Loose Leaf Notes

1.  A funny thing happened when I changed my blogging platform from Moveable Type to Wordpress.  After my local web hoster set up the in-house stat counter, I discovered that I had A LOT more (non-commenting) readers than I had previously thought.

2.  The compulsion to check my statcounter makes me think of Greek God Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection.

3.  As a writer, I keep a list of words on my desk that can be used instead of “said” – like suggested, remarked, observed, stated, etc. – for when I’m writing stories in which I quote people but am tired of using “he said and she said”   But even with the list, 99.5 % of the time, I choose to use “said” anyways.  I just like to know there are options.

4.  Just said this to my friend blogger friend Fred First who is fairly new to Facebook:  If blogs are like headline stories, then Facebook is the classifieds.

5.  The E on my new keyboard that’s only a month old has already worn down to look like an F.

6. If February is a lion and April is a lamb, then March is an otter in a mudslide.

7. I always think of a baby being born whenever I’m at the bank drive-thru waiting for my deposit slip to plop through the bank vacuum tube.

8. Joe and I have thought of our relationship in banking terms.  Over time we make some deposits and withdrawals but in the end we’re getting rich because our love has accrued a lot of interest.

9. My favorite bank picture is photo #4 HERE. I called it “Bank Makes a Statement” but I think it should be “Christmas Window Shopping.”

10. I spent part of St. Patrick’s Day with my Irish plumber named Bernie. After he fixed the thermostat in my hot water heater, he played his newest CD for me and I made bubble and squeak for lunch.

11. Ireland is the muse behind my blog, started in 2005 to let my Irish storyteller’s hair down. My blog profile photo is one of me in Ireland with a shamrock pinned on my sweater, and the color of my bog:  Green of course!

12. I passed around THIS link on Facebook for St. Patrick’s Day.

13. Message to bank tellers: I still like red tootsie pops.

More playing Thirteen Thursday are HERE. My TT archives are HERE.

This should really read:  I backtrack, pull over, and run across the street in the drizzle for barns with blue doors.

Post note: In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, watch me reading My Grandmother’s Brouge (in an Irish accent) at the Café del Sol Spoken Word Night on St. Patrick’s Day 2007 HERE.

Porcelain pots simmer

Victorian tea parlor

Readers see the future

in lingering loose leaves

“It was a good run,” Café del Sol co-owner Frank Walker was recently quoted as saying. His wife Sally (aka The Countess of Coffee) posted her goodbye on their website. For seven years the café has been a Floyd hub and a beautiful downtown second home to many. For six years the writer’s group I belong to have been co-hosting monthly Spoken Word Open Mic’s there. I don’t drink coffee or know the difference between a cappuccino or a latte (their specialties) but I will miss my cups of tea, lunches, cafe Scrabble games, and my standard cold mug of New Castle beer before poetry readings.

I recently took some time to reminisce about the café by browsing my blog posts and was glad to see that I have a record of so many fun times there, mostly Spoken Word nights: like the time is was done in costume, with a puppet, on the sidewalk, as a memorial to a friend who died, and as a celebration for a new local literary publication.  How about the night all the poets got free T-shirts, the time we wore green and spoke in Irish accents, stood on chairs, did it in ruby red slippers?

Apart from Spoken Word nights, I have other good memories of time spent at the café: like the time my friend Mara made everyone write on her pants or the time she balanced a Scrabble box on our friend Bruce’s head. Once we played Scrabble with two boards, six players at two tables. Another time my blog friend Naomi called from from Los Angeles because she knew from my blog post that I was there playing Scrabble. And I’ll never forget when the deer crashed into the café window. After I posted about it, I got a couple of blog comments saying that Floyd was like Northern Exposure, southern style.

I know there are new and exciting things to come in the space (these friends have taken over the lease), but in the meantime, I take my purple poet’s beret off to Frank and Sally Walker and say “thank you.”

Post Notes: Thanks to the folks at the Black Water Loft coffee house for agreeing to host the next Spoken Word Night on March 20, at 7:00. We’ve had the event there before and it worked out great. The stories I wrote for All About Her on Sally and the Black Water Loft and noteBooks are HERE and HERE.  Click on the sidebar “Spoken Word” and “Scrabble” for more.  Stay tuned …

Spring’s winning the golden globe

I’m done posting photos of snow

The following was published in The Floyd Press on March 4, 2010.

