Day: July 5, 2021

Lookin’ Out My Backdoor

I love sitting on my patio. So many things happen in my tiny urban backyard. There’s a rabbit (or a series of bunnies) who has visited for years. The variety of birds is astounding. I love when I catch a glimpse of cardinals. Of course there is a contingent of squirrels. One of my neighbors leaves peanuts out for them. I find peanut shells on my sidewalk, half-buried in the tomato pot, and littering the basil.

I have parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme (if you’re of a certain age, I’ll bet you sang along with that), basil. spearmint, peppermint, chives, lemon balm, and oregano.  The wisteria and iris have bloomed and gone, as has the azalea and peonies, but the daylilies are waiting to burst into blossom.

One of the things I love to watch are the butterflies. Once in a while, I will see a monarch flitting around, but mostly I have white-winged butterflies. They have a small black dot on their wings. They may be cabbage butterflies. I usually see two, but sometimes there are more. They return year after year, although I’m sure they are not the same ones. Maybe I have generations.

Here’s the thing. They flutter around and interact with each other. The poet in me sometimes views their movements as dancing. The cynic, however, wonders if they are not in fact battling each other.

Movie-Memory: Big Night & Stanley Tucci

 

 

 

 

I have been watching CNN’s series, STANLEY TUCCI, LOOKING FOR ITALY.  I am in bliss for several reasons: Italy, food, wine, and Tucci himself.

The very first time I became aware of Tucci was in 1996. I must have read about the movie Big Night somewhere, because I was desperate to see it. I don’t think it played in a first-run theater in my area. But eventually it did come to the old second-run theater in my neighborhood.  I convinced my husband we needed to see the film. So one winter night we drove through a lot of snow to see the film. I was enchanted.

As we were leaving the theater, I happened to look down and saw something poking through several inches of freshly fallen snow. It was an oversized key ring with several keys on it. We trudged back into the theater to turn in the keys in case someone was looking for them. Turns out someone was.

The owner of the theater was a cranky old woman who had inherited it from her parents. People who grew up in the neighborhood tell of going to matinees and have Miss DiB**** stalking up and down the aisles with a baseball bat looking for people with their feet on the seat backs or any other number of criminal behaviors.  A former co-worker who knew how to run the old 35mm projectors happened to run into her one days, and her greeting was, “The first show is at 7pm on Saturday. Be at the theater at 6.” My colleague said, “What are you talking about?” She replied, “My projectionist just died, you know how to run the 35mm, be at the theater at 6pm on Saturday.” (He didn’t go.) She was a genuine character.

My story about this genuine character involved that key ring on that snowy night. I located her in the nearly deserted theater and handed her the key ring, saying, “I found these on the sidewalk outside.”

“Where did you get those!” she snarled with a glare.

“I found them on the sidewalk under the marquee,” I repeated.

“These are the theater keys and they’ve been missing.” 

I didn’t like being accused of anything. I reiterated that I’d found them outside and left.

So that was my introduction to Stanley Tucci. I adored him in Julie & Julia. I wish I could remember him in The Devil Wears Prada. He was delightful in The Hunger Games series.  He has a long list of credits for both movies, theater, television, but neither IMDB or Wikipedia list a short-lived public TV series he hosted called Vine Talk. Maybe because was dreadful. I wouldn’t admit I was associated with it either. But there are 13 episodes available on Amazon Prime.

Searching for Italy (Sundays at 9pm on CNN) is much better.

 

 

Thursday Thought-Self Help: Crucial Conversations

A success coach suggested I read  Crucial Conversation as a way of improving my verbal communication with various factions in my life.

So many people rave about the book. I couldn’t get past chapter three.

Sometimes I feel like there’s a secret society of people who can read books of this ilk and actually understand them. My brain isn’t wired to do that. I’m a smart woman, but I frequently have a problem with abstracts. So many self-help books deal in abstracts that I end up feeling not smart when I try to force myself to read them.

There are just certain kinds of things my brain refuses to deal with. Too bad when I try to explain this to some people, I’m not understood.

One specific “crucial conversation” that went no where.

MJ Monday-Meals: Pasta Salad Redo.

In an attempt to de-carb our meals, I experimented with my standard pasta salad recipe, substituting Quinoa for pasta.

The first thing I did was cook two envelops of Quinoa and let them cool overnight.

I dumped them into a large bowl and started adding my standard pasta salad ingredients:

  • black olives
  • artichoke hearts
  • peas
  • carrots
  • red onion
  • roasted red pepper
  • chopped yellow bell pepper

and for something a little different: sliced radishes.

Then I made my standard dressing, doctored up with additional garlic powder, dried basil, and dried parsley.

All the flavors and most of the textures of pasta salad without its heaviness. A keeper.

Self-Help Review: The Artist’s Way

When I first joined RWA and started writing with focus in addition to serious intent, I heard about Julia Cameron’s seminal book The Artist’s Way everywhere. Blogs, Private chat rooms. Other books  People raved about their Morning Pages habit.

I bought a copy to see what the worship was about. The book is about creative recovery. Cameron has come up with a method for artists of every type to tap into their deepest reserves of creativity. It is a twelve-week program.

I’ve read the book several time. What many people don’t realize, is The Artist’s Way is book one of a trilogy, all of which are twelve-week programs. I own all three. I’ve read all three. (Walking in the World and Finding Water are the other two).

Cameron has solid advice in the books. The first step, the most important part of the process is Morning Pages. The first thing everything morning, an artist is supposed to write three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts. Even if one writes nothing but I have nothing to write for three pages, one must write it. Every morning. Three pages.

When I was the Book-in-A-Week Babe for my local RWA chapter, I used many quotes from the book as inspiration for the BIAW participants. One said to me, “Oh! I love The Artist’s Way!”

I tried Morning Pages. Actually, I’ve tried The Artist’s Way several times. Cameron’s way is not my way. I have learned I am a writer who must jump feet first into her work-in-progress first thing every morning. I don’t have time for Morning Pages. Tapping into the personal me distracts from the stories I’m trying to tell.

That’s me. Morning Pages, Artist’s Dates, and other Cameron prescriptions might work for you.