Valentine's Day - Photo by Kathleen Blurock - Words Edna St. Vincent Millay

                  First Fig

     
"My candle burns at both ends;
 It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends
It gives a lovely light."

               


                    Edna St. Vincent Millay



Brentwood Park 1997 Kathleen Matson Blurock

Downton Abbey - Episode 6 - Lady Cora's Wardrobe - Edwardian bliss

Ok, I know this isn't the most delightful photo of Lady Cora, and she is reacting to Lord Robert telling her she is unfeeling toward Lady Mary's love for Matthew (she organized Lavinia's return along with help from Sir Richard Carlisle). Hmmm,
but the dress,

OH,
again,
Swoon,

so very lovely with the cut out netted bodice.  And along with Chanel, there is Elie Saab whose evening dresses I am sure these Ladies would be wearing if they lived today. Elie Saab's runway show on his website absolutely made me squeal with delight. http://www.eliesaab.com/ If you click onto this give it some time to load as it is the runway show and it is worth it, completely exquisite dresses.

After Episode 6 I was exhausted. So many cuts back and forth into everyone's drama, and really, Lord Robert and the housemaid? Oh, I hated that. What does that do to our trust in him? Does it mean just because he's eating alone he's ripe for the housemaid to pounce?
And the Dowager Countess telling Matthew that Lady Mary is still in love with him, and Mary and Matthew dancing together and kissing, and Lavinia being taken by the Spanish Flu. Oh my God, the twists and turns. Sybil and Branson getting together, and BATES being taken off in handcuffs. I don't have time to recap it all. Watch the episode on the PBS website.
http://www.pbs.org/,

and take the quiz again, to see how your likes & dislikes of characters have changed.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/season2_characters_vote.html

and get ready for Sunday evening's finish. This is the Christmas special, Downton Abbey complete with the tree. Everything gets tidied up this weekend. What will we do without those dresses? 

Books - Linda Pyle - Excerpt from the THE MINNESOTA GOODBYE

     What is the heart of a child? How do I get back the open door policy with no waiting room or 

receptionist filing her nails, no security system or visiting hour, fire alarms or emergency exits, no 

insurance policies or saving accounts. The heart of a child grabs you by the cheeks with both hands and 

says I love you. It says in a pink dress, "Good morning, I hate you. I wish you were dead." Then eats a 

bowl of cereal. 

     The heart of a child teaches you chess at midnight on a school night. It reaches out her left shadow 

hand to her right shadow hand and pulls her shadow into her body. It has all the good and bad on the 

surface level of the bathtub water with the rubber duck. It lets you brush it's teeth. It never second 

guesses or asks your opinion or asks for you to be sacrifice on the alter of art or religion. It just adores 

your words and stick figures, no questions asked, and when the collective world says no, it just laughs 

because the heart of a child does not understand the world no.

Linda Pyle

Author of Peaks,Palms & Picnics-Palm Springs revised and updated 2011

and Pacific Peaks & Picnics Day Journeys in San Diego County.

http://www.lindampyle.com/index.html

Downton Abbey - Episode 5 - Lady Mary's Wardrobe

Swoon.
Oh,
swoon,
and when you get off the floor take another look at this dress.

SHARE with a friend.

Lady Mary Crawley, Julian Fellowes fictional heroine (at least for me) in DOWNTON ABBEY,  has the most glorious dinner dresses, this one only rivaled by the white lace blouse with the diagonal black bows up the front that Leslie Caron wore in Gigi on the afternoon she awaited Gaston's dinner appointment for that evening. The closest thing I see to this level of beauty is in Chanel on Robertson, (and perhaps some of the cut out dresses and jackets from Oscar de la Renta, and Valentino, and Prada.) Chanel has a black and white dress with a cut out bodice that IS a dress to make one cry out. Girls love this stuff. And I think Susannah Buxton, the costume designer is remarkable. She has created not only the evening gowns, but everyone from the servants to the people in the village to the entire cast of characters.

