Saturday, July 26, 2014

En-chanted in Germany; Postcard bookmarks; Equisetum; A vision; Lunches


From a German friend
Raccoon-worthy


play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xls23QVS56Y

A journey inside
.......

From Myrtle Dix
also Raccoon-worthy


Great trombonist Leslie V. Dix
in the style of Jack Teagarden
as a youth, old post card
converted into bookmark
and much in use.

Note ice cream chair prop.

Ah, the days of simple addresses
Ida Grove was a small town then...
near Holstein; Cherokee IA

(Bookmark(s) thanks to Christmas gift from LVD's grandson Lee Dix
who presented us with a nifty desktop laminator)

LVD of the postcard
summited as an aide to Pres. LBJ



Bookmarks, additional




.......

Snake grass
or horsetail
or scouring rush

or Equisetum




A small bouquet of Snake Grass stands on the window sill here.
We bought it last Saturday from Cindy Lou from her stand
at the Farmers Market.

To some, Equisetum is a pesky weed.
To us, something of prehistoric beauty.
After the dinosaur age
Native Americans and pioneers used the
wands in a cluster as scouring tools.




.......


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34OXeV_ZrqQ&list=PLF219A63803D5B1A0&index=10

I had a vision
of that litle boy pictured here 
with his lovely sister Erin and lovely Mother Denise -
a vision of him walking up South Street
on his way back to Houston after a
too short visit with us at the Odd Fellows.

The vision wasn't of this found LIFE IS A MERRY-GO-ROUND picture
in my archives taken at the Walworth Co. fair in August 1989...
I was looking for this one below:



Lee walked with his luggage
as his mother did Wednesday
walking with her pull-valise
at 3:45 AM to catch the appointed limo van 
to Mitchell Field.

They'd missed our address by a block
and were coming back as Dee was right
where Lee was in this photo, striding
to meet it.

I stood in the street waving my walking bludgeon
to catch the pausing van driver's attention.



This walking bludgeon is related to the
shortening sword previously pictured
made from eroded tree trunks from
Lake Michigan gathered at the Schlitz center.


Dee's dad, Poppy, is in a steep descent
on the way out of this world
in Pleasant Valley MD
the territory Dee hails from.

We've covered him in the Raccoon:
http://raccoonnews.blogspot.com/2014/03/dee-and-dad-trussed-up-time-enough.html

This one is for Poppy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1ceCpU25vA


^.^

And this one for me:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmDkqv5QmN4 .......



"Every Breath You Take"

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you

Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you

O can't you see
You belong to me
How my poor heart aches with every step you take

Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I'll be watching you

Since you've gone I been lost without a trace
I dream at night I can only see your face
I look around but it's you I can't replace
I feel so cold and I long for your embrace
I keep crying baby, baby please

Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I'll be watching you

.......

We're staying out of trouble
while Dee's gone:

On Thursday we had lunch with Wis Guthrie
at the Avalon Cafe.



A friend since the 1960s. We have superb pea soup as ist course.

Wis lives at the Avalon Square which ironically when it was a hotel
by that name, was where Dee's Maryland parents honeymooned.
Of all places, in Waukesha WI!

That's because at the time Poppy worked hanging billboards in the northeast
for the Lee Larson Advertising Co. headquartered here.



...

On Friday, 7-25, I met another old friend, Raccoon notable John Helt of Colgate
at the Holy Hill Cafe, nestled charmingly within the Carmelite
discalced friars shrine near Erin WI.













For dessert we split a piece of rhubarb and berries pie.

After we part I go into the HH gift shop like many pilgrims do.

I replenish my glow-in-the dark 'God's Rules' supply.



Saturday, July 19, 2014

Look out; Re: Lee; Destruction of a city; Beet juice; Last word


Look-out
looking out
over Waukesha


LOOK OUT !



THE SEWER RACCOON NEWS
LOOKS
to tell all from our vantage
which means largely from our piece of a 360 degree pie
that is limited up here from a radius pointing to the northwest.

But we have infinite communication
and reproduction tools at hand
thanks to our benefactors
and they know who they are.



Workers install fresh window boxes today
7-18 at the soon to open 'Irish Clark' hotel and restaurant
right across from the Odd Fellows


LOOK OUT!

.......



Here's to Lee!









  
A good son well-jobbed
a good job well done
Raccoon News salutes 
a great son done
it's temporary;
enjoy rest of summer, then
 onward
upward
excelsior!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=627MzSSBFF0

.......
Regarding Lee's eye-opening Japan trip
of recent date:

Lee advises that he did this composite quick vimeo
to give a taste of Japan adventures
in a kid-friendly form
to share it too with his kindergarten students
at Harlem Village Academies
where he teaches.

Lee had a two week teaching seminar
and then spent a week of solo sight-seeing
while there.

