#reminder to all those who still follow this blog that the page is DEFUNCT and hel has been moved here!

[artthatremindsmeofhannibalnbc]

Hello, I just wanted to say I adore this blog so much. I really love the pieces displayed here, they fill me with this weird, unexplained feeling of despair, but in a good way? Anyway, I wanna find more art like this but I don't know how. Are there any good resources to find these types of disturbing paintings and sculptures?

I’m so glad you’re enjoying this blog! A lot of times I can’t justify how a piece I’m posting is in any way relevant to the show, so it’s always wonderful to hear that what’s on here is resonating with other fans. 

I think I get what you mean! What you said reminds me of that quote, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." (Cesar A. Cruz, a Mexican poet and human rights activist.)  I wish I had a few good art blogs I could recommend you that post this kind of work, but unfortunately the ones I used to be familiar with are now defunct. What I can tell you is how I find and track down the works I post here. 

And mainly, that’s by browsing. At the risk of sounding old, search engines and search functions on most sites don’t work the way I expect them to any more. Searching for things like “macabre art” or “grotesque art” and so on has been mostly useless for me.  I mostly use Pinterest. (I have a Hannibal board there that has a show aesthetic section, which was kind of the starting point for this blog.) Pages for individual pins are full of suggested images Pinterest thinks are related, and once a board is populated with pins, the  “more ideas” section can become more relevant. 

The thing is I can’t whole-heartedly endorse Pinterest as a tool. It is notoriously bad in terms of reposting artists’ work, and with good reason. A lot of what’s on there has no source or attribution of any kind, and sometimes attributions that are misleading or just entirely incorrect. Many creators actively try to keep their work off of Pinterest, and I don’t blame them.  

With that caveat, keeping a board of the kind of art you like can lead you to similar art. (I have a lot more to say about using Pinterest as a tool and about its politics, but I’m trying to keep this short.) 

Another thing I can recommend is looking up some of the artists you like from this blog and tracking down what group exhibitions they’ve been in, what galleries have, exhibited them, and what galleries represent them. Many galleries represent artists that work with similar imagery and themes. Even those that don’t will still have themed exhibitions. One that I’ve pulled a lot of artists from recently is Beinart Gallery. 

Similarly, blogs that post all kinds of art -- Colossal is a current favorite of mine --  will sometimes post art like this, and browsing the tags that they use when they do can lead to some exciting finds. 

Another good resource is artsy.net. They mostly sell art and are set up for people who want to buy, so galleries are mostly / only populated by art that’s available to sell, but their “related artists” function is better than most sites with that kind of feature and it can be a great starting place. 

Whelp, I’ve utterly failed at keeping this short. I hope some of this was helpful! Browsing is time-consuming and doesn’t always yield relevant results, but it’s how I do things. 

Do any followers have suggestions for blogs or resources for finding this kind of art? 

#questions about the blog #finding art #resources #Anonymous #yay an ask!

[snowflakechallenge]

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #12

Introduction Post* Meet the Mods Post * Master Post * Challenge #1 * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4 * Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 * Challenge #7 * Challenge #8 * Challenge #9 * Challenge #10 * Challenge #11

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

Remember the early oughts? Remember Web 1.0? And Geocities and blinkies? What about Flash games? It was only last month that Adobe Flash finally died its ignoble death.

In the spirit of those times, let resurrect some old LJ memes! (Think Buzzfeed quizzes but with less data mining (not to say that didn't happen)).

When I looked at my tags page, there were 159 entries tagged ‘meme’ which I guess is because memes were what I used to say when I didn’t know what to say. In the early oughts, I wasn’t new to the internet, but I was new to the interactive version of it presented by LJ and its clones. In order to seem interesting, I did a *lot* of memes.

As I explored back in my journal, I found a lot of memes that are now defunct, but I wish were still functioning. Like the Friends Icons collage, which seemed to be a bit of code that gathered all your friends’ default icons into one picture. And Quizilla seems to be a Teen Nick site now. Other links looked extremely sketchy.

Challenge #12

In your own space, resurrect an old meme. Leave a comment in today’s post at The Fandom Snowflake Challenge on DW saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

The challenge: look at the list of old memes below (I’ve checked all the links to be sure the ones below are still functioning). Pick out one that appeals to you, follow the instructions, post in your journal, and then come back here and share! Make sure to tell us which one you did.

Here Are Some Choices:

Desktop/Wallpaper screen shot - take a screen shot of the background (desktop for computers or wallpaper for mobile devices) on whatever device you are using. This one was originally just desktops, since it predates tablets and phones becoming so ubiquitous. Post the pic in your journal.

I Write Like . . . - Paste a few paragraphs of your writing into the box and see which famous author has a style most similar to you. It doesn’t have to be actual fic writing; you can post your latest blog post, but the longer, the better the tool works. Although don’t go too long; it will just cut it off. It will generate a little bit of code with a banner, which you can post in your journal.

Music shuffle - go to your favorite source of music that can be shuffled. Your main Spotify playlist, iTunes, your YouTube music playlist. Hit shuffle. Write down the first line of the first twenty songs that come up. When people visit your journal, they have to guess what the songs are. Strike through the ones that have been guessed with the guessers name at the end of the line.

What Number Are You? - click on the phrases that describe you, and then post the text that you get along with your number in your journal.

What Kind of Shoe Personality Do You Have? Anyone who knows me knows there’s no way I would pass this one up. I should get my shoe mood theme back on my journal.

Fail Cat - If you have a PC: Open paint, close your eyes, draw a cat. Post the results. If you have a phone or tablet: Open the notes app, close your eyes, draw a cat. Post the results. (I do not know what program you would use if you have a Mac without something else installed like Gimp or Photoshop, Macs do not seem to come with a default drawing program).

First Line - Post the first line of the first entry of each month for the past year in your journal.

The Dewey Decimal System - find out which category in the Dewey Decimal System you are.

Nearest Book - 1. Grab the nearest book; 2. Open the book to page 123; 3. Find the fifth sentence; 4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your LJ along with these instructions; 5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

Spell Your Name - pick a category: movies, books, TV shows, musicians, songs, etc. Spell your name with the first letter of each. Your real name, your username, you choose!

Kleenex Moment - Pick the top five movies that make you cry, and tell us what the Kleenex Moment is (when do you reliably reach for the hankies).

Which Historical Lunatic Where You? A series of yes or no questions, which will give you a block of text to copy/paste into your journal!

Which SciFi/Fantasy Character Are You? Gives you a pic to post in your journal.

