This brave young girl, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize nominee ever, embodies the power education has to transform lives. she fights for girls and children alike to have the right to education. Her story started long before the Taliban shot her in the head in an attempt to murder her and her power over them. Her story more powerful today of course because of the bullets that grazed her brain, with the intention of dissolving education for girls in Pakistan. But her story is a reminder that like today being International Women’s Day, her story is about more than these headlines, her story is about a young girl who spoke out for girls, in one of the most dangerous locations in the world.
This one girl made great impact with her courage and conviction to stand up to people who want to stop girls from receiving education, with guns. Her bravery is an example to us all and for me truly inspiring.
To be a master in a trade or skilled to top level has long been thought of in prestigious light. Long are the days when a master is evident by his or her skills. In today’s society, as more choices and freedoms have come to be the norm, mastery can be difficult and the mentality needed to achieve mastery even more difficult. I don’t tend to latch on to too many “masters” in the culinary world as I find a great many of them to be more “smoke and mirrors” than masters or seeking fame and fortune vs. enjoying the creative journey. There are a few exceptions to my masters approval rule and those exceptions are a for a few extraordinary people. Certainly I have only recently come to learn of the extraordinary mastery of Ferran Aria and here his story is told by another master, Anthony Bourdain. Both men posses the mastery of their paths and both have demonstrated the ability to evolve, both I admire and draw inspiration from.
Creative inspiration is found everywhere we look. In my opinion there is no greater inspiration for creativity than the creativity that children exude on a daily basis. If we are not looking carefully we can easily miss this creativity and genius really and this story of Caine’s Arcade is one of those stories where most folks were just not looking hard enough when they say this little boy and his arcade. Then came along Nirvan Mullick, who is an LA filmmaker and who was able to see the massive amount of creativity and exuberance in this boy. The best part of the story is how this one moment where the creativity was transported from soul to soul, produced an explosive reaction and buckets and buckets of creativities was born all over the country and the world.
This boy is pure creative genius, let his story inspire your creativity as is has done for millions!
My Fear of Freedom Suffocation Conquered Through Restraint – Go Figure…
No other part of my life have I exercised restraint and self regulation as much as I have with Sadie. The very essence of fearing losing my own freedom doesn’t exist as far as she is concerned and I tend to be less risky in behavior when she is present and certainly take moments to reflect before making decisions that involve her, again I think that part of the growing process embodies this change to a more reflective process of decision making and action inducing. So in honor of Sadie and my ability to act easily iwht restraint and self regulation because of her I present to you an expert from our segment on the Wolfkeeper and organic dog treats, recipes follow the video, enjoy!
As we age we forget to really play in this world. I see it so often in others and it is one of the things that freighters me most about life; will I succumb to the stagnation that I see in others and be content with little or no real playtime in my life. Because of this fear and because I have seen many people throughout the world at any age really being active and participating and playing in life, including my father, I tend to always want to seek it out. But I will admit, lately I had grown a tad bit stagnate in my play, my wild side had been hidden and dormant until it met Wyoming.
The desolate ruggedness gives you no chance to deny the will to play even a little bit and while in Wyoming this is exactly what I did, played in all facets of the word and considering I was around children, the play was more intense and in some cases more childlike and we can all use a dose of childlike wild play in as we grow older! Your wild side is waiting to expose it’self and this side leads to getting to know the deeper more creative parts of ourselves, so get out there and play, show your wild side…..
We are all our worst critics when we watch ourselves on film. This past year I have spent more time on film than any of the other years added up in my life. Through this process I have learned a lot and my perception of what needs to happen on film has also changed. Basically it’s not about me. It has taken me some time to realize that when we are on film we are looking at ourselves in a unique light and whether we are seeing what others see is a much longer topic, but we are certainly much more critical of ourselves than others are. I had a hard time at first with watching myself on camera, and saw failure all too often. But as again the growth occurred I saw something different, a job, a task a message, again it wasn’t about me and the sooner I realized that the sooner I saw success on film. Not what I looked like but was my passion coming across, was my message, etc etc.
Here is a current live blog tasting that the Southwest Wines of France did at our center recently and I think I can look at my “performance” as a successful one.
The Lost City Of Petra, Jordan and A Bedouins Shoes
There is nothing more unexpected than a flip flop breaking in the middle of the desert in Petra, or so I thought! Bear with me while I explain why there are picture and stories in this sector of Video of the month! So yes as I said we were in the middle of Petra, probably had walked about 5 kilometers inside the “canyon” and were pretty much in the center. Yes there were some Bedouins selling some trinkets but no shoes and so as my flip flop broke at this epicenter and I realized we had about 5-6 more kilometers to go and I had no shoe, in the middle of the hot desert. I was a bit in horror for what I was going to do! But just then this lovely young Bedouin, the most finely dressed of them all came to me and offered me his shoes to wear. I thought I the flip flop ordeal couldn’t be topped by my shock but a man in the desert giving me his shoes did just that. Let’s step back about an hour before when I met this Bedouin man. We had just arrived at the treasury; this is the grand view of Petra so to speak. The view that we all know and the one that was shown in Indian Jones movie! Everyone recognizes this view! Our jaws dropped and we were certainly in unexpected awe, not by just its sheer beauty and not by just is mind boggling design but the fact that this ancient thing was immediately in front of us live and in person, it was certainly surreal.
