Robert Massimi In Nimbus Magazine.

nonetheless. Some of our traditional categories are gone, such as those relating to our various associated theater groups. Part of the reason for this has been Covid. Nothing is currently in production, and there is not a lot going on otherwise for us to do follow-ups on happenings. But the other reason for the changes in this issue is that we had an influx of other related material we wanted to get out to you, that don’t fit neatly into said categories. We felt it was more important to share the information with you than stubbornly cling to a framework that can’t support it due to a situation in the world that is out of our control. We’ll be reporting on the latest actions by all the SWMG subgroups as we move along through the year. So don’t worry, those categories will be returning. Meanwhile, enjoy the buffet we have for you, as there is some worthwhile tidbits in this issue worth looking into. There’s Robert Massimi’s take on theater during Covid. It mostly applies to New York where he lives, but I’m sure any theater person, and their audience, can relate. There’s Brian Trenchard Smith’s look back on his work with animals on camera, that may make for an interesting peek into a world of cinema and non-human actors. There’s Borden Davis’ look at one of the Psalms, and what sort of interpretation he gets from it. Virginia Rose is back with a report on a musician activist and her cotillion. And finally Meenakshi Ganesan talks about teaching an eastern form of dance in a western world during an epidemic. Throw in a few surprises, and we hope it’s worth your while to wade through a few changes. EYE ON FILM ADVENTURES IN THE B MOVIE TRADE by Brian Trenchard Smith Dogs snout me. Snakes hug me. Cats leap onto my shoulders. Animals like me, and the feeling is mutual. So I have always been attracted to animal projects. Computer generated animals get more photo-real every year. But there was a time when the actual animal and the lens were all you had to work with. In the pre-CGI era, I was lucky enough to stage sequences involving an African lion, an American puma, cats, dogs, elephants, boa constrictors, chimps, spiders, scorpions, cockroaches, a dolphin, a mud crab, a pigeon, and a frog. Working with All Creatures Great and Small requires planning, flexibility, and infinite patience. I hold in the highest regard the trainers who helped me deliver the shots. Safety of the animal and the crew is the governing issue when working with exotics. They are wild animals after all, and things can go wrong. I learned a lot from Hubert Wells and Boone Narr, two of the premier animal trainers of their day. Hubert started training animals in Hungary during the 1950s and soon moved to Hollywood, where he amassed thirty-one movie credits before his retirement in 2006. Perhaps his most skilled work with lions can be seen in The Ghost and the Darkness (1996), and with tigers in JeanJacques Annaud’s Two Brothers (2004). Boone Narr started as the orangutan wrangler in Clint Eastwood’s Any Which Way You Can (1980) and did animal training on seventy-five productions. They helped me break each sequence down into individual shots they could train the animals to do, when I directed twelve of the twenty-five episodes of the first season of “The New Adventures of Tarzan”. 3 For four months I had enor- mous fun. Sometimes there was more human comedy going on behind the camera than in front of it. If the Coen brothers were to make a Day for Night-style movie about shooting an animal picture, this might make a good scene: in the screenplay. (EXTERIOR. CHIAPAS JUNGLE, MEXICO — DAY An episodic film crew makes the final preparations for a complicated shot. Dolly track has been laid to converge on a tree with sprawling roots. The Director looks at his watch. The Guest Star Who Has Seen It All stands nearby with bemused interest. The Director looks at his watch again, as if willing the minute hand to stop, and if possible, go backwards. Fluff and Buff, the hair and make-up artists, dab sweat from the brow of The Actor, standing at the base of the tree. Given that the temperature is over 100 degrees, this is a noble but futile effort. DIRECTOR Don’t worry about the sweat, he’s meant to look scared. ACTOR I am scared. DIRECTOR Don’t worry. This is totally safe. Nothing is going to go wrong. The source of the Actor’s anxiety arrives on the set, his partner in the scene, a male with dangling testicles each the size of grapefruit. Sudan, a large African movie lion, is led out of the bushes on a chain by two Trainers. Two other Trainers follow, carrying short poles. As the Trainers tether the lion to a spike embedded beside the far end of the dolly track, Sudan yawns, and licks his lips to cool them. ACTOR Has he been fed today? TRAINER If we feed him, he won’t work. The Actor’s jaw tightens further. GUEST STAR I’ve brought