23 Thursday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections
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© Joan Currie
When the frost is on the pumpkin and the fodder’s in the shock.
James Whitcomb Riley
Autumn arrived last night as I took an evening stroll under the light of the full harvest moon. The moon was extraordinarily bright and I was sure to make a wish as the autumnal equinox will not coincide with a harvest moon again until 2029 in the northern hemisphere.
19 Sunday Sep 2010
Posted in Travel
≈ Comments Off on Frenzy: Marrakech…
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© Joan Currie
Untamed, disorderly, untainted by grandeur or pomp, untamable by council or committee, Jemaa El Fna is nothing less than bedlam.
Time Out Marrakech
My architect-adventurer daughter and I frequently travel together. We arrived in the Marrakech’s main square, Jemaa El Fna, at dusk. The out-of-focus photographs really captures the craziness of thousands of people of all nationalities pushing, pulsating to the drums, steering clear of the snake charmers, bargaining with the stall vendors, and feasting at large communal tables. We ordered a chicken pie that looked very much like the standard pot pies back home. It tasted like chicken but turned out to be pigeon!
17 Friday Sep 2010
Posted in Art, Design, Fashion, Photography, Reflections
≈ Comments Off on Boots…
© Catherine Lee
My boots weren’t made for walking, they are works of contemporary art.
Lauren DiMarco
My daughter considered urban graffiti a legitimate art form even before she lived in São Paulo, Brazil, “the current worldwide mecca of graffiti.” When Christian Louboutin designed these radical red calf boots she had to have them – not to wear, but to display.
© Joan Currie - Christian Louboutin Boots
© Joan Currie - San Francisco Graffiti
Model – Lauren DiMarco
16 Thursday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections
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© Lydia Hudgens
Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.
Albert Camus
Autumn is my favorite season! Inspired by my glass pumpkin and the pumpkins in the fields and markets, I decided to inject some orange to my decor and wardrobe to spice things up for fall. First, I planned to repaint my navajo white gallery wall with a rich earth tone. In the paint store I was drawn to color samples with lovely sounding names like Amontillado, Savannah, and Calliope, but finally settled on Chutney.
Being half Dutch, I had no choice but to wear orange at the World Cup Soccer events in San Francisco last June and July. In addition to the excitement of the games, the color orange made me feel energetic, invigorated, passionate, and sensual! Since then, I have chosen several accessories from the orange-red to orange-yellow and gold range to accent my wardrobe and have discovered that I have a penchant for that color!
Model: Lauren DiMarco
14 Tuesday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Reflections, Travel
≈ Comments Off on Southern Cross…
Tags
beautiful, Beauty, Brazil, Copacabana Palace Hotel, Crosby Stills & Nash, Fashion, Nicolo Sertorio, Rio, Southern Cross
© Nicolo Sertorio
When you see the Southern Cross
For the first time
You understand now
Why you came this way…
Crosby, Stills & Nash (song)
I saw the Southern Cross for the first time floating on my back in the pool at the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio. The constellation’s five stars directly overhead were completely visible in the jet black sky. I stared at the heavens transfixed, bobbing in the water with the soothing sounds of the surf breaking onto the beach just across the Avenida Atlântica, and knew that I would remember that moment forever.
Copacabana Palace Hotel, Rio
Model – Lauren Currie
11 Saturday Sep 2010
Posted in Photography, Reflections, Travel
≈ Comments Off on Niterói…
Tags
Architecture, beautiful, Beauty, Brazil, Guanabara Bay, MAC, Musea da Arte Comtemporânea, Niteroi, Oscar Niemeyer, Photography, Rio, Travel
© Joan Currie - MAC
Reason is the enemy of imagination.
A razão é inimiga da imaginação.
Oscar Niemeyer
When I visited my daughter in Brazil, she promised to show me the wonders of Rio de Janeiro. Although I adored that city, another city across Guanabara Bay, called Niterói, was even more enchanting. Oscar Niemeyer’s flying saucer-like Museu da Arte Comtemporânea (MAC) dominated the skyline. Its location overlooking the Bay toward Rio reminded me of the view of San Francisco from Sausalito. After examining several art exhibits, we strolled along the shore from the MAC to the bustling ferry building.
On the second floor balcony we feasted on Bob’s hamburgers and Guaraná sodas and watched the sunset. As darkness fell, the riot of Rio’s neon lights began to obliterate Sugarloaf and the other volcanic mountains, save for a patch of white light atop Corcovado mountain that illuminated the statue of Christ the Redeemer. The ferry ride back to Rio was magical, even for the locals. We crossed the Bay in silence enchanted by the beauty all around us.