Oh, Goddess. Downton Abbey has me swooning. I know. I know what people say and I don't care. There is no guilt in this pleasure. I LOVE DOWNTON ABBEY.

Julian Fellowes is brilliant. He writes scenes, so short and full of fabulous dialogue and one liners that keep the story moving. Some of my favorites:

Edith to that obvious nut ball imposter Patrick whose grotesque, carney, comical, bug eyed nasty bandaged face makes me look away: "It must be so hard for you with Mary getting married."

Lady Mary to Edith: "Any fortune teller at a fair comes up with a dozen details he couldn't possibly know."

Carson to Lady Mary: "...a huge wrench to leave Downton."

Lord Robert to Lady Mary: "you know there is nothing more ill bred than to steal other people's servants."

Violet to Isobel: "you decide which is more important, exercise classes and lectures on pottery or helping men and women build a new life."
Violet got rid of her...is Isobel dim, or just in need of compliments like us all? Well, she certainly was pushy about someone else's home and doesn't seem to get the message.

Anna to O'Brien: "the trick of business is to mind your own." Good girl, glad someone has the nerve to stand up to O'Brien. And what is with these tete-a-tetes she has with Thomas, always standing around smoking, cooking up some kind of evil. Doesn't she think writing a letter to Vera Bates telling her that her husband, Mr. Bates is back at Downton will have some kind of consequence?

Daisy to Mrs. Patmore and staff: "It wasn't kind, it was wrong."
Poor Daisy, she is in a muddle after being pushed into marrying William. She's a good girl, she is, and just so young.

Mrs. Hughes to Ethel: "you've broken the rules, my girl, and it's no good pretending they're easily mended."

Lady Mary to Matthew: "I don't have to marry him, you know."
Matthew to Lady Mary: If you were not engaged to be married I wouldn't let you anywhere near me."

Lavinia to Matthew: "you won't drive me away whatever you do." Well, my girl, that's clear enough, hate to think what is going to happen next to you. Watch your words.

For some reason I am not as interested in Lady Sybil's communion with Branson, but that's probably just me. I'm much more interested in Lady Mary and Matthew and what is pulling in that direction.

There is so much red in this visual content. Deep red Jacobean settees, Lady Cora's red velvet dress, Lady Mary's red suit for London, Sir Richard Carlisle's drapes in his dressing room in Downton Abbey, Isobel's deep claret suit on visiting Violet. Luscious. Superb. Swoon.

Haxby Prk the house Sir Richard takes Lady Mary to inspect, and offers for their home is a crazy mix of french chateau in the English countryside. "Your lot buys it, my lot inherits it." And why does Lord Grantham seem to take an interest in the new housemaid's son when he is alone at luncheon? Is he lonely? Does he fancy her? No, I don't think so, but still, why?

Yes, Downton Abbey is superb, but I would take Isobel's house with it's pale minty green fabric lined walls any day of the week. The critics are right. This is a daydream, a fantasy so very well written, so very well acted, and filmed at the actual Highclere Castle, home of the Earls and Countesses of Carnarvon for hundreds of years.

In between Episodes, Julian Fellowes novel SNOBS is a very good read.

Poetry - Chiwan Choi

mercy and water

Chiwan Choi

for the past year,

more than ever,

i’ve been trying to run away

from all things in my life,

wanting to create reasons

that can explain the way

my body has failed me.

years ago i ran all the way to new york,

ending up drunk on st. marks with a new tribe,

then leaving these strangers in bed

to walk in the rain

on 32nd and 3rd, 

heading uptown then down

to that room where i left my bag

hanging on a metal chair,

surprised at the city,

how it keeps itself from getting lost

in the dawn breaking

between these two branches,

twisted and skinny,

pointing toward and away.

before that

was a house in the palisades

and another by the beach,

that one still haunted

by the owner’s dead love,

and dark west l.a. bars

with sticky red booths

and blind promises exchanged through touch.

it’s here again

and i can’t quite handle

the slow way in which we are dying,  

my family propped up 

by secrets and scar tissues,

a yearlong charade of doctors and tests

that ends with me sitting

on an examining table,

the man with the polish name

telling me that he doesn’t know

why bodies like mine stop.

