Posted in Body, Bones, Death, Dreams, Family, Growing Older, Life, Obituaries & Epitaphs, Personal, Place, Politics, Practice, Topic Writing, Vision, Writing Practices, tagged cemeteries, honoring the dead, Martin Luther King, Maya Angelou, mirrors, the practice of writing, the process of aging, visiting graveyards, writing about growing older on April 11, 2008 | 22 Comments »
I’m looking at my ruddy face in a small, round, silver mirror. I look older than I remember. Thick eyebrows, salt and pepper hair; it looks the grayest to me right after a haircut. There is something about the way it lays across the black plastic smock, and falls in shredded pieces on to the [...]
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Posted in Death, Dreams, Gratitude, Photography, Quotes, Silence, Taos, Vision, tagged Martin Luther King Jr., Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, Taos on April 4, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Shadow Of A Bridge (The Journey), looking out from the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, outside of Taos, New Mexico, January 2003, C-41 color film photo © 2003-2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak [...]
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Posted in Art, Dreams, Personal, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged art supplies, the practice of writing, writing about tools of the trade, writing supplies on April 1, 2008 | 22 Comments »
I always wanted to work with my hands. Maybe that’s why I buy so many art supplies. I have a Pentel paint set I once bought in the Tokyo airport. The paints are like pastel sticks that you use to draw on paper. Also in the set are brushes on the ends of plastic tubes. You put [...]
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Posted in Animals & Critters, Bones, Culture, Dreams, Nature, Personal, Place, Practice, Recall, Seasons, Silence, Skies, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged Ali Selim, March full moon, spring in Minnesota, Sweet Land, Will Weaver, Wind Moon, writing about the moon on March 29, 2008 | 10 Comments »
All is quiet in my home. I am staring out at wind rocking the trees. Mr. StripeyPants curls up on the wool blanket beside me. I connect to something wild in him. I’m reminded of my March practices – mandalas and writing about the moon. Where has she been hiding? I don’t remember seeing her this [...]
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Posted in Architecture, Culture, Dreams, Essay, Film / TV / Video, Fotoblog, Gratitude, Life, Photography, Place, Relationships, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged Bill Irvine, history of the Parkway Theater, Independent theaters, Joe Senkyr, Minneapolis, Minnesota, movie theaters, movies, Parkway Theater, profile writing, red Ravine Guests, Teri Blair, the theater business, vintage on March 28, 2008 | 43 Comments »
By Teri Blair
Parkway Marquee, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 2007, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
In 1989 the Academy-Award winning Cinema Paradiso was released. The Italian film takes place in a post-World War II Sicilian village, and chronicles the friendship of a young boy, Toto, and the town’s gruff but lovable movie projectionist, Alfredo. Toto [...]
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In her post on names and the importance of names, QuoinMonkey wrote that “When we are long gone, our names are the one thing that will live on through time. My great, great grandmother wanted to be remembered by the things she loved. What epitaph would you want next to your name?”
A rich conversation ensued. QM [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Body, Culture, Dreams, Growing Older, Practice, Recall, Secrets, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged body piercings, writing about tattoos on March 10, 2008 | 15 Comments »
What I know about tattoos I learned from D___. His entire right leg was tattooed, and most of his left leg. Both shoulders, all around his neck, most of both arms. His tattoos were serpents and Japanese letters and blues and purples, some red, beautiful tattoos, and I would examine them, lifting his leg while [...]
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Posted in Art, Bones, Dreams, Everyday Art, Gratitude, Photography, Practice, Quotes, Random, Relationships, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged accountability, actions speak louder than words, commitment, giving back, living the questions, Rilke, the value of the Arts, walking your talk, writing community on March 2, 2008 | 34 Comments »
Burning, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
How do you walk your talk? I’ve been thinking about what that means. I can write, paint, draw until I’m blue in the face. How does it change anything? How is it making a difference in the way I live my life?
