Nicest compliment ever

Today one of my long time mentors called me a Lamed vovnik.

I think it was perhaps one of the most unusual and thoughtful compliments I have ever received.

"The Jewish legend of the Lamed Vovniks describes thirty-six righteous men in every generation upon whose merit the world is kept from entire destruction. Based in part on the story of Abraham and his conversation with the Lord about the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 18, the Lamed Vovniks are those who, by virtue of their compassion for others and the prayers they offer, cause the Lord to answer, “I will spare all the place for their sakes” (Genesis 18:26)." Taken from The Legend 

"In Yiddish folklore, Lamed Vavniks are bestowed with mystical powers and emerge from the shadows whenever disaster threatens the Jewish people. Once the threat is averted, they return to anonymity."

HMMMMMM.  Not sure if I fit the bill, but now I am on the lookout for these important persons.

"Who are the Lamed Vovniks? We may not know. They may not even know themselves. But wherever they are, we can be assured of this: They lead. They comfort. They teach. They protect. They are filled with compassion. They are the very best among us."

If you want to learn more click here

Ujamaa Grandmaas - online auction

Image from http://ujamaagrandmas.com/

From Ria Meronek

As you may know I am a member of the Ujamaa Grandmas – a group in Calgary that raises money for the Grandmother to Grandmother campaign of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. This campaign funds programs that help grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa that are raising AIDS orphans.

 https://grandmotherscampaign.org/

The Covid 19 pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of the Ujamaas Fabric and Yarn sale, and the loss of the $40, 000 to $50,000 that the sale raises each year.

The Ujamaas Grandmas are having an on-line auction of Art Series Wine totes

http://ujamaagrandmas.com/raisingfunds/sealed-bid-auction/

Take a look. These make great gifts. The bidding closes July 10, 2020. For this auction, bidders must be Calgary residents or have a Calgary based contact who will pick up for you (which I can do).

Please also send this email along to friends and family.

Ria Meronek

Last Notes on a Midsummer Night’s Dream

The Fairies swinging above the audience:  beginning of Act II

While rewatching A Midsummer Night's Dream, I became interested in the Pyramus and Thisbee play-within-a -play this afternoon, wondering if we could stage it this summer with the kids out on the front lawn.  

I don’t know if this is true, if they would like to make this play, or one out of their own imaginations. 

At one point in the dialogue the play is touted to have only 10 words of dialogue.  The mini-play does have some fascinating parts:  the casting scene, the practise, and the performance.

And if that doesn’t interest the kids, maybe just the names of the fairies will delight them:  Peaseblossom, Mustard Seed, Cobweb and Moth.  The trick for me will be to remember the names when I want to pull them out of the air.  Not that I am unable to think of alternative fairy names.  Sometimes I just like to get it right.

Gurns, Immersive, Zoren

On watching A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I learned three new words: gurns, immersive theatre, zoren.

The first  is the word gurns.  

A review said that Puck “gurns and twists with distorted facial action”.  

I didn’t know what gurning was, so I had to find an online dictionary.  

Now I am going back to see if I can view the show again and catch that action in Puck’s face.

A second idea I had to fix in my mind is the technique of immersive theatre.

Off to the web to discover what that was again.

Much to my surprise, I have seen other plays using this technique.  I just didn’t have a name for it but of course I have seen it.

Zorb (with derivatives zorben and zorbing).  

I didn’t know what a zorb ball was.  

I don’t think I have seen one personally, though with all of this quarantining, I get mixed up with what is reality and what is my reality through a screen.  

For sure, I did see the zorben ball when

I first saw the play on the big scree.  I just didn’t have a name for it.  I noticed one critic was negative about the use of that ball.  I don’t know if I agree.  He argued, is this a play or a playground.  I was comfortable with it being both.

National Theatre - a 3rd look at Midsummer Night's Dream

Titania, Queen of the Fairies
also
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazon

National Theatre continues to broadcast performances for us.  

Such a privilege. 

This week I am going to try to find a finer balance between watching and learning – though much of the learning is also watching, since there is so much delivered on the web about this play.  

