Ann's Joy Thread

I have those 1946 recordings on a set of cassettes, which, unfortunately, I can't listen to right now because I don't have a working cassette player. The description is correct. this older versions is delivered in a more energetic way.

Thanks so much for the link.

I am tempted to tweet Mr. Aronofsky and ask if the connection to The Wasteland was intentional, especially since it's clear that his version of Noah's world was eactly that.

My muse has said that he chooses his roles based on what he calls "the goosebump factor." He chooses which roles to play based on his respect for "the gods of film," as they express their intent to him through this intuitive experience. It does not matter how much he might earn; if it doesn't feel right, doesn't express and reinforce an idea that he appreciates, he doesn't do that film.

I think that what he means by that statement is very close to what I mean by "resonating" with something I read. I share things on this thread that fit that description, epecially when it comes to something I read on other websites, and especially easpecially when it comes to the places I visit regularly, like this one, because they inspire me, and very often, help me set the tone for my day:

http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2013/40586.html

Quote :

November 14, 2013
Pattern of Pain Withholding
by Madisyn Taylor



The most common form of withholding is what we commonly call “the silent treatment,” but withholding encompasses any unwillingness to express your true feelings. It also includes an unwillingness to give support, praise, or positive attention to the people you love. We have all known someone who is impossible to please, and many of us have suddenly found ourselves at the other end of a chilly silence with no explanation. At the same time, many of us will recognize our own tendency to withhold our emotions rather than express them....Emotional pain is at the root of our tendency to withhold, and withholding causes pain to the people subjected to it. It is a dysfunctional pattern that creates a breakdown in communication and understanding.

No one deserves to be subjected to withholding. Feeling ignored, disrespected, or shut out, and to not know why, is a terrible feeling. The first thing to remember if this is happening to you is that you are not to blame. You are caught in someone else’s pain pattern. This person does not know how to express feelings in a healthy way probably because this is what they learned when she or he was a child. The second helpful thing to remember is that the withholder is acting out of pain. They are stuck in a habitual mode of response that is self-defeating and alienating to the people they love. Remembering this will help you feel compassion for the person hurting you. However, if you have suffered too long with this pattern, you may need to get some space. Take some time to look at your own patterns and understand why you have taken part in this drama. If you are dealing with people in a family situation, you can step up to the plate to help break the chain of this behavior pattern.

Please feel free to ignore or disagree, and, while this is a "joy thread," to express a differing point of view,

I would hope that you show respect to "the gods of joy," and stick to the thoughts expressed rather than to the individual expressing them, but just because I've named this "Ann's Thread" doesn't mean that others here should not express their joys - or even their problems with my joys.

Not so joyous  happenings this afternoon.  My plan was to take some pics of getting dinner ready and serving it, but it seems that Webs has changed the website editing and construction procedures, including how to add and work with photos.  I took this one about 4 this afternoon, and proceeded to download it to my computer so I could upload it to my website so I could copy it here.

An hour later I was still trying to figure it all out, but had to stop to get the dinner fixed (OK, there's a give-away.  Yes, I truly am a Texan.  I fix dinner; I don't prepare it.) Anyway, after everyone had left, I came back here and worked on the darn thing until I finally uploaded my first pic (my groceries):



Menu: Warm brie with caramelized onions, figs, and honey; Our local market's holiday special - Cranberry Pork Sausage (discovered this last year.  They only stock it once at the beginning of the season.  Last year they ran out, so I'm laying in a good supply this year.  It's incredible.  To go with, I made extra caramelized onions, added some diced butternut squash (sauteed in the same pan I had cooked the onions in - a touch of butter added at the end, and some extra-lovely kale, which I simmered in red wine, then tossed with the onions and squash.  I heated the pre-cooked sausage in a grill pan on the stove.

Lynn came early, as she usually does, helped me get a good pic of the appetizer (the warm brie) which I will post later.  She was going to remind me to get pics of the meat and veggies, but we both forgot.

