Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Salsa Dancing

SALSA DANCING
Not really wanting to address”leading” in Salsa dancing from a feminist perspective but . . . The reason (one of the reasons) for the Women’s Liberation movement back in the 1960’s was to liberate both men and women. How could you not include both sexes in a movement that was destined to impact social engineering for generations to come. To anticipate a relationship on the dance floor where the man”leads” and the woman “follows” is ludicrous. Let us discuss.
The word follower will be substituted for woman to include the myriad of gender identifications.
You may understand the description of a “leader” if you acknowledge the following observations. The responsibility of leading in Salsa dancing is analogous to one half of a couple defined as the bread winner. What women said in the 1960’s Liberation Movement was that housework is significant for the total life of a couple/family. Educated women wanted to have a career in their lifetime. Sometimes the exigencies of a couple’s life together dictated rearrangements of gender identifications.
On the dance floor, of Salsa on two, a mis-step or a misinterpreted lead is a social exigency. The “shine” may be a deliberate reinterpretation of a lead. A follower may be inspired by the poly-rhythms of contemporary salsa music. A trumpet quartet blaring amid symphonic jazz can be trance inducing.
There is a consent implicit in accepting a dance leader. This is a limited opportunity for two people to dance together. It is not a behavior guide for the evening. A salsa dance relationship is not a relinquishing of decision making. There is a nanosecond of meanness in enabling grandiosity. A follower has to be cautious to not “lead on” the leader. The follower may not be too keen on housework.
When two people are dancing together the follower is a part of the together. Without a follower you dance alone. (Mondays Underground Hudson Hotel) If a follower missteps or doesn’t turn fast enough whose fault is it? What if the follower reinterprets a lead; who feels threatened? Who can laugh it off? If the follower does not like the style of the leader, for example grabbing, pulling/pushing or jerking a follower may a) say “gentle.” b) end the dance in the middle of the 1…2…3…
If a man is a leader why do women take Salsa Dance classes? The lead is a suggestion of choreography. Followers notice a variety of leads in the dance classes. All are leading somewhere. The success of the lead may be about dancing skills because men take Salsa dance classes too. The success of the leader may be about something else!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Strivers Art Circuit

