Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A Lady Beheaded

Today is my last day as a lady of leisure.
Having become unemployed on Oct. 26th and now starting back up in the work force after over three months, I find myself reflecting on the time spent (or wasted, see previous blog) and what the future holds.   Well, it's more that I sit wishing and hoping that work will not take over my life and will leave me time for a fraction of the leisurely activities that I have enjoyed the past few months.
There is another thought that dogs me.  Work, as I have known it, is something that must be done out of necessity.  If it is more stressful work, it consumes time and energy, leaving little energy for life's pleasures.  But, what about the possibility of getting pleasure out of your work?  It seems like such a foreign concept, to build a career out of a passion, especially when, like me, your passions are mostly artistic.  It has been almost four years since I graduated college.  When I was in school, surrounded by people who were determined to move to LA and make it work for them in the film industry, I felt inspired to work in film and maybe even theatre.  I was determined that I would become a producer and make films that were artistically old-fashioned.  I think that sort of mania is catching.  I made the decision not to move to LA when I graduated and spent the last three years working in a doctor's office.  The further removed I am from those school chums, the less appealing working in the industry is to me.  The reason for this is, of course, a story for another day.
Needless to say, I see myself approaching 30 and floundering for an idea of what it is I want to do with my life.  Landing a parttime job in a retail store at the age of almost 29 has brought this all home for me, aka I feel like a failure!  And I just needed someone to share it with.  So, thank you faceless internet, for listening to me moan for a bit.
And don't worry about me.  Things are looking up.  After all, series 3 of Luther just wrapped, and series 3 of Sherlock will begin filming soon.  As long as the BBC is around, life really can't be that bad.


Post-script:  After nearly three weeks at the job, I would like to say that I feel much better about myself.  There are other women who work there who are around my age.  In fact, there are some women who are in or around their 40's.  I appreciate this fact beyond words.
That is all.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Time Spent Watching

So much to watch, so little time.
I've been rather remiss in my blog duties lately.  I'd like to say it's because I'm crazy busy and just don't have time, but that's not really the case.  Not at all, actually.
It's hard to come up with things to write about, mainly because I'm not doing much.  I recently moved and am not yet employed.  I'd like to say I spend my time honing different skills like painting or drawing, crocheting or sewing, but let's be honest...I spend way too much time on the internet for that!
Being jobless and mainly friendless in this new city, I have rediscovered the art of watching things.  Ages ago, when I was on my own and going to school to study film, I had so much time to watch things.  It seemed like my nights and weekends, when not socializing, were filled with an endless parade of foreign films and classic movies, of BBC shows and anime series'.   And then I got one of those 9 to 5s and a boyfriend to boot.  My watching repertoire was reduced to new movies, mainly of a SciFi type or something starring Daniel Day Lewis.   I think we might have watched one foreign film in three years, but usually he was too tired to read the subtitles.
So it appears that I've decided to spend my free time (that isn't being spent looking for a job) making up for lost time.  At least, while I sit and rewatch Twin Peaks, I can finish crocheting that scarf that was supposed to be a Christmas present two months ago.  Or while I finally watch that Kurosawa film I've been meaning to see for years, I can think "I should try drawing some of these characters" and never actually get around to it.  

Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Art of Nerding

I am a nerd.

There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

I tend to be more subtle in my nerd-dom then others, but it is there.  Always lingering.

I usually nerd out over British things.  You know, the usual suspects:  Sherlock, Downton Abbey, Luther, Pride and Prejudice (the '95 version of course),  French and Saunders, Fry and Laurie..not Harry Potter, sorry....but my latest nerd out is over something very American.  This is, of course, the latest and last installment of Nolan's Batman films.   There was something about this last one that made the nerd in me blossom like my inner nerd hasn't in quite a while.  This led me to scour various Tumblr pages for information regarding the film, which in turn revealed to me the greatest insight of them all.  As with all things American, they are usually inspired by something fantastically British.  The Dark Knight Rises is no exception!  One blogger claimed that there were numerous references to A Tale of Two Cites and, being the ardent anglophile I am, I delved right into the book to see for myself.  I read the book in a record 18 days (yes, I am a meticulous reader) and now report to you my findings:

Exhibit 1:

Barsad.  Yes there's a character named Barsad in TKDR
and if you don't know which one he is...
this is he. 
           

Exhibit II:

Have we started the fire? Yes brother, the fire rises!
Need I say more?
Exhibit III:

There are so many things mirrored in this film:  the storming of the Bastille, the storming of Black Gate Prison for one

Exhibit IV:

The felons were trying the honest men...