Ah, well, all-in-all it turned out to be a joyous Thursday evening.

Nite all!

Well, bummer.  I can see the pic in the posting box, but it's not showing up in the post.

Tomorrow is another day.  This has been a weird one and I'm done.

Fixed your photo, Ann.  

Bless you!   

Some joy this morning for me, Ann! A twitter follower with 21,000+ followers retweeted Part Five of my short story, A Family Arrangement, and tipped the views to over 300 (337). The tweeter is actually a couple of artists. Here's their art website:

http://thegrandcanyonartists.artistwebsites.com/

Shelagh wrote:

Some joy this morning for me, Ann! A twitter follower with 21,000+ followers retweeted Part Five of my short story, A Family Arrangement, and tipped the views to over 300 (337). The tweeter is actually a couple of artists. Here's their art website:

http://thegrandcanyonartists.artistwebsites.com/

Decidedly joyful, Shelagh.  Their site has some beautiful work.

Your supper sounded joyful, and the photo looks very tempting even uncooked!

It really turned out nicely.  Here is the picture of the brie with caramelized onions, figs, and honey. (hopefully - I think I figured out how to do it.)

Looks delicious! Scrum-ptious even!  

Showed up recently on my twitter feed:

@xxxxx: Is that @russellcrowe movie Noah based on a true story?

@russellcrowe: Yes

@xxxxx: Really? Hope it goes well and you get to make a sequel.

There I go again.  I wrote a beautiful three page diatribe about the loveliness of figs and onions served with brie and it evaporated into cyber space.  I give up for the night.  Love, Betty

Shelagh wrote:

Looks delicious! Scrum-ptious even!  

 I'm slow, but I finally got it.

Nite, Betty.

 
Speaking of TS Eliot's The Wasteland:

Will Noah Get Christians to Theaters? Or Create a Backlash?
By Justin Bachman
November 15, 2013 3:42 PM EST

Quote :

If you were expecting a Biblically faithful retelling of the story of the greatest mariner in history and a tale of redemption and obedience to God, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Noah paints the primeval world of Genesis 6 as scorched arid desert, dry cracked earth, and a gray gloomy sky that gives no rain—and all this, caused by man’s “disrespect” for the environment. In short, an anachronistic doomsday scenario of ancient global warming. How Neolithic man was able to cause such anthropogenic catastrophic climate change without the ‘evil’ carbon emissions of modern industrial revolution is not explained. Nevertheless, humanity wanders the land in nomadic warrior tribes killing animals for food or wasteful trophies.”
Aronofsky’s Brooklyn-based Protozoa Pictures referred calls Friday for comment to his publicist, who did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. A Paramount Pictures spokesman also did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment.
Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore told the Hollywood Reporter that the film—which is heavily laden with visual effects—was expected to be complex and that the studio “allowed for a very long postproduction period, which allowed for a lot of test screenings.” The movie—which also stars Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, and Anthony Hopkins—has surpassed its $125 million budget, according to reports. “We’re getting to a very good place, and we’re getting there with Darren,” Moore told the newspaper.

http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-15/will-noah-get-christians-to-theaters-or-create-a-backlash

Even Al Sharpton is contributing to my joy.  His introduction to today's msnbc segment was this song:

Stressful da at PA! calls for a bit of joy: GQ honors my muse.  Take time to read and you might begin to see why he is my muse:

http://www.gq.com.au/men+of+the+year/previous+winners/galleries/2013+men+of+the+year+winners,27593?pos=2#top

Quote :

Quote :

