Le penseur
When I was working in Paris, my favorite museum was the musée de Rodin … August Rodin, the French sculptor.
MC outside le musee de Rodin, Paris.
Rodin said that before an artist can create art, he “must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.”
That’s pretty highbrow stuff, and I’m a big fan of the sculpture, if not the man, but I think his words need just a bit of tweaking for us less self-immolating folks:
For a person to live … he must have a fire in his belly for living.
Yup. That’s an MC-ism. You can quote me on that one.
Here’s my list of things you need to do to breathe air to those little embers of fire long-languishing like slowly dimming candlelight in your belly — the ones barely hanging on to their fire-essence — and fan them back into a fierce fire for living:
• Step outside in a rainstorm and don’t run for cover. Extra points if you dance with someone while raindrops are literally falling on your head.
• Go to the beach, plop down and curl your toes in the sand.
• Take a chance on something … anything. And if you screw it up, go back and try it again.
• If you’ve been cruel to someone, stop right now and call or write them. Ask for forgiveness.
• If someone asks you for forgiveness, give it straightaway.
• Choose the path of moderate to most resistance. Easy is for candles, not fires, in the belly.
• Skinny dip. Yes, stand at the edge of whatever body of water is near you … pull off your clothes and jump in. Head first if the water’s deep enough. Extra points if you make love while you’re in the water … with someone who isn’t named Loch Ness.
• When you’re showering tomorrow morning, sing. SING!
• Take a crazy, heart-stopping chance on love. Do it! Before you chicken out.
• Laugh so hard you snort through your nose and your belly hurts. Then come over to my house and make me laugh that hard too.
• Give your word … and keep it.
• Never complain. Never explain.
• Go to Paris. Fly Air France if you can. 
• Send me a postcard or better yet, take me with you.
• Visit the musée de Rodin.
• Stand in front of le penseur – the thinker – and don’t think.
• Just feel that fire in your belly.
Buh-bye to Sarasota’s Main Street!
Buh-bye, C’est la Vie. Buh-bye Pastry Arts. Buh-bye Main Street Hardware. Buh-bye all those great little shops I swing in and out of on my way back and forth from client meetings and gal-pal hang-outs, and other varied and assorted downtown rendezvous.
Just color me too cheap to pay for parking.
But you can also color me as someone who knows Sarasota’s identity — why people come here and want to stay here and I’m not about to mess with that.
Sarasota is attractive to so many precisely because of it’s slo-mo, kick-back attitude, the relax on Main and watch the pretty people pass by mentality — parking meters destroy that sensibility, that identity. (more…)
Show me the guts …
My MONEY magazine subscription came with an article on how to marry a billionaire. I don’t know. Color me new-fashioned, but shouldn’t MONEY be telling me how to make my own money, not latch on to someone because of his?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not averse to dating men with money. And I’ve dated more than a couple in my lifetime. I’ve dated rich men with their own major domos, to well-off men with waterfront homes and Porsches in the driveway, to men who simply made some really good cake and could afford to live comfortably if not extravagantly.
I’ve also dated men on the opposite end of the money spectrum — guys so broke our dates consisted of long walks, moon-gazing, used bookstore haunting, and mutual navel-gazing over endless cheap coffees. Our big nights out would come if somehow one of us scored free tickets to Fenway or had a friend bouncing the door at some hot new restaurant opening where free food and a single complimentary drink would tide us over ’til an all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch. (more…)
MC in today’s Creative Loafing newspaper
Hey, my article on Chief Abbott (Cop-out in Copland) appears in print today on page 10 of Creative Loafing newspaper. I’d love to hear any and all comments (pro and con) about my suggestion of firing or requesting the resignation of Chief Abbott — so feel free to post your comments here.
If you want to read the story on this blog, just click here: Cop-out in Copland
SNNers strut their (way) sexy stuff (FIXED THE VIDEO LINK!)
I’m not really sure what it is with me and SNN Local News 6, but I’ve apparently got a jones for the station I just can’t shake.
Creative Loafing unearthed this KILLER video— slog past the parts with Justin Mosely pulling the crazies and wait until the tunes light up and they — Mosely, Stein, et al start pulling dance poses instead.
I’m serious — I think they all look mighty sexy (okay, maybe not Stein so much, but only ’cause I’m a man’s woman; she still rocks the video). Who’s the older guy in the middle — I’m thinking he’s pretty hot.
And no, I’m not joking. I think these guys — all of them, Stein included — have got cool to spare in the best way possible — they know how to have some fun. I’ve got to learn how to do that one of these days. In the meantime, I’ve got SNNers to inspire me.
Lingering
Insulated as it is
By its cushion
Of double walls;
Protected as it is
By ribs standing sentry;
So far from the brain —
The heart lingers. (more…)
Cop-out in copland
In cop-land, cops make a huge deal about “having” someone’s back. “I’ve got your back” means “I’m with you; I’m not going anywhere; you can count on me,” and cops use it everywhere – whether it’s on a sweat-drenched basketball court on their day off or in a busted-up alley chasing down a jacked-up and possibly armed suspect in the middle of the night.
Having the back of a cheater or a buddy who’s robbing a convenience store, um, not so impressive. But having the back of your best friend who’s going through a divorce, or having the back of a fellow cop who’s busting through the front door of a crack house, yeah, that’s giving good back.
Sometimes people do things that make you realize, “Hey, I shouldn’t have this guy’s back.” Like if your coworker is stealing or your husband knocks the crap out of you – those are no-brainers; you don’t stay loyal to people who aren’t loyal to you or the company you work for.
Sometimes, with a Police Chief, for example, you’ve got to have the backs of a lot of people. So many people, in fact, that it must be a tough job sometimes to tell whose back you should be protecting when. But that’s precisely the job of a chief of police – to know how, when, and who to protect for the greater good of all.
Photo from City website.
Local journalist shows true grit … and commitment to news
I opened Creative Loafing last week and found a really important story — one that I think should have been the cover story instead of the chicken story that got that exposure instead. (more…)
The gg Monologues put the “fun” in profundity!
Amy Knapp, the creator of The gg Monologues, enjoys a good laugh.
An alter ego of sorts for Knapp, her character, “gg” is an investment advisor who advises clients on financial matters by day and “writes” a column about the love and life matters of a single Sarasota girl by night. (more…)