on armadillos and goody bags
June 26, 2005

THANK YOU

i noticed you the other day.

you were sauntering across the morning street, all gray and rumpled, unaware of cars or danger. i pulled up in front of you, and idled the car. i rolled down my window to signal to other motorists to stop…then actually got out of my car altogether to make sure no one hit you by mistake.

you snuffled along, stopping to check out whatever it was you were checking, then merrily headed to the far curb, jumped up and over onto the waiting green grass, meandered along a stone wall, and disappeared through a hole.

there was something comically sweet about your being there. i was thrilled to have seen you. an armadillo at nine in the morning…

i noticed you, again, today, and my heart fell. this time you were in the street, but you were no longer walking. you were limp and lifeless, and a car had found you in the night. oh, the innocence of what you represent…nature up against the machine. a creature searching for bugs or a mate or just out for an evening’s adventure, who can say.

but i noticed you. and i will keep the comittment of stopping to help your fellow armadillos stay safe…

GOODY BAGS

stop it. do not serve goody bags at parties any more.

have activities! have children/parent games! move! laugh! interact! prizes are ok if you are playing and working towards a goal…
like potato sack races, or a “fishing hole” or an art table (they take what they make…like a sand art bottle or a paper bag with glued on yarn hair and bean eyes…)

goody bags are just more crazy components of the fall of human development. it is the “gimmee gimmee!” era that must end.
use the money you would spend on all that material consumption for something educational—-a family game you can sit down and play together—-or donate that money to your local zoo or safe house. talk with your kids about what they think the money should go towards…maybe paint and butcher’s paper so everyone at the party can make a mural, and the rest can go for books to donate to the local library.

our children need us to say STOP and show them alternatives. don’t buy into the system!!! the system is BROKEN, and it is only about BUY BUY BUY….i’m not even clear on who is gaining from all this buying except, perhaps, the CEOs. but when we make goody bags, we are keeping people in poverty (chinese/taiwanese/indian/thai families, even families here in the U.S., working for companies under slave conditions for horrible money and little opportunity to escape….in many instances, they are, physically,
locked in warehouses, working back breaking hours to make JUNK for the Major 8 countries to buy…WHY DON’T WE JUST STOP!?)

ok, had to get that off my chest!

posted by Sara Hickman at 12:58 pm
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Mamie Mandot
June 25, 2005

My mom sent this announcement out this morning, and for those of you wanting to know more about my dear Meema, here is how my mother shared her reflections.

Love,
Sara

Yesterday was a beautiful day, and the Lord decided it was just the right day for my dear mother to come home.

She was taken to the emergency room at Memorial Medical Center-Livingston early yesterday morning, where they diagnosed pneumonia in her right lung. I walked into ER about 8 AM and placed my hand on her forhead, asking God to surround her with His angels, comfort her with the presence of His Holy Spirit and give her peace. I thanked Him for her long, happy, healthy life and released her into His care. She was not conscious, did not appear to be an any pain, and had a very serene expression on her face. A few hours later her heart started beating slower and slower until it just stopped. I knew that God had already taken her home and she was rejoicing with all her friends and loved ones in Heaven. I could feel her smiling down upon me.

We have decided to go right ahead with the 100th Birthday Party on July 6th at Livingston Convalescent Center, only it will be a Celebration Party. We will celebrate her life with cake and ice cream and photos and stories and song and dance. I know she would like that very much, as she loved people and loved parties and particularly loved to dance.

Mother was the last of nine brothers and sisters, all of whom were born in the tiny town of Chulafinnee, AL, in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. She married my dad, Marc Mandot — a tall southener from Louisiana, with a soft voice, a twinkle in his eye, and a wonderful sense of humor — in 1932. He worked for 47 years for AT&T;Long Lines (the folks who put up all the telephone poles and strung all the long-distance phone lines). They lived first in Atlanta, then in Nashville, TN; then in Cincinnatti, OH, and then went back to Atlanta to retire. Daddy died quite unexpectedly in 1983, with a heart attack in the middle of the night.

