louise on the left (coast)

I love how focused and engaged these two babies are in their communication with each other. It's called "Twin baby boys have a conversation - part 2." One of my favorite quick moments in is minute 1:56 when words just won't suffice, and so a quick kiss to the freezer is the only thing to do, then back to the animated argument. Or dialogue. It's really wonderful.

Good question. Voina is a group of Russian artists who engage in street action art. The Independent describes it best in their article: "Artists Who Crossed The Line." An art group that stages orgies, throws cats at cashiers and has Banksy as a fan has enraged the Russian authorities By Shaun Walker Voina throwing cats in supermarkets Voina overturning police cars Voina drawing penis on bridge in St. Petersburg I suppose what Voina is, is a movement in contemporary art which is relatively new to Russia despite being widespread in the West and is regarded by critics as one of the most valuable contemporary art movements. Apparently, it's got people talking.  Even Banksy is fan.  And they have people paying attention, which means,  I like them even better. If you ask them  what their goals are you get this bizarrely complex and lofty definition: Goals and objectives of  the Art-Group Vojna in the period 2008-2010. Rebirth of heroical behavioral ideals o

A New York resident struggles for seeking the meaning of life with complete strangers on the NYC transit system. A long clip, but entirely worth it.

I always kept my favorite books from my childhood.  Including all my original paperbacks and hardcovers featuring those illustrated by Pauline Baynes. For weblink featuring more of her book covers, click here... Pauline Baynes's illustrations were just  so wonderful and creative.  Her simple black and white images fired up the imagination and were the perfect counterpoint to all the great writing for children by C. S. Lewis and J. R. Tolkien. I saved every one of her books to read to my own children who also fell under her same creative spell. I realize that publishers have by now probably replaced most of her original work with more contemporary images, but why bother changing greatness?   Her work was astonishingly creative and bold, considering what a prudish society we live in.  Much of her imagery should have had Puritans in a tizzy, drawing all those Druid-friendly characters whisking young girls into a wooded dell in such a beguiling, appealing way -- I'd ha

Oddly impossible to stop playing  First Person Tetris However, since I have many, many things to catch up on around here, I'll let you waste time here instead of me. -- Enjoy!

Little Kid Tells The Best Knock Knock Jokes I don't mean to dis the dad, here, but it would be so much funnier without his talking very much.   Maybe just keep the father's facial expressions.   (The kid's able to hold the stage without, you, Dude!)

Tell me about it.

I am sure that there's nothing I can say here which hasn't already been said elsewhere about the recent loss of film legend and screen goddess, Liz Taylor. However, she was an inspiration so I must throw in my own two cents to share how much I, too, adored her beauty, spirit and style. I think what I loved the most about Taylor was the sense that she always seemed to be 100% really living her life.  I adored her for this.  It wasn't just her otherworldly beauty, it was her joy in being alive. She wore what she wanted to wear, not what they said she should.  She always loved who she wanted to love.  And, Lord knows, she always said what she wanted to say.  She was a goddess. And, yes, she was astonishingly beautiful, but it was her honesty, wit and her outrageousness which I respected most.  She loved being alive. Look at this beautiful child.   Of course she became a screen goddess, because she's amazing. She was the real deal and, nope, there'll never be a

South Coast Repertory's superb revival of "The Weir" is a frothy concoction of both ghost stories and unexpectedly tender tales, each as engaging as they are chilling. And as is true of any eerie yarn contains an unexpected twist that sneaks up on you without warning, a twist leaving a haunting memory in place of the spooky tales preceding it. Such is the stuff of which Conor McPherson's wonderful award-winning play is made, all of it taking place on one forlorn night in a small-town pub in the Irish countryside.  On this particularly moody night, when the wind is lashing at the shutters and whistling at a darkened window, a few local characters meander their way into this colorful pub to warm up over a pint and perhaps even share a joke or some lively conversation with a familiar face.  As each of the play's colorful characters enter the stage, we discover that there's a very thin line between what can be seen and that which can never really fully be co

Hard to top the title, huh, 'cause they call her "Cutie.  Cutie Patootie." -- Of course they do!  They say  she's a little southern girl but she's  not snooty. Here are what I think the lyrics are to this: "Cutie Patootie" Lyrics by Eden Wood: "They call me cutie cutie patootie rockin out the pageant stage and shakin my bootey cutie cutie patootie I'm a little southern girl but no I'm not snooty, you see my face in magazines papers and the tv scr eens,  CNN GMA got my own facebook page pretty hair pretty eyes glitzy dress grand prize books dolls tv deals Donald trump keep it real...... .... cause I'm a cutie cutie patootie eden wood the showgirl appearing in movies sweetie sweetie pateetie lovin the attention but no I'm not needy,  thank you shirly temple for pavin the way I got my start in pageants but I'm here to stay they say that little pageant girls are flyin by night,  but it seems like

I suppose my blog here is just an excuse for yet another Andy Kaufman tribute inspired after viewing this unique (and rather sexually peculiar) clip from Bollywood. I suppose all great minds think alike. Happy weekend. Enjoy! At this point: If you just click on them all now and they all start playing at once, you'll see they all speak pretty much the same language. God, I just miss Andy Kaufman so so much.

So let me see if I've gotten this straight: Japan is covered in tsunami sludge and sending out radioactive rain across the Pacific. The UN just voted unanimously to create a "no fly" zone over Libya. Republicans vetoed funding NPR and consider it a waste of money, but we'll always have the "The Pee Pee Song?" Good.  Just checking. What are they singing?  "I Ain't Gonna Pee Pee My Bed Tonight."