Discovering Arts in Harlem

Harlem has always been a source of specialized shopping such as for African textiles at Yara Fabrics at Fifth Avenue and 125th Street. This weekend The Strivers Art Circuit gave me a new discovery---Arts in Harlem. SAC is a self guided walking tour through artists studios and galleries surrounding the famed Strivers Row Historic district of Harlem, New York, New York. A contributing sponsor was the Harlem Arts Alliance’s Arts Advocacy Week. Postcards and posters mapped the location of thirteen spots to visit the week-end of October 9 and 10, 2010 to discover arts in Harlem.
Although geographically challenged finding the first gallery, Hamilton Landmark Gallery 647 West 144th Street was easily on the #101 bus line. The curator of this group exhibit “Trash to Treasure" was Aleathia Brown, a collage painter. The artists are from local neighborhoods and upstate New York organizations--- Harlem Arts Alliance and Black Dimension in Art. Taking recycling to a robust level these artists constructed fine art from ‘trash.’ A 12”X24” 3D piece by Catherine Reaves included plastic bags and embroidery thread that depicted flowers mounted on burlap. The piece by Patricia Murray was entitled "Over my Head I hear Music in the Air": fabric, yarn and earrings. A vintage wall hanging by Laura Gadson 42”X35” included square silk patches pieced and tied in a myriad of browns. For the wall hanging “Dazzling Star” Tina W. Raggio used cotton fabric. A 3D sculpture by Aleathia Brown was acrylic paint covering a shoe collage. The Albany photographer VR Grant exhibited black and white compositions that were not taken with his childhood Kodak box camera. The locations of these photographs included Topsail, North Carolina, “Fishing Pier;" Albany, NY ”Empire Place;" and “Boy” taken thirty years ago in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A nature construction by Slanwyck Cromwell included ½ inch tree branches amid starkly painted colors:12”X36”.
Searching for the second gallery on Hamilton Terrace found me lost in Harlem on Hamilton Place. Sunday was a warm and sunny afternoon for a walking tour. Pedestrians faithfully directed me to 62 Hamilton Place; this was not The Children’s Art Carnival, this was not 62 Hamilton Terrace. Retracing my steps to find Hamilton Terrace there were colorful balloons at the entrance to The Chirldren's Art Carnival. One of the fiber artists was Shaunda Halloway. She was exhibiting a variety of accessories decorated with hand dyed fabrics inspired by the Ibo of Nigeria. Bold, colorful graphics adorned handbags, belts and revamped T-shirts. Other works on the walls were pastels, ink drawings and vibrantly washed watercolors. The pottery in the rear was created by the young people educated at The Children's Art Carnival.
Strolling down unfamiliar tree lined streets acorns crushed underfoot. The towering old trees had roots pushing the sidewalk upward. The brownstones and occasional apartment buildings were quiet until the Terrace dead ended. The turn of a corner found me on Rev.Dr. John W. Saunders Place where the Bx #19 bus stops at 145th Street. Look at that a Bronx bus in the heart of Manhattan!
Shimoda, the jeweler provided the most hospitable home studio. http://www.shimoda-accessories.com/ Her upstairs studio space on Frederick Douglas Boulevard showcased her extravagant line of beads, bangles and bling. With mirrors all around we were enticed to imagine ourselves courageous enough to be so adorned. All the walls including the snack-filled kitchen demonstrated her expanse of creativity where jewelry becomes a three dimensional sculpture. Shimoda hosted two visual artists from Dallas, Texas: Frank Sowells, Jr. and Randy Leger.
The photographic essay at Strivers Gardens Gallery by Kwame Brathwaite is entitled “Gone: But Not Forgotten.” This is a segment of the photographer's massive collection of photographs of musical legends. The performance shots of Michael Jackson, Miles Davis and Betty Carter to name a few presented a walk down memory lane. If you never saw James Brown at the Apollo Theater how can you call yourself a music lover?
At the law office of Jayne M. Dennis;230 West 135th Street Beatrice Lebreton exhibited paintings that will be shown later this month at the Harlem Arts Alliance Office Gallery. The paintings of women are realistic yet framed by symbols and designs of color:"Femmes/Fragments." On the craft side Beatrice Lebreton has assembled prints of her original watercolors into a desk calendar. A large sheet contains two inch crops of prints of butterfly wings on a black background. Ibou Ndoye, paints on glass, sometimes broken glass. Then takes a digital image of this original for smaller prints matted in white. Next Ibou Ndoye He is is currently exhibiting at the Distrillery Gallery, Jersey City, New Jersey. “Mapping Race” http://www.destinationjerseycity.com/events/428
At the Harlem Arts Alliance Office Gallery the painter Eric Engles is showing neon paintings from the past few years in a showcase entitled “Phoenix” Most of the paintings are two feet by two feet in contemporary frames suitable for exhibiting under a black light. The colors are florescent hues from poster paints that swerve to dance and splatter as in “Pig Pen.” The layering of flowing streaks and brush strokes of fuchsia and chartreuse presents a dizzying moment.
The Gadson Gallery/Laura R. Gadson is a quilt lovers delight. Her work is large and small, traditional and contemporary, home decorous and museum quality. The traditional quilts with squares and rectangles use soft colored cotton fabrics blended by neat circular quilting stitches. The finishing edge, the binding is not limited to repeating the quilt’s motif but has an expression of independence. The masterful blue and white quilt shows giant snowflakes that seem to float aloft. It is hard for a mere photograph or a Banner hanging on 125th Street to capture the texture of quilting. Laura R. Gadson has a unique mobile hanging system for her wall hangings. These small story quilts are complemented with noir. And ah the fabric portraits! Billie Holiday and Noel Pointer has solo characters or small groups like Grandma with child come alive on a landscaped background. Her work exemplifies ”that fine art look that we are trying to impose on viewers.”

