All my life I have been plagued with various ailments. You name it.. Stomach trouble, varicose veins, sleep issues, hormone problems, ulcers, weight issues. After researching and finding out natural cures to most of these ailments I can branch out and help others with some of their problems…..I have discovered that the products that have helped me the most are things that have been around for hundreds of years. I have taken garlic capsules for several years now and I know that they have really improved my immune system. I also use lots of peppermint oil…especially for relief of headaches and stomach issues. I put peppermint drops in my water.
I have also discovered that clove oil is very helpful to the immune system and can keep you healthy and heal toothaches and gum problems. Oregano oil is good for shingles, eucalyptus oil and Roman chamomile are great for relieving breathing problems.
Cinnamon is great in helping one to metabolize sugar and it is
also great for diabetes. Ginger helps the joints and stomach and salmon oil is great for joint pain as is calcium.
For help with sleep, valerian root is helpful, as is tryptophan. Melatonin is also helpful. I just want you all to know that I am writing this article to help others overcome some of the same health issues I have dealt with.
Change your attitude and be filled with joy
There are many times when our ungrateful attitude makes us unhappy. I remember hearing about a little five year old girl who asked her mother….”Are you going to change your mind from mad to grateful?”
That is the question the Lord asks us everyday….It helps me to go and find someone less fortunate to help…I met a lady named Susie who had been homeless, living on the streets for ten years. She has a skin disease so no one will hire her. Many shelters will not take her in.
My heart broke for her, I gave her some money and tried to tell her Jesus could heal her. She did not want to hear so I prayed for her and bid her farewell. All night I was thinking about what it would be like to spend a cold night on the street. I prayed for her.
God is a good God of miracles so I know He will work on her behalf. I thanked him with a new sense of gratitude for my home and my family and most of all, my faith in Him which means everything to me.
Mariella
Over the holidays, my adrenaline was way too high….Between practicing for a large production at a large church, substitute teaching and family gatherings, I found myself running a red light before I even realized what I had done. I breathed a sigh of relief that not a single person was around when I did it. About two weeks later, I got an electronic ticket in the mail with the request to pay 440 dollars or go to traffic court.
So on a very cold December morning at 5am, I waited in line for three hours for traffic court. Once I got there, I waited two more hours to get my 32 hours of community service, traffic school and some fines assigned to me. I began working off my community service hours at a church thrift store and was frustrated when no one could decide what they wanted me to do. I did what I could for a few days, but my attitude needed some adjustment.
The next day, I met Mariella, a young mother from Argentina and in three hours she transformed the linen section to an area of beauty. What she said I will always remember….”God wants us to do whatever job He gives us for His glory. It doesn’t matter what the job is, we are to do it with excellence, and that is what I am here to do today.” She did and I will never forget the beautiful young girl who inspired me to be all I can be for God’s glory.
Patsy Ledbetter lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and may be reached at patsyled@sbcglobal.net
Talismans of good luck, group identity, or signs of homesickness, these are just a few of the reasons pilots and their crews have adorned their aircraft with highly personal images called ‘nose art’ since the first aircraft took to the skies over a century ago.‘Nose art’ (so called because the images were normally painted on the ‘nose’ of the aircraft) were painted on the fuselages of bombers, fighters, hacks and reconnaissance aircraft, on flight jackets and in mess halls, of military units in very combat situation to present day.
Victory-Girl, an aviation art services company in Upland, California, specializes in re-creating historical nose art for vintage warbirds, as well as more modern military and general aviation aircraft.
“Wartime aircraft nose art was and still is huge morale booster for our soldiers in combat zones and here at home” notes Jerri Bergen, owner and principal artist for Victory-Girl.“What we enjoy most is understanding the history behind the nose art, how an aircraft can come to be called ‘the Racy Tomato’, ‘Homesick Angel’ or ‘She Couldn’t Wait’.”
Victory- Girl has done hundreds of nose art pieces (see their galleries at www.victory-girl.com) for military and general aviation and can relate stories about each piece.“We created one piece of nose art for a military unit that wanted a pinup girl holding a pistol on a mail bag, for their heavy-duty helicopter. When we asked ‘what’s with the mail bag?’ they responded that although their combat cargo missions were varied and numerous, such as carting water to stranded troops, fuel to vehicles, and humanitarian supplies to local villages cut off from roads, their most important mission was getting the mail to the troops on the front line.”
