things worth sharing: 4/20/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing this morning. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1. Why we loved Gilbert Blythe. Your fans are in the "depths of despair." RIP Jonathan Crombie.  

2.  In her Grammy acceptance letter, Annie Clark gets real with her fans about what it took to become St Vincent. A refreshingly honest account of getting started in the music biz.

3.  On what food porn does to the brain. What's the psychological appeal?

4.  And now that the food porn link above has your attention, here are 5 amazing vegetarian main-dish salad recipes for summer. Yummy!

5. Quote:  "Media voices, politicians and others that create panic for a living need to own responsibility for the way their actions dramatically magnify the cost we all pay." ~ Seth Godin.

things worth sharing: 4/6/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1.  Quote: “As a songwriter, it’s just a wonderful thing when a song leaves your hands and you get to see what can happen to it — the way it gets used by people. When an artist tells you that they used your song to paint with or someone says they got through a painful period thanks to one of your songs, it pays you back. I happen to think that one creative act creates other creative acts. You drop a pebble in the well and it’s quite astonishing what happens to those ripples. They go out and sometimes they come back to you.”

~ Mark Knopfler  Read the whole interview here.

2.  19 great photos of "women's work" 100 years ago.

3.  Quote: "Those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy."
 ~JK Rowling  Read more of her words of wisdom and life advice here.

4. From 1953 to 1960, the wonderful Edward Gorey oversaw the creation of paperback book covers for Doubleday Anchor books.

5.  Margaret Wise Brown wrote under 3 noms-de-plume and in just 10 years published 53 books. Ironically, the miniature volume, Little Fur Family, was originally bound in rabbit fur. Yikes! Step back in time and read this1946 Life Magazine article about this quirky author. (the point-in-time article is a hoot and unlikely to be written this way now). While you're at it, enjoy a peek at the entire issue. You're sure to be entertained.

things worth sharing: 3/30/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1.  Remember when people wrote actual letters instead of communicating by e-mail? A fascinating book of curated letters by various artists, each one with hand illustrations and other things creative. More Than Words: Illustrated Letters from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, by Liza Kirwin.

2. The power of two: how Lennon/McCartney demonstrated the brilliance of creative pairs.

3. A few tidbits of insight from David Sedaris.

4. Stomping out the myth of the "crazy cat lady."

5. The completely ridiculous copyright case regarding the monkey selfie.

things worth sharing: 3/23/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1.  Words of wisdom from Seth Godin: including thoughts on what to do when it's your turn (and it's always your turn), fear, change, industry, television, what it means to be an artist, and why Neil Young is just like Pythagoras's 5th hammer.

2.  Artist Maria A Aristidou loves her morning cup of coffee like no one else does.

3.  Pushing the boundries, REM creates an interactive floppy disk to promote their album Monster, in 1994.

4.  Seven (really) strange questions that can help you find your life's purpose. 

5.  Stevie Nicks on journaling and songwriting: "On the right-hand side of the page you write what happened that day, and on the left-hand side you write poems, so when you have an evening where you’re like, “I’m gonna light all the candles and I’m gonna put the fire on, and I’m gonna go sit at the piano and write,” you can dip into your diaries and instantly find a poem and begin."

things worth sharing: 3/10/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1.  The mind is an extremely flexible instrument. "Our minds are already pattern-making machines, and very little drawing is actually required to convey an idea. The mind will fill in the rest."  How to make squiggle birds, from Dave Gray. Doodle fun! 

2.  Magical photos by Russian artist Elena Karneeva.  Elena photographs her children in most wonderful fantasy settings, with companion animals too. Simply amazing.

3.  The largest glacial calving event ever recorded on film. The historic breakup at the Ilulissat Glacier in Western Greenland. The calving event lasted for 75 minutes and the glacier retreated a full mile across a calving face three miles wide. The height of the ice is about 3,000 feet, 300-400 feet above water and the rest below water.  

4.  Quote: “We waste so many days waiting for the weekend. So many nights wanting morning. Our lust for future comfort is the biggest thief of life.” ~ Joshua Glenn Clark

5. Fascinating Kate Bush documentary from the BBC. The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill. If you don't have an hour to spend watching it right now, then set aside 7 minutes to enjoy Cloudbusting. 
 
 
  

 

things worth sharing: 3/2/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

 

1.  The most beautifully illustrated Velveteen Rabbit volume I've ever seen, artfully reimagined by Japanese Illustrator Komako Sakai. So touching! 

2.  In this 11 minute podcast interview, Gordon Lightfoot chats with Growing Bolder Radio about his long and fascinating career, including his friendship with Dylan and why they each consider the other his mentor.

3.  Quote:  "I think these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way and that so many things that one goes around worrying about are of no importance whatsoever." ~ Isak Dinesen 

4.  Created by students and faculty in the communication and computing science departments at Pennsylvania’s Villanova University, you can take a 3D virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica and other art-filled Vatican spaces  The four Papal Basilicas are included, along with the smaller Sistine and Pauline chapels.

