31 Monday Oct 2011
Posted in Art, Fashion, Music, Photography, Reflections, Relationships
≈ Comments Off on Stay With Me…
Did I say that I need you?
Did I saw that I want you?
Oh, if I didn’t I’m a fool you see
No one knows this more than me.
Just Breathe by Pearl Jam
I can’t let you go!
02 Friday Sep 2011
Posted in Photography, Reflections, Relationships, Writing
≈ Comments Off on Freedom…
© Lauren DiMarco
The beautiful pure freedom of a woman was infinitely more wonderful than any sexual love.
D. H. Lawrence from Lady Chatterley’s Lover
That said, she can have both…
Model: Lauren DiMarco
You may also like: On Recognizing Love
19 Sunday Jun 2011
Posted in Photography, Reflections, Relationships
≈ Comments Off on Ten Beautiful Things My Father Taught Me…
© Joan Currie – My Father’s Tackle Box
Growing up, my father spent every Father’s Day weekend fishing in the wilds of northern Quebec, but he would return just in time for Sunday dinner with his quota of rainbow trout!
Here is what he taught me during my formative years:
1. How to catch and release a fish.
2. How to win at cribbage and ping pong.
3. How to play golf and badminton, throw horseshoes and a football, jump waves, fly a kite, waterski, pitch a tent, and paddle a canoe.
4. How to work a drill, lawn mover, outboard motor, telescope, water pump, and drive a car.
5. How to paint a room, stain a dock, and polish shoes.
6. How to spot the Big and Little Dippers, Venus, Jupiter, shooting stars, and satellites in the night sky.
7. How to live one day at a time and not trouble, trouble.
8. How to be a Renaissance man/woman and have a passion for lifelong learning that included classical music, art history, astronomy, pottery, gardening, foreign languages, and travel to distant lands.
9. How to enjoy the company of good friends, give a speech, tell a joke, shake a hand, tie a Windsor knot, break an apple in half with your hands, balance a checkbook, cut a deck of cards, and use a yo-yo.
10. The value of hard work, exercise, volunteerism, and going to church.
Thanks, Dad! Happy Father’s Day!
You may also like:
Ten Beautiful Things My Mother Taught Me
18 Monday Apr 2011
Posted in Design, Photography, Reflections, Relationships, Writing
≈ Comments Off on The Artful Engineer…
Tags
Engineer, Engineer mind, Flash Story, Industrial design, Photography, postaweek 2011, Remote control
© Joan Currie
Practical ends are achieved through the application of scientific principles.
When I asked an engineer how his remote control worked, just before Masterpiece Theatre last evening, all I wanted to know was how to turn the device on. His eyes lit up when he sensed that what I really wanted to know was every excruciating detail about the principles of operation – mechanical, electrical, and infrared.
Feigning interest, I made the mistake of nodding my head and this he took as a go ahead for a further in depth discussion about material science – plastics and metals strength, fatigue factors, and wear characteristics. To really drive home his points, he decided to disassemble the remote control to expose and speak to the major components of each subsystem contained therein.
As he addressed assembly time, I asked if perhaps he could show me the series of steps necessary to put the device back together so that I might watch my show. Unfortunately, he detected an opportunity to improve on the design of one of the many pieces now arranged in a geometric grid on the coffee table before us and disappeared into his workroom to obtain just the right tool for the job.
I never did find out how the remote control worked but did learn wherein his passions lay.
14 Monday Mar 2011
Posted in Art, Photography, Reflections, Relationships
© Joan Currie – Faded Rose
Comme à cette fleur, la vieillesse
Fera ternir votre beauté.
For length of days will tarnish it
Like roses that were loveliest.
Pierre de Ronsard – Mignonne, allons voir
This rose marks the end of a relationship – one that began in the blush of young love.
You may also like:
On Recognizing Love
13 Sunday Feb 2011
Posted in Photography, Relationships, Travel
© Joan Currie
Plunge boldly into the thick of life, and seize it where you will, it is always interesting. – Goethe
Despite my fear of heights, I accepted an invitation to go on a zip line adventure in the redwoods near Santa Cruz this afternoon. The risk manager in me checked out the two-point contact support (two parallel zip lines) and I was reassured by the fact that I would be tethered to a line at all times, especially on the (very) small platforms in the forest (one 150′ high).
The tour included 6 zip lines, each different in length (one 440 ‘ long) and speed, and two sky bridges. To be honest, each time I readied to leave the platform the thought did cross my mind that I might plunge to my death, but to my amazement, I pushed off just the same!
Now, here is the best part – remember the forest scenes in the Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi? The experience was a combination of the Ewoks’ forest platform homes on the moon Endor and the flying scooter-like experience of weaving in and out of the trees. The zip line also makes a buzzing sound akin to a scooter motor. (According to Wikipedia, the Ewoks are named after the Miwok, a Native American tribe, indigenous to the redwood forest!)
