Bob Dylan Gets Ready

All over the country, people are planning birthday bashes for Bob Dylan. Even my little village is hosting a Bob Dylan Birthday Weekend from May 24 thru the 27th. There will be Dylan cover bands performing and salutes to Bob all over the place, and a giant cake. Here's a little cartoon a friend of mine made for Bob. A scented birthday gift. This post starts the countdown to Bob's Birthday...what is your favorite Bob song?

psyCHEDelic

Violets

Chedwick decided to groom, feed and water his small collection of African violets today.



Removing the dead leaves and spent blossoms. His violets are always healthy and seem to bloom nonstop.



Ched's brilliant idea: outside the window the Forsythia was glowing, making an excellent background for the violets. Manipulate the photo so it looks like a painting, sort of.


Best Violet perfumes? For sheer sweetness, I'd have to say Insolence de Guerlain, but there are many out there, the violet being a favorite flower.

Literate Cats

Over at the Literate Kitten blog people are reading short stories and talking about their favorites. (I like how you can read a short story while waiting in line someplace) You can read an entire anthology of short fiction while in line to enjoy some ride at Disneyland, and you can read a thick novel while in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Manhattan. I know this to be true because I have done all three. People can get fussy while waiting in line, but the line moves along like a dream when you are absorbed in a good story. You lose time somehow and you never get that feeling like you are wasting time, waiting, like the guy who is twitching and muttering. The person in line absorbed in a book is the little inlet of calm in a sea of stress.

Once when I had an accident and the paramedics were taking me from my house to the ambulance, I realized I might be bookless at the hospital while they were patching me up! I sent ambulance man #1 back into the house to grab a book (ANY book) and bring it to me. At that time there were about 400 books in my living room, and he returned quickly with a novel by Jack Kerouac. What a great guy.

Once I accidently checked my book bag at an airport, (and could not get it back or go to a newsstand for some paperbacks.) All I had in my handbag was Goethe's "Faust"-- It was a ten+ hour flight-- I memorized Goethe's "Faust" and tried reading it upsidedown for awhile, and then read my seatmate's paperback about Savvy Investing. I come from a very long line of readaholics.

My favorite books would have to include all reference books, travel guides and atlases. I have been addicted to these since early childhood. One of my favorites was a traveler's phrasebook that took care of a dozen different countries and languages. Then come the classics, women's studies & social sciences, mass market fiction, biographies, and the occasional sci fi, horror, or mystery.

The Big Golden Book of Poetry, (seen here with a few of my favorite things) was the first book I ever owned. When traveling as a kid, even as I got a bit older, it was the first book to go in the suitcase.
I guess I should stop with the reminiscences already and list a few current favorite books -- this is just my "Random List No.1" -- a true reader's dozen of books that could be dipped into or re-read anytime, anyplace.

1. The Poems of Baudelaire
2. Are You Somebody? by Nuala O'Faolain
3. Bronx Primitive by Kate Simon
4. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
5. The Big Windows by Peader O'Donnell
6. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
7 .Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler
8. This Place on Third Avenue: The New York Stories of John McNulty
9. America's Women by Gail Collins
10. The Orchard by Adele Crockett Robertson
11. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
12. A Clergyman's Daughter by George Orwell
13. La Bete Humaine by Emile Zola
14. Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut


Please share some of your favorites.

Bringing it all Back Home

I have been busy because my recording deal finally came through! I had to hurry and buy a mansion, buy some bling (my bling of choice is a crown) and now I have to get a decent entourage together and hire some staff. I'm so excited about recording my first CD! But first I need an extra-long nap.

Tangled Up in Travel

Cats are not terribly fond of travel, but I have to hurry off to Montreal for a few days. My limo awaits, so I must go now. Take care and I will see you first thing Tuesday morning!

What? My feather-Boa-on-a-Stick won't fit into my suitcase?
I need a bigger suitcase!


While I'm gone, talk amongst yourselves about travel.
Where are you going? Where's your favorite place?

Time Spent

Chedwick is art directing here. Does this flower need to be moved one eighth of an inch? He's lovely, anyway, and a joy to work with.



Here Chedwick is caught in flight. He is jumping over the set, from left to right. A very abstract cat.


