Aren’t they beautiful? My daughter never much liked dolls, especially Barbie dolls, and neither did my only granddaughter (my youngest grandson will sometimes play with them for a few minutes, then usually winds up shoving them head-first into the trashcan) so I never had a reason to buy any. And really, little desire. These, though, could convince me to become an international doll collector – if I had the money (and the room.) I love the look of them!

The dolls are the work of Cora Taylor, a Liberian woman who makes the clothing by hand – traditional Liberian dress -  so that each doll is unique (read her full story here, it’s pretty amazing.)

The photographs are the work of photographer/journalist Glenna Gordon, aka Scarlett Lion – who has a wonderful, informative site herself. I probably should have written about the more important stuff she photographs/writes about – and I will! – but these dolls just caught my eye and captivated me.  Anyway, Glenna has more photos and information here on how to contact Ms. Taylor (email or phone, she is not on the internet yet) should you wish to find out more about the dolls and pricing and stuff.

Me, I want them all, lol.

via A Peek Into My Chaos

M. Lambrechts took this picture at a gay pride parade in Brussels 2009. This was a little kid of a gay couple coming to check those curious pins on his jacket. He pulled the punks jacket and the punk went sitting on his knees, when the 2 men called their kid back the punk got a little kiss from the kid [Photo and caption via]

Don’t speak too soon: I’ve been reading this clown for months now and this is probably the only time he doesn’t soak a discussion about Civil War history with melodrama about slavery.

Dog forbid one should clog up discussions of Civil War history with “melodrama” about slavery.

No link. I did some looking around the forum where I found this (following a link from a link to something I was interested in) and it’s not a place I would send either of my two readers to, or anyone else.

Oh, the “clown” he is talking about is Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic, who has been having some amazing discussions on his blog about Civil War history, the characters… and what I think makes these folks hopping mad – the primary cause.

STOP WHAT YOU”RE DOING AND APPLY FOR —>PBS Diversity & Innovation Fund

Didn’t I tell you to stop what you are doing? I meant it. Stop what you’re doing and sit down and get to writing. In fact, we might just shut down this blog from August 15th through September so that each and every one of my readers or group of readers will have time to submit their proposals to the PBS Diversity & Innovation Fund. They are handing out $375,000 an episode to develop a new prime time series for PBS and I want Black women all up under and THROUGH these proposals. Every time they open a new proposal I want a Black woman’s name attached.

So quit yer yapping about how crappy Debra Lee’s content is over there at Black Exploitation Television and get ta drafting you application. I’ll be submitting at least a half dozen ideas. Did I mention they are going to hand out over a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS PER EPISODE? So no more bootstrapping. No more being camera operator, lighting crew audio crew, editor, craft services et al. I could actually HIRE PEOPLE! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds exciting! There is more there, including offers to help find partners to work with and such. Are you going to try for it? Am I?

Tumblr! I’ve discovered that a lot of people I know but who haven’t been updating their sites have apparently moved over to Tumblr. I have a page there, too… but since the service is not intuitive for me there is nothing on it. Plus, I am shy. Anyway, though… some stuff friends have found.

When I first started reading/chatting with feminists online, I noticed that some would often use book titles and authors as shorthand for a set of beliefs or theory or whatever – mention Suzie Bright and right away those in-the-know have an idea of where you stand on this or that; a mention of Gloria Anzuldua leaves a completely different impression. Anyway, all of that, of course, leaves non Women’s Studies people (like me) scrambling to figure out what folks are talking about.

Well, no excuses now not to become familiar with this famous text, at least, as it is available for download, woo hoo! Via Donna, from The Silence of Our Friends :
Book: This Bridge Called My Back

First published in 1981, This Bridge Called My Back has been out of print since the expiration of its contract with Third Woman Press in 2008. Hopefully the digital copy will find its way to those who will circulate it and possibly build up pressure to have it printed again.

URL Set:

Introduction: http://www.mediafire.com/?e2taou2lzzl

Children Passing In the Streets: http://www.mediafire.com/?metyjnzwmji

Entering the Lives of Others: http://www.mediafire.com/?immkmkzzyzz

And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You: http://www.mediafire.com/?hn4fuom1q1b

Between The Lines: http://www.mediafire.com/?wn3x3zl4zau

Speaking In Tongues: http://www.mediafire.com/?zgtlrycmjyn

El Mundo Zurdo: http://www.mediafire.com/?mwdd2wz2oyh

Biographies: http://www.mediafire.com/?j5mymwunezy

Front/Back Cover: http://www.mediafire.com/?zumnmytgkgt

enjoy,

chris

I have more cool stuff but they’ll have to wait for another post. I need time to write thoughts about them and I have none now. No time, that is, not no thoughts – got too many of those.

