The Romantic Way

Outsider artist and eBay entrepreneur, Andrew and his Bashkir bride Gulnara are living inspiration of what it really means to live the romantic life. We met Gulnara almost the first day we moved to Bashkortostan back in 1999. A few years later, Gulnara met Andrew on a matchmaking website. Soon they married, moved to LA […]

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I am not a professional photographer. I’m an amateur. I like to think that my photography isn’t lacking skill, however, in the usual way we use the word amateur. My photography is as Atkinson used the term in Recollections of the Tartar Steppes and their Inhabitants, amateur in the sense of being a “enthusiastic pursuer […]

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If you can’t find a metaphor in the amazing once-in-seventeen year visit of the cicadas, then you just need more work at your romantic living skills. Last week we arrived in Northern Illinois to be greeted by the nearly deafening whine of the millions cicadas (si - kay’ -da) from every grove of trees. Naturally, […]

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I’d never fix a whole roast funky chicken. Cooking isn’t funky, I’m sorry. Some months ago, I noticed at our local grocery store that five-pound whole chickens were selling for 67 cents per pound. That’s cheap meat. Even now at 73 cents, it’s still a mighty good deal. I discovered that roasting a chicken is […]

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I love state parks. They come in great variety, offer all kinds of opportunities and experiences and are really educational. They’re incredibly well maintained, clean and considerate of the environment. There is, however, one thing that kind of needles me about state parks.
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For those of you artistic, creative and writerly types, I’ve found something that really gets my creative fluids gushing. Holly and I recently watched the film Chocolat with Johnny Depp a few nights ago. It’s like the thousandth time, but it never gets old. Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp and Judi Dench are absolute genius. While […]

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The blog is cool. Very very cool because blogging is personal. The blog has brought such a freedom of expression in writing that the website didn’t quite allow. We found that the website lends itself to informational articles, recipes and poetry while the blog lends itself to dynamic sharing of information as well as experience […]

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