Listen...it's Inspiring!

I'm on a creative roll and excited. I've got to share three things I've discovered this week - that's my goal, 3 new things a week. One is JK Rowling's commencement address to Harvard, titled The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination. She's funny, warm, and wise! A must listen/see.

The other thing is a music blog I stumbled on ... through a link from Susan Miller's astrology site (I think they must be related). A little preface here:  My granddaughter Shannon has the same obsessive habit I do, and that is when we find a piece we like we play it over and over and over. We once played The Assassin's Tango (from soundtrack of Mr. & Mrs. Smith) all the way from Sacramento to my house - two hours. Now, Diana Miller's blog, I Listen to Everything, is refreshingly easy to navigate, not jumbled busy like most of MySpace and other music sites, and I love her I Can't Stop Listening obsession page! I've created a new file on my iPod for tunes I pick up here - I love Oviedo by Blind Pilot. 

Two short videos worth watching, both the T-Mobile advertisement (have I mentioned I love great commercials - many are better than the programming): Life's for Sharing, and the making of the dance in Liverpool Station. Quoting MeLeeStormbringer from UTube - who says it for me, "I find that this is the most brilliant piece of performance art/street theater I have ever seen. I can imagine the undertaking was huge, and the challenges enormous. But the end result is better than an advert. It is a human event, an infection of joy. A seemingly random act of happiness. I tip my cap to the people who thought of this. Just fantastic."

Soon, I will figure out how to imbed video and sound tracks here! Little steps. Enjoy!

Music keeps me dancing whether my feet are moving or not!

It's the Little Things...

I've had an incredible couple of weeks.

I've been working on the September astrology event for Steven Forrest and have created a flyer for it - really fulfilling to create again using fonts and color and photographs. Now I have to figure out how to attach pdf files to this blog. Once I do, I'll create an astrology tab with flyer included. HUGE for me: I've accepted a first paying astrology client. I swore to do no readings in this lifetime (I own how many tarot decks for their art?). My experience: people don't want to hear the truth, they want to hear what they want - I learned this the hard way as a gypsy fortuneteller in a previous life. See new Meta Data tab at the top of this page to learn more.

BIGGER THAN HUGE: Reconnected with an old friend. I can say this since he's older than I am and we met almost 30 years ago - yet I disappeared on him 20 years ago - a different blog to tell this tale. He wouldn't recognize me if we walked past each other on the street - yet speaking with him, a moment hasn't gone by - a clearly heartfelt connection knows no time/space. Itty bitty, tiny, little choices (can't be too redundant here) made one after another have reunited us. I clearly asked the uniserve - see the Vision Boards tab - to be "cherished" and the wish has come true. I can identify the moment I knew it in my soul. When someone you deeply care about disappears ... who can know how you feel? He can tell you. He told me - he searched for me. I got it. I now know he cared. He searched. And I'm found.

Life is sweet...if you think it's sweet...it will be sweet. You simply change one letter and it's sweat. Big SWEAT. So be careful, is my advice. Pay close attention to the little choices you make ... they can add up to a huge amount of JOY.

Back in Business...more ways than one

Back in the blog business and creative again. Thank goodness I'm back into the 21st century ... technologically speaking. Things are working out slowly but surely and I've been assured over and over (run around?) that Earthlink will keep their promise to return my money (I returned their hardware that doesn't work with my system - because they haven't really partnered with Apple)! That's big. Comcast came out, politely, easily, without a dime yet... and I have far greater bandwidth and speed than Earthlink. YAY! I'm staying as current as I can with technology and Earthlink isn't in Apple's futuristic/creative/service based league. And I confess, I do like Comcast's latest singing-semi-animated commercials. I even prefer some commercials over TV programming.

While I've been going through this, I've been taking an Evolutionary Astrology class from Joyce Van Horn. We've been studying transits (how current planetary movements affect us), progressed charts (we all change slowly but surely over the years - progressed moon describes current mood), and solar arcs (describes who/what demands an action). I've been doing what I need to do according to my charts ... taking things slowly and feeling my way through the foggy/rainy/dark (Neptune) streets of my future hopes & dreams ... techno (Uranus). These two planets aren't speaking to each other as they are currently in opposition so it's best to be very very careful during this time. I do have a curiosity about these things - this, and numerology (so did Chanel). There's another post someday ... I've done numerology readings at Nordstrom's for Chanel. 

