You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Memphis’ tag.
Breaking News!!
Meet the newest duck on the block!
So far this little one, we’ll call it Penguin, is the only one hatched.
If you missed the last batch of duckling tales you can find the posts here:
On yoga night, this little orphan was left on our doorstep.
Frog Dog Pose
Here he joined us for yoga, demonstrating what one of the evening’s yogis dubbed as “frog dog.” He is also quite accomplished at savasana. Though you can’t see it in the picture, he is solid black except for the tiniest splotch of white at the very tip of his tail. Last night he demonstrated another one of his amazing talents: yodeling.
Periodically through the night, we awoke to hear him serenading us with,
“Yep! Yep! Yep! Noooooooooooooooooooo! Nooooooooooooo! Nooooooooooo!”
Is there a kind soul out there willing to give a loving home to this sweet puppy? (Please? I’ve tried pawning him off on everybody and still no takers yet.)
I’ve raised two puppies in the last year. With Project Moo-Moo underway, I am all out of puppy time. This guy is really, really cute though! And he won’t cry sweetly serenade you in the evening if you share your bed with him.
~~@~~
In other news, a new family has moved in to the Angry Russian’s birdhouses. The Angry Russian transformed into the Very Delighted Russian when I showed him.
Robin eggs in Angry Russian’s Birdhouse
…and speaking of eggs, Kiki has dethroned P. Recious Rainbow and installed herself on The Nest as Kiki Queen Mother. Either she is delusional or it is very close to hatching time, because she’s not budging. Not even for food. Yesterday, after a tremendous amount of coaxing, begging, and singing on my part, she finally stood up enough for me to look at her eggs and see that no eggs had hatched just yet.
This was the song that finally got her up:
Kiki, Kiki you’re so pretty,
Let me see your eggs.
Kiki, Kiki you’re so pretty,
Stand up on your legs.
And! Here’s the melody for the first two lines…just in case you are ever faced with this situation and are in emergency need of a song:
~~@~~
And last, but not least, I’m still going flower crazy.
bedraggled, but still beautiful
Kozo of everyday gurus is focusing on art in this month’s peace challenge because
“…art has the ability to transform the soul. If art can change a soul, then it can change the world.”
The challenge: Explain how art makes you a more peaceful person.
When words fail, dance explains.
Here our paths converge despite the differences in generation, life experiences, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and gender. These things could separate us, but we have come together to dance.
And so we begin. We circle this way and that. Sometimes we avoid near collisions, and sometimes maybe not. When one collapses to the ground, the other lends a helping hand up; this is the lesson we demonstrate to others as much as to ourselves.
In this dance, this sacred dance called life, we learn to move and breathe as one.
…Oh, just watch the video!
…and another opportunity to promote peace and refuge:
Happy International Belly Dance Day!
Today we unite in dance with women around the world to raise awareness and funds to end violence against women and children.
You can show your support by coming to watch at the above times, or by going to shimmymobmemphis.com to donate or donate directly to the Family Safety Center of Memphis and Shelby County.
Other posts on this topic:
Shimmy Mob 2013 – We’ll Be Dancing to Change the World
People toss out interesting things.
And I have acquired the quirky behavior of rummaging around in the things other people pitch out, then stacking one person’s tossed out treasure on top of another’s discarded thing-a-ma-bob. Fanciful sculptures emerge, which I then throw in the yard.
I blame Skattur.
On Break
This coming Saturday I will drag them to the St. Jude Craft fair under the pretense of wanting to sell them….
…but it feels a little like selling one’s children.
Obviously, I still have a lot to learn about letting go.
Star-Crossed Tree Huggers
Today SoKaN joined a gang of 80 knittas and hookers to carry out a bombing assignment for the mafia.
Ka-BOOM!
That’s yarn bombing, of course, otherwise known as knit graffiti, a form of community street art. And the mafia is the Memphis Knit Mafia.
the turquoise and red piece on the 2nd rail is my work
This means that as of today my work is officially on display at a museum. I’m pretty sure this makes me edgy and urban, yet sophisticated and classy, all at the same time (if only in my imagination).
I lead such an adventurous (fantasy) life, especially for someone who spends such a vast amount of leisure time reading, knitting, and putting on shadow puppet shows for her puppy.
People are so durn creative, so now I will present the work of the real artists…
Ladybugs and flowers and stripes and pink and pompoms! It’s so fluffy I could die.
Knitted hearts on a string! Be still my heart. I must learn to make these.
More hearts.
A super big THANK YOU to Christiana Leibovich for being the capo di tutti capi.
Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.
–Albert Camus
I recently discovered Grace Brown’s Project Unbreakable. TIME magazine named her website one of the top 30 Tumblr blogs to follow. The video below provides you with some context.
…and that is the astonishing power of art – art can go through where other things can’t. You can’t have barriers because it breaks through your prejudices. It breaks through everything that you have as your mask that says, “I am this… I am that.” No. It breaks through those and it reaches somewhere where other things don’t. And in a world where attitudes are so difficult to change, we need a language that breaks through.
–Mallika Sarabhai’s
That is why we will dance to change the world.
