Author: Frau Kolb

Farewell Philadelphia! Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Dearest among beloved American Cities,

Philadelphia, I love you! You are so pretty! I love your location between three rivers the river and the Delaware, Schuylkill, and the Wissahickon. You are so sparkly and central. You figure prominently in history. Yet, I suspect the BEST is YET to come! We can all learn a lot from a visit to you, Love. You are one of the oldest, yet active, and powerful of American cities. Yet you still have fresh stories to tell and your are as inviting as a young lady in her best attire.

I dig your art museums. I was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, not too long ago with Mr. Ron Schira, (the artist/art critic is attending Art Miami Basel 2012 with the Talkinggrid) and Mr. Goings. I am looking forward to visiting the Rodin Museum, once it emerges from the stupor of restoration. Also on my list of places to visit is The Institute of Contemporary Art, the ICA, which is a part of Penn State University and is said to be an “muy importante,” location. Because they showed Andy Warhol and Laurie Anderson’s work at pivotal junctions in their careers, among other notable art mega-stars.

Oh MY GOODNESS, Philadelphia, you are a seriously RICH BEE-ACH! So much innovation! So much history! You have the most amazing wealth of educational options for children and adults a like. Moreover, you open yourself up to exploration. You are easy to navigate. In nearly every corner of the city’s easy walking grid, there are trains, buses, taxis, boisterous yet self contained street seers, and mingling among other modes of cosmic and mundane public transportation, which might take one as easily from one fold in the universe to the next university. It is remarkable. The possibilities!

YOU have that fabulous sixty mile park of uninterrupted bike path, a wooded joy. The pace of the city can be almost as fast as that of my beloved Manhattan. Yet, being a little smaller and a little less crowded is a plus, in my book. Your citizens, take time to greet one another, polite in the minor interactions.

Philadelphia!

Thank you so much, I spent four days here, exploring just a little of your riches. I stayed at the Embassy Suites in the Center City. It was a great location. The staff was friendly and helpful. The room was vast by New York City or Los Angeles standards. They served a wonderfully greasy breakfast, which I was able to work off at their small but adequate gym! But the BEST was the open bar in the evenings, the “Manganger’s Reception,” which really made coming back to the hotel in the evenings a gemütlich experience. Philadelphia invites walking. Thus, I was able to walk and on my first night evening in town I walked all the way to Society Hill. They have a great art house movie theater, The Ritz, that is very inviting. (They were playing “Lincoln,” starring Daniel Day Lewis––an excellent actor I once or twice had the pleasure of meeting, while living with friends in Dublin Ireland’s famous Balls Bridge, area, by the way, the film tickets were sold out.) The selection of movies was great. It even included, a Landmark Theater’s exclusive, “A Royal Affair”, a costume romance drama. I love those films before Christmas!

I also found a perfect restaurant for a single (married) lady to enjoy a fine glass of deep RED wine and some delicious tapas; the Urban Entnoteca. The service was appropriate and the wine was meaty. When the bill came I felt I’d been treated fairly. I’d recommend this spot any day.

A Day later, I was a-washed in delight. Strolling down past Logan Circle. The Swann Memorial Its water spewing monumentally scaled river frogs, swans and gigantic personifications of the three rivers that distinguish the city, pulsating with joy. Water spraying invitation, over the printed words “NO SWIIMMING,” it is a Philadelphia tradition to take a dip in the fountain during the hot summer months and I promise myself to return and baptize myself in the water spray, soon!

I missed visiting LOVE Park, But I am sure to return to Philadelphia so that I can make a sketch of the famous public sculpture by Robert Indiana! Ah! (I have a digital video, companion piece to these musings, which I promise to post almost immediately, but first the piece requires a requires a light edit.)

The AUTUMN colors were out in FULL GLORY this year! The bright golden yellow leaves stood in high contrast to the burnt burgundy of the Japanese maples. My goodness, what beauty driving to the main-line suburbs on Saturday. The streets were packed as a mini-marathon was underway. People everywhere wearing smiles of anticipation. The festivities had real energy. I’d have love to join the runners and participate in the half marathon.

