February 2014 – Page 2 – Jennifer Michie

February 12, 2014 / 1 Comment

Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple 1928 – 2014

You were my Little Princess, where I dreamed of living in the attic with you as my bedmate and having secret parties with our gorgeous neighbor, Cesar Romero, who would regale us with magical tales of India.

You were my Heidi. I dreamed of sleeping in your hay loft that was warmed by the fire below and walking through the alps with you and your little goats, Schwanli and Baerli. Stopping by a meadow stream to feast on bread and cheese out of our lunch pails.

You were my Bobby-Soxer, who I watched dreamily as you fell head over heels for Cary Grant and the gorgeous Myrna Loy starred as your sister.

You were my favorite drink to order out at dinner on special occasions! I still make “Shirley Temple’s”, your never too old for a couple of cherries in your beverage!

You were kind, intelligent, talented, a diplomat, a breast cancer survivor; you were “Little Miss Bright Eyes” and you will be missed.

February 11, 2014 / 1 Comment

Painting Film

Today I got to help with a group of students who are creating an abstract film that will be shown in London alongside the school orchestra’s performance of an Elgar piece.

The film will be projected on to a screen in the back of the church and will appear as a moving abstract piece of stained glass.

First things first, the students were painting strips of film that will be digitized so they can more easily manipulate them to process and edit their final films.

As this is a medium I have not worked in before, I was very eager to give it a try myself. This is the closest I will ever come to being the cel painter I always dreamed of being at Disney. The strip I was working on was almost 10 feet in length, yet this will only equivalate to about 10 seconds of actual film time. I hung up my strip to finish drying when I was done alongside everyone else’s, now on to the next phase…

February 10, 2014 / 0 Comments

Febraury Blossoms

There are a few camellia bushes in bloom that I walk by on my way to school in the morning. This flower was just the perfect shade of Valentine’s pink!

Happy Monday!

February 8, 2014 / 0 Comments

Late Shift

Even the floor is beautiful!

Mr. Michie was coming in to London to meet me for a date last night after a very long week of work. While I was awaiting his arrival, I did one of my favorite things: the Late Shift at the National Portrait Gallery. They had a drawing class, a choir singing Bach, and many other happenings hidden in different gallery spaces.

It is always a mini adventure. I normally put my headphones on and go visit a few of my favorite pieces, although without fail I always discover something new, a painting or bust I hadn’t paid attention to before. I came across a mini Vivien Leigh exhibition in the downstairs gallery. What a stunning woman! One photograph that caught my eye was this one:

NPG P742; Vivien Leigh by Madame Yevonde

by Madame Yevonde, colour dye transfer print, 1936

This image doesn’t even begin to do this print justice. It is a color dye transfer print, which was a process used by Technicolor. The red was so very vibrant, but not garish, it was almost surreal.

The building is just buzzing with energy it is such a great place to be and an interesting way to spend your Friday night.

February 6, 2014 / 1 Comment

Oh My Days!

Well my travel into work this morning didn’t go all that smoothly. My train was 15 minutes late. It was waiting to get the signal to come through, I could see it idling on the sidetrack next to the station. So, I took the first train that came by, stopped and opened its doors, it was already very busy.

I went 2 minutes down the track and the train stopped at the next station and even more people poured on. We had reached full capacity and then some at this point. I was squashed by an armpit and a bike and a very rude girl who kept hitting me in the face with her book every time she turned a page and then she would just stare at me, scrunch her little eyes and nose at me and huff. I wanted to tell her that her face just might get stuck like that, but my Southern manners prevented me from doing so. Well, the doors never shut! We were stuck! We proceeded to stay at a stand still for almost an hour while engineers attempted to fix a signal failure. A normal hour all round trip to work took me 2 1/2.

Oh my days! Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

{Oh My Days! print found at the Print Club London}

February 5, 2014 / 1 Comment

Three Strikes You’re Out!

If this was a baseball game, there would be a number of players on the bench! Today was my first morning of the tube strikes. I was already home before they started last night. I take a very early train in the morning and it is never packed before I get on, today it was! The train station was heaving as we pulled in. The streets were crowded. Baker Street Station was completely locked up except for one entrance in the front. I slipped through the metal gates and down the steps. I was lucky in that I could get on a tube as my stop is at the end of the line (if I take this particular line). The bus was my back-up plan. But I didn’t have to resort to that.

I waited about 15 minutes and a tube arrived. It was very busy, but low and behold for the first time ever, people were actually being nice, they were letting others off, they weren’t pushing to get on, everyone was calm, quiet.

It wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be, but I think I was lucky, some of my colleagues had horror stories about their trips into work. Tomorrow, along with all the other commuters I will face this battle again, but hopefully it will be as pleasant an experience as I had this morning.

And next week we get to do it all over again for another 2 1/2 days.

February 4, 2014 / 0 Comments

Walking Behind Liberty

I walked to school yesterday morning with a little bit of sunshine peeking through the clouds. I had a moment of quiet as I wandered down a side street. I was quiet. It was Monday after all. As I rounded the corner there were children heading to school. There are a number of schools in the area.

There was an attractive looking woman in her early 20s in front of me, marching a little girl in her school coat and hat off at a clipped pace. She had on a cropped black leather jacket, leggings and black Dr. Martens boots.

Her leggings had a pattern on them that I didn’t quite take in at first, but upon further glances I realized that the pattern was actually a painting by E. Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People. The head of Liberty and her arm raised high with the French flag waving, wrapped its way around this girl’s upper thigh and went right across her a**. The flag actually rippled as she walked!

Now, I am sure when Delacroix worked countless hours in the creation of this painting, he never in his wildest dreams imagined it becoming a piece of clothing and especially clothing that would wrap around one’s derriere! Now, I am not prudish, but seeing Liberty tightly stretched against her buttocks that early in the morning was more than I needed to see.

I think Delacroix might be rolling in his grave!

February 2, 2014 / 0 Comments

6 More Weeks of Winter

Well, today in the second day of the second month of the year, Phil saw his shadow this morning. Which means that 6 more weeks of winter are ahead. If only he could tell me if that counts for England as well. Because I could use a bit more winter that includes some snow in my future, I’m tired of all this rain!