Sunday, October 28, 2007

What Was Said to the Rose

And now my favorite- Coleman barks reading what Was Said to the Rose. Makes me cry everytime..... so beautiful. Coleman Barks and his "crew" came to ECU a few years ago and performed these works, moving....

Coleman Barks reading Rumi -- Only Breath

They just keep getting BETTER! ahhhhhhh......

What Circles so Perfectly....

I am on a Rumi kick! This ones awesome.
I LOVE hearing Coleman Barks read his translations hope you do too.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

The Mevlana Rumi dervishes of Damascus

unfurling the universe.... just like the making of my metal cups...spiralling... unwinding....

Rumi:The Speechless Full Moon

Walk out like someone suddenly born into color...do it now....

Rumi: Say I Am You

"Dream" video set to John Cage

Leaf Parade


Saturday there is a parade at LEAF festival. The puppets are by Paperhand Puppet Intervention

I am glad this festival celebrates the creative and intellectual spirit of Black Mountain College. That infectious spirit seems to inhabit the rocks around Lake Eden and does not remain dormant.


Fully Awake- the film








Check out this film about Black Mountain College moving little snippet of a trailer.
http://www.ibiblio.org/bmc/bmcaboutbmc.html
Makes you wish it was still there....

Trailer-Fully Awake: Black Mountain College

Black Mountain College

More about Black Mountain College....












Buckminster Fuller at
Black Mountain College 1948
Photo by: Hazel Larsen Archer

This is from a website called Black Mountain College Project:

"Black Mountain College was an experimental college located near Asheville, North Carolina. Founded in the fall of 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier and other faculty who had been fired or resigned from Rollins College the previous spring, the college sought to educate the whole student – head, heart and hand – through studies, the experience of living in a small community and manual work.

Although the founders - in a truly experimental spirit - did not wish to bind the college to a rigidly codified educational doctrine, they did have strong feelings and ideas about education. The college was to be owned and operated by the faculty. A Board of Fellows made up of faculty and one student formed the central governing body. An Advisory Board lent counsel to the community but had no legal authority. Decisions were based on consensus rather than a vote. Academic bookkeeping – grades and quality points – as a measure of an education were abolished (though grades were recorded for transfer purposes). Graduation was based on achievement of a project in the student’s area of specialization along with examinations – both written and oral – by the faculty and an outside examiner.

In 1933, the college brought Josef Albers, artist and former Bauhaus teacher, and his wife Anni Albers, a Bauhaus-trained textile designer and weaver, to teach. With their arrival, the college became a unique center for the transmission of Bauhaus teaching and philosophy. The presence of refugee artists and scholars was critical to the learning experience at Black Mountain throughout its history."

I find this all fascinating!

Friday, October 26, 2007

Lake Eden Arts Festival



Just recently went to Lake Eden Arts Festival or LEAF. So fantastic! Here's the Lake seen through Tibetan prayer flags.

The festival is held in at Lake Eden above Black Mountain, NC on the site of the original Black Mountain College which was founded in 1933 and ran until the late 50's I think. It was where Buckminster Fuller built his first geodesic dome. Noted faculty were Josef and Anni Albers, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Max Dehn, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, Lou Harrison, Franz Kline, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Lippold, Charles Olson, M. C. Richards, Ben Shahn, Jack Tworkov, and Robert Motherwell. Guest lecturers included Albert Einstein, Clement Greenberg, Bernard Rudofsky, Richard Lippold and William Carlos Williams. Ceramic artists Peter Voulkos and Robert C. Turner taught there as well. Among the notable alumni of Black Mountain College are Ruth Asawa, Fielding Dawson, Michael Rumaker, Robert Rauschenberg, Dorothea Rockburne, Susan Weil, John Chamberlain, Ray Johnson, Kenneth Noland, Oli Sivhonen, Joel Oppenheimer, Jonathan Williams, Ruth Asawa, Robert De Niro, Sr., Cy Twombly, Basil King, Ray Johnson and Kenneth Snelson.

The festival is predominantly music with a delightful sprinkling of artwork, healing arts and ancient earth arts. Robert went to a fire making workshop using just sticks. And we went on an edible plant walk and did couples yoga. There is such a fantastic mix of people, families, artists and musicians that generate the most wonderful spirit of peace. We contra danced to Laura and the Lava Lamps, saw the Wilders, Michael Franti solo, The Boulder Acoustic Society, (awesome BTW) and Mizero Children's Troupe of Rowanda, Les Nubians and a Morroccan Sufi musician Hassan Hakmoun, and an Indian gypsy guitarist Oliver Rajamani. It was GREAT! We camped on site and my daughter and her friend did the giant zipline over and over.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Plastic Bag as Art

This is the work of Paul Anthony Ramsden. Check out more on his blog:
http://share-my-art.blogspot.com/search/label/Plastic%20Bags.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Plastic Bag Ban!?


Shirking responsibility right now....
This was too cool. I found this blogging around:
"SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco's Board of Supervisors Tuesday afternoon passed an ordinance requiring large supermarkets and pharmacies in the city to replace non-biodegradable plastic bags with reusable or recyclable bags."
I have no TV (well I have one, but no cable- use it only for an ocassional movie) and I live eat and breath teaching these days. so I don't hear the news much, but man, how exciting! It was a post on this great blog:

Green is the New Black
http://greenerthanthou.blogspot.com/

"To this end, I am glad that San Francisco has banned retailers from using these horrid bags (the ban should have taken effect October 1for grocery stores if I’m not mistaken), and I wish Los Angeles would do the same. Hell, I wish the entire state would do the same. California has coastline out the ass that it needs to protect, and getting rid of the bags would be a great place to start.

Our legacy of plastic needs to be cut short pronto – and banning the non-biodegradable plastic bag is an excellent place to start. Bringing your own bags isn’t that difficult once you get in the habit."

HERE! HERE!