As a follow up to my former " freaked-out baby " post, I offer this:

I don't know why this clip's been on my mind right now, but I woke up recently with vivid images from the film, 1984 , based on Orwell's novel, playing in my head.   I haven't even seen it for some 20 years, so why it's surfaced now in my memory makes no sense, really.   Well, I did just find a pile of used CDs by the Eurythmics at GoodWill, with the exception of this brilliant film soundtrack,  so, maybe that's why?  I used to have a cassette tape of it, too, back in the days when people had cassette tapes.  But, those tapes are gone now.   Now I have YouTube. Perhaps it's on my mind due to discussions with my 14 year old who only just read  Ray Bradbury 's   Fahrenheit 451  for school  this week. I really don't know why this is stuck in my head.  There could be so many reasons why. Why do people dream? T hanks to YouTube, a mere plaything of Big Brother, I can now Google up my dreams and memories to share with other mere stranger

I realize that having issues with snakes is quite commonplace, however my issues are complicated by my memories of how people reacted to those snakes after having let us play happily so near to them. While living in the deep south we kids, apparently, were encouraged to swim in and play around some beautiful, yet swampy and entirely snake-infested waters.  Why that is, is still a mystery to me now that I am a parent, myself.  However at the time we were thrilled to be allowed to play in the wild and all did so, happily, without any harm that I can remember. Occasionally, though, the inappropriateness of choosing a swamp as a playground would strike to our caretakers as problematic, who would then suddenly rectify the situation by becoming quite hysterical and slaughtering the snakes using any manner of tools handy.  They would cut the heads off of snakes with shovels and hoes, even guns.  The violence of these sudden slaughters were shocking, confusing and quite terrifying. One o

Great video clip about acting and the value of doing real scenes verses taking imaginary showers. Charles Grodin on Acting - watch more funny videos

Works so well I can't remember the originals.

 --  So, if abortion shouldn't be legal, then what should happen to women who have abortions?  -- I dunno.  What do you mean? -- I mean, if they're illegal, then what should the punishment be for the women getting abortions? -- I don't know...I... -- Should they go to jail? -- I dunno.  I hadn't thought about that.  No comment?  I guess I would just...pray for her?

Found a few new musical tunes to obsess about thanks to both Nerve.com and   KCRW's   MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC . This first is  called  "Bird 1"  from the group Underground,  and there's even a cool video. My second ear candy offering is "Do It Again," from the band Holy Ghost.   If you're a LCD Soundsystem or a !!! fan, then you may like them. I don't know if I like this kind of music better on a Friday than on other days, but it sure is the kind of music I like to drive to. Or, perhaps I'm just looking for new sounds to help ease the pain of our losing LCD Soundsystem forever once they plow through their last, final, tragic set in NYC next month.  (Sniff, sniff!) I don't know about you, but I actually hate Fridays if there isn't something fun to listen to while approaching those two wide-open days looming ahead. But, these keep me moving forward. Happy Friday.

He's actually a pretty great little singer for a boy belting into a ripe banana in his kitchen, but what really strikes me is how similar his cover sounds to the Madonna song "Express Yourself." Different key, different words...but fairly similar tune. Am I the only one to notice the similarity? Or is it just a quirk revealed by the talents of Banana Boy who, clearly, is Ready To Rock.

Transference and countertransference during psychotherapy In a therapy context, transference refers to redirection of a patient's feelings for a significant person to the therapist. Transference is often manifested as an erotic attraction towards a therapist, but can be seen in many other forms such as rage, hatred, mistrust, parentification, extreme dependence, or even placing the therapist in a god-like or guru status. Hm... That's one way to boost the mental health industry during these times of economic duress.

These girls are my heroes.  (Actually,  their parents are, too) This is what strong, loving girls do, they stand up for what they believe is an injustice. I'm willing to bet you may be hearing a lot more about this groundbreaking video. -- I hope we do. We raised our girls on Sesame Street, Blues Clues, Little Bill, Reading Rainbow, Noggin and PBS. We read to them  Little Bear and Dr. Seuss and hundreds of other books all confirming the message that each and every child is created equal and deserves equal love. But, then they get a little bit older - and that radio goes on. And they sure hear otherwise. These three girls are my rockstars.   Here's what their own statement says: "Letter to Lil Wayne" is a direct statement of justice from Watoto From The Nile. Growing tired and fed up with the constant degredation of Black women inside of Hip Hop music, they voice thier views and opinions on this melodic track.

I find this unsettlingly perfect. This clip was titled "Nick Cave and PJ Harvey / Henry Lee, Directed by Rocky Schenck." But, is it really? Actually, it's a silent movie of Cave and Harvey set to Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor. But, like I said, I find it all works perfectly. Somehow.

Cool. Alexandre Farto aka Vhils in collaboration with Orelha Negra. Portuguese graffiti/street artist Alexandre Farto, gained prominence when his work of a face carved into a wall appeared alongside a picture by street artist Banksy at the Cans Festival in London in 2008 New amazing work by Portuguese Artist Vhils. Vhils started off by peeling paper off billboards and street advertisements to create amazing images on the street. Then he evolved his craft to to chipping away at concrete, and experimenting using acids . But now Vhils has a new level by using explosives… alexandrefarto.com

I almost never do this. I never post kid songs. But, I had to post this clip of "Rowan" singing a cover of a Caitlin Rose tune in the kitchen. She's got tiny, kid-sized lungs, but manages to take her time with each and every line. Never rushes the melody and somehow connects each shift in thought to her breath. But the best part is her comfort level delivering such an emotionally rich song. Frankly, this is astonishing, really. That's some pretty great music from just a little kid. Good job, mom and dad. Watch:

Great tune, however I might have shot it, say, all in silhouette. ...Mostly because the way this one's shot happens to make it something of a ripe parody magnet. See below: Yorke hearts ABBA Yorke no-hearts fish Still, great new tune by Radiohead!