BirchLane.net

April 2008 (notes:)

 

Wednesday 30

We Are Holyoke. From today's Springfield Republican/MASSLIVE:

Museum photo show offers family portraits Wednesday, April 30, 2008 By MELISSA KATZ HOLYOKE - What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than by posing for a family portrait? On May 11, local photographer Bruce Barone will be doing double-duty at the Wistariahurst Museum: opening his exhibition of portraits from the local community, and photographing new subjects who wish to be included in his collection. The event, "We Are Holyoke," will feature a gallery showing of about 15 framed photographs of people from across the Pioneer Valley, along with a portable studio where Barone will be set up to capture the uniqueness of each family who wishes to be photographed. Portrait sittings will take place between 1 to 2:30 p.m., and printing will be done on site. "This could include a single person or a family of five or 10," said Barone. "We'd like to show the diversity of life in Holyoke." Barone said the event is geared toward bringing the local community into the life of the museum. Those who sit for the portraits will take home a free print of their photo, and another print of it will be framed and added to the gallery exhibition, which will run through May. "The goal is to eventually turn these into a book," he said. Barone, who operates a studio in West Springfield, specializes in wedding, portrait and nature photography. He has a degree in art history and has worked as a photojournalist. He is the former owner of Studio 19 at the Eastworks Building in Easthampton. The Wistariahurst Museum, at 238 Cabot St., is dedicated to preserving Holyoke's history and inspiring an appreciation of history and culture through educational programs, exhibits and special events. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Wistariahurst is the former home of William Skinner, a prominent silk manufacturer. The museum is open for guided tours every Saturday, Sunday and Monday from noon to 4 pm. For more information or a schedule of other upcoming events, visit www.wistariahurst.org or call (413) 322-5660.

Please join us!

Tuesday 29

Beauty.

"I needed to be in a place of beauty," he says. At the cathedral he listened to Evensong, admired the vaulting architecture, and decided then that the little voice he'd heard in his head was a call to faith. ~Paul Palmer, Anglican Leader, on NPR's "Climate Connections: Solutions"

Monday 28

Finalized Images for Exhibition. Including one of Nadine which will hang above the fireplace mantle.

Sunday 27

Preparing for an Exhibition.

Saturday 26

Planting Roses. Today I planted a rose bush and I thought of Tara.

Friday 25

Roasted Eggplant, Red Onion, Tomato Pizza.

Based on a recipe at Mama Mary's:

1   12-inch Mama Mary's ®Gourmet Pizza Crust 1 large red onion, peeled & cut into slices 4 plum tomatoes, peeled & cut into slices 1 eggplant, peeled & cut into slices 3 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, divided 8 oz. Mozzarella cheese, shredded 1/4 cup basil pesto 1 egg yolk, slightly beaten 4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, divided 1/3 cup Romano cheese, grated Preheat oven to 425°F. In a medium baking pan toss together onions and tomatoes. Combine olive oil, salt, pepper and 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper; coat vegetables with mixture. Bake until onions are tender and slightly brown, about 20 minutes. Drain vegetables, reserving olive oil. Line a vented pizza pan or large baking sheet with parchment baking paper trimmed so that edges do not hang over the pan and will not touch oven walls. Place pizza crust on pan and brush crust and rim with reserved olive oil. Combine Mozzarella Cheese, pesto, egg yolk and 2 tablespoons basil. Spread over pizza crust; top with onion mixture and Romano cheese. Keeping pizza on the pan bake for 15 minutes. To crisp the crust, remove from pan and place crust directly on the oven rack for 3 additional minutes. Cool slightly, sprinkle with remaining basil and crushed red pepper, slice and serve.

Thursday 24

Nadine.

Wednesday 23

Michelle.