If you have a fav meme from back in the day, by all means, post it in the comments with instructions and links so we can all participate!

Check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

(If you want us to reblog your response here at our Tumblr, we’re tracking: snowflakechallenge2021.)

#snowflakechallenge2021 #dailychallenge #challenge12

[michelles-garden-of-evil]

Shadow Over Seventh Heaven Review, Part I: Last Night I Dreamt I Went to Maljardin Again

Once, April Tennant had been the greatest screen star of all. Even now that this stunning creature was gone, the victim of a hideous accident, her name still cast a magic glow. And nowhere was her haunting spell more alive than within her great walled estate of San Rafael.

It was here that April had lived in her storybook marriage with famed actor Richard Morgan. It was here that her memory was worshipped still. And it was here that lovely young Jenny Summers came as Richard Morgan's new bride--to discover the terror behind the tinsel in this place transformed from a paradise of the living to a hell of the undead.... (inside front cover)

Welcome, fellow Strangers and all others who happen upon this post. This week, I have decided to begin a new series exploring the Gothic novels written by co-creator and first headwriter of Strange Paradise, Ian Martin, under the pen name Joen Arliss. Mostly, the purpose of this series will be to compare the plot and characters of Strange Paradise and those of his novels and what that may indicate about his original intentions for the overarching story of the soap opera.

I got the idea to start this series while writing my review of Episode 26, after the contents of an article referenced in one of the scenes reminded me of the events in this book. On his now-defunct website Maljardin.com, Curt Ladnier covered some of the similarities between “Here Goes the Bride,” the CBS Radio Mystery Theater drama from which this book was adapted, and Strange Paradise, but I wanted to dive deeper and do one of my characteristic overanalyses. So fly with me to the grand southwestern estate of San Rafael and together let’s explore Shadow Over Seventh Heaven--and let me warn you, there will be spoilers for the entire Maljardin arc of SP.

As noted above, Shadow Over Seventh Heaven is an adaptation of a radio drama that Martin wrote for CBS Radio Mystery Theater. CBSRMT is, perhaps unquestionably, Ian Martin’s most famous work. Created by Himan Brown in 1974 and running for 1,399 nightly episodes, Martin wrote a total of 243 (including many adaptations of literary classics) and acted in 255, typically in supporting roles. He continued writing and acting on the series all the way until his death in 1981 at the age of 69. Given my tendency to procrastinate, which sometimes makes it difficult to write just one episode review a week even when I’m not busy, I envy him for being such a prolific writer. I suspect that all the soap scripts he wrote got him into the habit, and he just couldn’t break it.

Even more extraordinary is that he wrote and published five novels during the same period that he worked on CBSRMT. His first was Nightmare’s Nest (1979), an adaptation of the CBSRMT play “The Deathly White Man” (and not the other drama, also by him, of the same name), which is his answer to Jane Eyre and which also has some interesting connections with SP which I plan to explore in another review series. Next came this novel, and then Beloved Victim (1981), adapted from “A Lady Never Loses Her Head,” which I don’t recall having anything noteworthy in common with SP, but I may need to re-read it to make sure. He also wrote two mystery novels, The Shark Bait Affair and The Ladykiller Affair, for the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series, but those are both very rare now and I haven’t yet read either, so I can’t say anything about them. The book Mystery Women: An Encyclopedia of Leading Women Characters in Mystery Fiction does, however, provide some information on their protagonist, Kate Graham, along with short plot summaries. As someone with two trunk novels from the last decade and about fifty pages of a third--which I mostly stopped working on after I started this blog--I also envy him for this. How on Earth did he find the time?

But I digress. Like that of “Here Goes the Bride,” the plot of Shadow Over Seventh Heaven draws heavy inspiration from Daphne du Maurier’s famous Gothic romance Rebecca, but with some major differences in plot and characterization. The novel fleshes out the radio drama some more, adding additional details and plot twists that aren’t present in the original play, which arguably make it more interesting. One gets the impression that he had a lot of story in mind while he penned the original drama, but knew he could only squeeze so much into a 45-minute radio play and so had to leave many of the most interesting details out.

But that’s enough background information. Let’s begin our analysis and see what Ian Martin’s later work can tell us about his original intentions for Strange Paradise.

Introduction

The face is lovely, matchless....

Opening like some gigantic and exotic flower as the camera zooms in...

It fills the screen, flawless, enticing....

The lower lip glistens, pulled away from those perfect teeth, trembling ever so slightly, promising undreamed-of delights for the man brave enough to taste its forbidden fruit....

The skin glows with an inner light....

The eyes beyond the thick fringe of dark eyelashes shimmer with the deep violet of a tropical night....

The pitiless exposé of the camera is defeated, no matter how close it probes in close-up....

This is beauty without blemish....

This is everyman's dream woman--sex symbol of the nation, and most of the world....

This is April Tennant!

Strange to think of her dead, for on the screen she is captured forever in all her vibrancy and stunning beauty....

Impossible to think of her lying, mangled and bleeding on the rocks, while the hungry sea licks out as if to possess her.

Incredible to think of her cold and in the grave. Which she has been for twelve months--or this story never would have begun (p. 5).

The first page of the novel introduces us to April Tennant, this novel’s Rebecca and also its Erica Desmond. Like Rebecca, she is the first wife of the protagonist’s love interest, whose tragic death will cast a shadow over her former estate. Like Erica, she was a famous actress--probably more so than Erica ever was--but the cause of her death is not the same as the alleged cause of Erica’s. In Episode 5 of Strange Paradise, Erica’s grieving husband Jean Paul claims that she died of eclampsia while pregnant with their son, although evidence uncovered by other characters in later episodes leads them to contest that claim. Instead, April’s death resembles that of Huaco, the wife of Jean Paul’s ancestor Jacques Eloi des Mondes who died when she fell from a cliff on Maljardin, Jacques’ island estate.

In this introduction, we also see what will become a theme of the novel: gaze. Not just the male gaze--the obvious POV of the introduction--but, more generally, the viewing of April Tennant almost exclusively through the eyes of other characters, both male and female. We never learn much about her inner life, even as we learn those of Jenny (our protagonist), Richard, and others. April is largely a mystery, a larger-than-life figure of ideal beauty who, in the eyes of the public, is more a legend than she is flesh and blood. It’s the same mystique that surrounds celebrities in real life that often makes other people forget that they, too, are human--if, indeed, that’s what April was. Or is there more to it? I guess we’ll have to find it.