Time spent with cats is never wasted.
- Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

No. 9

On This Day Last Year:

Some kids in Arkansas were disappointed with their skimpy school lunch. May 9, 2006.




After sitting around all winter, a Connecticut man jogged outdoors for the first time in six months on May 9, 2006.





On tour as usual, Bob Dylan was in Orlando, Florida performing on May 9, 2006.





In Texas, the blogger known as Flawed and Disorderly was writing about how her little eye mask that she sometimes wears to bed ended up in the toilet. May 9, 2006






A tree was loaded onto a truck in Rhode Island. Later that same day it would arrive at a nearby home and be planted. May 9, 2006.





Some kids in St. Louis sat around playing with flowers, pretending the flowers were jewelry. May 9, 2006.



What were you doing last year on this date?
What are you doing today?

Tales from the Dark Blue Side

"Some of us live in the sunlit world of what we believe to be reality. But... there is, unseen by most, a parallel world, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit... a Dark Blue Side."




Joe Average walks down a typical suburban street in Anytown, USA. He is on his way home, and the sun is shining. Suddenly, without any warning, Mr. Average finds himself wrapped in a Dark Blue world he has never seen before. A place he never believed existed.



He hesitates, but hoping things will soon return to normal, Joe enters his little suburban home, where otherworldly things are about to occur.


"The Dark Blue Side is always there waiting for us to enter; waiting to enter us. Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight."

Tangled up in Tagging

Tagged by Camille for "Why I blog"

I have always tried to keep a journal, but I misplace them, or write grocery lists in them, forget to date entries, and end up with a journal that is a quarter full. I had better luck with sketchbooks. I tried to focus on something that was in my life on a very regular basis, I listen to Bob everyday, so that was easy, and I like trying out new perfumes, although I only wear a few Guerlains regularly, and then just a drop or two. But I started there, with perfume and Bob, and decided to let Chedwick, a small tuxedo cat run things for me.




Chedwick hasn't figured out how to fully link, or get a profile photo in place, or how to post a video wthin a post, and he is frankly, too lazy to try and figure these things out.






The blog takes care of my addiction to taking photographs that started when I was about ten years old,
and I can mess around with photoshop and post the results here too.



I read blogs for a few years before starting my own--I figured I'd never be able to keep it going. But in January I decided to try creating a blog and maintaining for one year. A sort of New Year's resolution.

I've met so many interesting and talented people through the blog, something I did not think about when I started out. That's probably the biggest reward to blogging.

Tangled Up in Lilacs

I love this time of year ... when lilacs are blooming like crazy. They are everywhere, so you can put a bouquet in every room. I was lucky to marry in early May, and have a bridal bouquet that was mostly lilacs (with a few white roses) The men's boutonnières were a single white rose with a sprig of lilac. We married at City Hall in Manhattan, in a simple and swift ceremony, with a small group of friends to witness, but everyone having flowers added a certain flair. The maid of honor said we were the best smelling wedding party ever. We certainly smelled better than the group that was finishing up their hot-dog vendor breakfast while waiting outside the tiny chapel inside this huge Renaissance Revival building. My bridesmaid pointed out that Hot Dog Bride was carrying fake red roses. Hot Dog Bride was wearing a white satin dress and looked deliriously happy. Scanning the large waiting room, I saw we were a motley group of brides, grooms and well-wishers. Some nervous brides and grooms paced or stood smoking in the corridor next to giant ashtrays with sand in them. Bridal attire ranged from blue jeans, dressy business suits, simple frocks, to full-on bridal gowns, some with elaborate veils and trains. It was surreal and funny, and perfect. I wondered how many couples had waited right here to be married since this City Hall was completed in 1811. Outside, the weather was glorious.The day was glorious.

Today is a sharp, bright day, the kind of day that is better to live in than photograph. It is a perfect day to get married or attend a wedding.

The Dark Purple Common Lilac. The deer ate this plant down to a nub one year, but it slowly came back and now it is fine. When lilac time is over, we only have the sweet memory of the scent. And most lilac perfumes fall short, so I can only recommend two. Angélique-Lilas by Guerlain is a light blend of angelica and lilac -- very fresh and delicate. My favorite is Etoile du Sud by Fragonard. The lilac, ylang ylang , jasmine blend makes me dream of lilac time. It's very odd to put a few drops on and think of lilacs in the dead of winter-- It tranports you.



