Blog No. 240: Andrea Gibson, Debbi DiMaggio Podcast with Me, Obama Sings Amazing Grace

July 26, 2025

Tom DiMenna tonight is at City Winery in NYC: 7:30pm Story Songs of the 70s: Music of Jim Croce, John Prine, Leonard Cohen along with all time favorites Cat Stevens, Gordon Lightfoot and Harry Chapin…Tickets still available

Andrea Gibson (1975-2025), Poet Laureate of Colorado

Photo Courtesy Boulder Library Foundation. Click image to read more about them.

So many tributes right now to this obviously incredible person, Andrea Gibson, poet laureate of Colorado, who recently left this planet after living with ovarian cancer for four years. I wish I had known more about them before. In honor of their beautiful poetry and their well-lived life, here is one of their poems that speaks to me and to the content of my newsletter as well:

A List of Things I Love

I love. That could be the end of the sentence, but I love sentences. I love words huddled together like strangers trying to survive a frigid night. I love rock sculptures built in windstorms. I love sandcastles crafted inches from the waves. I love the drama of an 80’s ballad. I love grandparents holding hands in rocking chairs on the porches of old houses in northern Maine. I love penguins, though I’ve never met one. I love how shocked I was when I realized my Superman cape couldn’t lift me into the sky. I love that all these decades later, I can still be that exact same kind of surprised.

I love cucumbers straight from the garden. I love old typewriters even if they don’t work. I love imagining I am a bird who is imagining what it’s like to be human in the dead of winter, wearing an upside-down nest made of yarn atop the head. I love wishing wells and the dreams that fill them.

I love scared rescue dogs who can’t live in homes with small children. I love the kids in junior high talent contests who always forget their lines. I love the nervous love in their parents’ chests. I love mother starlings racing home to their babies’ open and rowdy beaks. I love the perfect smiles of people with crooked teeth. I love daydreaming about the pep talks butterflies give to depressed caterpillars. I love that bumblebees taste with their feet. I love when it’s so cold out I can walk atop the sparkling snow. I love tiny libraries. I love stained glass windows in people’s homes.

I love how my partner takes karaoke far too seriously. I love my very first crush in the 4th grade, wherever he is, whoever he became. I love phone booths in London. I love ketchup chips from Canada. I love Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. I love the six perfect holes in my most worn pair of boots. I love that pigeons can recognize themselves in photographs. I love that laughter is more contagious than the flu. I love thank-you letters mailed to teachers twenty years after they graduate. I love the romance of merge signs.

I love watching people pull over on the side of the road to take pictures of a rainbow. I love that I can fix almost anything with shoelaces or duct tape. I love listening to my partner yell, “Andrea! Where did my shoelaces go this time!?” I love pointing out the window at our singing wind chime.

I love listening for the quietest notes of the loudest songs. I love carnivals in the parking lots of tiny towns. I love paper planes with love notes written inside. I love watching children realize that the seashells on the beach are free. I love the perfect contentment of a kite caught in a tree.

I love coffee shops on Saturday mornings. I love the kind kids who have hard lives. I love the mean kids who haven’t yet learned a better way to survive. I love that after chemotherapy, my straight hair grew back in curls. I love the tiny hurt that makes each pearl. I love trying to jump over puddles and failing.

I love that cows have best friends. I love that fleeting moment of annoyance while deep in writing a poem, someone interrupts to ask me to come look at the sunset. I love the instant that follows, when I recognize that to be a true poet, I must abandon every poem for every pink sky.

I love the pink sky and the sound of my grumpy neighbor opening his door at the same time that I do. I love both of us peeling off the husks of our minds to taste the sweetness of the world’s truth. I love what I have in common with people I have nothing in common with.

I love that my best friends kiss me on the forehead whenever I am sick. I love the baristas in fancy coffee shops who never ever smile. I love old diners with signs that say, “Stay A While.” I love the desert. I love the sea.

I love how much longer this list would be if the sunset were not, in this very second, calling me.

