A golden Christmas oldie, A Charlie Brown Christmas, celebrates its golden anniversary today. Although CBS actually first aired the show on Dec. 9, 1965, a TV special tonight on ABC, hosted by Kristen Bell, commemorates the holiday standard a little early. The half-hour animated show follows at 9 p.m. (ABC, which has owned the broadcast rights since 2001, will show it again on Dec. 24.)
A poignant and ultimately uplifting story about the commercialization of Christmas, the special was heretical in its day for a number of reasons. The producer, Lee Mendelson, chose mostly neighborhood kids rather than young-sounding adult actors to voice the characters. Unusually, he chose a jazz trio to provide the soundtrack (which has since sold millions). Charles M. Schulz, the comic strip's creator, insisted there be no laugh track, a TV standard at the time. Mr. Schulz also stood firm on keeping its religious message and a passage from the Bible, despite Mr. Mendelson's objections that religion should stay out of prime-time television. The show was an immediate hit, with more than 15 million households watching the premiere. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is also screening the show this month, and the U.S. Postal Service introduced a set of "A Charlie Brown's Christmas" stamps last month.
Focus this week returns to Paris as 150 world leaders try to agree on something. Funny that the conference is called COP - as there will be cops everywhere, though I don't see a terrorist attack just more dramas by frustrated people. COP21 participants know the climate can't be fixed but there are other things to talk about. I see various closed door meetings by these leaders on other major issues facing the world.
Christmas Windows
In the midst of global chaos we prepare for the upcoming holidays with hopes that 2016 will bring solutions. Sunday my friend Marion walked passed Bergdorf Goodman and sent me this picture of their window display. What does my crystal ball tell me about the world 2016? Duality with chaos ruling.
Marion's photo comes from a window display featured in Architectural Digest ...
Focus this week returns to Paris as world leaders try to agree on something. Funny that the conference is called COP - as there will be cops everywhere, though I don't see a terrorist attack. COP21 participants know the climate can't be fixed but there are others things to talk about. I see various closed door backroom meetings by these leaders on other major issues facing the world.
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 will be the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world. Leadership of the negotiations is yet to be determined. Read more
Observe the goddess. Did you notice the male on the right side?
Who does he remind you of?
Close your eyes. Allow your consciousness to enter through the portal of the heart to see
what awaits beyond this experience. It might be more intense to travel while listening to music.
Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. The term "Cyber Monday" was created by marketing companies to persuade people to shop online. The term was coined by Ellen Davis and made its debut on November 28, 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled "'Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year".
Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is Small Business Saturday. On this holiday weekend it's hard for any of us to escape the bombardment by retailers for our business be it online or in larger retail stores. Today is about attracting shoppers and providing more of a personal touch. Small businesses owners use email and other networking marketing to allow their customers to know that they are having special sales. These are generally local stores that people are familiar with that run sales at this time of the year. Happy Shopping.
The Obamas reveal 2015 Small Business Saturday book list CNN - November 28, 2015
As has become a post-holiday tradition, the Obama family visited a local bookstore in Washington to celebrate Small Business Saturday, an American shopping holiday held the day after Black Friday to celebrate and support local businesses. President Barack Obama visited Upshur Street Books Saturday afternoon with his daughters Malia and Sasha, picking up nine books.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Poetry
On Thanksgiving I talked to my grandson Michael, 17, about different forms of writing as he is a gifted writer. Like his grandma, we are not into poetry, too sad for the most part, though in the duality of life expresses both positive and negative emotions. When I suggested screenplay writing, telling Michael about the ongoing destiny of my screenplay, he connected immediately and hopes to take classes when he goes to college in 2016.
We agreed that life is all about programing and timing as this experience is set in linear time. It's about overcoming adversity then finding a creative way to use one's experiences to help and heal others - the "making a difference" scenario. Poetry is most often about expressing one's emotions to be shared with those who empathize with the poet. Poetry and music walk hand and hand - powerful verses that can heal and awaken memories on many levels of consciousness. Would you believe ... with almost 10,000 files on Crystalinks I never created a file about Poetry until now.
Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language - such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre - to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.
Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaic forms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language.
Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of speech such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images - a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.
Some poetry types are specific to particular cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as written in lines based on rhyme and regular meter; there are, however, traditions, such as Biblical poetry, that use other means to create rhythm and euphony. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, the principle of euphony itself, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm. In today's increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages. Read more
Happy Birthday to my favorite poet ...
November 28, 1757 - August 12, 1827
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced".
