Razor's Edge: late!

I knew there was a chance I would miss a deadline. But I didn't think it would come this early.

I did.

I hit the wall of busy-ness on Thursday and am still clawing my way out of that hole.

Not an excuse.

Just saying.

2010 Artist Dinner Series

What fun! Dinner, wine, and conversations about art with artists.

From Linda Austin, one of the founders:

Linda Austin and Tahni Holt are pleased to announce our Dinner Series
fundraiser. Each dinner will host two Portland performers, artists or writers in
discussion with each other and the dinner guests. There will be one dinner each
month, with the first one kicking off on Feb. 27th. We do this for our love for
communal eating, a desire for more discourse that touches upon performance as an
art among other arts, and a curiosity about other people’s processes: what &
how & why they make what they make and do what they do.

This is an amazing line-up of artists/performers/musicians/choreographers:

Get your reservations (and the secret location of your dinner) by emailing hello@tahniholt.com.

February 27: Angelle Hebert + Angela Fair •
March 20: Linda Austin + Kristan Kennedy
April 24: Tahni Holt + Ethan Rose •
May 22: Cydney Wilkes + Lisa Radon
June 26: David Eckard + Linda K. Johnson •
July 24: Tiffany Lee Brown + Joshua Berger

tonight: Ariel Gore is reading

Ariel Gore will be reading from her new book tonight at Broadway

Tuesday, February 23rd - 7 pm

BROADWAY BOOKS

1714 NE Broadway, Portland

I'll be at work so have to miss her.

(Thank you, miss polly, for the reminder!)

The only thing better than reading her book is to hear her read it herself. Wish I could be there.

Photo Caption Contest: Win Fabulous Prizes

Here is a simple, easy to use, quick and no fee contest! And what a great picture.

WOW! Women On Writing Blog: Photo Caption Contest: Win Fabulous Prizes

happy is as happy does

...or something like that...

There is a resurgence in the quest for happiness. But not the silly, giddy, just smile and all will be well kind of happiness. Not the doped up/medication induced zombie wife false happiness of the mythical suburban housewife stereotypes.

No. This is a search for the happiness that comes as a part of everyday life. The happiness that occurs in tandem with life, in tandem with the struggles and the sun and the clouds and the traffic and the kids/cats/dogs/partners/work. And so on.

Revisiting the idea of happiness was first sparked by Ariel Gore's newest book, Bluebird: Women and the New Psychology of Happiness. She does an excellent job of looking at, obviously, women and happiness - across a span of time and sharing academic and literary resources, as well as results of her own research and focus group, all mixed in with her own experiences. It's a nice journey through the field of women's happiness from the 70's to the present - insightful and honest with good feminist analysis of how others have tried to tell us what happiness is. And they haven't always been right.

So - back to what I was saying.

Ariel's book has sparked several conversations and blog posts around this topic. Emi Ha started a new blog (or re-titled her previous one) and gave it a new focus: Are You Happy Now? She has been writing about Bluebird for a few weeks - well, including it in the posts, along with two other related books she has been reading.

This conversation and reading about happiness has got me thinking about it, too. I'm definitely a skeptic of the "all you have to do is think it and it will be so" mode of improving one's life. "Smile and the world smiles with you" seems like a set-up and "fake it til you make it" may have its uses, but it's also a set-up for major sad feelings at least if it doesn't go the way you think or the thing you're faking turns out to not really be You. Practical and appropriate uses of that - yes; and it's been over used and sometimes people miss the action that has to happen concurrently or as a result of the thinking well.

From Bluebird, I decided I'd start trying to notice the positive, too. It doesn't negate that not everything is perfect or exactly what I think I want - but it would help me start paying attention equally to what is working or when I feel good. Notice it and do it more.

The first line on today's post at "Are You Happy Now?" is:

It's amazing to me how so something seemingly small and insignificant can
make a person so happy.

(feel free to hop on over to her blog to see what the small, insignificant happiness-inducing thing is!)

