Dmitry Medvedev, Russian President

"I pledge here today that Britain will always be at the heart of Europe - we will never give succour to extremism which would drive people apart." - Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister

"This anniversary is a reminder that human destiny will be what we make of it. Even in the face of tyranny people insisted that the world could change. Human destiny is what human beings make up." -Barack Obama, U.S. President


Dates culled from various sources as This Day in History, Wikipedia, Jews in History.

694 - Espania Visigoth King Egica accuses Jews of aiding Moslems; Jews sentenced into slavery.

1526 - Jews expelled from Pressburg, Hungary by Maira of Hapsburg.

1720 - Rabbi Yehuda Hasid synagogue set afire by Arab creditors; Ashkenazi Jews expelled from Jerusalem.

1862 – Ulysses S. Grant issues order to bar Jews from serving under him.

1918 – Kaiser Wilheml II abdicates after German defeat in WWI; Republic of Germany proclaimed in November Revolution.

1921 - Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with the photoelectric effect.

1923 – Beer Hall Putsch; Nazis fail to overthrow Weimar Republic government; Hitler flees.

1925 – Hitler orders formation of Schutzstaffel / SS.

1938 – Kristallnacht/ Crystal Night; Nazis burn and loot Jewish storms, homes, and temples.

1944 – Deportation of Budapest Jews resumed.

1944 - Otto Hahn awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry; fails to share award with Austrian Jew Lise Meitner.

1989 - Fall of the Berlin Wall.

2006 - Opening ceremonies for Munich’s new Jewish Center and synagogue.

2009 - Old Hebrew Bible, looted by Nazis, is returned to Vienna's Jewish community in NYC ceremony.

2009 - Kristallnacht Remembrance.

2009 - Fall of Berlin Wall 20th Anniversary

That Old Black Magic

mixed-media collage

That Old Black Magic
Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer

That old black magic has me in its spell,
That old black magic that you weave so well.
Those icy fingers up and down my spine,
The same old witchcraft when your eyes meet mine.

The same old tingle that I feel inside,
And then that elevator starts its ride.
And down and down I go; round and round I go
Like a leaf that's caught in the tide.

A fantastic song, recorded by the greats, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, the Muppets. Glenn Miller recorded a version, and even Marilyn Monroe sang it in one of her films. What's truly odd and a little creepy is that so did Kevin Spacey and Robin Williams.

This post has nothing to do with falling under the spell of a lover's charms. The old emotional weight has returned and with it,that old familiar restlessness and sadness. The elevator analogy of the song is apt, but in this case, it's more of a sheet of thick black ice that descends and hangs a few inches overhead. I thought I could outrun it this year, trick it, night-light it away, but this past week I've come to believe that in addition to the old standard seasonal depression, this is linked to behavior, patterns, things I've been complaining about for a long time.

This year it's about clearing out the baggage, finalizing accounts no matter how difficult or disappointing or embarrassing, and most important of all, being accountable for every nook and cranny of every bit of it.

I started clearing out in a literal way, by turbo-cleaning and organizing my living room and the silverware drawer. Baby steps!

Magnet Hands on a Thursday Afternoon

Once a month for the last year, I've gone to Advanced Health Clinic,for a cranial sacral session. Since my first few sessions, I've literally pushed the magnet hands of Ros/Rosalind, on my friends and family. When I explain to friends what the sessions are like, my description is something like, it's like a psychic massage, but it's not a massage and she's not a psychic. Um, it like psychotherapy, but she's not a psychiatrist, but the sessions are incredibly helpful in a way regular talk therapy isn't.

For the last few weeks I've had a terrible pain on the top of my foot which has made it impossible to take my speedwalks around the neigborhood's walking path. These walks are especially good in the early evening since so many migrating birds perch in the trees creekside or forage in the open farmland nearby. Geese, ducks, crows and pheasant are the norm. So are hawks, and sometimes an ibis or two, crane or a heron, and on rare occasion, it's possible to see pelican or an eagle on the path. I never have, but some have claimed they've spotted deer and a red fox. I saw a mink last year, but that was after a group of animal activists released them from the mink farm located nearby, and they ended up on the path, in resident's backyards, everywhere.

