Just an Old Folkie at Heart

Sometimes in the middle of the work, sometimes in the middle of the stress and nonsense, something just keeps shining through. And for me, that is music. Does music do it for you, too?

I love many forms of music, and certainly have several favorites, but what always feels as comfortable as a pair of old shoes, a cozy easy chair, is acoustic folk. No doubt growing up in the 60’s and 70’s in the whole folk scene has a lot to do with it, but what could be better while working to suddenly hear Jesse Colin Young, Bob Dylan, James Taylor? The sweet voices of Sarah McLaughlin, Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt? Acoustic guitar music and folk span decades – it just never gets tired.

And the best of all … it comes streaming through my computer in iTunes. How wonderful is it to have access to hundreds and hundreds of radio stations playing whatever music you feel like hearing on any particular day? Just the best. Thank you, Apple! (and yes, I am on a Mac.) The folk stations that serve up the best, if you folkies out there are reading and are unaware of this gem on your computer, are Radioio Acoustic Cafe, Folk Alley, Grassy Hill Radio and GotRadio-Folk Lore.

Sometimes it’s the seemingly small joys in life that become the rich tapestry backdrops to the rest of our lives … when is there not music?

Halloween Costume Parade

OK, let me warn you right off the bat – this is not the parade in Greenwich Village or anything. Nothing like it. Just a very small town parade held each year with prizes for various age groups, cider and doughnuts for everybody, and people getting together. Almost all kids in the parade, but the whole town participates.  I’m just posting a few  pictures because I thought they were kind of cool, and it’s fun to see people getting involved with the costumes, especially the little ones.

This scarecrow is a little hard to see with the busy background behind him, but what was funny was his face kept moving around all the time in some bizarre way. Turns out, his hands are behind the burlap of his face and the arms aren’t arms. He made the costume all on his own. (His Grandma next to me swore it.)

This age group, below, had a pretty good assortment of creative costumes in it – they were 6-8 year olds, I think. But I was just fascinated at how effective the plain `ol ghost was, and he or she was my definite favorite.

 

Then we had some younger kids whose moms and dads were very creative in putting together costumes that were definitely not from Party City or Wal-Mart. These two – Little Bo Peep and a cowboy with chaps and that long coat they wear, (uh – forgot what they call that) – were real cute.

And then … what put a smile on my face was a really clever homemade costume … on a dog. (Well, yeah – of course that made me smile!) Her owners also had a head piece they’d made of the same fabric as the inside of the banana, but said the Doxie didn’t like it on very much so left it off. Wow! People that really care about their pet!

This costume and the presence of about 10 other non-costumed dogs prompted me to ask the master of ceremonies to consider including dogs in costume next year, and he thought it was a great idea and announced it immediately. (Now why do I think I’m somehow going to get roped into helping form guidelines as to pets in costume and how old a kid has to be to have a dog on a leash, etc.?)

Anyway. I started thinking if there was a children’s book story somewhere in all of this. If there is …. for me …. it’s going to be about that ghost or the Dachshund! Maybe both ….

 

Zombie Delight

The Epicurean Z

You ask what makes my culinary bell ring?
I’ll tell you, dear friends, it’s only one thing.

Fingers!

With garlic and butter in a delicate sauté,
Or toss with linguine and a sauce de Mornay.

Cut thin and layered for a scalloped delight,
Or simmer in red sauce … it’s Italian tonight!

Chopped and toasted gives salads a crunch,
Or slice thin on rye for a delectable lunch.

Breaded and deep-fried, tartar sauce on the side,
With brainslaw, you’ll think you went to heaven and died!

Thumbs work best in a rich brown stew,
Or slather with honey on the barbecue.

Now when baking, you’ll want to remove all the nails,
Smooth texture’s a must or the recipe fails.

Chop and add raisins, for a great autumn pie,
Puree as ganache for a torte layers high.

