When I was looking for a picture of Marsha Ambrosius' album, I came across an ad to see The Floacist's new video "Let Me" on the Singersroom.com. The word controversial got my attention. So I clicked on the ad and saw this gem! She is topless with her nipples covered up. It's a very seductive and artistic video. After I finished watching it, I started to read the comments on YouTube. Most were compliments, but others were negative comments on her breasts. Some called her breasts saggy! 

Wow...when I read that, I was appalled. What woman with natural breasts doesn't have sag? Are we so use to seeing the girls in bras that when they are out and dancing in front of us (and a possible lover) that they become repulsive? The Floacist (aka Natalie Stewart) has a beautiful body. So imagine if I did a video like this? Then the critics would really have to talk about sag. And themselves because we all got it. Even if they are perky now, they will fly down south eventually. 

Surprisingly both men and women were criticizing her breasts. Are our views of beauty that distorted? Wait, that is a dumb question, of course they are! 

I could go on and on, but I won't because this is a Write Discovery and not a Write Rant...(uh oh, I think I just created a new category!!!), so I'll say just watch the video and enjoy. And I'll end with a question that you can leave your answers to in the comment section:

In arts and media, would you prefer to see a natural body or a made up one? Should more artists go for the natural look in music videos like in this one?

As I try to wind down for the night and surf Facebook, I saw on my live stream a status from Marsha Ambrosius. Apparently BOSSIP is previewing her album. You have to go and listen. This album is awesome. Can't wait for it to come out next Tuesday. My favs are With You, Far Away, Your Hands, I Want You to Stay, and Chasing Clouds. Hmm that sounds like a poem:

With you so
far away, I want your 
hands. I want you
to stay, chasing clouds
of our late nights and
early mornings.

Please don't ever leave...

us hanging for so long without music from you Marsha! Continue to make angels sing! Can't wait to own this album! Check it out!

Now it's time for all good writers to go to sleep so they can get up early in the morning and write a real blog post! Good night!

In my rib cage
you stick and echo
after hours.

Your memory creeps
up my chest, looking
for my heart,

Buzzing in anticipation for
the arrival of tears, freshly
made and ready

to admit defeat. 

I love you and that's all that sticks to me.

Hello everyone!

Here I am at my new location. Still the same domain of course, but a different server.  I finally have simple things like a sidebar and widgets on my blog! I don't know how the change will be received, but I hope that it will be for the better. I still have things active on the old site, including the blog for my older posts (http://christinarodriguez.webs.com/apps/blog)! You can actually access it by making your mouse hover over "Blog" and choosing "The Write Queen June 2008 - February 2011" tab.

I might do a few things with this new server, including open a couple of more blogs. I can actually create more than one. I don't know if this is a necessary feature, but it might come in handy. I'm still updating the site, but I am happy with things so far. My new host is on Weebly. So far, it has quite a few things that trumps Webs, like the ability to actually use my domain name and not just have it forwarded to the site.

I'm excited! I must carry on with the transition so for now, ta-ta! Enjoy your night and your Presidents Day readers!

Hey guys,

Today's Write Discovery was found on a perfect day: Valentine's Day. Until I can prepare my own gift of love to show the world, I will post a short film featuring a poem by the lovely Rachel McKibbens. This is genius at its finest and I know this will stay with me beyond today. So enjoy and hopefully I will get to post later. Happy Valentine's Day!

After reading “Writing Rules? Screw Them” on Rivaflowz.com, I started to think about my own writing rules. I have almost none. I write whenever. I read the books, I get inspired by music, my poems come from broken hearts, rage, words I see in a book that stick to me like a summer afternoon that won’t leave until the evening cools down.

I am trying to have a writing schedule. Not an everyday one. I think I would crack under the pressure of trying to write 365 days straight. I gave myself a schedule of other challenges in chucks. Every couple of months, I will write everyday. One month. I think that’s all my brain can take. OH and sometimes in between, I will write for two weeks. Am I doing it for discipline? Yes, sort of.

I’ve realized that sometimes I try to write more often because I want to up my number of poems written in a lifetime. Recently, I went through my archive. When I actually read my work, knowing what I know now about poetry and writing, I realized that numbers mean shit. It’s about quality at that point. Yes, I have written a lot in the past ten years. But they weren’t all quality.

