Hello Lovelies!

I can't wait to see my favorites. Two years has been way too long, girls.

I'm drowning in the absence. I wonder how many times I'll go see it in theaters this time?

And with Aiden showing up with his cutesy little self, I have a feeling I might be able to relate to the ever-winding and unpredictable road that Carrie travels in search of her soulmate.

Better late than never? I know how you feel, girl.

Oh, Miss Bradhsaw, you've taught me so much...

The most fabulous journalists wear newspapers.

And I always dig the flower power. Ha! As if SJP/Carrie needs anymore power.

She's pretty bada$$

and i'm pretty obsesssed

and you write like hemmingway to me. xoxoxo

peacebailylove

let me talk southern to you

"Southern girls are God's gift to the entire male population. There is no woman finer than one raised below the

Mason-Dixon line. And once you go Southern,

may the Good Lord help you, you never go back."

-Kenny Chesney

please visit Hands On Nashville and make a donation for flood relief

please visit Save Our Gulf to donate/see what you can do to help the Waterkeeper Alliance protect and restore our beloved Southern coasts that are horribly affected by the oil spill

I can proudly say that the warm-hearted, graceful women and men of the South proudly help relief efforts, both domestic and international. As Dixie finally got back on her feet after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, disaster struck us again. I know what it feels like to lose possessions, and I promise to advocate and volunteer to save my homeland.

Please help!

sweet Southern comfort, carry on....

the women who did it

Aretha Franklin sold it.
Dolly Parton graced it.
Rosa Parks rode it.
Scarlett O' chased it.
Pochahontas tracked it.
Nancy Reagan campaigned it.
Janis Joplin rocked it.
Helen Keller proved it.
Jackie O wore it.

Condoleeza ran it.
Anne Frank journaled it.
Meryl Streep acted it.
Oprah Winfrey talked it.
Heidi Klum modeled it.
Betty Friedan un-genderized it.
Pat Summitt coached it.
Susan B. Anthony reformed it.
Jane Austen noveled it.
Mother Teresa touched it.
Princess Diana charmed it.
Harriett Tubman escaped it.
Eleanor Roosevelt influenced it.
Virgin Mary gave birth to it.
Betsy Ross sewed it. 
Angelina Jolie adopted it.
Coco Chanel designed it.
Amelia Earhart flew it.
Marilyn Monroe teased it.
Lucille Ball humored it.
Sarah Palin governed it.
Sandra Day O'Connor ruled it.
Venus and Serena slammed it.
Barbara Walters reported it.
Margaret Sanger sexualized it.
Jane Addams founded it.

Hillary Clinton politicked it.

Mia Farrow advocated it.

Nancy Brinker organized it.

JK Rowling wrote it.

Michelle Obama changed it.

Peace & Love - Bjj

The 'Other' Sister

*MARCH IS WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH*

January 19, 1943 - October 4, 1970

(I meant to post a blog on October 4th in memoriam for the "Queen of the Blues." )

Janis Joplin died in an L.A. hotel room on October 4, 1970 while recording her album 'Pearl.' The post-humous album included "Me and Bobby McGee," "Mercedez Benz," and "Buried Alive In The Blues." At age 27, she had fans falling in love with her and her music. She was engaged to the man of her dreams, Seth Morgan, but cried to her Bobby McGee, Kris Kristofferson.

Ironically enough, the day Janis was found dead on the floor of the L.A. hotel room, she was scheduled to finish the recording and edits on the song "Buried Alive In The Blues." She was supposed to spend that night in the hotel with Seth Morgan, but his womanizing ways found him bedding a waitress in San Francisco and not with his soon-to-be wife. Her excessive heroin use, cocaine use, and chugging of Southern Comfort didn't mix well in the lonely, blues-singing heart and soul of Janis that night. The 'Queen of the Blues' was almost a martyr to her own destiny when she was quoted, on more than one occassion, to foreshadow what lie ahead of her.

Her former lover, Jimi Hendrix, was dead only a few weeks when Janis finally went too far with her self-destructive ways. After Hendrix perished in London, Janis was quoted, "I can't say that I was shocked. I guess this just decreases my chances. Two rockstars can't die in the same year." Seeming invincible, Janis assured her worrying friends and Texas family that "Nothing will ever happen to me." In the twenty months leading up to October of 1970, she had overdosed six times and one being almost fatal. On October 4, she was dead and a part of rock-and-roll's "Forever Twenty Seven" club.

The way she expressed the intense emotions of life in a pure, honest, and riveting way left her fans needing that release. Only, she was dead. Never before was a raspy, beatnik from Texas so relative to everyone that listened to her. In twenty-seven years, she did more than most will do in a lifetime. Yet, she felt the same feelings that her fans did. She was human. She got too drunk, she made mistakes, she loved, she never felt loved, and she wanted more. Always wanting more, until too much was too much.

