MONDAY MUSINGS A SERENDIPITOUS ENCOUNTER

 MONDAY MUSINGS is about me walking into the Fine Arts Center theater expecting a movie screen; instead the stage was both our seating and a funeral home backdrop. My ticket for Marie & Rosetta was the best surprise ever- a powerful musical of the duo of Marie and Rosetta written byGeorge Brant. The setting is a Mississippi funeral home.

Before the play began, the folks next to me shared photos of visiting Cotton Plant, Arkansas, where Rosetta was born. I'll be...  

The play focuses on
1946 when Rosetta and Marie had their first rehearsal before they went out on the road together as a duo.  biographical dialogue and music made me want to know more.

 Rosetta was known as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, raised in the church singing gospel music with her Mama. Her mother was a traveling evangelist who played the mandolin and she had Rosetta singing and playing the guitar by 4 years old and performing with her by 6. By 38, Rosetta became the first gospel singer to get a major label with Decca. She sped up gospel songs with jazz and blues and tore them up on her electric guitar. 

Chuck Berry said his whole career was one long Sister Rosetta Tharpe impersonation. Others like Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Eric Clapton and Keith Richards all credit their music to her. Wow.  She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Marie and Rosetta will have another performance Sept 25 at 7.

You don't want to miss it. What a phenomenal performance!

FOTO FRIDAY:REFRAMED

FOTO FRIDAY: REFRAMED as in seeing something from a different perspective can be mentally refreshing... And a thrift store find did just that in the physical sense... 

A framed print of two young girls by a piano said, "Take me home." Yet, it wasn't the print that made the sale but its exquisite framing. I knew exactly which of my paintings needed reframing.

Background: 35 years ago, my watercolor instructor Selma Blackburn taught me about underpainting. For subject matter, I used the dancing statues in the old courtyard of the Little Rock Art Museum. Some of you may remember them. 

Anyhow,  zoom in to see the matting...

*Big shout-out to Mike for helping move the wire hanger and supervising its hanging.

Last week's FOTO FRIDAY was SPECIAL HOLIDAY STUFFED ONIONS, which did freeze well and received rave reviews.

tBT: 2012 NEW YEAR

TBT: 2012 It's a family affair in Little Rock 2012 with cousins for Rosh Hashonah 5775 if this is now 5787.

(L to R) 

Front row Lori (30) Steven (25)

Back row Noah, Becky and Max, the dog  

with my folks in our family home on Grant.

Missing cousins due to college were Matt at Northeastern and Elliot at Missou.

(Don't you just love that my Dad is wearing his sperm shirt?)

MIDWEEK MUSINGS:THE SPICE OF LIFE

 It's time for the LifeQuest fall classes and Monday was my first class and I joined 14 other seniors in a one-time special 3-hour glass fusion workshop...  The best part of these classes is not just the subject matter but meeting new folks with similar interests...

LifeQuest is for seniors 52+ to participate in a variety of classes ranging from board games to lectures, discussion groups or more active classes like getting out of our chairs.

This quarter I also enrolled in another workshop on AI & Scamming besides 8-week classes in German Art, Intro to the World of Tea, Masters of NonFiction: Montaigne and Thoreau, Sips through Time and Line Dancing. I hope to also slip into some Photo Sharing classes & Obit Writing!

LifeQuest recognizes socialization is so important for seniors and one is never done learning embodying what I hold dear:  DIVERSITY is the spice of life...

tUESDAY tUNES: WHAT YOU WON'T DO FOR LOVE

Today, an old tune came across my feed... You know, one of those that evokes a different era and makes you wonder why they don't make them like they used to... both the melody and the lyrics.

How many of the songs written today will last this long?

Here's Bobby Caldwell's  WHAT YOU WON'T DO FOR LOVE

MONDAY MUSING: HANDICAPPED

 MONDAY MUSING left me shaking my head as I couldn't let another example of being inconsiderate go. But before I snapped the pic, I thought don't think the worst case scenario.

You see, there were two open parking spots next to where I parked three spots down from an allotted HANDICAP parking space.

What drew my attention was that the car that pulled in the handicap spot was a Domino's delivery person's car. It hit me as a good Friday Foto pic. 

