Just Started

Kathe Kollwitz, self-portrait

Isn't that gorgeous? There is something so very vital about it.

I recently started the summer session at the local college. Divided into three terms, I am registered for the two most condensed terms (5 weeks each), and first up is 'Art Appreciation'. Originally I planned to take more than one class for my first summer session but had a few problems with registration and required texts, and so settled for one class, the aforementioned 'Art Appreciation'. The next session, which begins only a few days after the current one ends, will see me attending two classes, a math course and 'Photography I'. Should be fun, right? Well, it is only the first day but we covered much of the basics (the class is four hours long) and while uneventful, it wasn't boring. The teacher answered a few private questions I had about majors and the job market as it applies to a B.A. and her answers created for me a sense of freedom and opportunity just as I was feeling hemmed in. So, yeah, good day.

Saturday Morning Song, cont.

Hmm, what moved me to post the song? I'm not sure, Brandon. I was weeding my CDs and one Saturday, I came across the song in a mix. It's strange because I certainly wasn't in the mood for any song off the Gattaca soundtrack -- it just caught me up! Listening to it now as I type it sounds sort of sad but at the time, in my imagination, I saw a newly arisen sun and breaking white clouds on a damp day. It seemed very hopeful and lovely and I wanted to share it all of a sudden.

What Should I Write Today?

Hello, my baby! Hello, my honey! Hello, my ragtime gal!

Yeah, I've got nothing.

August? Wow. August?!

August. That was the last time I wrote a blog entry, or checked my blog. Sigh. I was trying to be so good about it too. Attempting to stay on top of it and come up with at least one thing a week.

On a separate yet related note: I am the laziest person ever. It must be said, I am. Lazy with a capital L. It's quite pathetic. Again, sigh. Hmm. Following this not-so-groundbreaking confession is:

I need to put up pictures... of my hair!!! Ha! So vain, I know. :smile: Where's my camera?! I think the battery needs to be recharged, then I can get to snapping!

In October, happy birthday me! Approaching that all important age of 30, closer and closer. The weird thing? I don't feel close to 30. I don't feel my age, whatever that is supposed to feel like. I worry if that is a good thing (we are all forever young) or if its the sign of some dangerous arrested development I need to clear away now. Food for thought.

A lot of music, new and old, to share. Reading has mostly been centered on poetry with a few romance novels thrown in, definitely some manga.

Hmm, what else? I can't think of anything right now off the top of my head. Sleepless night and I'm only just getting tired. Sigh.

I'll try not to go so long between posts again.

A Girl's Been Gone Too Long

Does absence make the heart grow fonder? Well, I'm in for an entire helping of love now, aren't I? I have been keeping busy with my writing pursuits. Lots of writing... one poem. Really, weeks upon weeks of intense communion with dictionary.com, thesaurus.com, my personal thesaurus and dictionaries, encyclopedic and pronunciation respectively. All this is supplemented with 'Blurbs of Wisdom' (Poetry Free-For-All on everypoet.com) and critiquing of other's poetry. It's been fun if exhausting. As I wrote in previous posts (I think) I'm making a concerted effort to work on meter and form, and I'm still "stuck" on sapphic. Every revision of the poem so far has ended up adding two more blank quatrains. Four... Six... Will eight' be next?

I really need to put some new hair pictures up. I've been lazy about my camera -- the battery is near-dead and I haven't bothered to recharge it.

*
Listening to... Anjulie, song 'The Heat'
What a hot little summer number!

Thursday Rush Update

I'm rushing to publish an update before putting up the A Girl's Open Thread post; and yes, I know technically it is already Friday -- the open thread start date -- but for me, a day starts with the first blush of dawn.

I have a couple of updates -- let me start with my hair: It's vain and admittedly shallow but I love my hair; I love the feel of it, the length; I love taking care of it. It is time-consuming yet oddly fun. I've been natural for a while but I have never embraced it in its totality until recently. Choosing all natural products has left my hair silky, strong and long-long-long!!! Not (Black girl) perm long but kinky curl long where the twists hang enough to pull into pony tails, create full bangs or stylish 'bumps'. It's strange to me now, the idea that our natural hair is considered "hard" to style or "limited". It's not! The hair styles are half the fun! Yesterday I cornrowed my twists and I'm looking mighty cute if I do write so myself, LOL. Initially I attempted to do a 'faux-hawk' by cornrowing the sides but, with twists, the middle falls too limply. I still want to blowout my hair to get an accurate measurement of length but I'm terrified of the heat, literally. As a small child I couldn't stand the hot comb or the blow dryer. I winced and whimpered so much under their use my mother thought I suffered from sensitive scalp (nope, it's as tough as the Rock of Gibralter). Now the fear is under control (somewhat) and my fear is based more on the damage heat can do to hair.

Next on the update list -- poetry. I've continued to write. I resumed reading 'The Book of Forms' by Lewis Turco(?), once more from the start, and it has made me feel bad about myself. LOL, I kid. No, really, Turco writes there is no such thing as "free verse" because verse requires meter, measurement, a foundational pattern of a kind which it either holds to or breaks but a pattern nonetheless. Yeah, I rarely... Never. I never do that. Sigh. Without that it's all just prose, pretty prose perhaps, but prose. It also explains why my rondeau, though it fits a basic, prescribed structure still sounds wrong. I dread the redo but it must be done. Currently I'm working on sapphic verse -- it's a Greek form relying on a strict format of (in this order) two trochees, a dactyl, and two trochees per line for three lines, then an adonic line, which is a dactyl and a trochee, for the fourth and final line of the stanza. It's a blank quatrain; blank means unrhymed. Dactyls and trochees are different units of paired stressed and unstressed syllables.

Let's say this little guy [ ' ] represents a stressed syllable and this little guy [ - ] an unstressed syllable, trochees and dactyls look as follows:

trochee ' -
dactyl ' - -

So, a sapphic line looks like this: ' -..... ' -..... ' - -..... ' -..... ' -
And an adonic line looks like this: ' - -..... ' -

My creative brain is still frustrating me; it took me three days to crack that first sapphic stanza, three damn days to finish the first two and a half lines! I just completed the third line's latter half and the adonic today! Then I lit through the other quatrains as if on fire! It's as if my brain needed time to click onto the syllabic pattern because suddenly the dactyls which had troubled me so much troubled me no longer. I have one last stanza (I hope) and then I will submit the poem for critical review on the site, The Critical Poet. It's an excellent board full of knowledgeable writers and poets. It's also partially the reason why writing this poem has been so difficult. You see, this is in answer to a ten word challenge, an exercise in which ten random words are provided and must be used, in one form or another, within a freshly created poem. So on top of trying to obey a metrical pattern I also had to factor in ten odd words. Maddening! I really, really, really wanted to give up; I nearly did. However I realized quitting would only further complicate my writing path since the next form I try will probably be just as difficult if not more so. So I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. Of course I'm pretty sure once I submit the thing those who post on The Critical Poet will 'red pen' it to death but I'm cool with that -- how else does one learn? How else does one get better?

That's all for now!

A Girl's Open Thread

You know what to do. Comment on stuff. Whatever you like.

Me? Today I made a cherry clafouti and a Mexican chocolate cake with butter-cream icing. I guess I was in a baking mood. Clafouti is a French dessert and it turned out okay. Someone on Saveur -- where I got the recipe -- described it as a cross between custard and cake. I'd go more with custard, like a bread pudding type custard. It's a tea-time snack so I enjoyed a slice with a scalding hot cup of tea which I forgot was scalding hence my now scalded tongue. I am an idiot, ha!

The Mexican chocolate cake (from Real Simple) is quite delicious. It has cayenne pepper in it which, to be honest, is the driving reason behind why I made the cake in the first place. The recipe called for a chocolate glaze but knowing myself and family not to be chocolate people, I decided to avoid a chocolate-on-chocolate disaster and instead pilfered an icing from another Saveur recipe. I now know how to make a passable butter-cream icing. Huh. While I don't feel precisely accomplished, I don't feel precisely unaccomplished, so yeah, I'm good heading into this weekend.

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'allo! Today a few new recommendations:
Regina Spektor, a Russian-born singer of pretty talent. When sampling her work might I recommend skipping her album, 'Soviet Kitsch', and beginning with 'Begin To Hope' -- it has a better flavor of songs in my humble opinion. She recently released another CD, 'Far', and her musical maturity really shines through every song. I'm currently listening to it (via Rhapsody) and so far 'Far' is fantastic! My favorites off the album as of now: 'Blue Lips' and 'Human of the Year' and 'Laughing With' and 'Dance Anthem of the '80s' is a fun little diddy.

*

Going through the site, Ffffound, and came across this JPEG; the Rilke quote reminded me of the feeling the pic evokes. "My eyes already touch the sunny hill. / going far ahead of the road I have begun." (Rilke); click on the quote to see the pic. Speaking of evoking feelings, I'd love to have this piece. Isn't it gorgeous?

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"The lover whose soul shaken is
In some decuman billow of bliss."
~ Francis Thompson; The Way of a Maid; c. 1890.

Courtesy of A Word A Day, a mailing group dedicated to expanding the vocabulary of the masses by sharing the wonder and eccentricities of words. The italicized word within the quote, decuman, is A Word A Day fare. Do not be fooled by its noun like appearance -- it is an adjective; its meaning? 'Very large'. What I find so interesting about it is A) it is an adjective and B) its etymology. Rooted in the Latin decumanus, itself rooted in decimanus... decimus... and finally decem... each a variation on the theme of 'ten'. Decumanus was used many times by the Romans in conjunction with waves because they held to a belief that every tenth wave was the strongest. It also referred to the main gate of a military camp; the tenth cohort of the legion was stationed at that gate. Since it shares a root, decimate is also a relation and the word, dean, literally means 'a chief of ten'. Isn't that last part just fascinating?

Did you know atone is nothing more than a contraction of 'at one'? Is that not weird?! At least according to A Word A Day. I have my doubts.

--
currently running through my mind: Bertie Blackman's 'Heart'
open in a new tab

This is not a natural hair blog!

But...

I tend to write about things I am into very intensely, and right now hair, as Brandon so astutely put it, is my project. There is sad news in the kingdom of Shanee: I am being a poor steward for my hair! Not enough moisture in my burgeoning all-natural hair process. I won't bore you with the details (this time) but it's all a learning curve. Sigh.

'_'

Happy Nappy Length ^^

all photos are pre-wash

Yeah, sorry about the crooked glasses. Time for a new pair. ^^

Happy Nappy Hair Essentials

This blog isn't meant to be a 'hair diary'. Its purpose is just as its address states: a spot of everything. As I previously posted, however, I am increasingly interested in attaining some hair goals about which I have only been lazily dreaming. I need to take and post a few pictures of my hair but the few times I remember to I don't feel like it. So lazy! Anywho, the first step in healthy growth is maintenance and products. I've been surfing a lot of natural hair blogs recently and can recall a few from way back in the day when I dabbled in promoting growth. I judge the advice of other natural beauties by 1) the tone of their blogs and 2) the growth / thickness of their hair. Plus, is their routine doable? Can I reasonably see myself on the maintenance path upon which they set themselves? Once I answer those questions to my personal satisfaction I go about trying to emulate, then divine how well it works for my particular locks.

Most fashion a weekly maintenance routine involving conditioner or co-wash (though some still stick by shampoo, usually a trusted brand); moisturizer; and twists for gentle styling purposes. Also, monthly deep conditioning to provide thorough tress nourishment. The latter dovetails nicely with advice my mother has given to me: condition, condition, condition! It really is important. I worry sometimes about not keeping to a weekly routine but for me, the problems come when too much time passes between hair treatments. That's when I'm liable to forget or put it off once I do remember. Besides I love playing with my hair -- more so than when it was relaxed. Back then I admired length but didn't touch; now I fondle my curls (ew! dirty!) all the time!

Doable routine? Check. Now it's time for the product. Qhemet Biologics is bandied about natural circles much to my delight. I discovered them several years ago making the various good notations a 'squee' moment. I won't lie -- initally I was attracted by their Ancient Egyptian bent (its my faith); even the company's name 'Qhemet' is a translit. variation on Egypt's ancient name. Back then I bought one product, their rosemary and mint clarifying shampoo. I very much liked the effect of the product on my hair which felt very clean after use and the mint invigorated my scalp. I looked forward to washing my hair just because the product was so awesome. It was the first thing I looked for as I scoured their site again. Discontinued. Bummer. Somehow I found something else to buy (like that's hard), three somethings.

Castor & Moringa Softening Serum
Indian Macassar Conditioning Oil
Amla Oil Nourishing Pomade

From my readings castor oil (which is contained in the serum) is hella good for Black hair, as is Amla Oil. Nowhere had I read much positive or negative about Macassar oil but I liked what the site had to say about it so I gave it a whirl.

March 7: I decide to twist my hair and start a winning routine. The past year of once-monthly deep conditoning had repaired my damage hair but I'm ready to get aggressive. I wash my hair with the original Mane 'n Tail shampoo. It's got all the not-so-good stuff in it my nappy head is supposed to avoid, like sulphates, but I have no alternatives and need a guaranteed clean. I follow that with the Castor & Moringa Softening Serum. Its uses are varied -- it can be a leave-in, a hot oil treatment or an oil rinse (moringa has cleansing properties); I use it for the latter. Lastly, the Cream of Nature Conditioning Reconstructor which I leave in while I shower before rinsing. My mother and I have sworn by the brand, Cream of Nature, most of my life. Out of the shower I gently comb through my damp hair. Working in sections, I apply the Indian Macassar Conditioning Hair Oil, twisting as I go. Afterwards I take dabs of Amla Oil Nourishing Pomade and run it along the exposed scalp and hairline.

One week later: my hair has been soft for a week now, not just for a day or two. I'm quite pleased with that result if not with the heavy oil residue. I resolve to skip the oil rinse, leave it for the deep conditioning phase. Also, I have apple cider vinegar or ACV. It works as a clarifier, de-gunking hair and scalp of product. Every natural blog swears by it. It doesn't leave the same pleasant feeling QB's mint shampoo did but as long as it does its job I can live with it. ACV is a pre-wash step. No shampoo this week (or ever if I can help it)! Just the reconstructor. Post shower I follow the same routine as the week before -- gently comb, macassar oil and pomade for scalp. My hair isn't as soft as it was previously. It's still hella softer but not as soft. The ends especially feel dry. Hmm.

This week: ACV, then the conditioning reconstructor. I leave it for longer this time before rinsing. Back to the castor & moringa! I rub it through my hair, then rinse. The same post-shower routine applies. I've gotten better about the amount of the macassar oil I use. No heavy oil residue so far ^^. My hair is back to being super-soft but the ends seem drier by comparison. Not dry-dry, just relatively. Enter the pomade. I bought if for scalp use but it's also meant for styling and softening dry ends. It does the trick. Oh, another thing -- the pomade instructs usage 2-3 times a week which I have been doing to keep that scalp moisturized.

I'm not sure I'm wedded to these products. I suppose that means I'm not in love with them. So far they've performed as expected. There's been minimum breakage, so yay! I'm eager to try it a few other products but it's good to know I have sure-fire fallbacks.

a westerly wind and a backyard shrub dreaming love

I am as far from that girl
as I have ever been.

