Further Beliefs

Some Things I Believe to be True

March Madness Prompt # 22: Come up with your own prompt

Well, my friends, this is it.  The last day of March and thus the last day of March Madness.  Tomorrow is another month and maybe a feeling that spring is on its way--or at least nearby.  We've made it.  So the last prompt of the season is that you create your own prompt.  What would you have us all do?  Let me know if you come up with anything.  I just might do it.  

March Madness: Prompt # 21: Honor Someone You Know

Honor someone you know.  Write a blog tribute to someone you know and love and who would least suspect it.  Don't wait for the funeral.  Do it now.

I've already honored Diane when she started her crafty blog, Mackville Road, so all nostalgic reminiscence can be found there.  What I will tell you is that I started the March Madness prompts because March is a hard month for my friend, who lives in Vermont, and where Springtime doesn't really come until well into April.  Last year she did a series on her blog called "Reasons to Love March," which was an active attempt in trying to embrace the unembracable.  She said this year she didn't have it in her and who can blame her?  Her household has been hit with colds and flues, both the physical kind and the life kind.  Since, in my own way, I was also having pangs for spring, I decided to come up with prompts to help her (and me) through the last bleak stretch.  She has done nearly all of them--and here are some of my favorites:

Prompt # 4: What Do You Know For Sure

Prompt # 6: Bake or Cook Something With a Message

Prompt # 8: Create Something in Collaboration with Weather (this is actually my very favorite one)

Prompt # 16: Collect Shadows

I have LOVED seeing her March Madness projects.  SO very cool. Sometimes there is a freedom in getting an assignment and having specific instructions.  Recipes do this--there is a certain feeling of trust that can come with being instructed, but the outcome is still your own making.  I have really enjoyed seeing my instructions become something of Diane's own making.  They show her world in new way to me.  

Diane's friend Debbie sends her an e-mail every first warm day of the year.  It started years ago and continues to this day.  It says, "We are on an elevator to spring."  I LOVE this and as we come to the end of March and the March Madness prompts, nothing better can be said.  We've made it through the winter and now we are on an elevator to spring.

March Madness: Prompt # 20: Your Personal Gallery

(I tried posting this yesterday, but my internet browser quit TWICE just as I had finished it, erasing BOTH attempts at the post. So I am trying again.)

As you might imagine, Graham and I have all kinds of art on our walls. A lot of it is mine due to an equal need for storage and art on the wall. I am hoping to gradually replace my own work with other people's. The art we do own comes from all kinds of places, mostly people we know, which I love. I have some of my dad's art, our friends' work, and in some cases, even our exes are represented:

An ex-girlfriend of Graham's.

An ex-boyfriend of mine.

I won't go into the story of Graham's ex-girlfriend, but I will tell you something about mine. The guy who did this ink painting/drawing is a very multi-talented. He is an actor, musician, and visual artist of some talent. He once gave as a White Elephant Gift, what he called "A Portable Art Gallery." It was essentially a diorama he made out of a white gift box of a gallery--complete with hanging art, sculpture, and a hanging mobile. I thought it was AMAZING and fortunately, the recipient did too. The drawing above of Mark Twain spilling coffee was in his sketchbook after an afternoon of experimenting with ink. When I saw it I thought it was the BEST THING EVER. So for Christmas he cropped it and framed it for me. It still makes me happy and is often one of the first things I unpack when I have moved somewhere new. I love the sketch feel of it and the subject matter. The relationship is long gone, but the art remains, and years later, I still think I got the better bargain.

Like many of you out there, I am a BIG lover of photography. I have several pieces that I absolutely love. For our anniversary, Graham and I bought a cheap original photograph by Mary Ellen Mark of the actor Marlon Brando. It was cheap for a reason--it's not a great photo, but Mary Ellen Mark is a photographer that I ADORE and Brando is Graham's favorite actor, so it works. We have added it to our living room wall, which hangs some of our more favorited work. Somehow I have come into a couple of real treasures that even I can't believe I have. I have already told you about one. The other would be this photograph:
It's an original photograph of the artist Frida Kahlo by Imogen Cunningham. I know, it's a shitty picture of a MASTERPIECE. Here's a better picture of the image. How in the heck did I get this? Good question. I happen to have an unofficial fairy godmother named Ming. Ming had it IN HER CLOSET. When I was 21, my favorite painter was Frida Kahlo and my favorite photographer was Imogen Cunningham. She pulled it out of her closet and thought, "I wonder if Summer would like this?" How do I say this adequately? UM, YEAH.

Ming is one of those people that has an inordinate amount of MOJO. It's a special something that a lot of us mere mortals just don't have--luckily, she is equally gifted in generosity and so that the likes of me and others have benefited from her mojo tremendously. When she was in college, she took a year off and volunteered at Stanford University and helped put together an exhibit of Bay Area photographers. Among those photographers was Imogen Cunningham and Cunningham's son Rondal Partridge. Partridge actually printed this photograph from his mother's negative and he GAVE it to Ming, among other photographs. Years later, I got to benefit from this gift. It means so much to me. It has traveled to 4 states and hung on numerous walls. It is going into the will. Either that, or I will be buried with it, so that I can look up and see one of my favorite pieces of art EVER.