Yesterday I had one of those seemingly insignificant events that made me very happy. The big Q finally sent a repair man (yes it was a man - and there were two of them) to the house to take care of the intermittent internet connection issues we've been dealing with since October. I won't go down the road of frustration it's taken because... tada ... The issue was finally repaired (yes, it could have been solved back in October - letitgoletitgo). And while I logged on and connected to my email to retrieve student videos - it all worked. I didn't get bumped off, booted out, slowed down. I was able to finally complete grading of the mid-term videos. And I felt happy.

Happy that I could get where I needed to go online and get some grading done.

Then, today, I had a long job. But a job with some down time. And during that down time I was able to plan out observations for the student interns I'm teaching. Again - happy. Some forced down time and I accomplished something.

And on out to my car after the job and it was sunny. My car was warm from sitting in the sun and the mid-50 degree temperature felt good. Driving with my window rolled down and the heat off and the cool-warm air coming in through the vents. Sun on my face, my neck, my arms. And I was smiling. Not fake smiling or it's sunny I should smile. But a smile of wanting to get outside and walk and walk and explore and know there are many possibilities.

I see it's supposed to start raining again on Tuesday; typical for this region for this time of year. And I will try to carry the sun inside me and the body memory of being happy and smiling because I felt good, knowing when I was going to observe the students and knowing I can now connect to the internet and sail smoothly on the fiber optic ocean.

And I have a new label in my blog list: happiness.

.

ps: one more bit of happiness. The online ariel gore writing workshop/class started yesterday. And I did my first quick write. Wow - I'm soaring from that. I have been "too busy to write." I think the correct phrase is that I have been too busy because I'm not writing.

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music performance 2/27: Heart and Hammer

...from Julianna Waters, of Heart and Hammer...

Hi Everybody!

Next Saturday, we'll be playing a rare full concert at Artichoke Music's Backgate Theater with the whole band, including the Kerry Williams on Mando, Carl Smith's percussion and Jeff Woodcock on bass. If you haven't been there before, you're in for a real treat. It's an incredible listening venue and we'd love to see you there. Barry and I have both been writing up a storm this past year and have lots of new material. If you haven't heard us before, go to our website at:

www.heartandhammer.com

Have a listen. I've included a flyer below. For all of you that know us and have supported us so graciously over the years, one more request: pass this notice, or one of your own, on. We'd really like to fill the room, support Artichoke and have a great time. AND, we have a few surprises up our sleeves ... smile.

Now for a little (more) shameless self promotion: Two of my songs are being played on-line at Women of Substance Radio. You can listen at:

http://www.womenofsubstanceradio.com

Please forgive me if you receive this twice... I really need to go through the mailing list and do a little housekeeping. If you haven't received anything from us before, I've included you from another mailing list just to connect up with you and say, hey, here's a bit of what Julianna and Barry have been up to.

Anywhooo, that's it for now. Well, almost... I want to put out a plug for Artichoke. They provide not only one of the best listening venues in the Northwest, but enormous community service by providing classes, song circles and all kinds of musical opportunities for adults and children. They have a top notch teaching staff and, as far as I can see, nearly daily musical events. I think the economy has been hard on our little hub, so, if you're looking for lessons, or instruments or just good music, try making Artichoke your first stop.

Thanks so much!

Julianna Waters and Barry Crannell

Heart and Hammer

If you are or will be in the Portland, Oregon, area next week, I hope you spend some time with Heart and Hammer at Artichoke music. They are talented musicians and a pleasure to listen to.

And, local or not, click on over to listen to Julianna's songs.
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Razor's Edge: 2/19/10

Earlier this week I went to the staff copy machine at the community college where I'm adjunct faculty. It's mid-term time and I needed to run off the scripts of the source texts for the students' mid-term interpretations for feedback and congruency.

In the efforts to go green and decrease the amount of trees we kill every term, the college staff and faculty all do our best to reduce our paper usage and to recycle the extra pages and ink-smeared errors. There is an ever growing stack of these unwanted or unneeded pages - handy for notetaking or test scratch paper or whatever other use a one-sided piece of paper can be put to.

As the machine did its magic and pushed out the two-sided scripts, I leaned against the cupboard on which the stack sat. Right there on top was a Lynda Barry cartoon on the left half of the paper and some questions for an in-class assignment on the right half. I have no idea what class this was for and it doesn't really matter.

