3/10/10
SIR ARTHUR HELPS Quote
"Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought." - Sir Arthur Helps
2/26/10
2/23/10
MY OLD WRITERS GROUP WAS TERRIFIED OF SENDING WORK OUT
I belonged to a writers group years back that was comprised of some talented people who were dedicated to short story writing. But they were so perfectionistic, that despite writing and rewriting stories, and going through our critique process, they were terrified to send work out.
THE REASON WAS NOT JUST REJECTION! The reason was that they feared that everyone in publishing knew each other - and that if they had the nerve to send out a story that some editor thought of as less than A-plus, unworthy, then they would face something equal to being blackballed out of being published - ever. Their efforts - their very name -would exclude them from the very world they so desired to be in, that is if there were a lot of truth to this almost paranoid notion.
Being published does not make you a writer, writing does. And the best way to become a better writer is to write. No doubt being published can sometimes be a personal rather than professional matter. I simply do not believe that a writer who wants to be published should worry that rejections, even a series of rejection, means that they will become infamous within publishing circles.
If you have had an experience that would prove the paranoid notion, please contact me and tell me your story!
Christine
THE REASON WAS NOT JUST REJECTION! The reason was that they feared that everyone in publishing knew each other - and that if they had the nerve to send out a story that some editor thought of as less than A-plus, unworthy, then they would face something equal to being blackballed out of being published - ever. Their efforts - their very name -would exclude them from the very world they so desired to be in, that is if there were a lot of truth to this almost paranoid notion.
Being published does not make you a writer, writing does. And the best way to become a better writer is to write. No doubt being published can sometimes be a personal rather than professional matter. I simply do not believe that a writer who wants to be published should worry that rejections, even a series of rejection, means that they will become infamous within publishing circles.
If you have had an experience that would prove the paranoid notion, please contact me and tell me your story!
Christine
2/21/10
SHEILA WELLER DANCING AT CIRO's
pages 155-156 C Sheila Weller "Dancing at Ciro's" Published by Saint Martin's Press
Helen Hover Weller, Sheila Weller's mother, was a reporter in Hollywood writing on celebrities. Weller is setting up the mood of Hollywood at the grand opening of her uncle Herman's new restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. It is World War 2, the troops have invaded North Africa and Winston Churchill is optimistic. It is the day after Christmas... and the doors open.
"Consequently, "they came in twos and fours and sixes," Herman recalled..... Joan Crawford ...Cary Grant... Lana Turner came with her new husband, restaurant owner Steve Crane, and my mother - supervising the cigarette and coat-check girls with one eye, sleuthing for column items with the other - got the actress she most avidly chronicled to sit down with her in the cigarette girls' lounge.
"The movie stars of the forties had a combination of qualities that are the mirror opposite of their counterparts today. On the one hand, they gave off a glamour unheard of in our era, when ten-million-a-picture actresses wear jeans on David Letterman. But the jeans-wearing actresses are sophisticated; those glamour girls were not. They were often socially naive contract-worker-bees completely beholden to studio bosses. They were raised in a culture that still inculcated obedience and in an America deeply gridded by the caste system. A lot of them were insecure about their rough edges (high school drop out Betty Hutton told my mother she kept a dictionary on her bedstand to look up words whose meanings she didn't know) and their recent poverty (ex-elevator operator Dorothy Lamour remembered when she and her mother had to stretch $1.75 to last five days. However, they were still able to be human beings. They didn't have minders and bodyguards; they opened their own front doors; they worried about getting pregnant; and when they got drunk, they would pour out their hearts in a powder room.
Helen Hover Weller, Sheila Weller's mother, was a reporter in Hollywood writing on celebrities. Weller is setting up the mood of Hollywood at the grand opening of her uncle Herman's new restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. It is World War 2, the troops have invaded North Africa and Winston Churchill is optimistic. It is the day after Christmas... and the doors open.
"Consequently, "they came in twos and fours and sixes," Herman recalled..... Joan Crawford ...Cary Grant... Lana Turner came with her new husband, restaurant owner Steve Crane, and my mother - supervising the cigarette and coat-check girls with one eye, sleuthing for column items with the other - got the actress she most avidly chronicled to sit down with her in the cigarette girls' lounge.
