Typewriter  —

Sometimes i fear that every time i write something down it’s not mine anymore
And I needed to say that in one line, one breath because maybe if i keep writing in longer lines, longer breaths, I can have more.
I’ve forgotten to breathe if I’m writing frankly.
Touch to me has become these 3D printed keyboards
I wait for the age where I get a typewriter
Set it at my desk
Coat over it with my fingers to feel that smooth dust of its last user
Then shake it off in disgust but still
It’s my typewriter

I don’t know why this typewriter might just save me as a writer
Make my lines more poetic than they were before
Less depressing

Is this how I think now?

I used to make up words
Stories
Put on veils that kept the reader from me
Truly me

I guess now I’ve realized people can sense that disauthenticity
So I write to you like a friend
A friend that I can talk to in verse sometimes
Without a costume
Or a phone feature

Yeah. That typewriter though.

It’d be green, that I know.
Maybe I’d write something more beautiful
And in turn make beauty turn inwards
But that’s okay because—-
I have a fricking typewriter.

If I can tell you one thing though,
sometimes the typewriter isn’t a typewriter.

My 5 Favorite Works of Yoshitomo Nara  —

Yoshitomo Nara is a pioneer in contemporary art whose signature style —depicting children in states of rebellion and persistence to somber and contemplating— delves into the power of the introspective young mind of today. Within his work are darker feelings of rage by the youth for societies maladies of sexual assault, climate change, and betrayal, accompanied by a sense of restlessness.

The way the little girl’s head positions itself at the bottom of this “No means no,” circle, like a thought bubble, demonstrates the backdrop of this girl’s thoughts, the idea of needing to reinforce the meaning of “no,” as a defense against violence. Nara uses minimal words in his images, if at all, so to see such powerful words painted so boldly strengthens his message.

The eye positioning of the little girl demonstrates an emphatic feeling of betrayal. Titling the piece of art as a walk after acid rain shows how painful this rain feels on the subject, as the world around her is turning on her due to climate change. Nara, in this image, portrays the same, feeling of betrayal, younger generations, feel today by their elders, feeling sad that they had to look up to generations that have ruined the environment on purpose. The victims are climate change are feeling the same pain as the girl in the picture.

This image really strikes a chord with me being that it shows this little girl with an instrument in her hand, and clearly her purpose is to change the course of history. I think it echoes the power of art in the youth today and how it’s inspired the latest generation to stay strong advocate for themselves, wanting to change history for the better.

This image has compliancy and calmness in one. The sleepwalker image feel so loose and free with the way she can move her body, he got into saddening that the only time she might be free is when she’s sleeping and not when she’s conscious. Nara might be telling the observer that our lives might be so hectic that when we fall asleep, all we really wanna do is just to let loose. The flow of imagery, and the light blue color imitates the idea of a newborn child, which I think really emphasizes how sleep is something that each person has done since they were born. Sleep can be the one infantile part of us that stone resides in each of us, our access to a spiritual flow.

The subject pictured looks like he’s waiting for some thing, has an impatient that keeps him on the edge of his seat. It’s quite fastening to look at an experience with the subject, because this feeling of looking to the future is one that is so shared and present within everyone. It reminds me of that same feeling of “Are we there yet?” but with a darker twist. The mystery of what this boy is waiting for entices the viewer, asking themselves what’s in store for the waiting boy, and thus the viewer becomes impatient themselves. Quite meta work Nara is working with here.

Taylor Swift’s Revolutions —

Taking reinventing to unprecedented levels

By nature and nurture, human beings are prone to pull towards evolution, reinvention in what they digest from the media. A pattern from the past 70 years, nonetheless, that have allowed The Beatles and Madonna to dominate their epochs is nonetheless their tendency to constantly reinvent themselves. No album is like the next, from the absurdity of Magical Mystery Tour to the solemnity of Revolver, their eras can even be sonically and aesthetically distincted by their hairstyles. Madonna, likewise, has portrayed herself from melodious cowboy in Music to a Catholic genesis in Like a Prayer. Now, in the present day, none other than Taylor Swift has not only embodied the idea of « eras, » but branded it as her upcoming world tour. And as she acknowledges and embraces these eras, Taylor Swift is paving her path towards becoming a legendary musical icon in history.

Her roots starred when she appeared in the music scene as none other than a country artist, putting herself out there in country radio. Yet the inescapable question emerges: how does a Southern-accented country princess become a New York Pop Star? It starts with the biggest transitive album to date, Red, in which songs like State of Grace are countered by We Are Never Getting Back Together, where the inherent pop to music joins with a folk storytelling and meshes into Red. Red took fans on a journey from both genres, while picking up new fans that would identify themselves with her novel sound that would culminate into 1989, an 80’s inspired album that would take her to worldwide status. By 2014, she became a certified pop artist, yet nonetheless faced backlash to the claim that a rise in pop equivocally meant a decline in her authenticity as an artist. Yet Ms. Swift prevailed, keeping in line with her public image, until things turned awry.

