When in Cleveland….

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Patty

It was like the baseball gods were showing off just for him, in honor of his first day of big league baseball. And surely the baseball gods were smiling that day, because the next batter was Larry Brown, and he was a scrawny, scrappy 23-year-old kid who’d never hit a big league home run. And yet he stepped to the plate and became just the second player in baseball history to connect and give his team four consecutive home runs.
― Tucker Elliot, writer

Last week, I attended a content marketing conference in Cleveland, Ohio. It was my third trip to the Midwestern city, which is in the eastern time zone – and not in the central time zone as I had mistakenly thought the first time I visited. In September 2013, I flew to Cleveland to cover a panel on mobility at a Cleveland Clinic facility on the outskirts of the city. Cleveland Clinic, by the way, is the largest employer in the city, and being a world-class healthcare system, the region is not quite the rust belt that people outside of the state still make it out to be. Last year, I attended the same content marketing conference, but with colleagues. This time, I was by myself.

Who knew? This source of truth at the Cleveland airport.

My room with a view at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel at the public square.

On the way to Progressive Field, I came upon this mural….

Cheering on the Tribe
On the way to my hotel last Tuesday evening, my taxi passed by Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians. I’d whizzed past the stadium all three visits. As I figuratively pressed my nose against the window, I exclaimed to my driver that clearly the Indians were playing at home tonight. I didn’t have an opportunity to see them last year because they weren’t in town and the previous year I flew out the night they were playing. As I grilled my hapless taxi driver, who decidedly was not a baseball fan, about whether the game was sold out and how long of a walk it was, I seriously contemplated attending the game – even if by myself. The clerk at the Cleveland Renaissance Hotel assured me it was only a 10-minute walk to the stadium and weeknight games often afforded plenty of seats. Carpe diem!

Yes, Progressive as in the car insurance company.

If I wanted to save my money, I would have stood outside the left field gate and peered in.

So off I went! Quicken Arena, which is home to the Cleveland Cavaliers, sits adjacent to Progressive Field, which opened the 1994 season and is apparently undergoing phase two of a renovation – more food concepts, modernizations, and heritage and branding elements. Apparently, the impressive (read: large) scoreboard is new this year. The gates that lead you to the bleacher section and the left-field and third-base side of the field offer a view, albeit obstructed by iron gates, but I decided I wanted the experience of being at the game. I got the $14 bleacher ticket because I was told that I could stand in the designated areas to watch the game as well as sit in the bleachers. My long-sleeved shirt and the 84-degree temp, which never dipped until after 10pm, motivated me to buy a Cleveland Indians t-shirt with a 1901 imprint. It was perfect weather for a night game. I got to see former Oakland A’s outfielder Coco Crisp in action, he who was unceremoniously traded back to his former team. It just wasn’t the same seeing him in an Indians’ uniform, though I cheered him on loudly with the crowd.

Say it ain’t so, Coco Crisp!

Pano view of Progressive Field.

The Indians played the Houston Astros, who put up a three-spot after a Marwin Gonzalez home run early in the game. Designated hitter Carlos Santana hit one out for the Tribe, which was celebrated with a quick burst of fireworks behind the big scoreboard. The Tribe put up a fight and added a third run in the bottom of the ninth, but a weak grounder to first ended the game with a 4-3 loss. Unfortunately, I didn’t go to Heritage Park, in the center field area, which houses the Indians’ Hall of Fame. The most famous Indians player, in my opinion, is Bob Feller, but I’d forgotten other more recent greats including Kenny Lofton, Omar Vizquel, Sandy Alomar, Jr., Mike Hargrove, and Carlos Baerga. Perhaps that means I’ll have to come back and check out the Hall of Fame. As I walked back to the hotel, I patted myself on the back because while I wanted to go, I didn’t want to go by myself. I didn’t have anyone to talk to, to say, hey, you guys have our guy Coco, but I really enjoyed the fact that I went. And saw a game at another MLB stadium.

The new scoreboard behind the outfield bleachers.

A nice view of the stadium from the left-field side of the stadium.

CMI World 2016: What I learned from Michael Jr.
The next two days kept me inside the Cleveland Convention Center (300 W. Lakeside Avenue) with educational sessions on content marketing. The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) Content Marketing World 2016 hosted more than 4,000 attendees this year, which is a manageable size compared to my parent company’s behemoth Annual Conference, which brings in more than 45,000 attendees and exhibitors. I learned about personas, the funnel, being counter-intuitive, and driving ROI with content. I attended morning keynotes and five sessions each of the two days. I got a Bluetooth speaker for sitting in on a vendor demo. I got another stress ball and two blue rubber men iPhone holders (yes!), even as I had sworn that I was done with exhibit hall freebies.

Michael Jr. at CMI World 2016.

I enjoyed the Thursday morning keynote by Michael Jr. and the Thursday afternoon closing keynote by Mark Hamill. Full disclosure: I didn’t know who Michael Jr. was – he’s a comedian who has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Comedy Central, and many other coveted venues. Although seemingly an aberration for a keynote speaker for a content marketing audience, he was ideal; his heartfelt underlying theme spoke to our professional work, but more importantly, to our lives. He takes his comedy show to prisons and schools. He met a grandmother who told Michael Jr. that her grandson, whom she accompanied to his show, had been abused by his mother. That experience made him so fearful he always wore a Spiderman outfit as protection. Michael Jr. reached out to him and the little boy warmed up and as they played together he took off his mask. I checked myself at this point so as not to openly cry.

On the lakeside of the conference center, you’ll find a hog farm and honey bee colonies. FirstEnergy Stadium, where the Cleveland Browns play, sits in the background close to the shores of Lake Erie.

Hog watching on the farm.

The more Michael Jr. spoke – in between his jokes – the more he commanded respect from me and the rest of the audience. He explained that as a comedian, you operate with a “what” and a “why.” The what is the story or set-up and the why is the punchline, which is something unpredictable from the set-up. He turned that around to be applicable to our profession but also to life in general. Joe Polizzi, founder of CMI, had seen a YouTube of Michael Jr., which inspired him to reach out and ask Michael Jr. to be a keynote speaker this year. Here is the transcript of the video below:

“The key isn’t to know ‘what’. The key is to know ‘why’. Because when you know your ‘why’, you have options on what your ‘what’ can be. For instance, my ‘why’ is to inspire people to walk in purpose. My ‘what’ is stand-up comedy. My ‘what’ is writing books. My ‘what’ can be going out with friends to eat. In fact, another ‘what’ that has moved me towards my ‘why’ is a web series that we have now called Break Time. So every Wednesday at 3 o’clock – you should subscribe to the channel – we do a series called Break Time on YouTube. At 3 o’clock we drop a new episode. One episode in particular – I’m about to show you a clip to – we were in Winston-Salem. Break Time – this is how it works. I travel the country, doing stand-up comedy, probably an hour, hour-and-a-half. And in the middle of my show, I’ll just sit down and start talking to the audience. And funny just happens. Or I’ll just meet somebody who’s really interesting. I met this one guy and he said that he teaches music at a school. All right, you teach music. Can you sing?” He then showed the clip, and the man, E. Daryl Duff, sang a wonderful rendition of Amazing Grace, which Michael Jr. had requested.

Then Michael Jr. requested a version of him singing the same song, but now he has learned that his uncle just got out of jail and he had gotten shot as a kid. He wanted to see a “‘hood” version, so to speak, to see if it exists. “Let me see what you got,” he entreated. So Duff sang an elevated, deeply soulful version of “Amazing Grace,” which resulted in a standing ovation from the audience and a man coming up to give him a hug.