A wise person once told me, [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Dreams, Personal, Photography, Practice, Reading, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged Ann Patchett, Anne Lamott, book talk, Do You Let Yourself Read?, Natalie Goldberg, Sinclair Lewis, the practice of reading, the structure of writing, the value of staring into space on February 23, 2008 | 104 Comments »
Do You Let Yourself Read?, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2007, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
I had a voicemail from one of my writing friends yesterday. She said she was frustrated because she wasn’t giving herself time to read. Last year, she had structured it in: made a reading list, read the Classics over [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Culture, Dreams, Gratitude, I Don't Remember, Jugular, Personal, Politics, Practice, Topic Writing, Writing Practices, tagged discrimination, finding your voice, Martin Luther King, memories, self-discrimination, the 1960's on January 25, 2008 | 15 Comments »
I don’t remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., not like Jim remembers. Jim was in 4th grade when Martin Luther King was assassinated. He says he remembers Walter Cronkite cackling over a black-and-white TV tube. I can picture the television, set in a blond wood console with long spindly legs. I can picture Jim’s dad [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Authors, Bones, Books, Culture, Dreams, Gratitude, Growing Older, I Don't Remember, Life, Personal, Politics, Practice, Silence, Topic Writing, Wake Up, Writing Practices, tagged Enrique Rivera, fighting the good fight, finding your voice, Human Rights, John Lewis, Martin Luther King, memories, Shirley Chisholm, stepping out of silence, Temple Grandin, the 1960's, Walking with the Wind on January 25, 2008 | 12 Comments »
I don’t remember Martin Luther King in 1962 or ‘63 when I was 8 or 9 or 10. I don’t remember him when I lived in the South. I must have been sheltered from all the strife and unrest that was going on during those years. I would not have understood.
I do remember him in [...]
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Posted in Animals & Critters, Body, Bones, Death, Dreams, Gratitude, Life, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Wake Up, Writing Practices, tagged Bat medicine, feeling frozen in my tracks, January Full Moon, January in Minnesota, realizing your dreams, totem animals, winter, Wolf Moon on January 23, 2008 | 23 Comments »
The January Wolf Moon was wide and full, smeared across the morning sky the way an artist rubs a chalky finger across gray charcoal on paper. It was Liz that pointed it out to me, half asleep in the kitchen making coffee. By the time I got to the window, she was already out the [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Bones, Culture, Death, Dreams, Gratitude, Holidays, I Don't Remember, Life, Photography, Vision, Wake Up, Writing Topics, tagged American history, Civil Rights, Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, creating change, Emma Lazarus, Enrique Rivera, Harvey Milk, honoring the past, Human Rights, Mankato 38, Martin Luther King, memories, planting seeds, Stonewall on January 21, 2008 | 15 Comments »
Planting The Seed, Lightpainting Series, stained glass window, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
When I walked out into the sub-zero temperatures yesterday to warm up my car, a piece by NPR’s Enrique Rivera poured out of the Alpine radio speakers. Rubbing my hands together, and pulling the end of [...]
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Posted in Art of Rebellion, Authors, Bones, Creative Nonfiction, Death, Dreams, Essay, Practice, Quotes, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged following your dreams, kids & creativity, living as a writer, Monkey Mind, Ray Bradbury, writing practice, Zen In the Art of Writing on January 13, 2008 | 15 Comments »
I wonder if the 8-year-old girl, who was sketching at the Frida Kahlo exhibit a few weeks ago, will someday look back with wonder like Ray Bradbury. It could happen.
Sometimes I am stunned at my capacity as a nine-year-old, to understand my entrapment and escape it.
How is it that the boy I was in October, [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Art, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Holidays, Labyrinths, Life, Love, Maps, Personal, Photography, Place, Practice, Silence, Spirituality, Structure, Topic Writing, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged community as witness, end of the year rituals, Labyrinths, making a Gratitude List, New Year's resolutions, prosperity, reflecting on the past, the ABC's of Gratitude, The Places I've Walked, the power of Gratitude on December 31, 2007 | 30 Comments »
The Places I’ve Walked, walking a brick labyrinth, Martinez, Georgia, June 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved
It’s New Year’s Eve (almost a whole New Year, ybonesy!). I’m working on the black-eyed peas and rice post. And I’ve got to say the orangutan’s butt is a pretty hard act to follow! But I’m [...]
