Grammar with Grace.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm a bit of a grammar snob. But I'm the worst kind of grammar snob...I'm the selective kind. I keep a little gig on the side editing magazine articles. Most of them usually appear to have been written by high-school drop-outs who never understood the premise of a thesis statement and the five-paragraph essay construction well enough to take liberties with it.

But let's be honest, I prefer a good clear-cut grammatical slaughter, whipping through pages on my Mac with the track changes hidden so I don't feel too guilty about the amount of re-wording, re-arranging, and re-writing that I've inflicted upon someone's editorial offerings. The time it takes to painstakingly remove unnecessary prepositions from the ends of sentences, re-align arguments so that they make sense, and edit out the senseless side comments of writers who think they're being clever but are really just being daft is a FERRIS WHEEL RIDE compared to facing an article with an unctuous, unnatural, self-conscious style. I'll stare at a single sentence for an hour thinking to myself, "Why in the hell did you decide to say it like THAT?"

The thing is, when I first started as a copy-editor, I was under the false impression that all writers should have passed Mrs. Papp's Freshman Year Honors English Class at St. Pius X Catholic High School, and, additionally, that all grammatical rules were hard and fast. Lord, I was so ignorant.

Four years later, when I edit, I'm looking for that fine balance of reasonable grammatical execution, clear constant style, contextualized voice, and a minimum of total bullshit. Every article is an adventure.

Anyway, I recently picked up Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves from the library, having toyed with reading it for about three years now. It's brilliant. In fact, here; judge for yourself:

Taking the marks we have examined so far, is there any art involved in using the apostrophe? No. Using the apostrophe correctly is a mere negative proof: it tells the world you are not a thicko. The comma, while less subject to universal rules, is still a utilitarian mark, racing about with its ears back, trying to serve both the sense and the sound of the sentence - and of course wearing itself to a frazzle for a modest bowl of Chum. Using the comma well announces that you have an ear for sense and rhythm, confidence in your style and a proper respect for your reader, but it does not mark you out as a master of your craft.

But colons and semicolons- well, they are in a different league, my dear! They give such lift! Assuming a sentence rises into the air with the initial capital letter and lands with a soft-ish bump at the full stop, the humble comma can keep the sentence aloft all right, like this, UP, for hours if necessary, UP, like this, UP, sort-of bouncing, and then falling down, and then UP it goes again, assuming you have enough additional things to say, although in the end you may run out of ideas and then you have to roll along the ground with no commas at all until some sort of surface resistance takes over and you run out of steam anyway and then eventually with the help of three dots...you stop. But the thermals that benignly waft our sentences to new altitudes – that allow us to coast on air, and loop-the-loop, suspending the laws of gravity – well, they are the colons and semicolons.

-Lynne Truss,

Eats, Shoots & Leaves, UK edition, Chapter 3

See what I mean? What JOY! To discover that, to at least an elite few, language is more than just a skin-and-bones method of communication. It is an art form. Being a writer is like being a composer, deciding how the construction of the text will affect the reader's perception of the message. The rhythm, the lift, the pause... and this is just covering what the commas and semicolons and colons can do, never mind the intensity of parallel construction, or the gravity and finality of a short, definite sentence after a long, ambling, descriptive one. It's good!

Did you KNOW that punctuation was given life by Greek play writes and Medieval monks tripping out biblical text? That, in its original form, it was more than simply utilitarian? It was integral to the meaning, the meditation, the effect of the words.

Whatever happened?

I know that the Society of Grammar-Obsessed Sticklers has low membership. If you're reading this and you're a card-carrying member, or even a friend, I salute you. If you've never given a thought to grammar beyond the occasional fleeting moment to ponder over the purpose of that key under your right pinky, I say this: Grammar is about flow. It's about cadence, and meaning, and interpretation. Don't stress yourself out over it, but respect it as you would the school of aerodynamic thought: you may never understand it, but it is oh so very useful.

Long live the Oxford Comma.

Write Up My Alley.

Have you ever opened a book, or even an e-mail, and discovered it to have been written by a soul-sister, walking the earth in some distant place or time?

Aren't those glorious moments?

Finding a friend through the written word- someone with whom you may never share a single word of correspondence, but into whose thoughts you briefly step to tread among them and think, "So maybe I'm not quite so alone in the world, after all."

Most notably in my life? Discovering L.M.Montgomery's wonderful Avonlea as a child.

My roommate started reading Elizabeth Gilbert, not even on my recommendation, and would stop every few pages to say, "Chesley. This woman is you. It's so weird."

You know those books that make you laugh out loud? That you read in a single sitting and carry around with you when you scoot to the kitchen for snacks or run to answer the phone because you just can't put it down? 84 Charing Cross Road.