My foot got worse. I started wearing flats and flip flops, then I'd get mad and wear heels and limp around all day. I couldn't stretch my foot or make circles. I figured I'd bruised the nerves when I dropped a tiny plate of metal on it when I was cutting and soldering sterling for a ring, and that my castor oil poultice would work its magic like it did to alleviate the old plantar facitis issue years back. It didn't. I wore tennis shoes with skirts, dress pants, whatever, (stylish tennis shoes, but still).

At my session with Ros this week, I told her my foot was bothering me,and within something like 45 seconds her magnet hands had fixed the problem. She said I had blocked energy in my heel and did I know what that was about? Of course not, but I was grateful the pain was gone and more that a little surprised that it was really gone, and even moreso that it hasn't returned. Thursday night I had to show off to my husband and daughter, turning big circles with my foot and humming the bigtop circus tune, you know the one. I don't know why I'm surprised by anything that happens during the sessions, since it's always helpful, even when I leave a little freaked out, or angry, or weepy. After every session I'm more than a little overwhelmed with trying to process what the hell just happened and I wander up to the front desk, make another appointment, then sit in my car without the radio on until I can orient myself back to the direction of my normal life.

I've always been interested in alternative healing and preventative medicine, and what I find most interesting is the alternative medicine measures that were considered healy-feely quackery from only a decade or two ago, (and which, incidentally, were used by healers for centuries,)are now mainstream. Everything old is new again.

Day of the Dead Redux

mixed-media collage

November 2 I set up a makeshift altar on my kitchen counter and poured wheat beer for my Grandfather James Archie and Uncle William (from I Like to Go Swimming with Bow-legged Women post; All of Your Lies, Give Them to Me post). I set out a plate of my Great-Grandmother Brigg's favorite, Lorna Doone cookies, and poured her a glass of peach tea-flavored water (from Grace for a Child post ). And for my Grandmother Mary Roberts, a glass of the same peach water and a plate of M&M's to satisfy her sweet tooth (I didn't write a post for her, but will next year).

I told my family not to touch anything, not one cookie, not one piece of chocolate. My daughter locked her cat up so it wouldn't jump on the counter and disturb the offerings. My husband husband said, You do some strange things. Maybe. I do hope my relatives enjoyed their brief time visiting this past weekend, that they know they are in my thoughts, and that the beer, tea, and food was to their liking.

Tears of the Sun God

mixed-media painting

I'd forgotten all about this micro painting of a honey bee. I'd put it away in a dresser, and until a few days ago, when I discovered it in my studio tucked inside an envelope,thought it was lost. At least a decade ago I became interested in miniature portrait painting after seeing Elizabethean miniatures called limnings that were painted on a thin slice of ivory. I've always loved working on a small scale, which infuriated my art professors (and a couple art directors), who always admonished me to go bigger. I always thought their criticism was a little Freudian. Is bigger always better? Talk show hosts with bigger mouths, celebrities with bigger egos, politicians with bigger scandals? I think not. In any case, I listened to them, went big, but I didn't like a lot of the work I created. I like the intimacy of working on a small scale and once I saw the scale of Frida Kahlo's brilliant, (and relatively small) paintings, I gave myself permission to work on a more intimate scale again. I dabbled with miniatures for a very brief time and began painting modern madonnas with sunflower halos, women with birds for hair, hands with eyes in the palms. My subject material soon morphed and extended to anything that caught my interest. I painted tiny images that I wore as pins. I gave most of them away, but I still have the Eye of Fatima and Venus of Willendorf paintings. I wish I still had my Martin Luther King Jr. pin I wore in honor of his day.

Years ago, a bee farmer used to bring his hive and place it in the field behind my home. I loved sitting by the hive, listening to the insistent hum as the bees went about their quotidian duties. I don't know what happened to the beekeeper or his bees. He probably retired from the business.