(The last frames of the vimeo are of him being back 
with his room-mates in New York
having American cuisine.)




play

https://vimeo.com/100867862

.......



Walter Brueggemann in his book REALITY, GRIEF, HOPE likens what happened
in Old Testament times - the destruction of Jerusalem - to the leveling of Hiroshima
at the conclusion of WW II and America's fallout to this day over the catastrophe
of 9-11.

It is, Brueggemann contends, a time for renunciation and a fresh start.  (Recommended reading.)

Having completed Brueggemann's book I ordered and am presently reading
Robert Jay Lifton's WITNESS TO AN EXTREME CENTURY.  (Also recommended.)
Brueggemann footnoted Lifton's book in his own work.



Lee visits the A-bomb monument at Ground Zero in Hiroshima. Japan.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial_Park





.......

BEET(non-'beatle') JUICE

Our shipment of Swiss Beet juice
at the moment beats my Swiss Army Knife
in thrill presence.

A full box of the stuff arrived via Amazon
this week.  This RED fluid is supposed to be
a great health tonic, good for regulating 
blood pressure, too.



I note early on that it is a great and powerful natural dye.
It tastes delicious, a flavor you don't get
from an opened can of beets.
I promise Dee I will finish the case of it.

BIOTTA  (brand)

.......

a cartoon I liked:



.......



Last word


Kindness to Animals

Little children, never give
Pain to things that feel and live:
Let the gentle robin come
For the crumbs you save at home,—
As his meat you throw along
He'll repay you with a song;

Never hurt the timid hare
Peeping from her green grass lair,
Let her come and sport and play
On the lawn at close of day;

The little lark goes soaring high.
To the bright windows of the sky,
Singing as if 'twere always spring,
And fluttering on an untired wing,—

Oh! let him sing his happy song,
Nor do these gentle creatures wrong.


"Kindness to Animals" by Anonymous. 










Saturday, July 12, 2014

Hope for the world; Pick a card; Pak choi; Dive bombing lesson; Downtown reflections


Today's Gazetteer 

is even more that than ever!
A Gazette.  Just gaze!
Number one photo just came in via Email
from grandmother Cindy Helt.

When I study this charming shot with Sarah,
baby Emerson's mom making the SMILE face
(for obviously that is what she's doing!)

I have to think:
THIS IS THE HOPE FOR THE WORLD

fractured and woe-bestricken as it may be...
happiness and wholeness will prevail!

 makes my day!

Oh yeah
father of baby
is Aaron Helt
my godson

.......







Any Card...



Play
http://stg.do/91qb

.......


CINDY'S PAK CHOI



Last night we had a vegetarian supper
partly consisting of Cindy Helt's Pak Choi
from her garden, done up in a certain way
- Cindy's way -
 in the Odd Fellows galley kitchen
by Dee.

.......




THIS MAY HAVE BEEN A TRAINING FILM
OR ONE LIKE IT
WATCHED BY LAST RACCOON'S LT. LAZ:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOz_i_2USkY

Note:  It's long, just as Lt. Laz's military training was....

.......

A Shutter Read On Downtown
in the thick of things:




From our high perch, like this gargoyle atop our mantel clock,
 and this one on the National flying buttressed Cathedral in Georgetown



WE KEEP OUR CIRCUMBSCRIBED WATCH OVER THE CITY

...


Work continues furiously in the readying of the new Clarke
manifestation for occupancy right across from
Raccoon Headquarters




Ads have been running for wait staff hires
and today 7-9 we see power washers
at work on the exterior.











Reflected in the windows of the NICE ASH cigar bar emporium
stands the spiffing-up Former Clarke Hotel, soon to be an Irish re-animation.

Will the guests enjoy this play-on-words neon sign?
Some will, including, it has been reported, the new owner of the Clarke
who is allegedly a cigar man.




A dawn street-cleaning patrol on Summer Fridays
ahead of that evening's Friday Night Live bash
 when hordes are permitted to street-walk.
Roads are controversially closed and barricaded.



On 7-8-14 Berg Management workers
operated their lift at South St and Clinton St
hoisting building materials to the roof.
More renovations (rooftop?) coming.




Dave's waitress waits
for Dave's Restaurant to open
and let her in.
4:50 AM 7-3-14


A charming downtown courtyard doorway.
Where is it?


A good day for window reflections...

Currently a drive is on, seemingly - or is it strictly random? - to create a resale shop district
on Grand Ave twixt South St and the Five Points. 
We'll watch to see if any permanent exterior signage occurs.



Sidewalk dining is accomodated, expanded as a result of
the street widening improvement
at the former Scrima's Corners, Main St and Clinton.
New Mayor Reilly recently opened up the street work.
Ceremoniously.




PLAY


'Yibawe!'

Haven't been
but bet
this tune gets played
a lot there
(Taylor/Taylor...)


.......