Time for a Winter Workout

Along with the Pinot being poured this winter I am selecting some books to wile away the weekends.
I just picked up a second hand copy of Jane Fonda's Workout Book.

I'll admit that I gravitated to the orange cover with gold embossed spine. It also satisfied my eighties dance wear fascination...time to get the leg warmers out!

I particularly love the section on what music Jane recommends for the work out: "When I travel and can't carry records or there's no stereo, I just bring my tape and a small tape recorder and I'm all set".

Ohhhh I am starting to reminisce about tape decks and winding the tape back through the holes with a ball point pen when it would get stuck.

At the beginning of each chapter Jane has a song list for each section and the music is classic early 80s fodder: Donna Summer, Irene Cara (Fame!), Box Scaggs... even the London Symphony Orchestra's "Theme from Star Wars"... 

The nice thing though is discovering music I have never heard of - songs by Kara Bonoff and Judy Collins. I have a particular soft spot for this album cover of Kara Bonoff's from lyricspond.com.

It's all very Kate Bush meets Sarah Moon - particularly feeling the hair comb too. 

Girls, Girls, Girls

The winter weather has hit and I've bunkered down so to speak in a warm cocoon of "Downton Abbey" and oil painting. I am working on a portrait but oh the nose, oh the nose - it's hard to paint a good nose! I am looking at eventually having a wall of paintings a-la-young-Richie Tenenbaum. Richie had a wall dedicated to portraits of his adopted sister Margot.

Source: frecklesandash.blogspot.com.au/2010_08_01_archive.html

I've also just discovered the new HBO show "Girls" (created by and starring Lena Dunham, executive produced by Judd Apatow). 


Besides having a huge style crush on the character Jessa's wardrobe it's well written and very realistic - almost achingly so. "Girls" is pretty irresistible and the source of a lot of debate in the U.S as indicated in this article from New York Magazine.
http://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/girls-lena-dunham-2012-4/

I particularly like the New York Magazines fashion snap shot of the show: 
http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2012/04/girls-fashion-recap-getting-to-know-them.html#photo=10x00006

Jemima Kirke as "Jessa" - source: hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2012/04/12/hbo-girls-jemima-kirke/

source: http://www.possessionista.com/2012/05/girls-fashion-jessas-pants.html

I think Jessa will soon be in hot competition with Carrie Bradshaw (particularly like her style in the "Aiden" era). Interestingly, Jemima Kirke, a professional artist who plays the role of Jessa, is the daughter of Lorraine Kirke, the owner of Geminola, a N.Y vintage boutique that was the source of a number of outfits for Sex and the City. Six degrees of vintage separation... I like that. 

Off to watch some more episodes courtesy of iTunes. :)

Private Lives

"I don’t know how the rest of my story will go. 

I don’t know who I’ll be in it. 

All I know is I feel like this is just the beginning."

from "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" 

The last few weekends have been a combination of movies, reading and, well, church. My heart feels good about being open about my faith but in my worldly mind I know it sounds a bit uncool too. As the character Mitchell thought to himself in Jeffrey Eugenides "The Marriage Plot":  "The worst thing about religion was religious people". 
But I'd rather not tie back my faith to religion so much as viewing it as a living breathing church that heals and houses me and keeps me on the right road. 


So, getting back to my other loves... movies and books... I've swayed from The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (the movie version of the novel by Rebecca Miller) to "Cosmos, Life, and Liturgy in a Greek Orthodox Village" (...I know, what a title!). 

There is something about the word "cosmos" that completely drags me in. It's a word of the world but it's also an internal word.  It's a reminder of nature and spirit - that there is time ticking in the background and that I must remember to look up and out. It's that little whisper in the trees and the "dock dock" of the tennis ball I used to whack repeatedly against the garage wall when I was young and present - a sound like the tick tock of the clock.