Friday, September 30, 2016

Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .


I totally love this Colorful Tribal Beaded Necklace from the ELSLondon shop on Etsy.com

I don't usually think of myself as being boho chic in style, although I do own the moniker of hippie, given that I spend much of my day barefoot. 

But this necklace is very appealing to me, because it looks like a combination of two lovely things. The design reminds me of the wings of the goddess Isis. 


It also reminds me of Art Deco jewelry of the 1920s. It costs $53.07. 




< < Previous Etsy find

Writing Post of the Day: On the Care and Feeding of a Writer






Thursday, September 29, 2016

Song of the Day: "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits















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Isn't "Romeo and Juliet" by Dire Straits a wonderful song?

This song is so good there's no need for a cover, but I will allow that the version by The Killers is a good'un.

—Sarah Torribio



Song of the Day: "Lifted Up (1985) by Passion PIt

This song by Passion Pit, "Lifted Up (1985)," is absolutely wonderful. There is nothing like it.

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Epigram of the Day: "Pressing Question"

Epigram of the Day: "Coquette-ish"

 
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Song of the Day: "It's On You" by Ester Rada

"It's On You" by Ester Rada is a very cool song.


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Song of the Day: "Parenthesis" by The Blow

"Parentheses" by The Blow is the perfect mixture of cute and ennui. If you like Jenny Lewis, Best Coast, That Dog and Liz Phair, you're covered.

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Song of the Day: "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears

"Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears is not an exercise in '80s nostalgia. It's a masterwork. Hear it to good effect in the gripping cult classic movie "Donnie Darko," with a mesmerizing performance by Jake Gyllenhall.

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Epigram of the Day: "Why?"

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Chillaxing gif of the day. . .

This is what would happen if glow necklaces became sentient.

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Song of the Day: "Less Than 2" by Sad13

I'm liking the angst-pop of Sad13 and their song "Less Than 2." I celebrate each new generation of riot grrrls. And what a vocabulary—impressive use of the word acuity!

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Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

This Citrus Slice Flour Sack Dish Towel from the KeiAndMolly shop on Etsy is absolutely adorable. I'll take one in each color, or flavor, if you prefer.

It's $12 each for the orange, lemon and lime designs. The towel is about 30" X 30" in size and hand-printed with water-based ink on 100 percent cotton.

Song of the Day: "Radiation Vibe" by Fountains of Wayne

"Radiation Vibe" by Fountains of Wayne is one of those feel-good songs. You hear it and it's summer.

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Writing post of the day: Einstein was right

I love this quote by Albert Einstein, which applies to writing as well as science. "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it enough."

This quote is true about most forms of writing, including the journalism and screenwriting I engage in.

When you're not writing, just thinking or mopping or relaxing, you're digesting. So stop excoriating yourself for being lazy or uninspired.

Who are your characters? What's the conflict? Once you grasp the subject fully, you can blurt out your story effectively.  i Any writerly touches are the icing on the cake.

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Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Writing post of the day: That skittish muse of mine

I've been musing on my muse. Here's what I know.

It's not like a dog that comes when its called. It's a cat. It comes when it wants to. I have to feed it and care for it and it will still sometimes shy away or even run away when I try to summon it.

It may plop itself down, six feet away from me, just to sun itself. If I try to get hold of it when it's not in the mood, it may even scratch me.

I didn't ask to be the kind of writer whose muse is a cat. But then again, the cat is my favorite animal. What did I expect?

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Song of the Day: "True Love" by Still Parade

Here's a bit of musical gorgeousness. "True Love" by Still Parade. I heard it first on KSPC. (Let it build.)


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Monday, September 26, 2016

Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

There's something compelling about this orange roller skate planter offered by the sewZinski shop on etsy.com. I feel a hardy succulent might be the way to go with this.

It costs $25 and would make the perfect gift for your favorite gal involved with roller derby or roller boogie.

