a snippet of summer

Bees on the Peaches, Silverqueen Farm, Q. CassettiThe bees were adorable yesterday, flying from raspberry to peaches…seeking sweetness and clustering on the peaches that birds had pecked.  Ripe fruit was underfoot in the orchard, with nothing going to waste…with plenty for us too. The ripe, rotting fruit was a heady combination of peach and vinegar—memorable but not bad.

Kitty and I chatted as we gathered the fruit, a very pleasant time just being together. We both agreed on our wonder at bees, their friendly business, industry and diligence. We also exclaimed over the opportunity to grow your own fruit—producing food enough for a big family and then some…and how so much opportunity we have in this fertile area. Maybe my cherry trees will be the beginning of an orchard with peaches, apples, and hazelnuts? Maybe a course on beekeeping at Cornell is in the works.

Oh good! Its raining. We are finally getting some water (yesterday and now today). We need it.

Today is bits and pieces. I ordered my Christmas Cards…and I think having the valentine done by the end of August would be good too. I need to pursue the study abroad thing for my boy and get Kitty prepped to pack. There are projects to start, and projects to finish. I would love to close some out this week. Maybe there is hope?

 

 

Summer lull

Green Man 10, Q. Cassetti 2011, pen and ink.Yesterday was a day of shuttling and shopping, cooking and floating, revelations and quiet. Rob went sailing with our friend Peter and our friend John on the prettiest little wooden sailboat on Cayuga Lake.

I took Kitty into her job by noon with a stop at the fabric store to buy fake fur to make  hats out of. We looked and touched pretty much everything in the store, ending up with a yard of tone on tone spotty cheetah type stuff that she was delighted with. I then did a little grocery shopping (for the crowd of 10 for lunch everyday) coming home to marinate chicken, brown a big hunk of beef for spaghetti sauce, and a mamouth pork butt into the crockpot for pulled pork (the crew loves it, its cheap and in the crockpot, not a lot of heat is generate). After all of that, I glanced at Alex and Jacob looking glum and uninspired, so I suggested I take them to Jacob’s favorite music store to see what there was to be seen. I dropped them off, and ran to TJMaxx for wrapping paper and thises and thats. Then, my phone rang and it was time to pickup the boys. With more time to kill prior to picking up Kitty, we went to the new Trader Ks to find some really great things for the boys. We took a long and neighborhoody drive down the hill to gather our girl and go to the lake for swimming. But that changed as Kitty went off to the last Blue Stockings game (one of our rollerderby teams) and Jacob and E. stayed chez camp for music and such.

So, Alex, Shady, Rob and I were lakeside and talked about how maybe Alex would like to spend a year (maybe Rotary) abroad to experience all of that. Bless him! He finally heard me…! How great would that be? and what a great calibration for him out of high school and into a world that loves him and that he can grow and expand in. This is so so great. He would so love it. Now, to  make it happen.

Today, we had a quiet morning with coffee and swimming.  Once Rob started to mow the lawn, Kitty and I went to pick peaches and raspberries. I have about 3 quarts of raspberries in the freeze with many many more planned (seeing the abundance of green berries ready to go in 10 days or so). The peaches were sublime with soft fruit on the ground with tremendously happy bees scavanging for the sweetness to take home to the hive. Maybe some bees and fruit need to become integrated into the greenman project.

Bespoke

08.03.2011, Concert in Canadaigua, Q. CassettiWild day and wilder evening. We left pretty promptly in a rain storm (imagine!) to go to Canadaigua via Geneva to pick Mr. Alexander up. He was in fine form and it was great to see him. As we pulled out of his host’s driveway, the sky seemed to clear up and as we moved closer and closer to our venue, the sky brightened, the sun shone and the most amazing clouds over our lovely Central New York fields emerged. More English clouds than those of Maxfield Parrish, which Kitty and I gasp and rave over. Beautiful nonetheless. Very linear and shapey.