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Posted in Bones, Culture, Death, Dreams, Gratitude, Holding My Breath, Holidays, Nature, Personal, Practice, Seasons, Silence, Things That Fly, Vision, Wake Up, tagged celebrating the seasons, fire, letting go, making light of the dark, Solstice & Equinox time chart, winter, Winter Solstice on December 23, 2007 | 6 Comments »
Solstice Fire In Winter, December 22, 2007, Winter Solstice in Minnesota, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
We celebrated with friends outside by the pond. It was frosty cold, hovering around 5 degrees. Frozen hands. Sparks fly. A light wind blew from the West. The brilliant sunset was undone only by a circle wreath [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Body, Bones, Death, Dreams, Family, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Place, Practice, Relationships, Structure, Taos, Topic Writing, Vision, Writers, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged Jeanie Bernard, Katherine Reynolds, letting go, Melissa Studdard, Petroglyph Practitioners, petroglyph rock, red Ravine Guests, Sally Sontheimer, the practice of writing, writing community, writing groups, writing process on December 18, 2007 | 13 Comments »
Petroglyph Rock II, Mabel Dodge Luhan House, Taos, New Mexico,
February 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
The Petroglyph Practitioners are four women — Jeanie from North Carolina, Melissa and Katherine from Houston, and Sally from Rome, Italy — who write, alone and together, following the rules of Writing Practice. They tell [...]
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Posted in Bones, Dreams, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Love, Photography, Place, Practice, Quotes, Relationships, Spirituality, Structure, Taos, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged Jeanie Bernard, Katherine Reynolds, Lois Palken Rudnick, Mabel Dodge Luhan, Melissa Studdard, Natalie Goldberg, Petroglyph Practitioners, petroglyph rock, petroglyphs, Sally Sontheimer, the practice of writing, Utopian Vistas, writing community, writing groups, writing process on December 17, 2007 | 20 Comments »
The story begins like this…Five hundred years ago, the large petroglyph rock that marks the border of the courtyard of the Mabel Dodge Luhan House in Taos was placed there by the Tiwa Indians to help anchor the energy of the Pueblo Mountain, from whose Blue Lake they trace their origins as a tribe.
The petroglyph [...]
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Posted in Art, Culture, Dreams, Film / TV / Video, Growing Older, Laughing, Music, Photography, Place, Poetry, Politics, Vision, Writers, tagged 1960's counterculture, 6 Faces Of Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan, D.A. Pennebaker, Don't Look Back, Dylan Days, entertainment, film as art, Hibbing, I'm Not There, Minnesota, movie reviews, movies, Renaldo & Clara, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Tangled Up In Bob, Todd Haynes on December 6, 2007 | 26 Comments »
The 6 Faces Of Dylan, Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, Uptown Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Buttered popcorn in hand, I viewed I’m Not There at the Uptown Theater a few weeks ago. I have to admit, when my friends and I plopped down in the [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Culture, Dreams, Fiction, Haiku, On the Road, Photography, Poetry, Quotes, Reading, Structure, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged Art of Rebellion, book reviews, Books, boundary busters, interviews, Jack Kerouac, Jack Kerouac Does Haiku, Joyce Johnson, Kerouac Speaks, MacNeil/Lehrer, NPR, On the Road, On The Road Scroll Exhibition Tour, Some American Haikus, Women of the Beat Generation, writers who changed the face of writing on November 29, 2007 | 33 Comments »
On The Road, Summer 2007, Minneapolis, Minnesota, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
In September 2007, I finished reading On The Road. It was the day the book turned 50. I have this thing for Kerouac. I consider him the James Dean of writers. I guess I’m easily swayed by myth.
On The Road didn’t [...]
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Dreams, I Don't Remember, Maps, Quotes, Random, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged commitment, Goethe, Mountaineering In Scotland, Providence, Quotes, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, W. H. Murray on November 21, 2007 | 11 Comments »
I write often about the movement of Providence. She is tied to Goethe’s dreams, but she is not Goethe. Each time I write of Providence, I can’t remember the quote that stands behind my words. They are the words of Scottish expeditionist, W. H. Murray.
