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Thoughts by Rachel

Here’s a thought to take into this week – it’s Monday, you open your eyes, you are in a comfortable bed with relatively clean linens, you walk to the bathroom and the toilet is working properly, you brush your teeth with clean water, you head to the kitchen and begin your brew, you look out the window and maybe, depending on where you are, you see a bird in a tree. So begins Monday, not…

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The scope of my horror

I looked at this horoscope this morning and as much as this is formulaic, I still can’t believe how uncanny these are similar to my everyday topics. January 22, 2012 Taurus (4/20-5/20) Asking a friend to be honest with you can be tricky. If you are looking for support and end up getting judged, don’t blame the friend. Blame yourself for talking to a preacher type of person instead of someone who knows that no…

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A bird’s eye view

I am writing on a iPad on loan from the vantage point of the terrace that is right off my office now our office/bedroom. And the terrace figures prominently in this post as it was the terrace that I insisted on when the LaLa was being conceived and it was the terrace that caused most of the consternation with the myriad carpenter/contractors who worked on the LaLa for so many reasons I cannot begin to…

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Keeping it Real

We watched Lilja 4-ever last night and despite the grim reality it presented what made it watchable is the character of Lilja who despite all odds against her radiated hope. Hope dies last – a Russian proverb. And it was then that this unapologetic movie took us to the end of hope. For those of you who cannot watch crimes against women – don’t watch this – but if you do and if you can…

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God don’t like ugly

I wrote earlier about the horror of the fake brass bands, but it’s not as if I don’t understand why people come to New Orleans craving an authentic experience. Take this email that my neighbor sent yesterday: Tom is sitting on his balcony playing Honky Tonk Blues with a fellow musician. Tom is playing harmonica and the other is playing guitar. This is truly heaven. The Tom she speaks of is our very own Tom…

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How to articulate nuance in a black & white world?

I must admit to ignorance when Tin joined the Waldorf School here in New Orleans. I had heard of Waldorf but other than heard the name, I knew little about the school’s philosophy or that of Rudolf Steiner, who I hadn’t heard of at all. It’s possibly a grave oversight that not many people have heard of Steiner as he was one of the giants in philosophy and his work prescient enough that reading his…

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What is real and what is an illusion

Most of us live in New Orleans because the lines between the waking and dreaming world are blurred by the fact that a continuous looping soundtrack is being played in the background of our life. We take this as normal here. And maybe too normal, so that we forget how special it is. Read Evan Christopher’s rants about the state of musicians (and music) in New Orleans today. Some of it ain’t pretty, let me…

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To Scott with love

I went to get my hair done today at Jupiter where even to this day I continue to call Scott, David, in my mind. It’s because in San Francisco David was my hairdresser for 12 years, and when I moved back to New Orleans, the idea of not having David a phone call away was like telling me there was no bathroom for 800 miles. Panic. So when I met Scott, I knew he was…

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The inventive mind

I took a walk with a friend this morning as I was walking the dogs and was downloading the state of the union around here, around the LaLa, and around work. I’ve been blessed to start my business and have a client even before I had a logo. And just yesterday spoke to a prospective client in an industry that I have been wanting to enter from this new vantage point. So count your blessings,…

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