Rapper Kanye West re-ignited his long-past feud with Swift releasing a song entitled « Famous » with the claim that he can be accredited with her rise to fame. After facing public cancellation, Swift went into hiding, yet in her time away, she pivoted back to her country roots with two folk albums. Such transitions marked her musical genius to signal to the world that the Taylor Swift they always knew, she was still there.

As she has taken the reigns of her own life, Taylor Swift’s bounce back from public humiliation to confident musical savante is what has drawn each listener to her music. By re-recording her albums in defiance to Big Machine Records’s ownership over her music, it was her way to finally take autonomy over her craft.

Now, she is the female artist ever in history to have the most billboard top 10 singles. Tickets for her concerts have almost sold out, and social media floods with fans of all walks of life admiring her work. She has drawn in the world in variety and precision, leaving Easter eggs to upcoming projects and producing enough content to oversatisfy her listeners. As a musical businesswoman, writer, and singer, Taylor Swift is making history, not only reinventing herself but reinventing the industry. The marking point of that will signal with the « eras » tour, projected to start in 2022.

The Climb: Facing Failure —

For every action, there is a reaction. Positive attracts to negative. The acceleration of gravity is 9.8 meter per second squared. It’s physics; it’s the way the world works or is hypothesized to work; but despite its beautiful balances and imbalances, Physics and I are not attracted to one another like negatives to positives. If you were to go to 12 of the people I see most often: my fellow actors, friends, and family, 8 of the 12 would mention the word “perfectionist” if not “determined.” Our task in Physics class was to calculate the distance at which a marble launcher will land based on projectile motion. And quite frankly, I had no idea what to do. Staying two hours after school for a consecutive three days and countless attempts, I tried every equation and calculation known in my mind until I found an answer: 45 inches. I took that 45 inches and launched the marble for two tries, both of which failed miserably. But I believed that the third could be the one and I confidently launched the last marble, the third marble, and watched it fly in the air……and land…… in a completely wrong spot. It ruined my day, and in the moment, seemed to have ruined my life. For the next week, I sulked walking into sixth period as if the world was collapsing and cursed the very day Physics was born. After a week of mourning for my failures, I got a text from my sister: “Hey. There was a boat sinking by the Key Biscayne bay. I couldn’t get a picture in the moment, but I realized that boats don’t sink through the water surrounding it but by the water within it. Just a thought.” Right then I realized something imperative: I was letting my failures sink me. The perfectionist persona I acclaim myself to be created an imperfection both in the Physics problem and myself. If I base my internal happiness over an externalized need for success, I can never be satisfied. On a larger scale, I saw the world from a different perspective; people live their lives in pursuit of pieces of paper: prestigious degrees, wedding documents, divorce papers, report cards, death wills, bank statements, yet they don’t realize that these things are pieces of paper; humanity has consciously chosen to depend our happiness on the very things we can’t always control. In the day and age of a worldwide meritocracy, I have decided to value the process and progress over perfection. So now, when I walk into Physics class, I walk out smiling knowing I have found a place that truly challenges me. My mission now is to find the little pockets of the world that embrace my failures and dare me to thrive; this is how I intend to grow.

A Letter on Inspiration

As an immigrant from Rio de Janeiro, my assimilation into America as a wide-eyed eight-year-old had been troublesome to say the least. Surrounded by an array of cultural distinctions and American peers, I felt out of place in this “New World” of childhood. Learning and reading English literature bridged that gap. I read the works of Lemony Snickett, Dr. Seuss, Lois Lowry, and J.K. Rowling with an intense fervor for the written word—this would be the start of a beautiful relationship with literature. By my sophomore year, I had self-published a collection of poetry titled Pavlina knowing that this little green book harbored every truth I lacked the courage to say, every story that glided through my dreams. English, to me, has been the greatest friend because though I can turn its pages, it can never turn its back on me. It’s a beautiful thing to find something that bridges the holes in your personality, and dares you to thrive. It is because of this that I write, I read, and share my love for English. Maybe this will inspire you to share what you love as well, whatever that may be.
 
                Xoxo,
 
                         Julia

The Mind Palace Technique  —

Enhance your ability to process information.

With midterms and finals about to arrive, I wanted to talk about this new study technique that I’ve been using to study! It is called the mind palace technique, recently called Sherlock’s mind palace per the BBC show Sherlock, and it has become a fundamental tool to help access loads of knowledge efficiently! The technique originated according to a myth in Ancient Greece, where a poet named Simonides of CEOs invented a way to memorize information and access it after attending a banquet. He exited the banquet for a brief moment, and quickly the banquet collapsed right behind his back. Simonides, recalling the room of the banquet, was able to point out which body belonged to whom as he could picture where each guest was sitting. And thus, the mind palace technique came to fruition.

The technique works like this: picture a complex building in your head, like a palace or a school, where each room is a specific piece of information you want to remember. Because the human mind can easily store visual memories, you perform the technique by imagining yourself walking through this palace into each room and remembering each memory.

The Ancient Greeks and Romans frequently used this method, especially when they had to recite long speeches or The Odyssey to their teachers. Because it was unaffordable to write loads of information down, the mind palace technique became the secret to attaining such deep memory.