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Harlem Arts Alliance Advocacy Week

This note is intended to express my gratitude to Michael Unthank and the Staff at Harlem Arts Alliance for the series of events during Harlem Arts Advocacy Week: October 4-9, 2010. The schedule for the programs was available at the September and October monthly meetings, as well as stuffing my e-mailbox. There were participants representing numerous arts, cultural and political organizations. The thoughts presented these last few days were challenging.

Theme: Collaboration.
The face of collaboration was demonstrated by the fact that varied arts organizations were seated on panels together. This is giving the organizations peer to peer contact. They described their recent and future events. 2) Artists can collaborate with these organizations. 3) Artists collaborating with media as Flo Wiley, publicist, has taught in a recent Workshop given by the Harlem Arts Alliance, “Artists need a Press List.” 4) Artist to artist collaborations could teach, share and support each other.
Beginning at the Monday Harlem Alliance monthly meeting on October 4th listening to the speakers on the panels there were two questions for me about collaboration. What is everyone really sharing and how does it apply to me? Were the representatives merely tooting their own horns; expressing a willingness to be a collaborative organization or telling me how to immediately sell the artwork back in my studio.
Kathy Hughes, Assistant Commissioner, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs shared a concern that the younger generation will be needed to staff the current arts and cultural organizations. Wondering who will have the interest to pursue careers in these organizations that serve to support the arts? This question was echoed by the panel, the keynote speaker and the audience on Wednesday evening at the Schomburg Center. Howard Dodson, Chief expressed support for these current cultural organizations imploring them to continue. But how to involve the younger generation was a questioning refrain? How, when today’s parents are not as involved themselves in the plethora of music, dance, and visual arts as parents were years ago. Years ago when there was more art in the schools and more venues where families were social. Fortunately the Community Boards 9 & 10 have Arts committees that have activities and solutions.
Will Maitland Weiss, Executive Director, Arts & Business Council of New York and Naomi Grapel, Director Marketing and Creative Services, Carnegie Hall had individual and organizational marketing solutions. The e-mails that are collaborations between Harlem Arts Alliance and Arts and Business Council describe a package of related events for a specific time period. Artists and businesses can submit their events for this online info commercial. Naomi Grapel outlined a marketing strategy for artists: a) Branding What is unique about your product b) Express your authentic voice in your press information. Skip the hype. c) Provide access to the artist; add a personal/biographical component to the event. d) Create a relationship with your customer/audience rather than a one time transaction of a ticket purchase.
Here is gratitude for the organizations who collaborated with Harlem Arts Alliance by participating and/or sponsoring Harlem Arts Advocacy Week. Here is gratitude for the sharing by the speakers who by tooting their own horns gave me an invitation to explore and support. An artist needs information. Information is needed about other artists, other arts, and other arts’ organizations. We got it!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Aborted Aversion

