sweetheart redux

Everyone I’ve ever spoken to about the movie Wizard of Oz feels like they own it to some degree, like it is an artifact from only their own childhood.   For my own part, when I was a kid, the Wizard of Oz used to air on network TV once a year and it used to happen near my birthday, so it was a birthday tradition for me, my mom and her two best friends named Bill (Young Bill and Old Bill) to watch it together on TV as part of my birthday celebration.   This is a particularly poignant memory for me because I loved both Bills, and one I haven’t seen in years and am unable to track down on the internet, and the other one died of cancer in my mom’s house a few years ago, and also, of course my mom and I can't regain the closeness we used to have when I was young enough to get excited over the big deal a network station (I forget which one) made about showing Wizard of Oz.   So this memory of watching Wizard of Oz with them every year is one of those painful poignant stabb...

manifest destiny

Hi Sweethearts, this blog usually straddles a line between 90's (riot grrrl in particular) nostalgia, diary-type (rants) entries, fiction and poetry, little gestures at visual art, punk ethos, and last but not least, motherhood.  I try not to write too much about motherhood so as not to alienate people who aren't mothers, but of course that's hard since it's quite preoccupying.  One thing that preoccupies me that I don't usually discuss is the way my son is affected by my Marfan's Syndrome.  Anyway, today I'm posting something by a guest writer, Heather Von St. James, about dealing with cancer and motherhood.  It's not quite this blog's usual fare, but it's an empowering and touching story of survival and bravery. xoxox Robin We Beat Cancer Together Even at the young age of seven, my daughter has her response ready anytime someone asks her about cancer, “I saved mommy’s life!” This has become her natural response to the topic; sa...

unanswered prayer

I'm doing a project where myself and hopefully others choose a favorite photo, then write 1 description of the dream way we'd like to be perceived, and 1 description of an ideal life.  I'm going first to get the ball rolling. I would like to be thought of as a beautiful artist poet who works a 9-5 desk job out of bravery and necessity to provide well for my family, but for it to be evident that the drudgery of work doesn't touch my soul.  I want to seem smart, funny, nurturing to underdogs, and potty-mouthed.  And for everyone to think that I am a wonderful mother, a little intimidating to strangers, honest about my feelings when I don't like someone, bound for some really special fate, and above all, charmed. My ideal life involves winning the lottery, keeping my los angeles home, owning a small home in an English Countryside, buying a small home for my mom, dad and Stepmom and my husband's family, writing an absolutely pure, heartbreaking, long, ...