Mar28
rhymes and romance.
Author Archives: beth
Mar27
little steamed pockets of joy.
artist Tatsuya Tanaka uses everyday objects and food items to create amazing mini worlds. his latest creation: ‘Shaun the Sauna’! was inspired by Shaun the Sheep, one of my favorite cartoons’ and made into dumplings, one of my favorite foods. what’s not to love?
—
‘dumplings – little pockets of joy waiting to be savored.’
-author unknown
Mar26
labyrinth.
so wonderful discovering the beautiful labyrinth
at the matthaei botanical gardens
i’ve been here a number of times
but have never found this
we slowly walked
round and round and round and round and round and round….
somehow changing directions at one point
i thought it to be a very short path in the beginning
but fell under its spell after a while
way longer than i imagined
it really does lead you to imagine
at last
finally finding ourselves
on the large stones in the center.
‘things outside you are projections of what’s inside you,
and what’s inside you is a projection of what’s outside.
so when you step into the labyrinth outside you,
at the same time you’re stepping into the labyrinth inside.’
-haruki murakami
—
photo credit: taken by Steve Jensen, in the summer
on our recent visit, this week, it was a moody and windy day
Mar25
unbroken.
I had the great honor to attend this lecture last night.
Twice poisoned by Putin, and his political prisoner,
this brilliant writer, historian, patriot, hero and unbroken fighter
wants peace and justice for his country.
Presented By:
Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia at the University of Michigan
Distinguished lecture. Russia Beyond Putin
Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian opposition politician, historian, and former political prisoner, current Vice President of the Free Russia Foundation
Kremlin propaganda wants the world to believe that all Russians support Vladimir Putin and his war of aggression in Ukraine. But the reality is very different: beyond the Putin regime, and despite its breathtaking repression, many Russians believe in a very different—hopeful, peaceful, democratic—future for their country. In this lecture, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician, author, historian, and former political prisoner who was freed as part of a large-scale East-West prisoner exchange in August 2024, will speak about the opposition, the state of human rights, and the struggle for democracy in Putin’s Russia.
Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author, historian, and former political prisoner. A close colleague of the slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, he has served as deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party and was a candidate for the Russian Parliament. Leading diplomatic efforts on behalf of the opposition, Kara-Murza played a key role in the adoption of Magnitsky sanctions against top Russian officials by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada, and Australia. For this work he was twice poisoned and left in a coma; a joint media investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel has identified FSB officers behind the attacks. In April 2022, Kara-Murza was arrested in Moscow for publicly denouncing the invasion of Ukraine and the war crimes committed by Russian forces. Following a closed-door trial at the Moscow City Court, he was sentenced to 25 years for “high treason” and kept in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison in Siberia. He was released in August 2024 as part of the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War negotiated by the U.S. and German governments.
Kara-Murza is a contributing writer at The Washington Post, winning the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for his columns written from prison, and has previously worked for Echo of Moscow, BBC, RTVi, Kommersant, World Affairs, and other media organizations. He currently serves as vice-president at the Free Russia Foundation, as senior advisor at Human Rights First, and as senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. He was the founding chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom and has led successful international efforts to commemorate Nemtsov, including with street designations in Washington D.C. and London. Kara-Murza is a recipient of several awards, including the Council of Europe’s Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, and is an honorary fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
—
‘strong is the soul that is beaten but unbroken.’
-author unknown
Mar24
into the woods.
even in the midst of a very cool spring
one of the best ways to enjoy the day.
—
“walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
—
saginaw woods, ann arbor, michigan, usa – spring 2025
Mar23
giving back.
Set in modern-day Appalachia, Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Demon Copperhead” is a contemporary retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic novel, “David Copperfield.” Now, she’s using the royalties to help people in the region she depicts in the story, opening up a home for women in recovery. “I felt like, I am getting a novel from this place, and I’m going to give something back,” she said.
—
“when you’re in a position to have gotten so much, the gift at this point is giving back.”
— paul stanley, american musician, kiss
—
source/image credit: harper collins
Mar22
not understood.
CASH – 3.19
DEBIT – 3.29
CASH & DEBIT
SAME PRICE.
are you sure?
is it me?
am i having trouble doing the math?
or
am I having trouble reading the words?
did someone quit in the middle of doing the sign?
where did it all break down?
please advise.
—
‘confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.’
-henry miller
Mar21
‘you live as long as you dance.’ – rudolf nureyev
Elaine’s Unfortunate Dancing on ‘Seinfeld’ Was Inspired By a Television Legend
The epic dance floor meltdown had roots in real life, with a big name in late night TV suffering from the same lack of rhythm. “Like a full body dry heave” is how George Costanza described Elaine Benes’s awkward dance moves during a work function in “The Little Kicks,” a 1996 episode of Seinfeld. The sequence, which horrifies spectators, is a marvel of physical comedy thanks to Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine, oblivious to her total lack of rhythm, seizes and gyrates like a gangster being shot down in a 1940s B movie.
That nugget of an idea—a person completely unselfconscious about their frenzied dancing—actually originated with a real person who worked for NBC: Lorne Michaels, storied creator of the long-running Saturday Night Live.
According to Seinfeld writer Spike Feresten, who penned “The Little Kicks,” the idea for the segment came when he was working as a receptionist on SNL. Speaking with author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong for Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything, Feresten related that he observed Michaels dancing at an SNL after-party one night and was mesmerized at how bad Michaels was.
Michaels, Armstrong wrote, “was dancing as if he’d never seen another human dance before.” He “heaved and gyrated” to a beat “only he could feel.”
The idea made it through the gauntlet at Seinfeld, a production famous for being rather discriminating when it came to plotting episodes. And while Feresten said he demonstrated some of Michael’s moves for Louis-Dreyfus, the actress worked on them at length herself, even demonstrating them for her family. When they were deemed sufficiently terrible, she performed them during filming.
The dance has since taken on cult status. Each year, the minor league Brooklyn Cyclones host an Elaine Dance Contest in which spectators are invited to give it their best and the winner receives a trophy.
—
i personally love to dance, and am not ‘good’ at it
but i am an enthusiastic dancer.
i expect this is the same way lorne michaels or elaine benes
would describe their approach to dancing.
-me, on national dance day
—
—
‘opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor. ‘
-h. jackson brown, jr.
—
source credits: jake rosen, image, nbc tv
Mar20
it’s spring.
And this is the lady
Whom everyone loves,
Ms. Violet
in her purple gown
Or, on special occasions,
A dress the color
Of sunlight. She sits
In the mossy weeds and waits
To be noticed.
She loves dampness.
She loves attention.
She loves especially
To be picked by careful fingers,
Young fingers, entranced
By what has happened
To the world.
We, the older ones,
Call it Spring,
And we have been through it
Many times.
But there is still nothing
Like the children bringing home
Such happiness
In their small hands.
“Children, It’s Spring”
~Mary Oliver
—
art credit: anatomyofmind/etsy
Mar19
who me?
something happened to the little lamb
similar to what happened to the reindeer
the victim of someone with the same m.o.
when I asked around
Pete the Cat
didn’t seem to know anything about it. 
‘guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.’
-erma bombeck
I didn't have my glasses on.... 