Jill - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I haven't updated this in a long, long time. I've been working on a novel. :)
I am ethically aware. Apparently, the UK cares much more about democracy than America does. Many of the useful sites I have found on ethics and consumerism or ethics and government are based in the UK. They are still VERY relevant to American consumers as most brand names as well as a massive scale of ethical misconduct occurs in the U.S. Two such sites are below. The rest are American. Check these out.
BUSH BOYCOTT: BRANDS/FUNDERS
ETHICAL CONSUMER MAGAZINE
COKE KILLS: FIND OUT HOW
JOIN THE COKE BOYCOTT: WHY?
BABY MILK ACTION
I OPPOSE IAMS ANIMAL CRUELTY
Common Dreams: The Real News
Debbie Harry sings "Call Me" on The Muppet Show" (1981) The Count hires Ernie to answer his telephone.
"I Go Back to May 1937"
-- by Sharon Olds
I see them standing at the formal gates of their colleges,
I see my father strolling out
under the ochre sandstone arch, the
red tiles glinting like bent
plates of blood behind his head, I
see my mother with a few light books at her hip
standing at the pillar made of tiny bricks with the
wrought-iron gate still open behind her, its
sword-tips black in the May air,
they are about to graduate, they are about to get married,
they are kids, they are dumb, all they know is they are
innocent, they would never hurt anybody.
I want to go to them and say Stop,
don't do it--she's the wrong woman,
he's the wrong man, you are going to do things
you cannot imagine you would ever do,
you are going to do bad things to children,
you are going to suffer in ways you never heard of
you are going to want to die. I want to go
up to them there in the late May sunlight and say it,
her hungry pretty blank face turning to me,
her pitiful beautiful untouched body,
his arrogant handsome blind face turning to me,
but I don't do it. I want to live. I
take them up like the male and female
paper dolls and bang them together
at the hips like chips of flint as if to
strike sparks from them, I say
Do what you are going to do, and I will tell about it.
"Ten Things You Can Do To Empower Yourself"
1. Stop Talking About Your Weight (especially in front of young girls).
Young girls listen to the way women
talk about themselves and each other and learn the
language of womanhood. Young women can only learn to
love or even accept their bodies if they see women who
love and accept their own. Every discussion we have
about weight, or fat, or being too this or that,
leaves an impression on the people around us. We are
encouraging an unattainable quest for perfection.
2. Make a List of Women You Admire
How often is the woman's appearance a reason that you
admire her? What do you think are the most important
attributes a woman can have? What would you like a
young woman to most admire in you? In herself? Does
our culture seem to admire the same things in women
that you do?
3. Question the Motives of the Fashion Industry
Always remember that the main objective of the fashion,
cosmetic, diet, fitness and plastic surgery industries
is to make money, not to make you the best person you
can possibly be. The ultra thin ideal is working for
them. But is it working for you? If every season your
parent or partner told you to change who you are or
how you dress wouldn't you question their motives?
4. Stop Weighing Yourself
Remember that the emphasis to be thin and beautiful
is ever present in our society. Cut yourself some
slack. Imagine spending a day, or a week, without the
scale measuring your self esteem. Does the scale tell
you that you aren't disciplined enough? That you
aren't working hard enough? Get rid of it. The
emphasis on thin is new and arbitrary. And it can be
reversed.
5. Concentrate on Things You Do Well
Do you look in the mirror one day and think you look
great and the next day and think you look awful? Your
body isn't changing, your perception of it is. It is
true that if you're feeling good about other things
in your life, you'll be less critical of how you look.
Do things you do well. And if you've had a bad day,
stay away from the mirror. When a woman is happy and
confident, she may not have a "perfect" body, but she
doesn't give a damn!
6. Get Physical For Fun
Your body needs EXCERCISE and REAL FOODS. Take walks,
dance in your living room, garden, golf...try to get
moving for your heart, not to decrease the size of
your bottom. You may lose weight and you may not, but
your body will be stronger, your stress will be lower
and you'll feel better.
7. Value Your Dollars
With more women working today than ever before, our
dollars are much in demand. You are being courted!
How much of your money goes into the fashion and
cosmetics industries? What do you spend on eating
regimens? What are you getting back? Look at your
budget and be sure the money you spend reflects the
person you are, not the person society wants you to
be. If look's didn't matter at all, what would you
spend your money on?
8. Voice Your Opinion
Both large and small businesses are interested in your
input. Your letters and phone calls really make a
difference. The following organizations can help you
find the addresses of companies. Contact Media Action
Alliance in Circle Pines, MN (612) 434-4343 or Media
Watch in Santa Cruz, CA (408) 423-6355. Subscribe to
Media Watch's terrific quarterly Action Agenda.
9. Be a Role Model
Every culture and every generation has its own rules
and expectations for women. It is never easy to go
against the grain, but there have always been women
who took risks to grow and learn and succeed. And,
there always will be. Many inspirational women have
broken molds, set new standards, and blazed trails.
Wouldn't you like to break a mold or two?
10. Break the Barriers
Author Sara Tisdale wrote, "We must all choose between
battles: One battle is against the cultural ideal, and
the other is against ourselves." Must we always define
ourselves by what popular culture dictates? Develop
your own style. Have fun-- Wear lipstick. Or don't.
You're the boss of you. By speaking out and accepting
yourself (dimples and all), you help break the
barriers.
-- From the "About-Face" website
What YOU Can Do:
"About-Face promotes positive self-esteem in girls and women of all ages, sizes, races, and backgrounds through a spirited approach to media education, outreach and activism"
--About-Face website
"Sister, there is nothing
I would not do."
-- Louise Erdrich
In childhood, I thought
that pain meant
I was not loved.
It meant I loved.
--Louise Gluck

"Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both
true and kind, they can change our world."
--The Buddha
"The power of the survivor is the power of the presence
in contradiction of what was possible."
--George Fullard
"Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Best Eating Disorders Website
Kristin Chenoweth sings the short song, "My New Philosophy" as five-year-old Sally Brown from "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown&quot. Stanley Wayne Mathis is playing Schroeder, and Lucy (Ilana Levine) makes a quick appearance near the end. The video is from the 1999 Tony Awards.
MySpace Profile Photo Editor

My Interests

Ana Forrest and Anusara Yoga, meditation, Zen and Tibetian Buddhism, Cats and all other creatures, but especially cats, modern dance, theatre and performance, visual arts, music, independent and foreign film, reading, writing, poetry, pop culture, popular and cultural studies, Broadway and Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway and Off-Off-Off Broadway musicals, dancing, playing piano, jigsaw puzzles.
My sister's cat, Chloe, performs her 5-second theme song "Meow Mix"

Favorite Links

I'd like to meet:

Myself

Debbie Harry
Idina Menzel

Ally Sheedy

Kristin Chenoweth

Lauren Slater

The Russian Cat Circus

Ani Difranco

Juliana Hatfield

Carmen Consoli

Xena

Idina Menzel performs "The Wizard and I" as Elphaba from "Wicked"

Music:

Early Influences on my musical taste:

my Grandpa (pianist and singer) -- Kermit the Frog -- the Muppet band: Zoot, Floyd Pepper, Janis, Rowlf, and Animal.
Mary Lou Lord
Rachael Sage
Alice Marie
Shoshana Bean
Jo Davidson
Larissa Jaye
Melody Gardot
Brett Dennen
Platnium Weird
Mazie Star
Kate and Anna McGarrigle
Eva Cassidy
Carmen Consoli
Veronique Sanson
Annie Lennox
Talking Heads
Kristin Chenoweth
Tilly and the Wall
Juliana Hatfield
Some Girls
Blondie
Ani DiFranco
Buddy Holly
Dido
Sinead O'Connor
Prince
The Doors
Paula Cole
Elvis Costello
Fiona Apple
Idina Menzel
The Juliet Daggers
Rachmoninov
B-52's (Kate Pierson)
Mozart
Cole Porter
Victoria Clark
Katie Melua
Stacy Kent
Melanie
David Bowie
Janis Joplin
Grieg
Bruce Springsteen
Peter Gabriel
Patti Smith
Satie
Cyndi Lauper
Chopin
The Go Go's
Pat Benetar
Tchaikovsky
Cowboy Junkies
Elton John
The Sundays
Elliot Smith
Steve Reich
Bach
Aretha Franklin
Shubert
Paul Simon
Vivaldi
Phillip Glass
Gershwin
Ella Fitzgerald
Sarah MacLaughlin, and all the Lilith Fair gals
Grandpa

What band from the 80s are you?
You're all about the music. Not too incredibly mainstream, but not too incredibly underground. It's awfully hard for anyone to oppose you, seeing as how you rule.
Take this quiz !

Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Movies:

Kate Reinders and Sarah Litzsinger of "Tastiskank" sing "The Sex Song"! This is hilarious -- Thanks, Jillie!

