in the same vein

" I have always believed the great artists are the ones who dare entitle to beauty things so natural that when they're seen afterward people say: Why did I never realize before that this too was beautiful?...." Andre Gide, The Immoralist

witnessing my daughter's poetry take flight...

I will humbly try to translate into english...

Time passes you are still not here

but we take our time to love (each other)

It is night you are still not here!

I wait (for you).

I wait (for you).

I call for you but you do not respond

I am here.

Here at the sea, you should have arrived by boat

The time we (one) take(s) to say I love you

perhaps lost.

Where are you?

Nostalgia for the Light

Just the title alone is moving....

a beautiful and fluid new collection by my friend Laurence

10 for today

1. The way you see rainbows in your eyelashes
2. A nap with the sun on your face
3. Hearing ones heart beat against the sheets
4. 5:55 by Charlotte Gainsbourg
5. Blossoming tea
6. The Immoralist by Andre Gide
7. Making cookies in the afternoon
8. Sketching
9. Choosing to do nothing
10. Sublime silence

Beautiful poets modeling fashion for Oprah? I wish I could say, finally a time to bring poetry back in the spotlight...In the nytimes author's words "And yet, 'Spring Fashion Modeled by Rising Young Poets' The words are heart-sinking. " As you can see here.

(note: I'll hold my thoughts on the art direction...)

* 3/28/2011

Was thinking about this story in the bus this morning and realized, that to me, it is not so much the fact of having poets model fashion, but the way the story was presented. Would it not have been more "poetic" to just have these beautiful poets model the clothes and run one of their poems along side their photo? Nothing more said, but their name and age? Why go into a truncated dialogue of their thoughts on poetry and fashion?

bleeding cloud

Couldn't resist posting this image from a stylist friend's blog of her sweet newborn son, Marlowe.

I want to see this...

"Do not assume that he who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, he would never have been able to find these words"

Rainer Maria Rilke

sur le chemin de l'ecole 2, frere et soeur...

In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.- camus

thank you T!

Kenneth Noland

A colorful retrospective of Kenneth Noland's pivotal work from 1958-68 reflective of his experience in world war II and american capitalism.

sur le chemin de l'ecole, frere et soeur...

new hair cuts: Before and after

Please continue to make your donations to the red cross or here in solidarity to the japanese in need.

bottom poster by Adam

Coke Wisdom O'Neal

beautiful show at mixed greens by Coke Wisdom O'Neal... found myself actually looking longingly at the price list for the first time.

inspired... moved... touched- Vik Muniz

Invictus

by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Sometimes you run across something so moving, so sublime... and this is it.

I have a poetry crush
and it takes the form of your hands
washing my mind
of the past
dancing to african sounds,
a place I dream of going
as your perfumed presence walks out my door.
I have a poetry crush
and it takes the form of your body
swimming over my soul
like the vibrating orgasm on a guitar.
Sitting on my bed alone
with a grain of sand in my hand
not wanting to fall asleep
but staying awake
to the sounds
of what to come.

some ann waldman

....

I cup my hands in water, splash water on empty space

water drunk by empty space

Look what thoughts will do Look what words will do

from nothing to the face

from nothing to the root of the tongue

from nothing to speaking of empty space

....

five for today

1. elucidate

2. Sidi Touré

3. Like Water for Chocolate

4. a loose white cotton blouse

5. intensity

Sidi Touré on The Takeaway Show from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

love! (I think I will have to make this for Jan & Äya)

an actress is born

Today was one of those "I'm so proud of my daughter moments ". For the past five months she has been attending the Language and Laughter Studio french theater after school program taught by Stephanie Fribourg. They have been rehearsing for the French Theatre Festival's Premiere Scene competition at the Lycee Francaise NYC which was this morning and in all our excitement they won the grand prix! This is the fourth time for LLS, first time for Aya and I'm so happy for her discovery and love of the stage.

Can't wait for the video to be online!