In general, I find the people a nice blend urbane kindness and proper conduct. These are people used to the real spread of possibility. They know that it takes all kinds of folks to make the world go round and they are actively pushing for it to spin at just the right speed. Here, in Philadelphia there is a feeling that American history is positively alive. Many streets are labeled with wonderful placards that give you a nutshell account of the historic import of the block you NOW walk on. Any kid, of any age, with a curious mind will feel at home in this wonderful and inviting town.

On Sunday afternoon, I walked to meet my ART pals, Ola Mañana and La Suzy of California, for a trip to the Barnes Foundation. (I will leave the controversy to be covered by the authoritative Ms. Mañana. She is working on providing solid coverage with the full scoop of truth we all crave.) They came in from Brooklyn and Manhattan to me ME! Frau Kolb!

After we HIT the Barnes Museum. We gals strolled over to the public library. Ms. Mañana wanted to check out the Dickens exhibit. So, we popped into the building and She was like a child getting an favorite treat. WE LOVE OLA’s enthusiasm for LIFE and Charles Dickens is her absolute favorite. Sweetheart, that SHE is!

Next we swaggered over to Whole Foods. Roasted Chicken, organic salad, prepared corn, and other goodies including the most wonderful selection of Big Dipper Beeswax travel candles which I depend on for creating just the right atmosphere in any location. We chose “Rapture,” and “Harmony.” I am writing with “Vitality,” lit as I do most early mornings (I get up before five am everyday (almost) to update the site). Later I will blow it out in favor of “Clarity,” for the briefest of edits before I post this little THANK YOU note to the city of Philadelphia for being so beautiful, inspiring, and ART RICH!

The climax and finale of the quick trip into Philadelphia’s many culinary offerings was a delicious raw OYSTER BLOW OUT at Parc, on Ritten Square. The briny medium to small delights were scarfed down with French Champagne, of course. Making my time in Philadelphia, just before the holidays, 2012, a perfect launch for the Holiday Season!

Darling ol’ girl YOU are my kind of town. I shall return!

Love,

Frau

What a TRIP!

Photo(s), courtesy of Dr. HC Kolb © 2013.

We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, in Oahu, again.  (This location has the advantage of having a private beach, with kids activities, snorkeling, dinner cruises, and the best fireworks show on Friday nights.) This time we had a corner room in the Tapa Tower.  Last time, we stayed at the Rainbow Tower.  Both experiences left a good taste in our mouths.  Because our rooms were spacious, if expensive, and comfortably appointed.  High up, the views are impressive.  Beware of vertigo!  It is so high UP and still little birds arrive looking for scraps on our balcony.  Diamond Head and the Bay sparkling with ant-sized boats, imaged outriggers, and the vast Pacific ocean, teeming with life.  Humans come from all over the world to celebrate their peak moments in Honolulu’s warm embrace.

The thick ocean air, kisses your face, fragrant breezes massage your skin… Ah!

Underwater photo, courtesy of Dr. HC Kolb © 2013, no reproduction without permission.

What a way to celebrate turning 40!  The triumph over a family’s greatest challenge!  Whatever the reason, Hawaii is the place to GO!  YOU want to be there to celebrate your life’s milestones.  YOU need a dip in the warm waters.  You are ready to dance the Hula.   The adventure of LIFE is alive and raw in that excellent city, Honolulu.  It may be developed, a hard little nugget of a glittering city, studded with high-end shopping venues on par with Rodeo Drive, in Los Angeles, California and top-notch boutique hotels, but the island has jungle hiking trails that will delight the novice, the family man, the native, and the experienced globe trekker, alike.

Ja!

It wasn’t a given that we would make it this far.  Those that know, are aware of how much ground we crossed in the last few years, and how we (all) faced difficult conditions, in the spirit of learning to love LIFE more, and thus, WE arrive at this—sacred—point in time: NOW!   Any major life transition requires special action to mark it, define it.  The traditional honeymoon in Hawaii works, for example, in that no one can say that “little America,” the islands of the Pacific are anything short of dreamy, a GREAT place to launch a life-long LOVE partnership.  Just as the passage from winter to spring, the graduation of a loved one might be a great excuse to get down to Hawaii for some much needed rest and relaxation.

YES!  WE must prioritize caring for ourselves.