© Joan Currie - Guanabara Bay
09 Thursday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections
≈ Comments Off on Maple Leaf Ball…
Tags
beautiful, Beauty, Bill McClaren, Bobby Orr, Date night, Fashion, Hockey Fall of Fame, Memoir, Photography, Writing
© Bill McClaren
I could have danced all night!
I could have danced all night!
And still have begged for more.
Lerner and Loewe
My all-time best date night was at the Maple Leaf Ball in Boston when Bobby Orr, of Boston Bruins fame, was the co-host. When he greeted me I reminded him that I had had a summer job working at the Press Department at the Canadian National Exhibition, and had escorted him to see his Hockey Hall of Fame exhibit there for the first time.
Later on the dance floor my date, a huge Bruins fan, pointed to Bobby Orr on the balcony and said -“There’s Bobby Orr!”I looked up and Bobby Orr waved and said, “Hi, Joan!” Needless to say, my date was very impressed.
Models – Lauren Currie & Oleg Galagan
08 Wednesday Sep 2010
Posted in Art, Fashion, Photography, Reflections, Writing
≈ Comments Off on Shared Experiences: Sailing…
Tags
beautiful, Jesper Brandt, Lucy Macdonald, Memoir, Photography, Sailboat racing, Sailing, Writing
© Jesper Brandt
The initial bond is the shared experience.
Lucy Macdonald
Some time ago, I signed up to crew in an overnight yacht race across Lake Ontario from Toronto to Rochester and back. I had sailed with this all-male crew many times before, save for one new member, John, who was to share the same watch.
Once under sail, both the weather and our stomachs turned bad. It was the worst night of my life – apocalyptic downpours requiring the storm jibs to be changed every hour, heaving over the sides of the boat, the boom hit John in the head and sent him flying overboard, the skipper and first mate had a fist fight on deck, and we were disqualified from the race for hitting another boat.
The next day, I received a phone call from John telling me that the night before had been the best of his life! He wanted me to be the mother of his children and there was another overnight race the coming weekend – when could he pick me up? Was it the head injury or did this man, after witnessing me at my sick and bedraggled worst, still want to meet me again? It was amazing how we had such different takes on the same experience, but beautiful in that John saw beyond the difficulties of the event and still wanted to go back for more.
© Jesper Brandt
07 Tuesday Sep 2010
Posted in Art, Design, Photography, Reflections, Relationships, Writing
≈ Comments Off on Morning Snuggle…
© Pia Ulin
Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs,
when you surrender, you stretch out like the world.
Cuerpo de mujer, blancas colinas, muslos blancos,
te pareces al mundo en tu actitud de entrega.
Pablo Neruda
One of the things I loved most about being married was snuggling in bed wrapped in the arms of my beloved in the early hours of the morning. It was during those precious moments under warm layers of an eiderdown and cotton sheets, with our bodies intertwined as one, that we shared our innermost thoughts, hopes, and dreams.
Forsaking all others, we talked in hushed tones and tenderly stroked each other’s heads and soft spots until dawn’s first light. I savored and luxuriated in those moments of reverie and touch before we would reluctantly break away to begin the morning routine. Building a few minutes of intimacy and pleasure into the start of the day can make all the difference to a relationship and the quality of your life. You may come to treasure and yearn for more of those tender times, too.
© Tom Shannon
06 Monday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections, Relationships, Writing
≈ Comments Off on Engaging in Life…
Tags
beautiful, Beauty, Fashion, Jesper Brandt, Memoir, Photography, Sailor Moon, Writing
© Jesper Brandt
Sometimes we have love and sometimes we lose love. Sometimes love can hurt terribly like a deep wound. In our world we have lots of ups and down, pleasures and pains. But that’s life and we learn to accept the bad with the good. Without the bad times we wouldn’t appreciate the good times. Life is precious and I cherish ever single moment. – Sailor Moon
A newly married woman I know worried that her husband was going to leave her because there was so much drama in her life. Family and friends were constantly asking for her help with serious issues and there seemed to be no end in sight to the bad tidings.
It turned out that she did not have to fret for one moment about her husband’s commitment to the marriage. It was her way of engaging in the messiness of life and not turning away from helping others – getting her hands dirty as it were, that he adored and loved about her most. He knew also that if the time were to come when he needed help, she would be right there at his side.
Consider a mosaic: shards of glass, stone or tile are set together in such a way as to form an image. If all the pieces are white – no picture is evident. Add a few fragments of light yellow or beige and perhaps the beginning of an image appears. But add some black and glittery gold to the work and now you start to have definition from the contrast between the light and the dark. Further, when you add shards from the entire color palette, a vision emerges that has depth, intensity, and profundity. We have only one chance to create the image that is our life. It can be shallow or it can have depth. The choice is ours!
© Jesper Brandt
Satin & Sand 