Tuesday 22

Graphic Novel. At the Norman Rockwell Museum

 

Monday 21

Canasta. Fringed Tulips:

Sunday 20

The Mower. I mowed the lawn today for the first time this year. I remembered the story from The New Yorker, The Mower:

"She ran every morning at six-twenty. At first I hardly noticed but then it got so I'd look for her, and worry a little if she was late. She'd come out of the trees along the sixteenth fairway, run through the rough down the side, cut across the street--there's a little wooden bridge--onto the third tee, and out of sight. I would never see her after that. Is she finished where she started, though, she must have run four or five miles. Jesus. I couldn't run a mile if you paid me a million bucks. I never saw where she finished, because even though I was almost always on the fifteenth or sixteenth when she started--you cut them alternate days, usually--as soon as she got out of sight I had to go down the hill and do the eleventh or the tenth, and then back into the garage before the foursomes started showing up at seven."

Saturday 19

Kait.

Friday 18

Reyna.

Thursday 17

The Portrait Room.

 

Self-portrait in the museum where my exhibition, "We Are Holyoke," opens Sunday, May 11. We Are Holyoke A Series Of Family Portraits By Bruce Barone To Be Taken At The Gallery Opening Holyoke –On Mother's Day, May 11th, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. join Wistariahurst for the opening of ‘We are Holyoke’, a series of photographs by local photographer Bruce Barone. Bruce will be exhibiting a series of portraits from the local community in a photographic exploration of the rich diversity of life in Holyoke and beyond. Celebrate with your family at Wistariahurst by posing for a family portrait. Portrait sittings will be between 1:00 and 2:30 p.m. and printing will be done by Bruce on Wistariahurst's premises. Sit with your family for a portrait, peruse Bruce's photographs in the gallery while you wait, then leave with the printed picture. Copies of family portraits will be part of the ongoing display in the gallery during the month of May. Families of any size are accepted! The reception will provide an opportunity to meet Bruce and view his work. Admission to the gallery is $3. Family portraits are free. Reservations are suggested. For more information, please call Wistariahurst events at 413-322-5660 ext.516 Paintings of Katharine and Belle Skinner by Irving Ramsey Wiles.

Wednesday 16

Dear Ana. Notes for letter to Ana Maria:

I have been wanting to write. Susan even gave me a Dictaphone so I could talk to myself when I am alone in the car but that was just yesterday and I have yet to use it; but I have been thinking--thinking about life, love, art, work, planting basil and tomatoes in the backyard, photographing what could be one hundred people/families at my art opening performance event. But I digress. Susan and I have been living together in her house for one month. All is well. And Nadine has adapted well, too. I continue to plow, very very slowly, through Gargantua and I am finding I do not really enjoy the translation. Instead, I often re-read the book "Dialogue with Photography." I think this has to do with feeling somewhat recently disassociated from the art world. A card arrived in the mail recently from my sister Michelle. She wrote: "Thank you so very much for the angel photo. I have always admired it. I am trying to decide whether I should hang it in my office or at home--no matter where she goes she will be admired and loved daily. It means so much that you thought to share your talent with me." And I was moved by this as for as long as I have ventured off into the world of art I have often felt my family never really understood where my heart and soul lay, no less being touched and moved by my work--moved in the way a friend and my sister wrote. Looking back, April has often begun with:   APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding   Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing   Memory and desire, stirring   Dull roots with spring rain.   Winter kept us warm, covering          5 Earth in forgetful snow, feeding   A little life with dried tubers.   Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee   With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,   And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,   10 And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.   Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.   And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,   My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,   And I was frightened. He said, Marie,   15 Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.   In the mountains, there you feel free.   I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. The words become a map of the world. The colors first gray and somber but we know the reds and yellows, the brightness of Spring awaits us.

Thinking of Ana, whose friendship dates back to my years in NYC at Hearst Magazines and lunch at Tin Pan Alley; yesterday I was prompted  to write the singer Ellen Foley thinking she might find my old photos of NYC and her with The Clash, interesting. She has a MySpace page and I wrote. And she wrote back. She invited me to take photographs of her at an upcoming performance in NYC. Pictured below from back then at Tin Pan Alley on 49th between Broadway and Eighth, Ellen Foley, Mick Jones, unidentified woman, Joe Strummer.

