Wednesday, February 28, 2007

"The Polished Hoe"

A few months ago I had the fortune to meet Austin Clark, an author of extrema note, this past weekend a stage adaptation of his Giller Prize winning novel "the Polished Hoe" was launched. At the same time a new blog from my friends Abdi and Rinaldo ran its first post on the opening night gala! I regrettably missed the big night but Check out their review of "The Polished Hoe"



Toronto's Obsidian Theatre Company and Barbados-based Frank Collymore Hall present the world premiere of the West Indies-set The Polished Hoe, Feb. 18-March 4 in Canada. Following its run in Toronto, the production will play Barbados in April, representing Canada's cultural contribution to the World Cup of Cricket Championships, held for the first time in the West Indies. The work is drawn from the award-winning novel by Austin Clarke. It's adapted for the stage by Colin Taylor in collaboration with Alison Sealy-Smith. The production features Sealy-Smith and Tony Thompson. Taylor directs.

"When an elderly West Indian woman calls the police to confess to murder, the call results in a shattering all-night vigil that brings together every element of the African Diaspora in one epic sweep," according to production notes. "Set on the post-colonial West Indian island of Bimshire in 1952, The Polished Hoe unravels over one evening, but spans the lifetime of one woman and unearths the collective experience of a society informed by slavery. The man she claims to have murdered is Mr. Bellfeels, the village plantation owner for whom she has worked for more than 30 years. Mary has also been Mr. Bellfeels' mistress for most of that time and is the mother of his only son, Wilberforce, a successful doctor. What transpires through Mary's words and recollections is a deep meditation on the power of memory and the indomitable strength of the human spirit."

Author Austin Clark won the ninth annual Giller Prize for his 10th novel, "The Polished Hoe," released in Canada and the Caribbean in the fall of 2002. The book went on to win Ontario's Trillium Prize for the best book by an Ontario author, the regional Commonwealth Prize for Best Book, and the overall Commonwealth Prize for the Best Book in the British Commonwealth.

"The Polished Hoe" remained on Canadian bestseller lists for over 18 weeks and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2004.

Text is from the Playbill website, images are from various sources.

Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

The Way She Would Have Wanted It....

Sunday and Monday Western Michigan was covered in a about 10 to 12 inches of fresh snow that clung to the trees and homes mimicking the ceramic christmas village buildings that mother collected for years. Christmas was the most important time in the year for her. It therefore seemed appropriate that the snow clung to the world in that way the morning of her funeral. A picture perfect winter wonderland, for the whole day the world was pristine white. The service was well attended by family and friends, even with the snow... I'm sure I'll have more to process out but I want to conclude this post with a line from mothers program:

My life's been full, I savored much.
Good friends, good times, a loved ones touch
Perhaps my time seemed all to brief;
Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your hearts and peace to thee
God wanted me to know, He has set me free.







Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

A Letter To My Mother


Carol Ann Cushman 1940 - 2007



I didn't have the opportunity to talk to you in a meaningful way before you left. I know if we even had the chance, I wouldn't have covered all that I would have wanted to say. It's never been easy for us to express ourselves openly, though the feelings ran deep.

I'm sorry the past few years have been hard on you. It doesn't seem fitting to put so much effort and work into life, only to have it end with so much misery. The years caught up with you harshly and unfairly.

In recent years you shared with me that you felt unfulfilled, that you had accomplished so little of what you thought life would be. I could never understand why you felt this way given all that you did accomplish. You raised the four of us, kept a normal home when dad worked out on the road. I think you did a great job.

We grew up into perfectly imperfect adults with triumphs and mistakes both big and small yet through it all you and Dad kept something solid for us at the core, something to look up too, something to come home too. To this day when I think of the Christmas spirit, I first think of you and Dad showing us the spirit every year. Im sorry I missed the past couple of years, I needed to make Christmas my own, but now that you are gone, I regret missing even one.

I hope you left knowing that I appreciate all that you sacrificed for me and my brothers and sister. We have all taken separate paths in life and we learned from you and father that it was ok to be unique.

