May there always be radishes...

Let's fall asleep dreaming of yams and carrots and heirloom tomatoes and radishes. Let's kiss the old hands full of history and tenderness. Let's make the sure one laugh.

sexist entry about heroine worship (warship?) to get us all through this Holy Week of Finals Suffering

to get through this most recent of our Holy Weeks of the Finals, i've been listening to quite a few songs and ditties (when not reading or writing, because i have a hard-to-focus brain)
and i've realized there are just a few INEVITABLY MOTIVATING WOMEN that i really need to put somewhere and share somehow, that have been making me DO just by thinking about them.
i remember a particular beautiful conversation that sort of bloomed out of one of our teaisgoodwithlet'sjamandbread meetings on the best vast crib coffee table, where many beautiful videos, images, and songs were shared, that made us feel good and powerful in heartstringy ways.

lets start with the unquenchable
NEKO CASE

her band was originally called Neko Case and her Boyfriends. (i still need to form a band called Elise & the Quiet Men. who's suggestion was that... rachel's i believe? does anyone know quiet men with loud instruments?)
beyond the immediately evident beauty of that name, she was born to teenage parents, is 39 and the "hottest babe of indie music" or some shit and rejected playboy's offer for a nude centerfold stating that she'd basically punch someone in the face if they handed her a nudie of herself to sign instead of one of her albums.
and then she was like
well if yall think i'm sexy now let me just get that for ya myself







as it so happens, i'm listening to dear neko right now and her song "marais la nuit" just came on which is a 31 minute 39 second track of crickets and their assorted friends. this is a good way to perhaps transport us out of our new-york-citied lives.
download "marais la nuit"
i was not the person to put that file on the internet, i just found it, sorry neko. just gotta cover my back, legally/copyrightly/etcetera.

here are some more beautiful photographs of neko that make me miss cars and country life, when are we going to move to a big house together with a veranda, lovelies? i have enough money for a bad car, maybe a thirteenth of a rent of a home.















"We were married in the mirrored hall when I was sixteen. You spoke the words, 'I love girls in white leather jackets.' That was good enough for love, it was good enough for me... But you never came to bed, you just left me there awake, you kept me wanting, wanting, wanting like the wanting in the movies and the hymns.
I want the pharaohs but there's only men."





next, the magnificent & royal
NINA SIMONE



Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, starts playing piano at age 3, diagnosed with bipolar disorder kept secret until after her death. Changed her name to Nina after niña, little girl in Spanish.
Didn't want her mother to know she was singing "the Devil's music."

Such a force.







all i need to do to feel superhuman is watch this til the end


the photograph that made my mother nervous but still is beautiful & inspiring:

this photograph's setting reminds me of our little new york city box-apartment lives and makes me feel VERY FULL OF POTENTIAL. thanks nina.


"You been acting different I've been told. SUE ME, I want some sugar in my bowl. I want some steam on my clothes. Maybe I can fix things up so they'll go. Whatsa matter Daddy? COME ON, save my soul. I want some sugar in my bowl. I ain't foolin'. I want some - yeah - in my bowl."






the endlessly high-powered
SALT N' PEPA




the videos really speak for themselves for this duo. i love them. so much. oh my god.























BEST SELLING FEMALE RAP GROUP EVER. SIX SINGLES PLATINUM & GOLD. PEPA'S SASSY ASYMMETRICAL HAIRCUT THE RESULT OF A BAD CHEMICAL TREATMENT MISTAKE. CREATED A NEW STANDARD OF COOL.
MET IN HIGH SCHOOL.
enough said.




so since i should probably get going on my real finals work, i think i'm going to call this VOLUME ONE OF HEROINE WARSHIP/WORSHIP with volumes 2 and etcetera to come later.
but i just couldn't help sharing these amazing ladies and how much they've been inspiring me lately. perhaps its affecting me more strongly since i had so few female heroines for so long (LOL at elise's former misogyny? Lol?) but it is so exciting, motivating, somehow, i don't know.

