6.9.08

Curmudgeon: An Unlikely Army Chaplain



Father Tim is a Jesuit Catholic Priest & former 
Stanford Molecular Neurobiologist 
who is currently serving in Iraq.


This is a wonderful wonderful blog, by
 a man who has been called 
to do amazing things. 

I have a great amount of respect for the Chaplains who serve 
in the military: for all who serve in the military. 
Please, if you have a moment, give thanks for them. 
And send Father Tim, and his colleagues, 
special blessings 
to assist them with the good work that they do for so many.


Gosford Park Gets All The Good Lines

Watching Gosford Park (for maybe the thousandth time?) once again this weekend: herewith, some favorite lines...

"Yummy, yummy, yummy" (This one, from Maggie Smith, simply fills me with delight every time I think of her uttering it.)

"I can't believe you forget much, Mrs. Wilson."

"I believe in love, not just getting it, giving it, and I believe as long as you love somebody...it's worth it."

"Difficult color green...very tricky."

"It's the gift of anticipation...I'm the perfect servant....I know [what they want] before they know it themselves."

And--once having seen the movie--the one that resonates, perhaps, the most deeply:

"I know. And what purpose could it possibly serve, anyway?"


I love this movie.

Must Go Now: Lee Miller leaves SFMOMA on 9.14

"I would rather take a picture than be one..." 
these words from
only until the 14th...
must hop on freeway now...

to the right, 
Nob Hill 
and 


San Francisco...an easy place to leave your heart....


4.9.08

Last Fall: A Little Trip Down Memory Lane, Courtesy of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang








Thank you, D, with more gratitude than I can possibly put into words.


Thanks, also, to Dustin and Jasmine of the
Dustin David Salon in Los Gatos 
for the impeccable hair and make-up. 
You are always superb!

Be Still My Heart: Siberian Wooden Houses

I love Shedworking, a wonderful blog from the U.K.

Siberian Wooden Houses is the newest post. Too wonderful.

More in Shedworking: see the office garden view of our best red-headed architect-president...I have been a great fan, since college in good ol' Virginny, of the way T.J. used windows--especially when they doubled as floor-to-ceiling triple-sash doors. Brilliance. 

And I've mentioned this one before, but it is an all-time favorite. Beach Hut Tuesday. I'm packing my bags right now; surely, there is a beach hut waiting for me in Barcelona...

Above, a mysterious set of doors from the Albrecht Durer house in Nuremberg. They might've been right at home in one of those groovy Siberian Huts, eh?

3.9.08

Two Days O' Twyla: "Build Your Own Validation Squad"


Once more unto the breach: Twyla Tharp on Validation...

"Look around you. 
Who are the brightest, 
most talented people you know? 
Choose them, 'qualify' them... 
and then get them involved.
 All you need is people with good judgment in other parts of their lives who care about you and will give you their honest opinion with no strings attached. The last point is crucial. All things being equal, the validation that matters most is the kind that comes with no agenda."

Tharp also quotes the great director Billy Wilder: "If I like something, I am lucky enough, fool enough, or smart enough to believe that other people are going to like it too." 

"As we mature," Tharp writes, "we need to build criticism into the working process, as we do failure."


 Nice job. Twyla Tharp: 


2.9.08

Tweeting Twyla's Mad Skills: Tharp, on Learning from Failure

First off, thanks to Merlin Mann for mentioning Twyla's book in a Tweet


In "The Creative Habit," Twyla says:

 "When you fail in public, you are forcing yourself to learn a whole new set of skills, skills that have nothing to do with creating and everything to do with surviving.
     Jerome Robbins liked to say that you do your best work after your biggest disasters. For one thing, it's so painful it almost guarantees that you won't make those mistakes again. Also, you have nothing to lose; you've hit bottom, and the only place to go is up. A fiasco compels you to change dramatically. The golfer Bobby Jones said, 'I never learned anything from a match I won.' He respected defeat and he profited from it."

1.9.08