She drifted, always feeling lonely and alone. She left her parents in Port Arthur to study at the University of Texas. She hitch-hiked to Greenwich Village, she rode a bus to Berkeley, she found a home in San Francisco. Unlike anything my generation will ever know, she was a young and ambitious adult in a time where music was what kept the world going. Not Wall Street, not civil rights. Music. You were for 'peace', which was only found in music, or you were for 'war', which wasn't found in her neck of the woods. She released herself from her bindings in music. When music wasn't enough she turned to booze - always Southern Comfort, of course! When booze wasn't enough she turned to cocaine. Cocaine turned in to heroin.

When it seemed like the 'Queen of the Blues' was finally figuring it out, she let her last 'release' go too far. At age twenty-seven, she was dead. She left one final gift to the world. Her album, "Pearl." The album was filled with Janis. Screaming her words like only she could do, exploding her soul into her lyrics and proving that fame doesn't make you immortal. She was lonely, she was depressed, and she didn't think anyone could hear her.

On October 4th, 1970 the world heard her. They heard the silence. They lost inspiration. They lost liveliness of her performances. They lost Janis Joplin. Silence.

Her motto, "The more you live, the less you die." was perfectly fitting for the twenty-seven years of her life. What could have killed her way before her fatal night was what kept her alive. She lived up to people's expectations even when people didn't live up to hers. "People like their blues singers miserable. They like their blues singers to die afterwards."

Her need for her audience's adoration was enormous. When she got it, she claimed that was the only thing that made her feel. She compared performing and moving her audience to feel what she is feeling to 'having a baby' and 'falling in love twenty times.'

It makes you wonder what she may have accomplished had she continued her legacy and not become a legend so soon. If she had seen what the album "Pearl" did for blues, rock, and soul music. It is hard to fathom what music in general would have been like if Janis lived another few decades.

We may have never known Madonna. Me may have never known Stevie Nicks. We may have never known Courteney Love or Mariah Carey. Sheryl Crowe or Celine Dion.

What we do know is that no one can touch the heart and soul of America the way Janis Joplin did. A small-town girl with dreams bigger than Texas. A tomboy, a beatnik, a gypsy.

Her career that turned into what she called "the whole success thing" was always embarked upon by staying true and righteous to herself. In all aspects of life she vowed she'd stay real. One of her most famous quotes was "Don't compromise yourself, you're all you've got." Nothing else said could prove this more true than the life she lived and the legacy she left. She never compromised, she never was anything but human.

No one can turn vocals and instrumentals into the sublime power of one's heart, soul, whole self, the way she could. Her words were relative, her music was riveting, and her performance was empowering.

What is it about this woman that I'm so intrigued and inspired by, many ask. Why do I love her as if I knew her? She was real. She was lonely. She was yelling but no one could hear her. She had passion. She was a musician because it made her feel good. She didn't want money, she wanted the experience. She was a tomboy. She let no one's expectations be limitations. She was boundless, out there, and made being 'different' something to be proud of.

Janis, as she described herself, was 'one of those regular weird people.'

-bjj

the 'other' sister

Download these Janis Joplin favs:

- A Woman Left Lonely

- Ball And Chain

- Me and Bobby McGee

- Mercedez Benz

- Tell Mama

- Piece Of My Heart

- Little Girl Blue

- Down On Me

- San Francisco Bay Blues

And, remember... "Don't compromise yourself, you're all you've got."

more.than.just.a.pretty.face

"I'm trying to find myself as a person, sometime's that's not easy to do. Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do" - Marilyn Monroe

Some people may look at the life and legacy of Marilyn Monroe, one of my favorite women in history, and think 'sex icon', or that she was too controversial to be a role-model, or she was responsible for the doom of the perfect American political family. To myself, she is someone who shaped history. She allowed us to be 'wild at heart'. She was a 'black sheep' in a white dress; and she was good at making trouble.

Marilyn Monroe was more than a pin-up, flirt, and blonde bombshell. She lived her life in search of finding herself. Born with the name Norma Jeane Mortenson, she was baptized with the name Norma Jeane Baker, and when America fell in love with her as an actress, her name was Marilyn Monore. To girls like me who still admire her legacy, decades after her 1962 death, she is simply 'Marilyn'.

She was American. She was divine. Her pin-ups were all over Army, Marine, and Air Force bases during the second World War. She was beautiful; round; real.

As a model, people couldn't get enough of her. People wanted more, and this hunger for more of this scandalous and sexy star propelled her acting career. She taught us 'How to Marry a Millionaire' and that 'Some Like it Hot'. Her popularity is one that is hard to match. Her glamour is timeless.