5.  Have you run through all of your winter soup recipes and looking for another to finish out the season? This Curried Red Lentil, Pumpkin and Cauliflower soup will knock your socks off! 


 

 

things worth sharing: 2/23/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1. My Own Life: Oliver Sacks on Learning He Has Terminal Cancer. A beautiful, thoughtful, touching essay.  

2. "Their “studio” was a dingy, v-shaped warehouse attic. No acoustical tiles, no drum booth, no double-sealed glass window; they played and sang in the same room with their tape deck and mixing board, which were a TEAC half-inch 8-track and a cheap, used Soundcraft, respectively." The story of how the Eurythmics recorded the Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) album. 

3. Quote: “For what it’s worth: it’s never too late... to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”   ~Eric Roth

4. Rare Beatles and Rolling Stones photos being released for the first time through the Grammy Museum. Numbered, limited edition, never before seen. Selections to be rolled out monthly through 2017. Even if you don’t buy it’s going to be fun to experience this collection come to light.

5. Do you know about the on-line series, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee? Good laughs: Jerry Seinfeld style! You're sure to find an episode that has you laughing out loud.


  

  


things worth sharing: 2/16/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1. Who wrote the most romantic love letter of all time? It wasn't Keats or Hemingway. According to the Daily Mail, the British company Beagle Street commissioned a poll to ask people their opinions on the most romantic love letter ever written. Though they had a famously tumultuous marriage, Johnny Cash's letter to wife June Carter ranked #1 in the poll results. June passed away in 2003 and Johnny passed away just 4 months later. You can read his sweet words here. 

2. Most Grammy Award-winning individuals of all time, as of 2014?
According to Statista.com, Sir Georg Solti, an orchestral and operatic conductor, leads the pack. And the rest?
Sir Georg Solti:  31
Quincy Jones, Alison Krauss:  27
Pierre Boulez:  26
Vladimir Horowitz:  25
U2, Stevie Wonder:  22
Kanye West, John Williams:  21
Chick Corea, Vince Gill, Henry Mancini, Pat Metheny, Bruce Springsteen, Al Schmitt:  20
Jay-Z:  19
Sir Paul McCartney, Aretha Franklin,, Jimmy Sturr:  18
Beyoncé, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, YoYo Ma:  17

3. Quote:  The enemy of creativity...is fear. We're all born creative, it takes a little while to become afraid. A surprising insight: an enemy of fear is creativity. Acting in a creative way generates action, and action persuades the fear to lighten up. ~  Seth Godin

4. The new Audubon website now has the complete first folio, including high-resolution scans of the plates. They're so high quality that you can zoom in and see the amazing detail in the watercolors. They're almost paintings within paintings. Printed between 1827 and 1838, it contains 435 life-sized watercolors of North American birds, all made from hand-engraved plates.

5. How to say something nice about someone's art, when you have nothing nice to say...
       
 
 

things worth sharing: 2/9/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

The Scream?

1.  A detailed look at the story behind Blood on the Tracks and captivating Dylan history. Well worth the time for anyone who is a fan: “Letting his genius collapse for the sake of a quiet life with his kids couldn’t really continue. And, as the ’70s progressed, the tension between the two sides of his nature slowly tore him in half. Like some awful horror tale, the more he tried to flee from his fame, the more he circled back into its grip. He had left Woodstock’s supposed idyll in late 1969, dismissing it as a “daily journey into nothingness”. Moving his family into the heart of his old Greenwich Village haunts, though, was hardly likely to shake off his fans. When he walked the streets there, he felt stared at like “a giant jungle rat”, a disgusting, unnatural freak. Self-styled “Dylanologist” AJ Weberman made things worse. He picketed Dylan’s house, berating him with a bullhorn for abandoning his flock. He rooted through Dylan’s garbage, looking for clues. He even shoved past an outraged Sara to try to breach their apartment. Dylan eventually battered his tormentor in the street. But dreams of a normal New York life were smashed.” Read the whole article here. 

2. Great quote I came upon recently:

"Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character; and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man."   ~Schopenhauer

 

3. The 1997 anime film, Princess Mononoke, is the story of a struggle between forest gods, the creatures who live in the lush mountains of Japan and the humans who consume its resources. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and beautifully animated by the wonderful Studio Ghibli. You're going to want to check out Miyazki's other films too. They're amazing.

 

4. Lidia Bastianich's recipe for Zuppa Gallurese is a must-try during these cold months. It can easily be converted for vegetarians by substituting in no-chicken or vegetable broth. This will become one of your favorites. (I use a less cheese than is called for and it's still amazing comfort food) 

 

5. Graymatter's song Cloud 9, written by Brad and Barry Gray. Fun to perform, fun to record.  For even more of the session, you can see the outtakes here and Graymatter's Facebook page here.  

