Big Flower
Moonie loooooves flowers. It’s hard to walk down the street without him zipping around into people’s yards, hugging everything in sight.
He found an extra big one and wanted me to share it with you, so here it is.
Tape Art
Many thanks to the ninjas behind Tape Art, pop-up installations around Providence that don’t cause damage to the buildings they appear on. Right now, it’s fun to look for their 14 different installations in various neighborhoods, thanks to their collaboration with the PopUp Providence program that introduces interactive artistic displays throughout our capital city.
Moonie found this cool catfish right near our house, and according to PopUp Providence’s list of current exhibitions, the Tape Art should stay up through June 15 – giving us plenty of time to track down the others.
Moonie hopes there are more polecats. He really wanted to pet the kitty, even if it was a mite skeletal.
Blues Wolf
“Blues Wolf” is a fixture on the Rhode Island blues scene. Mr. Wolf and four of his friends play as “Wolf & the Jam Daddies” at a number of revolving venues, but particularly at Boundary Brewhouse in Pawtucket, where they’ve hosted a Sunday evening blues jam for ten years.
Moonie and I had a great time checking out Wolf & the Jam Daddies (Moonie particularly liked polishing off my “Jesse James,” a burger with smoked bacon and cheddar, and trying to take little sips of beer when no one was looking). No one said you had to eat healthy to enjoy Blues Wolf, especially as he kicked off the evening singing about the chocolate-covered cookie blues.
Memorial Day
I’m not a fan of war – I wish there were far less painful and destructive and expensive ways to maintain peace – but that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of, or grateful to, those who serve our country and those who make sacrifices to keep Moonie & me safe. My father’s father was a lifelong pilot for the Navy, one of the last non-commissioned officers in history to fly in the military, and eventually retired as a lieutenant JG. My Da and his siblings grew up as military brats, with war more of a reality than it has been to me in my lifetime. My mother’s stepfather was a captain in the Marine Corps, serving in both World War II and Vietnam, and a Purple Heart recipient. When I was little I remember how proud he was of the faded, fuzzy anchor tattoos on his forearms, like Popeye, and the case he kept full of flags, articles and medals. Both of them passed on years ago, so Moonie never got to meet them, but he joined me today in thinking of them and the many soldiers and heroes like them.
March Against Monsanto
For the third year in a row, people who believe that food containing GMOs (genetically modified organisms) should be labeled gathered together to raise awareness and support. GMOs can harm beneficial insects (as a former beekeeper, this is particularly important to me) and increase risk of illnesses such as cancer and birth defects (as a human being, this is even more important to me). We should know when we’re eating plants or animals that have been injected with genetically modified and engineered ingredients. But we don’t.
Monsanto is a big company with deep pockets that lobbies to protect their various GMO foods from being labeled, both fearing and knowing that informed Americans would make better choices than their modified crops and their growth hormone-tainted animal products. They also keep winning. Despite scientific evidence of GMOs’ harm, money and power talk. The recent Monsanto Protection Act passed by Congress and President Obama bans courts from halting the sale of Monsanto’s genetically altered seeds. If we can’t stop bad things from invading the products sold to us as food, we should at least know the bad things that are in them. That’s where even we little folk have power.
LBGT Center Movie Night
The Rhode Island LGBT Center and Rhode Island Pride teamed up on Friday night to present a Countdown to Pride Movie Night. The movie is just one of a handful of events in the next few weeks that will lead up to RI PrideFest and its illuminated parade on June 20th. It sounded like fun to watch a movie with some fun, welcoming people, and Moonie liked the sound of the make-your-own sundae bar.
A lot.
He pulled himself away from the jimmies and chocolate sauce after seeing a big rainbow flag across the room, immediately toddling over to add some pink to the pretty colors.
Moonie & The Mediator
Moonie and I hit The Mediator Stage a couple nights ago to see Boston-based singer Lisa Marie and her “All Shook Up” pal John Juxo.
Before the show, Moonie wanted a “moonie” (selfie) in front of the Mediator stage, so we popped upstairs for a better view. It’s a cool space, yes?
Drawn Together
There’s a great non-profit, Resources for Human Development, that believes that art “breaks the barriers between people with and without disabilities.” A friend of mine had been an art therapist at RHD-RI for years, and I still love going to their shows and concerts to see what fun and beautiful and interesting things their clients have created.
This month RHD-RI has been collaborating with The Drawing Room, a Providence venue founded by photographer and artist John Jacobson to “promote drawing locally, regionally and nationally in all its glorious forms.” Together RHD-RI and The Drawing Room created “Drawn Together by Chance: A Collaboration Featuring Modified Oblique Strategies.”
Moonie and I checked out their closing reception Thursday evening and loved the scribbles, sayings and drawings that covered every inch of the Drawing Room’s long white walls. Moonie even learned a few things.
Then he studied some of the art adorning the smaller, un-scribbled-on walls.
Red Nose Day
I hadn’t heard of Red Nose Day, which is apparently an annual fundraiser where comics use entertainment to raise money for those in poverty. It sounded like a decent cause, so Moonie and I kicked in a bit to the campaign at a local pharmacy, whose cashier sported a red felt mustache and red bow tie, and she gave him this swell red nose sticker to wear for Red Nose Day. Oh BOY! He can’t wait to put it on!
Here goes–Oh.
Oh, Moonie.
I think it’s maybe a little big for you, buddy.
Billiards
Moonie is my buddy. My pal. My guy. My sidekick.
But I still wouldn’t recommend playing pool with him.
He’s too little to lift the big long heavy cue sticks, so instead he’ll run around the table rolling each ball by hand and giggling like a maniac. And he isn’t entirely interested in the rules so much as the fun, so he’ll happily scratch the cue ball or sink the 8 ball before he’s finished getting the solids and stripes into the holes.
It’s cute to watch him running around with the balls, but it sure takes a loooong time to play a game, and you’ll probably end up with a grumpy line of biker dudes waiting for you and Moonie to finish.
Maybe play chess instead. If you’re OK with him trying to ride the knight pieces like horsies, that is.
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