Chapter 1

The first chapter begins with a detailed description of San Rafael--and by detailed, I mean that Ian Martin spends one and a half pages describing its wall, followed by two on the mansion itself. I won’t type out too many passages from this book for copyright reasons--for, unlike Strange Paradise, this book is still under copyright--but I will include some highlights. The wall surrounding the castle “was thick enough at the bottom to withstand any tremor of the California earth...topped by a corona of jagged broken glass and it ran for a mile and three-quarters in a great semicircle away from the rocky Pacific coast and back to it again” (p. 6). On its gate,

The ironwork swept and swirled in great balanced curlicues, and the frame was heavy and studded. The studs held great sheets of blackened steel, heavy enough to withstand a battering ram, blocking any vision of the grounds the wall concealed. And the vertical members of the scrollwork reared high above the frame of the door and the top of the wall in a bristling array of spikes, sharp as swords, arched forward to further discourage any hardy trespasser who might try to climb their height (pp. 6-7).

In case you haven’t already figured it out, Martin loved his purple prose. If you don’t like Byzantine descriptions of architecture, ironwork, clothing, or anything else, you probably shouldn’t read this book or any of Martin’s other novels. (Nightmare’s Nest is far purpler, however, than this one. There’s an entire chapter in there devoted to describing the protagonist’s lush Edwardian finery.) Fortunately for me, I love this kind of thing and will gladly devour description after description of gates covered in iron curlicues. My literary tastes tend toward “more is more” and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

We learn that San Rafael is a reconstruction of an old Spanish mission, commissioned by April and built in part by Richard himself, “who personally took charge of putting in all the glass that fronted on the sea.” The gardens that surround it give it “a riot of color--bougainvillea, hibiscus, passionflowers, trumpet vines--all enhanced and set off against the majesty of rows of carefully spaced Italian cedar, or Lombardy poplar” (pp. 7-8).

Despite all this radiant beauty--and as one might expect for reconstructed ruins from the era of Spanish colonialism--the estate is believed to be cursed, at least by “the superstitious peons who built the walls” (p. 9).  (That’s what the book uncharitably describes the Mexican builders--some parts of this book haven’t aged well, as you will see.) Two men died while rebuilding it, followed by April herself around a decade later.

Surprisingly, we learn at the end of this chapter that Richard Morgan’s background differs from that of Jean Paul Desmond. An actor himself, he “was king of the theater, and of East Coast entertainment. Their marriage was a royal one, and it vaulted both of them to new and undreamed-of heights of popularity” (pp. 9-10). It was this popularity that drove them to wall themselves in at San Rafael and use the police and guard dogs to keep rabid fans and paparazzi away--which, ultimately, didn’t work and only led to “a new wave of interest and snooping” (p. 10).

Chapter 2

Here we meet Richard’s sister Lisa, who is...well...quite an interesting character. She’s a beautiful woman with short hair, a deep voice, and--most importantly--an unusual, creepy level of attachment to her brother.

Cersei Lannister Lisa Morgan.

Lisa has just received a phone call from the Philippines where her brother is. The call has left her “literally stunned” (p. 11), which means that the modern slang meaning of “literally” dates back 30+ years longer than I thought. Surprisingly, she isn’t drinking wine to calm her nerves like Cersei above, but that’s her loss.

As she gazes at the ocean to the west, her housekeeper, Conchita Aguilar,  enters. Chita (as she is usually called) has not just worked as April’s housekeeper for most of her life, but also "she and her husband, Juan, had quite literally brought up April” (p. 13); as a result, she is fiercely loyal to the family of her deceased mistress. Here is a portrait of her:

Looking at the tiny woman with her bright button eyes, the black Indian hair swept stiffly away from her face, parted in the middle and tidily put away in a tight bun low on the back of her neck, Lisa was surprised at the sudden urge to go and take this familiar person in her arms--or better still have Chita take her in hers.[...]Chita might be tiny, but she was all steel and whipcord (p. 13).

Sound familiar?

Yes, Chita bears a resemblance to our beloved Raxl. They even have a similar background, for Raxl, too, comes from a people indigenous to Mexico, according to Episode 23.  Like Raxl, Chita is very old and has a mysterious magnetism that draws some people to her (which, in Raxl’s case, includes me). There are some minor differences--Chita doesn’t worship the Great Serpent, she uses gratuitous Spanish instead of gratuitous French, she has a living husband and grandson--but they are, in most ways, the same character. It’s clear that Ian Martin didn’t want to part with Raxl, and I don’t blame him one bit.

Also, for whatever reason, he was oddly insistent on both of them having a specific hairstyle. If you read the original script for the show’s pilot, you will see that he was almost as specific about Raxl’s hairstyle, mentioning “her hair tightly drawn over her ears to a small bun,” but less detailed about those of the other characters. Just an odd detail that probably bears little significance, but that I noticed.

Lisa tells Chita that Richard is on his way home with a new wife, a young, very wealthy orphan named Jenny Summers whom he met in the Philippines. This angers the ancient housekeeper, who argues that Jenny can never come to San Rafael

Because there is no place for her here--en la casa de La Señora! Everything here is hers--she still lives here, and will always live here. Her perfume is in every room, her pictures are everywhere, every ornament and ashtray and book I keep just the way she last touched it. There is no room for any other wife here! Oh, she will feel it, she will know it, because La Señora would never permit another woman to take her place (p. 16)!

Lisa insists that, despite the risk that Jenny won’t want to live on the estate and despite her equal displeasure about the situation, Chita keep an open mind regarding her and try not to be such a Mrs. Danvers about the situation. (OK, so she doesn’t actually say the last part; that’s just my paraphrase.) She also tries to pressure Chita into helping her take down the mementos of April at Richard’s orders, which she objects to, both for sentimental reasons and because they don’t have time to have the enormous fresco of April that adorns the former chapel. (Symbolism!)

“It was a breathless and yet terrible beauty. For any woman who stood next to it had to be eclipsed” (p. 20).

Yes, you read that right: they rededicated the mission’s former chapel to the silver screen sex goddess April Tennant. After their wedding, Richard had a giant fresco of her painted there in place of its former altar. This is a clear indication that one or more of the people in this household worship April, whether literally or figuratively. More than that, the portrait glows like that of THE DEVIL JACQUES ELOI DES MONDES, and seems, like Jacques’ portrait, to be alive, the living essence of a dead person. “Most haunting of all was the feeling that this was the woman--that she could not have died, that any moment she would step off the wall, and her silver laughter would fill the house again (p. 20).”

I’m sorry, Jacques. ;)

Coming up next: Jenny arrives at San Rafael and tries to adjust to living on an estate where almost everyone but Richard acts like they hate her.

