I am leaving for China on Tuesday. From now until January 9,2009 you can follow my travels on Japan and China on my Mind. Head on over there now to read about what I am doing to get ready and, hopefully to cross the "Great Firewall" and be able to post in China.
I haven't done very well about finishing my visit to Door County, and it may never get done. I'm just too busy packing and getting ready to leave. The pictures are posted in a new album in the left column; scroll down below the links to other blogs. Raja wrote a post about. But the best is a new blog by Sandy, called Color me Blanc. She tells about many of the techniques we used and the experiments we did. If you are interested in collage and altered books, this will be a great resource.
Sometimes Pittsburgh is amazing. I've
been away so much I hadn't realized that since August 6 there have
been a series of events commemorating the
A-bombing of Hiroshima, 63 years ago. Friday night there were presentations
by one of the survivors (hibakusha), Sachiko Masuoka and the daughter of a survivor, Yuki Miyamoto.The presentations were both incredible and terrible. Ms. Masuoka, a tiny 81-year old, stood straight and unflinchingly recited her story, the terrible things she witnessed. Only once did tears come to her eyes when she spoke about her little brother who died. She lost both a younger sister and the brother. She told about something that was either not mentioned at the Hiroshima memorial, or I overlooked when I was there: flies
would lay eggs in the wounds of the burn victims and the maggots
would eat into their flesh. She knew of one girl who survived because her mother removed each of the maggots with a tweezers. That affected me almost as much as the
terrible photographs and objects I saw at the museum. By the end of the presentation I was just as shattered as I had been in Hiroshima.
The topic is more relevant than ever, since our own president and several other world leaders are able to contemplate using nuclear weapons. Too bad these people don't want to understand the tragedy they would create. The theme of the presentation was "Remembering Hiroshima, Imaging Peace." These days peace seems to be unimaginable.
Robin, Steve and Charna brought this winter squash (the big one) home from a farm stand in Ohio. I'm completely fascinated with it. I've looked through at least 500 pictures on Google and can't find it. Can anyone give me a name for it? I'd love to know more. They were told it is wonderful eating; we haven't tried it yet.
Dear Senator McCain,
Last night in the debate you said:
So, Senator McCain, what I want to know is:
How do you reconcile this with your stand against a woman's right to choose?
Do you not consider women part of families?
Or do you think women are not capable of making decisions between themselves and their doctors?
What about
providing information about contraceptives? We keep giving men more
ability to produce babies. Shouldn't we be giving women the right not
to have those babies? And having their health insurance pay for contraceptives just as it pays for Viagra?
I haven't seen anything in the media about this. I know it's not the most important issue facing the country at this time (women's issues are never the most important). But I think it speaks to your judgment when you can blithely make a statement without considering all of its implications. Women want to know what you really mean when you say you want families to make decisions together with their doctors.
*This quote is taken from the New York Times transcript of the debate found here.
I took the day off from planning my trip (and writing about the last one) to attend a conference on "Women's Health and the Environment." What a worthwhile day this was. Although I often worry about cancer, my family has an extensive history of it, I never thought much about the part the environment plays, or the part it must play in autism and ADHD. This was really an eye opener for me. Being a lazy writer and reporter I rely on you to follow the links I'm providing. This is an important subject; we should all seek to have a better understanding of what is going on.
The conference was sponsored in part by Teresa Heinz, who also gave the opening address. She was marvelous. I was immediately captivated when she declared: "The more we can ask the more we can make healthy choices, and here's
why: ignorance kills and knowledge saves lives. Preventive medicine is
part of knowledge." She stressed the importance of preventative medical care for all, and talked about how our healthcare system was broken, one of my favorite topics. For more of what she said go here.
The theme of the conference was: New Science, New Solutions. The keynote speaker, Nancy Nichols, talked about growing up in Waukegan, Illinois, and how, as children, she and her sister played on the shores of Lake Michigan on what later was identified as tons of PCBs and at least three huge superfund sites. Both of them developed rare cancers when they were in their forties, her sister dying from a rare form of ovarian cancer. Needless to say, I was probably drinking the water in Chicago that came down from Waukegan.
An "Air and Water" panel and a "Food and Personal Care Products" panel gave us more information than I really wanted to know, about how our food is produced and how chemicals found everywhere in our lives are never tested for safety. It almost makes me want to stop eating–a very big statement for me.
I'm not going to tell you everything I learned. The conference website will have podcasts of all of the speakers. I'll let you know when they are posted and hope you will listen to them. And I'll talk about this again.