"The movie stars of the forties had a combination of qualities that are the mirror opposite of their counterparts today. On the one hand, they gave off a glamour unheard of in our era, when ten-million-a-picture actresses wear jeans on David Letterman. But the jeans-wearing actresses are sophisticated; those glamour girls were not. They were often socially naive contract-worker-bees completely beholden to studio bosses. They were raised in a culture that still inculcated obedience and in an America deeply gridded by the caste system. A lot of them were insecure about their rough edges (high school drop out Betty Hutton told my mother she kept a dictionary on her bedstand to look up words whose meanings she didn't know) and their recent poverty (ex-elevator operator Dorothy Lamour remembered when she and her mother had to stretch $1.75 to last five days. However, they were still able to be human beings. They didn't have minders and bodyguards; they opened their own front doors; they worried about getting pregnant; and when they got drunk, they would pour out their hearts in a powder room.
2/15/10
CHARLES JOHNSON Quote
"It has been well said that all true art is a contagion of feeling; so that through the true reading of true books we do indeed read ourselves into the spirit of the masters." Charles Johnson.
2/12/10
AMMA Quotation
"Stuck in the intellect,
we fail to get to the heart.
Since the intellect is very calculating,
we need spirituality to find our way.
Mother is not saying we should
completely eliminate the intellect,
but that we need a discriminating intellect
that distinguishes between truth and untruth.
Awareness is the most important act of all."
As edited by Janine Canan
we fail to get to the heart.
Since the intellect is very calculating,
we need spirituality to find our way.
Mother is not saying we should
completely eliminate the intellect,
but that we need a discriminating intellect
that distinguishes between truth and untruth.
Awareness is the most important act of all."
As edited by Janine Canan
2/10/10
HATING WOMEN by SHMULEY BOTEACH American's Hostile Campaign Against the Fairer Sex
QUICK REVIEW by CHRISTINE TRZYNA
HATING WOMEN
American's Hostile Campaign Against The Fairer Sex
10 Regan Books an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
Schmuley Boteach sounds like a feminist, or at least that's the best way I can categorize his Jewish-religious based POV that women need to be respected and the hell with pornography and adultery and all those things that degrade women. He hates what Madonna and Donald Trump have done to American morals so much that he refers to them repeatedly.CT's O
pinion: Where does erotica end and pornography begin? When did women agreeing to be victimized as porn stars become "Positive Sex Feminism?"
page 33 in Chapter Without Ladies, There Cannot Be Gentlemen
"In 2004, the biggest-selling relationships book in the United States was coauthored by a man and a woman, both of whom were screenwriters for "Sex and The City." The book is called "He's Just Not That into You," and its premise is that a man who treats a woman poorly does not have a real character flaw, but rather, "he's just not that into her." The book tells women to stop blaming men for being jerks, and just accept that they have a right not to like any specific woman that much: If he doesn't like you, move on and enjoy life. Amazing, isn't it? A book that says if men treat women like garbage, it is because, essentially, they are just not hot enough. So we have come full circle. Rather than asking men to take responsibility for their selfish behavior towards women and finally become gentlemen, we are telling women that they empower themselves by being honest enough to admit that, when men dump with barely an explanation, it is because in the men's eyes they are no great catch...
CT's opinion: I read "He's Just Not That Into You," and while I believe it counsels women to be strong and not accept bad boy behavior from men they are having romantic-sexual liaisons with, I don't believe it's an excuseology for men to be selfish or to victimize women.
Page 183
"The cleaning woman mentality leads directly to husbands having empty sex with their wives, with no sense of reverence and with no sense of awe. When a man makes love to his wife but thinks about another woman, then climaxes and climbs off his wife, he has treated her like an available whore who is there to satisfy his needs.
Page 296
"Let me explain just why pornography is so nefarious. Far from being a healthy outlet for raging hormones, pornography is a cancerous proclivity that slowly undermines healthy relationships. On a basic level, excessive viewing exposure to nude, female bodies contributes to the penchant of men to think about other women while making love to their wives. In fact, 84 % of men admit to doing just that (and they're dumb enough to believe that their wives don't notice.) We can even go so far as to say that once you bring another woman into your bed. even if only mentally, you are practicing a form of mental decapitation and merely using your wife's body for friction, replacing her head, her essence, with the images of another woman. The Torah, which is very concerned with fostering the mental and emotional intimacy that physical intimacy is meant to promote, actually calls men to task by deeming it a prohibition to fantasize about other women while being with one's wife....