Television:

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
"The Muppet Show"
"Xena Warrior Princess"
"The Addams' Family"
"Police Squad" (with Leslie Nielsen) it was regretably cancelled after only 6 episodes, but available on DVD and video)
"Strangers with Candy"
"Six Feet Under"
"Saturday Night Live"
The Summer and Winter Olympics
Carrie Fisher's talk show

Books:

Fiction
Elizabeth Graver, Have You Seen Me?
Alyce Miller, Water: Nine Stories
Kate Chopin, Collected Stories and The Awakening

Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger
Flannery O'Connor, The Complete Stories
Katherine Anne Porter, The Collected Stories
Catherine O'Flynn What Was Lost
Lisa Carey, In the Country of the Young and Every Visible Thing
Alison McGhee, All Rivers Flow to the Seaand Was it Beautiful? and Snap
Elizabeth Rosner, The Speed of Light
Martha Witt, Broken as Things Are
Joanne Harris, Five Quarters of the Orange
Anitra Sheen, Things Unspoken
Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees
Tammy Greenwood, Undressing The Moon
Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Member of the Wedding
Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Confessions of an Ugly Step-sister
Karin Cook, What Girls Learn
Sheri Joseph, Bear Me Safely Over
Jillian Medoff, The Hunger Point
Stephanie Grant, The Passion of Alice
Rebecca Stowe, Not the End of the World
Tammy Greenwood, Undressing the Moon
Gwendoline Riley, Tuesday Nights and Wednesday Mornings
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Carrie Fisher, The Best Awful
Trezza Azzopardi, Remember Me
Kate Moses, Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath
Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
Margot Livesey, Eva Moves the Furniture
Michael Cunningham, (The) Hours
Karen Hesse, Out of the Dust(poem-forms)
Sonya Sones, Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy
Memoir
Alison Smith, Name All the Animals
Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, Girls of a Tender Age
Jenny Lauren, Homesick: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Finding Hope
Lauren Slater, Prozac Diary, , and all of her other books
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, My Nine Lives: Chapters of a Possible Past
Joanne Greenberg (Hannah Green), I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Augusten Burroughs, Running With Sissors
David Sedaris, Naked and everything else he writes
Non-Fiction and Self-Help
Rachel Simmons, Odd Girl Out: Thye Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls and Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write about Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and Jealousy
Patricia Romano McGraw, It's Not Your Fault: How Healing Relationships can Change Your Brain & Help You Overcome a Painful Past
Ronna Kabatznick, The Zen of Eating
Hale Sofia Schatz, If the Buddha Came to Dinner: How to Nourish your Body and Awaken your Spirit
Cheri Huber, How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
Bobbi DePorter, Quantum Success: 8 Key Catalysts to Shift Your Energy into Dynamic Focus
Barbara Sher, It's Only too Late if You Don't Start Now: How To Create Your Second Life At Any Age
Kames O. Prochaska, Ph.D., John C. Norcross, Ph.D., Carlo C. Diclemente, Ph.D., Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward
Abigail Lipson, Ph.D. and David N. Perkins, Ph.D., Block: Getting Out of Your Own Way: The New Psychology of Counterintentional Behavior in Everyday Life
Thom Rutledge, Embracing Fear and Finding the Courage to Live your Life
Esther and Jerry Hicks (The Teachings of Abraham), Ask and it is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires
Bruno Bettelheim, The Informed Heart: On Retaining the Self in a Dehumanizing Society
Steven Levine, Healing into Life and Death
Tarthang Tulku, Knowledge of Freedom: Time to Change and Gesture of Balance: A Guide to Awareness, Self-Healing and Meditation
Lorne Ladner, The Lost Art of Compassion: Discovering the Practice of Happiness in the Meeting of Buddhism and Psychology
Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart,Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living, and The Places that Scare You: A Guide To Fearlessness in Difficult Times
Geshe Michael Roach, The Tibetan Book of Yoga: Ancient Buddhist Teachings on the Philosophy and Practice of Yoga and How Yoga Works: Healing Yourself and Others With The Yoga Sutra
Martin Lowenthal and Lar Short, Opening the Heart of Compassion: Transform Suffering Through Buddhist Psychology and Practice
Robert O. Friedel, M.D.,Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified: An Essential Guide for Understanding and Living with BPD
Amy Weintraub, Yoga For Depression
Non-Fiction and Academic
Maxine Green, Variations of a Blue Guitar: The Lincoln Center Lectures on Aesthetic Education
Carole-Anne Tyler, Female Impersonation
Jacqueline Rose, The Haunting of Sylvia Plath and The Case of Peter Pan or the Impossibility of Children's Fiction
Self Help Workbooks
Sonia Choquette, Ph.D., Your Heart's Desire: Instructions for Creating The Life You Really Want
Thomas F. Cash, Ph.D., The Body Image Workbook: An 8-Step Program for Learning to Like Your Looks
Michelle Heffner, Georg H. Eifert, and Steven C. Hayes, The Anorexia Workbook: How To Accept Yourself, Heal Your Suffering, and Reclaim Your Life
Scott E. Spradlin, Don't Let Your Emotions Run Your Life: How Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Can Put You in Control
Marsha M. Linehan, Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder
A Small Selection of Poetry
Laura Kaisischke, Dance and Disappear
Mary Oliver, Dream Work
Sharen Olds, The Gold Cell
Louise Gluck, October
Terry Ehret, Lost Body
Sylvia Plath, Ariel: The Restored Edition (give Frieda Hughes a little salting.)
About Writing
Renni Browne and Dave King, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers*really good Anne Lamott, Bird by bird
Bob Mayer, The novel Writer's Toolkit
Carole Burns, ed.,
Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry
Robin Behn & Chase Twichell, eds., The Practice of Poetry
Ted Kooser, The Poetry Home Repair Manual Alice W. Flaherty, The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain
That should keep you busy.

