Robin Spielberg's Blog, page 5
February 11, 2014
Fun Craft Project (snow day #1)
We had a lot of snow this Winter, and as a result, we’ve been indoors making music, art, crafts—that is, when we aren’t reading! Here is one project that was fun and easy to make. Perhaps you’ll want to do this with your son or daughter to pass the time on a rainy or snowy day. I am working on making my guest room a bit more inviting and personal and this seemed like a good place to start.
My guest room needed a mirror, but as the room is not very big, I just wanted one that would fit nicely over the guest dresser.
We started with a cheap store-bought mirror. It’s about 15″ on the longest side. This one was purchased at Walmart for about $3. The frame is white plastic.
Then we took out the glue gun, and went to town, affixing seashells we gathered from our trip to the Outer Banks.
The seashells have been sitting in a glass jar on a windowsill for years and until now, I never really noticed their beauty. It was like discovering them on thebeach all over again!
The result is a pretty/artsy mirror that not only enhances the decor of our guest room; it is a lovely reminder of our trip we made to our friends’ wedding in the Outer Banks. 
February 10, 2014
January 7, 2014
Getting Over “The Two Guys Incident”
I found this photo recently. I am holding my mother’s hand in our Irvington, NJ apartment. I am waving goodbye. I wonder where we were going. I love how our clothes match. I don’t remember this particular day, but I do remember being about this age and getting lost in the Two Guys Department store. It was terrifying. I must have let go of my mother’s hand. It seems like I was lost for a very long time, but eventually we reconnected and all was well in the world once again. The next time we went shopping, I held on just a little tighter.
Silly. A little episode like that and I still remember it decades later. And… I still feel a little nervous when I am with someone and we become unexpectedly separated. Maybe it reminds me of what I now refer to as “The Two Guys” incident.
What do you remember that happened long ago that comes to mind now and then?
Here’s to holding hands.
xo Robin
October 28, 2013
Fancy Meeting You Here
I’m in the thick of my “book release tour” where I perform a concert, read excerpts from my new memoir and then meet folks afterward to sign books and talk about music and life.
This past weekend I played Joe’s Pub, the adorable yet hip club inside The Public Theater in Manhattan. I had played this venue before so I knew the drill for the sound check. I was in and out in a half hour. 
After the soundcheck I bumped into Wally Shawn. Literally. He was entering the backstage area as I was exiting. He looked at me with that look. You know the one. That searching-for-a-name-look. That “how-do-I-know-you” look that I am sure is on my face a whole lot when people bump into me on the street.
“Wally?” I asked. “Is that you?”
“Yes,” the actor/playwright answered. I re-introduced myself, and reminded him we had met in Vermont one summer when I was acting in one of his plays (The Hotel Play) with The Atlantic Theater Company. We reminisced a bit about that remarkable summer.
“I have a show tonight,” I said. “Want to come?”
“I’d love to,” he responded, “But I have a show too!”
We both laughed.
“Well, aren’t we the lucky ones,” I said.
“Yes. Yes we are.”
I love that I ran into Wallace Shawn at the Public Theater before my show, and I love even more, almost 30 years after first meeting him, we are both still working in theaters we love.
October 2, 2013
Reading Aloud
I remember going to the library with my mother in Irvington, New Jersey. We walked there from our two-family house on Campfield Street. The library card was mag
ic. Possessing it meant we could leave the library with as many books as our arms could carry. My mother often sat with my sister and I flanked at her sides with the treasure on her lap, and she would read aloud. We’d take turns turning the pages.
Years later my husband and I would re-enact this scenario with our own daughter. The other day she gifted me: she read an English essay out loud to me while we drove to her music lesson. I had forgotten how wonderful it was to be read to.
I recorded an audiobook version of my new memoir. I really enjoyed reading it out loud and if you want me to read to you, just visit Amazon.com. It’ll be like the old days.
September 10, 2013
The Shame of the Shoes
I tried throwing them away. I really did. They were just so shabby; looking at them it was obviously the only thing to do. But five minutes later I found myself rifling through the trash can to retrieve them.
These weren’t just any shoes after all. These were my AIRPORT SHOES. My go-to pair. They have seen me through from New York to California, Maine to Florida, Montana to Ohio and all the way to Seoul, Korea. Easy-on and easy-off and oh so comfortable. So what is the problem you may ask? They are ugly. They are shabby. These are the shoes of a ninety-year old woman. And I’ve had them since 2004. They are cooked.