First I was off to find some website that gives the 10 or 20 most famous quotes in the play.  That is always such a good place for me to start. I did find 10 famous sayings, read them, and now want to print them off and memorize some of them, though not the line, "What fools we mortals be."  

I already have personal experience.

Lurene asked me if I have had a chance to see this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  I have seen it.  

Once at the Cineplex.

Twice already at home, and I am hoping for a few more viewings.  

This isn’t my most popular Shakespeare play, but it is the one most performed.  I think everything about the play is complicated:  the characters, the setting, the story line, the fantasy, the fact.

After my third viewing, which happened last night, I still hadn’t had enough and so stopped casting the play and went to my computer, where I can also get the subtitles.  They weren’t asking to my TV.   Now that I think of it, probably too late, I just needed to ask the hand controller to let there be subtitles. 

I am beginning to pick apart pieces of the play that interest me.  On the first viewings there is so much going on, I just have to stay with the forward motion of the play and resist stopping the flow to ask questions of google.  Why this?  Why that?  I ask those questions day and night, including when I am watching a play like this.

...the image captures humanity wrapped in nature ...

Why Titania’s dress?  

I noticed her carrying it over her arm in previous viewings.  

This time I took a good look at the dress while the conversation was going on:  a long train (of verdure), the act of picking it up and carrying it along (taking care of the environment), the train swinging from the sling she sit in, looking down at the action of the night (as is the right of the Fairy Queen).  

The extensive beading on the bodice is beautiful on the close shots where we really get to see it.  

There is braid hanging down, and I was wondering if those are stems or trailing vines.  

I loved the nakedness of Queen Titania’s (Gwendolyn Christie) arms, fully outstretch and our view is as though we are underneath, on the stage floor, looking up at her, even when she stands down from her hammock in the heavens.

David Morst as Puck
Gwendoline Christie as Titania, the Queen of the Fairies
Here you can see the length of the train the costumers have her carry.

I love these secondary and tertiary viewings since there is so much to see, so many events.  I want to keep my eye just on Puck, his eyes squinting, his quirky movements, the tattoos on his arm (are those dog footprints?), all of the colour on his arms, shirt and tights, his sass to the crowd, his obeisance to the Queen, his tantrum to her – I need to study all of that.

If I were talking to children about to watch the show I would want to point out all of the possible settings:  Athens, a night forest, the dream world of flying fairies, contagious fog, moonlight revels, and we are the roving audience moving in and out from the stage, both those physically present at the show ( standing in as audience for us in the performance), and the roving of the camera to bring to our eye, what they cannot see.

More later.

Arta

Look for What is Not Said

I am aware of a comment by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in a Sunday School Lesson she gave for dialogue.  Ulrich is best known for A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1991.

In the Sunday School class, Ulrich offered the technique of look at texts for what is not said in them.  Then she gave some illustrations of how to do that. I decided to practise that technique when I was listening to some audio tapes of Doral Pilling talking about his ancestors.

Doral was reading the story of how his grandfather, Dick Pilling, left home at the age of 15 after having had a fight with his dad. Dick had earned his own pony by taking care of some acres of the family farm, and that is what he left with – one pony for the work he had done around the farm.

Saying he would not return to the farm for one year, and maybe never, he rode off to live with one, then another of his uncles, the second who hired him for the year and offered to pay him $150 for bushwhacking. The tape says, “When his contact with Uncle Josh had expired, the boy’s pay was one mare, one cow and a calf and five head of sheep, so when he decided to go back home, he came back as an owner of considerable livestock and he still had his original pony.”

Now I am thinking about what is not said. I imagined Dick going from earning one pony for his work on a family farm, to receiving 1 horse, 1 cow and calf and 5 sheep for work at his uncle’s business the next year.

Was Dick’s work worth that much more in one year?

Had his Dad previously been undervaluing his labour and his place in the family.

Why did Dick want to return home?  From the story that follows, when the bullies in his community, his arch enemies saw him back home, one tried to wrestle him to the ground,  Dick ended up on top, but was surprised.

