AUGUST EBBS

Sunday

August  24th

Charlie Parker Jazz Festival

Tompkins Square Park

.

hundreds of folks--the young and old, rich or poor, a mix of multiple ethnicity--gather to relax with each other

with their critters

to people watch

and dance

dance

dance

dance

take photos

hang out together

till sunset finally drifts us apart...

~*~

Monday
August 25th
Writing from prompts by the Amherst Method
with two friends, one cat, and

 a dear dog named 'Button'

 On the way home, I'm encouraged by this sunflower still growing wild in front of a store that's been closed for more than a year

 ~*~

Tuesday
 August 26th
Patabi Joi

At Broome Street Temple for the monthly chanting of
The Hanuman Chalisa with long time yogi friends

Krishna Das Sings the Chalisa

English translation on screen

 

http://youtu.be/B3RenBiQTjk

~*~

Wednesday
August 27th
New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

A feather for my departing friend Amaranth
(she died Friday afternoon)
(Audio Link)

"The Other Shore"
~*~

Thursday
August 28th
Two audio books from my library:

1. Alan Bradley--The utterly delightful first of the
Flavia De Luce Series

2. Amitav Ghosh-second in his "ambitious"
Ibis Trilogy

 ~*~

Friday
August 29th
Free performance of the Isadora Dance Company

http://youtu.be/Z_zyv9lN1ds
Members of the current company allow us to watch their creative process as they reconstruct "The Dance of The Priestesses"

 Based on the myth of Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek coalition before and during the Trojan War. The original solo from 1903 abstractly depicted the tragic ironies of the life of Iphigenia. Isadora later added additional figures, expanding the piece to reflect the support of Iphigenias fellow priestesses. She then set the piece on her Company dancers, including Anna Duncan, one of her six adopted artistic daughters. There are records of Isadora performing the piece in 1911 at Chatelet Theater, Paris.

.

Lori Belilove, Kim D'Agnese, Morgana Rose Mellett, Emily D'Angelo, Faith Kimberling
~*~

Saturday
August 30th
Holy Basil
Given to me by one of my favorite plant sellers at the farmers market where I restocked my pollen elixir, and filled my spirit with the bounty of harvest time

about to bloom

(Wiki link)
"Marley"
Took a walk and met my favorite neighborhood dog

Back at the computer uh-oh
while answering email

Channel Thirteen
Escape back to 1952 tonight
(Trailer)

http://youtu.be/59CQ-K2JILo
~*~

Sunday
August 31st
Last year in Massachusetts

“Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.” 
-Shunryu Suzuki Roshi-
~*~

THIS WEEK SO FAR

Monday
6-8PM

Spent two hours with my regular writing group.  The first 'prompt', apropos of the weather, from Shel Silverstein

 We wrote for twenty minutes.  I set myself the task of turning the prompt into a transition to what I really wanted to write about.  The second 'prompt' was a Faulkner quote "Perhaps they were right, putting love into books.  Perhaps it could never live anywhere else."  I wrote a biting end-of-relationship scene for that one.  I won't be showing them here because they're both too raw.  We read aloud to each other, but I need to take them further than that rough start before sharing them in print.  The point of the work using the Amherst Method is to keep ideas flowing.

Tuesday
7-9:30 PM

Chanted the Hanuman Chalisa with Shyama Chapin, Joelle (pictured) and others at Broome Street Temple

A forty verse prayer written by Shree Goswami Tulsidas in the sixteenth century to honor Hanuman for his total devotion to Lord Rama. Animated, taken from the book 'The Hanuman Chalisa' by B. G. Sharma (an amazing and gifted illustrator). Music graciously provided by Krishna Das. Video by anjani lynn white.

Transition 
Late night is early morning in France  This beautiful song is the tag line to one of my favorite blogs
Bob and Sophie's French Adventure

Wednesday
6-7:30 PM

Zazen
New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care
http://zencare.org/

http://zecare.org/archives/zentalks/heart-sutra-new

Sunset

Night Falls

One  of those toss and and turn, flipping flopping nights

Thursday 

5PM

Sleep deprived, or not, the day was lovely

To the National Arts for a my friend Lorelies Art reception, only to be informed that the club is closed for the rest of the Summer !  Hmmmmmmm.... ?

Sweet scented blooms on my way home..

 ..took the sting out of disappointment

It turned out that somewhere between her very clear email  announcement, and my writing it down on my calendar, my brain reverted to the last show at the Arts club...the reception was at

National Association of Women Artists, Inc.

(N.A.W.A.)
80 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1405, New York, NY 10011

(((sigh)))

 The show is up through this month so I can visit another time

~*~
It is not profitable to spend time on such questions as whether there was ever a beginning to the succession of universes that have been arising and reaching their end for innumerable aeons, or why sentient beings must revolve endlessly from life to life in this sad realm of samsara. What is needed is to direct one’s attention to the present, thinking: “This is how things are; what is to be done about them?”
—Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin by John Blofeld http://www.shambhala.com/bodhisattva-of-compassion-2.html

Here comes Friday