louise on the left (coast)

My favorite children's author is, hands down, Maurice Sendak. However, my favorite of his books is not the hugely famous   Where The Wild Things Are , (yes, the same book that  that Spike Jonze based his hit film on ), although that's a good one.  Instead, my  personal favorite Sendak book is the much lesser known book from 1967 called: " Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More to Life " Introducing "Jennie"  I remember my mother bringing this book home from one of her library conventions.  She's always been something of a genius about spotting great children's literature early on, and always brought gifts from these trips which I still treasure today.  Posters and odd first edition books by eccentric artists, like Edward Gorey (who apparently shared her love of 1920s raccoon coats) and the sweet husband-and-wife team of the D'Aulaires.  She always came home with great gifts, and even better stories to tell.   In any case, ever since th

Here it is nearing the sad anniversary of Katrina and yet, I hear there's another new hurricane headed toward Louisiana. In any event, I've been thinking about our collective need for angels. Especially now. For reasons both deeply personal as well as global. I've been trying to define for myself what I think being an "angel" means, exactly. I've dug out Tony Kushner's script for Angels in America as well as put Jane Sibery 's timely, haunting song Calling All Angels into my cd player. (By the way, if you would like to hear more from this musician, I highly recommend her astonishing CD, Bound By The Beauty ) It appears that someone's done a nice job creating a video of it for YouTube, so if you've missed hearing this about a decade ago, you can hear it here. After all -- It's clear that right now there's practically nobody who is not in dire need of calling all angels .