upcoming in VOLUME TWO OF HEROINE WARSHIP/WORSHIP:
BEYONCE
SISTER NANCY
LADY GAGA
and in assorted media clips, REMY MA, MARIAH CAREY, OTHERS??


best of luck on finals and life darlings!
love,
elise

Hi babies

It is early in the morn and I'm spending quality time staying awake and not writing my research paper. So I thought I'd just make a commitment, an INTERNET PROMISE RING, a serious assurance that I will make this website better/hopefullybeautifuler & strange very very soon, because very very soon I'll be free to sleep/stop drinking tea for its caffeinated molecules/think freely because finals will be over/I'll be out of the city into the countryside where it actually gets dark early and things close at 9pm and therefore may not be shy or worrisome or regretful about letting my limited live existence on the planet become entirely in the realm of the cyberspaces for a while
g'morning
luv elise

ps. don't go outside between the hours of 10 am and 1 pm today if yr in manhattan darlings because the meteorologists are telling us there's going to be mad electricity raining down upon our poor souls, enough to merit a severe weather watch. keep those metal umbrellas down!

pps. tiger lion and bear form unusual friendship

The caged light, the naked space of first through last.

cave crickets

One of these jumped on me in a cave this summer. If anyone needs monster inspiration... one of my favorite insects:

CAVE CRICKETS

Cave crickets have very large hind legs with "drumstick-shaped" femora and long, slender antennae. They are brownish in color and rather humpbacked in appearance, always wingless, and up to two inches/5 cm long in body and 10 cm (4 inches) for the legs. On young crickets the body may appear translucent. As the name implies, cave crickets are commonly found in caves. However, most species live in other cool, damp situations such as in wells, rotten logs, stumps and hollow trees, and under damp leaves, stones, boards, and logs. Occasionally, they prove to be a nuisance in the basements of homes in suburban areas. Some reach into alpine areas and live close to permanent ice — the Mount Cook "flea" and its relatives in New Zealand.

The group known as "sand treaders" are restricted to sand dunes, however, and are adapted to live in this environment; they are active only at night, and spend the day burrowed into the sand, to minimize water loss. They are pale, sand-colored insects, and their legs are modified with strong bristles for rapid digging.^{[citation needed]}. In the large sand-dunes of California and Utah they serve as food for scorpions.

Their distinctive limbs and antennae serve a double purpose. Typically living in a lightless environment, or active at night, they rely heavily on their sense of touch, which is limited by reach. While they have been known to take up residence in the basements of buildings, many cave crickets live out their entire lives deep inside actual caves. In those habitats they sometimes face long spans of time with insufficient access to nutrients. To avoid starvation, they have been known to devour their own extremities, even though they cannot regenerate limbs. Given their limited vision, cave crickets will often jump towards any perceived threat in an attempt to frighten it away. Their large hind legs allow them to jump high and far.

Cave and camel crickets (also known as spider crickets) are of little economic importance except as a nuisance in buildings and homes, especially basements. They are usually "accidental invaders" that wander in by mistake from adjacent areas. They generally do not reproduce indoors, except in situations that provide continuous dark, moist conditions, such as a basement shower or laundry area, as well as organic debris to serve as food.

Although they appear intimidating, they are harmless to humans. They may cause minor damage to stored items, but are easily discouraged by eliminating the dark damp habitat they prefer.

Their long legs have caused them to be more commonly referred to as "sprickets" or "spickets", a blending of "spiders" (whose legs they resemble) and "crickets". In some parts of the United States they are also referred to as "jackal spider crabs".

Kalevala

http://books.google.com/books?id=v_UwAqog11EC&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=creation+myth+of+finland+kalevela&source=bl&ots=4i50X86X4x&sig=PXDiD_WHmssxRQKuahBOiGO2pHc&hl=en&ei=cB_aSs6WK4je8Qb38523BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

hey lovelies

don't mind the hideous template (it's bloggers')
just adding everyone
love
elise