Quality is important when it comes to hustling your writing in and out of the many literary magazines. You can’t submit poems just because you wrote them. You have to submit them because you know they are about quality. The only problem is that quality is defined differently by every editor. That’s a different entry though.

I am realizing that my quantity has helped me in the most important way: It means that I do love to write. If anyone needed proof, my archive of over 400+ poems would show them. At this point, I don’t know how many poems I have written. I don’t know how much I have written in general. But I do know that I have written a lot. Had I have realized this in high school, when I was applying to colleges, I would have gone straight into a writing major.

This is what I love to do. I think I say this in most entries like this one. But I do that because I have only realized this in the past few years. I wasn’t the kid who said I am going to be a writer. It just happened along the way and now I don’t know what I would do without it. I have so much to live and learn in the writing world. I think that expressing my love for this has been the only thing keeping me afloat as I try to find my way in a post-college world.

What was this entry about again? Oh yeah, my lack of writing rules. I know the basics. I know the important stuff when it comes to journalism and poetry. But my god, the rules drive me crazy sometimes. I wrote before I knew the rules. The rules have made me into a stronger writer, but sometimes I feel like they have slowed down the process. There should only be five rules:

1. Write
2. Write whenever you want
3. Write with abandon (you can revise later)
4. Write for yourself
5. Forget the rules, including these and continue to write

So today I am going to write write write write write because I’m a good girl. I stick to the rules!

A friend wanted me to write a poem that can be read the normal way plus upside down a couple of months ago. I actually been wanting to do this for a while when I saw this on WordFish who defines this as being called Ambipoetry. I accidently wrote one tonight. Could be better, but hey, the first time can always be improved upon. Remember to read it going down and then going up.

Babble

we are slaying dragons and breaking hearts
throwing temper tantrums for the sake of art
i keep sitting in the middle of the yellow brick road,
picking off the edges
when did i become the queen of imagination?

i keep hoping for your heart to land on my sleeve
a reason for coming around at the end of the dream
i know i shouldn't waste my wishes on birthday candles
i can't keep eating myself into love handles

want me, love me,
find me somewhere in your heart
because i always know where to find you
any fool would know you can't shake love from your heart

need me, care for me
i have you twisted around my heart
good girls like me love freely
snatching me up would be smart

find me a place in your heart

How open are our music tastes? If we are open, do we know where to look? Do we even know where to look when they are closed to everything except a genre or two?

I've been watching a lot more YouTube since acquiring my netbook. I finally have the capability to watch videos without my computer shutting off. This gift comes the sudden awareness of ignorance. Sometimes I look at the comments people leave on videos for pure entertainment. YouTube people say the darnest things! (Yes I have just created a pilot for a show in one breath). Sometimes though, they say stuff that crawls up into my skin and refuses to die.

Here is an example of one incident:

I was watching (really listening, it wasn't a real video) A Fine Frenzy - Liar, Liar. The first comment I see is beyond retarded and shows how much music this person really listens to.

"You don't really hear music like this anymore. It has to be all jazzed up and some sort of mixture of rap. No offense to those who like that. I'm just saying that not many people sing with music like this."

EXCUSE ME?!? A Fine Frenzy is in an absolutely different genre than rap. This comment makes me think that this person thinks that she emerged smack dab in the middle of the hip hop world and that there are no other genres in the world or that they once were, but died along the way. Okay maybe that's an exaggeration, but that's how I feel when I read that.

What does this person listen to for them to say that? There is a lot of bad music in all genres out there today, but each genre certainly has enough people in each one. You can't say you don't hear music like this anymore because everything has some sort of rap in it. There are plenty of artists like her. Just have to explore.

This makes me think of how much do we really know about the music we listen to. How wide are our tastes even in our own favorite genre? I know that I will never know every artist out there, especially because I dip into a lot of different genres. There are even some classics that I don't know about and everyone else does. But will I ever be as unaware as this commenter on YouTube? Hope not.

The point to this blog entry...umm be aware? Ha...there is a point of course, but I just needed to rant mostly. And hey, it's another blog post so hooray!!! Maybe when I am not in rant mode, I can come up with a more in depth post to these questions.

For now, back to my regular scheduled program of job hunting, research, and wasting time on the internet.

No longer willing to be haunted,
I'm looking for a heaven to
penetrate tonight. A place where you will kiss
[kiss kiss] kiss my hand and tell me
you adore the way
I develop us in the darkroom,
stories filtered under a slush pile of jargon
I cannot compute.