“Here’s the thing,” Michael Jr. told the other audience in the YouTube video. “The first time when I asked him to sing, he knew what he was doing. The second time I asked him to sing, he knew why he was doing it. When you know your ‘why’, your ‘what’ has more impact – because you’re walking in, or toward, your purpose.” Wow, powerful stuff. You can see the YouTube video here.

I sat right beneath one of the big screens, which shows you how far away I was from the stage.

CMI World 2016: What I learned from Mark Hamill
Okay, well who can top that keynote? Mark Hamill, the closing keynote Thursday late afternoon, tried. Another full disclosure: I never saw any of the Star Wars movies. I never saw the first one when it first came out in 1977 – and it was the most anticipated movie that year. I even remember my friend Joanie Stadtherr excitedly talking about its release. Never saw any of the subsequent series or episodes. Just never got into it at all. Now the love in the audience was palpable. These were Star Wars fans. They may be content marketers by day, but they probably attended the premier wielding light sabers.

This is how far away I was.

But despite my deficiency, I found Hamill entertaining. He wasn’t as profound or funny as Michael Jr., but I came away with a couple of thoughtful gems. Hamill talked about the movie industry and how difficult it is – how the rejections come often and they never stop. Years ago, he said he knew an actress who was incredibly talented, not unlike Meryl Streep. But she couldn’t handle the rejections. And so she left Hollywood, got married, and lived a happy life. “Tenacity is more important than talent,” Hamill revealed. You really have to want to do it, that nothing else will do. And you have to go in with the stark but real possibility that you will either break even or lose money. That advice applies not just to our careers or our professional aspirations, but to life. I also felt it was applicable for me as a writer.

Up close and personal with Mark Hamill.

When asked to give us advice, Hamill entreated us to follow our own inspiration: “Find what inspires you. Then re-purpose it through your own prism. Everything old is new again.” He added that he wasn’t implying that we steal ideas or works, but that we should follow our instincts. Finally, when asked if he was happy with his life in retrospect, he responded, “I’m never satisfied, but I aim to be less dissatisfied.” I liked that. Contentedness can lead to complacency, if one allows it to. So stay on your toes and seek greater fulfillment, greater good, greater things to accomplish for the good of humanity and our planet. I came away from the day’s keynotes feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Now when was the last time anyone who has attended a work-related conference can say that?

Sculptor Marshall Fredericks’ bronze man rising from the flames and reaching for eternal peace.

Iron ornamentation on the Society National Bank’s building, which was established in 1849.

Old Stone Church, an 1855 Presbyterian Church, is the oldest church in the Public Square.

Architecture and the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument
When I left the conference, I took a detour back to my hotel and snapped some photos of Memorial Square and nearby buildings. Downtown Cleveland has some architecturally stunning buildings that make one nostalgic for what it used to look like at the turn of the 20^th century and in the 1930s. A woman whose languid voice reminded me of Edie Brickell of the New Bohemians sang with her guitar on a stage set up on the Square.

The Color Guard bronze statue.

At Short Range bronze statue.

The Advance Guard bronze statue. I didn’t take a good Mortar Practice bronze statue, so I didn’t include it here.

I stopped to take photos and learned about the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument (3 Public Square, 216.621.3710, open daily 10am to 6pm), which houses a small museum at the base of the memorial. The monument, which comprises a 125-foot column of black Quincy stone atop and the Memorial Room and esplanade at the base, commemorates the American Civil War. Atop the column rises the statue of the Goddess of Freedom, defended by the Shield of Liberty, which “signifies the essence of the Nation for which Cuyahoga County veterans were willing to and did give their lives.” The column has six foliated bronze bands listing the names of 30 battles in which the soldiers fought. Four bronze statues depicting battle scenes grace each side of the esplanade to honor the Navy, Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry.

Bronze relief panel with Abraham Lincoln inside the museum.

Union state Ohio honors Lincoln.

Lincoln story continued.

The interior of the monument was built in 1894 but was recently renovated. Four bronze relief sculptures grace the museum – the Women’s Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Aid Society, Beginning of the War in Ohio, Emancipation of the Slaves, and End of the War at City Point, Va. Busts of Gen. James Barnett and Architect/ Sculptor Levi T. Scofield, together with six officers, are also displayed in the museum. I appreciated seeing this little piece of Cleveland, Ohio, history, and it made me realize how deeply impacted this region was by the Civil War.

Nine thousand Civil War Veterans’ names are carved on the interior walls of the museum.

A close-up of the names of veterans.

A call to action to free African American men.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum: ‘Louder than Words’
My last day in Cleveland, I was able to pack in a quick trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, a hop, skip, and a jump away from the convention center. Whereas the special exhibit on my first visit was about the Rolling Stones, the current special exhibit was called “Louder than Words: Rock. Power. Politics.” A great subject that lured me in.

The iconic double-pyramid building was designed by internationally recognized architect I.M. Pei.

Me on the electric guitar.

2016 inductees Cheap Trick.

Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielson’s outfit and guitars on display.

I didn’t have much time, though I re-acquainted myself with some sections of the permanent exhibit and new installations, particularly the outfits of icons such as Beyonce and Taylor Swift, which weren’t there when I came in 2012. I imagine they will have to add more rooms to accommodate future rock and roll bands. At any rate, Cheap Trick was one of the 2016 inductees, which made my missing their concert – hosted by the CMI conference the night before – a regretted decision. Chicago and Steve Miller also were inducted this past April. One of my all-time favorite songs that still brings back vivid memories of summer in 1972 – retrieving guppies from Success Lake, bike rides in the hot afternoons, going to town to buy 45’s at Smith’s Drugstore – is “Saturday In the Park.” So, I had to take a picture of a display of one of my favorite songs.

“Saturday in the Park” display for Chicago.

Louder than Words exhibit: Rock, Power and Politics.

Panel on differing viewpoints of musicians after 9/11.

The impact of Black Lives Matter on rock and roll.

Will I return to Cleveland ever again? I’m not sure if I’ll be granted permission to return to the conference next year or ever, so I’m glad I got to see the Tribe play in Progressive Field and that I made it to the museum again.

Colorful birds on the grass in the public square. You can see the old white May Company building in the background.

A shallow pool of snails and fish in the middle of the square.

Another view….

The last sight – just to get motivated for next season!

New York, New York: Tenement Museum, United Nations, and Yankee Stadium

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Patty

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
– Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32^nd President of the United States

Our seventh full day in New York marked the end of our family vacation. David and the kids were going to leave the next morning, while Heidi and I stayed for the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) 2016 Biennial Conference at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Midtown Manhattan. We made our last day memorable and full. Before we left the Bay Area for vacation, David’s boss recommended going to the Tenement Museum, if we enjoyed learning about local history and immigrants. We had never heard of it, but our interest was piqued, so we added the museum to our growing list of places to see.

