flying high flutterby

Success! There she is, Andrea Kay, with her cellist and drawings of her father, at the health professions conference in Atlanta, Georgia!
That was April 4th, her first presentation of her work.
I am sure she will travel far, and continuously, with her talk about connecting to her father during his last days. Connecting to the man she loved through the fog in which he lived, the fog known as Alzheimer's Disease.
This kickstarter project is dear to me. I have several friends working in the health professions field and I have shared this young woman's work with them. I will continue to do so as time marches forward, because dementia is widespread and heartbreaking to so many in this world.
Novel approaches are needed. Not only for those stricken with dementia, but for those who love them and those who care for them.
Pictures speak when words fail.

genesis, with okra, of course

Well, I have not yet made the recipe, but I sure do like her writing style! Rachel Strickland, aka Madame Rex, had promised a gumbo recipe to 32 of her 49 kickstarter backers. You know, those of us willing to put up at least $25 buckaroos.
Cool beans!
I don't know for sure that I should be posting the recipe here, but I'm going to. Why? Well, I misplace things all the time. As long as I have it here, it'll be easy for me to find when I want to treat folks to a unique Cajun dish from a dancer.
So, here goes!

Rachel’s Voodoo Gumbo- the Veggie Version (for Abby)

The great thing about gumbo is you can put whatever you want in it and it tastes awesome. That’s kind of the point- to use whatever you have around. So use this ingredient list as a guideline if you like and feel free to go rogue. Making gumbo is an act of fundamental affection- love away and make it your own invention! But please do not leave out the okra. That's just wrong.

You will need:

One big ass pot
Large cast iron skillet
2-3 cartons of vegetable broth- enough to fill the big ass pot
One package of robust vegetarian sausage, whatever you like (but nothing sweet...gross)
Any other kind of protein you want to use, like cubed tofu or tempeh
Okra- one frozen bag will do, or .5 lb to 1 lb of fresh, chopped up
The holy trinity: one onion, one green pepper, some celery (as many as you like, I use four stalks) all chopped up
Garlic, crushed and chopped
Brown rice
Two tomatoes
Any vegetable based shortening, like Crisco
1/2 to 1 whole cup of white vinegar- to taste
Some flour, white or wheat, finely ground.
Tony Chachere’s creole seasoning (or cayenne, black pepper, and salt will do just fabulously)
Gumbo filé if you can get it (a thickening agent of sassafrass leaves, but you won't miss it if you don't have it)


What you do:

Go ahead and prepare the rice and set it aside. It doesn't need to be hot to serve since it will be covered with scalding gumbo.

Empty two cartons of vegetable broth and the vinegar into the big ass pot and coat the surface with seasonings to your own taste, then stir and put on the stove on medium/medium high heat.

Using the cast iron skillet, heat some olive oil on medium heat. Cube the sausage and toss it in. Brown the sausage, and if you like you can brown any other proteins you want to add. Save whatever oil collects in the pan. Once protein is browned, add it to the big ass pot of simmering veggie broth.

After about 5 minutes taste the broth and add seasonings if you need to. You can add spice to make it hotter, or add more veggie broth to calm it down. I like to cover the surface of the gumbo with Tony’s (or whatever I have) twice while cooking. Please note that Tony's is very salty so if you're not a sodiumphile, go with cayenne and black pepper. You can also add some gumbo filé now too.

Now you hafta make a roux. Otherwise known as cajun napalm.

Go back to your big iron skillet and whatever oil you managed to collect in it from the veggie sausages. Add a scoop of shortening, about 1/2 cup, and heat it slowly until it smokes. As soon as it starts to smoke, sprinkle flour over the surface and whisk. You have to babysit a roux, whisking pretty much the whole time, or it will burn and taste gross. Keep adding flour little bit by bit until you have a thin sauce-like consistency. I believe that the roux is the soul of a gumbo so do try to think happy thoughts while doing it. Making roux while you're unhappy is bad mojo.
The color is also important to note here. It will begin at a light caramel and darken the longer it’s heated (stirring all the time with a whisk). The darker the roux, the deeper the voodoo and the more intense the flavor. In my opinion anything lighter than a milk chocolate is unacceptable, but this is your party. For best results keep stirring the roux until it’s almost the color of dark chocolate or a heavy thunderstorm.

