Reading Tolstoy

You will not hear me grousing about the holiday season. I like to make the best of it. Those who go full-Scrooge seem to think they're original, even witty. (Oy) If you are active on Twitter &/or Facebook, the double-dose of Bah humbug is wearying - & it's only December 1.

Instead, I'm mixing it up with planning outings with friends, solo outings, movies, & reading that feels like a project, but in a good way. This translation of Anna Karenina was a revelation to many, including me, in 2001. It's time to move on to War & Peace; this will be made more enjoyable by checking in with C.M. Mayo's Reading War & Peace & following her links. She's a terrific writer (& teacher) who lives here in Washington, DC (when she's not in Mexico). She's also a very generous blogger.

Now go get that poinsettia or start collecting the spices you need for cookies or mulled wine or decide on a new calendar (there are sales already) or string some fairy lights around a window or mirror. Or take a walk to the library. On the way, buy a toy & take it to the holiday toy collection for a child in need. Cheers!

(Woman Reading by Alexander Deineka)

Central Park in Fog

I don't do gift guides & shopping posts (though I enjoy reading them) & I'm certainly not paid for anything I recommend. Occasionally, though, I like something so much that I do link to it. I've loved Canadian Irene Suchocki's photographs on flickr for ages, enough to click 'contact.' People use her photographs quite a lot without mentioning that she has an Etsy shop, Eye Poetry. {finger wag}

Eye Poetry features three calendars this season & some discounted prints; there's a Cyber Monday discount on other prints as well. These are excellent prices, though, even without the discounts. Her subjects are like a round-up of what-I-love. Italy & France, animals, New York, fairy lights, carousels.

The holiday order deadline is past for Europe (& obviously Australia:) but as I said on Giulia Geranium, subscribe to the idea of the Twelve Days of Christmas & relax, man. The deadline for the States is the 5th, Canada, the 6th. Love those calendars. This bridge in Central Park is featured on a small black & white vintage-photograph holiday card that I've sent twice. I really love these, too, though they are mass-produced.

Cheers all...

(photograph by Irene Suchocki)

De Officiis

There are some also who, either from zeal in attending to their own business or through some sort of aversion to their fellow-men, claim that they are occupied solely with their own affairs, without seeming to themselves to be doing anyone any injury. But while they steer clear of the one kind of injustice, they fall into the other: they are traitors to social life, for they contribute to it none of their interest, none of their effort, none of their means.-- Cicero (De Officiis)

He could be such a scold...but...isn't it so irritating when someone is correct?

Update: I think I've solved the computer problem. I don't feel very well at all but am trying to get ready for Thanksgiving (at friend's in-laws).

Main Subject: I'm pissed off that most of the few emails I received re: IKEA soft toys discussed the virtues of up/recycling toys & buying local. I proclaim the goodness of buying local on both blogs. On Twitter. On Facebook. This is a global fundraising effort; it works well. So basically what I'm saying is eff off. And, you go tell children who must participate in such programs as Toys for Tots that they should be happy with a used toy. I am so angry.

If you've read this far, Tom Palumbo's site has 3 good slideshows. Under celebrity, play the slideshow & you'll see wonderful shots of the young Miles Davis. Oh, & the only reason I chose these photos is because the top one has been labelled 'pout'. My beloved grandfather was generally pleased with me, but mentioned my lower lip problem rather often.

If you celebrate American Thanksgiving, have a happy one. If not, have an easy coast down to week's end. xoxo/Susan

(Tom Palumbo from the Les Halles, Paris 1962 series)

IKEA Soft Toy Aid 2011

Hi. I'm having computer issues & trying to figure it out: frustration & angst & fear. Meanwhile, if you go to IKEA (no matter where you are in the world), please note that this year's soft toy fundraising campaign is on through December 24th. I won't post the adorable video again, but you can watch it here.

On everyone's IKEA country page, there are blogger tools to spread the word. Even if you don't post about it, please consider posting on Facebook &/or tweet about it. Toys for Tots in the States is in major need & IKEA donated to them this year. I've been beating this drum for years: buy one or more & then donate to a toy drive in your town. Done & done. These are cute toys & they're affordable (even for me).

Let me know if you post about it & I will link to you on the Giulia Geranium blog. Thanks!

(photograph via IKEA)

Hyacinth

My flower obsession is in full, um, flower. (Forgive me.) I have approximately one million things to do but I just spent many minutes looking at & for information on antique bulb glasses. I didn't find everything I wanted but there's always this afternoon/evening. There is actually an organization called Hyacinth Vases & it has many pretty photographs.

Kevin Lee Jacobs blogs for Garden Home Design; he has a good step-by-step for a variety of spring bulbs (& also many lovely photographs). I just realized I probably won't be able to grow the hyacinth as I don't have a spare fridge (I used to - it was very useful). So. Another plan. I hope everyone is having a good week...we're coasting down to the weekend as of noon (EST).

