Fabulous Friday

Ha! I made it! My first Fabulous Friday post in what seems like ages. The lady to the left is Winifred Anna Cavendish-Bentinck (née Dallas-Yorke), 6th Duchess of Portland, painted 1912 by de Laszlo. I adore her magenta cape. Every girl needs one of those!


I have to tell you I'm more than a little relieved that I didn't anger anyone with my last post. A previous boss used to scold me for being idealistic, and while I understand that he worried I was being naive, I still feel that having ideals and striving for them is important. We are admonished to love God with all our strength and our neighbords as ourselves. God is easy to love; God is Love. That guy sitting next to you in traffic flashing vulgar hand signs and spewing venom at the elderly lady in front of him - he is harder to love.

I hope you all have wonderful weekends. The Good Doctor has ordered me back to the hospital on Monday for four more fun days with toxic cocktails (a.k.a. 2nd round of chemo). I've got to get my little bag of entertainment packed. I thought I would leave you, gentle readers, with a couple snippets of my own fiction so look for that to go up on Sunday. The really good news though: not a single evil nurse nightmare. That, ladies and jellyspoons, is called improvement.

Slacker

I have not been good about posting lately! I went into work Thursday morning for about 4 hours and came home absolutley exhausted. I don't know if it was fatigue or if I picked up a little bug from someone, but I am really just starting to feel better today. Proceed to scold me; I deserve it, every bit of it. I had no business staying that long. So, I haven't done much the last couple of days but sleep and watch TV. I am feeling much better though.

Thanks for all the compliments on Gerrard's pictures. He has been a joy since his first day in our home, which isn't to say that there haven't been days that I've wanted to choke him. Boxers really are wonderful, happy, loving, quite smart dogs. It is their enthusiasm that gets them in trouble. :)

I have missed more Fabulous Friday's than I care to admit. In recompense I offer a few portraits from my archive. I hope you all are having a lovely weekend.

Lavinia Bingham, Countess Spencer (wife of the 2nd Earl of Spencer)

Lady Sibyl Sassoon, Countess of Rocksavage, Marchioness of Cholmondeley

Leonilla, Princess de Sayn-Wittgenstein, PrincessBariatinsky

Soapbox Friday: Why I Hate the Publishing Industry

I keep thinking about this and the more I think about it the angrier I get. A friend of mine recently posted some excerpts from her book on her blog, and amidst the praise and happiness, were a few voices tinged with caution. “You’ll never get published,” they whispered, “Agents don’t like that.”

I know they mean well, but you know what? Agents can pack their bags with ice cubes and take a long vacation in Hell for all I care. I’m sick of the publishing industry. I’m sick of their games and their hoops and their snarky little rejection letters. I’ve got a secret for you: those who can’t write like to stick needles in the dreams of those who can.

Even when they reject your work there is an inexplicable compulsion to maintain it in some sort of unread, virginal purity on the off chance that some day – gush and gasp – they might publish it. I write because I love to. I will continue to write regardless of whether I ever earn a single dime. Doesn’t it seem stupid to leave those stories moldering on a shelf, unread and unloved, because allowing you to read it might ruin my chances of getting published, despite the fact that my chances of getting published are slim to none? I’d rather my stories be read.

The truth is computers and the Internet have changed publishing forever. They have changed publishing the way the printing press did back in 1440. You only have to look at cutting-edge authors like Cory Doctorow to get some idea of where things are heading. This future excites me and not because it increases the possibility that I might some day see my work in print. It excites me because it suggests a democratic revolution in publishing. Imagine a world where which books are translated into print isn’t decided by an elitist echelon of agents and editors sitting in their offices on Mt. Olympus but by you, the reading public.

Because folks, most of those agents and editors think you're stupid. They think you’re afraid of big words and big ideas. They think you want Bridget Jones and her ugly underwear. And some of you do, and that’s great, but that isn’t the end-all and be-all of literature. (What I would love to see is more strong, female characters who don't need men to validate their existence, or better yet, relationships built on mutual respect and friendship. I know, dream on.)

