Small Change

I’m reconsidering small, lately, and applying it to 2015. While planning my New Year’s Resolutions, I’m thinking I’ll make them small. And by that I mean approaching them in small steps.

I love the New Year…starting fresh and putting the best foot forward. It’s exhilarating! Yet, the statistic is, most of us have forgotten our resolutions by February, and so I make it a point to at least reread them, quarterly. While I haven’t become a brilliant chess player, or learned all of the foreign swear words I’d planned to, I would revisit these things in the drag of summer, or beginning of fall to remind myself what I want to accomplish. I’d start my practice, but inevitably, they would fade into the background again. I think the real trick is to practice small, and daily.

Weight loss, for example, (the number one resolution); Why do we discuss this in terms of “when”? We say, “I’ll start my diet on the first” or “on Monday”. And whenever we fall off the wagon, we choose another start date or day. Why not right this minute? If we over-ate at breakfast, why do we consider it’s a loss and throw the baby out with the bathwater? Resolve that at lunchtime, you will have a healthy meal in smaller portions, every meal an opportunity to make positive decisions and to be proud of yourself, and when you’re proud of yourself, you’re empowered!  Daily, we can resolve to reset, then each night we can celebrate our awesomeness with, say, an earlier bedtime, or good book (more sleep and more reading…both excellent resolutions!). There’s a reason “One Day At A Time” is such a popular saying…it’s really the only way to live, because it’s simply what we have…right now! And our biggest anxieties occur when we are dwelling on the past, or fretting about the future.

Come in to Ducky Shincrackers and post your resolutions on Ducky’s 10 Best board, and Make & Take a little “Messages in a Bottle”, courtesy of the shop.

Welcome, sweet Baby New Year! Let’s be kind to each other!

Glad Tidings of Comfort and Joy!

Small is the New Black

I’m looking for a new television…a smaller one. Friends think I’m either super crazy, or super smart. I’ve opened conversation lately with this statement, and sometimes get the old speech about the “Idiot Box” and people who want me to commiserate with them on “Killing the TV”. My careful response is to come to the defense of my old, faithful friend, Television, and remind Naysayers that TV has changed our lives for the better.

I love TV. LOVE it. But don’t like that this big rectangle (not very big at all, actually) is front-and-center in the living room, and all furniture is staged to point towards it. How many absent-minded hours are spent with this thing on, droning in the background? I dare not count. BUT, without TV, we would not have seen the Moon landing or the Kennedy assassination, or celebrate the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every year. Or “get to” Sesame Street.

The TV provides information, suspense, and comfort.

It generates energy, makes us laugh or cry (or both, if you watch MASH) and, for the most part, has enhanced our lives. I love getting lost in a story, especially one with the likes of Doris Day or Esther Williams….I imagine myself as characters of these stories and challenge myself to rise to their standards…even if they are fictional. But I find I want more quality time with characters I love in TV Land, instead of the quantity time I waste now.

I can relate the same argument to food. We talk about food, obsess about it, and deprive ourselves of it. When I meet someone who brags about cutting out sugar or not eating carbs, I shudder a bit (that is a feather in a cap I don’t want to wear, thank you very much). While I have a certain pang of jealously or, more appropriately, admiration for people of such restraint, I also know that deprivation isn’t a way to live (there’s a reason everyone who goes on a diet eventually goes off and gains all the weight back, and then some…we, as humans, do not like to be deprived!) and that maintaining a balance is more important. In most cases in my life, this just means going smaller.

Katharine Hepburn was right when  she said “Without discipline, there's no life at all,” but shouldn’t that come with less pain and more payoff? Why not enjoy a small, fresh-baked piece of bread (instead of a unfulfilling slice of supermarket white bread) and take the stairs that day to balance and avoid guilt? Or have what you absolutely love, in smaller portions?

Life should be more about living than beating ourselves up for things we feel guilty for, or being caught up in menial daily tasks.

Case in point: I was standing in an over-crowded Walmart line today, blowing my bangs up with a barely contained huffy out-breath, concentrating on a Star magazine headline and trying to tune-out the screaming child in the cart behind me. Why do I subject myself to such torture? I silently ask myself. Especially during the Holiday Season? What was I buying that was so important? Light bulbs, nails, glue, canning jars…. How much money am I “saving” at this store instead of going to that small, charming family-owned hardware store down the street? Where they wear Santa hats and are always willing to help. I did the mental math, and I was MAYBE saving $5 to $6. Maybe. Was that worth my precious time? Persevering grumpy crowds, undisciplined children, endless lines, and a downright scary parking lot? I had to reassess.

I don’t “Shop Small” in my community enough. The idea of only patronizing Mom & Pop places, at worst, seems way too inconvenient and expensive. And at best, seems like a tiny luxury, reserved for special occasions, like finding specialty items or gifts.

But it’s time to start doing things differently. Would Frank Sinatra or Gene Kelly wait in a frustrating, heavy populated line, like sheep? Or would they saunter into the locally owned shop, tipping hats to the family staff, getting what they need in a flash, so as to return to their worthwhile lives? Who would I rather be?

