My Funny Valentine 2013

without love life stinks

I hope you are all having a funny Valentine's Day!

Here's My Funny Valentine in many interpretations:
Micheal Bublè
Bjork
Frank Sinatra
Chaka Khan
Linda Ronstadt
Barbara Striesand
Miles Davis
Sara Vaughan
Angela McCluskey
Chet Baker
Etta James



 

Artist of the Day: Birds - Susie Loucks

ring-billed gull


crow

Some may think suspended birds in the living room or study may be a little, unusual, but I adore these and would consider having both in my upstairs studio/library.
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artist bio: My living has been made in the arts for most of my adult life. Beginning with a B.A. in art, I have worked as a freelance photographer, have had photos published, and my work is exhibit in art galleries. Being a native Californian, the ocean and its wildlife have a huge influence on my creativity.  website: http://www.susieloucks.com

Poetry & Music Mash Up: Oracle - Cate Marvin + Sylvia Plath - Ryan Adams

sylvia plath

Sylvia Plath

+

Oracle

Dead girls don't go the dying route to get known.
You’ll find us anonymous still, splayed in Buicks,
carried swaying like calves, our dead hefts swung
from ankles, wrists, hooked by hands and handed
over to strangers slippery as blackout. Slammed
down, the mud on our dress is black as her dress,
worn out as a throw-rug beneath feet that stomp
out the most intricate weave. It ought not sadden
us, but sober us. Sylvia Plath killed herself. She ate
her sin. Her eye got stuck on a diamond stickpin.
You take Blake over breakfast, only to be bucked
out your skull by a cat-call crossing a parking lot.
Consuming her while reviling her, conditioned to
hate her for her appetite alone: her problem was
she thought too much? Needling an emblem’s ink
onto your wrist, the surest defense a rose to reason
against that bluest vein's insistent wish. Let’s all
us today finger-sweep our cheek-bones with two
blood-marks and ride that terrible train homeward
while looking back at our blackened eyes inside
tiny mirrors fixed inside our plastic compacts. We
could not have known where she began given how
we were, from the start, made to begin where she
ends. In this way, she's no way to make her amends.

My Funny Valentine Wish List: Kiss

gone with the wind


shakespeare in love

amelie

brokeback mountain


from here to eternity

the last emperor


la dolce vita


the tudors


girls


bridget jone's diary


casablanca

vicky christina barcelona


notorious

some like it hot

homeland

godfather ii

my little chickadee

how to steal a million

"A kiss is just a kiss," unless it's from Humphrey Bogart (or mygod!) Cary Grant or Javier Bardem or Clark Gable.

Everyone of these actors could win for best onscreen kiss, but it is Clark Gable that wins the prize for best film kiss.

What are your favorite film kisses?

Juiced 2013: Day Eight

 I get it that nobody really cares what you had for breakfast or lunch or dinner, but I just had to share how beautiful my breakfast juice was.

I originally planned to juice for three days, but decided to see what happened if I continued.

Well, I've lost eleven pounds so far. I can not believe it. I have struggled to lose and keep even one pound off the last five years, even with swimming an hour daily and yoga once a week. Plus, my blood pressure was just starting to creep up and now it's back to normal.

What is surprising is that this is so easy. It isn't a struggle. I'm never hungry. I'm feeling well. And I'm losing weight!

My goal now is to juice for another week, the sixteenth of this month, and then follow the vegetable and fruit eating plan from Dr. Joel Furhman's Eat to Live, for six weeks . I picked up a copy last night at Good Earth, an organic grocery store. fyi: organic food is incredibly expensive. I picked up a few items, but purchased the majority at the local Harmon's.

Juicing is expensive mainly because instead of eating one tomato, you juice four. If wouldn't be able to eat the amount of fruits and vegetables required for each recipe for just one meal.

For example, the recipe for the breakfast Purple Power Juice pictured is:
6 cups concord grapes
1 golden delicious apple
2 2x2 pieces ginger
1/2 cup blackberries

Wish me luck juicing for this next week.

My Funny Valentine Wish List: Cards

katie davis

gigi

sara moore

kathleen

pineandparcel

courtney fairchild

sarah c

papersauruscreative

kiwi

jenny robins

calan ree

galia bernstein

tracy kunzler

benchpressed

aneta.nina

jeannette

Valentine's Day was always exciting when I was in gradeschool. I remember decorating my Valentine box and making cards for everyone in the class, even. D.C., who I thought was grody and mean. I don't remember what I wrote on any of them, but I'm sure at least one was inscribed, Do you love me? Circle Yes/No.

That sums up the day, doesn't it? You love me. You love me not.

The last decade or so, the only Valentine cards I've given has been to my spouse and children.

I'm starting a new tradition this year by making cards, and sending them to everyone I love.

I did a quick search on etsy, and these are a few of my favorites. You also like these Dictator Valentines or these DIY Library Card Valentines or Science Valentines.

Quote Therapy: 7 February 2013

netted bird kailey lang

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.” -Haim Ginott
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Reading this I thought of Hamlet's admonishment of Polonius, "Use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in."

We would all be much better off if we took Shakespeare's advice.

It is empowering to realize that I am the decisive element in every single area of my life. Even areas in which I have no control.  I make the weather in all my relationships and endeavors.

No matter what individuals or forces are working with or against me, it is my choice to react with anger or joy or relief, to go with the flow, refuse, withhold, accept, compromise, concede, or hold my ground. 

I am incredibly stubborn. I am also an optimist. And an extreme perfectionist. This combination has not always worked to my advantage. It is almost impossible for me to give up on someone or something, or to just say "good enough" or "done," even if I know it is in my best self interest. Truth is, I always think things will turn out for the best. And they do, just not as I envisioned.

Sometimes cutting that Gordian knot, leaving a marriage, a job, switching careers, saying goodbye to friends, ideas, possessions, addresses, ideas of how life is or should be, is for the very best.