Royal Jordanian's got my baby

Let Freedom Ring

On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 11:46 PM (Nov 5, 2008 8:46 AM Jeddah time),

Kate wrote to Alicia:

congratulations, to you and your generation for standing up and making a change.
I hope you are in grant park right now.

Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 1:45 AM (10:45 AM Jeddah time) Alicia replied:

I was, it was amazing :D

The only bad part was that my camera battery died (I cannot BELIEVE I let that happen), but really I was so far in the back I don't know that it would have mattered. the part afterward was well worth photographing, though. We walked 8 blocks down the middle of Michigan avenue and the crowd would randomly start screaming every 5 minutes or so! It was a sad day for the photojournalist in me. I got a disposable but I know I could have gotten so many amazing shots... ugh.

Anyway, it was a totally amazing experience which I will write about in great detail later.

Love you,
God bless America :)

Alicia May


I'm posting the the end of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech because today, for the first time in my life, I can see the result of the fundamental change in our thinking that must exist for that dream to be realized.

"I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Barbara Kathryn Blee Carlyle 1935-2008

7 makes a family

Special request from Helen. Dedicated to the principle that a family that eats together... ends up covered in bamboo shoots?

cheers,

Kate

homage

My homage to the classic Japanese carp tattoo. This little fish is a result of chatting with my brother James who always has an interesting insight. and mentioning that I was thinking about a new um. tattoo. always a hot topic, the conversation actually started with Alicia when I stated a serious desire for a small laughing carp on the back of my calf.
Alicia vetoed this - not sure if because of the subject matter but definitely the placement. Above is the pre color drawing and the sketch below is the original idea. (I added the uncolored version after several people requested more process - but seriously it's just draw, scan, color)



best, kate

horizon

Alicia is in Alaska for the Christmas holiday - brought back memories of Alaska in the dead of winter, when the sun is never above the horizon. the light from the sky is lovely, we used to ski in the silence through the dark and the whiteness. with the company of the occasional rabbit or moose.

bless everyone in the coming new year,

kate

Illustration Friday topic: horizon

merry christmas - happy new year

grow

Illustration Friday topic this week is grow. I'm trying. I made these little sketches of my dad and the little plants, in a meeting thinking of my father. Dad always makes a garden from nothing where ever he lives. The photo is of him on his roof top in Doha, Qatar about 5 years ago.

snap shots of a summer

Dad, looking pretty good for an old guy.

James, looking pretty scruffy.


Mac, waiting for the meat that James is cooking in the kitchen.


Grandma Margie. Beautiful as ever, asked me why I was pointing a camera at her.

Um. Gratuitous shot of the BMW?

Chuck, the ever patient brother in law. With the Birthday Cake Pearl and Tipper made for me. (long story about Pearl not being able to attend my B-Day in Jeddah).

Pearl with her Hedgie (she was still working on her name) and an old pal.

I only put this in here to prove I was there, never pose in the corner of a sectional leaning back in an over sized orange shirt.


This is Lorenzo Foncerrada, the Simple Wood Carver and his fine wood working tool.

That chunk of line and mass will someday look something like this:

Nancy Foncerrada in her favorite spot.

Alicia and a host of Hedge Hogs on the fire escape. (7th floor, what a view)

Alicia being attacked by a brown bear marauding through down town Bourne Texas.

Caleb, Mary and Alicia perusing the dollar cactus table. They drove up from Houston for this...

Final shot from the beach at Coronado Bay.

And a friendly wharf rat.


best, kate

MerMommy

You all think I didn't take any photos this summer. but that's not true. in fact I have so many that I'm having trouble sorting them into posts. because one really really long one seems the wrong way to go. I thought I would start with the highlights: This is my middle sister Tipper (who will not thank me for this post of her lily white legs :D) and my favorite niece Pearl.

I last saw Pearl in person when she was 9 months old and have had only the pleasure of photos and spoiling her with two presents a year. ( I am buying her all the cool stuff Alicia is too old for - absolutely self serving). So onward posting.

Tipper called and asked Thomas and me to meet her at the Coronado Bay Beach on Sunday. After much late afternoon maneuvering we snagged one and a half parking spaces and hit the beach. Pearl came with the firm intention of burying her mom in the sand. With Uncle Thomas' willing cooperation Tipper was transformed into MerMommy. Tipper is a trouper.








And the close up.....



xoxo, kate

B-Day

Alicia's birthday is December 31st. Which can suck pretty bad. People are always trying to pass off "combined" gifts. I gave her the best little marzipan pig EVER. (German New Years tradition, pink piggys with gold coins?)



