Welcome to My New Favorite Film

         Does your idea of a good time involve a run to the grocery store? Do you feel as much satisfaction from seeing people you care about enjoy a meal that you've cooked as you do from partaking in it? I do.  Have you seen "Babette's Feast?" Do yourself a favor and put it in your queue or rent it.
         Two sisters, Martina and Phillipa, made a lot of sacrifices for their father's super strict ministry, including chances at love. One archetypal dark and stormy night (the story is set on Denmark's Jutland coast), a stranger named Babette shows up at their door. Babette had lost her son and husband during a conflict in the 1870's, and the former suitor of one of the sisters had sent her to Jutland for safekeeping. For fourteen years, Babette tolerates the local food. One day, she find that she's come into a substantial amount of money and wants to go back to Paris, but before she goes, she wants to cook an authentic French meal for the sisters and what's left of their father's flock.
          It's rated PG, with some caveats for kitchen prep scenes.

Happy Spring

Hello, Gentle Readers. The creation of the Spring Swan and Iris is underway.  Some of the things I'm working on for this issue include:

• Kitchen stuff and cookbooks I like
• A look at how the US became so economically enmeshed with China
• Reviews of cinema, books, and films
• Many other surprises so secret I don't know what they are yet

Hope you'll join us.

The Swan and Iris Take on Cinema

     No, well, yeah, sort of watched them last night.  You know, the Oscars (TM)? The show that happens in March where all things movies get celebrated? The one where a lot of women do odd things with their posture to make sure they don't fall out of their dresses as they walk the red carpet? Yeah, that one.
       The one I don't really get excited about because I prefer films. Both film and movies are species of the motion picture.  Let us examine their differences:

• Movies make money.  That is their raison d'etre. Their success is based on how much they make. Anything less than the GDP of a developing country is considered a flop. 
• Films make art. Their success is based on feedback from the critics. 
• Movies base their scripts on contrived formulas. Films use the conflicts basic to humanity, but encourage the development of new questions.
• Movies are for feel-good purposes. Nothing wrong in and of itself with that. We all need a good excuse to munch popcorn now and then. If you want to see a story unfold as it should, you need a film.
• Films place the emphasis on plot and character development.  Movies frequently use overblown special effects to override weaknesses in those departments.

     That, Gentle Readers, is why I choose films for review in S&I. We need the subtle, quiet moments as an antidote to an ever louder world. Some of my favorites are:

• Casablanca--a timeless story of love and sacrifice that may be the most perfect film ever made.
• Amelie--the tale of a young woman who struggles to make the world a better place for others and almost forgetting to do the same for herself.
• Le Quai d'Orfese (sp?) is a suspense/mystery in postwar France that keeps viewers guessing until the last minutes.

    My Netflix subscription makes me a very happy girl, indeed.    

The Midwinter S and I is Out

 

Gentle Reader, you are cordially invited to request a sample issue of Swan and Iris.

The Midwinter '10 issue includes 

an interview with 

Kris Waldherr, creatrix of The Goddess Tarot, on courtesans,

a Cup of Tea and gossip with Heather Carroll of The Duchess of Devonshire's Guide to Gossip,

action alerts,

and other amusements and musings for your midwinter diversions.

Interested?

Please send an email to Your Humble Editor:

Fran

at 

The

Journal 

Coach

(one word)

dot 

net.

Thank you for your interest, and take that, spammers!

Action Alerts for January 14, 2010

Gentle Readers, we have two projects this week needing our attention:

1. Haiti needs our help. Please either text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross (billed to your phone account) or go to http://npr.org for a list of other organizations en route to help.

2. http://fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html will open the page for those of us who wish to complain in the strongest possible terms about this tragedy being used by a certain televangical organization as an excuse to spew devisive hate speech.

Meet My Totem

   I could never relate to the fairy tale princesses, and don't have enough of a mean streak to be one of the wicked queens, most of the month, anyway. Don't get me wrong; I loved Cinderella and Aurora and Snow White as much as the next little girl. Still, I just couldn't relate to them.
     I was a veritable anti-princess, if you will. Stocky, chubby, tripping my way into adolescence over the carpet patterns, loud, wondering if I would ever be seen as pretty underneath it all.
    Somewhere along the line, probably in grad school when I discovered Carl Jung, I rediscovered folk tales. In good order, "The Ugly Duckling" popped up. You know, the one about the duckling who realized one day that she was a swan?
     Swans are big and strong. (5'7, myob, and pass the tractor parts, please.) Swans are graceful (took a few dance lessons and a lot of yoga, but I arrived). Swans in some cultures were messengers between the worlds ( I meditate before I write articles or make plans for an issue).
    My swan swam to me through a pond of iris during a guided meditation session. If I accept and heed her messages, I write so much better than I would otherwise. The better I write, the better I serve The One Who Is, and using gifts wisely and well is what it's all about.
    

The Mission Statement

 Supporting our readers in living authentic lives of spirit, substance, and serenity.

    

   That, Gentle Readers, is the mission of Swan and Iris. 
   If you believe that clothing manufacturers should make clothes to fit you and not you making your body to fit the clothes; if you choose your films, music, and books based on what feeds your heart; if activism is your spiritual practice; if you prefer news from independent sources such as NPR or MHZ; S&I might just be for you.
   I hope you'll come with on the journey.