Most people know that my favorite cultural decade in American history is the bohemian, hippie culture. The free-spirited, wandering, experimental, and ruthless women who changed women across the nation from 'idealist' to to 'realist'. Where did this fear-less attitude come from? Sure, marijuana-filled joints and the infamous Acid Kool-Aid Tests. But, not all bohemians, feminist, and realist were part of the drug induced crowd. Some were mothers, some were Preacher's daughters, and some were sister's, girlfriends, and wives of a man in Army green. My respect for Marilyn Monroe is born amidst the recognition that she changed the face of the ideal American woman. Marilyn taught us that a woman in the 1950's didn't have to adorn aprons and 'ooh and ahh' over microwaves, Chevrolets, and 'Honey, I'm home' type husbands. She showed the nation and the world that a 1950's woman could bare her skin and that people could 'ooh and ahh' over her beauty or gasp at their own jealousy of such a trend-setter. She curled her hair, painted her lips, took risks in her fashion, and although she gave birth to the 'dumb blonde' persona, she was a genius in the mind of girls who were born to stand out. She set an example for all the women who wanted to be different, always looking for that 'Marilyn' attitude in order to not blend with the crowd.

But do most people know the story of such a timeless icon? She was more than just a pretty face, like most glamorous people are. She was a foster child; her mother being too mentally unstable to care for her. She was passed around from one family friend to the next, never really knowing who she was or given a chance to foresee what might she be like when she grew up. At age 16, she was to marry a man in order to avoid another foster family or orphanage.

The nation wept at the thought of Michael Jackson being robbed of a childhood. "That's what made him so damn weird," some would say. Just like we've witnessed with the recent loss of pop music's "King", Marilyn's post-humous reputation would be loved and admired or hated and wanted to be forgotten. However, you can't just forget a woman like Marilyn. She wasn't the Audrey Hepburn or Jackie O type. She was the mistress, not the wife. She was the pin-up, not the Sunday School teacher. Simply, Marilyn, was who she was.

Norma Jeane was a wife before some of us could master the skill of driving our first car. Yet she used her past to create her future, in which she wasn't weird or creepy, she was beautifully artistic and deviously loved.

She taught us that 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and lived like a real-life Barbie. Her rendition of 'Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend' was associated with her. She married, separated, and divorced Joe DiMaggio then showed us all 'How To Be Very, Very Popular'.

Marilyn Monroe was what Elton John refers to as 'A Candle In The Wind' and the only other rendition to this song was an exchange in the lyrics appropriate for the death and funeral of Princess Diana. Marilyn was royalty in lingerie. She was a life in the spotlight. She herself changed the tune of the widely known 'Happy Birthday' song that every three-year old to 90 year-old knows by heart. We know when to sing it in normal tune, and how to sing it when a tool for seduction. She could make the President blush; she could make a white halter-top dress a must-have for four decades of young women; and she made wind blowing your hair and skirt up sexy rather than embarrassing.

She is more than just a sex icon, let me remind you. Sure, she could make a grown man's jaw drop or be responsible for a twelve-year old's first experience of puberty. But she is an Oscar and Golden Globe winner. She is a comparison for the other blondes who follow. And, she is inspiration for the women like me in search of themselves.

She is Los Angeles. Born in LA, died in LA. She set the mold for the California-girl. Her life can be told in the historic theatres that are still used in the West coast's favorite city.

Her ashes are laid to rest in The Corridor of Memories in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetary and the corridor to her left is owned by Hugh Hefner, where he will be laid to rest when the life of another sex icon, genius, and scandalous figure comes to an end. Talk about appropriate.

A woman who shaped history, defined beauty, and lives on nearly fifty years after her 'death by conspiracy'. She reminds me each time I read one of her flirtacious and ruthless quotes or see one of her iconic images that it's okay to not know who you are. If you were one of those girls who never settles for anything less than exciting or can't put a "type" to your look, personality, or attitude, then you're not a failure. She was a success. She made housewives envious. She was the lady in red, not the girl next door. She constantly changed her mind or made a frenzy wherever she went.

She was Norma Jeane to the traditional girl, but Marilyn Monroe - glitz and glam, sugar and spice - to the innovative girl that believes in finding yourself but having fun while you do it.

As I venture out into the wide-unknown each day, I take a little bit of the women who shaped history for me. The ones I know, the ones I only know of reading about. I know I haven't 'found myself' but I'll be damned if I'm one of the millions who never do. So, in my opinion, learning a few lessons from the words a girl like Marilyn left behind, I do believe I'll find myself one day - and I'll give credit to the people who helped.

"I don't want to make money, I just want to be wonderful."

"I don't mind living in a man's world, as long as I can be a woman in it."

"If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never gotten anywhere."

"I am trying to prove to myself that I am a person."

"It's better to be happy alone than unhappy with someone."

"It's better for the whole world to know you, even as a sex star, than to never be known at all."

"If you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."