As a service to the military, Victory- Girl creates nose art designs at no charge for active military units, charging only printing and shipping fees to units overseas.“It’s one way we can give back to those folks who are helping to protect the freedoms I take for granted every day” Jerri admits.
Nose art isn’t just for vehicles, however.Victory- Girl has also completed hundreds of nose art designs painted on leather jackets, once a common practice among pilots in WWII, and more recently among pilots of private aircraft.“What we really get a kick out of is creating a piece of artwork on a jacket that becomes an instant conversation piece the moment the wearer walks into a room”.
Characters, planes, portraits and pinups comprise the majority of subject matter for flight jacket artwork, but truly anything goes.“We’ve painted historical WWII pieces that have included German swastikas or other historically sensitive imagery.We caution our clients to be prepared for comments, both positive and negative, that these might draw.One client brought his jacket we painted with Nazi aircraft ‘kill markings’ (the ‘scorecard’ painted on the aircraft to note how many Nazi aircraft had been shot down) back to us, asking us to change it to another, less charged graphic.He was tired of explaining to distrustful onlookers that having Nazi kill markings on his jacket did not make him a Nazi sympathizer.”
Handpainting detailed imagry on leather takes some doing, however.“We can spend several days on a single jacket” Terri notes (Jerri’s twin sister, partner of Victory-Girl).“The process requires careful preparation of the leather, painting with specialty leather paints, and then a sealant process to ensure the paint doesn’t peel or slough off.”Painting on aircraft uses a more traditional enamel based painting process.
What do Terri and Jerri enjoy the most?“For sure its’ the memories we help to keep alive through this artwork” affirms Jerri and Terri, in unison. “ It is gratifying to know that you’ve helped build a tribute to a brave pilot, a loving husband and grandfather, who, although passed on, will always be remembered every time his grandson puts on his flight jacket with his portrait on the back.”
Examples of completed works are viewable at www.victory-girl.comor call Terri or Jerri at 909-297-6688.
February, our hearts aglow; we halt the further unveiling of our bundles-and leave them at the door. A time to marvel, to thaw, to contemplate- in-between the crystallized remnants of winter and the first signs of spring-we are wrapped in a velvet time warp between dreams and waking; things hidden will soon foretell; a white statue of Adonis winks. In the center of the table a box of dark chocolates and a vase of roses adorn
the white linen.
From shadowy school days, we smile at the thought of nearly perfect hearts cut out of red construction paper- pasted on snowflake white doilies. All of you children rejoice, the smallest to the tall, gangly or invisible, for whatever your lot, in-spite of the fickle sentiments of others, rest assured you will not get overlooked
on that special day- today no-one notices freckles; for at the end of the day your shoe box or brown paper bag will be full of valentines, and pastel candy hearts uttering sweet forget- me- not’s’!
A shadow like that of a sprite plays upon the hearth-was it Cupid or just a rebirth of an old ghost?
In the pale gold, a host of real and imaginary lovers cry out. Some are in chains, some just arch-types etched into the clay of our own 1940’s ideals. Some are waiting in secret-in the rose mist, just hidden from view by the vine edged columns, as their shadows dance upon cobble stone corridors-pining to merge into one with their soul mates; in the dance called love, passion and purity become one. A flamingo pink flashes on the horizon- Snow Cherubs wait at the gates where babies who didn’t quite make it to their childhood on earth are ushered back in, on tiny angel wings. An image forms in the clouds, as imagination flows, whipped cream white, castle like, as days grow in length- lavender streaks the Northern skies, and stars pierce the cold black.
In a fleeting glimpse of a beautiful sunset, February speaks to us, and represents itself. The barren holes where furry, busy creatures played are covered with winters brown and frost- premonitions of blossoms, mauve, cherry, and white, float beneath the earth, as in watery vaults, waiting for the time of their rebirth. Angels in white feathered form or dressed in the common threads of man, flit and hover, from all the corners of the earth-February, our hearts again opening, giving tribute to Valentino, to birds in flight forming a straight black arrow-in the silver slant of the morning light, mirrors the silver of the birch trees – at last is our salute to the flaming crimson heart –as on wings it takes flight and carries the songs of lovers for all times, the gifts of starry skies, music boxes with tiny skaters on mirrored glass ponds, and the collective pool of tears from earnest, broken love-sick and contrite hearts.