We were directed through these fields and country roads to a big parking lot complete with a zillion attendants, security folks etc. The real deal…to easily park and access the CMAC (Constellation Music) venue. It is an open air pavillion with huge screens so everyone can see the acts, nice legroom and tons of little service tents from food to beer/ wine (you need a wristband…clever them to buy them…so the ID is done once and for all). Bathrooms were easy and accessible. It gave us a gander at the Community College of the Finger Lakes which is a little gem and worthy of considering. Really, really nice. Rob and I were by far, the oldest people in the venue…with fashion highlights being the universal white hotpants, flipflops, bandeau top with a shredded or modified teeshirt on top. Boys were pretty Bro-ie (both in manner and in looks). The place reeked of pot…and no one had any, I mean ANY problem lighting up etc. The teeshirts were lyrical (see above, the Front of the said shirt simply said “wake up drunk”. Poetic. Right? However, after the rappers amused us with their dancing with their pants hanging way off their hips with their boxers more than peeking out—the crotch fondling and the hand gesturing, and the evocative lyrics inspiring one to meet “Hoes”, acquire and consume weed, and of course roll it. There were all sorts of things one does with the Hoes (complete with buy a teeshirt that says Hoe on it)..No mystery here. Not really family values.

However, after that stuff was done and the the fans gone, the real fun began. I love Gregg Gillis, the pride of Pittsburgh and did not disappoint. Kitty and Alex and team were crowding the stage….and then Gillis started tailoring a bespoke musical presentation, sewing little patches of music together, fusing them, stitching and tuning—matching thread with thread so the final suit, the final musical event was seamless…and a single fabric…not the layers and pieces that composed these witty pieces. The crowd loved it, as did I. There was the requisite balloon drop, confetti, and then the lively use of a leaf blower with spools of toilet paper to spew white ribbons into the air. Gillis engaged, entertained, enthused, inspired. And I am…inspired that is.

NY Times on Gregg Gillis: “The 373-Hit Wonder”

Download Greg Gillis/ Girl Talk “All Day” gratis from Illegal Art>>

More later.

Talk

Greenman 8, Q. Cassetti, 2011, pen and inkIts been a quiet weekend rolling into a very busy and productive week. We had some folks for dinner (Alex and Jacob’s friends and our friend, Bruce). We did a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I slept, read terribly trashy books and chilled. I am surprised how tired I had been, so I got a little spring in my step along with some general laundry doing and little cooking. I had the hope of blueberry picking and maybe raspberries too, but the pillow beckoned and other planes of fun filled with steam punkery won.

Love the Steam Punk thing. Love the fusion of old technology with advanced biology. The fusion of the world of Dinotopia (James Gurney) along with that of Charles Dickens and all the fingers and threads that draw them together. Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve is a wonderful example of this sort of book. The next, Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeldl, pits the Darwinists against the Klinks (those mechanically driven) and fuse it with the socio-political environment of Europe prior to World War 1. Trashy. Yes. Brain absorbing. Yes. A mental vacation. Absolutely.

Kitty worked.  Alex chilled until Sunday when he went over to Geneva to stay and visit with a dear friend and his family (who he adores).

Tonight, I need to leave ON TIME as we are going to the Finger Lakes Community College’s outdoor concert space (CMAC) to see Wiz Khalifa and Girl Talk. I love Greg Gillis, Pittsburgher and Girl Talk( from the CMAC website):

Celebrating 10-plus years of sample-obsessed production and relentless touring, Gregg Gillis returns with All Day, his fifth album as Girl Talk, and his most epic, densely layered, and meticulously composed musical statement to date. Continuing the saga from the previously acclaimed albums, Night Ripper and Feed The Animals, Gillis lays down a more diverse range of samples to unfold a larger dynamic between slower transitions and extreme cut-ups. With the grand intent of creating the most insane and complex “pop collage” album ever heard, large catalogs of both blatantly appropriated melodies and blasts of unrecognizable fragments were assembled for the ultimate Girl Talk record (clocking in at 71 minutes and 372 samples). 

Since the release of Feed The Animals, things have flourished for Girl Talk. He’s played almost 300 shows and hardly taken a full week off from hitting the road. He’s playing even larger venues and making even more of a spectacle—he’s employed a small crew of toilet paper launching stage hands, who also propel confetti, balloons, and inflate oddly chosen props into the audience. For the New Year’s Eve show to ring in 2010, a team was hired to build a life-size house, with attention to fine details, on the stage at Chicago’s Congress Theatre. Described as the craziest house party ever, Girl Talk continues to please live audiences as the mass of sweaty bodies at his shows continually grows. Touring highlights from the last couple of years include the Vancouver Olympics, large festivals such as Coachella, Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, V-Fest, Sasquatch, Rothbury, Monolith, Planeta Terra, and trips to Australia, Japan, South America, Europe, and Mexico. 

Earlier this year, Girl Talk finally took a break from touring, festival dates, and college shows, in order to create an album that is being released immediately after its completion. While posting the album as a free download on the Illegal Art label’s site allows All Day to reach his fanbase quickly and with minimal cost, Gillis spent more time on this album than any previous release and considers it the most fully realized and evolved manifestation of the Girl Talk aesthetic. 

