I wanted to let you all know what I had been up to lately that was occupying so much of my time.
I am proud to announce The re-opening of Happy Hippy Jewlery at http://hippybeads.etsy.com and the opening of "Happy Hippy Happenings", the Happy Hippy Blog.
I am also proud to announce the grand opening of Artful Unity at http://artfulunity.etsy.com . Artful Unity is a new project I started to be able to create higher quality artisan jewelry. For an explanation, you can check out "Artful Elaborations", our lovely blog.
I am also very extraordinarily proud to announce... nothing else. ever.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Vo0 and Religion
Remember way back when in Novemeber 08 when I went on my birthday trip/wine tour? I mentioned that I set foot in a church twice and have been meaning to post about it ever since, but have just never felt like I had adequate time.
The first time was for a memorial service for Crossroads House, a "comfort home" similar to a hospice house. My grandmother was there in the first few months of them being open, and they held a ten year anniversary memorial service this november. My mother, my aunt and I went. I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, it was quite beautifal and soothing. There was not a lot of religion brought up, and those things that were had no undertones of conversion or condemnation. It was kind of like a very large group greif counseling session. I was impressed by all the staff members, volunteers and speakers, how kind they were and how happy they seemed. They have one of the hardest jobs you could ever imagine and not only do they do it with a smile, they welcome back grieving family members with open arms to help them through their pain too. I don't see how they do it. I was in awe.
The second time I went to church, we were planning on going somewhere not too long afterward with my aunt, and I had found nothing else to do that morning because my cousin Renee' was busy, and everyone else was at church. They were trying to convince me to go, and my mom said "they sing a lot at your aunt's church" and my aunt said, "yeah, and it won't kill you to go." To which I just shrugged and said, I guess youre right. So, we went, and I sang and sang and sang. And one of the songs really touched me and enlightened me. It's a song called Hiding Place by new life worship. The lyrics talk about using god as a "hiding place" when times are tough. As I sung "I will run to the hiding place" at the tops of my lungs I realised something: I have a hiding place, and it is not, nor will it ever be a church or a god. My hiding place is creativity. If life drops a storm cloud on top of me, I don't look for a spiritual guide, or take comfort in the words of an ancient book, I go dance, I make jewelry, I choregraph something, I cook, I sing along with the radio or I improv in a room by myself. This is where I am happiest and most comfortable. Seeking comfort in the Christian God has always lead me to guilt for being human. Seeking comfort in dance and creativity has always led me to feeling better, improving my self esteem, and, usually, gaining insight on my problems.
For a long time, I have felt that "God is a DJ" by Faithless has been my theme song when it comes to religion. It says "this is my church, this is where I heal my hurts"... "For tonight god is a DJ". I realized in that moment in chuch that this is absolutely who I am, I have no desire to change, and there's nothing wrong with it. Many followers of various religions believe that you need god to survive. I believe that you need a hiding place, be it god, or art, or friends, and you need faith in something, be it god, horse races, or Pam anderson's breasts. My faith is in the ability of the human race to improve and to become more. The less I thinkabout it, the more I realize I am a classic secular humanist, and that being such, does no less than any good religious follower. So, I am going to continue being exactly who I am, and I encourage you to do the same. Find your hiding place, keep faith and hope strong, and don't let anyone tell you you're less of a person for what you believe.
Okay, yes I will hop down off the soapbox now.... I promise to make my next post about violence or sex lest you think I've lost my mind.
The first time was for a memorial service for Crossroads House, a "comfort home" similar to a hospice house. My grandmother was there in the first few months of them being open, and they held a ten year anniversary memorial service this november. My mother, my aunt and I went. I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, it was quite beautifal and soothing. There was not a lot of religion brought up, and those things that were had no undertones of conversion or condemnation. It was kind of like a very large group greif counseling session. I was impressed by all the staff members, volunteers and speakers, how kind they were and how happy they seemed. They have one of the hardest jobs you could ever imagine and not only do they do it with a smile, they welcome back grieving family members with open arms to help them through their pain too. I don't see how they do it. I was in awe.
The second time I went to church, we were planning on going somewhere not too long afterward with my aunt, and I had found nothing else to do that morning because my cousin Renee' was busy, and everyone else was at church. They were trying to convince me to go, and my mom said "they sing a lot at your aunt's church" and my aunt said, "yeah, and it won't kill you to go." To which I just shrugged and said, I guess youre right. So, we went, and I sang and sang and sang. And one of the songs really touched me and enlightened me. It's a song called Hiding Place by new life worship. The lyrics talk about using god as a "hiding place" when times are tough. As I sung "I will run to the hiding place" at the tops of my lungs I realised something: I have a hiding place, and it is not, nor will it ever be a church or a god. My hiding place is creativity. If life drops a storm cloud on top of me, I don't look for a spiritual guide, or take comfort in the words of an ancient book, I go dance, I make jewelry, I choregraph something, I cook, I sing along with the radio or I improv in a room by myself. This is where I am happiest and most comfortable. Seeking comfort in the Christian God has always lead me to guilt for being human. Seeking comfort in dance and creativity has always led me to feeling better, improving my self esteem, and, usually, gaining insight on my problems.
For a long time, I have felt that "God is a DJ" by Faithless has been my theme song when it comes to religion. It says "this is my church, this is where I heal my hurts"... "For tonight god is a DJ". I realized in that moment in chuch that this is absolutely who I am, I have no desire to change, and there's nothing wrong with it. Many followers of various religions believe that you need god to survive. I believe that you need a hiding place, be it god, or art, or friends, and you need faith in something, be it god, horse races, or Pam anderson's breasts. My faith is in the ability of the human race to improve and to become more. The less I thinkabout it, the more I realize I am a classic secular humanist, and that being such, does no less than any good religious follower. So, I am going to continue being exactly who I am, and I encourage you to do the same. Find your hiding place, keep faith and hope strong, and don't let anyone tell you you're less of a person for what you believe.
