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"Pongáio" was the name my Aunt Mona gave to a long, green, cool room where we gathered at her home —
replete with comfy chairs, a rocker, sewing machine, sewing goods, beautiful beads, shelves, books, bibelots, photographs, odds'n'ends, mementos of a life, treasures —
a gathering of all the useful & 'useless' things that so make life a pleasure.



Sunday, November 30, 2014

Friday, November 28, 2014

Monday, November 24, 2014

New Moon in Sagittarius



New Moon in Sagittarius
Saturday, November 22, 4:32 am PST, 7:32 am EST
The New Moon in visionary Sagittarius opens our hearts and minds to faraway places and big ideas. Imaginative Neptune’s square brings faith and fantasy that either inspires grander visions or takes us well past the limits of reality. This Sun-Moon conjunction in astrology’s most adventurous sign is an invitation to broaden horizons through higher education and travel. It also plants seeds for seeking and speaking the truth. Sagittarius is a sign of both humor and honesty (with a little exaggeration thrown in to make the stories more interesting), but can sometimes lack sensitivity to the insecurities of others. Expressing beliefs openly can feel liberating but it is not a license to judge or lecture people without regard to their feelings. When faith in what we’re saying is shaky, we push others harder to get their support, but when conviction is real there’s no need to force people to agree with us. Responsible Saturn’s conjunction to this lunation is a reminder that the consequences and costs of traveling a new road may not be recognized at first, making caution an essential element of a successful journey.
— New Moon Report - Saturday, November 22, 2014

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Cool cellos


Saturday, June 21, 2014

For a Friend


Jon Henrik Fjällgren

Gorgeous... beautiful!!!
... even with the grimaces and posturings of the EGOnalities personalities of these panels!
Jon is singing a yoik (or joik or jojk) he wrote about missing his best friend Daniel who had passed in one of the Saami languages. Saami are the minority indigenous people of Nordic Europe and currently inhabit the artic regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Russian Kola Peninsula. Jon was adopted from South America by Swedish Saami people, so he is Saami by culture but not ancestry. I'm an American whose grandmother was Saami from Finland. The joiks I've heard are exceptionally beautiful and ethereal....when listening to a yoik, whether you understand the words or not, makes you feel like you're listening to the whispers of Angels carried by the wind! Namaste'
Original

Here you can go directly to the music; and comes with the following text

       Sami Native Jon Henrik devotes his song to his friend "Daniel"
       who just passed away...
       The lyrics is in Sami language.

       Music And Lyrics By: Jon Henrik Fjällgren

       Please! Visit "Jon henriks" pages to show support to Henrik & Me :)
       http://adf.ly/14DdBs
       http://adf.ly/14DgQ8
       http://linkshrink.net/7ToNI9

Lyrics (from comments, 2016)   Daniel p1 ano atrás

       Do you go with me yet, my dear friend,
       Though I no longer see you? Are you still here on earth,
       So as you remain in my heart?
       I lie there and brood,
       It is desolate quiet around me.
       Tears break out and fall,
       I thought of you.

       An angel here was forgotten left,
       Have now got his wings.
       Where do you fly now, my angel?
       Where do you fly now?

       You fly through the pearly gates, say?
       Or the end of the world?
       If you are flying next to me?
       Or am I alone now?

       Where you now are, my friend.
       Wherever the road for you.
       Promise me you'll wait there,
       Until I meet you.

       I hope you're happy now.
       So as I was with you.
       And the pain you have suffered,
       Hope it is forgotten.

       Float freely, my dear friend.
       You are free now.
       And until we meet again,
       Farewell, my angel.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Creative Process

More usual than not!
the creative process
via 

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Thursday, April 10, 2014

"MÚSICA EN LA CORTE DE CARLOS V"



from Belarmo

MÚSICA EN LA CORTE DE CARLOS V - Concierto de Orphénica Lyra.

Intérpretes: Orphénica Lyra - Director: José Miguel Moreno.

- Nuria Rial (Soprano)
- Carlos Mena (Contratenor)
- Guido Balestracci (Viola de gamba soprano)
- Alba Fresno (Viola de gamba tenor)
- Ventura Rico (Viola de gamba bajo)
- Eligio Quinteiro (Guitarra)
- Fernando Paz (Flautas)
- Pedro Estevan (Percusión)
- José Miguel Moreno (Vihuela y dirección)


[Concierto celebrado el 20 de septiembre de 2000, en la iglesia de Saint-Leu, Amiens (France), dentro del "XIII Festival des Cathédrales de Picardie"].