It might also inspire me to get my butt back to Roller City in Chino where they have a monthly Michael Jackson skate night, and where I  can glide my way into shape.







< < Previous Etsy find



Song of the Day: "Up All Night" by Beck

OMG!!! Beck's new album is looking to be his best ever. I'm already obsessed with "Wow." This Beck song is called "Up All Night."

Don't ask me why this particular video looks like a Russian advertisement.


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Sunday, September 25, 2016

Song of the Day: "She Shakes" by Pure Bathing Culture

"She Shakes" by Pure Bathing Culture is wonderful. So charming. Smiths-like guitar and sugar-sprinkled vocals. I suspect you'll like it, too.

The band is a Portland outfit and I've been thinking recently that I should—rather than randomly try and find good new music—get deeper into the music scenes of various regions. I'll keep you posted on what I discover.

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Saturday, September 24, 2016

Comedy bit of the day. . .


I'd have to say that the '70s are my least favorite era. All that disco and candy dishes of cocaine give me the heebie Bee Gees. 



Comedy bit of the day. . .

I dated a man who was dyslexic and a sex addict. He always wanted to do 96.

Heavy metal Hello Kitty. . .

So I introduced Hello Kitty to Metallica today. It started with "And Justice for All" and went from there. I think it went quite well.

Friday, September 23, 2016

Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

I know. $42.59 is a little steep for a napkin holder. But this is such a pretty piece of functional art, it might just be the small investment that makes you happy every time it catches your eye, for ages.

This fused glass Beach Napkins Holder  from the GlassRelief shop on etsy, with it's strata of oceanic colors, is absolutely lovely.














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Chillaxing gif of the day. . .

gif by Bill Domonkos





















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Song of the Day: "Who Can It Be Now" by Men At Work

I love Men at Work, here performing the fabulous "Who Can It Be Now?", the chillest ode to paranoia ever. Lead singer Colin Hay has a splendid voice. I can't resist a man with a vibrato. 




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Song of the Day: "Nowhere Girl" by B-Movie

Remember back in the '80s, when you'd get those 12" singles? And there would be a song you liked but they were jamming it far beyond the radio edit or album track. Like for up in the club?
Here's a good one. It's B-Movie with "Nowhere Girl." 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQfC7Ow5GHo





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Epiphany of the Day. . .

I got the idea today that life is like a Chinese finger trap. If you push or pull too hard, you get trapped.

To mix my metaphors, I think sometimes you just need to let things marinate.



Now I'm thinking maybe I got that idea somewhere else, like from the movie "Phantasm." The main kid in the movie, if you haven't seen it, is named Mike.


His parents have died and his 24-year-old musician brother Jody is raising him. After he spots some creepy, unexplainable and supernatural  goings-on—involving a preternaturally strong tall man who is strong enough to lift a funerary casket like it's a Pee Chee folder—he goes to a local psychic for insight.

She doesn't say a word, but her teenaged granddaughter speaks for her grandmother, who shares her thoughts with the girl telekinetically.

Are you still with me? I know this is getting a bit convoluted.

But I've already jumped waist-deep into this blog. I have to explain further. A block with a hole at the end materializes and the old lady instructs Mike to put his hand inside of the block.

Suddenly, his hand is trapped. "Give me back my hand!" he yells, fighting to retrieve his hand. Instead of freeing him, the girl repeats a mantra: "Don't fear." After a moment of panic, he relaxes a bit and his hand slides free.

"Fear is the killer," the girl tells the boy. "That's what grandmother wants you to learn."



 I guess the point of relaying all this is to:

1) admit I've seen the equivalent of the Chinese finger trap used in a film with regards to the greater struggle of life, so my epiphany is somewhat derivative

 and
2) admit I've seen the movie way too many times.

It's not my fault. My high school boyfriend and later first husband loved that movie, so I was a bit of a captive audience.