Arrange young fingers with a tart lemon mousse,
Or serve them with custard for a fab Charlotte Russe.

(Well, where did you think they got the idea of ladyfingers from?)

Studded in ice cream with a fudge sauce that’s hot,
Can fingers be more flexible? I really think not!

They’re suited for dinners, or occasions quite grand,
But if in a rush, eat `em right off the hand!

Ready to cook? To scramble or bake?
Pick up Zombie Gourmet – turn to page forty-eight.

© Jeanne Balsam, 2009

Fall – Just 2 Days Later

Autumn is on her own schedule. She seems to pay no mind to temperatures, to incoming storms; she just pulls out her paints and brushes, and in her own time gently strokes the trees with gold, oranges, crimson and amber. Here, just 2 days later, is the same tree that appears in my last post.

Fall Within 100 Feet

I have had a 100 things to blog about, all swimming, swirling in my head. But at the moment am coping with something else, and the thoughts are just not solidifying. (One thing I want to write about, having just seen Where the Wild Things Are and finished reading Coraline, is about what happens when children’s books become movies. Stay tuned …) So when inspired writing fails and I still have a ton of work on my desk, what to do? Take a few pictures …

These photos are taken without me walking more than 100′ from my front door.  The first, my neighbors across the street, taken from my front porch. Not much wind today, but Old Glory always looks so nice in all the seasons.

My caddy-corner neighbors …. their fence is always lined with some kind of blooming flowers, daffodils, lilies, and in the fall, white shasta daisies

My front porch … have to have something of fall there! Each year the local deer inevitably take down whatever live flowers I put on the steps, but I will prevail! Or at least I’m trying – my neighbors had success in protecting their Hostas with Deer-Out, (nothing horrible in the way of ingredients), which is no small accomplishment, so I’m giving it a try. Doesn’t bother next door’s cats, so it must be deer-specific. Time will tell.

Looking down my short block from in front of my house … I’m on the corner. At the very end, if you look carefully, you will see a spot of blue/grey. That’s the Delaware River. I’m happy to live near a river, near any water, really. I’m very happy for the little town I live in and how un-modernized it is. Real people with real small stores and local friendliness. I’m lucky.  Grateful, too.

The Outsiders – S.E.Hinton

Have you ever read a book that exceeded your expectations? Great, isn’t it? I didn’t know quite what to expect from The Outsiders; I’d noticed it had a special placement in my library because it’s considered a classic, but I didn’t look twice. What got me bringing it home, was Patrick Swayze. Yup. Patrick Swayze.

After he passed away, there were many reviews of his film career on TV, and in one pastiche of his films was The Outsiders. Checked it out on Netflix to find it has an all-star cast, (undiscovered at that time), was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and sounded really interesting. But first I had to read the book.

The Outsiders is a story about a band of brothers and friends called Greasers for the way they wore their hair. They weren’t really hoods, by their own definition – not that hardened or criminals yet – but were a gang of sorts. They were picked on regularly – pretty much for kicks – by another gang, the Socs, the rich, upper class kids from the other side of town. The story’s focus is primarily on Ponyboy, Soda and Darry, three brothers aged 14 – 20, living on their own after their parents were killed in an accident. Social Services agreed to let them stay together if they don’t get into trouble. Darry, the oldest, gave up his dreams of college and works long hours; Soda dropped out of high school and got a job to help; both hoping that Pony, an A student and successful in track, can make something of himself, maybe be the brother to get to college.

But life in their neighborhood is fraught with danger as the Socs take any opportunity to beat up on the Greasers, regardless of their age, Pony being just 14. One friend, Johnny, has been beat up so badly, he’s constantly terrified. Another, Dally, has been in the most trouble of them all, and is the most dangerous … yet a caring protector of Johnny. Each of the characters is very well drawn; while it might be easy to criticize them for their lifestyle of constant smoking, shoplifting, quick inclination to fight and so on, it is soon apparent that they are all each other has in an area that has few breaks for them and a dim future, further clouded over by the threat of getting beaten up as a way of life. Some of them get tougher and angrier, some sadder, more frightened. But as tough and irreverent as they are, you are compelled to care about them.

