Water cooler conversations...

Dear Friends,

So, a little water cooler chatting this morning! There is not a loss of conversation is there?

State of the Union Speech

Christopher Dorner

The Pope

Lent

 

 

I spent last evening at one of our local restaurants, Timbers, to hear the State of the Union Speech with fellow Democrats. Believe it or not, there are a handful of us in Northern Indiana. We cheered, joked, drank beer and felt very American while sitting at the bar. (One of my fellow friends paid for everything, that is so American as well!)

 

Coming home late I chatted with Virginia on Christpher Dorner and who could forget the Pope?

 

I have decided not to give anything up for Lent. Well, I am not Catholic, and I just can't think of anything to give up. Chocolate? Wine? Beer? Facebook (OMG, I could not do that!) So I will just live my life and watch others drool over my double dutch chocolate cake when they come for tea.

 

My water cooler conversation at school is unique in itself as we discuss art, domes (from churches), writing, poetry, and other artsy topics as we drink black coffee and head off to class at the last moment.

 

Water cooler conversations. What was yours this morning?

 

Lou Ann

Art From Our Upstairs Window...

The view from my classroom window.

 

The other day I went to class early to get set up. We had snow during the night, but the roads were clear. By the time I was upstairs in my classroom darkness hovered over the town as if nightfall were coming early. It was just another quick storm passing through.

 

I had my camera with me so I took this photo from my classroom window. I didn't think much of the photo until I downloaded it later. It caught me by surprise how stunningly beautiful my town is in the winter. Quiet. As you can see no one is out, children are in school, folks are working or staying inside writing letters or watching reruns of "Matlock." Surreal.

 

How do we choose a town, a village, a city, an island to live in? Or does it choose us? Do our roots tangle up with others in our hometowns or do we make our hometowns by pushing down those roots to feel at home?

 

As the students came to class I was still standing at the window just watching. Most came to window to see what I was out the window. "What are you looking at?" they asked as they peered through the glass. I said to them, "Everything, I am looking at everything."

 

They nodded or shook their heads as they took their seats.

 

What do we see from the upstairs window?

Wrong link

Dear Friends,

I think I had the wrong link for my 'Happily Ever After,' please don't miss this column!!

http://www.kpcnews.com/columnists/lou_ann_homan-saylor/kpcnews/article_18c61520-5a18-501a-a6df-42dfe7ccaf8f.html

Lou Ann

Happily Ever After...

Click here please for this week's column, I changed the link!!

Dear Friends,

I hope you enjoy this column, I had a great time writing it. And, is it true that we can live happily ever after?

I would love to know your opinions!!

Have fun reading.

Lou Ann

A belated tribute to Robert Burns!

One of the requirements for my English classes was to prepare a piece of poetry to read at the Robert Burns celebration.

The students made and put posters up all over the campus, chose their poetry and did their rehearsal.

I invited my friend and artist, Mark Gropp, to bring his pipes and share his music with the students as well. Mark had a flat tire on the way to our Burns Supper (held at my house before the show), and I had visions of him changing the tire in the snow in his kilt! Luckily someone else changed the tire for him.

The evening was fun. The students were very professional. One of the students emceed the show and each in turn shared their poetry on the stage.

Their choices ran from Burns to Pasternak to Dickens to Noyes. I loved every piece.

Mark played tunes between the pieces ending with Amazing Grace.

It was a great evening and one I won't forget. Thank you students for spending a nice snowy evening bringing poetry alive!





I took this photo of the Trine campus a few hours before the show.
 

A Roundtable of Women

These flowers were from my friend Malinda who was at the roundtable.

The snow falls, but in a small town such as mine, friends still cometo potlucks. My old house is known for them as friends and family know my doors are open, tea waits in a pot, and a warm bed is always available.

The first Monday night of every month I host a potluck for women only. I have been hosting this event for several years and there is a wonderful core group of women who show up each month. These are women that I usually only see on potluck night. We share each other's stories no matter what they are.

This month I decided I needed a conversation with them to prepare for the IndyFringe Diva Fest in March.

I called it our Roundtable, even though my table is rectangle. The food was delicious as always, and most was vegetarian.

I opened bottles of wine and begin. "So," I said, "let's start at the beginning, when did you first learn about sex?" Laughter prevailed around the table and the stories flew as quickly as the pouring of the wine. The answers were fun...behind a tree, at girlscout camp... We moved through the cycles of a woman's life during those dark evening hours. It took a long time to get to now. Now existed at my table of single women, divorced, and married.

Where are we now? And what is happily ever after? Answers were varied, as you can imagine....finding the right guy...the right woman...friendship...until finally the women at my roundtable decided that happily ever after depends upon ourselves.

A really big topic for a cold winter's night in my small town.

The candles burned low as the women gathered up empty dishes to carry home. Cars were scraped of the new snow as the evening ended.

I had to return to the studio in the late night hours to reflect, make some notes and finish up the wine!

I love a really good night!

Winter art out my window...

 

The view from my front window on this snowy February morning.

 

Monday morning and the snow falls. My world is a salt shaker or a slow sifting mound of confectionary sugar today. This is what the northern folks wait for, well some of us anyway. These cold snowy mornings where the world is quiet and we just wait.

 

 

If it were days of old we would hibernate with the harvest stashed away, the wood cut, the candles made. For me these days are mixed with Tasha Tudor, Donald Hall, and poems from Norbert Krapf. Norbert was our Indiana poet laureate. He has a new book "Songs in Sepia and Black and White." This is a collaboration with photographs by Richard Fields. I have an autographed copy of his book and well as his words of encouragement to keep writing. This book is available through Indiana University Press.

 

 

Here is a sample of his work, enjoy.

