The damage visited upon America, and upon America's standing in the world, by the Bush Administration's reckless mishandling of the public trust will not easily be undone. And for many voters the desire to see the damage arrested is reason enough to vote for John Kerry. But the challenger has more to offer than the fact that he is not George W. Bush. In every crucial area of concern to Americans (the economy, health care, the environment, Social Security, the judiciary, national security, foreign policy, the war in Iraq, the fight against terrorism), Kerry offers a clear, corrective alternative to Bush's curious blend of smugness, radicalism, and demagoguery. Pollsters like to ask voters which candidate they'd most like to have a beer with, and on that metric Bush always wins. We prefer to ask which candidate is better suited to the governance of our nation.
BirchLane.net
November 2004
Monday 29
A Book Will Be Written.
Sunday 28
Time. Today, a friend who I haven' seen in years, writes to me and tells me another friend, Dennis, a man he shared an apartment with for a few years, a man who we watched Saturday Night Live and Monty Python with every Saturday night, a man who sold me a Triumph sports car, a man that was at my wedding, passed away from a heart attack two weeks ago.
Saturday 27
A Second Thanksgiving and a First Announcement. Betsy called early in the day to say see was making a small Thanksgiving dinner for the kids and asked if I wanted to come over. It did.
Studio 19
Fourth Floor, Eastworks
Easthampton, MA
ReceptionFriday
December 3
6 -- 9
Photography by:
Chelsea Harvell
Caryn Drexl
Courtney Lynne
Christy Romanick
Alexsandria Torgemane
Terry Palka
Alaina Burri-Stone
Hanne Piasecki
Elisa Lazo de Valdez
Angella Roessler
Caroline Moore
Melyssa Anishnabie
Ana Ribeiro dos Santos
Miriam Firunts
Sidney Mills
Helena Kvarnstrom
Katharine Tillman
Jessica McCabe
Roxanne Carter
Live Music by WISTERIAX
Wine, Cheese, Crackers and Positive Vibrations provided.
Please join us !!!
Bruce Barone, Director
Studio 19Friday 26
Fellini. (notes: nino rota/ music/npr)
Thursday 25
Thanksgiving. (notes; walking in the rain)
Wednesday 24
The Prelude.
In November days,
When vapours, rolling down the valleys, made
A lonely scene more lonesome; among woods
At noon, and amid the calm of summer nights,
When, by the margin of the trembling Lake,
Beneath the gloomy hills I homeward went
In solitude, such intercourse was mine;
Twas mine among the fields both day and night,
And by the waters all the summer long.
~Wordsworth, "The Prelude"
Tuesday 23
Midnight Oil. The cemetery behind where I live; it fascinates me.
Monday 22
Hello. Goodbye. (notes: helena's show, group show, what i have learned, goals for 2005)
I received an e-card invitation to Smith Elliot's new art exhibit. Unfortunately, it is in Portland. Her work is amazing.
Sunday 21
.
Saturday 20
Notes to Self: (art opening at smith, store opening at eastworks, party at pizza paradisio, artist from holland)
Friday 19
VendorPro. I joined VendorPro and started to upload images this morning; nature photographs--one per page.. They claim to have contacts with such stores as Target, Federated, Lowe's, Museum Company, Pottery Barn, and dozens of others. I figure it is worth the small investment.
Thursday 18
BNI. I attended, as a guest of a woman I met last week at an Easthampton Chamber of Commerce networking event, an early morning of meeting Business Network International (BNI) at the Clarion Hotel in Northampton. IBNI is a business marketing program that allows one person from each profession to join a chapter. The sole purpose of the group is to increase business through a structured system of giving referrals. In the past six weeks the group has generated $31,000 in new business through referrals. That's quite an impressive number.
Jennifer, owner of The Lift, a hair salon, on the first floor, invited me to take pictures of her staff tonight as they prepared to shoot a TV commercial. Here is one image:
A few more photos from The Lift here:
Wednesday 17
Location. Location. Location. It was rather overcast today so I went for a two hour walk along the bike path and over to one of the many cemeteries in town. I like taking photographs when it is overcast so I felt the urge to keep walking and walking; in the woods near the park I found a tattered tent hung over the branch of a dead tree---it gave me a fright but I saw no one and walked quickly, though, past it.
When I returned to Eastworks, I entered the building through its "back" entrance, walked up one flight of stairs and was struck by how much is happening in the building these days; from the parking lot resurfacing to a major renovation and expansion inside the building; rumor has it a whole foods market is moving in, as is a coffee shop. The Pioneer Valley Ballet moved in last month. All this growth and activity can only be good for all us of who have a business in the building.
