Art in the Garden

Outpatient Asylum Vocalist Lexis Grover and I in front of Alice C. Hunsberger's Mosaics.


I've been so busy running to and fro and trying, as usual, to do several things as well which does usually work out for me. I'm like Lil' Ms. Muffitt, and I have too many things going on at once to focus on anyone. For example, this second I am also writing a review of Kafaya Quadri, a Nigerian musician and lyricist as well as trying to write here in this blog and at the same time, writing a text about Quadri to another musician who is interested in knowing more about her, plus opening mail and downloading photos to put here for our "Art in the Ring Garden" this year.

This year was very different for me at the Ring's Garden annual Art and Performance Show at the Ring Garden.

It was different because no one came from Manhattan Times and they usually have in the past, especially when Mike Fitelson was on board with them. It was the same in that Arthur Sherry also takes care of the sound set and performers.

It was also different because I fell in charge of organizing the artistic side - which meant doing all the flyers which were not properly distributed, no blame here, we were listed as a feature in the Annual Art Stroll event. It was also different because this was the first time in ages that I was responsible for introducing our performers. I was really happy to do this and enjoyed introducing our performers.

Also different because my good buddy, Demetrius Daniel, was out of town attending his uncle's funeral, plus Fred Arcoleo who usually performs, was out of town attending his niece's graduation.

Different because this year's art show showed new blood. For example, A two-piece band showed up called Out Patient Asylum and performed a short set for us. We also had artists there who'd never been there before, like photog, Aliza Frazier, wonderful and unique artist Chrystal Romero, artist and graphic designer, Alexandra Roth, (who was a blessing and helped me with the programs and printing), two truly amazing mosaics workers, Alice C. Hunsberger & Anina Klein, Artist Frank Barrett plus Calligraphy and hand style writer Dubblex.  We also had return artists, Gunther Bechofer and Marc Soliman who were kind enough to show up without any notice.

Early on in our performances, a special spotlight was with the performances by the Graham 2 Dance Performers and the Virginie Mecene Dance Program that was absolutely breathtaking. They danced to perfectly timed music that even my 2-year-old grandson loved and danced to.

It was a totally amazing day even with not having my good pal Demetrius Daniel there.

Dubblex and I also performed together in the afternoon, as a team, as usual. I was very pleased to have Helmi Pucinco on acoustic guitar and Arthur on electric guitar join me along with Dubblex on melodica.

Johnny Mandolin showed up later and played Italian Mandolin for our pleasure.

We were happy to end our day with the appearance of Carlo Baldo, who is a return performer, poet, and writer.

Next time I have to remember sunblock and a hat.

Here are some photos of our wonderful day.