Talk of New York City tenements and immigrant sweatshop workers led me to recall a poem written in 1989 by poet and activist Safiya Henderson-Holmes, who grew up in the Bronx and lived in Harlem at one time. She recited it at a welcome reception for her after she had accepted a position as assistant professor in Syracuse University’s Creative Writing Program in the spring of 1990, which was my last semester there. Her poem, rituals of spring (for the 78^th anniversary of the shirtwaist factory fire), introduced me to the March 25, 1911, Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory fire, which killed 145 sweatshop workers, most of whom were immigrant teenage girls who didn’t speak English. The tragedy lies in the fact that their deaths were preventable, given that no sprinkler system was installed, the fire hose was rotted and its valve rusted shut, and the girls were denied evacuation by locked doors, a difficult-to-access fire escape, and a single elevator that eventually broke down. With the heat and flames upon them, many girls plunged down the elevator shaft to their death. Those who took the stairwell found the door locked and were burned alive. Still others jumped to their death from the windows. The fire, which occurred on the top three floors of the Asch Building on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, near Washington Square Park, galvanized advocates to successfully fight for legislation to protect workers.

This display about the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory fire was in our Little Italy neighborhood.

rituals of spring is too long to include here in its entirety, but I do want to entice you to read the whole poem by sharing the first five stanzas of this heart-achingly beautiful and poem. An aside, I was greatly saddened to discover that Henderson-Holmes was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999 and died at the age of 50 on April 8, 2001.

rituals of spring
(for the 78^th anniversary of the shirtwaist factory fire)

from bareness to fullness flowers do bloom
whenever, however spring enters a room
oh, whenever, however spring enters a room

march 25^th, 1911
at the triangle shirtwaist factory
a fire claimed the lives of 146 people, mostly women,
mostly children in the plume of their lives,
in the room of their lives
begging for spring, toiling and begging for spring

and in my head
as I read the history, afraid to touch the pictures
i imagine the room, i imagine the women
dressed in pale blues and pinks,
some without heads or arms – sitting
some without legs or waist – hovering
hundreds of flowering girls tucking spring into sleeves,
tucking and tugging at spring to stay alive

and so a shirtwaist for spring
a dress with a mannish collar, blousing over breast,
blousing over sweat, tapering to fit a female waist,
tapering to fit a female breath
sheer silk, cotton, linen
hand done pleats, hands done in by pleats
hands done in by darts and lace

colors of spring
pale blues, pale pinks, yellows, magentas, lavender, peach,

David’s black-and-white version of 97 Orchard Street.

The Tenement Museum: immigrant stories come alive
With that poem in my head, I looked forward to going to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum (103 Orchard Street, 212.982.8420), the destination of which was a healthy walk from our apartment. Aside from the walking tours of the immediate neighborhood, all tours are within 97 Orchard Street, a tenement apartment building erected in 1863 and home to nearly 7,000 working-class immigrants. Ruth Abram, local historian and social activist, wanted to establish a museum that honors America’s immigrants by preserving and interpreting “the history of immigration through the personal experiences of the generations of newcomers who settled in and built lives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, America’s iconic immigrant neighborhood.” Abram and co-founder Anita Jacobson discovered 97 Orchard Street, which had been shuttered for more than 50 years and subsequently abandoned in the 1960s. They deemed it to be the ideal building for their museum because its interior resembled a “little time capsule,” with many artifacts left as is, “as though people had just picked up and left,” Jacobson recalled.

Sign above the historic building (photo by David).

It took years to restore the apartments and dig through archives to create an accurate depiction of tenement life. Established in 1988, the Museum, a designated National Historic Site, opened its first restored apartment – the 1878 home of the German-Jewish Gumpertz family – in 1992. Thus far, the Museum has restored six apartments, the newest being the home of the Moores, Irish immigrants who resided there in 1869. In 2007, the Museum acquired 103 Orchard Street, which serves as the flagship building for the Visitors Center, exhibitions, classrooms, and small theater that airs documentaries.

Sign for the 1870s German saloon of John and Caroline Schneider (photo by David).

The Tenement Museum offers five different tours with extremely knowledgeable docents. The Sweatshop Workers tour, which we signed up for, visits the Levine family’s garment workshop and the Rogarshevskys’ Sabbath table at the turn of the 20th century. The Shop Life tour highlights the 1870s German saloon of John and Caroline Schneider, and is accompanied by interactive media to bring to life stories of turn-of-the-century kosher butchers, a 1930s auctioneer, and 1970s undergarment discounters. The Hard Times tour paints a picture of how immigrants dealt with economic depressions between 1863 and 1935 by showing the restored homes of the Gumpertz family, whose patriarch disappeared during the Panic of 1873, and the Italian-Catholic Baldizzi family, who lived through the Great Depression. The Irish Outsiders tour introduces the Moore family. An extended tour of Hard Times includes a longer visit of the Gumpertz and Baldizzi apartments and discussion on various immigrant themes.

A scene when Orchard Street was a bustling immigrant haven (photo by David).

A photograph of a bustling Orchard Street (photo by David).

I’m not sure how excited the kids were about the historical tour and the museum – we also saw an excellent documentary about the immigrants into Little Italy and surrounding neighborhoods – but David, Heidi, and I appreciated the focus on immigration, which is still relevant today and elicits strong feelings in our country and around the world. With civil wars creating a spike in mass immigration, we ought to gain a greater understanding and lessons learned from what happened more than 100 years ago in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Had we known that they would be taking down the flags at the end of the day, we would have taken exterior photos before we went in (photo by David)!

The United Nations: doing good in the world
After lunch, we also took a tour of the United Nations Headquarters (46^th Street and 1^st Avenue, along the East River). Once you clear security, you can conduct your own exploration, but we opted for a guided tour to gain more knowledge about the UN. We were lucky in that the iconic buildings, which were designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and completed in 1952, were not too crowded and our tour group was a manageable size. The buildings comprise the newly renovated General Assembly Hall, Security Council Chamber, Trusteeship Council Chamber, and Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber in the renovated Conference Building.

A sphere, a gift from Italy to the UN, graces the courtyard after security clearance (photo by David).

Sphere within a Sphere by sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, a gift from Italy to the UN, graces the courtyard after security clearance (photo by David).

Oh, there are the flags! From the inside looking out, a grassy field and statue.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt first coined the concept “United Nations” in the Declaration by United Nations of 1 January 1942, during World War II, when 26 nations pledged to band together to fight against the Axis Powers. On June 26, 1945, after representatives from 50 countries met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organization, the United Nations Charter was signed. United Nations Day is celebrated on October 24^th every year, honoring the day in 1945 that the Charter was ratified and the United Nations officially came into existence.

The mural “Mankind’s Struggle for Lasting Peace” by José Vela-Zanetti of the Dominican Republic under a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (photo by David).

A mosaic based on American artist Norman Rockwelll’s Golden Rule. It was presented to the UN in 1985 as a gift by the United States by then-First Lady Nancy Reagan (photo by David).

According to the UN charter, the organization is tasked with five missions: maintain international peace and security through the prevention of conflict, assistance to parties in conflict to make peace, peacekeeping, and the creation of conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish; promote sustainable development by developing and engaging in programs that offer prosperity and economic opportunity, greater social well-being, and environmental protection; protect human rights through legal instruments and activities in the field; uphold international law by establishing “conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained”; and finally, deliver humanitarian aid through the coordination of humanitarian relief operations in areas of need where national governments cannot cope on their own.

One of the UN’s missions.

Our very own peacekeeper.