Twelve contestants performed at the James Bland Music Contest, hosted by the Floyd County Lions Club at the Jacksonville Community Room on Sunday, February 28th.  Although the performance roster was down from previous years – due to school weather cancellations that inhibited student practice time – the event was well attended.

Vocalists participating were Andrea Beland, Marah Belcher, Kendra Lester, Jamie Lynn Walters, Mary Wheaton, and Marsden Woddail.   Instrumentalists included Ryland Acree, Abigail Bolen, Rebekah Bolen, Elijah Wheaton, Nicholas Weitzenfield, and Tara Wright.  Master of Ceremonies, Tom O’Neill introduced each contestant during the hour long program.

“The Annual Bland Music Scholarships Program was established in 1948 to assist and promote cultural and educational opportunities for the musically talented youth of Virginia,” the event program read.  The contest is open to public and private school students from K through 12, as well as to homeschoolers.

Before announcing the winners, Lion’s Club President John Getgood spoke of the rich musical heritage of Floyd County and the importance of nurturing musicians from an early age.  He said the event has been hosted by the Lion’s Club for the past 5 years and that the club plans to continue with its host support.

3^rd place guitar instrumental  was won by Elijah Wheaton, who performed a Suite in A Minor, composed by Johann Anton Losy von Losintal.   The 3^rd place vocalist win was awarded to Marsden Woddail for his vocal performance of Der Mond by Felix Mendelssohn.

Rebekah Bolen took a 2^nd place instrumental win for her performance of Jose Ferrer’s Vals Espanol on guitar.  Jamie Lynn Walters won 2^nd place for her rendition of Summer Time by George Gershwin.

Taking first place wins were pianist Abigail Bolen, playing Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy, and Andrea Beland, who sang Into the Night by Clara Edwards.  Beland and other vocalists were accompanied by Floyd County High School music teacher Sandra Smith.

Winners received monetary prizes. They will go on to compete in a regional competition at the Cave Spring Methodist Church in Roanoke on March 14th.  Regional winners will compete in the state finals at the Hotel Roanoke on April 18th.

Photos: 1. Andrea Beland singing Into the Night was accompanied by pianist Sandra Smith  2.  Rebekah Bolen performing Vals Espanol by Jose Ferrer.  3. Judges at work:  Ed Cohn, Krista Truitt, Callie Kilbourne, Caroline Thomas, Phil Woddail, and Allen Vest.  4. Lion’s Club President John Getgood congratulates 1^st place instrumentalist Abigail Bolen.  5. 2010 Floyd County Bland Music Contest performers, front row from left: Marsden Woddail, Kendra Lester, Marah Belcher, Nicholas Weitzenfield,  Jamie Lynn Walters,  Mary Wheaton,  Ryland Acree.  Back row: Andrea Beland, Abigail Bolen, Rebekah Bolen, and Elijah Wheaton (Tara Wright is not shown).  6. Abigail Bolen and Andrea Beland have a reason to smile. They were first place winners at the Bland Music Contest on Sunday.  Read about James Bland, who this regional contest is named after HERE.

1. This week I interviewed a handmade paper artist and took a tour of her studio and gallery. I learned that papermaking with plant fibers involves growing, harvesting, cooking, pouring, beating and drying.  After the interview, I pulled out of her driveway and said to myself, “That was just the harvesting part of writing this story.”
2. According to THIS, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen have more Twitter followers than the entire population of Ireland, Norway, and Panama.
3. As someone who’s not much of a joiner, the only fan club I’ve joined so far on Facebook is, “I got a fruitcake for Christmas,” but I’m very tempted to join this new club, called:  “Can this poodle wearing a tinfoil hat get more fans than Glenn Beck?”

4. In an episode of House this week Hugh Lorrie diagnosed a woman with a mysterious illness by reading everything on her blog.
5. The caption to the photo posted below is:  Lovey doves on dogwood, a.k.a. “not spring chickens.”
6. Best answering machine message left this week (not by Mara) in answer to my “what’s the story, morning glory?”   “TAKE THE CALL, ANNIE HALL.”
7. My blog friend Patry is very quotable.  This week she said:  “Don’t allow yourself to be bored. It’s an insult to life.”  And apparently being bored can be fatal.
8. Patry also said:  “Mind your own business. It’s more profound than you think.”
9.  Watch my 22 month old grandson Bryce try to ride a toy motorcycle HERE. It’s pretty funny.
10. And he can’t decide in THIS video if his nana is silly or scary.
11. When something exciting happens and my husband Joe hears me say, “Now that’s something to write home about!” he knows it means I’m going to blog about it.
12. Who said this: “Corporations have been enthroned.  An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people until wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”   Abraham Lincoln
13. Shakespeare on Twitter HERE.

