Happy Valentine's Day 2017

Happy Valentine's Day Richard and Sean

Tactics and Strategy

My tactic is to look at you

To learn how you are

Love you as you are

My tactic is to talk to you

And listen to you

And construct with words

An indestructible bridge

My tactic is to stay in your memory,

I don't know how

Nor with what pretext

But stay within you

My tactic is to be honest

And know you are too

And that we don't sell each other illusions

So that between us there is no curtain or abyss

My strategy instead is

Deeper and simpler.

My strategy is that some day

I don't know how, nor with what pretext

That finally you need me.

by Mario Benedetti (translated by Chris Kraul)

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone 

Jim Dine

 (Photos from Pinterest)

Happy Valentine's Day 2016

It hasn't been the best of times for me this month, and still not over. I can only hope today the worst of this time is over, but I know life can always throw us a curve. 

Whenever I feel I'm down or not able to fight what ails me another day, I always have my two favorite actors, my two favorite men, as an example of perseverance.

And the value of hard work!  Both of them are two of the hardest working actors I know.  This has been a good work year for both of them. Some of the results of their labor we've been able to see and enjoy (Sean's Frankenstein Chronicles and Legends), and some (Richard this is you) is still to come to our movie/TV screens this year. So much to look forward to this year dear Richard.

So to my two gorgeous Valentines I dedicate the song below, with help from Barbra Streisand.  I think of this song often when I think of Richard and Sean, and the difficult and difficult to understand world of being an actor, an artist.

A Love Song

What have I to say to you

When we shall meet?

Yet—

I lie here thinking of you.

The stain of love

Is upon the world.

Yellow, yellow, yellow,

It eats into the leaves,

Smears with saffron

The horned branches that lean

Heavily

Against a smooth purple sky.

There is no light—

Only a honey-thick stain

That drips from leaf to leaf

And limb to limb

Spoiling the colors

Of the whole world.

I am alone.

The weight of love

Has buoyed me up

Till my head

Knocks against the sky.

See me!

My hair is dripping with nectar—

Starlings carry it

On their black wings.

See, at last

My arms and my hands

Are lying idle.

How can I tell

If I shall ever love you again

As I do now?

by William Carlos Williams

Be My Virtual Valentine on Valentine's Day?

Valentine's Day is my least favorite of least favorite holidays. It has always seemed to me like the punishment of the coupled for all of us "noncoupled."  February 14, the day the lonely get reminded every second of the day about their loneliness.

Recently some clever entrepreneur decided to create a Virtual Invisible Boyfriend App that will provide the "noncoupled" with a perfect invisible date this Valentine's Day and beyond. 

http://beforeitsnews.com/watercooler-topics/2015/02/for-24-99-invisible-boyfriend-app-creates-fake-romantic-partners-to-relieve-social-pressure-2441634.html

"The app generates everything that would exist in a real-life relationship, like photos, text messages, and even voicemails. "

Your family, friends and co-workers will think you are no longer "noncoupled".

I, however, don't need the Invisible Virtual Boyfriend App because you see I already have someone who could in some ways qualify for the title, and more. 

He's handsome, beautiful in fact, intelligent, sweet, sensitive, funny, talented, thoughtful, adorable, moody, and an anti-socialite. A woman couldn't ask for more.  He's in my heart every day, and I love him.

This Valentine's Day he gave the world the gift of his magnificent voice reading some of the most beautiful love poems in the English language.

This year Valentine's Day is magical thanks to him:

I dedicate this song to Richard with all my love on Valentine's Day:

Then there are those loves that last the test of time. There's a special love for someone who has gone through so many ups and downs of life with you, from youth to middle-age. 

Sean has been with me in my fantasies for longer than I care to confess, and this Valentine's Day his gift has been some wonderful interviews thanks to new movie Jupiter Ascending. It is so good to see him happy and happily working.

This Valentine's Day I dedicate a vintage video of mine to Sean, who I treasure every day:

Invisible Virtual Boyfriend could never compete with Richard Armitage and Sean Bean for my heart.  

Happy Valentine's Day 

Only my Valentine dreams.

"Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow:

You are not wrong who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream."

