14th Annual Arts & Jazz

Mark your calendars to attend the

14th Annual ARTS & JAZZ Auction this Saturday!

The “Auction, Dance and Proud Community Celebration” will be held Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 7:00 pm in the Blaine Performing Art Center (PAC.) There’s a $5 admission charge and then you walk around looking at all of the cool and amazing items and services up for auction. All the while, munching on the amazing edible goodies donated for this evening. There will be great music, good food, and a fantastic cause to support!

100% of the funds raised benefit scholarships and firsthand experiences beyond the curriculum in the Blaine School District. This directly benefits students participating in visual art, performing art, instrumental and vocal music through the school.

As staffing and operational budget cuts seriously impact the quality of education, so-called electives are being decimated.

Indisputable numbers of studies prove that much is gained through a well-balanced education. It’s proven that students learn better when art and music are components of their learning exposure.

I hope to see you at Blaine School this Saturday night! Be supportive! This is your community … your home!

January 22, 2011
7:00 pm
Blaine PAC
Highland, Blaine WA
$5 admission

I've cut and pasted the photographs used in this blog entry. They were purloined from the Blaine School website. I wish I could give credit to the photographers and the students shown.

Observations of good things to come ...

Yes. It’s decidedly cold and rainy, muddy, icky, and even icy in spots, but I can see spring coming to Birch Bay. It will take awhile to finally arrive, but as subtle signs tease, I’m energized.

First of all with passing into winter solstice, each sunset is a minute or so later, each sunrise is a wee bit earlier. They aren’t significant, but discernable. The added daylight is much appreciated. The pattern of the tides change, too, going from high tide by sunset, to tonight being able to see some beach at dusk and setting sun. In dark winter, the tide goes out at night. I love beachcombing, but even I draw the line at going out on the tideflats in the dark. So, I’m seeing more daylight beach. Hooray!

Despite the coating of snow, bare branches have little buds forming, with the promise of explosions of bright new leaves and the flowers that are natural to the bay. The rains of yesterday and today melted away most of our snow, and uncovered growing blades of grass!

While in the office this afternoon, my broker, Carl Dufton, pointed out cyclists out on Birch Bay Drive. Yes, they were bundled up in their Gortex outerwear, but the three of them were pedaling along. Birch Bay and Semiahmoo are great for cycling and obviously those three weren’t waiting for warmer weather.

I look forward to additional signs of spring coming. There’s so much that is unpredictable and sometimes unsettling in our world today, so it is comforting to see these simple signs of changing season that repeat regardless of what’s raging in the political arena or the distressing financial crisis or whatever turmoil is broiling in the rest of the world.

Spring is coming to Birch Bay!

What do you mean?

When the movie version of a very popular Harry Potter book came to our local theater, I remember having a discussion with a mother and daughter whom had both read the whole series in print form as well as on their Nook. I shared with them that I had seen a program on television about the making of the movie and that I was surprised it had two scripts, one in English (US) and one in English (UK).

They, in turn, shared with me that two English versions of the book were written, too. I knew the books had been translated into other languages, but it didn’t dawn on me that there were two English versions. They said the UK version had different words, illustrations, and even the size of the book was different, to appeal to a different aesthetic. Once I thought about the discussion, it made perfect sense that words or phrases, even though in English, had different subtext, shades of meaning. I was also amused that initially I had thought of the UK version as different from our US version, wherein it was just the reverse. The US version was an interpretation of the original UK version. Perspective is key, isn't it?

It got me to thinking of words and their meanings and how interpretation is a slippery slope.

Even talking with my own adult offspring, words are sometimes imbued with a different context.

As a Realtor selling and listing homes less than ten miles from the US/Canada border, I have business dealings with Canadians, including Asians, East Indians, and Ukrainians/Russians. One cannot take words lightly. I am conversant in English only. There has to be thought as to how the words I use might be interpreted by those for whom English is a second or a third language. In these face-to-face situations, I can re-phrase wording if it seems the client doesn’t understand. Expression and body language definitely become important to communication, although cultural differences result in different postures or gestures.

A great writer can paint a visual scene with their words, but most of us aren’t at all close to being great or even fair-to-middling writers; case in point, blogs, Facebook and Twitter. I am often on Facebook, and the comments are frequently confusing as to whether meant literally or in jest or sarcasm. Context of words in written news media are often limited, too.

Then we take a leap to words spoken and images shown on national and international media. How often have we heard, "A picture is worth a thousand words?" The viewer is shown crowds loudly shouting, gesturing with angry hate-filled faces. We witness appalling scenes and we make judgments based on our own cultural and ethical norms, not based on how our cultures might differ. It’s often a knee-jerk interpretation, not an educated interpretation.

As busy as our lives have become, there is little time or inclination to study another culture or even to think twice about how words are being interpreted. The global scene has increasingly been thrust into our daily lives without preparation, without knowledge. And because there isn’t time to think globally when we’re up to our armpits in mundane everyday matters, we gladly leave interpretation to others.

Easy enough to hand off responsibility for interpretation to authorities we assume are more educated, more knowledgeable, whose business it is to know what’s what, and to accept whatever information is provided to us.

I urge you now more than ever, to accept responsibility to scratch the surface of the neat, sanitized packages of words put together for us in print or broadcast on television or online media. Question findings and interpretations. Seek a second opinion. Inquire into the background of situations being reported. Think about what others are saying before you judge. Think about what you say before you say it.

It isn’t overstatement to say our quality of life depends upon words and how they might be interpreted, whether here in little Birch Bay or across our great nation or in the world beyond our borders.