Oh, Spring! I want to go out and feel you and get inspiration. My old things seem dead. I want fresh contacts, more vital searching. – Emily Carr
“The sun just touched the morning;
The morning, happy thing,
Supposed that he had come to dwell,
And life would be all spring.” – Emily Dickinson
The spring wakes us, nurtures us and revitalizes us. How often does your spring come? If you are a prisoner of the calendar, it comes once a year. If you are creating authentic power, it comes frequently, or very frequently. Gary Zukav (best selling author, “Seat of the Soul”).
I had always planned to make a large painting of the early spring, when the first leaves are at the bottom of the trees, and they seem to float in space in a wonderful way. But the arrival of spring can’t be done in one picture. David Hockney
“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.” – Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
Spring in the Desert brings more Spring in his StepSundog Jack – “the grass is always greener in Spring”
Well the thing is, art can be found everywhere, even in the desert. And it makes perfect sense; beauty with beauty.
Wildlife with Art
I realized that while taking a nature walk with the dogs right after a picnic. The location being Whitewater Preserve about 20 minutes northwest of Palm Springs. An absolutely stunning setting of over 2,000 acres of pristine desert with hiking trails and wildlife. From a distance I came across what looked like a birding roost, and on closer inspection found out it was made from sand bags. It’s actually an art piece. built to replicate how pigeons in Israel are put to roost. But it’s hard to keep up with everything that’s going on around town especially now, so I had to find out *more.
*From Feb. 25 through April 30, 2017, the Coachella Valley and its desert landscape will become the canvas for a curated exhibition of site-specific work by established and emerging artists, whose projects will amplify and articulate global and local issues that may range from climate change to starry skies, from tribal culture and immigration to tourism, gaming, and golf. The artworks, in various indoor and outdoor locations will be available for free and will offer visitors a way to see the valley and reflect on serious and playful issues through the lens of the participating artists’ creativity and work.
You never know what you will encounter while out on a simple walk
You never know what you will encounter while out on a simple drive
On the drive to the nature preserve you will come across hundreds on windmillsThe windmills are there for power generation with renewable energy. However I hate them for the fact that the valley is infamous for the number of birds that are killed because of them.
It’s Modernism week in Palm SpringsAn annual celebration of midcentury modern design, architecture, art, fashion and culture.
And to demonstrate what kind of 20th Century Modern Woman I am – some recent selfies taken in front of mirrored windows around town. It also proves that my dogs are modern too! They should really be in Modern Dog Magazine.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”
– Donald TrumpLewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass
“Where should I go?”-Alice. “That depends on where you want to end up.” – The Cheshire Cat.”!
If you are truly into Style you will have at one point picked up a copy of Italian Vogue. Either in Italy or elsewhere.
Then you should know that Franca Sozzani, the Editor in Chief of Italian Vogue, has died at 66. Sadly she now joins musician George Michael, along with witty author/actor/ex-princess Carrie Fisher (what they all have in common is that they pushed the boundaries). Yves Saint Laurent said “fashion fades,style is eternal” so the heavens now are alive with some serious style spirits.
Photo of Franca: Francesco Carrozzini
Franca, an ageless 66, was born in Mantua. Her father, a classic Italian patriarch, was an industrial engineer who did not approve his daughter’s early ambitions to study physics. She studied literature and philosophy at university in Milan instead, and married soon after, although she knew, as she later admitted, that the marriage was doomed before she walked into the church. (Franca would later confess that romantic relationships were the one weak link in her formidable arsenal of triumphs.) The couple divorced three months later, and the free-spirited Franca went to India to find herself—“I thought it was time to do something good with my life.” Time spent in Swinging London further nurtured her creative spirit.
When she returned from her odyssey, she stumbled into a job at Vogue Bambini(as “assistant to the assistant to the assistant,” as she playfully remembered). By 1980, she landed the editorship of Lei, aimed at young women, with Per Lui, its male counterpart, following in 1982. She transformed both these titles into showcases for the most dynamic trends in international fashion and lifestyle image-making. When Oliviero Toscani, her key photographer, moved on from her magazines, she began nurturing a dazzling talent roster of emerging photographers including Mario Testino, Paolo Roversi, Herb Ritts, Peter Lindbergh, Bruce Weber, and Steven Meisel, all of whom were attracted by the unprecedented editorial freedom that she gave them, and her passion for photography.
“Why would anyone buy Italian Vogue?” she once queried, “They wouldn’t—only Italians read Italian.” She knew that she needed to communicate instead through powerful imagery, and by showcasing her photographers’ work in this way, she earned their unswerving loyalty and their willingness to work with her magazines’ negligible budgets. “When I sent all these photos to you, I would write on the package ‘personal,’ ” Weber wrote to her, “I now realize that I took them for you because you would be the only one who would understand.”
At the same time, Franca became an indispensable part of the Italian fashion scene, a shrewd power broker with an unequaled reach to its designers and the manufacturers and industrialists who keep the industry’s wheels turning.
In 1988, she was appointed Editor in Chief of Italian Vogue—the same month that Anna Wintour was made the Editor in Chief at American Vogue. (By 1994, she was made Editor in Chief of Italian Condé Nast, enjoying great support from an at times long-suffering Jonathan Newhouse, the chairman of Condé Nast International.) Franca immediately shook up the formulaic title with dynamic covers and content, creating a magazine that, in her words, would be “extravagant, experimental, innovative.”