"I married Isis on the fifth day of May,
But I could not hold on to her very long.
So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away
For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong."

"Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child.
What drives me to you is what drives me insane.
I still can remember the way that you smiled
On the fifth day of May in the drizzlin' rain."
--Bob Dylan

Shalimar Perfume de Guerlain

I love taking pictures of the Shalimar bottles, as you can see. This bottle was designed by Raymond Guerlain in the 1920s and was inspired by the fountains in the gardens of oriental palaces. The cap is meant to suggest an oriental fan. The amber scent inside created by Jacques Guerlain in 1925, has been called mythical, mysterious, magical, and has stood the test of time. Thousands of perfumes have been dreamt up and presented to the public by top perfume houses only to be forgotten after a few years. But Shalimar remains the favorite of the House of Guerlain. A masterpiece.

'A perfume must be more mysterious than a copy of something in nature. When a man sees a woman, he shouldn't think of a rose; he should think of that woman..'


--Perfumer Jean Paul Guerlain
(on the philosophy of his grandfather Jacques Guerlain)


The Shalimar bottles are so well-designed. Although there are many other designs, these are the three you will probably see most often in stores today.


Shalimar was created in 1925, and was an immediate success. I put this bottle down on top of a beautiful advertisement that said 'Future' because Shalimar is truly a timeless scent. The bottle is a classic art deco design. Shalimar is a time traveler that transports you to mysterious enchanting lands that no longer exist, and to the future where anything is possible.


Shalimar was created as a tribute to the legendary lovers Mumtaz Mahal and Emperor Shah Jahan and the Shalimar Gardens of Agra. (In Sanskrit Shalimar translates to '' the home of love''. ) When his Queen died just after giving birth to a daughter, Jahan was completely devastated and spent fourteen years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.



(Photos by Chedwick)

Tagged

I have to take time out from my busy sunbathing schedule to answer a sort of questionnaire from the lovely Groovy Lady of Groovy Lady Land!

1. What is the stupidest mistake you have ever made with money?

Chedwick: Eating it. Coughing up a hairball with pennies in it is a horrific experience.


2. Do you think taxes are unfair or do you think it’s your civic duty?

Chedwick: The Cat Tax is so unfair! Down with the Cat Tax! What? there IS no Cat Tax? oh. nevermind then.





3. Do you take risks and possibly turn your life upside down for new opportunity?

Chedwick: I don't want to get hung up in venetian blinds or anything, but I can't help exploring and taking risks. If someone puts a perfume bottle cap on a ledge, it is my job to get it down and play with it!



4. Are you the alpha in your household?

Chedwick: No, I am a very small cat, and the youngest in my household, but I have a blog.

5. Do you compromise with your significant other or does someone always get their way?

Chedwick: Everyone gets their own way here, maybe because there is no Alpha--we don't play head games or negotiate. No sneaky stuff. It is all very aboveboard.


6. What curse word do you use most often?

Chedwick: I was recently introduced to the word Mofo, by a blogger named Catlin! Being a cat, it is hard so me to say human words like crap and damn , but I can kind of sort of say Mofo, which is cool.



7. Do you easily change your mind or are you dead set on most issues?
Chedwick: I'm open to new thoughts, ideas every single second!




8. What famous person would you like to trade places with for one week?

Chedwick: Someone who sleeps in the sun a lot, and has a good catnip mouse toy, I guess.


9. If you could go back in time and tell one person off, who would it be and what would you say?

Chedwick: I think it would be a waste of time for me to even want to do that. I need all the quality time I can get!


10. Were you a good student or did you do just enough to get by?

Chedwick: I was a good and studious kitten. I caught a big moth last night. I got honor grades in catching flying things back at kitten school.



11. If you could give one piece of advice to someone just starting out on their own, what would you tell them?

Chedwick: Get a generous and loving host family to adopt you.
12. Are people basically good and honest or are most people opportunistic and predatory?

Chedwick: I lead a very sheltered life, so I'll go with good and honest.


13. Is there somebody you wish you could go back and apologize to?

I was very sick as a kitten, maybe I would apologize to the lady at the animal shelter, Diane... who took such good care of me. she probably had to devote a lot of time to me. Sorry I threw up that medicine on you, something like that I guess.



