Color

Yes, the title may have fooled you. Usually when I write about color, it has to do with yarn or a crochet pattern or a photograph I've taken. Not today.

Let's start with another person's blog:

http://artandeverythingafter.com/i-fit-the-description/

then there's the scene from Crash

https://youtu.be/EtvbEtPIGiA

I am an old white woman. I am not at risk for Driving While Black.  I have become aware lately that the risk has become more personal, and I am repulsed by my reaction to it.

I have cropped the photo to prevent embarrassment, but this is my grandson's head. Although he had stick straight blond hair as a child, puberty has turned it darker and much much curlier. Commonly (and I use that word intentionally) known as a "Jewfro" or, if he were a little darker, an "Afro".

Grandma and mom discussing how safe he is walking home at night with a hoodie on. Realizing that DON'T KILL ME, I"M WHITE on a tee shirt is probably not an effective way to keep him safe, and then horrified that my response to this danger is to wave a white flag.

What is it like to fear for your life just because of the color of your skin? Chronically? 

As a white person, I don't know what to do. I feel contempt for myself that my sense of urgency about it comes from the shoe being on my foot now.

Dylan Thomas's words come to mind "After the first death, there is no other".

WHAT ARE WE DOING, AMERICA?!!!!!!

Rutabaga Sex

   OK, now that I've got your attention......!
Last night I went to the "local" independent cinema, Railroad Square, in Waterville, to see what is possibly the scariest movie I've ever see.

Do we really want the future of our food source to be dependent on chemical and pharmaceutical corporations?

The trailer can be seen at Railroad Square's website here:
  http://www.railroadsquarecinema.com/seed-the-untold-story/

Will Bonsall, of Khadigar Farm in Industry introduced the film and also answered questions from the audience afterwards.

It was also one of the most hopeful movies I have seen in a long time, because is IS possible for ordinary citizens to take back the future.

Apologies for my blurry photo of the question and answer period after the film. Will answered questions and discussed what WE could do.... youtubes of him follow:

              https://youtu.be/Z095Sk7Uz_M

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z095Sk7Uz_M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


And though we're not talking about a rock festival here, the words to Joni Mitchell's Woodstock kind of do tell us where we need to be going....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MWyoCg_ZHlI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

A Satisfying Life

                                                  The artist, Charles Rotmil, center stage.

       Thirty years ago, I was at Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville, Maine- the one before the fire-with my then husband, Jack, when he interrupted my checking-out-the-tickets process by saying"Wait a minute! I know that voice!" He did in fact know that voice, a very French-accented Charles Rotmil was standing behind us in line. They had not seen each other for years and years since their Collaberg School/The Land in Stony Point days, but they immediately knew each other again.
        This was how Charles came into my life, when I was still on the farm, his and Jack's pasts being told in stories at the table after magnificent feasts that Charles cooked for us. Many of the people who were talked about were not people I ever knew except  in these stories, but that didn't make them any less real. So Charles'  show tonight, The Famous and The Cities of Paris and New York, brought me back to that time somewhat, where I actually got to see what Steve Durkee looked like, was reminded that Martin Steingesser rescued my stepdaughter whose plane kept getting snowed under in Portland long ago, and there also was Charles' whole family in collage, giving a poignant cast to a show that could  mistakenly be viewed as all "celebrities".
   While many of the faces and names on the portraits will be familiar, it is in fact the familiar ways of being that is so stunning in the photographs- these people who we do in fact know as "famous" are behaving here like ordinary folks. This is perhaps Charles' (I can't make myself say Rotmil's) charm, in both life, and photography, that he transcends the need to need to glamorize those who often are, and leaves us with people who become all the more endearing for their obvious humanity. Whether the photos are of Portland locals, or NYC beats, one is inspired to find out more about who these people really are/were.

I titled my blog post by the sense of satisfaction I could feel at the show for Charles as an artist, as well as someone who has overcome great personal loss into creating what is clearly a satisfying life.

           The show will be up until November 13, along with Still by Deborah Klotz. I highly recommend the experience.....

http://mainejewishmuseum.org/art-exhibits/currentexhibit/