And in a tangential note, I believe I saw "Phantasm" screened outdoors at the scenic and star-studded Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where Cinespia screens horror movies and classic movies and B-movies to a movie-loving crowd. You can picnic there and, truly, it's a wonderful experience.


But metaphor explained, I should return to my original point. I want my life to improve. I want it to improve now. This includes money, career, lifestyle, all of it.

But sometimes, as I keep pushing to maintain and hopefully transform my life, I feel stuck. Nothing is happening, it seems, except maybe the occasional step backwards and forwards—yes, a tango, but not the progress I'm aiming for.

That's when it's time for me to chill a moment. That's when it's time for me to let go of fear. Because whether you are dealing with a towering necromancer as in "Phantasm" or the vicissitudes of life, it's good to keep a level head.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Writing post of the day: Virginia Woolf was right

Virginia Woolf was onto something when she said, "Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river."

Writing fuels writing. By reading, our brain grows in general, filled with more more information than before. Our alacrity with words also grows by seeing how other people string their ideas and their words together.

Even reading a book with clunky writing can be useful. We see how writers bore their readers, overdecorate their prose, fail to ring genuine or make sense—or just plain sound awkward. In fact, I think the previous sentence fits that criterion.

If a writer is failing to read, for long periods of time, it's an alarm. Maybe they are too busy or are not making time for something important. It may be the sign you are in a depression or in the doldrums, because losing your enthusiasms is one of the first signs of a funk.

If this is true of you, I suggest you get excited about books again by being among them. Go to the library and, if possible, go to a beautiful library. In my region, the Central Library in the Los Angeles County Library system, located in downtown LA, is stunning. It's truly a temple of reading.

flickr photo by thegreatgeekmanual.libraries
The children's section is particularly wonderful, taking me back to the infancy of my love for books. Spending time there is the closest I get to being at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.




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Chillaxing gif of the day. . .

Cinemagraph courtesy of shoeyphoto.com












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Song of the Day: "I'm Alive" by ELO

Songs from the Xanadu soundtrack might seem like an exercise in cheesy nostalgia. The work by ELO featured in the movie/musical, however, are wonderful. Here is "I'm Alive." It's wonderful music for 1979, and for today.

Oh yeah, and since I am from the '80s, listening to songs from the soundtrack are also an exercise in cheesy nostalgia. My sister Andrea, two years older, and I had the album and listened to it religiously.

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Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Song of the Day: "Ways to Fake It" by CRX

This song by CRX, a new band featuring Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi,  is a lovely piece of rock music—energetic and uplifting with soaring guitars. This power-pop gem, "Ways to Fake It," comes off the band's new album New Skin.

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Monday, September 19, 2016

This is pretty much how I start every day. . .


Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

This fern necklace from the Simone Sutcliffe shop on etsy.com is perfectly elegant—a tribute to one of the loveliest plant species in nature. In fact, the entire shop mixes boho charm with a touch of Victorian naturalist. The fern is copper and the necklace is $25.















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Song of the Day: "I Can Never Be Myself When You're Around"

What!!! Haven't you seen someone post a dozen Songs of the Day in a row. It's this darn LetsLoop.com. I swear, once you join and get established, you can't so much as log onto the site without getting your musical mind blown.

Here is "I Can Never Be Myself When You're Around" by the Chromatics.


CHROMATICS "I CAN NEVER BE MYSELF WHEN YOU'RE... by chromaticsvideo





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Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

These green leather oxford shoes by BangiShop on etsy.com, made of vegan leather, are so covetable. They are $105.

They've got them in a dozen other colors but, yeah, the green are the best. The shop is chock-full of cool shoes, all made in beautiful downtown Tel Aviv.


Song of the Day: "Dimensions" by Computer Magic

"Dimensions" by Computer Magic is a whimsical, dreamy and sweet techno confection.

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Song of the Day: "Crasher" by Astrobrite

My every electic blog, where I am still finding my blogging voice,  is all music today. It's not my fault. I keep thinking of great music and then finding new music wherever I look.

