alicia bay laurel - blog

Quinoa With Steamed Vegetables

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:47:08 -0800

Quinoa (pronounced “KEEN-wah”) is a good-tasting high-protein grain of the same family as amaranth.

Here’s how to make a simple vegan dish I like:

Steam a variety of vegetables together until fork tender. Tonight my mixture is: three broccoli crowns cut into branches, three broccoli stems, peeled and cut into ½ sections, one big carrot, scrubbed and cut into ½ sections, one big parsnip, scrubbed and cut into ½ sections, one big yellow onion, peeled and cut into 1 inch sections, and two yellow patty-pan squash, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces.

Some other possibilities are brussels sprouts (stemmed and cut in half), zucchini (washed and cut into ½ inch sections), string beans, washed, ends trimmed off and cut in half, crookneck squash, washed and cut into ½ slices, red or white cabbage cut into bite-sized pieces, or cauliflower, broken into flowerlets.

Set aside the steamed vegetables and save the cooking water separately.

Quinoa is cooked at a proportion of one part grain to two parts water. One cup of dry quinoa makes enough for two generous servings. For three people, for example use 1½ cups of quinoa and 3 cups of water.

Measure the dry quinoa into a large strainer and let cold water run over it until it stops bubbling. Place the quinoa into a pot (use a 2 quart sized pot for 2-4 servings) and measure the vegetable cooking water into the pot. Place the cover on the pot, bring it to a boil, and turn the heat down very low and let the quinoa cook until all of the liquid is absorbed (10 to 15 minutes).

Turn the quinoa out into a large festive serving bowl, pour the steamed vegetables on top of it and toss gently. At this point you can season it according to your preference, or let each person season his or her own portion. I like a little extra virgin olive oil and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos on mine, but others might prefer tamari, gomasio, toasted sesame oil, sea salt, or parmesan.

Tags: recipe vegetables vegetarian recipes vegan quinoa

With Avatar Poised to Win Big at the Oscars, James Cameron Should Help Some Na’vi Right Here on Earth

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:11:28 -0800

Friday 26 February 2010
Francesca Fiorentini (an Italian voice-over actress with a major film resume)
The Indypendent

[this is a section from the center of the article]

As a dweller of the planet that inspired such a film, I want to register a complaint. Having been overwhelmed with the seemingly sincere message of biodiversity and resistance to injustice, I can’t escape feeling morally cheap when then encouraged to collect all the Avatar characters in McDonald’s Happy Meals. After selling our heartstrings for over $2 billion, don’t we earthlings deserve a bit more?

Beyond generalities, we might do well to take a closer look at the parallels between this film and this world. For instance, who are the Na’vi of this planet, those protagonists of the story we are brought to root for, believe in, and admire? They are those who, as you read this, are embattled in struggles for their land and livelihood.

They are the Cofán, Siona, Secoya, Kichwa and Huaorani of the Ecuadorian Amazon who are knee deep in a landmark lawsuit against oil-giant Chevron for the dumping of more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into rainforest rivers for more than 26 years. Dependent on the forests and rivers for survival — fishing, hunting, and small subsistence agriculture — the more than 30,000 inhabitants of the region now face high levels of cancer and birth defects, and many have been completely forced off their ancestral land.

They are the people of Cabañas province in northern El Salvador, who in 2008 successfully prevented Pacific Rim Mining Corp. of Canada (homeland of director James Cameron) from continuing their gold mining operation in the area. Organizations like the Environmental Committee of Cabañas say that the consequences of gold extraction, which requires the use of toxic materials like cyanide and 30,000 liters of fresh water per day, could be drastic in a country where merely a third of the water is safe to drink and thousands die each year from waterborne diseases. Pacific Rim is now suing the Salvadoran government under the Central America Free Trade Agreement for $100 million, and anti-mining organizers have been met with violent threats and assassinations. Last year three leading organizers were shot and killed: the first found in a well, the second killed in front of his daughter, and the last eight months pregnant. Though fearing for their safety, residents of Cabañas continue to protest the company’s actions, some holding signs that read simply “Yes to life.”