Although the mind palace technique doesn’t aid in analysis-level thinking, it helps provide the baseline for remembering information that would allow its user to then analyze the information they gathered. After all, for analysis, you need content and foundation, both of which can be accessed using the mind palace technique. Each person’s mind palace may be unique and different to their own life experiences: for some, it can be an actual palace like Buckingham palace, and for others, it can be their childhood home.

For example, the mind palaces are perfect for a documentation checklist, software engineering practices, and calculus formulas.

Step-By-Step Method:

Draw a blueprint of your mind palace. Outline all the different rooms, hallways
Label the path through which you must walk in. This step pertains especially to containing information that needs order.
Create definitions and information under each room and assign them to specific objects in that room, i.e. a red couch, a blue can
Run over your mind palace daily until it becomes a routine
Practice, practice, practice!
The mind palace technique is always a tool worth trying, especially if invented by the Greeks!

Play by Play —

Sarah Ruhl’s “The Clean House” and the Concept of “Classical Love”

In the spirit of the clean New Beginnings that accompany the spotlighted day of January 1st, below this opening sentence lies a fresh take on Sarah Ruhl’s Pulitzer-Prize-Winning “The Clean House” that dishes the dirt on the meaning behind “classical love” and its ultimate downfalls. For the SparkNotes version of a summary, “The Clean House” takes place in a “metaphysical Connecticut” home of a married couple of doctors, Lane and Charles, who hire a Brazilian housekeeper, Matilde, to clean the house. Ironically, however, Matilde is someone who hates cleaning because she loves to make jokes; in fact, she was born from the roots of comedy being raised by two hilarious parents who gifted each other with jokes for presents—morbidly, her father’s anniversary joke literally killed her mother from laugher— the idea of a killer joke takes on a whole new meaning. In comes Virginia, the eclectic OCD sister of Lane who unlike Matilde heavily enjoys cleaning; predictably, Matilde and Virginia make for a tradeoff. Meanwhile, a conflict arises when Charles declares he has found his true soulmate, an Argentine woman by the name of Ana, and trouble unfolds. But there is something almost poignant about the forbidden love of Charles and Ana, something almost unspoken in plain day society: it proves that monogamy may not be an eternally sustainable structure to love. Lane and Charles, undoubtedly, share a type of love that Sarah Ruhl perfectly depicts: a domestic love, one that requires routine and order. Although that love may exist, it is passionate love that drives the heart forward as Charles finds out himself, becoming attached to the hip by Ana claiming he has found his “bashert” (soulmate) and by Jewish law must commit himself to her (funny enough, he’s not even Jewish!). Consequently, they feel no moral remorse for their actions against Lane, describing their feelings as none other than “objective”; to Ana and Charles, it’s who they are, a part of their “genetic code.” Through the lens of modern-day society, the affair between Ana and Charles may be deemed as unquestionably sinful and vulgar in every sense, however, does that mean love is vulgar? Not nessecarily. Even the nuanced love of Virginia to Charles leaves its traces in the play, demonstrating how a brotherly love for an in-law can easily crescendo into a romantic crush yet only make its presence in a scarce two lines. Love CAN be subtle. There even lies a love between Matilde and Virginia, where their independent loves for dirty jokes and cleaning counterbalance the other into a clear-cut ying-yang dynamic. As Sarah Ruhl sees it, as we should all, the modern-day burden lies where love is said to remain between solely a man and a woman, where the man provides the woman supports and 2.5 children per family is expected if not vital, and the two partners must remain to each other forever—BUT THAT ISN’T LOVE! At least, not in the grand scheme of things. Not in poetry, books, history, or symphonies. Love, as Sarah Ruhl paints it, is all-encompassing; it molds to no boundary, shapes to no standard, draws back from no push, it simply remains to stay or comes to fleet—that is its ironic composition—and Ruhl captures it perfectly in “The Clean House.” We rid ourselves of things we like, and discard those we don’t, which leaves us with exactly this: a clean house.

What if I lose my Sparkle?

We all have a voice in our heads—that VoiceOver voice we see in coming of age movies, that whisper of intuition, that scream of panic we feel very now and then. Many times, however, that voice can be rather critical, an ongoing judgement of our appearances. It looks in the mirror and thinks bleh—we feel rotten, decayed, and most vitally—without. Our sparkle fades, that outer voice that has compelled everyone around us. Certainly it takes practice to harness and multiply that sparkle, but certainly not impossible.

Living in the moment seems to be the key to all of this, honing in not on the small details of appearance, but the big picture reality of maximizing each day to its fullest; in other words, live life guided by a fortified intention for bliss. Becoming too aware of the moment likewise leads to an overthinking downfall rabbit hole of remarking each passing second—gaining that “sparkle” is multi-faceted. The core, however, for harboring that inner identity remains in the sense of inner-security you must strive to establish each morning before setting off for the day. Possibly a mantra said aloud, a meditation session, a morning dose of caffeine all help boost the launchpad for YOUR day—but it’s important to find that launch spot and run with it.

We feel our bodies decay a lot of the time, we feel aches and sores and zits and marks and swells but those feelings cannot define your own feelings about yourself. If you tell your body and your mind every day that you hate some version of it, inevitably both will hate every version of you. Coherence ranks higher than incoherence, so listen to yourself—not just your body, but that vibrational energy you feel every second of every day.