As a child I had seen pictures of the United Nations Headquarters – its row of country flags unfurling and its two more famous iconic buildings, the domino-shaped tower and low sloping building. Who knows – if I had toured the UN as a child I might have wanted to work for such an organization, given its missions, and, of course, to live in New York City – that would have been a grand dream. Some of the memorable moments of our trip included a real-time monitor and exhibit on the daily military expenditure worldwide. The exhibit’s title comes from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “The world is over-armed and peace is underfunded.” At 3pm local time, the daily total starting at midnight spent on world military expenditure had topped $2,289,586,428 billion. While the annual military expenditures sit at $1747 billion, only $30 billion is spent on official development assistance to least developed countries, $2.6 billion for the UN regular budget, which covers its five missions, and $.69 billion for international disarmament and non-proliferation organizations.

Our tour guide explaining the lopsided funding for war and peace (photo by David).

The General Assembly Hall, where many important sessions are held (photo by David).

Heidi, Isabella, and Jacob in the General Assembly Hall.

Colorful panels of art, interpreting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, graced a large portion of a wall. In Paris on December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed General Assembly resolution 217(III) A as the “common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations.” This groundbreaking document identified the fundamental human rights to be protected around the world.

Article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We also saw artifacts retrieved after the August 9, 1945, bombing on Nagasaki, including the statue of Saint Agnes which was found amid the ruins of a Roman Catholic Cathedral. The statue’s back is charred and mottled, a result of intense heat and radiation. Our guide reminded us that although the atomic bomb dropped 71 years ago, the people of Japan are still suffering from the effects of radiation, most notably in the form of cancers.

Saint Agnes statue from Nagasaki (photo by David).

The empty General Assembly Hall boasted symbolic paintings on either side.

We quietly walked through sessions in progress, one of which dealt with rape as a war crime. The hashtag #norapeinwar was prominently displayed in the front of the meeting chamber. While rapes have always occurred during wartime, in June 2008 the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1820, which declared that “sexual violence in conflict zones is a matter of international peace and security.” One can debate the impact that the UN is making in a seemingly more dangerous world ravaged by civil wars, poverty, terrorism, and growing immigration issues, but having glimpsed what it’s trying to do, I can only appreciate its mission, accomplishments, and aspirations – all things the world clearly needs more of. Our visit left me both sobered and hopeful. We perfectly timed the end of our tour because when we exited the United Nations Headquarters we set off for our day’s last adventure.

Isabella much prefers the bus tour over a baseball game (photo by Heidi)!

While Jacob, David, and I headed to Yankee Stadium (photo by David).

New York Yankees: celebrating Jacob’s 16^th birthday
To celebrate Jacob’s 16^th birthday, David and I took him to a New York Yankees game in the heart of the Bronx (E 161st Street). Since Heidi was in town and Isabella loathes baseball games, Heidi treated Isabella to a bus tour, and afterwards they walked home and had dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. So everybody had a good time our last night!

My panoramic view of Yankee Stadium from right-center field.

Our seats with a view (photo by David).

Selfie time without Isabella!

The original Yankee Stadium, dubbed “The House that Ruth Built,” was built in 1923. It suffered a period of deterioration and underwent restoration in the mid-1970s. In 2006, the Yankees began construction on their new stadium in the parking lot next to the existing structure and officially closed the old stadium after the 2008 season. Debuting in April 2009, the new Yankee Stadium, which boasts a capacity of 54,251, relocated Memorial Park, the Hall of Fame that honors prominent former Yankees, from the old stadium to a section near our bleacher seats in right-center field. The bleacher section is pretty spacious. We got front-row seats, with the bullpen below us, beyond the concrete wall topped with decorative grasses. Whereas the New York Mets’ Citi Park Field is steep and you look down into the playing field, Yankee Stadium is expansive and spread out – just like the Los Angeles Dodgers’ stadium.

The beauty of the zoom lens on David’s camera.

Checking out the bullpen below and the Memorial Park to the right.

Nice sunset over Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees aren’t very good this year, and it showed in their 4-8 loss to the Colorado Rockies. Carlos Beltran made some embarrassing, lazy gaffes in right field. One good thing about the home team losing is that the stadium empties out before the game ended. We didn’t have to contend with the crowds going out as we did arriving before the game, and we had an easy return commute on the subway, which I’d say we mastered by then.

Yankee Stadium all lit up.

One last photo before we leave.

Last night in New York City
As we walked back home our last night, I realized that the bakery near our apartment was identified as the first bakery in Little Italy, according to the documentary we saw at the Tenement Museum. So I took a picture of it. I regret not taking pictures of our apartment interior, but early the next morning when David and the kids were ready to leave for the airport, Heidi had the presence of mind to take a picture of us in our 7^th Floor Mulberry Street Airbnb home. We did everything I wanted to do with the kids. The only thing missing was catching a Broadway show. Next time. There is always a next time.

A historic bakery, the first, in Little Italy, right across from our apartment (photo by David).

Good night, Mulberry Street! Good night, Little Italy (photo by David)!

Our only photo of our apartment! Saying goodbye to David and the kids (photo by Heidi).

Meg Smaker: the power of stories through disruptive filmmaking

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Patty

Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity.
– Yoko Ono, Japanese multimedia artist, singer and peace activist

Documentary filmmaker Meg Smaker.

Documentary filmmaker Meg Smaker likes to tell stories about subjects that people think they know about and disrupt that “knowledge” with an “unsuspecting point of view” – and at the same time, upend the perspective shared by a lot of films that deal with the same topic. “I call it the ‘boat theory,'” she explained. People on a whale-watching expedition congregate on one side of the boat, say the right side, and take lots of different pictures – but of the same whale. “I like to hang out on the left side,” Meg counters. “Maybe I see nothing, but maybe I see an orca shagging a mermaid. The point is, the stories I find most interesting are the ones that have not been told…yet – and to find them you have to hang out on the left side.”

In search of the human element
All of her documentaries share that trait – from Methal Island, “a meditation on meth,” to Somalia & the Piracy Bell Curve, which examines Somalia’s political economy and its impact on piracy off the Somalian coast, to Boxeadora: ‘one woman’s revolution in Cuba,’ about Namibia Flores, Cuba’s first female boxer, and her quest for Olympic glory. The latter documentary was chosen as one of six short films for this year’s LUNAFEST film festival, “by, for, about women.” Whereas many films about Cuba tend to be political and often anti-Castro, Boxeadora delivers what these films lack – “the human element, the texture of the culture, and the people’s spirit.” “The human element is the most compelling thing that changes us and connects us,” Meg said.

Meg filming in Cuba.

That human element is often missing in traditional network news, which is reduced to “sound bites and facts,” according to Meg. When journalists file reports overseas, for example, they’re driven to deliver the news first and as a result are handicapped by time constraints, which prevent them from discovering and sharing the underlying stories. Furthermore, some topics are presented from only one perspective – à la the boat theory. Methamphetamine, for example, has been frequently covered in the national news with a majority of U.S. counties reporting that meth is their most serious drug problem, according to the 2013 World Drug Report by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. “All of the news about meth was totally focused on the negatives, which dehumanized people,” Meg pointed out. Media accounts ignored what drew people to the drug. In Methal Island, therefore, Meg spent two-thirds of the documentary focusing on the benefits of meth.

Scene from Methel Island.

On becoming a documentary filmmaker
Meg, who hails from Brentwood, Calif., and grew up in Oakland, left college after two years and spent the next five years as a firefighter and nearly five years afterwards living in Yemen and Quatar before returning home. Those life experiences fueled her desire to become a documentary filmmaker. Before she earned her MFA in Documentary Film at Stanford, she earned a BA with honors in Political, Legal, and Economic Analysis (PLEA) at Mills College, which provided her with a solid foundation for achieving her goal. “Stories are the most powerful thing in the world – more powerful than statistics or facts. A good story can illuminate a truth that simple statistics and facts alone never could,” she asserted. That said, she went on, “Stories are founded in holistic research, getting the context to really understand the deeper truth.”