an apple for him. Humor is no comfort. Everything is in place for the take. The Trainers have been positioned out of shot to protect both the Actor and camera crew, should the lion stray from his designated path. The collar round Sudan’s neck is concealed beneath his shaggy mane, and the trailing leash masked from camera by his body. The Actor has practiced limping backwards while swinging a burning firebrand to deter the advancing beast. The Director wants the audience to see the lion and the Actor in the same shot; but not a static shot, which could be achieved by the elements being photographed separately with a locked-off camera, then fused in the lab, with the vertical join disguised by a tree in the close background. This would spare the Actor any proximity to the King of Beasts. No. The Director wants a Movie Shot, not a get-it-done-move-on episodic approach, but a sense that the camera is almost mounted on the flank of the lion as it slowly closes in on its prey. The time for this glorious cinematic moment has arrived. 4 DIRECTOR So, on action: slowly hobble back, wave the firebrand, shout at it to back off…feel free to improv… ACTOR Back off, you fucker? DIRECTOR Something like that, but without the fucker… Here we go, roll camera. The Prop master lights the firebrand again. The 1st AD calls for camera turnover in Spanish. DIRECTOR Action! TRAINER Sudan! Go! Slow, Sudan! Slow! Good Sudan! Good! The Director hovers beside the camera, which keeps pace with the ambling lion. Sudan is fascinated by the firebrand, and reacts to its movements. The Actor is In The Moment! Everything is working perfectly. But it is at moments like these that Murphy’s Law will arrive uninvited. Remember O’Toole’s corollary: Murphy was an optimist. At this point the Transportation Captain arrives on set to watch the shot. The 1st Assistant Director sees him, and a long simmering feud chooses this moment to erupt. 1ST AD (curtly) No ha puesto los camiones en donde le dije! Apparently, he hadn’t put the trucks where the AD told him. TRANSPORTATION CAPTAIN Cree que es el jefe? Yo soy el capitan de transporte! Los camiones parquean endonde digo yo! It’s a territorial dispute. You believe you’re the boss? I’m the Captain of Transportation! The trucks are parked where I say they are! DIRECTOR Guys! Sshh! They neither see or hear him. They are in a world of rising steam. 1st AD Stupido! Whoa! Bad word in Mexico. Serious escalation. The tension-meter on the set spikes. Hungry lion, anxious actor handling fire, two departments inching towards civil war, complex dolly shot, etc. It’s understandable. But the net effect of the expanding angst is to push the Actor into the truth zone. It’s a great performance, swinging from fear to rage and back again. Meanwhile, the other drama continues. TRANSPORTATION CAPTAIN Chinga su madre! The AD is instructed to fuck his mother. 1ST AD Chinga tu madre! The AD returns the instruction less politely. Oh, boy! Now they’re at DEFCON 4, soiling each other’s mothers. The conflict moves to the next stage…The Slap. 5 The Transportation Captain slaps the 1st AD’s face, not to inflict physical pain, more of a formal gesture, a challenge. Some men go red with anger. The 1st AD’s complexion goes pasty white. His eyes blaze. Detonation is imminent. Luckily members of both departments seize the potential combatants and hustle them to separate corners of the jungle. The Lion sits down at the end of his leash, awaiting reward of fresh meat. The Actor has started to enjoy himself. Lions? Hah, they’re pussies. Whimsical screenplay scenes periodically crawl out of my Id, as you will read in Adventures in the B Movie Trade, but this actually happened. The Actor was Canada’s Chuck Shamata, whom I have cast in two movies since. The Guest Star was former Tarzan Ron Ely, cast as a nod to the fans of his 1966–68 series. But violent movement and angry voices a few yards away might have spooked the lion, made him feel threatened, aggressive. But luckily that did not happen. I was often a paw swipe away from Hubert’s principal lion Sudan. Never had a problem. Or was I lucky? Hubert told me about his close call with Sudan’s brother. The lions had been captured together as cubs when Hubert acquired them. Training went well as they grew into adulthood. Then one day Sudan’s brother nuzzled Hubert’s leg in a gesture of feline submission, then suddenly bit him in the thigh, a playful nip to the lion, but a painful puncture wound to Hubert, who nonetheless made a full recovery. He gave the lion to a wildlife park. Despite this unfortunate incident, Hubert and Sudan had a very trusting relationship. In one scene I directed, he doubled an actor who was meant to be killed by the lion. As the cameras rolled, Hubert, in the actor’s costume and hat, showed Sudan a chunk of raw meat concealed in his hand, held it beside his throat. He ordered Sudan