Cynthia has been working steady the last 6 months or so on her latest quilt entitled “What’s for dinner?” She first envisioned the idea over a year ago and began to collect various fabric swatches with prints featuring edible items.She completed it today
In the above picture Cynthia is standing on a small step stool so the quilt doesn’t touch the ground.
The individual blocks are pretty neat. There’s picnic ants on a raiding party, all manner of deserts along with fruits, vegetables and even my favorite, sushi! There’s even one small swatch of some laughing mice which amuses Cynthia
to no end…
You can click on any of the blocks in the table below to see a larger, more detailed view.
The reason this quilt took so long to complete is that all of the quilting (including the stipple quilting) was done completely by hand.
It was intended to be hung in the kitchen but now that it’s complete and we’ve had a chance to think about it we plan to hang it in the breakfast room.
Cynthia was glad to finally complete this and as exhausting and tedious as it was toward the end, she’s already started work on the next quilt…
If you’ve been paying attention to the news at all this week then I am sure
you have heard about the recent shooting at KPFT, the station I broadcast Technology Bytes from each Wednesday from 8-10 pm.
I have sat in that control room many times in the last 20 years of programming at KPFT. Only in the last few years have I had an engineer working the board (thanks phliKtid!) which allows me to sit in the windowless on-air studio.
I’m truly grateful that no one was hurt during the incident
This is not the first violent episode at KPFT.
The station’s transmitter was bombed and destroyed on May 12, 1970,
two months after going on the air. The new station was off the air for
three weeks until repairs could be made.
Five months later, on October 6, 1970, while the station was broadcasting Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” the transmitter was bombed yet again and
the damage was significantly more extensive. The second bombing took
KPFT off the air for three months.
Check out this rare video:
The bombing was at the transmitter and the actual station was unharmed, as were the programmers and staff of KPFT.
There’s a piece of the destroyed transmitter on display at the radio station.
It’s upstairs so you have to know about it or ask to see it if you are just
a casual visitor.
Then there was the time not too long ago that the guy who has been ranting and raving all over the Internet about Technology Bytes and KPFT conspiring with Microsoft to exploit the American public showed up at the station brandishing a shotgun.
As to the recent shooting, I have no idea what the motivation might be.
It could have been someone upset with our left leaning programming, it could
have been random, it could have been a disgruntled volunteer…heck,
it could have been someone upset with Rick Heysquierdo for playing one
too many Billy Joe Shaver songs on Lone Star Jukebox for all I know…
One thing’s for sure, this event has the opportunity to galvanize
support for KPFT in this community.
No matter your political leanings, no matter your spiritual beliefs
or taste in music, everyone (sane) can agree that shooting a
radio station is just crazy and, quite possibly, a REAL symbol
of the threat to freedom of speech and expression faces each
and every day in this country.
If anything, the recent shooting might bring some much needed
attention to the plight of our little public radio station. Maybe more
people will be motivated to get involved. It’s times of crisis that seem
to bring out the best in people.
I don’t see my show as a lightning rod for controversy, but I sometimes
lose site of the fact that KPFT can be.
I’ll be doing my show tonight. Business as usual. But you can bet I will be a little more on the wary side than before.
Links of interest:
Rolas de Aztlan (kpft.wordpress.com)
Notes from KPFT Program Director Ernesto Aguilar
We have been working on teaching Dooley to say
“Dooley’s a bad bird, Dooley’s in biiiiiiiiiiiig trouble”
The emphasis has been on the word “big” which
we pronounce “beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeg”
Dooley has mastered the first part. Previously he’s been able
to say his name and “I’m a bad bad birdy” so it’s come
pretty easy. Also, he’s nailed “beeeeeeeeeeeg” and loves
that word.
The part he’s struggling with is the word “trouble”
When this happens he uses other words he already knows in
an effort to figure out how to say the new word.
This has resulted in the following:
“Beeeeeeeeeeeeeg Cynthia!”
“Beeeeeeeeeeeeeg Zippers!”
“Tickle the beeeeeeeeeeeeeeg bad birdy!”
“I’m a beeeeeeeeeeeeeg bird”
“Beeeeeeeeeeeeeg …. BUB!”
“Jingle bad beeeeeeeeeeeeeeg!”
Al lthis and endless repetitions of
“Beeeeeeg! Beeeeeeg! Beeeeeeg! Beeeeeeg!”
He’ll get there. I just heard something that sounded like
the word “trouble” … it’s just a matter of time.
In other Dooley news there’s been a development
that’s not so pleasant.
Dooley is prone to a repetitive hooting when we leave the room
where his cage resides. It can sometimes get very insistent and
is quickly very irritating. The only remedy is to either go back in
the room or cover his cage.
Over the last few mornings there has been a hooting sound that
is just like Dooley’s but comes from the tree in the front yard. It
seems that there’s a mockingbird who loves that sound and has
been hooting on several mornings over the past few weeks.
The problem is that nothing shuts up the bird in the front yard.
Fortunately he’s only been going off in the morning as we are
headed to work.