If all fails—remember this: you are indeed “the master” of your fate and the “captain” of your soul—no one can ever tell you otherwise—not even that Autotuned voice in your head.

The Power of Water

H 2 Oh, what a powerful thing you are.

Need I say more? Water is the most powerful substance on the planet, the perfect solution, the femininity of the universe, eternally deep and incomprehensibly complex, and I’ve had my own experiences with water, or rather its largest body—the ocean. The ocean as Hunter Schafer once described is “feminine as fuck, powerful as fuck,” and for me, the ocean or its lack thereof have symbolically embodied almost every extent of my life. Isn’t that crazy?

I grew up in water—or its largest fan—as a young baby in Rio de Janeiro Brazil where Copacabana is more of a lifestyle than a beach. The first time I got into the water in Rio, it gave me whiplash; the steadfast current lassoed me back and forth while a swirl of dust encircled my 5 year old body as I rotated in the water. I met the ocean for the first time, and instead of parting itself for Moana or Moses, it gave me a slap in the face. So did childhood, for that matter. I lived in a taciturn world encircled by a suburban bubble amidst a heightened city and at certain times that bubble would pop itself. I went to a British magnet school in a Portuguese-speaking country where everyday I was choosing to direct my attentions towards other cultures instead of appreciating my own. I was a blond girl Brazilian-born living in a diverse stratosphere of mixed races where outside its bounds diversity equaled distasteful and people would check boxes marking their race on standardized tests or DMV forms as if it had any connotation on their lives. It was as ironic of an existence as dipping in the ocean water only to get whiplash--sinking than swimming. That was my first encounter with water, and one of many…

The water felt calmest in France. I’d not only dip my toes but plunge my body into the depths. Possibly there were jellyfish swimming by, but no real threats had wandered by. As I met the water, the sun met it too, and it felt like kissing the sun if one could even do that; it was beautiful, calming one could say. I’d sprawl myself like a starfish and let the ocean do the floating. Here, things weren’t bubbled and things made sense. My grandma would read her poetry to me by the beach in a language I didn’t know but it was all the same. Emotion is emotion, no matter its lettering and pronunciations and roster of words. There was no whiplash in these French waters, just the European sun meeting me every morn and night as if a lost friend and the ocean completing the trio. The most serene and serendipitous moments of my life happened in the rugged streets of Le Cannet where age met charm. Those were times of rest and relaxation.

Then, the water got dirty. I moved to Florida and there was too much that the water couldn’t hold, a small funnel trying to fit in a massive mass of matter of sea animals in the nearby aquarium, black algae, and the brown sand. Nothing was clean, though magazine covers and Google searches inferred otherwise. I very quickly realized what my existence there would culminate into: a façade, living behind a mask years before a pandemic struck. Ironically, I felt more hidden during a time where no one was hiding than the literal time of isolation 7.6 billion people would undergo. The more I realized my mask, the less I needed to convince myself otherwise; solitary began feeling better, not going in the ocean felt better, and sticking to wood than water felt better as I flipped the pages of books, dozens of them.

Via a series of manifestations, the convolution of luck and opportunity, I moved to a place where no water lay in sight: Texas. The puzzle pieces began to fit to my suprise, and my rejection of its seamlessness put me in a month-long state of confusion. The moment I became stronger with water, it went away. The moment I faced my challenges, the challenge disappeared all together. Is water the greatest teacher of all? Possibly.

Nowadays, when I go to the ocean, I thank it for sinking me down to its ocean floor at my weakest, and seeing me float at my strongest. La mer is a great force indeed.

Insphoto

~ where inspo meets photo ~

A Work in Progress: Entroise

This is the opening scene…More to come.

Nothing to be seen. Silence for 20 seconds.
A natural heartbeat plays in darkness and merges into the heart rate monitor beep used in hospitals.
Bum….Bum….Bum….Bum….Bum….Beep…Bum….Bum…Bum….Beep….Bum…..Bum…Beep…Bum….Beep…Bum…Beep…Beep….Beep…Beep….Beep…

Behind a white drape, the shadow of a hospital bed, a nurse, a shaking man, and a woman is seen.

MAN: Breathe, Martha. BREATHE.

He hyperventilates and breathes into a paper bag.

WOMAN: Oh, Ansel.

She lowers his paper bag

MAN: I—I love you my sun goddess. From today onwards you will never be alone because when I am no longer on this earth, you will always have someone beside you. Here, ice chip.

He feeds her an ice chip and his caresses his cold hand against her cheek. He showers her with kisses, all over, with vitality.

MAN: Je t’aime, ma cherie.

The shadow of a doctor rushes in.

DOCTOR: It’s time.

An urgency fills the air.

Woman delivers the baby. Screams are heard from the shaking man. The doctor cuts the umbilical cord. He holds baby by the foot upside down like a roasted chicken leg and takes aside for inspection.

He holds her normally.

DOCTOR: Here she is.

MAN: Elle est très jolie.

WOMAN: (whimpering to man) Ansel, Ansel

She begins to hyperventilate. The man, captivated by the baby, pays no attention. A new joy has appeared.