to charge by loudly calling his name. On cue, Sudan loped forward, gathering speed. He knocked Hubert over, then nibbled at the meat which Hubert held beside his throat. Through the lens, with Hubert’s legs kicking violently, it really looked like he was getting his throat ripped out, a little unusual for a family TV show. If they write it, I will shoot it. 6 Food plus positive reinforcement is what movie animals work for — a reward after each take. We could only work Sudan every other day. We needed him to be hungry and motivated after a day on short rations. Not too many takes, either. Once he was sated, he just wanted to lie in the shade. So we had to get the difficult shots first. Boone Narr said the most important part of his job is casting. Just like a director. “Finding the right animal, with the right look and aptitude can take time. Then it’s largely a matter of training the animal to react to visual or aural cues, and to move from A to B. It is prudent to choose locations and set decoration that take into account the behavior range of the animal in question. You always need a back-up for your lead animal. Animals may look alike but they have different skill levels and different personalities. Sometimes every performer has a bad hair day, and is uncooperative. Bring on the double.’ We brought two chimps to Palenque. Archie was a very smart simian who would peel his bananas slowly and savor every morsel, whereas Kiko, his backup, would just stuff it, skin and all, into his mouth. Kiko was capable of much less than Archie. The trainers on Tarzan indulged my need to be close to the animals. Normally they prefer the animal’s relationships to be solely with themselves as the alphas, and with the cast with whom they interact. Too many humans in their lives can confuse the animals and make the trainers’ task harder. I particularly enjoyed working with the elephant. You steer with the ears. Want to go left, tug on the left ear. I sensed that I was riding a sentient being that enjoyed interacting with humans. But a decade later, I met Jane Goodall at a fundraiser for a wildlife charity. I admired her courage and her lifelong dedication to her work and still do. Foolishly I told her how much I enjoyed working with chimps in movies. She looked at me askance, and gave me something of a lecture on how the use of animals for entertainment is physical and emotional cruelty under any circumstance. She said that when I require an animal to be trained to perform tricks for the camera I am just as guilty of cruelty as someone running a circus or a zoo. I am not often tongue lashed by iconic figures. So I thought about the range of animal rights issues Ms. Goodall raised. It’s a complex question. I don’t know the answer. But it would be a sad day for Cinema if animal performers were banned from movie sets altogether, and only digital creatures remained on our screens. There are many more movie making stories to be found in my book ADVENTURES IN THE B MOVIE TRADE. Here’s the website and trailer: https://briantrenchard-smith.com/ You’ll certainly have a few laughs 7 EYE ON PERFORMING ARTS SUMMER CAMP? COVID STRIKES AGAIN! Even though the vaccine program has stepped up in recent months and the amount of infections is going down, and with at least some school systems opening up to at least partial in house classes, it is still considered too risky at this date to do a planned theater summer camp in August with young people putting on their own programs, much as we would like to. We have noticed the extra caution being taken by the local summer festival organizers, as nearly all of them have been once again cancelled to error on the side of caution. New variants of the virus keep popping up with uncertain consequences. And many school boards may be holding in-house classes over the entire summer, making scheduling very difficult for people like us. But we are not entirely giving up. What we are planning to do instead is an extension of the Activity Lists usually printed in Nimbus issues, and developing a series of related workshops around that. Watch for future news in Nimbus, as well as the Solar Wind website, newsletter, and on any of our Facebook pages for updates and details as to what is happening and when. INTERNATIONAL FILM SERIES AHT, ICT, LAPA, NATA, & EAAA Partly as compensation for the cancellation of the summer camp, but also to further develop the SWFilmSeries already in the making, and to grab attention and create community around the SWMGroup Theater companies, the SWFilmSeries is adding a new branch to its schedule (already mentioned in our past issue) around each of the SW theater ensembles, by focusing on exhibiting films particular to each of them. ICT (as mentioned) will be first out of the gate, followed by films for each of the other groups (AHT, LAPA, NATA, and a new group being added to the list). While the film series currently plays at a centralized location (The House on 87th Street) we will try to bring these films to locations within their respective communities for ease of approach for people, when possible. A complete schedule as well as location of events will be listed and updated, in Nimbus, as well as website and Facebook, and notification in our newsletter. 