Create Culture's "A Conversation with Nature"

This past Saturday, I hopped on the train and trekked to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to have "A Conversation with Nature".

The walk was highlighted in Time Out, but a better description was in The Prospect Heights Patch and reads as follows:

What is Mother Nature trying to say to you? Engage in deep listening with musician Kaoru Watanabe in beautiful Prospect Park. As you move around, blindfolded, in a safe environment, you will hear the sounds of Japanese drums and flutes weave in and out of the music of the wind and the trees. With your perception of sound and space becoming radically altered, what sounds you contribute, in this conversation with nature, might surprise you.

A few things made this a really unique and mind-extending experience.

Being blindfolded and "guided" over different terrain, reacquainted me with my feet.
I walk on them every day, regularly force them into uncomfortable shoes, occasionally whack them on dressers, ottomans, and other objects, step on bees in the grass or splinters on the hardwood floor, and all the while, I've never considered their talents as "eyes". It was tremendously empowering, and I imagined myself as a caterpillar, following safely behind my antennae.

I accepted water from a female who appeared out of nowhere.
At the start, I was the only female in our group. About 30 minutes in, still blind, a female voice offered me water and I said thank you and drank it with no concern for possible poison. Newly sightless, I felt safe on my journey. It was lime seltzer too, which was an unexpected sensory experience. She thankfully turned out to be a part of the team.

I allowed myself to just be.
I rarely do anything without simultaneously doing something else. If I watch a movie or listen to a podcast, I draw... When I'm on the treadmill, I read... In my conversation with nature, I had no choice but to be fully present and to allow my senses to have their moments to shine. Afterward, I felt centered and refreshed. I believe the entire experience ran about an hour, and I felt like I'd just invented Yoga.

Lovely, earthy music enhanced the experience thanks to Kaoru Watanabe and to the natural inhabitants of our big blue planet.

In short, I highly recommend this! It's only offered for the next three weeks, so book now! Here's the Create Culture link and the brownpapertickets link with more info.

April Fool's Shenanigans

THIS MORNING'S EMAIL CHAIN:(with only a few responses, posted without names to protect the dignity of the gullible)

Sent: 4/01/11 8:30 amFrom: Linda Beck
To: familySubject: And overnight we become a family of 8
Even with all the tests at the vet a week or so ago, I guess it never occurred to anyone to check and see if our little Naps was pregnant. Well, after a night of inexplicable spasticness on her part, i awoke to see the population in our apartment had increased by four. Strangely enough, none of the kittens have tails, reminiscent of my precious long gone cat, Nougie.
Way to go stray cat. Way to find a place to deposit your kittens.
___
Sent: 4/01/11 8:31 am
From: Linda BeckTo: family
Subject: And overnight we become a family of 8
Did the picture go through? I'm having phone issues. Argggg technology!!
Family members and friend kindly congratulate us on the new arrivals!
"How cute is that" What color are they? and--- WHERE did she have them? Can't wait to see the proud family! Congrats g'ma and g'pa!"

"Nope no pics. Congratulations! 6 new kids in one year. Man! You guys must be exhausted~!!!" ___Sent: 4/01/11 8:40 amFrom: Linda BeckTo: family
Subject: And overnight we become a family of 8
Well, apparently the picture didn't go through. I'll try to send it from work. I don't remember Momkey or Half-Nose's kittens being able to walk when they were just born but apparently my memory is failing. I had to chase three of them back into the apartment before I left.
Oh, and they're almost purple in colour... lavender whiskers. Very pretty.
(Various responses from family members and friends arrive - none of which convey disbelief in the fantastical colour of the kittens.)

"This email chain is almost crazy enough for me to think someone’s sending spam from your account! Congrats on the purple kitties"
___
Sent: 4/01/11 9:00 amFrom: Linda BeckTo: family
Subject: And overnight we become a family of 8
Thanks! They're very cute, even if they look a little like were dropped in the Paas Easter Egg dye. Any theories on what would make them come out like that? I can't find anything on the web. She's a street cat, so who knows what she got into. Their toes are kind of turquoise. Very strange.
My loving family member sincerely asks, "Are you're sure they're KITTENS?"
___
Sent: 4/01/11 9:44 amFrom: Linda BeckTo: family Subject: And overnight we become a family of 8
Just talked to Jeremy -

Now there are 6 kittens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
___
Sent: 4/01/11 10:20 amFrom: Linda BeckTo: family
Subject: And overnight we become a family of 8
Take 4 on sending the picture... Fingers crossed that it goes through this time.

