Mandy posted her zen tarot on her blog, which I found very applicable to my life right now.

"1) Letting Go: let go of that finished thing that defined you; letting go represents liberation

2) Receptivity: welcome a time of no expectations, no rewards; dissolving all of the obstacles that keep separate from the whole, from each other

3) Control: “there’s more to life than ‘being on top of things’”


Very glad to read today! I’m trying to take risks, and not worry as much, and be assertive, and manifest, and actually feel like I DESERVE things and then GET THEM. Yeah?! It’s a crazy, powerful shift in mindset.

Ugly readings at the Mug

"As a grandfather I'm entitled to a few words of advice to the young, based upon my long and unvarying experience as a transgressor. I can sum them up with these answers to the oft-repeated question, "What would you do or not do if you had it all to do over again?"

I would spend more time with my children.
I would make my money before spending it.
I would learn the joys of wine instead of hard liquor.
I would not smoke cigarettes when I had pneumonia.
I would not marry the fifth time."

-An Open Book by John Huston

‎"I am selfish, impatient, and a little insecure, I make mistakes, I am out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst than you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
-Marilyn Monroe

I still like you, Arcade Fire

This week I listened to Sound Check on NPR, where everyone was bashing Arcade Fire for being trendy, theatrical, various reasons. However, I really don't mind the new album, The Suburbs. Aside from the song Rococo, I've been obsessed with the song "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains." It's like everything I've ever wanted of Blondie and Labyrinth together + flying dream sequences of mine.

‎"Fashion is meant to become unfashionable."
- Coco Chanel

Rest in peace, Abbey Lincoln

Abbey Lincoln (1930-2010)

Brand New Key, pair of roller skates

"A 8mm film done by my sister while
in high school for a class project
in the 70's with music by Melanie
that finally got edited to tape"

She was the fine peaches of summer in the snow of winter, and she was cool milk for cereal on a hot early-June morning.
-Ray Bradbury, "A Story of Love"

Read the full short story here.

Birthday show

The World Around Me

Fay Kleinman and self-portrait, "The World Around Me," mixed-media.

"Dear Mother: I have written to tell you my worrying secret. Now don’t cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I will have to tell it now, without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlete. I was meant to be a composer, and will be I’m sure. I’ll ask you one more thing.—Don’t ask me to try to forget this unpleasant thing and go play football.—Please—Sometimes I’ve been worrying about this so much that it makes me mad (not very)."
-Samuel Barber, age 9

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.”
-Frank Clark

On the ballet dancer and choreographer, Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950):

Nijinsky's Diary was written during the six weeks he spent in Switzerland before being committed to the asylum. Obscure and confused, it is obviously the work of a schizophrenic, but in many ways reflects a loving nature, combining elements of autobiography with appeals for compassion toward the less fortunate, and for vegetarianism and animal rights. Nijinsky writes of the importance of feeling as opposed to reliance on reason and logic alone, and he denounces the practice of art criticism as being nothing more than a way for those who practice it to indulge their own egos rather than focusing on what the artist was trying to say. The diary also contains bitter and conflicted thoughts regarding his relationship with Diaghilev.

"Superstition" live on Sesame Street

Lucille, Arrested Development

Obama Reads Where The Wild Things Are

Purely good, Karen O and the Kids

Where the Wild Things Are is among one of my favorite children books (along with Harold and the Purple Crayon, and some other gems). The soundtrack to the film is reeeally good. Everyone should run out and get it! (or download it, what have you, you shameless thieves)

From the mind of Karen (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), here's one of the tracks I really like to rock out to in the car. It just conveys so much of the honest emotion that children possess. Unapologetic. Entitled "Animal" -Karen O and the Kids



They wanted (O and Spike Jonze) to capture the innocence of children in the soundtrack. Here's a great behind the scenes of them composing.

Robert Flack’s “Gone Away” at Soul to Soul, Ghana.

Cyrano, Act III of Cyrano de Bergerac

Your name is like a golden bell
Hung in my heart; and when I think of you,
I tremble, and the bell swings and rings--
"Roxane!" . . .
"Roxane!" . . . along my veins, "Roxane!" . . .

"'I was also afraid of committing a mistake...'
I like the idea of a mistake being thought of as a crime."

-Ghandi quote, from Emma's blog