They are the Dayak villagers of Landak in the Indonesian rainforest and the people of Kararata in the pristine forests of Papua New Guinea, both facing displacement due to the spread of palm oil plantations. They are the indigenous Penan of the Malaysian island of Borneo, fighting industrial logging on traditional burial sites; sacred land like the gelatinous forest of the Na’vi’s Tree of Souls.

The list, unfortunately, goes on.

And in a time of dramatic climate change, swine and bird flues, and food and water scarcity thanks to the pollution and other consequences of the mining, logging, and agricultural industries, we might remember that this world’s Na’vi have been history’s greatest conservationists. Maybe they don’t ride dragons and their aesthetic appeal didn’t go through test audiences, but the indigenous of this planet have long understood the providing and regenerative nature of the Earth when treated with care.

Read the whole article.

Tags: environment biodiversity environmentalism petroleum green hunger pollution corporategreed industrialpollution conservation corporations movie avatar oscars indigenoustribes rainforest injustice famine displacement marketing chevron amazon

Minestrone for a Small Planet

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:53:48 -0800

A lovely vegan soup for a cold January day.

One pound green lentils, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed well
One large yellow onion, peeled and cut into large pieces
Two large carrots, scrubbed well and cut into thick slices
Five cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
A bouquet garni cotton cloth bag containing one bay leaf and sprigs of parsley, oregano, and basil leaves
One pound whole grain pasta (brown rice pasta for gluten-free eaters) cooked and drained according to the directions on the package.
Four heads of broccoli (about 5 or 6 inches across the heads), rinsed, cut into bite sized pieces, and steamed until fork tender. (Peel the stems before you cut them into cubes)
1 and one half cups good quality marinara sauce
3 tablespoons of olive oil

Place the lentils, onion, carrots, garlic and bouquet garni in a slow cooker (Rival Crock Pot, for example). Cover with pure water plus one inch. Turn the cooker on high until the soup boils, stirring occasionally so the lentils don’t stick to the bottom of the pot, then turn it to low and leave it on for eight hours (overnight) or until the lentils and vegetables are very tender. Remove the bouquet garni bag. In a large soup cauldron, gently blend all of the other ingredients with the lentils and vegetables.

What I like about this soup is that the broccoli is freshly steamed and the pasta is cooked al dente, rather than either being boiled to mushiness in the soup, and the olive oil has not been heated, other than by adding it to the soup at the end. The other thing I like about this recipe is that the lentils, having been soaked and rinsed, are much less likely to give you gas, even when combined with broccoli.

Each bowl of soup can be optionally enhanced according to the tastes of the person to whom it is served, with seasonings such as ground black pepper, hot sauce, Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, sea salt, or grated parmesan cheese.

I like to make extra and freeze it for a quick meal later in the month.

This soup could be lovely served with hot bread, a green salad, and/or an entrée, but, personally, I find one bowl is a whole meal for me.

Tags: recipe soup vegetarian recipes vegan lentils minestrone broccoli oliveoil crockpot bouquetgarni pasta marinarasauce

When Corporations Run the US Government, by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:54:40 -0800

What happens when you allow corporations to run our government?

What you get is plunder. And I have to say this, the American people have to understand that there is a huge difference between free market capitalism, which is a good thing because it makes us more efficient, more prosperous, and more democratic, and the kind of corporate-crony capitalism which has been embraced by this (Bush) White House.

The reason they shouldn’t be running our government is because corporations don’t want the same thing for America as Americans want. Corporations do not want free markets and they do not want democracy. They want profits and the best way for them to get the profits too often is to use our campaign financing system which is just a system of legalized bribery, to get their hooks into a public official, they use that public official to dismantle the market place, to give them monopoly control, and then to privatize the commons, to turn over our Treasury, our air, our water, our public lands, our wildlife, our fishery, the shared resource of our society that give context to our community, that connects us to our past, that are the source of our values and our virtues and our character as a people, and we are turning that over, for profit, to these corporations.

We have to remember this, legally corporations cannot do good things. They cannot do true philanthropy, they can’t do things that are good for our country or for our community. When you see Wal-Mart bringing bottled water down to the Katrina victims, they’re not doing that to be good guys, they’re doing it because they think that over the long run the public view of them will be enhanced and that that will enhance their shareholder value and their dividend distribution. If they have another reason for doing it, any one of their shareholders can sue them and they will win that lawsuit. It is called wasting corporate assets. It is against the law in this country for a corporation to turn itself into a philanthropy. And if they’re caught doing it their board members will be punished and their shareholders can sue them.

