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It's January 1, 2024, and, for those who can get their eyes open, a toast. No, not the one you did last night, but bread, buttered, browned. When I was a wee lad, my mom made toast in the over, in the broiler pan. Gas range, real flames above the buttered bread. That's the toast I grew up with. You would butter the bread first, then arrange the slices on the rack, and slide it under the flames. Every few minutes you would open the door and pull the rack out, checking to see if the toast was "done". Of course, "done" had different meanings to each family member, and mom wasn't always worried about whose expectations were being met. Eventually, I achieved an age and leveled up (as they say these days in video games), to the point where I could be entrusted to oversee the making of toast. Everybody got what I liked. Yellow and buttery in the middle, golden brown along the edges with streaks of delicious, buttered, crunchiness running to the middle in spots. Toast was not only my first cooking experience, but, in a way, my first exposure to art. MY toast was not only functional and factual, but it was fantastic in appearance as well. Disclaimer here; I said "buttery"... actually, mom used oleo, margarine... artificial stuff. I loved it. My maternal grandmother lived in Atlanta, Georgia, 330 miles away from our Pensacola, Florida home. We only got to visit every other year or so, but, when we did, I was introduced to something strange... a toaster AND real butter. Although I held my tongue, I really didn't like Grandma Blue's toast. It came out a dull, universal brown, and you smeared this pale stuff with little or no flavor on it. Still, over the years, I learned to look forward to it, because it was at Grandma's... like the steel shower from Sears in her basement. At least at Grandma Blue's, the butter went on the toast while it was still hot from the toaster. When I went into the army, you ran the bread through a toasting machine, grabbed some butter, and hoped it would still be warm by the time you got your drink, got a seat, and settled down to eat. But, this did not complete my toasting... New Year's or otherwise. At a small hotel in London, they brought cold, dry slices of toasted bread to the table in a wire rack. I would smear the cold butter on the cold toast, and it would crunch. English people: I love England, and London was fantastic (even if I did nearly kill myself and others turning down the wrong way RIGHT in front of Buckingham Palace. Damned Americans! Anyway, take it from a southern boy from the U.S., toast should not be served cold and brown, but, most of all, it should not CRUNCH! I miss the toast Mama used to make, but, having traveled extensively over the 3/4 of a century I've been on this earth. I've learned to take my toast where, when, and how I can get it. I forgive all of you and that's my "toast" to you on this first day of January, 2024. Damn. Now my coffee's cold! Will this NEVER end? • Donovan Baldwin

I gaze into the leaves above I see your face so clearly. Warmth of your touch, ever near Your promises eternal. Your beauty takes away my breath I stand transfixed and frozen. Marveling at your presence here My heart, it hears you calling. My joyful spirit greets your touch I feel my soul uplifting. To join the universal beats It’s song of great thanksgiving. Oh joyful life, oh blessed day I know you’re always with me. Oh let me walk your blessing way And hold your hand forever. Susan Smoter (7.6.2023)

Weaving sun rays into a basket I’ll use to carry sweet phrases To feed to you like grapes One by one Spreading a blanket on a grassy hill Where every line paints a picture Crafting verses that dance with rhythm And resonate with meaning Each word carries the weight of expression Creating a tapestry of feelings  That linger in the reader’s mind Eagerly awaiting more

I could write about love I could sip from the poetry that I read in your eyes every time you looked at me I could touch my lips with my fingertips knowing how many times I wanted you to kiss me I could write about how you touched me how you sang to me with words like playful hummingbirds fluttering their wings like my heartbeats I could write about how you loved me and my words would be read 100 times over by just your heartbeats alone I could write ~ ©️ Priya  Patel, Jan 12, 24 🕉 Artwork plucked from Pinterest

