Get Low Trailer (HD)

Seen it a few months ago... I think it's one of my favorite films (ok, the list is quite long..).

Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation -The Girl From The North Country

Friends

I saw them that year... the best concert I've ever been to... Enjoy!

Warning!

There's a crazy woman on the loose on the West Coast... Her name is Gayle Hajek, she has a cool blog called A Vintage Green Life and I am very proud to call her my friend...
A couple of weeks ago, she found some cool pods that looked like bats and she decided I needed some... So we agreed to have a kind of swap... She said she'd send a few pods along with "some" stuff... yeah "some"...shaking my head... little did I know that "some" in Gayle's world meant "loads of"... and to prove it... well look at the pictures below... and she even apologized for the "messy" packaging... sigh...

Some of the goodies already found their way to my "voodoo" necklace... I think the necklace should have another name... I like "voodoo" because it kinda creeps some people... but the more I think about it, the more I see it like some kind of shaman-memory necklace... each element has a meaning, a story to tell about my travels, my family and my friends (who are family to me)...

Gayle makes and collects memory jugs ( the very first ones I saw were on her blog even though I heard of them before) and I think this necklace is my wearable version of a memory jug...

THANK YOU GAYLE... for your friendship, your support and for having found me... And THANK YOU to all of my friends... It's hard for me to express my feelings but I want you to know that I love you to bits...

When The Levee Breaks - Jimmy Page & Robert Plant

still

tribal

hoodoo you think you are?

... a mess... in progress
A bit lighter... a bit darker... a bit deeper... a bit stronger... still there...coming up for air... even if air burns my lungs...

This one was made some 5 or 6 years ago... It changed a bit 4 years ago... then was forgotten... yesterday I found it again... I toyed with the idea to change it but decided it was okay as it was...

Pearl Jam Just Breathe video

Pearl Jam - I Am Mine (Reading '06)

Pearl Jam - Given To Fly - SVT

Why do you think you're odd and different, a lonely outsider,
when all that's happened is
you haven't found your family?
Richard Bach

Thank you for your awesome comments on the last post and for your e-mails...

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.
Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.
Richard Bach

the forgotten child...

I usally don't like it very much when people get too personal on their blogs... It upsets me a bit, I feel like a voyeur and at the same time I think of how brave they are... Well it's my turn... it's a bit like joining the AA meetings...
So here we go...
I am the forgotten child... Who is the forgotten child, you might ask?
The forgotten child is the one who lives and grows up with a sick sibling... in the shadow of a sick sibling...
My brother had cystic fibrosis... or should I say my family had cystic fibrosis... because this disease not only affects the one who suffers from it, it affects every family member... and especially the forgotten child... Why is that so? Because the forgotten child suffers is silence... When you are the forgotten child you learn from a very early age not to complain... Why should you? You're healthy... So you don't complain, even when you have the right to do so... you shut up, you shut down, you repress you needs and emotions... you don't want to be a burden to your family, they already have enough on their plate... you put a brave face on, you are the little soldier, you carry the world on your shoulders and you don't complain... never... and if you do well you are soon reminded that you should not... And Cystic Fibrosis rules the family life... every aspect of it... from the time you get up to what you will eat... And Cystic Fibrosis tortures the sick one and then the sick one bullies the healthy one but you don't complain... never... remember? And you feel guilty, guilty to be healthy, guilty to hate the ways of the sick one, guilty to be able to live a normal life... but do you really live a normal life? No, you live under the rules of Cystic Fibrosis...And it gets so deep into your skin that you become unable to live a normal life, that you become unable to live normal relationship...
And then the sick one dies... you feel free for the first time, able to breathe ... but then guilt creeps up on you... you feel guilty to feel free... you feel guilty to be alive... you thought that CF died with the sick one but you soon realize that its ghost doesn't want to leave you... and it does not leave you, it continues to rule your life, it continues to feed your insecurities, it continues to wreck your life... until one day you wake up and say "enough is enough"... until one day you realize that if you don't get rid of that ghost, it will get rid of you... Today has been such a day... a very painful day but also a day full of hope... My brother died 8 years ago... It took me that time to face and to listen to the forgotten child... I'm ready to take her by the hand and I'm ready to let go the hand of CF...
If you read all this, well thank you... and please accept my apologies for the bad English and for all this... I needed to share my experience, maybe it will help someone out there... I'm not looking for pity... I just want to help the forgotten child in me and the forgotten children that are out there...

quick stone age necklace

Stone with natural hole (gift from a colleague, you can see a pic of it here), deer antler, stone picked up in the South of France 9 years ago (polished it a bit and drilled a hole), recycled wood bead bought in Chicago, leather cord.
Just a quick necklace, really... needed something to go out tonight!

herbalista II

Got these petals yesterday... they're from rose bushes turned wild... on an abandoned piece of land... had to fight nettles that were as tall as me...

Tansy, keeps the insects away... My grand parents had a few cows and as a kid I remember seeing bouquets of tansy in the stable hanging from the ceiling ... Picked it today during my 4 miles walk..( picked up some black berries too but ate them right away!).
Hope you're enjoying the summer and the gifts it brings!

addendum

Watch the full documentary if you have time... it's eye-opening...

Fed up...

I know this blog is dedicated to my creative life but…
I am so disgusted by some research I did that I want to share it with you…
So here’s my rant…
The food industry is a criminal organization… on one hand they are starving people in South to satisfy the markets in North and on the other they are slowly killing people in North with (sorry for the bad language but hey, it’s a rant) the crap they add to the food… Palm oil, corn syrup and glutamate are some of the worst… No wonder obesity is epidemic, no wonder kids can’t concentrate in the classrooms… The crap they feed us are making us fat and dumb… if we, the consumers, don’t react, we will soon look like the humans in Wall-e … unless the predicted financial collapse makes things even…

One way to react and to act is to read the list of ingredients on the food you buy... unfortunatelly I don't think it's possible to avoid these poisons completely... but still, less is better...

Sinead O'Connor -Oro Se Do Bheatha Bhaile

The Pulse: Style File

Check out Seth Apter's blog this Sunday... well to read about my stuff... otherwise check his blog everyday, it's an awesome place to visit!

I haven't made anything lately,jewelry wise... I'm just enjoying the good weather, taking long walks (about 20 miles over the last 5 days... not much but not bad either...) .. and since I don't like walking without a goal, I have been harvesting loads of herbs : wild origano, meadow sweet, millefoil, wild mint ... next on the list is agrimony and tansy...

The photo above was taken two days ago... the world can sometime be an ugly place but I forget all about it when I see a sky like this...

I hope you are enjoying the good weather too!