More later.

Up Early

The Green Man 4, Q. Cassetti, Pen and ink, manipulated in Adobe Photoshop CS5Up early to take Rob to Elmira to get on a plane to go to NYC. Lucky duck, he is staying at the new Standard Hotel on the High Line…so cool. Granted its work galore for him, but the perk of a cool  hotel is a nice cherry on top for him. We should see him late tomorrow.

It was a pleasant and quiet journey with shaggy, grazing Scottish Highland cows en route in the beautiful blue, green and gold landscape. Lush and summery. Promising rain with the clouds in the sky.

Kitty did a ton of work for me yesterday…remarkable how having extra hands, voice and legs working for you can really move the needle.  We are off trying to get answers for Hampshire questions, getting things to the bank and in the mail. She was great. Alex is plugging away with music and getting college essays started along with SAT coaching etc. It really is a wiggly, uncomfortable time for him…or at least thats the way it feels. I wouldnt want to be in that space.

I have a few portraits to do (just added to the mix) which should be fun. Additionally, there are some new pubs added too.

Lunch with the Hangar today. Should go get the plates spinning and get all the plans in place.

The Green Man 3, Q. Cassetti, Pen and ink manipulated in Adobe Photoshop CS5It turns out to be cool and breezy today. As we have easily 7-10 for lunch this summer, I am worrying about food more than I normally do. The pork butts at the store beckoned, so I have pulled pork in process (crock pot) for the tribe…and I am busy thinking volume, volume, volume. Pasta and big vats of some sort of soup or starch. The eating tribe includes 6 men, and 3 women… So t he trips to the grocery stor are ceaseless.

As you can see, I am on a Green Man jag. Its an interesting process to generate a foliage inspired face. More on that front.

The day is getting away from me. Gottago.

Common Threads

The Green Man 2, Q. Cassetti, 2011 pen and inkGrassroots was a different event for me this year. Grassroots was a highly social few days mixed in with a little dancing, a lot of listening, and laughter. normally it has been long days of non-stop listening, hot and furious amongst the hoards of the great unwashed ( true in both counts). There is some charm to that, but oddly, I have discovered that I am not a shirtless “bro” looking for as much cold, cheap, beer (for you bro aficionados , read “natties”). I am not looking for a hookup on the dance floor or to spend the weekend ” in the bushes”(as a mom mentioned that her child spent the festival there). I leave that to my son Alex to fulfill that role.

Grassroots was this year about community and about the musical DNA that Trumansburg and Ithaca have ingrained in it’s culture. We live in a small area where live music on a very high level can be heard nightly for free or a nominal charge. These are professional musicians with conservatory training, and some self taught but in the tradition of the area, decided early that music was central to their being…and started street performing in their teens. Some make their livings being musicians, while many others have day jobs in libraries, schools, moving companies, food concerns bringing that right brain viewpoint to the everyday as well. This is the thread of music, from the people and their ethos to the actual art performed.

I am honored to have gotten to know some of the most vibrant musical brains in the area, and am charged up by their focus and commitment to music as the spine of their lives, the spur to live and continue to grow that I am questing for as are others of our tribe. It is so curious to quiz people about their backgrounds, their training, their lives as musicians and performers. It has made me better understand the artistic “thing” that moves us all forward— the quest for inspiration, the strength of solo work and for some, collaboration; the timing and sequence, the need to get the work out and seek insight and and reception. Regardless of the channel of the arts— whether it be visual or auditory— these are some common threads we share.

GrassRoots 2011: Day One

Happiness Parade 2010, Q. CassettiHOTTEST this week. It was 81 getting my feet on the floor this morning and was shooting to 85 before getting to my desk. The predictions are right.  101 in the  last hour (for my drop off of the team).But, it is a beautiful, clear sky so despite the heat, at least its pretty. I am one wilted leaf.

Erich and Nigel are out for the next few days, so I am manning the fort in front of a rather impressively named fan, the Cyclone (not).

Today is Christmas in Trumansburg. It is Grassroots Day One! Jacob was up early to help his brother take tickets and give folks their wristbands. Kitty and Rob took some time off. Alex was  getting prepped—cups, bandanas, money, the right shoes. Thankfully it isnt going to rain with the heat. Another thing not to have to drag to the fairgrounds is good. The Sheriffs were in place with their lights flashing first thing in the morning along with closing Rabbit Run entirely.