The book that makes you laugh and cry and sigh and smile? (Whoever would have guessed by the title?"

Or the books that have been frosted with magic and just-a-little-bit-larger-than-life dusting of fairy tales for the not-so-common everyday girl?

And the throwbacks, romanticism (in its literary and art historical sense), and still romantic? I mean, with a first line like, "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink," you know you're in for a treat.

Well, call me daft, but I opened up my inbox today and found a lovely little marketing e-mail from J.Crew, that purveyor of all things classic, slightly nautical, casual-chic. And much to my delight, (after falling in love with this delicious looking bag),

I found that kindred spirits don't only write novels. They write marketing copy as well. After reading that "Alison, Editorial Copy Director" for The Crew "singlehandedly keeps thesaurus.com in business" I was briefly reassured that there is a job out there, even for a wordsmithing wit. And that even a girl who likes to "carry around a notebook and writing utensil at all times in case i get inspired to jot down an idea, but it never happens. I usually just end up scribbling down to-do lists that I never look at again" can make it. It gives me hope.

Wordsmithing, scatterbrained, classy, fabulous females, speak out. You are among friends here!

"It had always seemed to Emily, ever since she could remember,

that she was very, very near to a world of wonderful beauty. Between it and herself hung only a thin curtain; she could never draw the curtain aside--but sometimes, just for a moment, a wind fluttered it and then it was as if she caught a glimpse of the enchanting realm beyond--only a glimpse--and heard a note of unearthly music."

I've just finished reading a book. A wonderful, whisk-you-way-type book.

Growing up, I relished each book in L.M.Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, both the first time I read them in the fifth grade, and again when I reread them in High School. Needing a romantic, old-fashioned, beautifully written, inspirational escape, I ventured to the library last week and selected a well-loved copy of Emily of New Moon, the first in another series by L.M.Montgomery.

After stealing a few moments to read a few pages despite my other obligations, I had no doubt I would not be disappointed.

"This moment came rarely--went swiftly, leaving her breathless with the inexpressible delight of it. She could never recall it--never summon it--never pretend it; but the wonder of it stayed with her for days. It never came twice with the same thing. To-night the dark boughs against that far-off sky had given it. It had come with a high, wild note of wind in the night, with a shadow wave over a ripe field, with a greybird lighting on her window-sill in a storm, with the singing of "Holy, holy, holy" in church, with a glimpse of the kitchen fire when she had come home on a dark autumn night, with the spirit-like blue of ice palms on a twilit pane, with a felicitous new word when she was writing down a "description" of something. And always when the flash came to her Emily felt that life was a wonderful, mysterious thing of persistent beauty."

photos: Room with a View by Emily Rachel, book in window from auberginesea.tumblr.com, Emily of New Moon cover by L.M. Montgomery, key from dontwanttoseethesunanymore.tumblr.com, Stars all seem to weep by ~Be-at from deviantart

Sunrise, Sunset...

Trying to write my article on Ethan Hawke today.

Interviewed him a week ago and am just now finding the TIME to put it together...

Well... not just now, more like in 8 hours, after my crazy busy day...

Wish me luck!

Summertime...

and the living is easy...

and otherwise... depending on the moment.

My cousin's Epic Vail/Beaver Creek Wedding is mere days away. I'm vigorously preparing, alternately worshipping the sun gods

and belting wedding music in my car. You see, it's been over a year since I've sung some of the songs I will be singing this weekend. And when I sang them, I sang them at sea level. I don't know how much water that whole "lung capacity at different altitudes" thing holds, but I can tell you that, as a singer, I cannot sustain or support notes the same way up here as I could in Philly. My anxiousness is of course compounded because Vail is another couple thousand feet elevation from where I am now. So as difficult as it is to struggle through the 10-beat, 3 note, formata'd key-change-climb at the end of The Prayer here in Boulder, it's gonna be a REAL TREAT up in the mountains.

All I really have to say on the subject is: Mags, I wish you were here... to give it to me straight and help me fix what needs fixing. I'm also thinking that Schubert's Ave Maria in Bflat is being optimistic. I think I'm gonna take G, just to be safe...

But enough about that.

Isn't summer glorious? When I'm not trying to figure out my life, I'm enjoying the relatively humidity-less hot days, and the immediate accessibility of a pool. Whoever first concepted water-filled giant tubs, miles from any lake or shore, was brilliant. To you, good sir, I say Thank You.

