Monday, November 12, 2012

Annie Dillard

I pulled an old anthology off the shelf last night and saw this story by Annie Dillard and knew immediately it was exactly what I wanted/needed to read. She says her books are about "what it feels like to be alive." I remember loving her as a teenager, writing down quotes that inspired me. This is an excerpt from Teaching a Stone To Talk (1982), called Living Like Weasels:
***
Our look was as if two lovers, or deadly enemies, met unexpectedly on an overgrown path when each had been thinking of something else: a clearing blow to the gut. It was also a bright blow to the brain, or a sudden beating of brains, with all the charge and intimate grate of rubbed balloons. It emptied our lungs. It felled the forest, moved the fields, and drained the pond; the world dismantled and tumbled into that black hole of eyes. If you and I looked at each other that way, our skulls would split and drop to our shoulders. Bud we don't. We keep our skulls. So.

...

Could two live that way? Could two live under the wild rose, and explore by the pond, so that the smooth mind of each is as everywhere present to the other, and as received and as unchallenged, as falling snow?

We could, you know. We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience- even of silence- by choice. The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse.

***

Sunday, November 4, 2012

adventure

(from one spring a while back.
one of my favorite quotes
from one of my favorite authors
of sad stories that feel unsettled
and anxious with miscommunication)

i like images that remind me
to enjoy life, to not take anything
too seriously & to be
independent in the way i choose
to experience the world.

Friday, August 10, 2012

* March *




wishes

i wish i was a dj
i wish i was a really good dancer
i wish i was a good bowler
i wish i knew how to tie interesting knots
i wish i didn't require so much sleep

Frances





Henry Darger

Henry Darger was a recluse. His creative life's work was not discovered until after he died. The Chicago apartment where he lived was packed full, piled up endless with his epic story of the Vivian Girls and their quest to conquer evil in a make-believe land. Darger collected and horded many different objects, among them balls of string, shoes, and comic books. Many of his character illustrations were traced from the comic books. Perfection is his use of color. So much of meaning in art lies in the story of its creator.

90's rock

I don't know what it is, but all I want to listen to is 90's rock. Do you think, with text messaging, that teenagers still write notes?

World News.

The bookstores have started to close. I remember in ninth grade we had to pick a quotation to write in calligraphy on a large piece of white paper. I don't know how I came upon it, but I decided on a Ray Bradbury quote. "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture, just get people to stop reading them." It didn't make much sense to me then, but over time I thought about it meaning different things. Today, with news of closing bookstores, I feel a real fear for the future that before- as it's been presented in books and movies- appeared only as abstraction.

Perfect fall November trip.

Perfect fall November trip.

Jade Jagger

Jade Jagger: I've always loved her style. Big ol' jacket over a dress. Love that.

life philosophy.


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Thursday, July 12, 2012

* * * *

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from
being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be
lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too
high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."

-Friedrich Nietzsche

Sunday, April 29, 2012

A trip to New York is in order.

"They don't really care what makes a woman desirable to men. Their work asks you to consider what make a woman desirable to herself."

-Judith Thurman on Elsa Schiaparelli and Miucca Prada, in response to the Costume Institute's show: Shiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations, opening May 10th - to which I want to go.

Monday, April 16, 2012

muse

Mikey DeTemple made this surfing movie. I love his name. I also love
this:
HOW DID YOU GET INTO SURFING?
My parents met surfing in the 1970s and my dad was a commercial clammer, so everything my family did was based around surfing, fishing and the ocean. It was only natural that I followed in their footsteps.

Monday, April 2, 2012

kindness

Too often we underestimate the power of ... a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

-Dr. Leo Buscaglia

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

irreverent.




I've wanted this book since it came out. My mom used to tell me I was irreverent. The first time she told me I didn't know what it meant so I looked it up and thought, hey, I'm okay with that- though I don't think she meant it as a compliment. That's not the reason I want the book. I find Carine Roitfeld endlessly alluring. Confident, creative, and authentic. Hard-working. Usually pictured smiling or laughing. Love her.

"I am not a good professional of fashion. I am not an expert about how clothes are constructed or the history of fashion. I never start with fashion. I always think of the girl and her personality- because all that matters to me when you look at a page is, 'Do you want to be that girl?' ... It's just my imagination that goes into my pictures. I was never a punk. Never dyed my hair blue. Never a nymphomaniac. I'm a married woman with children... But I don't like the girl next door."
- Carine Roitfeld in Stylist The Interpreters of Fashion, one of my all-time favorite fashion quotes

Tuesday, January 3, 2012



Cheesy dance music, love it every day.
I like music that makes me feel like I'm
about to board a plane.