Category Archives: Viva!

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | An Endless Ambition

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | An Endless Ambition.

I wish my home
Was a place full of cheer
Free of rage
I’m sick of ruses

I wish my blue sky
Was full of light stars
Free of fire
Clear of smoke

I wish my muddy cottage
An old cottage
But full of love and integrity
Had prosperity rain down on it like a shower
The voice of love coming from
behind its walls
peace knocking on its doors

I wish my street
Was free of noise and fighting
Free of treason and criticism
Where kids play with toys not guns
Where people use
The language of solidarity,
Forgiveness and unity

I wish my society, was a pure society
Where the politicians work for change
Not to fill their pockets
Where people overcome challenges

I wish my garden was a place
Where air is soft and breezy
Flowers are pure, fragrant
Canaries sing songs of loyalty
Butterflies fly with fidelity
Breezes coddle my face
And kiss my lips

By Sitara B.

Good Samaritans Hold Driver Who Hit Elderly Man Then Tried To Flee: Gothamist

Witnesses say that Stafford first got out to check on the elderly man: “I saw the driver get out of the car and go to pick up the man, who had to be in his 80s,” witness Lili Skorpanic, who works nearby, told the Post. “He was wearing this gray business suit, so I figured he was a gentlemen, a professional, who would know what to do. But he just panicked and ran off.”

He allegedly tried to flee the scene in his 2005 BMW, but three other motorists gave chase and were able to stop and hold him. “It’s like the whole neighborhood got together and followed him,” Skorpanic told them.

The elderly man, whose name hasn’t been released, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital in stable condition. Stafford has now been charged with leaving the scene of an accident, operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle for the crash. He has at least two prior arrests, including one for drunk driving.

via Good Samaritans Hold Driver Who Hit Elderly Man Then Tried To Flee: Gothamist.

Harry Dean Stanton: ‘Life? It’s one big phantasmagoria’ | Film | The Guardian

“Singing and acting are actually very similar things,” says Stanton when I ask him about his other talent, having seen him perform about 15 years ago with his Tex-Mex band in the Mint Bar in Los Angeles. “Anyone can sing and anyone can be a film actor. All you have to do is learn. I learned to sing when I was a child. I had a babysitter named Thelma. She was 18, I was six, and I was in love with her. I used to sing her an old Jimmie Rodgers song, ‘T for Thelma’.” Closing his eyes, he breaks into song: “T for Texas, T for Tennessee, T for Thelma, that girl made a wreck out of me.” He smiles his sad smile. “I was singing the blues when I was six. Kind of sad, eh?”

There is indeed a peculiar kind of sadness about Harry Dean Stanton, a mix of vulnerability, honesty and seeming guilelessness that has lit up the screen in his greatest performances. It’s there in his singing cameo in 1967’s prison movie Cool Hand Luke, in his leading role in Alex Cox’s underrated cult classic Repo Man in 1984

via Harry Dean Stanton: ‘Life? It’s one big phantasmagoria’ | Film | The Guardian.

VIDEO: Danish mums’ breastfeeding protest – The Local

Danish mothers in seven cities carried out a coordinated public ‘feed-in’ to protest against what they feel is society’s skewed view of breastfeeding.

Up to 200 women brought their babies to train stations in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Esbjerg, Aalborg and Herning on Thursday to breastfeed in public.

 

“I’m here because I think it is important for women to have the option of breastfeeding in public. The current debate is full of people who don’t seem to understand how often a baby needs to eat. Sometimes the tone in the debate is downright nasty,” Nanna Reffstrup, who was breastfeeding her son in Copenhagen Central Station, told DR.

via VIDEO: Danish mums’ breastfeeding protest – The Local.

RIP Elizabeth Peña, actress who defied stereotypes about race and gender

Elizabeth Peña, who died Tuesday night at the age of 55, was more than a prolific and exceptional actress. She was an exceptionally talented woman who changed the way Latina women are represented in film and challenged notions of race and gender.

Peña was born in New Jersey to parents who immigrated from Cuba. Her father was an actor, writer, and director and her mother was the executive director of The Latin American Theater Ensemble in New York. Peña and her family returned to Cuba when she was a baby but wound up moving to New York City, where she attended the prestigious High School of Performing Arts, of Fame fame and studied with Lee Strasberg.

Peña’s acting career, which spanned five decades, kicked off with the Spanish-langage film El Super (1979) and included roles in films like Tortilla Soup, La Bamba, TransAmerica, Batteries not included, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Jacob’s Ladder, as well as TV shows like Resurrection Blvd. Modern Family, and Matador.

via RIP Elizabeth Peña, actress who defied stereotypes about race and gender.

Electronic Village: The 2014 Elections: What’s at Stake for African Americans

The stakes are extraordinarily high for the nation. But for African Americans in particular, the outcome of the midterm elections next month may not only be a game changer, but also a game ender.

First off, Republicans consistently oppose civil rights legislation. A GOP majority in the Senate would also likely put in jeopardy measures that help moderate and low-income Americans, including one essential initiative: an increase in the national minimum wage.

via Electronic Village: The 2014 Elections: What’s at Stake for African Americans.

Suffering from Perfection Paralysis? Well then, F##k It. | Rebelle Society

Where the real problem comes in is when we allow that need for perfection to actually control us, stop us from trying, keep us in our safe zone and away from doing anything that might lead to us to look foolish or less than, in eyes of someone else. Then we are in Perfection Paralysis.

That was me for a very long time. I missed out because I was afraid, because of course you are never perfect the first time out of the gate, so better just to watch from the sidelines. “No, I’m good. You guys go ahead. l’ll just watch.” I became a really good cheerleader.

I still am a really good cheerleader, in fact I absolutely love celebrating other people’s success and accomplishments, but a few years back I realized something: I wanted to celebrate my own too!

I wanted to be engaged in life, I wanted to feel the exhilaration of extending myself, testing my limits and seeing what I was capable of and I wanted to be me, not a version of me that works for everyone else, but the real honest to goodness me, the one that had been lost somewhere along the way.

It’s not like one day I just completely stopped worrying about what other people think, in fact I consider myself a recovering perfectionist and probably always will.

I just realized that how I feel is far more important than what other people think.

Because really, what other people think about me is completely out of my control. But how I feel in my own skin, how I see myself through my own eyes, is a choice I get to make each and every day.

via Suffering from Perfection Paralysis? Well then, Fuck It. | Rebelle Society.

Why do people print such crap!?! Crash-dieting more effective that gradual weight loss, study suggests – Telegraph

The number of people who regained weight after three years was also the same in both groups, 71 per cent, suggesting that crash dieting is better than gradual weight loss in the short term and no worse in the long term.

via Crash-dieting more effective that gradual weight loss, study suggests – Telegraph.

Both approaches fail nearly 3/4 of the time. So, dieting alone is not worth the time and effort. Increasing your amount of exercise bit by bit without doing much else at first, shows you that exercise helps you lose weight bit by bit. Exercise and make adjustments to eating habits and increase both efforts a bit over time and within a year and a half – you have a new life – PERIOD! 255 lbs. to 150 in 16 months 12 years ago. Walked away from hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol.