March 7

Rick sent me this NASA video of the Earth at night from the International Space Station.  It is amazing and humbling to watch....  Mary

Ireland at night from the Space Station

March 6

Since it's pledge week on PBS, they're running all the vintage music programs for their aging audience.  Some of these songs do indeed stand the test of time:  Percy Sledge -"When a Man Loves a Woman", Mason Williams - "Classic Gas", Question Mark and the Mysterians - "96 Tears".  My personal favorite was Chad & Jeremy doing "A Summer Song".

Their album (I know I'm dating myself but it actually was a record album) Distant Shores was my very first Perfect Album.  A Perfect Album is one on which every song is perfect, the order is perfect.  You wouldn't change one thing about it.  There have been more Perfect Albums over the years for me, but Chad and Jeremy were my first and are still a favorite.

Other Perfect Albums: Graham Nash - Songs for Beginners; Neil Young - After the Gold Rush; Grateful Dead - American Beauty; Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run, Born in the USA, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions; The Pogues -  Hell's Ditch; U2 - The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree; k.d. lang - Hymns of the 49th Parallel; anything by Emmy Lou Harris.

Chad and Jeremy

March 5

This is pledge week on PBS.  Dr. Wayne Dyer's usual pledge program is on.  In his opening remarks, he said that is no such thing as an average person.  While I certainly agree that we are all unique human beings, it did raise the question in my mind as to whether there is a statistically average human being.  So I did what we all do now:  I googled it.  Have no idea if this is true, but at first glance it certainly seems likely....  Mary

http://www.learnsomethingeveryday.co.uk/2011/04/04

March 4

It was a lovely quiet Sunday in which I got practically nothing done.  Oh well, it is supposed to be a day of rest.

There was a great story in the Wisconsin State Journal today about Lynda Barry's semester long course that she is teaching as Artist in Residence.  The two laminated Ernie Pook's Comeeks have been hanging in my studio forever.  Amazing woman.  Amazing work.... Mary

March 3

This morning I went to the most wonderful writing class taught by the most amazing woman, Lynda Barry.  Lynda is a writer, artist, and cartoonist who is the Artist in Residence at the UW-Madison this semester.  The workshop I took was part of her Residency.  The link above is to her blog for the semester long course she's teaching.  The inspiration, freshness, and honesty of Lynda's teaching is phenomenal.  Her technique is simple enough and really helps to get you out of your own way.  She quoted a friend of hers at the end of the class saying we had just had our mind's blown by our own minds.  Thank you, Lynda!  Mary

March 2

Since March is the month when everything alters from winter into spring, I'm altering paper squares for the calendar.  Thanks to the world of scrapbooking, the rest of us have access to all sorts of wonderful archival materials.  There are some very cool scrapbooking papers available.  Back in the day, finding things like different sized paper punches was really challenging.  Now in the average scrapbook store you have a whole wall of different sizes and shapes of ergonomically designed punches.  Very cool.

Today is Theodore (Dr. Seuss) Geisel's 108th birthday.  Not only did Mr. Geisel give us all the amazing Dr. Seuss books, he was also Jan Berenstain's editor for the Berenstain Bear books.  Many a happy childhood hour was spent with all those wonderful books.  Mrs. Berenstain passed away this week, but her books will live on.

We also put a dent in the winter-that-wasn't today with nearly six inches of snow.  All the bushes and trees look like they were coated with the old spray on snow from our childhood.  The stuff that was probably banned because of its carcinogenic properties.  But it sure looks pretty and the quiet at night with muffling snow is so lovely....  Mary

March 1

March is Women's History Month.  Here in the upper Midwest, we spring forward on March 11, and then the first day of Spring arrives on the 20th.  But most importantly of all, Eileen's birthday is this month.  We need to pretty much just celebrate all month.

At work I got to flip my 'just breathe' calendar this morning.  It's lovely purple anemones for March. Things got hectic and painful and crazy last month, so I need to get back to breathing and mindfulness....  Mary