MAN: My baby girl….Bonsoir, ma petite, my beautiful….

WOMAN: Can I hold her?

MAN: In a minute.

WOMAN: I love it, Ansel. I love you, I love her. We have a family, at last! For 10 days I prayed and on the ninth I almost gave up but Saint Maria kept by me, she nursed me and my wants…
She wraps her arms around him. He gives her the baby.

Man: Hmmm…

He kisses her on the forehead, thinking “this is the mother of my child.”

Nurse: (to woman) What is her name?—
Man: Eloise.

Blackout.
Jazz music permeates the stage.
“Start spreading the news….I’m leaving today….I wanna be a part of it.” (Frank Sinatra, New York, New York)

External link

A Discourse in French: L’Immigration

The Flight of French Muslims and its Aftermath

Au milieu de l’élections française, il y a une nouvelle discussion sur la situation de l’immigration dans la France. Après des attentats de 0215 en France par des extrémistes islamistes qui on fait 130 et profondément traumatisé le pays, il y avait une raidissement de l’opinion qui a suivi à l’égard de tous les Français musulmans. Aujourd’hui, les Français musulmans ne se sentent pas acceptés dans leur proper pays. C’est une opinion populaire entres les immigrés que les petits villes sur la côte Est sont pas intimident comme Paris où les immigres sont au cœur du chaudron. A l’approche des élections, les opponents de President Emmanuel Macrons ont crées des campagnes contre l’immigration qui pense que la France serait confrontée à une menace civilisationnelle avec les immigrés. C’est ironique que il y a des campagnes qui lutte contre l’immigration car en réalité le nombre d’immigrés en France rest derrière en comparaison avec les autres pays d’Europe. Les effets de cette exclusion des immigrés sont que la plupart d'entre eux immigreront très probablement en France ou au Canada. Comme aux Étas-Unis, les immigrés sont associés à la criminalité par ces candidats de centre-droit comme Valérie Pécresse ou Marie Le Pen. Les Pays où les Français musulmans se sont installés comme l’Angleterre ou les Étas-Unis aussi sont loin d’être des paradis libres de discriminations pour les immigrés mais l’identité Français de ces musulmans n’est pas remis en question. Dans l’Angleterre les immigrés peuvent trouver une mixité décomplexé qui est inimaginable en France. Les parents en Angleterre n’ont pas besoin de s’inquistier que leur enfant soit maltraité comme en France. Dans les bureaux de travail, il y a une communauté entre les Français musulmans et les Anglaises qui on ne peut pas trouver en France. En general, il est logique que l’Angleterre soit devenue un endroit populaire pour l’immigration par les Français musulmans car il y a un sentiment d’acceptance que la France n’a jamais eu et n’aura peut-être jamais.

Journal1ng. —

Journaling—despite its perceived antiquity—has valorized itself over its long existence as a keepsake, a plot device for a YA novel, or a habit that only pick-me yoga girls have the audacity to mimic. Despite its cultural abuse, journaling may be the most powerful method to channel emotion, detailing one’s daily woes or “woo!”s and highs and lows; journaling leaves no stone unturned. Journaling can take your inner voice into the physical realm, and rather than saying it, you can write it. Writing at its finest—unfiltered, unedited, and unrelenting—that is journaling. There are also no rules to journaling. Say you wanted to sketch a doodle, write down your manifestations, a to-do list, a Venn diagram, the possibilities are endless! It’s the therapist you never have to pay for, the family member who cannot physically judge, and the friend that will always respond your SOS phone calls—and it can all be there in whatever medium you choose—as the journal can take on a Notes entry, a little blue book, or even a Post-It. And as you can flip your pages of this creation, it can never turn its back on you. Think of the journal as the glorified diary, only it doesn’t hold secrets but the greatest thing of all: your thoughts. Think about it, journal about it, and maybe a summer in June may be more eye-opening than you can imagine.

Current Reads —

The Everlasting

By oak, ash, and thorn on summer’s eve
I tip and tap about and ‘round
Tunneled in my fair Nature
Swallowed by her honeyed mouth
Sunken into poppies near, I gaze up at the sky
Fluffed the clouds, puffed a breath
Caught a case of lavender high
The sun farewells, the stars arrive
As Midnight’s raven to Eden’s haven
The moon rises to revive
Until the morrow, I dream all sound
Another journey bound…

Cloud Food —

I live for the days that rain
The clouds bring its holy water
Simmering into our lives
Onto our world
Satisfying our thirst
For something greater than a drink
But a feeling
A feeling of completeness
That when the job is done it will stop raining
And when the clouds pass away
Another city will be purified
Because there is plenty of goodness to share…
The cloud food can wash away our woes
And turn our environment
Into something not day nor night
Not black or white
But a shade of gray
The shades of stories may vary
But the memory shall always stay.

Pics that Raise the Mood

3 Poems

3-3-3 Angel Number

WE
We shall all be Pavlinas
Untwining our eyespots to widen eyes
With the enticement of colors
And the strength to fly…
Showing that uttermost beauty
For a mere second
So that they learn how pure and rare
Our feathers are.

