I listen to Michel Thomas language lessons which is based on listening and repeating without writing anything down. Just absorbing the cadence, structure and tones in quick fashion. I’ve also added Coffee Break Spanish from Radio Lingua Network to the mix which is fun and in brief segments. Mark and Kara, the two Scottish speakers are perfect as teacher and student, they already roll their “r”s. They reminded me the other day at the end of a lesson to drop them a mention on my blog, so here you go. They offer French, Italian and German as well, with free basic lessons at this link and extended lessons available by subscription, it’s really a great way to learn.

http://radiolingua.com/

Yesterday I met my friend for lunch and around the corner I noticed this block of trees with huge, eye-catching tags hanging on them. Turns out this is an Arbor Day campaign by the Morton Arboretum to encourage planting of trees and announce their value to the environment. Pretty nifty.

http://www.mortonarb.org/arborday

http://corpuscreative.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/lefties-arent-special-after-all.html?pagewanted=all

I also like being left handed. It’s given me a completely different take on how the world is set up favoring right handedness. Beginning in grammer school, I was taught to use scissors right handed not out of some firm belief I was harboring evil traits but because there was no lefty pair of scissors available. The lefty supply market hadn’t developed yet in the 60s and thus I began my venture into becoming ambidextrous. It seemed natural to simply adapt to the situation and not keep standing out as the exception, until that is, when it came to sports.

As the article states, tennis is one of the sports that has definite advantages for a lefty. So while I pitch and bat a baseball right handed, when it comes to racquet sports, it’s lefty all the way. I remember making a conscious decision when first learning the sport in high school to grip the racquet left handed. I wanted to make a statement that being left handed was all me, my M.O. and then to my surprise I quickly realized just what a perk it actually was and still continue to use my original one-handed backhand.

I also find myself on “lefty alert” when watching movies, politicians and anyone in the public eye. While it doesn’t seem such a rarity anymore it’s still an instinct to seek out the other lefty in a crowd and feel an affinity with them.

http://playgoer.blogspot.com/2011/01/sara-krulwich-best.html

I am preparing for the next phase of our marketing push for the film with hopes to connect to the broader audience it deserves. Prior to our initial design I saw a rough cut of the film to get acquainted with Kim and the purpose of the film. At the first screening last fall, I was so happy to see how the film progressed to it’s final edit. It never once strayed from it’s powerful combination of poignancy and fact in the daily struggles of learning not only about a disease but also unknown family history. I feel that’s what Quicksand has to offer.

Since it is a realtime documentation, it has taken four years to make and incredible honesty to absorb what that time has meant for Kim as she not only struggles with the diagnosis but the personal family discoveries she shares along the way. While the medical field is still trying to define causes, testing and treatment of Huntington’s, it’s still an incredible mystery and one that has led families to hide valuable medical history out of some archaic sense of shame. The film covers many of these topics which is why it’s so valuable and worth watching.

One of the many nifty perks about being a freelance designer all these years has been the wide range of projects I become involved with which then connects me with people I would never have met any other way. To meet new clients and collaborate over visual ideas, budgets and deadlines is a journey and always adds something new to my professional repertoire. But nothing compares to being forced to grow personally through the sharing of someone else’s story. I’m proud to be a part of this film and hope you see for yourself what I’ve been talking about.

http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/mind-quicksand

http://www.amindinquicksand.com/

The other evening I participated in my local neighborhood’s town hall meeting at Gage Park field house, set up by the city as part of the larger Chicago Cultural Plan 2012 initiative. The turnout was a few folks when I arrived but soon filled up with families and their children who it turned out were some of the dancers for the evening’s entertainment.

