Leonard Nimoy... is a photographer...

Who knew? 'Cuz I didn't. Idk where I've been, but this is news to me. Awesome news too! After looking for some of his work online, to see what it's like, I was pleasantly surprised and even... "awestruck" I think is the word.

I WANT HIS BOOK, Shekina, BADLY!

I really love Mapplethorpe's work. I have since I was in high school taking photography classes. His work was very different than things I was interested in photographing (people and still lives in studios whereas I was far more interested in candids and landscapes in natural light), but I found them compelling nonetheless. Sometimes the subject matter is shocking, it's haunting, disturbing, and one doesn't want to look, but it's supposed to be, and that is one of the major purposes of art - to challenge the way people perceive aspects of the world. And one thing that certainly can't be denied about Mapplethorpe, he knew how to use light!

Leonard Nimoy's photography in this series is reminiscent in a lot of ways of Mapplethorpe's portraiture. The subject matter is controversial, and from the examples given at this website, I'd also say haunting, compelling, and provoking - and my God, that man can use light! GUH! And to be perfectly honest, it kinda makes me want to climb into Nimoy's head and live there for a while. No joke! I don't even care that he's well and truly old enough to be my grandfather.

Wishlists

Since the Holiday shopping season has officially begun, I thought perhaps I should post my wishlists where people could easily find them all. I've checked them both over to make sure that everything is something I'd like, that the sizes are properly entered or that there are notes about each item if necessary.

Torrid: http://www.torrid.com/wishlist/viewSomeonesWishList.asp?W=496133 This can also be printed and taken to a Torrid store if you have one in your local mall.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/103-9091033-5855015?%5Fencoding=UTF8&type=wishlist&id=3STW15OLD3U17

Both can also be accessed, should the hyperlinks fail, by going to the main page of each site. At Amazon click on the "Wish List" button at the top of the page. this should bring up your own wishlist or a generic one if you don't have one. In the left-hand column there should be a box that says "Find a Wish List." Simply type my name or my yahoo e-mail address. At Torrid, click on the wish list link at the top of the page. A box should appear to the right side of the screen that says, "enter an e-mail address to view that person's wish list." Simply type in my yahoo address.

Gift certificates are likewise appreciated. I also enjoy surprises. ;D Sometimes, I even like surprises better than the stuff on my wishlists. One might like to keep in mind my interests in the arts and crafts if one has access to cool stuff...

Now to get back to my holiday gift shopping...

The Holidays are close at hand...

Woo! My favorite time of year is the end of October to mid-January. Why? Because it's one fantastic holiday after another. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chanukah and Christmas, New Year's... ending with my birthday on January 10th. It's just great!

In preparation, I've been going over my amazon.com wishlist, which is the easiest way to keep track of the mostly moderately priced junk and stuff that I'd like to have for a number of reasons... It can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/103-9091033-5855015?%5Fencoding=UTF8&type=wishlist&id=3STW15OLD3U17 Or you can just go to amazon.com and find one of those "find a wishlist" boxes which are in different places on different pages at Amazon and then type in my yahoo e-mail address or my first and last name. I really like that it gives options on how to sort the list (by price, by priority, etc.) and it has ways to narrow the list down by categories (DVDs, music, books, etc.).

I've also been going over possible gifts for other people. I've knitted a number of items intended as gifts, but no matter how quickly I knit, I'll never be able to knit something for everyone... That's okay though because I have a number of ideas for most of the people I don't have knitted items for... I do need to remember to get the bitties' wishlists... eventhough I have a number of things in mind for them already, it's always good to know what they actually would like to have.

Oy-vay...

Can't believe I'm still awake... But since my parents got up for work and turned the news on, I've found it very distracting and infuriating, two things that are not conducive to sleep. If this entire tragedy has taught me one new thing (I already knew that this country can't find it's way out of a paper bag with two hands and a flashlight thanks to a certain administration), it's that this country is full of drama queens and a good number of them are in politics and journalism... Far fewer than would have been expected are in the entertainment industry, since large numbers of the members of those professions have rolled up their sleeves, stopped prattling and have volunteered in the trenches. I'm sure you don't have to ask why I would accuse members of the press and government of dramatic over-reacting and grandstanding for the sake of their own glory as long as you have a television or computer (or maybe a radio, but I don't know since I don't get my news there). It's insufferable though. The press and the government should be ashamed of themselves for their behavior over the past two weeks from CNN to FoxNews and on both sides of the aisle. But as Ed Helms said on last night's "Daily Show," by the time this is all over, the government will probably not be able to find enough medals to honor assholes involved in this catastrophe and the head of FEMA will probably have been dipped in bronze and given as an award to yet other idiot officials (pardon the strong language). Check out the "Daily Show" and their genius here: http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml Run, do not walk, to watch the news clips, especially Jon Stewart's treatise on the "Inarguable Failure," although I would not commend the media to the extent that he did 'cause I'm a bit ticked at them right now... "Bush's Timeline" and "Beleaguered Bush" are also worthy of Peabody Awards... the latter takes a look at the ABCs (because, as we know, administration disasters are named alphabetically) of Bush failures... which I have reproduced for you here, for those without the ability to watch the video:

Major Disasters of the Bush Administration (those that have happened w/ +)
+ Abu Garib
+ Bin Laden
+ Chalabi
+ Deficit
+ Enron
+ Failure to find WMDs
+ Halliburton
+ Iraq
+ John Bolton
+ Katrina
- Locusts
- Mars attacks
- North Korea
- Osama & Jenna
- Pregnancy: Osama & Jenna
- Queer revolt
- Rodents of Unusual Size
- Syrian War
- Tigers
- Unicyclists, nuclear
- Voldemort
- WWIII
- X-rated Tape: Osama & Jenna
- Yam shortage
- Zero people left on Earth

For those of you wanting something to do right now, right this very second, go to: http://www.thehungersite.com and their affiliate sites. Click, click, click... and maybe buy some early Christmas/Chanukah presents and help worthy charities at the same time... Shopping this way supports truly free trade and saves gas too!