March Madness: Prompt #20: Your Personal Gallery

Photograph and tell us about what you have hanging on your walls. If it’s art, tell us where you got it and what the story is behind it. If it’s photographs tell us why you hung these photographs in particular—what is the story behind them?

(mine coming later today)

March Madness: Prompt #19: Create Your Favorite Childhood Meal

Cook your favorite childhood meal/food. Tell us about it. Give a recipe if you can.

About 8 years ago, I did the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and one of her exercises was to make your favorite childhood meal. This rocked my world. I hadn't made or thought about Mini Pizzas in years and it gave me SUCH pleasure to even remember them, much less make them and eat them again.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I went to an alternative school from Nursery School through eighth grade. The "Upper School" was it's version of junior high. 5th grade to eight grade you were considered the OLDER tier of the school, and you went on camping trips and did all kinds of things reserved for the (ahem) more mature student body. Often to fund these camping trips and other activities, we would have class fundraisers. The more popular fundraising activity was the HERALDED Pizza Day, where we made and sold mini English Muffin pizzas, along with lemonade and 50/50 Popsicles (otherwise known as Two-tones or Creamsicles) to the entire school. I LOVED Pizza Day. I loved it as an activity and I loved it as a meal. I loved that the whole day was taken over by it. I loved being in the stinky narrow kitchen that was no more than a glorified walk-in closet with an electric stove and music playing on a boombox. I loved the mountains of shredded cheddar and Monterrey jack that were created by fellow classmates, grating away like little minions in Nike sneakers and stained t-shirts. I loved the shopping bags filled with jar after jar of spaghetti sauce and the packets of Thomas' English Muffins. I loved delivering the orders with my friends Lisa and Tonya to the second grade classroom, the kids' names scrawled on napkins in green marker. Then, I loved to eat the meal, which cost 50 cents a pizza, twenty-five cents a cup of lemonade, and another twenty-five cents a Popsicle. Not a bad price for such a lovingly prepared "meal."

Long after I had graduated from the school, in an early attempt at capturing my youth, while I was still young, I suggested the mini pizza idea to my family and somehow or other it became a traditional Christmas Eve dish. Only, at Pam and Gary's house, no meal was ever made half assed. There would be no cheddar and Monterrey jack cheese--it was sliced mozzarella and don't you forget it. Also, toppings were added--sliced pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms and black olives respectively. Being both a nostalgiast and a purist (a.k.a afraid of change), I initially resisted this upscaling of mini pizzas, but like so much else, once I tried it, a new tradition was born. Plus, I have yet to find Two-tones or 50/50's since 1987 and while there are things that are CLOSE to them (IMPOSTORS!), I have come to let go of my Pizza Day experience and remember it only in my dreams (and blog entries). Here is the "recipe" as I have come to remember/assemble it:

What you will need:
6 English Muffins
Spaghetti Sauce of your choice
2 c. of grated cheese of your choice

Optional toppings:
pepperoni
olives
mushrooms
green or red peppers

Recommended listening: Howard Jones, Duran Duran, & Paul Young
Preheat oven to 375.
Split the english muffins in half using a fork and place on a baking sheet.
Taking a spoon, slather the top with spaghetti sauce (about 2 tablespoons each)
Cover sauce covered English muffins with shredded cheese.
Add optional toppings.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes-or until cheese is well melted.

Let cool or eat right away and burn the heck out of your mouth. Enjoy!

March Madness: Prompt #18: Write a Charming Note to Someone You Admire

Nikki Giovanni, one of my favorite poets, and, as it turns out, a REAL person with cool stationary!

Find someone you admire’s snailmail address and send them a card with a charming note inside.

One of my favorite writing and creativity books of all time is Carolyn See's Making a Literary Life. See gives a fantastic recipe for creating a real and active LIFE as a writer--one where not only you are writing, but you actively engage in the world as a writer. One of the things she suggests is sending a charming note to a writer or editor that you admire five days a week. I have never done this 5 days a week, but I have done it a number of times and the cool thing is occasionally I have heard back from people. There is NOTHING like coming home from a long day at the office to find a postcard from JOAN DIDION in your mailbox. This is something I will treasure for the rest of my life. I framed it for pete's sake. The woman is a legend. The woman happens to be one of my favorite writers and there she was in my mailbox. I wrote like a FIEND with this framed on my desk.

The great thing about this action is that it immediately LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD. Like so many people out there, I am an image conscious person with an active imagination. There are many people I admire, but I never think I am in the same world as them. It's like there are different universes and here I am in my pajamas, scribbling away in my universe, while the COOL people I like live in a more successful, attractive universe where everyone is noteworthy and they are fully dressed in awesome clothes. Writing a physical note and addressing it to an actual address, with a stamp, and depositing it in an actual mailbox helps erase the line between fantasy and reality. You are in the SAME world as them!

You don't have to be a writer to write a writer. You also don't have to write just writers. You can write politicians, an old classmate or teacher, artists, filmmakers, actors, editors, WHOEVER you admire--and is a little out of reach.