Then pour the roux into the big ass pot. NOTE: I’ve just asked you to pour very hot oil into water. USE CAUTION. Pour slowly and stand back, using a lid as a shield if you need to. It will hiss, spit, and spray. I’m sure there is a safer way to do this but the drama of this way appeals to me, so it’s the only way I know how. Please don’t get napalmed by the roux because it will take your skin right off. Take a second to appreciate how the texture and color of the broth immediately becomes more fascinating.

With the skillet still coated in roux, transfer it immediately back to the heat, add the garlic, chopped onions, and a little olive oil. Stir till coated and then cook until it is slightly burnt on the edges. Add to big ass pot.

Now add the chopped peppers, celery, okra, and any other vegetable you wish to include. Bring to a rolling boil, then reduce heat to a low boil and you can cover it to prevent evaporation. If you need more liquid, add more vegetable stock or even just water.

To add the tomatoes, dunk them one at a time into the boiling gumbo for about 30 seconds. Then you can peel them easily and squish them into a bowl. Dump it in and watch the red color disperse beautifully.

Taste it after it's cooked for 10 minutes or more, and add spices as you see fit. Let it simmer on low for at least 20 minutes if you can't wait any longer. The longer it's all in the liquid together, the better it tastes. Also you don't want to overboil it so the vegetables turn to mush. But it will taste amazing today and even better tomorrow. Serve over a heap of rice in a bowl, to people you love (or would like to).
--
Rachel Strickland
MadameRex.com

I don't know about the okra, but I'm willing to give it a try.
I already have the gumbo filé.
(No, you don't do your fingernails with it.)
Check your phone messages for an invite!
Meanwhile, the video should be here very soon!
Hopefully in time for my LIV birthday!

solidarityNYC

Today, I received a blueprint for creating economia solidaria, here in North America. Anywhere in North America, even here in the United States of America. How do I know such a program based on grassroots economics justice can even work here?
Let me tell you how I know: It's been working in New York City since the late 1970's. Three decades, and counting, is a sure sign of success. Caroline Woolard, who created this kickstarter project, took a good look around at the flailing economy all over this great country and decided that the way to help was to film the success stories at hand. With the kickstarter funds in hand, she and two other leaders of the Solidarity Economy in New York City have created a video documentary which introduces the viewer to six different aspects of people working together for a greater good.
The first video is of an intentional community - reminiscent of the communes of the 1960's, but not a drug culture. As explained by Michael Johnson, the community profiled here (Ganas) consists of seventy-five inhabitants of eight houses. The residents share all incomes, share all expenses, share all ownership of property. The keyword is share. That doesn't mean they don't have some personal possessions, but everything of worth belongs to all. Ten core members help guide the flow of money, but these are ten people of Ganas, not of some outside group.
They must be doing something right. The community has been together, and growing in number, on Staten Island since 1979.
The Park Slope Food Co-Op, also founded in the late 1970's, is located in Brooklyn. Joe Holz, its general manager as well as a member, talks in the video about the operation, from staffing to shopping. Again, don't think hippies and dirty root vegetables...that is definitely not the case in the two food co-operatives highlighted in this segment. Here, foods and other goods are purchased, distributed, and sold democratically by the very consumers of the goods. Even the workers at the stores are a rotating schedule of members who volunteer their time!
Wondering about how to handle money? Credit Unions, member-owned, member-operated, with all monies made channeled right back into the community of members. Deyanira Del Rio, the Chair of the Board of Directors at the Lower East Side People's federal Credit Union in New York, highlights the ordinary aspects of this business begun in 1986. Sure, the name makes it sound rather limited in scope...until you realize the members are drawn from the large pool of people who "live, work, volunteer, worship, or attend school in Manhattan Community Board 3 (Lower East Side) and Manhattan Community Board 10 (Central Harlem)". Wow.
But no worries if there is no money; trade is available. Through use of a barter network, goods and services receive agreed-upon "values" which can then be exchanged. Caroline Woolard's group, OurGoods, is a collection of artists working together to obtain the materials they need by utilizing the services they can supply. The group is fairly new, as it originated in 2009, but the concept goes back many years in the history of mankind. (Consider the interactions between the first foreign settlers in this country and the natives already well-versed in the the resources available.)
Another means of helping a community of specialists, like artists, is through a worker co-operative. In this video, the specialists are health providers with a wide variety of services. Third Root Community Health Center is owned and controlled by its members and has been serving Brooklyn since 2008. Talesh Priscilla Pascual Lopez shares the philosophy of the center: good health for all people, regardless of income. Apparently, that way of doing business works.
Another group looks to make a direct impact through political channels. Community Voices Heard, based in Harlem since 1996, uses the concept of participatory budgeting to improve the lives of those in the neighborhood. Ann Bragg, a board member of the group, discusses how it works in the video. Apparently, the city of New York is going to be incorporating the group's methods to make a better city for all.
Isn't that the dream of grassroots organizations everywhere? To serve as a working model of the success possible through community and sharing?
Everyone has a vote; everyone's vote matters. Isn't that the goal of democracy?

