Shirley's Mind Grapes

Shirley's Mind Grapes

The answers to questions nobody asked

song of the day

Dailies 12/07/13

Dailies 12/07/13

Daily Doodle: Homage to the Tipsy Penguin

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Song of the Day: We’ll Meet Again by Dame Vera Lynn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqA5IJPEONY

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Musical Pipe Dream: I’m playing percussion with a big band. We’re all wearing white tuxedos with black bow ties and lapels. We’re performing for a large group of people who start to sing along. Some people have their arms around each other and are swaying back and forth, some are patting their knee to the beat, some have tears in their eyes.

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Blurb 1/365: Gathering my instruments: a plastic bag, a stick, and a Meowsic keyboard.

Dailies 12/06/13

Dailies 12/06/13

Daily Doodle: Exhale

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Song of the Day: The Hole by The Soul of John Black

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMQwgngbhlk

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Musical Pipe Dream: I’m chillin in a quiet corner of a small venue, enjoying the music and remembering when I decided to change my life.

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Blurb 1/365: Today I felt like remembering back on the first day I started dailies. I made a commitment to at least draw one thing everyday for a year. Every other day before this, I’d wish that I would do something creative but end up sleeping or loafing instead, blame the fact that I worked too many long hours and didn’t have time, be angry that nobody wanted to pay me money for my good ideas.

The truth is that even if I had people to listen to my good ideas, all the time in the world, less stress, nobody would see what I wanted to share if I didn’t do something about it.

My first drawing shows that I have my certain style and quirky ideas, but I didn’t have any practice at all. Drawings took me 2 hours and the end product looked labored. I love those first drawings but I also love how much quicker I’ve gotten and also not obsessing over every line and its width and the exact girth of a chubby circle. The first big step was posting something that I wasn’t 100% proud of. If I waited for that, I probably still wouldn’t have posted anything.

I love music and picking songs of the day and imagining being part of them has opened my mind to touch instruments and just play around with sounds. I could invest in lessons, but I really don’t have the money or the time to commit to practicing. I realize now that doesn’t mean I can’t make music. Though I won’t profess to be a professional by any means, ha.

My first Daily Doodle & Blurb: Me at Chipotle.

My first Song of the Day & Musical Pipe Dream: The Hole by The Soul of John Black with me imagining I’m singing backup and playing the drums.

That song is really awesome and I can’t recall how I came upon it. Maybe a recommendation from a friend, or maybe I was looking up all of the intro songs from The Wire. I dunno, but I think it has significance.

I spent time in a dark place of my own and I think I needed to be there and avoid doing anything creative possibly for me to realize how good it feels to now share what’s inside of my head. Sometimes I go back to dark places, that’s my business and I don’t think it’s all that unhealthy. We can’t be in sunshine all the time. The good thing is that instead of choosing to be happy, I just am. And when things get tough, I can actually make the choice not to be angry.

It may be mellow dramatic to feel like this, but I think doing dailies has changed my life. I’m being myself more and more everyday.

On my journey to mid-March 2014, there’s a detour down Memory Lane:

http://auntiepesto.tumblr.com/post/45090895822/dailies-03-10-13

Dailies 12/04/13

Dailies 12/04/13

Daily Doodle: Red Roof

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Song of the Day: Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder) by Maxwell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y91V1iDmNto

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Musical Pipe Dream: I’m wearing a black party dress with a small hat that has accented netting. The skirt of the dress is puffy and ends at my knees. My stockings are red and my shoes are black suede. I’m wearing bright red lipstick and grooving with my elbows tucked in slightly above my waist. I’m singing backup for the hook.

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Blurb 1/365: Animal Crossing is kind of like eXistenZ. I saw one of the animals walk by another animal’s house and look through the window. I was like, “Should I call the police?”

Dailies 12/03/13

Dailies 12/03/13

Daily Doodle: Cloud Watching

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Song of the Day: Stranded In Your Love by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings featuring Lee Fields

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AViRz8ViPmo

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Musical Pipe Dream: I’m standing next to the bongo player in a packed band. I have a tambourine that I’m swinging from waist height up to my eye height as I keep time. I clap the tambourine when I reach the top and the bottom.

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Blurb 1/365: Sometimes when I’m waiting to cross the street, I look up towards the sky and let the sun find my face.

Dailies 12/01/13

Dailies 12/01/13

Daily Doodle: Dinosaur Hedge

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Song of the Day: Shoop by Salt-n-Pepa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vaN01VLYSQ

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Musical Pipe Dream: I’m attending a karaoke contest and there are a group of women singing this song. They all have name tags on and a woman named Susan starts rapping Spinderella’s part. She’s all smiles but comes to a halt upon the line, “and he knows that my name is not Susan”.

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Blurb 1/365: Sweet dreams.

Dailies 11/28/13

Dailies 11/28/13

Daily Doodle: Professor Plum

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Song of the Day: Stagger Lee as performed by Lloyd Price

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCPutYaGFlE

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Musical Pipe Dream: My hair is set in a short style with curls at the bottom. I’m singing backup with two men and one woman. Both the men are wearing powder blue suits. The woman and I are wearing powder blue dresses.

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Blurb 1/365: Happy Thanksgiving!