I am an only child and have two daughters — Sara, who lives in Austin, TX; and Jennifer, who lives in Colorado Springs, CO. Sara has two daughters — Lily and Iolana; and Jennifer has one son — Milo (who is flying into Houston Intercontinental today to visit for three weeks). All Mother’s Great Grandchildren will be at the Celebration Party!

I want to thank everyone who has prayed for Mother, sent cards to Mother and visited Mother since she has been here in Livingston. As many of you know, we moved her here from Atlanta, GA, in 2000. She was a long-time member of Druid Hills United Methodist Church in Atlanta, where I was christened in 1937.

God Bless each of you.

Anita Mandot Hickman

posted by Sara Hickman at 07:19 am
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My Grandmother
June 24, 2005

My grandmother, Mamie Mandot, has passed on to be with her husband, Marc, and her parents and siblings. She died today of pneumonia in Livingston, Texas.

She was just two weeks shy of 100.

As a young girl, she loved to play basketball and figure math problems out in her head. As an older woman, she enjoyed bridge and making homemade jellies and jams. We used to make tents in her pine tree forest out back of her house in Atlanta. We played badminton with her, and one time when we were there for Christmas, I heard Santa Claus walk on the roof and reindeers bells ringing! She also loved the Atlanta Braves; they were always broadcast during the season, whether radio or tv, it didn’t matter. It was my first introduction to television sports! She had a wonderful, magical collection of tiny porcelain dolls in her hallway, high up on a wooden shelf. I remember how special it was when she would take them down, especially the miniature man in the high-collared frock with the white wig, seated on a porcelain stool at his porcelain piano. I could almost her the strains of Mozart!

They also kept a black-eyed pea shaped wooden bench in the bathroom. Meema and Peepa, as we called them, sat on that bench and gave us baths. They never left us alone, but always helped us wash the grit out from behind our ears and help us sail the red and yellow plastic boats.

I also remember being with Meema in Heflin, visiting Sister and Sam, her remaining two siblings. I remember the fancy dinnerware
for dinner, and the crackers she would put out with butter when she served my grandpa his noodle or tomato soup at the old round kitchen table. As she aged, she would putter around the yard, picking up sticks, making collections by her side door.

My mom told a story that after my grandfather died, my Meema learned how to drive! One day, she was out and realized she need to put gas in the car. Having never put gas in a car, she pulled up at a service station, took the nozzle out of the bin, took the cap off the gas tank, pointed the nozzle at the hole and pulled the trigger, releasing gas all over the concrete and the side of the car. She didn’t realize you had to put the nozzle in the tank!!! I was also told, at some point, that she was on the highway and saw a large cardboard box in her lane. Instead of driving around it, she decided to drive through it. Unbeknownst to her, and fortunately, she wasn’t killed. It had a washer/dryer set inside! She just totalled the car, I think.

She was pissed at my mom when keys had to be taken away and told she was no longer going to be allowed to drive.

We saw my Meema just about a month ago, maybe more. I, too, am starting to get my dates mixed up! But, we played ball with her…she had a purple plastic ball with her name on it, and the girls and I took turns bouncing it with her. She loved to play catch up to the very end.

Lastly, a sweet story with some spunk: on one of the last visits with her doctor, after she broke her hip, she leaned over to the doctor as he finished examining her and she whispered in his ear, “You’re very handsome!” Ever the flirt!

My mom has been so loving and gentle with her. I hope I can be the kind of daughter to my mother that she was to hers.

We will miss you, Meema! Cheers to the next journey!

posted by Sara Hickman at 07:54 pm
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Flyaway Hair
June 23, 2005

posted by Gene Cowan at 07:29 am
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Orange Juice, Southlake, Fathers Day
June 20, 2005

Orange juice with pulp, orange juice with calcium, orange juice concentrated, orange juice un-concentrated but with Vitamin C and NO pulp…or orange juice with bananas and pineapple, or orange juice with carrot juice, or orange juice in little bottles with pulp and calcium and Vitamin C or orange juice in a paper box with a plastic pull tab that has original pulp. You can even get orange juice with EXTRA pulp.

