3 Ring Binder

The first time I saw an aerial silks performance was Mam Smith  in the American Repertory Theatre’s production of Wings of Desire .   I was mesmerized by her graceful fluid movements and the bold simplicity of a single, strong body meeting simple, flowing fabric to create a sort of high-flying physical poetry. If you’ve never heard of aerial silks, you’ve probably seen it associated with Cirque du Soleil or other sensory-assaulting performances.   I prefer the quiet performances such as this one. [Two things about this performer: I’m curious as to why she’s wearing a bra and panties to perform in front of an audience.   Well, maybe if you can move like her, you can wear whatever you want. Secondly, I can’t help but think of Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie. She was a fascinating heroine, and possibly part of why I like this performance so much. Not to be confused with any of this, however, is the fact that this post is about m...

0600 Time for bike ride   100 Red-winged blackbirds    20 Crazy baby bunnies (happily, not as indecisive as chipmunks)    10 Quick miles      2 Friends      1 Deer 

So what'd y'all do this weekend? (I'm practicing for when I hit Georgia.)

-leopard print -calf hair -peep toe -menswear Oxford styling details -signature C.L. red sole You'd think that these shoes were made for me!  Well, I certainly hope not, 'cause I don't like 'em!   I simply had to post this picture, though. It's interesting that the sum of this shoe's fabulous parts strikes me as so incredibly hideous. I think it's the mass of tailored cheetah (leopard? some big cat). If it were a hint, or if the vamp  were black . . . maybe. I'll have to think about it more.

club: A group of people organized for a common purpose, especially a group that meets regularly. But really.   What is it about a club that’s so darn appealing? 1.   Culture Club “You cannot keep a roomful of Anglo-Saxons waiting for cake this long! They start to form more clubs.” --Gilmore Girls, Season 4, Cousin Marilyn at the Gilmore’s vow renewal ceremony. 2.   Strength in Numbers via Frog Blog 3.   Learn About Yourself and Others What’s more important to you: taking a shower before or after sex? This deceptively simple, but fundamentally sense of life revealing question, formulated during one my neighborhood book club meetings, ought to be a real eye-opener for those of you who thought all we did was drink wine and kvetch.   While I love the wine, I require the reading – or at least a very good reason one refuses to complete the reading – and strongly discourage off-topic whining. This means the question above somehow dovetailed nicely with th...

I wanted to take this opportunity to clear up a little potential confusion. The weekly collection of posts by Objectivists, a blog carnival as defined by Blog Carnival  (in fact, if you go there right now, you'll find that last week's collection is today's featured carnival), is named the Objectivist Round Up . While Round Up conjures not unwelcome images of cowboys on the range, Carnival instantly brings this music, this scary, circus-freak music to my mind. Entry of the Gladiators by Julius Fucik (1872-1916) Be that as it may, today's Objectivist Round Up can be found under the name Objectivist Blogger's Carnival #154 , and may be read at Trey Givens : A Blog About a Hero.  Go there. Read. Think.  And don't be afraid of the scary music. It's only in my head.

Amy did this little exercise a few days ago and I found it rather irresistible reading. I had a similar reaction to Trey Givens ’ walk to work video he posted some time ago.   It’s plain fun read about or see the normal activities of someone’s day in a brief format or encapsulation. What my day lacks in action, it more than makes up for in extraordinary attention to lack of household cleanliness. - Woke up, drank cold, black coffee on my bedside table (it was hot when delivered 2 hours earlier) - Went through emails, read some newspaper articles, filed some as “to be read.” - Spied new coffee stains on freshly scrubbed bedroom carpet. [Not typical: the “freshly scrubbed” part.   Seriously, white carpeting?   What were they thinking?] Feeling like Lady Macbeth, I scrub the spots again. - Heard, “What’s for breakfast?” voiced in my general direction. Smile at the hope springs eternal attitude of my youngest. - Was repulsed by “fish smell” that greeted me in kitchen, espe...

by Edward Robert Hughes 1908 One of my favorites. It's as lovely as it is magical and adorns one wall of my daughter's room.

My father, 1957 Of course, I wasn't around when this photo was taken on my parents' wedding day, but I think he's one handsome guy.  Sadly, when I had the thought to post a photo of my father today, I couldn't find the one of him weightlifting on base in Alaska (probably taken the following month).  In addition to musical instruments salesman, Boone's Farm Apple wine representative, barbershop quartet singer, ad man, and sign painter, my father can add hang-glider, scuba diver, private plane pilot, piano player, drummer, trumpet player, braille-reader, photographer, and artist to his autodidactic curriculum vitae.  Life with my father has never - and I mean never - been boring.   Just ask my mother. Happy Father's Day, Dad.  Thanks for teaching me about art, and music, and learning, and living life. (And thanks for reading my blog, too!) While you're online, check out Stephen's post on my terrific father-in-law , t...

Friday Night Festivities After more than a fortnight of self-imposed privation, I’m finally pleased. Enough, at least to restore our quotidian celebration with wine and cheese. Fab picture, no? Every month at iStockPhoto there is a free image, vector image, video, and sound file. Recipe for an Idyllic Saturday Morning Matching cups of hot cappuccino burning in one hand, Some “sidewalk sale” kitchen gadgets turning in the other. What the email notice lacks in good design, the store more than makes up for in awesome kitchen stuff! That’s Entertainment: Father’s Day Style Imagine my delight watching my daughters dance with joy and grace. When the dads share the stage, I can’t wipe the smile from my face. Where you see a bunch of random Dads and Daughters, I see my youngest daughter with my husband, and my oldest daughter with my ex-husband (picture taken at the dress rehearsal).     Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers and father-figures out there.