The wall of beer is no longer…but chunked into little stacks that one can easily scale. Shur Save always made this mountain of beer by the meat cases to do a little suggestive selling to the Grassroots audience, but now that they have become so fabulous with new meat cases, there wasn’t any thinking around the annual spectacle of the Wall of Beer. Sadness. However, there is hope the Kinney Pharmacy or the Byrne Dairy will pick up the Wall of Beer gauntlet and continue this tradition.

However, it all looks good with more parking than ever thanks to our school doing parking as a fundraiser along with the local stores.

GrassRoots Virginia Key-Miami is going to happen this February. I helped the team create a poster and handbill last week, which thanks to Bargain Basement Printing we should have tomorrow. No rush fees…and all within 7 business days. Rob is thinking out some strategies around raising some money and building awareness. I posed the need for a Kickstarter project to get a little eary capital before going for advertising etc. etc.

I need to go find my dreamcatcher.

Dance Tent, Q. Cassetti, 2010Hot day again. Doors closed. Fan going. Lots of loudness re the recording session in our living room. Alex took some beautiful pix and observed with interest all that went on during the recording session. It is a bit stunning the sound, the active minds and music streaming from that hot room…but everyone seemed to like what they got, and its done. For now.

We went to the lake to float in the bath tubby water of the lake…which was choppy but delightful and a respite from the heat.

I am moping and mourning a big change in my business life. Crazy stuff happens that rarely makes sense and this current one, for me, tops them all. I am saddened by the change in dynamic, energy and attitude that will result in the future. Sad. Sad. sad. A moment stands still. Memento Mori.

Music Making.

Sketch, Q. Cassetti, 2011, pen and inkDoll Eyes, a band with Jacob Kotler, is recording in the first floor secondary office space. I am loaning roadies to the deal with Tucker and Alex doing running for power cords or passwords. I need to check in. See what is doing. Manage a bit.

Blistering yesterday. Blistering today. Yesterday, in the lake. Today, in front of the fan. Rob spent some time at GrassRoots; Kitty at the office; Alex and Jacob and me, chilling at the Lake. Cooling our heels. I read a trashy book and took a nap after doing some kitchen stuff (marinating some venison that was given to us, making pesto, wilting cucumbers, and making breakfast for Alex, Jacob and two others who spent the night). We had 10 for dinner Saturday night (unplanned)…which was nice but wiped me out.

Rob has the week off after a day meeting in Albany today. Alex is singing. Kitty at Petrune, revelling in the deck of styles she is encouraged to read and absorb so she can date the clothes coming into the store. I have some brochures to layout  and some thinking to do around organization prior to a crash and burn on the horizon with my main client.

Kitty, Rob and Alex will be at the fairgrounds swinging a hammer and or moving a paintbrush for more GrassRoots stuff. My pictures need to wander over there tomorrow. I just hope to heaven that this heat and humidity clears by the end of the week.

gottago

Nosmo

Nosmo King, Q. Cassetti, 2010 (a No Smoking sign from Grassroots)Hot summer day. We were up and going to get Kitty to her job and Alex to practice with his friends. Jacob and I did a little shopping. Rob hungout and then went to the Fairgrounds in anticipation of the big week ahead in prep for GrassRoots, our little holiday here in Trumansburg. The bright yellow dance tent was erected yesterday with many of the ancillary tents and structures arriving today. The volunteers are gathering. Gimme Coffee is looking more like a clubhouse than just a coffeehouse and the buzz begins. I have threatened to do a photoshoot of all the walls of beer that will be erected by Tuesday. The Walls of Beer are an architectural feature that happen here…and are to be admired as they dwindle over the course of the weekend along with every ice cube in the county.

My stuff came for the Art Barn. I ordered two big pix (a skull and a big mouth of hell illo from my moment with the rapture) along with a portrait of Jeb Puryear that hopefully they will let me show. I sent to the ever fabulous and very impressive, Picture Salon, who never, ever disappoint!  Big is Better re my work. Big is bold and on our red walls here at the Headquarters, the black and white JUMPS. I am having ideas about physically painting these big black and whites? What do you think? Could be cool if I use a sheer acrylic so I do not need to worry about perfection with the painting….and let the big bold black lines do the work. Just a thought. Need to get a new topic to work with. Thinking of surfacing the wild Pennsylvania German book of folk medicine. Just thinking.

