WHATCHA SEE IS WHATCHA GET : PEPE MARQUEZ - BILLY MONDRAGON - ANDY VARGAS

CAN'T FIND MY WAY HOME : BLIND FAITH

For Charlie ...

GRAHAM NASH ON TOUR : FIND THE COST OF FREEDOM AND WOODSTOCK

 An excellent concert: Just wish the names of the musicians had been included:

AMERICA : SIMON AND GARFUNKLE

I'M BACKFLOATING IN 12 FEET OF WATER FOR THE NEXT COUPLE MONTHS ...

Enjoy reading some of my past posts! I've enjoyed writing them! Christine

RIDERS ON THE STORM : ROBBY KREIGER and JOHN DENSMORE : PLAYING FOR CHANGE : FANTASTIC VERSION!

The Doors: John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek- Drums, Guitar, Vocals Red Cloud Drum Group- Percussion Aaron White- Acoustic Guitar, Vocal Micah Nelson- Harmonica Lukas Nelson- Vocals, Guitar Sierra Ferrell- Vocals Rami Jaffee- Piano William Barton- Didgeridoo Don Was- Bass Boboulay Sissokho- Kora Macarena Montesinos- Cello Guarani Andeva Group- Percussion Iron Cult Dancers- Dancers Izzana Jaa- Vocals Ezequiel Acosta- Bandoneón Erik Prevost David- Trumpet

I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR

How many times must I look in a mirror and see myself as I really am?

How many times must I look in a mirror and see myself as I really am?

How many times must I look in a mirror and see myself as I really am?

Look in the mirror and say aloud "I AM A WRITER!"

TRIVIAL or SUPERFICIAL or LIGHTHEARTED ; THE LIST OF THE MOMENT

WHAT'S NEW? 

I'm Curious : Will this Year of the Fire Horse really be horribly erratic? 

I Might Just Be Done With : HERD Elephant Orphanage in South Africa.  Although a young female elephant did kill a carer, they put her to death. The hell with South Africa and their policy of not allowing elephant orphans to breed.  The entire situation is unnatural and I no longer believe this is the place for them. I used to look at their videos very frequently but can't bring myself to do it anymore. Just let these elephants mix with and join the Wild Elephants!

So funny! : AI generated political cartoons of sorts on YouTube that feature "world leaders."

Am I what I eat?

Cheese Of The Moment : Cream

Bread : Everything Bagel

Soup : Curry chicken

Condiment : Mayo

Sweet/Snack : Werthers original hard tac candies. Bags and bags of them.

I'm Drinking :  Ginger-honey-lemon instant tea (tisane) : love the ginger kick.

I'm Craving : Freshly cooked Chinese food that has no MSG and isn't overly salted.

AM I WHAT I BUY? white sweater with zipper front, brown suede denim slacks - wide legs, backpack that also has handles and excellent zippers, black sweatshirt beautifully colorfully embroidered with flowers that looks Polish.

AM I WHAT I MISS? Long hours reading books.

I'M GETTING BETTER AT : Discernment.  

I FEAR : The crazy people who erupt at Central Library and are a danger to others and themselves. Screaming. Shoving.

I SHOULD : Go to the beach more often. Go to a sound bath. Get back into Yoga.

I WISH : The genie would appear and grant me three wishes.

C 2026  Christine Trzyna

Ask yourself the same questions.

Don't let me influence you. 

SINGING: EXPERIENCE FIFTY : CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP

 

I'm not into karaoke but friends are.  When they ask me to join in I say, "I only sing in the shower when no one is home and somebody is always home."  What about you?  Are you a natural singer? A trained voice? Can you stay on key when you sing Happy Birthday? Tell us about you singing.

Christine Trzyna

This exercise is part of a series of writing exercises and to bring up the whole series use the tag Christine Trzyna Writing Workshop. 

C 2018-2025  Christine Trzyna 
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love.  It's karma.

 

HALAH : MAZZY STAR

GOODNESS OF HEART : EXPERIENCE FORTY-NINE: CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP

 

In my series of snack endorsements, I write that I was not PAID to say it. Well, being paid, rather than volunteering or doing something that one could be paid for but one does for experience or as an internship, or out of the goodness of their heart is ... different. 

What have you done out of the goodness of your heart, without expectation of pay, reward, or credit ?

When and why? (Be honest!) 

(Remember that you never have to show anyone what you wrote about this or any other subject in this writing workshop!)

Christine Trzyna

This exercise is part of a series of writing exercises and to bring up the whole series use the tag Christine Trzyna Writing Workshop. 

C 2018-2025  Christine Trzyna 
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love.  It's karma.

THE BEATLES : LIVE AT WASHINGTON D.C. 1964 THIS IS WHY THEY WERE GREAT!

The Beatles were my first "favs" and, though I rarely post videos of them and their music on this blog, I do return to them time and time again. Sometimes one of their songs comes to me. When first did I hear a Beatle's record? I think some of my older relatives had their 45s and played them... or maybe it was the hip mom of a childhood friend who lived on the same street... or my best friend in high school who used a lot of her babysitting money to buy the albums... that contributed to my fandom.

