Tag Archives: Arts

Advice from Harper Lee

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Advice from Harper Lee.

A young fan of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird‘ named Jeremy wrote to Harper Lee in 2006, and asked for a signed photo. He didn’t get one, but instead received this lovely piece of advice from the author that is far more precious.

Transcript

06/07/06

Dear Jeremy

I don’t have a picture of myself, so please accept these few lines:

As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don’t think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, “I’m probably no better than you, but I’m certainly your equal.”

(Signed, ‘Harper Lee’)

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Smells Like Teen Spirit

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We drive by Kurt and Courtney‘s old house a lot on our way home, we drive by the park where there are always people taking pictures of the bench and leaving flowers and candles.  For some reason, I like the idea that people are still drawn to his tiny little park.  His enormous hedge of rhododendrons is threatening to bloom and will do just that any day, I will share a photo when it does.Kurt Cobain hand-wrote the following to-do list mid-1991, as Nirvana prepared to film the now-iconic music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was eventually filmed on a sound stage and directed by Samuel Bayer.

Transcript follows. Image from the book, Kurt Cobain: Journals.

Transcript

Smells Like Teen Spirt

needed

1. Mercedes benz and a few old cars

2. Access to a abandoned mall, main floor and one Jewelry shop.

3. lots of fake Jewelry

4. School Auditorium (Gym)

5. A cast of hundreds. 1 custodian, students.

6. 6 black Cheerleader outfits with Anarchy A’s Ⓐ on chest

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40 Things To Say Before You Die – Self Help

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Before you’re sprawled on your deathbed, there are some things you really have to say. They’re not complicated. They’re not poetry.

They’re just short sentences with big meaning.

I hope they get you talking.

40
“I wonder.”

Give yourself time to think so the time you spend doing things will be better spent.

39
“Today was good.”

If you can say it once, you can say it again. And again. And again.

38
“I believe in this.”

A god, a plan, a company, a person, an idea—you have to put your faith in something.

37
“I’m not finished.”

Only you get to decide when your life’s work is done.

36
“Thank you for making this possible.”

Because nobody does anything alone. We’re driven and supported and thwarted by others at every turn.

35
“That’s enough.”

Food. Drink. Episodes of Law & Order. Pairs of shoes. Overtime. Articulating your own limits is powerful.

34
“I can do better.”

As soon as you say it, you’re that much closer to making it true.

33
“I’m sorry.”

But you can’t just say it; you have to mean it. Really mean it.

32
“I survived.”

Moments of danger are the plot points of an exciting life.

31
“You’re amazing.”

Let yourself be in awe of another person, and you’ll feel strong and weak simultaneously.

30
“I am home.”

Home is every adventure’s final destination and starting point—and we all need one to call our own.

29
“I did my best.”

If this is true, you did something amazing.

28
“How can I help you?”

Because you want people to come to your funeral, and if they can’t make it, at least they’ll miss you.

27
“I’m lucky.”

You are lucky, in a way that no one else is. Now, what are you going to do with your good fortune?

26
“I want that.”

Ask for it: that’s you get what you covet—from others and for yourself.

25
“This is wrong.”

If you never say it, you embody the statement.

24
“I quit.”

Not everything is worthwhile, and sometimes we don’t find that out until we’re in the middle of a rotten situation.

23
“Isn’t this beautiful?”

The more often you notice the gorgeous world around you, the happier you’ll be.

22
“Congratulations.”

Say this without jealously. Practice if you have to.

21
“Damn, I look good.”

You come from a long line of people who convinced others to sleep with them. Remember that.

20
“I can master this.”

The ability to learn is the foundation of every other talent.

19
“Hold the mayo.”

Ask for the little things on a regular basis and you’ll find that it’s easier to make larger demands on occasion.

18
“This is who I am.”

The nervous energy spent pretending to be something you’re not is better spent on practically anything else.

17
“Get out.”

It’s always harder to take back an invitation than to give one, but protecting yourself from personified trouble is always worth the effort.

16
“That was my contribution.”

Own what you’ve worked to create—that’s how your presence will be felt long after you’re gone.

15
“I’ll try it.”

Consider the impotence of never saying you’ll try.

14
“Tell me more.”

Really getting to know someone (or some topic) will help you better triangulate your own place in the world.

13“This is my favorite thing.”

Enjoy what you love and say this as often as you can.

12
“I earned this.”

There’s a layer of proud ownership over everything you possess that wasn’t merely given to you.

11
“I don’t care.”

Being able to discern between what’s important and what’s trivial is a skill that will save your sanity and your schedule.