Friday, April 04, 2014

Love Lighing the Dark

"Venus enters Pisces at 4:31 pm EDT Saturday to powerfully evoke where love meets confusion. Powerful because Venus is exalted in Pisces — another way of saying empowered to express itself freely. Love because, among other things, Venus correlates with emotional attractions. Then, there’s confusion.

The likely correspondence to confusion has to do with the first aspect Venus will make upon entrance to Pisces — a conjunction with the centaur object 7066 Nessus."
...
"When fast and slow objects function to enter a new sign at essentially the same time and come together in the first degree, it’s astonishing timing."
 ...
"Because of their orbital characteristics, and probable origins at the shadowy edges of the solar system, astrologers frequently connect centaurs with the psychological concept of shadow material.
Shadow material is complex and nuanced, just like the orbits of centaurs. Nevertheless, it is possible to say the concept is usually about traumatic or otherwise uncomfortable past experience that has not yet been resolved or integrated — persistently following you like a shadow. Eric, among astrology’s pioneers interpreting centaur objects, has demonstrated a strong connection between Nessus and the shadow of abuse."
...
"Maybe astrologer Robert Hand expressed the truth best when he wrote “In its highest manifestation Venus is love, the emotion that brings people together without force or compulsion.” Perhaps, upon entry to its Pisces exaltation, Venus will be free to express the truth powerfully. Perhaps it is a truth that will set you free of shadow material when Venus and Nessus come together against all odds and without any force or compulsion except synchronicity in the first degree of Pisces come Saturday."

Friday, March 21, 2014

Amazing Shay

Amazing... maybe, flabbergasted?
I'm running out of superlatives... of wow-type words!

There are so many wonderful pictures, that I don't know which ones to choose to show here...

One of my favorite foods...

Shay Aaron - pizza
Pizza! 
Can you believe how small and perfect this is?

Shay Aaron - pizza slice

Ohhhh... pancakes!
Shay Aaron pancakes!

Shay Aaron - pancake charm photo 4099367780_e898cb227b_o.jpg

These I've shown are jewelry, but Shay Aaron also makes ones that are "just plain" miniature food, if this term can be used for anything so perfect.

Shay Aaron - making pizza
(Uh... more pizza!)

Shay Aaron - coldcut platter

Shay Aaron - coldcuts platter photo 6150381314_0791c0573a_o.jpg

Shay Aaron - rye bread

Shay Aaron - bread trays

Shay Aaron - sushi

Shay Aaron - braised vegetables 1/12 photo 8189621872_874949c9db_o.jpg

Shay Aaron - macarrons

Shay Aaron - brownie deluxe charm photo 4693577521_d45b63de4b_b.jpg

Shay Aaron - gingerbread charm

Do go to his Flikr, Shay Aaron, to see more of his fantastic work.
He also has an etsy site, Shay Aaron Miniatures, for those who wish to indulge.

Shay Aaron

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

In the Arts

Very proud Grammie just has to show: Grandson premiering in the Arts — participating as a "colaborator" in a Yayoi Kusama exhibition!

The work is a revisit of her 2002 project, the obliteration room; now in Brasília.

Grandson Art 1 photo 20140314grandsonexhibitionYoyoiKusama2.jpg

Grandson Art 1a photo 20140314grandsonexhibitionYoyoiKusama1b.jpg

Yayoi Kusuma photo exposicao-yayou-kusama-ccbb-rio-de-janeiro-3.png
The installation, from the Rio exhibit, via

Monday, March 17, 2014

Monkeys

"Every time you feel yourself getting drawn into other people's nonsense, repeat these words:" 

Monday, February 24, 2014

Ah, the German

Linguistic Differences photo 1798676_612778372108663_1453691005_n.jpg
via facebook

Monday, February 17, 2014

Philippe Jaroussky - Portrait a Haute Voix




Dancing


Ah, Lucilla! ~ Diridindin

For a good start to the week...


"L' Arpeggiata with Lucilla Galeazzi' s perfect voice, final performance at the concert.

Voglio una casa, la voglio bella
Piena di luce come una stella
Piena di sole e di fortuna
E sopra il tetto spunti la luna
Piena di riso, piena di pianto
Casa ti sogno, ti sogno tanto
Diridindindin, Diridindin...