Recently a friend invited me to hear a Beatles music concert in Long Beach California at an event called First Friday. The band that played (which included one woman singer) was very good and 'a good time was had by all.'

Looking at the comments that were posted under this video... I excerpt from this one:  

@Myguitar-y2e1

No drum mics, no vocal stage monitors, no ear monitors, no guitar pedals, no backup row of instruments, ready to play in case of a broken string, only two roadies, no banks of backing vocalists, No fireworks, no smoke, no string section, no huge video screens, no spotlights or stage lighting,, No electronic guitar tuners, no synthesizers, no digital mixing board, no Guitar techs, no amp techs, no personal assistants, no make up and hair, no costumes, bodyguards, masseuses, lawyers, drivers, personal chefs…. ….. am I leaving anything out?

*****

THEY WERE TIGHT AND THEY WERE HOT...

*****

Excerpting again:

@cmwfeb65

Being able to play anywhere near in time AND in harmony, in the middle of a screaming arena, without stage monitors is miraculous. These guys were road-worn pros after a solid year of European Beatlemania, as well as a thousand gigs in noisy, crappy clubs in the previous 5 years.

*****

I note that they had to clumsily turn Ringo's drum platform, which was wobbly, but that meant they could face the audience in each direction over the time of the concert, that three of the songs they did were cover tunes, and - have we forgotten? - harmonies! And George's musicianship, especially! 

C 2025 Christine Trzyna  BlogSpot

slight edit October 9 2025

FIRST GRADE : EXPERIENCE FORTY-EIGHT : CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP

Go back to first grade. Tell your experience story in the mind and language of that first grader.  Are you reading?  Do you like your teacher?  Is there homework? What are you wearing?  Do you take the school bus?  Keep going...

Then, as an adult, answer this: How did first grade influence your education from then on?

Christine Trzyna

This exercise is part of a series of writing exercises and to bring up the whole series use the tag Christine Trzyna Writing Workshop. 

C 2018-2025  Christine Trzyna 
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love.  It's karma.

A FRENCH PERSPECTIVE OF THE SUNSET STRIP MUSIC SCENE

WHY DID THEY FAIL TO PUT THE YEAR = 2025 =

 ON THIS POSTCARD TO ADVERTISE THE EXHIBIT?

BREAKING SOME OF THE RULES OF CREATIVE WRITING

 BREAKING SOME OF THE RULES OF CREATIVE WRITING

By Christine Trzyna

Here are some of the Rules of Creative Writing I've heard in various classes that I've found published authors have broken successfully.

1) Never use italics or bold or fancy fonts as a means of expression. You should use adjectives and adverbs.

2) Never have more than a few characters. The story is too complicated and difficult to follow when you load up your short story or novel with too many.

3) Don't use run on sentences that are overly descriptive with fancy language. If you can't read it without taking a breath, the sentence is too long. (Strunk and White advocates simple, clear, communicative writing.)

4) Use standard punctuation. This is not the place to get creative.

5) Don't write your life story and then try to publish it as fiction.

(This post was first posted September 4, 2008)

C 2025 Christine Trzyna

C 2008-2025  Christine Trzyna 
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love.  It's karma.

PARENT'S WORLD VIEW : EXPERIENCE FORTY-SEVEN : CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP

 

Put yourself into your parent's world view and explain it in their voice. What did they or are they saying to you now (even if they have died)?

Christine Trzyna

This exercise is part of a series of writing exercises and to bring up the whole series use the tag Christine Trzyna Writing Workshop. 

C 2018-2025  Christine Trzyna 
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love.  It's karma.

DEVALUED PENNIES : WHY THE REPORTAGE ON PENNIES IS ALL WRONG : CONSIDER YOUR PIGGY BANK : OPINION BY CHRISTINE TRZYNA

DEVALUED PENNIES : WHY THE REPORTAGE ON PENNIES IS ALL WRONG : CONSIDER YOUR PIGGY BANK

Ever buy an expensive coat and think "but it's a good investment because I'm going to get years of wear out of this?"  You're not thinking about single use, you're thinking about REUSING the item.

Let's say the coat is a stretch for you, your budget, because it's a couple hundred dollars. You start thinking about the classic cut, the winters ahead, and that, so long as you don't get too fat or too thin, you can wear that coat hundreds of times.  If you wear that $200 coat fifty times a winter, for five winters, you can see how little it costs PER WEAR. ($200 divided by 250 =?)

You might also do this when you thrift shop and are buying used clothing. You might think "Someone else shrunk these pants and they are not new off the rack, but at only $10, if I wear these pants ten times that's only a dollar a wear.  (Jeans that fit are often a great value per wear. The designers changing the essential shape of them, the length, the width of the leg by year is the only thing that makes a purchase of jeans questionable value-wise.)

So what I'm getting at is THE COST OF MANUFACTURING A PENNY IS NOT THE POINT AT ALL. It's the FACT that pennies are reused thousands of times.  If they were not, we would not have so many years of them STILL IN CIRCULATION. Pennies may cost more to make them than a penny, but if you consider REUSE they are a terrific value.

