All posts by johncohn

Saturday night – movie night !

Arghhh… once again Myspace has eaten my (nearly) complete blog entry and forced me to re-type.. I have done my cursing oo-fline and will attempt to retype what I entered before !…  (grrrrrrrrrrr)

So.. we woke today to a new month.. December.. can it really be December already ?   I guess so.. it feels cold enough to be.  One good thing about December is Advent calendars.. In this family, we try to take the best aspects of all of our cultures.. Advent calendar this week, potatoe pankakes next week, christmas in 3 weeks.. wow…

I particulalry like this new advent calendar. You get to put your own stuff in it.. so we had choclate kisses and dog boscuts this morning.. I’m thinking A-1 sauce for tomrrow. I’ll let you know if anything really wierd shows up .

Diane and I worked together most of the morning trying to get the house back in some order after all the events of the last week and a half. It was fun workign around the house.. it was a sunny and very cold day.. the perfect kind for being inside.. Though.. too much inside is too much. Around 2 we took Gabe up to Bolton and Dinae, Chai and I went out for a Snowshoe at Bolton lower quad.. It was a beutiful day to be ut.. cold. (8 degrees and blowing) but enough sunshine that we were ok in a windbreaker and sweater.


I liek this iew from Bolton back over towards our house. Robins mountin in our back yard is the left most hump in this picture

The trails a re a reat palce to Snowshoe.. I like the name of this one.


We got home very cold and tired around 4:30.. Around 6:30 we got back in the car to go to the Jericho Community Center (JCC)  for Movie Night. Burt D, his son Angus.. and freinds Max E.  and Alex L had organized a showing at the JCC. the  with all proceeds goign to the Sam Cohn Fund (thank you so much guys !) .

There was no missing the fact that the event was on.. 5 signs dragged in quite a crowd



I esteimate that there were between 110 and 120  people there..

People were still coming in at 7PM .. so Kevin got up and did his Kevin immitations.. as only he can do.. He is one wierd and funny dude.

the first movie was ‘Fly’ by Sam R. and Garrod. It was great ! There were so many of Sam’s friends in it.. I kept expecting to see Sam…. I liked the fact that they included our pnd skimming porate ship into their movie.

Next up was the ‘ToGnar’ (totally gnarly) project by Angus D, Burt D, Max E, Alex L. and …  It was a history of the 2006-2007 ski/board season.. I loved the images and music in this one, too. They also had a sequence of the pirate ship as the credits rolled.

They had a great dedication equence to Sam at the end..   Choked me up a bit.

The last film, ‘Push Rewind’ was by Nick S. It had amazing camera work, and editing.. really professional quality.. It also was dedicated to Sam.. which was a reallly good surprise for us. I’ll try to get a copy of the dedication sequence for me to post when I get a sec.    Irelaized that I kept moving my vest away from my Sam buttin soe Sam could ‘see’ the movies.. it’s a funny instinct.

The last movie was over at around 9.. It was really a great evening.. Our thanks to all the folks who made it posssible ! We took gabe’s friend Dylan home then came back to the house.. it’s only about 7 degrees aout now.. and supposed to be gettign much colder tonight !.. Bundle up everyone !

Stay warm everyone.. stay cool Sam !
-me

Friday night – art auction

We’rve just come back from the Friends of Sam Art Auction at JDK.. and I’m so sleepy I can hardly type. It was a great event thanks to the kids with great help from Deb, Jen, Liz and the generous doantion for all our artistic friends. I got there around 5:30 and found Deb putting out a veritable feast of hors-devours with help from the kids who  were all dressed up to serve. The food was all delcicious… I stocked up before heding down

All night we had a steady flow of folks coming by.. not a huge crowd.. but enoughfolks to make it feel lively and good. The bids started coming in.

We had all sorts of art.. prints

Inks

paintings


Photos


Markers


Watercolors

Boards


Instruments


Whiligigs


Etc, etc, etc..



Even birdhouses !

Jen fired the glass the kids did last night.. they looked amazing


Around 9 we closed the bidding and folks picked up their treasures

We haven’t completely tallied the bids… but most of the art sold.. and the Friends of Sam raised more than 2000 dollars for the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf..  That’s a wonderful take for the evening.. Our big thanks to the Friends of Sam and Deb, Jen, and Liz for plannign the event and making it happen.. And our thanks to David K and JDK for allowing us to host the auction in their beutiful building.

We met a woman named Nancy who’d had a Heart/liver transplant a few years back.  She told us about  how the organ donations saved her life. We talked about  all the emotions around transplant. It was really good to see how healthy and vital she was..

Good night friends.. thanks for all you do for Sam and for us. We love you.. we love you Sam !
-me

Thursday evening – yearbook

Frriends.. I apologize.. but this is the 4th time I’ve had to type in my blog for the evening due to computer problems. This posting will be brief.

