January 2004 Archives

Then spring descended all of a sudden. Aspen catkins flew in the air, so thick that when walking on the street you could breathe them in and you would flick your hand to keep them away from your face. The scent of lilac blooms was pungent and intoxicating. Yet old people still wrapped themselves in fur or cotton-padded clothes. The dark earth, vast and loamy, marked by tufts of yellow grass here and there, began emitting a warm vapor that flickered like purple smoke in the sunshine. All at once apricot and peach trees broke into blossom, which grew puffy as bees kept touching them.

from Ha Jin's Waiting

I can't wait for spring to come. I've had it with the "near-Arctic" temperatures. Harumph.

Here's a great cause that you can donate to. It's not just another hum-drum charity case, read on...

My friend Mandy Wong and I recently put together a proposal for a joint art/music show for a gallery in Cambridge. Our proposal was accepted and we've been offered a show for a week in August!

Now comes the tough part. We've got to come up with the money to reserve the gallery in the next two weeks. Mandy's a student and I'm still looking for work, so coming up with that much cash by the deadline is going to be tough. So we thought that we would ask you, dear reader, to help us out. Anything will be appreciated - $1, whatever you can afford.

You'll be supporting young artists and the art scene in Boston. And we will love you forever! (And if you're really generous and send more than $50 I'll send you a monoprint...)

Mandy will be playing some pieces on piano by John Cage, and I'll be exhibiting my work. We can even email the proposal to you if you'd like. ;-)

If you don't want to donate but still want to be informed about when and where the show is happening, email me or continue monitoring this blog.
It's a secure form using Paypal, nothing sketchy. Come on and donate!

My work is up in Berlin!

Thanks to Dave, a fellow workshopper who curated the show.

I'm completely psyched. Too bad I couldn't make it to the opening. ;-)

We rented a documentary on Jimmy Carter that was part of PBS's American Experience series. It was completely fascinating. It's a period of history that I had absolutely no clue about. I was a wee tyke during Carter's administration, so I was oblivious to everything that was going on. But I've never really discussed the issues of the period with anyone. It was probably considered too "contemporary" to discuss in any history classes I had taken, yet so much of what happened during Carter's administration is directly affecting what's going on today.

For instance, the legacy of the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel set the tone for the next decade or so of trying to achieve peace in the Middle East (although that seems to have gone completely out the window). And the whole incident in Iran, when a group of students kidnapped about 50 Americans and held them hostage for more than a year, it was seen as a major "terrorist threat". Terrorism has much deeper roots than many of us realize - we all tend to think back to September 11th as "the event" that brought us to our current attitudes.

We need to analyze our history more thoroughly and learn from our mistakes. It seems to me that we keep doing the wrong things over and over again.

I'd like to know what Carter thinks of the prisoners that are being held in Guantanamo Bay, who have no access to legal representation and are quite possibly being tortured...as a champion of human rights, what does he think of our current administration?

Wow, it's been more than two weeks since I last posted. Too much of the holidays. There were about a million topics that I wanted to write about but not one of them is coming to me at this moment. So for now, of note in the area:

The Rembrandt show is coming to a close at the MFA on January 18th. I still haven't caught it yet, and I have about 6 days to do it. Must...see...his...prints....

The Patriots won something or other. The playoffs I think? I' m not a big fan of football, I'm just amazed that they managed to play the whole game without getting frostbite. Ouch!

Speaking of Massachusetts-themed links, has anyone checked John Kerry's expenditures lately? You can check out where he stayed, what airline he flew, etc. He's racking up frequent flyer miles on American airlines, that's for sure!