One of the chief delights of my life is meeting new people and learning their stories. There are some amazing stories out there and they deserve to be heard. I don’t think the folks currently deciding what it is we read have a bat’s clue where the light is. I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent in the bookstore muttering, “Read it! . . . Seen it! . . . Wrote a paper on it! . . . Movie of the week! . . . Hamlet! . . . Cinderella! . . .” God forbid they give us something original, something fresh and thought-provoking. New might not sell, new is a risk, so stick to the stories that have been recycled over and over again because it’s safe and comforting. It’s comforting in the same way carbon-copy McDonald’s restaurants are comforting. After awhile though, all that grease and monotony makes Jack a dull boy.

So, to those brave souls who bare their hearts and souls to public scrutiny I offer my loudest applause. To those of you who read them, enjoy what they write, and tell them so, it is all the compensation anyone could ever want. And if you don’t like what they write, that’s great too! The right to have an opinion is one of the most precious there is. All I ask is that you keep reading.

I wish I had written that . . . continued

"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think they will sing to me."

Hands down one of my favorite poems is T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. There are numerous times during the year that I am moved to read it again and every time it speaks to the Me who identifies with Prufrock's fears and hopes and longing.

It's a longish poem so I won't torture you with the entire thing. Although, I will say that it is definitely a poem that can be read in portions and is worth the time. Here is one of my favorite stanzas.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;	25
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;	30
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

I wish I had written that.

*image: J.W. Waterhouse, The Mermaid

Fabulous Friday: Portrait Safari II

I've decided to go with a Ladies in Blue theme today. All three of these portraits were painted by the artist de Laszlo. I wasn't able to find much biographical information about them though.

Countess Dénes Széchényi (nee Émilie de Riquet, comtesse de Caraman-Chimay)

Mrs. Elinor Glyn, the original romance novelist. Now we know who to thank/blame.

Lady Alistiar Graham, who reminds me of Shakepeare's Ophelia in this painting.

Reading my sister's blog this morning gave me quite a laugh. She reminisces about our eccentric family and one of my more creative but less practical artistic experiments - the painted sofa.

I hope you all have lovely weekends. I'm off to see the Sex and The City movie this evening.

Fabulous Friday: Portrait Safari

I went on one of my hunts for new portraits this week and hit the jackpot, so instead of just one painting I thought I'd give you a sampling of my finds.

Countess Ada Lovelace, the "first computer programmer". I had no clue that she was Lord Byron's daughter.

The lady in the photograph below was listed as the Duchess of Manchester. I couldn't find out any biographical information but I thought including her was appropriate given Manchester United's win this week.

I found a new portrait of one of my all-time favorites,Princess Zinaida Yusupova

And then there was this gorgeous photograph of Consuelo Vanderbilt.

Wishing you all a happy and relaxing weekend and a pleasant Memorial Day.

Phlegmie Friday!

"The Reluctant Bride," by Toulmouche

Blast! I caught a cold. My sinuses are so compacted with unmentionable nastiness that I'm walking around slack-jawed, breathing through my mouth. What's worse is that "mouth-breather*" is one of my favorite insults and now I am one! I selected this painting by Toulmouche not because I'm a reluctant bride (certainly not after 10 years of marriage!) but because the expression on the subjects face captures how I feel, afflicted as I am. If only there were kind nurses to soothe my brow and pet my hand. Gerrard has quite accommodatingly been sleeping on my feet to keep them warm, and Wasabi eyes me with concern each time I sneeze, but it isn't really the same. Sigh. I had so many plans for this weekend.

BTW - Happy Leap Year! Do something unusual!

*Mouth-breather: any Neanderthal-like creature who behaves in or expresses brutish manners or thoughts. An uncouth and uncivilized ruffian. - As defined by Mrs. Fox

Artistic endeavours

This past Saturday I had some time to work on my painting. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the light was wonderful. In my usual Bohemian way, I just plopped down in the floor and started painting. Easel? Who needs an easel?

Of course, I had lots of help from the doggies.

Wasabi, being of Japanese descent, had lots of opinions on how things were progressing. She likes to try to stick her nose in the paint. Wouldn't a big splotch of bright red look great on that face?

Gerrard, who is very sweet but not very cultured, just wanted to have his powder-puff toy thrown.

Despite all the distractions, I managed to get a lot done. There's quite a bit of detail work still to go, but the foundation is there.