A Circle Of Standing Stones

Back in the Golden 70s, I moved to Sugar House in SLC with my best friend. We palled around (how do you spell "pal around" in the past tense?!) We spent time with another of our friends who bought us Utah Symphony season tickets, and we took the bus to the concerts. Busses didn't run late enough for us to get a ride home, so we walked to his place in the Avenues and stopped to load up on banana splits at Snelgrove Ice Cream Parlor which stayed open that late. We roamed around Trolley Square, which was quite different in those days than it is now, spent time downtown in the ZCMI Mall, and discovered the International Peace Museum. They were halcyon days, no disputing.

But, my friends kept a secret from me. I do not like secrets, by the way--they hurt my heart. I know it's childish to feel that way, but imagine if I feel excluded by secrets now at my age, what it felt like then when my BEST FRIEND had a secret with someone else! I understand it now and even understood it a little bit then, but still and all.

The Secret?

GILGAL GARDENS.

My friends were LDS and I wasn't and they thought I might be too weirded out by this quirky little find. They really didn't know quite what to make of it themselves and they never told me what or where "Gilgal" was and they really didn't talk much about it, so I mostly forgot about it. I kind of wondered over the years if I could find it, but I was sure it wasn't still there, where ever there might have been. Until just a few years ago.

If you haven't seen this place, you're really missing something, I think. It may look strange, but the more you see and read of it, the more you understand the sculptor's Thomas Battersby Child) love, faith and committment The website has a slick interactive tour that describes the art and explains how it came to be, how it almost came to not be and how it came to remain right there behind Chuck-A-Rama in Salt Lake City.

http://gilgalgarden.org/

A Little Handful Of Happy

Living Traditions Festival + Me + Us + These = Ah, what a day!!

Welcome To The 24th Annual Living Traditions Festival: A Celebration of Salt Lake's Folk and Ethnic Arts.

"At this celebration of the traditional cultures of the many groups, native and immigrant, that make Salt Lake their home, the whole community can enjoy a diversity of authentic foods, music, dance and crafts. Presented on the grounds of the beautifully restored Salt Lake City & County Building, Living Traditions brings together people of all ages and backgrounds to share the Festival experience."

http://www.slcgov.com/Arts/livingtraditions/default.htm

"Mike Seeger has devoted his life to singing and playing “Music from True Vine” — the home music made by American southerners before the media age. The music has grown out of hundreds of years of British traditions, blended in our country with equally ancient African traditions to produce songs and sounds that are unique to the southern United States. Mike Seeger has been honored with six Grammy nominations, and received the Rex Foundation's Ralph J. Gleason Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. "



"The Pine Leaf Boys are Wilson Savoy, Courtney Granger, Jon Bertrand, Drew Simon, and Thomas David and have been immersed in music since childhood. Hailing from farms and villages in the Cajun country of Louisiana, the Pine Leaf Boys have been making a name for themselves as young musicians preserving the traditional Cajun sound while allowing it to breathe and stretch. They perform with twin fiddles, accordion, bass, and drum. "



"The Rebirth Brass Band is a national musical institution. Formed in New Orleans in 1982, the band has graduated from “busking” on the city’s streets to SRO performances at theaters and festivals around the world. Rebirth is committed to upholding the tradition of the brass band while incorporating modern traditions of funk, jazz, soul and hip hop. This signature blend energizes audiences at every performance."

"Lifesavas is a Portland, Oregon-based performers met while playing basketball and soon got hipped to each other's rapping talents. This year Living Traditions welcomes to the main stage its first hip hop performers. As hip hop music emerged in the 1970s, it was based on disc jockeys who created rhythmic beats by looping breaks on two turntables, and later accompanied by "rapping." With the music, an urban youth culture evolved with breakdancing, styles of dress and street art."

Come on...you know you want to!

Thai carvings

Navajo basket weaving

Scottish tartan weaving

Braided rugs

Pueblo pottery
Sudanese clay animals

Bobbin lace

Turkish crochet

Peruvian retablos
African cartoons

Central American Folk Jewelry
Tongan Wood and Bone Carving
Woodcarving
Hawaiian Crafts

Japanese Calligraphy

Japanese Bonsai

Tibetan Rugweaving

Well, you get the idea. Workshops, a children's area, international film series, live cooking demonstrations, more dancing than you can shake a Pilipino tinickling stick at.

And, of course,

Katy, Jon, Kaid and I will be there--some of the time as volunteers, the rest of the time chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool.

Ya'll Come!!!

Blue Chocolates Or A Bronze Pig, I Can't Make This Decision For You

If you're a 14-year-old kid on an outing with your grandmother's sister, who loves taking classy pictures, you might have to pose with Petunia Pig. And no matter how cheesey you think it is, you would probably do it anyway, just to please the poor thing. She gets so little enjoyment out of life at her age, you would know that your posing with Petunia would make her day.

Well, thank you, Kaid, it did make my day, because you're both so danged cute!

Now we can get to the business of adding to your college fund. When Petunia is full, you might have enough money for your first semester.



But then, you know, don't you, that if you keep popping all your Jacksons into your little piggy bank, you won't have money left over for the really important things in life like Blue Chocolates that you can find just down the street from Petunia at Tony Caputo's:

Passion fruit (from New Zealand) caramel, pomegranate caramel, (and not your mother's caramels, these, might I add--melt-on-your-palate, drippy, creamy, silky, no sticking to your dentes kind of caramel,) award-winning chocolate from Tuscany, farm fresh cream, organic butter, pistachios from Sicily, ennis hazelnuts from a family farm in Washington, and citrus from a local market with a touch of fleur de sel salt to awaken all the taste buds in the mouth.

http://www.chocolatierblue.com/collection.html

I don't know. It seems like a slam-dunk to me, but then you're the one with all the academic accolades and appointment to Who's Who and well, I guess it is your future, after all.