Edgar Allan Poe

Happy Valentine's Day 2014

Wishing you all a Happy Valentine's Day

My friends, readers, followers, and fellow fans

I don't have a Valentine's of my own 

But I wish a Happy Valentine's Day to my two Favorite 

Fantasy Valentines

Thoughts of them keep me warm on this very snowy winter's day

Richard Armitage and Sean Bean 

 Sonnet XI

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.

Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.

Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day

I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,

your hands the color of a savage harvest,

hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,

I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,

the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,

I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,

hunting for you, for your hot heart,

like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

By Pablo Neruda

Let it Snow

Valentine's Day 2013

Edvard Munch

Valentine's Day is my least favorite holiday. For those of us without a Valentine it is a sad day indeed. I know I'm not the only one who dreads the question "What are you doing on Valentine's Day?"  Having dinner alone always seems sadder on February 14.

Valentine's Day is always one of the two days a year that I regret not being married. (The other is New Year's Eve by the way.) But recently I asked several married co-workers how they feel about Valentine's Day, and to my surprise none of them had a positive thing to say about the day. They complained about having a day of enforced romance, about being too busy with jobs and kids to have a romantic dinner, or even a romantic minute, especially on a weekday, about rushing to buy a last minute present, or receiving a present they didn't really want. Even when I mentioned flowers and chocolates, the comments were about how the holiday is a ploy by florists, chocolate manufacturers, and greeting card companies, to make more money. But all romance is not dead, a few told me how they prefer romance to be spontaneous, and told me stories of times they surprised their spouse with a gift, or even a special weekend getaway.  

After talking to my co-workers I started to feel better about being a singleton on this day.  Maybe I'll buy myself a rose, a white rose, on my way home from work today. Happy Valentine's Day to me.

A Big Valentine's Day Hug to my Blog Followers!  Thank you!

Five of My Favorite Romantic Films - Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day My Readers and Friends!  

To commemorate the day I thought I would revisit five of my favorite romantic movies of all time. 

A Room with a View (1985)

The first time I saw this film I wanted to find a time machine and go back to Florence in 1900 and be Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter). Of course these days I’m more like her chaperone Charlotte (Maggie Smith).  This is the ultimate romantic film full of magnificent performances by masterful veteran character actors like Maggie Smith and Judi Dench together with talented future stars of the screen like Daniel Day-Lewis and Helena Bonham Carter.  Top this with the gorgeous backdrop of Florence, Italy and beautiful locations in England and you just have to swoon at the love story of Lucy and George (Julian Sand).

Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991)

Imagine the feeling of loss if the love of your life dies suddenly and you become inconsolable in your grief unable to move on.  Imagine that he suddenly comes back into your life and home as a ghost.  What would you do? How would you feel?  Would you try to keep him there forever? Is the man you’ve idealized in your grief truly the particular person you lived with for years? One of the most beautiful and most funny films I’ve ever seen about love and loss. A heartbreaking and hilarious performance by Alan Rickman, and a sweet and sad performance by Juliet Stevenson.  

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Inspired by another favorite romantic film of mine, An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, this is the ultimate “meet cute” romantic comedy.  Tom Hanks plays Sam the perfect regular guy next door and a widower with an adorable son.  Oh yes, he lives in Seattle. One day lonely but adorable Baltimore reporter Annie, played by improbably cute Meg Ryan, listens to Sam’s love story with his late wife and his yearning for a new partner to spend his life with.  Much mayhem and travel ensues until the meeting scene between them in the Empire State Building (see An Affair to Remember).

Persuasion (1995) 

If only we could meet the love we let go in our youth again and persuade him to try again.  This 1995 version of Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion is my favorite of all.  Amanda Root as Anne Elliott and Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth are perfection in this film.  No matter how many times I watch it I feel the yearning of Anne and the pride of Wentworth and wonder why we so often neglect to follow our heart. 

How to Steal a Million (1966)

 A caper comedy/romance of the type they don’t make any more starring two movie legends, Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn.  Both are at their most charming and handsome in this tale of the art thief (or is he?) and the heiress (or is she?) and the greatest museum heist of all time.  

Happy Valentine's Day