Soooo true!

http://www.pixplacebo.com/author/~/quote/freaks/

The De-Construction of Anna Nalick

Okay, this is for sure weird, I know it. The fact that I am posting it as I wait for my Silvermine sub is crazy...this is the premise of a blog right?! In that case, this is my first real, genuine, rambling thought blog...
Okay, back to Anna Nalick. In the song "Breathe" its lyrics, when centered, look like skulls....funny thing is...try to sing it. You feel like you are going to die by the end...unless you "Breathe.....just breathe...."

Long, deep ones as far as I'm concerned.

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/annanalick/breathe2am.html

Props to Anna Nalick.

"Love & Banishment" Tony Ivinson Jr. (From the Denver Voice)

I've been boiled in hot oil and banished to hard toil

Yet I still couldn't bring myself to see

How any worldly device could ever come to suffice

To vanquish this cancer in me...

In one year of our lord, I fell flat off the board

Two or three times each day of the week.

I was sure they'd throw dirt on my white cotton shirt

To be sure I won't get the chance to speak.

Then came the day we first met, her smile made me forget

Everything in my world save for her.

And so as the world turns and the fire of hell burns,

I'll adorn her with diamonds and fur...

"Too late!" The man cries as he stares in my eyes

and closes the door to my cell,

"Yes, it could have been nice if it it weren't for your vice,

Now the only thing waiting is hell!"

Here I wait for cold meals and drive pretty hard deals

On stamps, peanut butter and smokes.

I'm too hungry to scream, too exhausted to dream

Or force laughter at tired old jokes.

Charlie Sheen on 9/11

~Friedrich Otto Hertz

“At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being”

Love/Hate Relationship With Technology

I restored my phone...like an idiot and lost ALL of my contacts....I am SOOOO upset right now.

I'm seriously fighting back tears...that's horrible. What a testament to how dependent I am on technology. I think I need a nature retreat.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

"If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up." ~Hunter S. Thompson

~H. Jackson Brown

‎"Don't say you don't have enough time. 
You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were 
given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, 
Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." 

Viva La Frida

Born in 1907, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo would become a voice for many women far beyond the span of her lifetime. It was said Frida thought the reason for her birth was so she would be associated with the Mexican Revolution. The Revolution began when Frida was only three years old, but had a lasting impact on her. Frida was also heavily influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, although she was not a direct descendant of Mexico. Her father, a Jewish-German, met her mother, a woman of Mexican and Indian decent, and married her shortly after the death of his first wife. Frida was the third of four daughters born in her parent’s home, La Casa Azul. This is where Frida would live, off and on, for most of her life; she would find peace in death within the comfort of the walls of The Blue House.

Much of her painting had to do with not the human condition itself, but of her individual condition. Injured as a young child from Polio, Frida’s right leg was thinner than her left and caused her to walk with a slight limp. At the age of nineteen, she was in a tragic bus accident that caused horrible damage to her body. A friend once said, “They had to put her back together in sections, like a photo montage.” (Stechler)  The accident left her in a full body cast, making her immobile for nearly three months. Over the course of her life, she would have nearly thirty-five surgeries; one of these operations resulted in the amputation of her right leg. Using painting as a kind of therapy, Frida painted from her hospital bed. She would later say, “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” (Webster) Painting, it seemed, gave Frida a kind of supernatural strength and a feeling of purpose, although she had contemplated suicide in an attempt to deal with her hurt (Kettenmann 79). From the hospital bed, smaller, more intimate paintings were easier to create for Frida. She was once quoted saying, “I am not sick, I am broken. But I am happy as long as I can paint.” 

Some critics argue that the size of Frida’s paintings could also be attributed to the patriarchal social systems of this era. Female artists were still very obscure and most definitely not given many accolades. It was only after meeting with Diego Rivera, a very famous muralist during this time, that Frida began painting as a career. Frida used bright colors and simple techniques (some would argue they were naïve) similar to Diego, as he was one of her great inspirations. Rivera, who recognized Frida’s talent and encouraged her to continue painting, would later become her husband. Before her death and subsequent post-hummus popularity, she was most often known as “Diego’s wife.” Her largest painting, “The Two Fridas” was only about 5 feet tall. It depicted both “sides” of Frida: the side Diego loved and the side he did not. 