8 COVID THEATER By Robert Massimi In this Covid 19 age, people who are starved for entertainment are turning to Netflix, Prime and virtual theater. Unfortunately the latter is not very good for a variety of reasons. The first that comes to mind is that you have all the actors in different locations on different web cams. This is very distractive to an audience member especially if the cast is large. At a theater, an audience member can have their eyes roaming about in one area, the stage setting. Live theater also gives the audience direction as to how the play or musical will unfold. In virtual theater you have little or no direction so the acting is all over the place in terms of the actor acts as he or she pleases. I have seen several virtual plays, I critique them at the behest of the many press agents who want some kind of publicity for the shows that they are representing. Since viewership is low because they charge for the performances online, many press agents are desperate to get the shows they represent some recognition of note. While bigger shows that are currently on Broadway can garner bigger stars, the smaller shows are getting a lot of no name actors who struggle to perform their roles with any kind of deftness or believability. The virtual theater just isn’t crisp nor entertaining, however. Even the bigger shows struggle to be even somewhat effective. In Moliere’s “Tartuffe”, a classic by its nature, the cast was very slipshod in their performances and very few looked the part. “Tartuffe” is about a well to do family; how one can be duped out of one’s wealth as the father is the principal matter of the plot line. On stage the costumes were elaborate, in virtual theater we see these actors in plain street cloths. If virtual theater wasn’t bad enough, many actors are reading from the scripts, only looking up on occasion to meet the cam head on. More like a political speech, the acting is just not effective in any way, shape, nor form. Rather than sticking to the story as most audiences would remember, they delve form the stories core plot hoping to get a different effect and this adds to the confusion of watching a play on a computer. Each year The Theater for the New City puts on “Merry Christmas, Oy! Hanukah, Happy Ramadan, Merry Kwanza” As a Agitprop theater that puts on many radical plays such as Bread and Puppet, this show went on farce as the theme of this production. Why this play failed was it used puppetry and puppetry needs to be seen live. Lacking a good camera person, many of the puppets and actors were hard to see. It felt more like watching a play from the bleacher seats. Beyond the script being awful, the direction in this play (it was performed on stage with actors present but no audience) was not consistent nor did it have any flow to it. Rather then ebbing and flowing this performance had starts with hard stops and as such had very little entertainment value. A show I did attend back in November live was “Temping”. The show was about what it was like to be an office temp for a day. Performed on the Lower East Side, the show has toured many College’s and Universities over the years. Funny and well thought out, “Temping” was great fun in its immersive genre. Even with all the protocols to see this show, it was great to be in a live theater where things move before you rather than on the computer. EYE ON THEATER 9 ADJUST THE PROCEDURE By Robert Massimi Many of the current virtual plays being produced are thrown together and seem willy nilly, however, “ Adjust the Procedure” was written for and directed for virtual theater. In its efforts, Jake Shore makes better work of it than the virtual as usual style I have seen so far. Set on a university campus somewhere in lower Manhattan, New York (the play mentions Chamber Street); there are four characters, all of whom are affiliated with the university. These four characters have different personalities which adds to the many different positions that they take. The play is set in Zoom meetings with sometimes two characters, other times three actors and for a brief period, with all four being on the call. The crux of the play shows us the inner workings of a university; how universities are a very big busi- ness. With the Covid pandemic, we see four different points of view as how to deal with the many problems this pandemic has caused. In Kyle (Adam Files) we see a professor who is hoping to get tenured. As a former adjunct professor, Kyle is bitter about the academia and the