”Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” MARCEL PROUST, author of Remembrance of Things Past
Illustration: Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh by E.H. Shepard
Archives for category: Holidays
“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” ALBERT SCHWEITZER
ILLUSTRATION: Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet by E.H. Shepard
Artwork: “Statue of Liberty” (silkscreen, 1962) by Andy Warhol
This Andy Warhol silkscreen of the Statue of Liberty sold for $43.8 million at a 2012 Christie’s sale in New York. The artwork features multiple images of the statue, each depicted with a 3-D effect. Christie’s marketed the piece in a catalogue that came with a pair of 3-D glasses — and a private collector with $43.8 million to spare won the auction. As they say, art is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
CAPTION: “Hey, everybody, we’re invited to a cookout.”
CREDIT: New Yorker cartoon by Charles Barsotti, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Have fun — but be careful — whatever you do this Fourth of July!
On May 7th, poetry by Joan Jobe Smith — author of the Silver Birch Press release CHARLES BUKOWSKI EPIC GLOTTIS: His Art, His Women (& me) — was featured on the City Lights Blog. Congratulations to Joan!
Since Joan’s poem tells the story of a unique mother/daughter adventure, it’s great that we can feature it on Mother’s Day.
GOOD WIVES DON’T DRIVE
by Joan Jobe Smith
My father refused to teach my mother
how to drive his car, he said it
wasn’t ladylike in 1949, a woman driver
was no better than a streetwalker she was
to take the bus and be a good wife like
his mother was so my mother took secret
driving lessons, the instructor man
coming every day in his grey sedan
to show her how to let out the clutch
just right so the car wouldn’t jerk, how
to work the choke and the radio, make
turn signals, arm bent up for right
straight out for left, down for slow
me in the backseat watching as we drove
the L.A. streets: Firestone. Rosemead
Sunset Boulevard, Pico, La Brea and
Santa Fe and the day she got her drivers
license she bought her self a green 1939
Ford coupe and waited in the front seat
in the driveway for my father to come home
honked the horn at him when he arrived
and said Hey handsome, need a ride?
Photo: 1939 Ford coupe (a green one!)
“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.”
JACQUELINE KENNEDY
Photo: Jacqueline Kennedy reads to 21-month-old daughter Caroline, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, August 1959. (Corbis images)
We’d like to wish a very happy Mother’s Day to all the materfamiliases in the world — with a special tip of the hat to women who take time to read to their children.
You may have tangible wealth untold
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold
Richer than I you can never be
I had a mother who read to me.
From “The Reading Mother” by STRICKLAND GILLILAN
Painting: “August Reading to Her Daughter” (1910) by Mary Cassat
EASTER PARADE
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
(Excerpt — listen to Judy Garland and Fred Astaire perform “Easter Parade” from the 1948 movie at youtube.com)
In your Easter bonnet
with all the frills upon it,
you’ll be the grandest lady
in the Easter Parade…
Oh, I could write a sonnet
about your Easter bonnet
and of the girl I’m taking
to the Easter Parade.
Note: Fred idolized Judy (“She was simply wonderful…”) and Judy adored Fred — and you can see their mutual devotion in every scene of this classic musical.
Happy Easter to all!
Silver Birch Press GREEN ANTHOLOGY
Introduction (Excerpt)
Growing up in Chicago, one of the most anticipated events of the year occurred on St. Patrick’s Day, when the Chicago River turned shamrock green. Whether we experienced the “Shannon River”—as the dyed waterway was dubbed for the day—from a downtown bridge, saw it on TV, read about it in the newspaper, or just heard about it from someone who was there, this annual happening was a magical moment that sparked the civic imagination.
I, for one, pictured myself floating down that green river to all kinds of fantastic places—the Emerald City and other amazing locales were around each bend.
Yes, the green river…the flow of imagination—that creative stream that artists ride and then return with the bounty. And part of this bounty appears in the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology, which includes creative explorations from authors in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Europe, and Africa.
We’ve priced the collection as low as Amazon will allow us to sell a 260-page paperback ($10) and Kindle ($2.99). Our goal is to create a platform for up-and-coming writers and bring established authors to a wider audience.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive, yet unique (and we think classy and, dare we say, classic) gift, check out the paperback and Kindle versions of the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry & Prose. Thank you!
On Groundhog Day (Saturday, 2/2/13) the Silver Birch Press blog included several posts about the 1993 movie Groundhog Day and its screenwriter Danny Rubin. I forwarded the links to Rubin and the following day received a reply.
Rubin mentioned that he’d just returned from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where he was guest speaker at the Groundhog Club Annual Banquet. According to the club’s website: “Usually on Groundhog Day Danny Rubin spends his day answering emails and phone calls from well-wishers, ‘It’s like my birthday only without the cake’ says Rubin. When asked whether he would like to see six more weeks of winter or an early spring Rubin responded, ‘However it comes out I will dress appropriately.'”
With his email, Rubin attached several photos from Groundhog Day 2013. In a reversal of what you’d usually see — the mayor handing Rubin the keys to the city — Rubin handed the city keys to his apartment. (Love this — so funny!)
The second photo shows the enthusiastic crowd at 7 a.m. in 1 degree temperatures waiting for Phil (the groundhog) to appear. (Rubin said he’d been there since 5 a.m. — so I figure he participated in the festivities in an official capacity to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the movie.)
Check out Rubin’s recent ebook — How to Write Groundhog Day, a must-read for screenwriters or anyone interested in the writing process — at Amazon.com. Visit Danny Rubin at his website, dannyrubin.com, where a variety of goodies await.
Thank you, Danny, for the photos and report about Groundhog Day 2013!
ABOUT DANNY RUBIN: Danny Rubin is a screenwriter, actor, lecturer, celebrity blogger, and most notably the screenwriter of the modern classic Groundhog Day. Rubin has taught screenwriting in Chicago at the University of Illinois, Columbia College, and the National High School Institute; at the Sundance Institute in Utah; the PAL Screenwriting Lab in England; the Chautauqua Institution in New York; and in New Mexico at the College of Santa Fe. He is currently the Briggs-Copeland Lecturer on Screenwriting at Harvard University. Rubin holds a B.A. in Biology from Brown University and an M.A. in Radio, Television, and Film from Northwestern University. He is married to librarian, web-designer, and architect Louise Rubin with whom he shares two children.
Photos © Danny Rubin, 2013, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Silver Birch Press 