❧❧❧ Whatever you can do or dream, you can BEGIN IT. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe ❧❧❧
❧❧❧ You were born whole, not broken. Sandra Hammel ❧❧❧
My Free Spirit If you want listen to my song. Written and performed by Sandra Hammel Written July 7, 2010 on Roland FP-4 keyboard, Strings 4 I can't decide what title to give this. Originally, I named it My Free Spirit. Other titles, I have considered are Sacred Space Come Inside Inner Sanctuary Where I'm Free Safe Place
So I went to the International Tennis Hall of Fame today, thinking it was free. Once a year, local residents are free at different places around the area. Well, it is tomorrow and Monday that the venues are free, but they were nice enough to let me in, today.
I tagged along with a small band of tourists, while the volunteer guide tried to inform us of the Tennis Hall of Fame and what it had to offer - but much of the time - 3 of the 4 people were walking off on their own and she had no one to talk to, but one of us. They others were all from Brazil and I was from ...well, here....where the Hall of Fame is located.
I have never been inside the museum, just to the tennis tournament held on the grass courts there. The inside pictures (below) were taken today. And the grounds pictures were taken in 2009.
The guide wasn't as fond of Rafa as I am - she thinks he should go to Africa like Roddick and Federer and Rafa shouldn't wear the watch that he wore at The French Open. And one of the men from Brazil likes Rafa, but likes his current on-court clothing, which I don't. I started this Facebook page: RAFA NADAL BRING BACK LONG PANTS SLEEVELESS TOPS
But this is the kind of thing that I read and know Rafa is the man.
This is the Hall of Fame and you aren't supposed to be inducted until after you have been retired for five years, although one man was. The guide thought this was because he had some legal problems in his country at the time and they inducted him to let him leave his country. I have no idea. She also didn't like Borg, because he is the only inducted player to choose not to show up for his inductee ceremony - the same year as Billie Jean King.
Rafa was well represented in the museum, although of course, he hasn't been inducted yet. According to the volunteer guide, one of the three main inductees for 2011 will be Andre Agassi.
The court as you enter
The picture below is what is at the base of the pictured statue above.
Picture from the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI What men once wore.
What women wore to play tennis in at one time. Must have been a slow game.
June 20 & 21 - Newport County Attraction Days - Free Admission to Area Attractions for Residents & hospitality workers The Attractions Council of Newport County invites all Newport County residents and employees of the hospitality industry to visit many great local attractions on Sunday, June 20, 2010 and Monday, June 21, 2010. A total of 19 attractions/organizations are participating, including for the first time several attractions located in Bristol. Visitors showing proof of residency (driver's license or other identification with an address) or proof of hospitality employment (business card, employee ID or pay stub) will enjoy free admission or another value as noted when visiting the attractions listed below. Please call the individual attractions for operating schedule and other detailed information.
Amazing Grace Harbor Tours/Oldport Marine 401-662-0082 www.OldPortMarine.com Free harbor tour. Sunday June 20 only. Audubon Society Environmental Education Center 401-245-7500 www.asri.org Free admission Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum 401-253-2707 www.Blithewold.org Free admission Coggeshall Farm Museum 401-253-9062 www.CoggeshallFarm.org Free admission Firehouse Theater 401-849-3473 www.FirehouseTheater.org Special June 21 performance: The Bit Players at 7pm. Limited seating, reservation required Greenvale Vineyards 401-847-3777 www.Greenvale.com Free tasting Historic Fort Adams 401-841-0707 www.FortAdams.org Free admission International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum 401-324-6033 www.TennisFame.com Free admission Museum of Newport History 401-846-0813 www.NewportHistorical.org Free admission Museum of Yachting 401-847-1018 www.MOY.org Free admission Newport Art Museum 401-848-8200 www.NewportArtMuseum.org Free admission Sunday, June 20 only. Closed June 21.
