The Cascabel Community Festival was last weekend. Cascabel is a ting community along the San Pedro River, east of Tucson and north of Benson. This was my fourth year as a vendor, but I have been to Cascabel many, many times since the early 1980s. Here is a story about Cascabel in the Tucson Examiner.
Central Arts Gallery moved out of its Congress street location last weekend. This weekend, it will reopen at its new location in the Citizen's Warehouse. Here is a link to an Examiner article about CAG's first event in its new home-- "As Is Art Yard Sale."
Anyone who has followed this blog knows that I am an avid dancer and that I have been dancing all of my life. have written several posts about dancing in Tucson.
Halloween is not just a day in Tucson, it's a season! Are you ready? Here are some costume tips for adults in my latest article in the Tucson Examiner.
True Stories, the latest exhibit at the Central Arts Gallery, opens this Saturday, October 3, with an artists' reception from 6-9 p.m. 
$1500 per year for sex? Is sex too expensive? Read my latest article in the Tucson Examiner and learn what you can do about it.
Will the H1N1 flu be as bad as the 1918 influenza pandemic? Who knows? Here are some flue prevention tips from my Grandma, pictured here with Grandpa. They survived the 1918 flu.
If you're interested in progressive issues, Drinking Liberally is the place to be in Tucson on a Thursday night. Check out my article on Drinking Liberally in the Tucson Examiner.
Here is the link to a humorous top 20 list about Baby Boomers and old hippies. I wrote this for the Tucson Examiner. Feel free to forward and comment; I know there are items that I forgot. Several readers have already added more items. Enjoy.
It seems as if the 4th Avenue underpass has been under construction forever!
Erotic Stimulus Package-- the latest exhibit at the Central Arts Gallery-- opens Saturday, August 1 and runs through September 26. 
Tucson's fourth Ignite Tucson event will be this Thursday, July 30. 
Greetings from Hawaii-- where time means nothing and I've forgotten what day of the week it is. 
Here is Alex strolling out to the Pacific Ocean with a boogie board. At right, we're waiting for the bus to take us to the beach.Waikiki was nice, but strewn with tourists snapping photos and watching the locals surf and boogie board. Waimanolo was much prettier and less crowded-- far more locals than tourists.
The drumming started to wind down as the sun began to set, so we decided to try to find the Hare Krishna Farm for the regular Sunday night feast, gathering and inspirational message. Again, we drove and drove, but finally stumbled upon the right one-lane country road to take us there. I wish I had had my camera for these two events, but I didn't think pictures would be appropriate. 
On Monday, we went to the warm pond to swim in the morning. It was a luxurious thermal pond right off the ocean. After swimming, we went to Big Ed's Farm, where Alex lived for six months, six years ago. That was an eye-opener. Since she ran out of batteries not long after arrival, I had not seen many pictures of the place. 
If you look up "rustic" in Wikipedia, there will be a picture of The Farm. It is basically acreage of weeds, trees, lean-tos, and abandoned vehicles. People find The Farm through Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOFing). The idea behind WWOOFing is that people volunteer to work on organic farms in exchange for room and board-- no pay. 
There doesn't seem to be much work going on on Ed's Farm. Mostly college students hang around and live on meager rations until they're tired of eating rice, beans, and mangoes, taking showers with a hose, washing their clothes by hand, and swatting flies by day and mosquitoes by night. A rustic lifestyle in paradise is an experience that they will talk about for the rest of their lives, though. (Above, Alex and Stephanie pose in The Farm's open-air kitchen.)
After The Farm, we went to Lava Tree National Park, which was very beautiful but paled in comparison to the farming adventure and swimming in the warm pond. We ended the day with a drink a a dive bar in downtown Pahoa.
Saturday, June 6 marked the one year anniversary of the Central Arts Gallery, a cooperative gallery in downtown Tucson. The new exhibit, Renewal, marks the culmination of a year of ups and downs. Although the gallery membership has changed several times during the year, a core group of artists--who are now friends-- has kept the gallery alive and fostered its evolution. I'm proud to say that I am a member of that core group and proud of what Central Arts Gallery has accomplished this year. It hasn't always been easy-- far from it-- but it has been rewarding.