Svegliati
He always tells me to stop crying
When something said hurts my mind
Little does he know
The moment I stop crying
Is the moment I stop loving him
And that he’ll never understand.

The Walk to Light
We walk the path, run the roads
Into The Way we go
To crawl all day, march at night
In search of The Unknown
But when we reach, with might inside
The Latter to the sky
We’ll climb all day, strive at night
Until we have arrived

Self-Love: Fact or Fiction?

Self-love has become such a trigger word these days, a quick way to promote a skincare brand, a meal delivery diet, maybe even a pilates class. But self-love isn’t material or frankly moldable—is self-love even real?

That’s the most humane question you can ask yourself—if loving yourself is even a form of love. According to Hindu Bhakti, love goes outwards and wisdom inwards; but one can only imagine how full you would feel if for only a minute, you could love yourself how you love another person or entity—that love must be astronomical. The hopeless romantic creates images of people in their mind, create impossible crushes where they see people for far larger than the sum of their parts—but somehow we can’t do that with ourselves?

In a weird sense of a rhetoric, what if we as an individual could create an image of ourselves in our minds and learn love that image/entity? I say that as a question, but really I am asking YOU why not? Inexplicably, I have a feeling that possibly we will become that image in a form of mental manifestation. We put love into things that bring us joy: attention-giving partners, distracting medias, filling foods, yet we fail to make that voice inside our own heads attention and care. Why? Because three-dimensional reality is projected outwards, and the reality when you close your eyes is one you cannot touch but always feel. If you can feel your consciousness, however, then there is the big possibility that it is there and needing love. So, today, on the esteemed day of Valentine’s Day, a day where we celebrate our love for our friends, more than friends, and family, take a moment to love YOURSELF, and not in a corny, LA-vegan guru, motivational speaker way, but in a way that makes you feel whole.

Xoxo,

JPZ.

January To-Do’s —

Keep it Fresh. Keep it New. It’s January.

New Tunes

Emerge out of your comfort zone even with your music selection. Artist exposure: Steve Lacy, ABBA, Lana, Mistki, do it all!

New Hair

If you’ve ever wanted to change it up, now is the time! Check out the “expensive brunette,” a grown-out root look spotted by the likes of Hailey Bieber and Blake Lively for the girl who highlights her hair every 3 weeks and is looking for something low-maintenance. For a total cleanse, opt for the bob haircut sported by icons like Rosamund Pike or Amèlie; you can cut away years of lagged energy and over-processed hair into an era of new beginnings. For an ad-on, curtain bangs like Matilda Djerf are a must because honestly, we all want her hair!

Room Re-Decor

The idea of “home” undoubtedly resides where YOU see it best fit, ranging from your personal entity to your loved ones, but take into account where you are and how you can make your surroundings a sanctuary; presenting: a room re-decor! Take a splurge on room-haves that have yet to make its appearances in your chamber including: a mini-fridge, band-posters, a clap-on clap-off light, a Himalayan salt lamp, a meditation chair—the world is your oyster. On that thought, maybe get an oyster shell lamp!

Daily Meditation

Meditation truly means to think about nothing. at. all. Your conscience resides elsewhere and all you can feel is the energy that resides within and around yourself. Engage in that feeling and a January of joy might manifest itself.

Move Your Body

Gorgeous gorgeous girls definitely eat soup but gorgeous gorgeous girls ALSO move their bodies as needed. Physical activity need not be grueling, incessantly, rigorous, nor resented, rather it can fulfill a certain comfort level and touch at an uncomfortable one as well—That is the way to do it! All you have to do is pick your poison: yoga sessions, communal classes, runs at the park, weights, stairs, ballet, Pilates, swimming, do it ALL or NONE. Listen to your body and you will never fail.

¡Community!

You are a citizen of the world and it is time to help it! Donate hours to a local or worldly cause including: DV victims, homeless shelters, animal cruelty, climate change, poverty, hunger, the list goes on….If you take anything away from this piece of advice let it be this: every minute you spend helping another loses of pain.

Daily Mantra

I am open and ready to receive miracles.

Quick Chat —

The Power of the Bob

As Alessia Cara once said, women are constantly told to “sit still and look pretty”; occasionally I hear the phrase “that’s not very ladylike”; and on several occasions I am told not to cut my hair by invasive members of an invasive society. Standing before you today, I am telling YOU that if you want the Bob then dare to chop because it symbolizes everything that feminism has grown to embody: the resistance to the “male gaze.” The Bob Haircut had seldom been worn by women before WW1 until the likes of a French female actor, Emilie Marie Bouchard, known as Polaire, generated mixed receptions for having a “shock” of short hair, that gained worldwide notoriety for distaste. Her hair, essentially, went agains the implemented expectation that women shall only port long locks, and she was essentially ridiculed for it. With the addition of the nose ring, the French beauty icon was deemed by America as the “ugliest woman in the world” amidst her New York Debut, and the bob haircut became a symbol for defiance against gender-imposed gender roles throughout the 20’s and thereafter, to be worn by the likes of Uma Thurman, Winona Ryder, Linda Evanglista, Lady Di, Audrey Tautou in Amélie, and Rosamund Pike. So, to every person in the world in want of a Bob haircut, there is absolutely nothing stopping you and absolutely everything encouraging you. It is “alright alright alright” as Matthew McConaughey would say. Chop on!