Newport Grand Slots 401-849-5000 www.NewportGrand.com $5 in Reward Points when signing up for a Grand Rewards Card - Points valid for food or beverage within Newport Grand Slots. New Members only, 18+ Newport Mansions 401-847-1000 www.NewportMansions.org Free admission to The Breakers, The Breakers Stable & Carriage House (open Sunday only), Chateau-sur-Mer, Chepstow, The Elms, Green Animals Topiary Garden, Hunter House, Isaac Bell House, Kingscote, Marble House, and Rosecliff, and a 10% discount at all Newport Mansions Stores. Newport Vineyards & Winery 401-848-5161 www.NewportVineyards.com Free tour & tasting Norman Bird Sanctuary 401-846-2577 www.NormanBirdSanctuary.org Free admission Redwood Library & Athenaeum 401-841-5680 www.RedwoodLibrary.org Free admission & 10% off purchases Sakonnet Vineyards 401-635-8486 www.SakonnetWine.com Tour, tasting & logo wineglass Save The Bay Exploration Center & Aquarium at Easton's Beach 401-324-6020 www.SaveBay.org Free admission Sightsailing of Newport / Bowens Wharf 401-849-3333 www.SightSailing.com Free cruise aboard Schooner Aquidneck Touro Synagogue and Loeb Visitors Center 401-847-4794 www.TouroSynagogue.org Free admission
Suzanne Lenglen at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
Suzanne Lenglen and me at the International Tennis Hall of Fame Bellevue Avenue Newport, Rhode Island June 19, 2010
All photo credits: Sandra Hammel
Roland Garros has a court named after Suzanne Lenglen
This is Rafa's actual clothing from the Australian Open 2010 and the trophy isn't Rafa's trophy....it is some other winner's trophy (I can't remember whose) who donated it or loaned it to the museum. But it is just like the one Rafa won. Also, pictured below.
This is Venus Williams outfit that caused a stir in Paris this year at The French Open. It arrived yesterday at the museum.
I can't remember which tournament this trophy is for. I think it the trophy that the winner takes home from Wimbledon.
What once was the Library now is just an exhibit at the Hall of Fame museum
..............................................
.............................................. BdaSailor—June 19, 2010 — The start of the 2010 Bermuda Race which took place on June 18, 2010 of Newport, R.I. in a flood tide and 10kts of southwesterly breeze.
Music: Vanessa Amorosi's Absolutely Everybody
Click post title for a video I made of Sachuest Beach - near my home.
I have spent the last several hours transferring documents and pictures from my old computer to an external hard drive. It is a personal computer and I have a MAC now, so nothing is going to be usable without my changing it from a "read only" document to another copy that I can edit. I have four mice - is that how you say the plural of mouse in relation to computers? - and the only one that would work at all with this old computer is so dysfunctional that it has to be hit repeatedly and hard to get it to respond. And having a strained muscle in my hand - I unwisely continued to do this for hours.
Just below are pictures of my backyard. Pictured is the second of many snowstorms here this season. One snowstorm a year would be enough for me to feel I had winter. Currently, I have opted to let last night's storm lie where it fell, as I must have pulled muscles in my rib cage the last time I shoveled. It may melt by Saturday and I can drive over it until then.
Pictured below is the same northwest corner of my lot as pictured just above. I have always loved color...
Portsmouth, Aquidneck Island or otherwise the Island of Rhode Island
Now, down to New Orleans..... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
Faubourg Tremépremiered Thursday, January 29, 2009. Check Local Listings to see when it is airing on your local PBS station.
Faubourg Tremé is considered the oldest black neighborhood in America, the origin of the southern civil rights movement and the birthplace of jazz. Long before Hurricane Katrina, two native New Orleanians, one black and one white — writer Lolis Eric Elie and filmmaker Dawn Logsdon — began documenting the rich, living culture of this historic district. Miraculously, their tapes survived the disaster unscathed. The completed film, Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, which critics have hailed as "devastating," "charming" and "revelatory," brims with unknown historical nuggets. Who knew that in the early 1800s while most African Americans were toiling on plantations, free black people in Tremé were publishing poetry and conducting symphonies? Who knew that long before Rosa Parks, Tremé leaders organized sit-ins and protests that successfully desegregated the city's streetcars and schools? Who knew that jazz, New Orleans' greatest gift to America, was born from the embers of this first American civil rights movement? Lolis Eric Elie, a New Orleans newspaperman, takes us on a tour of the city — his city — in what evolves from a reflection on the relevance of history into a love letter to the storied New Orleans neighborhood Faubourg Tremé. Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, executive produced by Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Nelson, will premiere on PBS in February 2009, a timely addition to the network's Black History Month programming (check local listings).
Craftsmen on Stoop-Master Carpenter Irving Trevigne's ancestors: Paul, Henry and Peter Broyard with two laborers outside Tremé building, circa late 1880/early 1890s.
Long ago, during slavery, Faubourg Tremé was home to the largest community of free black people in the Deep South and was a hotbed of political activism. Here, black and white, free and enslaved, rich and poor cohabited, collaborated and clashed to create America's first civil rights movement and a uniquely American culture. The Tremé district was damaged when the levees broke as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Many Tremé residents are still unable to return home, and the neighborhood is once again fighting many of the same civil rights battles first launched here 150 years ago. Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans celebrates the resiliency of this community and explores how it managed to carve out a unique and expressive culture and history that is still enriching America and the world.