way some teachers are treated. Kyle has a deep understanding of the sys- tem, yet he is always bucking with that very system that em- ploys him. After losing a student to an apparent suicide, and even more students to deportation, Kyle is perturbed at both his school and the people that run it. It seems that the Health and Wellness Center at the school has been outsourced and this has caused many problems with the student body, yet it saves the university money by doing it. Jake Shore who wrote and directed this play brings forth many of the problems people feel during this crisis; some people blame the politicians; others blame the boredom of everyday life under the pandemic. Shore banters about these issues through the eyes of not only the four characters but by their different points of view. For the most part the characters are not known for being liberal nor conservative but by being pro university or not being so. While we get the impression that the Dean, Frank (Ed Altman) is more conservative than Kyle, the politics are never front and center in this play. In the era of virtual theater, “Adjust the Procedure” is a decent play. Not without its flaws, (the story can be slow at times and the actors being remote are limited in their movements), Jake Shore does a better job writing the play than directing it. While Frank is more animated, he still struggles to be believable; Nicholas Miles Newton’s, (Ben) less is more character works better here. While it is difficult to project a true acting style on virtual theater, Megan Moses delivers a direct yet mysterious tone too her role. While “Adjust the Procedure” has some flaws, it is the best virtual piece I have seen so far. Robert Massimi is the Chief Drama Critic for Metropolitan Magazine and My Life Publications. Massimi has produced 14 shows both on and off Broadway and is a member of The Dramatists Guild and The Drama League. 10 The Cell gives us Tolerance Party #4, “The Signal Through The Noise”. By Robert Massimi Joseph Hendel gives the viewer a very interesting play; two main characters with different lifestyles as well as different views of the world. The entire play takes place in a breakout room where we encounter a total of three characters, two of whom are the main focal point of a well written play; for the most part. Hendel presents the bohemian actor, Heather Mo Witz as a woman who is educated in a Charter school and has certain ideas about the world. Although a somewhat radical bohemian, she is not immersed in overly radical ideas; she simply makes her points and listens for a reaction. She hears more from the noise than her counter part India Menete(~ over the N). India is a suburban housewife who sees the world in a different place; this place involves her children, parades and a sense of history that omits the imperfections. Where India hears a parade, Heather sees slavery, injustice and a global New World Order that is out of her grasp. What Handel does in his plays thoughts is brilliant; the air conditioner emits songs, chants, people talking, and we the viewer must decipher what the noises and sounds represent. Hendel is showing us that we hear what we want too hear and our opinion is the only one that counts. The two woman are polar opposites, from the white outfit of India signifying purity, the purple shirt of Heather showing solidarity of the forgotten. While Heather’s character is more subdued, she seems to be more in the know as to what is going on today; Hendel makes this evident in that India is seen quoting a Revolutionary War hero, Nathan Hale. As far a virtual theater goes, “Signal’ is one of the best plays I have seen so far. It is for the most part deep, thought provoking and keeps you guessing as to where Hendel is taking us. In the last scene it is very well pointed out of the disconnect with society. Is anybody listening? He shows us the different worlds of two people deftly. If Hendel went a little deeper in the dialogue, he may well have hit it out of the park. When Heather mentions world leaders, Hendel may have talked about the Socialist “New World Order’. In speaking of minority oppression, he could have mentioned how our first black president never furthered along minorities. Hendel had endless options and only scratched the surface on the subjects that he touched upon. With deeper rhetoric we would see more of the characters opinions and why they believe in their philosophies. 11 INDIAN CULTURAL THEATER (ICT) Got something you want to place that’s cultural Indian? Contact us at: solarwindmedia@gmail.com 12 5 QUESTIONS WITH MEENAKSHI GANESAN Meenakshi Ganesan is a performer and teacher of various forms of classical Indian dance in Madison, Wisconsin. 