Lucky Happy Endings...and Incongruent Beginnings - 09' to 2010

The last few days of this year have been filled with 'near misses', lucky breaks, and naturally occuring beautiful contradictions. 


I will be posting a recap of Two Thousand MINE later. For now however, sharing the last couple weeks is an appropriate footnote to a year filled with both planned and unexpected, thrilling adventures that have left me gasping at the wonder of life...

Near-miss or (un)Lucky break?

About that accident you heard about...


I've spent the past decade almost exclusively flying home to Jamaica on AA.  Just this once, I decided to try something new. In so doing, I got snowed in and delayed by four days.  I didn't broadcast these facts, so when the accident happened - there were lots of calls about my whereabouts.  

Well - I had a safe arrival luckily enough. About that arrival though...

It is customery for passengers to applaud successful landings on the island of Jamaica, so naturally we did so when Jetblue accurately estimated the length of the runway and brought us in smoothly.  

But this time, as we taxied down the tarmac past the American Airlines fuselage, the applause was particularly emphatic - followed by airline personnel singing an old Jamaican folk song over the PA system "this is the land of my birth (repeat), this is Jamaica, my Jamaica, the land of my birth".  All 200+ passengers chimed in; cabin-wide choral joy I tell you! Absolute hilarity I found.  

Jetblue could not have paid for better marketing if they'd offered their entire capital worth for it. 

NOTE - as I understand it, surviving passengers (luckily all passengers in this case) are to receive up to $30,000 in compensation. DAMMIT!

(PHOTO from AP. I couldn't be bothered to take a photo myself...tsk)

 

Beautiful Contradictions

Moonlit Days to Watching the Moonrise:

 

 

 

Message I got...

Don't wait to shine, don't wait to RIZE.

Just get UP and take your place HIGH.

New definition of Hot Tops:

 Jumbo mushrooms bloom out of nowhere on the front lawn, just shy of the shade they could have had under a small palm tree. Rather than withering in the direct blast of the Jamaican sun, they grew and grew and grew...

 

 

 

 

Message we should get...

Conditions won't always be perfect.

So wherever you are, dig in, root yourself,

and grow - no matter how hot it gets.  And more often than you realise, help does arrive...

Love, Light, Gratitude, and Wicked Hot Vibrations for the New Year

B

Birthday Gallery Soiree ThanXX

Rich are we to be loved.  Damn X-cessive and Xtravagant to be loved by many. You all made me into a Double X Diva. 

Thanks for swimming thru the puddles to come celebrate with me, and um, sorry about the lack of photo editing - had to get 'em up fast. Hope you enjoy them as I did. 

Photos by: Marlis Momber, John Mazlish, and moi.

Works exhibited by Avery Daily, Yxia Olivares, and moi!  :)

Odic Birthday Message from a dear friend

God looked down admiringly, exclaimed "Nothing could be fine-ah!"
"Than the sassy smart and sweet lil babe I just forced out that vagina!"
She knew not then her destiny nor recalled the moment prior
When God had asked her to descend to stir up quite a fire
"Blaze not with rage but warmth and light for this is what is needed"
"It will take some time to figure out, to get the garden weeded"
So, each year, when the day arrives that marks your popping out
Know you are light and not mistakes, and know this with no doubt


by Mark Pergola
 
Thank you Marky-boo!  I love you SO MUCH!

Better to travel alone than with a bad companion...

(Title taken from old African Proverb)

...lest you be slowed down with extra weight that drains.

Is that reasonable though?  After all, you never know what you'll come across while on the JOURNEY.

More often than not, the road is filled with places, things, and folks who fill your horizons ANEW.  The adventure IS the companion - and she's never boring and always ENLIGHTENING...well, only perhaps if your feet are ready, your ears are clean, and the eyes of YOUR HEART are open. 

Some Blues

Lifted across waves

  Lingual dances stain what could

                                          and never be.

by Steve Wilson

(thanks chuchiwuchi!) 

FINALLY!!! SeBiArt shows in Europa! :)

Not surprisingly I am posting this a bit late in the day, but I'm nonetheless excited to share that my work will be a part of a group show in Nürnberg, Germany.  It's the annual Wintersalon at Nord Galerie Haus, which is opening this Sunday - Nov 22nd and will be up for a month!  The pieces are 4 selections by curator Margit Mohr from my CrowDeD series. Yahooooooo!  Now all I need is a surprise plane ticket so I can actually attend the opening...