I want to thank you for my life. For recognizing early on that I was different on some level, for making a space for me where I could grow into what I am today, in and on my own terms. It was not always easy for you and I regret any pain I caused you while growing up.

I know I have not been able to share with you much of who I have become over the past 20 years. I knew as much as you wanted me to be me, you also wanted me to have the full family, picket fence, retire with lots of grand kids experience all mother want there sons to have.

But know that I am happy, have had wonderful experiences and a life full of love. Even more I have experienced the true and selfless love of someone who in many ways reminded me of you. They have gone on ahead of you and its my hope that you will meet him in the next life.

Mother, know that I am thinking and therefore always with you. I will remember your constant attention to me as a child, the hugs and kisses only you could give. The memories of sharing a good sale at the department store, Hudson lunches with you and Grandma, I still crave their chicken pie. Watching a sad romantic movie, the taste of GOOD chocolate and my yearly dose of black jelly beans at Easter. Thank you for everything. I love you.

More about Mom here


Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Happy Birthday!


The Abdi! (vis a vie Andy Warhol)

If you have read my blog enough you know that Birthdays are one of my favorite things... A celebration of the moment when one came into this world and began to make a difference... Of recent the point of life being sacread has been made clear through a family experience and I am in a particular mood that
celebrating my family weather its my blood or extended family is important to me. Last night we celebrated my friend Abdi's birthday with particular style... Dinner out, a night at the Hummingbird Theater to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater out of New York, capped off by drinks and conversation at the Grand. Its was a stimulating experience not soon forgotten!








Images of Alvin Ailey 2006/2007 season were not taken my the Author and are uncredited.
Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentines Day


Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Ballet Creole@Toronto's Harbourfront Centre



Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Darkness and Light








Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

A Little Coop to Help Fight the Winter Blues!

Ok its the middle of February and the current cold snap is into its second week... I guess to pay us back for all of that extra unnatural warm weather we got in December! I need to feel the warm sun... be outside... doing something fun... But it ain't going to happen for awhile... Well I'm sure some of you are in the same boat. So I'm pulling some images out of the archives.... These photos were shot about three summers ago and really capture the warmth of my friend Coop (previously known as JR). On our second shoot we ventured to a friends apartment penthouse down the street, the shoot took place 17 floors up on the roof, there were moments when I was perched mear feet away from the edge of the roof which had no rail or wall. Not a great fan of heights added a new and interesting tension to my photography! Well here's to warm weather and our dreams of summer!






Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

The Right Stuff......

Besides taking pictures of people my good friend Abdi loves to take pictures of doors, entry ways, windows and arches of all kinds. There is something metaphorical in his images, inviting to look at and sometimes causing the viewer to want to venture within. My friend Ocean also loves to take people pictures, but often excels at taking pictures of nature, often playing with its transparency or reflectivity of light. In doing so I sometimes feel the reflections of his mood and emotions. I've spent allot of time in this blog talking and imaging the various people in my life. I also have other passions one of them is flying or more precisely the vehicles we use to fly. When I am having one of my lucid dreams (which I often do) I have the ability to fly at will ala superman... I often find the experience to be exhilarating, and in someways stress relieving. Ironically I am reticent to fly on a commercial plane for some reason, I will do it if I have to but I do not find it as pleasant as my dreams. Yet I am attracted to the technology, I am intrigued at the rate of change that has come over the the past hundred or so years and often wonder why it took man so long to accomplish the feat of flying.

In 1903 the Wright brothers, Dayton Ohio cycle shop owners by trade, took their design for a aeroplane and packed their craft off to the dunes of Kitty Hawk North Carolina where they knew they could take advantage of head winds to help them become the first at successfull sustained powered flight. The craft to me represents the epitome of how a simple idea often is the best idea. There is one final irony related to the Wright flyer... Had there not been a camera there to capture the event, the Wright brothers would have probably never been credited for the feat.

Forward to May 20th 1927 and the envelope is pushed open a bit farther, as Charles Lindbergh flew 33 hours, 30 minutes and 29.8 seconds to cross the atlantic to be the first in a solo flight, landing at the Le Bourget Aerodrome in Paris, France and winning the Orteig Prize. To me it represents the need for humans to overcome any obstecals put before them...