{ Next: Part II -> }

#gothic fiction #cbs radio mystery theater #ian martin #joen arliss #shadow over seventh heaven #cbsrmt #strange paradise #related media #review #other reviews #ian martin's novels #analysis #gaze #rebecca #speculation on ian martin's original story #symbolism

[nomanwalksalone]

BOOK REVIEW: THE MAN WHO WAS BRIONI

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

Spare a thought for the poor tailor, one of the real artisans often ill done by in today’s supposed vogue for all things artisanal, which usually privileges the marketer over the maker. A case in point is the enormous new book Gaetano Savini: The Man Who Was Brioni, a lavishly photographed and illustrated hagiography of one of the two founders of the Roman luxury brand Brioni, Mr. Savini himself. Amazingly, this 208-page coffee-table-size Assouline tome appears to omit all mention of the other Brioni founder, the tailor Nazareno Fonticoli, the man credited in Brioni’s own earlier vanity history as the “inventive tailor” who created the many, many arrestingly ostentatious clothes that made Brioni’s international renown. Savini, the story used to go, was the “brilliant businessman,” the salesman who helped Brioni gain its foothold in stores all over the world.

This book is his story, and his story alone. Poor Fonticoli gets treated like the Bill Finger to Savini’s Bob Kane. Rather, The Man Who Was Brioni focuses on the pedigree of Savini, his desire to reinvent men’s fashion after World War II, and his globetrotting endeavors on behalf of his shop on the via Barberini in Rome to establish his brand in the luxury department stores and men’s boutiques of the world. Savini, as frontman of the Brioni brand, began to call himself “Mr. Brioni” so that customers and menswear buyers would recognize the name – even though Fonticoli and he had chosen the name Brioni for their new brand because it was an elegant resort area off the Adriatic Sea, not a family name. The writing of The Man Who Was Brioni is dry as dust and clumsy where it is not clearly erroneous, likely reflecting both bad translation and bad analysis in the original. Howlers include the book’s description of a young Savini marveling at prewar catalog pictures of Brooks Brothers suits with “stuffed shoulders.” Brooks Brothers was historically famous for minimally padded natural shoulders, rather than shoulders that could in any way be described as “stuffed,” which is not a term used in English to describe shoulder construction or styling. And, as can be expected, this book makes the usual false contrast between “staid” Savile Row English styling and what Brioni was trying to do, along with the puzzling assertion that the English fabric merchants had financed the “worldwide distribution” of the Savile Row tailors – an impossibility given that custom suits aren’t wholesaled and distributed since they aren’t available for immediate purchase and wear.

On the other hand, Brioni apparently was able to make itself available off the rack, and the text - if the purchaser persists in reading rather than marveling at its pictures - is a history of Savini’s efforts as a salesman in getting placement, beginning with the fortuitous assistance of Giovanni Battista Giorgini, he who launched the first fashion shows at Palazzo Pitti in Florence, the ancestor of what is now the sartorial Sodom known as Pitti Uomo. True custom tailoring, creating individually fitted and personalized garments, is not scalable. For Brioni to attain its fame, for it to get its retail footholds in the exclusive specialty stores of the United States (the export market on which the book chiefly focuses), it had to achieve larger-scale production and sell its clothes ready-to-wear. Thus, the book explains that Savini began licensing the Brioni name to a Swedish factory (!!!) before finding subcontractors back in Penne, Italy to make the Brioni clothes sold around the world. It doesn’t mention that Fonticoli, himself from Penne, was essential in forging those links and training those tailors. Thanks to them, Brioni gained the volume to penetrate worldwide markets.  Savini’s eye, apparently, helped give Brioni clothes their trademark flashiness, the basis of their reputation. As Brioni’s earlier vanity history reminds us, by 1959 it was known as “the Americans’ tailor,” surely an epithet that cuts both ways. To be known as the Roman shop that clothed Americans meant that it was creating clothes of an opulent tastelessness suited to the swagger of the newly confirmed greatest power on Earth.

In fact, the book’ pictures are the reason to buy it, if only to marvel at the awesome, awful tastelessness of those 1950s to 1970s designs. Timeless they are not. The Man Who Was Brioni quotes an old Esquire article calling Brioni the tailor that was “waging a war against the white shirt,” that fundamentally discreet element of the wardrobe. Instead, we have a veritable panoply of the plumage of the midcentury fashion victim, epitomized in a picture of that lost soul Peter Sellers simpering at us in a Brioni astrakhan fur coat. You can’t buy cool. Even then, he knew that.

The other key to the Brioni look, in addition to its ornate excess, was its columnar “Roman” cut, supposedly inspired by the ruins of classical architecture. This made for slim, close-fitting jackets that admitted men had bodies and sensuality, even before Sex Panthering 1970s louche became the vogue. The 1970s, in fact, are where The Man Who Was Brioni tapers off, as Savini played less of a role in the house’s designs after that decade. One of its, and his, last hurrahs is the infamous Brioni travel jacket that has been used many times in magazines over the years to show the house’s ingenuity, recognizable for its multitude of pockets holding things one generally doesn’t, or can’t, fly with anymore (a cigar in tube, a ticket jacket (remember those?) emblazoned with the logo of the defunct “TWA” (where I drank my first Zinfandel), a 35mm camera). And, of course, after the 1970s, men’s tailored clothing designs in general became far more conservative. Attempts to spice up suits and sportcoats with various gimmicks suddenly looked very dated. A few publicity photos of Pierce Brosnan dressed in 1990s Brioni as James Bond seem out of place – Savini certainly had nothing to do with the design (what was then considered unbelievably retro, the three-piece suit, in classic patterns, with a roomy cut that seems to run counter to everything the rest of the book tells us about Brioni’s close-fitting, columnar shape and styling). Brioni, too, had had to follow the times, and at the bottom of the 1990s when it began clothing Bond, the suit, like Bond, seemed like something out of an older era (not designs to try to overtly modernize), which might explain those patterns and design.

A picture, the old saw goes, is worth a thousand words. In #menswear, most of those words are meaningless, if not outright fraudulent. Still, The Man Who Was Brioni is a fascinating visual aid to the hubristic excesses of a fashion superpower. Look upon its works and marvel, and spare a thought for the forgotten hands that helped forge its hegemony.

Quality content, like quality clothing, ages well. This article first appeared on the No Man blog in May 2016.