Alright, people, this is ridiculous. Choice is good, but trying to serve the desires of every single U.S. citizen is out of control.
Remember when you used to go to the store to get bread, eggs, milk and juice? You’d walk in and get those items and be on your way. Now, I have to book time with a travel agent just to spend a week on the orange juice aisle figuring out which one will be healthiest for my kids. Sometimes I throw my hands up in the air and walk over to the REAL ORANGES and buy those.
Then we have a big squeezarama and make our own damn juice! And I can tell you: there is no added sugar, calcium, sucrose,
sodium or pulp. It is what it is: sticky and sweet.

I played in Denton at the Campus Theatre on Saturday…good to be back in my old alma mater. The theatre is a deco style
haunt with beautiful curved walls and restored carpeting (excellent replica of old style, by the way.) Sadly, it was a benefit and not a lot of folks showed up, and the sound wasn’t working at first, so I sat on the edge of the stage and sang with just my guitar.
The room was so warm and boomy, I don’t think I needed a mic at all….I just pretended I was on Broadway and used my diaphragm! I’d like to thank the family that drove two hours from Oklahoma to come and see the show…what a sweet family!
Thank you for coming.

As I was leaving Denton, I wandered into Dillards to get a wedding gift for some friends registered there….then decided to spice up Lance’s wardrobe…so had fun picking out some Father’s Day gifts for him…..

Then I drove over to Southlake, near Bedford, TX, and played an outdoor show….maybe about 450 people, seated in lawn chairs
in front of a new style square with little shops and a fountain…It was funtastic! Kids running and jumping around everywhere,
Dancing Paul came up and held the cards on “iolana”, the sun going down, so not too hot (if you live in Texas, you know about your brain frying around noon…) Afterwards, got to say hi to so many good folks….and went to have dinner around 9 pm with Andy and Sara….so, a good weekend, all in all.

Drove home Sunday morning after spending a solid hour and a half working on my creativity workshop for the Crossings….
Got to Georgetown to spend time with Lance, the girls and Lance’s sister (Cindy) and parents….we celebrated at the rehab center where Lance’s dad is recuperating from all his surgeries. Lots of “Go Fish” card games, and we walked Megan, Cindy’s dog, up and down the hallways….well, actually, the girls ran Megan up and down the hallways! We had homemade peach pie, courtesy of Lance’s mom, and watermelon and opened gifts and read some silly poems out loud. It was a nice afternoon.

We drove home, and Lily started a secret club…so we all signed up and got new club names (mine was “Verde”, since I like green). Part of the club was to make DESSERTS, so we ended up making a bowl of melted chocolate and Lily put beautiful, colored toothpicks around the bowl with pieces of cut fruit and we had a fondue party. After that, we were stacking dominoes in snake-like patterns and ringing a bell to signify, “PUSH THE FIRST DOMINO!” and watched/listened to them clickety-clack
down the row. Last, we challenged ourselves before bath time by building a marble run. The cry of the evening was, “We need more support! Hurry!” because those things are an engineers dream! You have to add blocks at certain places or the whole thing collapses, and then marbles are running everywhere except where they were suppposed to run.

Happy Father’s Day, all!

posted by Sara Hickman at 06:06 am
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Recording
June 09, 2005

Monday…

Driving in from Kerrville, my husband and kids drop me off at the studio at 10 am….they roll on with my drummer in the back seat….he’s got to go get his drums in my van after dropping my family off at home.

Marty is waiting, we head inside and start on a new project. I have been working with Marty for fifteen years now. Who would have thought all those years ago when I met that curly headed, dour looking boy at Power Trax in L.A. during the making of “Shortstop” that we would have such a history? He used to stand in the corner, hunched over, looking pissed off, and absorb all the engineering skills that Kevin Smith was in charge of…and I kept trying to engage him in conversation until one day I told him I could draw him a tattoo on his arm.
He looked leery. But, I got out some magic markers and drew a toaster on his right arm and some flying toast on his left arm, and that was it. We were buddies from then on. But that will be an entirely different entry some day….

