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Day 9. Something You're Reading. Taken on the train today, the last few pages.

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Day 8. Ornaments. Cheesy filter, I know. The ornaments I hung on my chandelier.

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Day 7. Bright. A total cheat, for I only installed this stained glass bulb for the photo.

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Forgot to post this outside of Facebook... hope everyone had a great St. Nicholas Day!  I grew up with the tradition of treats in my stocking on the morning of December 6:  Nuts, an orange, chocolates, powdered donettes, a can of juice, and a small present.  A mini-Christmas, if you will.

Obit of the Day (Historical): St. Nicholas (343)

St. Nicholas, the patron saint of bankers, pawnbrokers, sailors, prisoners, unmarried women, and, of course, children died on December 6, 343. Nicholas, who was orphaned at a young age, dedicated his life to God and would be named Bishop of Myra (located in what is now Turkey), leading the local church during the persecution of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Nicholas would be imprisoned by Diocletian and when released would also take part in the famous Council of Nicea (325).

But to reach sainthood you have to earn it. And according to tradition Nicholas did. Here are a few of the stories connected to the Bishop of Myra:

While still alive Nicholas managed to free innocent men from prison, but he also appeared in dreams to jailers who released their wrongly imprisoned charges upon waking.

There is the story of an evil butcher who kidnapped and killed three young children. Nicholas discovered the horrific crime and resurrected the children.

In 311-312 during a famine in Myra a shipload of wheat bound for Constantinople (and the Emperor’s stores) docked. Nicholas prodded the sailors to donate two years of wheat to the city, including seed for sowing with the promise that they would suffer no repercussions. They reluctantly agreed and when they reached their final destination found that the wheat load had lost no weight.

The most famous miracle - more of a good deed - is when Nicholas surreptitiously placed bags of gold coins in the stockings or shoes of three unmarried women who could not afford a dowry. Thus began the tradition of placing gifts in stockings during Christmas.

Nicholas is one of the few saints venerated by Catholics, Orthodox and Anglicans. His feast day is celebrated on the date of his death: December 6.

Over time the English and Dutch - especially in the United States - transformed St. Nicholas/Sinter Klaus into the Christmas icon Santa Claus. Although St. Nicholas Day is still popular in the Orthodox Church and several Western European countries, the saint’s day has been replaced by Christmas and the living historical figure has become the “jolly, old elf.”

Sources: The St. Nicholas Center and Catholic Online

(Images are all done by artist Elisabeth Ivanovsky and copyright of The St. Nicholas Center. They are wonderful. Captions are available when you click on the images.)

(Thanks to closertothelost.tumblr.com for a correction.)

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Day 6. Shopping.  Obligatory pic taken from a balcony of the Empire of Excess, the Grove of the North:  The Americana.  

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Day 5. Today's Temperature.

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Day 4. Joyous.  It's a simple joy, but one that a cuppa hot tea brings me every day.

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I went a couple of weeks ago (voting day!) to see the Endeavour.  What a sight.

Endeavour Space Shuttle | California Science Center

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Day 3.  Red.  My 99 cent Black Friday poinsettia special from Home Depot!  

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Day 2.  Favorite Holiday Movie.  It's Elf, of course!

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Day 1.  Your View Today.  Was not allowed to take pictures inside this Hollywood landmark...but I snuck one in the bathroom anyway.

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Since I've been away from Tumblr for waaaaay too long, I figured this would be a good chance to jump right back in.  Stay tuned...

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HERE IT IS FOLKS!  the 2 Day Line up.  Also just announced are the additions of the Faint & Glass Candy.  Reblog this with the Hash Tag “FYF FEST” and you might find yourself the lucky recipient of a pair of Weekend Passes.  Get Ready to get your dancing shoes dusty!  Help spread the word!

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Aaaaand this would be it. 

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Saw her perform in a mini-comedy-club-thingy after a taping of Conan awhile back.  She had the greatest Taylor Dane story ever told.  And, I mean, come on, is there ever a bad Taylor Dane story?

She's fantastic, and I've all the faith she's gonna be all right.