I read this poem in someone's journal today and I wanted to remember it:
~ William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.Tuesday 16
Meatloaf and Memory. Meatloaf, one of my favorite meals (and sandwiches); I have been here six months and have not made one till tonight. It was delicious but I think I still prefer ground turkey to ground chuck:
Turkey Meat Loaf
1 Package Lean Ground Turkey
1 or 2 Carrots finely grated
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2-3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 cup catsup
1/2-3/4 cup salsa
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2-3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
some parsley and dash or two of marjoram
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Note: I like onions in this but Daryl doesn't like onions so I sneak them in as salsa. Grate carrot, add lightly beaten egg, then add all the other stuff and mix. Form as a loaf in a 8x4 inch loaf/baking pan (or whatever baking pan you have). If you like, put a few strips of bacon on top--or some catsup. Bake for about one hour, maybe a bit more; cut a slice off and make sure it is no longer pink in center. Hey, that's one of the fun things about being the cook; you get to taste everything first! Let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes and salad--and red wine. And music. And love.
At night, I visited a friend and she shared with me her photo albums which made me realize I have few photos from the past; my children's early years---I must borrow them from Betsy and scan some images.
Monday 15
A Good Appetite.
The Proust madeleine phenomenon is now as firmly established in folklore as Newton's apple or Wart's steam kettle. The man ate a tea biscuit, the taste evoked memories, he wrote a book.......In the light of what Proust wrote with so mild a stimulus, it is the world's loss that he did not have a heartier appetite. On a dozen Gardiners Island oysters, a bowl of clam chowder, a peck of steamers, some bay scallops, three sautéed soft-shelled crabs, a few cars of fresh-picked corn, a thin swordfish steak of generous area, a pair of lobsters, and a Long Island duck, he might have written a masterpiece. The primary requisite for writing well about food is a good appetite. Without this, it is impossible to accumulate, within the allotted span, enough experience of eating to have anything worth setting down. Each day brings only two opportunities for field work, and they are not to be wasted minimizing the intake of cholesterol.
Sunday 14
Hope and Slow Movement. In church today, Peter, quoted Vaclav Havel:
Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for .success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good....Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. Maybe he had seen this quote in today's New York Times before he left for church this morning to deliver his sermon and thought it important to include in his remarks about tolerance. The church was crowded and in front of me sat a woman who I had not seen before. At the end of the service I introduced myself and she said "I love this church." How wonderful I thought. How wonderful I thought that three weeks ago at New Member Sunday three of the 12 couples who joined that day were lesbian couples. And here we were this morning talking about hope and tolerance. And the church was crowded (It was Stewardship Sunday!) and the church was filled with light and love and happy faces were to be found all around me. Peace be with you. And with you.
I also took this to heart as it relates to both Studio 19 and Bruce Barone Fine Art Photography; that these businesses "make sense." And I thought how the practice of Chi Kung which teaches us calm and slow movement, patience, in fact, relates to the daily steps forward my businesses make. And today a note from a well-respected photographer in California reads, in part: "the pic on your front page - The Bridge - WOW! "
Saturday 13
A Great Good Day. Today's sunset:
I had my first lesson in Chi Kung today. Taught here at Eastworks. I loved it. Later in the day a call from Helena in England to talk about some photos she needs printed and how wonderful it was to hear her voice. And a call from an artist in New York City who works at Sotheby's looking for gallery support from Studio 19. And new photo sites that I found today were very inspiring: LCB Photography, Millicent Harvey, and Brian Braff, who, I might add, said my work is "terrific."
Above: out back; taken with new polarizing filter. Below: along the bike path.
Friday 12
The Snow. A gray, snowy day.
THE SNOWS THEY MELT THE SOONESTThe snows they melt the soonest when the winds begin to sing
And the corn it ripens fastest when the frost is settling in
And when a young man tells me that my face he'll soon forget
Before we part I'll wage a crown he's fain to follow it yet
The snows they melt the soonest when the winds begin to sing
And the swallow flies without a thought as long as it is spring
But when spring goes and winter blows, my love, then you'll be fain
For all your pride to follow me across the raging main
The snows they melt the soonest when the winds begin to sing
And the bee that flew when summer shone in winter cannot sting
And I've seen a young man's anger melt between the night and morn
So it's surely not a harder thing to melt a young man's scorn
So don't you bid me farewell here, no farewell I'll receive
For you will lie with me, my love, then kiss and take your leave
And I'll wait here till the moorcock calls and the marten takes the wing
For the snows they melt the soonest when the winds begin to singTraditional English ballad.
