Esquire, a very good read

Tags

classic, Esquire magazine, postaday2012, shoes, suits, well dressed

One of my favorite publications to read cover to cover is Esquire magazine. I love men’s fashions; surprisingly I have to say, because I couldn’t really care less about women’s fashions, I find that in women’s wear it is way to faddish. Whereas, I find that men’s fashions are continuously classic and with small tweaks, the designers keep it fresh and modern. The key distinction is the quality and eye for workmanship in the tailoring of a man’s suit jacket, a man;s shirt, even their slacks. The stitching right down to the button holing, has an attention to detail that makes it into a work of art. I look through the entire magazine and the articles are always educational, the fashion column called Ask Nick, gives the best advice and the breadth of Nick’s knowledge is impressive. This month Bruce Willis is on the cover, he isn’t particularly well dressed, but he is Bruce Willis, the fashion is left to the male models, Bruce is speaking about his new life and his most recent movies. The issue is also called the Father’s Day issue and it doesn’t disappoint with gift giving ideas, when in doubt look to the professionals, writers for a men’s magazine. In terms of Father’s Day menu ideas, there is a slew of famous chef’s who write of food items that their father’s had taught them how to make at a young age. The article is so sweet, there is a lot of bacon throughout the reminiscing, my nostrils flared a few times. I just really like to see young men well dressed complete with beautiful shoes. My hubby always looks very handsome in his suits and he has excellent taste in apparel. We can go anywhere and he fits in perfectly, I’m the ugly ducking of the two, but to his credit, he knows what to suggest for me to wear because he has the better eye by far. There is something to be said about a well dressed and well groomed man.

Hard to say goodbye

Tags

Beagles, dogs, last goodbye, pets, postaday2012

Describe the last difficult “goodbye” you said.

May 31, 2012

A Tough Goodbye

beagle puppy

We got the good luck of taking care of the best Beagle that I had ever met. His name was Tuck, he was very particular in whom he chose to love but when he chose, it was forever. Whenever my hubby would come home, Tuck would give a greeting to outdo all greetings, he would howl as if explaining to my hubby all of his woes and how much he was missed. He developed a huge cancerous tumor in his abdomen when he was nine and the day that he started to fade, I took him to the vet’s and I stayed with him until the end. I am very lucky to have spent those years with Tuck, he was the best Beagle in the world. I, we, loved him so much.

Film festivals

Tags

Cannes film festival, film festivals, postaday2012, Tribeca Film festival, Venice

Have you ever attended a film festival?

May 30, 2012

Film Festival

Freaky Deaky 2012 Tribeca Film Festival

I haven’t had the pleasure as of yet to attend a film festival. My first stop would be the TriBeCa Film festival followed by the Cannes Film festival and then I think that I would take a jaunt across to Venice to attend their film festival. Actually it wouldn’t be a bad career to have, traveling the globe attending film festivals in all the fascinating cities of the world.

The hummingbird waiting game

Tags

females, hummingbirds, mating dance, migration, postaday2012, territorial

When we moved up to Blandford, so many years ago, the last thing that I had expected to find each summer were hummingbirds to come visit in my backyard. Growing up in Astoria, I had read about them; learning about their tiny size, their ability to hover, their perpetual need to feed their little fuel machines and to think that by moving up to a tiny town in the Berkshires, I would get to see their wild dance, flitting from bee balm to bee balm, right in my back yard. My neighbors have reported sightings already, my neighbor from across the street set up her hummingbird feeder May 5th and she said that just the other day, she almost got binged in the head by a determined hummingbird, she then told me that the man across the road on Wyman Lane was weed whacking with his mouth open (she didn’t explain why his mouth was open) and a hummingbird impaled his tongue with its beak. The poor bird paid for his aggressive flight plan with his life but I have seen how fast and furious they can fly, my best friend used to duck every time she went to replenish her feeder because they were lying in wait.

I’m waiting for my bee balm, corn flowers and thistle to bloom for the little hummingbirds to come visit me in my back yard. Over the past few years, I have had this female who is so aggressive and territorial, I’m not sure if she is the same one who comes back, I tend to think that she is the same one, because I have never seen other little hummingbirds be as aggressive. She will sit in my pussy willow tree surveying her garden full of her flowers and mercy on the unsuspecting hummingbird or butterfly who tries to tread on her territory. She is like a jet fighter plane zooming in on her enemy. She drives them away and practically beats them up in the process. Once I got the tremendous luck of seeing a baby hummingbird, it was as big as a bumble bee, it was such a gift from mother nature.

Normally, I don’t get very excited by birds but there is something magical about hummingbirds. I read somewhere that it was the hummingbird that inspired Leonardo da Vinci to draw his plans for the helicopter. I see the sense of it.

Chapter 1, page 5, paragraph 1 – 3 Madeleine trying to get to work -excerpt from The Chic Bootlegger