Tuesday 15

Scallops by Susan.

1/4 cup crème fraîche 1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon snipped chives 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Salt and freshly ground pepper 6 jumbo scallops (about 3/4 pound) 6 thin slices pancetta (about 2 ounces) 1/2 pound brussels sprouts, thinly sliced 1 shallot, thinly sliced 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 garlic clove, minced Directions In a small bowl, whisk the crème fraîche with the finely grated lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, snipped chives and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Season the lemon-chive crème fraîche with salt and pepper. In a medium skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil until shimmering. Generously season the scallops with salt and pepper and add them to the skillet. Cook the scallops over moderately high heat, turning once, until they are golden and just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer the scallops to a plate; tent with aluminum foil to keep warm. Meanwhile, in another medium skillet, cook the pancetta over moderately high heat, turning once, until browned and crisp, about 4 minutes. Add the brussels sprouts and shallot and cook, stirring, until the brussels sprouts are softened but still bright green, about 2 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the butter and garlic and season with salt and pepper; transfer to plates and top with the scallops. Serve with the lemon-chive crème fraîche.

Monday 14

 

Sunday 13

Life as Art.

Saturday 12

Sixteen.

Friday 11

Travel The Silk Road.

Thursday 10

First Draft. The museum sent me this today:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  April 10, 2008 FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Marjorie Latham 413-322-5660 WHAT: ‘We Are Holyoke’: A Photography Exhibition Opening and Event WHERE:  Wistariahurst Museum WHEN:  Sunday, May 11 TIME:  1:00 to 3:00 p.m. COST:  $3 admission to the gallery, portraits are free   ‘We Are Holyoke’: A Series Of Family Portraits By Bruce Barone To Be Taken At The Gallery Opening   Holyoke –On Mother's Day, May 11th, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. join Wistariahurst for the opening of ‘We are Holyoke’, a series of photographs by local photographer Bruce Barone. Bruce will be exhibiting a series of portraits from the local community in a photographic exploration of the rich diversity of life in Holyoke and beyond. Celebrate with your family at Wistariahurst by posing for a family portrait. Portrait sittings will be between 1:00 and 2:30 p.m. and printing will be done by Bruce on Wistariahurst's premises. Sit with your family for a portrait, peruse Bruce's  photographs in the gallery while you wait, then leave with the printed picture. Copies of family portraits will be part of the ongoing display in the gallery during the month of May. Families of any size are accepted! The reception will provide an opportunity to meet Bruce and view his work. Admission to the gallery is $3. Family portraits are free. Reservations are suggested. For more information, please call Wistariahurst events at 413-322-5660 ext.5168

Wednesday 09

Berkana.

 

Tuesday 08

The White Spaces.

 

Monday 07

Self Portraits

Sunday 06

Spiritual Study.

 

Saturday 05

Inspiring Story.

 

Friday 04

If It's Friday It Must Be Pizza.

 more notes:

Pizza Margherita is a pizza prepared according to a recipe of the Italian chef Raffaelle Esposito. The pizza was first made in 1899 when Queen Marghereta visited Napels to escape a cholera epidemic in the north of Italy. The ingredients used to make a Margherita pizza, tomatos, mozzarella cheese and basil, imitate the colors of the Italian flag. Queen Margherata liked the pizza so much that she wrote a thank you letter to Esposito, who decided to name the pizza after the Queen.

Queen Margherita, accompanied by her husband, Umberto I, took an inspection tour of her Italian Kingdom. During her travels around Italy she saw many people, especially the peasants, eating this large, flat bread. Curious, the queen ordered her guards to bring her one of these Pizza breads. The Queen loved the bread and would eat it every time she was out amongst the people, which caused some consternation in Court circles. It was not seemly for a Queen to dine on peasant's food.

