Art and Culture, Friends, Health

Marx and Global Art

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Beltane                                              Waning Flower Moon

I checked and rechecked my Latin today and still had a couple mistakes; but, mostly it was much improved over last week’s work.  Greg and I also made our way through 4 more verses of the Metamorphoses; if I count right that leaves only 14, 991 or so to go.  That was the morning.

When I finished, Kate put a blue sack in my hand and I headed off to the MIA.  The sack had a grilled cheese sandwich, a banana, mochi, pickles and a diet rootbeer.  I polished that off on the way while listening to a very interesting lecture on Marx’ theory of alienation.  When I’ve had a chance to absorb it a bit more, I’ll write about it here.

At the museum I attended a lecture on contemporary art with an emphasis on its global expression.  The woman, Kristine Stiles, has impressive academic credentials and has compiled a key text for the study of contemporary art:  Theory and Documents of Contemporary Art.  She tried to stuff a consideration of Until Now and ArtRemix into an already existing lecture on her new book, World Trends in Global Art Since 1945.  It was too much.  She spoke fast, trying to finish, leaving little room for the audience to write or absorb.  Even so, there was a lot of interest and it will help frame tours of the Until Now exhibit when I have to begin.

(much of the contemporary art in Vietnam uses socialist realism, sometimes done on billboards, but also, sometimes using oil paints on silk.)

Spoke a moment with Wendy Depaolis who had surgery February 1st.  She looks great and credits her exercise and healthy eating.  Something’s working well for her.

Art and Culture, Family

A Man of Exile, A Poet of Human Dignity

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Beltane                                          Waning Flower Moon

The first hours of today I put together an ArtRemix public tour for this Friday.  The learning curve is still steep, but I’m beginning to get a feel for contemporary art.  The Until Now show has many fine pieces, but the ArtRemix showcases genuine leaders among contemporary artists:  Kehinde Wiley, Yinka Shonibare, Sharon Core, Meyer Waisman, Ai Weiwei, Nam Paik to name a few.  Getting my head and heart around this new work has been a lot of fun.

Kate and I had a business meeting, planning for her surgery and getting ready for her trip to San Francisco at the end of May.

After that I had a nap, then drove into the MIA for a lecture by Siah Armajani.  He’s a local artist, having lived here since the early 1960’s, but his reputation is global.  A former philosophy student and teacher as a well an artist and architect, he spoke today of his journey as an artist:  “From 1968 to 2000 my art was functional, available, public and open…It is best typified by the Whitney Bridge for the Walker Art Institute.  After 2000 my art became forward, closed, non-available and personal.”  Why?  He said that in the early years he tried to hid his emotions, feelings, his angst and political opinions.  He wanted to be anonymous.  After 2000 he wanted to show his feelings, his emotion, his political positions and his angst.  The work best typifying that stage of his work, in his opinion, is his piece in the Until Now show.  It is an homage to Giacometti and Theodore Adorno.  This is the last of this work, rooms, and he will begin soon to work on his next project, tombs.  (this work is similar in conception to his work in the Until Now show.)

He’s funny, brilliant, creative and a bit sad.  He wore a tweed jacket over a plain black shirt, black slacks.  I happened to park behind him and saw him get out of his black Audi sedan.  There’s more to say about him, but I’ll reserve that for later.

The gallery in which his installation sits has two other very powerful pieces.  One a video installation of women walking through a wall of water and the other a sort of reliquary to a living Indian poet, Gieve Patel.  Here’s the first line of a few printed out in this work:  We shall not find a tragic end beyond the mountains where the ancient gods are buried.  I believe that, too.

GeekWorld

Construction over except for the side roads

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Beltane                                            Waning Flower Moon

Installing the new modem and router, as far I’ve gotten, went well.  Surprised the dickens out of me.  The last time I configured a router I gave up and called Geek Squad.  The only time I’ve ever used them.  This thing sets itself up, sort of.  Now I have to configure the wireless connections on the laptop and my study computer, but it’s all working here on the computer I use for the internet, blogging and e-mails.

So, little to no down time on that account.  Whaddya know?

General

Under Construction

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Beltane                                         Waning Flower Moon

I plan to install a new modem and a new router this afternoon, so ancientrails will be down for a while.  We may also take on a new look, a freshener for spring since cybermage Bill Schmidt found a photo with different coloration that might make ancientrails look ready for the growing season.  Just a heads up.

Family, Health

One Hip Gal

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Beltane                                  Waning Flower Moon

Kate and I went into see Dr. Heller this morning in his offices at 7o1 25th St. next to the old St. Mary’s Hospital.  His P.A. came in with a small bag, about the size of a medium woman’s purse.  It was rectangular, had a zipper and was black.  He unzipped it and took out various pieces of metal and plastic.  In the correct combination these round and angular components will constitute a new hip for Kate on the right side.  He fitted them together explaining how they worked and the benefits of minimally invasive hip surgery.

