ELandF Backstories

Take A Taxi With Jim Gray (backstory)

2009-11-15T06:13:00.000-08:00

Pattie Hood
Few times in Lexington’s history have there been visionaries who also have the power and knowledge to bring positive growth and change. Jim Gray offers this unique opportunity for Lexington, and we must take advantage of his foresight and "carpe diem". I have a deep commitment to Lexington since my grandfather, a direct descendant from Daniel Boone, delivered telegrams as a boy in the early 1900’s in Lexington. As an artist/designer/business owner with a creative approach, I have some ideas I would love to discuss with Jim Grey as well as seeing Lexington from his perspective.

CLOUD WATCHER WANTED (backstory)

2009-10-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

CLOUD WATCHER WANTED (to watch clouds) archive: http://elandfgallery.blogspot.com/2009/09/blog-post.html

CLOUD WATCHER WANTED (to watch clouds)

....

Here's my 99 words.

best,

Mason Colby

Clouds have been a fleeting but powerful reward in this unexpected adulthood in which my time is no longer my own. As I race through the days, the unexpected sight of clouds towering overhead, swollen and impending, or framed by a regal purple rolling bluegrass sunset, is not just arresting, but, for a moment and some time after, adequate recompense. An hour of cloud watching would be an almost impossible luxury. Add a baguette and cheese from Wine+Market to eat while I linger with the changing clouds and reminisce about briefly-conquered Paris, and that hour would be a jewel.
....

Don Ament

I like how when the wind bumps into clouds it just goes around them, it doesn't get stuck. I want to be like the wind. Sometimes I bump into stuff and it just stops me cold. Where is all that artistic flexibility I strive for when something as soft as a cloud stops me cold?I want to watch more clouds, not to see how awesome they are, but to learn how to move around them with grace and ease.

....
Kim Thomas

Ahh, to watch a cloud is to watch the majestic Hand of the Universe make handpuppets in the sky.

To watch a cloud is to imagine the white puffs as the sign of something new, something as profound as the selection of a new pope, or as nebulous as a cold clear day’s sky, conspicuously holding heavenly divinity candy just above our heads, reachable only if we leave burdens behind and let our souls soar.

To watch a cloud is both a calm, steady act as well as an act of transition. We cannot shape them forever, they are fleeting…thus, clouds are bliss.

....
doreen maloney

Dear ELandF,
I would love to be your cloud watcher. I am already a cloud watcher. Clouds and sky take me from the mundane and project my mind into the eternal. Clouds bring bliss, and show change. Transformation of earth's space occurs continuously and like the changing sky my emotional self becomes washed clean, becomes refreshed. The higher limits of mind are connected to the clouds and the blue sky. Peacefulness and space descend through the eyes and become manifest in the body. Wind blows and completes the cycle of renewal and change. All this just from watching clouds.
....

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer

Please review my submission of 96 words as to why I’d like to be a cloud watcher for this event:I watch clouds for free all the time. I offer several poems as proof:

In the sky
She sees a cloud
Ribbed
For her viewing pleasure

Restraining Order
You and me
No less than
A cloud apart
Separated by rain
Snow
Or the lack of sun

Two White Clouds
Streaking through the sky -
wings that lost their angel.
Is there somewherea sad man
looking upward?

Optimistic Moon
A giant, round blimp – she hangs above,
Delivering a message:
“It will be a good year”

How to Write a Poem
Catch the air around the butterfly

Katerina Stoykova-KlemerAuthor of the bilingual poetry book
The Air around the Butterfly/Въздухът около пеперудата http://www.katerinaklemer.com/http://www.public-republic.net/
.....

Jane McCafferty

DEAR SIRS OH MY GOD THIS IS MY DREAM JOB HOW DID YOU KNOW I AM DYING THINKING I MAY GET MY DREAM JOBI MUST GET TO WORK ON MY 100 WORDS PLEASE I HAVE BEEN CLOUD WATCHING ALL MY LIFE AND NOBODY EVER SAID IT WAS A JOB YOU MUST UNDERSTAND I AM THE BEST CLOUD WATCHER AND EVERYONE SAYS IT EVEN THE PRESIDENT WOULD SAY IT IF HE KNEW ME EVEN THE PRESIDENTS ON OTHER PLANETS IF THEY KNEW ME WOULD SAY IT I DON'T JUST LOOK UP AND SAY "OH NICE CLOUD" I WATCH THEM CAREFULLY NEVER LETTING THEM OUT OF MY SIGHT AND SAY TO PEOPLE "LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL THAT CLOUD IS DANCING NEAR THE SUN IT IS A FACE LIKE SOMEONE WHO LOVES YOU MORE THAN ANYONE" OR MAYBE I SAID "LOOK AT THE POOR CLOUD BREAKING APART ISN'T IT JUST KIND OF LIKE A MIRROR" OR MAYBE I SAID "THAT RED CLOUD IS MY HEART AND YOU CAN HAVE IT TAKE IT!"
.....

Charlie G. Hughes

Last week I was watching clouds --- a tiny white lamb was frolicking among some strato-cumuli when suddenly a nimble wolf appeared from behind some small (nimbus of course) clouds. Seeing the wolf, the lamb sprang behind a giant thunderhead, the wolf in hot pursuit. I waited a good while, until it began to rain, but they never reappeared.
This event is the perfect opportunity for me to find out what happened to them.
+
I have always wanted to be the Homo sapien exhibited in The House of Great Apes and Other Primates at the zoo. This may be as close as I'll ever come in fulfilling that aspiration.
....

Joshua

Is a multi prismatic organism of particulates the reflect and/ or refract light. From the crepuscular rays of the sun moving around them the color graduations allow the senses to mobilze to a true happy place. Skybound ships of magnificent grace they transform themselves to meet the challenges the jetstreams present. I offer my services at your discretion.
Hope you are having a beautiful day!