10
“Your secret is safe with me.”

Because it feels deep-down good to be trustworthy.

9
“Eureka!”

Being the first to know something is a delicious sensation.

8
“Let’s go!”

Where you’re going often matters far less than the enthusiasm you have for the trip.

7
“I trust you.”

We all need allies, and admitting as much helps forge alliances.

6
“I don’t know how to do this.”

It’s better to admit it and learn than to fake it and embarrass yourself.

5
“I’m terrified.”

Fear is an asset. It can save you from danger and alert you to trouble. Don’t ignore the tingles that run up and down your spine.

4
“This is going to work.”

When this is said truthfully, it’s an assertion of power.

3
“I made a decision.”

Autonomy transforms any activity from a chore to an act of destiny.

2
“I love you.”

We all want to say this, and we all want it said to us.

1
“I understand.”

More important than being right, or being important, is being truly aware.

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Daily Prompt: Unleash Your Inner Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Prompt is:

National Poetry Writing Month is nearly at at end. To celebrate it, try your hand at some verse.

I dug through the archives and found a poem about early mornings in the city and a Haiku about kissing a littler person.

It Is Only Our Morning

The sun lights the sky and the  glass on the tall buildings before it  lights the air where we walk. We walked to under a canopy of warm  refractory light in the darkness this morning.

We claim a bit more ownership of the city at this hour. Sharing it  only with delivery trucks, school kids, and the barristas that make  our coffee. The empty sidewalks and streets, the dark shop windows,  the last of the summer blooms are all ours. We share them with each  other and witness the city waking up together.

and…

Black Out Make Out

Can’t blame the vodka

She was standing on a chair

We’re all fabulous

Read Poems Better Than Mine Here:

But face it. You’re a neo maxi zoom dweebie, what would you be doing if you weren’t out making yourself a better citizen?

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**Take a quote from your favorite movie — there’s the title of your post. Now, write!**

john hughes

If I am cut, do I not bleed? I bleed nerd blood.

I noticed a picture on facebook of my first grade class a while ago, I was not tagged as I was not facebook friends with the person who had posed the picture. I remember the girl and remember her name, I actually remember a bunch of the people tagged in that photograph. I thought about friend-requesting them, but I just do not know what I would say or talk to them about. How do you nutshell 25 years? One girl I remember best because she and I were always seated next to each other when classrooms were organized alphabetically. We went kindergarten through senior year together and even went to each other’s birthday parties in grade school.

I know, you are waiting for it, so here is where the story turns. Since we were alphabetically connected, at least at the beginning of the year, we sat next to each other most of the time for twelve years. I mean, whenever we had a class together. In junior high social studies class, she called me by my whole name, first and last, then turned to another girl and said “Isn’t it funny how we always call nerds by their whole name?” It hurt, I won’t lie. We had been friends all through grade school, our mothers knew each other, we had history.

In her defense, I was a nerd, a short, skinny, awkward nerd. At the same time, the cruelty of children is absolutely bottomless. She didn’t need to call me a nerd, I knew I was a nerd, I heard it from every single guy in my P.E. class, well, actually I heard much worse.

We, along with most of the kids from grade school, got into this familiarity-thing where they sort of acknowledged my existence, but didn’t acknowledge our history. So, they would see that I was standing there, taking up air space, but would not do anything more than that. This started in junior high and continued through high school. It was fine, I made new friends with the other outcasts and misfits, we wrote alternative newspapers, dyed our hair, had dog weddings, and befriended the foreign exchange students. Yes, that was my crowd.

To this day, my mother will say she saw so-and-so-from-grade-school’s mother at the grocery store and I just don’t have the heart to tell her they basically ignored me for the last six years of school.

Basically, at my school, groups of kids were friends almost solely based on the radio station they listened to. I am not sure if those were simpler times and the dynamics are much more complex now with the internet and such, but ours was a gentile time where you either listened to butt rock, top 40, or new wave. I, as well as my clan, all listened to New Wave, C89.5 to be exact. This is when C89.5 went off at 11:00 PM. There was a subset of us that listened to KCMU, also. The radio station influenced everything: the clothes you wore, your haircut, the car you drove, and the friends you made.
I guess in some ways, even though we had our own insulated group, we still felt like outcasts and maybe looked up to the popular kids that listened to top 40. I did not look up to the butt rock kids, they were frightening to me. But the popular kids still had the impression of charmed lives. John Hughes was spot on and we knew it.