Please consider joining us….
Our Fancy Upcoming Events
SoKaN will be joining the Memphis Knit Mafia to yarn bomb the Brooks Museum of Art on Sunday, March 17 at 11:00 a.m. This project is in conjunction with the Angels & Tomboys: Girlhood in Nineteenth Century American Art exhibit.
If you’re not familiar with yarn bombing, you can check out this photo essay from Time Magazine by clicking HERE to learn more about this fine art. I am thrilled to pieces to be participating in this event. My new favorite thing to do is to talk loudly about this event in public places. I alternatively refer to it as ”my bombing assignment from the Mafia” or “my next exhibit at the art museum,” depending on whether I’m feeling dangerous or fancy. I do this, of course, because I’m actually just a gigantic nerd that gets giddy over knitting. But whatevs! I have my contribution to a bench complete and I’m currently working on a handrail. Wheee! There will be prize drawings, knitting lessons and food trucks on hand, so join us for the fun!
Also, we invite you to come see us on Saturday, March 23 support St. Jude at the Annual St. Jude Springfest at the Millington Civic Center, 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. There will be 13 Bluegrass/Gospel groups, food & craft vendors, McGruff the Crime Dog, a silent auction, games for the kids, Motorcycle Dice Run & much, much more.
Where We’ve Been
Back in November SoKaN joined the various other “pop-up” people – performers, vendors, artists – at MemFix Crosstown. This event was part of Mayor AC Wharton’s initiative to bring Sexy Back to Memphis. Sounds like a good plan to me. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to perch on a lawn chair and ponder the historic Sears Building. I hope to see the Church Health Center and other healthcare providers of Memphis succeed in their vision of revitalizing the space. My grandmother used to work there and I can’t drive by it without thinking of her.There was lots of fun to be had – a rock climbing wall, food trucks galore, hula hoopers, doggies , strangely dressed people, and a one man band on a trailer being pulled around by a bicycler. Good times!
*
Back in December we did the Holiday Market and Concert in Millington. 
I am always amazed by the talent and creativity on display at craft shows. Signs and holiday door decorations were particularly hot at this event.
I am always amazed by the talent and creativity on display at craft shows. Signs and holiday door decorations were particularly hot at this event.Signs on the left were crafted by Monkey See, Lexi Do. Some double as picture frames. Cute idea!
And of course SoKaN had our wares…
Recycled Garden Art by Skattur
Beady Boop’s Baubles
This is my cat Lelelelelelele Yip!
Last night a crowd of crazy cat ladies (and men) descended upon the Memphis Brooks Museum for the Internet Cat Video Festival.
While a DJ blasted tunes like The Siamese Cat Song and The Meow Mix Song, attendees prowled around the lobby in leopard print skirts and cat ear headbands. We purred happily over sparkly feline baubles as we lapped at our ”furballs” - a pink concoction involving rum, coconut milk, cranberry juice, and whip cream.
Then came the main attraction: internet cat videos.
Internet cat video aficionados (Yes, aficionados. I get to use my fancy words because we were at a museum) had already viewed many of these videos at home (or at work). But gathering together to watch these videos in a theatre packed with like-minded individuals lended the whole affair a certain je ne sai quoi in terms of public image. It was validating. High brow even!
It took me back to my belly dancing days on a Costa Rican mountain top when we danced to the beat of thunder pounding on the roof of our pagoda. (That is a true story I have always wanted to tell in an affected British accent at a cocktail party. It would make me sound so much more interesting than I actually am. Sadly, I have never been invited to said cocktail party to tell it. But that’s ok because I’m way too busy at home watching fancy internet cat videos to attend your silly cocktail parties anyway.) One day during my Costa Rica adventure, I sat in a room with 60 other belly dancer women and participated in a three minute laughing meditation. If you have never participated in a group laughing meditation, let me tell you, the first time is incredibly weird. You will be instructed to basically fake it ’til you make it. That’s right – just fake laugh nonstop with everyone else until the silliness of it all carries you into complete hysterics. It’s quite a catharsis really.
At any rate, sitting in the dark laughing for 15 minutes nonstop with crazy cat ladies was just like that but weirder and even more wonderful because there was no fake laughing involved. I watched grown men laugh until they cried over cat antics. And then I laughed until I cried. We all laughed and cried and it was this amazingly beautiful communal experience. It was!
And so I will leave you with a few of my favorite videos from the evening. For best results, make them big screen and gather a few friends (or strangers) to watch. Enjoy!
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.-Kahlil Gibran
Last year I rediscovered the joy of Christmas.
This year, Valentine’s Day will have a makeover. We will keep the love, but let’s expand it beyond the mere romantic, then add a lot of light, and hm….how about a tree?
Valentine’s Day Tree
Yes, a Valentine’s Day tree. It’s all about the love and light.
Shall we celebrate with yoga and tea and giving? Healthy hearts all around.
All donations for the class will go to Le Bonheur Foundation Heart Institute. If you can’t make it tonight, you can still give by clicking the blue link above or visiting lebonheur.org
If you are interested in joining us tonight, shoot me an email lunareuphoria@aol.com for directions.