Or, If You’re Going to Be on Hold It Could Be a Lot Worse.   Yesterday morning while waiting on the results of my query about the availability of rhubarb at my local market, instead of Muzak, I was treated to the romantic, late 70s hit, Crazy Love by Poco.   Because I am a romance junkie and because the produce manager was so quick in answering my question, I tried to find the song on YouTube so I could listen to it in its entirety.   This is what I found. The accompanying animation was of a certain style and time, but the strange and grander-than-ordinary love story it presented was enough to pique my interest. I was delighted to find that the person who posted the video did so that she could find out more about the animation, and further, that she was successful.   The animation, from Hanna-Barbera, was based upon an old Hungarian folk epic poem, John the Hero . In researching the poem, I found this announcement from last Friday!   Poet John Ridland, who tra...

Welcome to this 153 rd  issue of the Objectivist Round Up, a  blog carnival  of posts written by individuals who are advocates of Objectivism : the philosophy developed and defined by Ayn Rand . If you are new to Ayn Rand and would like to discover more about her "philosophy for living on earth", I recommend you read her two great novels, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead . If you know her novels, I recommend her non-fiction starting with The Virtue of Selfishness , and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal . The Ayn Rand Institute and the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights provide relevant information and commentary. Following, in the order in which they were received, are the posts for this Objectivist Round Up. John Drake presents Value dense gardening posted at Try Reason! , saying, “I'm all about getting the most bang for the buck in all my activities - that includes gardening. Picking veggies for the garden is all about finding the greatest value ...

Let’s briefly compare the Wall St. financial crisis to the BP oil disaster: Both occurred within HIGHLY regulated industries.  Both industries are an essential part of our economy and an indispensible part of our standard of living.   It is certain that individuals in both industries miscalculated the outcomes of their actions or inactions and that some individuals make an extraordinary living in these particular industries.   A stunning increase in regulatory oversight has been called for in both cases as part of the solution. While this and the past administration sought to bolster failing financial companies through current and future taxpayer funds, BP, we are told, will be held responsible for its own mess.   This is, of course, as it should be, and should have been with the financial companies. But, tied to our President’s strongly worded claims that BP will pay for the damage caused by the oil spill accident, is the bait-and-switch solution that the...

In a case of student/protesters (not all of them were students) disrupting a speech given by the Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, at the University of California at Irvine in February (see edited video of the event here ), the following defenses of their actions were voiced immediately following the incident: That statement followed one by Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which said: "These students had the courage and conscience to stand up against aggression, using peaceful means. We cannot allow our educational institutions to be used as a platform to threaten and discourage students who choose to practice their First Amendment right." If you watch the video, you will see that students were not threatened from practicing their First Amendment rights. Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, defended his group's defense of the interruptio...

When the air of freshly washed man   fails to turn my nose in its direction, When the shoulder shaking beat of drums   begs not for dancing, but ear protection, When the zest of spice irritates, rather than   piques another taste from my tongue, When a suggestive glance begets a squint,   from eyes no longer so young, I will not allow a sensual calm   to preempt  expectations of a passionate life, As I trust the brush of your lips on my palm   will still thrill:  I remain, Your Wife.

As a sort of extension of my Join or Die post, and my never published post about why good people do bad things (aka: WTF was I thinking when I joined the government school PTA and town green committee? ), I shall herein discuss being cured of my desire to attempt to change the world around me through proximal channels of opportunity I have heretofore misconstrued as open to me. That’s a lot of hooey for “I quit.” I quit. I quit. I throw dog-poopy on your shoe! I can’t discuss the particulars, nor would anyone want to read about them (my husband will be canonized next week), however, I can discuss my rediscovered wisdom about spending my time exactly as I wish to. Me, me, me.   Mine, mine, mine.   There. That feels better. As my time volunteering in local groups (from a few months to three years !) and events dragged on, I became very, very bitter about the fact that I was somewhere I did not want to be doing something I did not want to do, for a cause I did not want to suppo...

Now that I’ve gotten back to my normal weight, I must remember it’s good, but it’s not yet great , Unlike the point to which I fell, accidently, last year , But when next at that goal, I will have earned the cheer. And in doing so, I'll celebrate in any way I please. Thus proving two points on having too much cheese !!!!                        I’m sorry.   Were you expecting musical scales ?

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words But in this case, I think a link is worth more. Guess who's hosting the Objectivist Round Up this week? That's right: Titanic Deck Chairs . Go there, relax, and enjoy. Don't worry about the icebergs. They've all melted due to global warming. Okay. Now guess who's hosting next week ? Oui. C'est moi . Don't be late. Made with 95% Post-Consumer Post .

Today, we’re celebrating Judy Garland’s life. She would have been 88 today if she hadn’t died of a possibly-accidental overdose at the age of 47.   In addition to a general love of All Things Judy around here, my youngest has been writing an essay on the life of Judy Garland for a writing class.   Questions like,“Who’s Mel Torme,” come up quite often (perhaps I ought to show her some old videos so she’ll stop asking), but the killer questions are “What are barbiturates?” and “Why did the MGM studio guys think she was fat?” I’ve watched several episodes of The Judy Garland Show, which ran in 1963-1964 (YouTube), and I while I like her spunk, I can’t help but think of how much she appeared to have been eaten alive by the world of entertainment. In memory of Baby Gumm, a little girl with a big voice, I hope you enjoy the following snippets of Judy Garland. For Me: An excellent polyphonic song with Barbra Streisand singing Happy Days are Here Again and Judy with Get Hap...