“Icon” – a person regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration.
A hero on screen, a legend off it. Be upstanding for this influential oscar-winning actor, dedicated father and man of all men. That’s the official definition of “Icon” and it’s worth reminding ourselves because only a select few fit the criteria and deserve the mantle. Russell Ira Crowe is one of those.
Crowe is soon to enter his 50th year and about to make his 40th film. He’s been a star for three decades, first exploding onto the screen in 1992’s Romper Stomper and most recently starring in Darren Aronofsky’s hotly anticipated epic, Noah. Along the way he’s won an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.
But these are trifles and trinkets compared with the performances he has given us. Crowe is an icon because he embraces the iconic in every role he attempts: raging bull cop in LA Confidential, torn idealist of The Insider, mad genius of A Beautiful Mind, black knight highwayman in 3:10 to Yuma, braveheart boxer in Cinderella Man, old salt captain in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, operatic lawman in Les Misérables.
They are men of conflict and integrity, built through observation and immersion, hard work and deep thought – men who move us. Few take to heart the responsibility of manhood like Crowe. Even when that fellow is iconic – as in Gladiator, Robin Hood and Noah – Crowe unearths the man in the myth and fleshes him afresh. There is personal sacrifice in every character he plays – rapid weight gain and loss, intense physical regimes, lengthy periods of isolation from home, emotional exorcisms – but like any committed craftsman, Crowe makes from his own makings.
Those makings are humble – he is the younger son of film-set caterers, and moving from New Zealand to Australia at four left his boyhood rootless and lonely. Crowe is a 
child of the shadows who came to pine for the light, initially as pop star Russ Le Roq, later as an actor for stage and TV and 
most definitively, cinema.
Looking back, Crowe’s first scene on camera was an acorn of the oak that would be. It was 1972.
He was an eight-year-old scamp in a South Sydney Rabbitohs jersey opposite future mentor Jack Thompson in television drama Spyforce. Flash forward 40-plus years and Crowe, with his bearish beard and booming voice, looks like Thompson’s son. And that jersey he used to crawl under a Redfern Oval fence to pay homage to? It’s resurgent, after he bought the club in 2006.
The rise of Crowe has been rapid, his admiration deserved, his influence extensive. Aussies currently muscling into Hollywood – the Hemsworths, Joel Edgerton, Jai Courtney – all owe Uncle Rusty a beer. Not only did he set the gold standard for performance, he did it his way: challenging directors and writers not to compromise on character and story trajectory, or the need for an Aussie accent.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/hamish-and-andy-crowned-gq-australias-men-of-the-year/story-e6frg6n6-1226763885027

Quote :

Being presented an 'icon' award by Australian screen legend Jack Thompson was a surprise to Crowe.

Accepting the GQ Man Of The Year Icon trophy, the Oscar winner said: "the one sure way to invalidate something like this is to actually have Jack Thompson present it.

"I'm like every other person in the room thinking jack, what the f*** are you giving it to him for?"

Crowe, 49, met Thompson when he was just six, and played his gay son in acclaimed 1994 film The Sum Of Us.

He was one of several award recipients at the annual event held at the Ivy in Sydney.

"About 10 years ago I had the privilege to be in a room with Gordon Sumner - Sting, and he won a lifetime achievement award," Crowe explained.

"At one point I said to him, 'mate how does it feel?'"

"And he said, 'listen man, no matter how many of these hints of retirement they give me, I'm just going to be me, I'm just going to keep doing what I love."

On November 23, 1949, an angel was born.  His name was Robert Earl Levingston, and he would grace our family for seven years and nine months.

I didn't see it that way at first. He was supposed to be a she.  I had crossed my fingers and wished and wished for a baby sister to play with, and what my parents brought home was this red-faced, long-limbed scrawny thing with a full head of black hair - and the wrong anatomy for me to be able to play dress-up with.  But there's this thing about babies, especially after they get past that early new-born look.  He had the sweetest smile, and befor long, he was rolling over and scooting everywhere.  He didn't crawl that long. When he first stood up he took off running.  If he slowed down to a walk he would trip over his feet and fall (Like his nephew David a generation later - one of the main reasons I sometimes wondered if he hadn't reincarnated.).  By then, he was already saying Mama, Dada, Biw, and Aaa.  Before long it was complete sentences that made uncanny sense for one so little.