See Galerie Haus e.V for more info.

(http://www.galeriehaus-nuernberg-nord.de/)

 

Support Post: Epic Theater Ensemble Just Won BIG TIME!

I'm so proud to show support for a deserving group. My acting teacher from college, Godfrey Simmons Jr, serves as one of the artistic producers at Epic Theater Ensemble here in New York, and one of their after school theater programs "Shakespeare Remix" has just received a most prestigious reward:

WE HAVE WON

...the 2009 COMING UP TALLER AWARD presented by the PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE on the

ARTS and the HUMANITIES for our SHAKESPEARE REMIX program. This prestigious award 

recognizes and supports outstanding after-school arts and humanities programs for 

children, especially those with great potential, but limited outlets for creative 

expression.

Here is a breakdown on what they are about, with board director and kick ass actor David Strathairn:

Check out their website for more info plus showtimes for Shakespeare Remix and other projects: Epic Theater Ensemble 

(www.epictheatrectr.org)

AFP Sunset Jam. Here's what it looked like...

"Be Yourself No Matter What They Say"

Yesterday I went to the Art for Progress event I told you about at the Bandshell in Central Park and it was so much fun.

Yesterday I remembered how to love New York and why.

Yesterday was liberation ~ giving way to a bit of peace today.



Performances by:
DJ's Nickmatic, Gatto, JP Solis, Dennis Sebayan and Sal Leone with a special vocal performance from JC Cassis.

Grafitti artists Royce Bannon and Alberto Hernandez created words live - drawing inspiration from the crowd.

And then, there was the crowd... see if you can guess who my favorite person was. (big smile)

Love and Light for your week my darlings.

"Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level."

Some people can't imagine being loved
So they don't want love
and refuse it when gently offered to them

What do we do with people like this? Grant their wish to be left alone by turning our backs, ignoring them, maybe even treating them with a little of the same miserable cruelty that they offer in abundance? Understandable if you say 'yes' here.

But I say no actually. And to be clear, it is not because of God or some other mystical reason; and certainly not in following some societal rule of deportment; far simpler.

It is perhaps unbelievable, and certainly naive, and always a bit painful, but I simply never feel better brandishing the same bitterness and hostility shown by others. It makes me feel worse. I prefer to keep giving love...if even at a distance.

It's easier to look at such misery for what it is: fearful loneliness and an incapability to ask for a way out of that darkness. I just can't be so merciless to turn my back on such vulnerability when I can see right through it - even if I'm looking through a wall of fire.

"Abatement in the hostility of one's enemies must never be thought to signify they have been won over. It only means that one has ceased to constitute a threat."

That said - I do find bitter humor thoroughly enjoyable:

"Health consists of having the same diseases as one's neighbors."

Foto ©SeBiArt
"Living en famille provides the strongest motives for rudeness combined with the maximum opportunity for displaying it."

"There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse. "

All quotes by ~Quinten Crisp~ Click for more Crisp-isms.

Support Post: "Nouveau Americain" with Naganuma Dance & AFP's "Sunset Jam in Central Park"

Here are two events coming up this November that will be well worth your time.

Naganuma Dance is a modern dance company here in New York that produces interesting and provocative pieces where movement, imagery, and text are presented on stage in a way to stimulate senses and to spark intellectual examination and discourse. My dear friend Justin became a part of this company a little over a year ago and I'm so proud to support his efforts, but more proud to spread the word so you do too - as honestly, it's not some piece-of-crap company - thankfully!!


Click on the image below to see the postcard bigger and in a separate viewer.




You can also see more of them at the new Naganuma Dance website!

Photo of Justin from a shoot we did together recently:



___

New SeBiArt Series "Perched" at AFP's Artists' Loft

Unstuck and perched on a branch of uncertainty
yet cradled by the majesty of freedom,
betwixt two worlds and poised for the sweetness of NEW...

...go

by Berette Macaulay


If you're free this Saturday, come see me and a new photo series: Perched I, II, & III

In the final analysis, the story can now begin...

So yes, I promised over and over again that I would do this - blog, blog, blog the journey. Show and tell the story of my unusual family reunion in Czech Rep and Germany, and document whatever else occurred while away on this sabbatical from New York. Well...in my last moments, hours away from boarding my flight, I start - with my last recording as my first entry. Vague as it may be, it will get clearer; I promise. Or at least that's what I hope for myself when I look back and extract the essence as I move forward...join me whenever you can.

peace with ease and only love