Aunt Helen and Uncle Dave understand COMPLETELY. Helen passed on the "youngest" title to Alicia a while back. And made a totally perfect chocolate cake with candles and grocery store sugar decorations.





love and kisses to the best daughter, sister and brother in law one could wish for,

kate

Alicia's CTA story

"In a city increasingly characterized by class and ethnic distinctions, the trip in by train was arguably the one significant personal experience that more Chicagoans had in common than any other." – Carl Smith. Professor of English and American Studies and professor of history at Northwestern University Common-Place, Chicago

The Illustration Friday topic was “phobia” and what popped into my head was the basic human phobia of other human beings different or “foreign” to them; Xenophobia. Shortly afterwards my daughter emailed me this little essay:

I got onto the last car of the train (always a mistake) and since it was completely packed ended up standing in the car. Which is fine blah blah happens all the time. Weird muscley hooded guy stared at me. Not unusual (I'm super hot, I'll remind you). Later, the crowd has thinned out a very little bit and drunken-seeming guy stumbles onto train and stands next to me. Fine. Crowd thins out more, I get a seat next to late-90s man. Cool. Somebody stinks. Standard. Middle aged black guy with 80s hair sits down on the other side of me. Whatever. Seemingly drunk guy starts telling everyone on the train he is "all drugged up" because he just got out of the hospital and "somebody stabbed me!" THE FUN BEGINS!

80s hair: Where were you [when you got stabbed]?
Stabee: uptown.
80s hair: mm.

time passes. Stabee strikes up a conversation with man sitting near him, repeating same information he has already given the whole car: he was stabbed, he is drugged up, he just got out of the hospital, etc etc. A girl gets up and Stabbe sits next to the man, continues to discuss his woes.

Later I accidentally make eye contact with Stabee, and he asks me if I'm ok.
Me: Yeah... I'm fine.
Stabee: You don't gotta be afraid!
Me: Afraid of what? You? Psh.
80s Hair: AHAHAHA... that was funny!
Stabee: You ain't gotta be afraid of me.
Me: I'm really not.
80s Hair: Haha!
Stabee: Bein' afraid's how I got stabbed! When you afraid, stuff happens.
Me: Very true.

time passes.

80s hair: I really like those... those new converse, what are they, sewn up inside?
Me: Yeah, they're laceless, so they're just sewn together and the tongue is elastic-y.
80s hair: I like those! They're very cool, very cool, very very cool.
Me: Thank you!
80s hair: Mmmhmm. I remember when I got my first pair of converse, I was bought 11 years old.
Stabee: Hehe, we're talkin' YEARS back now eh!
80s hair: Mmhm. Yeah, I remember that first pair of converse *looks wistful*.
Me: What color were they?
80s hair: Red.
Stabee: Mine were white!
Me: I've got a pair of white ones.
Stabee smiles.

Then they both got off and I was kind of sad. Luckily, a woman got on right after them, sat next to me, and promptly started talking to herself/anyone who would listen about her phone needing to be charged, her missing wallet, and how she's all shook up because her boyfriend tried to kill her last week and she had him arrested, only to find out that he had been booked for attempted murder before.

The next stop was mine, so as I got up I recommended she stay away from her ex-boyfriend.

"Oh, honey I don't need men anymore. I'm a free woman! I'm gonna find me a rich guy. I'm dating my dentist, have been for a while. An older rich man, that's what I like."

(the photos are both taken by Alicia. the train pic is from her bedroom window. she lives in chicago and rides the CTA every day.)

Travels

I've been traveling, a lot. Not just miles. Jeddah to Raleigh is give or take 8000 miles. But that's still one trip. My schedule for the last 6 (and counting) weeks went like this: Jeddah (KSA) - Raleigh (NC) - Boston (MA) - Raleigh - Emerald Isle (NC) - Raleigh - Comfort (TX) - Raleigh - Chicago (IL) - Raleigh.

We'll start with Boston where I was attending the Siggraph 2006 Conference: AMC SIGGRAPH. These friendly folks are faculty from the Art Institute of Washington, Media Arts department, and this is their hapless entrée, we where having lunch at the No Name Restaurant. I always encourage my computer animation students to volunteer at Siggraph and I took this photo to document the fun and interesting things student volunteers get to do.

Emerald Isle was my next stop, I rented a small place two blocks from the beach. I don't know these ladies but they represent my archetypical image of east coast beaches. Alicia and Erik seemed somewhat confused about the whole sand and sea thing. Nice little sandpiper and a kite to round things out.

On our way home we stopped in Wilmington the epicenter of the film industry in North Carolina. We had lunch on the water front at the Riverboat Landing Restaurant the food and the service where excellent. We walked around and came across the location of Karen's Cafe from One Tree Hill, and yes, that IS a fake door painted on a piece of plywood.