Super Blue Stuff

Chedwick with Hydrangeas. Our local bushes are just beginning to green up, so these super blossoms are 'store bought'.



The Sad Mall. This mall is just over 4 miles from my house, and it had everything going for it. Then developers decided we needed a Super Giant Mega Mall. They built the new super mall about 2 miles from my house. The sad mall is suffering, because housewives hit the super mall instead. I dislike malls, but I hate the Super Giant Mega Mall because it is a noisy, disorienting, unfriendly experience. The sad mall is just pathetic, but it is friendlier and even though it is pretty empty, customer-wise, it is busy pretending that everything is fine. the Sad mall is in deep denial. Both Malls are on the same road. I once drove from the entrance of one to the entrance of the other and it took 3 minutes and 4 seconds. The traffic was moderate. I didn't exceed the speed limit, and it still only took about 3 minutes.




I walked into the kitchen and saw this little heart shaped reflection of light on my ceiling. Life is filled with these tiny but super moments. A heart, pour moi? Merci!




Blacktop would be nicer if it was Blue. I wouldn't recommend it for super highways or major roads, but it would be nice to have all of our minor streets a nice pretty blue. It might remind us to slow down, too.




I would be a butler fan if I had a super cool butler like Jeeves from the Wodehouse books taking care of life's little annoyances for me. I just like this shirt because of the little tornado on it.

Bye Bye Miss Blueberry Pie

I have been getting a lot of e mails saying there aren't enough mentions of booze and cigarettes on my blog, so here is a nice booze ad for you. Ah simpler times... when we could drink and smoke freely, and every bookshelf had at least one Bartender's Guide in it. There have also been some complaints from the Don McClean fan club that I never mention him either, so now they can shut up.

I would not say no to a slice of truly homemade blueberry pie. What's up with a whole cookbook of blueberry pie recipes? Is this necessary?

"For over 30 years the lyrics of American Pie have been subject to intense scrutiny as people search for the song's real meaning. Analysis continues today on the Internet and in newspapers and magazines worldwide. All interpretations start on the premise that Don McLean never talks about the song and has never provided insight into the meaning of the lyrics. In fact, Don McLean has spent 30 plus years doing little else but talk about American Pie!"-- From Don McClean's website--

Most of verse 3 is about Bob Dylan:

"Now for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin' stone
But that's not how it used to be
When the Jester sang for the King and Queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
In a voice that came from you and me
Oh, and while the King was looking down
The Jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned."
(and then it transitions to a few lines about the Beatles)

Sugar Bear

Back in the day, Sugar Bear was the King of the Pushers. He pushed sugar, and the kids just couldn't get enough of it. They loved Sugar Bear. They screamed and cried at the grocery store when they saw his picture on a big box of sugary crap and their moms said NO. They screamed until their moms caved in and bought what Sugar Bear was pushing. It would appear that Sugar Bear was also pushing his crappy records too, and maybe Doobee bear and Honey Bear were selling things on the side? Shoobee Bear is the original role model for little kids who would grow up to embrace the modern slacker culture.
You never saw any smart bears hanging around Sugar Bear. He only hired weak loser bears that he could control completely.
He was smart and shrewd, and never ate any of the poison he was pushing. He is out there somewhere, still enjoying wealth and success in the business of sugaring kids up.

From Under the Umbrella

It looks like the rain dripping off of my umbrella is watering a daffodil.


Got a very late start this morning, so I had to share my walk with some commuters and schoolbuses. I walked past one of my favorite little garden nooks.

It takes about ten minutes to get to where the action is, if you are a medium-slow walker. I meandered around, taking blurry shots of wet forsythia and so forth, so by the time I got to the river, the camera was full. At least I remembered to bring the camera with me today.


The busy business district of Mytown, U.S.A. is ahead. In the distance you can see our beautiful Russian Orthodox Church. They have an incredible set of bells, a carillon, that are hand-played instead of automatic. It is something nice to watch and hear.



"I stood unwound beneath the skies
And clouds unbound by laws.
The cryin' rain like a trumpet sang
And asked for no applause.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum."
--Bob Dylan



"Summer is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating;
there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
--John Ruskin