[thepuckishrogue]

One of them tag game posts type deals

Rules: Answer 21 questions and then tag 21 people who you want to get to know better. [ignoring that bit b/c I always feel like I’m bothering people lmao]

Tagged by: @aspiratinganxiety A pretty awesome lady all the way around far as I can tell. Plus she write that Batfam good-good so if that’s your jam click here and treat yo’self! Thanks for the tag darlin’, you’re far too kind!

Name: Imogene [so named for my grandmother]

Nickname: Immy and a whole slew of things best not repeated [my friends/family members are terrible people who come up with terrible names >.>]

Gender: Female

Zodiac: Taurus

Height: 5'6″

Time: 1:37 PM

Favourite Musicians: Too many, but what’s been on repeat as of late is NSP, TWRP, Planet Booty, Artic Monkeys, PUP, The Correspondents, Nujabes, and Zion.T. Then of course there’s my trusty-dustys: Lady Day, Aretha, Parov Stelar, Billy Joel... [links lead to YT vids of my current favorites by the artist]

Song Stuck in My Head: Zion.T’s “The Song”. Well really the entire OO album is fire and it p. much plays on loop in my head tbh; no lie I end up listening to it at least twice a day. PUP’s “Factories” also always seems to pop into my head at least once a day and honestly I’m not too sure what that says about me as a person...

Last Movie I Saw: Miller’s Crossing. One of my favorite Coen brothers movies second only to Raising Arizona. So many good one-liners:

“I open my mouth and the whole world turns smart.”

“...cause ethically he’s kinda shaky.”

“I think they’re gonna kill me, Tom! Oh God, are you apart of this?!”

“And I’m tired of you givin’ me the high-hat!”

Last Thing I Googled: Zodiac signs lol.

Other Blogs: Nah son. I can barely keep up with this one most days lmao...

Do I Get Asks: Not too often, no. As of late most ask are usually coming from someone asking if I’m still working on the fic that shall remain nameless lol. Honestly I don’t really interact with too many people on this site because like I mentioned earlier I always feel like I’m bothering people. Ain’t anxiety grand? Though if you do get me to talking--dude...

Why I Chose this Username: Eh, aside from a love for Saint’s Row there really isn’t a reason. I was one of those people that used to change their username a lot back in the day, but since evolving I now feel the need to stay “on brand” as the kids say do the kids even say that?

Following: 517 I think? I’m too lazy to check but I think that’s what it was last time I looked. I’ve been on this site for the better part of a decade, I lived through the ask-blog era and I can guaran-damn-tee you that at least 100 of the blogs came from that alone lol. A lot of defunct blogs too, but I feel bad about unfollowing them because what if they come back and all their followers are gone? That’s just sad, right? Plus I also kinda get attached to blogs, you know in a sentimental way. I like going back to those pages, reminds me of what I was into back then; warm’n’fuzzies and all that jazz...

Amount of Sleep: Sleep is for the weak making me strong af b/c I usually average about 4 hours a night.

Lucky Number: I don’t really have one, but 24 is my favorite number so... Close enough?

What I’m Wearing: Some black skinnies, a plain black sweater, and some neon pink socks.

Dream Job: Either a caker or a bread maker--weird, I know, but I love to bake and making bread is like one of the most relaxing things in the world to me.

Dream Trip: I honestly don’t even know. Right now I’m so focused on moving out of this town that I can’t really see beyond that goal...

Instruments: I used to play the clarinet long ago when the world was young and I was pretty darn good at it too. I’ve actually been thinking of getting back into it, but those little shits are expensive and honey got bills so that hobby’ll have to wait for now...

Favourite Foods: Too damn many so let’s just go with my current craving: a full Thanksgiving spread. I’m gonna need these days to hurry the fuck up we got all these ingredients in the house and I’m one whiff of a Yankee Candle away from going in there and throwing down, I fucking swear...

Favourite Songs: Again, let’s just go with a current: “Vienna” by Billy Joel.

Tagging: Like I said, I don’t want to bother anyone so if you made it to the end of this post and you want to take a go at it feel free! And tag me if you’d like, I’m always down to learn more about you lovely folk.

#tag game #about me #nobody cares Immy

[dirtycoolcatconfessions]

COOL CAT DVD PACKAGE FULL ANALYSIS

  As some of you may know, as a birthday present I have finally received the Cool Cat movie from a friend of mine. Seeing as I am the self-proclaimed front-runner of the ironic Cool Cat fandom, I feel it is my duty to provide you all with my full analysis of all that comes with this monstrosity, so strap in fellas, this is gonna be a long one.

  Here's an image of the full package:

  Alright, let's start off with the "Thank you for your purchase" type paper.

  Right off the bat, let me say that every paper (bar the "poster", though that one is still preeeetty bad, though I'll analyze that when we get to it) is literally just standard-fare 8.5x11 printer paper. Now, let's start from the top. It says "Cool Cat Productions" as opposed to Derek Savage Productions, what he listed in the movie from what I can remember, so that's pretty strange. To the sides you can see two horrendous pictures of the cartoon form of Cool Cat, which both look like they were drawn in different art styles, with the one on the right for some reason reminding me of some kind of old 2D Chuck E. Cheese drawing, and the other on the right appears to be crying out in pain with weirdly-detailed clothes, a curly pig-like tail, and looking like a failed attempt at perspective. After that it lists the website, (nothing new here) and the email, which uses Yahoo, which I find fairly unsurprising.

  Another thing I love which shows just how much love and care (sorry, "love" and "care") Derek puts into his products is the fact that it doesn't even specify what you ordered, (in addition, the fact that it lists "bookS", since Derek doesn't even have the Cool Cat books for sale, and the Cool Cat Stops Bullying book comes with every purchase of the DVD, and soundtrack, of which they don't sell at all, though I believe Derek stated something about wanting to sell it in the future) which really lets you know that Cool Cat Loves You in particular and cares who You are as a person. (The capitalization is really weird throughout the paper, especially when listing the various products you could have bought, really lending to the "Copy-paste" feel of the whole thing, and the Cool Cat Loves You part somehow evokes a ™ without one even being there.) Further down it asks you to print out free "Cool Cat Loves You" posters (instead of just saying Cool Cat posters, for whatever reason) which is strange for a vast number of reasons. First of all, the poster section of the website is NO LONGER ON THE WEBSITE, and second of all, using the Wayback Machine to go back to an instance when there was shows that the 11x17 "poster" is identical to the poster received in the movie package, which makes you wonder why you would want a second one. 

  (One fun thing to note about this image is the fact that promises that Cool Cat greeting and birthday cards are "Coming Soon!" which I feel really shows you just how much commitment Derek has towards his projects.)