Tags

1920's, Love, madeleine, novel, Paris, postaday2012

Where is the time, I have to go. Where is my coat and hat, it is cold outside. I hope that it is not going to rain, Paris in the autumn, you are guaranteed grey skies everyday or at least that is what it feels like and if you are lucky rain every other day. It does make for a long winter, a very short autumn but a long winter. At least we don’t have to worry too much about snow, that would be hard because boots are so expensive and I don’t really have the extra money to spend on snow boots, least of all the whole family. A factory worker’s pay does not allow for much at all. I shouldn’t complain because I still have my job, since the war has ended, many of the men who came back, took up where they left off and the women were fired. Since I work in the sewing machine factory, not many men were working there before the war, so my job has always been safe, I inherited it, if you will, from my Maman. Having a family history with the factory does help, because Gabrielle and Maman during holiday seasons are able to come in for part-time work that helps us out during the year with extra money. It also helps out the Patrons because they don’t have to train any one else, Maman and Gabrielle are very experienced. All in all I must say that we live in a very tidy universe on Avenue Victor Hugo and rue de la Pompe.
Here I am at last out the door; Papa is still sleeping near the stove. I wonder if he even noticed that it is no longer cold in the apartment. One of these days, someone is going to have to do something about Papa, he can’t go on like this. Maman needs help and a husband who is at least present. It can’t be good for the little ones to see an adult do nothing all day long except eat, drink and fall asleep in a chair listening to the radio. I should stop worrying about it now; I have to start thinking about work. Down the stairs, two at a time and I am out onto the Avenue.
It is not that bad outside, here I am at the corner of rue de la Pompe and voila, I am at work. There is Sabine; she is my best friend in the world. We have known each other since we were in the bassinet together because our Maman’s are best friends and they worked at the Usine together for years since they were young girls. Back then it wasn’t a sewing machine factory of course, it had been a factory for textiles. When in 1910, it changed over to a sewing machine factory; the Patron simply kept the same factory workers and trained them for the new jobs.
Sabine and I work side by side on the assembly line. We try to set new records, not just in speed but in efficiency and quality. Anything to keep our jobs interesting, the monotony not only can drive someone batty but it also can lead to bad work. Bad work equals bad product which then equals time docked for bad product and that eventually leads to no job. Sabine and I, we have no illusions, we know that we need our jobs. Not only do we need our jobs to put food on the table for our families but we are also young and we do like to go out every now and again to the new café’s and the new music clubs that are opening up all over Paris.

When does one attain adulthood?

At what point in your life did you start feeling like an adult?

May 29, 2012

Adulthood

Adult Card

I started to feel like an adult when I started running my household which happened concurrently with marriage and one child and followed by our second. It was being responsible for another person’s happiness and well-being that made me an adult. It sneaks up on you and when you achieve adulthood, that’s it, you can’t turn back or at least I can’t. I still feel young but I have a healthy respect for responsibility and consequences.

Summer plans

Tags

dogs, pool, postaday2012, summer, swimming

What are you most looking forward to doing this summer?

May 28, 2012

Summer Plans

German Shepard

I look forward to working outside tending my garden, having the pool open and watching Rex swim back and forth retrieving his ball. I wonder if little Jack will be more courageous this year and join Rex in his daily swim. Rex is impressive when he swims, he leaves a wake in the pool like a small boat. For those who aren’t acquainted with Rex, he is an eleven year old German Shepard and Jack is a small Jack Russell almost two come July 5th. When the pool gets opened, I’ll make sure to take pictures.

Adding visual media to my posts or better said, trying to.

Tags

flowers, Gardening, pictures, postaday2012

I went on a cellphone picture taking spree yesterday in my yard to show what I had done by way of gardening. I do like it when my friends, whom I follow, do it when they are posting about what they did or didn’t do, it gives another element to the story and it also makes me feel as if I were there and my level of appreciation increases immeasurably. So here goes:

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I just looked at it, the slideshow is a combination of the containers garden out front with the twirling steel fish sculpture and where you see moss covered garden stones with plants and wild greenery and a huge rosebush, that is out back. My work is far from over, but I love it because my vision still hasn’t been hammered out of what I want my gardens to express, aside from “we are alive and the nice lady takes care of us”. It is always a work in progress.

Reading Germs, Guns and Steel and enjoying it

Tags

ancient people, inventing writing, postaday2012, writing

I am so very impressed by the author’s remarkable scholarship and research in writing this book. As an anthropology student I can really appreciate the years of analysis and shifting through large amounts of source materials. I am not done reading it but what I can safely say is that science has shown once again that there is no need for racism, prejudice or anything like it. All empirical evidence demonstrates that civilization started within the fertile crescent, the area which is now Turkey, Syria, Iraq. The author fully lays out his argument that solely for the good fortune of moderate climate and topography, slight altitudinal variations and availability of domestic able mammals and grains, legumes and pulses, the fertile crescent was ideal for the cradle of civilization to emerge. Archeological evidence in other parts of the world show that they weren’t as fortunate with their original food sources but once different food stuffs came in from elsewhere, they were more than able to adapt. The author also examines the East-West axis as opposed to the North-South axis of distribution, this goes to latitudinal similarities in climate and growing seasons versus the vast differences longitudinally. Fascinating stuff, fundamentally we are all more or less equal in terms of resourcefulness, adaptability and creativity. The X factor was the environmental gifts that were available to the people.

Right now, I’m at the section where the author is examining the development of writing. The first source of writing known to civilization is the Sumerian cuneiform developed around 6000 B.C. Suffice it to say that the Sumerians developed accounting systems that grew into writing due to their successful transition to a farming society that rendered them wealthier and necessity is the driver of invention. You see the beauty in the logical development of man’s evolution. I highly recommend this book, it was also made into a PBS special, I hope that they got a wonderful narrator for the special.

Ideas for a t.v show anyone?

Tags

actors, creativity, postaday2012, reality shows, t.v shows, writers

Create a new television show that will delight audiences.

May 27, 2012

Idea for a New TV Show

Writers Guild Deal

I can’t think of anything groundbreaking, it isn’t my forte. I feel that the epidemic of reality t.v. shows, while it makes money for the producers, deprives Hollywood and New York actors, writers and crews, jobs and creative outlets. I would love to see something as wonderful as House come to t.v in September, I would also love to see some great comedies liven the t.v lineup during week nights. Creativity does us all a service over those reality shows where we often see human behavior at its worst.