February, our heart’s now thawing from January’s bleakness and chill. With curiosity, we rub out a spot on the fogged window to see our neighbor in his glory and plight- and the dividing shrubbery is blurred in our memories of good will once again. A few yards away a fence was knocked down by a storm, (again), but in the spirit of new beginnings, the fellows, young and old, work together to repair it again. The wives cheer them on, with mugs of hot coffee.
A dog’s yelp can be heard, echoing a hallmark sentiment-children riding scooters warm us with the return of their high pitched laughter, and free spirits. The gap between generations narrows-the mitten clad lad of the fifties whirls around corners at high speeds on roller skates; in the regeneration, of his species, though his DNA is unique, somehow his spirit is engineered into the spirit of a happy faced modern day boy-with an electronic box in hand, twittering a friend.
A trickle of ice melts the heart, and we smile and nod, as if coming out of a long winter dream. We note how the grass has grown, and pools of rainwater leading down to the gutters are timely reminders, of how seasons change and turn color, and than die like the leaves-and than one day, like Lazarus, they rise, the ashen bedclothes fall off, and spring is born again! They enhance us and all the earth around us.
The old man across the street is coming out of hiding, tending to his garden soon to be green with Spring- time rains. The corners of his mouth set like a straight grim line in a face of stone are turning upward. Though he does not speak to nary a soul, if he could but speak I know what this old Irish man would say; “Ah, me thinks its going to be a wonderful day.”
Cynthia Lamanna may be reached at cynthialamanna@yahoo.com – and would love the chance to talk with other writers and artists!
Owen Geronimo came out of the real estate world to work with San Francisco’s Fashion and Merchants’ Alliance, which seeks to facilitate networking among emerging designers and to place San Francisco, California right back on the map in the fashion scene. Here are some of his thoughts, on various factors and trends influencing the design world and San Francisco’s aesthetic.
Save-The-Date: “The Economics of Art” forum is going to be on Feb. 11th at The Barber Lounge. For details, please go to this site: http://www.theeconomicsofart.info/
We at Synchronized Chaos would love to hear more about how people describe San Francisco’s fashion scene…trends, styles, what’s unique about the place?
What’s unique about San Francisco’s local fashion scene is about the innovative melting pot of many talents here.Realistically, style has really nothing to do with geographical locations. It has to do with the individual, him or herself.
However, San Francisco has its own mystique and aura regarding style. I think, because the San Francisco Bay Area is in the forefront in technology, politics, and social equality. If you look at history,settlers have gone west (across the United States) in the search for gold, the flower power of the seventies, the raves and the dot com era of the nineties. It is that the same mystique why most come to the SF Bay Area… to experience this movement.
As far as trends are concern,the street style fashion combining, the eighties neon B-Boy get-up and vintage chic from your local Goodwill stores is hot. That is the norm these days. Fashion evolves, the beatnik look, gothic and punk, hobo chic – you will see on the street. I think because of our weather here in the bay area, there isn’t really a set trend. Clearly, what’s out is overpriced labeled brands. Ultimately, we are now experiencing the “poorgouis” (poor and burgouis) economy all the retailers are adjusting their price points to cater to the consumers’ new frugality approach.
I think the majority of people are confused about style and fashion. It really has to do more about your attitude, it’s either ‘you got it’ or you don’t.It’s all internal, the outward approach is really how you present yourself. Confidence is very sexy. Being unique would make you stand out in a crowd.
What advice would you have for upcoming designers?
Master your own sewing machine.If you want fashion to be your career, you have to live it. Fashion is an art not a hobby. Take a business class to learn accounting and to know the difference of profit and loss.Be original. Always be aware of what your customer wants. Build a database. Prepare a realistic business plan. Join a collective to get exposed to the community. There is no shame in networking, so network like hell.
Why do you think fashion is important/a form of art on a level with paintings, etc?
Fashion is very important. It is as extension of how we express ourselves to the public.Some of us, sometimes intentionally dress up to get noticed. It is really in our psyche as human beings to crave for attention and fashion can satisfy this need. However, I personally prefer not to be noticed.
As a painter, you must be able to paint and create a masterpiece from a blank canvas originating from your mind. As a designer, transferring your sketch to a dress form is just the beginning process until the final product is made and ready to be sold to the public.
What do you think is bringing about a renaissance for fashion in SF?
