let me tell you something: no one is going to look at you, broken and shattered and think - damn, you are beautiful. no one is going to come pick up your broken pieces off the floor and assemble them into a beautiful whole. hell, you won’t even look at yourself and think - I made broken look beautiful. you know why? because all those writers lied to you. yes, all those with their poems of scraped knuckles and blood dripping down chins, pomegranate songs and loves that ripped through you like hurricanes. liars. so you and i, we are going to make a plan. you are not going to romanticize days when your brain tells you to smash that mirror, you are not going to romanticize the lover who doesn’t understand you but still writes about you. here is what you are going to romanticize instead: you are going to romanticize the first day of spring, its gentle hands all over your body, lifting you up until you are as light as a feather. you are going to romanticize the tea and honey kind of love, no hurricanes, but sunshine that builds you up from within, that helps you make it through the worst days. you are going to romanticize gentle hands of a friend in yours, telling you that it is going to be okay. because it is. and don’t trust poets, we’re no good, we love pretending that our jagged edges tantamount to a beautiful disaster, but in reality - there ain’t nothing beautiful about shaky hands holding a cigarette and empty eyes staring at the cracks in the walls. you know what is beautiful, instead? the days when you can look at yourself in the mirror and smile, scars and all. music that makes your soul flow like a river, books that offer comfort, families flocking together like overgrown birds to keep you safe and warm, friends that give you strength when you can find none, lovers who make you laugh through tears. baby, from now on you are going to romanticize healing; honey dripping down your fingertips, August nights that stick to your skin, the day you find your purpose, long car rides and singing so loud that no one can shut you up now. bad news: no one is coming to save you. good news: you can save yourself.

Lana Rafaela  (via internal-acceptance-movement)

So excited to be able to release our first single from this project!!! Scarlet Tapestry's Advent album, Awake the Dawn, and this single (with my vocals), "What Wondrous Love Is This". Download from cdbaby now! More coming in 2015...

Just... Wow. Meryl is killing it.

(Source: Gala Darling)

Do something good for someone else, even though you may not want to. Do a favour, help them find something, give them an item which will help them in some way. Start the flow of positive energy.

Eat the best chocolate you can get your hands on. In bed....

Why doesn't this happen?

Last night, 111.5 million U.S. viewers and many more abroad tuned in and witnessed a historical first: an initial score within the first 12 seconds of a Super Bowl game due to a safety.

Just had to break the ice a bit on that one, because this entry is, of course, going to...

ORCHESTRA STEREOTYPES - EXTENDED EDITION

Why I might seem like a jerk to you if you cough or sneeze near me. Sorry. Little head cold for you would = loss of revenue for me.

Be kind to a singer. (And everyone else, too.) Cover your mouth/nose when you cough or sneeze, please!

Because seriously if your uncovered sneeze costs me a concert fee i will cut you.

Show Pony No. 48

Yes, there are lots of svelte, sexy opera singers. Yes, directors often exploit that a bit (I'm pretty sure I've gotten a job or two partly thanks to being in relatively good shape, based on the ways I was then staged). But there are so many other, more important reasons to go to the opera than just to see hot chicks and dudes.

Although if it helps bring more people into the opera house in the first place, who may stay for the other reasons...

(In response to an article in The Telegraph)

For that stupid effing Telegraph article and the other 500,000 like it. Show Pony No. 53

Amazing auditory map of waterways in London. Incredible to realise just how suggestive sound can be, and how much these one-minute-long clips transport one back to the spot. x

For far too many of my friends and loved ones in recent weeks... love, and prayers for real rest and peace.

WHEN MY FRIEND STARTS GETTING INTO OPERA

them:

me:

Fascinating study in commuter/residency dynamics... Midtown, unsurprisingly, seems to have the widest swing...

New York City´s population by day and at night by Joe Lertola

Simple, but beautiful.

Going to stare at the stars tonight...

These are WONDERFUL

Unusual Date Ideas