Rock River Artists

Wonderful time at the Rock River Artists tour yesterday. Check out friends and artists, Dierdre Scherer http://www.rockriverartists.com/ds/dscherer.htm
and Chris Trieberts work http://www.rockriverartists.com/ct/ctriebert.htm

Lovely studios to see in Williamsville/South Newfane, Vt and the amazing house of Roger Sandes http://www.rockriverartists.com/rs/rsandes.htm
and Mary Welsh http://www.rockriverartists.com/mw/mwelsh.htm

Our Happy 30th!

Our 30th wedding anniversary is this Tuesday July 22. Roses and champagne from my dear sisters Annie and Susan to celebrate this joyous year. I guess we are half way, God willing (like my parents who's 60th is next year). Could not be happier.

Pema Chodron

Don't Bite the Hook is a three cd set I've been listening to by meditation teacher Pema Chodron who wrote a book When Things Fall Apart. Good advice for dealing with difficult moments and seeing them as teachers, excercises in practicing patience.

Role Models

"The Main Thing is that the Main Thing is the Main Thing"
a quote from one of our music teachers in our course, Judy who is a rock star. She's had two major back surgeries, has a steel rod in in vetebrae, has had Crohn's disease for 14 years AND just last fall had a brain hemorrhage and lived to tell the tale. Danced every dance and always with her sparkling eyes and great smile.
Here also is Walden Witham, a musician, storyteller and teacher who took our course; he dances with his students and they are lucky to have him.

On tour soon

Sam's tour dates with Nico and Doveman are on his myspace includes Boston Museum of Fine Arts which we are going to August 24. See you there?
NYC (also Seattle, Portland, etc.)

summer movies and good reads

Ken Follet, World Without End, sequel to Pillars of the Earth; a 1,000 page tome and a cast of characters but immerses you in the 1300's in England, plague and all.
Get Smart: good summer fun, Steve Carell, Alan Arkin and many laughs
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead: wicked, shocking and intense
Losing Grace: poignant movie about a woman soldier killed in Iraq war and how the husband deals

glorious summer

E.B. White wrote, "Just to live in the country is a full-time job. You don't have to do anything. The idle pursuit of making a living is pushed to one side, where it belongs, in favor of living itself, a task of such immediacy, variety, beauty, and excitement that one is powerless to resist its wild embrace."

Sam's birthday card

"Sometimes singing at the top of your lungs feels so good.

I think when I was young my parents wished they hadn't taught me all those sailor songs."

angels in america

Ramon by Laurie Anderson

Last night I saw a host of angels
And they were all singing different songs
And it sounded like a lot of lawn mowers
Mowing down my lawn
And up above kerjillions of stars
spangled all over the sky
And they were spirals turning
Turning in the deep blue night.

And suddenly for no reason
The way that angels leave the ground
They left in a kind of vortex
Traveling at the speed of sound.

And just as I started to leave
Just as I turned to go
I saw a man who'd fallen
He was lying on his back in the snow.

Some people walk on water
Some people walk on broken glass
Some just walk round and round
in their dreams
Some just keep falling down.

So when you see a man who's broken
Pick him up and carry him
And when you see a woman who's broken
Put her all into your arms
Cause we don't know where we come from
We don't know what we are.

And you? You're no one
And you? You're falling
And you? You're traveling
Traveling at the speed of light.

grandparents and children

Here are Sue Bos and Eleanor, Bob Henry and Abby, and father and daughter Matt Wojcik and Marian all of whom have brought us smiles this week.