There is a formal family photograph on my wall. It was taken in 1954. It shows two adults and three children perched around an overstuffed chair. There is a television to the left and a piano to the right.
As an adolescent and teenager Davy Crocket and Rawhide would be on the television before dinner. The theme’s melodies still hum in my head. Through my high school years extracurricular activities and science projects found me studying in a room away from the TV. During my college years there began to be less stereotypical images of African Americans on the television. One summer in Memphis Tennessee with Mom, we watched the Young and Restless afternoon soap opera. I have never owned a television.
During the 80’s of nighttime soap operas it was easy to hide an aversion. When talk would start at work about last nights episode of Dallas my comments would simply chime agreement. There was no need to explain my preference for the radio. My colleagues assumed that there was a television in my apartment. Eventually all lies, even lies of omission come to an end.
In August several years ago there were posters on buses and telephone booths advertising a new TV show. The two short haired gents in the poster were intriguing. What a surprise when Aunt Polly told me that one of the co-stars on the poster was her grandson. This photo was also on the cover of the current TV guide magazine. Zealously these magazines were purchased; this news told to all my friends and colleagues. Then I panicked! How was I going to watch my cousin on this new TV show? For the first time I thought to buy a TV.
Instead three of my neighbors found copies of this TV guide magazine on their doorstep. Maybe someone will invite me. This panic and my dilemma had my friends in a chuckle. Fortunately one of my neighbors did invite me for that first show and every Monday night for the next four years. We shared dinners and chats during commercials. We pondered the plot. We became closer friends.
Wondering why of this historic aversion that family photograph stared back at me. Two adults and three children perched around an overstuffed chair. The television was on the left and the piano on the right. But there was another photograph in the background. Above the television there hung a 16” X 16” framed color photograph of me.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Cult of Domesticity

American Folk Art Museum
Women Only: Folk Art by Female Hands
Through September 12, 2010

There is a welcoming statue of a full figured woman standing atop a ballot box on the third floor exhibit of Folk Art by Female Hands. The theme of this exhibit was inspired by the novel An Old Fashioned Girl by L. M. Alcott. In Chapter 13 of there is a scene where Fanny and Polly visit the studio of Becky and Bess. Becky with clay soaked hands is sculpting a statue of "the coming woman." Fanny describes the statue "it is only a beautiful woman, bigger, lovelier and more imposing than any woman I ever saw." The women discuss "what women should be?" "Give her a ballot box," suggested Kate King, the authoress. Becky agrees, " a needle, pen, palette, broom and a ballot box."
The exhibit introduces us to a portrait of Grandma Moses, who is credited with starting the canon of folk art according to the Senior curator Stacy C. Hollander. Grandma Moses did needlework before painting in oil and tempera.
Finishing the Quilt by Nan Phelps of Hamilton, Ohio, oil on canvas shows three generations of women seated and hand quilting.
Next to this piece hangs a silk quilt from the Museum of Folk Art collection entitled Stars and Pentagons. The patterns in this tautly stretched quilt are similar to Finishing the Quilt.

In the past centuries the homes of women displayed the practical skills of producing domestic textiles. These works combined practicality with ornamental creations. We now appreciate this beauty;' the cult of domesticity.'

Women were educated in the ornamental arts of needlework by stitching a "sampler." A sampler included the stitching of the letters of the alphabet, numbers and figures. These schools such as the Sanders and Beech School; Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut or the Ladies Academy in Dorchester, Massachusetts also taught the classics. Some to the pieces exhibited show needlework plus watercolor paintings on linen. Watercolor Studies by Mary Nettleson from the Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts.

There is a section about how the women used there needlework skills to teach morals and religious mythology to their families. The large hand stitched quilt by Maria Cadman Hubbard in 1848 depicts pious quotes, aphorisms and proverbs. "If you can not be a golden pippin. Do not turn crab apple." The letters are inches tall.

The quilt artist signed her tribute to the Grover Cleveland presidential campaign J.F.R. During the 1880-90's her "stash" included ribbons associated with political
events in the Democratic Party. There are irregular patches of silks and other fabrics outlined with embroidery threads.

A demure crazy quilted robe hangs on a mannequin. It was worn by Emma Rebecca Cummins Blacklock Snively Crosier Pauling. She was not a 'waiting' woman of the Gold Rush Days. She won her third husband in a bar room brawl. She was the first female telegraph operator for the railroad.


Theorem Painting during the period of 1825-1840 used hollow cut stencils to produce still life watercolor paintings on velvet fabric. The math formulas provided the sharp delineation of each object.

Diamond in the Square Quilt by an unknown quilter of Lancaster, Pennsylvania is dated between 1910-1930. The large geometric patterns in single-color fabrics of saturated earth and jewel tones are typical of contemporary Amish quilts. This pattern is related to the tooled leather designs found on covers of the Ausbund, the early Anabaptist hymnal.