I am a Lynda Barry fan - so it would have probably caught my eye, anyway. But the picture of the giant 'don't know' octopus enveloping the writer, and her beginning of "that strange floating feeling" and I knew I had to find a use for that scrapped piece of insight.

And so, here, below, is a copy of Lynda Barry's drawing. And, below that, is this week's Razor's Edge. Yes, they are related.

cartoon by the incomparable Lynda Barry
awesome writer and artist (and instructor, though I've never directly taken a class from her)

PROMPTS

First: take three minutes and will yourself to forget what you know. Forget it. Find that quiet place where you don't know and it's okay that you don't know. Let it go.

Second: what are your two questions? The two things that, when asked, will hook you in and wrap you up in knots as you search for the answer, or as Lynda Barry put it: "hold you hostage." Write them on a piece of paper and then (a) flush it down the toilet, or (b) thrown it the garbage can, or (c) burn it with a piece of your favorite incense, or (d) even better: tear it into strips and toss it into your recycling - the place from where this prompt was born!

Third: listen to this song, Time Flies, written by Julianna Waters, of Heart and HAMMER.

Fourth: imagine your own version of the "don't know" octopus. Let its arms envelope you and hold you safe in the space of not knowing. Pick up the pen or crayon or ball of clay or move and ... create ... Follow your body and put thoughts down on paper, or put up marks on the canvas on the wall, or walk tall on your toes, or crawl on the floor like the fuzzy caterpillar you saw last spring on the budding tree - create in whatever way feels right in that moment.
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On the Fitness Side: an expo

Dragon Boat training has started up again (the first week of January). The Cascade Lakes Relay team is meeting monthly with clinics and talking about our plans - at least a few of us are going to do the Shamrock Run on March 14th. The Grand Canyon group keeps getting our snowshoe trips cancelled because it's too icy or now too warm (predicted 60 for this weekend) and not enough snow - so some of us will go hiking instead.

As we regroup during the winter months and stretch and begin again our trainings - the expos start coming up, with or without events. I saw this one on the OregonLive RunOregon blog. Looks like fun if you're going to be in the Portland, OR area and want to check out some product and go for a walk/run with a group.

Me? I'll be out in the Gorge, hiking!
The Racecenter Event Expo is coming this Saturday, Feb. 20th at the NE Foot Traffic! What can you expect at this great annual tradition?

• 
  Discounts to some of the area's top events
• 
  Raffle for sweet prizes, free shoes, free race discounts and more!
• 
  HUGE, free group run/walk starting at 9am
• 
  FREE Lompoc Beer while it lasts!
• 
  FREE hotdogs and snacks
• 
  Discounts on store products ranging from 10% off for some of our most popular models to 70% off for discontinued models.
• 
  Special offer on all regular priced shoes:
  .......Buy one get the second 25% off!!! (one per customer, same size).

The Annual Rock Creek Symposia on the Creative Process

...from Portland Community College...

This week a series of three symposia over three consecutive days brings together working artists from various disciplines—poets, novelists and visual artists-- to discuss their creative process. The three symposia follow the evolution of a work of art by posing questions such as how do artists begin a work of art? How do they develop it? What happens when they run into problems? When do they know a work of art is finished?

Wednesday February 17, 10 am RC TLC (3/102) “In the Beginning”
Q: What is the origin of a work of art and how do you get started?
Answers from: poet Peter Sears, novelist Stevan Allred, novelist Joanna Rose

Thursday February 18, 10am RC TLC (3/102) “In the Middle”
Q: How do you develop a work of art through doubts and unexpected turns ?
Answers from: fiction writer John Zackel, painter Christopher Knight, novelist Stevan Allred

Friday February 19, 10am RC TLC (3/102) “The End”
Q: When is it over and how do you know?
Answers from: painter Christopher Knight, sculptor Ben Buswell, novelist Joanna Rose

moderated by Mark Andres and Alison Apotheker

These symposia are free and open to the public. The series is funded by a generous grant from ASPCC.