I began writing on my new toy computer even though I couldn't connect it to the internet. Here is some of what I wrote:
September 17
I am a mass of thoughts and impressions
as I wake this morning and don't know how to put them all down. This
is so strange to me. This house reminds me of Kentuck Knob, one of
the Frank Lloyd Wright houses near Pittsburgh. It has that kind of
show house/museum quality. There is even a table and lamp in my room
that look like FLW. I think my apartment could fit in here 10 times
with space left over. The custom made dining room table comfortably
seats 16 and you could probably squeeze in 20. We had an elegant steak dinner last night. I don't
remember when I last had filet mignon. And there's more beef on the
way. My mostly vegetarian family would be appalled. Here is the sun rising over Lake Michigan.
Not much art today. Lots of ideas; we took a trip
to an antique store for books to alter; had lunch at Door County Coffee
and Tea for Pilgrim sandwiches, hashbrown bake, triple layer brownie
and tea; wound up at Kathy's studio, a wonderful log cabin and
separate studio and garage in the woods. Back at Anita's we looked at
some of the idea books we brought and decided we were too tired to
work tonight. Tomorrow we'll begin.
After dinner, reminiscing,
and trying to remember names, (raja says we have problems with nouns
that won't remain in our heads), I brought up someone I had worked
with who left the area and went to Arizona with her husband and
kids, they ultimately returned and she remained with another woman.
Sandy was remarkably compassionate saying how awful it must be to
hide your own needs for so long then finally come out of the closet.
I hadn't thought about it quite that way, preferring to believe one
could be first one thing then another. Now that doesn't make sense to
me. Sandy was right and I was impressed with her compassion. Here is Lake Michigan from the porch.
And Lake Michigan while walking on the beach.
I've begun posting on my other blog. If you want to know what I did today, go to Japan and China on My Mind.
Five hundred and three miles from Carol's house to Robin's house. It took me about nine hours this time; there was a big delay in Chicago where they hadn't finished nightly work on the highway, and I made more stops than usual. The trip was otherwise uneventful with another audio book: Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China, by Phillip P. Pan, which I didn't finish. It's much longer than the first one and I listened to NPR for the first two hours I was on the road.
My visit to Door County was wonderful, easily the most satisfying four days I've had in years. Anita was the perfect hostess; the environment was beautiful–a great house near the waves on Lake Michigan singing to us; old friends making good conversation and a spacious studio where we could work and talk and listen to music; no cell phones and only occasional internet access. We came together to make artist's books, or it's a good excuse, anyway.
We arrived in the middle of the afternoon, Tuesday, after a pleasant drive. Some of the little towns up here are just lovely. I jokingly said I'd like to live up here and was almost laughed out of the car. The thing about being with old friends is that you can't kid them. They all know how much I need the big city.
Kathy and Frank joined us for the great dinner Anita made. Afterward, we had a lively political discussion. I think we outnumbered the Republicans, but they seemed to make more noise. Fortunately, we did not discuss politics very often.
I have lots of photos and much more to tell. Tomorrow is another day.
After a beautiful, sunny few days the rains came; we got the remnants of hurricane Ike. It rained for two days and now things are flooded all around us. I moved to Carol's house, in tａhe 'burbs', on Sunday, getting only a little wet. Yesterday was only gray, no rain, but the floods made it difficult to get anywhere south or east. Raja and I were meeting Karen and Kathryn near where they lived; a forty-five minute drive that took an hour and a half. I think we were lucky we got there at all. I'm using my new ultra-mini laptop to write this. I got the Asus eeepc, not my first choice, but I was getting tired of waiting and this was available. I want to make sure it works and get used to it before I get on the plane for China. I obviously did something wrong and couldn't figure out how to fix it. This thing has mysteries I have yet to fathom. I'm waiting for Raja and Sandy to pick me up and we're off to Door County.
A fiery, red sun, rising out of Lake Michigan, welcomed me to the city yesterday morning. Betty and I walked to the Art Institute on this beautiful day with the city looking as bright and sparkly as anyone could wish. Chicago never looks as grungy as New York, at least in part because there are alleys here, where trash gets picked up by an army of trash collectors and recyclers. New York trash gets put on the sidewalk, even on the most elegant streets.
We saw a wonderful show about Benin, another show of Japanese prints about Americans in Yokohama and drawings about Daniel Burnham's master plan for the city. In 1909, Burnham laid out the system of parks along the lake front and forest preserves in the suburbs that are still in existence and cherished today.
In the evening, I drove out to the suburbs and had dinner with some of my cousins. Unfortunately, the group keeps diminishing. They are all very special to me and I try to see them each time I come to Chicago.
Today, by contrast, is a gray, gloomy day with occasional raindrops in the air. I met more cousins at the Museum of Contemporary Art where we saw the Jeff Koons show and then went on to a show of political prints at a new gallery space at Loyola. The exhibits were OK, but I was mostly interested in talking with these cousins whom I haven't seen for more than a year, possibly two.
Most of my time from now until Monday will be spent with friends and relatives. Tuesday I'm on to Door County. Raja has a nice post about it here.
100 Books Before I Die 