The closing of the exhibit features portrait paintings in watercolor, pencil and ink.

American Folk Art Museum is located at 45 West 53rd Street/Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 212.265.1040. The exhibit runs until September 12, 2010.

Homegrown Poetry

It has always been my suspicion that mom and dad had only one thing in common. Poetry. Mom owned one special book from her youth. She showed it to me all torn and tattered, loosing its binding. She had a mirth in her voice as she explained to me that this was her twelveth grade English text book. In 1928-1929 LeMoyne-Owen College was also a high school. When she graduated she immediately was hired teaching in the primary grades. She was eighteen years old. Mom returned to college when I was in my primary grades.
The title of this book is One hundred and one Famous Poems published by R. S. Cook, the Cable Company 1926. The pages are yellow and patched with scotch tape. There are notes scribbled from her studies. And in addition there were names of her classmates written next to the poet's pictures. A joke, she said as she laughed her memories.
Occasionally on Saturday nights I would hear dad reading aloud from his bedroom. He was reading from this book. Stumbling then repeating to practice a line. He read poems as performance at his church.
The best thing I liked about this collection of classic poems is that there was a first line index in the back. Mom had the book rebound as a gift to me in 1991.
The total memory of a poem comes in two parts------
A clear recitation of the first few words:

O Captain. My Captain, our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree . . .

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler . . .

More first few words:

One road leads to London,
One road leads to Wales,
My road leads me seawards
To the white dipping sails.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary . . .

The smell of the sea in my nostrils,
The sound of the sea in mine ears;
The touch of the spray on my burning face,
Like the mist of reluctant tears.


The owl and Pussy-cat went to sea in a beautiful Pea green boat
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The second part of the memory of a poem is a recollection of a feeling. The words are right on the tip of your tongue. You know what the poem was about, but all you have is the feeling that your mind traveled. You long to go there again.

Through the years I have traveled to and fro with these poems. Others I have added when first I heard the expression "spinning a yarn," from a yachtsman. This sailboat captain had so, so many tales to tell of his pleasure boat sailing career. In order to compete I searched for nautical poems to recite onboard. It was a solution that has continued to our recent cruise out of Rockland, Maine. We anchored in cozy coves and windless ports on up the coast to Belfast, Maine last summer. After dinner we read to each other and laughed.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn Show

GONE SEWIN

Visiting a Quilt Show is continuing education for a quilter. It is an opportunity to be creatively motivated, shop for new fabrics and gadgets and visit with old friends as well as receive inspiration from the beautiful quilts. The Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn exhibited quilts, we call wall hangings at the Block Institute; 376 Bay 44th Street; Brooklyn, New York on April 17-18, 2010. Fortunately the Access a Ride driver chauffered us quickly from Manhattan to the Bay Parkway Exit from Highway #278 West.

Non quilters may be entertained by the other varied activities. A booklet for each visitor describes the quilts, the vendors and these related activities. A plastic glove was included in the program booklet for scrutiny of the exhibited quilts. In the exhibit space hostesses wearing white gloves also invited scrutiny. There were demonstrations of quilting and sewing techniques such as "sewing on a button." Dr. Myrah Brown Green gave a mini lecture on her recently published book on paper piecing--- Pieced Symbols:Quilt Blocks from the Global Village.

In one room members were actually making quilts! This charity activity demonstrated the generosity of members who contribute small, simple quilts for children in hospitals and Quilts of Valor for injured veterans. Members annonymously contribute completed quilts or contribute one of the three components at different stages. Members will next complete the quilt by adding either the top, the batting and backing. Some quilts are tied, others machine stitched as in the "stitch and turn" method.
The exhibited quilts were hung in the cafeteria where the lighting was not bright enough. The black drapes borrowed from the Empire Quilters Guild provided a somber background that enhanced the colorful hangings.
The Quilts:
*SANKOFA was dedicated to the Inauguration of President and Mrs. Obama.. The portraits in the center were handpainted by Doris Douglas. The surrounding blocks depict the symbols of the underground railroad mythology: crooked path, bow ties, northern star and log cabin. "We must know from whence we've come, in order to know where we are going."

