Heart of Cary Association “Winterfest” – 7 Dec. 2013
A Confidence
Month: November 2025
Serendipity: Santa Claus 2011-2015
3 Dec 2011, I expected to visit the North Carolina Museum of Art with timed Tickets to a Van Gogh Exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art with the company of dear friends and house guests, visiting from Toronto. Phone rang: Lindsey Chester of “Cary Citizen”.
“Our photographer called out sick, can you come make photographs with Santa Claus?” I stalled, said I would call some folks I knew in Cary Photographic Artists. Did and got zero response. Sweetheart said, “Oh just go do it, we’ll be fine.” So I loaded my truck with what I thought I needed and headed to Downtown Cary. Courtesy of Joy & Dan Pike, found a pop up tent and chair in Chatham Street, in front of what was then Ashworth’s Drugstore.
Putting up a 9’x20′ Vinyl background I used for dancers in studio, wind was an issue. An energetic and diminutive lady in the next booth graciously lent me a roll of gaffer tape!
And until 2015, I made photographs of Santa for the Heart of Cary Association.
It was wonderful!
An American Original
We sang in the car to a cassette player on I-71, between Delaware and North Ridgeville, Ohio on Visitation Weekends. And later, as a trio to astonished first cousins in Michigan:
“Give my feet to the footloose
Careless, fancy free
Give my knees to the needy
Don’t pull that stuff on me
Hand me down my walking cane
It’s a sin to tell a lie
Send my mouth way down south
And kiss my ass goodbye”
It is delicious fun to sing when you are 8 and 10 years old! Forbidden lyrics!
Abigail Adams On The Paris Opera
Watching the Ken Burns film tonight about the American Revolution, put me back in a Paris Vacation Apartment, in Marais, after an evening at the Opera for the 50th Anniversary of Balanchine’s Ballet “Jewels”. I was coincidentally reading David McCulloughs biography of “John Adams”. This is an excerpt from Abigail Adams letter of 20 Feb. 1785:
My Dear Sister,
The first dance which I saw upon the Stage shoked me, the Dress’es and Beauty of the performers was enchanting, but no sooner did the Dance commence, than I felt my delicacy wounded, and I was ashamed to bee seen to look at them. Girls cloathd in the thinest Silk: and Gauze, with their peticoats short Springing two foot from the floor poising themselves in the air, with their feet flying, and as perfectly shewing their Garters and draws, as tho no peticoat had been worn, was a sight altogether new to me. Their motions are as light as air and as quick as lightning. They balance themselves to astonishment. No description can equal the reality.
They are daily trained to it from early infancy, at a Royal academy instituted for this purpose. You will very often see little creatures not more than 7 or 8 years old as undauntedly performing their parts as the eldest amongst them. Shall I speak a Truth and say that repeatedly seeing these Dances has worn of that disgust which I first felt, and that I see them now with pleasure. …. The art of dancing is carried to the highest degree of perfection that it is capable of; at the opera
I have Scarcly room left to say that I am Your affectionate sister
A.A
The Comfort of Late Life – Part Trois
Made a menu today for the rest of this & next week. Then, shopped at Total Wine, BJ’s Warehouse and Lowe’s Foods. My list would be, Doctor Approved!
And there is, I’ve discovered, a freedom, a release from “Worry” with a comfortable, late life. It is simple and elegant. Like an open stage, in theater.
3D Jazz Project at Cary Ballet Conservatory – Rehearsal
Cary Arts Center, February 2016
Something Fishy!
Sunday evenings tend to memory – favorites. This market, in walking distance from our vacation apartment, was a favorite place to shop, with my sweetheart. Way different than Harris-Teeter.
And I promise, walk along Rue De Rivoli with Leeks and a Baguette poking up from a shopping bag, dressed like Americans and a tourist will ask, in English, for directions.
I’d say, stifling a smirk, “Parlez vous francais?” And get an admonishing poke in the rib from my sweetie (who had no French at all, even my pathetic skill). “Yes”, she’d say, in English, “Where do you want to go?”
Marché Bastille, Paris – Sept 2016
We Took An Oath
Reading today’s news- a member of the current administration took issue with the idea of disobeying illegal orders. Some folks never took the oath. Or put their behind on the line. They are often loud. And talk a lot about that which they know, nothing.
