Tag: links

World Bee Day!

If you’re on Instagram, you know that sometimes posts will appear in your feed from accounts you don’t follow. Somehow the app’s algorithm has determined the account might interest you. Last year, this happened to me with the account of a woman who lives in Eastern Tennessee in the Appalachian region. (This is also the region where I grew up in Alabama.) Her name is Carmen, and this is her website, which also provides the link to her Instagram account.

I don’t know what Instagram was “thinking,” but in this case, it worked! I’ve learned so much about bees that I find fascinating. When I was a child, a few doors down from us in post housing, another child around my age was named Honeybee, and her name and some of what I’ve learned about bees have found their way into the Neverending Saga.

Fortunately on World Bee Day and every day, Debby has created a part of our property that welcomes bees and butterflies. You know if these creatures depended on me for flora, they’d be disappointed. She and I were running errands the other day, and when stopped at a light, we spotted another Mini Mural I hadn’t seen before, this one on the corner of Hollister and Tidwell.

Jesse de Leon, Houston

It’s not a great shot with my iPhone, but I offer it today in honor of the bee, who does so much to provide beauty and food to our planet. You can learn more about the danger to bees, and how we can help them survive–because our survival is connected to theirs–at this website.

A book and a Barbie

Timothy gave me this book Christmas of 2021, because it was on my “I love Dave Grohl SO MUCH and I want this book” list. I didn’t have a chance to read it before Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died the day before my birthday in March ’22, and then I didn’t have the heart.

I have done nothing but relish every story in it since I plucked it from my To Be Read pile a few days back. Dave Grohl has never stopped embracing the joy of what it is to be a fan despite his own impressive career. Even with the hard parts, it’s a blast to read about his journey and the people he’s met or befriended through the years (some of whom are my favorite musicians, too, and others whose music I’ll now seek out).

I never dreamed, however, there’d be a story that would blend Dave, two of his daughters, Joan Jett, and a Joan Jett Barbie doll. I had to get my Mattel Ladies of the ’80s rocker out and shoot her with his book to celebrate.

Mood: Monday

I previously posted a photo of Ralph Fasanella’s painting titled May Day, painted in 1974 in oil on canvas.

Reading Fasanella’s Wikipedia entry provides an interesting look at how an artist develops, is influenced, and how his reputation, recognition, and popularity can be swayed by shifts in politics.

Among other things, I was struck by this: In a press release regarding his death, John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, declared Fasanella to be “a true artist of the people in the tradition of Paul Robeson and Woody Guthrie.”

I discovered so much about Paul Robeson doing research for the Neverending Saga, and Woodie Guthrie has always been an important cultural reference for me.

About this painting in particular: Fasanella’s art was highly improvisational. He never planned out works, and rarely revised them. He said of his 1948 painting May Day, it “just came out of my belly. I never planned it. I don’t know how I did it.”

I suspect many writers can understand this, as well as musicians.

Button Sunday

Pay no attention to that silly button. With few exceptions, I like eating vegetables.

April 23 is National Asparagus Day. Asparagus is full of vitamins and minerals, rich in antioxidants, and high in protein and fiber. What’s not to love?


I just happen to have fresh asparagus. Some of this will be part of Sunday night’s dinner. =)


P.S. I know I’ve shared this collection on here before, but Portrait: The Music of Dan Fogelberg is the four-disk collection I’ve been listening to while I write. VERY little writing because it hurts my eyes to look at the computer too much. I’ve found that by not straining too much, I can watch TV. So over the past two or three weeks, Tom and I finally caught up to the paused Season 5 of “Yellowstone” (it resumes in the summer) and watched the second season of “Bridgerton.” I’m glad we waited on “Bridgerton” so that I wouldn’t still be thinking of intrigues and characters from the first season. Ultimately, this one was satisfying, as evidenced by the way we watched the last four shows at two a night because I NEEDED TO KNOW how things would be resolved!

Tiny Tuesday!

Below are the works that have been my playlist “from the box” for what I’ve been listening to when I can write and revise. Hopefully, I’ll be back at that full time after eye surgery in early summer, but I’m always grateful for the time I get to spend with my fiction and its characters.


First up, The Civil Wars and their CD Barton Hollow. This is the 2011 release from duo Joy Williams and John Paul White. They’re no longer working together, and they have what is to me a fascinating story that’s far more closely aligned with the novel Daisy Jones & The Six than any of the other band/artist parallels people try to draw. (Also, I’ve gotten info on how the streaming series strays from the book, and I think I’ll just stop with the book. Sometimes Hollywood makes questionable choices for more drama–understandable, but they sacrificed things that made me really like the book and respect the characters.) This link is to a 2013 interview with Joy Williams. There’s a mix of tension and magic as she describes The Civil Wars that makes me think of characters in the Neverending Saga, though not the ones people might expect. I think I need to order The Civil Wars’ second CD.

Second, Elvis Costello and The Imposters’ A Boy Named If. I need to give this CD more undistracted listening time. I’m always happy hearing Elvis Costello, whichever of his styles he dips into and on his many collaborations.

Third, Frank Enea’s Makeshift Days. Full disclosure: Frank Enea is related to someone I know personally, which was my impetus for getting this CD in 2003. I’m glad I did, because I enjoy the music, and his vocals are pleasingly reminiscent of Mick Jagger while remaining all his own.


Because of what I’m writing at the moment, these two CDs from the box hit at exactly the right time. The Jazz Divas features songs from Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday, among others. Legends!

Most recently is Ella Fitzerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, a two-disk set that is perfection.

Here’s my tiny tribute to all the fantastic vocalists who brought us blues and soul. The power of those pipes!

Backtracking

I’d thought I could put some of the cardboard-sleeved CDs in the front sections of my binders, but there are just too many. Thus the Mellencamp CSd CDs went back in the box–here’s what I mean when I say “the box.”

When I was returning Richard Marx, I’d forgotten that I had a signed sleeve for the Limitless CD he released as the pandemic kicked off in 2020.

Since I was in the Ms, I pulled out my McCartney CSd CDs and listened to them while I wrote.

Paul McCartney: Pure McCartney 2016; Egypt Station 2018; and McCartney III from 2020.

Now I’ve gone back to the beginning of the alphabet in the box for my writing playlists, until I catch up to the Ms, starting with these.

A couple versions of the BoDeans’ “Closer to Free” (I think I picked this up to use on a soundtrack for a work video I made in the mid-1990s); Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie’s 2017 self-titled CD; The Best of Lindsey Buckingham: Solo Anthology from 2018; and Lindsey Buckingham’s self-titled CD from 2021.

I didn’t watch “Party of Five,” but if you did, maybe you’ll enjoy this blast from the past.


Happiest of birthdays to another of our nieces, who’s now fifteen years older than she was in this photo and still just as beautiful. We love you, Abby!