Kate’s a candidate and has a procedure scheduled for June 30th.  We are both very happy.  In the traditional hip replacement surgery, about 98% of all of them, a the surgeon cuts a long slice along the hip down the thigh.  This goes through muscle.  It is the healing process for this injured muscle that creates a lot of the hassle post-op for hip replacements.  In minimally invasive they make two small incisions, 2 inches and 1.5 inches, and do the whole procedure through them, guided by x-ray.

These incisions go between muscles so there is no muscle healing required.  This means there are no restrictions–NO RESTRICTIONS–after going home.  The procedure takes an hour, two-three days in the hospital, then you walk out like the lame guy they lowered through the hole in the roof in the New Testament.  Only this procedure costs a lot more.

Dr. Heller looks to be late 40’s, early 50’s.  He’s fit, shaves his head and has a confident, upbeat manner.  He should.  He’s done 1020 of these operations and his recovery numbers in terms of negative sequelae are better than the national average.

This has a strangely ironic undertone for me since I spent the 80’s working with the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, the very one on which Heller’s office sits, first trying to stop Keith Heller from building 25,000 housing units there, then building neighborhood scale ones instead.

Woolly Mammoths

Late for Dinner

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Beltane                                Waning Flower Moon

Arrived at Christos at 6:30 pm, everyone had their plates in front of them and had finished.  Guess I missed the 6:00 pm memo.  I thought our time was 6:30.

We had a long discussion about bees.

Mark has an idea for a house-boat trip down the mighty Mississippi using his acquaintance with locks and the river.  Sounds fun to me.  Sign me up.  Warren is at the legislature covering health-care issues.  Scott saw an I-Max movie about the Hubble telescope that he highly recommends.

It was Frank, Paul, Bill, Scott, Mark, Warren, Stefan and myself.

A long day after a long day after a long day.  Tired now.

Art and Culture, Bees, Friends

Yeah, Mon

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Beltane                                            Waning Flower Moon

Good bee news on two fronts.  In colony 2, the child colony, I inserted the queen using the slow release method, a piece of marshmallow covering her escape route which she and her new family will eat away over the next few hours.  Hopefully, this slow entry of her pheromones into the colony will encourage this colony to accept a strange queen.  In colony 3, the one begun from the 2 pound package a bit over a week ago, I checked the frames today and found larvae.  That means the queen survived my clumsy introduction of her using the quick release method, basically shake her out on a frame and then close up the hive.

At the moment, then, I have the parent colony with two honey supers on, the child colony, the division, with a new queen, and a third colony with its new life here under way complete with a laying queen.  The parent colony should produce a good honey flow this summer.  The child colony may produce a bit of honey but its primary job is to become a colony strong enough for division next spring.  That is also the task of colony 3.  The goal is to have two parent colonies next spring and two child colonies.  If I can maintain those numbers, we should have a lot of honey, some to give as gifts and some to sell at the farmer’s market.

I added my second copper top when I put in the new queen.  Soon I’ll order a copper top for the parent colony and next spring I’ll add the fourth one.  With the polyurethaned hive boxes and  honey supers, the copper tops will make our bee yard an aesthetic addition to the place.

Earlier today I attended a docent luncheon for Michele Yates, leaving for York, Pennsylvania on June 20th or so.  Allison’s place sits near 50th and France.  Her neighbor’s house has a Sotheby’s real estate sign.  That kind of neighborhood.  Her backyard has stone landscaping and orderly plantings all in vigorous growth.  She has a gracious home and entertains with elan.

Carreen Heegaard told the story of her 1988 honeymoon, nicely timed to coincide with Hurricane Gilbert.  She and her new husband Eric had chosen Jamaica as a destination because the prices were very reasonable.  They spent the first night of their Jamaican vacation in Peewee’s Bar, perched high above the ocean, Peewee’s being one of the few nearby buildings that had concrete walls.  She described the sound of nails popping out as the train-sounding winds peeled back the corrugated roof exposing all those huddled under a long table to the pounding surf and rain.

The highlight of her story, which had many, involved their trip to the grocery store after Gilbert had passed.  In Carreen’s  words, “There we were, a Minnesotan (Eric) and a Canadian (Carreen), standing in line with a grocery cart while the store was being looted.”  Says so much about cultural variance.

Aging, Art and Culture, Bees, Family, Friends, Garden, Health, Woolly Mammoths

Man About Town

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Beltane                                    Waning Flower Moon

We were both a bit achy from yesterday’s garden-a-thon, but it’s that good kind of ache that comes from things accomplished, the kind of things outside, those things that often feel more substantial, more real than the reading and writing.

Today has busy on it, too.  In an hour there’s a going away party for Michele Yates, a sweet woman, an artist, a French citizen long ago, now American for the most part.  We’ll miss Michele, we being the docent class of 2005.  We’re a close group, again for the most part.  We met every Wednesday for two years, not to mention hours of practice tours, parties, that trip to New York, enough time to bond with each other and as a group.  Michele is part of us and she’s leaving, so we need to say good-bye.