OH!

and: Look what I just got in the mail:

If you find yourself in The Big Apple, pick up an issue. My cover article on Ms. Howard is a 3-spread piece, and I've also got a little piece in there comparing American Politics to Wonderland. (The image is a delightful still from Tim Burton's AIW... of Tweedledee and Tweedledum looking particularly bi-partisan.) It's written under a pen name... but more on that later.

Back to Lovin' Summer.

photos: Art Pixie, vintage beach image, Kevin Costner & Christine Baumgartener wedding image, www.newyorkmoves.com, Summer Face by singareev, American Summer from tdbimg.com, image from danceistheway.com

Life.

Hello loves.

Greetings from the edge of the earth. I'm sure I fell off last week.

My long trip home held some surprises. Some were anticipated, and some were not. But my discoveries of the past week have put me back into that wonderful place of life. It's not that I've been depressed over the past few months, but after so much wondering and wandering, one runs the risk of becoming a little listless.

But no more. It's nice to be me again. (Isn't that a nice place to be?)

Here's what happened while I was in Atlanta.

1) I popped on the plane out of Boulder just a few hours after presenting a lecture on Marian Iconography, examined through multiple art historical, cultural, symbolic, and spiritual lenses.

It was so well-received, and I gave it twice more while in Atlanta. After meeting with a number of different people in liturgical ministry and adult enrichment roles, I've gotten lots of support for this endeavor.

Now I just need to put it into article form, see if I can get it published, and start on my next lecture....

2) I wrote my Bryce Dallas Howard article on the plane flying home, and then edited a slew of articles for the publication, New York Moves Magazine. I think the BDH article came off fairly well.

She was delightful to interview, and so enthused about so many different subjects, and she served me my concluding paragraph on a golden platter. I love that she was so interested in Grace as an empowering attribute. (We think alike...).

3) Discernment is not an easy process... particularly when you're multi-interested. I can see myself doing a lot of things. A lot of things. But I spent most of the week trying to figure out the best path for me, because applying to every corporate marketing position I can dig up hasn't been working. It's time for plan B.

So I've decided to try to cultivate a writing career, and drum up some new clients,

while simultaneously finding some sort of part- or full-time position with a not-for-profit, preferably nestling myself into the arts community. And I'm casting my net wide, for Fate to send me what she will. Because if I can find a lovely NFP spot, but it's not in my backyard...well...I've already learned that I'm good at picking up and moving, right?

With the art historical lectures, I've decided to try to head back to school in a year or two. I'm spreading knowledge to the masses with my little B.A. I imagine I could do some real damage with an M.A. or a Ph.D... And I always have my singing, too... I was promoted to Head Cantor while I was away. I'll be singing all summer!

4) has to do with my last post. This was the truly unexpected surprise. And though the ruminating on career options re-invigorated my mind, this surprise made me sit up and breath deep the joys of being.

You know those moments when life comes knocking, and you just open the door and let it in? That's what I did. It has to do with some great music, a great man, and a series of rather delightful moments. And I'll tell you all about it.

Tomorrow.

photos: imaginary friend by *mOthyyku at deviantART, Edge of the Earth, Edge of the Sky by Enrique Fernandez Ferra, image by Perhydrol from 500px, Joy Division, Bouguereau's Pieta, Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Annunciation, Bryce Dallas Howard, image from ffffound.com, Fork in the Road from melodyross.typepad.com, visual inspiration from vi.sualize.us, happen from imgfave.com/Melissa, Jump in the Sky by ~Loona5, Lovestory from 500px.com

Update.

Quick Update!

I interviewed Bryce yesterday, and it was a breeze.

She's as sparkling and charming to talk to as one would imagine, looking at her picture.

Now I just have to capture that in print...

The Arts: Bryce Dallas Howard.

Tomorrow, I'm interviewing Bryce Dallas Howard.

She's Ron Howard's daughter, but has made quite the name for herself in her own films (The Village, Lady in the Water, As You Like It, Terminator: Salvation, and, of course, the upcoming Twilight: Eclipse).

But what I think I love most about this girl is that she's smart.

Well-studied, well-read, and well-philosophized, she prefers Kierkegaard to Freud, Existentialism to Nihilism, and promotes things like Biodynamic Farming (which is based on the fascinating tenets of anthroposophy.)

This photo of her reminds me of John Singer Sargent's Madame X. It's like a modern day rendition.

(Things have come a long way since the 1884 Paris Salon, where scandal and outrage made Sargent withdraw his "anonymous" portrait of Madame Gautreau and paint her strap securely in place.)

I must admit- I'm a little nervous about this interview. I still haven't figured out my angle, or what I want to distill from her. Perhaps she'll do the talking and let me think on the fly. (Forest Whitaker took awhile to warm up to me, though, so I'm hoping this one starts a little better...)

Wish me luck!