Filming her documentary Pistols to Porn.

As a published scholar, Meg has conducted field research in Somalia, The Balkans, and North Africa. The seed for Somalia & the Piracy Bell Curve was an article she had published in an academic journal, which incorporated more than two years’ worth of research on Somalia. Given the small audience drawn by academic journals, she wanted to take her findings and reach a larger audience. To tell the story, Meg employed stop-motion animation, whose inviting yet simplistic style was an ideal medium to help make the subject matter accessible to the masses.

Setting up the scene for Methel Island using Claymation.

Changing the business paradigm for documentary filmmaking
Having a unique, disruptive point of view has its challenges, but Meg’s confronting those barriers head-on. She founded the nonprofit Doc Farm Films in 2014 after Methel Island garnered Best Documentary awards at numerous film festivals but no grants for which it was eligible. The traditional financing vehicles for documentaries are grants and foundations, which award funding to align with their goal of raising awareness of and creating impact for specific issues. While Meg understands the desire of investors to fund documentaries to support various social justice issues, she asserted, “I don’t want to save the world; I just want to understand it. I want to help people understand the world better.”

Changing the human face with Claymation on the documentary Methel Island.

Unfortunately, documentaries that don’t fit in any categories because they aren’t issue based aren’t getting funded. Furthermore, because of lack of funding filmmakers are being discouraged from exploring a whole other world, which ultimately shrinks our global view – something Meg feels is a dangerous and precarious state of being. For all those reasons, she insists, “I got into documentary films not to save the world, but to understand it. And for me the best way to understand something is through stories. When I was young my mother used to read to me, but she never read me bedtime issues, it was always bedtime stories. We are prewired to consume story – and through them expand our understanding of the world.”

Telling Methel Island’s story via Claymation.

She hopes that Doc Farm Films can change the paradigm of how documentaries are funded. Boxeadora, which is the nonprofit’s first project, earned several accolades but did not receive any preproduction grants from the more than 30 applications that were sent out, according to Meg. “Through Doc Farm Films, I want to continue to do these kinds of stories and come up with a new business model moving forward,” she explained. In the meantime, Meg envisions Doc Farm Films to serve as a network for filmmakers who aren’t getting funded because their films don’t fit into any of the traditional grant categories and who want to help foster understanding of the world through their stories. Her ultimate dream is that the nonprofit can grow big enough to financially support these filmmakers’ projects.

Filming a sparring scene for Boxeadora.

Boxeadora’s backstory
Meg met Namibia Flores when she traveled to Cuba to train as a boxer. She took up the sport six years ago after coming back from the Middle East, saying, “I always wanted to know how to fight.” She immediately took to it. Meg admitted that she can’t sit still, so boxing has become her form of meditation, a way to stay centered and relaxed. “You have to be in the moment,” she explained, “or else be vulnerable to taking a blow.” Namibia became her training partner and their relationship blossomed into friendship. After returning to the U.S. after several months of training in Cuba, Meg decided to make a film about Namibia’s story.

Behind the scenes for Boxeadora.

Boxeadora was the most challenging film for Meg to make for myriad reasons. From a technical standpoint, everything that could possibly go wrong did. For instance, on the third day of shooting, her computer malfunctioned, preventing her from uploading her footage, and other equipment broke along the way. She ran out of 9V batteries and discovered that because of the embargo in Cuba, there were no 9V batteries to be had in the country. The other more delicate issue was that it was Meg’s first film to have a friend be the subject of the documentary. “It was hard to separate the roles of friend and filmmaker,” she explained. “I had to remain in professional mode as storyteller.” That said, Meg admitted that some scenes ended up on the editing floor, a result of wearing her friend hat and being caught up in the emotional part of Namibia’s story.

Filming a ringside scene from above for Boxeadora.

Meg had applied for grants before she went to Cuba to film. When she returned, she called to find out why she had been rejected for a particular grant. The male grantor carried on about how a woman couldn’t possibly go to Cuba, with its “machismo culture,” and make such a film. “It is not going to happen,” he bluntly told her. When she explained that she’d already returned from filming, “a long awkward pause followed,” Meg related, and laughed. “There’s a strange preconceived notion that women are not suited to do certain subjects – meth, boxing.”

Meg Smaker, momentarily at rest.

Forging headstrong ahead
In another instance of experiencing gender bias as a woman filmmaker, one Hollywood agent who was interested in Boxeadora asked Meg if her next project would be about kid issues, which is blatantly far removed from her interests, based on her filmography. While a reaction to the audacity of these ill-informed comments, her laughter in recounting these stories reveals a ready dismissiveness of the mentality that perpetuates gender inequality in the industry.

What’s important and what keeps her grounded is “never losing the awe of storytelling,” which can be a challenge given the demands inherent in the film industry, especially the longer one is in the field. “I never lose sight of the magic of storytelling,” she said. Just as important is honoring one’s unique view and incorporating that view and one’s experiences into the film. “What’s out there (in terms of films) doesn’t represent what’s out there (in the world),” Meg said. And those stories need to be told and shared.

Note: You can see Meg’s short film at LUNAFEST East Bay’s screening on Saturday, March 19^th, 7:30pm, at the El Cerrito High School’s Performing Arts Theater. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

Melody Shah: sharing ‘brain-shattering’ outdoor and classroom adventures

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Patty

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.
– Edward Abbey, American author and essayist

Melody at Snow Tongue Pass, Sierra High Route.

In the summer of 2014, Melody Shah, El Cerrito High School teacher and LUNAFEST East Bay Committee member, and her husband, Sati, spent two months hiking a 600-mile High loop in California’s High Sierra. They started south from Sonora on trails to Road’s End in King’s Canyon at the South Fork of the King’s River in the southern Sierra Nevada, and hiked cross-country on the Sierra High Route back to Twin Lakes in northern Yosemite. Their trip, specifically through the 195-mile Sierra High Route in King’s Canyon National Park, is the subject of their talk at the REI Berkeley store (1338 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702, 510.527.4140) on Wednesday, March 18th, 7 to 8:30pm, and the REI San Francisco store (840 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415.934.1938) on Wednesday, March 25th, 7 to 8:30pm. “I want to take our experiences and share them with a larger audience,” she said of her objective for the talks. With the Berkeley event sold out and on waitlist, and the San Francisco event almost sold out, Melody will definitely achieve her goal.

A beautiful view of the Swiss Alps.

When the LUNAFEST East Bay committee convenes in the fall to begin preparations for our spring film festival “by, for, about women,” the 10 of us look forward to hearing about Melody’s spring break and summer backcountry explorations. When we meet in January, we get updates of winter holiday adventures. Just to give you an unfairly brief overview, in January 2013, Melody and Sati paraglided with friends in Yelapa, a small beach town in Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco, Mexico. In the summer later that same year, they lived in the Azores and paraglided off of volcanoes. She has also gone paragliding in Indonesia and British Columbia, and traversed the European Alps from west to east, which included flying, hiking, and backpacking across France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Slovenia. On that latter paragliding trip, she launched off of flower-covered mountainsides and glided across valleys. “That perspective of these amazing landscapes is so freeing and other-worldly,” she told me. She’s canyoneered in California’s Sierra Nevada and throughout Southern Utah, including Zion National Park and Escalante National Monument, and toured the backcountry of Eastern Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains. And in 2005, she spent two months completing 700 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail through California’s high country.

