Blend.New.York.Fashion.Art.Style.Inspiration.Love

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

“Invictus” is a short poem by the English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). It was written in 1875 and first published in 1888 in Henley’s Book of Verses, where it was the fourth in a series of poems entitled Life and Death (Echoes). It originally bore no title.

At the age of 12, Henley became a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. It was amputated at the age of 25. In 1867 he successfully passed the Oxford local examination as a senior student. In 1875 he wrote “Invictus” from a hospital bed. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until his death at the age of 53.

November 6, 2009 – April 10, 2010

Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology)
Seventh Avenue (at 27th St.)

Using the craftsmanship of dressmaking as inspiration, this exhibition explores the artistry and complicated construction that goes into high fashion. Showcasing a number of revolutionary fashionistas, from the obscure to the name brand (Rodarte, Halston, Rick Owens and Bonnie Cashin are just a few of the designers whose looks are on display), American Beauty aims to highlight the fashion-forward ideas and creative, handcrafted details that can be seen in modern-day clothing.

admission – FREE – Visit fitnyc.edu for more info.

Having spent hours studying Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad (yes, that was his birth name) in art classes, I’ve decided to post a few of my favorite quotes by this amazing and talented artist… as he still inspires me to do great things.

“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again. And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.”

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

“Action is the foundational key to all success.”

“Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.”

Picasso demonstrated uncanny artistic talent as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. Picasso’s creativity manifested itself in numerous mediums, including painting, sculpture, drawing, and architecture. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and immense fortunes throughout his life, making him one of the best known figures in twentieth century art.

“words are children. we help shape and form them, protect them and give them our best but in the end, like fathers, we only give them away.”

Melody Gardot (born February 2, 1985 in New Jersey) is an American jazz singer, writer and musician in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

She was disabled at 19 after being struck by a car while riding her bicycle. After her accident Gardot began writing music and since then often speaks and advocates in favour of using music for therapy. The accident had damaged the neural pathways between the brain’s two cortexes which control perception and higher mental function and made Gardot (in her own words) “a bit of a vegetable.”

As well as making it very hard for her to speak or communicate properly, she found it difficult to recall the right words to express her feelings. Music involving listening and making a verbal attempt to sing or hum is thought to help the brain form new pathways. At first, Gardot learned to hum and was eventually able to sing into a tape recorder. She made good progress and was eventually able to write original songs that sometimes talked about her rehabilitation.

She has been influenced by such blues and jazz artists as Janis Joplin, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin as well as Latin music artists such as Stan Getz and Caetano Veloso.

Check out some of her YouTube videos below…

Worrisome Heart – Melody Gardot

Who Will Comfort Me – Melody Gardot

ONE.

Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO.

Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE.

Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

FOUR.

When you say, ‘I love you,’ mean it.

FIVE.

When you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ look the person in the eye.

SIX.

Be engaged at least six months before you get married..

SEVEN.

Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT.

Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.

NINE.

Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.

TEN.

In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN.

Don’t judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE.

Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN.

When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask, ‘Why do you want to know?’

FOURTEEN.

Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

FIFTEEN.

Say ‘bless you’ when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN.

When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN.

Remember the three R’s: Respect for self, Respect for others, and Responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN.

Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN.

When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it .

TWENTY.

Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

TWENTY ONE.

Spend some time alone.

“The pain of love is the pain of being alive. It’s a perpetual wound.”        – Maureen Duffy

We live in one another’s company. We grow to yearn for one another’s company at a deeper level. The yearning reciprocated opens the way to a love relationship, a relationship both blessed and torn by intimacies.

It’s human to long for love, to want to shower it and receive it. But the pain of waiting for it doesn’t match the pain that accompanies its arrival. Love heightens our sensitivities. Any separations, any discrepancies, physical or emotional, wound the partners in love. The pain that accompanies never having something is less than the pain of projected loss after its arrival.

Love should only bring happiness, we mistakenly think. But love, giving it and receiving it, beckons us to bare our souls, to expose our hidden selves. This will help us to love with the pain of love, knowing that it increases our humanity – that it deepens our awareness and thus heightens our appreciation of all of life.

It’s been 40 years since those three days of love and mud known as Woodstock, and it remains ironic that the anthem most associated with the epochal music festival was penned by someone who wasn’t there. Holed up in a hotel room in New York City, Joni Mitchell watched the concert on TV and wrote her song “Woodstock” – including the famous line, “We are stardust, we are golden” – in tears.