The key message shared in, “The Vacation Approach,” an unpublished book by Frau Kolb was that LIFE must be lived as an ongoing vacation. What do WE really want to do?  What is really important?  Let us connect with our LOVED ones while we have them.  Let us GO to Hawaii while its beauty withstands the assault of the littering tourists (those horrible humans who feel it is okay to leave plastic wrappers, bottles, and bags everywhere they go.)  Let us enjoy, as much as we can, this moment that sits before us.  Let us embrace the NOW, where NOW happens to be.  In other words, IF you can not now afford a little get away.  Plan your vacation and enjoy your actual location.  (Read this blog for tips on how to live the artist’s ideal life of learning, loving, and living it UP!)  Travel in books and by reading is another way to soar above the bore of same old, same old.

IF, on the better hand, money is not an issue and you crave hard-core decadent luxury and French service, then you must hit B.L.T in Honolulu.   Delicious European classics in Las Vegas style luxury with New Yorker edge, in Honolulu bent on French service in a high-end restaurant then you simply must visit, BLT Steak.  Oh YES!  It is so good.  You will love it.  Juicy!  This is food that we advise vegetarians avoid.  Moreover, this an establisment catering to those on a tight budget.  But it is pure carnivore heaven to go when you want to splurge on a thick Porterhouse, for two, served in cast iron, with sides of garden fresh vegetable and excellent tender green salad,  preceded by Pacific oysters—so fresh and briny.  This is the elegant dining location to mark a memorable evening with best friends and beloved (carnivore) family.  Yet, it is NOT for everyone (vegetarians, you could order a grilled veggie plater!  I’m sure it would be excellent).  IF you want to celebrate an important event and want the team service to work like a dream around you.  Try, knocking a piece of silver of the table and watch the head waiter catch it before it hits the floor.  Or don’t, because really that isn’t the kind of thing a polite and well-bred person like YOU would even consider doing for a bit of bad-taste fun.  But, if happen to push a fork off the table, by accident, KNOW that the service will notice before you are inconvenienced by the diving piece of silver.

You might also enjoy, Kaiwa,  Japanese cuisine for lunch.  Quiet.  Elegant.  On a second floor and frequented by locals.  This spot is a refuge from the chain restaurant culture, the noise, the ubiquitous flat screen televisions, and cheap American food.  It is a comfortable, but not tremendously luxurious, place you want to sink into the deep padded leather booths lining the restaurant and enjoy a moment of nourishing Japanese cuisine.

Travel helps fortify the soul, the spirit.

 

IF you have never snorkeled in Honomanu Bay in Oahu: You MUST but, first, you have to watch the nine minute conservation and safety film.  YOU don’t want to die in Hawaii.  You want to have a good time.  Therefore, you require instruction on how to respect the life that lives in the reefs and coral.  It is time YOU get cozy with the idea that our reality depends on being mindful of LIFE, limits, and LOVING the environment, and showing that LOVE by restricting our personal use of natural resources, honoring the material world, so that life may endure and WE, my friends, continue to thrive.

 

© Frau Kolb 2013

23 TIPS on How and Why to Fly, NOW!

Flying in from Los Angeles to New York or back and forth is a routine familiar to many bi-costal commuters.  Yet not everyone finds pleasure in constant travel.  The many restrictions and the potential for loss is high when one is going away from home.  Security, Terrorism and Other Hazards plague the transition between “Arrival and Departure.” Yet, travel is intensely important.   We cannot avoid it.  Without travel, we are stuck in ONE place. Furthermore, we cannot maintain our far-flung friendships and many attachments without getting on a plane, occasionally.  Getting out to see old friends and perhaps family is a way of maintaining one’s status, relationships, and memories.  Creating NEW impressions of places known before is vital to feeling ALIVE.

Perhaps, we loss a part of ourselves if we do not get on a plane a GO see a museum exhibit in another city just because it relates to some arcane topic we studied in college.  Without planes, it seems, we cannot unlock our full human potential!  Of course, some people like Emily Dickinson (who famously wrote moving poetry from the self imposed prison, in an attic, without the benefit of actual trips or internet connection, managed to travel through books and in her imagination quite effectively).  Poets…  unlike most people can (time) travel (yet… this is another topic).   Unless YOU have the gift of reading (and writing) between the lines… don’t try it in public. OK?

