Concerning Feminism: Girls, it worked…

For the last couple of weeks I've been returning to my artistic roots, taking the sketchbooks and pencils to one of the all night  diners during the dead hours after supper and before the bar rush, brushing up on skills atrophied from disuse and the forgiving nature of digital media.  Last night however brought me a distinct chuckle not related in the least to perspective or shading, at least not on paper.

Dancer



Dancer by CDM.MMXI



Oft she'd dance a solstice wind

Sleek step the chanted chords

Of minstrel lute and mandolin,

Booted tread drum the boards

With tatted veil loosed to flight

Fan embers into lover's fire,

Enchanted smile beguile alight

The hope of hidden deep desire

Laid soft beside the rising moon,

Seduce the rainbow's secret son

Return to life the ancient boon

Of melodies known Merlin's run

Pairs lad to lass as man and wife

Bond blended hearts in fertile life.

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Dedicated to Alexa:  

muse, mentor    

and Lady of her Land...

artists note:  this post brought forward from March, so it might stand beside the  story of how both poem and painting were inspired... so as that great radio personality Paul Harvey would say, just so you know the rest of the story...

Long Road of a Gift...

Once upon a time there was a young woman, and the young woman had a sister, and the sister had a boyfriend who was in one nation's army.  Now the boyfriend had a buddy who was in another nation's army, and that soldier had a sister.  The sister discovered a music, and she sent it to her brother, who shared it with his buddy who shared it with his girlfriend who in her turn shared it with her sister, the young woman where the trail began.  Which if memory serves me is the full story of how the music of Blackmore's Night found its' way to my muse Alex, who shared it with a great many of us.  To this day in my heart it is her music, the magic Ritchie and Candice weave with sound the perfect complement to the spells of love distilled Alex would cast.  Let me share a few favorites with you here, for a gift of that sort is a gift that needs to be passed on to others.

Music beneath the fold...

Equality in Education

I violated my own rule last night, I did.  I pitched a bitch at the world and didn't include a possible solution to the problem I was complaining about.  But, according to the calendar it's still the same day, so I can still slide it under the wire and redeem my resolve.

Up in Smoke...

I am going to (re)post and expand on a comment I made over on CJ's blog WWST concerning smoking.  Like so many hot button issues nicotine addiction is rarely examined for functional reasons, it is far more often used as marker for an "us and them" social discrimination line.  And in actual fact this is not an inaccurate indicator, but the politically correct reasons given are not the reality of the situation. 

Sonnet for a Lady

There is no doubt in my mind, none, that this is the lady Frank Sinatra was singing about, the one when he was 35 and it was such a very good year indeed.  I do miss her, but since I carry a love for her as well I can balance the missing against the hoping that about now everyone is getting to sleep through the night.  I'd love to say just that to her, that hope, and watch to see if she'd laugh and shake her head, or if her smile would shift soft and real for the moment it took her to wink.  I'll not know, but a boy can hope, and hope I will.

Movie Night...

Ok, I've done my homework.  Yup.  I did.  Didn't used to, not all the time, so I figure this is just penance for all the totally creative lies I cooked up to get around the more obnoxious of the assignments.  Amazing what you can get away with when courtesy of a box of old checks and a couple of hours of practice you can sign your mother's name better than she can.  But you gotta be creative, and make it something they'll believe.  But that's a long and unrelated story to the theme of the night.  The subject tonight was camera's.  Yes, camera's and what they can do to people and their lives. 

By Request...

The model is Leia, as truly beautiful and talented a woman as I've ever had the honor to know, the image of her a screen shot captured during one of her live shows when something said touched her compassion.  I don't know where to find her to ask her permission to use her image to illustrate this thought, but Leia being Leia?  Somehow I don't think she'd be upset with me.  So often it seemed this very thought was on the tip of her tongue... but never spoken for kindness' sake.

Man Hater and Harpy

Today brought a sadness into my life. I can't complain, I initiated the encounter quite deliberately, with good cause and good intentions. But the net result was a good long look at the absolute bottom of the female spectrum. Physically nauseating in point of fact, far below revulsion it was pity running under nitrous and a supercharger.  The story goes like this:

Face of a Stranger, Face of a Friend

What follows is a dream transcribed. I have no idea, none at all, if any of this is true in fact, true in essence, or quite false in all regards and simply the product of wishful thinking.  But for what it is here it is.

See a city enjoying a pleasant afternoon, moderately warm beneath pillow clouds floating across a blue sky.  See people, shapes of people moving along their way, some in haste, others strolling slowly, the sense of dense population.  Look at the buildings, take note of their age, the close spacing, how they are crowd one into the other leaving a sense of an old city where every square foot has a history, a story to tell.  Such was the setting for this dream that perhaps was more than a dream. 

Eight Miles High...

A few posts back I put up a video I'd found of the great old tune "Summer Wine" being performed by a couple I'd never heard of (ok, I live under a rock, sue me), Ville Valo and Natalia Avelon. I thought they did an awesome good job with the tune, one of the few times I've found a cover to rival if not exceed the original. The video with the song was good, but strange and confusing, it fit but not in any way I could quite pin to the lyric images. I'd always thought the song about a cowboy, silver spurs and all, and a saloon girl of some sort, not really a prostitute but certainly a seductress. Well, anyway, back on utube I decided to watch it again full screen, and by accident clicked on a slightly different version labeled as high definition... and yea, *grin* the full grown up version is most definitely very high definition. Natalia is one hot sister when she wants to dial it on. Song was the same, but the video was different in more ways than just Natalia trying to melt my monitor.