And I love all of you, friends, for caring about what I love. What are you loving today?

Love, Andrea

Debbi DiMaggio Podcast Interview with Me

Debbi DiMaggio Interviews Me: Click image for the whole podcast

Wonderful podcast on much more than real estate with Debbi DiMaggio

I usually don't like sharing this kind of thing because it feels like I am showing off and I get nervous when I do interviews and end up sounding like an idiot. Furthermore I don't usually like the way I look on camera but this time it actually went off without a hitch and I am actually proud of the interview.

I took a pitstop in Portland Maine on my way to New York City and the Press Hotel in Portland Maine was kind enough to let me find a quiet place in their lobby to tape the podcast. Debbi DiMaggio, a client of mine who has become a friend is a great interviewer, aside from being a California real estate broker par excellence. She put me totally at ease, prompted me with good questions and I definitely know the material since it is my life...

Many of you know a lot about me already but if you don't, have a listen--it's a good way of getting to know my background, my approach to my art and some of what I have been up to all these 68 years...

Amazing Grace sung by President Barak Obama

I think we all need to hear this again. Obama sings Amazing Grace.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A PRESIDENT!

Painting of the Week

Metallic Flower Power Series mixed media on paper 44” x 90” $9000

Charity of the Week: Doctors Without Borders

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.

Source: old-age-young-at-heart-chorus-mark-nepo-no...

Blog No. 239: Between the Mountain and the Sky Documentary, The Legacy Danish TV Series, David Gittens: Renaissance Man

July 19, 2025

For those in NYC, my friend Tom DiMenna is reappearing at City Winery on Sunday July 27th at 7:30pm for another round of Story Songs of the 70s—this time with an expanded list of covers including the music of Jim Croce, John Prine, Leonard Cohen along with all time favorites Cat Stevens, Gordon Lightfoot and Harry Chapin..Everyone who came last time enjoyed a wonderful evening with this talented musician and his band. Hope you will join me. For Tickets: https://citywinery.com/new-york-city/ticket-selection?eventId=story-songs-of-the-70s-04li6a

Between the Mountain and the Sky Documentary

Don’t ever say one person can’t make a difference. Meet Maggie Doyne!

My friend Karen Mulvaney introduced me to the documentary Between the Mountain and The Sky (a Duplass Brothers Production), and in fact, I found out in the credits that she and her husband Tom were the producers of this beautiful film. It is well worth watching--will have you laughing and crying and realizing that yes, one person (and a Jersey girl at that) can make a difference, and in this case, impact in a huge "love" way the life of 50+ orphans in Nepal. Not to mention so many others who she has reached, like me, who are left deeply inspired...

Meet Maggie Doyne, a young woman who during her gap year between high school and college decided to participate in a program volunteering with children in India. One thing led to the next and the next thing you know, Doyne, together with her program partner, Top Malla, now runs a school, children's home, women's center, and girls' safe house in Surkhet, Nepal. There are many steps in between which the film documents, taking us on an exciting, inspiring and heartwarming story about "Mommy" Doyne and her kids. With the founding of the foundation Blink Now, a non-profit organization founded by Doyne in 2007 that provides financial support and management oversight to the Kopila Valley School, Children’s Home, Women’s Center, Health Clinic, Big Sisters' Home, and New Campus in Surkhet, Nepal, Doyne has cemented her humanitarianism in Nepal in a huge way...

Hurry up and watch this film--looks like it is about to be taken down very soon from online...and then will be available in film festivals and theatres and for rent...Click here to watch...

I highly recommend it! And so does CNN, who awarded Maggie Doyne the CNN 2015 Hero of the Year.

Danish TV Series
The Legacy

I recommend The TV series The Legacy (Arvingerne), now on PBS. It is a soap opera but a Danish and smart one at that. It tells the story of an artist Veronika at the end of her life and the legacy she left to her husband and children, all of whom you get to know very well throughout the series (three seasons).

