Charlene Jaszewski « theredheadsaid

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Art — View Comments
5
Sep 10

It’s a Tom Waits- Charles Bukowski kind of night

So, i’ve learned that the secret to liking Charles Bukowski is to not listen to him read his own work. So, for your listening pleasure, is Tom Waits reading a lovely Bukowski poem.

Laughing Heart

Your life is your life.
Don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission
Be on the watch

There are ways out
There is light somewhere

it may not be much light
but it beats the darkness
Be on the watch.

The gods will offer you chances.
Know them, take them.

You can’t beat death
but you can beat death in life.

Sometimes the more often you learn to do it
the more light there will be.

Your life is your life.
Know it while you have it.
You are marvelous.

The gods wait to delight in you.

Art / NaBloPoMo — View Comments
2
Sep 10

A Happy Accident, NIN ripoffs and a NSFW post

I had planned to write a post about “what is art,” and relate an argument a sculptor boyfriend and I once got into about it, and so I went looking for the two pieces in question, “Piss Christ” from Andre Serrano, and a folk art painting of a jersey cow with a very small head. But that will be another post. What I found instead, was this.

At first glance at it in my google images page, I thought, “wow, some old tyme homosexual photos, interesting.” Then i realized IT’S DECAPITATED HEADS. so cool.I found the artist’s name is Joel-Peter Witkin. Do a google image search for him and you will find all kinds of creepy stuff (this is the NSFW part.) As I was looking though, things were looking a bit familiar. Remember the NIN video “Closer?” Yeah, Trent Reznor and Mark Romanek made CLOSER as a pretty complete homage of Joel-Peter Witkin works. Here’s a page where someone has handily compiled everything.

Due to the look of the photographs, i expected Mr. Witkin lived in the daguerreotype era, perhaps in the late 1900s. BUT the majority of the photos were done in the late 70s and early 80s. Apparently he had to assemble the bulk of his works in Mexico because he worked with a lot of dead bodies and body parts and Mexico is a bit…looser than the US. Take a look at a few of his images. Disturbing and lovely.

Art / NaBloPoMo / Thoughts — View Comments
1
Sep 10

This is a sculpture with tension

That phrase popped into my head when I first saw this statue in Central Park.

That phrase probably doesn’t mean anything to you, but it’s something that was said a lot when I was an art major back in college.

When I looked at this statue, I suddenly had flashbacks of medieval oil masters and the flame-maned horses, always threatening to catapult their riders off the painting’s edge. It was always in battle scenes (I suppose who could afford to hire artists but the conquering emperors!)

It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed art. I almost went to a dedicated art college. But i ended up going to a regular college. I vacillated back and forth between journalism and art majors for years, finally graduating with a journalism major (I had to pick which had the most credits), but art has never been far from my heart. But I’ve never really allowed myself to do art- officially. It’s been more…craft. I was always the person who made you a homemade gift for Christmas (when I was young it was because of money), but now it’s because I think it’s so much more personal.

Well, now that NabloPoMo has chosen ART as the September theme, I thought now would be an excellent time to re-establish my relationship with art. Or at least explore how I feel about it now.

Humor — View Comments
18
Aug 10

John Lennon on Facebook

Humor — View Comments
17
Aug 10

If Robert Moses Were on Facebook

Art — View Comments
14
Aug 10

Bookiness! Drawing Lab

First I started drawing monsters. That was so much fun, on a recent date we played drawing games. I wanted more!  Then I found this book!

It’s just what it says: drawing exercises to flex your right hemisphere! I’m very excited to try it out. Will post my experiments (if they are any good!)

Humor — View Comments
3
Aug 10

Monster Documentarian

I’ve started documenting monsters in New York. Check them out at the tumblr, newyorkmonsters.tumblr.com.

New York stories — View Comments
3
Aug 10

New York Random Meet Story #11

I go to Max Brenner to meet my friends @amyvernon and @cozywallet for some noms. Dahlia has brought her friend David, CEO of Postling. An hour in, two other ladies arrive, one is David’s girlfriend, the other is Jenn. We ask the usual questions about what we do, and somehow i get to talking about how i make custom cakes for my friends on their birthdays. I mention the nipple cake i made for a friend who was afraid of boobies.
“Wow!” Jenn says, i have a friend that cake would be perfect for! He’s an author and was raised an evangelical Christian and is scared of boobs.”
“That’s funny,” i say, “because i think i DID make the cake for your friend. Are you talking about Dave Dickerson?”
Sure enough, she was!
And then we both immediately texted him.

Thoughts — View Comments
3
Aug 10

Guess what? It’s normal for “difficult conversations” to crash and burn


I’ve been realizing in the past year that being brought up in the house of Ultimate Seriousness and Non-talking has really left me with stunted negotiation skills. And I really want to learn how to better communicate and negotiate with people, both in relationships and at work.

So who appears in my life? Eyal, a conflict resolution specialist who needs a website. We’re doing a barter arrangement: I build his site, and he’s teaching me what he knows about “having difficult conversations.” I am always pleased how the universe sends me people exactly when I need them.

The important thing isn’t bringing up the issues.

We all know the basics of bringing up “issues.” We’re supposed to state the issue or behavior, and how it affected us, using “I” language whenever possible and not accusing or blaming. I think most of us do an adequate, if sometimes clumsy job of bringing up issues (or maybe that’s just me).

But what if you bring up your problem, and the conversation doesn’t seem to be going the way you hoped?

Eyal says “Having a conversation almost NEVER get results the first time you bring it up.”

THIS WAS THE MOST EXCITING THING I HAD EVER HEARD.

Again, being from the house of non-communication, I had been trying to have difficult talks with people, and if after the first attempt they weren’t productive, I either got flustered (thinking I didn’t say it right or something) or just gave up, thinking it was futile. This has made me feel SO MUCH BETTER. Ok, then I need to ask…

So what are you supposed to do if things don’t go the way you hoped?

Continue reading →

Thoughts — View Comments
27
Jul 10

Probe Your Darkness

I’ve been devouring this great ebook from this guy I found on Twitter called Scott Ginsberg. His thing is that he ALWAYS wears a nametag. I haven’t read enough on his website to find out where that came from, but he has written a killer of a book. It’s got 159 pages of stuff for you to analyze, think about, challenge yourself with. And it’s all FREE RIGHT HERE. Today, I’m thinking about Probe your darkness.

Probe your darkness.

If you dare, that is. If you’re willing to come face to face with the ugliness
that is your Truth. If you’re willing to open the door to yourself and see
who the hell you really are. If you’re willing to make friends with all aspects
of yourself. Like my yoga instructor also says, “Look at yourself in the
mirror non-judgmentally. As a reflection and nothing else.”

The challenge is to develop a working relationship with your screw-ups. It’s
not easy but necessary; not fun but fundamental, and not comfortable but
constructive.

The good news is, once you open the door to your imperfect nature and
remove that which blocks the path of truth, the selfhood on which you
stand will support you.

And you’ll live from the place where nobody can touch you.
  • What shadowy parts of your life are you withholding?

  • Have you made friends with all aspects of yourself?

  • And do you have the courage and ability to show yourself as you truly are?

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