Bees hold a revered spot in all mythologies and belief systems. They were thought to be tears of the sun god Ra, embodiments of divinity, muses, messengers, omens. Great thinkers, such as Plato and Sophocles associated themselves with bee symbolism, as did popes, kings, historical figures of every sort. Even countries and states claim the bee. Incidentally, the bee is the state insect of Utah, because industry is queen here, (there is only room for a queen, singular, in the hive, which reminds me of the great Queen Bee herself, Queen Elizabeth I's declaration, "I shall have here but one mistress and no master." Here are a few links that may prove interesting: thebeegoddess; beemythology;Did You Know?

In ancient times, bees and beekeepers were sacred. Beowulf, you know the macho Anglo-Saxon capable of tearing Grendel's arm from it's socket with his bare hands,from the epic everybody had to read, way back in high school? his name means beekeeper, and during this his period, the keeper of the bees and the honey, was a very big deal, probably because, all symbolism aside, mead is made from honey, and mead was a staple of the Anglo-Saxon's diet. Belly up to the bar Thanes, Beowulf is in the meadhall! Grab your favorite beverage and check out Beowulf, the film for an entertaining evening.

Mead is beer, just in case you didn't know. I never acquired a liking for beer, but I made a batch of mead, just because. It tasted a little sweet, but, it tasted like beer.

Here's a basic recipe:
Suggestion: if you want to get into the Anglo-Saxon spirit,I suggest you purchase your honey from a beekeeper at the local Farmer's Market. If you really want to get your Viking on, consider not shaving or bathing for a few days prior to making your mead, purchasing a yard of fake fur to wear as a makeshift cape, brandishing your wooden stirring spoon, and declaring pompous,self-referential oaths such as, I (insert name here), am the greatest mead maker (or whatever you'd like to declare: cupcake maker, lover, expectorator) of the 21st century!

Basic Mead:
3 lbs Grade-A Honey
1 gal filtered water
1 pkg ale or wine yeast (do not use Baker's yeast or you will be very, very sorry)

For fruity & spicy mead, add lemon or orange wedges, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger to the basic recipe.

Supplies:
Stainless steel five-gallon pot
Long stirring spoon
Candy thermometer (to let you know when the mead is cool enough to add the yeast)
Fine mesh strainer (to screen foam and dead yeast)
1-2 spotless clean apple cider or milk gallon jugs
Plastic strainer (to siphon mead into bottles)
1-2 hardy balloons (to keep air out as mead ferments)
2-4 wine bottles
2-4 wine corks

Directions:
Boil water.
Stir honey into boiling water.
Turn off heat and stir continuously.
Add fruit slices and spices.
Stir some more.
Remove from heat & cover with a fine clot.
Allow to cool.
Strain foam, fruit and spices.
Pour mixture into gallon jug and add yeast.
Stir mixture until yeast is absorbed.
Cover jug top with balloon and let ferment for 2-3 days (or more).
(Note: the balloon will fill with air, so crack the lip and let the air out, before the balloon bursts, or you will have a mess and an angry spouse or roommate).
Insert plastic sieve into wine bottle neck and pour mead (leaving room for cork).
Secure cork in bottle.
Allow to sit at room temperature for 2-3 days.
Refrigerate.
Drink at will!

In the House of Memory

In the House of Memory

mixed-media assemblage
Collection of the artist

I created this piece as an homage to William Clyde Layton, my uncle who died five days after he landed in France, during WWI. The piece is a combination of sculpture, collage,and painting. I've written copiously about William: flash fiction novella, blog posts, essays, etc. If you're interested in knowing more about him, or if you just want to see some sweet old photographs, you can read about him in my Day of the Dead posts: All of Your Lies, Give Them to Me & William's tree. In the House of Memory was featured in the Salt Lake Art Center's Not Just Another Pretty Face salon PowerPoint presentations.