What was it that surprised him?  Was this the first measure he had of his growth, except for the measure of his stock?

I am just looking for what is not said and having a lot of fun doing it listening to Doral's voice.

I was a little bothered by Doral's voice at first, since he felt present.  I thought if I just went back one screen I would see him on Zoom.

I started listening in one of the tapes, where Doral was reading quickly, letters to and from the Government of Alberta about the state of the road on which four children's lives were lost.  The lump in my throat was hard to control.

Built to the wrong grade, Doral and Lorne Reed argued.

Perfectly acceptable grade, argued the Government -- thousands of cars had driven on the road without accident.   No mention that in the previous 3 months 8 accidents had happened on that curve.  And no acknowledgement that after the road, the grade was quickly fixed.

Richard Johnson is the one who asked where those audio tapes were and could he listen to them.

Thanks for producing them, Rebecca Johnson.

Arta

Richard A Pilling: Pride Struggled with Tears

Rebecca put up two audio recordings, as you can tell from the post (Doral Pilling in his own voice) that follows this one.

She said that much of the audio recording is Doral reading from his life story.

The small selection that I listened to, hasn't been information found there, but elsewhere.  Below is a portion of an article from the Cardston News, Nov 24, 1936.  It begins 27 minutes into the first tape and goes to 35 minutes.  My transcription is not exact, but close.  Doral was asked to tell about his grandfather, Richard Adams Pilling.  He reads into the tape, the article above.  Here is an excerpt:

Dick Pilling with a team of oxen

He drove this around the province
on the occasion of Alberta being a province for 50 years.

This was painted by Fredrick G Cross, a painter of Alberta reputation.
The painting belongs to Moiya Wood
and hangs in the front entry of her home.

Another oil painting of a similar scene belongs to and
hangs in the home of Glen Pilling.

(27 minutes)

Young Dick only went to school 2 or 3 weeks a year.  What you could learn on the job was considered more important than what you could learn out of books.  He mostly worked in the fields, and learned horses, rounders and was at the occasional dance for social purposes.

He stands 6 feet, weighs 200 pounds. You can scarcely imagine a kid whom anyone could put down.

But when he was young, he was regarded as a weakling.  It was a source of sadness.  He wanted to be big and powerful.  He learned hard work, cattle and horses.  He could handle horses so successfully, one mean bronc was turned over to him by his father to be broken and it was this horse that was the reason for him leaving home.

He was on this horse, the first time he saw grain loaded into a train car without being sacked.  On the words giddy-up his horse refused to move.  Dick used the lash.  The horse bolted, broke the traces and made a break for freedom.  The father used hard words.  Little Dick responded in kind and ended up by announcing that he would be leaving home for one year, a whole year at least and maybe he wouldn’t be coming back. 

He had a pony of his own.  He had earned it by farming a few acres for his father.  So he took his pony and rode away.  He rode slowly hoping his father would call him back.  Pride struggled with tears.  But no sound.  All was silent.  The next turn in the road would hide the farm from the boy’s sight.  He rode on.  He was 15.  He had left home. 

He found refuge with his Uncle Joe Adams and worked for him a short time.  Then went to Uncle Josh’s home, who tried to but couldn’t convince him to go home.  He was offer $150 a year to become a bushwhacker.  Uncle Josh was a freighter of considerable enterprise.  Hauling logs to the saw mills was Dick’s job and then he was sent on a long journey of 500 miles to Montana.  Here he swung his lash at five oxen, in a load of quicksilver and booze.  He was in constant association with many hard and rough characters for the west was still young and men prided themselves on being he-men.  But the boy’s training was still with him and he lived clean and simply with no indulgences.  So, for a year, or more, ox teams were his life. 

In the meantime he grew, put on more weight and hardened.  When his contact with Uncle Josh had expired, the boy’s pay was one mare, one cow and a calf and five head of sheep, so when  he decided to go back home he came back as an owner of considerable livestock and he still had his original pony.  He was welcomed back.

