November 27, 2005

well, thanksgiving is over and the snow is blanketing the ground so we must be getting ready for december....
this friday we meet again to cover the most basic and important parts of the group.
looking forward to moving forward.
last night found us at the gallery celebrating christian gompert's thirtieth birthday.
wow, i remember thirty....
nice party with very nice people!
it has been a full year. in retrospect i wouldn't change anything except that
next year will be less full and even more family oriented.
ah but it is too early for new year's resolutions...

the word for the day is
organize


put away recycle reduce

November 22, 2005

the weather is changing finally and it really feels like
NOVEMBER.
great news again today via email
Susann Foster Brown has offered her help to create the 501C3.
Her vast experience along with Rose, Kathy, Mary JO Grace and others will
make lighter work for all of this task.

With Thanksgiving coming up we have so many things to be thankful for.

word for the day is

drizzle

as in rain and grey colored skies

November 20, 2005

wow
an amazing evening last night. our first ever filmstream...
we had SRO with nothing but happy people at the end of the night.
everything worked so fine without any hitches, glitches or ditches.
the films all played well and the end of the night made
three people quite happy
the results:
For student films
Matthew Emerson took home both the
audience and the judges pick
Mitchell Rosensweig took the audience pick
Lars Trodsen took the judges pick
Everything was GOOD!

word for the day is brought to you by Chloe

phenomenal


EXTRAORDINARY, REMARKABLE

happy happy evening to all

November 15, 2005

today we had more inquiries from artists to join us in december.
really really fab.
unfortunately i am so dog tired that i can't enjoy much of anything at the moment
so will most likely take a nose dive for the bed and zone out to old
M*A*S*H episodes which came through the door a few days ago.
oh hawkeye, take me away.
tomorrow is another day

was thinking about words, words for the day...so
word for the day beings today with:

premonition

November 14, 2005

Letter from Sharon Olds, Poet, to Laura Bush
(as sent to me from M.E. McKeen)
with thanks!

Here is an open letter from the poet Sharon Olds to Laura Bush
declining the invitation to read and speak at the National Book Critics
Circle Award in Washington, DC.

Sharon Olds is one of most widely read and critically acclaimed
poets living in America today.

Laura Bush
First Lady
The White House

Dear Mrs. Bush,

I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind
invitation to give a presentation at the National Book Festival on
September 24, or to attend your dinner at the Library of
Congress or the breakfast at the White House.

In one way, it's a very appealing invitation. The idea of
speaking at a festival attended by 85,000 people is inspiring! The possibility
of finding new readers is exciting for a poet in personal terms, and in
terms of the desire that poetry serve its constituents--all of us who need
the pleasure, and the inner and outer news, it delivers.

So the prospect of a festival of books seemed wonderful to me. I
thought of the opportunity to talk about how to start up an outreach
program. I thought of the chance to sell some books,sign some books and meet some
of the citizens of Washington , DC. I thought that I could try to find a
way, even as your guest\, with respect, to speak about my deep feeling that
we should not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my belief that the wish to
invade another culture and another country--with the resultant loss oflife and limb for our brave soldiers, and for the noncombatants in their
home terrain--did not come out of our democracy but was instead a
decision made "at the top" and forced on the people by distorted language, and by
untruths. I hoped to express the fear that we have begun to live
in the shadows of tyranny and religious chauvinism--the opposites of
the liberty, tolerance and diversity our nation aspires to.

I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear
witness--as an American who loves her country and its principles
and its writing--against this undeclared and devastating war. But I
could not face the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that if I sat down
to eat with you, it would feel to me as if I were condoning what I see to be
the wild, highhanded actions of the Bush Administration.

What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be
taking food from the hand of the First Lady who represents the
Administration that unleashed this war and that wills its continuation, even to the
extent of permitting "extraordinary rendition": flying people to other
countries where they will be tortured for us.

So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel
anguish and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I
thought of the clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the
flames of the candles, and I could not stomach it.

Sincerely,
SHARON OLDS
this is the beginning.
the group has met formally, looking for a name now for two meetings.
prior to this we have met a number of times ad hoc throughout 2005
the idea has been spinning since 2003.
the name has to surface so we can begin the site/database of names.

we meet again on december 2nd to complete the search, do the bylaws up and make plans for the new year.

there will be rants here
there will be random goings on.
there will be major sidetracks given any
little thing which crosses my desk

hopefully this will process all the stuff going on in and around the process

we are looking forward to the process
and will embrace the product soon!