It is curious how even today, when someone says my first and last name, I instantly think of “Isn’t it funny how we always call nerds by their whole name?”

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Madame Sin.

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Release date: 1972 (initial release)
Director: David Greene
Running time: 90 minutes
Cast: Bette Davis, Robert Wagner
Producers: Robert Wagner, Lew Grade
Genres: Action film, Drama, Thriller, Spy film, Action Thrillers

If you have a chance, you should really rent the movie “Madame Sin.” If for only because Bette Davis is serving up crazy paint-by-number face. IMDB describes it as:

“Bette Davis is Madame Sin, a sinister-looking, totally evil, half-Chinese woman who indulges in endless machinations. Ensocnced in a Scottish castle that is packed with an array of spy gadgetry, she runs afoul with counter spy, American CIA agent Anthony Lawrence (Robert Wagner), who is out to counter her plots for control of a Polaris submarine.”

I totally didn’t pick up on her being half-Chinese, just real bossy.  But I forgot that a heavy lid is as good as Chinese for Hollywood of that era.  Basically, this movie is what the Austin Powers movies are spoofing.

 

Something Extraordinary

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I had quite thought that I would be spending this spring reading Agatha Christie mysteries in order of publication, maybe D.V. again, obviously The Perks of being a Wallflower, and who really knows what else, but it looks like I may need to crank through The Great Gatsby one more time.  Partially because of this letter, and partially due to the release of the movie.  I adore the 1973 adaptation so very much, I do hope that the new one is as gloriously and festively sad.  The book had quite possibly the most perfect last paragraph of a novel that ever has been written.  So much so, it is Scott and Zelda’s epitaph.

July, 1922. In the final paragraph of an otherwise unremarkable letter to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, author F. Scott Fitzgerald passionately announces his desire to begin writing “something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned.”

The novel he had mentioned for the first time was The Great Gatsby.

Dear Mr. Perkins:

Glad you liked the addenda to the Table of Contents. I feel quite confident the book will go. How do you think The Love Legend will sell? You’ll be glad to know that nothing has come of the movie idea & I’m rather glad myself. At present working on my play — the same one. Trying to arrange for an Oct. production in New York. Bunny Wilson (Edmund Wilson Jr.) says that it’s without doubt the best American comedy to date (that’s just between you and me.)

Did you see that in that Literary Digest contest I stood 6th among the novelists? Not that it matters. I suspect you of having been one of the voters.

Will you see that the semi-yearly account is mailed to me by the 1st of the month — or before if it is ready? I want to see where I stand. I want to write something new — something extraordinary and beautiful and simple & intricately patterned.

As Usual

(Signed, ‘F Scott Fitzgerald’)

via Letters of Note.

Daily Prompt: The Clock | The Daily Post

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The Daily Prompt is a writing exercise/challenge executed by the creative people over at WordPress with the hope to inspire daily writing.  This exercise is:  Write about anything you’d like. Somewhere in your post, include the sentence, “I heard the car door slam, and immediately looked a the clock.”  Here is mine.  I will tag a bunch of other people’s submissions as well.  I hope you enjoy.

All I had to do was stand across the street next to the two trees and watch the front door of his house.  How hard could that really be?  It was a warm night and I had a full pack of cigarettes.  They told me that nothing would happen until at least 9:30, so I showed up at ten minutes after nine, just to make sure I didn’t miss them.

I could see movement in the house, shadows passing from room to room behind drawn curtains, the flicker of a TV.

A notification came through on my phone, I had a new Words With Friends game and the first word my opponent played was ‘SPECIAL.’  Getting a bingo on the first move is pretty, well, special, so I immediately played ‘SMASHED’ off the S.  They played ‘DELVE’ off the D and I turned it into ‘DELVED’ with ‘DROUGHT’.

The game went on, fast and furious, double and triple word scores, solid blocks of letters making words in all directions filling up entire corners, adding a hundred points at each turn.

I heard the car door slam, and immediately looked at the clock.

It was 10:45, the lights of the house were dark, it’s occupants long gone.  I had no idea when they left, what direction they were headed, or what I was going to tell my bosses.

Daily Prompt: The Clock | The Daily Post.

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February – Style Icon Month

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waldina mosaic

Maybe I have not ever explained what criteria I use when assigning people the “Style Icon” and “Not So Secret Obsession” status?

Style Icons are assigned to people I admire, if it is simply beauty or fashion, it is most likely unconventional and risky choices that provoke conversation.  They are artists, writers, musicians, politicians, humanitarians, architects, activists, actors, directors, fashion designers, scientists, basically anyone whose life work fascinates me and I admire. They are almost always dead because it is my moderate worry that dead people will be forgotten and keeping an ongoing list of them is my effort to remember them.  If, along the way, someone else likes them and discovers someone that fascinates them, even better.