*ROSEBUDS by Irene Lee combined hand applique with machine piecing and quilting. There was an inset border, a flange of orange surrounding each rose.
*MY FIRST TRIP TO A QUILT STORE/RECOVERY Melissa Price created this pattern with a strip pieced block divided into fourths. Completed by machine piecing with a black sashing.
*ALPHABET SOIREE by Micki Segel used graphic objects to describe each letter of the alphabet, each centered on a pink diamond. Hand appliqued and quilted.
*DARK GOLD by Mara Lurie, quilted by Janice Jamison. Firty six shadow box blocks with six inch African fabric squares. The black and gold sashing is part of each pieced block.
At this point a non-artist might ask "How long does it take to make a quilt?" I'll give you a clue. Years. Years to make a quilt, the sewing. ?And years to study how to sew a quilt. Quilters have various design techniques/or proceedures. But butying a kit at the local quilt shop or reading a book entitled "A quilt in a weekend" is not a solution.
*SPRING FLOWERS by Rosenelle Florencechild, a master hand quilter with feather quilting in a center medallion: Amish style circle in a square. Colors of aqua, pale salmon and chocolate browns were points on the sides. The large muslin squares showed off the white and dark thread hand stitched feathers and puffed flowers. It was not over quilted; it seemed to fly.

*ONE DROP RULE 81" x 73" Hand quilted by Kate Haller was a copy of a found scrapy quilt. It was just 'a little crazy' with several recognizable log cabin blocks.
*BEN'S GRADUATION QUILT Handquilted by Micki Segel had brightly colored striped fabrics in eight inch blocks that looked like strip piecing. The binding was black and white stripes.
*Author Anita G. Solomon, Rotary Cutting Revolution exhibited LIBERTY ARROWHEAD. This is a redesigned historic pattern from 1941. The machine quilting by Janice Petre was in parallel wavy lines undulating horizontally across.
*THE POOCH 37"X37" by Debbie Brekenridge. A seated dog sixteen inches tall with perked ears of brown and white triangles and squares.
*ORIENTAL MAGIC was the name of the pattern executed by Josina Dunkel. The Asian fabrics used a four patch with folded borders including a black flange.
The earth tones had a glow of goldeness.

There were three quilts from the winter Show at Lefferts House and the Audubon Center in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY. Jennifer Horan's HENRY HUDSON'S FANTASY;Donna Rae's 400 HALVE MAEN (half moons);Ruby Horansky's HALF MOON. All designed for the 400 year anniversary of the Henry Hudson Voyage.

The 2010 Block Challenge required a 20% marbled chartreuse color block measuring 12½ by 12½. The theme "Think Green" had to include recognizable fabrics with fruits and vegetables. More than forty members participated. Visitors received a card for voting for your favorite.
The 2010 Museum Challenge required participants to submit a quilt accompanied by the quilter's written statement about a piece of artwork that served as their inspiration. A photograph of the art or scene in nature was placed next to the quilt. The thirteen quilts demonstrated a variety of techniques as well as a variety of inspirations.
A most unusual exhibit in the Quilt Show was Photographers Among Us coordinated by Michele Kucker. Quilters are photographers who use "frozen moments in time" as inspiration and as fabric imagery.
GoneSewin.com Shop in Hicksville, NY
Reporter
Myrna Williams