Got a lot done and out yesterday from the big client work to a teeshirt finalized for Wide Awake to getting our Luckystone holiday card out to the printer. I am feeling a bit proud as I think I have licked the file issues with my cheap cheap printer (BargainBasementPrinting.com) and am no  longer spending hours resaving files to have them spit back out at me. Great! Brilliant red envelopes winging their way here. Holiday will be stuffed and labelled by Labor Day so we can roll into the Fall without that extra detail hanging over us. You know what happens…come November when one should feel like doing this stuff, the big crush happens with our clients and so, the pressure is on in the world of work and other…making things not cool. Doing this stuff early creates a very smug me, but someone that is a bit more pleasant to be around in November/December.

Big trip to the store today. I have bags of chicken marinating and a mess of things for our two boys to eat (jeez louise, they can eat!). Next Tuesday and Wednesday, in addition to the tribe that is working here (Erich, Nigel, me, Mandy, Tucker, Kitty , Alex and Jacob) we will have Jacobs band and roadies here as they are recording an album. So plan on lunch for 20. No kidding. I can hear the culinary vacuum cleaner running. Whirrrrrrrr. All things that can be eaten will be sucked down—everything else, we will  need to tie down! ….But I delight in it…and the interesting brains that are attached to the masticating jaws.

I am listening to the jump up and praise tune, “The Great I AM” by Donnie McClurkin. Love it. AMEN.

A summer moment

Monarda, Q. Cassetti, 2011Cool this morning. The full moon illuminated the night such that morning segued without much fanfare. We had a peaceful evening at the lake talking about fashion and how one transitions their look. Kitty is all over this with interest both from Jacob and Alex. The weekend stretches in front of us— with a pickup from Sweet Land, maybe some raspberry picking and grocery shopping. Some may start on GrassRoots projects, I may party with my pens. Summer full bore.

I am musing over my friends at the Hartford Art School and where they are this week. For those new students, they are dying. The dream project is pushing them all out of their corners, their safe zones, to a place of challenging discomfort. This clever punishment is devised by some pretty amazing educators to get folks off their illustration tookies and into the fray. It is hard work but accomplishes the creation of a class group, shoves everyone to accept change and personal growth, and gives everyone a common day one. But ooh. Ouch right now.

Then there are the confident second year students. They have time with the program. They have friends. They have work. They think they are on track for their thesis. The world is theirs. School is one fat slice of wonderful.

Then there are the third years. They have been dragged through a keyhole backwards. The thesis, the papers, the illustration, the travel, the ancillary papers have all added up. These students want to savor the last crumbs from the slice of wonderful but are distracted with all the to dos to finish. It is a complex time of trying to grab it all,  and yet not being able to really embrace it the way you could during the summer of the second years. It is a bittersweet time during the first week. The second week for me was ” get me out of here…!” It is a tremendous thing, these MFA students are doing for themselves. They are opening themselves up to change, to evolve, to self discovery, to learning. Nothing wrong with that!

Tonight, Amelia and Leah, my friends are singing with Mary Lorson to open for EmmyLou Harris at Greek Peak. This was a spur of the moment thing and I am  so excited for them to get this exposure and chance to sing to a new and different audience. Very cool.

The GrassRoots machine is beginning to whirrrr. Projects are beginning. Tents are arriving. The buzz is in the air.  More later.

Making a Joyful Noise

Rockin’ Steady #3 2011, Q. Cassetti

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rockin Steady: Tribe Stocking Reidy performed last night at the Rongo, part of the pre GrassRoots music scene. It/they were wonderful with daughters, sons, aunts and uncles, all singing and playing fullheartedly. And those of us who were not part of the tribe enjoyed their songs and renditions. Kitty had Hampshire friends that were a delight and fun to get to know. We mixed it up a bit…and then sat outside at the end and tried to take pictures in the dark (to some success).

Waiting on the porch, Q. Cassetti 2011Shady and I did a tour of the house and backyard and were greeted by dragonflies, bees in the thick monarda and the damned deer.  I took a picture of this nice stationery dragonfly on the steps, giving me a chance to push things a bit to see if I could capture him. I love the new point and shoots. What amazing tools.

Our new team member this summer is Tucker. Tucker is a football player and very funny. He chased a pair of baby deer yesterday trying to tackle them.  We had $50 bucks riding on it…and I bet, by the end of the summer, Tucker will win his bet…

I am beginning to move some ink around on my sketchbook pages. Need to get in a new groove. I am feeling a bit betwixt and between with lots of big idea work coming over the desk that the magic moment to ink and think has not arrived. I am eyeballing some czech illustration. Also, am thinking graphic…flat and shapy. Who knows. I will need to think about advertising in the 3x3 Annual Directory. What to run? One page or two? Does it make sense (I seem to think so)…and how to take advantage of this advertising. Plus, the fall is within reach, are there images I need to work on for the up and coming shows? or will the advent and rapture work be a shot? the bunny rabbits?