Not So Secret Obsessions are usually things or events.  I am obsessed with Hardy Boys books and the 1968 Sears Holiday catalog for their retro goody-goody aesthetic.  I am obsessed with political street art:  you can be walking down the sidewalk and be visibly reminded that Republicans thing that some rape is OK.

For the month of February (and maybe a bit of a spill-over into March) I will be focusing only on Style Icons.  One a day, like a multivitamin, I will be dosing you with people that inspire me.  The format is straight-forward:  I will write a bit at the top of the post about what it is that inspires me about the person, followed by their details.  I will do my best to include links to additional reading at the bottom of the post.

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There, Their and They’re – Self Help

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The English language is full of problems like the one presented by there, their and they’re. Most native English speakers pronounce these the same way; therefore, it is difficult for some to judge in which situation to use which spelling. Each spelling means a very different thing.

1. Use there when referring to a place, whether concrete (“over there by the building”) or more abstract (“it must be difficult to live there”).

There is an antique store on Camden Avenue.
The science textbooks are over there on the floor.
There are many documents that are used in investigations.

2. Also use there with the verb BE (is, am, are, was, were) to indicate the existence of something, or to mention something for the first time.

There is a picnic area over here, and a monster and a campground across the river.
“I see there are new flowers coming up in your garden.” “Yes, they are the ones my grandmother gave me last year.”

3. Use their to indicate possession. It is a possessive adjective and indicates that a particular noun belongs to them.

My friends have lost their tickets.
Their things were strewn about the office haphazardly.

4. Remember that they’re is a contraction of the words they and are. It can never be used as a modifier, only as a subject (who or what does the action) and verb (the action itself).

Hurry up! They’re closing the mall at six tonight!
I’m glad that they’re so nice to new students here.

5. Test your usage. When you use any of these three words, get in the habit of asking yourself these questions, but remember that they will not work in all cases though:

If you wrote there, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with here? If so, you’re using it correctly.

If you chose their, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with our? If so, you’ve chosen the correct word.

If you used they’re, will the sentence still make sense if you replace it with they are? If so, you’re on the right track!

6. Recognize incorrect examples and learn from the mistakes. By looking over others’ work with a critical eye, especially by offering proofreading or copyediting help, you can become more sensitized to correct usage and practice it yourself.

Wrong: Their is no one here.
Wrong: Shelley wants to know if there busy.
Wrong: The dogs are happily chewing on they’re bones.
RIGHT: I can’t believe they’re leaving their children there, alone!

7. Practice, practice, practice! Get your English teacher or friend to say several sentences aloud that include one of these three words and write down which version they are using. Hire a private English tutor if you’re still having trouble.

Tips:

  • Spell out your contractions. Replace can’t with cannot, you’re with you are, and they’re withthey are. This way, you will catch yourself if you make a mistake in writing.
    • The students misplaced they’re books → The students misplaced they are books.
      • Here, the second sentence makes no sense; hence, it is improper usage.
  • Turn off the auto-correct feature in your word processor. People tend to get lazy and forget special rules when the computer automatically corrects mistakes like the ones listed above.
  • If you’re unsure if you’re using “their” correctly, try replacing it with “my” —the sentence should work with the substitution. For example: Their house is purple. If you replace “their” with “my” the sentence still makes sense: My house is purple. So, you know you’re using “their” correctly.
  • If you’ve ruled out “they’re” or “their” as the correct form, then “there” is one you should go with!
  • If you have “there is” or “there are” then it’s always “there” — you’d never say “they’re is” or “they’re are” or “their is” or “their are”.
  • Learning to spell correctly can help you succeed in school, get a great job, and be acontributor to wikiHow articles.
  • Remember there, their, and they’re by the following rules:
    • there: the word here is in there so refer to there as a word for location.
    • their: the word he is in their so refer to their as a word for people.
    • they‘re: there is an ‘ in they’re so they’re is like they are. Instead of saying they’re, say they are to see if it makes sense.
  • Another hint: “there” has “here” buried inside it to remind you it refers to place, while “their” has “heir” buried in it to remind you that it has to do with possession
  • Try imagining this scene: you see your neighbours standing outside their house, picking up garbage that they accidentally spilled on the ground. You point at them and say to your friend: “Look over there [location], they’re [they are] picking up their garbage [possession]“