gracefully insane | a history of mclean hospital ~ then & now | review

McClean hospital has long been a place for the elite. Since it’s founding and original location near Charlestown and eventual move to Watertown on the outskirts of Boston, McClean has had a certain panache that other institutions just don’t have, and we are talking here of mental institutions, or perhaps a more polite term, places where people can get some rest from life, take a breather, get the help that they need and set themselves back on track.

<>Unlike twelve-step programs and the like, McClean is by contrast almost a country club. Yes, certain wards are locked wards, and true enough, when the famous Olmstead designed it, he created myriad underground tunnels so that residents did not travel above ground from building to building, thereby lessening the odds of escape. The tunnels connect almost every building, save for a few, which had remained largely independent. (select link to read more...)

http://www.blogger.com/http://www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/sadi-ranson-polizzotti-article/2005/6/1/a-graceful-insantiy-book-review-about-mclean-hospital-belmont-massachusetts.html

http://gracefulinsanity.blogspot.com/

down came the rain | brooke shields on postpartum depression, a review

On the glossy, slick surface of things, it seems that actress and model Brooke Shields has led a life of privilege and success with few problems. Considered one of the great beauties and sex symbols of our time, Shields has consistently courted the image of herself as the girl with the “right” morality (remember how publicly Shields spoke out about virginity and cigarette smoking?) and the all-American girl next door.

As an actress, Shields managed to portray a highly sexualized young girl in the film Pretty Baby without tarnishing her lily white, so-pure-it-floats image and more, Shields possesses that rare beauty that seems effortless; that comes of good-breeding and chance. And while anyone else with those bushy dark eyebrows may look simply under-groomed or inelegant, on Shields they became part of her signature look, even lending a sexiness that simply didn’t work on most others. And more, whatever she did, whether it was modeling or acting or being interviewed, Shields always seemed to have it all figured out: she was always poised and whatever role she happened to be playing, she played it convincingly, even in The Blue Lagoon, which would have been rather insipid in most ways were it not for Shield’s performance which made it seem almost conceivable that this beautiful, lithe long-haired girl lived a life of bliss and fist love, her long lithe (and nude) body slipping through the depths of the aqua water. (link to read more...)

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/25/134913.php

recent poetry publications | april - may, 05

Recent poetry publications include new work appearing in the esteemed Adagio Verse Quarterly and we're proud to be in such good company, so here are two recent poems (select link or click here.)

http://www.geocities.com/adagioversequarterly/p12.html

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We're also proud to add that yet more work has found its way to Underground Window, an excellent publication with two terrific senior editors and founders. Click here to see this work or select the link below.

http://www.undergroundwindow.com/sadiapril05.html

mood of the moment | may, 2005

May rains and rains and I find myself focusing more and more on writing and becoming absolutely absorbed in obscure material and old texts, filling my head with all sorts of fascinating information that, on the surface, would appear to have no practical use, yet if you look deeper, such things - philosophy, math, chaos theory, Taoism, programming, and certain sciences - are at the very core of our lives. Without these things, we have no ability to analyze, to think logically or in any sort of linear fashion (let us bow down to Socrates, Plato, Aristotle), and our self-discipline that keeps us going everyday no matter what (Marcus Aurelius), and how things work (Newton), and how to be revolutionary in everything that we do and take on -

These days, I turn to Guy Kawasaki, an amazing entrepreneur and former Apple Fellow who went on to form the VC firm Garage.com - highly successful - and then penned several books, one of which is Rules for Revolutionaries - a must read for anyone wishing to do anything and intending to make a difference.

I've taken up kick-boxing and tae bo, and see a marked change not only in my body (strengthening, lengthening), but in my mind as well: focus, will-power, determination.)

As you likely know by now, there are those that would gladly tear you down. And yes, even those whom you have trusted can turn in a heartbeat, and though it may not make sense at the time, my advice is to move forward, to not look back and try to understand because there is no understanding the purely irrational behavior of others. The best you can do is understand yourself - take yourself to task - know thyself - be firm, courageous, willing to take a chance when it feels right, and never afraid to jump from the high-board when the situation calls for it.

As Nelson Mandela said, "It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us..." and he ends by saying, "ask yourself, Who am i not to be? And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same." (inagural speech).

Thanks for listening,

s.r.p.
may, 2005
www.tantmieux.squarespace.com/

bob dylan | don't look back documentary '65

It always comes back to Bob Dylan. Or it does for me anyway. So why should it be a surprise that again, I wanted to watch the two tour films, Don’t Look Back (1965 tour) and Eat the Document (footage of the 1966 tour). There is something about Dylan in these early recordings that captures and holds me the way it captured and held so many. (select link for more...)
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/16/175908.php

bob dylan | eat the document footage of '66 tour

Watching Eat the Document, the footage of the Bob Dylan 1966 tour and the documentary that followed Don’t Look Back (the 1965 tour footage) is a perfect illustration of just how relative time can be. For Dylan, the differences between his 1965 young, acoustic, and fresh-scrubbed self and his louder, electric 1966 self show a markedly different man – and one who was not always accepted by even the most true and loyal fans who had shown up expecting a nice, quiet, acoustic show and were met instead with a screaming electric band and a Bob Dylan they did not recognize. (select link for more...)
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/18/160638.php

virtually yours | love and friendship in the computer age

How to write about this without being supremely bored or boring is the challenge, because although I could fill volumes on the topic of human interaction in general as have for many writers, particularly on the subjects of love and friendship, it seems that it’s all been said before and that there is nothing unique left here. Yet the newest form of human engagement always struck me as preposterous and yet intriguing and until recently, I did not have any first hand experience with the internet relationp, that is, the idea of meeting people online and forming so called “real” relationships with them.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/02/113545.php