Most all of her paintings had to do with personal pain and loss. Graphic imagery was one of the unique aspects to her work. She exposed her physical degeneration, the result of the bus accident, in such works as “The Broken Column” (1944, Collection of Dolores Olmedo Foundation, Mexico City), in which she wears a metal brace around her open body which reveals a broken column where her spine used to be. One of her more sorrowful and graphic pieces was entitled “Henry Ford Hospital” (1932, Collection of Dolores Olmedo Foundation). Frida, who had several miscarriages over several years, is lying in a hospital bed surrounded by objects that include a hospital machine, a pelvic bone, and what appears to be a dead baby, having yet another miscarriage (Stechler).

Although she was virtually ignored throughout her lifetime, her posthumous recognition has had enormous impacts on female artists. Lying in her hospital bed, therapeutically painting away her anguish, one has to wonder what Frida would have thought about her future celebrity had she known. Would her paintings have been bigger? Would fame have gone to her head? Would her paintings become empty, as she was no longer painting for herself? These are all answers we will never know. One thing that is sure, however, is the haunting images born out of her pain will be cherished and remembered forever.

Daylight Films (Producer), Stechler, A. (Director). 2004. The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo [motion picture]. United States: ParamountStudios.

Kettenmann A., Frida Kahlo 1907-1954: Pain and Passion. Koln, Taschen, 2003.

Webster, A. (Producer). 2010. Frida [iTunes application]. United States:  iTunes.

My "This I Believe" essay (http://thisibelieve.org/essay/80563/)

Stronger Than I Imagined

At one point in my life, I had become so resigned to the belief that I was deserving of the abuse and mistreatment I had received throughout my life, from people who were supposed love and care for me, I began to treat myself in the same way. Failing to recognize the damages, I would believe for years that the innate strength I had would help me continue “making it through” life. Little did I know, I was settling for the miserable life that my resignation, defeatist attitude and self-loathing had created. Who was I to demand better treatment from anyone, let alone myself? Who was I to alter the course mapped out for me? This was my lot in life; it was the reason for my perceived strength. At least this is what I used to believe.

Thankfully, I recognized, before this miserable life’s path could meet its premature end; drastic changes were immediately required if I were to alter my life’s destination. After removing from my life the people who not only helped define my self-worth, but required my resignation to its insignificance; for the first time in my life I was alone. The path that lay before me would be leap of faith into the unknown. It most certainly required dedication; this path begged me to believe in myself, a completely foreign concept. Knowing the strength it would require, I took the leap of faith . . . alone.

Since choosing to live deliberately, life has been anything but easy. It has been lonely, however I have taken to quiet introspection, which is something I knew nothing about until recently. This change has also challenged me to identify my beliefs and my moral code, things I had previously defined by the beliefs of others. The rewards of my decision are just beginning to show themselves; they quietly encourage my continuance by offering small gifts of confidence and hints of amazing things to come. I know the path I have chosen leads to the life I had so desperately longed for but didn’t believe I deserved. I have finally realized the love and validation I sought through others is something that has always been in me, quietly waiting for me to discover. I have found an unassailable strength I now claim with authority; I no longer allege my strength.

This discovery has afforded me silent reprieve by uncovering self love, acceptance, and by revealing my true strength, but his is not where my journey ends. This is where my journey begins. I believe I am strong. When no one else believes in my strength is when I am my strongest. I believe that no matter the circumstances and no matter the obstacles, I am strong for a purpose. My purpose may be unclear and the path to its absolute definition will most definitely demand self-alterations and hold many diversions, but it is inevitable; I will reach my destination, my purpose, because I am strong. I am stronger than even I could imagine.

Gang Flamingo Versus Team Baboon - NEVER SEEN BEFORE (original narration...