“i can’t explain it,” he says.

and it leads to this:

walking out of another bar 

into the night that is almost morning.

i put my hands in the pockets 

of a $10 coat bought at a second hand store

on la brea,

unable to tell the time or the day, 

how the past year has blurred 

into an endless moment of regretting, 

but the feet start to move faster without thought, 

the memories in the body taking over, 

mercy and water drops

on the curve of a side mirror—

the night and some path

toward that thing we call familiar,

a permanent forgiveness

like concrete and a tongue behind your ear—

wanting me to get there in time 

to see her standing in front of the vanity, 

rubbing scentless lotion 

into her bare shoulders, 

her speckled skin illuminated 

by a small dim lamp

we found on the street.

Chiwan Choi is a writer, editor, teacher, and publisher. He has been a member of the Los Angeles Poets & Writers Collective since 1989. His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including ONTHEBUS, Esquire, and circa. Chiwan’s first major collection of poetry, The Flood, was published by Tía Chucha Press in April, 2010. 

He is a regular in the Los Angeles literary circuit, often invited as a featured poet at readings at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood and the legendary Beyond Baroque in Venice. He also leads two writing workshops, one in downtown and one in Santa Monica.

After a two-year stint in New York, where he received an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the Tisch School at NYU, Chiwan returned to Los Angeles where he and his wife, Judeth Oden, launched a new publishing company to feature Los Angeles writers, Writ Large Press, in March 2008.

He lives in Downtown Los Angeles with his wife and their dog, Bella.

http://chiwanchoi.com/abductions

http://writlargepress.com/

Flower Design - Fantin-Latour

“give me my Romeo 

                  and when he shall die, 

take him and cut him out 

                    in little stars 

and he will make the face of heaven so fine 

that all the world will be in love 

          with night.” 

            William Shakespeare

Books - LADY ALMINA And The REAL DOWNTON ABBEY

Lady Fiona, the current COUNTESS OF CARNARVON has written a marvelous account of LADY ALMINA, the 5th COUNTESS OF CARNARVON, and her life in Highclere Castle, Downton Abbey's alter ego.

I have just finished her book...devoured it I should say, and very helpful reading as I am watching Downton Abbey.

How many women with this kind of money would have used it with such generosity?

Oh, get the book and read it. It will only take you 4 hours, and then, as you watch Downton Abbey, it takes on yet another meaning because you are looking at the same furniture, paintings, draperies that Lady Almina lived with, and on our televisions, with their excellent resolution it is so easy to be swept away. Guilt free indulgence. So much is being written about this. Is it a clue to understanding the classes, the war, society?

Poetry - Kathleen Blurock

The Love Poems

2

             Poetry,   like love 

takes time 

One must    Set the stage 

Cry the ancient river from far against the shore 

Observe sea faring monsters and hold the other’s crown 

Gallop the stallion at spume of churning dusk 

Ignore the headstones in cemeteries 

spread like poppies over country fields 

watercolor by Scottish artist Sheila Mitchell

Poetry is like love 

Ignite the bonfire that catches clothes ablaze

With thunderbolts from heaven 

Spread your hair as blankets

In time with the music 

Forget the compliments from wide-eyed readers

From star struck fanatics 

From light lipped lads 

Surrender to the ethers when thousands stand booing 

Love is like poetry 

It’s doors magically open with proper fondling

Just when I arrive back on earth 

I hear the kick at heaven’s door 

Love is like poetry 

Its fragile breath comes alive 

At the strangest hour 

Like a changeling morphs the woman 

from wife to muse,

from wife to lover, 

to mistress, paramour, concubine, flirt. 

The shovel in miniature for the hole before me. 

Leave love to              youth? 

As I feel the mighty change my

Wrinkling mind fogs, breasts sag, skin slacks      scales tip 

No                                                 Wait 

I have not forgotten 

Love is like money           and it’s 5 ways.