Melody and Sati atop Mt. Whitney.

I haven’t been camping in years and I confess I’m acrophobic, and that’s exactly why I am in awe of and inspired by, what I call, Melody’s acts of courage. Since 2004, she’s chronicled her adventures in her interweb, Range of Light!, which boasts some beautiful images of nature across the continents. When I marveled at how fearless she is, Melody interjected, saying, “I have a lot of fears, but in order to overcome them, I don’t deny fear.” When she first began preparing for her outdoor adventures, she admitted that she was “super terrified.” “I didn’t know I could do these things,” she confided. “But as I went through each adventure and gained strength, knowledge, and skills, my confidence grew. One of the most important goals of the experience for me is becoming more capable and then allowing fear to be a consideration and a way to analyze and strategically approach the risks. Fear keeps me smart and safe about the whole adventure.”

Melody, her two brothers, and her mom at Fundy National Park, New Brunswick, Canada, August 1984.

Roots: Love of the outdoors, love of design
Melody hails from Merrimac, MA, on the New Hampshire border. Her love of the outdoors can be traced to her mother, Joyce Audy Zarins, artist, sculptor, and children’s book author and illustrator. All of the family vacations taken when her mother was a single parent were outdoor trips, as were many of them after her mother remarried. Melody, her two siblings, her mother, and later, her stepfather camped, hiked, and canoed. “She wasn’t scared to take a bunch of us kids down a river for a few days,” Melody related, with a laugh.

Baiba, Melody, and her mom canoeing the Saco River in Maine, July 1984.

She also inherited her mother’s artistic talents. Melody graduated from Syracuse University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in art media, with a focus on 3D modeling and animation. That summer, she helped put together an exhibit for the annual SIGGRAPH conference on computer graphics and design in Los Angeles. She ended up landing a job in the Bay Area, and she’s remained a California resident ever since.

When Melody began working for advertising agencies, the first Internet boom was ramping up. “Young people were the ones who knew about the Internet, so it was a great time to come out of college and find a job easily,” she explained. In her first job, she designed websites for public and private organizations – including the White House – at a time when websites were just emerging. When her work shifted to online advertising, something she didn’t want to do, she went back to school. At San Francisco State University, she studied lightweight composite design specifically for backcountry snowboarding gear, with the intent on being an outdoor gear designer. With her degree in industrial design, she planned to marry her love of the outdoors with her career.

Melody’s students in the ITA at El Cerrito High School.

While in school, Melody taught college and adult classes at City College and CELLSpace (now Inner Mission), a community-based hub for artistic and cultural classes and events, both in San Francisco. She taught in the motion graphics department at Ex’pression College for Visual Arts in Emeryville. In 2007, she “answered the call” to teach at El Cerrito High School, and since then has been teaching digital art and design classes as the Lead Teacher of the Information Technology Academy (ITA) – one of the local beneficiaries of LUNAFEST’s fundraising efforts – and digital photography ROP classes and media classes within the Media Academy. “I love the idea of having a job where I can share the things that I’m passionate about with people and feel that I’m contributing to the community in a positive way,” Melody said.

Sati and Melody camping – ‘home away from home.’

Opening up opportunities and the world
Teaching high school students is “a totally different world” versus teaching college students and adults, but Melody pointed out that the goal remains the same: give students an environment to collaborate, solve problems, and create art and design through technology in a way that is meaningful to them. “In the academy setting, I can foster this community within the bigger school and give kids a place of their own, and empower them with skills that help build their confidence and help them shape their identity,” she said. When companies hire ITA students upon completion of their internships because of the skills that the students learned and brought to the table, she enthused, “It’s really powerful and impactful and validating. Those moments are great.” Melody hears often from ITA graduates who are majoring in art and design in universities and colleges or are now in the workforce, working for companies such as Pixar.

Paragliding at Big Sur.

She illustrates visual design concepts in the classroom leveraging content from her travels. In doing so, she shares her love of the outdoors and her traveling adventures with her students. “It introduces an element of fun, but the kids also appreciate and respect me because they see that I have these skills outside of the classroom,” she explained.

Melody has also engaged her ITA students to participate as volunteers at LUNAFEST. She became involved with the film festival when the East Bay Committee invited her to join four years ago while she was teaching a video class at the school. “I feel lucky to be part of that group, being a part of something positive for the community,” she said, referring to the committee members and their work, as well as fundraising for the ITA and the Breast Cancer Fund. “It’s also important for students to be exposed to positive messages,” she added.

Hiking the Sierra, with a stunning view before them (photo credit: Ki Hong).

She likes that the films selected for LUNAFEST offer such diverse viewpoints in storytelling. “I have a love for the telling of a story; a lot of my work with students is helping them articulate and tell their stories,” she said. ITA students who volunteer at the VIP event and the film festival are not only exposed to the good work being done around breast cancer prevention but are introduced to the filmmaking world – using video as the medium to tell a story. The message she imparts to kids about the film festival: It’s possible to have your story shared and celebrated via a platform such as LUNAFEST and become something meaningful to other people. Her students watch the films in class and Melody admitted that many of the films are “outside of the students’ comfort zone,” but she likes challenging them to widen their world and be open to other messages and styles. “They have responded well,” she reported. “They like being surprised.”

Backcountry skiing in the Sierras.

Teaching, Melody acknowledges, is a “funny job.” “There are some things that are very pragmatic and very black and white that you try to give to your kids, but skills are only part of it,” she revealed. “I hope the kids start to think of life as an adventure. I hope they know that they are empowered to advocate for themselves and communicate with confidence about the things that they can do or that they know how to do. I hope that they foster curiosity about the world outside their comfort zone and learn to recognize that being curious is going to open up opportunities that would be missed otherwise.” When her students adopt her enthusiasm for and philosophy of life – and her graduates are proof of that certainty – her hopes will indeed have been realized. And their worlds will open up like leopard lilies along the Pacific Crest Trail high up in the Sierras.

Launching at Chamonix, the French Alps.

The Gratitude Challenge: 7 days of thoughtful gratitude

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Patty

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.
– A.A. Milne, English author and poet, from Winnie the Pooh

I got on Facebook to help promote my writing, but I soon discovered that it connected me with friends both near and far-flung, friends from my deep past to recent acquaintances. I rarely participate in the chain-letter-type activities that make the rounds on Facebook. I read about the Gratitude Challenge being taken on by a number of friends and was soon nominated by my good friend Laurel Kallenbach. With my participation now concluded, I share my seven days of gratitude here on my blog.

Day 1 – baseball is life, life is baseball
Thank you, Laurel Kallenbach, for nominating me for the Gratitude Challenge. I was nominated to list 3 things I’m grateful for every day for a week and nominate 3 people each day to do the same. Today, September 21st, is my first day (baseball gratitude theme) and I nominate Jack Beaudoin, Kara De La Paz, and Cecie Uytingco Mendoza.

1. I am grateful for David, who told me to go ahead and go to the baseball game today and he would do the tons of laundry and cleaning today and watch Isabella and her friend Kelly.

2. I am grateful for Jacob, who said, “Mom, I want to go to the game with you.” (Because David and Isabella didn’t want to.) I’m grateful that he still wants to spend time with me, even though he’s a teenager, and that we have more meaningful conversations and discussions.