The fashion renaissance never left, it was always here. I have met numerous individuals from New York, Miami, and as far as from Melbourne in my events just to see what is this local fashion movement about. It’s nothing new, it’s always been there but it has never been positively cultivated. I have observed that the major players in the local fashion scene are occupied disparaging each others. A perfect example is “Style Wars.” The judges were sarcastically rude toward the designer contestants, never offering constructive criticisms. It created so much animosity toward the creative designers. I couldn’t grasp it. I’m sure the crowd also noticed. The common goal of creativity and sense of community are ultimately lost within that event.
The last time, I saw “Project Runway”, no one actually representing San Francisco won.No one made the cut. That was a major blow to the local fashion scene.
My main goal is to have San Francisco become synonymous with the word ‘fashion’. The local independent and “DIY” fashion scene is robustly thriving with the help of the internet. At the same time, we have fashion houses and major retailers here, such as, Bebe, Gap, Levi’s, Nice Collective, Chaiken, to name a few. The “Burning Man” crowd are also pioneers in the renaissance of the local fashion scene.
How has fashion been affected by the economy?
The economy has affected fashion and the retail industry immensely.H&M just opened two new retail locations in Tokyo. This is a major shift from the “label” conscious Japanese consumers. Jimmy Choo and Sonia Rykiel also just launched their new line with H&M in United States. Last fall, New York and Macy’s launched Fashion Night Out with Vogue’s Anna Wintour showcasing boutique trends in an attempt to stimulate shoppers to buy in New York. These are major strategic shifts from the retailers to adapt to the price conscious consumers that are driving the retail economy.
By the green movement and environmental concerns?
Eco-design is a hot commodity in the luxury market. The majority of society is slowly catching on. Eco-design, both retail and homeopathetic are growing rapidly. Some local designers are actually pioneers with this concept by ‘deconstructing’ outfits and wardrobes to come up with new designs. With environmental concerns, you have synthetic fabrics versus organic fabrics or chemically based dyes versus organics. It’s a tough call, a wholesaler would rely more on a cheaper commodity to run a business.
The Copenhagen Conference just wrapped up. Realistically, if we talk about saving the planet, don’t look to the fashion industry for an answer.
By globalization and immigration and multicultural influence?
Globalization. China, UAE and Saudi Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, The European Union.As an American, I’m doubting if the United States can actually compete with these major players with our current political and economic climate. Our education system is lagging immensely compared to most developed countries.
In fashion? Globalization has made cheap labor, and cheaper materials, more accessible. It has made a lot of impact on open trade and import/export also with the help of technology.
Immigration? Banana Republic flagship store in San Francisco hired foreigners to fill their opening for the holiday season. Cheap labor will be filled by foreigners to try to fulfill their own American dreams. The companies would want to cut down their costs before hand. The United States should really look into extending H1 visas to foreign workers to sustain job security inside the country.A lot of tech and labor jobs are rerouted out of the country to save money. After 9/11, many of the United States’ immigration laws have changed, and also with the recent decline of the banking industry, the influx of immigrants has tremendously dropped.
What should someone look for in a clothing line? In the clothes someone wears? What makes an outfit artistic?
Quality and comfortability. Armani is a perfect example. Your outfit becomes a luxury item. For me, sophistication is always a turn on. Again, it’s all about the attitude, it is not what you wear. It’s how you wear it. Originality makes an outfit artistic. A creative insight must be applied to come up with an original outfit.
Should someone consider going to SF if they want to be successful in fashion?
*Laughs.* Hone your skills in San Francisco, then move to New York to make a name for yourself, then come back to San Francisco. You will not fail.
Okay, just one last question: Who are your personal inspirations? Whose clothes do you like?
Laughs. This is a good one because I almost had a brain aneurysm with the ‘global’ questions.Alexander McQueen is my fashion god for the past few years, it changes from time to time.My personal inspirations are Issey Miyaki and Rei Kawakubo. I recall walking into Comme De Garcon’s showroom in Chelsea, years ago. It really was inspiring.
I consider myself a painter, though I use many different materials in my work. My MFA is in photography but I never actually thought of myself as a photographer. The photographic image was the skeleton of my work. I had a hard time keeping my hands off the image. I had to touch it, manipulate it, paint on it, erase parts and then draw back into them. My photographs looked like paintings, and now as a painter people tell me I paint with a photographer’s eye. I think what they mean by this is that I work with and am aware of the edges of the frame or canvas. This is where tension and poetry are created.
My latest body of work is called HUMAN STEPS. This is an ongoing series I have been working on for a year and a half. Currently, there are paintings and digital images but eventually there will be video components and an installation as well.