More Thirteen Thursday players are HERE.

1. Morning Stripes

2. Winds of Change (video HERE)

3. A Slippery Slope (video HERE)

4.  A Spring Break (video HERE)

20 custom-made leather bound journals, some bulging to a height of half a foot, tell a visual story of a personal evolution.  “I don’t think of my life as more interesting than someone else’s but I took the time to record it in an interesting way.  The themes are universal,” said 30 year-old Josh Copus, a North Carolina potter and the collage journal artist who created the journals.

It all began when Copus was packing to leave his childhood home in Floyd, Virginia, for Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina, in 2000.   Finding an old journal in his toy box, written when he was 15 years old, his first impulse was to toss the embarrassing record of childhood ramblings, but “I also knew it was an important part of my history that I couldn’t just throw away,” he remembered.

At that time Copus was regularly carrying around a sketchbook, a journal, and a photo album. The bulky nature of managing so many books gave him the idea to combine his artistic pursuits and record keeping into one book.  With ripped out pages from that childhood journal, he began laying the foundational canvas for what would become an ongoing autobiographical art memoir, one that is currently marking its 10^th year.

The first collage journal was so full it wouldn’t close, so Copus enlisted the help of Asheville bookmaker Annie Fain Liden for future books.   Spaces between signatures, individually bound, made the books Liden created for Copus expandable, giving him the freedom to expand his expression through the use of art mediums.  Today, only hints of Copus’s teenage record remain under layers of new handwriting, paperclips, paint, cardboard, transparencies, recycled scraps of life, and photos of photos that have been altered with scissors and pens.

“The more I can layer the pages, even if you can’t see a lot of it, the more successful they are. The layering is the structure that supports the end piece,” Copus said, adding that “the value is in what lies underneath. It’s the same way I feel about human beings.  It’s what’s inside us that makes us who we are.  If you just look at someone you don’t see everything.”

One page in his most recent journal documents a morning walk from the ClaySpace cooperative gallery and studio he founded in the River Arts district of Asheville to the Klingman Avenue Café for coffee.  Incorporating found objects– a ticket, a piece of styrofoam, and square of pink cardboard– the page compliments an adjacent one that features an image of a ceramic bowl in shadow, pasted on a background image of finger-painted mud.  Another, layered with a restaurant menu peeking through the window of an envelope, is topped off with an audio tape.

Although the journals span a 10 year period and chronicle Copus’s growth from age 20 to 30, the pages encompass more than that.  Childhood themes, family heritage, love affairs, and art influences are all explored with poignancy and with a flair that reflects Copus’s bent towards theater and performance art.

20 journals in 10 years is an average of 2 a year, but Copus said he made 5 journals when he was studying for his fine arts degree at University of North Carolina Asheville and less when he was building woodfiring kilns on his property in the countryside of Madison County.  The process is slow and personal.   “If I take shortcuts the work doesn’t have the same quality,” Copus said, explaining that he frequently goes back and adds to pages, which are not in linear sequence.

Unlike most art, Copus’s journals weren’t created for an audience, so there’s a raw honestly that comes through them. Like dream symbols, his collages have the capacity to bypass the brain’s processing time to convey an emotional message.  Recently he’s begun to explore options for publishing a compilation book of journal pages.  “I like stories and I started to see the books as an interesting story,” he said.

Like any good work of art, Copus’s collage journals have the power to elicit a longer look, a deep breath, a sigh, a smile.  And, like a well written narrative, the visual narrative that each one tells is a real page turner.

Post notes: More of my Asheville potter son’s  collages are posted HERE.

Too small for a coffee shop, but just right for a coffee stop where coffee lovers will soon be able to get freshly ground fair trade coffee beans from around the world, bagged and delivered within 24 hours of roasting.  The Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, currently under construction in the back of the noteBooks and the BlackWater Loft building in downtown Floyd, hopes to open in late April, said Haden Polseno-Hensley, one of the co-owners.  Others sharing in this latest downtown venture are Rose McCutchan (manager of BlackWater Loft), Benjie Osborne, and Becky Osborne, all friends who grew up in Floyd together, left for college and travel, and then returned a decade later.