  Back to the original paper, we reach the bottom third of the page, we have Derek begging you to tell everyone you know about Cool Cat so that they know it's time to cut off all ties with you, followed by a call to follow the official twitter @CoolCatLovesYou, officially confirming that that twitter is indeed the real one, fucking weird and not-so as it may seem. Then there are a number of images of potential merchandise you can buy, mainly consisting of the horrendously drawn books that Derek isn't even selling because he's "still looking for a publisher." (Yeah, he couldn't get anyone to publish his books, what a fucking surprise, right? In addition, upon incredibly close inspection of these low-res images, I found that they don't even list the "Illustrated by" that's shown on the Cool Cat Stops Bullying book that came with the movie, since Derek wasn't actually the one who drew this shit. And it's not because it was only on the Cool Cat Stops Bullying book, since among the books on here IS that exact book, sans the "Illustrated by" like all others on the page. I just found that interesting.) Finally, reaching the very bottom of the FIRST ARTICLE OF LIKE 6 (told you it was gonna be a long one) we have a reminder to visit Cool Cat online for Game"s" (There's only one game on the Cool Cat page, "Cool Cat's Fun MatchGame") "Cartoons" (Neither of the two cartoons are accessible from the current page anymore) and More! (Which if by more you mean continuous self-advertising, shitty web design, and child-unfriendly content that can be easily clicked to from the page.) 

  Alright so, the next article, well, honestly I'm not sure what to call this one. It's got two sides, so let's start with the side I'll probably spend less time on.

  Alright, so I guess this side is some kind of info paper? Still not sure what to refer to it as. If you notice at the top it lists the quote that's on the cover, "Cool Cat is Cooler than Barney the Dinosaur!" and I would like to bring to attention the fact that the quote is attributed to Ben Daka, the producer of Cool Cat Loves You, which helps in making the quote seem as incredibly unbiased as possible. (Also yeah, the fact that someone actually produced this steaming pile of dogshit surprises me likely just as much as it might you.) It proceeds to list the summary of the movie, saying what kinds of movies it is, etc. etc. etc. It also lists that it "Includes FOUR Original Cool Cat Songs" however as someone who has watched the movie before online when it was on Youtube for a brief day or two before getting taken down, I can say that there are only two that actually play in the movie proper, "Cool Cat Boogie" and "Cool Cat Loves To Rock", while one is only in the movie as an instrumental while the actual lyrics are only in the DVD menu from what I can remember ("Cool Cat is My Best Friend") and the other only plays during the credits, and is just the song from the now-defunct Cool Cat "cartoon" ("Cool Cat is Cool") however the one in the credits does have an instrumental track behind it, but I'm too lazy to find somewhere you can find that version at the moment.

  Moving on, we have the "STARRING" portion of the page, in which it lists Vivica A. Fox and Erik Estrada despite their 2-3 minute appearances. In addition, if read from right to left, then it technically lists Vivica first, and even if you do read it from center outwards, the way it was likely intended, it still has Derek listed where you would most likely begin reading instead of Cool Cat, which I feel really shows off his vanity.

After that, we have the imperative ">Get Your COOL CAT Today<" which makes it sound like some kind of cat adoption poster or something. After that there's the blatant lie of "We Appreciate Your Business" followed by a statement saying that discounts for schools, libraries, and stores are available, which honestly makes me wonder if there are any places that even carry the movie that aren't online. Also it's kinda weird that they'd have that on one of the papers that comes with the movie. Does Derek expect people to be so blown away by their movie that they just have to bring this flyer to stores and shit so that others can feel the joy of the movie? I don't fucking know this entire analysis is just me talking to myself and probably pointing out shit you could have noticed yourself, but hey if that's not what the blog itself is I don't know what is. Anywho, another fun thing to note is the fact that according to the flyer, the runtime of the movie is 75 minutes, which actually makes it debatable as to whether or not it could actually be considered a film. Final thing to note of this side is that I was indeed correct in my previous assumption that the movie was supposedly made by "a Derek Savage Productions" as opposed to the "Cool Cat Productions" stated on the earlier paper, which is weird.

Anywho, next side of the paper, let's go.

  Now this side, this side infuriates me to no end. It's pretty much one glorified advertisement for the movie you already purchased. To save on time, I think I'll probably speed through this one tbh since the last time I wrote this thing it took me like 4 hours and it mainly consisted of pointing out every little thing on the page, so I'll just give the main things. First of all, why the fuck would you advertise your own movie in the flyer that comes with the fucking movie??? In addition, why does it advertise the books? As I previously established, the books aren't for sale, since Derek's still looking for a publisher. After that, it states that there are Cool Cat eBooks, which I'm pretty sure there aren't any, and they wouldn't even need a publisher I don't think. Also, just to point out, Derek actually managed to misspell merchandise as "MERCHINDISE" at the very top.

  The movie also claims to be a "DOVE AWARD" winner. After some research (I.E. one single google search) I found that the "Dove Award" is actually an award given to exceptional Christian music, so unless the soulful ballad of "COOL CAT IS COOOOOOL" won one of those, I find it highly doubtful that its correct. Next to it, you can see a logo with the words "FAMILY APPROVED" and "ALL AGES". This is the "award" Derek was actually talking about, which is really just an organization that makes sure that movies are family friendly, which sure is a real fucking accomplishment. Below that the flyer claims that it's **STARRING** Vivica A. Fox & Erik Estrada, who really nailed their 2 minute "starring" roles. After that there's some quotes, including one by the late Adam West, may he rest in peace, saying "Cool Cat is Cool!" despite the fact that on the Cool Cat site the quote from West actually says "Cool Cat is Fun!" which shows just how trustworthy this quote was, plus the fact that Derek most likely got the majority of celebrity quotes by walking up to them and asking them to say it. After that there's a quote of "I Love Cool Cat!" from Bo Derek, an actress starring in such great films as Tarzan the Ape Man,  Bolero, and my personal favorite, Ghosts Can't Do It. (All of those films had incredibly negative reception btw, apparently all three of which won her three seperate Golden Raspberry Awards). Finally, below the advertisement for some hideous hats and shirts, there's the godawful pun of "Get Your Cool Cat Purr-chindise" which manages to misspell the latter half of merchandise again, though on the current website, it says "Purr-chandise" so Derek had to have fixed it sometime, but seeing as this flyer is advertising the hats which only just came out a month or two ago, this flyer was made recently, so I don't fucking know.

Moving on, we've got the Cool Cat Loves You Poster.

