Wednesday, April 20, 2011

New Advice from Cassidy

The latest advice from my 5-year-old niece:

Cassidy: AUNT CHRISTY! Your jeans have a hole in them!
Me: I know.
Cassidy: How did you get that?
Me: I bought them with the hole. I didn't know they had a hole when I bought them. Isn't that silly?
Cassidy (laughing): YES. That's so silly!
Me: Seriously, though, listen to me. Never buy jeans with holes in them.
Cassidy: I won't! That's too silly!
Me: No - really. Pay attention to this: Promise me that you won't buy jeans with holes in them, no matter what the style is.
Cassidy: I won't! You're so silly!


Another day:
Cassidy (holding up a DVD in a store): I saw this one! It's about a girl who kisses a frog and he turns into a prince and then they get married!
Me: Wow.
Cassidy: But .... NEVER kiss a frog.
Me: Why? Because then you have a marry him?
Cassidy: No, because then you turn into a frog.
Me: (laughs)
Cassidy: Really. NEVER. KISS. A. FROG.
Me: Okay.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

For Once, I'm Ahead of the Game

I've blogged before about being late to the party when it comes to catching on to things. For example, here are some things that have recently happened in my life (and by "recent" I mean, in the past 2 months or so):
* I got Internet service at home. For the first time in my adult life. Think about that.
* I just got super into the television show Veronica Mars. Which was canceled in like 2007. You guys.... it was really good.
That's all I can think of right now.

But I actually have something to share that you didn't hear about 5 year ago. Probably.
1. Stop whatever you're doing and go and listen to Concerning Lions right now. RIGHT NOW. Seriously. GO.
I'll even do all the work! First listen to Preacher's Son (it's even better live, if you can believe it). Then listen to Bell Jar. Then Albatross. Then Young Curmudgeon. Then, for the love of all that is good, just buy the CD!
And I'll leave you with these amazing lyrics that I love:
(From Young Curmudgeon)
Run to him like a boy runs to the sea 
Weigh his gentle hand down with your ring  
The one I’ve often seen and hoped you might one day make mine 
You listen to my long withheld complaint 
I deserve your love and he your hate 
You say before you go though he was dead. He’s alive!
And I won’t raise my voice or hand against your choice to set your arm round the son you lost 
And I will love your earth and grow to see the worth of who he is and who I am not 
(From Albatross)
I’m nothing like the boy I was
Or the man I want to be
But you’re still the girl I love
Forgive and wait for me
Forgive and wait for me
Yeesh, I love those lyrics.
And now:
2. Mackenzie Scott is amazing and young and has a gorgeous voice. Like... the type of voice you hear, and you're like, "Maybe my voice sounds like that..." so then you sing crazy loud to songs and suddenly you're like, "Nope. No. My voice isn't like hers."
Listen to Moon and Back. This girl is in college. Studying stuff, and not using her voice to sweep American Idol. It will only make her better.
Thanks, Nashville, for having such amazing musicians!!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

April - National Poetry Month

I had no idea!
April is NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

This is very exciting for me, as I've been putting some poetry on my writing (secret) blog.
And... Just last night I was thinking about my favorite poet, the mystery of a man that was Edgar Allan Poe.
I know, he's a weird choice, but he's so quirky and strange and wrote such great, creepy stories!
But really, it's his rhyming that has always captured my heart. I love the rhythm, the tempo, the beats to his words.
Here are some bits of his poetry, some of the ones I love.
From Annabel Lee:
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
From The Bells:
Hear the sledges with the bells -
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
Ahhh, just the beginning-- read the rest for the whole story of the bells. So many sounds, so many stories.


Not rhyming, but still amazing...From The Tell-Tale Heart (we had an awesome English teacher in 7th grade ((Mr. Ferraro)), who had us memorize the beginning of this story, and my sister still shouts the opening lines anytime I say Poe's name):
TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly I can tell you the whole story.
Oh my gosh. I love that story. I love that you are so convinced right from the start of his madness as he tells you he's not.

And of course, I'll quote The Raven, evermore. (Same English teacher had us memorize this poem -- in its entirety? I can't remember. But he was a great teacher. Always so excited about this stuff):
`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'
Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
Oh, Lenore....

Friday, April 1, 2011

Lent, Revisited (Unfortunately)

I've been avoiding this.

I know I said I'd write a poem a day for forty days for Lent ... and that I'd write about my progress during Lent ...

But the thing is (and this always happens with me and Lent!)

        I totally forgot.

I wrote three poems. I wrote one the day I wrote the blog and then kept the momentum up for the next two days. And then the week later, I was like, "LENT?! I forgot!!"
and I told myself I'd get back to it, but before I could even touch pen to paper (or finger to keyboard, as the case may be), I forgot once again.

Also, this forgetfulness is really starting to grate on me. I'm for real praying about it because it's getting in the way of my actual life at this point.
Anyway: the poetry thing is done, gone. But it's cool because I actually have written a few poems during this time without remembering I was supposed to be doing it.
Last night, I wrote a fun poem that kind of touches on Cupid and Psyche because I've been obsessed lately. Years ago, I saw Antonio Canova's intricate and breathtaking sculpture at the Louvre: Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss. Then, just last week when Jennie and I were in Nashville, we saw a mini-copy of the sculpture in the Belmont Mansion, and it revived my heart.
I also tried to sketch it last night, which is totally a different story. I write, I create and I can even make cute/fun illustrations for my niece and nephew's stories, but ... sketching is ... Well, maybe I'll just call it practice.
So the update is: I forgot, and I'm throwing in the towel. But poetry will be written, it just will have nothing to do with my Lenten activity.