1. Have you been able to continue business during the pandemic (especially since dance is your subject) and what sort of adjustments have you had to make? Yes, I have been able to continue to teach during this pandemic. Although, not my most preferred and traditional way, Zoom has been the mode. Adjustments have been added in various ways Classes are virtual so there is a big TV set up in the studio with my laptop to see all the dancers clearly. I have separated the groups to smaller bits and added more practice sessions to help the dancers learn more efficiently as physically correcting them is not possible . Recitals have become longer and more solo dances within the school rather than large group productions 2. How much of a demand has there been for Indian dance (within your home area), and have you seen it increase or decrease over time? It has been a real mixed response. When the pandemic hit us, people backed out (a few of them) thinking this would be temporary and that they would soon return back to in person lessons. I saw a reduction in students due to this from March — May. Contrary to this, I started looking for options to come up with opportunities to keep my students who were continuing to be motivated, I started curating a dance page on FB for live shows by performers with a dance friend from NJ and a creator of the page from India. This took off really well and my students and I have together performed for more than 40+ online live as well as pre-recorded shows. The dance students who had quit earlier due to not being able to make it to in person class due to travel time involved and other conflicts have started taking lessons back as they can learn from their home now! Students from around the United States have signed up as it is virtual and geographical location does not bind them anymore. Although, I personally do miss seeing the dancers in class and the energy in person lessons bring about. 3. Are young people more or less eager to take on and study classical art forms, or is modern pop culture a real barrier? The more awareness is created, the more people take up classical arts. I do think young people find classical arts interesting and appreciate it if they are exposed to it at the right age and if the teacher is able to kindle the interest in them. Modern and pop culture do appeal to them but youngsters are also aware of the depth and beauty of classical arts. 4. How open have non-Indian people in the state been receptive, either to performance or instruction to classical Indian dance? I have seen a lot of interest in the non-Indian students that I have trained so far and continue to. In fact, my first dance tour to India was with my non-Indian students who not only studied and practiced, but also attended all the workshops I have arranged, presented their graduation maiden recitals and have taken keen interest. 5. How much have you had to travel out of the city area, or even out of the country, to engage audiences or students, in your work — for either performance or instruction — in order to maintain a regular activity in what you do? I have had to do a reasonable amount of travel. During the year, we normally have productions / performances within Wisconsin (Fox Valley area, UW Appleton, Oshkosh), Chicago, Minneapolis etc… Closer to Dec / Jan I have made a few trips to India to perform in the biggest music and dance festival. Each of these trips have been great learning experiences for the audiences as well as myself and the dancers, as we have met audiences who are familiar with the art form to those who have seen this for the first time! Meenakshi Ganesan (608) 345–5589 meena@kalaanjali.com Meenakshi Ganesan, Founder & Artistic Director of Kalaanjali Dance Company in Madison, WI since 2003, started her training under Gurus Prema Nagasundaram & Padmini Radhakrishnan from Mumbai, India at the tender age of 6. She has more than thousand performances to her credit in various countries like the UK, India and the US was conferred the prestigious title of Nritya Mayuri (“Dancing Peacock”) by the Ministry of Education. She has performed at prestigious events and venues such as the United States Mayors Conference, Wisconsin Public Radio, United Nations World Health Organization, Pre-Parliament of World Religions, Cleveland Aradhana , the World Music Festival and has obtained the highly acclaimed Vishaarad Degree in Bharatanatyam. She has had the privilege of working with Stalwarts in the field of Music and Dance and currently trains numerous students and has successfully conducted 29 Arangetrams / graduation recitals under Kalaanjali. Meenakshi has been the recipient of the Folk Apprenticeship Grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board since 2015. Currently with the pandemic and artists taking their talent to the virtual platform, Meenakshi & her students have presented more than 40 Live performances online. Since June of 2020, Meenakshi has also been the curator of NatyAkademi, a well known Facebook page for classical dance live shows that has staged hundreds of live performances and festivals. 