louise on the left (coast)

Very amusing take on fashion…starring real actors! (gasp!) PRADA presents "A THERAPY"

While most of this past year I've been doing my own version of "Driving Miss Daisy," there are plenty of times when I have to admit I am so, so lucky to have the opportunity to spend alone time with my kids, whether or not it's stuck in traffic, or at a museum, hard at work, or even, as in this case, on the beach.  Whatever the case, I never forget that I am so, so lucky. What strikes me about this film clip is the "fuzzy" quality to it. I think the lens has sunblock on it, which is obviously not great,  but it does add to perfect misty, dreamlike quality to this clip.   And as I've always told my students, accidents are where some of our best work occurs. So here is a happy girl and her ocean.   And that's me holding the cellphone reminding myself that I really am the luckiest person in the world.

What could be better for the summer, filled with long car trips or driving the kids around for hours, than plopping into your CD player some great "summer chick music."  Something that beats listening NPR for the second time thru or playing more crappy tunes for the kids, no? What you need is "chick music" -- this time, music with a kick in the ass. Meet  Cynthia Kaplan , the singer/songwriter. And this is Fangry, her CD , which is a unique combination of original, beautiful music that packs a punch in the face if you're on her bad side.  Which, apparently is what fish sticks, slacker BF's, and a host of other annoyances are.   But hell, give this woman a guitar and she'll rock the house before burning it down. Not that I'm a bit surprised.  I am not.  For we are talking about the very same Cynthia Kaplan who wrote best-seller Why I'm Like This and Leave The Building Quickly: True Stories .   Ms. Kaplan is no slouch with her wit, ...

Her name is Nadia Sibirskaia. The film is a little known 1926 silent film classic entitled "Ménilmontant." While you may not have heard of Sibirskaia before, once you've watched her lyrical, haunting work you can't forget the face. Her beauty and her performance is nothing short of breathtaking. Hidden gold. Note: Menilmontant was also shot in the same Paris neighborhood they filmed another French gem, "The Red Balloon." Looks like Mr. Chaplin may have had a cinematic rival after all. And she was drop dead gorgeous.

I just got so completely lost listening to "Don't Be Sad" performed by Brad Mehldau. It's a work so heartfelt, rich and emotionally evocative that it's hard to believe Mehldau's just an American kid from Florida. But, that's the thing about jazz, it can be on the one hand so utterly sophisicated, that it's difficult to imagine that it's pretty much our (young) nation's invention. (I mean, Marie Antionette and Shakespeare can't lay claim to that one.) Anyhow, people:   just listen to this.   I scoured the net searching for a decent clip of him playing it live, but all I really found was some nerd's bootleged cell phone recording which was pretty blech. However, I did find another gorgeous clip of him which is from his own site which is so much better than anything else I could find. So this clip is the lucky winner of free real estate here on my blog.

Bjork:  More To Life Than This. Charlie Chaplin:  Moving through space. Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo. Required Daily Affirmation Unexpected family: Chimp and White Tiger cubs Woody Allen in "Manhattan."   Scene: Tracy's face. These are just a few moments, both fictional and real, to hang on to while ringing out this year. No doubt 2011 has been a particularly trying one.  It's easy to become cynical or numb at times like this, but we shouldn't linger there for long. The truth is no matter what year it is there will always be moments which are genuinely good or funny or simply breathtaking and nothing can change those moments, no matter how bad a year it is. More reminders to come. Just as soon as I think of them.