The obvious key is to successful airplane travel is packing BRIGHT.  Take a little of what makes you happy, comfortable, and content at home.  It is right to fine-tune what one must have in order to function.  In this way, we are all different as snowflakes.  What you have in your bag will not work for me.  Yet, Talkinggrid’s 23 Must Have Travel Items are a simple yet tried and true method for staying On-Top of getting around.

Before the trip:

1.Get ready to Practice Politeness.  This is an opportunity to appreciate the little things people do for your safety.  Searching your bags, for example, is an important function for TSA agents to perform.  IF they neglect to check some bags, some times, we’d think we were not getting our money’s worth. So… we appreciate the people that do this (mostly boring) job.

2. Be prepared to eliminate doubt about your identity.  Thus, taking seriously the oracle at Delphi’s recommendation of “know thy self.” If you do not have valid identification you are not going anywhere conventional, quickly.  Thus, those of us who can verify that we are who we claim to be are SOMEBODY, at the airport where it counts.

3. Another perk of travel is that it gives you the opportunity to “expand your portfolio of experience.”  You are fascinating.  You write.  Read. Paint.  Dance. Sing.  Yet performing all these marvelous skills in previously unknown cities can be hugely life-enhancing since whenever you arrive in a new city you have the advantage of being vulnerable and confused and thus interesting to predators and admires, alike. Bravo! Make the MOST of IT!

Remember: Aerial Views are special.  We don’t get to see all the little houses and think about how small we really are unless we are UP here in the air LOOKING DOWN and seeing that what cost millions to the individual is but a spec on the patchwork quilt that is a nation.

4.  Most importantly, Get a Grip!  Every time you leave HOME on a major trip you are embarking on more than a mere journey from here to there.  YOU are making decisions about what matters to YOU.  What is important enough to get YOU and only YOU out of bed?   WHAT must YOU pack that I wouldn’t pack?  Tell me, pretty please.

5. Make time for enjoying the trip.  Don’t forget that it can be fun to explore the airport.  Past security there are shops, restaurants, and plenty of opportunities for relaxation, including those inviting coin operated massaging chairs.

6. BAGS INSIDE BAGS!   Packing everything in a tot or overnight bag and THEN put it in your luggage… Hah! It makes you so… more prepared for shopping or mini-trips within your over-arching or BIG trip; try taking an extra tot with a fanny-pack full of makeup; that WORKS.  YOU get by better by having much more than one bag with you, always.

 

On the Plane:

7. The Carry On, itself must be pretty.

You don’t want your bag looking like anyone else’s.

(Mine is a lavender floral print by Anna Sui for Tumi with a load of interior pockets, including a lined pouch for jewelry.  It works for me.)

8. The Airport Pic-Nic.  Who can stand to eat what passes for food in most cases?  Not I. Thus, I bring my own home-cooked fresh meals, on board.   You may think this is a bit much.  Yet, I find it more economical and healthy to cook, contain, travel items.  transport, and enjoy the food I know is made fresh and to my specifications than to hope and eat whatever I can get.  That is why Whole Foods offers thermal bags.  Buy a few, use them regularly, and make your life better.
9. The Eye Mask.  Give yourself some time to relax.  Check out.  Snooze.

1. Wash your hands with extra care; bring along a quality Nail Brush.  Nothing beats having very clean hands, fingernails, and being well groomed.   Taking a moment to massage your hands, think about life, and reflect how lucky we are to have running water… is priceless.

1. Don’t forget to Moisturize and hydrate.  Drink plenty of water before, after, and during your flight.  It will keep all systems running smoothly and the exercise of walking down the isle of a long air-plane in flight, several times will do you better than just sitting there.

2. Noise cancelling headsets, Bose Speakers, for example, (or at least ear-plugs) can mean the difference between enjoying some rest and quiet time or… NOT.  Noise cancelling headsets work well to erase the voices of the two aging hookers that have seats behind you… or that monstrously energetic child’s wailing… providing the cushion of silence… your soundscape matters to you, for some of us, SILENCE is everything.

3. Analogue Journal(s).  This is a solid block of time when you will not be interrupted.  You can write.  You can write your little bleeding heart OUT.  You can write poems to the clouds!  You can write a staggering list of Forgotten Lovers you wish you’d had!  You can write what kinds of parties you intend to have for your loved ones in the coming years.  Get to all the self-indulgent ego-boasting writing, you always want(ed) to do, now!