So I don’t forget:
But when I said that nothing had been [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Authors, Bones, Books, Culture, Death, Dreams, Fiction, Fotoblog, Life, Love, Memoir, Photography, Politics, Quotes, Reading, Relationships, Structure, Vision, Writers, Writing, tagged Ann Patchett, Bel Canto, Fitzgerald Theater, interviews, Kerri Miller, Lucy Grealy, Memoir, Minnesota, St Paul, Talking Volumes, The Second Coming, Truth & Beauty, W. B. Yeats, Writers, writers on tour, Writing, writing relationships on November 6, 2007 | 31 Comments »
Writer’s Hands IV, hands of Bel Canto author, Ann Patchett, signing a copy of her latest book, Run, Fitzgerald Theater, downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, October 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Part I.
On a rainy October night, inside the haunted Fitzgerald Theater, Ann Patchett held the audience rapt. She has created a huge life [...]
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Posted in Dreams, Gratitude, Holding My Breath, Laughing, Photography, Random, tagged begging, digital cameras, open letter to camera makers, plea, product giveaways, technology on November 1, 2007 | 37 Comments »
Dear Makers of Exceptionally Good Digital Cameras,
I write with a proposition I think you’ll find too good to pass up.
Send me one of your top-of-the-line digital cameras, and I will post on this blog unimaginable images of giant bull snakes, wild feral turkeys, and other natural phenomena.
No, I am not a photographer by training nor a [...]
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Posted in Art, Bones, Dreams, Personal, Practice, Structure, Vision, Work, tagged abstract art, Art, Casket Arts Building, Gail Wallinga, graphic design, painters, painting, red Ravine Guests, the practice of art, The Rain Collective, Wallinga Design on October 29, 2007 | 45 Comments »
By Gail Wallinga
Gossamer, 36″x 24″, acrylic, oil, tissue paper, & bristles on stretched canvas, painting © 2007 by Gail Wallinga. All rights reserved.
Breathless, 36″x 24″, acrylic & oil on stretched canvas, painting © 2007 by Gail Wallinga. All rights reserved.
Second Skin, 36″x 24″, acrylic, oil, & tissue paper on stretched canvas, painting © 2007 by [...]
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Posted in Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Dreams, Family, Growing Older, Home, Life, Love, Memoir, Personal, Place, Practice, Relationships, Topic Writing, Writing, Writing Practices, tagged cemeteries, daughters, grandmothers, graves, grief, haunted, loss, mothers, trains, writing practice on October 19, 2007 | 20 Comments »
I’m more haunted by the things that haven’t happened, than I am by the things that have. Half worn radials rumble over the railroad tracks near Winnetka and Bass Lake Road, wipers slap another day of dreary fog and rain; I drudge up the things that haunt me. Porcupine quills in tender skin.
There were no [...]
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Posted in Art, Bones, Dreams, Essay, Family, Growing Older, Life, Love, Personal, Practice, Vision, Work, tagged abstract art, Albuquerque, artists, becoming an artist, Black Market Goods, painting, red Ravine Guests, Sharon Sperry Bloom, the creative process, the practice of art on October 16, 2007 | 44 Comments »
By Sharon Sperry Bloom
Under Your Voodoo, 27″x 22.5″acrylic on stretched canvas, painting © 2007 by Sharon Sperry Bloom. All rights reserved.
Vloop, 18″x 24″acrylic on stretched canvas, painting © 2007
by Sharon Sperry Bloom. All rights reserved.
Untitled, 20″x 16″acrylic on stretched canvas, painting © 2007 by Sharon Sperry Bloom. All rights reserved.
War, [...]
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Posted in Authors, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Dreams, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Memoir, Photography, Practice, Reading, Writers, Writing, tagged Authors, Candyfreak, community, hands, Minneapolis Central Library, Not That You Asked, Steve Almond, Writers, Writing on October 12, 2007 | 28 Comments »
Writer’s Hands III, hands of Candyfreak author, Steve Almond, signing a copy of his latest book, (Not That You Asked) Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions, Minneapolis Central Library, downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
It’s late and I’m tired. But I wanted to write a short note. I just got home [...]