HATING WOMEN
American's Hostile Campaign Against The Fairer Sex
10 Regan Books an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
Schmuley Boteach sounds like a feminist, or at least that's the best way I can categorize his Jewish-religious based POV that women need to be respected and the hell with pornography and adultery and all those things that degrade women. He hates what Madonna and Donald Trump have done to American morals so much that he refers to them repeatedly.CT's O
page 33 in Chapter Without Ladies, There Cannot Be Gentlemen
"In 2004, the biggest-selling relationships book in the United States was coauthored by a man and a woman, both of whom were screenwriters for "Sex and The City." The book is called "He's Just Not That into You," and its premise is that a man who treats a woman poorly does not have a real character flaw, but rather, "he's just not that into her." The book tells women to stop blaming men for being jerks, and just accept that they have a right not to like any specific woman that much: If he doesn't like you, move on and enjoy life. Amazing, isn't it? A book that says if men treat women like garbage, it is because, essentially, they are just not hot enough. So we have come full circle. Rather than asking men to take responsibility for their selfish behavior towards women and finally become gentlemen, we are telling women that they empower themselves by being honest enough to admit that, when men dump with barely an explanation, it is because in the men's eyes they are no great catch...
CT's opinion: I read "He's Just Not That Into You," and while I believe it counsels women to be strong and not accept bad boy behavior from men they are having romantic-sexual liaisons with, I don't believe it's an excuseology for men to be selfish or to victimize women.
Page 183
"The cleaning woman mentality leads directly to husbands having empty sex with their wives, with no sense of reverence and with no sense of awe. When a man makes love to his wife but thinks about another woman, then climaxes and climbs off his wife, he has treated her like an available whore who is there to satisfy his needs.
Page 296
"Let me explain just why pornography is so nefarious. Far from being a healthy outlet for raging hormones, pornography is a cancerous proclivity that slowly undermines healthy relationships. On a basic level, excessive viewing exposure to nude, female bodies contributes to the penchant of men to think about other women while making love to their wives. In fact, 84 % of men admit to doing just that (and they're dumb enough to believe that their wives don't notice.) We can even go so far as to say that once you bring another woman into your bed. even if only mentally, you are practicing a form of mental decapitation and merely using your wife's body for friction, replacing her head, her essence, with the images of another woman. The Torah, which is very concerned with fostering the mental and emotional intimacy that physical intimacy is meant to promote, actually calls men to task by deeming it a prohibition to fantasize about other women while being with one's wife....
2/1/10
COMMENTARY ON PINK GLITTER IN THE AIR
My favorite from last night's Grammy's ? PINK... the lyrics of the song are a relief from so much raunch... imaginative and romantic and the acrobatics in air? Perfect for the mood... Nearly nude yes but erotic not pornographic. Did you expect this of me after all the bitching I did about the American Music Awards.
New Video Summer 2016
New Video Summer 2016
1/31/10
VANITY FAIR ON THE TWITTER PHENOMENA
Queens of Twittering may send up to 1000, one hundred forty word, messages a day, and so far there is no direct financial profit in it. This Vanity Fair article by Vanessa Grigoriadis is about the way some people embrace new technology and hire GHOST TWITTERers to keep their fans updated with the minutia of their lives.
I personally have no time to Twitter and am not that interested in the minutia nor do I imagine anyone at all interested in mine. Really impactful personal "sharing" dates in coffee houses are rare to come by as well. Seems to me the best use of Twitter-like reportage is for purposes of MARKETING.
I believe that some people DO NOT KNOW THEY EXIST IF THEY ARE NOT CONSTANT WITH THE REPORTAGE.
Have you experienced meeting someone for coffee and feeling like you may as well come alone since the person across the table is too busy with their cell phone - texting - to pay much attention?
Christine Trzyna
I personally have no time to Twitter and am not that interested in the minutia nor do I imagine anyone at all interested in mine. Really impactful personal "sharing" dates in coffee houses are rare to come by as well. Seems to me the best use of Twitter-like reportage is for purposes of MARKETING.