Elegant Portrait of an anonymous Free Man of Color, circa 1860.
To find out more about Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans please visit http://www.tremedoc.com/...
where this text is from
Lolis Eric Elie, a New Orleans newspaperman, takes us on a tour of the city – his city – in what becomes a reflection on the relevance of history folded into a love letter to the storied New Orleans neighborhood, Faubourg Tremé. Arguably the oldest black neighborhood in America and the birthplace of jazz, Faubourg Tremé was home to the largest community of free black people in the Deep South during slavery and a hotbed of political ferment. Here black and white, free and enslaved, rich and poor cohabitated, collaborated, and clashed to create America's first Civil Rights movement and a unique American culture. Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans is a riveting tale of heartbreak, hope, resiliency and haunting historic parallels.
While the Tremé district was damaged when the levees broke, this is not another Katrina documentary. Long before the flood, two native New Orleanians—one black, one white—writer Lolis Eric Elie and filmmaker Dawn Logsdon, began documenting the rich living culture of this historic district. Miraculously, their tapes survived the disaster unscathed. The completed film, Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, which critics have called "devastating", "charming", and "revelatory" is a powerful testament to why New Orleans matters, and why this most un-American of American cities must be saved.
Elie and director Dawn Logsdon make clear the city's present, up through Katrina, remains steeped in its past- one that, for New Orleans, naturally includes an emphasis on music, heightened here by Derrick Hodge's original jazz score and over a hundred years of New Orleans music. This is a film of ideas, a historical film, a personal film and a celebration of place.
THE OLYMPICS IN CHINA BRINGS ATTENTION TO CENSORSHIP
It's Time to Talk and Listen
And yet, less quality talk and less quality listening is increasing.
This YouTube video was removed, then reposted at YouTube: ................................................
................................................ Some blood and terror in this video. Freedom in Tibet is a Dream Uploaded by eighteen year old from England: FR33TIBET08 Text at YouTube: Download and spread. Don't let Tibet be censored again!
................................................ Part 1 China Deports 28 Members of Students for a Free Tibet for Staging Protests in Beijing
................................................
................................................ Part 2 Two above videos uploaded by IWantDemocracyNow One comment left on this Youtube video about Freeing Tibet admitted to being against FREEING TIBET.
Free
Anyone who is not free, yearns to be free.
Anyone who is not free, strives to be free.
Anyone who denies another's freedom, is not free.
When someone tries to suppress you,
What is their weakness?
A person of strength has no need to deny you your freedom.
"...Our loves are only symbols of an unknown immortality...and what is supposed to be gone and past is often more real than ever..." Cedric Wright
For the most part I find it pleasant thinking about my life. I have taken the road less traveled in terms of the family I came from. Even though my most impressionable years were in the 60's and 70's, I never inhaled. Meaning I never did any drugs of any sort. I never have been the daughter my mother wanted me to be. But it's not clear to me what it is she wants.
One of my unlived dreams is to sing in public. I have been practicing to try to overcome this. And I know my biggest obstacle is the fear that I have. Tonight just before sitting down to feed my need to write, I was playing the piano and singing and thinking about my dad. My father passed away May 10. 2007. But he always came in and sat down to listen to me sing and play the piano. Then when my mother put him in an institution the last couple years of his life, I would sing and sing for him in his room. The last thing I did was sing to him on the phone and he took his last breath at the end of that phone call. He lived in Indiana and I, in Rhode Island. So it felt like dad was there tonight enjoying the music.
In my early twenties, I moved from northern Indiana to Sturbridge, Massachusetts for my first year of teaching. My next two moves were chosen by taking out the map and finding towns along the New England coast. Leaving that one year of teaching behind and going through one personal time of transition, I connected with an old boyfriend.
Old boyfriends are fun to think about. Having kept a lot of the memorabilia, once in awhile I immerse myself in reading through old journals and letters. Nothing wrong with retouching the lessons and feelings of the past. My second college boyfriend was a political science major and was reading Eldridge Cleaver’s book Soul on Ice back then. All people who have touched my life have left their mark. There is a part in the book where Mr. Cleaver, who is in Folsom Prison, and attorney, Beverly Axelrod, exchange letters. Deep letters. But I love deep. The letters began September 5, 1965.