We want corporations to be this way, to focus narrowly. We don’t want them to turn into philanthropies because nobody would invest in them. We want them to focus narrowly on shareholder value.
BUT, we would be nuts to let them anywhere near our government because we designed them to plunder and that’s what they’re going to do to us if we let them run our country. That’s what they’re doing now. That’s why from the beginning of our national history, our greatest political leaders, Republicans and Democrats, have been warning Americans against the domination of corporate power.

Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, said that America would never be destroyed by a foreign enemy, by an Osama bin Laden, but he warned that our Bill of Rights, our Constitution and our treasured democratic institutions would be subverted by malefactors of great wealth who would steal them from within.

Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, in his most famous speech ever warned Americans against a domination by the military industrial complex. Abraham Lincoln, the greatest Republican in history, said during the height of the Civil War in 1863, “I have the South in front of me and I have the bankers behind me and for my country I fear the bankers more.”

Franklin Roosevelt, during World War II, said that the domination of government by corporate power is “the essence of Fascism.” Benito Mussolini, who had an insider’s view of that process, said essentially the same thing. He complained that Fascism should not be called Fascism; it should be called Corporatism because it was the merger of state and corporate power.

What we have to understand in this country is that the domination of business by government is called Communism and the domination of government by business is called Fascism.

Our job is to walk that narrow trail between free market capitalism and democracy, holding big-government at bay with our right hand and big-business at bay with our left. And in order to do that we need an informed public that is able to recognize all the milestones of tyranny. To do that we need an aggressive and independent press that is willing to stand up and speak truth to power, and we no longer have that in the United States of America.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
New York City – May 2, 2004

Mr. Kennedy acts as Chief Prosecuting Attorney for Riverkeeper. He also serves as Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council and as President of the Waterkeeper Alliance. At Pace University School of Law, he is a Clinical Professor and Supervising Attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic in White Plains, New York. Earlier in his career Mr. Kennedy served as Assistant District Attorney in New York City.

Tags: environment politics commons bribery katrina georgewbush investment democraticparty fascism lobbyists green communism barackobama robertfkennedyjr environmentalist franklinroosevelt corporations abrahamlincoln banks corporatecampaigncontributions freemarketcapitalism america americans walmart publicrelations philanthropy stockholders shareholders republican teddyroosevelt dwighteisenhower benitomussolini

John Perkins, Former "Economic Hit Man" Interviewed by Buzzflash

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:55:52 -0800

Meg White of Buzzflash interviews John Perkins, author of the bestselling “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man,” and author of a new book, “Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and What We Need to Do to Remake Them.”

Tags: politics protest economy freetrade buzzflash future barackobama interview fairtrade globalization franklinroosevelt recession corporations thirdworld fdr capitalism johnperkins economichitman hoodwinked predatory stockmarket corporatepersonhood imf worldbank bankregulation

The Starbucks Love Project

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:14:09 -0800

Here’s a fabulous video of the Beatles' song All You Need is Love sung and played by people all over the world, together, to raise money for medicine to fight AIDS in Africa.

Starbucks Coffee produced this project, and offered to donate a dollar for every singer or instrumentalist that collaborated on this video (over the internet), to purchase AIDS medicine for patients in Africa.

It recalls the wonderful Playing for Change videos. I wonder whether the people who made the Playing for Change videos were involved in this project. They are not mentioned on the Starbucks newsletter about the video. Anyone out there know? Please email me.

Tags: love aids africa youtube playingforchange starbucksloveproject starbucks beatles allyouneedislove charity weareallone

Vegan Eggnog

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:15:22 -0800

Here's an eggnog so healthful you can drink it all year long!

For each serving add:

1 cup unsweetened hemp milk, chilled
1 peeled ripe banana, cut into 1 inch sections
1 tablespoon agave syrup
A pinch of nutmeg (more if you like)

Place in a blender jar and whir until creamy and smooth. Serve in festive glasses.

Salud!