I believe that some people DO NOT KNOW THEY EXIST IF THEY ARE NOT CONSTANT WITH THE REPORTAGE.
Have you experienced meeting someone for coffee and feeling like you may as well come alone since the person across the table is too busy with their cell phone - texting - to pay much attention?
Christine Trzyna
1/28/10
J.D. SALINGER CATCHER IN THE RYE AUTHOR PASSES
Breaking Yahoo news... the author of the book that was taught at Eastern Prep schools and became famous as an inspiration for the murder of John Lennon passes away.
1/19/10
MY THOUGHTS ABOUT CHRISTINE TRZYNA - WRITERLY LIFE - THE BLOG
Recently, I got a couple of comments that advised me that my blog was getting better all the time - funnier - and maybe more interesting. I was also complimented on the high quality of the blog - that reading it is a pleasure.
But I have mixed feelings about writing for approval and the truth is, I'm really not. Though I do hope my writerly blog is of support to other writers, and am a very bookish person who admires many other writers for what they have written, this blog is for me first. I write it as if no one is reading it! I don't see that my goal in writing my blog is to make people like me, approve of me, or my humor or my attitude, though it's nice if they do. (I need support too!) That's why I haven't installed an ego-tickling ticker to count hits. Now Google rates by hits, while Yahoo has apparently dumped me because I don't have an impressive number of links!
This blog is my diary. I know the stories behind certain posts that I would never tell. But when I personally click click click to an old post, I remember. For the reader I would say this is a tease. Like Sally Rand, I'm keeping a lot of parts covered, on purpose. That's my pleasure.
And as far as being funnier, I do have a sense of humor and it's one that is not always appreciated, so when someone gets me? OK! That's an ego stroke akin to a full body massage with exotic oil, OK.
But deeper to the accupressure point, I am just so glad I have this blog as well as WES BRYAN-MY LIFE IN MUSIC to express myself with, because right now the time I have to write, the time I have to even think my own thoughts, or go without interruption, is severely limited. I fantacize about going somewhere - escaping to a place - where I cannot see or speak to another human being for weeks if I choose (OK I'll take Wes' calls!) and WRITE WRITE WRITE!
I also KNOW that the time is coming when I'll be writing a book which will take all my efforts NOT TO CARE WHAT MY READERS THINK OF ME. In fact I will consider it my duty to piss off my readers; when it comes to a full range of human emotions I have them. And I won't want anyone to tell me not to write it, or how to write it, or that what I need to say need not be said. (As a hint, read the holocaust poem below!) It's going to take true fearlessness to get my truth down, so yes, my readers will cry.
---
OK thanks D, yes hopefully laugh too!
But I have mixed feelings about writing for approval and the truth is, I'm really not. Though I do hope my writerly blog is of support to other writers, and am a very bookish person who admires many other writers for what they have written, this blog is for me first. I write it as if no one is reading it! I don't see that my goal in writing my blog is to make people like me, approve of me, or my humor or my attitude, though it's nice if they do. (I need support too!) That's why I haven't installed an ego-tickling ticker to count hits. Now Google rates by hits, while Yahoo has apparently dumped me because I don't have an impressive number of links!
This blog is my diary. I know the stories behind certain posts that I would never tell. But when I personally click click click to an old post, I remember. For the reader I would say this is a tease. Like Sally Rand, I'm keeping a lot of parts covered, on purpose. That's my pleasure.
And as far as being funnier, I do have a sense of humor and it's one that is not always appreciated, so when someone gets me? OK! That's an ego stroke akin to a full body massage with exotic oil, OK.
But deeper to the accupressure point, I am just so glad I have this blog as well as WES BRYAN-MY LIFE IN MUSIC to express myself with, because right now the time I have to write, the time I have to even think my own thoughts, or go without interruption, is severely limited. I fantacize about going somewhere - escaping to a place - where I cannot see or speak to another human being for weeks if I choose (OK I'll take Wes' calls!) and WRITE WRITE WRITE!
