Month: July 2011

I Make Videos Too!

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Just a quick sideline.  Not content enough to just write and draw, and collage, I also love making videos to music I love!  Here’s some of my other interests expressed through home-made videos.  My name on YouTube is peace2baby*.  Enjoy! -Therese

*UPDATE:   MARCH 20,2012

Google has changed their whole way of communicating, and in the process forced me to make a new name for myself of YouTube (Grrr!)  Hence, I am now known at stillpeace2baby, but I have lost access to the editing of my original videos.  However, I will still link to them through my new name, and I will eventually post new videos under that name too.  But this sucks!

My first video, a tribute to my favorite Beatle, George Harrison.

And the baroque Jack O’Lantern I carved last Halloween (2010)

A Tribute to my favorite leading men and musicians (Nimoy & Shatner are in here too) With my original lyrics to “America, The Beautiful”

A backhanded tribute to Betty Draper on ‘Mad Men’  (At the end you see the truly most beautiful woman on MM!) Note: for some reason this one does not play in all countries-maybe the one bikini shot?

A little movie of our pet hamster, Gus! (Awww!)

A quick review of “StarTreKomics”, although I have to update the final credits to include this blog!

And finally, a shaky video of Peter Noone with The Herman’s Hermits, shot at The New York State Fair last summer (2010)

Oh yeah, and here I am on my 50th birthday earlier this year, showing off the first fondant decorated cake I’ve ever made!(blush)

I’ll be making more videos as time allows.  Enjoy! -Therese

Farwell, Amy Winehouse, May You Find Your Peace.

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I’ve always been a bit late to the party when it comes to buying newer music.  I became aware of Amy Winehouse when she became a sensation with “Rehab” in 2006, and although I considered  getting her CD, I just didn’t get around to it.  And now, after hearing of her tragic passing, and  listening to several of her songs on YouTube, I know I’ll be buying some of her music. I always feel bummed  when artists get a posthumous bump in their earnings, not because they don’t deserve it, but because they’re not around to enjoy the fruits of their labor. And I’m sure there will be some that exploit her death for more money, and that’s just wrong.

For now, I listen to more of Amy’s songs, and I enjoy  her smokey, gritty  delivery and the retro styling of Back to Black and Rehab.  I love the funky way she wore her super beehive ‘do and Cleopatra makeup, but Amy sang lyrics that you’d never hear from The Ronettes.   Although I haven’t heard all of Amy’s catalog, one of my favorites so far is  “F— Me Pumps”, that really rips apart the sad bar-fly lifestyle that so many young women throw themselves into.  But the one thing that I’ve  taken away from her works so far is that you could always hear her soul in her music, and how the often happy girl-group sound of her songs cleverly hid the  anguish and  heartbreak of her lyrics.  A good artist sings lyrics, a great artist feels them. I can’t truly review her music since I am still unfamiliar with much of it, but I extend my deepest sympathies to her family, friends, and admirers around the world.  I am sorry that her personal demons took her life, a life that could have produced so much more, but I truly hope that she’ll find her peace in eternity.

Farewell Amy, we hardly knew you. Here’s a few videos I like, especially the last one,  no pretense, it’s just Amy:

Here’s a loving tribute by Amy’s friend, comedian Russel Brand:

http://www.russellbrand.tv/2011/07/for-amy/

“Local mom reveals $5 trick to erase wrinkles…” Just Become An Orion???

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Now, I refuse to read any of these ridiculous side ads that seem to have found an amazing amount of  ‘Moms’ in my ‘local’ area who all have found ‘miraculous $5 tricks’ to erase the lines of time.

But I admit, a long time ago, I did once open an ad for the ‘strange simple secret’ to lose belly fat.  It led to page upon page upon page promising that you’d read this secret soon, and that it was ‘so simple’ that you wouldn’t believe it!  Well, I was a good 40+ pages in and it still kept promising the ‘secret’ would really work, but I closed the ad because I just didn’t care, and by the time I had the ‘answer’ I probably could have walked around the block 3 or 4 times!

But back to this ‘local Mom’.   You know, these ads  always feature the face of a woman who has never had wrinkles, or worse, the picture  where a bar sweeps back and  forth over a gruesomely photo-shopped wrinkly face, transforming it into an immaculately smooth face. (shudder!) Yet today, the latest picture I’ve seen for these annoying ads caught my eye.  Here it is, slightly enlarged:

 

 

Oka-a-a-y.  So I guess this means to lose my  wrinkles I only have to become a green Orion Slave Girl?  Hmm.   Maybe it works? Look, here’s Susan Oliver getting the same treatment in 1964! 😉

Well, I never found out what the $5 trick was, and although I’m sure that green makeup hides the wrinkles,  I’ll leave the application to the descendants of Fred Phillips!

Think COOOOOOLL! (GALLERY)

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Hi All,

And I hope you’re all staying cool and comfortable wherever you are!  Think cool thoughts, keep hydrated, and please get into some air conditioning if you can. Here’s some pictures of cool things:

Oh Little Town of Whitney Point

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Last weekend I was waiting for a friend to take us up to  Waterown, NY, and she said she’d meet me in Whitney Point, NY at 8:45 a.m. –Well, I was there, but she called at 8:50 a.m., and admitted she had slept in! It would be another hour, but I didn’t mind, Whitney Point is such a quaint little town that I loved exploring the Main Street that time has (sort of) forgot!  So my camera snapped away.  Great little place. Enjoy the pictures:

Which Original Star Trek Crew Character Is Most Like You? (Poll)

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Talent Show on the Enterprise!

