it’s just not a real
oktoberfest street festival
until
it happens in september
and
the band wearing lederhosen
plays
“sweet home alabama’
—
Sep12
Tag Archives: fun
Sep9
the one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing. – james brown
coming home
we happened upon
yet another
surprise festival
downtown
‘dancing in the streets’
with
cellos playing rock and ballads
hot zydeco
jewish youth band
belly dancers
maypole colors
lone violinist
swing
ballroom
the horah
swaying
spinning
circling
hopping
dipping
instruments for kids to touch
drawing people into the street
for
movement
and
dance
creating
eclectic groups
new pairings
unlikely partners
happy faces
and
it was pretty sweet.
—
i think the universe is pure geometry – basically,
a beautiful shape twisting around
and dancing over space-time.
antony garrett lisi
Sep5
yeh, it’s a long weekend kind of weekend.
i’ll be spending it relaxing with some friends.
cheers.
Aug30
what I love most about this crazy life is the adventure of it. – juliette binoche
spent the afternoon at
the rogers centre
in canada
where the
baseball opened with
the official roof report –
‘the roof is open’
the game began
and we
watched our detroit tigers
get mowed over
by the toronto blue jays
such a game (15-1)
where
our outfielder even
lost track of
how many outs there were
and forgot to throw the ball back
toronto fans threw out hats
when their player hit 3 home runs
all in the same game
and
hockey and baseball
blurred lines
in the old hockey tradition
of the hat trick
then
every opposing starter
got at least on base
giving us the chance
to see their entire roster
all in one game
but the staff and the local fans
were very friendly
except for the guy
who impounded
our piñata head mascot
kind of a chicken
who was meant to be a tiger
(a chi-ger)
upon entering the stadium
lest i possibly wear it
and conceal my identity
but we decided to shake it all off
and
embrace the huge loss of this game
by enjoying the town
with fans from both sides
and
our pinata
came right along with us
as we met
a rickshaw driver
a man with a chicken hat
( a kindred spirit who grew up in my hometown)
a street singer with a bag on his head
a sweaty spiderman
a bachelorette party
and a band
playing american and canadian covers
so we danced a lot
and passed the piñata on to the band
but upon returning to our hotel
i couldn’t exactly remember
my hotel room number
except for the last two digits
which caused a bit of a logistical issue
so i visited a few floors
on the elevator that only moved
in response to an electronic key swipe
(who knew?)
saw a lot of our beautiful hotel
made friends with the front desk
who made a few phone calls
to my fellow travelers
who mostly had their phones shut off
in this
faraway and friendly foreign land
and
finally got back into my room
where i soon after
got locked in the glass shower
for a while
then
relaxed and drifted off to sleep
in my pillowy bed
until there was
a 3am fire alarm (false)
but it was one great day
leading into the next
and
there certainly was a lot of laughter
i’d say there were
at least
3 major bouts of laughter
all in the same day.
and
that’s a hat trick.
—
‘that’s the beauty of sport.
sometimes you laugh,
sometimes you cry.’
– joseph gradual
Aug29
go north. and then go more north. and just a bit more north yet.
heading to the great white north
speeding on a train
with
one group of friends
one piñata head
one group of others waiting for us there
and bringing heaps of american spirit to go around.
“the cool thing about being famous is traveling. i have always wanted to travel across seas, like to canada and stuff.”
– britney spears
—
image credits: googleimages
Aug20
sometimes I think that there’s a fine line between impressionistic and messy. – lady gaga
while b and j
were in my care today
it was real hot outside
so we walked up to the ice cream store
dragging long sticks along the ground
jumping down the sidewalk
when i got a little lost
b said,
“maybe you’re taking the LONG shortcut”
yes, that’s it exactly
and
last thing i remember their dad saying
before he left was
“make sure they don’t get messy. we’re heading to a party as soon as i get home.”
well it kind of went bad in that department real fast
we took the short shortcut home
tossed acorns pinecones pebbles
onto the street
washed hands face arms legs shoes clothes phone and glasses
so much sweaty sticky fun.
——-
see any detour as an opportunity to experience new things.
– h. jackson brown, jr.
Aug15
we didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time. ~ vince lombardi
hometeam
detroit lions
played the new york jets
in a pre-season matchup
and i had the chance
to share the seats
with one of my grandies, (m)
at his first american football game
he
hooted
cheered
wore the colors
ate stadium food
jumped
roared
and in the end
we won
even though
it was a bit different
from his
aussie rules football
no shorts
but lots of pads
coney dogs and pizza
and
heaps of breaks in the action.
welcome to america.
—
“ the trouble with referees is that they just don’t care which side wins.”
~tom canterbury
Jul10
magic.
j proclaimed,
‘i’m going to swing into magic land.’
we’d been waiting forever
for a chance to play outside in the rain together
there was a fence
branch was weak
chair was shaky
toes were tippy
b created a magic rain slide
“let’s make it soapy”
it was so slippy-flippy
there were great leaps and a great slides
making for
a great afternoon
we got very wet
fell down
slid on the grass
crashed into stuff
got pretty muddy
laughed so hard
best of all
none of us were injured
and it was pure magic.
roald dahl would understand completely.
—-
credits: roald dahl – george’s marvelous medicine
Jul5
“some of the best memories are made in flip flops.” ― kellie elmore
a flip-flopped family makes memories as they head to
the giant water slide event on the streets of ann arbor
—
“600 feet of sweet, slippery vinyl for you to slide away all your summertime sadness.
You’ll never look at your streets the same way again.”
– slide the city
—
find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.
– emily dickinson
Jul1
oh! canada?
we set out on a 2-hour tour
not unlike
*’gilligan’s island’
all kinds of us
togethe
with high hopes
for a grand day
on the detroit river
a natural boundary
between
the united states
and
canada
and were
met with
gale force winds
and
torrential downpours
and slippery decks
but we made the best of the rough seas
most people are rowing against the current of life.
instead of turning the boat around,
all they need to do is let go of the oars.
– esther hicks
and this guy
jack
our mascot for the day
survived
a bit the worse for wear
paper mache mashed
one eye blown off
quickly balding
open wounds
but
like jack
we all hung in there
(nowhere to get off really)
and it was a grand adventure
we may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.
– martin luther king, jr.
canada is like a loft apartment over a really great party.
– robin williams
happy canada day to our very friendly neighbors!
—
*gilligan’s island backstory:
IT WAS INTENDED TO BE A “METAPHORICAL SHAMING OF WORLD POLITICS.”
One day in a public speaking class at New York University, the professor had students compose an impromptu one-minute speech on this topic: If you were stranded on a desert island, what one item would you like to have? Sherwood Schwartz (the show’s creator), was a student in that class, and the question so intrigued him that it remained lodged in the back of his mind for many years.
After working for some time as a comedy writer for other shows, Schwartz decided to pitch his own idea for a sitcom. Thinking back to that desert island question, he thought it would make for an interesting dynamic to have a group of very dissimilar individuals stranded together and have to learn to live and work together. The island would be “a social microcosm and a metaphorical shaming of world politics in the sense that when necessary for survival, yes we can all get along,” Schwartz explained in Inside Gilligan’s Island: From Creation to Syndication. Schwartz quickly discovered after his first few pitch meetings that words like “microcosm” and “metaphor” were not very helpful when trying to sell a comedy.
—
credits: cbs television, mental floss, sherwood schwartz, diamond jack boats
I didn't have my glasses on.... 