On returning home, he met his ancient chums.  One wrestled him to the ground, but Uncle Dick remained on top.  No one was more surprised than himself.  Then he wrestled them one by one, the entire gang and self-respect was restored.  No longer was he Little Dick, but now Dick.

He married Amanda Penrod, they went to homestead in Layton and began their married life in a log cabin with a dirt floor.  They were married 56 years and then Amanda passed to her reward.  He is proud to say he has only been thrown from a horse 3 times in his life.  

(38 minutes)

Part of the charm is listening to Doral read into the tape, the words above.  He goes on to tell other places that Dick worked.  Dick seems to have gone the length and the breadth of the Canada and the US.  I shall be listening to more of this and taking notes. 

Thank you, Rebecca, for making the tapes available.,

Arta

Doral Pilling in his own voice

Several years back, I ordered the audio transcript from Doral Pilling's life history (if you want to go back to that old blog report on the process, you can find it here).  Richard Johnson asked me if I had them to hand (after all, in these strange times, we are all spending more time listening to things...)

If anyone wants to listen to Doral's voice, reading his own life history, you can email me and I will give you a link to the folder (googledrive) where I have gathered the audio the files.  I tried uploading them so I could more easily share with others, but have reached the limit of my 'free uploads' on Soundcloud.  So... here is the taster sampler!

https://soundcloud.com/rebecca-johnson-441581102/doral-pilling-gr197501220001-pt1-of2


https://soundcloud.com/rebecca-johnson-441581102/doral-pilling-gr197501220001-pt2-of-2


------------
Note added by Arta:

I went out and listened to the first 35 minutes of the first tape:
(11 minutes)  Short sketch of Catherine Adams; a good cook, a splendid housekeeper
(13 minutes) Collecting sap from maple trees; kept company with Richard Pilling for five years before marrying him
(14 minutes) knew how to make cheese; owned one ox, one cow and churned butter every day; would put one sheet over the bowls of milk; had only one sunbonnet; her baby's face was sometimes burned to blisters; made cheese with milk from her sister-in-law, Mary; came to Canada with 6 teams of horses and 13 wagons; settled 8 miles south of Cardston at Aetna; Brother Card came to tell her not to be discouraged, she would soon have lots of company; Dec 1903 her husband was paralyzed and she never had one night of sleep after that, only away from him for one night for the birth of 1 grandchild; Richard could not stand to be without her, so Glen Nielson hitched up a wagon and brought Richard back to their house so she could stay there for 5 days and take care of the new baby; they milked 130 cows for 3 years and sent the milk to Cardston to be made into cheese.  She kept some back to make cheese for herself and which she also sold to the police.
(20 minutes) Apostle Taylor dedicated their home; 200 people came to the dedication; Catherine had 4 patriarchal blessings; she had 9 out of 10 living children; she lived in her own home but also lived with all of her children.
(22 minutes) writer describes her as humble, meek, lowly, depreciated her own worth; shrank from publicity, would share her last pound of butter; sent food to her children; was 5 feet tall, 165 pounds with a chest of 42", dark brown eyes; blind for the last few  years of her life, but independent,  until she fell off of a porch and could not walk:  lives for some  years after that; Richard A. would come and help her exercise.
(27) Begins story of Young Dick, ten minutes of which is transcribed; please click here.

Interview of Catherine Jarvis for The Mom Spectrum

I thought some might like to read Stephanie Schindler's interview of Catherine Jarvis for The Mom Spectrum. 

I love the colour in Catherine's voice as she speaks on the podcast. 

As well, the interview has been partially transcribed for those who like to read text.

The Mom Spectrum Interviews Catherine Jarvis

Arta

On Watching Small Island

... Gilbert  (Gershwyn Eustache Jnr) and Hortense (Leah Harvey)
eating fish and chips from a newspaper ...

I watched Helen Edmundson’s stage adaptation, of Small Island, three times this week.

“A company of 40 actors, traces the tangled history of Jamaica and the UK throughout the Second World War until 1948 – the year HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury.” That is what one of the introductions to the play said.

