My "Visual" Bookshelf

I've been fascianted by visual journals and art books and have been reading some really wonderful books:

1. "A Year In Japan" by Kate T. Williamson
- A watercolor journal of a young woman's trip to Japan
- Small and delightful
- Captures a place and time
- Inspires me to be more visual in my own journals

2. "Watercolor Journeys: Create Your Own Travel Sketchbook" by Richard Schilling
- Pages from the journals of a dentist who travels around the world on aid missions
- Has "how-to" exercises: Tried one and loved what I created
- Easy to see what captures his attention
- Inspired me to create a sketchbook of my own

3. "Drawing From Life: The Journal As Art" by Jennifer New
- Observation; Reflection; Exploration; Creation
- This wonderful book opens up the discussion of why we keep journals
- The book showcases samples of people's journals - from artisits to engineers; it's fascinating to see how others see and make a record of their lives

Ode to Pollock

It's never to late to have a happy childhood!
Created these with Crayola crayons.

Click on the images to get a larger view.

Post Secret

Just finished this great book: "Post Secret" by Frank Warren.
He left postcards in library books, at art galleries, etc with the following instructions:

"You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to a group art project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession, or childhood humilation. Revel anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Be brief. Be legible. Be creative."

Great idea. Amazing results.
Also check out http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com

Inside 911

Incredibly well done documentary about 911 and the events leading up to it.
Answers so many questions, and connects dots that the mainstream media does not even begin to address.

http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/channel/inside911

Nephew Days

When the Jeep was dead and we had to buy a new car, one of my requirements is that I could carry the boys around.
Misson accomplished.















Chasing Monarch Butterflies on the "wildflower lawn" in front of the house.

Constitution Marina

Early morning pics of the marina.

Joy Machine

Susan and I joined Ren and other Cinemascope members to root for one of our own.

Margaret Caruso's debut CD "Joy Machine" party was held at All Asia Cafe in Cambridge. A fun evening of good music. Am still haunted by some of Margaret's lyrics.

Check her out at http://www.margaretcaruso.com

My Bookshelf

Current Sampling:

1. "Walking in This World" by Julia Cameron
• I've been reading and working on a chapter at a time.
  
• Currently on Chapter 2.
  
• Builds on the 3 ideas of "The Artists Way":
• Morning Pages
• Artist Date
• Weekly Walk
  
• I've always kept a journal, but find the morning pages a great way to clear the debris of the previous day.
  
2. "Live What You Love: Notes from an Unusual Life" by Robert and Melinda Blanchard
• Quick, easy read about a couple who decide to live a life they love.
• Love the idea and was interested to read their story, but disappointed with the book.
• Certainly agree with the big 4:
• People
• Passion
• Environment
• Money
3. "Caramelo" by Sandra Cisneros
• My current book club book.
• Love the story and love the writing style.
• Intimate, funny, delicious.
  
4. "Evidence. The Art of Candy Jernigan". Edited by Laurie Dolphin.
• Candy Jernigan collected "Evidence as Proof that she had been there".
  
• A lovely book containing photos of pages from the artist's journals.
  
• Loved how she made smears of food she ate.
  
• Inspiring. I loved it.
  
5. "Tales of A Female Nomad" by Rita Golden Gelman
• Just started this book yesterday.
• A 49 nine year old woman on the verge of divorce comes to the realization that she is living someone else's life and takes of for lands unknown.
• Love how it is written.
  
• Getting the travel bug as I read it.
  

Art Play Date

Art I created on a play date with my buddy Margaret.
Our plan is to be world-renowned one day, so if you'd like to buy our art, do let us know :-)

Chinese New Year - Acrylic on Paper
















Summer - Oil on Canvas

Published Photos

This makes my day. Found out this week that 2 of my pics would be published in the latest Trikone Magazine, and here they are!
How cool is that?

Big Dig Debris Kills Boston Motorist

Susan and I went through this very part of the tunnel (to get to Logan Airport) at least 6 times the past 2 weeks!
How scary is that?







"At least 12 tons of concrete fell from the ceiling of this city's Big Dig late Monday night, crushing a woman to death and fueling new questions about the safety of the $15-billion underground highway and tunnel system.

Declaring that "people should not have to drive through turnpike tunnels with their fingers crossed," Gov. Mitt Romney said Tuesday that he understood why motorists might be losing confidence in the Big Dig.

"I don't think anyone can feel safe driving through a tunnel system where just last night, someone got killed by a 3-ton piece of concrete falling on their car," he said."

Viva Italia!

Now that the World Cup is over, my days have finally freed up for other activities. What an amazing month of football (yup that is what the WORLD calls it) this has been.

Anyone else not absolutely thrilled that Italy won?
Viva Italia!!!


Anyone want to go to South Africa to watch the next World Cup?

Butterflies

... Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes....

My niece Maya has them all beat. She has bells and butterlies.

Pike Place Flowers

Back from my trip to the Seattle area with family. I love Pike Place. I want to one day live close enough that I can stop by every week and pick up beautiful flowers and yummy treats.
Lucked out with perfect weather for my trip.

