Right now.

Here we are. Right smack dab in the middle of a glorious fall. It just happened. Just. Somehow a few days of dreary cold rain--not the uplifting, humid rain..but the downer rain that freezes you to the bone--and snap, there we are. Color in the trees. Piles of buckeyes on the ground. The same with crazy brain fruit, the Osage orange-- nature's croquet balls--ready for a messy game. It is the beginning of Cider Week here in the Finger Lakes with the poor farmers trying to get their apples in and pressed combined with a monumental marketing push to promote cider, cider drinking and most importantly, cider buying. Kitty was down at the apple festival selling bottles of cider, vinegar, ginger beer and shrubs to her delight yesterday in the rain. Today is a quiet day of work and reflection.

I have a pot of recycled soup (a compilation of all the leftovers, bits and pieces, shards and shavings--all cooked down into a potage flavored with a dollop of swad (Coriander chutney) and a crumble of dried basil. I also made a version of the smashed cucumber salad ( see my entry under Blogs>Treats from the NYTimes) to use up the piles of cucumbers I have been hoarding along with the bit of greek yoghurt I had waiting just for this use (not). I am busy cooking as a form of cleaning out the fridge and prepping for the week...what with Rob being out of town and Kitty prepping to go to NYC to begin her time there. All very exciting.

I am doing a lot of research on First Nation People in Arizona and New Mexico. This is a world I have no handle on--it is all very wonderful and quite like nothing this northern, eastern girl is familiar with--from the locations to the concept of Pueblos, Kivas, artifacts, art, religion, nature and community. And the intersections where these things come together. it is an ancient, American landscape I need to embrace. Why go to other continents when we have an extraordinary one to discover...right here....and miles and miles away.  I think there might be a trip in the offing to see those things I keep circling back on. I will start talking about this...just a heads up that its coming from this need to see more. I think its a need versus a desire....We will see.

58!

Another year. Another year of physical therapy. Yep. November 2013 was when I broke my ankle (into smithereens). October 2014 was a year with multiple screws and uprights and weekly physical therapy. It was the year of leg elevation, lots of ice, swelling everything and pain. It was no fun. Here we are again, in October, 2015 and all the hardware is out (except for one screw that snapped in half and wasn't coming out), less--almost no swelling, more physical therapy (twice a week), and the pain is less and less the more I move this crazy foot, ankle, leg on the painful treadmill. I know I sound like Debby Downer, but it is getting better and I am so optimistic, I have a pen in my hand and I am drawing Bohtas, and thinking advent calendars...so its all on the upside. So moving forward in the age thing...the time thing and the therapy thing is making me feel better, more energy, less sadness, and more like there is an opportunity to get back into things. Hurray! Lets put an extra candle on the cake just to celebrate that!

Plus, with the amazing lessons from my first cousin, Martha--I cannot moulder in the mire. Ya gotta give it all...until it's over...and then (which happened) you gotta give it all in the last demonstrations of your life on earth--to reassure us that we need to even keep that legacy thing of positive energy moving in the right direction to inspire, teach and personally grow.

So up off my pins. Strap on the stabilizing shoes. Grab that bright orange cane and start whacking at my world. Theme for year 58. Get going!!

Happy birthday to me.

More from Oneida

Funny. I was reading during my early morning random research reading...about John Humphrey Noyes (imagine, right?) in The Atlantic Magazine in this article "Multiple Lovers, without Jealousy"

Harriet Holton Noyes.

Harriet Holton Noyes.

"In its history, America saw only a handful of collective dalliances away from two-person marriage model. In the 1840s in upstate New York, the Oneida commune practiced “complex marriage,” in which the 300 members were encouraged to have consensual intercourse with whomever they desired. As its leader, the lawyer John Humphrey Noyes, put it in his proposal letter to his wife, Harriet: “I desire and expect my [wife] will love all who love God ... with a warmth and strength of affection which is unknown to earthly lovers, and as free as if she stood in no particular connection with me. In fact the object of my connection with her will not be to monopolize and enslave her heart or my own, but to enlarge and establish both in the free fellowship of God’s universal family.”

By some accounts, the Oneida way of life was far more feminist than traditional marriage was at the time: The women only had sex when they wanted to, for example, and some of the female members relished having multiple sex partners.

But this was no erotic utopia. The commune’s elderly true believers regularly initiated its less-experienced teenagers into sex in order to strengthen the younger generation’s devotion to Noyes. Members were publicly chastised if they were discovered carrying on exclusive relationships. People who wanted to be parents were matched in arranged marriages and prevented from bonding with their children, all as part of Noyes’ plan to create a superior uber-race. In 1879, Noyes, fearing arrest for statutory rape, fled the country and wrote to his to his followers that they should abandon complex marriage. The 70 remaining commune members entered traditional marriages with whomever they happened to be living with at the time."

