the curator ~ edition #14

[Billie candleholders from Jean Pelle's Etsy shop. Yes, I love the woodenness, but they also recall one of my heroines ~ a wise, funny lady I met at a nursing home, Billie Edwards.]

A new edition of The Curator today:

Dysfunctional Festivities
by Alisa Harris
Why do movies like Rachel Getting Married and A Christmas Tale always take place at festive occasions? They make us feel better about our own crazy families.

On Sprezzatura and Chupa Chups
by Daneil Nayeri
On hard work, flukes, practice, genius, rap, and lollipops.

An Interview with Katie Herzig (Part 3)
by Tom Wilkinson
The third of a three-part interview, in which Herzig talks candidly about her creative process, making music in the Nashville community, and her latest effort, “Apple Tree”.

Personally, I love that Nayeri wrote an article involving Chupa Chups lollipops. That candy is a fond memory from my childhood. My brother and I often slept over at Aunt Pat's apartment in Waco; I admired the Willie Nelson picture hanging in her hallway. We'd play with all the fun magnets on her fridge, go see the Baylor bears, and eat Tex-Mex food at Pico's. We were fascinated by the flour tortilla machine behind glass churning out yumminess. We nearly stuffed ourselves with soft tacos; I was partial to bean and cheese. And, we sucked on Chupa Chups for dessert ~ chocolate vanilla, chocolate banana, or strawberry cream were my flavors of choice.

Other than reminiscing, I'm burning holiday-esque candles to rid our kitchen of skunk-smell, setting out little wooden Christmas trees, eating blueberries swimming in coconut milk (sprinkled with ground flax seed), drinking Enfusia (with coconut milk, vanilla stevia, and a cinnamon stick - quite a drink), tending to laundry, and getting to work on my next Curator article about Kemper Crabb.

.... no, a skunk did not get in our house, thank God. We think one either sprayed a poor neighborhood cat nearby, or a skunk died on our street. And since the wooden Christmas trees are natural-colored and bare, they're allowed to make an appearance this Friday of our Postmillennial Advent. I'm just counting the minutes until Milo knocks each one over and bats 'em under the couch, probably while we're asleep.

P.S. ~ I am not a fan of Dead Denny on Grey's Anatomy, just so you know.