Storytelling at Its Best

Home Spun Blessings - Boley, OK 2008

Love a good story, do you? Then you must check out The Moth at:

http://www.themoth.org/

And while the voting is almost over, please support The Moth's effort to bring their StorySLAMs to a city near you.

http://www.refresheverything.com/widget/?i=02168543-c192-48f1-982a-87f406a03e66

Cheers

LAFF

Peach Me, Baby

There's a lot of good eating to be had in the Highlandtown neighborhood but this is THE special treat of Baltimore's peach season. On the corners of Bank and S. Conklings Street sits Hoehn's Bakery. Eighty-four years old, this bakery has been in the same family since its inception. This Fresh Peach Cake is their summer specialty. It is heavenly glazed fresh peaches baked on a pastry that's chewy like flattened cinnamon roll dough. An amazing yummmmmy....

http://www.hoehnsbakery.com/

Opened Wednesday to Saturday, Hoehn's Bakery is always busy full of people who look like they've come for their peach cake since they opened eight decades ago.

cheers

LAFF

Life at the Patterson

The Patterson Theater houses the Creative Alliance, a non-profit organization that show cases the work of Baltimore visual and performing artists. It sits on the corner of Eastern Avenue and East Street in the Highlandtown District. Explorations of this neighborhood have uncovered a great Value Village, streets overflowing with the aromas of pizza, grilled chicken, and corned beef, small family-owned businesses, convenience and liquor stores, a couple of pawn shops, dollar stores, and neighborhood bars. Then there's the massive Patterson Park. On any given block one hears Spanish, Arabic, French, and Baltimorese, a kind of no-nonsense take on the English language.

http://www.creativealliance.org/index.asp

I love that these grand old theaters have found a mission in support of artists and the vibrance art brings to a community. It is truly a creative alliance between this organization and the surrounding community. In addition to the eight artist studios, there are several exhibition spaces here, a small theater for live performances, a media center that gives classes to the public, a supportive staff and a full calendar of events.

cheers

LAFF

A Newt Beginning

'Newt'

Salamander: symbol of transformation, intuition, vision, energy, renewal, adaptable, resourceful, balance, secrets, transition

At 6:30 this morning I woke to buckets of water pouring from the sky, thunder and lightening crashing against the dark grey clouds. The storm passes as they always do.

Now the street is wet, shiny, quiet, and new. An occasional truck rumbles up Eastern Avenue.

cheers

LFF

Raw Blue Ridge Beauty

Sometimes a photograph simply cannot capture the feeling and beauty of a moment. So, I didn't even try to recreate the magnificent beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains along Interstate 81 through Virginia with my modest little Fuji. Instead, I took the moment for myself and played Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite, Fanfare for the Common Man, and Tender Land Suite over and over again, music which heightened the powerful beauty and emotion of these mountains, welcoming dawn and a new day of my adventure. There's nothing quite like tagging along with a caravan of 18-wheelers pulling on to the highway out a truck stop with Fanfare for the Common Man blasting on the sound system. Never a more perfect piece of music was created to capture the expansive optimism of the America spirit at its purest. It gave me the melody for my emotions and thoughts to float, travel, to fully experience this new beginning. The adventure of it, the surrender to it.

Thank you Betty for insisting I take Routes 40 and 81 across country - and for the pillow, which has come in very handy.

happy on the road

LAFF

Hallelujah!

Glory, Glory, Glory! Glory Hallelujah!

I am on the road back to the East Coast! I left Oklahoma City at 10:00 this morning rolling in a 16 foot Penske truck, dancing down the road delirious with the joy of change. Driving across country alone was never an option but when the possibilities of driving buddies faded, here I am: driving alone with a thousand prayers and good wishes at my back and a new, fluffy pillow from Betty "so that you'll always have a place to lay your head." It will come in handy.

Memphis immediately kisses you with its mellow soul and rhythmic pulse. Just inside of Tennessee along RT. 40 I called Kyle, a friend of Penelope and Loren's, my great Oklahoma City neighbors. His girlfriend lives in Memphis. He urged me to call her. "As a matter of fact, I'm talking to her right now!" he said. And so I did.

After a little juggling it was decided I would crash over night at her house and what a delight. Cindy, a forceful young world traveler of 30 years, was a familiar spirit. Easy going, gracious, generous and a great storyteller. We exchanged stories from the road until rest called, me to the road the next morning and her to work, which brings me to the wonderful organization she works with: The Folk Alliance-North America. Here's the website, check it out:

http://folkalliance.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

As the Director of Sales & Marketing, I would not want to be caught trying to say "no" to Cindy regarding her fierce mission to keep international indigenous folk music viable and exposed and celebrated in the world. It was thrilling to know about the work The Folk Alliance-International is doing. The International Folk Alliance Conference 2011 will take place on February 16th-20th in Memphis and I plan to be there.

from the road

LFF