Sunset after a Rainy Day

I hope the appearance of the sun at dusk tonight is a sign of things to come tomorrow. I dare not get my hopes up. The towels I optimistically hung out on the line last weekend, during a window of what seemed like opportunity, are still hanging, heavy and saturated. Probably home to all manner of slugs by now, and ready to be washed again. But the heck with the towels and the sagging line — tonight's sky was beautiful.

Five Senses Friday #16

Taste:
• an end-of-the-week Mojito at Café Latino
• Lingonberry preserves on toast
• chocolate gelato

Feel:
• hot pizza burning the roof of my mouth
• waterlogged

See:
• a baby cardinal, with a little crest on his head
• the weeding of upside-down trees (below)
• flooded fields, closed roads
• mail trucks, parked for the night

Hear:
• Bang on a Can performance at DownStreet Art (and through the walls of my office)
• rain pelting my umbrella

Smell:
• woodsmoke
• dampness

My Little House on Blogland Lane

Via Suki at Paint, Poems and Ponderings I found KJ's invitation to pick a house and move onto "Blogland Lane" with her. I'm game, but a little torn about the structure. I've had a thing for these modular Japanese Styrofoam pods for a while now, but they don't have many windows. Still, the round bar would be nice to have...

On the other hand, wouldn't it be wonderful to dwell amongst the branches of a tree, in something like this (constructed form Poplar slats and in use as a restaurant in New Zealand)...

But where would I hang my art on round walls? Perhaps a shipping container like these Espace mobile structures would be better (though I would fill in that space underneath with an enormous garden so the house would appear to be growing up from the middle of it).

Ultimately though, I'm a romantic at heart and it's cottages like those found on Martha's Vineyard that would most probably win out in the end. The gothic arched windows and detailed trim are too appealing to resist...

Thanks for the fun diversion, KJ!

Friday Dance Party - Do the Freddie!

A friend made a special request for Friday Dance Party ("I'm Telling You Now" above) and I was introduced (or should I say "exposed") to a new (old) dance called The Freddie (below). As someone on YouTube commented, "1:09 to 1:17" was EPIC.

Memories and Dreams

By way of here I found this challenge — what would you do with this image above?


I'd use it at a Photoshop layer, changing it's hue and saturation, adding one of my recent photographs to it, and finally a quote. "We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams." — Jeremy Irons.

Astilbe

"There is nothing you can see that is not a flower.
There is nothing you can think that is not the moon." — Matsuo Basho

Love Thursday

Sometimes love is subtle.

happy Love thursday!

Staying Downtown for DownStreet Art

I did something very unusual a few weeks ago. Instead of hopping in my car after work and hightailing it straight for the gym or home, I grabbed my camera and spent a little time strolling around North Adams during one of this summer's DownStreet Art events. DownStreet Art is the public art project of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, and is designed to revitalize downtown North Adams, harnessing existing arts organizations and events, and transforming vacant and open spaces into arts destinations. Storefronts that have sat vacant and dust-filled for months (perhaps even years) are coming alive with art installations — 13 new galleries have been added this summer alone. I've also noticed a lot of colorful new signage in the downtown area, directing visitors.

On this particular day, historic Eagle St. had been closed to traffic and filled with beach sand, the oceanless "shoreline" as packed as Scarborough on a hot summer Saturday. On one end of the block a band played to families and onlookers.

Over the heads of the crowds gathered on the warm sand I noticed that someone has finally purchased the gorgeous Tower Porter building, vacant and on the market as long as I've been working in North Adams (6 years now). There are plans for renovations and residential condos with a "city view" but what's really intrigued me all this time are the storefronts, with their enormous windows and antique wood floors. I've always wanted to see pots of flowers on the steps and little cafe tables in those windows. Maybe that day will come. Eagle St. is charming and oozing with potential. Yes the area is depressed, but I'm also recognizing that it's determined. Something I can relate to.

(BTW, see the tiny wayward balloon by the steeple in the photo above? It's headed for my house. You'll probably see it in a future woods walk post.)

Now back to the tour — and pots of flowers. One storefront on Main Street had been transformed into a walk-through gallery for kids, and outside was a makeshift garden, with flowers (most suffering in the full sun and cement heat) planted in a wide variety of containers, small thought-provoking signs poking up from the dirt. I liked this one, "What are you pretending to not know?" (Rowena, if you're reading, this sounded like the kind of question you would challenge us with!)

The marque of The Mohawk Theater on Main St. Again, this place has been closed and boarded up since I arrived here, but is currently under construction. Though it's one of the last remaining Art Deco movie theaters in the nation, it was, at one point, on the brink of being demolished. Phase I of it's renovation is slated to be finished by the end of the summer.