 

 

A Blank Piece of Paper

 

 

Between dark hills

somewhere in this land

a boy sits at a table

next to a dim light.

 

He stares at a blank piece of paper,

holding a pen

filled with enough ink

to tell a good story.

 

What the boy can't yet

tell is where he began

and where he will end....

 

Norbert Krapf

 

 



 

 

I have also paired this with a musical selection from Albinoni. Don't worry I chose a short piece. Take a moment from your busy day to let art, music, and poetry fill your soul.

 

 

Groundhog Day and Hoosier Herb!

Dear Friends,

Here we are celebrating Groundhog Day amidst the beauty of winter in the Midwest.

This week's column is a fun read on the origins of Groundhog Day, my travels to a friendly yurt and how to celebrate this day.

I also have a video from my adventure with Hoosier Herb! He is my own personal groundhog, so enjoy today's blog.

As always, thanks for reading and watching!

Lou Ann


Click right here for the link to this week's column!

 

I know the video doesn't look like much, but remember we are waiting for Hoosier Herb to appear.

Hoosier Herb

Don't go away, I am just waiting for Hoosier Herb to see if winter will be six more weeks or spring will come early. It is still a little dark and snowy here, but soon I will put on the boots and go on out to check. Don't worry, I will take my video camera! Can't wait to see what will happen! Thanks for being patient!

Our Town

 

 

 

Taking a walk down town, one will find our circle of commerce. It really is a small town and the circle includes our courthouse, newspaper office, small clothing shops, a pizza parlor (family owned), a couple of coffee shops (family owned), and two movie theaters (also family owned).

 

A couple of nights ago I took a walk down (with a little help from my umbrella) and attended "Life of Pi." I really did love the movie even though I wasn't sure I wanted to see it. My book club read the book a couple of years ago, and I love the book. However, the movie was just wonderful, so well done and the story came off strong. Good luck at the Oscars!

 

Both of these theaters were built in 1932. If you look carefully you can see a little of the Brokaw behind the Strand. These are, of course, my movie theaters of choice. At the Strand, Dana takes tickets, sells popcorn and then shows the movie. He is at the door when you leave as well. I took a video of Dana last summer. Here is a review of that video!

 

 

It is so important for all of us to support our local businesses, our mama/papa businesses.

 

As always, my camera was tucked inside and under the umbrella.

 

Enjoy, thanks for reading. I would love to hear about your town!

 

Lou Ann

 



Rain

I wake in the night to the rain. It is loud, steady and with a few rumbles of thunder.

My curtains are thin and I pull them back to see the beads of water on my doors leading out to the balcony. These raindrop are illuminated with my Christmas lights which still drape over the balcony. I really should take them down, but my neighbor says they are cheery in these dark days of Winter.

These are the days that keep poets and writers inside libraries and studios. These are the days to finish books or clean out the spice cupboard...but then again we must pull away to do our daily tasks to make the world a better place.

With that in mind, I will bike off to school (yes, I will bike to school) and give my writing students a bit of knowledge, and a great deal of passion as we study Burns, build blogs, and look inside ourselves. "Excuse me, class, please turn off all cell phones and chat with your neighbor."

My Haiku for a rainy day

brocaded raindrops

erases winter's facade

leaving stark, bare mud

Happy Birthday "Phantom of the Opera," Jane Austin (Pride and Prejudice), Poe and Burns from a small town in Indiana

Happy 25th Anniversary "The Phantom of the Opera"

Dear Friends,

 

The day started with fog and ice which quickly turned to gray skies of continuous rain.

 

It is also Monday morning and the studio calls to me for attention. I organize, file, get ready for new projects while listening to the "Phantom of the Opera"  and the rain beating out my window. I do not know how many years I have loved the show. During the end of my marriage we took the train to Toronto for the weekend to see the show. It was our last chance for survival. I thought we would make it as we had the best time, but it just didn't work. I remember those last moments with my heart in my throat wanting the marriage to work, wanting it to end. There are things women know.

 

Now years later I listen to the music. I saw the show many more times after that, but alone. It is the 25th birthday of this great masterpiece by Andrew Lloyd Webber. How can we thank him for the brilliance of his work?

 

 

                                            Happy 200th Birthday "Pride and Prejudice"


What young girl did not read Jane Austen? Even grown ups want to wear the dresses, and live a life we can only read about. So, Happy Birthday "Pride and Prejudice." Thank you Jane Austen for giving us grown up fairy tales.

The rain continues to fall and I come across a scrapbook my dad kept of my letters home, report cards and various other mementos. How I miss him on this day. He taught me to love art, music, Broadway, literature....I would like to call him and tell him about all the anniversaries. We would talk literature. He would call me Holly Go-Lightly and I would hang up the phone laughing.

And I can't stop there for it is also the birthdays of Mozart and Poe and Burns. Happy Birthday to all of you as well.

So it seems the images of my life...the endings, the beginnings have come to me through music and art and literature.

Here is a glimpse into my studio, at least one of the shelves! Also a link to this week's column toasting Poe and the Bard!

Thank you for coming into my world for a rainy Monday. Maybe you have memories or stories such as mine. Please share.

Lou Ann

Click here for the birthday celebrations for Poe and Burns
 



What is your passion?

This week found me stashed away in my studio (when I wasn't teaching) working on new shows and reviewing old shows.

What is it that causes us to find the passion and hold on to it? I read, write, study and lunch passes and I forget as I read poetry by Burns, rehearse my "Gathering Coal for the Lord" show and put two new shows onto the back burner ready to begin simmering.

I ask my kids at school about their passions. The answers are varied as they have never been asked that question. I want them to think. I get answers...jobs, making money, golf. But then I get a few others that are deeper that causes them to go inside themselves where the world is a little scary.

"My passion?" I look at them. "It's easy. Life."