  The first thing to note is that the poster feels like it was made on 11x17 printer paper, and all-in-all feels really low quality. In addition, it's fairly creased and banged up since Derek apparently doesn't know that you're supposed to roll up posters when shipping them. The main thing I want to note that stands out to me is the fucking background. When I first got it, I thought Derek, like, spilled coffee on it or something, but when I went to look at those posters online using the Wayback Machine, I found that it was completely intentional. I have no worldly idea why anyone would think that this would make a good background, since it gives off either an accidental coffee spill vibe or a 1984-esque dilapidated post-apocalyptic "Big Brother is Watching" sign from it.

That's about all I have to say for the poster, so let's move on to the keychain.

First of all, I'm debating whether or not to put this keychain anywhere since I would probably run a high risk of getting the shit kicked out of me. Anywho, there's not much to say here, it feels like a generic truck stop souvenir keychain, except the fact that Cool Cat is weirdly not centered is bothering me.

Here's the back side to the keychain.

  Again, not much to say, other than the fact that I never want to see the question "Got Cool Cat?" ever again.

  Now we have the book that came with the movie, Cool Cat Stops Bullying. Here's the front cover:

  As you can see the art is fucking hilarious and it looks like Cool Cat is being held at gunpoint. And again, I'd like to point out that it wasn't even Derek who drew this, it was some guy named Robert Rainbow. Imagine paying someone to draw your book and getting this in return. Also, fun thing to note, Daddy Derek is actually a cat in this one (Yes, that is actually supposed to be Derek, since Cool Cat refers to him as Daddy Derek in the book) which poses the question of why the ever-loving FUCK isn't Derek a cat in the movie? (I'll tell you why, it's because Derek still thinks he's hot and wants to show off his "body" in the movie, plus the fact that he was likely way too cheap to have more than one costume made, though it could have easily been avoided by not having the parents, namely Derek, show up often, or in such complex scenes, etc etc. You get the drift, it's just lazy and self-aggrandizing).

Following that, there's the back of the cover.

  Again, not much to analyze in detail, except for the fact that Derek would apparently charge $3.49 for this shitty thing, despite the fact that you can read it in around 2 minutes or under.

  After that there's the side of the cover, which actually has some sad little tidbits of its own.

  If you look closely enough, you can see that the book is fucking stapled together, which I find hilariously depressing. In addition, the publisher is sourced as "Blue Thunder Books" which from my extensive google searching towards the topic, doesn't seem to be a real publisher.

  I would love to post every page of the book itself, but I feel like that might be grounds for some kind of copyright takedown from Derek, though I'll continue looking for some legal way for you guys to see each page, since each one has an illustration, and they're fucking hysterical. Here's a single image for you guys as a little teaser:

  Anywho, onto what you all have been waiting for, the main attraction, the only thing that was purchased and all this other junk just came with for free: The movie. You all have probably seen the box a hundred times, so there's not much for me to analyze there, but here's the front:

  One thing I'd like to point out that I haven't seen anyone else discuss is the fact that Derek and Maria, though most notably Maria, are incredibly low quality and poorly cropped in, to the point where you can't really even make out Maria's face since it's so blurry.

Here's the back:

And here's the side:

  What's interesting to note here is the fact that on the top of the side there's two little icon image things, one of Cool Cat, and one of Vivica Fox, both of which are pretty low quality.

Anywho, enough stalling. Time to open this motherfucker up.

  I'll be honest, when I first opened this thing up, the first thing I noticed was the smell, oddly enough. It's really hard for me to describe, though I will say it's a weirdly bitter, sour smell, maybe something like glue mixed with something else. I have no idea. Anywho, as it was previously pointed out by YMS, the image on the disc is literally a fucking sticker. Unlike YMS's, however, is the fact that it doesn't come off just by breathing on it, so I'm guessing it was just glued to the disc. In all honesty, I haven't even put the disc in my computer to play it yet, since I'm afraid I'll either somehow get a virus from it or that it'll melt inside my computer. I'll just put it in.

Okay, so after putting the disc in the DVD the Disc Drive I got this.

Alright, so there are two folders, the audio one is empty. Great. Then there's the video one.

No idea what this means. Guess I'll have to play it on a DVD player for now.

  Anywho, I guess that there wraps up my analysis! It was mainly me just blabbing on and on about things you probably don’t care about, and doesn't really have a conclusive "end'' or anything, but hey if anything else pops up I'll be sure to notify you guys. Thanks for reading this far if you did, and hopefully Tumblr won't crash before I can post it this time.

#mod cool cat #cool cat #cool cat saves the kids #cool cat loves you #this took forever #I put too much time and effort into things #dirty cool cat confessions #i wonder if derek would appreciate my review of his shipment ;)

[siliconwebx]

What is that Smiley Face Doing in your WordPress Footer?

Designing a website is tedious, and there’s nothing more frustrating than finally finishing up and then noticing something out of place. The WordPress smiley is just that sort of thing – a teeny, tiny smiley face that came out of nowhere and is now taunting you. Here it is, the fiend (I included other elements of my website and desktop in this screenshot to help show the scale of the smiley face):

That smiley is so small that I didn’t see it even when I purposely went to look for it. However, it’s the kind of thing that you can’t un-see once you’ve seen it – like an itsy bitsy, adorable horror movie scene. If it’s driving you nuts or you think it makes your website look unprofessional, we can get rid of it.

Note that you may only be able to see the smiley if you’re logged out of WordPress. If you think it’s there but you can’t find it, make sure you’re logged out, then refresh the web page and check again.

Where Does the Smiley Come From?

Ahh, the question of the hour. You may see the WordPress stats smiley if you use Jetpack or the defunct WordPress.com Stats plugin. Both plugins insert the WordPress footer smiley in order to effectively run site stats and to show you that it’s working. The image has to load in order to track your stats, but you can still hide it.

Jetpack and the WordPress Smiley

Jetpack comes pre-installed with your WordPress website, and it has all sorts of functions to pick and choose from. One of Jetpack’s features is Site Stats. You may not use most of Jetpack, but for some users, it’s worth it for the stats feature alone. You can disable the features you don’t want to use so they don’t get in your way.

Site Stats is like a diluted type of Google Analytics, and you can view everything right from your WordPress dashboard. You can see information like keyword searches, page views and traffic. The way you know Site Stats is working is thanks to that little smiley face.

Source: Jetpack.com

How to Get Rid of the WordPress Smiley in Jetpack

Getting rid of the WordPress smiley in Jetpack couldn’t be easier. If you have Jetpack version 3.1 or later, the smiley shouldn’t even be on by default.