So, the word according to Noyes still continues on in discussions of American Polyamory...and the followers of that tradition. I am fascinated as a reader and a historian but horrified as a person living and breathing on this planet. I am by nature, a jealous and highly monogamous person..so the idea a shared love is beyond my puritanical thinking.  I am saddened by the stoic Harriet Noyes as well as the wife of Joseph Smith, Emma Hale...and the crisis of more women in her marriage as dictated by God and her Prophet and husband. Stiff upper lip, indeed.

New Logo for Root

My sister-in-law, Jenny Eddy is starting a program to teach/train at risk people (ages mid teens to early 20's) in food, cooking, service etc linking those people to caterers, restaurants etc. Here's their new logotype and tagline (written by little old me). I wanted to show a root vegetable to suggest food, and use a typographic treatment that would look good on a teeshirt and on a Board of Directors presentation. The carrot can snap out of the mix, to be placed on hats/etc. or to embroider on a screened word. I loved the double use of the word feeding-- with it being positive about the participants and the communities (family, church, food, school) that are enhanced by the work of Root. Jenny is remarkable. I look forward to her efforts.

Day 6: Portrait Warmup

One Hour Portrait, MadonnaPortrait WarmupQ. Cassetti, 2015Adobe Illustrator

One Hour Portrait, Madonna
Portrait Warmup
Q. Cassetti, 2015
Adobe Illustrator

"Imagine if someone like John Lennon or Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Picasso, whomever, were doing their work, and some corporation, some CEO, some branding entity was saying to you, 'Well, you can do that, but you've got to remove this aspect of your work.' There would no longer be that purity anymore."
 

Madonna Ciccone


 

Day 5: Portrait warmups.

The DonaldPortrait Warmups 2015Q. CassettiAdobe Illustrator 2015

The Donald
Portrait Warmups 2015
Q. Cassetti
Adobe Illustrator 2015

"Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make."

Donald Trump

You know, on a rare occasion this boob makes good sense. 

Off to meetings and projects. More later.

 

Hot morning.

Umbrella hankie, Tammis Keefe.

Umbrella hankie, Tammis Keefe.

It was hot and humid... or as the weathermen in Pittsburgh on KDKA radio used to drone on, "hazy hot and humid" often followed on by Kahn's wieners commercials " Kay Aye H En Esss" ...so hotdogs and hazyhothumid always go together. Pittsburgh kind of perfected Hazy Hot and Humid as it is in a valley, with inversion, and with bad air pollution. So despite the absolutely Miltonian moments of the tremendous blast furnaces being tapped--and visible from miles away...with sparks, and flames and white hotness, the flip side was dreadful air, sweltering temperatures, and seemingly no relief. At least here in the fabulous Finger Lakes, we are not inverted, not in a valley and as often as it gets hot to the enth degree, we often get relief in a day or so. Pittsburgh--with that  HHH mantra could capture weeks without relief, without a break, without a promise of a breeze. The refuge of the clammy cool basement always beckoned. Pathetic, really. 

We had a massive quick soaker yesterday with promise of the same later this afternoon. Rob has gone off to the Adirondacks to some trade event with the Governor to help the Museum Association of New York promote a bill that they are working with the Board of Regents on. He will miss the last day of Grassroots, and the final day of his vacation (Monday) but he seems good with that. I take Alex down for the bus early this afternoon and hope to go to buy my new favorite thing for breakfast. Wait for it. Coconut Yogurt. Oh my. That with blackcaps and a sprinkle of either muesli or granola and I think I have gone to heaven. I bought my first go of this delight at Aldi in their "its a limited buy, so stock up now section"--thinking well, it could be totally weird, but it also could be a game changer. It is sublime...almost a dessert--with the pucker of yogurt and the tropical quiet coconut flavor that sends me. Enough of this chat.

I must go. Bills need to be created. Packages packaged...and prepped for the mail tomorrow.
Just wanted to say, hey.

 

 

 

Midsummer's day.