Her wry, melancholy musical ways have been hugely influential, of course-Prince name-checked her on the back of an album; Annie Lennox gushed, “I pretty much doubt that I would have gone on to become a singer-songwriter if I hadn’t encountered Joni Mitchell”-but genius lyrics and a gorgeous voice are only part of her charm. With looks one half California beach babe, the other half Norse goddess, Mitchell allegedly counted Graham Nash, Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, and Sam Shepard among her conquests-why should male rock stars have all the fun? The summer of love was four decades ago, but Mitchell will always be the era’s reigning bohemian beauty queen. – Alison Baenen (Style.com)

For half a century now, a new consciousness has been entering the human world, a new awareness that can only be called transcendent, spiritual.

It begins with a heightened perception of the way our lives move forward. We notice those chance events that occur at just the right moment, and bring forth just the right individuals, to suddenly send our lives in a new and important direction. Perhaps more than any other people in any other time, we intuit higher meaning in these mysterious happenings.

We know that life is really about a spiritual unfolding that is personal and enchanting – an unfolding that no science or philosophy or religion has yet fully clarified. And we know something else as well: we know that once we do understand what is happening, how to engage this allusive process and maximize its occurrence in our lives, human society will take a quantum leap into a whole new way of life – one that realizes the best of our tradition – and creates a culture that has been the goal of history all along.

All that any of us have to do is suspend our doubts and distractions just long enough…and miraculously, this reality can be our own.

-James Redfield

Attitude is everything.

Be kinder than necessary,
for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Live simply, Love generously, Care deeply

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…

It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

You never can tell what a thought will do
In bringing you hate or love-
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
Are swifter than carrier doves.
They follow the law of the universe-
Each thing creates its kind,
And they speed over the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind.

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Author Michael Jeffreys personally interviewed 15 top motivational gurus in 1997 for his then upcoming book. After talking to gurus from Brian Tracy to Dr. Wayne Dyer, he distilled 8 Secrets to Success they all agreed upon. These secrets are still good today and are as follows:

1. Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life – In a society where people blame everything from their parents to the government for failure, those who don’t buy into this mentality or succumb to the “victim” thinking succeed. To blame something or somebody outside yourself is saying they have control of your life and not you. Someone else’s opinion of you doesn’t have to become your reality.

2. Live Your Life On Purpose – What separates motivational thinkers from the unsuccessful is that they believe they’re doing what they were put here to do. The difference between this and just living, is that the latter is just getting through the week with the least problems. But when you live your life on purpose, your main concern is doing the job right. For the entrepreneur, this means finding a cause you believe in and building your business around it.

3. Be Willing to Pay the Price – Be willing to pay the price for your dreams. Wanting a big house, a luxury car, and a million dollars in the bank is all very nice, and everyone wants these things – but are you willing to pay the price to get them? This is one of the major differences between the successful and unsuccessful.

4. Stay Focused – Every day we’re bombarded with hundreds of tasks, phone calls, messages, and everyone competing for our time. Focusing requires giving up something in the present because you are investing your time in something that will pay off big-time down the road. Jack Canfield and Mark Hanson were turned down by 30 publishers when they submitted the first “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book. Instead of giving up, they stayed focused on their goal and did four or five interviews per day for radio, TV, and newspapers, for five days a week, for a whole year. Eventually, a small publisher decided to take a chance, and of course now it’s a best-seller that spawned an entire series that have sold more than 10 million copies.

5. Become An Expert in Your Field – One striking factor all successful people have in common is how seriously they take their profession. They strive to be the best at what they do, and do almost anything to improve. If someone followed you around all day with a video camera at your business, would it be a tape you’d be proud of or embarrassed about? Make the decision today to work at being the best in your field. How? By finding out what the “best” in your field are doing, and do what they do.

6. Write Out a Plan for Achieving Your Goals – Write out an action plan/map for how you’re going to achieve your goals. Trying to reach your goals without a plan is like trying to drive from Los Angeles to Chicago without a map. A goal that isn’t written down is merely a wish or fantasy.

7. Never Give Up – Never, never, never give up. When you’re fully committed to achieving your goal, giving up is not an option. You must be willing do whatever it takes to make it happen. The power of perseverance is an awesome force. As someone once said, “inch by inch it’s a cinch”. Think of the lowly inchworm – if it pondered the length of the trip from start to finish before it started, it probably would never move. To a worm’s point of view, the garden path must look like a trip to Mars. Never give up! Keep on going like the eveready battery bunny, and pretty soon you’re there.

8. Don’t Delay – Nobody knows how much time they have left to accomplish their dreams, and we must remember that we don’t have forever. The clock is ticking, and sooner or later your number comes up and you’re gone. Successful achievers know this too, but they don’t view it as a “negative”. Achievers use it to “spur them on”. They go after what they want as energetically and as passionately as possible, for as long as they have.

I had a friend who used to say, “Today is a check – cash it! Yesterday is an I.O.U. – forget it! Tomorrow is a promissory note, don’t bank on it!” I think that’s a pretty good summation of life, so go out there and cash in on that “today” check.