Voglio una casa, per tanta gente
La voglio solida ed accogliente,
Robusta e calda, semplice e vera
Per farci musica matina e sera
E la poesia abbia il suo letto
Voglio abitare sotto a quel tetto.
Diridindindin, Diridindin...

Voglio ogni casa, che sia abitata
E più nessuno dorma per strada
Come un cane a mendicare
Perchè non ha più dove andare
Come una bestia trattato a sputi
E mai nessuno, nessuno lo aiuti.
Diridindindin, Diridindin...

Voglio una casa per i ragazzi,
che non sanno mai dove incontrarsi
e per i vecchi, case capienti
che possano vivere con i parenti
case non care, per le famiglie
e che ci nascano figli e figlie.
Diridindindin, Diridindin...
"




Ah, vita bella!!!

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Monteverdi "Zefiro Torna, oh di soavi accenti" ~ Rial & Jaroussky, L'Arpeggiata

Always lovely to hear and see!



***
From   Monteverdi: Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti - Fouchécourt, Padmore 
       From "Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti", SV 251, madrigal for two tenors with basso continuo 
       Text: Ottavio Rinuccini
       Music: Claudio Monteverdi
       Published in Scherzi musicali II, in 1632

       In this video:
       Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, tenor     Mark Padmore, tenor
       Les Arts Florissants,                    Conducted by William Christie

       Recorded in 1992

       "Rinuccini's poem is a close imitation of Petrarch's sonnet 'Zefiro torna e 'l bel tempo rimena' (no. 310 in the Canzoniere) - set by Monteverdi in his Sixth Book of 1614 - and there are also echoes of the nature imagery of Tasso... The poem seems ready-made for musical setting, even if Monteverdi felt it necessary to clinch the point by changing the first parola rima (Rinuccini's first line is 'Zefiro torna, e di soavi odori', rhyming with 'fiori', 'Clori' and 'canori'). The composer's new 'accenti' prompts a setting for the most part over the syncopated ciaccona bass pattern in a jaunty triple time. Nor does he lose any opportunity to 'paint' the specific images of the text - the 'sweet accents' 'murmuring' through the branches, the flowers made to 'dance' to the wind, the 'sweet an joyous notes' of the nymphs and the (high) mountains, low valleys, and echoing caverns. But for the final tercet Monteverdi shifts to a dissonant madrigalian style, contrasting the joys of spring with the pains of the lover: triple time returns only at the end as the poet counterpoints weeping and singing, the reference to 'canto' providing the final justification for the use of the two gestures that most obviously invoked 'song' in the early seventeenth century, triple-time writing and (in the final cadence) ornamental roulades. Thus Monteverdi's 'Zefiro torna' conventionally plays off aria styles (for the delights of spring) against 'recitative' (for the grieving lover). "
       — Tim Carter

       Zefiro torna, e di soavi accenti
       l'aer fa grato e 'l pie discioglie a l'onde,
       e mormorando tra le verdi fronde,
       fa danzar al bel suon su 'l prato i fiori.

       Inghirlandato il crin Fillide e Clori
       note tempran d'amor care e gioconde;
       e da monti e da valli ime e profonde
       raddoppian l'armonia gli antri canori.

       Sorge più vaga in ciel l'aurora, e 'l sole
       sparge più luci d'or: più puro argento
       fregia di Teti il bel ceruleo manto.

       Sol io, per selve abbandonate e sole,
       l'ardor di due begli occhi e 'l mio tormento,
       come vuol mia ventura, hor piango hor canto.

       Translation (by Tim Carter):

       Zephyrus returns, and with sweet accents
       makes the air pleasing and loosens his foot from the waves,
       and murmuring among the green branches,
       he makes dance to his sound the flowers in the meadows.

       Phyllis and Chloris, garlands on their brow,
       temper their sweet and joyous notes of love;
       and from the mountains and the valleys low and deep
       sonorous caverns echo their harmony.

       Dawn rises more lovely in the heavens,
       and the sun spreads forth more rays of gold;
       while purer silver adorns Thetis' fair cerulean mantle.

       Only I, wandering through abandoned, lonely woods,
       the brightness of two lovely eyes and my torment,
       as my fortune wills it, now I weep, now I sing.