When he started school, he was always in the top group, and made friends easily.  My mom didn't drive, so we all walked to school. Mom walked with him through kindergarten, but when he was in first grade, he walked alone.  It really scared him, but he was determined to make everyone proud, so he did it.  He and I could walk several blocks together, but when we split to go in different directions, he would, as long as he could see me, keep turning and waving, "By, Ann!" and a few steps later, "I'll see ya!" One day it rained, so older brother Bill kept the car so he could drive us to our campuses before driving on to his own.  We had gone just a few blocks when Bob shouted, "Bill! Stop!  I gotta let my lady-friends know I'm OK!"  He directed Bill to the curb by a small white house, rolled down the window and started waving toward a front window where two little, very old ladies sat smiling and waving back.  As we drove on, he explained, "That's Myrtle and Beattie. Their son and nephew live in Beaumont now and don't come to visit them very often, so I stop and talk to them every day.  We later learned there was a "man-friend," too - an elderly gentleman who spent his days in a rocking chair on his front porch.

Just before Mother's Day that year, he brought out his Piggy Bank and said he wanted to buy some flowers for Myrtle and Beattie. "I want to give them some pink carnations.  By this time, his older brother had taken over the job of helping him shop for his clothes, and he was some fancy dresser.  The song, "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation" was one of his favorites.  He liked dressing like Elvis Presley.  Bill even found him a very hip narrow pink leather belt, cut it down and punched new holes so it fit.

Mom suggested that maybe he should get a potted plant rather than cut flowers, which would only last a few days.  He looked at her sternly and said, "Mom, Myrtle and Beatie are old.  they're so old they are about to die.  They can't take care of a potted plant.  It has to be pink carnations."

He had a girlfriend.  Her name was Peggy, and her older sister, Betty, was Bill's girlfriend.  Sometimes they would double-date.  The first time, they kept it secret til the last minute.  Mom said she could hear them whispering, "Bill, you know she won't let me..""Just stay cool, Bob and leave it to me."  A bit later the two of them walked into the kitchen, dressed in slacks and nice sport shirts and headed for the back door - Bill in front and Bob following him, looking back over his shoulder with some trepidation.  Bill just said, "Bob and I are taking Peggy and Betty to the basketball game and out for a coke after. We should be back a little after ten."  Bob, for once, was not saying anything.  After they were gone, Dad looked at Mom with that twinkle he got in his eyes whenever he was amused, and asked her why she didn't stop them.  "How could I?" she replied.  A few Sunday's later, Bill informed Mom and Dad that they were taking the girls to Little Mexico (a popular restaurant) for lunch after church.  Bob wore his good tan slacks with his pink belt and plaid sport coat.  Bill was similarly attired.  After that it was a regular thing.  Early that summer, my grandmother had a mild heart attack, and  Dad and Bill drove her, me, and Bob to the farm, where we spent the first six weeks of school vacation. Bill and Dad "batched" it at home so they could both go to work.  Bob had a blast with his country cousins.  They roamed the area,  including the open cattle ranges, barefoot and with BB guns, practically every day.  As soon as Grandma was well enough, we came home and took a family vacation to a lake outside Austin with a family whose two sons were Bob's best friends.  Once again, he was having the time of his life, all day, every day.