The devaluation of the dollar makes the value of pennies so devalued some people don't think we need them. But that is not the point.

We do. We do not need prices or taxes rounded up to a nickle.

Once there are no more pennies, the nickles will be next to be exterminated.

Here is a true story.

When I got my dog, and had to watch for hazards such as broken glass, rotting meat on discarded chicken bones, and so on, while walking her, I began to find pennies.  I stooped to pick up her poo. I stooped to pick up pennies.

I had a piggy bank in my closet and I threw the coins in there and forgot about them.

I was using a library further from home than most people would travel. The library closest to me had become scary, requiring constant security and visits by the police. I traveled to this other library which was quiet and underutilized until about three in the afternoon, when the school children came in. That branch was supporting seventeen schools!

One day the head librarian, anticipating a lack of funding for their summer reading program, told me that she was not going to be able to give participating children the things she had in the past. They usually got back packs, school supplies, even new shoes for gym. I said I would try to help.  I called office supply stores and tried to get the school supplies, but was told they needed months to process such requests.

One day I walked into a 99 Cents Only Store on the way to that library. I asked for the manager and she was willing to give me things people had returned.  However, while some of these things might work as prizes, there weren't school supplies.

I went home and while laying in bed, trying to figure out how to get what was needed, I remembered my piggy bank.

I'd never counted how many pennies I'd stooped to pick up while walking my dog.  I opened the piggy bank and there was over $40 in it! (40 X 100 = ?)

I called the manager at that 99 Cents Only Store and asked her if she would be willing to take this amount to provide me the school supplies. She was. I warned her it was all pennies.

I turned over the piggy bank and she gave me so many boxes of crayons, pens and pencils, color markers, notebooks and diaries, and so on that, when I got this all to the library, I was told that it would be enough for several summers. Maybe even years.

That was the true value of pennies.

C 2025 Christine Trzyna

THE JACARANDA TREES ARE BLOOMING as I WRITE OUTDOORS AT A PARK

Purple everywhere and flowers dropping, none that have perfume. Green grass.  Cool out.  Cloud cover.  I can see the laptop screen.

The last several days, writing, printing, and snail mailing letters of protest and advocacy.  Will any of them solicit response?  Don't know.  Have to get my anger out of my system.

In the works, one to the library, which has been taking a survey.

Fearless squirrels coming to see what I have in my lunch bag. Luckily this park has many pine trees with plenty of pine cones so they are not entirely addicted to processed and inappropriate people food out of garbage cans.

Be Productive.

Evenings with a friend, watching old films. Eating Reeses peanut butter cups every night, more than I ever ate in my entire life.

Later I hope to sew a carry bag for my friend, as a gift for him, for Father's Day.

Terrible worries about the economy, job loss, and the desperate need for more truly affordable housing. "It's going to get worse," he says, frequently, when I find articles about the excessive number of for sale houses on the market, how first time home buyers are backing out of buying, afraid their incomes will not support mortgages.

We've been watching the construction of a major, potentially community changing, housing project.  Advertised as "From the low 600,000."  These town homes are clustered together so that it appears that all that's between them is the car access.  We see how their address clings to a single family home neighborhood rather than the busy street that some of them front.  Will there be soundproofing? Two sets of them have been completed, and we think someone is living in one, perhaps a show-piece furnished, but we don't think a single one of them has been sold.

The front doors are narrow and painted the color that must be the color of the year, a yellow like a chunk of cheese or maybe a school bus. "How can you even get any furniture through that door?" "Maybe they think people are going to order their furniture from Ikea, assemble it indoors, and never get it back out again?" It looks like two rows of these town homes made of wood and plywood have been left standing and we see no workpersons continuing to work. Is the builder waiting for inspections? Moved crew to another site? Out of money?

Who wants a townhouse in this neighborhood? 

What will happen to the government housing? The ma and pop stores with low rent?

I think of the seniors who have lived in their own single family home, purchased years ago for much less, inflation, the devaluation of the dollar, the horror that $40,000 a year is barely livable for one person.  I think that if you have a house you can sell for a million, these town homes might be a sensible move. But... how many seniors want to do three stories of stairs?  The promised electric car plug-ins suggest that these are targeted to attracted young people, techies, people with income of $100,000 a year or more. A way into housing, perhaps without expectation of ever making the pay off?

We muse over the economy between meals.

My friend and I go to eat fast food a lot these last few months. Neither of us were ever much into fast food but it works with a temporary lifestyle. McDonalds, Wendys, Popeyes, Kentucky Fried, Jack in and Box, even once Arby's. Too much fried.  Too many fries.

We look to see who else is eating, what cars there are in lots or going through drive-throughs. We think indoor dining is empty.

We think Rite Aid. All those employees who have loyally held on.

If AI is going to take over so many jobs, how will all those people earn their living?

Another squirrel.

More purple flowers.

C 2025 Christine Trzyna