Josiah Shufflebotham
Gowk's-Hall, Oct. 27th, 1821Thursday 11
Networking. There was an Easthampton Chamber of Commerce Networking tonight here in Eastworks. I met Ralph Miller of Shihan Consulting here in the building and his wife, Jennifer Winick, professional chef. Jennifer invited me to attend a weekly business networking breakfast at which participants maintain contact and provide each other regular referrals. Ralph invited me to attend his Saturday morning Chi Kung class.
I am, this morning, reminded of this:
This is the beginning of a new day.
I can waste it
or use if or good.
What I do today is important
because I am exchanging
a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes,
this day will be gone forever--
leaving in its place
something I have traded it for.
I want it to be gain, not loss;
good, not evil;
success, not failure;
So that I shall not regret
the price I paid for today.
My neighbor, Lynn, an 80-year-old family therapist and writer visited Studio 19 today so I could take her portrait.
Beforehand, I went for short walk with a new friend in Nonotuck Park.
Wednesday 10
From Where I Sit. "This was the aim of the experiments: to send emissaries into Time, to summon the Past and Future to the aid of the Present." La Jette- Chris Marker
Tuesday 09
The Cemetery. Now that the leaves have fallen, when I look out my window I see a cemetery, where once there was a sea of trees; a quilt of color--red, orange, yellow. For how long, I wonder, have I been deceived? Maybe I am blind. When did it start? When did it end? So calculated. Too soon, too soon thankless.
"When words become unclear,
I shall focus with photographs.
When images become inadequate,
I shall be content with silence."Ansel Adams
"Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have"
-- Margaret Mead
Monday 08
Which Way? This Way. I wish I knew.
Sunday 07
Prayers and Portraits. I read the following in a friend's journal and thought it was quite wonderful (as are her poems which can be found at her website):
The Invitation
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”
It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.© Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from the book The Invitation
Today I took a young woman's high school portrait in Amherst and then spent most of the day editing photos from yesterday; I seem to be seeing the dark and mysterious in that around me:
Except in people; this is Sierra:
Saturday 06
Walking. I went for a slow but steady three hour walk today along the Manhan Rail Trail down to the Pascommuck Conservation Area E Florence Smith Nature Trail which runs along the Manhan River in hopes to lift my spirits, which have been somewhat darkened as of last Sunday, the day the time changed and we turned back our clocks and also a time when my thoughts turned toward days past; days of long ago--days of love and laughter. As I walked I would often stop and found myself marveling at the remaining color left on some tress along the path. I took five or six photos and stumbled upon a spooky abandoned house and car deep in the woods near the Manhan River where I noticed a rusty iron chain nailed to a large oak tree and in this tree there was a hole and in this hole was a small pitchfork (less handle); no larger than my hand, but wedged deep within the hole--stuck, and below it murky water where leaves decayed.
Friday 05
Windy. Two years ago today it snowed on Birch Lane and it snowed in the valley and today it was windy in Easthampton and the sunset brilliant.
Thursday 04 (editing)
Clarissa. I started to re-read Clarissa last night.
The true novelist, one who understands the work as a continuous poem, is a mythmaker.
~Muriel Spark
From The Daily Show:
Stephen Colbert: Two issues, John. Exit polls of Bush voters said the issues most important to them were terrorism and cultural values. Both of which fall under the umbrella of fear.
JS: So, how are both of those issues "fear"?
SC: Well, first look at terrorism. It tends to terrorize people. One of its defining aspects. And Bush's hardline anti-terror rhetoric served voters in the Heartland, which is filled with such obvious Al-Qaeda targets as Nebraska's Carhenge and South Dakota's Corn Palace. In short, so many of the things we Americans hold kitschiest.
JS: Well, what about cultural issues?
SC: Well, that's fear as well. Eleven states approved anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives. Clearly our deep national fear of hot man-on-man monogamy drove turnout among the nation's so-called "value voters". And here's what's interesting: these voters see the connection between terrorism and what I'll call "homo-ism". Think of it, John. Both groups recruit impressionable young men, at camp, in remote mountain regions. Then, they videotape it and release it on the internet. Or so I've been told.
JS: First of all, what a gay staff we have.
SC: Oh yeah!
