Tom Eaton

The whole season is a shot of fresh oxygen, where trees and grasses remember life before they dozed off a few months back, birds and wind delight in frivolous movements, and waking up in the morning is a whole lot easier (unless, of course, your relationship with pollen is compromised). Wouldn’t our New Year’s Resolutions have a better chance of success if we made them in the Spring instead of in January?

What do we do in the Spring? Hair-dying? Knot-tying? Potato frying? Lawn-lying? Ankle-sock buying? Get-in-shape trying?

What spring foods do we eat?
What about Spring music?
What Spring spots do we visit?
What Spring spots do we visit whilst whistling a Spring tune in between bites of Spring food?

Read on for some of our favorite springy things…

Michael Kaufmen:

To bring in the spring…Slo-Ro is flexing muscles, working out at LA Fitness which has a mural of San Diego. Cracks him up everytime he is doing his 10 pull ups. Hey, he is working his way up. Don’t you worry. When not working out, he is “crate-digging” at his public library for lovely music of other territories than the U.S. pop flood. He is learning to identify species of birds and energy bars.

Half-handed Cloud:

Sleeping with the windows open.
Swimming in rivers and lakes.
Bike-riding without gloves or long sleeves.

Megan Slaboda:

Spring line of Mamma Made Clothes
LONG WALKS
The warmth of the sun on my face.
Vacations with the ‘Smith’ family

Dan Zimmerman:

a trip to Longwood Gardens, PA
“The Girl from Ipanema” goes walking..
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
“If Dogs Run Free” then why can’t we?
Care for your mower..
Lila Downs,
New Order,
and oh yes,
“The Santa Cruz River Band”
from lovely Tucson Arizona
(see my MySpace)

Christiaan Palladino:

Lamburgers with your best friend.
Piggyback weekends.
Fleet Foxes on repeat in the car.
Car washing.
Kissing my wife.

Lenny Smith:

I think everyone would greatly enjoy doing what I just did last Saturday and two Saturdays before that. I drove, with my three sons, down to the Batsto River in the South Jersey pines. We had a great breakfast and then went off, with our kayaks, down the Batsto River. It was so peaceful and lovely. The whole 7 hour trip we only saw two other boats: two canoes with couples fighting about who can steer better, branches in the face, and something about spiders! Once we got past them (they did say, “Hello.”), we had nothing for the next several hours but peace, beauty, and a quiet joy. The woods really are “lovely, dark and deep.” NOW we get to the best part: Along the way, while my 3 sons were out paddling and laughing ahead of me, I quietly dropped into the cedar water behind my kayak the following things: any memories tormenting me from the past, any hopes for the future robbing me of the joy of the moment, any regrets whatsoever, any thoughts about wars, floods, earthquakes, famines, shootings and the like, any concern about the election, any considerations about possible invasions by aliens or terrorists. Over the side went my over-active mind, my identification with my mind, my propensity to “take” offense, and so much more. Suffice it to say, when I finally got out of the kayak for lunch on the sandy beach, I forgot that I was not a kid anymore. In fact, I really was a kid again and I remembered that I was allowed to be happy! And NOW I AM. There really must be something magical in that cedar water flowing through the South Jersey pines.

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 - Lenny Smith, Half-handed Cloud, Dan Zimmerman, Mamma-Made, Seasonal, Tom Eaton

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