Two Prospectors

Sam Shepard was as complex as the deep characters he created for the theatre and literature. A restless man who liked forward movement, whose complicated past filled the artistic well necessary to develop deep complex familial dramas that eventually led to his 1979 Pulitzer Prize winning Buried Child. An admirer of Beckett, he left his wife and son for a time to begin to establish his place in American Theatre and as it turned out to develop a lifelong relationship with Patti Smith. When he made his way back to his family, he bought a house which served as a home-base for he and his wife O-Lan, their son and her family, including her step-father, Johnny Dark. Sam and Johnny just connected from the start and developed a mutual understanding of each other, forging a 45 year relationship which outlasted even his leaving O-Lan for Jessica Lange.

The letters between them were deeply personal and will have to serve as the closest thing we have to a Sam Shepard memoir, as he never had any interest in writing one before his death. Honestly, to see a true picture of an artist, one only has to look at the body of work they produced to see inside. If you haven’t seen Paris Texas (which he co- wrote with filmmaker Wim Wenders), do yourself a favor, especially if you’re a writer who wants to learn how to create deep, brutually honest characterization. I am nearly finished with this book of interesting letters between Sam and Johnny – I highly recommend.

One of a Kind…

 

 

 

“You can never replace anyone because everyone is made up of such beautiful specific details.”

~Celine, Before Sunrise

 

Current Faves… Quarantine Edition

So, from where to where have we come in a few short months…sigh. If there is anything positive in all this craziness, it’s the coming together of people from around the world to cheer and entertain each other through free online classes, Tik Tok fun vids, etc. It’s a beautiful thing. So I have compiled a few of the ways I’m keeping busy (besides cleaning, cooking and organizing)…

Lifestyle Hacks

• FAB Coconut Primer – Being couped up indoors can be really drying to skin and I am loving FAB’s Coconut Primer, (face) which is a lightweight moisturizer that doesn’t cause breakouts.
• Walmart Pick Up – A safer way to shop at the moment and extremely easy to use. Download the app., sign up, choose an available time, enter credit info and get shopping. Once you set a time, they give you plenty of time to add/delete items on your list. They email you when your order is ready and you click when you are on your way. When you get there you get a text asking which numbered pickup parking space you are in and car color. They are out in just a few minutes and right now give the option of signing it themselves to protect you. Easy, and honestly I may just keep it up after all this madness is over.
• Great Value GF Brownie Mix – Whether you are gluten free or not, this mix from Walmart is so good. It only requires an egg and one stick of butter. Side note for those GFree, Walmart’s Great Value Flour Mix is awesome, just add to regular recipes, like Toll House Cookies or Muffins and it tastes just like regular ones.