Tags: recipe vegetarian recipes vegan holidayrecipes christmas eggnog holiday hempmilk banana agave

Greg Palast Interviews the Generalissimo of Globalization

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:40:57 -0800

By Greg Palast
December 2009
The Nation

It’s been a year since globalized finance brought the planet to its knees, yet here in Geneva, where in late November the WTO opened its grand “seventh ministerial,” the diplomats are in denial. One confidential document from the files of WTO members - definitely not on the WTO website - tells us that despite financial and environmental crises, the globalizers still want to party like it’s 1999.

In that year, just eight months before the Battle of Seattle, the WTO’s Financial Services Agreement (FSA) became global law, breaking down old rules against cross-border trade in currency and financial derivatives. Financial goods spread rapidly. So did financial bads. The result: the collapse of US mortgage-backed securities slammed holders worldwide. When California home prices swooned, Iceland’s banks melted.

Read the whole article and watch the video.

Tags: politics depression economy gregpalast economics thenation globalization recession wto pascallemy worldtradeorganization dirivatives robertrubin billclinton martinkhor

Living on the Earth Celebration in Phoenix, Arizona, January 17, 2010

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:44:27 -0800

Living on the Earth and Beyond
At the Phoenix Biltmore Hotel, January 17, 2010
Presented by Crystal Achey of Phoenix Body, Mind and Spirit
More information here and ticket purchase here.

Morning…

Arrive by 9:30 to participate in a HEALING CIRCLE on the LAWN:
Followed by a NETWORKING CARD EXCHANGE

ORGANIZING SEMINAR
at 10:00 “Overcoming Overwhelm”
hosted by Zen Guru & Productivity Expert, Jen Furrier of Essential Organizing
Attendees to this seminar can enter a drawing to win organizing products!

Luncheon & Special Presentations

INTRODUCTION SPEECH
“Social Movements of the 60’s & 70’s” in Honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day
given by Dr. Jeanine, Coach for Women Worldwide of Simply Divine Solutions

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE & TALK
“Living on the Earth & Beyond” given by Alicia Bay Laurel author of the 1971 New York Times best selling guide for life on a hippie commune, Living on the Earth.

Followed by a PRIVATE CD & BOOKSIGNING with Alicia Bay Laurel available EXCLUSIVELY to ALL DAY TICKET HOLDERS

Afternoon…

MERCADO on the VERANDA! Resources for Balanced Living
Go to PhxBodyMindandSoul.com for the most updated list of presenters

FITNESS SEMINAR at 1:30 “It’s a New Year!”
Time to update your knowledge of the best fitness practices! Lead by Pro Fitness Trainer, Brian Peitz
of FUZION Fitness in Scottsdale

CHEF DEMONSTRATION at 3:00 Select sweet samples from The Ice Dream Cookbook by Chef Rachel, The Healthy Cooking Coach. Attendees to this seminar can enter a drawing to win a copy of this must-have cookbook.

NETWORKING CIRCLE

CURTAIN CALL at 5:00 For Afternoon Attendees! Alicia Bay Laurel performs one last song!

Tags: aliciabaylaurel performance livingontheearth concert phoenix beyondliving phoenixmindbodyandspirit crystalachey jenfurrier drjeanine brianpeitz event networking

The Charter for Compassion

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:34:26 -0800

A call to bring the world together…

The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

Written by TED Award winner Karen Armstrong.

Please join me in signing the charter.

A YouTube about the Charter for Compassion.

Tags: diversity peace spirituality love compassion world religion charterforcompassion karenarmstrong ted harmony global

15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now, by Michael Moore

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:56:30 -0800

It’s the #1 question I’m constantly asked after people see my movie [Capitalism: A Love Story]: “OK—so NOW what can I DO?!

You want something to do? Well, you’ve come to the right place! ‘Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken system.

Here they are:

FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:

1.Declare a moratorium on all home evictions. Not one more family should be thrown out of their home. The banks must adjust their monthly mortgage payments to be in line with what people’s homes are now truly worth—and what they can afford. Also, it must be stated by law: If you lose your job, you cannot be tossed out of your home.

Read the whole list.

Tags: politics depression democraticparty michaelmoore corruption barackobama recession wallstreet bailout financialcrisis regulation deregulation morgagecrisis healthcarereform capitalism capitalismalovestory

The Repower America Wall

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:29:33 -0700

I just added my voice to the Repower America Wall. You can, too!

