31 Flavors

To kick off my 31st year, and this Blogiversary, here are some of the 31 things inspiring me today....

1. I adore Darondo. I first heard about him on this NPR piece. The music is amazing, but what I love MOST is the details in the liner notes of his album, Let My People Go.

He was opening for James Brown, cruising around San Francisco in a Rolls Royce, with a career on the verge of really taking off when he left everything to travel. When he finally returned to California after meeting his wife in the Fiji Islands, he became a physical therapist and helped treat people with music.

He writes, "I used to incorporate the music with the therapy," he says. “I'm very versatile so I'd sing everything to them; pop, country and western, jazz, etc. I worked with head trauma cases, amputees and folks like that. I'd bring my guitar in and watch miracles happen. Once, I told a patient of mine, who was in some serious shape, that she's going to be dancing by Halloween if she just listen to me and do what I say during therapy. The director and I fought about what I told her, but three months down the road she got up out of her wheelchair, did her little dance and lip-synched a Madonna tune, and then walked back over to her chair and sat down. That thrilled me so much and put so much love in my heart."

My favorite song on the album is Didn't I which you can hear if you click this link.

It will quickly become your favorite windows-rolled-down song for spring.

2. The coolest dollhouse ever.



3. My favorite author Jhumpa Lahiri's new book was released today!



4. Cinematic Orchestra makes me want to go take photographs.



5. Anthony Minghella's work continues to inspire me. What a tremendous loss. I think we own every one of his films and the accompanying soundtracks. The Charlie Rose site has some nice interviews with him available.

6. Hope for a more perfect union.

7. Artist studios like this one.

8. Writing out loud in every color of the rainbow with my favorite pen.

9. Weird Beard Weil's vitamin advisor. It's free. You answer questions and he tells you what you should be taking. Turns out, B complex is life changing for me. Who knew.

10. Pureology hair care. So worth it. And my Rite Aid started carrying it as well. My daughter says it smells like Candy Cams. This stuff, Aveda Hang Straight, is the greatest too.

11. Can lip-gloss really inspire? Hell yes. Especially if it's created by Goose's wife. (You know, Anthony Edwards. Top Gun. Goose? Work with me).

12. Romantic comedies like The Love Letter. Books, boats, coffee, lovin', jokes. What more do you need. And the porch. Good God, that porch. And Blythe Danner, who I adore.



13. Artist Moms like this one.

14. Dwell for Target. I picked up pink tulip decals and a matching night-light for my daughter and had to make myself stop there. So cute.

15. Spring clothes in yellow and kelly green.

16. Jonathon Adler's line for Barnes & Noble.

17. I've been listening to Nina Simone since 1993 when they used her album as a plot point in Point of No Return. It has been a staple in my record collection.
But at a recent Michael Buble show, (I'm still adjusting to the fact that the kids now call them "shows" and not "concerts") he did an amazing cover of Simone's Feeling Good that has reminded my why I love her and had me humming this song throughout the day ever since.

It's a new dawn,
it's a new day,
it's a new life for me,
and I'm feelin' good.

18-31 to come....