On to Comfort TX, located in the hill country northwest of San Antonio, population 2,358 (in 2000 but I don't think its changed a whole lot). This is the water tower across the street from my parents house. We actually got to watch them tear down the old one and put up the new one, in 1994 I think. (That was a blockbuster summer :-)

So this is the Carlyle Homestead. My parents have been technically located at this house for more or less 12 years, with a couple of side trips to Qatar and Japan. And THIS is what happens to native Californians who relocate to Texas (born and raised in the San Diego area, my dad claims the east coast migration drove him out).

My elder brother James is currently running his custom decal and vinyl sign shop, Signology , out of Mom's sleeping porch. He relocated a few items when he moved in, including this vintage truck he restored from a rusting hulk. If you look carfully you can see a catamaran behind the pear tree.

This is the best picture I have ever gotten of my mother, dob 1935. Nice shot of the dog too. The dog's name is MacTavish, (which I do not understand as he is a long haired miniature dachshund, a distinctly german breed.) This is the window in Mom's kitchen, the selves contain an assortment of coffee mugs, tea stuff and critters. On the top self are puffin salt and pepper shakers my brother and his wife used to manufacture, a ceramic castle mug I made in eighth grade, a ceramic musk ox, stone hedgehogs, and a brass rabbit. Note the Cat Fish on the cabinet and the Kitchen Witch on the counter.

And before we leave the kitchen, one of the nighttime visitors who lurk on the window screen waiting for unsuspecting insects attracted by the light.

In the dining room hangs one of Mom's paintings, more of moms art here. The sharks are by long time family friend Lorenzo Foncerrada.

So this is my dad again. Not sure why the rope. Musta' been in the truck. The Bronco's stickers include an "evolve" fish. And these are some of Dad's inside critters (found on most horizontal areas not occupied by books), the panther and anteater are Oxacan Woodcarvings. The little guys are japanese and the lion is from Africa.
And the last stop was Chicago to help Alicia move in to her new dorm room. Well, by help I mean rent the van and drive it from Oak Park where her stuff was stored to Loyola University. These volunteers (and a couple of hired ringers) swarmed the van and carried all of her stuff up the THREE flights of stairs, cuz there is no elevator. My eternal thanks to the move in volunteers whoever you are.

And now I'm "home" in Raleigh, waiting for my airline tickets to come through - I'm working on a few things, next post is a different kind of travelog.

best, Kate.

me and my daughter

Kate
hey are you there?

Alicia
watttup
...
sorry i had skype hidden
...
?
...
you there?
...
thur yet?

Kate
sorry hun. back from work. but it's the early morning for you.

Alicia
mum?
...
early morning saturday
...
aka wait another 4 hours
...
4-6

Kate
for what?

Alicia
for meeeee
...
wattup?

Kate
tis 9pm here
...
(name deleted to protect the innocent) is driveing me nuts

Alicia
i'm sorry
...
my room mates are driving me nuts
...
i have a good (name deleted to protect the innocent) story to tell you

Kate
sweet

Alicia
so the other day
...
i had just laid down to take a nap
...
and she was watching tv
...
it was the travel channel or something, and there was a lady giving a tour of her bed and breakfast or something
...
and she said "Over here you can watch the sun rise on the east bank"
...
and (name deleted to protect the innocent) said, "Who does this lady think she's talking to where the sun won't rise in the east? This isn't China."

Kate
no

Alicia
yes.

Kate
no

Alicia
but wait, there's more!

Kate
noooo
...
i'm crying here

Alicia
So, as ((name deleted to protect the innocent) who was using (name deleted to protect the innocent)'s computer because her internet is messed up) stared at her blankly, I sat up in bed and yelled "(name deleted to protect the innocent), the sun still rises in the east in China. It rises in the east EVERYWHERE."

Kate
and..

Alicia
"Well, no it doesn't! Because if it rises in the east everywhere then why don't the arabs all pray to the east in the morning when they pray toward the sun?"

Kate
tward the sun....
...
and you said?
...
no wait you ran screaming from the room

Alicia
haha
...
I said "(name deleted to protect the innocent), they're MUSLIMS not arabs, and they are praying toward MECCA"

Kate
yessss

Alicia
then she stfu because I had pwned her.
...
in internet speak.

Kate
pwned?

Alicia
yeah
...
lets not get into it, i'm not exactly clear on what it means
...
something along the lines of "owned"

Kate
pwned?
...
no wonder I don't get it.
...
can I copy and share this~?

Alicia
yeah
...
PLEASE
...
SPREAD THE WORD

Kate
how?

Alicia
AVOID (name deleted to protect the innocent)
...
SHE WILL CONTAMINATE YOU AND COULD LEAD TO BRAIN MELTAGE

Kate
copy and paste?

Alicia
yeah

Kate
ok.

Alicia
you can put it in your blooooogggg