c'est chic

Independence Day 2008

2008-07-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness..."

Rabbit, Rabbit

2008-07-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

Top Five Motivators

2008-06-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

1. Fear
2. Guilt
3. Anger
4. Resentment
5. Love

Today's fragrance: Tom Ford Azurée Soleil eau fraiche

Peonies and Heritage Roses

2008-06-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Falling Out of Love

2008-05-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

You start to notice the little things.
Like how you don't post as much.
Like how you never learned to use your digital camera to post your own visuals.
Like how you now hate the color scheme that you tried to superimpose over the kind but Levittown-esque Blogger template.
Like how even your faithful three (maybe up to six) readers agree with you that your Blog is boring.
At least you still like the name.
So ... what do you do when you have to break up with your blog?
You knock the whole damn thing down (after taking time to sift through the 799 previous posts {YES, THIS IS ACTUALLY THE 800TH POST} to see what's worth saving)
And start over.
Look for a New and Different C'est Chic coming soon.

Rabbit, Rabbit

2008-05-01T19:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, just imagine you see a rabbit in this space. Like a Cheshire cat, only different. Thank you.

Shaal Nur

2008-04-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

It's about time for my semi-annual fragrance review, isn't it? Ok. Today I wore Etro Shaal Nur. It smelled good.

Here's more vital information from the mini-review of September 1, 2006 (jeez, I've been blogging a long time): Shaal Nur with citrus, spices, karo karoundé, narcissus, jonquil ... what I get is a transparent incense-y rose, akin to the sheer beauty of Sonoma Scent Studio's Tranquility. That same wisp-of-holy-smokeness quality, plus a subtle florality.

Earth Day 2008

2008-04-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

I Got Something Anyway

2008-04-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

I got a flu shot. I wash my hands religiously. I aim my patented glare at people who cough on the bus (I don't care if they can't help it). I boil pens and paper after my ill coworkers touched them and avoided them completely if I could help it. And yet, I'm in bed sick. I've been blowing my nose for two days. My head aches. I sneeze.

I'm only on this blog right now to tell you how sorry I feel for myself.

If I die, remember me as the sweet, good-tempered, never-sarcastic dear person I never was.

God, I feel awful.

A Memory of Pesach

2008-04-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight marks the first night of Passover ... and pulls out a memory of seder with my now ex-laws. Waiting, waiting, waiting through the reading of the Haggadah for the reward of my mother-in-law's salty chicken soup and a "matzoh sandwich," the wonderful mix of charoset and a touch of horseradish on the cardboard-like matzoh. I'll never forget it or them.

Once Upon A Dream

2008-04-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

Maleficent: It's INCREDIBLE! *Sixteen years* and not a *trace* of her! She couldn't have vanished into thin air. [to her goons] Maleficent: Are you sure you searched everywhere? Maleficent's goon: Yes, yes, everywhere. We *all* did. [the rest of the goons agree chatteringly] Maleficent: But what about the towns? The forests? The *mountains*? Maleficent's goon: Uh-huh, we've searched mountains and forests and, uh, houses and... uh, lemme see here... and in all the cradles. Maleficent: Cradles? Maleficent's goon: Yes, yes, every cradle. Maleficent: *Cradles*? [to her pet raven, talking sarcastically about the goons]

Maleficent: Did you hear that, my pet? All these years, they've been looking for a baby [She bursts out laughing, as do her goons]

painting: Arthur Rackham's Sleeping Beauty; quote: Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty

Do Not Wound If You Cannot Kill

2008-04-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.

Machiavelli

AND featuring completely unrelated photo of chocolate cherries, because I want one.

Old Clothes

2008-04-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

The plaintive theme of Simon and Garfunkel's Bookends...

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories;
They're all that's left you

... uses photographs to preserve memories. I use my old clothes.

Try as I might to stuff history into a bag for our neighborhood's version of Goodwill, I can't let go of a certain pink robe, certain blue flowered underwear, two oversize black sweaters (threadbare and dating from 1988) and a beautiful but dated gray knit dress.

I don't know what I'm going to do with them, except let them rot in my closet and bureau. Maybe they'll serve as a shroud: bury me in them.

But I can't let them go. They comfort me.

An Ordinary Man Who Did Extraordinary Things

2008-04-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

1/15/29 - 4/4/68

Tibet

2008-04-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Soviet Govern-ment of China recognizes the right of self-deter-mination of the national minorities in China, their right to complete separation from China and to the formation of an independent state for each national minority.

Mao Zedong, Resolution of the First All-China Congress of Soviets, November 1931

photo by Elizabeth Huff

Rabbit, Rabbit!

2008-04-01T06:14:00.000-07:00

For Doug, Ariel, Benvenuta, Winter-wheat, TSDuff, the lovely TLP and my dear Bela. And Happy April Fool's Day as well!

Also SEK, I know you're out there.

Quoth Morpheus...

2008-03-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

"Neo, soon you're going to realize just as I did, there is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path."

Odo Nnyew Fie Kwan Frame*

2008-03-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

The body of Matt Maupin, the American soldier captured by Iraqi insurgents on April 9, 2004, has been found and identified by DNA.