Okay, yes I will hop down off the soapbox now.... I promise to make my next post about violence or sex lest you think I've lost my mind.
valetines and stuff
Happy valentines day... okay technically it ended 7 minutes ago, but you should be glad i bothered to post at all.
Today I got a cute pink teddy bear, some ghirardhelli dark chocolate raspberry squares and a mp3 soundtrack of Coraline!
Today I also ate a very large waffle smothered in ungodly amount of syrup and then later had a big piece of "icebox cheesecake" (think cheesecake sandwiched between choclate cake despite the fact that I had to buy bigger sized pants two weeks ago... oh well.
We also watched once today and I HIGHLY reccommend it. It's an indy romance film about two talented musicians, who are actually talanted musicians... The actor and actress wrote all the original music in the film and performed everything themselves.... And it's some of the most raw and beautiful music i've ever heard. In fact, I was bad today. I just bought the soundtrack mp3's off of amazon about 10 minutes ago. We really don't have spare money, but I have to have those songs.
Well, that's all for now... talk to you fuckers later ;)
Today I got a cute pink teddy bear, some ghirardhelli dark chocolate raspberry squares and a mp3 soundtrack of Coraline!
Today I also ate a very large waffle smothered in ungodly amount of syrup and then later had a big piece of "icebox cheesecake" (think cheesecake sandwiched between choclate cake despite the fact that I had to buy bigger sized pants two weeks ago... oh well.
We also watched once today and I HIGHLY reccommend it. It's an indy romance film about two talented musicians, who are actually talanted musicians... The actor and actress wrote all the original music in the film and performed everything themselves.... And it's some of the most raw and beautiful music i've ever heard. In fact, I was bad today. I just bought the soundtrack mp3's off of amazon about 10 minutes ago. We really don't have spare money, but I have to have those songs.
Well, that's all for now... talk to you fuckers later ;)
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Coraline
Lots has been going on, but it's a lot of it is chaotic, annoying or depressing, so I don't feel like talking about it right now. (although I did skip over some good stuff, So I should go back and post about that at some point)
What I do want to talk about is the movie Coraline. We went to get ice cream at Coldstone Creamery next to the Imark in alabaster and then went to see Coraline. I skipped doing a lot of fun stuff this weekend because of a lot of reasons, most of which have to wo with the first setence of my post, and I was very annoyed about this. However, I can say that I definiteively had a very good weekend. Coraline is a great movie. It's one of those movies like Labyrinth or Matilda or Princess Bride that is clearly family friendly but actually has elements of a good movie. The movie pulls you in from the start and gets you right into Coraline's world. The story is about a little girl who has what she would consider less than ideal parents and an alternate reality that she falls into where parents are perfect, there is always cake, and mothers sew you sweaters with stars on them rather than buying you grey school uniforms. I don't want to say much more because I don't want to give it away, but this is another brilliant piece of work both from Neil Gaiman and Henry Selik. So far, every well known movie written by Neil or based on a Neil Gaiman novel has been a brilliant bridge between the land of "child friendly" and truly engaging, high quality movies. Neil does for movies what Lauri Berkner does for music.
Whether you have kids, are a kid at heart, or are a curmudgeonly 30 year old who just wishes the neighborhood kids would "get off his lawn", you should absolutely go see this.
Also,if you like Coraline, or any of the movies I mentioned above, you should check out Mirrormask. Great writing, a great abstract fantasy art style, and amazing puppetry from the henson company: you couldn't ask for much more.
Another note: While Neil's movies have tended to be family friendly (the ones i know about anyways), not all of his books are. Coraline is a great older children's or preteens book, and stardust would be great for an adolescent or high schooler, but keep "American Gods" to read yourself. This should go without saying, but make sure you preview books before you give them to your kids.
What I do want to talk about is the movie Coraline. We went to get ice cream at Coldstone Creamery next to the Imark in alabaster and then went to see Coraline. I skipped doing a lot of fun stuff this weekend because of a lot of reasons, most of which have to wo with the first setence of my post, and I was very annoyed about this. However, I can say that I definiteively had a very good weekend. Coraline is a great movie. It's one of those movies like Labyrinth or Matilda or Princess Bride that is clearly family friendly but actually has elements of a good movie. The movie pulls you in from the start and gets you right into Coraline's world. The story is about a little girl who has what she would consider less than ideal parents and an alternate reality that she falls into where parents are perfect, there is always cake, and mothers sew you sweaters with stars on them rather than buying you grey school uniforms. I don't want to say much more because I don't want to give it away, but this is another brilliant piece of work both from Neil Gaiman and Henry Selik. So far, every well known movie written by Neil or based on a Neil Gaiman novel has been a brilliant bridge between the land of "child friendly" and truly engaging, high quality movies. Neil does for movies what Lauri Berkner does for music.
Whether you have kids, are a kid at heart, or are a curmudgeonly 30 year old who just wishes the neighborhood kids would "get off his lawn", you should absolutely go see this.
Also,if you like Coraline, or any of the movies I mentioned above, you should check out Mirrormask. Great writing, a great abstract fantasy art style, and amazing puppetry from the henson company: you couldn't ask for much more.
Another note: While Neil's movies have tended to be family friendly (the ones i know about anyways), not all of his books are. Coraline is a great older children's or preteens book, and stardust would be great for an adolescent or high schooler, but keep "American Gods" to read yourself. This should go without saying, but make sure you preview books before you give them to your kids.
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