On October 14, 1947, just under a month after the United States Air Force had been created as a separate service, the tests culminated in the first manned supersonic flight, piloted by Air Force Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager in aircraft which he had christened ‘Glamorous Glennis’, after his wife. The rocket-powered aircraft was launched from the belly of a specially modified B-29 and glided to a landing on a runway. X-1 flight number 50 is the first one where the X-1 recorded supersonic flight, at Mach 1.06 peak speed; however, Yeager and many other personnel record the possibility that Flight #49 (also with Yeager piloting), which reached a top recorded speed of Mach 0.997, may have in fact passed the Sound Barrier. The X1 represents courage... If you ever read or saw the film version of "The Right Stuff" you know many men lost their lives trying to break the sound barrier.... Yeager proved to be the right man at the right moment in aviation development, his feat gave him a folk hero status in the aviation community.

Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of the Apollo program, and the third human voyage to the moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon, while Collins orbited above. The mission fulfilled President John F. Kennedy's goal of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the 1960s. Many consider the landing one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Over 600 million people watched the this event which out of all of the aviation landmarks was probably the most photographed event in human history. The ability to touch this craft in a mueseum brought back the memory of sitting with my family, watching the events and history take place right before my eyes.

Star Trek debuted in the United States on NBC on September 8, 1966. The show, starring William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, told the tale of the crew of the starship Enterprise and that crew's five-year mission "to boldly go where no man has gone before." In its first two seasons it was nominated for Emmy Awards as Best Dramatic Series. After only three seasons, the show was cancelled and the last episode aired on June 3, 1969. The series subsequently became popular in reruns, and a cult following developed, complete with fan conventions. You might ask why I included this image in this post... It not only represents hope for the future, but also inspiration in what is to come. Many of todays astronauts and engineers credit Star Trek and the Enterprise with why they got into the aerospace buisness..... and work everyday to ensure that one day we all get the chance to fly.

The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., United States. It maintains the largest collection of aircraft and spacecraft in the world, and is the world's most-visited museum, hosting over 9,000,000 people each year. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics. Almost all space and aircraft on display are originals.
Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

News out of Stonehenge.....


I took this image in the spring of 2000 while on a trip to England.

In the past few weeks there has been much news coming out of Britain about and archeological site once considered fully explored for decades. I am have always been interested in this site as it is nearly as old as the great pyramids, but in many ways was a technicly more difficult structure to construct. Unlike the pyramids which was built by tens of thousands of workers/slaves, there has been no conclusive evidence of who or how many contructed this monument. Like the pyramids Stonehenge was constructed with astronomical acuracy of a computer, correctly predicting many astronomical events.

This weeks news has nine Neolithic-era buildings have been excavated in the Stonehenge world heritage site, according to a report in the journal British Archaeology. The structures, which appear to have been homes, date to 2,600-2,500 B.C. and were contemporary with the earliest stone settings at the site's famous megalith. They are the first house-like structures discovered there.

Stonehenge could have been a key gathering place at the Neolithic era's version of a housing development. The buildings all had plaster floors and timber frames, and most had a central hearth. Two, including a house possibly inhabited by a community chief or priest, were enclosed by ringed ditches, the largest measuring 131 feet across. Postholes indicate a wooden fence would have surrounded the smaller of the two structures.

"If the structure inside the large ditch was indeed a chief's house, this individual would have been living rather humbly like the rest of the population, since the building itself wouldn't have been elaborate," Thomas said. "It's like a humble house that was meant to be separated and secluded from the outside world."

Near the buildings were remnants of grooved pottery characteristic of the period, along with stone tools. The findings suggest many people lived at the site around 4,600 years ago. "People at that time were probably mobile and living in flimsy buildings, which would have since eroded," he explained. Two isolated buildings at the site may have been shrines and not residences, but he thinks it's also possible the buildings were home to Stone Age VIP's.

Excavation work is expected to continue over the next three summers on the Salsbury Plains, a place which until now had been considered empty except for Stonehenge.

Some text used from Discovery news.

Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.