Just an Expression

So I have this great book “Word and Phrase Origins” by Robert Hendrickson, that I look at nearly everyday.  Undoubtedly, I or someone will say some figure of speech or expression and I’ll want to look up.  Today at breakfast, for example, a woman sitting behind us was talking about her sons lack of a “nest egg.”  (Listen lady, he’s not alone!)

From the book: Nest egg…”People saved nest eggs as early as the 17th century.  The expression relates to the pottery eggs once put in hens’ nests to induce the hens to lay their own eggs.  Persons who start saving a nest egg put a little money (like a porcelain egg) aside, which encourages them to save more.  Maybe that woman needs to put some monopoly money into her son’s savings account.

Emaciating Grace

“Emaciating Grace”

dimensions: 14.5″ x 11.5″ x 3.5″

Making art for me is like writing a story out of images and objects.  My piece “Emaciating Grace” is a good example of this visual story telling.

Words add even more dimension for me, so here’s what I’ve written to go along with this piece.

 “Grace is a name for a girl. It’s also a thought that can change the world.”

–U2, Grace

 

Grace starves when all that feeds it/her is a language of fear. In this piece, spoons – implements for transporting nutrients, carry only words of danger and death. Arranging the spoons in the shape of a ribcage acts to reinforce the idea that these words do not sustain life but in fact starve it. The solders surrounding the piece suggest a fence erected to restrain grace.

(you can see the image larger by clicking on it and zoom it by clicking the bottom right corner of the enlargement)

On This Day In History

Johnny Cash was born.

 Today is also Michael Bolton’s birthday.  Happy birthday Mike.

ALSO artist Lynn Whipple was born on this date!  Happy Birthday Lynneee-Lou!

You should see her artwork by the way.  Not only is this woman a visual artist, but also a budding singer/songwriter and so much more!  A creative Renaissance woman to say the least!  The Whipple website is under reconstruction, as soon as it’s up and running again I will post the link.  You can always do a google search in the mean time! 

By the way, I’ll be getting back to the topic of my book in coming days.  I remind you, however, that I did say I would write about whatever I darn well pleased on this blog.

The Dialectizer

Okay, I wasn’t sure what to write today and then I was reminded of this online dialect translator.  I will send this text through the “redneck” translator. Let’s hear what comes of these words if we toss them under the big tires of the truck driving, beer drinking, deer hunting folks of our great nation.

The above text “Dialectized”  into redneck:

Okay, ah warn’t sho’nuff whut t’write today an’ THEN ah was reminded of this hyar dialeck translato’. ah will send this hyar text through th’ “redneck” translato’. Less hear whut come of these wo’ds eff’n we tost them unner th’ trimenjus tires of th’ truck drivin’, beer six packin’, deer huntin’ folks of our great nashun. Am ah sterotypin’?

I’ve invited a redneck to examine this text for authenticity…Nick?  I must add that I’m a little uncomfortable with this post.  I submit it because our friend Nick is sufferin’ in KY right now and could use a diversion from the grey, grey skies and the cold, damp days.

A Little Salt on your Radio

While I’m on the topic of radio, I have got to mention Anne, who’s at Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, in Portland, Maine right now. 
 
The following is lifted right from the Salt website:
 

Our Purpose

To teach responsible storytelling.

Our Approach

Intense. Experiential. Collaborative.

Our Focus

People. Their Stories. And telling them well.

Our Students

Are driven, passionate individuals who seek to immerse themselves in the documentary process. They struggle to find their own voice, to sit comfortably with discomfort, and to ask hard questions not only of their subjects, but also of themselves.

Our Program

Graduate and undergraduate students attend the Salt Institute to study documentary radio, writing, or photography. The program entails fifteen weeks of intensive, extensive field research coupled with workshops and seminars. Throughout the semester, students gather cultural materials and develop their craft in order to create documentaries of professional caliber. While the immediate focus and location is Maine, approaches and skills learned at the Salt Institute travel well to any regional study or to comparative studies.

 Doesn’t Salt sound cool!

   

I encourage you to check out Anne’s blog called Radio Free Anne.  She writes in a smart, quippy voice, about her experances at Salt and her budding love affair with the great state of Maine.  My classmates will enjoy her February 20th post “my piece”, where she talks about finding her story.   On her blog you can also listen to a couple of her radio pieces recorded before she went to Maine. 

A Public Service Announcement

It’s the weekend and my favorite Public Radio listening days.  Thanks to the Internet,  I stream programs from all over the globe.  Despite what my beloved seems to think, Public Radio isn’t just for people who were tormented on the playground as children.  I trust there are many dim-witted,  jock-types who are listening to PRI and drinking from pledge-drive coffee mugs as I speak.  This is all beside the point though,  it’s Saturday and the streaming is easy.