I have three photographs in the Renewal show: "Watercourse Way, Playa Blanca, Colombia,""Still Live on the Beach, Playa Blanca, Colombia" (above), and "Abundance, Pinos Altos, New Mexico." I also have a few pieces on the Small Works Wall: "Bano en Paraiso, Playa Blanca, Colombia"(at right), "Wandering, San Carlos, Mexico," and "Flow with Me." 
The Fifth Annual Mujeres, Mujeres, Mujeres exhibit will open at Raices Taller 222 Art Gallery and Workshop tomorrow, May 2. This is always a great show with many eclectic works by women artists. I have been attending this exhibit for years, but this is the first time my artwork has been included. 
A good capitalist can always find a way to make a buck-- even at the beginning of a worldwide pandemic. For the past week, the swine flu has been all the rage in the news-- new cases popping up in different countries and dozens of deaths in Mexico, where it may have originated. On the news, you see people trudging along the streets wearing masks. 
I must admit, I did print out the coupon, and maybe, I'll wander past a mall sometime in the next three days and take advantage of the sale. I really like Bath and Body Works lotion-- smells great and has a really rich texture-- but I almost never buy it because it's soooooooo expensive. 
Tomorrow-- April 22-- is Earth Day. It's one day a year when some of us think about the Earth, what humankind is doing to it, and how to ameliorate the impact of civilization on our environment. We used to manufacture goods in the US, but we have become a country of debit-ridden consumers. Waste and hyper-consumerism have been taking a toll on our environment for decades. Now, our current economic crisis has brought to light the folly of our wasteful, short-term, profit-oriented, consumer-driven lifestyle. Maybe this crisis is a good thing? As a country, maybe we needed a womp upside the head to wake us up? 
Downtown will be hopping tomorrow night, with many galleries will be open for the Central Tucson Gallery Association's First Saturday event. 
I peeked at the show before it was hung, and there is a wide range of art, as usual. A few artists have chosen this theme to make political statements. Carlos Encinas' Dollar Store Art display presents a sarcastic view of the cheap-is-good mentality. Patrick McCardle's portrait of President Obama being threatened by a snarling bulldog is thought-provoking when you consider the pervasive in-fighting in Washington, DC. The Central Arts Gallery show will also feature an art raffle.I began dancing in honky tonks at a very young age. My parents were both dancers. In fact, they met on a blind date at a big band swing dance in the 1940s at the Cedar Point ballroom and danced together for 40+ years until my father moved on-- to that big ballroom in the sky.
I can remember being 3 or 4 years old and going to the bar with my father and my brother who was a babe in arms. He and some of his friends were laid off-- during a past recession. My mother had gone back to work to help support the family, and Dad was our caretaker. On occasion, in the afternoon, Dad would pack us into the Chevy and go downtown for a beer-- well, probably more than one. Dad laid Jim-- wrapped up in his baby blanket-- on the bar, and I socialized with the bar flies. The geezers at the bar would give me money for the juke box. I would punch in the numbers and dance around the bar. (This begs several questions. 1) Is this how I learned my letters and numbers? Play C17, Pammie! 2) What was my favorite song? Elvis? Johnny Cash? Karl Perkins? There was a lot of great music back in the mid-1950s. 3) Did God make honky tonk angels? Or not? 4) Was I born to be a honky tonk woman?)
My parents used to have dance parties in the late 1950s and early 1960s in our basement-- a cool place in more ways than one-- or at my Aunt Nan's place "at The Lake." (Lake Erie, that is). When the parties were at our house, my cousins and I would sneak down the cellar steps to watch our parents dance, drink, and smoke cigarettes. Since the Powers/Fox descendants are English/Irish (respectively), there was always a bar set up at the dance parties. The favorite of the Powers clan was bourbon (most likely from Kentucky-- like Jim Beam or Heaven Hill) + whatever mixer they had (probably Pepsi). "The cousins" were supposed to be sleeping, but hello, who could sleep with all of that loud music? Since I was the oldest cousin, I most likely led the other six astray. (I gotta find those pictures of my parents, aunts, and uncles swing dancing.)