3. I am grateful that my last regular-season Oakland A’s game that I attended this year ended with a win, which allowed us to celebrate with the crazy right-field bleacher loyal fans. “Never Quit” and “Keep Fighting”

Spontaneous partners in crime: our friends Robert and his son, Sasha, join us in cheering the 10th-inning walk-off home run win.

Spontaneous partners in crime: our friends Robert and his son, Sasha, join us in the right-field bleachers. At the moment all seems glum, but soon we will be cheering the 10th-inning walk-off home run by Josh Donaldson, aka The Bringer of Rain (Photo credit: Mike DeMay – thanks, Mike!).

Day 2 – labor day
I was nominated to list 3 things I’m grateful for every day for a week and nominate 3 people each day to do the same. Today, September 22nd, is Day 2 (Work gratitude theme, appropriately for a Monday) and I nominate Gordon Hunt, Eric Wicklund, and Diana Manos for the Gratitude Challenge.

1. I’m grateful to have great, hardworking colleagues around me to get the job done. Even though I work remotely, I am part of a great team who appreciates and supports what I do.

2. I’m grateful to work at home and be there for my kids – like the time both had pneumonia two winters ago, separate times, of course, and both were out of school for two weeks each. Did not have to eat up vacation days. Working at home also allows me to walk Isabella to school every morning.

3. I’m especially grateful for my geriatric companion, Rex, who keeps me company in the nearby library. While he’s not a great personal assistant, at least he sleeps most of the day and lets me get my work done. I can’t imagine my work day without him.

Rex ready for a Monday morning.

Day 3 – supporting our public schools
I was nominated to list 3 things I’m grateful for every day for a week and nominate 3 people each day to do the same. Today, September 23rd, is Day 3 (school gratitude) and I nominate Juliet Jamsheed, Daniel Philippe, and Denise Portello Evans.

1. I attended my first Investing in Academic Excellence meeting at El Cerrito High School last night, and I’m really excited to help this important organization raise funds for various school initiatives. I am grateful for the ECHS families who are working really hard for the school – the new families I’m meeting and the good friends whom I’ve known for years and whose end of journey together is less than four years away. I’m grateful that Jacob is off to a great start as a freshman there and has some inspirational teachers and a solid principal.

2. I am grateful for the two years we concluded at Portola Middle School (Korematsu now). We had two really wonderful teachers who have made a lasting impression on Jacob and a hardworking principal. Looking forward to returning there next year, in the new campus.

3. We are finishing up 10 years at Harding Elementary School this year. While I’m excited about finally leaving elementary school, I am forever grateful for the inspirational teachers and the many wonderful families and friends I’ve met and worked with on behalf of the school. I’ve made life-long friends and I’ve watched some pretty special kids grow up with my kids.

A Harding tradition: getting families together for a potluck after the last day of school. Here with friends Tana and Lori after our kids finished up fifth grade, celebrating at Arlington Park.

A Harding Elementary School tradition: getting families together for a potluck after the last day of school. Here with friends Tana and Lori, watching our kids, who finished fifth grade, play at Arlington Park this past June.

Day 4 – or purpose in life: giving back
I was nominated to list 3 things I’m grateful for every day for a week and nominate 3 people each day to do the same. I just read an article on Melinda Gates and her work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was inspired by her desire to make the world better. Today, September 24th, is Day 4 (giving and helping others theme) and I nominate Anja Hakoshima, Kimi Ynigues, and Kathy Brackett.

1. I am grateful for the work that my friend Jane Fischberg and her colleagues do at Rubicon Programs, whose mission is to “prepare low-income people to achieve financial independence and to partner with people with mental illness on their journey of recovery.” Especially in this current political climate, supporting both groups is not very popular, making their work even more challenging. But my friend Jane has a big heart and strong resolve. In an interview with me, she said, “I really do believe in giving back and I feel like a life of not giving back is not fulfilling. I’ve always felt the reason for living is to be of service, so that informed what I’ve always done.”

2. I am grateful for the work that my friend Alissa Hauser and her colleagues do at The Pollination Project, whose mission is to “expand compassion to the planet, people, and animals.” The Pollination Project’s mission aligns with Alissa’s philosophy: “What I’m most committed to is creating more kindness and compassion in the world,” she said. “There are so many ways to do it; there are so many ways I have done it. But at the end of the day, I just want to be a person who inspires other people to be nice to one another, no matter who they are or what they’ve done.”

3. I am grateful for my daughter, Isabella, who also has a big heart. She and her friends have baked cookies and made lemonade to sell at various parks to raise money for the Milo Foundation. She talks about wanting to save endangered animals, rescuing dogs from being put down, saving the earth from the harm that we do to it, and more. I want to continue nurturing in her that desire of giving and helping others.

Isabella and her friends have been selling cookies and lemonade for the Milo Foundation.

Day 5 – our Indian summer fall
I was nominated to list 3 things I’m grateful for every day for a week and nominate 3 people each day to do the same. Today, September 25th, is Day 5 (Nature theme) and I nominate Rose Cee, David Bruce-Casares, and Claire Richardson.

1. I am grateful for the rain that woke me up early this morning. While we have a long way to go to erase California’s drought, it’s a start, an early one at that.

2. I am grateful for the maple leaves changing color, announcing autumn’s return. The display is definitely not as spectacular as the leaves changing in the Northeast or other parts of the country, but all I need is a golden ginkgo and a flaming red and orange maple tree and I’m ready to celebrate one of my favorite seasons.

3. I am grateful for the small resurgence of my garden, which was stricken with powdery mildew in late July and pretty much petered out and left me with charred buds and dried-out sticks. However, with our Indian summer in full force, the carnations, fuschia, scabiosas, and poppies are bursting from their pots – a final send-off and blast of cream, purple, pink, red and white ripples.

Indian summer autumn bouquet.

Day 6 – TGIF
I was nominated to list 3 things I’m grateful for every day for a week and nominate 3 people each day to do the same. Today, September 26th, is Day 6 (TGIF theme) and I nominate John Buettner, Julie Redlin, and Maria Francesca.

1. I am grateful for my pumpkin-spiced chai latte that gets me through the mornings. My day starts on East coast time, so by the time I sit down to eat my breakfast and begin work again, I have already gone through my work e-mail and immediate, deadline-oriented work tasks, done my exercises and ridden my bike, walked Rex, and dropped off Isabella at school. The moment I settle into my office chair and sip my chai latte, I literally catch my second wind.

2. I am grateful for the mellow glass of red wine that will help me unwind in the evening. It’s something I look forward to when Friday evening hits and the work week is behind me.

3. I am grateful for a quiet Friday evening, watching the A’s win and now enjoying the rest of the fall evening with David and Isabella.

Even Rex is chillin’ on an autumn Friday evening.

Day 7 – a writer’s heart-felt thank you
I was nominated to list 3 things I’m grateful for every day for a week and nominate 3 people each day to do the same. Today, September 27th, is my last day, Day 7 (writer’s gratitude), and I nominate Yoko Morita, Alex Davis, and Nancy Donovan.

1. I am grateful for discovering and embracing the written word and the many gifts it brings – the sentence that dances, the character who enrages you, the places you can taste and touch, the moment created that brings you to a moment of truth in your past, the page that keeps you turning it, the book that leaves you bereft because the magic has ended.