Staff Sergeant Maupin is finally coming home.

*Love never loses its way home ... the West African proverb used by his family and in Iraq among the troops to describe the search for Staff Sergeant Maupin.

I'm a Classicist preen

2008-03-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Two brief thoughts on perfume that i just posted on Twitter (since I have zero followers on that "killer app" and I know I have at least two readers here. Oh, one. Because Doug doesn't care about perfume).

I'm either in a rut or have become a classicist. What I love now is what I've loved for three years.

Tell me what's better than Ormonde Jayne? Than the early Serge Lutens? Than the F. Malle greats: Une Rose and Musc Ravageur? Than select Guerlains and Carons?

Somehow I've lost the lust to follow every new niche brand. What's wrong with me?

Or what's right?

Persephone, Bernini

Earth Hour: 3/29/08 8 p.m.

2008-03-29T09:12:00.000-07:00

What changed in the United States with Hurricane Katrina was a feeling that we have entered a period of consequences. Al Gore

Join the rolling blackout of the Earth tonight at 8 pm your time ... to demonstrate we can conserve energy and lower carbon emission.

One hour in the dark tonight to demonstrate we've seen the light.

Idiomatic Logic Going On In My Head

2008-03-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

My analyst told me
That I was right out of my head
The way he described it
He said I'd be better dead than live
I didn't listen to his jive
I knew all along
That he was all wrong
And I knew that he thought
I was crazy but I'm not.
Oh no.
So why should I feel sorry
If they just couldn't understand
The idiomatic logic
That went on in my head?

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, covered by Joni Mitchell, Twisted

Tea and Oranges that Come All the Way from China

2008-03-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

Once there was a sullen teenager who sat in her dorm room, smoking cigarettes in the flickering candlelight and pretty much believing Cohen had written this song about her. Never mind that her college was landlocked in the midwest and there was no river -- or boat -- in miles.

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river

You can hear the boats go by

You can spend the night beside her

And you know that she's half crazy

But that's why you want to be there

And she feeds you tea and oranges

That come all the way from China

And just when you mean to tell her

That you have no love to give her

Then she gets you on her wavelength

And she lets the river answer

That you've always been her lover

And you want to travel with her

And you want to travel blind

And you know that she will trust you

For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.

And Jesus was a sailor

When he walked upon the water

And he spent a long time watching

From his lonely wooden tower

And when he knew for certain

Only drowning men could see him

He said "All men will be sailors then

Until the sea shall free them"

But he himself was broken

Long before the sky would open

Forsaken, almost human

He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

And you want to travel with him

And you want to travel blind

And you think maybe you'll trust him

For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now Suzanne takes your hand

And she leads you to the river

She is wearing rags and feathers

From Salvation Army counters

And the sun pours down like honey

On our Lady of the Harbour

And she shows you where to look

Among the garbage and the flowers

There are heroes in the seaweed

There are children in the mourning

They are leaning out for love

And they will lean that way forever

While Suzanne holds the mirror

And you want to travel with her

And you want to travel blind

And you know that you can trust her

For she's touched your perfect body with her mind.

painting Scott William Simmons 2003

Easter 2008

2008-03-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

On a rainy Seattle Easter, memories of church:
The Methodist church temporarily located in a post-war tract house in Dayton, Ohio ... a Methodist church with a green-walled basement in Sweetser, Indiana ... the gray stone Bethlehem United Church of Christ in Ann Arbor, Michigan ... the towering sanctuary of St. Mark's Cathedral, an Anglican church in Seattle ... then a long period when my place of worship was Temple Beth Am in Seattle, with its Torah scrolls in their golden Ark ... and now, my thoughts more often return to the Christian churches of my childhood.

This, from the Methodists, has always been my favorite Easter hymn:

Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!

Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!

Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!

Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!

Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!

Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!

Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!

Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!

Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!

Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!

Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!

King of glory, soul of bliss, Alleluia!

Everlasting life is this, Alleluia!

Thee to know, thy power to prove, Alleluia!

Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia!

For those who celebrate, I wish a Joyous Easter.

It's Spring!

2008-03-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

since feeling is first

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for eachother: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

e.e. cummings

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

May your glass be ever full.

May the roof over your head be always strong.

And may you be in Heaven

Half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.

c'est chic

Independence Day 2008

Rabbit, Rabbit

Top Five Motivators

Peonies and Heritage Roses

Falling Out of Love

Rabbit, Rabbit

Shaal Nur

Earth Day 2008

I Got Something Anyway

A Memory of Pesach

Once Upon A Dream

Do Not Wound If You Cannot Kill

Old Clothes

An Ordinary Man Who Did Extraordinary Things

Tibet

Rabbit, Rabbit!

Quoth Morpheus...

Odo Nnyew Fie Kwan Frame*

I'm a Classicist *preen*

Earth Hour: 3/29/08 8 p.m.

Idiomatic Logic Going On In My Head

Tea and Oranges that Come All the Way from China

Easter 2008

It's Spring!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm a Classicist preen