Scarecrow anyone?
Exhibit V:

A great storm coming
I think this line is famous enough right now that I don't need to explain it
Exhibit VI:

Mme Defarge infamously knits through the entire book.  I scoured the
internet to find a pic of Bane and his rope knotting during the sentencing
scene, to no avail.  And let me just add this, if I was an actress and was told
that I could plan any role of my desiring, it would be a toss up between
Lady Macbeth and Mme Defarge.  
Exhibit VII:

Eulogy of course, the most obvious connexion.  I decided not to post pics
of all the lines in the eulogy, but they were all taken from the last few 
paragraphs of the book.  


Case closed.  




Sunday, July 15, 2012

My Grandma's Things

6 years ago this month, my grandma died.  I was living in another state and didn't have to witness her decline like the rest of my family did.  I wasn't even at her funeral.  Maybe because of this, she never seemed to die for me.  It is only with the passing of the years that I've come to realize that she is gone forever.  Last week, I went to visit my family back home and take one last look at her house that will someday be inhabited by another family.  There were still a few articles of clothing that my mom couldn't get rid of and, with barely any prompting, I was more then willing to take them home with me. My grandma was a classic woman of the 50's and being so, her waist was a good 2 to 4 inches smaller then mine.  I'm not sure if some miracle of stitchery will ever make it possible for me to fit into these treasures, but even if it were the case, I don't even own a sewing machine, let alone know how to use it.  But, for now, I'll hold onto them anyway.  The dresses that still smell like her perfume, even after all this time.  The little pink trash can that lived in her little pink bathroom.  Little items hidden behind glass that I would gaze at as a child, jealously wishing to play with them.  Even as her memory warps with time, these little things will keep her alive to me. 

The dress my grandma wore to my parents wedding. 

Fantastic wool dress, with an impossible 26" waist!

Blue and yellow plaid, pleated bottom half of this dress

Top of the dress with matching blue jacket, 3/4 length sleeves

The top of the dress with matching belt

Pink knitted skirt and sweater number, also with matching belt

Little pink trash can, missing a bejeweled butterfly

Classic fake bonsai tree, all wire and glass

Tiny tea set

Thursday, July 12, 2012

A Slow Return

I have been horrendously neglectful of my blog.  Really, I haven't been active at all since December I think.  But in an effort to reconnect and put myself out there, I have sworn to renew my efforts!  Now I just need to figure out which direction I want this to go...

In the meantime, I may just start a series of skirt and shoe pictures.  Enjoy.  ;)


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Christmas Time

I can't help it...I love Christmas.  I think part of it is just that I have really good memories of Christmases throughout my childhood.  Traditions are big in my family.  Starting on Thanksgiving, with Miracle on 34th Street and ending on Christmas Eve with White Christmas, my family probably watches a Christmas movie every single night.  Of course they save the best for when I come home, like It's a Wonderful Life and Muppets' Christmas Carol.  We always do one present on Christmas Eve, which is always pajamas.  Then my older sister and younger brother get up before dawn to gaze at the Christmas tree in all its glory and start the coffee and tea for the old people (aka those of us who loathe early mornings, even on Christmas...so me and my parents).  They wake me first so we can have some sibling bonding time before the parents are up.  After that, the goal every year is to frighten my parents awake.  I think we've managed to actually scare them once in our lives.  Maybe.  They are usually awake before we even think of waking them.

Since I'm the only one not living in the same town as the rest of my family (not even the same state actually), it can be a little harder these days to keep the Christmas spirit alive.  I'm sure some people must think I'm nuts for Christmas, but I try to keep it in perspective by telling them that I'm the grinch in my family.  But I always get a tree.  I don't hold to the steadfast rule, mandated by my sister, that only Christmas music in allowed from Thanksgiving until New Year's Day.   But I do like to listen to Bing more often then not during this season.  This year, my fella and I made our own advent calendar.  It's not perfect but it was fun to make and more fun to open the boxes every other day (we alternate days so we don't have to have a calendar for each of us) and see what he's put inside.

The long green ornaments are vintage!

I love the round light bulbs


Our little advent calendar made of small matchboxes

With buttons for the knobs

As we do a day, we turn the box around for the number to show

From the back

Spanish Remnants

My boyfriend recently returned from a month-long trip to Barcelona where he was working on a film.  He returned with many treasures for me, all of which are remarkable in their own way.  Of course he didn't get anything for his mum.  Fearing the potential-mother-in-law grudge I knew might befall me, I told him he had better give her the bottle of wine from Spain he had brought back with him.   A little while later he went out to lunch with his mum and he informed me that she asked him if he'd found a girl he liked better than me in Spain...
Now, we keep the wine.

These are real flowers that have been dipped in some kind of resin

Made with a beautiful purple wood 

Yes, I love owls.  But who doesn't really?

I love copper, even if it leaves my finger green!

Lovely silver ring

My one request was for a shawl...

...and he got me two!

The big surprise was this beautiful leather purse