That Easter Monday

I don't seem to have many photos from this match. Which match would that be? Easter Monday, 31st March 1986. 35 years ago today. QPR 6, Chelsea 0. That day the fan within could not be controlled, and many more pics than usual were a bit out-of-focus. By the 6th goal, I couldn't even take them I was so excited. A great memory. A great day to be an R. Still get a bit hyperbolic about it:

And gentle folk in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their persons cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon that Easter day.*

* with apologies to W Shakespeare

Piglet Retrospective XI

 

This is one of my all-time favourite Piglet pics. Very An Affair to Remember (or Sleepless in Seattle for the slightly less ancient). This view from the top of the Empire State Building includes the World Trade Center towers, Liberty Island (with a teeny tiny statue) and my beloved Flatiron building amongst others. It evokes a lot of memories.

Keep on Drawing!

 

Drawing is difficult. Well, it feels difficult. To me. Possibly I focus on that too much. Anyway, it's a struggle. One of the great things about our #DrawingTogether group is the support that is given to anyone who dares to share how they feel. I have not yet stopped feeling intimidated by the quality of work so many seem able to produce so quickly. Yet these same artists always find something positive to mention about what I (and everyone else) share onscreen. This is a blessing.

Today's warm-up was 5 minutes to draw the Coronavirus. Quite a few people in the USA seemed hopeful and positive, looking towards the light. I still feel it looms over us, certainly here, so that's what I drew. 

The main exercise was to draw four panels, with 5 minutes for each one. The first was of three new objects with which we have become familiar during the pandemic:

I drew my drawing pencil (gosh it is getting short), with which I entered this group, a mask, and the white hair on my head revealed by the lack of access to a hairdresser (combined with my unwillingness to try and dye it myself which goes back to an incident with some cochineal when I was a teenager).

Then our moderator, the Spanish doctor and cartoonist Monica Lalanda, asked us to bring these three objects to life and name them:

The directions for the next 2 panels were tough for me:  we were to draw our creations interacting with each other. My mind went blank. All I could think was, I cannot do this. I wrote this thought in the chat, I said I couldn't see them interacting. Monica and others encouraged me not to give up. Someone suggested that I should draw them meeting, and I thought ok I will have a go. 

I don't know how Mascherina became the bad one, but that's how she turned out. Wispo appears to have gone to Egypt*. And then Tip found a way:

Not great drawings technically, but important for me because I didn't give up. & Monica made a point of saying to me that when the pandemic is over, I must keep drawing. 

That moment when it seems too hard, and you just want to stop. Or, you can whine for a moment, and then have another go. Thank you for the blessing that is Drawing Together.

* not a Pesach theme but a bad pun (they are in denial. I'll get my coat).

George Segal z"l

Sad to hear that the actor George Segal has died. From A Touch of Class to The Goldbergs, I greatly enjoyed his work in film and on tv. I met him once, when he came to visit my father to arrange his wedding to his second wife, Linda z"l. He sat in the big guest armchair in the front room and was charming and witty and discussed Torah with my dad. May he rest in peace. May all those who mourn him be consoled with the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Piglet Retrospective X

 

Feeling the need to escape from everything at the moment - too many plates spinning and don't want any of them to smash. The most random thing that came to mind was the Atomium. My mind is now in Belgium. Here is Piglet's view from a birthday bus tour of Brussels. 

Let's Talk About Chametz

This coming week is all about chametz. Technically, this is food with leavening agents that are forbidden during the festival of Pesach. Yeast, and many items that puff up when in contact with water (unless you are Sefardi, or Italian - it's not as complicated as it feels) are removed from your home down to the last crumb you can find. And then, throughout the festival, you eat only permitted foods. No challah for Shabbat, but matzah. No pancakes for breakfast but matzah brei. Sheets of matzah replace lasagne. Balls of matzah cook in broth. And we eat too much of Nigella's flourless chocolate cake. Or Ottolenghi's. Or your grandmother's.

So this is a time for spring-cleaning. But we don't just clean the kitchen, there is also the idea of a spiritual cleansing. How puffed up are our egos? What emotional chametz do we need to discard? 

This week I received a gift. Someone who had been a friend many years ago, but I felt had let me down badly maybe ten years back, they wrote me a brief note. For all these years I held onto my anger. Every time I saw something from them on social media, the feelings would blow up and I'd be mad all over again. What a lot of energy I invested in those feelings. And I couldn't, or wouldn't let them go.

Nu, we met up by chance at a Zoom gathering the other day. The next day they sent me a brief note:  "glad to see you so happy". And on seeing a message from them my anger did not blow up. No, my anger melted away. It's gone, really gone. What a blessing! I feel like some chametz has been removed from my heart. A perfect start to the preparation for Pesach. Thank you.