I don't think this series could have been made in the United States--it is much more intelligent than your normal run of the mill soap opera with layers upon layers of truths about greed, fame, family and familial ties, loyalty, societal norms, the art world, child rearing, selfishness, infidelities, love...you name it, the series covers the full range of human emotions and foibles. It is wacky, weird, and unconventional, and the characters are in many ways Danish to the bone and definitely not American characters. The acting and writing are of very high quality...depicting real characters having complex, flawed, real relationships, that are allowed time to grow, and that inevitably lead you to ponder your own family and your own experiences...

According to one reviewer, "this was one of the wildest, craziest and most fascinating foreign series I've ever watched!... completely unique and original, compared to 99% of what we see in Canada and the U.S...

Another reviewer described the writing, acting, directing, etc., to "show a level of artistic merit that puts the great majority of UK and American shows to shame." I really enjoyed the series and binge watched a lot of it. Maybe you will enjoy it too...

David Gittens: Inventor, Artist, Humanitarian

David Gittens, inventor of this amazing car, the Ikenga, envisioned out of a session with the Spiritualist Society in London in the 1960s.

David Gittens is a remarkable man! I met him as a kid--he was my cool Uncle Stan's friend and colleague and he recently reached out to me, looking to find his old friend, my 95+ year old Uncle... When I looked him up to remind myself of who he was, I knew instantly that I wanted to include him in a blog post as I had discovered an absolute treasure trove! This guy has done everything! In fact, so much so that I have been having a hard time writing this because he has accomplished and done so many interesting things, I didn't know where to start and what to include--way too much for one brief column.

Let's start by saying he is an designer and an auto and aviation pioneer--creator of the 1967-69 Ikenga motorcar, the 1977 Ikenga Catamaran, and the 1986-92 Ikenga Autogyro aircraft--all of which are today still considered utterly futuristic.

The Ikenga Motorcar, 1967-69. Gittens “channeled” the design of the car.

**Ikenga 530Z Autogiro, i1958-1965, featured n the collection of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.**

Growing up an African American kid in Brooklyn, David Gittens, now in his late 80's, can claim so many additional titles to his name: commercial photographer (freelance, staff for Car and Driver for many years), videographer, musician, interfaith worker, leader of seminars at the Smithsonian, painter, creator of a solar heated shower in collaboration with Unicef, creator of an incredible 23 string guitar, spiritualist--I could go on and on...

Here is a wonderful, very personal interview with Shahzad Sheikh, AKA the BrownCarGuy that covers much more than just cars. Through the course of the interview, Gittens talks about his life story and it is really fascinating and inspiring...And now, at 86, he is still at it, continuing work with kids on his humanitarian Art/Peace/Heart Project he founded in 1999 celebrating love and kindness.

I am so happy to be reacquainted with this amazing person. Here are some additional links if you want to explore more:

David is also a musician and invented and built this 23 string guitar. Click image to hear him play this amazing instrument—a song called You Are Love—You Are Loved.

**Click to read more about his online, free-to-download, Arts/Peace Project for students of all ages.**

An article about him in the Sarasota Herald Tribune
Email: dwij@aol.com
Music/videos:https://vimeo.com/
user9399249/videos
Inspirational/Visionary Art: http://dwij.org/dwij/gallery.html

Music on my 23-string creation with soundscape artist Edward Cosla: https://youtu.be/CzIr_ndIIJ0

Aircraft design segment:http://dwij.org/dwij/aircraft.htm

Rare first flight film: The 1988 Ikenga 530Z Autogiro:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65GTibxR2hY

The Ikenga Story:
http://dwij.org/dwij/530Z_history.html

Automobile design segment: http://dwij.org/dwij/ikenga.htm

Rare film: The 1968 Ikenga MK II GT:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK7rCTfU06o

Painting of the Week

They glow! Painting by Pam Smilow, turntable by Brian Eno…

Charity of the Week: BlinkNow Foundation

Source: old-age-young-at-heart-chorus-mark-nepo-no...