2. I am grateful for the community of writers I have met throughout my life and call my friends, mentors, fellow writers, and careful readers – you know who you are, but a special shout out to Jack Beaudoin, Laurel Kallenbach, John Farrell, and Sands Hall.

3. I am grateful for my non-writer friends and family who have nurtured me in so many different ways – as careful readers, muses, emotional supporters, and more – you know who you are, too, but a special shout out to Kathy Brackett and David, always.

John, me, and Jack with our “author poses” at the Orange Grove, Syracuse University, 1990.

This exercise made me realize how many things, events, and people I am grateful for every day but oftentimes in the rush of the day I don’t reflect fully or give appropriate props. I’ll remember this challenge and remind myself every evening, during a quiet moment before I retire for the night, to look back on my day and give gratitude. Thanks again, Laurel, for the nomination!

In praise of a good story – both reading one and writing one (door sign given to me by my college and good friend Susie Merrill many, many moons ago, which still holds a prominent place in my office).

Take me out to a ballgame – or two: Phillies and Orioles

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Patty

I see great things in baseball.
– Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist

Approaching Oriole Park in downtown Baltimore. You can see various homages to great players from their storied past.

When we were planning our summer vacation, it was a foregone conclusion that Citizens Bank Park for a Phillies game would be a prime destination. As I looked at the map of Pennsylvania, I wistfully eyed Pittsburgh and dared to envision seeing a game at PNC Park, with its beautiful bridge and skyline view beyond the outfield, but we couldn’t justify adding three-plus hours of driving to get there – specifically for a baseball game. We could have thrown in a Washington Nationals game at Nationals Park, which by a Californian’s driving standards wasn’t far away. Going all out, we could also have caught both New York teams, also an hour or so away but in the opposite direction. While three out of four of us would have been in baseball heaven, we begrudgingly acknowledged Isabella’s dislike for the sport and understood that she couldn’t pack an entire library to read during the games, so we settled for two, back-to-back night games, in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Beautiful park with a skyline view.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards
For knowledgeable baseball fans out there, you know that being at an Orioles game for an Oakland A’s fan is akin to entering enemy territory, that is, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, or simply Camden Yards. But I had to see the first retro-style baseball stadium (333 W Camden Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, 410.685.9800), opened in 1992, that had become the rage of all new ballparks – state of the art and yet old-fashioned and quaint in feel and design, tucked within a historical neighborhood.

Once inside, the actual ballpark is gated. But until the gates are opened, you can enjoy the shops, restaurants, food carts. The brick façade gives the illusion of strolling downtown from an earlier era.

Our seats and view.

Okay, I was envious. The park, which seats 45,971, is beautiful. The images on the HD jumbo screen were sharp and huge. We were high up behind home plate, not quite nose-bleed seats. When we got to our section, our usher led us down the row and sprayed and wiped down our seats. Such customer service! We splurged on the soft-shelled crab sandwich, crab roll, and waffle fries, which was only fitting in Baltimore. The game itself was not that exciting, unless you’re an Orioles fan. Baltimore hit six home runs, winning 12-2 against the lifeless St. Louis Cardinals. The O’s Chris Tillman pretty much dominated over Justin Masterson. I much more prefer a balanced game, a pitchers’ duel, spectacular defense, a win for the home team and a loss for the rivals.

When in Baltimore, you must order the crab.

I had to get used to different forms of entertainment. Instead of the dot race I’m accustomed to at O.co, the Orioles have a hot dog race. When we were at Fenway in 2010, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the 8th inning tradition of singing Sweet Caroline as Neil Diamond’s voice blasted out of the speakers. At Camden Yards? It was John Denver’s Thank God I’m a Country Boy. Seriously. I thought for a second I was in a Midwest ballpark. But the two older men next to us explained that the Orioles have been playing that song since the early 1970s and it stuck, and during the 1979 World Series, John Denver made a surprise appearance. The crowd was really into it, and hey, so was I.

60th Celebration – the Orioles don’t mess around with throwing parties.

Fireworks, fireworks, and more fireworks – oh, and lots of laser lights in the field, too.

How fortunate were we to take in a game in which the Orioles were celebrating their 60 years of existence? After the game, we were treated to a star-studded program, which included a very loud fireworks and laser light show. I was in awe of the big names who were being honored, including Cal Ripken, Jr., Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Ken Singleton, Brady Anderson, Rick Dempsey, and (former Oakland A) Mike Bordick. Many were from my youth when I watched baseball games on TV with my dad and oftentimes with the whole family. I’m glad we got to experience Camden Yards and see the Orioles in their house. Who knows if they’ll be in the play-offs and we may see them again….

Citizens Bank Park as you come out of SEPTA train station.

Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
The Phillies’ ballpark is not downtown, but in the naval shipyard area, or the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, which also boasts the stadiums for the professional football and basketball teams (note that I don’t know the names of either team). Citizens Bank Park (1 Citizens Bank Way, Philadelphia, PA 19148, 215.436.1000), which seats 43,647, opened in April 2004, just four years before the Phillies won their last World Series. The stadium was well designed, sporting a wide concourse between the seats and the concession stands, enabling easy foot traffic and avoiding the bottlenecks that we typically experience at the Oakland Coliseum.

Just another family portrait with a baseball diamond behind us, much to Isabella’s chagrin.

We sat between first base and right field, but the way the ballpark was designed, we had a great view, and I felt like I was much closer than I actually was. The plays to right field were right in front of me. We were expecting sticky August temps – hence getting tickets for night games as opposed to day games – but we lucked out with mild temperatures, which made for very pleasant baseball watching weather.

Our view to the left.

At the time, the Phillies were battling the New York Mets for the cellar. It was a classic pitching duel with outstanding defensive catches and driving stops that robbed hitters of hits. The Phillies’ Cole Hamels pitched as expected, while the Mets’ Dillon Gee played unexpectedly well. What a treat we had. The game ended up going into extra innings, but the Mets broke up the 1-1 tie in the top of the 11th and held on for the win. While the fans filled the stadium, we realized they had come for a pre-game celebration. Once the game was tied, however, they left in droves. Good thing the stadium was built for easy in and out! Our Benjamin Franklin walking tour guide later told us that Phillies fans are famous for scorning other fans for leaving games early. They were spoiled with a WS championship in 2008, signed the team to big, long-term contracts, and now sport a bunch of aging players who have lost their luster. In other words, they have a right to exit early.

Our view to our center.

I again had big-screen envy with their HD Phanavision. While they didn’t have a tradition of playing an 8th-inning famous song like Fenway Park and Oriole Park, Citizens Bank Park had the standard between-innings games such as the “find the ball under the ice cream cup” game. I enjoyed the kissing cam and especially the karaoke cam, which featured lyrics in case you didn’t know the words. I guess that’s the Filipino in me. I’d love for O.co to adopt the karaoke cam.

Our view to the right.

We were lucky to witness another MLB team celebration, the second night in a row. The Phillies were inducting into their own Hall of Fame former manager Charlie Manuel. Some of the former stars who were on hand for the long program were John Kruk, Darren Dalton, Steve Carlton, and Mike Schmidt – all players that I used to watch in my youth, so that was fun to see. Who would imagine that I’d see so many great players from the past in two back-to-back games! That was a treat!

Former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel is right in your face with this crystal-clear HD jumbo screen.

Former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel is up-close and personal on this crystal-clear HD jumbo screen.

A whole lot of star power at the Phillies Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The Dress at 50

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Category Archives: Sports

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