Action Painting

Painter at work in Lima, Peru.

Hurry Hurry, Wait

Holidays, Happy and Otherwise

This Moment: The last day of Christmas shopping, people everywhere, in good cheer, bad cheer, and various other moods. The reason to not wear earphones everywhere is to be able to hear the unexpected, and to bask in the wonder that is humanity. For example, I overheard these two gems today.

Mom #1

Setting: The middle of a crowded Toys-R-Us, dragging a child on the verge of tears.

Quote: "I will call Santa right now on the phone and tell him not to bother!"

Mom #2

Setting: The middle of crowded toy section in K-Mart, talking to a friend.

Quote: "What? No, that's for me. I looooove erotica."

I wish I had little awards to pass out.

Year in Music

This Moment: As it is getting near the end of the year, music magazines, blogs, and radio shows are rolling out their top tens and other commentaries on music. In thinking about my music moments over the last year, one quickly came to mind as the most memorable.

For the last three summers I have been the program coordinator for a summer camp called Write on Sports. We work with middle school students on their writing by having them act as sportswriters for a few weeks. As part of this, we take them to cover a local minor league baseball game (the New Jersey Jackals). We usually end up being there on "camp day" and there are hundreds of young kids running around the stadium. The kids quickly get themselves full of sugar and are primed to get "pumped up" by the grating tunes on the PA and by the PA announcer asking us all to make some noise. This general chaos, and the fact that the games start at noon and the conditions are unbearably hot, lead me to take a break away from the action.

This past summer, I was crashing the tent area reserved for parties, when I saw a young boy in front of me, in full jock attire (baseball cap and brand name t-shirt), singing along to the chorus of the Indian version of Jai Ho (from Slumdog Millionaire) as it was being played over the PA. I thought to myself - funny that, what a world.

Let Us Pray

This Moment: I'm in Atlanta for the state of Georgia's annual Adult Literacy Conference.  The luncheon is in a large room, with seating for several hundred people.  As the food is about to be served, one of the speakers says "Let us pray."  Everybody, and I mean everybody, immediately bows their head.  Soon after, from way across the room I catch this old timer's eyes because we are the only people not praying.  We stare silently at each other for a few seconds and then each look around the room before we make eye contact again. As the prayer continues, each of us recedes into our own thoughts, waiting for things to start up again.

I have been reading about Robert Frank lately, so join me in imagining this scene as a black and white photo that didn't happen.

Smile, You Are Beautiful

This Moment: I was riding the Red Line in Boston with my sons, heading to Fenway Park, and this caught my eye. Somebody had vandalized an ad, and you can figure out what they were telling the reader, the world, or whoever, to go and do. Then at some point another person took the time to cover it with a post-it. A small gesture that made the train ride more pleasant.

A few stops later, an older woman stepped onto what was a fairly crowded train. She was slight of build, and had a gauze patch over one eye. She looked quite solemn. Almost immediately, a young guy offered to give up his seat. She declined, and then broke out into this beaming smile - seemingly a reaction to his gesture. As the train filled in with other people, I could still see her standing there, quite beautiful indeed.

Footnote: I checked out the .com address, and it seems like a mix of actual grassroots activity (women leaving anonymous, positive messages in public spaces for other women) and viral marketing (you can buy an "official" t-shirt, which seems a bit odd for something that presents itself as DIY).

Wake Up, Wake Up, You Drowsy Sleeper

This Moment: Late afternoon, mulling over fragments of last night's dream and listening to scratchy tunes from the early 20th century.

I remember a famous director (Anthony Mann, I think, but don't quote me) saying that all you need for a good movie is two or three shots that the audience finds compelling. If they remember those shots, he thought, you were successful. At the time I thought that was setting the bar pretty low, but I understand what he is saying (I think). All of the shots and images are important, but some crystalize your experience of the film.

Do we hold the same standard for our dreams? Of course the narrative and themes of dreams tend to skip around more than your average film, but how many scenes from a dream do you have to remember for it to be a noteworthy one? Two? Three?

(Note: Scroll down slightly for related video clip)