Entertainment

• Books: Currently reading “You are a Badass at Making Money” by Jen Sincero & “The Success Principles” by Jack Canfield. Do you sense a theme? Yeah, I’m trying to stay positive and both of these are really good, especially Jack’s book – he’s the author of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series and it’s full of encouraging tips and real life success stories.
• Spotify/Echo Dot: Been running Spotify on my iphone & Roku to keep my spirits up using different playlists for everything from housework, dinner, nighttime routines, etc. There are so many playlists on Spotify and Echo Dot will chose from Pandora if you give her an artist to start with or vibe you’re looking for. Echo: I ask Alexa for dinner music and it’s a terrific light jazz that makes you feel like you’re in New York at a dinner club…and I use a Lounge playlist on either for evening reading or getting ready for sleep…
• DVD’s – Breaking out my favorite series collections and alternating for Marathons, or nightly eps. Currently on rotation: Covert Affairs, Mad Men, Castle & Rescue Me.
• Streaming: I recently got rid of my Netflix account because the content basically wasn’t my style, too dark and I prefer more character driven pieces and also I found myself gravitating toward the free streaming services to watch tons of old films that I still love. Pluto, Tubi, Crackle and Roku have a lot of good old ones like Baby Boom, Get Shorty & Be Cool (cheers to Dutch!), New in Town, 007 films and old Hitchcock & Cary Grant classics.
• Instagram Lives: This is where I spend most my time, have to admit…at least lately. It’s so cool how everyone is coming together as I said to offer up their skills and to keep everyone engaged and moving. You can take a ballet class from New York City Ballet’s Principal, Tiler Peck or The Cindy’s a.k.a. American Ballet Theatre’s principals, Isabella Boylton & James Whiteside – or take a dance class with Maks & Peta of DWTS’s fame… There are a ton of great free live exercise classes from yoga to Tracy Anderson right now. You can brush up on your cooking skills and get ideas for meals from famous chefs from Giada and Ina, to the Kitchen alum. (Katie Lee!)
• Learning: There are some good classes you can take online and I have tried out a few of them.
  • Masterclass: At $90/Class or $180/Unlimited – it’s a true bargain. Learn from the Masters in Writing, Photography, Playwrighting and Acting to name a few. The class can be accessed indefinitely when you buy and offers up downloadable notes.
  • Duolingo: Can’t say enough about this one, whether you want to start learning a language or to finally master one you’ve struggled with for years. Duo can be accessed by website or apps and you can choose as many as you want and toggle between them. I’ve donated all the old language learning books because I’ve never had better success learning languages any other way.
  • Cooking Classes: I’ve not taken them but Food Network does offer an app where their famous chefs stream live videos for you to learn from.
  • Skillshare: Another I’ve not tried but hear so many good things about. They do offer some free classes but essentially it’s a paid service learning platform with many, many classes to choose from.
  • Fit On: This app is wonderful – full of great timed workouts that you can stream through their app on your tablet or phone. There are banked and live classes starting at 10 minutes – even I can commit to that!
• Vlogs: I love watching this style of video, it reminds me of Cinema Verité, and I find it very relaxing. As I’ve increasingly moved to a much more Minimalist lifestyle myself, I love that type of content with tips and tricks to save money and reduce unnecessary buying. I enjoy Lifestyle vloggers like Aileen @ Lavendaire, and MuchelleB. Here are my faves at the moment:
  • Kyra Ann – Minimalist
  • Rachel Nguyen – All time fave, her videos are stylistically such high quality & creative – mainly vlog style.
  • Renee Amberg – Vlogs, Lifestyle, Book rec’s, Exercise, Day in Life
  • Lavendaire  – Lifestyle, Book Rec’s, Encouragement to follow your dreams
  • MuchelleB  –  Same as above…only Australian life
  • Ashley Brooke – Vlogs, Fashion, Transplanted Texan documents New York Life
  • Myka Stauffer – Vlogger w/Husband – home life
  • Madeleine Olivia  – Minimalist, Vegan, life in England

Well, there it is, hope it wasn’t too long a read – and I hope you all are staying home if possible and staying well. These are just suggestions, honestly the first week or two I just felt out of sorts and didn’t accomplish much except helping a family member with their taxes, taking short walks and staring at the TV totally lazy and that’s okay too. Times be strange, try your best to roll with it and get through this thing in one piece. Peace!

 

 

 

Creative Inspiration

Any time I’m in a creative slump, I call on my favorite authors, musicians, filmmakers for some inspiration. There are so many past and present to draw on and everyone has their favorite ones. One of mine is the Texan filmmaker, Richard Linklater. There is much to be inspired by in his body of work thus far. I like artists who refuse to compromise their core vision, that first passion or desire to do what they do, create what they do…they hold fast to it. Which is all the more admirable, when they get the kind of success that the big studios want them but only if they do it their way and they refuse to relinquish control. Most of the great ones, go back to Independent filmmaking to retain complete control over their work, like Linklater and Ed Burns. I recently watched two documentaries on Richard, one on PBS American Masters Series “Dream is Destiny” and the other is free on the streaming website Tubi Tv called “Twenty-one years: Richard Linklater. I love the collaboration with Kim Krizan, as well as Ethan Hawke & Julie Deply, that resulted in the Before Sunrise Trilogy. I love character driven pieces and this was the best, a conversation over a night roaming around a strange city between a young man and woman. Add in his brilliant Dazed & Confused, Waking Life and Boyhood… Boyhood was wholly original and it reminds me of Jessie in Before Sunrise talking about his ideas of filming in real time…obviously it was percolating in Richard’s creative mind way back then. If you haven’t seen “Boyhood” you really should – if only for the original way it was filmed over a 12 year period with all the actors/characters aging naturally. An original creative thinker, and voice for you to check out if you’re feeling the creative slump currently.

“21 Years: Richard Linklater”

PBS: “Dream is Destiny”

August Favorites

A little late I know, but here are a few of my August faves, things that I’ve been digging this past month….

PLUTO TV, TUBI TV, AND SLING TV…

The first two are free streaming services and at first I thought they wouldn’t have anything good on there but truly I was pleasantly surprised. Pluto has both a (sort of) live section, which is just programming they have chosen and there are a lot to choose from, classic films, TV shows and films – then there is a film section. Tubi had a lot of good films, Indies ones too like “Two Lovers,” which is actually one of my favorites. Both are completely free and you can download the apps for Tablets, Computers and Smart TV’s. Sling, is a Live streaming service and I have been trying it out to see if it’s worth it. You choose a package with 30 cable channels you most want (you can add more ala carte/$5) and the least expensive is $25 a month. I signed up because I love tennis and I was able to get a package that included all ESPN channels. It is a good price, has a good On Demand section for each channel, but does have some ads, and on occasion bumps you out and you have to get back to what you were watching. Still it’s worth it if you don’t want cable but have a few shows you wish you could see live.