Penn's Right

Where have I been living? Obviously nowhere on this earth because I wake to find that Sean Penn is one of the best actors I’ve seen in recent years and I mean this sincerely. Oh disagree if you want, but I’m serious and likely you all know this and I’m again the odd man, or odd woman, out. This fact struck me after seeing his performance in both Mystic River and in 21 Grams. (link to read more...)
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/10/141147.php

the edge of reason | has Bridget Jones lost the meaning?

I always had a fondness for the first Bridget Jones film, Diary of Bridget Jonesliked the book by Helen Fielding and thought the film adaptation excellent and as true to the book as anyone could want. Bridget, in many ways, was every woman. She was perfect in her imperfections, slightly overweight, slightly squinty eyed, slightly neurotic, a bit man obsessed, yet expecting true love and yet at the same time, not immune to a good shag on the side herself, but at the end of the day, we all knew that Bridget loved Mark Darcy – select link to read more...l
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/27/182710.php

Blogcritics.org: pleased to meet me | down the rabbit hole and straight to hell

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the use of medication and whether or not I really need it for these darned seizures of mine, and this annoying epilepsy, for I have to tell you, it seems to me that I am a heck of a lot more productive when I am off of this medicine and that I write more coherently, more intelligently, and just plain more, and while I am well aware that quantity should never be sacrificed for quality....more>>>
Blogcritics.org: pleased to meet me | down the rabbit hole and straight to hell

sadi ranson-polizzotti - tant mieux articles - the chrysalis factor | lolita & now voyager

Why is it that I turn to Now Voyager again and again and certain books like Lolita. I suppose we all have our favorite reads and our favorite films, and though Nabokov is certainly my favorite author, Now Voyager though , it may be a great, old Hollywood production, is also one of the hokiest films I have ever seen. Still, the film holds and as I watched recently I couldn’t help but see the surprising similarties between the two stories – between the nymphet and the spinster aunt, both stuck in their cocoons and both subjects of the tyranny of others. ...more>>>
sadi ranson-polizzotti - tant mieux articles - the chrysalis factor | lolita & now voyager

sadi ranson-polizzotti - tant mieux articles - in the looking glass | the real you

I recently discovered a thing that is perhaps known to the rest of mankind but was previously unknown to me, which is that we are never just one self, but more, we are an amalgam of selves. Oh, yes, I mean of course I knew we all had different “sides” as I’ll call them – our social side, our good side, our sweet side...more>>>
sadi ranson-polizzotti - tant mieux articles - in the looking glass | the real you

Blogcritics.org: Woolf's Long Hours: Virginia Woolf's Temporal Lobe - sadi ranson-polizzotti

Say what you will, but it cannot have been easy to be Virginia Woolf, and having learned that she “suffered of fits” as the language goes, a thing I know a little something about, I find myself empathizing all the more.
Blogcritics.org: Woolf's Long Hours: Virginia Woolf's Temporal Lobe

booksquare - sadi ranson-polizzotti takes a long, well-considered look at adultery in literature...

read more information from Book Square, with links to original Blogcritics article

Expression, Discussion, Reflection - Email sadi

for Underground Window Poetry Journal
email s.r.p. questions about poetry, writing, anything related to poetry and writing that strikes your fancy...
Expression, Discussion, Reflection - Email sadi

Underground Window - a monthly poetry journal

for new work from sadi ranson-polizzotti
Underground Window - a monthly poetry journal

sadi ranson-polizzotti - tant mieux articles - ted hughes | why birthday letters

I always felt sad for Ted Hughes.

Even in death, he cannot find peace. There are still groups of people who hold Hughes, and Hughes alone, accountable for the death of his wife the poet Sylvia Plath. If only life were so simple. More >>>
sadi ranson-polizzotti - tant mieux articles - ted hughes | why birthday letters

auntie sadi's advice for girls

auntie sadi's advice for girls
visit, learn, read, get advice, ask questions and find the answers to the questions or at least, get some opinions, about those things that nobody ever bothered to tell you about from a wizened old tart who has seen pretty much everything and can aid you in your journey.

write to aunt sadi with your deepest, darkest problems. simply use the comments section from the link above and your questions will be answered promptly.

aunt sadi's pledge to you.

sadi ranson-polizzotti - tant mieux articles - why wax me Barbie!

I remember years ago ago to seemed when women had some degree of bodily hair and wore it proudly.
sadi ranson-polizzotti - tant mieux articles - why wax me Barbie!

blue sunday

blue sunday
Originally uploaded by sadijane.

the mean reds or the real blues, depending on who you are.