louise on the left (coast)

absorbing anna The abbreviated edition : “Anna spoke not only naturally and intelligently, but intelligently and casually, without attaching any value to her own thoughts, yet giving great value to the thoughts of the one she was talking to.”   Keira Knightley and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in  Anna Karenina And then she fell under a train. Everybody was very sad. - - Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina _____________________ absorbing anna: This blogger's  addendum: Except Anna's children grew up with a half of them still a part of her, and half of her a part of them, and this part would remain alive and shine brightly beyond all despair, hardships or even time. Like her, they would follow their own truth, but would be carried along with an invisible strength   -- a courage which only springs from having been loved by someone with such an open and loving heart.  T hey would know how to follow the faintest echoes of her lingering w...

…and to all a good night.

". . . for it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself."   - Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. "There is probably a smell of roasted chestnuts and other good comfortable things all the time, for we are telling Winter Stories - Ghost Stories, or more shame for us - round the Christmas fire; and we have never stirred, except to draw a little nearer to it."   - Charles Dickens,  A Christmas Tree. Our cold, quiet Christmas of 2012

Today we will think about joy and light and being here in the present. Today we will choose finding joy even when darkness is all around. We are not choosing light because we do not feel pain, darkness or despair. No, we choose joy because it is what keeps us eternal. And in this bleak winter month we are required to do this with even more tenacity. Our lives challenge us to keep joy alive, however it is what anybody who ever loved us,  who ever walked this earth that we loved would demand we do.  They would demand  we choose joy, not despair. So listen to me, no matter how dire the news is, you trust the universe, okay?   And you find your joy. Because, because -- love is all you need -- Love is all you get. Are you listening to me?  LOVE IS ALL YOU GET. Don't squander it. Love really is what makes the world go round.  Not anger.  Not mean.  Not insecure.  Not fear.  Not money.  Not bitterness.  Love. ...

So, work brought us up to Los Angeles yesterday to spend a bit of time in the always hip Smashbox Studios. There I was lucky enough to discover someone else spinning a dj list with precisely  my taste in music. I was forced to go make conversation asap and discover just who and what we were listening to for the day. The dj was very gracious and shared some of their extremely terrific playlist with me.  Naturally, I had to share it, here, as well.  (Too wonderful not to share the wealth.) Oh, one of the many thing's left off this list are selections from  a music duo from  France , called  Air. Hearing them is what got my attention to begin with. Never can get enough of them. However, yesterday he introduced me to even more tunes I loved but had not heard before: Such as  XXYYXX, etc.   So, a large muchas gracias to the awesome, Mr. Aaron, along with his stellar team at BeachMint. --  Rock on.

Not much to say other than the problem is beyond obvious. My heart aches endlessly for those in headlines at this time. The only panacea I can offer is a promise to make tomorrow safer. And God bless your souls on this dark day.

hammock

Discovered these guys a few years ago and really ready for them to be discovered on a larger stage, they're wonderful.

They've got one of those impossible names, XXYYXX -- But, me likey very much.

My mother has this thing about sending both my girls a new advent calendar every year.  It's very sweet.  This year she sent them early on, in November, 4th Class, USPS. This is how they looked when they arrived late yesterday (12/10/12) Part one: The good news is that both advent calendars finally arrived and brought us much joy -- however thought I'd let folks  know that postage upgrades appears to be worth it. Part two:  Behold our two wonderful advent calendars which survived the crushing blows of the USPS! One is a wonderful Andy Warhol calendar and the other is a NYC advent calendar filled with little windows which each show a little famous NYC iconic image in a pop-up NYC ice skating scene. Both courtesy of my mother who always knows where our hearts are!  Thank you!!!

I grew up seeing The King Of Hearts on more than one occasion -- and remember being told it was "pure genius." Not sure if I'd call it  pure genius by today's standards, but it was a one-of-a-kind, enchanting cinematic fable.  It was even something of a cult favorite for a while, although now it seems to have dropped off the radar.  Today nobody's even heard of The King of Hearts.  The campy charm of this wacky anti-war tale is probably lost on today's audience.  Times change. What has always been unforgettable for me is the appeal of Alan Bates and Geneviève Bujold who light up the screen in this absurdly innocent, romantic confection.  Which is why it's become one of my personal favorites -- even if it's far from pure "genius."  

Renée Perle and her times as seen by Lartigue Music from soundtrack to 1988 film The Moderns. When I was a teenager someone gave me prints from early 1920s VOGUE covers and I plastered my walls with them. They followed me from dorm room, to dorm room and back home during the summers. Then, later, they followed me to college where I guess they just fell apart from so much thumbtacking… I never knew there was an actual "real" woman who inspired the covers. But, of course there was. (There always is.) She was a muse -- and her name? Her name was Renee Perle. There are always muses and they are so often overlooked. A creative crime, really, considering they're usually more interesting than the artists who celebrates them. Everything is alchemy. In this case it was Perle's long, cool grace which cast a unique spell on the talented artist, Lartigue, whose advertising images of her inform our ideals of marketing beauty to this very day. Pretty cool fash...

my cellphone her casting address & an hr btwn Eng. Lit and Pre Cal on a bday in downtown los angeles note: guard dog in baby carriage under dangling spoons wind chime This is what we do

I just read a salacious piece from an interesting blog called This Recording , entitled  ANGRY MAN,  by Alex Carnevale , about the so-called "real life" of Roald Dahl. It was interesting, but was it really all true? Carnevale's post basically states that uber successful children's author, Roald Dahl, the creator of classics such as  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  and James and The Giant Peach , was no more than a racist, bigoted, womanizing, pedophilic, raging, not to mention extremely cruel son-of-a-bitch. The piece has another title as well:    In Which We Consider The Macabre Unpleasantness Of Roald Dahl Naturally, I found this piece impossible to put down.  But as everyone knows, good non-fiction cannot live by salacious grandeur alone.  Facts are good, too.  As in this case, I suspect there's so much more to The Long and Winding Tale of Roald Dahl than has yet been told.  Somebody very clever should tell it...