Some people celebrate midsummer with parties and bonfires, interesting food and family gathering. We celebrate midsummer with a four day long fest, the Grassroots Festival at our fairgrounds. We celebrate community--with pre-Roots events (a wonderful concert with gumbo at the Rongo this year!), discussions, projects and the close review of the schedule of events by the regulars to pencil in their auditory path of the four days. The tribe comes into town, lining the roads with cars--from Wednesday before the festival through Sunday...and even stragglers until mid week the week following the fest. The non approved vendors set up by the grocery store to sell wide brimmed straw hats, tie dyed anything, and iced cream. Parking becomes a way that the locals, the high school and other non-profits can make a little money to offset the eighth grade trip or personal projects. The gigantic stack outs, the "wall of beer" is found at any grocery store or gas station near the fairgrounds. The air throbs with sound all night and day. Rob and Alex are heavily partaking of the festival, while I work on projects, read and savor the midsummery time. Here we are...the top of the year and often the hottest week of the year--with longer, and colder days happening from this week on. It is the week of raspberries and onions, spinach and the promise of tomatoes and corn.

Alex is home for the festival and is actively delighting in everything from his work, his friends, his new sense of what he can do, what he can accomplish, what he is able to change and affect. He is ready to be in his final year of school. He is at the right level of "baking". Rob has been full bore at the festival from the prebuild of the new bathroom building to the music and full days of friends, visiting and dancing. I delight that he enjoys this so much.

I have a new PT, Ms. Jessie who is, with her gentle, long hands...is whaling on this new ankle...and though I am crippled after her kind ministrations, am getting more mobility, more bending, more ability and interestingly, less pain, after her hard work. Jim has gone on to Duke/UNC for a fellowship and post-graduate work in physical therapy. So, though Gentleman Jim has moved on, I have a treasure in Jessie. Twice a week, no  less.

Happy Birthday #1Q. Cassetti, 2015Adobe Illustrator

Happy Birthday #1
Q. Cassetti, 2015
Adobe Illustrator

I am starting a body of work called "Happy Birthday". I found that I was creating some pictures around Happy Birthday, so I figured I would "let it out" a bit...to see where this could go with the little machines and various forms of transportation that seems to be popping up just in my work. So, you will see more of these just to spice up the summer..and to get the gears going for me. It has been a long spell of staleness--and I have to begin to move the needle as I am bereft of not having a topic to think and stew over. There are cakes, and candy, and international traditions here. if anything, I can learn something, and we can see if a card or two evolve. If anything, the pursuit of greasy noses, colorful heads, Brazilian lollypops, pinatas,  or candles burning all day long, sugar roses and "party hats"might yield some fun images. Plus the idea that time is moving is interesting too.

"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!"   Dr. Seuss

I have been inking a ton of apples these days--inspired by midcentury modern. Apples, pears, slices, seed stars, textures...and they have been applied to a logotype for the Finger Lakes Cider Alliance. There have been some cute offerings emphasizing Alliance, emphasizing cider, emphasizing Finger Lakes. Let's see what they go for....I am hoping no Finger Lakes Wiggly worms...as it has no currency outside of the area...but hey. Additionally, I have posted some of  my logotypes to this page and will add as I go (there are a ton more, but this gets you going). I think a page of labels might be great too. Now now, but soon.

 

Red, White and Blues

Bunting at Walmart

Bunting at Walmart

The 4th has come. A day to celebrate independence which always comes with interdependence (though we do not mention that). Here's to singularity and standing up for your beliefs. Here is to compromise, to listening and not talking. Here's to thinking and measured response. Here is to valuing all opinions, and being open to change. 

I am always struck that to so many, "Being American" signifies a rigor around what is right and wrong...something very analog, very black and white, something that doesn't have edges, but issues and ideas that are cleanly broken into the answer and the question. We are either pro-abortion or anti-abortion. We love everyone or hate everyone. There are haters (but no polarities there) but there are no lovers. We approve or disapprove. The concept of a spectrum of understanding, of belief or philosophy is not "being American" but something irrational and insane.

Watching the largest group of presidential contenders being fielded--points up this thought--and I am dumbstruck to think that any of these men (yes, folks--they are men...there is a woman in there for "shits and giggles" but not someone to fear or be competitive with) live such a bi-polar existence or right and wrong, yes or no, oatmeal or eggs, tea or coffee, awake or asleep--life. It seems at odds with how we are as functioning beings, that this limited, approved and market-tested view on any topic can be a way to embrace one's beliefs.  This approach may appear to be the "safe" road to travel, but it is the most heinous and frightening. Yes, it is predictable--but so limited and slim an channel, that very few can navigate it..and leaves many of us out of the process of being engaged and included.

We have so much promise, opportunity, energy, people and treasure. Why can't be be wise enough to take everyone on that journey. It will be far more interesting--and to my thinking, far more Christ-like to embrace the whole and not the privileged few. Aren't  those privileged few those that we escaped in our Independence? Must we revolt again?