In your Carry On:

4. Pack Gloves.  In all weathers, gloves are a gift to the self.  They protect your hands and light-weight ones keep your hands soft and germs off the finger tips. Thicker ones keep sensitive hands warm.  Gloves, leather or knit, are small yet high impact Sports gloves, for example ensure that you will be prepared to use the gym at the hotel.  Snow gloves make fights with packed balls of icy moister, FUN!
5. A Selection of Hats.  Always carry a knit hat or two, they are tiny and make a huge difference in how comfy you are in ultra air-conditioned plane rides from here to there.  Also wear a proper hat, something fashionable to go with your jacket and slacks, which you take off in order to go through security.  Just the act of taking off your hat, makes you LOOK civilized.  Civilized is better in the world of air travel, deal with it.
6. Cashmere Scarves!   Life without the lightweight warmth of cashmere wool may not be worth living.  I know. It was difficult before I discovered the major pluses inherent in the plushness, this soft and fine stuff provides. Two or three, good scarves fit anywhere and define YOU, dashing.  I prefer deep colors: tomato red, eggplant, and coffee scarves make me feel cozy and approachable.  Also remember: big plush, thicker, scarves can serve as blankets and improvised extra baggage.  The ladies in South Africa wear big ones, with which they wrap their babies around their bodies, while getting from here to there.   LOVE!
7. Silk Blouses and Cotton Tank Tops: Light weight, breathable, silk is a traveling girl’s best friend.  Pack five blouses in your carry on they take up NO SPACE and you are consistently well dressed!  Wear them on their own or under wool sweaters to keep warm.  (Cotton, shelf bra, tank-tops, with a little elastic, are wonderful underneath.  Or… in the tropics… may stand alone as an eye-catching top, in a pinch.
8. Under Garments: YOU must have seven days of fresh underwear with you NO MATTER where or how long you go for, IF traveling on a plane.  You never know when you get stuck somewhere and this is the one area of your carry-on reality you can and will control.  Unparalleled comfort comes from finding you have clean knickers, a feeling of instant power from a quick change into fresh underwear, no matter where –––precisely––– your earthly travels take you.  Fresh underwear will make YOU feel worthy of respect; away from home.

9. The Neck Pillow:  protect your strangely vulnerable, fragile, yet vital, part of your body, THE NECK, is protected and ensconced from jiggle in transit. IF you don’t have ONE then I suggest you buy one at the airport.

Once you arrive you will need:

1. Bath Salts and Oils.  As soon as you arrive you will want to take a long soak.  You need this to unwind, relax, and disinfect yourself from all the bugs and germs that are a part of sharing air with many strangers from all over the planet.  In the morning: you will want to have a WAKE UP or orange, grapefruit, lime-citrus soak to get you going, again.  In the evening: lavender, chamomile, or red-wine anti-oxidant soak will do YOU fine.
2. The Travel Library: in airports, and trips, perhaps even more than at home, we have the opportunity to read real books, with pages, made of paper.  (Think of all the delightful paperbacks, begging to be read.  Paper books, one can sink into, a literary bath of words for the brain to soak in!)

Take TIME with those slow and softly turning paper pages, for they will be gone soon… unless—of course—virulent nostalgia grips the polis and…  If you don’t mind hauling around a selection of reading material, YOU are an exceptional being, in my book. (It is amazing, by the way, how many very thin books worthy of re-reading exist.  Strunk and White’s “Elements of Style,” and Dale Carnegie’s  “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” are two book I recommend everybody read again and again) pretty please.

2. Writing and Drawing Materials.  In a very positive way it totally pleases me to paint in public.  Funnily, I’m good at concentrating with a crowd around.  Maybe because I’m the last of five children.  You may find that making a rough sketch of a memory or the flight attendant gives you a buzz unlike any other.
3. A Laptop!   Of course, you were planning on bringing your portable computer along.  This is your chance to work on the Great American Novel or write your next blog entry.  NOW, get to it and enjoy your trip!  Bon voyage!
   

There YOU GO!

23 TIPS

Graciously from,

Frau Kolb

Active Head  at:
www.talkinggrid.com

Nov 16, 2013, 5:48 AM