Tags: environment aliciabaylaurel algore green alternativeenergy environmentalist repoweramerica

I Meet Banana Yoshimoto

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:12:06 -0700

September 29, 2009

I come to Kurkku’s complex in Haragyuku for an interview by Switch Magazine, that will be a conversation between me and Japan’s beloved novelist Yoshimoto Banana (last name first is customary here, and her first name is pronounced BAH-nah-nah.)

In spring 2008, Kurkku hosted the first of what became four art shows of the original drawings and page layouts of Living on the Earth. I was delighted to hear that Banana-san had purchased my self-portrait that appears on the epilogue page of the book. She’s 15 years younger than I am, and the book was a favorite of her childhood. So, she said, she felt almost in a dream to purchase this drawing she had gazed upon so long ago.

Fujii-san, a rock and roll producer who is a friend of Banana-san’s and a friend of Keisuke Era’s (he’s the director at Kurkku) offered to introduce me and Banana-san, and Switch Magazine offered to document this event. So, here we are: Takeshi Fujii, Banana Yoshimoto, me, Miho Kawaguchi (writing for Switch), Kaori Miyagi (translating for me) and Kengo Tarumi (taking photos for Switch).

OMG! We showed up wearing the SAME EXACT T-SHIRT! It’s the Being of the Sun illustration licensed by Aya Noguchi (fashion designer and owner of Bed and Balcony) last year for her summer line.

But that wasn’t the only coincidence. After the interview was over, Banana went out to the street and there stood our dear friend in common – Sandii Manumele, vocalist extraordinaire and hula teacher of hundreds of Tokyo students, including Banana. Sandii rushed upstairs to see me and we had a big group hug.

I last saw Sandii at a huge rock concert memorial for Donto in Okinawa City in 2006. She danced and sang in the show, and I sang one of my songs, too. We became instant friends.

Sandii choreographed the hula for Donto’s classic song “Nami,” which women all over Japan love to dance. I just recorded “Nami” on my recent CD, Beyond Living, both in the original Japanese lyrics, and also in a Hawaiian and English translation. I was happy to present both Sandii and Banana with signed copies of my new CD.

Here's Banana-san's blog about the same meeting (in Japanese).

Tags: aliciabaylaurel japan livingontheearth tour tokyo kurkku donto interview nami artshow switchmagazine bananayoshimoto sandiimanumele galleryshow

Instant Books at Fujino Steiner School

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:14:19 -0700

September 24, 2009

Today I meet Liane Wakabayashi, the artist who will host my bookmaking workshop on October 18th. She wanted to meet me and see what I do, and rode up to Fujino on a train from Tokyo. We instantly become good friends. She’s from New York, and tells me she’s one of a half-dozen Jewish women married to Japanese men living in Japan. Maybe we are cousins. Behind us is the entrance to Steiner School’s brand new auditorium.

We head over to Fujino’s Steiner (Waldorf) High School, which meets in a geodesic dome built by the staff and students a few years ago. The high school students commute an hour by train from Tokyo, where the former Steiner High School has closed. I am about to meet the 12th grade English class (7 students) that day. The elementary school students use the building in the background, which is a former public school that closed due to shrinking population in the mountain town. The Steiner staff refurbished it, and the number of students is steadily growing.

One gets the feeling this is no ordinary high school.

Today I am teaching lesson #1, “Instant Books,” from my friend Esther K. Smith’s fabulous book, How To Make Books. An instant book can be folded from almost any size oblong piece of paper, with a slit cut in the middle so it can be refolded to be an eight page book, or a six page book with front and page covers. This is the cover of the instant book I made during the class.

I am not allowed to photograph the students, so I sketch them in my instant book. These seventeen-year-olds were raised on origami (Japanese paper folding) and instantly grasp and master the simple but ingenious design of the book.

The kids brought stacks of magazines, mostly fashion magazines, to cut out and write about the photos, hopefully in English. They relish the task of cutting out photos that appeal to them, and chat happily in Japanese while they are doing this. So, I use a few of the magazine images, to represent the presence of this alternate reality in our classroom. Yay recycling!

I daub on a little watercolor paint to add texture and color to my ink drawings. After we are done with our books, we will unfold them, scan them, and make color copies for each of the students and the staff in our class. Hooray for self-publishing via computer. The power of the press is in the hands of the artists! Later that day, Esther emails me from New York City, to suggest that the scans be posted on the web, as a sort of international publication that people can download, print and fold. She collects instant books.

