Would you like cheese on that?

Public TV Chef Lidia Bastianich was asked her opinion about putting cheese on a fish dish.  She put her hands firmly on her hips, and answered:

 "If you go into any real Italian restaurant, and you ask the chef to put cheese on your fish, you won't get cheese!  An argument is what you'll get!"

You will get a similar answer if you ask a good hot dog vendor to put ketchup on your hot dog.

Personally, I don't care what you eat, or how you eat it, but I do love their passion and the drive that they possess to preserve the purity of the art form that they have worked so hard to hone.  They don't want their work - as they see it - bastardized.

One of architect Frank Lloyd Wright's past customers called him and asked, "Can I hang my new painting on this wall?"  Without skipping a beat, ole Frank answered the homeowner, "Not on my wall!"  Mr. Wright's art form was architecture, and instead of paint, he used building materials. Any and all buildings that he planned and built are his own distinct vision.  Changes to his vision - his work - were more often than not. declined,  

It takes great strength to form an accurate and clear vision, and even more intestinal fortitude to maintain and uphold those standards.

Quoting Chad Michaels from "RuPaul''s Drag Race":
"I'll never apologize for striving for perfection."

At first inspection, it seems like artist Salvador Dali is letting us off the hook, but in reality - he is not:
"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."

Translation:

Striving for perfection is like looking for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

It will always be just out of reach, but that doesn't stop me from chasing it!  :)

When I get frustrated at a particular piano piece (knitting pattern, Blender computer generated graphics project, etc), I pull my face out of my hands and "clog onward" when I realize that even though I'm not doing whatever it is as good as I want to be doing it - I am doing it better than I did a week ago, and far better than I was a year ago.  A year from NOW - but not now! - I can say the same thing about today's source of frustration.

So.... go ahead on, Mrs. Lidia.  Put your hands on your hips and stand your ground!

15 yrs. of St. Louis' City Museum

15 years ago, The City Museum (St. Louis) opened it's doors to the public.

Every time I go to The City Museum, I cry.  

From The Enchanted Caves, City Museum St. Louis, MO

Before the death of Bob Cassilly, my tears were from the sheer joy, relief, and the sensory stimulation that I crave. Now, just a little over a year after this tragic loss, my tears are from both: mourning a hurricane-force wind the blew beneath my sparrow's wings, and from enjoying the magnificent space he created before we reluctantly relinquished him to the ages.


If you have ever stood on the side of a major highway, and had a semi truck pass you, you will have experienced the same gust of wind that I felt the day Bob Cassilly flew past me when his soul escaped the bonds of this Earth.  I can still feel that wind as it blasts out of this realm and into the next.




I get "my fix" in abundance when I walk through the front doors and let my mind and body wander and expand, and for the few hours that I am there, I can momentarily fulfill the bottomless, ravenous hunger that I contain that gnaws at my heart, mind, body and soul for creativity, ingeniousness and diversity.

When I walk - and climb! - through this imaginative space, all my circuits start cookin', and my emotions are nothing more than a mere outward physical, instinctual manifestation of the activity created by fine-tuned neurons in my brain that are produced and maintained from major daily mental exercise, and my gratitude for the precious gift that I received:



My gift is not the musical instruments that I play daily, nor the things that I create both with natural fibers and in the digital realm.  My gift is much more simple in nature.  It is the ability to "know the difference", and to be acutely aware of the insidious hazards of ignoring that difference.  Another brightly wrapped package that I received at birth is "Curiosity".  A gift card for "Creativity" was attached to the top of my parcel.

After all is said and done, the creative and curious adult is the child that survived.

For more information:http://www.citymuseum.org/site/

- Michael