After my Dad passed, Mom said her dancing days were over, but I hope my she still dances around the living room when she plays He'll Have to Go or her Patsy Cline 8 track tapes.
Anyone who knows me or has read this blog knows that I dance at least twice a week-- usually more. You name it, I dance it-- east coast swing, west coast swing, blues dancing, multiple varieties of two-step, waltz, salsa, merengue, bachata, villanato, cha-cha, free style-- even the polka (which I was born to dance, since I am half German and grew up in Northern Ohio).
In recent years, I have really gotten into going to The Maverick-- one of the best honky tonks in Tucson, as far as I'm concerned. Growing up, I was not into country music-- at all. Although I remember my father playing Johnny Cash on the record player in the late 1950s, country, bluegrass, and, of course, polka, were were totally un-cool in the 1960s. For me, music was the Rolling Stones, The Doors, and Chicago blues (especially Paul Butterfield) back then. In the 1970s, I remember listening to Merle Haggard some. (Us hippies got a kick out of I'm Proud to Be an Okie from Muskogee. And I'll let you imagine what we did while singing along!)
I really developed a taste for country and western music when I worked in Benson in the early 1980s and could get only the Benson radio station (KAVV-- The Cave) or the Wilcox station on the radio in my office. Listening to The Cave every day, I began to appreciate country music-- for the danceable beat and the creative lyrics. Now, of course, I get my country fix at The Maverick, the Cactus Moon (now that Robert Moreno is there), and on KXCI-- particularly Rose Lady's show.
Recently, I purchased a wonderful CD-- Dwight Sings Buck-- Dwight Yoakum, that is. This is a great CD of classic country songs. I love his rendition of Close Up the Honky Tonks. Unfortunately, Dwight-- or most likely his record label-- doesn't want to share, so I can't embed it. I really like his version, but I take issue with the way the honky tonk woman is portrayed in this video. Hello, she should be wearing jeans.
In some ways, this song reminds me of my dancing girlfriends and myself, but I believe that any one of us would turn in the honky tonk dancin' for a steady dance partner.
Saturday, March 28, Dinnerware Artspace will host Pollos de Pueblo-- an eclectic art event loosely based on chickens-- chickens themselves, chicken dinners, chicken legs, chicken feathers, chicken feet, chicken dance-- you name it-- maybe even chicks in feather boas. Who knows? 
Friday evening, February 27, is the third Ignite Tucson, and I'm going to give one of the presentations. My topic-- Lover's I've Never Met-- focuses on men whom I've met online but have never met in person. For the most part, I've never even seen pictures of them, but, based upon common interests, we have formed friendships in cyberspace.
Spirit's Journey, the latest exhibit at the Central Arts Gallery, will open this coming Saturday, February 7, 2009, with an artists' reception from 6-9 p.m. 
As many of you know, I have been a member of the Central Arts Gallery (CAG) since it began in May 2008. CAG is a cooperative gallery whose membership has fluctuated during the past 8 months. As with all cooperative ventures, it has not always been very cooperative. One of the inherent problems (or benefits, depending upon how you see it) with cooperatives is that everyone has a voice, and there is really no strong leader, no boss, who has the final say-- just members. Unfortunately, this means that some people always speak louder and longer, and the meek don't always speak.
Bound for Love, a new photograph of mine, will be included in the Amores Perros exhibit at Raices Taller on 6th Street. 
At the top is Bushilter, a floor cloth by Greg Schoon. This was a very dramatic piece. I particularly like the cross inside of the swastika and the swastika inside of the cross.
There were many images that included Bush, Chaney, and the hooded prisoner from Abu Ghraib Prison; they didn't pose together, though. At right is The Ugly Americans by Diane Kleiss Aldrich.
Another piece that spoke to me was American Why? by Maurice Grossman. Even though (no offense, Maurice) it looks like artfully arranged pieces that were lying around his studio, I like it-- especially the faces lying in the sand.
As someone who believes watching television is a worthless, mind-rotting past time, I had to include Comfortably Numb by Jim Jones in this blog post. 