ROCK DOCS… I know it’s not new but one of the shows I’ve watched a couple of times is the Led Zeppelin doc, “The Song Remains the Same”.  Having grown up in the era, it was filmed in ’70’s, it’s fun to revisit the vibe, the clothes and the music that was new then and to watch the crowds reaction. Led Zep really put a lot into the shows, Jimmy’s astounding talent, JPJ’s versatility, Robert’s voice…and those hip huggers need a mention right?! …and of course Bonham’s drum solo is over the top great. It’s in the On Demand section of Sling TV right now on Axis.

BOOKS: Groupies, The GTO’s and those Rock Icons… In keeping with the Rock & Roll theme, I read Pamela Des Barres’ book, “I’m with the Band”.  I’m sure you know who she is, the famous, or is it infamous groupie girl. She was the blond haired, California girl who loved music and the men who wrote and played the songs more. Honestly, the book was just a fun romp as you might expect. She let’s you in on the scene in L.A. and also Swinging London at the time and what Mick, Robert & Jimmy, Gram Parsons, Keith Moon and more we’re really like and the feelings, passions and expectations of the kids who came of age in that era.

H&M… One of my favorite shoppes, I stopped in recently and found some great buys. They had, (as always) a great selection of staple sweaters, those ones that go with everything and are so well made they last for years. I picked up a rose colored V neck lightweight sweater for $13 — Fall is here and the temps are sure to drop off soon. I was able to replace a black scarf I lost a few months back, a beautifully made one, on sale for $3! Seriously. Lastly, I picked up these pretty gold hoops, (in pic) they are super light weight and look really great.

And lastly…

BITE…Also that day, I stopped in to Sephora and found this nice lipstick by Bite, in the shade, Chai. It’s a cross between raisin and pink I guess..I think it would be a good shade for most. I’m not big on lipstick but it’s now my new favorite. Well that’s it for August!

July Favorites

I’ve been thinking about posting some monthly favorites of things that I’m currently digging and have finally gotten around to it… This month my local library hosted it’s library used book sale and I found some cool things as usual, so I’ll start with that:

Kinfolk Entrepreneur – A beautiful, inspiring book of creative entrepreneurs telling their stories and giving tips and inspiration. It was put out by Kinfolk, a culture and style magazine based in Portland.

Chihuly Projects – A wonderful find. Dale Chihuly is an incredibly creative glassworks artist and this book has big beautiful photographs of his works.

Images – Ingmar Bergman’s memoir of his life in film and the influence his private life had on the process of writing, directing and bringing forth his works of art on film.

Music: My favorite Spotify playlist while I’m writing is currently, Dinner in a Mid Century Modern – curated by Andrew T. Lane, who actually has a lot of amazing playlists.

Urban Decay’s Naked Skin Highlighting Fluid is really nice – I normally don’t use a highlighter but got this sample from Sephora and really like it. It gives a little brightness under eyes and in the cupid’s bow.

Essenza Oil for diffusers in Vanilla Bean is such a nice soothing scent to keep going in your home. It’s my current favorite, although I sometimes add some orange to it. I feel much better using a diffuser with essential oils in my home instead of commercial room sprays that have harsh chemicals. If you’re sensitive like I am to perfumes, this is a great alternative, which brings me to the next one…

Valentina’s Sweet Dreams Body Mist – This is a great blend of essential oils (Jasmine, Sandalwood, & Vanilla). It can be used as a body mist or room spray and it smells lovely. Home brewed in Portland, Oregon – you can pick it up at Whole Foods.

Well, that’s it for July…

My Criterion Closet Picks…

Oh to be one of the people Criterion invites to raid their closet of great films… I’ve been watching their video posts uploaded to Criterion Closet where they let filmmakers, directors, and actors into their closet to pick and take home any films in the collection they want. I really enjoyed watching Ethan Hawke, Chris Eigeman and others pull the films off the shelf and relive what makes each one a particular favorite. As I watch them, I imagine it’s me in the Criterion closet, choosing films and explaining why they left their creative mark on me, what fun! I have added a new Criterion Page above if you want to see some of my favorites and below are a few links to former posts celebrating some of them…I will be adding a post on Wes Anderson soon to highlight my favorite of his films but for now…

THREE COLORS TRILOGY
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
BEFORE SUNRISE TRILOGY
GREY GARDENS
ERIC ROHMER FILMS
BLOWUP
BREATHLESS