Well, that was me – with any number of things (like long, rambly sentences), but this particular thing I knew but didn’t get was the First Commandment of writing – show, don’t tell. And then yesterday I had my “Oh! Well, duh!” moment.

See, I wrote a piece yesterday (and what a slog that was) that casually referenced back to a little thing I wrote last year. I liked it when I wrote it, but when I re-read it yesterday my first thought was – jeeze, this is terrible. No life at all, or very little anyway and when I put my finger on why, that’s when the lightbulb went off (on?) – I was doing an awful lot of telling and not very much showing.

Woohoo, was I happy! Not happy I am such a bad writer, but that I am beginning to recognize why and what to do about it. I set about fixing the story right away (examples below). Even the fixes are still bad writing, but that’s okay – I still like my little (true!) story, so I will revisit it from time to time, as I become more aware of all my bad habits and fix it again and again, until I don’t cringe anymore when reading it. At least I’ve broken through one logjam – it’ll still take a lot of work to break the bad habits but now I can go back to some of the writers I love reading (books and blogs) and look with new eyes and understanding of why their work is so compelling.

Anyway, examples:

Original:

The black cat that lives on my patio doesn’t belong to me. Or to anyone else – although he seems remarkably well cared for, for a stray. With his thick glossy fur, strong hefty build and very clear green eyes, you’d think he was fed and groomed daily.

But, no. While he’s an accepted part of the landscape no one admits to feeding him. I’m not sure I believe that, though, because he was just a kitten when he arrived and who can resist a helpless kitten?

Still bad, but better, revision:

The black cat that lives on my patio doesn’t belong to me.

He doesn’t belong to anyone – although he seems remarkably well cared for, for a stray. The thick, glossy fur on his large, muscled frame alternately reflects and absorbs all light as he wanders, strutting through his half-wild life as a part of the neighborhood he’s foraged in since he was small.

As I said, still bad, but anyway… I can at least see where I need to go. This cat (who is still around and still hangs out on my patio) is big. Not bobcat size or anything, but still pretty hefty, especially compared to my scrawny old cat. What I want, when I’ve revised this paragraph until I am satisfied, is – in a few descriptive sentences – show his bigness and black furriness and healthiness and independence, though he belongs. But not so awkwardly as I have done now.

I’m going to have fun revising, I think!

Okay, and then also there was this:

There is nothing special about my patio; it’s just like all the others in this 8 plex – sort of a pebble stone paving, and open to the courtyard. The elderly woman across the way has all sorts of interesting things on her patio: hanging plants, flowers in pots, wind chimes, a bench and a bbq. Me, I have a small 3 legged table that I shove into the corner so that it will stand up, and a folding chair that has a cushioned seat.

Well, I guess I should say I had a chair, because that is where the cat that lives on my patio sleeps each night, keeping an eye on the neighborhood and occasionally hopping down to torment my old indoors-only cat through the patio door.

Okay, and then the quick revision:

There is nothing special about my patio; like all the others in this 8 plex it’s a small square with pebble stone paving, and open to the courtyard so that we can look out at the bushes and any flowers the neighbors have planted. The elderly woman who lives across the way has the best patio, by far – all sorts of interesting things: hanging plants, flowers in pots, a bunch of different wind chimes, a bench and a bbq.  Me, I have a small 3 legged table that I shove into the corner so that it will stand up, and a black folding chair with a cushioned seat. She is not as fortunate in her view out of her window as I am in mine.

And I guess I should say I share a chair, because it no longer appears to belong just to me.  If I peer through the patio window at night, sometimes I can make out a dark shape on the chair, almost blending in until he lifts his head to give me an unconcerned stare out of brilliant green eyes.

Again, still not good, not compelling or evocative or very descriptive – hmmm, and wordier but not necessarily better. But at least it’s giving me a brief glimpse of where I need to take it in order to be satisfied. And the best I could do in the few minutes I had to spare on it yesterday.

I’ve not touched the rest of the piece yet, but I’m going to go over the entire thing, line by line and word by word and see what I can come up with. And then compare the original to the finished product as an example, for me, of what paying attention can do.

It’s funny, when I look at narrative stuff I wrote years ago, as opposed to in the past couple of years, I was far more descriptive. Still bad, but you can’t have everything right away. I am not sure why I moved away from that – I think because I felt I needed to do more analytical writing or something, for some reason, but it turns out I’m not too good at that either.

Anyway, a fun project for me that I am really looking forward to.