parkour here and there

A blue-streaked sky and a blue-toed shoe of a boy walking in the air
http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicfly/6836157662/in/set-72157629462250252/

A pale surface, a crisp blue sky, and a sage green shirt vie geometrically
http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicfly/6840252470/

Dusty orange shoes kick at the air, surrounded by earthy brick and pyramids
http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicfly/6982260593/in/set-72157629462250252

Blue toes, blue windowpanes, and a world a-tilt
http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicfly/6836155554/

muted purple hopscotching toward a greener city
http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicfly/6836136396/

blue toes perpendicular to the earthy brick, defying gravity
http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicfly/6836155818/

Thor thunderbolt karate-kicking thin air
http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicfly/6836138412/

Begun as a hobby and developed into a passion, "The Freedom To Run" encourages its viewers to take leaps of faith into... thin air. I know nothing of parkour, but even my klutzy self can see the grace in the act of escaping the earth if only for a moment, the breeze of your passing ruffling your hair and bussing your cheek.
As a supporter of the project, if only in a small way, I now have the good fortune of choosing one of the images to hold in my hands, post onto my walls or capture in a frame. But which??? I did narrow the range of images to these few. Any suggestions? Me, neither. I pared the list down a little more - to five choices - then sent my wish-list to the artist. I'm willing to accept whichever image may come my way - I have wall space waiting to be filled with the catching of air.

sealed with a lipschtick kiss!

When I had funded this kickstarter project two months ago, I had done so knowing I would not see the show, knowing there would be no video rewards, knowing they were already a "sure thing".
But I did so anyway.
I really like their logo!
I really like the diversity of their group!
I really like the fun they're having in their shows!

Their sense of humor is even readily seen in the thank-you note, with its huge red kiss!
Fliss!
Thanks so much for schticking with us & for your support!
We think you're real peachy!
Lipschtick
As the card says, they are "complicating the norms of feminism, patriotism, and Judaism. Lay on the schmaltz, we're cookin' up some of Babushka's best."
For a look at some of their style of cookin', check here. They are also on youTube, of course, with some bawdier bits.
Happy viewing!

the world is IN the PINK

Connie Noyes' dream has become reality! Last night was the grand launch party at her studio in Chicago for the website for her "IN the PINK: 1,000,000 people art project". As she decribes the site, the "interactive platform will allow 1,000,000 people from around the globe to post projects they are passionate about, creative projects with the potential to change the world."
Nice, right?
But I very much like the art's description on the website.
As a global citizen in the 21st Century, what does it mean to be in good condition for our world, our communities or our selves? In the PINK: the 1,000,000 people art project is a multifaceted project designed for artists and collaborators from all disciplines to create, build and sustain a global community centered on creative process, interaction and dialog. The project draws attention and awareness to socio-cultural, historic, trans-national, economic, political, creative, generational, gender and spiritual issues based on cultural and/or personal connections to the color “PINK” or the phrase “IN THE PINK”.
We've come right back to that 1970's slogan, haven't we?
THINK global, ACT local.
I hope her work will inspire others to continue that line of thought.
Meanwhile, if I'm ever in the Chicago area, I'll certainly visit her exhibit.

unchained again! rawrf! rawrff!

The Bluebird flies again! Unchained is on the loose!
Run to your nearest coffeehouse for their heart-grown tales and foot-tappin' music!
As you can see, my T-shirt has arrived! You can't tell from the photo above, but the design is on the bottom left portion of the shirt. The front of the bus is on the front, with the bottom of the bus wrapping around to the back. Very nice!
I really like the Georgia hound dog sticker, too! I can just hear him now, baying of their coming as he runs down the back roads of Georgia and South Carolina and Florida! Ar-ROOOO! Ar-ROO-ROO-ROO!
Nice thank-you note, too. I really appreciate those!