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Posted in Art, Culture, Dreams, Laughing, Photography, Spirituality, Vision, Wake Up, tagged car art, religion, religious icons, Virgin Mary sightings on October 11, 2007 | 28 Comments »
I know this isn’t the greatest photo, but if you squint your eyes you might be able to see the pale image of Virgin Mary on the side of this VW. Or, try covering your left eye AND squinting.
And if you really look hard, you might see Jesus peering down from what vaguely looks like an [...]
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Posted in Art, Bones, Dreams, Haiku, Photography, Poetry, Practice, Seasons, tagged edges, fall, gleaning, Haiku, Poetry on October 6, 2007 | 9 Comments »
The Gleaning, Rainpainting Series, outside the Parkway Theater in the rain, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September, 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
The Gleaning
skirting the edges
of a blustery fall day
diving for spent dreams
-posted on red Ravine, Saturday, October 6th, 2007
-related to post, Somewhere Buried Deep
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Posted in Authors, Bones, Books, Creative Nonfiction, Dreams, Family, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Home, Photography, Place, Practice, Structure, Vision, Wake Up, Writers, Writing, tagged interviews, Natalie Goldberg, Writers, Writing, Writing Down The Bones, writing practice, Zen on October 3, 2007 | 36 Comments »
After listening to Natalie Goldberg’s new interview on ThoughtCast, ybonesy and I wanted to pass the information along to our readers. But we first wanted to take a moment to reiterate our gratitude for the teachings that Natalie has passed down to us. Our vision for red Ravine was born out of our writing practice [...]
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Posted in Dreams, Family, Growing Older, Life, Love, Personal, Photography, Poetry, Relationships, tagged Alissa King, childhood, mother, mothering, red Ravine Guests, single parent, turning points, zoo on October 1, 2007 | 20 Comments »
by Alissa King
The Note on the Refrigerator
When I have memories of my mother, they are other
peoples;
other people’s mothers, other people’s memories.
A perfume like violets, and the cadence of gypsy
music,
vials and colored glass bottles, pearl strands and
glittery earrings
arranged upon an upturned mirror; gold brooches,
delicate curios.
And there is tinkling laughter, and a swishy, glittery
dress.
This creature is surely [...]
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How do you sleep? Do you sleep? Do you dream? Do you remember your dreams?
So much of our time, perhaps a third of our lives (if we subscribe to eight hours per day) is spent in sleep. Or in search of sleep. A time to rest and rejuvenate. A time to work out anxiety. To [...]
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Posted in 25 Things, Body, Bones, Culture, Death, Dreams, Film / TV / Video, Holding My Breath, Jugular, Life, Love, Photography, Random, Relationships, tagged film, Jodie Foster, movies, Simplex, Terrence Howard, The Brave One, vintage on September 29, 2007 | 32 Comments »
Yesterday, 35mm Movie Projector detail, inside the recently refurbished Parkway Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
After dinner at the Tea House last night, Liz and I went to see The Brave One. I’ve always been a big Jodie Foster fan. She’s got charisma, isn’t afraid to tackle psychologically [...]
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Posted in Art, Authors, Bones, Books, Dreams, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, On the Road, Photography, Place, Practice, Structure, Taos, Writers, Writing, tagged artists, Diebenkorn, Harwood Museum of Art, mentors, Natalie Goldberg, New Mexico, painters, painting on September 25, 2007 | 9 Comments »
Diebenkorn In New Mexico, Taos Mountain in the background, Taos, New Mexico, July 2007, photo © 2007 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
When I was in Taos in July, we carpooled over to the Harwood Museum of Art to see Diebenkorn In New Mexico. When I was looking through my Taos photos last night, I realized [...]
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Posted in Art, Authors, Books, Culture, Dreams, Fiction, Gratitude, Great Places To Write, Memoir, Photography, Place, Random, Structure, Writers, Writing, tagged F Scott Fitzgerald, famous writers, Fitzgerald Theater, Minnesota, St Paul, vintage on September 16, 2007 | 14 Comments »
The Fitzgerald, St. Paul, Minnesota, April 2007, photo © 2007
by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.
Last April, I went to see Galway Kinnell at the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. As my friend and I left the theater after a magnificent night of interviews and poetry, I turned and snapped this shot.
I am fortunate to live [...]
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