The Half Century Mark Hotel at Sixty North

An Imaginary Space about Becoming Real

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  • Help Wanted

    Help Wanted

    Help Wanted: Humanity seeks assistance. Cruel playground of a planet requires transformational situation.  All experiences welcome. Maybe. 

    As lights dimmed around the world last week, the concierge lost her Rose-Colored Glasses. It doesn’t happen often, but when her beloved RCGs go missing, the concierge retreats to her lair. This time Twitter and lemon-ginger creme cookies were her only companions. Occasionally she uttered loud, nonsensical numbers and phrases:

    Paris, 129.  Beirut, 43. 224 in Sinai. More than 100 in Ankara. 1,000 people killed since January.  Thousands injured and homeless. Madness.

    Madness was the only word that seemed to make sense. She tried to make portraits, but her self was elsewhere.

    me-2her self was elsewhere, p.christakos 2015

    And then a slip of a rose petal drew her out for awhile.

    lips-7the poultice, p.christakos 2015

    The concierge  will not divulge how long she and her petals made pictures or their future plans together. But she will speak about the practice of art as a balm for the soul. Corny, right? A rose petal poultice, really? Self-indulgent frivolity? Perhaps.

    lipsrose petal lips and her heart and Prego on her sleeve, p.christakos 2015

    But the Hotel is built upon the belief that the making, sharing and experiencing of art is transformational. Art offers sustenance, escape, wisdom, sometimes even transcendence, temporarily. And who can resist a frivolous sip of such a cup? And don’t fret: lemon-ginger sweets, rose-colored glasses and morsels of poetry will remain on the Hotel’s menu until further notice.

    from Foundations by Leopold Staff (1878-1957)

    I built on the sand | And it tumbled down …  | Now when I build, I shall begin | With the smoke from the chimney.

    This poem was written at the end of World War II in Poland and appears in A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry edited by Czeslaw Milosz, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1996. Luminous Things is one of the staff’s favorite poetry books. Meanwhile the poet, Mr. Staff, has been relocated to Miss Dickinson’s wing.

    lips-8ready, p.christakos 2015

    What draws you from your lair?

    ps. her self was elsewhere appeared on our doorstep months ago. The Hotel staff doesn’t know her backstory. Only that she asked to be included here. Perhaps she is an applicant.

  • Speaking of Clouds and Expansion

    Speaking of Clouds and Expansion

    braveSorry for the silence as of late. Your Concierge has been out and about chasing summer and seedheads. But she’s on her way back with a head filled with storied dreams and personal expansion plans. Have you heard? A new wing is being added to the Half Century Mark. The words and dimensions are still simmering but the images are clamoring to be seen. The decor may seem a bit dimmer than the usual Hotel fare, but private clouds can be so fruitful to consider particularly when wearing a white petticoat. For now, the wing is called Beguiled. Have a look and let us know what you think.

  • Posies to Poems

    Posies to Poems

    We have a new afternoon card game; it’s called Posies to Poems. It’s similar to Apples to Apples but it involves Flowers and Poems, no fruit. Some of our guests have taken to playing it with darts which was never the intent, but we aspire to maintain our flexibility at the Half Century Mark.

    Posies to Poems features a sampling of photographs from the Hotel’s upcoming exhibition, Offerings: Posies for Emily and Other Dreamers. It requires participants to think like your Hotel concierge for a few delightful minutes and match photographs (posies #1- 9) to their inspiration (poets and poems a – i). answers given below.

    Posies (1 – 9)

    1.  Unfolding_ 2.Wondermint

    3.sept_show-6    4.  me_

    5.pal emily 6.violet

    7. flower 8.  pledge  9. queen anne

    Inspiration: Poems and Poets (a – i)

    a) William Carlos Williams: “Each part | is a blossom under his touch”

    b) Samuel Taylor Coleridge: “If a… [woman] could pass thro’ Paradise in a Dream”

    c) Emily Dickinson: “We – would rather | From Our Garret go | White…Than invest – our Snow”  

    d) Wendy Videlock: “They’ll remind you | that they aren’t | and they are you.”  

    e) Stanley Kunitz: “Light splashed this morning|on the shell-pink anemones”

    f) Marta McDowell: “A Palimpsest…is Still – | Vaguely visible.”

    g) Naomi Shihab Nye: “Always stay rooted to somewhere.”

    h) Rumi: “Unfold your own myth, | without complicated explanation”

    i) Emily Dickinson: with | Ourselves | Have Etiquettes | Embarrassments | And awes”

    Posies for Emily and Other Dreamers will be held April 24 - June 14, 2015. Weller Gallery,   
Fellows Riverside Garden, Youngstown, Ohio.  
Posies to Poems answers: 1-h, 2-c, 3-e, 4-i, 5-f, 6-g,7-d,8-b,9-a
  • Guess the Poet and a New Exhibition

    Guess the Poet and a New Exhibition

    In April, thanks to my friend Mandy Smith, I will be exhibiting at the Weller Gallery, Fellows Riverside Gardens in Youngstown, Ohio April 24 – June 14, 2015. I’m pleased as punch to be able to empty the vault here at the Hotel for this special occasion. I’ll be showing 23 floral photographs that honor poets and writers whose words have etched themselves in my daydreams. I call my exhibit, Offerings: Posies for Emily and Other Dreamers.

    Offerings has brought a new dimension to my role as your imaginary hotel clerk/owner/concierge. I am now a self-proclaimed Official Traveling Poetry Evangelist bringing poems, writers and a few self-portraits into garden tents, around the country. Should you know of any small botanical gardens with tents, i.e. art galleries, please let me know. I’m on a mission.

    By the way, I recommend to all Half Century Mark guests that they create imaginative titles for themselves on occasion, particularly titles that require stretching, physically and otherwise, makes for far more interesting lobby conversations.

    Coming Soon: ‘Posies to Poems’, a new game from the Half Century Mark. It’s just one way that you too, Gentle Traveler, will be able to join in all this visual word fun. Hope it will make you run out and Google a poet or two. In the meantime, here’s a warm-up exercise. Can you guess the poet who inspired this image?

    Poetry Is

    Poetry Is, by Patricia Christakos, 20″ x 30.” Posies for Emily and Other Dreamers, 2015