My hero.
For the longest time I did not have a hero.
Not until I read and became inspired by John Muir.

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”

“Most people are on the world, not in it - having no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them - undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate."

“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
-John Muir

I love the Everly Brothers.
Even though their songs are largely about heartache, they still put a smile on my face.
It's their melodies and harmonies.
Or maybe it's the nostalgia from my childhood...

I Wonder if I Care as Much
Love Hurts
Cryin' in the Rain

All I Have to do is Dream and Cathy's Clown are my favorites.

“Yes, I was infatuated with you; I am still. No one has ever heightened such a keen capacity of physical sensation in me. I cut you out because I couldn’t stand being a passing fancy.
Before I give my body, I must give my thoughts, my mind, my dreams.
And you weren’t having any of those.”
– Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Her writings and paintings have continued to inspire me.

"To progress in life you must give up the things you do not like. Give up doing the things that you do not like to do. You must find the things that you do like. The things that are acceptable to your mind."

"When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection."


source: yours truly, at The Art Institute of Chicago

Fay Andrada's jewelry is so simple and elegant.
Her Tyyne ring is especially lovely.






images: fay andrada
via: wikstenmade

I love the mountains. Rugged mountain men. Even before the bizarre urban trend took hold.
Rough. Rugged. Raw. Bearded. And typically well flanneled.
But musically, I am loving Mountain Man. A female trio that puts together wonderful folk harmonies.

via:NPR

A new documentary featured at Sundance, Countdown to Zero traces the history of the atomic bomb and makes the case for worldwide nuclear disarmament.

via: OpenCulture & TakePart

Sometimes we fall, we get back up, only to fall again.
But we keep getting back up.

One of my favorite songs:
The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes
Song and image fit my mood today.


source: eliasdahlen's flickr

"New York is a field of tireless and antagonistic interests undoubtedly fascinating but horribly unreal. Everybody is looking at everybody else a foolish crowd walking on mirrors."
– Wallace Stevens


I would argue New York is not the only place this applies.