Meaningful Music and Lyrics: Steal me, sweet thief

"Steal me, sweet thief"  by  Menotti
From The Old Maid and The Thief

I loved this song from the moment I first heard it, about a million years ago, in high school.  I studied voice with a wonderful teacher named Phoebe Odom Settles.  Also in the studio (a few years ahead of me) was Leah Partridge  (now a soprano of some repute) and she sang this piece in a studio recital.   It totally took me by surprise:   First, it was a full bodied lyric aria in ENGLISH, which was terribly exciting to a young gal just discovering what opera was all about.  Secondly, it has a terribly comic intro, and then the second half sweeps in and breaks your heart. 
I sang the aria in college and shortly after. It is a difficult sing (as evidenced by the many many approximations available on Youtube!) and to really pull it off takes both a heap of acting chops and a willingness to open your heart and be wildly vulnerable.   So often it is tossed off as the simple wish of a young girl, but the older I get, the more it means to me.  As an older person, the press of time feels much more present, and I now feel the weight of Letitia's situation.  Losing her youth is no longer some horrible future prospect, but an every day reality, and it makes her feel terrified and desperate.

I scoured the internet and finally found a really GREAT recording.  I don't know this gal but I love her warm voice and her grown-up approach to the song.  Press the "play" button and a new window will open for you to listen...

Donna Maria Pimental

Steal Me Sweet Thief 


The set-up:  In a household normally devoid of any male presence, the elderly Miss Todd has taken in a handsome wanderer.  News hits the town of an escaped convict, and the description sounds a lot like Bob.  Titilated and terrified,  Miss Todd and her maid Laetitia have grown used to having a man around, and thus scheme to keep him cozy and out of trouble...but Laetitia is beginning to want more. 

What a curse for a woman is a timid man!
A week has gone by, 

he's had plenty of chances,
but he made no advances.
Miss Todd schemes and labors to get him some money,
she robs friends and neigbhours, the club and the church.
He takes all the money 

with a smile that entrances,
but still makes no advances.
The old woman sighs and makes languid eyes.
All the doors are wide open,
all the drawers are unlocked!
He neither seems pleased or shocked.
He eats and drinks and sleeps,
he talks of baseball and boxing,
but that is all!

What a curse for a woman is a timid man!

Steal me, oh steal me, sweet thief,
For time's flight is stealing my youth.
And the cares of life steal fleeting time.
Steal me, thief, for life is brief and full of theft and strife.
And then, with furtive step,
death comes and steals time and life.
O sweet thief, I pray make me glow,
before dark death steals her prey.

Steal my lips, before they crumble to dust,
Steal my heart, before death must,
Steal my cheeks, before they're sunk and decayed,
Steal my breath, before it will fade.
Steal my lips, steal my heart, steal my cheeks,
Steal, oh steal my breath,
And make me die before death will steal her prey.
Oh steal me!
For time's flight is stealing my youth.

A return to 100 foods

Hello again!
It is "winter" in Houston..... the most wonderful time of the year.  I spent the afternoon puttering around in my yard, planting geraniums and petunias and just enjoying the sun on my back.  

I thought I would revisit this old gem ... "100 Foods You Should Eat."  I did it last back in 2008 and I have improved my score quite a bit!

This is kind of fun! (From foodie blog: Very Good Taste)

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.  MY NEWEST ITEMS ARE BOLD AND RED!
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I'm so close!!!   

Tiny is beautiful

I'm kind of obsessed with tiny space living.....makes me nostalgic about my Airstream days.   Watching vids like this makes my 550sqft feel palatial!

Like this guy who lives in 78 square feet...  what???!!

But I really like the stories about people who are building their own tiny homes...

I love how these people are taking control of their own lives, deciding that they are not going to be slaves to a big mortgage, or that owning STUFF is less important than living a quality life.

Very inspiring, don't you think?

DIY Roman Blinds

OMG these DIY roman blinds are gorgeous and look pretty darn easy to accomplish.  Little Green Notebook has done it again, with an easy-to-understand tutorial for ALMOST no-sew blinds that are made using cheapie plastic mini-blinds as a base.   I wish I had come up with this.  But, failing that, I am delighted that Jenny did.  Le sigh.

My artistic yearnings

I wrote a bit a few months ago about abstract art, and how it is deceptively difficult to get it right. To quote my own self....

"Any fool can slap some paint on a canvas, but to make it look good is quite another thing."

Well, above you see the result of my arrogant artistic yearnings.  hahah.  I made this for my man-friend, who was looking for a bit of original art for his apartment, and probably also trying to provide a bit of an outlet for his cabin-fever-crazed lady.  I worked on this monster every day for a few hours, and every day he would come home from work to find a completely different painting. Seriously, there are like 7 paintings underneath, and a metric TON of paint.

Am I happy with the result?  Not entirely.  I'd like to do some more glazing, etc, but I am partially afraid of messing up what we have now.  Fear is not a useful quality in the creation process, I am learning. :)   I will say, it looks a heap better in real life, as opposed to in this picture taken with my Iphone in not-great-light.

And posting about it here is the first step I am taking to a new artistic challenge for 2013.... more visual art!  I want to really challenge myself to do a bit more painting, both large-scale abstract (like this) and the much more realistic style I do with my watercolors .... like these below...

Old Barn at the Faircloth Farm

Blue Crab in Gumbo

And then of course the dream is to become an overnight sensation on Etsy (my shop has a new name and a new look!)  and spend my days painting en pleine air in Provence and wear linen all the time.  Isn't that everyone's dream?   hahahah.

Happy Mardi Gras, yall. 

Single Serve Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ever have a hankering for a homemade chocolate chip cookie, but not wanna have a whole batch around to serve as continual temptation??  Perfect solution:  a Recipe for a Single Serving!  Two beautiful cookies, hot from the oven.  Thank you, No. 2 Pencil!

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

I love eggs.
I love egg salad, deviled eggs, scrambled eggs.
I love boiled eggs.

They are harder to perfect than you might expect.  However, the fine folks over at Nom Nom Paleo have a great recipe, with lovely photos HERE.

Here's the cheat sheet:
1.  Start with the oldest eggs you have in your fridge.  Fresh eggs are a disaster for peeling.
2.  Lightly prick the bottom of each egg with a needle.
3.  Throw those eggs  (gently!)  in a big pot with some cold water and a dash of baking soda.
4.  Turn the heat up, leave the lid off, and wait for it to boil.
5.  When it does boil, set your timer for one minute.
6.  When the minute is up, turn off the heat and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 10 minutes.  Use a timer!
7.  After 10 mins, move your eggs from that pot to a bowl of ice + water.  Let it sit for 5 mins.
8.  After 5 mins, take the eggs of your ice bath, and peel them while they are still slightly warm.

Perfect eggs!  Thanks Nom Nom Paleo!

Inspiration

Have you seen the blog: My Modern Met? 

Every day they showcase some interesting art work..... one day amazing nature photography, the next street art, the next this wild cut out book art.  I always come away inspired and wishing I had thought of it first. hahha.