“I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Lawful Orders: Uniform Code of Military Justice
USS Andrew Jackson SSB(N) 619 – U.S. Navy Photo
For A Dancer II
None were mine. But same as seeing my Marine son deploy to a dangerous and faraway land, I knew for certain, they all were. I had the good luck and privilege to share Studio and Theater. Family.
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Dancers are famous for buckling down and getting through it. But a new openness about mental health has companies and schools focusing on their well-being, both physical and emotional.
Sunday Night Muse
Tuesday, I’ll deliver photographs (not these) for display at the 2025 Cary Photographic Artists Members Show at The Cary Arts Center. The exhibit is coincident with the Cary Ballet Company Annual performance of “The Nutcracker”.
My last participation was 2019 (the second photograph) . Which her father made certain to take home. With luck, I might get to visit with both this young lady and her parents. All are still in my heart.
Cary Ballet Conservatory “Nutcracker” Studio Rehearsal- December 2015
Cary Ballet Conservatory – Youth America Grand Prix Preview – April 2019
Genuflection
The luxury of unhurried time without schedule is a great gift of late life. Especially when the Muse refuses to allow sleep and demands attention. It’s taken me a very long time to “see” this image. I hope to get the print right.
Cary Ballet Company Rehearsal for “Cinderella” – 31 March 2011
The Comfort of Late Life – Part Deux
WCPE Thursday Night Opera tonight is “The Tender Land” by Aaron Copland. Long after the nights I drove home from teaching Photography at Page Walker in Cary, listening to Operas I had no idea of the language -just went with the music. So, long time Copland fan: Appalachian Spring, Rodeo – yep.
There is, I believe, a communion of the human spirit in Art that some find in Religion. It may be the same. Pretty sure it is.
A Cary Citizen
In 2024, I moved back to Cary from the hinterland of an unincorporated part of Wake County, behind a Golf Course where my sweetheart & me snuggled in our last years together.
From 2011 and after downsizing in 2013 (I was burnt on I/T jobs) and before 2020 parted us by death, I made photographs for the now closed but still available publication “Cary Citizen”.
A legit Press Pass was my Magic Carpet to try and portray humanity. Here’s the evidence: Cary Citizen Archive – Brooke Meyer
It’s In The Oven
Discovered the lowest temp setting on my little apartment gas oven is 170F.
My late sweetheart, long ago, left meals for me, as I was doing what is now called a “Side Hustle” and a note “It’s in the oven”, for when I got home to “our” apartment at 3 AM. It was my home after leaving a failed marriage . She had to be up and out early, on a regular work schedule for her job. We both got it really right in marriage, the second time. Till death we did part, almost 30 years later.
I was lucky then, to have a customer (now called a Client) from my day job who wanted and was willing to pay for out of the box techie stuff. My manual Invoices financially papered over the mess of a failed 21 year marriage. Kept my sons covered with Health & Dental.
So 33 years later, it’s “In The Oven”. What I cooked last night – really good! But I wasn’t hungry then. Am now. And so it goes.
No Regrets
This is: A. Old & B. A Favorite!
I’d handed a camera to a dance teacher at the long gone “Bravo Academy of Dance” in Chapel Hill, cheek by jowl with the “Governors Club”, a gated & exclusive rich people place.
Set up background & lights and made Dance Recital Photographs with a wall of Moms behind me with phone flashes setting off my light triggers. No matter.
The owner let me go full Brooke – Shtick , On Ladder, On Belly – yeah we made Photographs! Not the usual mechanical, repetitive setups of “Volume Photographers”
So, now in my dotage, waiting for a Killer Good dinner to “rest”, I was thinking how lucky I was to get to try. Non, je ne regrette rien. I was, a very lucky duck!
Intimate of The Muse
Recently, I got skunked in a local Juried Photography Competition. This evening, for a completely unrelated reason, was reading an interview with Joni Mitchell. The interviewer wrote “like Miles, Joni never really played to her fans, speaking directly only to her muse. ”
That is, I do believe, the deal. And how I played.
Reverse Swedish Death Cleaning
I’m a big fan of cleaning out the clutter. More to do, even after dramatic downsizing last year. But I’ve since discovered, I missed the je ne sais quoi of my long favorite movies which I gave away.
Which explains recent Goodwillbooks.com purchases. Yeah, old stuff on DVDs, not streaming. This is the latest. Highly recommended.
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Light and Dark
Made this photograph in March of 2011. Was heading back to my truck after making photographs of the Cary Kite Festival at Bond Park. Dogwood Blossoms suspended above a Town of Cary trash can. A metaphor for today’s politics.
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