© Joan Currie
This is a view of the ropes challenge course right beside the zip line course – notice the size of the circular landing platform. The zip line travels from platform to platform and the only tricky part was figuring out how to brake effectively when coming in for a landing. The two guides, each stationed at a platform (one to launch and one to catch) were terrific!
All in all, it was a very intense but thrilling experience!
04 Friday Feb 2011
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections, Relationships
Tags
beautiful, Beauty, First Kiss, Kiss, Lauren DiMarco, Love, Mae West, Photography, postaweek2011, Valentine
© William Cardoza
I have found men who didn’t know how to kiss. I have always found time to teach them. – Mae West
The kids in my old neighborhood were mad about kissing! I am not sure whether this was due to a proximity to the 49th parallel, a noxious substance in the drinking water, or an abnormally high level of red dye in our bloodstreams from ingesting copious amounts of Jello, lollipops, and popsicles. Whatever the reason, nearly every game that we played, from flag to tag to hide-and-seek, had some kissing component connected with it.
The boy next door, two years older than I, was the dreamiest boy on the planet. He attracted not only girls but also boys to play in his backyard. It was he who conceived and organized all the games with a complicated set of regulations that always ruled in his favor and gave him the license to kiss any and every girl he pleased.
I would like to report that my heart throb neighbor was the one who had planted the first kiss on my lips. He had so much practice, that I am sure he had perfected the art of kissing to a “T.” Unfortunately, one of his protégées tackled me in a round of tag and pressed his lips against mine before I could resist. Since then, every time I see a slimy earthworm lying on the sidewalk after a rain, I am reminded of that first kiss.
Model – Lauren DiMarco
25 Tuesday Jan 2011
Posted in Photography, Reflections, Relationships, Writing
© Joan Currie - Newly found photo of my grandfather.
Isn’t it strange that princes and kings
And clowns who caper in stardust rings,
And common people, like you and me
Are builders for eternity?
R. L. Sharpe
About two years ago I was bitten by the genealogy bug. It left me with an incurable desire to add more and more branches to my family tree.
One of the best things about having this condition is that I will never be bored at family functions again. Every relative is a potential gold mine of information. For instance, I might discover that my great aunt has saved every Christmas letter and card she ever received, my uncle possesses the immigration records and passenger lists of our transplanted European ancestors, and my second cousin once removed has a collection of wedding photographs along with my grandmother’s wedding dress in her cedar chest that she had not looked at in over forty years.
After six months of searching on the internet and in archival libraries; I traced both my maternal and half of my paternal family trees back to the early 1600s, reconnected with relatives all over North America, and discovered new relations in Europe.
Days before last Christmas, a cousin, with whom I had not talked in over fifteen years, telephoned me to say that she had found our grandmother’s bible. Within its pages were three items; my grandmother’s marriage certificate, a letter my cousin had written to her, and a postcard that I had sent to her many years ago.
I was moved to tears by the news. The confirmation that my grandmother had, indeed, a special place for me in her heart meant the world to me and I thanked my cousin for possibly the best Christmas present I have ever received!
When the postcard arrived in the mail, I placed it in a silver frame alongside a photograph of my grandmother, and it rests for now on my bedside table.
19 Sunday Dec 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections, Relationships
≈ Comments Off on Holiday Cocktail Parties…
Tags
Ann Landers, beautiful, Beauty, Christmas parties, Cocktail parties, Edward Jahn, Fashion, holiday parties, Lauren DiMarco, Photography
© Edward Jahn
At every party there are two kinds of people – those who want to go home and those who don’t. The trouble is, they are usually married to each other.
Ann Landers
My cousin has mastered the art of working a room. Two hours into a cocktail party, he has connected with everyone there and forged several new and possibly lasting friendships. I, on the other hand, typically engage in two or three meaningful conversations and then am ready to bolt, unless there is dancing – and in that case, I am good for the duration.
Model – Lauren DiMarco
25 Saturday Sep 2010
Posted in Fashion, Photography, Reflections, Relationships
≈ Comments Off on Sense of Smell…
© Eleven Orchids Photography
The sense of smell can be extraordinarily evocative, bringing back pictures as sharp as photographs of scenes that had left the conscious mind.
I visited my maternal grandfather only a couple of times, but during each stay he smoked White Owl cigars. Since his passing over thirty years ago, every time I smell a cigar I am instantly transported back to those few, special moments I had alone with him. The most memorable one was when he taught me how to draw a five-pointed star. I traced his pencil lines following his simple directions: across town, downtown, uptown, downtown, and back home again.
