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Sep

And Now For Something Completely Different—The Big Sur Fashion Show

by Meredith Mullins on September 10, 2018

Jamie Oksas dances in a fashion made of netting, rope, crayons, and shoe laces—a cultural encounter with community spirit at the Big Sur Fashion Show. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

The Big Sur Fashion Show is so much more than a fashion show.
(Designer, model, and dancer: Jamie Oksas)
© Meredith Mullins

A Cultural Encounter with the Spirit of Community

The Fashion Week buzz is brewing in Paris, New York, and London, where unsmiling models will soon walk briskly on catwalks with haughty disdain. But we, on the California Coast, are thousands of (metaphoric and real) miles away.

We’re at The Big Sur Fashion Show—a vibrant and unconventional celebration of artistic imagination. Read more...

Meredith Mullins 10 Comments

Cultural Encounters/USA

Sep

Shaking Up Cultural Traditions By Seeking Silence

by Meredith Mullins on September 3, 2018

View of Pacific coast from the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a place where seeking silence is the norm and where the cultural traditions of Labor Day can be challenged. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

The view from the New Camaldoli Hermitage on the Pacific Coast of California
© Meredith Mullins

A Memorable Labor Day Celebration

Happy Labor Day —the unofficial end of summer and, for many folks, a transition to the action-packed days of autumn.

School. New friends. New adventures. A farewell to lazy beach days. TV season premieres. Fall fashion trends. Back to work. NFL kickoffs in the U.S. The rentrée (return) in France. A change in weather. A change in light.

A time of new beginnings. Read more...

Meredith Mullins 14 Comments

Cultural Heritage & Traditions/USA

Aug

Rendezvous à la Turk

by Joyce McGreevy on August 27, 2018

A young Turkish American girl celebrates her heritage at the Turkish Arts and Culture Festival in Monterey, California. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

A Cultural Festival Calls Forth Memories

You won’t need sugar in your fincan kahve (cup of coffee) this morning. Şekerpare, a delicate cookie made with semolina, almonds, and love, delivers the sweetness. So, inhale the rich aroma and galvanize your senses with robust brew. If you closed your eyes, you could be in Istanbul.

But you’re at a Turkish cultural festival in Monterey, California.

Pastries like Sekerpare and irmik helvasa connect Turkish Arts and Culture Festival in Monterey, California to the author’s memories of Istanbul. (Images © Joyce McGreevy/ Ceren Abi)

Is baklava Turkish or Greek? Depends on whom you ask. Şekerpare (center) and irmik helvasa (right)
reflect culinary traditions of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire.
© Joyce McGreevy (L)/ Ceren Abi (R) Read more...

Joyce McGreevy Comments

Crossing Cultures/Language & Culture/Turkey/USA

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