This is Crasher by Astrobrite, which is a fine shoegaze outfit that originated in 1993, or so Wikipedia tells me. It's a lovely rock song.


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Song of the Day: "Castles" by Appleby

I have discovered a new song I like off my favorite music-discovering site, letsloop.com. This song is by Appleby and is called "Castles." It's produced by Elias Abid. Great voice, cool mix, chill and catchy as all get-out.


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Art Post of the Day. . .

Have you heard of the Dr Propolus? He takes ads that inspire him, or historic paintings, and draws on them.

Are the images of Dr Propolus, an Austrian-Moroccan illustrator whose real name is Ilias Walchshofer, flights of fancy?



Or do they capture the true essence of the subject? 





To see and learn more about this gifted artist, visit wwwdrpropolus.tumbr.com or www.instagram.com/iliaswalchshofer.









Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

I am a crazy cat lady and proud of it. We have two cats, officially, but a number of feral cats—all quite well-behaved—consider our back yard their headquarters.

I would love to get this Leaf Fall Cat Drinking Fountain from the Thirsty Cat Fountains shop on etsy.com. It costs $105, which is a stretch. However, it is also adorable and keeps your kitties' water fresh and oxygenated and how can you put a price on that? It's made of pet-safe ceramics in a lovely muted goldenrod hue.

The shop makes small batches of these fountains in various styles and recreates new ones as they sell out. So if this one is gone soon, there's more where that came from. Me-ow!















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Song of the Day: "Exit" by Birdland














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"Exit" by Birdland is a splendid rock song. I love the guitars.

—Sarah Torribio

Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

I'm interested in getting this Celebration Spiral for Lent, Advent and birthdays by the Oak Tree Vibrations shop on etsy.com. It costs $60.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm going full hippy and I don't mind adding a bit of pagan charm to my ramp-up to Christmas. We all know the reason behind the season, whether or not we are believers. But at heart, winter holidays have always been celebrated to enliven those long, dark winter nights.

Granted I live in southern California, so they aren't so long and cold. Sometimes you'll even see people walking around in shorts in December. But still, things like candles and Christmas lights add some much-needed dazzle to the year.
















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Song of the Day: "Elephant Stone" by The Stone Roses















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My song of the day is "Elephant Stone" by the Stone Roses. This pioneering Mersey-beat band is the real thing. Dip into their catalogue, especially their first album and early singles, and you will be blown away.

The band's amazing drummer Reni has the precision of a drum machine. All of a sudden I'm back in high school.


—Sarah Torribio

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

Okay, there's a line between being artistic and being crafty. And this Wooden Cloud Shelf could walk the line.

But then again, it looks perfectly chic in this room in which it is staged, and would be absolutely dear in a child's room. At $46.94 and at 11" by 6.5" by 3.75,"it's a lot of cute for your buck. It's made by the Crafted Pine Co.
















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Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

I love this Wood Beignet Sign, from the HomeMaloneNOLA shop on etsy. It would be so cute in a funky kitchen, not to be confused with a funky chicken.

It reminds me of my one visit to New Orleans, which is an amazing city. It's eccentric an exciting and beautiful. I ate beignets, on a cold and rainy day, in New Orleans at the famous Cafe du Mone, washed down with cafe au lait made  with a coffee and chickory blend.

I don't even know what chickory is, but it was hot and tasty and the beignets were warm and sweet and light and sprinkled with sugar. Amazing emory.

The beignet sign is $28.



















< < Previous Etsy Shopping find

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Chillaxing gif of the day

courtesy of Jim Dave

Let the money from this lucky cat begin flowing toward all of us!














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Song of the Day: "In Big Country" by Big Country














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This song, "In a Big Country" by Big Country, is one of the more magical songs to arise from what my 7 1/2 year-old song calls "80s era."