Statement:
HUMAN: adjective, have, or relating, to characteristics of people. STEPS: noun, plural, the act of putting one foot in front of the other.
HUMAN STEPS is a dialog, which references the many disparate elements encountered in daily urban life – a metaphor for the way in which dark affects light and vice versa, how the sweet can become sickly if overdone and how close proximity to millions of people, diverse cultures and visual images can both inspire and overwhelm. It is a metaphor for tight quarters, pleasant or not so pleasant meetings and vibrant energy of the city in contrast to shadowy and emotionally difficult places.
For HUMAN STEPS, I use what most people consider garbage as a jumping off place in the work. The materials at one point might have been utilitarian, but were never considered beautiful. The hard, shiny, plastic surfaces often synonymous to commercial objects would never pass inspection as such. Dirt falls onto the canvases, scratches, cracks, marks occur and there are no straight lines, only the illusion of such. Through the act of turning detritus into “works of art”, or elevating the prestige of garbage, I aim to question the status quo of beauty, worthiness and usability.
Has my style changed over the years?
This year, I completely moved out of a house I was living in for a while. In doing so, I uncovered some of my photographic work from 1992. I was so intrigued when I saw them and what I had been working with at the time. Garbage! I was photographing cardboard, old window shades, hardware parts-junk really. The photographs looked like abstract paintings. So it seems my interest in materials has remained fairly consistent.
Themes continue to reoccur as well.
I am intrigued with seduction – seduction through colour, sensual line, materials- and with irony or contrast – that moment when the viewer realizes they are looking at garbage, but isn’t it beautiful garbage!
When I was living in San Francisco, I painted with sludge- the waste that sank to the bottom of the jar of turpentine where I cleaned my brushes. At one point I literally had a sludge farm.Jars and jars. The stuff just grows. So I began to experiment. I would layer these beautiful transparent pigments over the sludge like a protective skin. Through the layers, colors would arrive on their own, When complete the texture of the sludge, the way it cracked or lumped up was still very apparent, yet the skin was seductive and held two opposing ideas together in one place- inside/outside, beauty/waste, seduction/repulsion.
In the end, I think everyone brings his or her own experience to my work. I encourage that. I don’t want my art to be an absolute. It is too limiting. I want my work to spark dialog, intrigue or visceral experience.
Toby Jenks looks up from his newspaper and freezes.
Striding down the hill toward the café, laptop tucked under one arm and a sour look plastered across his thick, wheyfaced mug, comes Joel Kaplan, a thoroughly objectionable human being known around the place as the Human Air Vent. (“But does he suck or does he blow?” it was fairly asked.)
At the next table, a vagabonding young German couple have finished their coffee and are slipping the guidebooks into their haversacks and making ready to leave. She’s a pretty, dark-haired girl with a soft voice. Toby thinks she looks merciful.
“Please,” Toby says. “Please stay. Don’t go.” She looks at him quizzically. In desperation Toby summons his dwindling reserve of high school German. “Bitte … bleiben Sie hier. Umm, uh, both of you. Nicht gehen, bitte. Nicht jetzt.”
“I’m sorry,” the girl says, switching easily to nicely clipped British-accented English. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh, yes,” Toby says, looking out the window. “In about ten seconds the worst person on earth is going to come walking in here and if you guys leave right now, he’ll sit down at that very table and my day will be completely ruined. Maybe my life. Please.” Toby gives her a beseeching look and another involuntary “bitte” leaves his lips. The Germans crane their necks to inspect Kaplan, and the young woman turns back to Toby with a distressed look of her own. Kaplan has that effect on people, even total strangers.
Tony Long lives in San Francisco’s North Beach, which serves as an inspiration for his writing. He may be reached at alittlechinmusic@gmail.com
“It is a blessing to be alive and see such beauty”
I’ve been taking photographs for over 15 years. I don’t shoot thematically; consciously looking for something to photograph drains the subject’s power for me (though I know some would argue the opposite, perhaps even myself on occasion). However, I will splurge sometimes, just enough to satisfy a craving but not enough to consider it documentation. I enjoy editing, finding ways of structuring a series of photographs while avoiding one line of interpretation. I think these nine photographs hold together in sequence well. I photograph balance – in subject matter or in form. I photograph quiet, which is inherent to balance. I photograph people but mostly through their absence. Every moment with a camera is mindfulness meditation. It is a blessing to be alive and see such beauty.
