Thankful Thursday

 

I am still forever thankful for the gift of being able to read....

it never is something I take for granted.

Thank you teachers and parents and friends and lovers.

This little video is AMAZING and reminded me of why I also love books so much!

 

http://www.wimp.com/beautifulbooks/

Social Pressure

After much social pressure and hearing " you MUST read this"

 I was handed a copy of the 50 shades book.

I must say I had ZERO interest in reading it and after it sat on my bedside table for almost a month, maybe in a continued silent protest... I finally picked it up as I needed to return this book to the person who was kind enough to loan it to me.

PLUS I needed to give it a shot, after all it was "just a book"

Well, it is a book...and it has sex in it and in all honesty, I started reading it much like any other book I pick up in the bookshop....open to a random page, read a paragraph and see if I could see reading it any further....

 I figured there wasn't a lot of character development towards the front, so that is where I flipped it open...after reading for about an hour in bed alone.

 Hubby came in to check on me....

***

Stop reading now if you liked the book or don't want to hear my soapbox moment about sexual freedom and liberty.

He started laughing, saying I didn't look too happy.

"what do you think of it so far?"

I looked up and said, well my first impression was that he was a REALLY bad lover.

He told me to give it some more time.

At that, I handed him the book and he started to read and then roll his eyes and then laugh.

We both laughed a lot reading the book.

He agreed, the writing was bad, the story was silly but, we were both thankful for the laughs.

Sadly, this was not meant to be a comedic book.

I must say, the amount of "oh crap" and "see how wet you are" made me cringe, and I was bored out of my head from the email exchanges.

Now I know other women LOVE this series, and I think that is great for them but...

it really made me wonder why?

I know we are still struggling as a gender to find ourselves, to act on our sexual impulses and

be OK with wanting and needing sex.

I guess the fervor this book has caused with women maybe just highlighted for me that a majority of women are still not asking for what they really want or need sexually.

I guess I am a lucky girl, for my lover just wants me to be sexually over the moon, and he is willing to do anything to make that happen.

Demand that from your lovers ladies!

Demand that for yourself!

Then you can write a really hot novel and we can all be smiling from our one handed reads.

***

(stepping off the soapbox, and putting down my megaphone)

Some other women I know have said they refused to read it because of all the hype.

I told them I would report back.

Here I am reporting:

It is silly, the guy is creepy and self centered. The female lead is self deprecating to a level of annoying at the beginning and then just boring after that.

The sex is mild, and if you haven't had some saucy/kinky sex by now, get cracking, because this is not saucy/kinky sex....you can think of far more interesting sex...trust me, I know you are creative!

In the end, I thought it was beyond boring and disappointing.

but hey, we all beat off to a different drummer.

The Loveable

I was in the big bookstore in town last weekend and was shifting thru the magazine department.

I do this as a two fold thing, one it is a luxury and two it is research. I look up names of galleries, look at new art that is being made, see what people are making, what trends are "hot and hip". Most of this information come from magazines that I can never really justify buying because really a $25 magazine is a little rich for my mac and cheese budget.

I was flipping thru some super obscure art magazine when a piece of paper fell out. It was a handwritten poem and drawing wedged into a magazine....

I read it and instantly thought of Esther Pearl The Unloveable the author based the whole series from a diary she found in a public bathroom while traveling! I know I would have been horrified if I had lost my journal, but this was different. This was a love poem...pushed into a magazine and left for someone to find. It was dark and romantic and after hubby read it and declared it "kind of messed up" I put it in my purse to post here.

So ladies and gentleman here is the poem and my translation of the scratched words:

Nessun Dorma

None must sleep, none must sleep

and you, too, princess

in your cold room, gaze at

the stars which tremble with love

and hope

but my mystery

is locked within me,

no-one shall know my name

no, no, I shall say it as my mounth

meets yours when the dawn is breaking

and my kiss will break the silence

which makes you mine

(no-one shall know his name,

and we, alas, shall die)

Vanish, oh night!

Fade, stars

At dawn I shall win.

Well it turns out, I am so romantic I turned this into an amazing story in my mind...

these are the words from an opera

*sigh*

I really like the idea of a boy twisted and tormented by love writing a poem....

Geek at heart

Serious Geek alert, you have been warned.....

I have been waiting and searching for a workshop to take, one that I could afford and be inspired by...
clearly those two concepts do not always go hand in hand.

I was told about a letterpress studio that was a short drive away and so I contacted them and I got signed up for a day of Letterpress 101

I was super excited as I have been dreaming and researching letterpress for a while....I have become a serious letterpress fan.

Much like the love for the sound of a shutter on a medium format camera...oh that is such a lovely wonderfully intoxicating sound, soo too is the sound of a letterpress to me.

I wasn't allowed to take Industrial Arts in junior high, my father was afraid I would cut off my fingers or hurt myself in some way....so I never got to take shop or anything. Instead I got a half a semester in home economics class with a teacher who thought I was going to blow up the kitchen or break the sewing machines.

so all this is BRAND NEW to me and super exciting.



I took the day off work and traveled to the local letterpress studio for an introduction day.

The studio was the artists converted garage, it was filled with three presses, flat files, an antique paper cutter (that looked like railroad equipment) and blocks of font and packing supplies.

I was given a quick overview of what each machine was called and how they use almost exclusively photopolymer for the letterpress now. (the same stuff I make my etchings with) except you needed to mail away for it...and so I was given a selection to pick from for the demo.
I picked a little bunch of poppies that she had drawn.

She showed me how to cut the paper and then how to ink the platen and turn on the Chandler and Price 10x15 press...

and then the sounds...ooooooooooooh the lovely sounds of the machine working.
I felt like a combination of a train engineer and Dick Van Dyke in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
I was running this amazing machine that made things!
(super geek I know, I warned you)

I was shown how to load the art into the machine and we made notecards.

then it was all done.

I asked about Vandercook SP15 which is what I imagine when I think of letterpress, and was shown hers, it is used mostly for bookmaking which her business does as well. I had mentioned a desire to make a handmade book and she let me know that she could help me with that if I wanted.

All in all it was an informative day, I was given a general overview and printed some cards.

I can add it to my list of information and resources

and

now know that I need a bigger studio if I was to include letterpress into my life!

I came home with visions of a bigger studio in my head and dreams of printing all day and night long

here is my fantasty studio