a favorite comment said to me
when wearing a yellow sweater
“i enjoy you in yellow”
—
“some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.”
-pablo picasso
surrounded for a long weekend by big people who choose to live creative lives
working daily with little people who quite naturally live creative lives
i realize they are the same kind of people
who are, in spite of everything,
open, honest, vulnerable, full of wonder, bravery, creativity, joy, passion, and spirit
i feel such an admiration for them and kinship with them.
—
“life should be a continual celebration, a festival of lights the whole year round.
only then can you grow up, can you blossom.”
-rajneesh
happy diwali to those who celebrate!
attendees stand up comedy show
alan zweibel and laraine newman – old friends from saturday night live
cathy guisewite with her shoe
erma’s grandson sees her selectric typewriter
tried to open my hotel room coffee, attempted to bite it, finally had to stab it with a pen
trouble getting in and out of magic star trek door
always a sure sign of a long night, an abandoned jerky wrapper
—
“it takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”
-erma bombeck
memoirists, novelists, songwriters, television writers, screenwriters, comedy writers, social media writers, cookbook authors, newspaper writers, bloggers, it writers, comicstrip writers, standup comedians, human interest writers, 92 year old and 17 year old writers, actors, playwrights, short story writers, cartoonists…
so much creative energy all in one place
learning, listening, talking, writing, improv, playing, crying, laughing my face off with stomach hurting fun.
not your usual conference
not your usual hotel drawer reading material
—
“you can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.”
-stephen king
after 4 years and 4 tries
at last i find myself in
the erma bombeck writer’s workshop
at the university of dayton
her alma mater
where she has left an endowment
to support writers of humor and the human condition
i’ve always admired her style of writing
her daughter spoke of growing up in the family
the joy of erma’s looks at life
already feeling inspired and so lucky
with very welcoming writers
of all shapes and sizes, ages and stages
beginning to accomplished author
each with a unique story and reason
all with a common passion
the desire to write.
—
“to say, ‘well, i write when i really get into it’ is a bunch of bull.
put the paper in the typewriter, stare at it a long time,
get snowblindness if you have to, but write something.”
-erma bombeck
my daughter’s two black cats
who i collectively call ‘the nathans’
waited until her halloween display was up
deciding to become the stars
sitting centerstage in the tableau.
—
“in a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.”
-joseph wood krutch
my grandson stargazing in a night field
—
i met my ex-husband many years ago
a man with a brilliant mind
who taught me myriad things
among them
oceanography, astronomy, photography
astrophotography
my grandson
never met his (now late) grandfather
yet all these years later
he put together one of his old telescopes
taking it upon himself
to learn astrophotography
he has become a stargazer
two generations later
his grandfather
would have been thrilled and so proud of him
proving once again that
everything in the universe is truly connected
most in ways we cannot even begin to imagine.
—
“Science is the one human activity that is truly progressive.
The body of positive knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation.”
― Edwin Powell Hubble, The Realm of the Nebulae
For artist Mostafa “Moz” Azimitabar, no paintbrush is as special as the humble toothbrush
Facing persecution in his birth country of Iran, the Kurdish artist and musician fled to Australia in 2013. Once there, he was entered into the immigration system and would spend the next eight years in detention centers. At his first stop, an offshore camp on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, Azimitabar turned to art to cope with his emotions.
“I asked one of the officers on Manus: ‘Can I have some paint?’… I would like to do some artwork because I don’t want to give up’,” he recalled. The guard refused his request, citing safety concerns. Azimitabar returned to his shared room, frustrated, but refusing to let it go. The reality of his situation forced him to get even more creative. He decided to work with what he had — in this case, coffee and a toothbrush.
“I don’t know what happened … that moment was so special for me. I grabbed the toothbrush and I put it in the coffee and I just dragged it (on some paper),” he said, calling it a “moment of victory.” He continued to experiment with the technique throughout his detainment. “Art and painting helped me to be strong, to continue. Because when I paint, I don’t feel any trauma.”
Then, another moment of victory came over a year after his release in 2021: He was named a finalist for the Archibald Prize, one of Australia’s most prestigious art awards, worth over $70,000. His painting, one of 52 chosen from over 800 submissions, was created using a toothbrush, coffee, and acrylics on canvas. It’s titled “KNS088,” the number the Australian government issued him during his years in detention.
“The message of my painting is love. We are all one family, connected by our humanity.”
-Mostafa Azimitabar
—
credits: Rebekah Brandes, Saeed Kahn/AFP, NSW
on the very next day
after i punched an aggressive clown in a haunted house
and my heartbeat had resumed its normal pace
i found this heart on a sidewalk
made of old gum weathered with time
yet the message was still clear.
—
“i would rather live with a tender heart, because that it the key to feeling the beat of all other hearts.”
-jenny slate
I didn't have my glasses on.... 