I have earned it 

As I have inherited it 

As I have married it

Naturally, I have stolen it.

Honestly have I won it?

There we are at cross-purposes.

To conjure love is to go into battle. 

I am not certain I can carry the gun. 

Better to dream under a canopy of trees, 

Better to laugh at ideas, 

Better to love fashion and it’s pleated starched collars, 

laced brocaded jackets, 

Shoes adorned with velvet, 

                      undergarments of heavy silk, 

scarves trimmed in sable like 

air of angels upon my neck 

Gloves of leather in brilliant colour 

Robes of cashmere over satin gowns 

Hats embellished with cabbage roses

Precious cargo in which to win. 

Yes, I see ropes of pearls, 

I see carbuncles of rubies,   I see sapphires, I see diamonds, 

and fragrance pressed from exotic flowers, 

Oh the calculus of places to engage 

Tweed suits with massive jewels pinned to the shoulder 

What do I seek? 

Knowledge in a taffeta skirt.

There is so much to love 

If one looks closely.

The drop of rain on the bloom of the flower 

The fragrance of cut grass 

The smile in my lover’s eyes. 

Did I say lover, you know I mean my husband,

And all the delights of the world 

Literature, music, the arts, fashion.

After all one must clothe oneself. 

Kathleen Matson Blurock lives in Los Angeles, California, and is a member of the Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective. She has written and self published 8 chapbooks, produced and directed a short film on makeup, Ritual 93, published interviews with film director Henry Jaglom and actor Viveca Lindfors, and acted in Jaglom’s VENICE/VENICE, SHOPPING and HOLLYWOOD DREAMS. 

POETRY - Jill Rosenthal

Love Letter To My Daughter 

By Jill Rosenthal

I’m having a sizzling love affair with my daughter.

I gaze at her when she’s not looking, 

And even when she is.  

“Quit it, Momma,” she says

Looking back down to pull 

A lime green prom dress 

Over her Barbie’s knees.

In the bathtub she’ll hand me that doll,

And tell me to be “The Mom.”

“Why do I always have to be The Mom,” I’ll ask,

And she’ll huff a lock of hair out of her eyes and smile:

“Cause I’m the kid!”

I’m in love with her because

During her soccer games, 

She stands in the middle of the field 

And looks for butterflies,

Or makes up a dance,

Trying to turn her toes out with her elbows,

As though that will help. 

Because at night, after I’ve set down 

Her glass of water,

And fluffed her pillow,

And checked the closet –   

She holds very still,

So I can kiss her face 15 times,

Only her eyes following me

As I make the rounds: 

Three on her right cheek, 

Three more on her forehead, 

Left cheek, chin and nose.

Nose is always last.

And because every morning,

I find her in my bed – 

Legs intertwined with mine,

Blond hair fanned out across my sheets,

And when I say: “Who’s been sleeping in my bed?” 

She burrows her face

Deep into my pillow

And giggles.

Muffled giggles,

Elbows akimbo,

“Quit it, Momma”

I’m so in love.

Jill Rosenthal is an attorney, writer and longtime member of the Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective. She has taught poetry classes at UC Berkeley and more recently through Get Lit; Words Ignite – a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing classic poetry to inner city students (and recently honored by Michelle Obama at White House).  Her performance of “Avoiding Penetration” -- an original humorous poem about explaining sex to her daughter -- can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEFjDMV4J00.)

Flower Design Fantin-Latour

"I think that flowers in themselves are one of the miracles of life, and that it is wonderful in every way to occupy oneself with them, but you will know that I have a special passion for arranging them. Every time it is as if you were painting a flower picture..."

                          Karen Blixen


What is Love?
Like Shakespeare, unfathomable.
The Love Poems examines sexual love, love for one's child, alive or gone, the love of friends, silver threads that connect through time, love of one's home, the inner space of the inner space, and love of art, music, fashion. Love transforms beyond or imagination.
WE LOVE and Love is not final.