I leave Michele’s party to visit my dermatologist, not exactly a 9 on my thrillometer, but one of those important self-care things, like teeth cleaning and annual physicals.  Dr. Pakzad, a thin, intense guy comes in white coat, hurried but kind, confident.

In between Dr. Pakzad and the Woolly restaurant evening tonight, I have to get in a nap, queen my divide and check the package colony for larvae.  It’s doable, but it will be a whir.

Tomorrow morning I’ll go with Kate for her first visit to Dr. Heller, who does the minimally invasive hip replacements.  This visit should determine whether Kate has the right pathology for a hip replacement.  I hope she does.  She throws her right leg out as she walks, trying to find a movement that doesn’t cause pain.  With no luck.

37

The Way takes no action, but leaves nothing undone.
When you accept this
The world will flourish,
In harmony with nature.

Nature does not possess desire;
Without desire, the heart becomes quiet;
In this manner the whole world is made tranquil.

Aging, Bees, Dogs, Faith and Spirituality, Family, Friends, Garden, Great Work, Humanities, Our Land and Home, permaculture

Home

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Beltane                                     Waning Flower Moon

There is here the action:  taking the hive tool and wrenching loose the propolis, moving the frame, all the while bees buzzing and whirring, digging into the soil, placing the leeks in a shallow trench, the sugar snap peas in their row, inoculant on top of them, around them.  The plants move from pot to earth home, their one and true place where they will root, work their miracle with light and air.  The dogs run, chase each other.  Vega plops herself down in the water, curling herself inside it, displacing the water, getting wet.

There is, too, this other thing, the mating of person and place, the creation of memories, of food, of homes for insects and dogs and grandchildren, for our lives, we two, on this strange, this awesome, this grandeur, life.  This happens, this connection, as a light breeze stirs a flower.  It happens when a bee stings, or a dog jumps up or leans in, when Kate and I hug after a day of making room for  more life here.

In a deep way it is unintended, that is, it happens not because it is willed, but because becoming native to a place is like falling in love, a surprise, a wonder, yet also a relationship that requires nurture, give and take.  In a deep way, too, it is intended, that is, we want to grow vegetables, flowers, fruit, have room for our dogs and for our family, for our friends.  The intention creates the space, the opening where the unintended occurs.

Sixteen years Kate and I have lived here.  A long time for us.  Now though, we belong here.

Bees, Garden, Great Work, permaculture

Getting Things Ready

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Beltane                                       Waning Flower Moon

After checking the parent colony with the queen excluder in, I found larvae in the top hive box.  That’s evidence of the queen.  That meant I shifted the middle hive box over to the new foundation and bottom board.  A syrup feeder pail went on top of the new, child colony.  This calms everything down and allows for a peaceful slow release of the queen tomorrow.  Leaving the queen excluder on the hive box in which I discovered larvae, I put two honey supers on it and replaced the inner cover and the telescoping outer cover.  The parent colony now has two hive boxes, one with a queen and brood, plus the other, lower box, which will get reversed on top in 7-10 days.

Tomorrow I’ll check the package colony for larvae a second time.  If they have none, I’ll have to get another queen for them soon.  If there is no queen in the hive, the lack of her pheromones turns on egg laying in the workers, but, since they’re not fertilized they produce only drones.  Once a hive converts to worker egg-laying apparently you have to start over.

This has been a busy couple of weeks for the bees.  Kate’s been making supers and frames and hive boxes, too.  If the divide and the package colony take, things will calm down for a while until the honey flow ends.  Then, there’s an end of the whole process I haven’t encountered.  Honey.

Two more bags of composted manure on the leek/sugar pod pea bed, another on the sun trap and a lot of planting.  The herb spiral has the herbs Kate bought Friday at Mickman’s.  I also planted beets, mustard greens, fennel, onions and a pepper plant in the sun trap.  The tomatoes and other peppers will go there, too.  Those two beds, along with the other bed where I have green onions plants along with radicchio, beets from seed and thyme will be our kitchen garden for the growing season.

Kate did a lot of weeding, including the blueberry patches.  It really makes a difference to have her focused on that aspect of gardening.  She’s also in charge of pruning which has its on rules.

The leeks, onions, kale, chard, garlic, parsnips, butternut squash, other beets and carrots will also be available during the growing season of course, but most of these will get canned or dried or frozen for the winter.

I would not like to do the cost accounting on these vegetables and the fruit because the two fences and Ecological gardens have created a lot of sunk costs.  It will take years for them to zero out the costs, more years, I imagine, than we have left in this house.  In our case, of course, that’s not the big point.  The big point is a more sustainable and healthy lifestyle and in that regard the cost accounting has already tilted in our favor.