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StarTreKomics strikes again! See who entered the “3rd Annual Enterprise Talent Star” Contest here:

And vote for your favorite in the poll!


George Takei Dream

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July 15, 2011

I don’t usually dream about Mr. Takei, but I’ve been working on my ‘StarTreKomics’ so much for this website, that he was bound to pop up sooner or later.

The dream began with me and my sister (K) at a beautiful old theater palace, to watch what we think will just be a lecture by George Takei.

It turns out to be a magnificent production of a play where George is the protagonist.

When the curtains open, we see George rise from a futon on the floor, dressed in light blue satin pajamas.  He is a rich man, but a spiritual one. He does some yoga stretches, then the scene changes.

We are now in a lush Polynesian village where little children dance in a circle, dressed in white, waving white origami bird puppets and streamers above their heads. It’s so beautiful it chokes me up.

The mothers and fathers of these children smile and join in the dance.  George enters shirtless, in white pants, with a red tattooed symbol over his heart. He joins in the dance, and this is a very happy place.

Yet every time I try to take a picture, my camera dies! (Naturally!) I’m also trying to get my sister to watch this lovely scene, but she’s moved to a corner of the auditorium, busily editing manuscripts.

Yet the next scene is as tragic as the last was joyful.   George is alone, head down, slowly walking from the now empty village, where we assume he was the only survivor. There are bare, thin black tree silhouettes against a gray sky, and traces of smoke billow around him.  He has lost everything.  He stops, looks to the sky, inhales deeply and straightens his shoulders. Standing tall, he walks determined toward his future.

(Now the dream gets goofy).

Suddenly the stage is empty, and a podium appears with Leonard Nimoy behind it (Wha-a-a?) He’s about to give the epilogue of the story. But as I try to take a picture, Nimoy and the podium are no longer live in front of us, but projected as a movie image that gets smaller and smaller until it’s gone.

The curtains close, and George comes out in a silk taupe colored ghi like the one David Carradine wore on Kung Fu!   He sits serenely cross-legged on the hardwood floor in front of us and asks the audience for questions about this profound performance.

(Camera’s not working again)

I try to tell him how moved by the show I was, but I hear an obnoxious woman ask him a stupid question about Star Trek.

George graciously ignores the question, closes his eyes, smiles thinly, and fades into nothingness.

He leaves us asking, “Was any of this real?”

Then I woke up.

The most startling thing to me about this whole dream was how vivid and cohesive it was. Dreams like this are few and far between, but what a nice surprise! Wishing you all sweet dreams.

Tattoo-Seen

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I got a tattoo last week. It’s across my upper back, between the blades.

Now don’t panic, my family, it’s just an air-brushed one. It only lasts about a week, by the time you read this it should be mostly washed off.  Last week  I had some free time while chaperoning a group from my son’s school  bus trip to a theme/water park, and I thought “Hey, why not?”  Its application felt cold but I’m sure that’s  better than a needle would have felt.   Now many people, myself included, have often wondered what would drive a person to permanently mark themselves with a design that they may  regret 10,20, or 50 years from now? What makes the pain of the needle worth the result? Why aren’t these people happy with the skin they’re in?

But having this little experiment done with shiny paints  definitely gave me an inkling 😛 into the lure of body design. The delicate motif  had a surprising affect on me.  I felt  pretty, independent, and unique.  It’s wasn’t an in-your-face kind of thing, (especially since it was behind me), but more of just a decoration.  It’s like wearing a necklace or bracelet, and in its innocence reminded me that, at  50, I still can try new things just for the fun of it. I really enjoyed how I could express myself with a simple work of art — kind of like face-painting for adults.

I have several relatives and friends with unique tats and they are passionate about them. One has a gorgeous peacock, and another even has a famous baseball logo on her.  Now that’s devotion.  Getting reactions to mine was half the fun!  Most of my initial reactions were (Gasp!) “Is that real?”, and a then a sigh of relief when they were told it wasn’t. My octogenarian neighbor asked bluntly “What the hell is that?” but then mellowed and even found it ‘cute’ when I explained it to her. But considering that it wasn’t a scary or gruesome design, it was a bit surprising to have to explain the why of it. It was just hearts and flowers, how innocent can that be?  Now I do understand both positive and negative attitudes about  tats, unfortunately they can become an easy way to judge a stranger.  Yet these voluntary designs,  simple as a heart or as complicated as a family tree, always express the true soul of a person. Whenever I meet some0ne with a tat I like, I ask about it, and there’s always a  good story about it.  Always.

The most touching story of a tattoo I heard was from a young man waiting for his lunch at McDonalds.  There on his thin, muscled right arm, was a motif of  seven military dog tags, linked together  in a chain.  He told me proudly that the numbers had belonged to him, his late father, and five of his military buddies who had either  been injured or killed in Iraq.  It was his way of keeping their sacrifices, spirits, and memories alive.  I was so touched by this.  I thanked him for all of their hard work and sacrifice, shook his hand, and praised him for this loving gesture.

Now I’m not about to get a permanent tattoo, but I definitely appreciate them more than I used to.  Next time you see a tattoo you like, just ask the owner them about it. I’m sure they’ll be happy to explain.