Instructions for Living a Life

“Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”- Mary Oliver. Looking at this tableau on my kitchen table at this quiet moment on what will ultimately be a loud, noisy and somewhat frenzied weekend, I was stopped short and almost brought to my knees in gratitude for the beauty and peace that fills life’s quietest in-between moments, and how, in the end, a life will be made of countless of these intermittent moments that we strung together. I have been exhausted this past month and in a funk. So it was especially lovely to realize that it is within our power to look. To fill the the in-between spaces of our lives with beauty and with love. Simply by paying attention to them.

This Week's Soundtrack

This week, my ear worm has been Snow Patrol’s Don’t Give In. Its catchy and who doesn’t need a reminder that sometimes you just need to plod on and not think about all the ways you are failing. I find myself in that place often. More often than I care to admit to. More often than people around me would ever guess. And mostly I can pick up the pieces myself without help from anyone else. But every once in a while its nice to have an anthem to go with it.

I also love the video directed by Brett Simon. I never get tired of videos with bands performing against a dark backdrop. This one manages to find a way to make the background dynamic. If you are like me, always intensely curious about music video credits, check them out here

#sixwordstories

Discovery on writing six word stories on two consecutive days: food, especially dinner, and loneliness. Those seem to be my big themes!

#sixwordstories

Started this new project.

A quick internet search reveals that a six word story should have: Movement. Conflict. Resolution. Also sourced from the internet, this crucial (and very obvious once you’ve read it) concept that "the reader must cooperate in the construction of the larger narrative that is obliquely limned by these words." Perhaps the most famous and probably the most brilliant six word story ever is the one attributed to Papa - “For sale, Baby shoes, Never worn.”

My first stab at writing a six word short story.

The photo is a filtered version of a photo I took one evening in Old Pasadena. On a solitary street where the tree limbs meet in arches over the road. The smear on top is actually a mud splotch on the windshield of my my little Mazda.

Greg Laswell's New track, Royal Empress

I am obsessed with this new track by Greg Laswell, Royal Empress, which was released today. Nic Harcourt has been playing it all of last week.

"Royal Empress" is out now! Stream or purchase: http://smarturl.it/RoyalEmpress (Video by Nicole Martin) Website: http://greglaswell.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/greglaswell Instagram: http://instagram.com/greglaswell Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/greglaswellmusic

Rosanne Cash on The Moth Radio Hour

The Moth Radio Hour has been one of my favourite podcasts from the time I first started listening to podcasts. One of the most memorable episodes was the story, The Ghost of Rue Jacob by Joan Juliet Buck, the American editor-in-chief of French Vogue, who lived in a haunted house in Paris - a story which I first heard while going on a night run, along Los Feliz Boulevard, on Halloween. Since then there have been many stories - some have made me sob and some have made me laugh and some have done both. 

This week's Moth Radio Hour has a wonderful story by Rosanne Cash which is about so many things but to me its mostly about failing miserably and picking up the pieces while showing a nonchalant face to the world. Perhaps this story touched me because somehow I find myself at that place in my life or perhaps it's just a really good story. Either way it's worth a listen. As a bonus to fans of her album Interiors, this is about the making of the album and its aftermath.   (Rosanne Cash on The Moth)