We spent a little time here so all could go explore and photograph and I discovered….CAMELS!! So I should take a second to let all of you know I love camels and every chance I get to ride them I do, I don’t care if its in a gas station in Israel, at a growers house or in this case a tourist ride in front of the treasury in Petra. None of the tourists were riding the camels but for sure all of them wanted to! I approached the Bedouin boy, the one in the nice beautiful white robe and amazing purple scarf on his head, along with his eyeliner he was certainly an attractive young man. I asked the price and he said $5. Five bucks to ride a camel for about 5-10 minutes and take a photo op in front of the treasury, I mean my goodness how could one refuse! So of course I paid the guy the $5 and Melody did as well and we rode the camels and it was glorious just like always! I noticed his beautiful sandals at this point and with my severe affection for shoes was impressed and of course told him this, he smiled and was grateful said they were from Saudi Arabia. As we began to journey further into Petra our tour guide said we needed to decide if we were going to continue on and ride donkeys out or turn back. Out time was limited so we needed to make a decision. Now donkeys are no different for me than camels really so myself and Melody decided we would ride donkeys and my beautiful Bedouin was just the guy who had some! So we walked further into Petra and at stop where we drank and ate a little something, my shoe broke at this point. I was really beside myself and picture myself with a burnt foot from walking in the desert with no shoe! But just than my Bedouin young man came over and gave me his shoes! I couldn’t believe it, the generosity. I immediately said NO WAY and what would he wear. He said he insisted and that he was used to being in the desert on his bare feet and not to worry and that no Bedouin would let a lady walk through the desert with no shoes if he had some! Wow, I couldn’t believe it. We spent a little time walking and before we knew it we were on donkeys. My “handler” was my Bedouin man and I said why don’t you take the shoes since I am on the donkey, he said no and that I need to just accept it and that he was fine. We proceeded to walk (I rode) about 5 kilometers out of Petra, through rocks, sand, pavement, you name it and all the while my beautiful Bedouin young man in his barefoot. Now the beauty of the story is I got to talk to him at great length. He spoke about his family (we even passed his 98 year old grandfather who looked like he was 60), we spoke about life, philosophy, tourists, history, Petra, fruits and I had an amazing unexpected time with this young man that gave me his shoes. He was 19 years old and truly an amazing person. I was really taken back by his wisdom, his kindness and his spirit, it was indeed a memorable day on so many levels, this young man was one of the primary reason why. When we arrived at our destination up a HUGE hill, even the donkey’s were breathing heavily, he said that I should KEEP THE SHOES! He insisted. So at that moment I gave him my FLIP VIDEO CAMERA, as I know he had a laptop I figured it would be perfect for him, simple and complete and cheap for me and it was the least I could do, he was in awe and couldn’t believe it, I understood how he felt (think shoes!) so we parted ways after sharing a cigarette together which was ironic and funny! Needless to say I do not have video of Petra and now you know why! So I found some hoky but good footage so you can put yourself in my SHOES!!!
The unexpected in people is I think the best part of life!
So to my lovely Bedouin young man, you are lovely and I wish you a long and beautiful journey though this world! Thank you for the shoes!
Pondering the Meaning of Family, Earthquakes, Hurricanes & Gratitude with Friends, Food & Lots of Drinks
I decided finally to take a little break this summer and we shut down the center for most of the end of August and the begining of September our deadest time of year. During that time I decided that it was about time to have some fun in my own space. Basically celebrating finally that I created this space and want to use it for my own fun as well as a business and to gather some of my existing Brooklyn friends & “family” and get to know them better. I was also celebrating getting through the summer months which were tough business wise and took a toll on me! So I whipped up some of my best Latin dishes…..and concoted some smokey, sweet and spicy libations and we went at it getting together for good times, good conversation and Brooklyn style bonding, here is a glimse into my life and my Surviving Survival Fiesta!
A Quest for Food Purity Which Lead to the Discovery of Camera Self Awareness
in myself & in others………..
So as many know this trip to Italy not only was my inaugural Italian ground breaking but it was also my first experience in front of the camera on a regular basis. I had been on camera serveral times before but this was different and actually quite difficult, for many reasons, mainly I was typically having to listen to Italians speak Italian and look like I understood, was interested and still smiling and nodding appropriately etc, all while in the hot sun typically! I survived and learned a lot actually and I think the biggest challenge for me as my TV career expands is trying to reach the right balance between critique for the sake of the art or project and self deprecation, something I have been good at avoiding for many years. So as I continue on and live and learn trying to get the best facial expressions for the camera while trying to have my Nissaniss come across, I will try to give myself a break and not fret too much on the falk tha ton camera I feel like I walk like a gorilla!