I copy an idea from one of the projects in Esther’s book, of using photographs of eyes to add emphasis to the idea of reading and observing to the back cover of my book.

Here’s one of the student books I love, a new twist on the fairy tale of the princess and the frog. I get a kick out of the way she used magazine fashion models to depict the characters in her story.

She’s pretty clear about why she wants a man in her life, and who he should be.

But when the proposal arrives (almost immediately!), who brings it? A little bug-eyed green guy from another planet! But our heroine is not daunted.

For her positivity and willingness to look past mere appearances, she is rewarded with a commitment from the man of her dreams.

So, they live happily ever after.

Here is Liane’s book. She is welcoming me to Japan and suggesting I wear comfy shoes. I agree; one does walk a lot here, taking trains instead of driving.

Here is a book of legs and shoes, with lots of excellent English words in it. The students were still working on their books at the end of our allotted two-hour period, exclaiming loudly that they did not want to stop creating their books to do other schoolwork. I therefore consider the workshop a success. Happily, their regular teachers agreed.

After the class, Liane and I enjoy a beautiful lunch prepared by Jun on the verandah of Setsuko and Jun’s house with Setsuko and Yuko Urakami, the teacher of the 12th grade English class who kindly organized my visit to the school. I want to connect Yuko with the staff of the Haleakala Waldorf School on Maui, where I taught music and creative writing, part time, for a school year in the 1980s. The students in the two schools could become pen pals on the web, and maybe even visit one another. Those purple fruits are giant figs from a tree next to Setsuko and Jun’s house.

Yuko made a book, too, called “I believe in…” She believes in the power of flowers, in hand crafts, in “a bit of luxury” and good food. Amen.

Tags: aliciabaylaurel recycling japan collage waldorfschool steinerschool fujino geodesicdome watercolor trains teenagers howtomakebooks estherksmith origami instantbooks penandinkdrawing fashionmagazines princessandthefrog lianewakabayashi genesiscards

Live at Shu Cafe in Fujino

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:06:08 -0700

September 27, 2009

I am the guest of TV producer Setsuko Miura, her husband Jun and their daughter Ren, in the very hip art and farming village of Fujino, in the mountains west of Tokyo. They have arranged for me to teach a class in making instant books at the local Waldorf School, which they helped to found, and which Ren attends. They also arranged a fundraising concert for the school at Shu Café in Fujino, at which I perform for about 50 people. In this photo, Jun and Setsuko are the two people with headscarves. Shu and his wife Kazu, the owners, are on either side of me. Kazu has purple hair and a very small dog in her arms. The other three ladies are part of the café staff.

Shu Café is downstairs from an airy loft that is Shu and Kazu’s home. Next to it is an organic garden where Shu grows vegetables for the café.

The elegant and natural café and residence were designed by Tsutomu Nozaki, the same architect who designed Jun and Setsuko’s ultra-green home, here enjoying a beer with Jun.

An easel outside the main café entrance announces my concert.

A small gift shop inside the café includes organic cotton socks, hand dyed with locally grown indigo and hand-knitted by a 90-year-old resident of Fujino.

Every aspect of the café features local art and organic produce, including the stepping stones at the entrance to the café.

Setsuko and Jun's neighbor, Aki, one of the first of the audience to arrive, brought her long-out-of-print copies of the 1974 Japanese editions my three children’s books to sign for her and her children.

I met legendary singer/songwriter Ua, who lives in Fujino with her husband and two young children.

I sang and told stories, with the excellent translation of beautiful Yuko Urakami, the English teacher at the Waldorf School to whose 12th grade English class I taught the instant book lesson on September 24th. She also has children who attend the school, and is a close friend of Setsuko’s.

We had a full house, a most enthusiastic audience, except for the children seated in the first three rows, who were outside playing together.

After the show I signed books and CDs, and got my photo taken with lots of new friends. Everyone was so sweet.

Tags: organic aliciabaylaurel artist art natural japan tour concert waldorfschool steinerschool fujino ceramics indigo setsukomiura greenbuilding shucafe ua sylviesunflower childrensbooks architect