Bangin Up A Storm (backstory)

2009-10-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

Bangin Up A Storm archive: http://elandfgallery.blogspot.com/2009/06/bangin-up-storm-lexington-nursing-home.html

Kickin' Poet needed to read both original and favored poetry at eight Lexington area nursing homes in eight hours. Poet should be prepared to read for approximately 15 minutes at each venue and to expect and encourage spontaneous interactions prior to, during and after each reading. Poet must be flexible, tireless, cranky, sincere and not to mention – one damn fine poet.

Sunny Montgomery
“I’ve been a writer since I was a little girl and I’m always searching out new ways to share. I’m certain this project is going to be incredibly inspiring for everyone involved and I would LOVE the chance to share my greatest passion with a part of our community (nursing homes) that we do not get to socialize with enough. Because after all, society is only as strong as all of its members cooperating together, right? “
....
Jim Tobey
Here is a poem I have been thinking about for awhile. It’s about my Dad, James A Tobey (1922-2009) who passed away this past January.

My father will die
on a cold grey day;
just like the day he was born
in early December
in a small town
a stone’s throw
from the northern border.

Happiest in wool
he’d complain about the heat in summer;
and finally turned his wife
who’d loved the shore
and sun bathing
into someone
a little bit like him.

My father lived well
through many cold days;
died, and was born
on a single one.

Lexington Town Crier (backstory)

2009-10-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

Lexington Town Crier archive: http://elandfgallery.blogspot.com/2009/05/hear-ye-hear-ye-help-wanted-lexington.html

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
Help Wanted: Lexington Town Crierto read publically and then to post publically, developer Dudley Webb’s recent letter to City Council throughout downtown Lexington.

Brittny Congleton:
Hey there.... word on the street is that you need a town crier... well I just happen to want to BE a town crier... for this day in question... and perhaps many more times... and well... here's why:"By confronting this ridiculous letter of irresponsibility, we bring to the public a rallying point and reminder of broken promises, as well as our responsibility as citizens to communicate. I am constantly looking for ways to connect to my community, and something that connects us all is the kind of history we share by walking the same sidewalks. As a comedic performer, I relish any opportunity to be devious in a public setting, but this performance will be one of a lifetime!! I plan, perhaps, on wearing a spectacular yellow dress- like a techni-color Alice and Wonderland (or a female Dick Tracy) searching the streets of Lexington for a purpose and a playground!"-----
Elaine Parker:
It would be a great honor to serve as the Lexington Town Crier. I founded Lexington...Better Not Bigger... name is self-explanatory. I am possessed of a clear voice with great volume, strong opinions, and am capable of accents on demand. I can embellish the reading with snorts, groans, and eye rolling…

Alex Johns:
The Centerpointe project was a huge blow to our local music scene. While both music locales and most the stores have found new homes, there is a different atmosphere and a lack of interest from the community.I’m tired of being unmotivated about creating change. It seems that a few people make a very big difference in the overall interest of the public. I’d like to be one of them. I would dress professionally…..and while I plan to utilize the megaphone, believe me, my voice is quite loud…

The Book Reader (backstory)

2009-10-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

The Book Reader archive: http://elandfgallery.blogspot.com/2009/03/book-reader-wanted-book-reader-book.html

Book Reader Wanted
to read a book that has extraordinary meaning to the reader. Reader will be asked to read in an outdoor public parking space (weather permitting) in Lexington which will be appointed with a nice rug, comfortable chairs and a very small but excellent library.

Jeremy Garrett
I read Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar on a family road trip to the beach. My first, secret boyfriend had loaned me the novel, and while my father incessantly searched the radio for a Christian music station, I spent the trip reading. Vidal’s book, the first popular gay novel, was my initial plunge into gay fiction. That long ago vacation I lied to my parents when they asked about the novel I was reading, which is why now, having faced the fear of disapproval, I long to read The City and the Pillar in a public parking space.
--------------------
Lynda Mercer
I'm interested in reading meaningful writing publicly because I hope to one day read my own work in a public venue, but more importantly, I find public intellectual endeavors exciting, and I find literature especially so. I would love to share Graham Swift's 'Waterland' with others. Swift's work has influenced my own writing and I find all of his fictional worlds to be captivating, sometimes absurd, and always innovative. To me, 'Waterland' is like a darker, more experimental twist on Dickens, and I think the novel is the epitome of art. It's really just a beautiful, lyrical piece of writing and I think it would be a perfect choice to hear read aloud, even (and maybe especially) in a parking lot.

Public Transportation Poetry Project (backstory)

2009-10-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

Link to Public Transportation Poetry Project:

http://elandfgallery.blogspot.com/2008/12/poet-on-bus.html

Original post November 2008
Help Wanted: Poet
Poet to compose a work written during the course of one round-trip bus ride (from the Lexington Transit Center and back) on a LexTran bus route of his or her choice. The writer’s journey is to be followed immediately on return to the Transit Center by a short (ten-minutes at least) public reading. The poet will read the work written on the bus ride as well as any other work that she or he wishes to share.

Kristie Kachler's
Help Wanted: Public Transport Poet essay.....

Lots of people say lots of people don't like poetry. That's natural, and I couldn't care a lick. What bothers me is the probability that some people like poetry without knowing it. So I favor sneaky poetries. Reading poems in a bus station would be very sneaky indeed, and might present poetry in a more engaging form than the page, which can appear intimidating and exclusive. In this venue, I'd hope to laugh with unsuspecting poetry-likers, to feel less lonely with them. Besides, on buses, I usually only chatter, or I study Lithuanian.