Self Portrait Tuesday: AT LAST So, after many initial efforts and photographs that were underexposed, overexposed, had my finger in the frame, and made me look like Snape (and not in a good way)... I'm finally set for Self Portrait Tuesday.

The theme of February is All of Me, so I wanted to start my first ever entry a current picture, something straightforward that says 'this is me.'

So, this is me. Monday night, February 13th, just home from work.

  ¶ 8:27 PM 0 comments

  Snow Falls in Brooklyn

Few things put a smile on my face as instantly as a really good snow. It started yesterday around 2pm in the afternoon, and continued all through the day and night. It's still going strong. I went out for a 2am stroll last night, just to enjoy the quiet. I went out this afternoon and took some pictures.

I thought I'd share. Here's the snow, falling on the street where I live.



Outside my apartment ........................My building

Larger versions and other shots can be seen Here at my photobucket.  ¶ 10:59 AM 0 comments

  Slow Dancing on the Q Train Okay, so I'm still working on Self Portrait Tuesdays. Last Tuesday, I sat down and tried to kick off my participation by taking a photograph of myself, a "come as you are" type snap.

Needless to say, I forgot that I've always been a terrible photographer, and also not terribly photogenic. I really didn't manage to take anything that didn't look like a mug shot, so I'm trying again tomorrow. If I still can't get anything decent, I'll say to hell with it and post whatever I end up with.

Meanwhile, I've been recently afflicted with an unexpected yet not entirely unwelcome bout of sentimentality. I was on the train home today and had set my MP3 player to a random sampling of songs from my "covers" genre. As an aside, I LOVE covers. My friend Mandy calls me the queen of covers. The more rare they are, the better. I like it when it's an artist covering something outside their usual genre, I like it if it's studio quality, even better if its tinny, live, and scratchy sounding. I think coves are so intimate...all of us carry around songs that make our hearts beat a little stronger, and get us on a core level. When we sing those songs, it's impossible to hide your real self, and I love watching so called "celebrity" people drop their guard like that and just sing something they love, something personal to them. It's a little voyeristic, I guess, and more real.

Anyway, up came a very fantastic cover of Minnie Driver singing "Hungry Heart" by Bruce Springsteen, and I had a swoony moment of sentimentality right there. Had my partner been with me, I would have swept her up into a slow dance right there in the middle of the 6pm commute. There are a few songs that do that to me, that make me yearn for that kind of closeness that you only get with a great slow dance. Driver's cover of Hungry Heart is one, another is At Last by Etta James, Andy Williams singing Moon River, and still another is Kiss to Build a Dream On by Louis Armstrong. When I hear those songs I'm still 9 years old and fantasizing about my perfect date, who cooks me dinner and cues the music when I come in the door...I don't have to ask, she just knows what to play, and we laugh and let the food get cold while she puts her head on my shoulder where we dance in a little easy circle all night long. I was never a little girl who dreamt about the perfect wedding...I knew even then I didn't want to marry man (and, how funny that I always knew I would be the breadwinner, lol). For me, it was always, ALWAYS that long slow dance.

Maybe that came from my grandfather, who used to slow dance with me when I was very small. I stepped on his feet, and we danced our way through all his records.

Anyway, it's hours later and I'm still slow dancing in my head.

What a nice feeling.  ¶ 12:23 AM 0 comments