JS: Second of all, if those are the two major issues concerning voters, and again, why would New York City, which really has the most significant gay population in the country and has already had the most significant terrorist attack in the country, vote overwhelmingly for Kerry?
SC: Well, here's the thing, John. We in New York are too close to the terrorism and the gay people. Only the red states with the advantage of a safe distance can take in the whole picture and clearly see what we should do about those issues. And so, on behalf of everyone living in the blue states, I'd like to thank the red states for saving us from ourselves. John?Wednesday 03
Mindful Work.
Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life. Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind.
-Bhagavad Gita 3:19-20
The New Yorker had the most literate presidential endorsement I've ever read.What happened? What will happen? Are more violent days and night ahead of us? Diminished social services?
Life will go on. But:
Unfortunately, it's almost certain than hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings will die in wars that are started in the second administration of George W. Bush.
Unfortunately, thousands of the Americans between 18 and 29 years old who did not vote will die in wars that are started in the second administration of George W. Bush.
Unfortunately, our economy is almost certain to decline even further.
Unfortunately, our natural environments will be exploited and damaged even further in the second administration of George W. Bush.
Unfortunately, poor people will get poorer and there will be more of them under the second administration of George W. Bush.Unfortunately, more and more Americans will be without healthcare.
Unfortunately, more women will be seeking abortions because the availability of and knowledge about birth control will be cut even further under a second Bush administration.
Unfortunately, our rights and privacy will be taken even further away from us under the second Bush administration.Unfortunately, more anti-gay marriage amendments will be voted upon.
Unfortunately, the practice of science and the arts will be disparaged and discouraged even further under the second Bush administration.
Unfortunately, the rich executives of giant corporations will be encouraged to grow richer at the expense of their employees under the second Bush administration.Unfortunately, war could be fought in America; terrorist attacks.
What now?And what is my "mindful work?" (more to come)
The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice.
~Mahatma GandhiTuesday 02
Ironing Board. I have been living alone for six months. Today I bought an iron and ironing board. I made beef stroganoff. I bought vertical blinds from my neighbor (With the sun lower in the sky my loft remains very hot--and bright--throughout the day.) A man from Amherst called and said he has been seeing my weekly advertisements in the local paper; he hired me to take photographs of his high school daughter.
Monday 01
A Holiday. Yesterday, Halloween, was a day filled with many memories and mixture of nostalgia and sadness. Unlike previous holidays this year (July 4th and Labor Day), Halloween has always been a big family and kids holiday on Birch Lane--as it is in neighborhoods across the country; second I suppose to Christmas; with Valentine's Day and Easter running neck-and-neck for third-place. It was distinctly different for me his year; alone in my loft and no trick-or-treaters; remembering the outfits Danielle and Daryl wore each year and how when the night grew late they would pour their candy onto to the floor and divide the good from the bad and, sometimes, organize the candy by brand. Many years, I kept a list of all the different costumes:
For example, the year Daryl, in his Halloween costume said, "Boy, am I a cute girl." Our house was also visited by (in order of appearance): a hobo, monster, Cinderella, monster, a 9-foot-tall ghost/monster, an angel, blue-haired punk (female), unidentifiable costume, kung fu person, baseball player, old lady, a gypsy, Merlin-like person, Elvis, Gold miner, another unidentifiable, a dog, a playing card (my favorite), a few princesses, 3 little girls dressed as hippies (cute), a baby devil, a baby witch, four girls together (another favorite) as 2 movie stars, director, and agent, scream, a terrorist, 2 girls in roaring 20s-like outfits, South Park mask, hillbilly (female), Ninja, 4 kids in unidentifiable costumes, 2 Draculas, 2 hobos, scream, no costume, witch. And here there is this image of Danielle and Daryl in 1991.
It was not all nostalgia and sadness, though; there was outside my window a wondrous mountain range of color:
And at night I watched a Mario Bava documentary on IFC and his movie, "Black Sunday," his first feature. The photos below are from the film which starred Barbara Steele (more Barbara info here) and was quite interesting; amazing black and whites and set design---apparently it and he would later have a huge impact on the whole horror genre. It was fascinating to think what he accomplished with so little; i.e. no computer -generated tricks. A longer article about Bava here.
And today? Today I woke very early, made coffee and wrote. Did four loads of laundry. Applied for two art grants and submitted a proposal to a business on the first floor here at Eastworks. I walked three miles. I wrote more and took this photograph:
I also wondered about Thanksgiving and spent some time reading the new issue of Gourmet; Turkey Dinner recipes.