E.C. writes: “I feel impelled to express myself to you extravagantly, and words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs leap in my mind. But I beat them down, refuse to write them, because it all seems so predictable and trite...What right have you to summon my soul from its slumber?......You have tossed me a lifeline. If you only knew how I’d been drowning, how I’d considered that I’d gone down for the third time long ago, how I kept thrashing around in the water simply because I still felt the impulse to fight back and the tug of a distant shore...”
B.A writes back: “...Believe this: I accept you. I know you little and I know you much, but whichever way it goes, I accept you. Your manhood comes through in a thousand ways, rare and wonderful...I have no measuring stick. I accept you...What an awesome thing it is to feel oneself on the verge of the possibility of really knowing another person. Can it ever happen? I’m not sure. I don’t know that any two people can really strip themselves that naked in front of each other. We’re so filled with fears of rejection and pretenses that we scarcely know whether we’re being fraudulent or real ourselves...”
E.C. answers back: “Your letters to me are living pieces – chunks! – of you, and are the most important things in my life...It only happens in books – or...Do you know what shameless thought just bullied its way into my consciousness? That, I deserve you, that I deserve to know you and to communicate with you...I seek a lasting relationship, something permanent in a world of change, in which all is transitory, ephemeral, and full of pain. We humans, we are too frail creatures to handle such titanic emotions and deep magnetic yearnings, strivings and impulses…
…The reason two people are reluctant to really strip themselves naked in front of each other is because in doing so they make themselves vulnerable and give enormous power over themselves one to the other. How awful, how deadly, how catastrophically they can hurt each other, wreck and ruin each other forever!...Better to maintain shallow, superficial affairs; that way the scars are not too deep, no blood is hacked from the soul. You beautifully – O, how beautifully!! – spoke...of ‘What an awesome thing it is to feel oneself on the verge of the possibility of really knowing another person...’ and...I do not believe that a beautiful relationship has to always end in carnage. I do not believe that we have to be fraudulent and pretentious,...I know that sometimes people fake on each other out of genuine motives to hold onto the object of their tenderest feelings. They see themselves as so inadequate that they feel forced to wear a mask in order to continuously impress the other. I do not want to ‘hold you’, I want you to ‘stay’ out of your own need for me. ...It takes time and deeds, and this involves trust, it involves making ourselves vulnerable to each other, to strip ourselves naked, to become sitting ducks for each other...I am vulnerable and defenseless and I make myself a duck for you. ...And it is not a fraud, forced out of desperation...”
Isn’t this beautiful?
Excerpts from love letters taken from the book SOUL ON ICE, by Eldridge Cleaver, 1965.
"What an awesome thing it is to feel oneself on the verge of the possibility of really knowing another person... and...I do not believe that a beautiful relationship has to always end in carnage. I do not believe that we have to be fraudulent and pretentious" ~ I so love this because I, too, believe pretense shortchanges us out of the life we were born to have.
Above picture of me from my first trip to Europe by myself ~ taken on the encouragement of a boyfriend! Six weeks including Luxemburg, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Spain.
I organized the Providence, Rhode Island October 27, 2007 Torch Relay as a part of the Dream for Darfur Campaign to pressure China to act and end the Darfur geonocide.
The culminating Torch Relay is taking place in Washington, D.C. on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2007.
Edwin Mutanguha has passed the torch to his brother Edward Mutanguha who is carrying the torch in the picture.
The t-shirts say I CARRY THE TORCH FOR DARFUR on the front and STOP GENOCIDE on the back.
Call President Bush and tell him to actually act on his words regarding the Darfur genocide: NOT ON MY WATCH. Talk is useless, President Bush. His number: 202-456-1111
I walk around my house, feeling so fulfilled and grin.I can’t keep from bursting outloud “I love my life”.
It has not been this way a lot of my life.
I’ve been “here” before.But this time, I’m so fully conscious of it and why.
There were people in my life that kept me from me.
Trying to please them took me away from being pleased with myself, my life.
My mother for one.
I had to find how to think about the mother that has openly judged me as a failure of a Christian, and a success of living a sinful life- my entire adult life.My mother is a bottomless unpleasable pit for me.She’s unhappy with me,
even though I am so thoroughly happy with myself and my life.
Even a mother can be a stumbling block.
And mine was.
Until August 8, 2006.
It is like I found myself born finally.
Finally able to know what I felt about her behavior toward my father.And toward me.
Finally able to face her and not let her twist my insides with her manipulating ways.
Finally able to separate what I believed about myself from what despicable person she said I am.
I found I couldn’t please her and me with the same life, the same me.
So I have gone with the woman that I want to be and am . . . and left her view of me - with her.