I took notes on the second and thirds viewings. 

I learn the most this way, with a pencil in my hand.

Still I couldn’t keep up with all of the information that comes on the website. I couldn’t keep up with all of the feelings that the play generates, either, and which I tried to keep track of until the exercise seemed overwhelming. Just a slight look, or a sagging of the shoulders of an actor and the story becomes so rich.

National Theatre Live. Such a privilege.

This week  with being able to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, I am going to try to find a finer balance between watching and learning – though much of the learning is also watching, since there is so much delivered on the web about this play. Well, off to find some website now that gives the 10 or 20 most famous quotes in the play. That is always such a good place for me to start.

Arta

Nissan, Sentra GXE, 2002 – Green

This is a picture of a similar car in a dealership.
I could not have produced such a good shot from its 3 month spot in the back yard.
My car does have the same green shine which makes it
easy to find in the parking lot of a shopping mall.

The title above describes the new-to-me car, purchased back in February 28, 2020 -- 3 months ago.

Now I am ready to drive it.

After getting an inspection report for insurance purposes, Richard and I took it out for a spin.

 Destination: Costco.

Driving into the east, the setting sun had broken through the clouds, its rays splaying out in all directions. A hole in the universe. We turned north on Crowchild and dark lowering clouds were coming in. I wondered to Richard how far away that storm was. We were to find the answer by the time we got to Costco. There was no way we were going to have pelting rain fall on us, even to get into the building and most surely not to fall on us as we packed our groceries in the car. Instead Richard gassed the car up from a dry spot under the Costco Gas bar and we started home.

“Car isn’t going to need a wash,” remarked Richard, “this rain will have removed anything that was on the chassis.”

John Laurie is where the rain turn to pelting hail that was so strong that the windshield wipers could barely keep it off of the glass for us to see ahead of us. This is the stretch of highway along the perimeter of Nose Hill where Richard sometimes casually twists his head to look for deer in Owl Valley. We both only looked ahead and listened to the pelting of the hail on the car.

The tomato plants were beaten down when we got home. The green tendrils of the hop vines have been snapped off. I don’t know how the radishes will do. They had only poked their heads through the ground. Mati just put the beets the raised garden beds a few days ago, so those seeds will have loved the good soak. There is no chance the beets will have the number of days they need to mature since they are only planted now.

Still, hope springs eternal in Mati’s heart … and mine. He has planted cucumbers under the peonies and some in the black dirt beside the hops. I told him that is called guerilla gardening.

Arta

Doctor Atomic, A Surprise

June 26, 2020

 A couple of days ago I decided to take one last look at the National Theatre’s fabulous production of Andrea Levy’s epic novel, Small Island. On the way to “the theatre”,  my virtual theatre, I stopped by, on the screen, to see what was showing on metopera.org.

John Adams’s Dr. Atomic (libretto by Peter Sellars) was playing.

“What will it hurt if I just watch 15 minutes,” I thought, “since that is what I tell other people to do – just take a taste, don’t feel that you have to stay the whole opera.”

But that didn’t work for me.

After about 5 minutes I was spellbound, the kind of spell that makes a person sit still, as if any movement might break the spell.

I had to do my research on the opera after I had seen it. I should have gone out and done some looking before hand, but as I say, I was on the way to watching something else and just happened by Doctor Atomic.

 I am so glad I stopped and watched. I didn’t know until afterward that the aria, sung by Oppenheimer, uses text from Donne's Holy Sonnet XIV:

Batter my heart, three person’d God; For you
As yet but knock, breathe, knock, breathe, knock, breathe
Shine, and seek to mend;
Batter my heart, three person’d God;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, break, blow, break, blow
burn and make me new.

I, like an usurpt town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue,
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy,
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

I am not a fan of Donne, but I might be open to reading more of his sonnets.

Too much to think about. Too little time.

Loved it that I got lost in Doctor Atomic.

Arta

Bucket List

Hebe here.

I want to learn about blogging so I'm going to start posting here to see how it works.

I like to research places to go in the world.  I like looking at hotels and imagining what it will be like to travel different places.  I'm gonna share fun places I want to go.  My mom says that's called making a BUCKET LIST.

Today I'm thinking about Hawaii.

A blogger I follow (Grace's Room) shared a video of Hawaii.  I thought it looked great.

On the North Shore of Oahu there are 3 waterfalls I would like to visit. One is called Waimea Falls and it looks like so much fun.  It is a deep swimming hole.

Waimea Falls - we got this photo from the internet.

Here is a link to watch Grace's video about her trip to Hawaii's North Shore.

If you travel to Hawaii now during COVID 19 it's good to know that all arriving passengers have to quarantine for 14 days.  HMMMMM.  No beaches for 2 weeks.  That's no fun.

Here is a photo my mom took on the island of Molakai in 1998.

This place is called Kalaupapa and is an old Leprosy colony you can learn more about it here.

If I ever go to Hawaii, I want to stay in a resort like the Grand Wailea Hotel in Maui.  This hotel has everything including amazing gardens,  9 pools connected by a lazy river, private balconies, 4 water slides, car rentals and beach front access.   A room costs $850 per night.  You could also rent a 3 bedroom villa for $1495 per night.  

A photo from the Grand Wailea Hotel website.  Doesn't this look fun.

This hotel also has a water elevator.  You can check out a blogger explaining the water elevator here.

Hawaii here I come.

The Ravens of Golden

All four times we have passed through Golden this spring, I have noted the murder of ravens who like to hang out around the fast food joints off the highway.  I have seen up to 30 at a time. I never get tired of watching them hop around.  I managed to snap a few photos of this raven who seemed to think that it needed more coffee. I often have that feeling as well.

Naomi named this one Gerald.  They were happy to pose for several shots.

First Outdoor Movie of the Summer

Miranda brought a projector to the lake.  She set up a sheet in the garage so we could have an outdoor movie night.  She blew up matresses, put down mats and set up chairs.

The movie choice was Onward.  You can watch it on Disney Plus.  I love this movie.

Bonnie was responsible for the concession table. Earlier in the day, the kids were required to make themselves tickets to the concession to be exchanged for treats of their choice.

Here's a photo essay of the evening.

Michael surprised me by running out of the garage while I was taking a photo of the set up.

A successful photo bomb.  His best ever.

Miracle Miranda (How to Avert Disaster)

When we were setting up the power washer to wash the deck, I was wondering where I should hook up the hose.  There is a nozzle right under the bay window in the kitchen, so I went there. Miranda said she vaguely remembered that there is something different about that nozzle. I attached the hose and Rhiannon started washing.

Glen had come over to mow the lawn.  Landon and Piper were with him. Alice and Piper  had gone downstairs.  Suddenly they came up upstairs yelling and yelling and saying: “There is an Otter in the basement, there is Otter in the basement.”  They were actually saying, there is water in the basement.  Turns out the pipe for that nozzle outside the kitchen window is broken. There was water flowing down the west wall inside the basement.

Miranda runs downstairs and mops it all up.  I had to go to town and by the time I got back, Miranda had cut off the pipe, and covered up the hole so that it can’t be used anymore.  

Can you spot the crack in the pipe?

Miranda found the perfect thing to cover the hole in the wall.

Michael used a magnifying glass to burn his initials onto the piece of wood. 
A great outdoor winder activity when you are quarantining and the sun is shinning.

The other part that made me laugh is that the night before, Alice had been watching a you tube videos of a family that call themselves The Engineering Family.  I watched for a while and then said to Miranda, “Does that family do any engineering?”  She said, “No, not really.” 

Since Miranda had cut out the nozzle and patched it up, I knew the Johnsons were The Real Engineering Family.  The tools from the repair job are still on the island.  A couple of wrenches, a hammer with with some Swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing on it from Betty’s 5th birthday party cake.  Only Miranda can cut out a pipe and make a cake at the same time.

I love every moment here.  The chaos moments and the quiet moments.  If you can be OK with chaos you will like this holiday.