“November”

Seasonal PavLit

November

Swirl into home with hula hoops on both feet
Necks turn like turtles for the moody leaves
To shiatsu the rocky bark
Gulp the renewing cider
……..pause and collect……..
Oh, November!
You’re too honey for us….

He doesn’t creep like its precedent
It’s a hug
A swanky shout to the top of the hill
He’ll bring you round
A carnival carousel
Pace yourself, Pace yourself
Before the climb
The snow hasn’t flaked and the sun stains the sky

It’s a lyre for the coming in reckon of the past
Come before, come before
Tra-ta-ta-ta

And in the novella ember,
I find you’ll simmer in cider

But please!
Swirl me now when the Clock STRIKES
11.

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Lily Rose-Depp

The Gen-Z French Girl

Millennials of the interweb love to classify Gen Z homogeneously, alarmingly as a group of self-centered individuals surrounded by their phones and lacking every cultural, stylistic, and worldly embrace that has hugged every other generation. Contrary to popular belief, one cannot define Gen Z by any common ground owing to its extensive diversity except for the idea that this generation of people (myself a member) are wide-eyed observers. In the wake of Pinterest and Tiktok, dating from the Rory-Gilmore-Academic-Yale-Validation conjunction to the coconut-girl stylistic aura, much of Gen Z, like its cultural precedents, admire such aesthetics. Lily-Rose Depp, essentially, is anything but an outlier to these conjunctions.
In 2021, she is the Kate Moss meets Brigitte Bardot French Girl Icon that has captivated a plethora of followers. Lily-Rose Depp is not “underground” nor seemingly “alien”: she is the common cool French girl walking the streets of Paris and New York, the type of girl that each Depp fan admires in all of her coolness. A Chanel Ambassador, Hollywood Child, and Queen of the Brown-Lip Pout, Depp is the illusory image whose honest presence entices rather than distances; she is not particularly captured in pictures on the pedestal of red carpets; rather, Lily’s moments are found in candid honesty. Unlike every other celebrity surmounted on a foreign pedestal, Lily Rose Depp is a walking ray of shine that seems vaguely familiar: accepting the fact that she is a human being first and a celebrity second is not so radical.
Notably, she has branched into her own in the film industry despite the birth given advantages that may seem easily granted being the daughter of move-titan Johnny Depp. Lily-Rose has made a career for herself without such advantages, starring in movies like L’Homme Fidele, The King, Voyagers, and more. And despite such distinctions as an actress, we find her all the more relatable in wanting to live her life free-spirited without the heavy burdens of pertaining a certain image of herself: that is the source of the illusory of one Lily-Rose Depp. Her fans surely anticipate more movies from Depp coming in the future, but the one thing they can count on: her ability to remain humane and authentic in a dehumanizing and alienistic media.

Six Steps from Sorry: Becoming Unapologetic in E-mails as a Woman


Are you really sorry or are you just writing an e-mail? From the moment womankind ate the apple and spoke to the talking snake in a tree, the female sex have habitually been put at fault for all that is peripherally inconvenient to others on a daily basis. However, in 2021 the Eve of change is awaiting action by our own decree, and it starts with the e-mail. The email is nothing short of small: it defines relationships in every stratosphere imaginable as the modern extension of letter-writing. However, unlike the sonnets that once draped those scrolls, our mail consists of deadlines and meetings. Remarkably, its writers, consistently females subjugating to the ‘gender norms’, have a tendency to say ‘Sorry’ without anything to be accounted for. It’s time to break the chain of double-dashed standards and stop being sorry for breathing air or being a human being. To dissolve these pre-contrived notions of guilt or mistake or inconvenience that we hold ourselves accountable to in writing e-mails, I’ve come up with 6 steps to gear you away from the ‘Sorry.’

Know Your Intention

If there’s a reason you stopped reading Sylvia Plath to type up an e-mail, there’s something you need, and urgently. Now, this may sound foreign, but write with intention. An extension? Just ask. Certain information/tasks? Write it right there, with a “as you know, I am in need of ----- and i need it by -----.” Skip the marshmallow fluff and get to the cracker!

The Daunting Subject Line

The Subject line speaks for itself in noting the overarching topic that you are e-mailing about, however try to find something that your reader will understand off the bat, that resonates with their specialization/area of knowledge, preferably 4 words of less. Like this sentence.

Clarity and Concision

Get in, and get out is the way to go on a good email as no professor or superior wants your life story. Keep it simple and clear. The less you give. the. better.

Watch the Tone

An email, needless to say, can be terribly misinterpreted through ambiguous word choice. Write as conversationally appealing as possible; Emote a voice that attributes to your identity! Conversational does not equal informal, rather it is a way to carry your message as clearly as possible to communicate your intention. Avoid the use of questionable word choice that could be read, with the right inflection, as uncompromising. Write true to you, and your knowledgeable audience will catch the drift.