So, back to the present. Everybody is behind today. The first day is always the most frustrating, for me, because I”m excited and ready to GO! But we have to set up sounds…mics here and tones there and levels and headphone mixes and on and on until time just seems to be peanut butter. S-l-l-l-o-o-o-w…..After hours of plugging in mics, cables and adjusting (it’s all Pro-Tools now, so there is a desk and computer….no two inch tape, no giant Neve consule, etc), we get to start plugging away at the songs. Which, I am not going to tell you about because I am going to be mysterious about this record (cd, as the kids call it…”Record? Mom, you mean a CD!”)

We kick out six basics (the foundation of a song, before you lay overdubs/extras)…

Tuesday

We have created an additional seven more songs. Here’s the players so far: Mitch Watkins on electrics, Eddy Hobizal on piano/B3/wurlitzer,Steve Zirkel on bass, Brad Evilsizer on drums/perc, Mark Rubin comes by for two songs that need upright bass…

Today’s funny story: I give Eddy a handful of cash to pay for the Chinese food coming for lunch. He gives it all to the delivery boy, who zips out the door. As we sit down to eat, I ask Eddy for the receipt and change. He hands me both. There is three dollars in my hand. I look at Eddy and ask, “Um, is this all the change you got back?” And he says, “That’s what the guy gave me….” And I say, “I gave you $80…” Eddy’s eyes are wide.
The delivery boy made a $30 tip.

Wednesday

I lay down some simple acoustics that need to be rendered…and started on some vocals…I have recorded the saddest song…and many, many upbeat happy danceable songs. At one point, we were laying down a new song of mine, and I was, literally, jumping up and down with utter joy, singing at the top of my lungs in my little triangular booth, holding onto my headphones so they wouldn’t fly off. As the song came to it’s conclusion, I thought I was going to burst into tears, I was beyond happy. It was a glorious feeling! The song is a big rock ballad I wrote on the piano…a sort of Coldplay meets U2 from the female perspective….when I was writing it, I got stuck on the bridge, and Eddy came over and we flushed it out and so, now, we have a song together!

Then, Courtney (Audain) showed up and we downloaded a song we have just finished at his studio for my Fall 2006 record (we are working on this record on the side, songs at a time, whenever we have time) and we listened to that one and WHOA, it just makes you bop around the room…that is all I can tell you about that song, too.

2006. Mucho music from me to you. I promise: this is the year. We are going places, my friends. I will be coming to see you and we will be making MUSIC!!!!

posted by Sara Hickman at 05:20 am
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In the Studio!!!
June 07, 2005

I started recording yesterday in the studio!

I’ll write more at some point. When…uh…I can not say. I must go have pansnakes at the moment.

posted by Sara Hickman at 07:38 am
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Green is the New Black
June 02, 2005

Yesterday I emceed the Big Wig Luncheon for the Austin Ad Federation, a collective of advertising folks. I had a blast! I wore my June Bug Silk Green top and announced to everyone in the room,

“Green is the new black. So, just remember that when you are working on your new campaigns!”

And guess what? A friend of mine wrote this morning and said that in the Lifestyles section of the Statesman today, they announced that KIWI GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK! ha ha ha!

So, maybe if I pronouce PEACE IS THE NEW BLACK, do you think that will be in the paper tomorrow?!

Getting geared up to play at Kerrville this weekend…we (the Super Pal Universe band and myself) will be playing all new songs. Yesh! You heard that right!

Monday I start in the studio on the new cd…I am excited and nervous! Oh, what joy, to be in the studio! I love it so much! More on that later….

Off to swim lessons with the girls, then my Purpose Driven Life study group, then off to sing on a song I am recording with my friend, Courtney Audain. The girls will be with me, and it is a delight to sing while they dance along….so, if you hear an extra sparkle on “Enough is Never Enough” someday, just know it is because there were two little pixies bouncing around while I laid down my voice!

posted by Sara Hickman at 08:24 am
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