The story comes to a head in an incident where what would have been just another case of the Socs beating up a Greaser gets horribly out of hand. Everyone’s life changes in a heartbeat. S.E. Hinton has built the characters and events up to this climax masterfully, and from this point, the boys’ lives get catapulted into a series of events, both heroic and tragic, that define their lives and futures.

The Outsiders is a truly terrific read. Considering it was written in 1967, it’s barely aged at all. Those same kids are still toughing it out somewhere on the rough side of a town in the USA. Hinton’s characters are every bit as believable as well-drawn characters written about today. Maybe they turn to drugs now instead of cigarettes; it makes no difference. Hinton has taken boys who might seem like the bottom of society’s barrel and made them believable, 3-dimensional, and totally deserving of our respect and empathy.

For writing The Outsiders, along with several other YA books, Hinton was the recipient of the ALA’s first Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1988, recognizing an author whose writing for young adults provided “an  authentic voice that continues to illuminate their experiences and emotions, giving insight into their lives.”

Now here’s what surprised me. I read the biography in the back of the book to find that S.E. Hinton is a woman. I did not see that coming. I did not imagine that such a gritty story about gangs and greasers in the 60’s would have come from a woman’s pen, (and trust me, I am not at all sexist.) And then I wondered – if she had not been published as S.E., versus Susan Eloise, would this particular book have found such a broad audience? Would people have trusted that a story of this nature would have been as well-written by a woman as by a man? (George Eliot came to mind.)

Clearly, it couldn’t have been better written.

Books to Feed the Soul-A Pocketful of Miracles

It is often said that when the pupil is ready the teacher appears. I believe that said teacher can also be in the form of a book by an inspiring author. So in addition to whatever novel, picture books, etc. I am reading at any given time, I am also reading a book of a metaphysical/inspirational nature. I find checking in with this book on a quasi-daily basis helps me keep my balance in a terribly hectic schedule, and where I am always trying to find time for my writing and illustrating.

The most recent teacher to appear is Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.,  a scientist, psychologist and mystic whose “guiding vision is to bridge medicine, psychology and the great spiritual traditions of the ages.” A Pocketful of Miracles was sitting on the front sale table at my local library when I most recently returned some books. It wasn’t there 2 weeks ago, and I remember Borysenko’s name as being in the  bibliography of Sarah Ban Breathnacht’s Simple Abundance, another favorite of mine. Could I not pick it up?

Pocketful of Miracles is a perpetual calendar kind of book, divided into seasons in the tradition of much spiritual thought. Each day offers a  seed thought and a prayer or practice. What has enticed me most is the weaving of the world’s great spiritual traditions, with the goal of bringing peace first in our own souls, and then peace and compassion to all on earth. I’m enjoying randomly letting the book fall open and finding my wisdom for the day, or turning to today’s date’s page.

The beauty of keeping going a book of this sort, is that it is always there, always ready to share the wisdom of its author, and should another teacher come along, it will always be waiting when the time is right once again for me to open its pages. I’ve temporarily put aside Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Wayne Dyer, a study of the Tao, as that will always be waiting as well.

A small amount of time spent each day journaling and soaking in some of the wisdom that feeds a soul helps me keep my balance in an often overly-demanding life. And I’m looking forward to A Pocketful of Miracles being my new teacher for now.

Africa – Perpetuum Jazzile

This amazing a cappella jazz choir from Slovenia not only reinvents Toto’s 1982 hit, Africa, but creates an African rainstorm with their hands as an introduction. It’s been around for a bit, but if you’ve never seen – or heard – it, it’s totally amazing. I’ve listened to it many times, and haven’t tired yet. Such talent.