I also KNOW that the time is coming when I'll be writing a book which will take all my efforts NOT TO CARE WHAT MY READERS THINK OF ME. In fact I will consider it my duty to piss off my readers; when it comes to a full range of human emotions I have them. And I won't want anyone to tell me not to write it, or how to write it, or that what I need to say need not be said. (As a hint, read the holocaust poem below!) It's going to take true fearlessness to get my truth down, so yes, my readers will cry.
---
OK thanks D, yes hopefully laugh too!
1/12/10
IF NOT FOR HER SAVING ANNE FRANKS DIARY... WE WOULD NEVER HAVE READ IT! 100 YEAR OLD MIEP GIES PASSES AWAY !
Link now to this Yahoo news story about Miep Gies, who put the papers that were Anne Frank's diary away in her desk... Anne's diary was required reading when I was in the fifth grade. I'm not sure we understood the Holocaust, focusing instead on Anne falling in love with Peter... There were many heroic individuals who risked their own lives to hide other people in Poland, Germany, the occupied countries during the Nazi terror.
1/8/10
CARLOS CASTANEDA quote
“Intent is not a thought, or an object, or a wish. Intent is what can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated. It operates in spite of the warrior’s indulgence. Intent is what makes him invulnerable. Intent is what sends a shaman through a wall, through space, to infinity.” Carlos Castaneda
1/6/10
HOLA MAGAZINE (A SECRET PLEASURE) I'M MOSTLY INTERESTED IN THE ROYAL SITUATION IN MONACO
A few months ago, I began "reading," Hola! Magazine, which is available at Los Angeles Public Library branches with high Spanish-speaking populations.
Truth is I can't read it but I can look at the pictures and glean the content through some word identification.
What is fascinating me about the LATIN MENTALITY OF HOLA, is that aristocrats and royals are featured celebrities just as they were in Europe for hundreds of years. So, if you are interested in what the Spanish Royal family is up to or the titans of industry, this is the magazine for you.
I'm mostly interested in the Royal Situation in Monaco. The Royal Family of Monaco is one of the worlds most publicized dysfunctional families in the world and the whole question about the line of succession because Prince Albert has no legal marriage or legitimate offspring (rumors abound about a California love child...) has been intriguing to me. Maybe it's that Princess Grace-American angle. Maybe the Princess Caroline-Feminist - a Woman Should Be In Charge- angle.
Albert has taken over where his father left off and Caroline's first son, a beautiful young man in his prime, is the heir next. Caroline's husband Ernst seems to have been missing in action from some recent ceremonies and Caroline has a dreadful stoic look on her face.
A recent article about the Royal Situation in Monaco revealed something else about Hola! Magazine. Apparently, they do not airbrush like similar publications in the Northern Hemisphere do, revealing every wrinkle (Caroline very very wrinkly, even shockingly so, after seeing images of her that have been fixed...), varicose vein, and so on. And, couples that feature both the man and the woman in swim-gear with excess fat are not cropped to be more attractive. Maybe it's the Reality TV influence.
Truth is I can't read it but I can look at the pictures and glean the content through some word identification.
What is fascinating me about the LATIN MENTALITY OF HOLA, is that aristocrats and royals are featured celebrities just as they were in Europe for hundreds of years. So, if you are interested in what the Spanish Royal family is up to or the titans of industry, this is the magazine for you.
I'm mostly interested in the Royal Situation in Monaco. The Royal Family of Monaco is one of the worlds most publicized dysfunctional families in the world and the whole question about the line of succession because Prince Albert has no legal marriage or legitimate offspring (rumors abound about a California love child...) has been intriguing to me. Maybe it's that Princess Grace-American angle. Maybe the Princess Caroline-Feminist - a Woman Should Be In Charge- angle.
Albert has taken over where his father left off and Caroline's first son, a beautiful young man in his prime, is the heir next. Caroline's husband Ernst seems to have been missing in action from some recent ceremonies and Caroline has a dreadful stoic look on her face.
A recent article about the Royal Situation in Monaco revealed something else about Hola! Magazine. Apparently, they do not airbrush like similar publications in the Northern Hemisphere do, revealing every wrinkle (Caroline very very wrinkly, even shockingly so, after seeing images of her that have been fixed...), varicose vein, and so on. And, couples that feature both the man and the woman in swim-gear with excess fat are not cropped to be more attractive. Maybe it's the Reality TV influence.
1/2/10
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