Sid Vicious - My Way

Ok, kids! Off your arses! Time to rock and roll! (A different side of The Pagan Sphinx). Didn't think I was a Sex Pistols fan, eh?

Off to have lunch with Supergirl I (who prefers show tunes to sex pistols...)

The Friday Evening Nudes

Image 1
Reclining Nude From The Back
Amedeo Modigliani

Image 2
Female Nude Lying On Her Stomach
Egon Schiele

Image 3
Bather In Sunlight
Renoir

There is nothing in all the world more beautiful or significant of the laws of the universe than the nude human body.

Robert Henri

A Snow Day And An Empty Nest

Supergirl II, walking in the rain

Supergirl I (the dark-eyed one) and her Beloved at Mount Holyoke last Halloween.

Overnight and into this morning, we got about two inches of wet, slippery rain and snow, causing school closings all over the county. In recent days, I've tried to graciously accept many fine people's optimism that "it's feeling like spring today" but I knew it wasn't. No robins. I have not seen or heard of a single robin sighting. That, my friends, is the true harbinger of spring around these parts. At least for me. I'm with the robins; we always know for sure.

So here I am sitting at my desk, looking out over the river at a time when I am typically taking school lunch count. I'm taking count instead of how many squirrels miss the feeder from the nearby tree limbs because of the wet ice. Hey, it qualifies as a meal count. And regardless of how much I want spring, I love a good snow day!

Life is different, certainly, without girls in the house. It feels especially poignant on a snow day, when weather triumphs over the evils of school. They would have been home with me today; probably still sleeping. But here.

When I moved in with W.P. four years ago, one of his daughters was attending college in Boston, one was back and forth between the house and her dormroom and both of my daughters were in high school and lived partly with us and partly with their dad. Now my oldest, Supergirl I, is a junior at Mount Holyoke College and Supergirl II is a freshman at Boston University. W.P.'s oldest graduated with a masters and is living and working in San Francisco and the younger daughter is in graduate school and engaged to be married. Young adulthood is a period of such rapid growth.

The house is empty. Too empty. Oh, no. Not another empty nest post in the blogosphere! Yes and no. I'm thrilled for them. They are exceptional young women. I believe they're gonna do it and do it their way. They already are. And...I miss them. I chat daily with both my Supergirls. Intrestingly,they call me more often than I call them. There's a reluctance on my part to seem overbearing. They're young women after all, making a lot of their own decisions.

Now I've done some things in my life that may not exactly qualify me for Mother of The Year but they were in the realm of my personal relationships and my divorce from their father. I've tried to be a good role model, to set boundaries and to give to them the only things I feel I do well to a fault - I gave them lots of love. I communicated with them. For better or for worse, they know where I stand. I'm not the kind of mother whose kids are her pals. I'm a mom. Though I believe that as my relationship with my daughters evolves, the friendship piece does seem to come into focus more. The mother piece, I believe to be something they will always need. It's the constant. It's the Northern Star.

A Case

Sometimes I just need to work through it with a little help from Joni....



Woman Of Heart And Mind,
from the album For The Roses

Music & Words - Joni Mitchell

New Friends!

I'd like to welcome a few new friends to the blogroll (I don't know how to make it roll, so let's just say it rocks!)

Kenju's blog Imagine...What I'm Leaving Out. This site radiates with humor, whimsical images and thoughtful posting. I like this lady!

And welcome also to There It Isn't by dancingbear of the UK. I like lots of things about this blog: dancingbear's taste in music, an obvious passion, and not the least of which is the fingerpaint smiley on a turquoise background that adorns his blog. Makes my day every time!

Now I'd like to point you in the direction of the blog Here Still Running and an outstanding post, Invasion And Occupaton, written by johnieb on the date of the five years-long Iraqi war. It was my favorite post of all the anti-war posts of March 19 and there were many excellent ones.

Last but not least is dcup, authoress extraordinaire of the blog Politits. I've actually had this blog listed almost from the beginning, having found her on Little Bang Theory. I really didn't understand blogging at that time and never properly introduced her blog and my fandom. A very funny, razor-sharp witted blog about politics, family life, sexuality and a whole host of other topics. Whatever she is writing about, she always does it with aplomb!

Ben Heine

I became aware of Ben Heine when visiting the blog A Poetic Justice. In fact, poetryman and Ben Heine are collaborators, often using each other's work to flesh out their respective posts.

I was immediately drawn into Ben's world of images. Some touching and whimsical, such as the image above; most conveying in no uncertain terms, a strong political message.

With what appears to be a well-established career as a cartoonist, carricaturist, painter and journalist, it's hard to believe that Ben Heine is only twenty-four years old. He was born in Ivory Coast and is currently living and working in Brussells. He is a devoted proponent of peace in the middle east and an outspoken critic of the policies and actions of Israel toward Palestine.

Besides Ben's own art,there is much to be savored and digested at Ben Heine's blog spot. There is the work of other artists, poetry by great and lesser known poets alike, photography, links to interesting and informative websites and an aura of what can only be described as peaceful, righteous and loving. I promise you will love it.

Read this interview of Ben Heine by independent journalist Kathlyn Stone. You can also visit Ben Heine's website and his page on DeviantArt.com.

Ben Heine graciously allowed me to use whatever images I chose to represent his art on this post. Thank you, Ben!

Banksy & Blake

Art by Banksy

The Tiger

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?


In what distant deeps or skies
5
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?


And what shoulder and what art

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
10
And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand and what dread feet?


What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? What dread grasp
15
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?


When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears,

Did He smile His work to see?

Did He who made the lamb make thee?
20

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?


~ William Blake

William Blake Gallery

The Visual Antics of Rene' Magritte

Mysteries of the Horizon

The Therapist

The Empire of Lights

Rene' Magritte

1898-1967

The first painting Rene' Magritte allowed to be called Surrealist was The Lost Jockey, painted in 1926. When his first art show was badly received in his home country of Belgium, Magritte moved to Paris. There he was a part of the Surrealist group, which included Max Ernst, Dali and Andre' Breton, among other notables.

Magritte's images often depict a juxtaposition of visually similar objects, of various categories but that exchange or intermix qualities or unite as hybrids.

Common symbols in Magritte's work include mirrors, windows, clouds and pictures within pictures.

One of the interesting elements of Magritte's work is that though technically perfect or realistic, it is the arrangement and morphing of the attributes of his subjects that makes the work surrealistic.

Ceci n'est pa une pipe is engraved on the bottom of the painting because, in fact, it is not a pipe, it is a painting of a pipe. Through a series of these Ceci n'cest pa paintings, Magritte enjoyed pointing out that no matter how realistically perfect the painted item, it could never, by virtue of its lack of function, be real.

"Seeing is what matters", said Magritte. He resisted verbal interpretations of his work and was particularly mistrustful of psychological explanations for his paintings.