Wishing good luck to all who will be searching for chametz this week.

How Can it be 25 Years Already?!

 

The beginning of May will mark 25 years since my rabbinic ordination at HUC-JIR. Sadly this year we will not be able to gather in person to celebrate the milestone, but earlier in the week during the CCAR convention c. 20 of us met in a Zoom room to catch up and congratulate each other. It was important to me to hear about the oys and joys of these classmates over the years. I can't wait to be able to celebrate in person, but meanwhile a hearty mazeltov to all my co-DD-ers!

Piglet Retrospective IX

Oscars have been announced. Nominations apparently more diverse than ever before. To be honest, with all cinemas closed here, and without a Disney+ subscription, we have no idea who anyone is or what they were in. O, wait, we did watch "Mank". A very long movie that for some reason reminded us of "Citizen Kane". Except that was shorter. Although, surprisingly, only by 12 minutes. 

Anyway, good luck to everyone. Piglet dreams of a time when once again we may leave town and take tourist pics of famous sights.

Drawing Inspirations

There are some dreams that are just that, a wish for something that will probably never be, but now and then one may procrastinate for a moment and think what if ...? And then there are those that one may actually try to reach, which involve drive and stamina, and practice. 

I've always been a bit lazy, and definitely afraid of doing things badly. When I was little, I wanted to be a cartoonist like Charles Schulz. I decorated my exercise books with wobbly Snoopys and Charlie Browns. I doodled. I doodled on my schoolwork so much that the History teacher suggested I should transfer to the Art department. Or away from the History department. I made cute cards for my friends. I created a character. But although he wandered in and out of my notebooks and diaries, I never explored his world. There are so many excuses. But the fact is, I did not put in the practice. 

A few years ago an ad led me to attend a JW3 Masterclass with Ariel Schrag.  Then a gift from my beloved L of the ticket to an evening with Alison Bechdel (who did not flee from my fangirl affection and had a serious chat with me) led me to Laydeez Do Comics and the wonderful Sarah Lightman. Sarah, who forbade me to buy her book until I could show her six months of drawings done every day, sent me to Graphic Medicine and their weekly Drawing Together online meetings which included, a couple of weeks ago, a class with Lynda Barry. 

The encouragement of these individual people, as well as the kind and enthusiastic members of the Drawing Together group, have given me wings. After Lynda's workshop I wanted to draw. In fact, while I was waiting to be let into the Zoom room, I looked at the holding page and sort of sketched her face (that's the first pic above). And after it was all over, I thought I'd have another go (2nd pic), and then another:

Ok, they probably all look like different people, but it was good practice to draw what I saw and see how that comes out (proportions need a LOT of work). And this next one I was quite pleased about:

There are a couple more, and I guess I will keep drawing Lyndas for a while. I'm using some screenshots from the video as a model. Meanwhile, I want to thank everyone for being so positive. It really helps me to be less afraid and draw more.

PS  Here's a link to Lynda's #DrawingTogetherGM class.

UK Mothers Day 2021

Mothers Day can be tough for many reasons. A friend of mine lost her mother this week, and even before the shiva service she has to face the first of these days as an orphan. One may have, or have had a troubled relationship with one's mother. It's clearly not all breakfast in bed and flowers and chocolates.

This is the second of these days that I have not been able to celebrate my mother. As you may know, she loved Chinese food, and Mothering Sunday was a day when I would take her to lunch in a restaurant of her choice. We are currently under full lockdown again, so I can't even get some rubbish Chinese food here (we haven't yet discovered the best place in town, but we have been trying!) to eat on her behalf. So I am remembering past meals, under the watchful eye of the Dragon Lady of Old Brompton Road, after parking illegally somewhere off Baker Street, at the Red Sun near WLS, takeout from the Stick and Bowl on Ken High Street ... many good memories of quality time spent together.

As for the photo I've posted of a purple Kent House, if you look closely there is a light on in the flat on the second floor. That was where my mother spent so many evenings, watching her favourite tv shows, having a snack or a meal. I can be sad that today I'm not making her eat all the prawn crackers so I won't be tempted, or that light can remind me of the positive memories I have, and thus she will continue to shine on my life. 

Hoping that this day can bring us all something positive.

Piglet Retrospective VIII

Jumping Jehoshaphat it's March already! Piglet is jumping for joy (and not being blown off the sign by a gust of wind after I put him so carefully in place and stepped back to take a picture). Looking forward to Spring, and feeling some energy & hope!