March 12, 2014 - Courage to Write
Paul Jennings, an author well known to young readers, talks about rejection; losing (and finding again) the confidence to write; fame; and boys wanting to fly. (Interview by Dumbo Feather, a magazine).
Stories
February 20, 2014 - Onslaught
The above campaign was released back in 2007 but it still sends an accurate message about our toxic culture and media, and of the cleverness and manipulative nature of advertising. But let’s not be fooled …..this beauty product company’s ultimate agenda is to sell more beauty products to us from the exposure this campaign gave them -and the feel good it gives viewers. And yes, posting this, gives more exposure but alongside a message about critical thinking.
January 3, 2014 - Time is Now
For a woman that was the embodiment of the golden era, Poet and Singer Patti Smith resists the pull of the past, instead inhabiting the space between now and tomorrow… “I believe that we, that this planet, hasn’t seen its golden age. Everybody says it’s finished…art’s finished, rock and roll is dead. God is dead. Fuck that! This is my chance in the world … If only each generation would realise that the time for greatness is right now when they’re alive. The time to flower is now.”
December 23, 2013 - Fake or Make
Real or Ideal .
Wonder …. if unhappiness was the distance between the real and ideal? If happiness doesn’t come from having more, doing more, being more – but in questioning (and not buying into) what is being sold to us as the ‘ideal’? Try applying ‘real and ideal’ to these ….life, relationship, family, self, job, income, holiday, expectation. Perhaps a remedy for disappointment? Photo source.
December 16, 2013 - Pornography is a Bitch
This controversial video sees Lily poking fun at our sexed up world – and if your kids are watching music video shows or cruising social media and the internet, it’s guaranteed they’ll be getting some of these kind of messages about sex. See previous post about ‘world proofing our children’ in ‘Must Watch’.
November 21, 2013 - Off My Wave
Off My Wave .
There is nothing to warrant celebration within the realm of the pain and suffering of others. No badge to be pinned by those who, with all good intention, fly the flag for those of us who suffer conditions of mind and circumstances of life that test our will to live.
Look to those of us who’ve been turned away for solutions to prevent our end, for only we know what helps to soothe the hurting and raise the eyelids to hope.
We lie unnoticed in the shadows of those with the loud voices, the big campaigns, the egotistical solutions they devise to resolve our painful existence – offer us light.
Those who live in brightness do not see, feel and understand the beauty and sense of consolation the darkness offers those who ride its wave.
Talk you may, but in a whisper that is sensitive to the shame we feel, the secrets we carry, and the space within which our hurting souls cling.
Where we swing between the end and being offered some surprising, warm, kind thing upon which to be gently lifted from our descent, and openly embraced in all our sorrow and sadness.
(Lithograph by Thomas Hart Benton titled, ‘Goin’ Home’, 1937 from Lapham’s Quarterley Magazine Winter 2012.)
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