Eli Broad, one of Los Angeles’ most prominent philanthropists, died on April 30, 2021. He was 87. Broad, who said his name rhymed with ‘road,’ was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and writer. I first learned of Broad when I visited the Broad Museum in early January 2018. I read how he founded two Fortune 500 companies (Kaufman & Broad and SunAmerica) in different industries — the only person to have done so. Beyond his business acumen, what impressed me more was what he (with his wife, Edythe) did with their money. He was known for his philanthropic commitment to public K–12 education, scientific and medical research and the visual and performing arts. His own collection of extraordinary contemporary art was the foundation of the wonderful Broad Museum. Broad amassed a fortune of more than $6 billion, building houses and selling insurance and then, perceiving a need for civic transformation not only in LA, but all of Southern California, he and Edythe began to collect art as the makers themselves created it. In 2010, Eli and Edythe Broad created The Broad Foundations, which include The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation. They signed The Giving Pledge, a commitment for wealthy individuals to give at least half their wealth to charity; the Broads personally committed to 75 percent. He wrote a wonderful book, The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking, published by Wiley & Sons in 2012. Broad was the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in 1979 and chaired the board until 1984. He recruited the museum’s founding director, Joanne Heyler, and negotiated the acquisition of the Panza Collection for the museum. In 2008, The Broad Foundation donated $30 million to MOCA. That bestowal was contingent on the museum’s remaining independent, not merging with Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), of which Broad was a life trustee. In 2003, The Broad Foundation gave $60 million to that museum as part of its renovation campaign, creating the Broad Contemporary Art Museum as well as an art acquisition fund. The Broads donated $6 million to the Los Angeles Opera to stage Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen for the 2009–’10 season. In June 2013, the Broads gave $7 million to continue funding the Eli and Edythe Broad general director position at L.A. Opera, occupied by Plácido Domingo until his resignation in 2019. The Broads committed $10 million in 2008 for a programming endowment for a music and performing arts center at Santa Monica College, The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage, and an adjacent black box performance space, The Edye. In total, the Broads have pledged roughly $1 billion to art institutions throughout the Los Angeles area. Broad called Los Angeles a “cultural capital of the world.” In August 2010, Eli Broad announced he would build a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles. The firm, Diller Scofidio + Renfro was chosen through an architectural competition to design the approximately 120,000-square-foot museum, which encompasses an exhibition space, offices, and a parking garage. In February 2015, a public preview of a special installation attracted 3,500 visitors, even though the museum was under construction. The Broad was opened by the Broads on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. To date, it has received more than 2.5 million visitors. In 2000, Broad founded the Grand Avenue Committee, which coordinated and oversaw further development of LA’s Grand Avenue, a major thoroughfare. He was involved in the fundraising campaign to build Walt Disney Concert Hall, which opened in October 2003. Broad was instrumental in securing a $50 million deposit from project developer Related Companies, opening Grand Park in summer 2012. Eli Broad was drawn into the art world by his wife Edye’s interest in collecting. Their first major purchase was made in 1973, when he and Edye acquired a Van Gogh drawing, “Cabanes a Saintes-Maries, 1888.” Art collector and MCA executive Taft Schreiber became their mentor. In time, the pair began to concentrate on post–World War II art. Eli and Edythe Broad established The Broad Art Foundation in 1984 with the goal of making their extensive contemporary collection more accessible to the public. The Broads have two collections focusing on postwar and contemporary art — an assemblage with nearly 600 works and The Broad Art Foundation’s collection, which has around 1,500 works. Michigan State University (Eli Broad’s alma mater) has also been the recipient of nearly $100 million in donations from Eli and Edye Broad to build an art museum and expand the Eli Broad College of Business. The philanthropic duo gave $100 million, the founding gift for the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, with the goal to improve health using genomics. The Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Research at the University of Southern California is part of a public-private partnership between the voter-created California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which donated $30 million in 2006. Most of this information about Broad is from Wikipedia, abridged, edited and rewritten by Marlene Dryden. Personal information by George Farkas. https://www.hmoob.in/wiki/Eli_Broad.

drop drop drop of words she arches with joyful pain... as poetry burns her ----- writhes beneath words as the poet's candle drips... ink which burns like wax ----- as our lips bind us trails of burning poetry... inflame new secrets • Donovan Baldwin

Blast from the past! One of my 1st interviews! https://tinyurl.com/4rzmvkfz #amazon #amazonpreorder #author #authorlife #bookboost #epicfantasy #followback #indieauthor #kilpack #MustRead #newbloodsaga #newbook #newrelease #preorder #Read #readers #releasedate #ReadingCommunity #writerslift

I was looking out my window at the full moon white when a thought came to my mind about you and me connecting mentally making music of a magical kind I’m digging down deep deciding what to keep The words with the very best rhyme write a catchy tune and I’m finding soon that I can’t keep it out of my mind No, can’t keep it out of my mind: You’re a part of me I’m a part of you We sing in perfect harmony In a symphony…a symphony of love We can’t go wrong singing this song walking in the magic of the light Just hold me tight take me out of sight making moves in the soft moonlight I never thought I’d love again but now I know instead This love is real I know what I feel and I can’t get you out of my head No, can’t get you out of my head. Lorene Rogers © October 26, 2022

Peter Stevenson is a fine artist and illustrator. He has lived and worked in various markets, including Washington D.C., center city Philadelphia, northern New Jersey and New York City, where he is a member of the prestigious Society of Illustrators. His illustrations have been featured in many magazines and publications, including The Washington Post, The Washington Book Review, and The Wall Street Journal, and his work has been commissioned by clients that include AT&T Communications, Crayola, Earle Palmer Brown, Citibank, and J. Walter Thompson. Stevenson simultaneously spent decades in advertising as first an Art Director and then Creative Director for leading agencies and corporations, such as AT&T, Aramark Corp, Marra Advertising and Stiegler, Wells & Brunswick. Eventually founding The Stevenson Group, he served as principal and executive creative director, establishing a robust roster of regional, national and global clients, and winning Gold ADDY Awards, Gold Art Directors Club of Philadelphia awards, and the Business Marketing Awards, both nationally and internationally. Now residing in Lancaster, Pa, not far from his childhood roots in Chester County, his latest gallery exhibition Biospheres II focuses on the place where land and sky meet, and rural life happens. The simultaneous contrast of two juxtaposed colors, depicting earth and sky, offers a simple abstract scene that is set for a meeting point. It’s at this intersection—the horizon line, where the buzzing, humming flurry of life and human emotion can be felt, sensed and imagined. http://www.PeterStevensonArt.com https://www.peterstevensonart.com/blog

Ever wondered what the music of the spheres would sound like? Hubble brings us cosmic sights, but these astronomical marvels can be experienced with other senses as well. Through data sonification, the same digital data that gets translated into images is transformed into sound. Elements of the image, like brightness and position, are assigned pitches and volumes. Each translation below begins on the left side of the image and moves to the right. No sound can travel in space, but sonifications provide a new way of experiencing and conceptualizing data. Sonifications allow the audience, including blind and visually impaired communities, to “listen” to astronomical images and explore their data. Below are sonifications recently published by NASA: Here is the sonification of Hoag's Object: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Xo3HajfkrKQ Sonification of the Bubble Nebula: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buCP1UtT9I0 The majestic spiral galaxy NGC 1300’s arms hold blue clusters of young stars, pink clouds of star formation, and dark lanes of dust sonification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyf1UDm-GyU Data Sonification: Black Hole at the Center of Galaxy M87: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVleUUmU44E Sounds from Around the Milky Way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N9RnmwIWbA Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) Sonification: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfFoUWm3NDA Sit back and enjoy!