hear a little song: sit down beside me

cause that's what i want
that's what we need

Patrick Watson - Sit Down Beside Me (Live at OPB) from opbmusic.org on Vimeo.

merry christmas/god only knows

cheers to my funny, full-hearted family...

from the family calendar, 2012 edition. by jessica reyes ("shakira"/"the mama")

***

and: this year

hear a little song: before you go

the back story here is that i was looking for some good wednesday night programming and turned to TCM. winona ryder (looking lovely but sounding awfully nervous) was the evening's co-host. she chose for our viewing pleasure a "screwball twist on snow white and the seven dwarfs"-- a film called "balls of fire." gary cooper plays a professor working on an encyclopedia, barbara stanwyck is the stripper who teaches him all about slang. and: there's an appearance by gene krupa. sounds like a winner, yes?

i wound up having to record the film, so can't provide a critique at the moment.

but this video tribute preceded the 10pm showing, and i thought it was quite a nice remembrance:



another version of the pretty song:

inspiration: the holiday edition

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

(with apologies to ts eliot)

Scout Regalia Reel 02: Gingerbread Geodesic Dome from Scout Regalia on Vimeo.

(and will there indeed be time to make this for christmas?!)

hat tip to sister for the link, and scout regalia for the cheer and inspiration

read a good poem: approach of winter

nyc, dec 2011. © anita aguilar

The half-stripped trees
struck by a wind together,
bending all,
the leaves flutter drily
and refuse to let go
or driven like hail
stream bitterly out to one side
and fall
where the salvias, hard carmine,—
like no leaf that ever was—
edge the bare garden.

--william carlos williams, via the academy of american poets

celebrate: 45

snapshots from one of my favorite photo albums.

taken at san jose church and fernando air base, philippines.

(congratulations...)

read a good poem: lilac sunday

at la closerie des lilas, may 29, 2011.

oh, it's like fate. or internet voodoo.

the very day after i post about la closerie des lilas, the writer's almanac delivers a poem about...lilacs. does that seem like an amazing coincidence to you, too?

in any case, it's my excuse to post one more photo of a sweet older couple (and share more sweet words).

***

lilac sunday

Let us agree to meet
here some winter
when the park

gates are locked,
and the arches thinned
of their vaulting green

to climb the wall,
thaw the icicles
and watch the rain

like flowering
cherry and lilacs
that kissed your hair;

some winter
when the fog is heavy,—
to return to this light.

--Diana Der-Hovanessian, via the writer's almanac

***

ok, one more:

"He looked very fine, Marshal Ney in his top-boots, gesturing with his sword among the green horse-chestnut leaves."

--E. Hemingway, "The Sun Also Rises"

photo: may 23, 2011

inspiration: la closerie des lilas

la closerie des lilas. may 23, 2011

© anita aguilar

i've fallen into an unfortunate pattern on tuesdays at work. it goes something like meeting-meeting, meeting-meeting-meeting. by the time night falls, i am burning for inspiration.

on a walk home some months back, i tried to think of ways to re-align "the tuesday" so that ended on a finer note. i remembered: tuesday nights in paris were open poetry night for hemingway and his coterie at la closerie des lilas. fantastic-- i'd make it my poetry night, too.

in that spirit, i wanted to structure it toward writers that had some connection to the place. naturally, i started with hemingway. his verse, at least from what i could find online, is pretty awful, or at least not what i cared for, sort of cold and aggressive. i tried others from an earlier time (appollinaire, andre salmon) but didn't get much of a feeling for their work either (too weepy, too structured, too not-translated-into-english). it was a disappointing start. but it felt like a good exercise and i've kept it up (while giving up on the closerie-specific writers). in that way it's become my own "open" poetry night.

here's a favorite, writing-related one from last night. hope you like it.