Trite as it is, Life really is Too Short. Living beautifully means living a life of quality, not just mindless quantity, and that applies to TV, food, shopping…well, everything. And living beautifully can be a challenge when you’re stuck in a cattle chute waiting to pay for things on a conveyer belt, with a wall of tabloids on one side, and a rack of Kit-Kats on the other (especially when you justify the purchase of such colorfully packaged junk food because you’ve no time to cook a proper dinner because you’ve wasted any precious free time in lines. Junk food, weight gain, bad screen time…it’s a viscous cycle). And, It’s hard to be Audrey when you feel like you’ve just stepped into an episode of Montel.

I’m taking this challenge: to Shop Small…small businesses, that is. Try it with me. And see if you don’t just like yourself a little bit better. When casting the roles of your life, don’t you want to be a character you like? Instead of one who is compromising self and time to save $6?

Think about it.  

I know for me, I want to waste less time in warehouse style stores (who wants to be trapped in a “big box”), frequent little shops in my community (not just because I have one!), eat better food in smaller portions, and return with my purchases to a tidy parlor, where the TV is tucked away until it’s ready to be watched.

"Sometimes the best way to make a big difference is adding up lots of small ones."

Voyage to the Moon

Hand tinted film from Voyage to the Moon 

The rule of thumb for blog posting is “write about what you know”, and since you likely don’t care about my uncontainable love of band and military jackets, or my vast plastic dinosaur collection (although I’m sure I can discuss both endlessly….and, maybe you ARE interested. Hmmmm….Mental note: write about jackets and dinosaurs), I’ll tell you what I know, about what I love: the 20^th Century as it pertains to Pop Culture, how I see it.  

My modest Facebook page (I’ve never “Facebooked” until now, and it’s like having a new cell phone; it’s very user friendly, just a matter of learning the buttons) has a few “Voyage to the Moon” photos and I’m asked about them this week. They are from the famous George Melies film, "Voyage dans la Lune". It was a silent film from the late 19^th Century/very early Art Deco era, created by one of the most revolutionary filmmakers in history. He was nearly forgotten (it was impossible, for years, to find pictures of his amazing moon) until the fame of Hugo, where Martin Scorsese masterfully honored him and used actual footage from a number of Melies’ films.

The most notable thing, in my mind, about the life of George Melies, is that he was profoundly revolutionary in prop and filmmaking (his studio was made out of glass to take advantage of natural light, like a greenhouse. You can see it replicated, exactly in Hugo). He was a master prop maker, and was revolutionary in the advent of special effects, yet he spent the latter part of his life in poverty, selling toys in a train station booth in France (also depicted in the film). It keeps me pondering: How many of us are touched by absolute genius in our daily lives? All of us know someone who has extraordinary talent, yet is unsuccessful in it.  Why? Lack of discipline? Organization? Marketing? And we’re all faced with the annoying injustice of famous people with endless amounts of money and zero talent (I’m looking at you, Kardashians).  It’s unjust, and somewhat insulting, but it reminds me to always move back to center, hone my own talent, and constantly try to “Live in the body of my beliefs”. Wouldn’t you agree? (At least in theory?)

Other mentions of silent films from the late 19^th Century to the early 20^th Century to follow in future posts. In this remarkable age of technology, it is vital for our brains to regain some level of brilliant simplicity. (It’s hard to multitask while watching a silent film….you must sit quietly in the dark and follow the story, in the way the brain was arguably designed).

Homework: Watch Voyage Dans La Lune (or at the very least, watch HUGO!)

"Laugh, my friends. Laugh with me, laugh for me, because I dream your dreams."

             -George Melies

The official revival of the Ducky Shincrackers blog! To correlate, directly with the opening of Ducky Shincrackers first brick and mortar on 56^th Street and Thomas Rd, in Phoenix:

PAPER MOON PHOTO BOOTH

photo from the film "Paper Moon" 

Paper Moon photos (also known as “Man In The Moon” photos) were popular in the late 19^th Century into the early 20^th Century, and were a beloved attraction at carnivals, circuses and fairs. For a small price, you could have your photo taken “On The Moon” and it could be developed (via a makeshift darkroom, usually behind the booth) in mere minutes! (Impressive technology for the day).

 Studio photos, at the time, were far more formal, so the carnival style photo booth was a chance to “ham it up”, to smile and cavort for the camera.  Because of this, these old photos exhibit a warmth and appeal that still captivate those who are lucky enough to come across them today (authentic paper moon photos can be tricky to find).

With the development of the personal camera in the mid 20^th Century, and the dwindling popularity of traveling carnivals, the Paper Moon faded into the atmosphere, like so many things from this bygone era.

Ducky Shincrackers aims to revive this old trend with its painstakingly handmade 'Man in the Moon'.

It’s available for family photos, wedding portraits, and small private parties. And! When you sign our email list, we'll take your photo and send it to you for free. Stop by and check it out….you won't be disappointed.

Homework: Search the Internet for photos of Paper Moons. Watch the movie "Paper Moon". Revisit the stages of a waxing and waning moon. The phases of the moon are spellbinding, and have been inspiring Mankind since the beginning of time.