LAURIE'S ART SHOW OPENING

My friend Laurie had her art show opening on Sunday. She was nervous that no one would come but I knew the room would be packed and it was. Many of her friends came from Young Israel. It was a huge success. The audience peppered her with questions about collages, what kind of paper, what kind of glue, and she parlayed their interest into a possible Collage Workshop that she would run.

These collages are very colorful, bright, cheerful and inspiring. She was very smart. She made them in the '90's. She gave the original to friends and family but she had a copy made and then had it laminated so they all look as good as the day she made them. No fading, no crumbling paper. Very archival.

SUNSETS, MORE DAYLIGHT, GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN

What a pleasant winter day in Boston, temps in the high 40's and did hit 50 today on January 22nd. When I was a child walking to the Robert Treat Paine School in Dorchester, the temperature was NEVER 40 - 50 degrees, not until MAY. Anecdotal evidence of 'global warming'?

I had a wonderful time with Bette and Miriam in Coolidge Corner. I got to go everywhere I needed to go, the Dispensary, Starbucks coffee for Sumatran coffee beans, and Trader Joe's where I had to replace the unopened bottle of olive oil that fell off the kitchen counter friday morning.

Laurie is having an art show here at 1550 Art Space. She makes very colorful collages using greeting cards, and images, text and pithy sayings cut out from magazines. I will photograph them. She asked me to help her with the artist statement - she is dyslexic, a hard worker and a good friend. Time for crudites - salmon with fresh chopped garlic on rice crackers.

The days are getting longer. More light in the sky later. The above photo was taken at 6:17, a far cry from 3:45 in December. The government is officially dysfunctional; a government shut down which is so partisan both sides are blaming each other instead of working together. I am watching it right now on CSPAN. One can only take this in small doses it is so toxic.The Democrats are not coming out of this smelling like a rose and I hope it doesn't hurt them in the mid-term elections. Chuck Shumer seems like a cream puff. Only the Dems could shoot themselves in the foot and lose elections due to their own ineptness. Lack of leadership at every level. They are all taking from the troughs of pharmaceutical companies and the NRA, corporate lobbyists. I hope more women get elected and eventually change policies so I will stop getting emails to sign petitions regarding male legislators who want to stop funding birth control and abortions. Women fought for those rights in the '70's; i personally cannot stand male elected officials who want to legislate womens bodies, Hell NO !

WOMENS MARCH JANUARY 2018

#RESIST. It's very empowering to see thousands of young women and women of all ages marching in the streets all over the country and globally. As a member of the womens movement in the '70's, I am happy to see so many women coming out, marching and running for elected office right now. Historically, more women are running for elected, leadership positions than ever. It is Awesome. Hoping for some good policy changes. Also hoping that shutting down the government does not blow up in the Democrats faces in the mid-term elections.
I was not out there marching yesterday. Instead I was home, furiously trying to get rid of clutter and re-arrange my living room to create space to work on my synagogue project.

In 1996 I attended the EDRA conference in Boston, the Environmental Design Research Association had its annual conference in the Parker House hotel. I presented my work, On the Meaning of the Synagogue on two 23 x36 " poster size sheets which was the mode of presentation, not writing a paper and giving a talk. When I got to the conference, the hot topic that year was Prison Design. I thought no one would be interested in my topic, how the synagogue emerged from the the first two Jewish temples, the Tabernacle in the Desert, the Mishkan and the Temple of Solomon. I was Wrong. I had a crowd.

#RESIST

The President of the United States is a Racist. It's gotten very surreal in the US. He made the vulgar comment while discussing U.S. Immigration Policy. Robin Bell, founder of Bell Visuals, is an award-winning editor, video journalist, and multimedia artist based in Washington DC. He projected the vulgar comment on to a T***p Hotel. Last week my dentist commented "Americans don't like anybody." I had no snappy comeback. Under the current Administration he is right. Under the current administration, my bubbe and zaidy would not have been allowed into the country. #RESIST.

#RESIST RACIST AGENDA

"Scatological comment projected on wall of Trump Hotel Saturday night, apparently by Robin Bell, who has been credited with similar acts previously. (Sorane Yamahira / Bellvisuals.com)" Washington Post.

“There is no other word one can use but ‘racist,’” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said, according to Reuters. “You cannot dismiss entire countries and continents as ‘shitholes’ whose entire populations, who are not white, are therefore not welcome.”
(Huffington Post 1.14.18, 21st Century)

Yes, in the 21st century America is going backwards proving that history is not linear, it's cyclical; we make some progress, five steps back, maybe more after what this racist guy is doing. He's hijacked the country.  # RESIST !

BOMB CYCLONE SNOWSTORM

And then by noontime we had a white world. A relentless grey-white world. With howling wind. I went from window to window trying to capture falling snow. Without much success. I got a few flakes.

NIGHTIME LANDSCAPES: around 6:30 pm.
It's a ghostly white world. Beacon Street is not plowed yet although it soon will be. When I lived in Berkeley I dreamed about the trees on Beacon street.

MORE SUNSETS

Regardless of how the day has gone, sunset time is very meditative. Colors in the sky. Different every day. Third day of 2018.

JANUARY SUNSETS WHILE FREEZING

The first week in January did not go well weather and temperature-wise. The Boston area turned into the mid-west with frigid temps, single digits, a monster snowstorm and another plunge into Arctic temps. Actually the Arctic was warmer than us. No going outside. We got some nice sunsets in the bitter cold.  All the photos below were taken on the second day of 2018 between 5:45 - 5:49 pm. Sunsets are like paintings in the sky.

IMPRESSIONISTIC DUSK PHOTO 2017

Sometimes 'mistakes' are interesting. Exploring my camera's possibilities. The yellow 'streaks' are the T going by.

  

When it is so cold, the streets turn white, combination of cold + salt. There is so much 'light' on beacon street.