Wildly Interesting Books

  • Adam's Task by Vicki Hearne
  • Anything by Colin Cotterill
  • Auguries of Innocence by Patti Smith
  • Big Box Swindle by Stacy Mitchell
  • Darwin: A Life in Poems by Ruth Padel
  • Gehry Draws
  • Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker
  • Out of Our Heads by Ava Noe
  • Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design, Mannerisms, Quirks and Conceits
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson
  • The God of Small Things by Arundahti Roy
  • The Long Fall by Walter Mosely
  • The Martin Beck Series by Maj Sjowall and Per Waloo
  • The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
  • The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank
  • Vermeeer in Bosnia by Lawrence Weschler

Monday, June 30, 2008

Amazing Game of Arkham Horror


What? You don't have 79 hours to spend on a board game? Yes you do. Get off of the T.V. screen and get all your friends together for a day of, er, I don't know what, exactly.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Rate My Blog


Click on the picture to enlarge.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

New Art Website Business Card Should Catapult Me to Fame and Riches

Oh, I forgot, I don't even want those things mentioned above.
Anyway the website is http://www.jeannelafferty.com/.

New Cookbook Teaches Survival Skills



Not sure what the survival skills are but not everyone who's tasted these dishes has exactly survived.






Here we have the first recipe.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

This from Bill Moyers From the Media Conference

Why does it matter? What does the media do, anyway?

I’ll let an old Cherokee chief answer that. I heard this story a long time ago — of the tribal elder who was telling his grandson about the battle the old man was waging inside himself. He said, “It is between two wolves, my son. One is an evil wolf: Anger, envy, sorrow, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is the good wolf: Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The boy thought this over for a minute, and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee replied simply: “The one I feed.”

Read it all if you can stand it.Our grief often outstrips our dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/16/9670/

Thursday, June 12, 2008

This Makes Women Sound Lame

It's for sure true that there was a time when women wrote under a man's name in order to get published. And there are reasons why most people think that Mary Cassat and Georgia O'Keefe were the only two women in history to produce works of art. And, no, sexism isn't gone by a long shot. God knows!



But what is it about all these "therapy" books for women artists that makes us sound so lame. I've seen a few books like this that make us seem so pathetic it's hard to believe that any woman could produce a body of work in the 21st century.No, look, I know. It's really hard to sit in from of a word processer or an easel without feeling sick to one's stomach at times. But are these books going to help anyone get past this? I don't think so.



Here's a quote from "12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women" --picked up at a yard sale last week. I told my daughter that I could open this book at random and show her what I was talking about. Here's what turned up:

Secret 2. Honoring your inspirations. In order to access your creativity, you must validate and capture your inspirations. these inspirations are precious seedlings awaiting nurturance."



Here's my advice. Schedule time each day in the place where you do your work. Sit there at the appointed time until boredom overtakes fear. If this doesn't happen, go back --as the song says--tomorrow night and do it again.

If this post is upsetting, you might want to cancel your feed, or unbookmark the site. I am so not through with this topic.







Be like a cave painter. Work fast as though something might start chasing you any minute.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Wait Til You See What I Did With This.


Oh yeah. Going through one's old drawings can be like finding buried treasure. I call this one 'Crazy Legged Vase".Check out the painting, fluid acrylics on canvas on the front page of my art website: http://www.jeannelafferty.com/ does the painting 'work'? Is the pencil drawing better? Lots to think about when you're me.