A couple of thoughts: First, they'll be quick if it's a delivery. But why take up the spot unnecessarily? Just pull up in front of the store and run it in. Then, I thought perhaps the delivery person was indeed handicapped and I shouldn't pass judgment so quickly.

As I zoomed in to take the pic before I walked into the store. The delivery gal got out, no pizza in hand. Oh, she wasn't happy to see me taking her pic. She started yelling for me to mind my own business with more than a couple of expletives and continued cussing me out into the store.  

I don't understand why folks nowadays are so inconsiderate... What if it was one of their family members/friends that needed that spot on another 100-degree day? Seriously, I think folks can be handicapped in many ways, don't you?

FOTO FRIDAY: A SPECIAL FRIDAY

FOTO FRIDAY: Every holiday I attempt a new recipe and this one makes me well up because it's made with large onions and today is a day filled with both happy and sad tears...

As the recipe suggested, I rolled them with a yummy rice stuffing ahead of time and froze them...

Hopefully they will turn into this...

We shall see! Either way, I hope it's good!

Last week's ESCAPED ECLIPSE

TBT: NEW YEAR BLESSING 2016

 TBT This lunar calendar year is 5787 but this New Year blessing from a decade ago couldn't be more poignant;

yet we must hope for love and compassion, hope and healing.

NEW YEAR BLESSING

May this be a year of Peace.

MIDWEEK MUSINGS: POSTAL

I'm going postal for MIDWEEK MUSINGS this week but maybe not the way you are assuming. You see, the Historic Society offered another of their interesting public tours last Friday, and this one was downtown at 600 W Capitol, home to the Depression-era limestone Greek Revival  edifice of the 1932 post office and courthouse.

The Post Office stayed in the building's lobby until the mid 90's and one can still see the wall of individual embossed mailboxes and original counter.  In 2003 it was renamed for Judge Richard Arnold who sat on the 8th circuit. Although it's purely a courthouse now the name still says Post Office and Courthouse.

The courthouse is one of the State's 3 eastern Courthouses.Anybody entering the premises must leave their phones with security as no cameras are allowed in the building. 

We were divided into 3 groups to visit 3 different courtrooms in on the 1st and 4th floors in both the old and new structures. In the original large courtroom, the architectural features are the same as in every state. Now the jurors have computer screens to view from their seats! The bar footrests were obviously for much taller folks than me. (LOL)

The courtroom were the Little Rock 9 was tried has been moved down to the first floor to make it more accessible to visitors. 

Landmark cases included :

1957: Federal supremacy over school desegregation with the Little Rock 9 being admitted to Central after Governor Faubus sent in the National Guard ( Cooper vs Aaron). 

1969: Judge Henley rules the entire Arkansas prison system unconstitutional  (Holt v. Sarver)  First time whole state prison struck down under the 8th amendment.

1982 Judge Overton struck down state's creation- science law,   McLean v Arkansas Board of Education, declaring creation science wasn't science at all.

mid 90'sJudge Howard Jr presided over Whitewater Trials of the M/M McDougal with President Clinton giving video testimony.

Some other inter tidbits were family members amidst the Judges. 

Judge Thomas Clark Trimble III and daughter federal Judges: ElsiJane Trimble Roy, first woman onn the federal bench in Arkansas. She even sat in his old courtroom.

Father -Son pair Jams Maxwell Moody and son James Maxwell Moody Jr.  who took the seat in 2014 and is still there

tUESDAY tUNES :FEMINISM

For this Tuesday not only am I doubling the tune but tripling it in memory of the pioneers of Feminism.

I have chosen three but how about you add your suggestions and we can make a mighty fine list.

As I indicated in yesterday's title:

I  AM WOMAN Helen Reddy 1972

RESPECT  Aretha Franklin 

AIN'T YOUR MOMMAJennifer Lopez 2016

MONDAY MUSINGS : A TRIBUTE TO A WOMAN WHO ROARED...

MONDAY MUSINGS are a result of my emotions running high this past weekend after seeing Gloria Steinem's posthumous interview Famous Last Words on Netflix. Filmed in February 2025, Steinem knew it would only be viewed after her passing and Netflix kept true to its word, releasing this documentary last week, September 3rd, the day after her death at the age of 92.

