Catching up with friends/art in Tallahassee

Late today I checked in with our friend Meredith. In "Remembering Julian," I wrote about her son's death in Iraq a year ago. She reported on Julian's little brother and Vincent friend Jesse (having a tough time at school the past year, but now with his long cut off to a month playing saxophone at Tanglewood the western Massachusetts cultural complex where the Boston orchestra summers), on her daughter-in-law Melissa (about to leave North Carolina with a new beau for Illinois), and on herself (living in the Blairstone/Hilaman golf course area where I housesat for Pete and Ysonde with her beau/business partner Robert, working for the past year as the FSU art department's student advisor, doing some art, and having met Julian's unit - with Melissa - when they came back from Iraq last fall). Meredith also told me about how Bayard Rustin has re-shot his "Voices of Patriotism" documentary - originally mainly about an anti-war event with luminaries at Lake Ella organized partly by artists Meredith and our church acquaintance Su - to include scenes from Julian's memorial events a year ago, and about an event with origami cranes at Tallahassee art junction Railroad Square - where Meredith and John have a studio - memorializing all 4,200 "Coalition" soldiers killed in Iraq.

For a news report on the origami event, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6jpTkJCOAM

I also caught up with our friend Mark, whose mother (pictured with Mark visiting Mark's exhbition -which I haven't caught yet - before the water incident) fell in the water and hit her head at the very end of a St. Marks boating outing with them Sunday - but fortunately is apparently OK and arriving back in Ohio as we speak. Mark and Sarah head for South Carolina this week then on to an Ohio wedding. Perhaps we'll see them in Kentucky in a few weeks or Stephanie will see them down here if she's able to get here.

And our friend Maria, whose son Vaughn's Leon High School graduation "Congratulations, Graduates!" also shared some graduation pictures. (Sarah is the one who originally alerted us about Vaughn's graduation.) (Also pictured is the Bradenton Bayshore High School graduation last week that involved our friend Marilyn's son Devon.)