(photograph by Kevin Lee Jacobs)

Views from My Desk Chair

Wow, people. I am getting desperate (in the creative department). Here are two views from behind my desk & the chrysanthemums are on it. Julie is lounging nearby (as always). Since the snaps are so limited due to tech, I grunged'em up but good. I tweeted another shot yesterday a.m. & said that though in an urban area, this is indeed from my apt. I lucked out nearly 22 years ago. (I moved in Thanksgiving weekend, 1989.)

If you know Ruth Orkin's photos of an American girl in Italy, you might remember that she took pictures out her New York City apartment windows for 30 years. Another (mainly) from-where-I-live tumblr I enjoy is by Jennifer Ehle. Her photographs of the countryside in & around her home are lovely, some very painterly. She also has a wonderful, cheeky sense of humor. Do take a visit.

Now, I must get some errands done but I hope some of you excellent photographers will let me know if you have some shots from where you sit. And if so, might we see a few? Here's hoping.

PS: I put up the viral video of starlings on the GG blog in case you've not seen it yet.

The Girl in the Red Beret

Life's cinematic moments. Here's one captured in Melbourne by Andrew of Cuba Gallery. Click through to read his description. I'm posting this because I saw it a year ago but it just rolled around in my memory. Then, of course, I went off to look at berets, red & otherwise. Picasso & Mary Cassatt have girls in red berets. There are photographs all over the place with the title. People posing in Paris mostly. Not a small thing, either, is that the last post has Halloween in the title. So let's move on, even if it's at a limp.

PS: I vaguely recall a tweet by Simon about Melbourne's design & Paris. Enlighten us, will you, Simon? Because I looked for something but not a lot came up. And I am in a wild hurry.

(photograph by Cuba Gallery)

Happy Halloween

I am about as excited as this model this morning. I'm going out with friends & their little kids to a Halloween neighborhood block party bash thingy tonight. It's heaps o' fun so I'll perk up. I'll be wearing this on my head. Lots of blogs I link to, here & on Giulia Geranium, have terrific Halloween posts. It's a favorite holiday; someday I'll get it together before the morning of & post my own pix.

If you're stuck for last-minute ideas for Halloween, I highly recommend Martha Stewart's site. If I could find the proper wire in the next 10 minutes, I'd make this headband. If you're all caught up & feeling smug (boo;), these pepita recipes are fast & very tasty.

Meet me back here later this week to tango. Seriously. xoxo/Susan

(Jason Wu lace mask on Vogue Italia)

Ballet Workers

I'll be going to this exhibit at The Phillips Collection more than once, I know. I remember a reproduction of a Degas painting & some (repro) drawings at my maternal grandmother's house. I never had the reaction that others did of "oooh pretty." I liked them very much but I remember saying/thinking: They're working so hard that it might hurt. And also it might be boring sometimes. I learned not a few years later (through a sister & later on, friends) that this could often be the case. Not that they would trade their training for anything. So there you are.

There's also a Degas exhibit on in Boston (nudes) & one at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. There are some good articles in the New York Times & a good slideshow on The Guardian. Here's the Degas label on The Guardian, too, so you can see all the article titles at once.

I hope to post more regularly as autumn marches on. But I've said that before. Part of the problem is deciding how to use the space. I've not been writing from prompts as much as I did at the beginning. Maybe I don't have to define what I'm doing but it feels like I should.

(Dancers at the Barre/Phillips Collection via Wikipedia)

Toast Travels

I just walked in from a belated birthday lunch & it was wonderful. A chilly breeze has made everything a bit too cold & Julie is asleep in a pile of blankets next to the desk. The area around the desk looks much like this photograph from Toast (though I made my jam).

Toast has a little blog, Toast Travels, where they post on a wide variety of topics. I particularly like the latest one In Defence of Darkness.

The other online thing I loved this weekend was looking through Jilly's Menton Daily Photo. I'm behind in everything but enjoyed the ongoing wedding series. You have to follow the thread back as there's not a dedicated label. It's worth it. (I really really really get sick of everyone's wedding festival look-at-me stuff - this is so very different.) Also, Jilly's photographs of (male) flamenco dancers are gorgeous.

Have a lovely start to the week tomorrow.

(Happy Monday to Australians)

Butterfly Questions

I've seen several butterflies the last few days; it's awfully late in the fall for them to be hanging about. Plus, it's quite rainy & windy. I thought they, well, that they went somewhere. I love them & I am frightfully ignorant about them, as it turns out.

Here is a link to lovely butterfly drawings by Nabokov. And there are a gazillion butterfly earrings, here. Turns out: not my thing. Or maybe what I had in mind is not available. That happens with everything from shoes to bags to clothing. It's in my head but nowhere else.

(photograph by Taesang via Автор)

Moony Mood

I'm in one hell of a mood. Be glad that I've not been around to comment for a couple of days, though I will be later today/tomorrow evening. Will restrain self from snarling. The thing is this mood goes from distracted moon-swoony to full-out tooth gnashing. Wah.

I've started to pay attention to my Pinterest boards, after a year or so. Nothing like the fear of spending money to get that going. (I just deleted about two grafs of semi-rant re: many images people pin over there. It's their thing, I'll let it go. Until comments here, if any.) If you'd like, you can request an invite on the site. It's not as exclusive as many designers/bloggers/etc would have you believe.