"Yeah, something is weird with them. U should get them checked out. It's a stray cat, so it could be anything. It's in their eyes too they're like bright blue. Either it's something that will go away later or they're just gonna be that way. I would take them to the vet though."
But finally:
"Damn you. April 1st huh?"

And by the way, I Photoshopped those kittens purple - I didn't borrow any kittens and dye them. Sheesh, people.

Psychogeography - Woodside, Queens

Sabba Park's Compass

Psychogeography - "a slightly stuffy term that's been applied to a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities. [It] includes just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape." - Utne Reader
Location: Woodside, Queens
Method: 25 coin flips at corners: tails - turn left, heads - turn right
Participants: Jeremy Beck (who researched almost all of the links below for me), Phineas Beck, and Linda Beck
Inspiration: Create Culture (click to join! You should!)

1. START @ Windmuller Park, named after a German immigrant who prospered in banking and summered in Woodside until his death in 1913 and once remarked that "a good rule to make your tramp a really enjoyable pastime is to be careful and not walk too fast.". Tramp is an underused word - especially in this context. tails - left on 52nd Street. Nice cool breeze and whispering leaves in the trees.

2. heads - right on Skillman

3. tails - left on 51st Street: Fire House for Hook & Ladder 163 / Engine 325 Firehouse, built in 1939. Charming facade.
4. tails - left on 43rd Avenue. There are a number of these moving barber shop poles around the neighbourhood. There is only one company in the United States that manufactures them.
5. heads - cross 43rd Ave
6. tails - cross Roosevelt; under 7 train tracks (running since 1915, designated "7" since 1948; Straphangers 2nd best train in NYC, 2007)
7. heads - right on Queens Boulevard: Past Irish Apostolate, VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Post 2813 (established in 1933), and the Puritan Hall of Education
8. tails - straight on Queens Boulevard (no actual right turn). Passed by Boston Market with illegitimate-looking font. Me to Jeremy, "Why would we ever do Boston Market when everything they make, we make better?"
9. tails - left on 50th Street: across the Boulevard of Death* (from 1993 to 2000, 72 pedestrians were killed trying to cross the road). This rollerskating risk-taker tempted death by showing off his skating skills in the middle of traffic.
Then, continued down past a very noisy bird who was on a window sill in a cage, and then to "Chez José," Jeremy's former home, named after the landlord. Jeremy and our dear friend, James, had a lease there from September 2000- September 2002. José was from Columbia and spent months at a time there, leaving his family (who lived in the basement apt.) in charge of turning on the heat (which they rarely did). The place looks like it has enjoyed a fair amount of landscaping since they moved out.
10. heads - right on 47th Avenue: a peek into the back alley. These semi-detached homes afford quite a few amenities to the owners in garages, parking, storage space, etc.
11. heads - right on 49th Street
12. tails - left on Queens Boulevard. Peace has been abandoned on the sidewalk here. 13. heads - straight across Queens Boulevard to Sabba Park, named after Joe Sabba (1916-1999), a WWII vet and long-time editor of the Woodside Herald.
14. tails - left across Queens Boulevard
15. tails - left onto Queens Boulevard
16. tails - left back across Queens Boulevard to Sabba Park again (circle)
17. tails - straight on 48th Street
18. tails - continued straight on 48th Street (no actual turn), where, instead of loud birds, people keep lawn trolls in window cages.
19. heads - right on 47th Avenue
20. tails - left on 47th Street. Apparently, this is a barber shop with a secret.
21. tails - left on 48th Avenue
22. tails - left on 49th Street
23. tails - left on 47th Avenue, where competing laundry mats attempt to lure customers with different laundry accessory awning characters from a seemingly different era.
24. heads - right on 47th Street. This barber shop has some rad, vintage chairs:25. heads - right on Queens Boulevard to head back home!

*This link (see number 9 Boulevard of Death above for context) is from a terrific blog that I highly recommend, that explores and investigates "forgotten" places in New York.