A “Let Me Know” Goes a Long Way

Whatever you may desire from an e-mail (see no. 1) the science to a perfect e-mail is usually sealed by a “Let me know,” the universal phrase for unbound purpose. It’s rather a casual phrase, however it implies a sense of flexibility rather than rigidness which is a good way to finish off an e-mail. And while being seemingly flexible, it remains blunt as a clear request to get something done.

Signature

A signature can say a LOT about you as a person. Professionally, opt for a handwritten digital signature to show a sense of officiality. In rather kindred letters, a ‘Sincerely’ can elevate the sense of amicability you are trying to show. In a matter-of-fact message, the use of a ‘—Name’ is simple and to the point.

Happy e-mailing!

The French Talk Show

Stephie Nelson’s New Podcast

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~November quotes~

“Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward.” ~Oscar Wilde

“You can be the master of your fate, you can be the captain of your soul, but you have to realize that life is coming from you and not at you, and that takes time” ~ Timothée Chalamet

“If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy” ~ Amanda Gorman

“If you are losing your leisure, look out! -- It may be you are losing your soul” ~Virginia Woolf

“The process of change requires unlearning. It requires breaking the habit of the old self and reinventing a new self” ~ Dr. Joe Dispenza

“When you’re an introvert like me and you’ve been lonely for a while, and then you find someone who understands you, you become really attached to them. It’s a real release." ~ Lana del Rey

“If anybody even tries to whisper the word ‘diet,’ I’m like, ‘You can go f— yourself.” ~ Jennifer Lawrence

“Never play with the feelings of others, because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for life time” ~William Shakespeare

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: IT GOES ON” ~ Robert Frost

“I have a way of filming things and staging them and designing sets. There were times when I thought I should change my approach, but in fact, this is what I like to do. It's sort of like my handwriting as a movie director. And somewhere along the way, I think I've made the decision: I'm going to write in my own handwriting” ~ Wes Anderson

“I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe” ~Donna Tartt

“When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I'd like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph” ~Annie Leibovitz

Down Memory Lane: Must-Re-Watch-Movies

roll the film

Meet Poema Sumrow

- You have lived all over the world from Vietnam to Switzerland; How do you adjust to your new environments? Is there a universal feature you find in every new home?
Not really because moving was always different in every place and I was essentially growing up as I was moving. It’s difficult to specify an exact feature in every new home and moving has never been something I’ve prepared for; rather it’s something I realized I had to go through. But, every time I moved I always loved re-decorating my room and my room reflects my age at the time which is cool.

-Poema, when you are not at school, most people would find you at a local art gallery in Houston. As an art fan, what is your current favorite piece of art?
Actually, one of my favorite pieces of art ever is “The Orange Trees” by Gustave Caillebotte and I am enamored by it; I’ve never seen anything like it.

-What is your favorite Wes Anderson movie?
Probably Moonrise Kingdom because I think it’s fascinating how he portrays children

Do you ever find yourself in greater connections with Europe/France than the US?
Living in Europe definitely changed my cultural identity spending two years of my childhood there; it definitely influenced how I viewed tangible things like my carbon footprint or even eating later. I desperately miss Europe and I hope to move there soon.

-Favorite song and why?
I genuinely cannot tell you my favorite song but I have been listening to this band Greta Van Fleet and I am obsessed. I love “Light my Love”

-Is there a particular reason on why you are named Poema?
Yes, my parents saw this Greek word “peomi” which means made by God and they replaced the i with an a, and that’s how I got my name!

-When you think of November, what comes to mind?
Opening my window when I’m sleeping, taking long walks, having hot drinks; I love November!

-The readers of the Writer’s Block always love a good book recommendation. Any suggestions?
Normal People; I read it this summer and it’s not a poetic book in prose but the book is poetic itself. It follows these two teenagers in small-town Ireland who have social anxieties and I would recommend it to anyone.

-What or who do you draw inspiration from? What does inspiration mean to you?
I always feel inspired by songs, movies, and art; it always really changes me.

-Give us one word to finish off your interview.
Thanks, haha.

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“Astronaut’s Widow”

Seasonal Pavlit

Astronaut’s Widow

I ponder out into the sea 

And question why God gave a soul to me

Where i could’ve been

Beyond in the land

Of the dead, who roam free

Where no worries had them



There is a question

Beyond my heart

Why I had to part

With my loved one


But then I see

The shine in the moon

Where he been close to

And where he flew



Up in the skies, beyond the breeze

I can hear the blastoff

Where his dream had ceased


And then I hear

A mission gone wrong

That can never go right

*blastoff*

PAVLINA: A poetry anthology

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The Editor Letter

by Julia Pavlina Zichy

November is always a month that fascinates, intrigues, surprises us in the 11th of the year. It is as cathartic as when the clock strikes 11 and by 12 we know the year is gone; we live in a glass dome as time stands still for a moment. I wanted to dedicate the first issue of The Writer’s Block (pun intended) to the month of November as a way to let the decay of last year blossom into a space of inner obscurity. The online magazine, as I see it, is far from dead. It’s making a comeback.

Enjoy November while it lasts.

‘Till December,

Julia Zichy.

OH HEY, FOR BEST VIEWING, YOU'LL NEED TO TURN YOUR PHONE