PS: Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday greetings in late September!

(Paris photograph by Darien Chin)

Fragmented Flowers

Singaporean photographer Fong Qi Wei went deeper than just taking photos of flowers and created an amazing series of Exploded Flowers – images that show the radial symmetry of flowers.--from DeMilked (via Illusion)

A lovely & clever art project. See the entire series, here.

I had these on GG blog but I really like them so now they're here....and...I just noticed that I still have on nightclothes. Oops. *Damn you, Twitter*

Ira's Advice

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.

Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” ― Ira Glass

Oh, Ira. I love you. (photograph by Stuart Mullenberg)

Something From Nothing

If you like Instagram photos but don't have an iPhone, here's your program. Pixlr is not new but it is adding lots of new effects. You can run the app on other smart phones or via the web, on an iPad, etc. Here's the Pixlr blog where you can keep up. I do love free stuff & a way to make something out of nothing, using what you have. It's a fun way to kill some time while you're doing something boring, too. (It's also a way to eat up time that would be best spent elsewhere but that's not your problem; it's mine:) Cheers, all.

PS: Tina of English Muse's post Instagram photographers.

Spotted

I'm posting this to move on from the Oxford Comma. Also to post a pic of Julie in her new polka-dot collar given to her by a friend. I think Julie looks very Kate Spade NYC. If you want a USA-made dog &/or cat collars leads, etc. this Upcountry label is very nice. It's carried in some pet stores, but you can order online. Thanks to Hermione's mama for such a great gift.

The straight-faced, breathless fashion press declarations over the polka-dot (or stripes or whatever classic) revival make me laugh. It's necessary, I suppose, for covering the shows. See how nice I'm being? We all know that the polka dot never goes away. I have the pattern everywhere, on every conceivable piece of clothing (yes, everything:)

Very busy here. The tragic culmination of a 20-year death penalty case looks like it will be tonight, unless there is an unexpected stay. I am gutted along with millions, yes millions, of people around the world.

(photographs via Nastygal)

In Defense of the Oxford Comma

The illustration above floated down my Twitter timeline last evening just before my (-.-)Zzz... *night* tweet.

I have let so much of a pedantic nature *go* - I really have. (I thank Stephen Fry for this. I downloaded the blessay from iTunes last summer. Stephen is funnier to listen to, IMHO). I try to refrain from teeth gnashing on matters of a grammatical nature; but when it comes to matters of clarity, peeps, this stuff is important.

From a comedy perspective, though, I am glad that many omit the Oxford comma.

Comedy, like success, has many fathers (& mothers) but I saw this via the grand Nina L. Diamond, journalist & writer extraordinaire. She is a one-woman news bureau with entertainment division on Twitter. (Here is her Facebook Fan page for more information.)

(illustration credit is not easy to pin down via tumblr via the fabulously-named Edith Wharton Wants Your Shoes)

La Lettre de Photographie - Call for Photographs

If I had a working SLR (or DSLR) camera, I would have already responded to this call. It's not a contest, though there is some judging going on. I can think of many people who ought to go right now & fish out a minimum of 7 shots from their folders & email them to LLdP. Don't make me come over there! Here are details of submission. It's a great opportunity.

PS: Blogger pal, Catherine sent in a terrific photograph for La Lettre's holiday stretch.

PPS: I wish I could wear orange (can you?)

(pretty photograph by Yuli Bow)

Refuge from Misery

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”Albert Schweitzer

I have both; also, great good fortune: the cat shares my eclectic taste in music.

Here's an article on Human-Cat Psychology. Also I laughed at this article on The therapeutic value of cats. It's from a scientific journal. If you are inclined to read it, it starts in the lower right-hand corner & continues onto next page. What made me laugh were the comments from a scientist & from one Simon Teakettle the Younger.

I watched this lovely video several times last night. Wicked insomnia. I logged on to Twitter & there it was...I think everyone in the world has seen it but me. I love the East African music, too.

Trying to catch up is not going well but I forge ahead.

(photograph by Leslie)

Ballet Beautiful at Home

A quickie. I am slammed, exhausted, pooped. Julie the Cat is in her little house, listening to my iPod's French Pop playlist. I am not kidding. It makes her feel better. She also enjoys my Ocean & Rain playlist. I wish I could beam it out to everyone...it's wonderfully relaxing.

On to exercise: I can vouch only for the Ballet Beautiful streaming video called Swan Arms. Ouch ouch ouch ouch.There are additional videos ($8.00) & finally some DVDs for sale. I've read about people who have the videos on their smartphones! Just thinking about doing ballet videos anywhere but in the privacy of my apartment behind a triple-bolted door makes me laugh. Out loud. I assume these people aren't doing butt blasts in the park.

Of course, if you have some money to spare & are in NYC, take a class. And then tell the rest of us about it. I follow Mary Helen Bowers (the founder) on Twitter & she's quite nice.

I hope for a semblance of bloggy normalcy soon. Whatever that means. Cheers!

(photograph by Mads Teglers - from his lovely Josephine portfolio)