“Tragedy + time = comedy. But I don’t have the benefit of time. So I’m just going to tell you the tragedy and know that everything is going to be okay.” 

So began Tig Notaro’s set last night at her show “Tig and friends” at the Largo. 

Actually, that wasn’t the beginning of her set. It began when Ed Helms welcomed her to the stage and she crossed over, took the microphone, and said “Thank you, thank you, I have cancer, thank you, I have cancer, really, thank you.”

Applause gave way to reticent laughter as she explained how she had planned a set about bees flying alongside her car on the 405, but that she couldn’t possibly do her “silly jokes” when all this was going on. And that’s when she told us that 3 days ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, in both breasts. 

But she didn’t just have cancer. She went on to explain that in some manic twist of fate, while her career is at an all-time high — she is moving to New York to work on Amy Schumer’s new television show, she was on This American Life — concurrently, all these terrible circumstances have befallen her over the past 3 months: pneumonia made way for a debilitating bacterial infection in her digestive tract for which she was hospitalized and lost 30 pounds off of her already small frame, days after being released from the hospital, her young mother died suddenly and tragically (fell, hit her head, died), then she and her girlfriend broke up, and then, now, cancer. In both breasts. (“You have a lump.” “No, doctor, that’s my breast.” — one of her most renowned bits is about someone remarking upon her small breasts)

For the first half of her set, even though she was telling the story in perfect grace and humor, I couldn’t laugh. For the second half, for the first time in my life, as far as I can recall, I genuinely laughed and cried at the exact same time, bewildered at the tragedy and the remarkably calm, clever prism through which she assessed her terrible set of circumstances.

While telling us anecdotes from these personal tragedies, all along the way, she assured the audience “it’s okay, I’m going to be okay.” At one part, when she reached a dark place wherein most of the audience could not find the will to laugh, she said “maybe I’ll just go back to telling jokes about bees. Should I do that?” there were several “NOs” and one insistent loud male voice who cried out

“NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. THIS IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE.”

She looked genuinely taken aback, and relieved. She’d managed to make the tragic not only palatable but overwhelmingly engaging. She’d done it.  

Tig’s been one of my favorite comedians for a couple of years now. I told her how much I loved her work after a set at UCB one night, and she received my words so kindly that she came towards me and gave me a hug. I’ve gone downtown to bars by myself and sat for hours alone, just waiting to see her headlining set. 

At the end of her routine last night, everyone in the audience gave her a standing ovation, for me her wowed, grateful, happy face blurry with my own salty eyes. She’d released her horrific story into the hearts of her fans. I’m sure we all felt like I did; we were made witness to a truly historical moment in comedy, by one of the industry of comedy’s absolute greatest. 

Bill Burr followed her set, inexplicably able to make the whole audience uproarious with laughter by the end. Bill Burr then brought on Louis C.K., the surprise guest of the night, which was a shock - it was my first time ever seeing him live - but it was very difficult to give him my enrapt attention after Tig’s on-stage confessions.

My head is still swimming around what happened last night. We all saw the ultimate embodiment of what comedy is supposed to do: deeply personal tragedies somehow transformed, with the enormous, necessary power of an open-hearted audience, into brilliantly-written truths that we’ll all take home with us and keep with us as long as we’ll have a sound-enough mind to remember that show. If schadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortune of others, we all shuffled into another corner last night, schadenfreude’s cousin; we’re not laughing at you, we’re crying with you but trying very hard to accept this avalanche of misfortune through the more edible prism of humor.

I’m so grateful I could bear witness to what happened last night, and more than that I’m grateful to comedy and to Tig Notaro for being not only courageous enough and not only spirited enough but for being so endlessly, achingly HONEST with all of us, the stunned, mouth-breathing strangers in the dark. 

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Words cannot describe how much I love this campaign.  Pardon me while I roll around in all of this in sheer bliss.

Christian Dior - Secret Garden - Versailles 

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My love for Xylos knows no bounds.  I wish they would come back to LA soon.

“Fiction in 4 Moves” - Xylos

RCRD LBL Free Download