Standing next to the coffee grinder and shop namesake, Polseno-Hensley said he thinks the Red Rooster Coffee Roaster will be a nice compliment to the adjacent Floyd Community Market and to the specialty espresso beverages and pastries sold at the BlackWater Loft.

Post notes: Haden, like Asa below, is a peer of my son Josh.   He’s also a writer and a SustainFloyd organizer.  The above appeared in this week’s local paper, The Floyd Press. You can read more about the family owned noteBooks and Blackwater Loft HERE and about the Floyd Community Market HERE.

~ The following was published in The Floyd Press on March 4, 2010 and on their online site HERE.

Asa Pickford was laid-off and snowed-in when he made the decision to join up with an international disaster relief organization bringing aid to victims of January’s catastrophic earthquake in Haiti.   “I was ready to help and I had the skills,” said the Floyd Countian.

Pickford, who is a metal fabricator, pipe welder, and blacksmith, learned about the Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT) from his friend Aaron Staengl.   Staengl is a member of Ananda Marga, a social and spiritual movement based in India that focuses on personal development through meditation and yoga and emphasizes service to others. For decades AMURT has been assisting underprivileged people all over the world to become more self-sufficient in the basic necessities of life: food and water, education, shelter, and healthcare.  “They were already in Haiti before the earthquake,” Pickford said.

In Haiti, Pickford said he will be distributing food and first aid and will be helping to build needed infrastructure.  “Mostly I’ll be entertaining kids,” he said, adding that he packed “pennywhistles and goodies to hand-out.” As the father of 5 year old Indigo, Pickford is practiced at interacting with children.  “That’s going to be the hardest part. I haven’t been separated from her for more than a few days,” he said about his daughter.

Scheduled to be in Haiti for a month, Pickford said he’s prepared for the physical and emotional challenges that are ahead of him.  He’ll be living in a tent in the Boudon neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.  “I’ll see the best and worst of life,” he pointed out.

In preparation for Haiti’s warm weather climate and rustic conditions, Pickford had his shoulder length hair cut.  “It’s the start of the rainy season.  It will be miserable there,” he said.    As another perquisite to his journey, he received immunizations for Hepatitis C and A, typhoid, tetanus and malaria.  He also received an outpouring of support from family and friends.  “Within an hour of posting his intentions to go to Haiti, weeks ago on Facebook, he was getting donations,” his father, Steve Pickford, said.

Steve Pickford explained that many of the items his son packed for the trip were donated or bought locally with discounts.  These include power snack bars, sturdy boots, a backpacker’s hammock, tarps, cords, tent stakes, a water purifier, and a waterproof digital camera.  The camp items will be left in Haiti when Pickford returns to Floyd.  “He’s hoping to set up a sturdy camp that he can leave for another aid worker,” his father said.

On Monday, February 22, Steve Pickford drove his son to the airport in Greensboro, North Carolina, for the first leg of his plane trip, but not before making a stop to say a last goodbye to Indigo in her classroom at The Blue Mountain School.

Armed with a donated electronic netbook and a GPS device for navigating Port-au-Prince roads, Pickford, who speaks fluent Spanish, said he hopes to set up a blog to document his experiences and so that his supporters can follow his progress.

By Wednesday morning, February 24, Pickford was settled in Haiti and had posted a message to his Facebook friends, along with some photos of smiling Haitian children, work sites, scenes of wreckage, and women hand-washing laundry.

“I will be working with some engineers as project manager to install a retaining wall behind the school to keep the hill side from moving any closer,” he wrote about his first job.  He thanked everyone for helping to make his trip possible and promised to tell all the wonderful people there about the people in Floyd and beyond who are wishing them well.     Colleen Redman

1. There are two stats I check without fail first thing every morning. Today they were 8:15 and 118. Can you guess what they were?

2. I never had the bride getting married fantasy when I was a girl, but I have fantasized about going to the Academy Awards to see the stars up close. I used to fantasize sitting between Susan Sarandon and Tom Robbins (I like their politics and they have the same age difference as Joe and I), but they recently split up, adding just one more reason why the fantasy won’t ever come true.

3. HERE’S another reason.

4. I think in poetry. Even my shopping lists tend to get arranged in rhymes: Feta, arugula and aloe vera are followed by broccoli and tahini. Red pepper and peanut butter go good together.