Why SNAILMAIL is important:

Yeah, I know, e-mail is SO MUCH easier and convenient, but guess what? It's also easier to IGNORE, to get lost in spam filters or in the ADD land of the e-mail inbox. It's also in a way less intimate. If I sent Joan Didion an e-mail, mentally she still wouldn't exist in the real world with me. I'd still believe she was off somewhere in the LITERARY KINGDOM of my own idol worshipping imagination instead of in an apartment on the Upper East side, with a blue pen to write with. A short note, sent in an envelope, is a physical presence that goes from your house to another house. Think of your own mailbox and how RARE it is to receive letters and postcards these days. Wouldn't you be more TICKLED to hear from someone this way? Wouldn't the admired also feel that way?

Some pointers:

1. Keep it short & charming & do not ask favors.
2. Say who you are & why you think they are cool.

Ways to find snailmail addresses:
Google search their name and the word "contact" will sometimes bare postal fruit. Also, ask who do they work with? Example, writers sometimes teach so they can be written to via the university. They also work with agents and publishers. Agents and publishers all have addresses.

March Madness: Prompt #17: Record Everything You Consume in One Day

I have become a GIANT fan of Kate Bingaman-Burt who records everything she buys by drawing it. She calls it Obsessive Consumption and I think it's downright brilliant. I have been an on again off again recorder of what I buy for years, and had just never thought to DRAW it! I am a big believer in recording everything you spend money on at least once a year for a week, if not a month. It's a great teacher to me of not only what I buy, but where my intention and actions go. Right now, with all this money talk flying through the air, nothing better can be done to see how and why we do what we do with our money, actions, and what is it that we are actually LIVING day to day.

I discovered Kate's work a couple of months ago and I thought, this sounds familiar, and then I remembered that Keri Smith had a similar idea in her fantastic book How to Be an Explorer of the World. I looked it up, and SHO 'NUF, there was Kate's name. Keri took it a step further into not just what you buy, but what do you CONSUME (use, eat, take in, & buy) in one single day. Consumption is often how we (un)consciously participate in the world. How are you participating? This is not about judgement--it's just one way to explore your daily actions.

March Madness: Prompt #16: Collect Shadows

March Madness: Prompt #15: Create a Travel Guide to Your Neighborhood or Town

Any sights? Restaurants, cafes, bookstores, historical spots, etc.? Any local color? Let us know!

March Madness: Prompt #14: Be a Human Photobooth

Be a human photobooth. Photograph your kids, partner, housemate, friend, etc. acting out: Angry, Sad, Scared, Happy, & Surprised. I photographed my co-worker Genevieve. I highly recommend doing this with co-workers. It makes the work day...HILARIOUS.

March Madness: Prompt #13: Make a Fort

Remember when you were a kid and you could make a fort with blankets and chairs or with whatever was handy? Do it now.

I made a fort for my cats. Cardboard box and a knife. That's all it took. Those $200 store bought kitty towers can SUCK IT. PLUS it's recyclable AND they can bite it, scratch it, destroy it. And when they get bored with it all you have to do is MOVE IT TO A NEW LOCATION. VOILA! Instant INTEREST.

March Madness: Prompt #12: Think Outside of the Blog

March Madness: Prompt #11: Discover Spring In Your Home

Find spring in your own home (from MAV at 3191): photograph the flora in your home. Can't see the blooms in your garden? How about going on a scavenger hunt in your own home to find the blooms that exist in your domestic world? Any floral prints? Any flowers in photos hanging on your wall? How about your dishware? Clothing? Spring is everywhere!

March Madness: Prompt # 10: Make Something Useful

Make something useful.  Example: Glue, bird feeder, bag out of plastic bags--something that can actually be USED.  Reminder: this does not need to be complicated. 

March Madness: Prompt # 9: Start a 100 things to do before I die list

Start a100 things to do before I die list (list at least 30 things you want to do).

I am a believer that lists have power.  I remember Andrea Scher calling lists prayers a long time ago, and I thought she was on to something.  I still do.  

I was inspired by Maggie Mason's list of the same name and then just because this is how my life works, I started seeing these kinds of lists everywhere.  I believe that once we make what we want visible and known, the easier it is to accomplish things and achieve what we want.  The lists are the easiest way to do this.  I posted the beginning of my list last year, and so far I have accomplished 7 of the 46 things listed and have 2 more that will soon be crossed off my list. Guess which one I will be doing in a month?

What do you want to do in this big ol' world?  What makes you want to lean forward towards that great big horizon?  What big ideas can you give wings?

March Madness: Prompt #8: Create Something Using the Weather

Andy Goldsworthy collaborating with the sun.

Create something in collaboration with weather. Hint: we fly kites in collaboration with the wind. We make rainbows collaborating with the sun through water or glass. How about creating something with the weather?

Don't take this too seriously (good advice for all these prompts). This is what I did as my first attempt to collaborate with the rain about a year ago:

I used water soluble markers and they kept running out, so I had to layer and layer the colors. It turned into QUITE the FEMALE EMPOWERMENT drawing. Holy yonicles, batman! It was not what I intended, but you get the gist.