The band, which is Scottish, manages to make guitars sound like bagpipes, which is a true feat. Unfortunately the lead singer William Stuart Anderson, who had was horribly addicted to alcohol, wasn't able to listen to the song's refrain, "Stay alive" and killed himself in 2001.

 Still, he made some lovely music while alive that makes me happy today.

—Sarah Torribio

Friday, September 16, 2016

Epigram of the Day: "Voyage of the Dusktreader"



•OLDER POST
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Epigram of the Day: "Tuck and Roll"



Epigram of the Day: "Confession"

Epigram of the Day: "Eden"

                                                                                                        

Epigram of the Day: "Feral"

















>>next epigram

Art/poetry Collaboration of the Day. . .

Artwork by the amazing and talented Elisa Hutchison. Poem by moi.


courtesy of Elisa Hutchison

Flowering Panda
Our quiet understanding
grows like young bamboo.
Nothing's ever black and white—
I shouldn't love you, but I do.

—Sarah Torribio













Art/poetry Collaboration of the Day. . .

courtesy of Elisa Hutchison
Artwork by Elisa Hutchison, poem by Sarah Torribio


A Tale of Two Friends
Once I ate a crayon—
no, I ate the whole darn box.
It gave me rainbow daydreams,
like the tale of bird and fox.

Sarah Torribio










Art/poetry collaboration of the day. . .

I have undertaken a partnerships between myself, a writer, and my friend Elisa Hutchison, a truly talented artist and wonderful friend.

Here's one of our collaborations.

courtesy of Elisa Hutchison
The Proud Fox
I'm feeling rather foxy,
my fur is soft and clean.
My eyes see like a hawk's see.
And how are you, old bean?

—Sarah Torribio


















Chillaxing gif of the day. . .

courtesy of Ruslan Khasanov












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Funny Video of the Day. . .

This guy, who goes by the moniker Blame the comic, has it dead right. Once a mom, always a mom.





Etsy Shopping Find of the Day. . .

I suddenly absolutely, positively need a Canjo, which is, of course, a banjo made from a tin can. It's $285 from the Howlinrooster shop on Etsy. I'm sensing bluegrass in my future!






















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Song of the Day: "Sorry" by Beyoncé














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How is it that I haven't listened to "Sorry" by Beyoncé until this morning? So creative as well as singalong-ready.

Skip this if you don't like sassy language, including F- and N-bombs.

—Sarah Torribio






Song of the Day: "Waste a Moment" by Kings of Leon














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Oh, my. How I like the guitar and momentum in this very fine Kings of Leon song. It's called "Waste a Moment" and is good, clean, epic rock.

—Sarah Torribio



Song of the Day: "Teenage Riot" by Sonic Youth















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I have to be in the right mood for their aggressive jangle, but Sonic Youth is absolutely incredible. Guitar riffs from inner space.

No one sounds like them. Here's "Teenage Riot" by Sonic Youth.

—Sarah Torribio





Thursday, September 15, 2016

Song of the Day: "Like a Criminal" by The Sheila Divine














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Today's Song of the Day is "Like a Criminal" by The Sheila Divine. It's a perfect rock song.

—Sarah Torribio

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Writing Post of the Day. . .

This is the truest, most penultimate writing tip there is. Writing is, above all things, a compulsion.

And so it's unfortunate how much time we writers spend questioning why we are doing it—why are we wasting our time, what makes us think we can do it well, let alone make a living at it.

I'm off work, at home, and God help me and my family, I'm writing.












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Chillaxing gif of the day. . .

food-gifs.tumblr.com

Yes, please!














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Song of the Day: "Sister" by Angel Olsen















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If you like Mazzy Star and some of the more introspective, Sun Record's-like work by Chris Isaak (e.g. on his "Forever Blue" album, you will like today's Song of the Day.

It's Angel Olsen and her song "Sister." I have been developing into a super-fan of this lady in recent weeks.

—Sarah Torribio