5. I haven’t made it back to Laughter Yoga class, but I practice laughing loudly on my walk to the mailbox. It helps when I imagine someone comes along and catches me laughing hysterically about nothing.

6. My friend Katherine sent me an email and in it she referred to me as her “over the hill friend,” which sounds sort of derogatory unless you know that I literally live a stone’s throws away and over a hill from her.

7. You have to be a certain age to get THIS, but it’s funny even if you aren’t.

8. This is the snowiest winter I’ve experienced in my 24 years of living in Virginia, but during yesterday’s snowfall, coming home from town, I saw a bright pink birdhouse hanging from a tree and a bluebird land on a branch.  I took both as hopeful signs of spring.

9. Favorite answering machine message left this week by my friend Mara: “What’s new, old blue shoe?” It was in answer to the question I left, “What’s the story, Morning Glory?”

10. Last week, I wrote a blog entry and a newspaper story about my friend Asa who is in Haiti with a relief team. Every time I typed Asa’s name, my spellcheck wanted me to change it to ASAP.

11. I’m also writing about My Asheville Potter son Josh’s collage journals, a ten year body of work, which he plans to publish soon. Josh recently gave me the names of some collage artists he knew I’d like to research. I never got past the first one, Ray Johnson (1927-1995) because any Taoist who called “Pop Art” “Chop Art,” staged “Nothings” in answer to the 60’s Happenings,” photocopied his ear for art’s sake, and did a make-up blush commercial collage with the words “Your fly is open,” is my kind of guy.

12. Being one who is used to being on the other end of the camera, when I opened a recent newspaper and saw that I had been photographed at an art opening in town (twice!), I shouted out to Joe, “I’ve just been punked!”

13. Look what you can do with an old blue shoe HERE.

~ Speaking of over the hill, my Thirteen Thursday membership is really old. This is my 230th edition. See what others who are playing are saying HERE.

1.  Not a Red Flower

2. Cause Winter’s Not Over

3. But Hope Springs Eternal

4. So Pray for Warm Weather

Post note: We just got another 4 inches.  I’ve lost track of how many snowstorms this winter. More country snow shots are HERE.

1. Out on a Limb

2. Three in a Tree

4. Carefree

5. Wild Thing

Post note: Watch what makes my heart sing clip HERE.

The following are Facebook messages that many of us in Floyd are following. They are the direct comments of our friend Asa, who arrived in Haiti last Tuesday to volunteer with Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT), an organization that works around the world providing support in the form of education, health care, and shelter to victims of disaster and poverty.  More about Asa and his trip will be forthcoming in The Floyd Press and here.

~ I am finally here, got a chance to slow down, no sleep since Sunday.  All is well, my camp is set up.  Wonderful people, visited four refugee camps today, very intense, folks are so nice though.  Spent the day with a translator talking to community organizers about ongoing projects needed.  Took lots of photos!

~ First job:  I will be working with some engineers as project manager to install a retaining wall behind the school to keep the hillside from moving any closer.

~ Getting ready to drive through Port Au Prince to pick up some people at the UN compound. Our driver is not here and the ladies do not use stick shift, it us up to me to get them there … this should be interesting.

~ Health clinic evening:  We just had a woman’s health clinic here this evening, a huge group of girls and grown ladies came in the compound, lots of singing, dancing, stretching, screaming, drumming and more dancing, then they all laid down and tried to be quiet which do not go over to well.

~ The day’s thoughts: Many little orphans here. The didi’s found a home where there were tons of kids squatting, no one taking care of them, little babies, dehydrated and skinny.  Very sad, some had to go to the hospital, and some came here …

~ Off to take my bath from a bucket, no showers here.  Life is simple but ok.

~ Thanks to all of you at home who have helped me do this.  It would not be possible without you, so know that you have helped these people as much as I am.

~ Plenty for all: Just got done with the community meeting.  Four representatives came to the school.  We explained my plan to them in detail and they love it!  So nice to get a positive response from them.  In their words, they can not wait to be married to me with this project and to see it working …

~ Logistics and a crazy life: Working with engineers, writing back and forth with co-workers about ideas, and giving proposals, so we can get funding and approval from AMURT headquarters. Learning a lot about logistics and communication.

Note:  Asa’s most recent message described some of the most intense sights and signs of death and destruction he has witnessed so far while delivering some interns to  downtown Port-au-Prince.   He took the above photos.  Stay tuned…