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Bridge

Bridge is more than a card game.
When my first thought came to learn to play Bridge, I thought it was a card game. Perhaps you think so. This is my third semester at JASA. My teacher Mark Hyman hold the Manhattan Bridge Club Championship for 2006. He gives a lecture on a segment of the guidelines called rules. Then he passes out a set of already dealt cards. Based on the mornings lecture he watches us play. The "dealer" is marked as we pick up our thirteen cards. WE bid. Bidding is a prediction, a gamble.
That was my first clue that Bridge is not a card game. It is much more than four people sitting at a card table with fifty two cards between them. This bidding is called an auction. Each partnership, each two of the four players bids in the auction for the contract. The contract determines the score the partnership will make. This essay is not a detailed discussion of how to play Bridge. It is certainly not about how to score because I have not learned how to score.
This sounds strange to have a card game not yet about scoring. $180 later; Bridge is not just one game. It is several games in one.

First: the bidding
The play of the cards to win tricks
The scoring
The etiquette, the social aspect

A trick is stacking four cards on your side of the table. This bidding is about winning tricks. There are five ways to win tricks:
Ø highest card
Ø length in a suit
Ø finessing
Ø promotion
Ø trumping


To bid the two partners converse in a convoluted though mathematical syntax. If they predict the number of winning tricks they win points. This intriguing conversation is spoken in a hierarchy of suits: no trump, spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, with a number. You describe your prediction to your partner with a number and a strain (a suit) This is calculated by counting the points in your hand primarily. Counting and recounting. This conversation is encrypted with bravado as one partner queries and the other partner responds. Then suddenly the other twosome partnership jumps into the auction.
If your partnership wins the contract one of you will play the cards form both hands. You may playa no trump game or a trump game. In no trump the highest card wins in all suits. In a trump game only the contracted suit wins. In order to win your contract you must plan. Planning means
Ø Deciding when to draw trumps
Ø When to play the higher cards
Ø When to ruff
Ø When to finesse
Ø When to promote
And most important
Ø when and how to lead from your hand.
The other two players, the defense do the same planning. This is all very unpredictable because every hand you are dealt is different. There are one quintillion possible hands to be dealt. That is 10 to the18th power Six sets of three zeros.
The social and emotional aspects of Bridge are immediately essential. You need four people, a quiet space a card table and four chairs. Bridge was played at JASA for many semesters with a board laid between four chairs.
The four players may not always be you friends, but you will need etiquette to control your conduct during the game. Emotional comments and chitchat are limited. This cordiality implies nice clothes and especially jewelry. The money spent can be on paying to play socially or tournaments, lessons, supervised play, books and unique playing cards.
What is called Bridge is a social activity that is many faceted.
Ø Memory: what to bid, what to respond?
Ø Mathematics: counting points in your hand and imagining the opponents' points
Ø Mindful strategy: when to play which card?
Ø Musical chairs: as you travel to play around town.
There are challenges to last a lifetime. One quintillion challenges!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

50's Fad:Telephone Booth Cramming

The year was 1959. Fidel Castro marched into Havana, Cuba. There was a race riot in Collins Park,Delaware: a “negro” George Rayfield bought a house and moved into an all white neighborhood. Police had to use dogs to disperse an unruly crowd. Sidney Poitier, Pat Boone and Jack Paar were heroes. Ruby Dee, Maria Callas and Marilyn Monroe were heroines. Firestone tires, Tang and canned fruit were advertised in Life magazine. It was the April 6th issue that carried a photo by Joe Munroe of telephone booth cramming in California. This issue contained the series ‘How the West was won.’

Durban, South Africa is a thriving port city of 3.5 million on the KwaZulu-Natal coast, a popular tourist site. Fifty-one years ago in Durban, 25 college students crammed into a telephone booth. They were looking to set a Guiness Book Record in a non-existent event; they did. Entering this competition 19 students at London University stuffed themselves in a wider telephone booth. In Britian this fad was called “telephone box squash.” 34 in Modesto, California. In Canada 40 fraternity students stuffed themselves in a wider telephone booth on its side. Then the fad went underwater. Female and male co-eds stuffed themselves in a telephone booth underwater in a pool at a Fresno, California motel.