Login to your website, hover over Jetpack in the left-hand menu and then choose Site Stats from the menu that automatically pops up.

Next, click the “Configure” link at the top of the page.

About halfway down the page, you’ll see the “Smiley” heading. To the right are a checkbox and an option to hide the smiley. Click the checkbox, then click “Save configuration” at the bottom of the page. This section also reiterates the point that you technically need the smiley, but hiding it (instead of getting rid of it entirely) will be just fine.

Log out of WordPress and then go to your website. The smiley face should be gone:

If it’s not, clear your cache and reload the page, or open up a different browser (Chrome if you usually use Safari, for example) and check it there.

To toggle the smiley on, follow these same steps and just uncheck the checkbox when you get to the Configure screen. When you’re just starting to use Jetpack Site Stats, you may want to keep the smiley face enabled for a couple of weeks to make sure it’s running properly.

WordPress.com Stats Plugin and the WordPress Smiley

A note on the WordPress.com Stats plugin page says it was closed on March 30, 2019, and that it can no longer be downloaded. Since the plugin has merged with Jetpack, this section is strictly for those who are still using the original plugin – you shouldn’t be, but in case you are, these CSS changes will help you get rid of the smiley the right way.

Since the merge with Jetpack, there’s no way to upgrade the original plugin, which means its ineffective and unsafe to use at this point. If you continue to use WordPress.com Stats, it may not function properly now or in the future because it won’t get updates. If you’re still using the plugin, you’re encouraged to switch over to Jetpack.

Hide the Smiley, Don’t Delete It

The nice thing about the Jetpack smiley on/off checkbox is that it correctly hides the smiley without deleting it entirely. With the old plugin, though, you have to make CSS changes to hide the smiley.

Don’t use display:none.

In order to display the stats, the image still has to load, so you don’t want to use a code that will get rid of the image completely. (You also don’t want to use the WP Stats Smiley Remover plugin, because it’ll add the display:none CSS.)

Instead, find this code on the stylesheet:

img#wpstats{width:0px;height:0px;overflow:hidden}

Change it to:

img#wpstats{visibility:hidden}

By using visibility:hidden instead of display:none, the smiley will still be able to load and take up space, you just won’t be able to see it.

Get Rid of the Gray Bar

Depending on the layout of your website, you may notice a light gray bar in the footer after adding the new code. Even though the smiley isn’t showing, its background color is. This code should take care of that:

img#wpstats{position:absolute;top:0;width:0px;height:0px;overflow:hidden}

Wrapping Up, Smiley-Free

When you’re deep in the web design vortex, there’s nothing worse than seeing something you don’t want there but have no idea how to remove. Irregularities can also make you think you’ve been hacked – is that smiley face truly happy or is that, like, a “got you” evil smile? This anomaly at least has a simple explanation and a quick fix. That’s much different from what the smiley reminds me of, which is the sad Mac – remember that? Terrifying.

Did this little hack leave you wanting more? Here are 11 online places to learn WordPress inside and out.

The post What is that Smiley Face Doing in your WordPress Footer? appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐ElegantThemes

#Silicon Web Design #Ahmedabad #India #Web Development #WPBeginner #Silicon URL #Web Site #Cloud Host

[dipalmoo]

Homage to all who follow and establish this holy path...

That's a line from the Daily Recollection that's recited at the monastery I'm affiliated with. It reminds us how much we owe to those who have blazed the trail for us, and to those whose company we keep as we make our own way along.

It's hard to remember exactly how and when I got an inkling that there was such a thing as awareness practice. I think it must've come through my high-school boyfriend, Eric, whose mother was a spiritual seeker and had turned him on to books from some of best teachers of the late '60s. From him I first heard of Fritz Perls, and Gurdjieff, and Ouspensky, and Gestalt therapy, and I believe he once loaned me a copy of Alan Watts's The Wisdom of Insecurity. (At least I remember trying to read it at the time, and he was the only person I knew then who could possibly have given it to me.) I found it utterly opaque, and soon put it down. I came across it again last year, and read it easily, and with enjoyment. It was reassuring to find that I actually did understand more at 62 than I did at 16!

Also in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, I discovered Ram Dass, through his iconic book Be Here Now. Once again, I was baffled by what I read...but not quite as baffled as I'd been by the Watts book. Every few pages, I'd come across something that would strike a chord, and that kept me going (the groovy illustrations helped too). I felt as if I'd fallen down the rabbit hole into a world I never knew existed, where the words were the same but meant different things, and the residents had information about truth and reality that I had never encountered. I was intrigued. Even though I found much of what I was reading incomprehensible, I sensed that it was true in a deeper way than any other "true" things I knew. I read BHN over and over. Like all great books, it taught me something new every time I picked it up. I bought and gave away multiple copies, hoping it would have the same magical effect on people I cared about. I hadn't thought about it in years, though, when I recently came across a copy in a used book store. It was like running into a dear old friend. I picked it up and read through most of it in a few minutes, smiling and nodding to myself, even getting a little teary-eyed. The content, once so mysterious, was as familiar and obvious as my grocery list.

Since those early days of seeking, I've benefited from the wisdom of so many teachers and writers that it's impossible to list them all. Some of my favorites: Charlotte Joko Beck, D.T. Suzuki, Philip Kapleau, Thich Nat Hanh, Henri Nouwen, Anthony DeMello, Stephen Mitchell, Stephen Batchelor....

Which brings me, finally, to the real point of this post: homage to the teacher who’s taught me the most. Cheri Huber. Oddly, given how important she’s been in my life, I can’t remember exactly when I first picked up one of her books. I think it might have been in the now-defunct Borders store in Pasadena, CA, probably in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s. I can’t even remember which of her many books it was that I picked up; I want to think it was the grandmother of them all, There is Nothing Wrong with You. Really, it doesn’t matter. Everything she’s ever written has been illuminating for me. I’ve been a follower and supporter of the organizations she founded (the Zen Monastery Peace Center and Living Compassion) for more than two decades now. It is no exaggeration to say that what I’ve learned from her has saved my life. Cheri’s wisdom will be all over this blog (to the point where I will worry about violating fair use), because pretty much every important insight I’ve ever had has come from her guidance. Still, I want to make it clear that whatever I say about her teaching is just my interpretation, and reflects my still-evolving understanding. If anything I attribute to her interests you, I strongly encourage you to go to the source and explore her many practice offerings for yourself. The place to start is living compassion.org. 

#zen awareness practice Buddhism mindfulness meditation