We hadn't been home long before he started running a high fever.  The Dr said it was strep throat.  It didn't get better.  He was put in the hospital and the drs started running tests.  It took them a while, and a specialist, to realize he had tetanus.  I wasn't with the family at the hospital very often.  At first Mom said it was because I was too young.  Eventually, Dad's cousin pointed out to Mom that since I had just turned 14 I was considered old enough by the hospital's regulations, so she had to let me come.  She didn't speak to me.  She would look away and hold Bill's hand.  Dad and I would sit together, and I held his hand because he was crying.  My aunt, I noticed, would leave the group and go out onto the stairwell.  After a time, I went out there, too.  I remember looking over the railing and seeing the ground floor, several stories below.  I thought I figured out why my mother wouldn't speak to me.  Five years earlier, I had spent most of the summer in a hospital, after having been hit by a car.  There was a time at the beginning when the Drs weren't sure if I would get through it.  That had to be it, my fourteen year-old brain told me.  If I had died, God wouldn't be taking Bob away from her, too. It even ran through my head that if I jumped over that railing, I could make up for living and Bob would be OK.  but I chickened out and went back into the waiting area where a family friend was saying to Mom, "Ann shouldn't be here, " and Mom saying, "Oh, please take her away, I don't want her here. " It was a little after midnight that night when Bill showed up at the friend's house to take me home.  On the way, all he said, about half-way through the trip,  was, "He didn't make it," which, of course I knew.  When we got home, I tried to give my mother a hug and she pushed me away.  Eventually I learned to stop feeling responsible, especially after Mother finally admitted that in the rush to get to the farm that summer, she forgot that our shots  were due.  By then she was a grandmother.

Dad sold the house.  Niether he or my mother could bear to keep living there.  We moved into a different school district. Bill left for college the next year and I was the only one at home, where things had been extremely dysfunctional from the time he died.

It was one of my aunts who told me that we shouldn't feel so bad, because God had granted us almost eight years with one of his special angels, and we should focus on the good memories instead of those last weeks..  I started thinking about that, and remembering the things he would say and do, and decided it must have been true.

I remember, too, during a time, so many years later, when I was going through a hard time, personally, after Mom died.  I was in the classroom when a student came up tp me and said, "Ms J, I found this on the floor behind the computer stand."  He handed me a small picture of Bob.  After a rew minutes I remembered that when I moved into that classroom, I had packed some things in an old carboard box that I had once stored old photos in, so it must have been in the bottom of the box, and while it was sitting on that computer stand as I was unacking it, the photo must have falllen out.  But why that photo, on that particular day?

We had covered his casket with pink carnations.  At the wake, strangers kept coming up, wanting to meet us and shake our hands.  They were people who knew him, like Myrtle and Beattie, whom he had befriended when he was walking alone, on the way to school or to the corner store, or to a friend's house.

It's a big part of the reason why I believe in synchronicities

Dear Annie,
I am so sorry.
Love,
Betty

Thank you, Betty. Remembering and writing it all down goes a long way toward letting go of the ugly parts so I can refocus on the beauty and joy he brought to us.

Some years back, Bill and I were having lunch together when I mentioned Bob's name - just offhand. Bill looked at me with a puzzled expression for several seconds before he connected with what I had said. Finally, he replied very softly, with tears in his eyes, "I had forgotten him."

That seemed very sad to me. It had been easier to just block the whole thing, even though they had been extremely close, than to remember and feel the pain long enough to get back to the joy.

Annie

Such a pleasant gathering last night.  Jaycie came bouncing through the door, calling "Grannie Annie!"  I got the biggest hug.  Lynn and Chris brought the BBQ from a favorite restaurant - pulled pork, turkey, and sausage, along with a bottle of Freixenet for toasting. Dave and Lyn brought two bottles of Malbec and Jaycie.  She was really a doll.  She's grown up even more since July.  Mom and Dad said it was her best flight ever, that she was content to sit in her seat the whole four hours.  I made the sides: tomato salad; broccoli and cranberry salad; and baked potato salad.  And even Dave &Lynn's dad sent a pumpkin pie! There wasn't much left to put away.  Chris took the pie to give to friends at work today.  I was very relieved about that.  There is a bit of sausage and turkey left for my lunch today, but not much else.

So it was a joyful Thanksgiving for all of us.  Hope all of you had a good holiday as well.

