In November the Flying Carpet 

sends you a peculiar concoction of Holiday Cheer

The warmth of hospitality

 The wonders of shop windows

that sing jingles of Buy Buy Buy

Decking the halls

Family greetings like that of our Denver Family last year:

Eye Wish you a Merry Christmas

and PC Messages 

like Happy Chanukah, Kwanza, Eid, Solstice, 

Etc., Etc., Etc.

to all you Freakquent Carpet Flyers
who understand that
Whackiness is close to Godliness

Hoping yours is Merry and Bright

In October the Flying Carpet

cruised the updrafts over the Great Salt Lake

and begins the long journey to Kyoto.

Wonderstruck...
Thunderstruck...

into silence...

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

...and for those of you missing words and smiles,
the Flying Carpet includes this trip's collection
of outrageous sayings on tee shirts:

All Grace Celebrity

Florida Possible Revolution

You're Smart Apple

Baby Doll Never

Ladyism Raise New Feminine Gender

Hello Gorgeous Kiss

Resist Gravity

Lovely Times & Smile

Bang the Drum Hot Blood

Hilarious We are Counting on You

Mickey Mouse
The Hero of Our Hearts

Hunting Action Monster Hunter

Cloud Lets Go of the Moon

She's Skating on the Ice in a Glass

Spicy of Legend

Fighting Laundry

Must Your Loverly Smile

Continent Everywhere

Hysteric Mini

...and a Happy Halloween

Special Thanks to Sarah and Masa-san, Steve and Ritsuko-san,
Saito-san, Robert, Tomoko-san,
and my travel companion Zack

September Flying Carpet

In September the Flying Carpet 

got blown off course by Hurricaine Issac 

and ended up in the middle of Chinatown in Flushing, NY 

instead of Bangor Maine...

 

(chooses to think of it as a very inexpensive trip to China 

rather than an expensive delay...)

Then loop de looped to Haystack at Deer Isle

Quivering with morning dew
rolling in deep moss
the zig-zag branches twirling above

India bends down gathering leaves for the dye pot.
She picks up an old fragment of sheet music... 

the only word on it is “Blest”

“Naomi’s Dump Brigade”

sign at dump: “Watch Out for People”

and home again home again jiggedy jig

Special thanks to:

Stuart Kestenbaum, Naomi Shahib Nye
   The  Leader of "The Church of the Holy Laugh"
    and all the rest of the "Underachiever Savants" & Geniuses
   

In August the Flying Carpet

circled the turbulent skies of Santa Fe

swooping down for occasional celebrity sightings

Zachariah  Rieke (a.k.a. Widely Unknown) 

at his biennial show 

at Rieke Studio Gallery

The SOBs on an endorphin high at The Fina Cafe

Mrs. Sharpe at 

The Love garden

(somewhat obscured by statuary)

Persephone Maybee,

 

Jessie Growing Thunder,

and  Wakeah Jhane

in full regalia
at the Native American Clothing Contest 

of the 92nd Annual Santa Fe Indian Market

and last but certainly not least
Founding Females
of the 

Society of the Time of the Lace Pocket
at Bluebird Asylums

Special thanks 

to everyone who has visited Rieke Studio/ Gallery this month

Up in the sky... it's a bird... it's a plane... it's a Flying Carpet !!!!

Magnetized by thrill of Santa Fe's Folk Art Market
The flying Carpet was one of 1600 volunteers

The Flying Carpet ooogled and ahhhhed 

the fashion show
from Booth 120... 

our friends Jo and Veo... Ock Pop Tok from Laos
(spirited dancing broke out on occasion)

 

Robin Hood goes to the Prom 

with her date

Pancho Villa on tropical vacation

"Come hither and view my nose jewelry!!!!"

Tattoo matches instrument matches surfboard

Chinese embroidery with feathered edges sashays by

Panamanian Red (pattern that is)

Hat hangings... 

guitar picks? 

spider cocoons?... 

recycled styrofoam cups?

The Flying Carpet offered 

to fly Zilo Bong back to Vanuatu for free!

Thumbs up for Folk Art Market!

In June the Flying Carpet

remembered amazing people

encountered in Japan in May

 At the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo

the Flying Carpet

asks these Gothic Lolitas

if it's okay to take their picture.

They say, 

"hai!" 

in a shy but delighted way

At her home in Tokyo

author, collector, and folk art champion

Amy Katoh 

speaking of objects made by hand

says,

"You can hear the voices 

of the people who made them

when you use them"

On the Shinkansen Bullet Train

from Tokyo to Kyoto

the young lady 

says, 

"Your ticket, please"

and salutes us when we take her picture

At Aizenkobo in Kyoto

Utsuki-san, indigo dye artist

says,

"Many people help us.

If we tied all the shibori knots ourselves,

we would never sleep

and we would be dead."

At Yakimono Gallery in Kyoto

Robert Yellin, Japanese ceramic aficionado

says, 

"Japanese ceramic artists

have clay in their veins."

At his very Meiji home and gallery in Kyoto

Shotei Ibata-san, calligrapher extroidinaire

says,

"Action painters 

could see the relationships 

of Japanese calligraphy 

to zen, jazz, abstract expressionism...

being in the moment..."

At Heihachi-jaya in Kyoto

Hozan Murata-san, shakuhachi flute master

says,

"Playing the shakuhachi

can be a meditation.

It can calm the spirit."

At Nanzenji Monastery in Kyoto

Shuren Sakurai-sensei, Buddhist priest and Noh mask carver

says,

"If you want to make something good,

it's the real thing.

It takes time and great effort.

The person who made it put their face into it."

At Zuiho-in Subtemple of Daitokuji Monastery in Kyoto

Shodo Maeda-sensei, Buddhist  abbot and tea master

says,

"You have come here to pay respect. 

Take a great breath of air.

There's 450 year old air here 

to breathe in and appreciate."

At the Mori family indigo dye center in Shigaraki

Mori-san, indigo dyer and restoration expert,

 says,

"Indigo is alive."

At his studio in Kyoto

Hiroshi Saito-san, artist of hand painted fabrics

says,

"The important thing is to laugh."

He tells us of his aid work gathering 

1200 sewing kits for the people of Tohoku

who survived the tsunami

so "they can come together 

to make crafts like they did in the past...

the healing power of 

the people making a quilt of butterflies...

each one honoring a person, a cat, a dog...

Japanese people have good hands."

Special thanks to these people who have opened their hearts.