Start here at PublicRadioFan.com.  On the weekends, I go to the “non-music only” area of the site to find what stations are presently airing my favorite shows.  I click on the media player icon of my choice and enjoy.  Right now I have on “This American Life” .  Today’s show is about testosterone.

Here are a few of my other favorite weekend programs:

A Way With Words: A romp through the English language

Says You: “A Game of Words and Whimsy, Bluff and Bluster”.

Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me: “An Oddly Informative News Quiz”.

Weekend America: “A place where curious, lively hosts spark conversations, share unexpected stories and connect listeners with the most compelling ideas and events of America this weekend”.

Studio 360:  Ellen Page, from Indie hit Juno is being interviewed. As is Jimmy Carter from the Blind Boys of Alabama.

Also, To The Best of Our Knowledge, Selective Shorts, Living On Earth to name just a few.

No one’s going to shove you into your locker or dump you head first into a trash can for listening to great radio. So go forward and listen!

Do you have Public Radio shows you love listening to?

What Are You Uncomfortable Doing?

For me, it’s singing.  I love music. I think singer/songwriters are some of the most creative people ever.  But when I’m in a group singing “happy birthday to you”, I’m most likely mouthing the words. 
 
I had been seeing Matthew for over 3 years before I ever let him hear me sing.  It was a planned event on my part.  We were in the van, on the way to an art show.  I put in an Indigo Girls CD and let out my first tentative notes.  He DARED to turn down the music. “Noooooooo….I need them.”  It’s taken a while, but I  sing around him now.  I can laugh “with” him at my tone deaf, but enthusiastic attempts at accompaniment.
I’m bringing this up, because of a conversation we had at the studio yesterday.  Stevie, I learned does not like to dance.  It’s not that he will not do it, it’s just that he finds it hard to not be self-conscious and because of it, he doesn’t enjoy it.  Plus he says ”I’m very bad.  Not bad as in good but bad as in awful.” 

Donne I find out, would rather get a root canal than do any kind of public speaking (and yet, I know for a fact, when forced to talk she’s amazingly funny, and a crowd pleaser). 

Not surprisingly, Stevie and I both had experiences at an impresionable ages that cemented our discomforts into place. 
 

For me it was elementary school chorus.  I tried out, and was told I wasn’t good enough.  I practiced and tried out the following year.  On the second attempt, I was not only told that I wasn’t good enough, but also asked to just mouth the words in class.  If that wasn’t bad enough already, she did this infront of little Ricky Taylor, the boy I had a huge crush on.  And Wendy Marks, the biggest bully of the whole 4th grade.  Oooo…If I only had backbone then, I would have belted out a song at the top of my lungs in that mean woman’s music class.  
 

I’m curious, what do you find uncomfortable doing?  Is there a story as to why?  Have you gotten over it? Do you still wish you could get over it, or are things fine just the way they are?

A Ramble On the Writing…

 …You’re encouraged to hold my feet to the fire if I start saying otherwise…”I’m writing a book and traveling all over the world to talk about it”. My mentor in this adventure is New York Times Bestselling author Barbara Sher. I am one lucky girl! And you’re lucky too, because she’s bound to keep me on task and whip me into shape if I dare falter. So I’m likely to create something readable, helpful and pretty good.

I don’t know the full shape of the book yet, but I know a few things to start. I know that the mind is pliable. Something I think is indisputable today, often proves to be remarkably wrong tomorrow. This is great news as far as I’m concerned. Today, for example, I think I’m fat.

It’s seems to me that it’s good to have a mind like cookie dough, because we change. If we have a head for rethinking things, we’re more likely to be able to do well in the face of these changes.

(Note: I am NOT talking positive thinking here….Oh no. Never underestimate the power of pitching a fit! I am talking about a willingness to see wide.  To learn to become aware of a landscape never taken in before.)

My book as it takes shape will likely do some changing as well. I welcome your feedback. Ask me questions, tell me stories (I love stories) and be a part of the living language that will be this book.

A post script here:  I know I’m not telling you “what” the book is about yet.  Chill, I will. I promise.

My Blockhead

I’m a visual artist (as well as a budding author).  In this piece, I showcase my husband Matthew.

“Blockhead”

dimensions:
23″ x 18″ x 3″

The Lure of the Blog

I’ve decided to create a personal blog.  Here I can talk about the weather, bad hair days and other mundane and mind numbingly trivial things.  I can, and will, take full advantage of this platform to brag about my friends, family and even pat my own sassy self on the back now and again.

I will piss and moan, and write things without substance or merit.  Sometimes I will not even use the spell check.  Oh joy, let the drivel begin.