It's especially times like this I miss not being able to talk to my Natureman, who I always claimed was a much better feminist than I. It wasn't only our age difference; I will also blame some of it on being raised in the South.

Steinem was the journalist who took the disjointed women's movement to a national conversation.  During 1972, my senior year of high school, she became the co-founder of Ms Magazine, the first magazine owned and run by women, replacing recipes and fashion tips with writings re: equal pay, abortion, and domestic violence. 

Steinem also helped create the National Political Women's Caucus, advocating for more women being elected, leading reproductive rights discussions, and the Equal Rights Amendment. 

What I didn't know was that, ironically at age 22  (1957), after graduating from Smith College, she found herself pregnant en route to India. Her then fiancé, a man 22 years her senior, didn't know about the pregnancy. It didn't dawn on her that France where she headed to seek an abortion, was an impossibility as it was a Catholic nation. Her solution awaited her in England, where a doctor told her not to reveal his name and to do what she wanted with her life.

My two most favorite messages from the documentary were:

-The great thing about a movement is you have each other.

-She who fights for authenticity and compassion is happier.

Ms Steinem was a force, and she got the last word as the interviewer even left the room. He would have to wait, like the rest of us, to hear her final message.

Rest in peace, Gloria. You had a life well lived, and we women have a better life thanks to you and other women who spoke up...

FOTO FRIDAY: AND IT WASN'T A TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART

FOTO FRIDAY: Although many folks caught a glimpse of  the eclipse, I wasn't one of them, 

But I did catch a very interesting sky that evening, wouldn't you agree? 

Last week was SEER SUCKER WINNER

TBT: RETIREMENT

TBT: RETIREMENT 10 years and this sentiment has not changed... Being retired, some days seem busier than when I received a monthly paycheck.  I, of course, do miss many things about being with my students but there's definitely one thing I don't miss.

For all my teacher friends: I have to admit that I do not miss orientation meetings/ any meetings for that matter!

Welcome back to the classroom. Have a great year!

MIDWEEK MUSINGS:TECH HELP NEEDED

MIDWEEK MUSINGS has me bemusing this past MONDAY MUSING as I had been searching for a solution for the lost DRAFT  tab. Actually, abracadabra poof, walking into the Apple Store fixed it. Seriously, the gent who assigns folks tech helpers after telling me I'd have an hour wait,  helped me.

I opened up my laptop's email and explained what I couldn't find. Apparently, there was a little faint arrow (I didn't see it before) that had condensed the folders and upon clicking opened the list; down a dozen or so titles was the word DRAFTS.  OMG. Problem solved. 

Then, I was also referred to Walmart for a new cell screen protector and watch batteries for my dead I-tags. Let me tell you I felt so accomplished at day's end.

Now, if only I had a tech person at home who could tell me how to replace my favorite daily online jigsaw puzzle since its availability on FB games was eliminated as of September 1st in addition to a notification re: Libre Office going defunct after the next  OS update. WHAT????

Does anybody have a teenager to lend? And I did say lend...

HELP!

tUESDAY tUNES: BOONE STEALS HEARTS

Back in 2021, I watched an American Idol audition with a 19-year-old kid from Monroe, Washington. Benson Boone was his name and if alliteration matters, his name certainly worked with his boyish charm, The innocence of youth won over Katy Perry (one of the judges)... But actually, Boone ended up being an American Idol dropout. He went his own way with his music and on to gain fame on TikTok with over a million fans.

Fast forward 4 years and Boone's The Wanted Man world tour from his recently released  American Heart album took it to arena-sized venues, Tickets sold out in 9 seconds. Is he the male Taylor Swift? He definitely has a worldwide following.

Through a last-minute invite last Saturday, I got to go see Boone do his famous flip, with an audience spanning the gamut of ages, with Grandmas like me, Moms with their tweens (and younger), along with all ages joining the sing-alongs wearing all types of get-ups... Some putting a lot of thought of what they wore to this concert and others not so much... We got an eye full.

Boone's lyrics and musicality speak for themselves as my 9-year-old granddaughter chose this one as her favorite for me to use:

BEAUTIFUL THINGS. I'm sure you've heard parts of it !

* A bonus listen is SORRY I'M HERE FOR SOMEONE ELSE  as it was one of my Jazzercise tunes.  Wink, wink...