In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Although he lived in London his entire life, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich oeuvre, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God" or "human existence itself".
Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterized as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic". Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England (indeed, to almost all forms of organized religion), Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American Revolutions. Though later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amiable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine; he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar William Rossetti characterized him as a "glorious luminary", and "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors".
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower ...
Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.
Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, wishing you a great day. I'm off to NJ this morning with my son-in-law's father Joel, to celebrate with family. Great weather will bring people out for the 89th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - the lines already forming. There's lots to enjoy in the city. If you're alone, maybe you'll stop and chat with someone along the way even with stepped up security and Americans cautious this year. Sometimes we just meet people and feel a connection, if only for that space in time.
If you've been waiting for Black Friday good luck with bargains, though local news has reported there are better days to shop - many shoppers using apps featuring added discounts. Some of the local stores I've shopped in sent out email with news about discounts. In one month from today we will be celebrating Christmas ... time flies.
Silly stuff
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Thanksgiving Day Full Moon
This morning, I watched a stunning orange full moon as it slowly set over the horizon. Today will be a good day in the city - don't see terrorism for the millions traveling now. Tomorrow, as you know, is Thanksgiving. I feel like a kid all excited about being with my family - this year in NJ. The weather will be as good as it gets in the northeast for this time of the year - fun for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the children. My grandsons - and extended family of boys - will get to play football.
If you're also one of the 47 million people traveling now - gas prices are lower, as you know - road conditions varying with different regions of the country. Take your time and stay safe.
The full moon brought two 7.6 earthquakes along the Peru-Bolivia border which is not that far from Chile - a focus of powerful earthquake activity. The first quake occurred at 5:45 pm EST followed by a 7.6 five minutes later then a 5.9 aftershock. These were very deep earthquakes, 374 miles below the surface occurring in a sparsely-populated jungle area. It is estimated they were felt by over 1.2 million people in Peru, western Brazil and Bolivia. An estimated 30,000 would have felt it very strongly. There are no reports of casualties to date.
This is a short week for most workers and one of the busiest travel times of the year. Terrorists threats will mean greater security everywhere. My suggestion is to take a time out from the chaos if possible to enjoy Thanksgiving with friends and family. Global news will continue to reflect terrorism, politics, and holiday topics.
On the music scene, Sunday night at the American Music Awards Jennifer Lopez was an awesome host her positive energy starting the show as she encouraged the audience to get up and dance ... so I did. Jen opened the ceremony with an extended dance routine, set to a medley of the year's biggest hits - including Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk, Taylor Swift's Bad Blood and Drake's Hotline Bling. Audience members Nicki Minaj and The Weeknd, whose songs were included in the mix, looked somewhat bemused by the honor.
The Paris attacks were very much on the minds of the other performers and nominees. Jared Leto made a moving speech about terror attacks in Paris, recalling the time his band played at The Bataclan. "Tonight we honor the victims of the unimaginable violence that took place in Paris and around the world," said Leto, who sings with rock band 30 Seconds to Mars. "France matters. Russia matters. Mali matters. Syria matters... The whole world matters. Peace is possible." Celine Dion paid tribute to the victims of the recent Paris attacks by singing Edith Piaf's "Hymne a L'Amour" in French as some audience members cried.
I watched Adele on SNL - looking and sounding great. Her new album, "25", sold at least 2.5 million in its first week, the highest weekly sales for any album in the U.S. since at least 1991 - and is not streaming yet.
One Direction also fared well, being named favorite group and artist of the year, for the second year in a row. An absent Taylor Swift dominated the American Music Awards, winning three prizes, including album of the year and song of the year. Justin Bieber's new album, "Purpose", debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard charts today. Read more ...
Francois-Marie Arouet, better known by the pen name Voltaire, was born in Paris, France. He was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist and philosopher known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial. A known Freemason, he was a member of the Lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris along with friend and fellow member Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the US.
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.
Everything's fine today, but that is our illusion.
Erte was a Russian born, French artist and designer.
Look at me, I'm in another world, a dream world that invites oblivion.
People take drugs to achieve such freedom from their daily cares.
I've never taken drugs. I've never needed them.
I achieve a high through work.
Robert "Scoop" Jackson is an American sports journalist.
Jackson was born in Chicago on the day President John F. Kennedy
was assassinated. He was nicknamed, Scoop after his uncle joked,
"This boy scooped Kennedy. Put him on the cover of the paper."
May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
We were astonished by the beauty and refinement of the art displayed by the objects
surpassing all we could have ever imagined. The first impression was overwhelming.
