Happy Mother's Day!

Mama started early with the big life lessons. Like how to get Mardi Gras beads. #mothersday #topless

Centenarian Ida on Home

http://freecabinporn.com/

Some people can make a home out of nothing.

Others can't make one out of a palace.

                                           --Great Aunt Ida 

The Rumpus: Seeking Wealthy Patron of the Arts

I came across this today. Hilarious! It's for all creative types and their lovers. 

FUNNY WOMEN #41 W4M ISO WEALTHY PATRON OF THE ARTS 

Huffington Post: Go with the flow or to hell with it!

This week, the Huffington Post published my second piece on centenarian Great-Aunt Ida. The outpouring of Ida love has been tremendous. AOL picked up the story and ran her photo on its homepage: More Surprising Advice from a Centenarian: Go with the Flow. 

She turns 101 yrs old in two weeks. Birthday planning time! 

 

My Interview with Time Magazine's Most Influential

This week TIME declared: The 100 Most Influential People in the World. Flimmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has been recognized as one of them. Check out my Huffington Post Conversation with Oscar-Winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

Let's Be Honest...

A Little Ditty for Book Lovers

Hollywood Blvd: Blech!

Drummer Meytal Cohen let me tag along on her latest video blog. Love that I managed not to wreck the car during our intro. And check out my Mel Gibson man-hands at min 1:49. 

Everything Changes and Nothing Changes in a Year

Here is a post from this time last year when I was in the midst of recovering from my tumor surgery.

APRIL 2011

Every month Martha Stewart publishes an online planning calendar. Without it, I'd forget to bring out my summer dishware. I'm sharing my recovery calendar as a Martha homage.

Vulnerability Hangover

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

I suffer from a vulnerability hangover most times I'm creative. It's a sucky feeling on par with realizing I've shown up at school with no clothes on, which has never happened in my waking life, but I imagine is similar to the shame of peeing one's pants (or culottes while wearing roller skates in gym class, in my case). But the more hangovers I have, the better. It means I've expressed myself. I've cared about something. I've shared a part of myself. 

I was on a TED TALK binge last year when I was couped up post surgery. I was feeling immensely vulnerable, having just been cut open and having a tumor scooped out, and Brene Brown's TEDxHouston Talk about Vulnerability stuck with me. 

Here is Brene Brown's new TED 2012 Talk about Shame. It makes my heart swell. It's like an Advil for my vulnerability hangover. 

NOTES:

Shame drives two big tapes: "Never good enough" and if you can talk it out of that one, then, "Who do you think you are?" 

Shame for women is this web of unattainable, conflicting, competing expectations about who we are supposed to be. And it's a straightjacket. 

Empathy is the antidote to shame...The two most powerful words when we're in struggle..."Me too."