 

 

 

 

things worth sharing: 2/2/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1. Elephants roaming the hills of Tennessee!  The Elephant Sanctuary is designed specifically for old, sick, or needy female elephants who have been retired from zoos and circuses. Spanning more than 2700 acres, it provides three separate and protected, natural-habitat environments for Asian and African elephants. Their residents are not required to perform or entertain for the public: instead, they are encouraged to live like elephants. Why only females? It is not natural for adult female and male Asian elephants to live together. Asian elephants are matriarchal by nature. In the wild, the female herds are made of up related females: the grandmother, mothers, aunts, sisters, and nieces. They are truly a family led by the oldest, wisest females. visit their website for lots more information about this remarkable sanctuary! 

photo source: Elephant Sanctuary Facebook page

2.  Struggling to find what you're looking for on Google? Try NCKnows! You can connect to a librarian through your computer at any time. By typing messages back and forth in a chat box, they will be able to give you answers, articles and more. It's really easy. They are open 24/7 except for Sat/Sun midnight-8am.

3.  We watched a beautiful movie this week. Beautiful in its photography, soundtrack, story and acting. The movie is Ladies in Lavender and stars Dames Judy Dench and Maggie Smith, two women that I adore. Dench and Smith play two elderly sisters, living in a tiny, secluded hamlet on the English coast. After a violent storm, they find a young man washed up on shore and from there, their lives are remarkably changed. 

4.  Do you know about pygmy seahorses? They are some of the smallest seahorse species in the world, typically measuring less than 2 cm (smaller than a pencil eraser!) They camouflage themselves among coral and were first discovered in a lab as scientists were examining a certain type of coral. Interesting fact: male pygmy seahorses brood their young in their trunks, rather than in a pouch on their tail, as other seahorses do.

 5.  Watching this short film will be the best 16 minutes you spend this week. 8 1/2+ million people can't be wrong. You just never know when a kind word from you will turn a day/week/life around. Enjoy Validation.  (and yes, that's Jack Hodgins from Bones)

things worth sharing: 1/25/15

Some things I thought were worth sharing today. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

1. This Old Man (life in the nineties) by Roger Angell    

Funny, wise, poetic and completely honest. Here is one of my favorite parts: 

“I’ve endured a few knocks but missed worse. I know how lucky I am, and secretly tap wood, greet the day, and grab a sneaky pleasure from my survival at long odds. The pains and insults are bearable. My conversation may be full of holes and pauses, but I’ve learned to dispatch a private Apache scout ahead into the next sentence, the one coming up, to see if there are any vacant names or verbs in the landscape up there. If he sends back a warning, I’ll pause meaningfully, duh, until something else comes to mind……On the other hand, I’ve not yet forgotten Keats or Dick Cheney or what’s waiting for me at the dry cleaner’s today. As of right now, I’m not Christopher Hitchens or Tony Judt or Nora Ephron; I’m not dead and not yet mindless in a reliable upstate facility. Decline and disaster impend, but my thoughts don’t linger there. It shouldn’t surprise me if at this time next week I’m surrounded by family, gathered on short notice—they’re sad and shocked but also a little pissed off to be here—to help decide, after what’s happened, what’s to be done with me now. It must be this hovering knowledge, that two-ton safe swaying on a frayed rope just over my head, that makes everyone so glad to see me again. “How great you’re looking! Wow, tell me your secret!” they kindly cry when they happen upon me crossing the street or exiting a dinghy or departing an X-ray room, while the little balloon over their heads reads, “Holy shit—he’s still vertical!”

 

2. Favorite quote  I came upon recently:  “Reading is socially accepted disassociation. You flip a switch and you’re not there anymore. It’s better than heroin. More effective and cheaper and legal”.  ~ Mary Karr 

3. Recent book release... John Lennon: The Collected Artwork 

 

4. Turn off your TV and watch this instead...Firefly:  Think Robin Hood leaning space cowboys, traveling the universe, under the radar of the corrupt Government Alliance. Set 500 years in the future, this series by Josh Whedon ran just one season on Fox, who unfortunately ran the episodes out of order and with long lapses between segments, so the TV viewing audience was thoroughly confused. Now, however, Firefly has become a cult hit. Starring Nathan Fillion ( think Richard Castle, from Castle or Joey Buchanan, from One Life to Live), and a cast of characters you’ll really enjoy. Turn off your TV and watch this instead this week. I picked it up at the library…you can’t beat free!  

 

5. What the critics wrote about the Beatles in 1964:  “Visually they are a nightmare, tight, dandified Edwardian-Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair. Musically they are a near disaster, guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony and melody. Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of "yeah, yeah, yeah") are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments…. “(Newsweek,  Feb 24, 1964)  You can read even more here for a really good laugh.