Today was refreshingly ‘normal’… Normal meaning a fair sprinkiling of highs and lows, victories and bittersweet heartbreak. I’ll take that mix for now. the highs were mostly about my new temp job. I’m more energized and excited abotu my work than I’ve been in several years. I’m meeting some cool new people and I feel my creativity starting to come back some.. I think this will really be part of the recharge that I so desperately need

The bittersweet came in the shape of Sam’s 2007 class yearbook. Diane picked it up at MMU today when she was up teaching yoga. There’s a great tribute to sam on the inside front cover.. How many times have I seen those tributes in other peoples yearbooks. It’s always someone else.. it’s never supposed to be your.. or our.. kid.. He’s not going to graduate in 2010.. Oh Sam…

One nice touch we found is that Sam’s friend and Band mate Jeff had Sam’s Myspace name ‘bree_bree_roarororf’ as the caption under his own picture.Thanks for that Jeff.

The rest of the day had it’s interesting moments. I was on the phone all day as usual. I managed to slip into Moe’s for a quick burrito around 3:30 and ran intoour friend Meg working there.. Her dad Ken happened to be right behind me in line.. I felt like a taco

I had been scheduled to do a ‘Jolts and Volts’ show at Camels Hump tonight. Ken Wootan,  a  virtual neighbor and expert on  prevention of child sexual abuse was giving a talk. I was supposed to do my show while he spoke with parents privately. In the end, tehre wern’t that meany kids, so I got to hear most of Ken’s talk. he has soem really good ideas about educating kids on how to avoid dangerous situations. I was impressed with how pragmatic his advice was.

I did manage to do a mini-show for some of the kids and parents who stuck around aftetr the talk. I always love doing that.

Ken’s grandaughter on the van de graaf

Ke’s daughter (note the similar hairstyles )

I made a big mess as usual but was forgiven by Rogene, Toby and John..It was good seeing them.. they’re always so nice to me.  I sat around and talked to them and Rand for a whiile after the cleanup

When I got home it was time to help Diane with the backing for tomorrow’s Friends of Sam Art Auction.. I’m including this picture of a whole bowl of unwrapped reeses penut butter cups to entice you to come tomorrow.. it’s at 7PM at JDK , 47 Maples Street Burlington.. Details here.
You won’t beleive the cool stuff the kids have collected. Come down and bring your friends. Thanks !

That;s all for now.. See you at the Art Auccion  . Nite Sam
-me

Wednesday night – art for Sam’s sake

Not much to report today. I was busy, but didn’t seem to accomplish much. One productive part was a Reiki session with Marci. My back has been a wreck for a few weeks.. I thought I’d pulled it lifting something (the big tesla coil ? ) ,, but Marci pointed out thatI was probably holding a bunch of physical stress in my body leading up too and through last week. The expectations around the anniversary of Sam’s death have done a number on my body and my mind.. I do feel myself getting stronger again.. I feel pretty optimistic and energized… and of course sad, too. That’s life..

Tonight was fun.. Diane lead a snowboarders yoga class tonight with 14 eager boraders..includign Gabe.  As soon as that was over, we zoomed down to the Flynn Theatre in Burlington to see the Shaolin Warriors . They’re a traveling troup of buddhist martial artists that put on an amazing show of strength, grae and acrobatics. It was beautiful to watch.  ” Everyone was  kung-fu fighting. Those cats were fast as lightning.. “

They did all sorts of wierd danger stunts like breaking iron bars over their head, chopping cabbage on their stomachs, suspending themselves on spears, knives, nails and other sharp stuff and… here below… getting binked in the gut with a battering ram..   What ever turns you on, I guess !

We got home around 10 and immediately got to work on the Friends of Sam Art Auction stuff (remember, Friday, Nov 30 at JDK, 47 Maple St, Burlington see here for details)
As I write, Diane is busily matting and framing stuff. Here are soem examples we have.. and this is a tiny, tiny portion of the stuff we’ll be seeing on Friday.. I think it’s goign to be amazing..

Here’s a photo of Trevor that Gabe took.

Here are some cool works in progress that Matt T worked on. I helped him solder them together today.. They are now very cool picture holders. Theyre beautifull

Here’s a pen and ink from Max’s friend Liam at Pratt..


Here’s one from Max’s friend Chris at Pratt


Here’s a photo from Max’s freind Kate

Here’s one like the two snowboarder whirligigs that Homer helpued us make to sell. You have got to see these run !

Here’s the beutiful picture of Sam-as-Wonderboy that Coco did


Tim S, Pricsilla and Ivy dropped by some stuff including some of Ivy’s pictures in homemade frames and this beutiful table Tim Made (icture does not do it justice.. it’s a real work of art)


Here’s an amazing oil that Max’s freind Ryan did just for the show.


Max’s freind JJ from Pratt did this subtle piece 🙂 I love this one.. it was always on JJ’s wall. I can’t beleive he’d ever part with it.. it means so much to me that he donated it to the Friends of Sam

Max just called and told us that there’s even more Pratt art in the mail to us for the sale.

Stuff keeps coming in. If you have art you sould consider donating.. there’s ‘s still time to get it in.. please drop me a note or call us at 802-434-3576. Also.. we could use everyone’s help in gettign the word out about the event on Frday night. It’s mostly for adults.. there will be hors de vours, hordevours ? hor-desvores ?
(stuff to eat) .. a bar, music and great art. It’s worth coming down jsut to see the inside of JDK.. it’s a work of art in itself. We’d really like to fill the place.. so please consider coming.. and please pass on the invite to anyone who’d like to come.

OK.. All for now.. More tomorrow. Gn’te all, Gnite Sam
-me