on punctuation

not for me the dogma of the period
preaching order and a sure conclusion
and no not for me the prissy
formality or tight-lipped fence
of the colon and as for the semi-
colon call it what it is
a period slumming
with the commas
a poser at the bar
feigning liberation with one hand
tightening the leash with the other
oh give me the headlong run-on
fragment dangling its feet
over the edge give me the sly
comma with its come-hither
wave teasing all the characters
on either side give me ellipses
not just a gang of periods
a trail of possibilities
or give me the sweet interrupting dash
the running leaping joining dash all the voices
gleeing out over one another
oh if I must
punctuate
give me the YIPPEE
of the exclamation point
give me give me the curling
cupping curve mounting the period
with voluptuous uncertainty

-by elizabeth austen via the writer's almanac

peachy keen: dinner at má pêche

last night's party: pretty ladies, a celeb chef and a big spender

last night i had the opportunity to take some photos at the volunteers of america "winter's eve gala" at the plaza hotel. i didn't have a shot list--the single directive was to catch the party vibe without being too artsy ("no backs of heads" --ha) though at the last minute i was asked to take a few VIP photos.

bill cunningham was there and while i wanted to snap his photo, he was deep, deep in conversation with another VIP there and it would have been poor form for me to set my flash against them. he might have some photos in this sunday's times, so look out for those.

anyway, here are my favorites from a fun night, celebrating a really good cause. chef todd english donated his services part of the live auction (and if memory serves, from that alone helped to raise over $10K).

I saved the best for last: bidder "#454" was my favorite of the night. they made a $20K pledge to the VOA.

the lovely ms. rana

***

chef todd english

***

"big spender"

***

all photos © anita aguilar

inspiration: artessen

(a last bit of inspiration, from artessen.com)

read a good poem: here

at the opposite end of the day....

nov 24, 2011

©anita aguilar

There is nothing concrete to grasp in
looking into the morning sky

The evidence of red-eye
flights east a plane drawn line presents

is not a wheelbarrow solid enough
dependency as day and night

carry in coming and going
You don't see the poem

saying anything you can't see in it
White dashes of contrails'

seemingly unmoving streak towards sunrise
disquiet the pale otherwise

unpunctuated blue of dawn
breaks it off Here is that silence

--by Ed Roberson via poets.org

doubles results (mixed)

ah so it wasn't a great saturday for this doubles team, after falling in 3 sets to those feisty argentinians.

pobrecitos....

photo via daviscup.com

but this erstwhile doubles team had a grand reunion:

noelle and i played together all through high school--and haven't seen each other since.

it's a startling number of years, believe me. but some people, some experiences just stay.

our impromptu get-together as warm and easy and fun as ever.

december 3, 2011

dc 2011: VAMOS

these ladies posed for me at roland garros--cute, no?

i don't know their names or exactly where they're from.

but i think i know what they'll be tuned in to tomorrow, round about 8am est...

@roland garros, may 28, 2011

© anita aguilar

***

compulsory, fun preview here

inspiration: magnum, sport

i'm not a huge fan of soccer/football, but i fall for the idea of it every time i watch this--it can't be embedded, so click here for the video.

the marriage of visuals to the soundtrack (those the terrific rhythms, the play by play) elevates it beyond a mere "promo" piece, and it showcases how stills, properly edited, can have as much impact as live-action (i can't seem to convince a few producers i work with of this).

anyway, i come back to this again and again.
hope you like it, too.

***

here are few stills from the magnum photographers whose work is featured in the spot:

AFGHANISTAN. June 2006. Playing football in an empty swimming pool on a hill surrounding Kabul.

Copyright

Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum Photos

GB. ENGLAND. Liverpool. A street off Scotland Road. September 1986.

Copyright

Peter Marlow/Magnum Photos

CONGO. Brazzaville. March 5th. From left to right the French sound engineer Charles CARATINI, the Italian drummer Aldo ROMANO, and the French bassist Henri TEXIER and saxophonist Louis SCLAVIS.

Copyright

Guy Le Querrec/Magnum Photos

thanksgiving 2011: "ham"