The other "Back in Business":  Joyce has asked me to partner with her in hosting an astrology intensive retreat with Steven Forrest (a master astrologer I met and studied with briefly many years ago). I am so excited. He's amazing. His work is life altering. And Joyce is a hoot. It will be FUN!!!! Work has got to be fun, inspiring, creatively challenging and more FUN. I have a million ideas again. More to come on this. 

In the meantime, I've continued my art classes with kids - check out photo pages for new student/art pics!

Life Imitates Art

LIFE: I've been having a bit of an outsourcing problem while changing to DSL — I know, I'm slow to catch up sometimes. I've been down for days. It's taken 5 days of tripping over my computer in my bedroom (where the phone jack is located, not where my Mac resides), a trip to the Genius Bar at Apple (there's my next post - I LOVE Apple's Geniuses and personal attention), and unaccountable hours on the phone with India to figure out that the DSL provider I'd called can't get me hooked up. The very first person I got told me the disc they sent for set- up isn't even required! When asked what system I had, I told her. She told me she'd forward my call to tech help and would relay the problem so I wouldn't have to repeat myself. She forwarded me to PC tech (obviously didn't listen to me)! They can't see the problem, and can't seem to troubleshoot the problem from that far-away place where they give us fake names like Joseph and Mark (he told me he'd have me set up by the end of the day (3 days ago). They call and leave a message that I think says to call them  (not sure, as it's always a pretty unintelligible accent speaking far too quickly). When I do call, the automated response is in clear English, "You must wait 8 hours before you can check on your problem." Tonight I cancelled this problem altogether and will send them back their equipment. I've been learning patience. Day after day.

ART: During the hours I've not been on the phone with them, I've been reading "A Whole New Mind — Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" by Daniel Pink, who addresses this very outsourcing issue, among others, in the Asia section in Chapter Two: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. He paints a bleak future for things remaining as is (duh), yet in his vision for the future, hope emerges... if people begin to use more of their creative, right brains and begin to think holistically in a whole brain fashion. I'll post a photo of the book jacket once I've called another provider with faster, better service than the company I've been with for years.

Pink speaks to what is needed. Really needed. He says, "Lawyers. Accountants. Software engineers. That's what Mom and Dad encouraged us to become. They were wrong. Gone is the age of "left-brain" dominance." He paints a picture of a future belonging to a different kind of person with a different "mind-set" — designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers, nurses and empathic doctors. He outlines the six fundamentally human abilities that are essential for professional success and personal fulfillment —and reveals how to master them: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. His book is filled with advanced research, informative websites, books, DVDs, and lessons (including how to detect an insincere smile). Insincerity over the phone lines is just as rude, and boy do I have radar for that. Here is an urgent and provocative new way of thinking. We don't have time to waste. 

Down by the River

I begged him. Please let me take a kid's art class. I never was allowed art classes as a kid. I've never taken an art class as an adult. Please. I want to learn. He said I'd have to commit. I gave him my $15 on the spot and committed to two classes a month.

So the next day, there I was, down by the river at the Down by the River, a gallery and gathering center for artists in Locke. The gallery, where Chris Spencer teaches kids on Sundays, is owned by Catherine Erickson, a really nice person and a big talent. Last week there were seven girls from the age of 6 on up (Taylor, Patty, Calista, Lauren, Monique, Thea and myself). I asked the girls to not call me "lady," to just pretend I'm 8 years old. 

I'm learning first of all to just see a shape - squinting my eyes to close out the details, and just sketch it out - in pastels, with Mozart playing in the background. I helped Lauren (age 6) cut chunks off the big roll of butcher paper, for us all to work on.

My very first effort was my best - because I wasn't thinking. Just doing. Here is my "Pink Camellias in Vase"...

What FUN as long as I didn't think. We sketched a bunch of different objects as fast as we could. Then he said, draw the face of the person opposite you. Lauren was opposite me (maybe she's 9 or 10). He held hers up to the group, and said "Lauren, you've gotten the hair length just right, her outfit, but doesn't she have a happier face than that?"

She'd drawn a straight line for my mouth. And this is what I learned (kids are the best teachers) - just draw over it. She instantly picked up a red chalk and drew a big red happy mouth! Here is Lauren's portrait of me. I love it!

Patty (age 28 and challenged due to a bad accident in her teens) drew Chris. She was so proud of it, she has decided to change her name from Patty to Monet!

Here are Patty and Chris.

Please support the artists, everyone.

Buy art.

Take a class. 

Send your kids to class ($15, 11:30 - 1:00, Sundays)

This is how they make a living: They make a difference in people's lives. They inspire us all to see the beauty right in front of us.