Clear skies. No humidity. Summer perfection today.

Cloudbowl

A View from Sweet Land, Q . Cassetti, 2011Humming along. I am continually surprised that the only way in, to a project is to actively start. That means do the research and collect it in one spot. It means starting the wheels going of looking at the type to see what is the, the relationships, the opportunities, the counters, ascenders, descenders, the letter family relationships and so on. The, there is the customizing, the drawing, the shape builds— the wallowing in my visual mis en place to see whether the visual spices and potions will be stirred together to make something wonderful or worthy for the waste bin. I have been pushing off this project for the rush job du jour, and decided yesterday to elbow a mess of time to start. I am so pleased I did as I am now on the path and am beginning to rocket my way into the heart of the visuals. Am searching out some nice handwriting inspired scripts along with marrying them with my favorites from Hoefler Frere-Jones, futura and bodoni. Have also been using a new illustrator feature (offset path) to create accurate outlines of shapes (mirroring the outside shape). A snap and I feel like I have wasted a ton of time…A changer.

I need to start making some pictures.

Kitty has put her energies to figuring out the seeing machine and serger. She has also been engaged by this ” the only way to begin is to begin” axiom and so the scissors are flying with little piles of scraps all over the place with contradance dresses made daily. We went to the fabric store and bought all sorts of yard goods for her to mess around with— from some peachy sari material to stretchy stripes. I see a dress form in her future as she is making people take their clothes off to use them as manikins.

Swimming in the cloudbowl last night was perfection. It is so stunning to swim when the light is changing to golden rays, glancing over the blue and purple lake while floating over the huge domed sky that frames us with clouds while the swallows dive and fly. It is the moment of the glittering summer that I like to press into my mind for the deep, velvet dark winter eves. We all slept the sleep of the tired.

Recap

Q. and KIitty 07.09.2011, Rob Cassetti.2011What a nice weekend. It was a bit of a rush on the front end with the trip to the CSA and then to the store for sundries. We had Cooperstown friends spend 2 nights with us— with kids, our kids (and our summer kid, Jacob). The boys played the guitars and sang and sang. Kitty and I were amused and charmed by Willa, a very engaging five year old who wobbles on the edge of fantasy and reality so one just goes along for the fast ride. This is a child that I would write wicked stories for and know that she would glitter with delight in the tales and pictures. There were fossils to find, dogs to pat and cats to grab so I think we provided some amusement and interesting things for them.

Rob and Kitty set up all of our new camp cots (Byers of Maine from Amazon…really, really nice) for some of the youngers— with a sleeping bower on the sleeping porch (I mean, this house does have a sleeping porch for a reason beyond handing up the laundry). Now we have enough space to sleep at least 10 comfortably which should be good with my anticipation of lots of kids’ friends this summer.

In between all of this, Rob and I went to get Alex and attend the final performance. It was truly remarkable to see the changes in the skills and confidence of our son and his peers from even the week before. Alex was standing taller, outwardly more in the moment and truly riding the crest of this change. He was no longer bothered by the work, but swept into being so engaged in the work, in the music, in the new and diverse friends that this program models his new vision of what he wants from college. All night parties have been shelved. We have a boy who is focused and ready to self motivate to engage completely. We have a boy who wants to be a better writer. We have a boy who wants to do SAT tutoring. We have a boy who wants to practice. We have a boy who is exploding and wanting to find his voice, his path, his way. This time with Ithaca College’s Summer Music Academy was a total transformative experience that I cannot say enough about.

We did some swimming and hanging out on Sunday afternoon with the home team. I made a Christmas wreath (sewn felt) and am planning on cranking out a few more as they are pretty fast. I am thinking that they will be fun for some of my more stylish new friends. The boys went to a bonfire while Kitty, Rob and I went to Felicias to hear Mary Lorson and the Soubrettes play. Wow! Wow! Amazing. Vocals were great, music is stellar and Leah’s banjo and voice being more in the foreground really worked and created this very Mary Lorson sound, though styled to be more eccentric, wooden music box than her other projects. I hope this gets some traction.

IF: Stay [home]

HIve Home, Q. Cassetti, 2011, pen and ink, colored in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS5