Author Archives: Sans Souci

269. Travel part 2: Poetry to Photography: The National Yiddish Book Center

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click here for Part 1 of trip. Photo from 2007 trip along with first slide show and poetry. Before I proceed, I would like to offer a little information on the Yiddish language. The most basic description would be a mix of Hebrew and medieval German with a smattering of other languages. It was spoken by the Jews of central and eastern Europe. The photos show the outside of The National Yiddish Book center, which houses over a million Yiddish books that were rescued from extinction. It also is a cultural center where Jews from all over the world come … Continue reading →

268. Part I : A Travel Log: From Bosco to Lip Plumper

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It’s an annual trek to the Berkshires, the mountains of Massachusetts, where culture thrives. A few hours drive to an uncrowded world dense with creativity, where I feel I get spiritually refreshed through art and nature. It’s worth it. But first, some fluff… 1.On our way to our first stop in Hadley, MA, we dipped into Vermont to get an up close view of The (famous) Vermont Country Store, where time has appeared to have stood still. You can wax nostalgic, rhapsodic, or however you wish over those perfumes you used to find at Woolworth’s in the ’50’s (Evening in … Continue reading →

271. Travel Part 4: Art for Sunday: On to North Adams, MA: Mass MoCA: What’s new in contemporary art

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Part A – From last year’s post on North Adam’s MA, to give you a little background. Saturday July 7, 2007 Our annual trek to the Berkshire Mountains. North Adams, MA We love it this area of Massachusetts; it is a juxtaposition of blue collar and culture. North Adams was a mill town, like many other towns situated near canals. In the 1800’s factories sprung up near water which enabled transit of materials and goods. In the 1980’s the Sprague Electric Works was shut down and deemed a contaminated site.The company was housed in a 19th century mill which stood … Continue reading →

275. For Poetry Wed:Travel Part 5: Mass MoCA: from Art to Music: Abena Koomson

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I had no idea who Abena Koomson was when we got tickets for the Saturday night show. This young woman is a New Yorker who will be starring in an off-Broadway show. She is a poet, songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor. I think you’ll be hearing about this young lady soon. I was particularly amazed by the power of her words; her presence and recitations were masterful, unselfconscious and well beyond her years. Check out her CD, too. Abena autographing her CD, which I was most happy to purchase. Photo/Sans Souci The bio from ALT CABARET, given at the show: Abena … Continue reading →

277. Songs for Saturday, Art for Sunday:Travel: Part 6: Williamstown: The Clark Institute: Art and Music

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In my pictures there is no cleverness, no brush marks, nothing to astonish or bewilder, but simply a gradual, more perfect growth of beauty–it is this beauty my canvases reveal, not the way it is obtained. ~James McNeill Whistler “When considering modernist painting in the decades around 1900, we generally think of expressive, virtuosic brushwork that clearly reveals the presence of the artist. Yet its quieter and formally more subtle style of painting ran throughout the period, and this is the focus of Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly. “Paint should not be applied … Continue reading →

342. Poetry: Overheard In The Love Hotel: Robert Polito

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Robert Polito, born 1951, is from Boston and lives in New York City. He is an academic and poet, director of the writing program at The New School, here in New York City. He holds a Ph.D in English and English Language and Literature from Harvard University. He received the National Book Critics Circle Award, and an Edgar Award for Savage Art: a Biography of Jim Thompson. From the anthology: Poems of New York Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets This poem takes place in Manhattan’s Meat Packing District. I grew up on East 14th Street, this area is at the other … Continue reading →

282. Photo Journal/Poetry Wednesday at the New York Botanical Garden: 8/6/08

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The Monumental Sculpture of Henry Moore We are off to The Bronx on a hot, humid day to visit The New York Botanical Gardens; aside from the wonderful blooms there are Henry Moore sculptures visiting from abroad and beautifully placed all over. The Gardens are huge.     Bring your poetry and lets sit in the garden. Photos by Sans on a recent outting. (Below, left) True Love! The hugging cacti. 55 CommentsChronological   Reverse   Threaded reply sanssouciblogs wrote on Aug 4, ’08, edited on Aug 5, ’08 Please visit my sister Laurita’s poem here: http://lauritasita.multiply.com/journal/item/815 She left it for us … Continue reading →

285. Photos: Thursday in the Park With Al (2008)

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This is Al, the sweetest man on earth; secretly, I think of him as the father I never had. Kind, brilliant, loving, and still around in his late 80’s as spunky and adventurous as ever. Al was a friend of my late father-in-law and family. In the 70’s when Mr.Souci and I were traveling through Ireland, we met Al and his wife in Dublin, by coincidence, and had a few meals together. Al’s lovely wife passed away of cancer a number of years ago. My father-in-law died suddenly some years after. My step-mother-in-law and Al, the surviving spouses, became an … Continue reading →

100. Song Saturday: 12/1/07: Concert/ Jazz Greats/ introducing Denise Thimes

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For Song Saturday I would like to share my wonderful experience at Flushing Town Hall this evening where THE 6 jazz greats met to perform. The sextet included, and I will refer to my program notes for the information: Jimmy Heath, (sax) the middle brother of the legendary Heath Brothers, Percy and Tootie. He has performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the last 50 years, including Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis. One of his earliest bands (1947-1948) in Philadelphia included John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Specs Wright, Cal Massey, Johnny Coles, Ray Bryant and Nelson Boyd. … Continue reading →

78. Let’s Exchange Names

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I conceived this blog while on Astra Navigo’s site; his blog was about his home state, Oregon. I have never lived in Oregon, but I will always remember my first phone number: ORegon-3-9833.Before all digit dialing, before we lost our phone and geographical identities, before we got lost in digits and binary codes, we had telephone exchanges; they put you on the map, they gave you a reference point in the huge communication universe, which then consisted of… the telephone. It was sometime after “Upstairs, Downstairs,” when Hudson, the butler, would answer the ringing wall phone with ‘Halllooooo? May I … Continue reading →

83. Well, That Stinks!

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I was ready to sit down and start my blog; I knew what I was going to write about and I was preparing my accoutrements—music and visuals, when I clicked on Photoshop; it started to load, and then—nothing. I repeated the steps. Nothing. I got error messages indicating that Microsoft would inform me as soon as a solution to the problem was found.Not good enough.The program worked yesterday, and it was hiccupping as it was loading fonts. I tried to install the program again and was unable to. Well, that stinks! The computer is 5 months old and Vista, the … Continue reading →

51. Part I Music, Art, and Dusty Books: a travelogue

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Saturday July 7, 2007 Our annual trek to the Berkshire Mountains. North Adams, MA We love it this area of Massachusetts; it is a juxtaposition of blue collar and culture. North Adams was a mill town, like many other towns situated near canals. In the 1800’s factories sprung up near water which enabled transit of materials and goods. In the 1980’s the Sprague Electric Works was shut down and deemed a contaminated site.The company was housed in a 19th century mill which stood idle until it was resurrected in 1999 as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, or MASS MoCA.The … Continue reading →

52. Part 2: Music, Art, and Dusty Books: a travelogue

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Monday, July 9, 2007 MASS MoCA: One of my favorite artists was Spencer Finch: It is easier to include the article from the website as it is well written and explains the artist and his work. As always, there are several artists who I latch on to, who I feel and experience at a gut level. They are the avant-garde crowd who see the world in a different way; who provoke, who push, who tease us into thinking beyond our parameters. About Spencer Finch Finch was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1962. He received a degree in comparative literature … Continue reading →

53. Part 3: Glacial Potholes, Vintage Cars, Yiddish Books: a travelogue

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A short ride into Vermont; we make our annual visit to Hemmings Motor NewsFilling Station.Vintage cars are the thing here, and all kind of car memorabilia abound.My kind of 50’s and 60’s music is pumping. I take a walk on the treadmill at the fitness center, back at The Porches and then get a massage, which was part of the hotel package.Nice, very nice. As my mother would say, “So what could be bad?” Wednesday, July 11, 2007 We leave North Adams and go to Hadley, MA., which is central to several Universities; Mt. Holyoke, Smith, U Mass, Hampshire College, … Continue reading →

54. Part 4: The Yiddish Writers’ Garden: travelogue

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Before I proceed, I would like to offer a little information on the Yiddish language. The most basic description would be a mix of Hebrew and medieval German with a smattering of other languages. It was spoken by the Jews of central and eastern Europe. The photos show the outside of the National Yiddish Book center, which houses over a million Yiddish books that were rescued from extinction. It also is a cultural center where Jews from all over the world come to experience their culture. The outside is lovely; a path leads one to a contemplative retreat. A pond … Continue reading →

28. The Mystery of the Disappearing Internet Signal

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Dear Bravehearts in the Land of Blog. Absolve me from guilt. I have not yet been blogging a month and hope you have been leaving my pages with postive thoughts and feelings, enough to hopefully bring you back. There’s the rub. Pressure. I tell myself that I do not have to post everyday, yet something calls me back to the keyboard, and I can’t leave. I am trying not to be too intense everyday; I easily fall into that. Then I ask myself, “who am I writing for?” To make me happy or other people happy–or both. Maybe I should … Continue reading →

30. It’s Automatic: NY Phenomenon: Fun Fast Food

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One of my fondest memories of growing up on East 14th Street in Manhattan was the Horn & Hardart, Automat, near Union Square. My mother would take me on the Avenue B bus for a 10 minute ride, and the excitement would build. We’d often go shopping first at S. Klein on the Square, where one could find bargains galore; great stuff and everything at low prices. After some heavy shopping, we’d round the corner and pop into the Automat. It was a chain that started in Philadelphia by Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart, and became most popular in New … Continue reading →

31. Age of Love

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For a number of Monday nights I have been glued to my television set for an hour watching a pop program, “Age of Love,” which proposes an interesting question. When it comes to couples, does age really matter? The Bachelor: Mark, an Aussie hunk, pro tennis player. Age: 30. The Women: A gorgeous bunch: Age: 40’s. Mark meets the women in their 40’s and is amazed by their beauty, intelligence, spunk, sense of fun, humor and adventure. He has to eliminate one each week and will be left with his dream date/mate. Things get complicated. More Women: A gorgeous bunch: … Continue reading →

33. Whole Foods: Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get

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While walking down the produce aisle at the Whole Foods Market, (a food store that specializes in supposedly healthier food, some organic, and decidedly higher priced than regular food stores) my Cerebral Jukebox honed in on soul music playing in the background, Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get. I was happy.  I felt like dancing.  I flirted with the produce guy over a bunch or cilantro, I boogied over to the radishes.  I looked at faces staring intently at the ears of corn and white peaches.  No one else was on planet 60’s with me. I decided to make gazpacho. I … Continue reading →

38. Technology: Don’t Read This Blog; You’ll Be Bored

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I am no technophobe. As a matter of fact, I love technology; I love learning about it, applying it, using it and conquering it. I am a techno-warrior.Over the years I learned my way around the techno mazes.I’ve explored the ins and outs, up and downs.I’ve been troubleshooting and upgrading and even getting friends’ computers up to snuff.But this has been a notable techno-wacky year. In early February I was the first kid on my block to unpack a shiny new Dell computer.Running Vista.  My new computer turned out to be a gleaming elephant of a paperweight for weeks.Every technician … Continue reading →