March

Mom's backyard (March 2009)

Ever since I was a little girl growing up in Connecticut, I've hated cold weather. Although New England autumns are extraordinarily beautiful, they used to make me a little sad because I knew winter was right around the corner. Sometimes I can't believe how lucky I am to live in Florida now.

My backyard (March 2009)

New York Stories

Anyone who has ever spent time in the Big Apple probably has a few good New York stories to tell. Here are three of mine:

*One time when I was window-shopping on Lexington Avenue, a shop owner invited me in for a free makeover. I let him have free reign, and I ended up looking like a Louise Brooks wannabe with really short bangs and pencil thin eyebrows.


*I was riding on the subway one morning, when two young men with Down’s syndrome got on and one sat next to me. His companion told him to come sit next to him, but he said, "I'm staying with her" and gave me a big hug. All the people around us laughed at his sweet gesture.


*I lost my wallet on the Q10 bus, and it was returned with all the money still in it.


If you like New York stories, you will love the book, HELEN LEVITT. It's a collection of the Helen Levitt’s street photography from the 1930’s to the 1970’s. Most of the pictures are candid shots of children playing on the streets of New York. Maurice Sendak writes in a review: “Helen Levitt’s clear-eyed view of children’s street life is sympathetic and brutally honest. She takes children on their own terms and sees the extraordinary paradox of their lives, watching them duck and dive between total fantasy and hard reality.” Even the Great Depression couldn’t kill these kids’ spirits.

Phillips, Sandra S., and Maria Morris Hambourg. Helen Levitt.
San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1992.
ISBN: 0-918471-20-6

Brucings: more thoughts about Springsteen

Smith, P. (1988). Horses.

One thing that's really cool about Bruce Springsteen is that he cowrote one of the best songs of all time, Because the Night. He wrote it with and for the great Patti Smith who is not to be confused with Scandal lead singer, Patty Smyth. (In my opinion, Patti Smith has one of the greatest rock voices ever. Patty Smyth is just a pop tart and it's unfortunate that the two are often confused.) Years later, Because the Night was covered by Natalie Merchant of the 10,000 Maniacs, who actually did it a lot of justice.

Here's my version:

Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen were friends with the legendary and controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe who shot the cover of Smith's album, Horses.

Want to learn more about Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, and Robert Mapplethorpe? Check out these books which are available at our library:
Tougher than the rest: 100 best Bruce Springsteen songs by June Skinner Sawyers; Patt Smith: an unauthorized biography by Victor Bockris and Roberta Bayley, and Playing with the edge: the photographic achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe by Arthur C. Danto.