Never the less, the queen loved the bread and decided to take matters into her own hands. Summoning Chef Rafaelle Esposito from his pizzeria to the royal palace, the queen ordered him to bake a selection of pizzas for her pleasure.

To honor the queen who was so beloved by her subjects, Rafaelle decided to make a very special pizza just for her. He baked a Pizza topped with tomatoes, Mozarella Cheese, and fresh Basil (to represent the colors of the Italian flag: Red, white, and green).

This became Queen Margherita's favorite pizza and when word got out that this was one of the queen's favorite foods, she became even more popular with the Italian people. She also started a culinary tradition, the Pizza Margherita, which lasts to this very day in Naples and has now spread throughout the world.

History has not made it clear whether Rafaelle began to sell this creation from his own pizzeria but it is known that the Pizza, in much the same form as we now know it, was thereafter enjoyed by all the Italian people. Variations began to be made in different parts of the country. In Bologna, for example, meat began to be added into the topping mix. Neapolitan Pizza became quite popular and it brought garlic and crumbly Neapolitan cheeses into the mixture as well as herbs, fresh vegetables, and other spices and flavorings.

About this time the idea of baking in special brick ovens came into existence and the bread, as it is today, was a rather simple combination of flour, oil, salt and yeast.

Pizza spread to America, France, England and Spain, where it was little known until after World War II. While occupying Italian territories, many American and European soldiers tasted Pizza for the first time. It was love at first taste! Italian immigrants had been selling Pizzas in their American stores for some time, but it was the returning soldiers with a lust for the saucy delight that drew the Pizzas out of the quiet Italian neighborhoods into the main stream of city life all over the continent. In fact, the square "Sicilian Pizza" which is so popular and was the forerunner of the now well-promoted "Party Pizza" is an American invention. Real Sicilian Pizza has no cheese or anchovies.

Today we celebrate Pizza. February 9 is International Pizza Day and the Guinness Book of Records states that the largest Pizza ever made and eaten was created in Havana, Florida and was 100 feet and 1 inch across!

American and Canadian citizens will eat an average 23 pounds of Pizza, per person, per year. Pepperoni and Cheese is the favorite combination, especially with the younger set, and is second only to the hamburger as this continent's favorite food.

Found this here I should call Alton Brown and ask him. "Hello, Alton. This is Bruce. Chef Bo."

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1/2 lb. plum Roma tomatoes, chopped 1 clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped 1/2 tsp. salt I use Mama Mary's Pizza Crusts 6 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded 6 fresh basil leaves cut into julienne strips extra virgin olive oil 1/4 cup fresh shredded parmesan cheese I kicked it up a notch and added some diced Daniele Dry Sausage Combine 2 Tbls. olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, and salt in bowl. Allow to marinate while making dough. Brush dough crust lightly with olive oil. Top with cheese, then tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake in preheated 500F oven on pizza stone for 8−10 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven and top with parmesan cheese, then basil. Cool on a wire rack for 2−3 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

Thursday 03

A Visitor Writes.

Hi Bruce, I happened by chance to come across your beautiful photography, and was pulled into looking for your website.   All I can say is, its fantastic, you really know how to make your subjects at ease! so much so, that most of them are so personal, like your in a deep meaningful relationship with them; you probably are but only for the time it takes to photograph your subjects, your lighting is superb! the clarity everything, looking at your photographs are very inspiring. Wonderful to see such wonderful work, for me, coming across your work was a wonderful experience and has made my evening. I hope that I have likewise made yours with my comments. Regards, Alan

Wednesday 02

 

Tuesday 01

Ana Writes.

Bruce, dear--drop me a line and tell a little  about yourself & Susan. I click on your areas on the net to catch up, but they are just small windows of what you are generally up to these day. A new  job, a big move with a change of scenery. You look happy and content and this says tons for what better place is there to be? I read you are doing a show at a gallery, an art performance piece--very different from your  photos, or maybe not....