I suppose I could blame it all on the Arcade Fire concert at Radio City last Wednesday. Women my age shouldn't be going to rock concerts. We get goofy afterwards, start remembering our more idealistic, less materialistic youth.
When I was 15, I saw a film about creativity where a gentleman by the name of Arthur Koestler postulated that creative thought was like a "dance of the hooked atoms". I still remember that swirling, tornado-like animated vortex of creative possibility projected on the pull down screen in our darkened science classroom. I wanted to hook atoms, I wanted to dance, I wanted to have a creative life.
But back to Arcade Fire, the Montreal band of the anthemic vamp song "Wake Up" used by U2 during their Vertigo concerts, of Fashion Rocks with David Bowie, of indie album fame. You never know for sure how a band's live music will move - or fail to move - you until the stage lights come up and the first notes ripple out to touch your eardrums and your head starts to dip and sway wildly. I was 15 again last Wednesday night, and the hooked atoms were dancing on the stage, playing their hearts out.
It was on their fan site's forum that I happened onto a discussion about the controversial stage-rushing that took place that night, and some thoughtful posts by a young cameraman whose web site led me to Cafepress.com. For the past few years, I've been trying to find the head space to hook my atoms around a non-profit project to fund the charities I believe in in South East Asia; suddenly, well it was not unlike the adage "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear."
I know there will no doubt be controversy about my decision to use my travel photo images on consumer products. But if I can spread the word, raise funds for my favorite charities, and hook a few atoms on the way, so be it.
It's a crazy snowy day just outside New York, and one month back from our trip to Bali (view from the Lotus Pond Restaurant in Ubud to the right) and Singapore, I'd be singing the blues in a volume to rival Jennifer Hudson if it weren't for emails today from two wonderful people I met during my last two trips to SE Asia. They both have their own blogs here -- Dean, our driver for four days in Bali, who became so much more than a driver, a real friend and Susan Stem, an amazing collector of tribal textiles and artifacts available through her web site Tribal Trappings, who lives outside of Chiang Mai.
I am so glad we live in a global village; I'm trying to remember life pre-internet (we wrote letters, then, that's right !! Sent each other duplicate photos of our adventures). But for all the too-fast, need it now, instantaneous aspects of life the net has foisted upon us, the ability it has given us to share what we love best with others no matter which time zone or continent they live in has to be one of the real miracles of the 21st century. I've put together a web site about our most recent trip to Bali and one for last year's trip to Thailand. This year I also added a blog of the posts I've written for my trip report at Fodor's forum, with shopping ideas and pictures of "loot". Remember that bit about the buddha being happy when I try ?? I'm hoping a small amount of consumeristic tendencies will be offset by spreading my good old US dollars around.
Other news: Lori Carlson, who founded the Ponheary Ly Foundation, has been in Siem Reap visiting schools -- so there will be new pictures and possibly new projects coming up on her web site soon.
And here's to Al Gore pointing out (on all places, the Oscar broadcasts last night, but then who can argue with a means to reach an audience of 1 billion) that the environment is NOT a political issue. Or shouldn't be one, probably closer to the truth, as I don't know much that isn't political in the world today. A few months ago, I pulled out some of the activist coloring books I produced in the early 90's to send to Lori to show her how we worked with children's drawings then, and it drew me down a memory lane of the amazing time before the Brazilian Earth Summit when it seemed possible that interest in rainforests, protecting diverse habitats and indigenous people and their cultures could paint large brushstrokes on our foreign policy. Times have changed. Sting is back in the Police while the Rainforest Alliance he founded is working with Michelob on a fundraiser, The Rainforest Alliance is promoting McDonald's "certified" coffee (I guess we have Starbucks to thank for that?), and The Rainforest Action Network, god bless Randy Hayes' soul, is still mounting protests.
I suppose I could blame it all on the Arcade Fire concert at Radio City last Wednesday. Women my age shouldn't be going to rock concerts. We get goofy afterwards, start remembering our more idealistic, less materialistic youth.