With no rules nor guidelines this event was unable to sanction itself. So came rules:
· The telephone booth crammers must either receive or place a telephone call
· The door can remain open
· ½ half a person must be within the telephone booth
· The booth must be upright

Now the competion moved into the technique and organization stage. Various planned packing styles emerged. The two more popular were the sandwich style and the crosshatch technique invented at MIT.
Out west at St. Mary's College, Moraga, California the preliminary telephone booth stuffing was in the booth in the Aquinas Hall dormitory. Perhaps posters were put up. "Come participate in a Big Event! Guiness Book of Records. Individuals and Teams compete."
Was this a fraternity competition or a new college sport? What did they call it? Off with the shoes. Off with the shirts. Who will be on the bottom? This must have been hilarious!
When Life magazine photographer, Joe Munroe and wife Virginia were assigned to cover this event a glass telephone booth from across town was hauled to the campus. This photograph of 22 students appeared in Life magazine on April 6, 1959. The only recognizable face was Ray Motta.

At the recent Fiftieth Anniversary celebration March 30, 2009 the students performed a reenactment at St. Mary’s College. Ray Motta was there. Ron and Don Dorito reported that they were on the bottom in 1959. Ted Tsukahara was at the Anniversary celebration as an observer retelling this story of how the West won.

1.8 million telephone booths have been disconnected in the recent five years. Now we know who cares.

Quilt Show Review

Harlem Sewn Up II
Quilted Reflections of a Community
A Review

Harlem Sewn Up began at the Dwyer Cultural Center with curator and quilt artist Laura R. Gadson. This exhibit’s iteration is now on view at The Interchurch Center;475 Riverside Drive;Manhattan; February 22-March 26,2010. The Treasure Room Gallery is curated by Frank DeGregorio. At the Opening on March 3, 2010 it was a pleasant surprise to see seventeen large and small hangings showing a variety of quilting techniques.

Thanks to the Michael K. Unthank and V. Olivia Smashurn collection two large complex hangings by Michael Cummings can be studied by budding art quilters.
Storyteller and Kitty Fireflies in the Bush both tell a story. It is a narrative of irregular, satin stitched, unpredictable shapes with vibrant, contrasting patterns and colors.

Ife Felix is a nontraditional graphic artist whose five works display a freedom of thought and design. Dance Class at the Harlem Y is a scene in a room full of small figures in mid dance step. Sometimes Ife Felix mounts multiple completed pieced blocks on golden poles forming an angled geometric shape.

Wisdom Seeker, Sun Song I and II by Adriene Cruz speak to the sun in warm glowing quasi rectangular shapes awash in a family of reds.

One visitor to the Opening remarked that Myrah Brown Green’s work is her favorite because “it is quiet, elegant and alluring.” Snake Dance is constructed with vertical panels of varied widths, 46 X 42. One panel has a gaggle of appliquéd snakelike shapes with bright eyes. The other panels show neat quilting stitches of spirals and undulations. Ogun was Here and Mother Spirit demonstrate strip-pieced blocks as a central statement surrounded by a complementary border. The circular quilting is outstanding.

Another visitor explained to me that “the painted, crumpled face and those eyes were immediately recognizable as Charlie Parker.” The 60 X 44 wall hanging by Dindga McCannon is entitled Charlie Parker Played Harlem. Out of his saxophone pours an abstract shape of texture and color: his music.

Anna Alvarez continues the music theme with Azucar . This is a figurative display of musical instruments: a giant guitar, a bongo and a saxophone dominate. A glittering script of names such as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz surround.
Pat Mabry’s African Square -125 shows more traditional pieced blocks varied by color.
The massive SPEAK OUT 100 X 90 is a group effort from Harlem Girls Quilting Circle. It is perfect for this exhibit as it depicts the people, places, health, high times and history of community.

Gallery hours
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm