Ode To A Mug

This is a poem about a cup that a dear friend of ours gave to me after we talked about Emma, Downton Abbey, and North and South.

"O Masterpiece Theatre cup 

with your shining, oblique white porcelain interior 

many a beverage have your spacious walls encircled 

Steaming, fragrant tea 

hot chocolate towering with whipped cream 

they all last through a sonata

ten book pages

twelve knitted rounds on a sweater's arm 

they do not go cold in my absence

you are like an old friend

we take care of each other

you and I

and you sit dutifully on the table 

the chair arm

the porch floor

Just waiting 

a small warmth  

for a cold day." 

Maps

I've been in love with the National Park Service maps (like the one here) ever since I gathered my first couple from a Californian trip. Someday it'd be really neat to just have ALL of them.

You Know That

Your writing's bad when...you glance at it and can't for the life of you figure out if the paper's upside down.

Quote #23

"A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together." 
~Garrison Keillor 

Little Bugs

Lanterns
at the death of light
Dart here and there
a dizzying sight

Angsty Blogger

I've been feeling incredibly frustrated lately. Not because of anything in my personal life, oh no, but because of something in my online life (which seems to be ever-increasingly dominating the former). This blog. This blog, which, although not THE main focus of my creative day-to-day thoughts, still seems to receive a fair amount of my opinions on the world. It's not that I want to stand in my town triangle with a loudspeaker and force my thoughts on poor passersby, but I do feel like I'm pouring opinions into a black hole. Everything goes into it, but no discussions get started and no one reads what I write. Let's straighten this out. It's my fault. I don't send e-mail announcements for blog posts because (a It's maddening when people do that, and (b I am terrified of what people might think of me once they're done wading through the inner recesses of my mind. There's a small but uproarious and bad-ass part of my brain that's just saying, "Too bad! You think what you think! Put it out there! If people disagree that's fine too! Just do it! If they mind, they'll tell you!"
Since I don't really keep in active contact with any family members or friends via email, I don't feel justified in sending them things. It's sure to bother them, right? Anyway. I don't know.

Esra'a Al-Shafei and MideastYouth

I recently stumbled across an old post which contained a recommendation, long forgotten, that I look into a woman named Esra'a Al-Shafei. This link, and the following three, have some great info about this brave woman and her efforts to forge new chains of communication in struggling parts of the world. I don't have a twitter, but I encourage people to follow her on there.
http://www.mideastyouth.com/about-us/
http://fellows.ted.com/profiles/esra-a-al-shafei
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYOA6mjqeKo
I'm in love with the entire concept of the MideastYouth project. This is what the internet is for. It's supposed to be one giant conversation between the peoples of the earth, and with all these relatively new channels of communication (blogs, YouTube, the ability to webcam and live stream important events as they are happening), projects like MideastYouth are so important and affect numerous aspects of our cultural (r)evolution.

thoughts

Kind of got stuck walking around my little town last night. It was windy and cold, but I got a little snippet out of it.

The sound of heels echoes off the buildings. I feel as though I am in a noir film. I have a trench coat, but it's been left at home. Gravel crunches and far-off automobile tires scrape wet pavement. Everything is melting from the day before. There was a snowstorm but its claim seeped away. Gulls squawk. What are they doing up? It is dark and shadowy.

Things I Dislike About Heels

They're impractical for walking softly on any surface. You can't change direction easily. If worn 70% of the time, they shorten your calf muscles. No running or remotely practical movements can be accomplished in them. On a plus note, they make you feel like you're miles tall, they force you to stand up straight, and they make an important-sounding clicking noise.

Art classes

Just got signed up for an art class focusing on charcoal, pencil, and pen and ink drawings, which is very very exciting! I'll miss the last class because of Spain, but it'll be 8 weeks long, one day a week. I've had this in mind for a while, but never saw options for classes.

Teenage Dream (because I'm totally awesome like that <.<)

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about wishes and dreams and that whole situation. A few images and song snatches keep circling in my head:

“The only difference between ‘try’ and ‘triumph’ is a little ‘umph’!” ~Fischer, Bones

This quote is so maddening. I can’t stand inspirational quips like it. However, given the person speaking it, it's all fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=291ET6Py6H8 Woah, so that was weird. That’s not Bloody Mary. 

Also this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVFw9_xgicI

I have lots of dreams, some of them more preposterous than others. I mean--I’d like to be the world’s (female) Billy Gibbons.

I’d like to write fantastic, beautiful songs that stick around forever and ever.

I’d like to be a great writer and essayist.

I’d like to be a traveler, across seas and over land.

I’d like to be a Tolkien scholar: get lost in the words and epics of his world, be consumed by a fascination for history.

I don’t know how many of these things will come to fruition, but I think it’s good to try for them. After all, it’s life, and unless you believe in re-incarnation (which I’m convinced has some true aspects), you only get 75 or so years to really live it, if you’re lucky, and if you don’t count the “establishment” era of the toddler/adolescent years. These are just some random thoughts. Though I think, being a teenager, they’re very relevant. At times like these, we teenagers are faced with SO MANY THINGS TO BE, and we just want to be everything, but since that’s not really possible, we’re forced to make choices and narrow down our images of happiness. We’ll all get a slice of happiness no matter what, but so many things depend on strings of choices that you make throughout your life. Left or right turns, yes’s or no’s, building bridges and burning them. And I’,m at this point where I’m so overwhelmed with what to do with this thing that is all mine, it’s ALL mine, that I just sit and stare into space and wonder what I truly want. I know-from bloggers and youtubers who are on the cusp of big career paths or graduation-that everyone goes through this at some point. I just wonder how I’ll emerge from it. 
Just today, I came across this lovely video. Basically it's everything I've said in this post, in 3 minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BysBU673hTI

How Ribbon Candy Is Made

It appears most of these will be about candy. Fine by me. On searching youtube, I found a great channel that goes right along with the blog theme! http://www.youtube.com/user/HowItsMadeEpisodes?feature=watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9jAd6NRMW0
One Christmas when I was around 8 or 9, we got a huge box of this stuff from our neighbors. It was so beautiful and shiny and really, really fun to eat. I haven't ever seen it since then, but I always have an eye out for it.

How Candy Canes Are Made

This will be a new "feature," one that links to videos or posts detailing how ordinary or mundane things  in everyday life are created.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OMx7xhxu70

Links of the Month

http://jacac.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=96#/d57ksc6

Crown Me Q of P

There are so many things I want to learn. And it always seems that there isn't enough time in which to learn them. So, to cope with this feeling of impending self-apocalypse (because by George, I'm nearly a quarter done with my life right now, and I'd like to make it count for something on the pages of history, or at least in other people's minds), my solution is-PROCRASTINATION. That's right folks, it's how I cope.
I've realised this needs to change.
Which is why I'm making a December resolution list!
Be Nice.
Be Laid-back.
Be Positive.
Be Better.
Finish the darn song already.
Practice the guitar often enough that finger calluses are omnipresent.
Read up on music history more.
Read in my lovely new and shiny Psych., Bio., and World History textbooks each day.
Stop procrastinating. It sucks the blooming life out of you and leaves a crumpled little shell of despair.

So there it is!
Bye for now.

Things that piss me off about the modern age

• using words like 'perhaps', additionally', and 'merely' in every day convo makes you sound like a stuck-up dick
• people throwing out their "old" gadgets for shiny new ones with two changes/modifications/additions See this mindblowing consumer-culture ad 
• smile etiquette. How creepy can a person be before it is no longer acceptable to smile at them in passing? Why don't people smile at each other in cities? Is a smile a mugging invitation? Do peoples' faces in cities possess the ability to bend upwards?
• Everyone whipping out their phones all over the place
• The Industrial Revolution. People are still starving all over the world, and when gas runs out we chubby Americans are screwed. 
• Supercilious college girls with their preppy handbags and oh-so-conforming ponytails and makeup. It's just kind of boring. 
• Really stupid movies. How do you justify spending so much money on something that's immature, low, and dull? 
• individually wrapped snack packets and water bottles. So much plastic, why! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asCNsI-q_KQ
• The anonymity of the internet. Because there are no repercussions, people can shout things out into cyberspace and never get confronted about what they say. YouTube comments are the worst. They're an outlet for shrieking fangirls, awful trolls, and just....really unintelligent people, to put it  frankly. Basically, everything that I say on here, in this personal space that I've decided is mine...these are my real thoughts. I would say these out loud to almost anyone, and if someone confronted me about them, I would gladly have a conversation regarding why I think that, and maybe change my standings based on new information. Everything is subject to change, in some way or another. Everything. This blog isn't necessarily public: I'm not plastering my opinion onto something someone else has put on the internet, forcing other people to read it-people can either look at my blog or not, and they don't have to agree with what I'm saying, ever. And that's fine.  

Edit: preppy college girls are very nice, I'm sure. It's just that you feel like they're looking down on you all the time. I'm sorry for my strong opinions. I'm more relaxed and a tad less cynical if you meet me. Things come across much stronger in my writing, and brief sentiments or passing opinions become a bit set in stone. Maybe the need to apologise after every blog post I write is a signal that I should try to make them nicer?

Subway Podabble

We stand.
Here.
Underground.
in a tunnel-world
full of rushing sounds
and downcast looks
sweltering heat
though a cold wind
cools the flipside streets
metal
above and below
Are there really centipedes and worms
outside these walls?
The doors slide apart
when the train arrives
pushing and parting the air
with its flat nose
None follow subway etiquette here
There is colliding and scuffling
there are backpacks that kiss briefcases
embarrassed stray limbs
and stubbed toes
Sweaty hands grip silver poles
and cracked plastic ceiling loops
breath swirls and settles
is held in suspension
anticipating the rolling gait
that carries us on to the next stop
this stop, that stop
there is a lingo
a rhythm
a language
in this odd human-filled space
there are patterns and sequences, but none
pause to divine them
Bodies sway side by side
in sleepy
uncomfortable
bored singular silences
A smile here...
murmur there
otherwise nothing
as neon lights skim past
The universe is so large
certainly this is a part of it
speeding through time and space
to the tune of a hundred flurried heartbeats
The doors schifff open again
and the expanding camaraderie vaccummes back into itself
Where do we go from here?

Podabble

I've been thinking about this word, poetry. To me, it brings to mind those lush and labrynthine 18th/19th century poems, those with unmatchable, fully immersive imagery. Those that go on for pages and then loop back around full circle; those like sagas, where the metre and rhythm is so perfectly and beautifully balanced, where the rhymes aren't obvious. Holding this opinion, I no longer feel justified in naming these things I post poems. I dabble in poetry. So they'll be called Podabbles.

Suburbs

Suburbs
Early morning
coffee and damp pavement
the smell of rotting leaves
We are not removed from nature;
a river slips silently nearby-
but the air is stiff and songless
It feels odd to fly along misty highways
headed out of town
on a path sliced through a mountain
its striped ribs split in two and towering up either side
They've named this avenue brick lane
and there are bricks,
built into the walls of grand tobacco plantation houses
sometimes there are windows
that have been layered over with the mortar and baked red clay
What lies behind the walls of the world?
There were days back in the1800s
I muse
when families sat round those fireplaces
singing carols and inhaling clove-spiced air
the room warm
the portraits looking on
Christmas in an odd time of year now
Let's bring back
the old ways

Quote #22

“People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, redeemed. Never thrown out anymore.” ~ A. Hepburn

Street Illusion Art

street illusion art
Not in any specific place. But Scotland's are particularly nice:  street illusion art scotland edgar mueller

lightstepping on pavement

I walked home under a brimming sky,

one of those skies plucked from a 19th century painting.

The birds from either side, above

on telephone wires, 

in trees,

click their beaks, 

whirring and chirping. 

These are warmer days than December usually begets. 

Black and White Rages On

I love black and white photography. It's bold and dramatic and undeniably timeless.
Some related links:
http://buri65.deviantart.com
http://hookedonhouses.net/2010/04/11/rebecca-going-back-to-manderley-again/
http://canadianry.deviantart.com
Hooked on Houses just became one of my top ten favourite sites to browse...wow...
This is fascinating: http://hookedonhouses.net/2009/09/06/gone-with-the-wind-the-inspiration-for-twelve-oaks/
In my opinion, Twelve Oaks was just about the best thing in Gone With the Wind. I know I'm probably being harsh regarding that movie, but after all the hype I wasn't terribly impressed. I haven't read the book though, so I can't pass too much judgement plot- and character-wise.

Old Dodge in the Distillary District, Toronto, Canada

old dodge distillery district toronto

Musings on a Cat/Cat Muse

However a cat lies, all its body parts just fit together snugly like puzzle pieces. It's truly a wonder.

Ossie Clark

I know absolutely nothing about fashion. Despite the fact that when I see the word "boho" I think hobo, and I've never used "chic" in a sentence, I still manage to post things about dresses. I've always loved them. I rarely wear them. But I really, really love dresses. So! New favourite designer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossie_Clark
ossie clark dresses
The giant paisley, curtain-y fabric really works and the necklines are so classic.

Origin of Expressions 3, Down to the Wire

trying to find a catchier title.
down to the wire  (American & Australian)

until the very last moment that it is possible to do something

Usage notes: In a horse race, the wire is a metal thread that marks the finishing line.

Diablo Lake, WA

OOOOOHHHHH
diablo lake

Quote # 21

“You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don’t think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.” – Anthony Hopkins

Poem of Home

Remember my brilliant poem-a-morning plan? yeah, not so much. But here's one I wrote yesterday. These are all really crappy, I know it, but that just sucks for you. HUM. I'm practicing!

Oftentimes I think of home
that worn-out porch now overgrown
the hedges lank
the children flown
so far away
from there.
And somedays
in my waking hours
I smell the kitchen
the woodland flowers
and hear the crooked
screen doors creak
a lullaby alone.

Quote #20

I kept trying to narrow this quote down, but decided in the end to use the entire thing because it's difficult to divide Kingsolver's prose.
"I believe in parables. I navigate life using stories where I find them, and I hold tight to the ones that tell me new kinds of truth. This story of a bear who nursed a child is one to believe in. I believe that the things we dread most can sometimes save us. I am losing faith in such a simple thing as despising an enemy with unequivocal righteousness. A mirror held up to every moral superiority will show its precise  mirror image: The terrorist loves his truth as hard as I love mine; he has a mother who looks on her own child with the same fierce pride I feel when I look at my own. Someone, somewhere, must wonder how I could love the boys who dropped the bombs that killed the humanitarian-aid workers in Kabul. We are all beasts in this kingdom, we have killed and been killed, and some new time has come to us in which we are called to find another way to divide the world. Good and evil cannot be all there is."
~Barbara Kingsolver, Small Wonder: Essays
This is the bear story to which she refers: http://boston.com/news/daily/02/bear.htm

Letters To The Other Side, Vol.2

Dear Ms. Amy Winehouse,

You are such an inspirational singer. Your voice is packed with bravado and courage and pure, raw talent. It hearkens back to the great ages of Nina Simone, Billy Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and Natalie Cole. It sounds like a hundred and one sultry summers. 
   Again, I am sorry that you, as with too many others, left this physical world so soon. I'm sure you would have gone on to create even more wonderful tracks for cheering up a dreary day. Your music is upbeat, refreshing, and full of fantastic bell peals. 
I also appreciate your personal style-the beehive, the cat eyes, the neon colors-you've become a style icon, I don't know if you realise it. 
And don't worry, your music is unique. It'll stick around.
                                 With love,
                                              This side  

Same-Sex Marriage

I'm very happy for gay and lesbian couples right now. Same-sex marriage has been approved in Maine, which really shows that our state is a tad more enlightened than it was in 2009, when the same-sex marriage bill was shamefully repealed by the good ol' rednecks.
It's really all about state of mind. Though I am not gay, I'm just as happy when I hear that a gay couple is doing nicely and having kids, etc., as I am when I hear a man/woman couple is. I think that after centuries of horrible, horrible oppression and shame, these fellow human beings have a pretty large right to happiness. As Sarcaschicks so succinctly puts it: "It's the 21st century for goodness' sake, I don't know why we're still debating this as an issue."
Also, m'dear colleague and I were just discussing the benefit of spotlighting gay couples in shows. It's great! The general public needs to see this and get used to it! Take Glee, for example-I want Kurt and Blaine to be together so much right now because their relationship is poignant, cute, and such a very, very natural progression from where they are at the moment. (Grant you I'm in the 2nd season, so I have no idea what happens. That's me, consistently behind the times since 1995.)
Anyway, just some thoughts on this issue. HURRAH FOR BEING MORE ENLIGHTENED, POEPLE! WELL DONE! BACK CLAPPING ALL 'ROUND!

Wild Target Review

Just saw the indie film Wild Target. It is spectacular, for those of us who like that sort of thing. It is a combination of Little Miss Sunshine, The Lady Vanishes, and 39 Steps, and also happens to include nearly all of my favourite English actors and actresses.
The soundtrack was a perfect mix of folksy alternatives and French music (performed by the London Philharmonic, no less!) The opening title track has a theremin, which I've become quite good at identifying thanks to its distinctive use in Midsomer Murders. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17340257
http://www.squidoo.com/wild-target-movie-soundtrack#module128106141
http://www.wildtargetmovie.com/#/?section=home
While we're on the subject of rising stars and stage legends, here is another movie that is an absolute must-see, both for its unique shot angles and concepts, and its noir, shrouded plot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_39

Quote #19

I really should start reading the Bible. Besides being a spiritual manuscript, it contains lots of stories, moral and otherwise, fascinating plots, and imagery. So many of our everyday expressions today come from the bible as well: http://grammarpartyblog.com/2011/12/02/the-king-james-bible-gave-english-some-awesome-phrases/
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/12/king-james-bible/richardson-photography
"And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." ~ Isaiah 2:4
I find this term "learning war" interesting. We do learn war. We actively and gleefully learn it, in video games and from television and from bullying at school. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swords_to_ploughshares

sophie sumner Vogue Italia August 2012

Hearkening back to the olden times is what fashion should be ALL the time:
sophie sumner Vogue Italia August 2012

Books For London

So smart, oh so, so smart: http://booksforlondon.org.uk/2012/08/27/new-logo/
http://inhabitat.com/nyc/obsolete-nyc-phone-booths-turned-into-free-mini-libraries-by-architect-john-locke/

Silliness Re Life and Death

Whenever I'm reading, say, a biography, and see a date like 1885-1975, I have to stop and look again. I know it's not a new thing, this spanning of the centuries. It happens all the time. People are born on a certain date, they die on another. But to me, there on the page in plain black on a white background, it is shocking. It's like when I read that Jane Austen was born in 1775, in the heat of the Revolutionary War. By the time she was 20, that war was in the past, old news, history. It's never referenced in her stories. It's just...I don't know how to describe it Heck, MY life is crossing from one century into another. Why is this so weird? Is it just me being myself?

Old Expressions 2, Coals to Newcastle

I've always loved this one. I must use it more often!
"Coals to Newcastle."
Before railway were invented goods were often transported by water. Coal was transported by ship from Newcastle to London by sea. It was called sea coal. Taking coals to Newcastle was obviously a pointless excercise.

Old Expressions 1, Get the Hell Outta Dodge

This might become a fixture on the blog. We'll see.
"Get the hell outta dodge."

To leave somewhere immediately, to evacuate or scram.  "Get the hell out of Dodge" is a reference to Dodge City, Kansas, which was a favourite location for westerns in the early to mid 20th century. Most memorably, the phrase was made famous by the TV show "Gunsmoke," in which villains were often commanded to "get the hell out of Dodge." The phrase took on its current meaning in the 1960s and 70s when teenagers began to use it in its current form.

jedediah smith national park, CA

And because I'm feeling sentimental about the West Coast right now:
jedediah smith national park, CA

new river gorge bridge, WV

I don't know what it is about this bridge, but it makes me extremely happy to look at it.
new river gorge bridge west virginia

NaNoYesWriMo

Okay, dagnabbit, I'm going to unofficially (off the site???) try this NaNoWriMo thing. BUT I'm not writing 50,000 words, and I may or may not be applying to all their guidelines. Originally I thought, Oh! I'll just write a thousand words a day for the next 22 days: then I'll have the moderated goal of 22,000 words, which is still better than nothing, and considering I forgot NaNoWriMo this month and didn't get a chance to plot and outline and think ahead (which takes me a very long while....and which you ARE allowed to do during the months before NaNoWriMo!)...anyway, this still seems to be a fairly okay idea. 1,000 words really isn't hard. It's a page and a half, and remember when we used to write twenty pages a day in short-hand, cramped writing with zero paragraph breaks? Yep, those were the good old days. The fire, the cookies, the blankets, the cats that would lie on your notebook. Oh, right, this will be different because I am NOT counting out words from a notebook. Writing by hand is my preferred method for everything, but maybe this will be a good opportunity to improve my day-to-day typing skills with lengthy sentences rather than slim business e-mails.
   I wanted to finish off my 1800s Sherlock Holmes fanfic because that's been stagnant, but I've already written on that. So, I'm dooming myself and jumping right in with a fresh story about a girl who travels all over in a hot air balloon.
So, there, NaNoWriMo....maybe I'll put this up online? I have no plot, no nothing. We'll see how this goes. But Wheeey, what's there to lose? My writing brain's been slipping into dormancy for a few months/years/ It can't hurt to just plain write, even if it comes out ridiculous. So here goes.

Willa Cather also said, and this I love: "Some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm."

Dire NaNoWriMo Premonitions

I'm pretty much convinced that the time on the Camino de Santiago not spent panting and sweating and dying will consist of me beating myself up about not doing NaNoWriMo AGAIN in 2012. Then, on the last couple days of the trip, I'll think of some fabulous idea for it, come home, adjust back into the stinging swing of a full summer schedule, and promptly forget that flash of inspiration.

Quote #18

"The greatness of a Nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
--- Mahatma Gandhi 

Our Country is Awesome

I told you there would be one post that had this title in a non-demeaning, positive respect. Alright, what I love about our country, listed in no particular order because ranking things annoys me and makes me indecisive and fidgety:

• ·      The diversity of culture. From the North to the South and round about, you can’t deny we’ve got character. Good or bad, most of the time a mix of both, everyone knows it and everyone holds their share. And the different regions are so damn famous for it, too.
• ·      The changing landscape. Honestly, we have some of the most gorgeous parks, mountains, and deserts out there.
• ·      The  Expansion era. Not the bloodshed, forcing-people-off-of-land part. But excepting that, it was such a time of exploring and traveling and reaching out roots and settling down. And log cabins *sigh* Really, all the eras.
• ·      Our museums. We have some pretty great painters’ work in our museums, not to mention the museum’s frequent costless-ness.
• ·      Our quirkiness. The weird foods that we come up with; the entire 70s and 80s (what was going on there, anyway?); the fashion fads that dominated so steadfastly for decades, then morphed into new fads like lightning, and the slang that went long with them. 
• ·      The open skies. The plains. We have so much sheer space.
• ·      Cowboy films. They’re so incredibly American. Where every other thing has its near equivalent in other countries, this is something that’s actually ours, inside and out. And it’s so iconic, I mean, come on-the young buck riding off into the sunset with his hat brim and neck scarf flapping in the wind….
•