We met in Bermuda just after I was leaving an abusive relationship.The kind that involves physical abuse cycled with profuse, seemingly heartfelt apologies and promises to stop.
Getting into relationships is easily mindless.It’s getting out of them that has always been difficult for me. Because making something work -even though it was implausible with open eyes - wasn’t something that I gave up on. And I never was able to think about my own well - being over the hurt that I saw the man in.But this last thing never seemed to bother the man in my last relationship.A hint of one of his tears would melt my heart and keep me from thinking clearly.But I could live in forced silence from him for a week or cry for hours and he would simply walk away.It is much more lonely to live in a relationship like this than to live with a beautiful relationship with myself I experience. I needed to learn the lesson that if something isn't working, it's okay to leave.
Even though, he appeared to not be confining.He certainly was.I was spiritually looking for his soul, but it was never available to me.I don’t think to him, either.I was emotionally starving.Starving to find any moment to feel a connection to him.I was dying inside.
When you are dying before your death is anywhere close, you are in trouble.
I was in trouble.
And now, I am not.
I am so vibrantly alive.I feel full, I feel excited.
When people in your life keep you from who you are – you can’t possibly be happy.
Others don’t bring happiness to your life.You do.But they can block you from your happiness.
I shed that baggage
and
have never felt so good.So completely full of emotion.So colorful.
This is a glorious place to be in my life.
I’m sad that these relationships are broken and missing,
but I give them their lives, as they choose them,
and I have not attached strings to them.
I have no control over them.
I can’t change our barren relationships.
I can’t rescue something that isn’t there - with people who are so fragmented
and living in emotional denial.
I don’t like living in denial.I never did.
I can’t stand pretentious people.Never did.
“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
Marcus Aurelius
“When someone shows you who they are – believe them.”Maya Angelou
“When someone takes you away from you – walk away.”Sandra Hammel
Life is a spiritual experience for me.
I love my spirit.
I love the Greater Spirit I am part of.
I love all spirits
who are free to love back . . .
. . . who throw their “joy of life” out for all to walk in the glow of . . .
………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………….
radiating out all that they are, have become.
This is where I live.
In the radiance of all the good in humankind and all things good,
true and willing to find the life of celebration.
This is where I am.
Life is Music to Me
………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………….
Life is Dance to Me
………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………….
Life is Drama to Me
Life is Color to Me
………………………………………………………….………………………………………………………….
Life loves truth
This is Where I AM . . .
. . . in this glory of Life
Celebrating Life as a Good Thing
and open to abundance.
You are welcome to come sing with me,
to come share the joy and dance with me
You can see the joy, delight and contentment in my eyes.
I invite you to live in what our eyes find in one another’s eyes.
I invite you to make love with our eyes, our hearts,
our unbridled exploratory touching…
…abandon time and caged up emotions
that have kept us prisoners way too long,
once upon a time.
No one can hold me anymore from being me with all the stops pulled full out.
This is where I live my life, now.
Free of my mother’s judgments, free of fear that she won’t approve of me or won’t like me.
This is where I am.
NOW.
………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………
You could be here, too.
But I can’t take you here.
I can only be here.
No more denying who I was born to be.
I stand tall here
in the light
in my truth.
To my mother:
Walking into your presence
still gives my breath halting, choppy breathing,
but
I am strong enough now to keep all of me
in tact
and
leave your presence with a renewed energy and self-awareness
that I am still whole upon leaving you.
You’ve stolen my wholeness in my life, until now.
Today is different
and
I stand alone, but whole.
As sorry as I am that we have no connection,
no relating between us –
I can live “here” now
and be fully alive
with or without you.
To life, I say
Thanks!
And to all who can see me
and not attempt to kill bits of me – thank you!
All in us is open
and all is open to us.
Wow.
I love my life.
It’s true.
It’s genuine.
It’s joyful.
It’s my bliss.
It is Divine.
Life meeting LIFE and complementing the other.
This is living the way I am sure it was meant to be when we were created.
I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music
................................................
Khartoum, Sudan Stop Genocide Time
................................................
Spain Time
................................................
Melbourne Time
................................................
Hawaii Time
...............................................
...............................................
RAFA NADAL -BRING BACK LONG PANTS - SLEEVELESS TOPS
Double Click on Videos to Enlarge
Darfur - The Abandoned Genocide - a video by Sandra Hammel
Want to help? Call 1~800~GENOCIDE
"May I Suggest" by Susan Werner
Satchita - Playing for Change
Stand By Me ~ Playing for Change
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Genocide is not only a word,
it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent
when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race is at stake.