Quote of the day

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

- Martin Luther King, Jr

Lowell Sun Article

Good teachers would fare better without unions The Lowell Sun

There is a profession in which the practitioners do not have true freedom to chose their employer and still retain recognition for their years of experience as is the case in most every other profession. The practitioners claim they wish to be treated as professionals, yet the body they have chosen to represent them refuses to allow the freedom of movement among employers that is afforded people of similar education in other professions. It is a profession in which a person with 15 years of experience can receive almost no recognition in the form of salary for that experience if he or she moves to a different employer. This is built into the "contract" negotiated by the group whom these "professionals" have relinquished responsibility for their careers, too. That profession is teaching. The group that puts such a stranglehold on where and how teachers work is the teachers' unions. The union gets written into the contract that new teachers in the district, in the case of Lowell, cannot bring in any more than five years of experience when determining salary step. So a teacher with 15 years experience who wants to come to Lowell will only receive the same step as a teacher with only five years experience. Depending on the district, the more experienced teacher is coming from, that could be a substantial cut in pay. Thus, this contract clause prevents Lowell from being able to attract experienced teachers from other systems. The tenure trap also prevents teachers from moving to where they feel their skills are best used or for any other reason. Tenure protects 20-year first-grade teachers that have burned out to the point they now believe screaming at 6-year-old children is appropriate classroom management. Tenure makes the school manager's job much tougher because he or she cannot easily remove inferior teachers and promote the best teachers. Nor can he or she reward great effort by individual teachers. The incentive to do better is removed and in some cases puts up a barrier to those who do well. I love teachers. My wife, sister-in-law, two nieces and my brother are teachers. It is the traps and disincentives deliberately created by teachers' unions that I abhor. Charter-school teachers are not scrambling to unionize. They do not need the union so they can be good teachers. This one union has long since become a barrier to improving education. It has become a greedy behemoth that cares only about increasing dues collection. It is time for the teachers to throw off the shackles the union has put on them so they can do the job they love without interference from the union. MARK F. KELCOURSE Lowell

Rain Day!

We are having a rain day today. No school.

It has rained every day since last Tuesday, and it is expected to rain all this week as well. We had 14 inches of rain just over the weekend. All the rivers here are expected to flood later today and there has been a state of emergency since yesterday. The news continues to show pics of towns like Peabody, completely under water. I feel for people who have water coming in their basements. Thankfully, we are high and dry.

I love the unexpected day off to catch up on several things - but am bummed that it pushes out the last day of school to June 19. Bummer.

Fire!

Vacation is over. Back to school, and am tired today. My voice box is in shock after the week off :-)

Interesting thing happened on Sunday. We smelled smoke in the front of the house. Assumed that a neighbor had a fire going. Thought nothing of it. Went out to O'Naturals for breakfast - awesome joint in Acton. Came home.

Still the smell of smoke. Very strong in the front of the house. Could not smell it inside or on the back porch. Very strange. Susan went outside again and noticed that there was smoke coming out of the chimney. Okay, we had a long, lovely fire the night before - but there was no fire in the fireplace now. Opened up the flue and noticed that there were red embers above and behind it. And smoke billowing!

Susan called 911 (her first time!) and soon there were engines and sirens roaring down the street. Men in full gear (not sure what they planned to do with the axes!) stormed in and took charge. Alls well that ends well - seems like for some strange reason there is a depression on the backside of the flue where leaves, etc had collected, and these had caught fire. The firemen got it all scooped out, and cleared the fireplace and removed the flue and grate. When they left, all there was for us to do was clean up the mess and recover from the adrenaline rush. Susan dealt with the firemen, while I captured the entire thing on film (one must have one's priorities right). Will post the pics when I get a chance.

Then a strange thing at school. One of my students, Sothanara, had his house burn down several days ago. Poor kid. He is handling it much better than I would be under the circumstances. Did give him a break on his homework though. That excuse is bullet proof!

Quote of the day

The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It's overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt.

- Leo Buscaglia

It's a Kenyan sweep in The Hub.

Boston Marathon 2006:
Well, the Kenyans won again. No surprise there. The big surprises; The Ethiopians didn't run well, and a relative newcomer, Rita Jeptoo, captured the women's race.

Robert Cheruiyot is the men's winner of the 2006 Boston Marathon. He covered the 26-mile, 385-yard distance in a course-record time of two hours, seven minutes and 14 seconds, shaving one second off the old mark set in 1994. Cheruiyot is the 14th Kenyan in 16 years to win the coveted title. Countryman Benjamin Maiyo was the runnerup, one minute and six seconds behind the winner.

It was a successful day for American men with Meb Keflezighi, Brian Sell and Alan Culpepper finishing third, fourth and fifth, respectively. An American hasn't won the men's race in Boston since Greg Meyer in 1983.

Kenya's Rita Jeptoo was the first woman runner to cross the finish line in Beantown. She covered the distance in two hours, 23 minutes and 38 seconds to become the sixth woman from her country to take home a winner's wreath from Boston in the last seven years.

Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia was the women's runnerup, with Reiko Tosa of Japan finishing third.

** We had the Kenyan flag drapped over the front door in celebration :-)