I read Vogue and here's what I got out of it.

"My first teaching experience took place during this time, when one day, my friend Elizabeth invited me to visit her class at the Hunter elementary school. I stood before her students, who were maybe six or seven, and what I remember so vividly is all those little ones with their eyes fixed on me waiting. I knew I had to give something interesting and valuable, something that they would perhaps remember all their lives. I have never lost that feeling."
                       -- Bel Kaufman
                        "Test of Time" in August 2012 Vogue

One hundred one years old and Bel Kaufman is still reading and writing and following up with former students. I know that a lot of my friends in Curry will be able to relate to this awesome article in Vogue. I highly recommend trying to read it some how no matter if you are in education or not.

Also, reading about Marion Cotillard was a lot of fun (this month's (August) covergirl) I have been a fan of hers for a while and it is nice to get a sense of her personality. She seems unafraid of putting her true self into everything she does without worrying about the risk it may do to her (or her reputation) in the future, a different approach to life than many.

I have been thinking a lot about creativity, creation, and creative personalities. One of the books I brought to California with me is The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. This is a book I read for a class I took my very first semester at UVA. I highly recommend you read this book as well. I believe that Twyla Tharp does an excellent job of explaining the effort and science behind creativity in addition to it's application to daily life. She stresses the discipline creativity requires and the necessity of a strong knowledge of the basic skills of whatever it is that you do. In a world that is increasingly driven by technology and is increasingly fragmented (I am reminded of every discussion I ever had of modernist literature) I hope that we become more attuned to the beauty of basic disciplines and routines.

It takes more and more effort these days to enjoy what used to be called the "simple things in life" (time with family members without telephone calls, television, or texting; walks around the neighborhood for no reason but to get outside; gardening; actually cooking food and (preferably) enjoying it with family members or friends; blowing bubbles; going to the library; ringing the bell on your bicycle out of greeting rather than annoyance or insistance on getting around someone in front of you; finding shapes in the clouds). My rambling that began with creativity has ended with a list of things I wish I did more often. The point is that creativity and actual enjoyment of life doesn't all come naturally. I don't think that humans naturally do what truly pleases them. Something in our internal compass has been bent and we need constant reorienting around a fixed point not found in this world.

How many times have I made a choice NOT to do something that I knew would fulfill me and truly make me happy (cooking and eating fresh foods instead of fast food or sugar; going for a walk or a run outside rather than watching TV; reading a book rather than going on facebook for an hour). My prayer is that I would be continually re-magnetized pointing towards something meaningful rather than lazily spinning about in my comfortable glass case.

Coast of Carolina

Woke up in another lifetime
It's a shame it's just not right now
Dreamin' of the coast of Carolina...










This song ("Coast of Carolina" by Telekinesis) is so fitting as I am desperately missing the beaches of the east coast, particularly those in North Carolina. I was surprised to discover that the Pacific ocean doesn't seem to have the same affect on me as the Atlantic. Perhaps it is the landscape surrounding the water: wider, flatter beaches, small crowded apartments or townhouses with malls close to the water...or monstrous houses with clear railings that seem perched either on a mountain or overtop of the water itself. Like everything in Los Angeles, the beach is built for luxury and a lot of people.  

Gone are the little neighborhoods of moderate sized family homes with front porches complete with attached swings and rocking chairs. Also, dear Charlottesville, I miss driving the fifteen minutes it took to get to your rolling hills and quaint country stores.  Although there are many places to drive here in LA, none of them are very green or scarcely populated. So, here's to nostalgic picture revisiting.  Some of the Outerbanks from earlier this year, South Carolina last year, and a few of dear Charlottesville. 

South Carolina

South Carolina

Orange

 

The Rotunda

University of Virginia

Paint My Life

When did my joy become some unclean disease that I learned not to speak of when you were listening?

I need to up my nerd.

I wish that I had been there. Just two hours away. So close and yet so far. Until then I need to up my nerd until I head out to comic con next year. There are so many obscure references I need to catch up on.

Figaro, Figaro, Fi-ga-roooooooo

This weekend I (finally) went to the little boulangerie a couple blocks down the street from me in Los Feliz called Figaro Bistro (used for this video apparently). On my second afternoon in Los Angeles I went walking around my neighborhood with one of my housemates and we passed this small cafe/bistro and it seemed that everyone sitting outside was speaking French. Obviously that meant this Boulangerie was the real deal and I have been waiting to go there ever since. I had a lovely, leisurely lunch with my friend Heather and we shared the caprese panini with pommes frites and I had an espresso.  I cannot wait to go back and sit outside and write with a fancy pen in a moleskin journal looking for celebrities and listening to the French language.

Soon after visiting this gem I was inspired to make lemon sugar crepes for breakfast with (unusual for me) whipped cream and some peppermint tea which I enjoyed while watching Downton Abbey. I've finally caught on to the obsession.

The inside of the restaurant

The view of the outside "patio" from my table

These photographs were displayed outside the bathroom.

Crepes.

what do legos, roofs, and death have in common?

Off of Hollywood Boulevard...not sure what they have in there, a little afraid to find out.

The view from a friend's roof of downtown. We decided this was a great place for parkour. Think Casino Royale.

STAR TREK!

Disney does it best. Beauty and the Beast out of Legos.

I have pictures of them all in this blog post. 

Fly Woody, fly!

Handprints of Tradition

This weekend I went with two friends to Grauman's Chinese Theater to see Christopher Nolan, whom some have said is the "Hitchcock" of our time, leave his handprints and footprints in the concrete outside. This is a long tradition which began when Fairbanks, Pickford, and Norma Talmadge stepped out of a cab onto some wet cement leaving their footprints outside of the theater. Sid Grauman, the theater owner at the time, liked the idea and made it a tradition for well-known people in the (film) industry to sign their names in cement with their hand and footprints. This weekend the cast of The Dark Knight Rises was present for Nolan's ceremony and I was fortunate enough to be standing on the right side of the theater on the railing when everyone arrived. It was a lovely morning (even though we had to wake up early to walk the mile and a half down Hollywood Boulevard) and we got lucky with our timing arriving just as they were stopping people from going in to see the ceremony. I also got some choice shots of the cast of Dark Knight as well as a signed poster with the autographs of Hans Zimmer (composer), Michael Caine, and Christian Bale. Some of my friends were able to get Anne Hathaway and Gary Oldman's autographs as well.

Church

This past Sunday I attended a Christian Church service different from all others. Reminding me of the Kinfolk Manifesto or JPBC's home groups more than anything else, here people attempt to get to the heart of community.  A group of artists uses a wonderful warehouse space to hold a meal each Sunday night and a small service afterwards. When I arrived I met people with a hug and warm handshakes, was escorted to a banquet table of barley and vegetable soup, vietnamese noodles, chili and rice, salad, and bruchetta. Small children played with a basket of toys on cushions on the floor while we sang, prayed, and talked with each other.  I look forward to adding this on to my normal Sunday service.  (Afterwards some new friends and I went to Syrup in downtown LA and had sweetened tea with large straws to suck up the fruit in the bottom and many different kinds of deserts).