Anna Kamienska

Fell in love with her "notebooks" today...

"human hands are sometimes more intelligent than human faces"

"A poet is a person translated into words"

"An unloved person doesn't die. He withers like an unused hand"

"My poems are more my silence than my speech. Just as music is a kind of quiet. Sounds are needed only to unveil the various layers of silence."

found this today...

here

If you could know how much I love you,

in my messy way,

falling over in that stupid adult manner.

Yesterday I forgot what it was to be seven.

Caressing your cheek in your sleep

a silky pillow of lessons

somewhere along the milky way.

Perhaps I can still learn to be a child

and free you like I should

so you can soar

and laugh

without the pull

of my ignorance.

un peu de Jacques Prevert

"Pour faire le portrait d’un oiseau"

Peindre d’abord une cage
avec une porte ouverte
peindre ensuite
quelque chose de joli
quelque chose de simple
quelque chose de beau
quelque chose d’utile
pour l’oiseau
placer ensuite la toile contre un arbre
dans un jardin
dans un bois
ou dans une forêt
se cacher derrière l’arbre
sans rien dire
sans bouger . . .
Parfois l’oiseau arrive vite
mais il peut aussi bien mettre de longues années
avant de se décider
Ne pas se décourager
attendre
attendre s’il le faut pendant des années
la vitesse ou la lenteur de l’arrivée de l’oiseau
n’ayant aucun rapport
avec la réussite du tableau
Quand l’oiseau arrive
s’il arrive
observer le plus profond silence
attendre que l’oiseau entre dans le cage
et quand il est entré
fermer doucement la porte avec le pinceau
puis
effacer un à un tous les barreaux
en ayant soin de ne toucher aucune des plumes de l’oiseau
Faire ensuite le portrait de l’arbre
en choisissant la plus belle de ses branches
pour l’oiseau
peindre aussi le vert feuillage et la fraîcheur du vent
la poussière du soleil
et le bruit des bêtes de l’herbe dans la chaleur de l’été
et puis attendre que l’oiseau se décide à chanter
Si l’oiseau ne chante pas
c’est mauvais signe
Signe que le tableau est mauvais
mais s’il chante c’est bon signe
signe que vous pouvez signer

As you can see... I have a little too much spare time on my hands today. Discovering the google art project today, could really get me into trouble!

new baby

My friend Josh and his wife just welcomed their 3 child, Nina, into the world yesterday. Surrounded by their children and family at home, if I were to have a 3rd child, this is the way I would do it. What beauty!

I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.

-Anne Morrow Lindbergh

a year ago...

black swan

After all the hoopla and reviews from various friends and family... I went to see Black Swan and was pleasantly surprised by how the film moved me. My lasting impressions were not that of a disturbed young woman, but a strangely familiar feeling of the struggles of coming-of-age in a world of perfectionism. Natalie Portman's performance is outstanding, as is her mother played by Barbara Hershey. As for the hollywood version of the ballet world and special effects of tearing skin, well I won't comment on that here. Overall it was worth seeing on the big screen and Natalie Portman deserved every bit of her Oscar.

ryan roche

My longtime friend Ryan Roche, of the darling children's line mor mor rita (who's site I designed), just launched the most ethereal collection for women.

There are times you are presented with a dish that has just the perfect combination of flavors that make you think, that food is really magic. The duck noodle soup with kumquat and kale at Hung Ry in Nolita is just one of those dishes. I think I must have savored that soup till there wasn't a drop left in my bowl. I can't imagine what my friends must have thought as I cleaned it out to the end. Next time I plan to try the oxtail with sour cherries or the pork belly mushroom with radishes. In any case, at prices between $12-19 for generous portions it is a trip I hope to make often.

tilda swinton

The versatility of this actress/artist extraordinaire has always fascinated me since I first saw her in Orlando. She is a chameleons of chameleons, as feminine and masculine as can be, a beauty in uncategorized form...