I'll admit that having lived in Providence, home to the Rhode Island School of Design and a hotbed of artsy-ness, spoiled me for the places to follow it — in fact it's been kind of a curse. And like other places I've been before it, North Adams is no Providence. Yet.

Lately, I feel a tangible hopefulness in the air here and an overall improvement I can't quite put my finger on (and I'm not the only one!) Tomorrow night I'm looking forward to staying in town for another DownStreet Art event. There will be live music and art openings, and some galleries in old factories to discover. Yes, I'm sure I'll find the streets quieter than I'd prefer, and I'm sure I'll crave certain things that simply aren't yet available in this area — but to see a city revitalizing itself through art and creativity is as inspiring as any canvas or performance I could ever hope to see, anywhere.

Gifts Make Their Way Through Stone Walls

When I mention the muted sounds of music and applause coming through the thick walls of the office in the afternoons, these Bang on a Can recitals in the Building 4 galleries at MASS MoCA (which currently hold the Anselm Kiefer exhibit) are what I'm hearing. Of course I'm not experiencing the sounds clearly, only muffled snippets that pique my interest. Therefore I was pleased to find out videos of the recitals are available on MASS MoCA's youtube channel. The first is just downright beautiful. The second features a musical saw! Check out youtube for more. Music by Bang on a Can members will also be performed live at the DownStreet Art events in North Adams tomorrow night (more on that later today).

The Haze of Heat, 8:30 AM

“The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze.”
— Buddha

Tweener, J, and Lego

Our cats (part Maine Coon) become fluffy rag dolls when picked up, flopping to and fro in a frenzy of drool and ecstatic purring. Tweener is more of a lover than a fighter — but Lego (aka Little Man) is only pretending to be sweet and preoccupied. Notice he's actually intent on killing J's cargo shorts. Today they're joining the Pet Parade at Planet M Files!

Lace Up Your Hiking Boots!

And join me for a woods walk.

We'll follow J, our barefoot guide.

And make the acquaintance of a snail with patterned shell.

Moss and lichen cover the granite outcroppings. I'm feeling so inspired by natural textures and patterns this summer, though I'm not sure where the inspiration will lead me, exactly.

We'll encounter plenty of red-spotted efts along the faint trail.

And find flat, orange mushrooms I've never seen before. Maybe they'll grow stems this week.

Fallen birch, fallen leaves, drying fern.

Awww...baby mushrooms!

Emergence

These gray, capless fungi were fantastic, sprouting up in close proximity to the miniscule mushrooms I photographed last week.

And doesn't this bear an uncanny resemblance to one of the seaweeds I found on the beach in Maine?

This mushroom was quite large, and reminded me of wet cardboard. It smelled horrific. I don't think the proper word for the smell exists.

Scat, full of hair and bones. Coyote? Fox? Fisher cat? I've seen all three. Fisher cats are both secretive and vicious. Are you still glad you came along?

Close to the yard we find a young deer, who stops and watches us and doesn't run when J talks to it. Just please don't eat my vegetables, I ask.

Tomorrow: a walk in North Adams.

Sun Before Storm, Light Before Dark

I quietly tried to sneak up on the light and mood with my camera last night, to capture those fleeting moments of end-of-day, pre-storm pink. Out-of-focus shots have been intriguing me lately (and I'm not the only one!). With the exception of a slight crop on the first image, these are straight out of the camera.

Why I'm Still at Work

Because I have to park fairly far away from the office. And because this, my friends, is the scene outside the office window right now...



The sound of the rain on the roof is almost deafening, and as I type this it's accompanied by a fantastic rumble of thunder (or is that the Bang on a Can festival?)

Hey, why ARE flamingos pink?

Actually, I was trying to ascertain "what's the point of Twitter?" (the Google search engine being a kind of Magic 8 Ball on steroids in my internet-addled mind). But these suggestions from google completely distracted me. Nothing against Twitter, of course, I just wonder if I fully understand the concept.

Two Walls

North Adams, MA

Portsmouth, NH

A Brand New Monkey

J: "They just discovered a new species of monkey in the Brazilian Amazon!"
M: "A brand new kind of monkey? Really?"
J: "Well no, it's not a new monkey, it's just a species they hadn't discovered until now."
M (smirking): "Well then how do they know for certain it's not brand new?"

Brand new or simply undiscovered, the Times has a great article on New Creatures in an Age of Extinctions today.

What we've been up to this weekend...

A little nest building, Ikea style. And a Sunday hike in the woods to balance it out.