I’ve tried cowboy boots, sandals, Birkenstocks, sneakers, but the only shoes comfortable enough to see me through airport walks, flights, long walks through rental car parking lots were my ugly old lady shoes. Plus, I think I have an emotional attachment to them. They have seen me through so many things.
And here I am, with a tour coming up and I can’t bear to wear them and I can’t bear to part with them. Anyone know of a brand of shoe they love that are comfy and stylish that can replace them? If you do, email me: robin@robinspielberg.com
Until then I am shabbily yours,
Robin
August 7, 2013
Festival Fever
Musikfest is now celebrating its 30th anniversary. While I have performed at Musikfest several times before (this was my sixth performance here), I had never really experienced the festival itself in all its glory until now. Like many performers, I usually arrive the day of my show, report to the venue for my load-in and sound check/rehearsal, get dressed and ready, perform….and then leave for the next gig. This time my husband and I arrived the night before my engagement so that I could appear on WDIY Radio, Bethlehem, PA’s NPR affiliate, to talk about my upcoming book and Musikfest.
Wow, what I had been missing! My Musikfest concerts are held indoors as part of the “Vespers Series”, but much of the festival is outside. As Larry and I wandered the grounds, we realized we were among throngs of festival-goers. We both got caught up in the festival culture, and enjoyed on-the-spot cooked food, took in the sights and sounds and bought souvenirs, my favorite of which is this year’s Musikfest poster featuring an owl with headphones.
There are craft vendors galore with all kinds of interesting wares. I bought our daughter a tye-died dress made of bamboo from a vendor who told me how he makes the clothing. We listened to Peter Frampton, a cover band called Marla & The Juniper Street Band who seemed to know every song there was to know, and caught several busker acts. There was jazz, polka, blues, rock, classical…the air was electric. Musikfest runs through August 11th and the schedule is posted at fest.org
June 28, 2013
June 3, 2013
Train Fever
Train Fever has hit my town and I’ve caught it. A replica of the steam engine that took Abraham Lincoln to Hanover Junction (York County, PA) on his way to Gettysburg to make the Gettysburg Address has rolled into town. Ten years in the making, the steam engine is going to be offering “history rides” along the Heritage Rail Trail. I live in a small rural PA town, and not much as changed in the landscape along the trail. Train riders will see much of the same view as those saw 150 years ago when they road along the same tracks.
Thing is, I didn’t think I cared much about trains in general. I lived in Manhattan for nine years and rode the subways daily. I commuted from Montclair, NJ to NYC on The Erie Lackawanna Railroad and later, the newer NJ Transit trains. But when news that Engine #17 was on its way to town, I felt excited.
I headed on over to the depot and joined the crowd that had gathered. I was there all but ten minutes when the local TV station crew approached me and asked if I wouldn’t mind saying a few things on-camera. Why not? I must have seemed enthusiastic indeed for when the segment aired on the 6 O’clock news, it said ROBIN SPIELBERG – TRAIN ENTHUSIAST on the screen.
My husband and I rode our bikes along the Rail Trail this weekend and caught the train in action. The ball bearings were too hot for the train to get to Hanover Junction; it stopped in Glen Rock next to the Glen Rock Mill Inn which was established in 1837. There was a kid in Civil War uniform playing the FIFE. There were Civil War re-enactors in costume.
I am working on new songs for the piano, but whenever I sit down to compose, fife music is in my head. I started writing a song about trains that I am sure no one will ever want to hear. It even has a train whistle part. Someone, make it stop.
I guess I’m enthused. Are you? http://www.steamintohistory.com
May 20, 2013
Grow a Little Happiness
I was a little girl growing up in suburban New Jersey when I discovered that caring for plants made me feel good. My father planted a few tomato plants in a rose bed that had seen better days. I checked them each day for yellow flowers and watered them until their thirst was quenched. Later in the season we were rewarded with beautiful homegrown Jersey tomatoes. They graced our hamburger buns and salad plates, BLT’s and egg salad sandwiches. I felt so proud to have cared for them and to have helped them become what they were meant to become.
Now I am teaching my daughter the joys of planting a vegetable garden. We planted our lettuce seeds in early Spring and tonight we enjoyed our first harvest. After school she checks the progress of the plants while I weed the flower beds.
No matter where you live, New York City, suburbia USA, the country or in a dorm room, there is a place for a little flower pot, a seed and your love and care to help it on its way to becoming what it is meant to be. Grow something, and grow a little happiness.
