Robert’s Snow for Cancer Research

If you live in Boston, you might want to attend the 2005 kickoff of Robert’s Snow. Robert’s Snow was founded by my friend Alice‘s sister, Grace, and Grace’s husband Robert, a two-time cancer survivor. Their campaign seeks to raise money for cancer research through the auctioning off of wooden snowflakes decorated by children’s book illustrators. Last year, artists such as Marc Brown (creator of Arthur), Ian Falconer (Olivia) and Chris Van Allsburg (The Polar Express) contributed snowflakes to the campaign. (Grace herself is a children’s book author and illustrator.)

For more information about the campaign, please visit http://www.robertssnow.com. The 2005 campaign kickoff will take place next Thursday, Nov. 3, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Locco Ritoro Gallery in Boston. The 200 snowflakes that will be auctioned off this year will be on display at the gallery. You can RSVP for the event on the Robert’s Snow Web site.

If you can’t attend the kickoff, you can still view this year’s snowflakes on the Robert’s Snow Web site. And, of course, you can bid on a snowflake or snowflakes. They will be auctioned off on eBay beginning Sunday, Nov. 6 (link TK on Robert’s Snow).

The Gates and Other Observations

The one or two of you who read my blog might notice that I’ve combined my two blogs. My “lifestyle” blog hadn’t been updated in awhile, not for lack of interest but time, so in the future, if I notice any more cars that resemble the Geo Metro, I will post about it here. (Has anyone else noticed that a lot of cars now have chrome roof racks?)

I finally visited The Gates in Central Park yesterday, as the installation was taken down today.

The Gates in Central Park, 2/27/05
I decided to take a close-up shot of the fabric, as I hadn’t been able to tell what it was like from pictures in the paper. The fabric looked kind of like the mesh jersey material that a lot of sportswear is made out of. The fabric also hung in pleats from the Gates, which I hadn’t realized until I saw them in person. Overall, I enjoyed my visit. I didn’t think the individual gates were beautiful (those 90-degree angles in the Gates really bothered me, as well as the metal blocks that held the gates down). But, as a lot of people have commented already, the installation did make you look at the park differently. I’d like to think a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise go to the park were drawn by the Gates to actually stroll around.

I also went to Orange Park’s show Saturday night (so I could add some “color” to my profile on the band). The experience reminded me of why I never go to shows anymore, namely, when people deliberately confine themselves to a small space, they really turn into a pack of idiots. One guy gave my friend’s boyfriend the evil eye for the duration of the show. I had people deliberately bumping into me, and the woman in front of me repeatedly flicked her hair into my eyes when she was trying to pull it up into a ponytail. I also don’t know why people insist on shoving their way to the front of a crowd, as if they will be able to enter another dimension and two people will be able to occupy one spot simultaneously. The music was great, but I don’t plan on going to any more shows for awhile.

On a lighter note, I’ve seen some cool things lately:
-Several couples dancing some latin dance in unison on the top floor of a building.
-People practicing Tae Kwon Do moves in unison on a higher floor of a building, as seen from the street.
-A guy sitting with a bust of Abraham Lincoln — which he’d carved himself! — on his lap while he was waiting for the subway. He said the finished bust would become part of some memorial.

The Somerville Gates

I find the Somerville Gates rather endearing. I’m glad that there are people out there who can be so earnest about humor. (The original site no longer has photos of the installation, but you can still Google the site and look at the cache.)

Robert’s Snow

Check out Robert’s Snow, the Web site for my friend Alice‘s sister’s online charity auction. The auction is for snowflakes decorated by a number of popular children’s book authors and illustrators, including Chris Van Allsburg (author of The Polar Express) and Ian Falconer (creator of Olivia). Proceeds from the auction will go toward the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in honor of Robert, Alice’s brother-in-law, who is a cancer survivor. The auction ends in three days.