Happy Nappy

I've taken real pride in my hair lately. My hair, my crown, I have abused and ignored it for many years only occasionally raising a hand to my tender 'fro to braid it. After an abbreviated flirtation with a wig (blame my mother) it has been nothing but conditioning and cornrows for this girl. Releasing my hair once a month for a thorough shampooing and deep conditioning -- in conjunction with the light condition and rinse week-in and week-out. Each month of strong growth and minimal breakage had me sit up and take notice: if I'm good I can get the rocking 'fro I've always wanted! It's a 'duh' moment to be sure but there is a persistent myth in the Black girl community which says natural hair can naturally take care of itself. No one actually says that out loud; in fact, if asked we'll give the opposite answer but its a whisper in our heads that won't die an ugly death. I blame relaxers for the ugly rumor; they know after we see the mess we make out of our hair we'll run scared to the perm.

For full disclosure: there's nothing I won't blame on perm, nothing! It broke my hair from the first moment my mama tried it on me and since my mom was (is) a great believer in the perm, she never laid the blame at its door. Rather, it fed a deep-seated paranoia about the fragility of Black hair in general and the fear I (and she) would never reach her goal of shoulder blade-length hair; her dream, not mine -- from five through sixteen I was just along for the ride. Look, Black hair is fragile, at least more than most but not so much that it easily breaks when it's growing like weeds from one's skull! I stopped relaxing at sixteen and never looked back. So yeah, I hate relaxers. Besides I'm really suspicious of the origins of it all. I asked myself, why would I / should I relax my hair? Do I really like it, and if so, why? How do I want to wear my hair? Which styles do I like? Those questions led me to my 'fro which, at the time, was no more than a long restful pause between perms.

I'd do extensions -- love me some extensions -- in-between but here in Texas, on the outer outskirts of a major city, there's an awful lot of price gouging going on! I'm used to it now, my military tour having taken me to Alaska and it's dearth of skilled, reasonably priced braiders. I'm originally a Jersey girl and am too used to relatively cheap, fast, professional and good; there was too much available competition per square mile and so no price gouging. When I'm older the plan is to lock my hair and my anticipation of that day is so eager I may not wait.

For the most part I want my hair thick and wild, a carefully constructed unruliness. To that aim I'm taking my hair with a much firmer hand. I bought some stuff from Qhemet Biologics: hair oil rinse; leave-in conditioner; a moisturizing pomade for the scalp and general styling. I like mom-and-pop, particular stuff meant specifically for Black hair. I am well aware that a lot of off-the-shelf product is very good for Black hair. Suave, for example, is a great and very cheap shampoo and conditioner. A few years back Pantene came out with a hair-care line targeted for Black hair, for which a cry of "YES!" was let out. But I like to patronize when I can (or remember) these brave, home-made souls. Do your research, of course, but for the most part the owners and product-makers test out their stuff on their own kinky tresses before imparting it to the world.

Back to my hair! I did my hair in twists for the second time in my life, only this time without the extensions! I used my Qhemet Biologics for the first time and my hair feels baby soft. I'm pretty happy and pleased with the results. Ah, I can feel the new growth already! Cross your fingers for this nappy head!

Apples and Onions

Last Saturday I made an Apple-Cheese tart, of which I am quite proud. It was delicious, better than I expected. The combination of apple and cheese (among other things) to my tastebud's delight yielded a 'squee'. I normally don't flex my culinary muscles; I love collecting recipes or admiring a chef's style and creation but rarely do I dabble. But I had two green apples (too soft for me to enjoyably eat) and a sudden desire for a sweet treat. I have never made a tart before and am glad I took the opportunity to make one.

One of the reasons for my delight was my use of bookmarked sites as handy-dandy references and guides. I made a modified version of an Apple Onion Cheese tart I found on Design*Sponge's In The Kitchen; then I used a glaze mentioned on Orangette. I eliminated the sweet onion from the recipe because I didn't have any and it was too late at night, and I too eager, to run out to buy some.

I did make some mistakes along the way, somehow managing to misjudge the necessary amounts of flour and butter even with the recipe written down, in front of me. Thankfully none of my errors were insurmountable or uncorrectable. It's strange but the tart tasted better warm than piping hot. It tasted even better the next day as opposed to the first day. *shrugs*

I can't wait to try the recipe with sweet onions! It would make for a more savory dish. The glaze itself was nice because it utilizes the discarded apple cores: throw aforementioned cores and sugar in a lot of water and reduce to a tasty apple syrup. It's really good and has some great uses outside of glazing crusts. I recently used it as an impromptu dipping sauce for a few pork slices I had cooked up and pork and apples are always 'yum'!

I'm already planning on making a chocolate tart from unused chocolate chips in the pantry. Hee. Should be fun and, hopefully, tasty!

a girl's random pain and music

I threw out my back... Again! It's been a pain-spiked / medicated recovery for the last two and half weeks or so. Yeah, fun. I've been catching up on my 'nothing', which is even more awesome! (Please note the sarcasm.)

But just so this post isn't all about pain and pain medication (mostly 800 mg motrin with a kick of naproxen), I'll mention a few things on my imaginary 'current loves' list:

Composer, Steve Jablonsky's score for the film, "The Island" -- a lovely flick by the way, in which Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johanssen are as gorgeous as ever.

Composer, Guy Farley's score for the obscure British film, "Cashback" -- an average movie with lovely imagery and a compellingly voiced voice-over. Stay away from his score if you aren't into lush, slightly overblown drama of the orchestral kind. :)

Composer, Adrian Johnston's score for the obscure cinematic gem, "Me Without You" -- I already own the standard soundtrack but it's missing the sweetly dark strains of his instrumental work. I've been hunting it down with little success thus far but I've contacted his management group via e-mail so hopefully I'll receive a positive response soon!

For some reason this image just calls to me:

Perhaps it's the violence of the fire or the little girl,
so calm in a frock and pinafore(?) in the foreground?

-----------------------

Question: how bad is it to work for the/an evil empire to make
an insane amount of cash? It's totally off-topic of composers and
pretty things but it's a situation I'm facing in which I'm excited
by the work but turned off by the employer. Details on that
later, I guess... Maybe.

Signing off! ^_^

"Aahn-nyong Ha-say-oh!"

I think I'll try my hand at Korean; what do you think? Lately I've been immersing myself in K-dramas to the point of obsessive madness, and on the odd occasion I come up for air, I think -- hey, maybe I should learn the language? I do have another language under my belt, one for which I haven't been doing the upkeep (Russian). Sigh. I just don't have any "in" (movies, music, TV, culture) with that particular language despite my relative proficiency. I just have no interest in it aside from the lovely idiosyncrasities which all languages harbor. Plus, all my life I've had this 'thing' for Asian stuff.

It started with kung-fu movies -- standard weekend fare as a child in Irvington, NJ. On a Saturday nothing could beat Shaolin temple and fighting styles which took their bite from nature and the fantastical (crane, snake, dragon). Even my first crush was centered on a Chinese guy. Gordon Liu, oh, Gordon Liu avenging honor, family, country... I had been all of six or seven but I carefully maneuvered him into every weekend rental. My parents never suspected a thing, hee! ^^ Ha, I think I was the only one in the theater during Kill Bill/Kill Bill 2 who was more excited by a Gordon Liu sighting than by Uma ripping out eyes and cracking skulls.

But I digress... S. Korea really surprised me. It began with the film "Shiri" and continues with my lovely stable of K-dramas. For the longest I thought the best cinema was coming from China but S. Korean cinema -- hell, their television! -- has given me much to rethink. So I think I'll pick up Korean. It will be difficult -- it's character based, and English and Russian is, well, not. Still, should be fun. It's all about follow-through. Besides, I'm not looking for textbook proficiency, just enough to have a basic understanding while watching my addictive dramas. ^_^

If I may be allowed a mini-rant, one of the reasons I love K-dramas as much as I do has to do with American soap operas. Now, the K-dramas I watch are much more along the lines of 'Desperate Housewives' or 'Ugly Betty' in terms of type. By that I mean they are a well-blended mix of comedy, romance, tragedy and soapy drama, but unlike our shows they have a definitive end like telenovelas. When I took up with K-dramas however, it was right around the time I quit soaps all together so I couldn't help making comparisons. K-dramas are just less likely to disappoint the way American soap operas have a nasty habit of doing. Sure, K-dramas have duds and drops in quality but by god, at least you are more likely to get happiness and a smile at the end of the rainbow instead of a big fat goose-egg and a "thanks for tuning in!"

(Guiding Light, you bastards!!!) /rant

Ahem.

Top K-dramas I've seen: My Girl; The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince; Lovers

Note to Self

She needs to raise the shades.
She needs to let light
In. To feel a stiff breeze
Against her skin, and breathe.
Remember, girl -
A tombed life rarely
Rises above
Its own shadows.

spending money I don't have

Okay. I did a bad, bad thing: I indulged myself at the bookstore yesterday. I know I shouldn't have but I fairly itched to own the the above and, well, I've never been good at impulse control. Especially when it comes to bookstores. ^^

The Photoshop Creative mag. is a U.K. import which means the price tag was set rather high, but this month's edition teaches you how to "oil paint" with Photoshop! Oil paint!!! I rest my case.

I bought the Japanese Design. book because it's a bunch of royalty-free classic Japanese prints, plus a CD-rom of the same. As is typical of Japanese design, the prints are gorgeous. I can't wait to manipulate and apply them to photos and poetry or anything else my heart desires. Hee. I fully plan on sharing, so hit me up if you are interested.

Then there is A Room of One's Own by Virgina Woolf. Isn't that cover lovely? I suspect I will develop an appreciation and awe for her talents as an author and all-around intelligent woman equal to my awe of Sylvia Plath and her respective talent. We'll see! There's also a copy of Mrs. Dalloway packed away somewhere , as yet unread. Hmm, I have to "get to gettin'."

So that is what is on the shelf today!
^_^


*follow the links attached to the pictures or phrases

YES!

Guess what I received today by mail? A set of (4) prints by the infinitely fabulous artist, Stella Im Hultberg, the result of a purchase made roughly two weeks ago. Stella's artwork is striking, sensual -- I am a big fan, one who is very eager to own more of her pieces (if my bank account can suffer it ^^). So, this -- my very first art buy! -- is a very exciting moment for me.

Four 4 x 5 inch giclee prints printed on Sommerset Velvet Fine Art paper, signed, numbered and limited to 500, all for a reasonable price -- who can complain? Plus, I was one of the lucky ten percent who received a chase print so, "YAY"!!! I love every print in the set, not one bum in the bunch. Love! I'd like to own a larger print and/or original but moolah is an issue and I'm not as quick on the draw as others who frequent her site or the galleries which feature her work. One day though. One day.

Here's what I bought:


...................................{ set of four }

Thanks Mom -- yours was ultimately the driving influence
-- buy what you love indeed.

*click on image to check out larger examples, the seller's gallery

Oh well. It's April.

Awake again after midnight.
I should try sleeping when the living do
instead of
propping my eyes open
under the full gut of sun.
Oh well. It’s April, and here
that means storms -- long clouds
blown in on a stiff breeze, belly full of rain
and rumble. Lately the sky has been
full of them.

Beyond the windowblind the night
surrenders to the bristle and flood.

anger

All right. I rarely ever do this in a public forum but
this is me, blowing off steam! My mother makes me
so angry I just want to scream and scream. She is
literally the only person so far who can still unleash
such ferocity out of me that I quiver with rage. I
thought I had left such untamed responses in puberty
but obviously the foundation of much of that adolescent
frustration remains a potent stimulation. Argh!!!!