Gage Park and Pullman were the last on the list of the city’s neighborhoods to be included in these meetings to get one-on-one feedback from folks about what they believe are the essential needs in their community for cultural arts programs and education. There was a concise powerpoint presentation and bilingual explanation of the city’s goals. I’ll let you check out the web site below for details.

http://www.chicagoculturalplan2012.com/

My initial reaction is that this definitely sounds like a wonderful idea. I mean, why not go to the source for some real feedback. Accumulate suggestions from the folks who will partake in cultural events in their neighborhoods and direct a plan to actually make them accessible. Granted, you will have to consider the needs of many different people from varying backgrounds and if they don’t show up for the forums and voice their opinions, well, they won’t be heard and there lies the crux of the situation for this type of discussion. I voted on my two choices out of the six basic themes I felt were important for this area; arts education for K-12 and promoting working artists sustainability in the area. While I don’t have kids, I feel it’s vital to maintain an arts education throughout all levels of school. As a product of after school arts programs at my local park district, I think it’s what set the stage for me as a visual artist and essential for social development.

As I was leaving, I asked Michelle T. Boone, the Commissioner who was sitting at the table, if funding is at least budgeted for to start creating programs because this seems like a daunting but necessary mission. She said funding will be determined based on the actual feedback from all these sessions and it’s still all in the first stage of planning. Makes sense of course because you have to have a specific objective to budget for but I still need to do a bit more homework on just what this Plan will accomplish.

I moved to Gage Park because I found the perfect home to combine my live and work space. I enjoy the cultural mix, the walking distance to the orange line that gets me downtown in 25 minutes and the challenge to my linguistic skills. If nothing else, this event has made me think of getting in touch with other artists doing the same thing in the area. Nestled amongst the single families and two flats, there has to be a few other practicing artists puttering away.

Not only that, I really believe kids in the hood need safe, creative outlets. If the city can support a new, progressive format instead of cutting back on park district programs, that would be a beginning. Personally, the mayor still hasn’t convinced me he’s looking out for us small guys with good intent but I’m an optimist at heart and hope there are other folks to drive this thing forward.

I sit back and watch the song list unfold, what choices they make and that in itself is a great education. Mostly thinking to myself how they find the stamina to play that song over and over again. Well, it’s a job after all and they are getting paid. While the audiences at Old Town are reserved and less rowdy, this has the effect of putting the performers under a magnifying glass and it’s gotta be hard for them especially when they’re used to more give and take from the crowd. It seems to put more pressure on the performer to define the atmosphere and that’s what I appreciate watching.

I would not have been able to afford all these concerts and to catch some truly amazing performances without volunteer ushering. Like Jimmie Scott, where I had to simply sit in the aisle and chart his set list. I knew every jazz standard he sang except for one. What a treat. Another plus is being introduced to new world music and years ago it was Baaba Maal. Great show.

I’ve moved further away from the concert hall and ushering takes more of an effort but the chance to reminisce for an hour along with a free beer is worth it, hand me the seating chart.

My mom’s sister also became disabled with RA later in life and this put my cousins and uncle in the same situation to make the best of the long battle ahead and we reconnected with them through the shared experience. After taking a long break from the reality of just how effected we all were by the demon arthritis, I decided it was time to take a bit of positive action and organized our first Arthritis Walk seven years ago. It has become an event we look forward to now because it forces us to get together rain or shine, bring some youngsters to join the crowd and then have a great meal afterwards. More than that though it carries a bit of significance and empowerment for my niece as she was diagnosed with RA at nineteen. I know, humbling. A significant difference in her diagnosis though is the advancement in early treatment and medications that have enabled her to maintain a twenty something lifestyle. Of course we worry, they’re strong meds but being able to get the upper hand is what it’s all about and eliminating the damage to the joints now is essential.

It’s an ongoing process to piece together all this disease has meant for me but I do believe it’s what fuels me and provides my perspective in the world and for that I’m lucky.

Here is a link to our donation page with more information about the walk itself. Thanks for taking a look.

http://chicagoarthritiswalk.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=994570&lis=1&kntae994570=AD3E97C0F564484894EA8E6553BDFA0F&team=4996770&tlteam=0