Franca’s ethereal, otherworldly beauty, with her limpid blue eyes and tumble of pale blonde Pre-Raphaelite waves, belied her indomitable personality. “I listen,” she said, “but I must go my own way.”
A maverick spirit, she turned her Vogue into a magazine that not only celebrated the power of the image, but also used fashion stories as a platform to discuss broader issues, and the obsessions of the fashionable world. Franca had a passion for, and a deep knowledge of, fashion and its history, but an ability to keep an amused distance from its modern day excesses.
She was fearless in her willingness to tackle provocative and controversial social and cultural issues through the medium of fashion shoots. (“Fashion isn’t really about clothes,” she said, “it’s about life.”)
A remarkable woman whose talent was matched by her fierce loyalty and her passion for life.
franca sozzani Photo: Peter Lindbergh
Story (condensed): Hamish Bowles for Vogue Magazine
Now here’s a documentary for those who adore art, culture, music, fashion, politics, celebrity & larger than life celebratory, astonishing and horrendously shocking legendary moments in time.
Saying that Scottish photographer Harry Benson is a Zelig-like character who’s witnessed every major cultural and political event of the last 50 years is not an exaggeration. Here’s just a partial resumé of the man’s astounding life: he arrived in America with the Beatles in 1964 as a photographer for their American tour (he took the famous photo of the Beatles’ hotel room pillow fight); he has photographed every American president from Eisenhower to Obama; he was just a few feet away from Bobby Kennedy on the night Kennedy was assassinated; he was alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Meredith march and attended his funeral; he was in the room when Nixon resigned; he was there when the Berlin Wall went up—and when it came down; and he has taken iconic fashion photos for the likes of Vanity Fair, Paris Match and a half-dozen other magazines.
Benson, now 86 and still working, certainly deserves the wonderful tribute offered here in Matthew Miele and Justin Bare’s fascinating portrait. Featuring testimonials from Sharon Stone, Alec Baldwin, Donald Trump, Piers Morgan, Dan Rather, James L. Brooks, Henry Kissinger, Ralph Lauren and Joe Namath among others, the film reveals that Benson is not only a globetrotting legend of the photography world but that he’s also a nice guy!
kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favourite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.” ― Stephen King, Salem’s Lot.
And then there’s all the colourful Autumn Bounty – Market Fresh“Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
“Know that transformation sometimes begins with a fall. So never curse the fall.”
― Yasmin Mogahed, Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Breaking Free from Life’s Shackles
The BAD NEWS is time fliesWow…we’re almost into the second week of August. How did that happen? The GOOD NEWS is you’re the pilot or the driverSo don’t conk out too soon. “Whoa………..let’s take the bull by the horns and get a move on partner! No time for a bath; we’ll just dust off”Make the most of the rest of your SUMMER
If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun – Katherine Hepburn
He wears a hat to keep the sun out of his eyes but he won’t wear a seatbelt.
Somebody said “you weren’t put on this earth to simply break even. You’re here to break rules, break records and break through.”
Some will take chances with no life vest. All Jack is concentrating on is why there are no other adventurous dog kayakers.
Learn the rules like a pro so that you can break them like an artist – Pablo Picasso
Some like to play in the big leagues – While living in Bangkok Jack says “when my humans told me the next door neighbour had a cat I had no idea the scope. I didn’t want to be a pussy.”
WATCH: a younger Jack playing with a little kitty:
Jack, staring out his living room window is thinking one of three things: Where did my humans disappear to? What will I eat for dinner? Are there really rabbits, squirrels and mice at the end of the rainbow ? (as told to him by his mother as a young pup).
Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what’s on the other side
Rainbows are visions
But only illusions
And rainbows have nothing to hide
All of us under its spell, we know that it’s probably magic
I’m a big kid at heart. I love this song performed by John Legend, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy (another style icon), and Queen Latifah. It is definitely Feel-Good.
On another Feel-good note: The many faces of Carol Burnett.
I’m so glad we had this time together. Fond memories of simpler times and fun clean comedy.
Tomorrow I’m really excited to see Carol Burnett at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Vancouver. I have no idea what she’s going to do but that’s okay, she can just stand there for all I care. I loved watching her Acceptance Speech for a well deserved Life Time Achievement at SAG Awards 2016. If you haven’t seen it and you’re a fan you should google it.
I vividly remember watching the Carol Burnett showwith my family and grandparents. I had the pleasure of meeting Harvey Korman when I was called to work on another popular TV series while living in Tokyo. He was a regular on Carol Burnett and as suspected he was extremely pleasant. When doing their live TV skits the cast tried hard not to make each other laugh but always ended up cracking each other up. They didn’t care so much about being overly slick. Show is SOLD OUT!
“The sun just touched the morning;
The windmills are there for power generation with renewable energy. However I hate them for the fact that the valley is infamous for the number of birds that are killed because of them.
An annual celebration of midcentury modern design, architecture, art, fashion and culture.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”
Girl Who Would be KING on Life, Style and INSPIRATION. 
You must be logged in to post a comment.