13 SPIRIT ARTS SPIRIT ARTS FESTIVAL (SAF) Got something for Spirit Arts? Contact us at solarwindmedia@gmail.com 14 JUST A LITTLE PEACE AND QUIET Some Thoughts on the 23rd Psalm I always hesitate to write something on religion, leery that I will imply that I am more spiritual than others, which I am not. However, we all have thoughts. GOD did not inspire one bible for the intelligent, one for the poor, one for the fifteenth century, or one for today’s society. I believe HE was involved with the Holy Bible, so HIS spirit could touch a seeking soul. This is how the 23rd psalm touches me. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. As a shepherd HE has a responsibility. I will receive what is truly needed. What I desire and do not have, probably is not right for me, or is not in my best interest at this time. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Abundance and times for peaceful restoration are always there for me, but in moments of stubbornness, or because I am unwise, GOD makes me stop — -rest — -and lay down. He leadeth beside the still waters. Most sheep will not approach turbulent waters. GOD understands me, knows my needs. HE wants me to slow down, and commune with HIM. He restoreth my soul. GOD is the guarantor of righteous hope. When I wound my soul with no hope, HE revives my will to live. HE guideth me in the paths of righteousness for HIS name’s sake. If I say, I love GOD; my evil actions can blemish HIS credibility. To protect HIS hallowed name, HE leads me to righteousness. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for THOU art with me. This part of eternity, life on this earth, is the valley of the shadow of death. I must walk through it. I will have failures and pain, but I will not be afraid. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. A rod can discipline or protect. The staff can guide and prod. Faith in GOD’S perfect use of both adds comfort to my life. THOU prepareth a table before me in the presence of my enemies. While the dangers of life are present, GOD is still providing. My confidence in GOD is such, that if HE provides sustenance in the presence of my enemies, I will sit down. Thou hast anointed my head will oil. I am an unworthy visitor; my actions prove that. Yet I am anointed like a distinguished guest. My cup runneth over. I not only have enough for myself, but enough to share. Gratefulness is all I need to show. Surely, goodness, and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life. Because I endure and persist in my struggle to stay close to GOD; when I err, GOD follows it all with loving kindness. And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. GOD does not allow a faith, a love that takes us through life with HIM, to become meaningless. We will be with GOD forever. Borden Davis is a teacher and mentor in Thousand Oaks , California. Featured Artist: Charlotte Fung Miller Chinese Brush Painting ART FOR ART’S ACHE Magazine Cover Image: 2 Cranes Dancing 15 16 Two Horses 4 Seasons Green Grey French Cut Cat & Butterfly 9 Koi of Springtime Bird, Moon and Blossoms 17 Autumn Waterfall 5x7 18 Birches 19 Green Wall With Terra Cotta Soldiers 20 Green Fu Dog 8x10 21 Panda Family Climbing Trees 22 Peacock Trader Joe’s 6x8 23 Images from Homeland Pictures for the declining season by Ron Schaefer Photos from Ron Schaefer’s upcoming Photo Album: HOMELAND Notices will be placed in Nimbus, on SolarWindMedia.com, the SW Newsletter, and SWMG Facebook pages, as to the book’s availability, pricing, and ordering. contact us by going to: solarwindmedia@gmail.com 24 25 26 27 EAST ERN ARTS ASSEMBLY NEW GROUP IN DEVELOPMENT SWMG is planning on creating another performance group to add to its siblings. This one will be dedicated to the arts of the Far East in performance and whatever accompanying art forms may go along with it. As with its sister groups (AHT, ICT, LAPA, NATA), the EAA will be starting up with the International Film Series, as a scheduled listing of film programs to be enacted over the summer and into the fall. This is partly responsible because of the Covid situation, but we are finding this to be the best way to develop interest both in audience and participants. We will also try to bring the series to the communities as much as possible, as per the statement regarding the International Film Series. No dates, times, locations have been set as of yet. All updates will be placed online at SolarWindMedia.com; in the SW Newsletter; future issues of Nimbus; and a new Facebook page will be issued for the EAA, and ways you can join and assist the community. Everyone is welcome, and you don’t have to have a deep knowledge of Asian art, literature, and theater to be a part of it. Most early notices will be accompanying the Int’l Film Series

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