My neighbors in Houston were from Scotland.  One year, his parents happened to be visiting right at Thanksgiving, and they all joined us for dinner.  Afterwards, the dad looked at his son (my neighbor) and said, "Bryce, we must find a holiday in Scotland to be thankful for."  In the meantime, we here in the US will be happy to share our thanks with all of you across the pond and beyond.  Hope you had a good day as well.

Grannie Annie

If I should win the lottery over the next week or so, I will be in Coff's Harbour during mid-January of next year.  Promise.

http://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/news/rustys-big-gig-famous-friends-banding-together/2107263/

Quote :

Nana Glen’s favourite farmer is gifting the Coffs Coast a one-off holiday treat. Russell Crowe is returning to his hinterland home and bringing with him some very talented friends. The Oscar-winning actor is producing The Indoor Garden Party at the Jetty Memorial Theatre over four nights from January 10-13.

Coffs Harbour will be the only place in Australia to see the show, which has received rave reviews around the world. The unique production has already been staged in London, St John’s Newfoundland and recently in New York City at the Gramercy Theatre and Joe’s pub.

Speaking from the location of the new film he is both directing and starring in, The Water Diviner, Russell said the Indoor Garden Party was about friends who loved performing getting together telling stories and singing songs.

“They are very informal parties and always full of laughs and when you have voices like my friends have … spine-tingling is the phrase that comes to mind.”

The show will have a focus on the songwriting partnership which Russell has developed with his friend Alan Doyle of Canada’s prominent folk band Great Big Sea for almost a decade. Great Big Sea this year celebrated 20 years of touring and album sales topping 1.5 million units.

Apart from Russell and Alan, the line-up is best described as eclectic. The Indoor Garden Party promises to be an enthralling evening. As well as performances by Russell and Alan Doyle the show will highlight the talents of an amazingly diverse and acclaimed roster of artists. They include: Samantha Barks who played Éponine in the film version of Les Misérables, as well as various theatre roles in London’s West End, including the role of Nancy in Oliver. She has recently completed filming Dracula Untold where she plays the character Baba Yaga and is currently filming The Devil’s Harvest. American actor, voice artist and singer-songwriter Scott Grimes who has toured with everyone from Bob Hope to Michael Jackson; Swedish songwriter and producer Carl Falk who has co-written and co-produced hits such as What Makes You Beautiful, One Thing, Live While We’re Young, Kiss You (for One Direction) and Starships and Pound The Alarm (for Nicki Minaj). In 2012 Carl was listed as No. 4 on the Music Week Top 100 Songwriters of the Year; Irish brothers Owen and Moley O Suilleabhain who perform as Size2shoes who have performed with The Chieftains, Bobby McFerrin, renowned poet David Whyte, and violinist Nigel Kennedy; Scottish actor, piper and bandleader Charlie Allan who Russell met on the set of Gladiator where he played the famed leader of the Barbarian Hordes in the opening scene; and Queanbeyan poet and rapper Omar Musa who won the Australian Poetry Slam in 2008 and the Indian Ocean Poetry Slam in 2009.

It promises to be a show unlike any that has ever been seen in the place which Russell has called home for 17 years. ”It wasn’t hard to convince anyone to come. The idea of spending time together and putting on a show is usually all the motivation any of them need but adding in that this time around it is in Coffs Harbour is a bonus,” Russell said.

In addition, Russell said the line-up always features special guests which over time have included Ben Elton, Skylar Gray, Sting and Hugh Jackman.

There are lots of youtube vids available on past Indoor Garden Party shows.  I gotta take a min to find the best one to post as a reminder.

Here's a good one: Newfoundland, August 2011:


The short redhead on the far left is aforementioned Scott Grimes, who also played Will Scarlett in Robin Hood, as well as the character "Birdie" in Mystery, Alaska.  the super-tall guy singing at the right-hand mile with RC is Kevin Durand, Little John  in Robin Hood, and Tree (apt name?) in Mystery, Alaska.  These guys have been superfriends since that 1998 film.

Sometimes one is not enough. Small image, but still special - IGP December 8, 2012 NYC