Heroes:

"To Godot"
Proud and ponderous,
What dreams, what
birds you pursue.

Cat Heroes:
Bendhi Bu, Benjamin, Debussey, Egypt, Fred, Ginger, Godot, Helkie, Hodge, Jesse, Jezabel, Ki'iy, Kitty, Lily, Lilly, Little Little, Lou, Macy Gray, Miami, Midge, Mookie, Mouser, Noodles, Rigel Miss "Silvia" Squeak, Simon, Ms. Simone, Sparky, Stevie Wonder, Straighty, Taffy, Taxi, Thomas, Twinkle Toes

My Blog

It Was Winter

"24 February 1980" for Anne Newman It was winter.You were dying.I was young. We stood away from it;YouOf all my possible sins --The one I loved most ...
Posted by Jill on Sat, 06 May 2006 01:53:00 PST

"Circus

"Circus" She suffers a false sense of wellness. She tends towards nightmares, also.All of this has happened before:At the confession tableau, angelsBlazing splendid wings, euphonic voices,Si...
Posted by Jill on Sat, 27 May 2006 09:12:00 PST

"Sycamore"

"Sycamore" It was the last stretch Of girlhood and I'd grown accustomed To its language Turning cartwheels On tender grasses Before an audience of trees Driving bicycles Hard and fas...
Posted by Jill on Sat, 09 Sep 2006 04:41:00 PST

These Words

"These Words" These words are cadavers.They do not sing to me. I do not savor their languageclap-clap; no sound How sad I am, how Remarkably sad. © Jill Falzoi 12/22/07 (revised)...
Posted by Jill on Thu, 09 Mar 2006 08:36:00 PST

"notes from stones" (revised)

"notes from stones" at the bottom of the ocean that lay one upon one upon one after centuries after someone drops rocks in a river this rocking horse of my ...
Posted by Jill on Sat, 01 Sep 2007 08:23:00 PST

Mourning Pantoum (revised)

"Mourning Pantoum" --for Lynda Hart How you would weep like a rain cloud Raise a fog of women. How you would flutter your eye lashes Wings of moths. Raise a fog of women Throw shad...
Posted by Jill on Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:00:00 PST

Winter Wanderers

"Winter Wanderers, All" Winter wanderers, all Picking Death pockets and Suffering Love's disasters With what glove of tenderness Do you hold your life's true compass? I see ...
Posted by Jill on Sat, 07 Oct 2006 11:49:00 PST

Phantom

"Phantom" after Brenda Shaughnessy's, "Jouissance" You have slung up my sky with demons Upon...
Posted by Jill on Fri, 03 Mar 2006 10:29:00 PST

Heart Villanelle

Form is no other than emptiness.Emptiness no other than form;Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form. -- from Maha Prajna Paramita "Heart Sutra" ...
Posted by Jill on Sun, 08 Oct 2006 07:43:00 PST

Divine Pantoum

"Divine Pantoum" You witnessed my birth At the bottom of the red riverbed Of shame And there you divined my genesis At the bottom of the red riverbed With a phantom limb And there you divined m...
Posted by Jill on Fri, 03 Mar 2006 10:16:00 PST