{"id":2259,"date":"2015-01-15T14:20:53","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T22:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talkinggrid.com\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2015-01-19T08:30:36","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T16:30:36","slug":"mixed-metaphors-intoxicating-cocktails-mysterious-potency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/mixed-metaphors-intoxicating-cocktails-mysterious-potency\/","title":{"rendered":"Fly with Frau to Utopian Spaces!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_9949\"<\/a>The years have punched us, around a bit, but we learned to duck.<\/p>\n

Together, “we fly like mandarin geese.” \u00a0We dip. \u00a0We dive. We fly past obstacles to Paris, France… Miami! Rome. \u00a0New York. No problem. \u00a0Hong Kong. \u00a0Here\u00a0we GO! \u00a0Effortlessly, we\u00a0transform from cocooned, invisible beings, into GRAND winged creatures. \u00a0Image: \u00a0WE wear ankle length, bat capes and fuzzy ears. \u00a0Cute, huh?<\/p>\n

Now, BACK OFF!!! WE are serious, deadly. \u00a0Dangerous, ARTISTS! \u00a0Visionaries… Seers.<\/p>\n

Social critics?<\/p>\n

WE STING! We spear chuck. \u00a0We have outbursts. \u00a0We are… INVISIBLE!!! Or not… \u00a0we deflate, rapidly, like rubber sex dolls\u00a0to be used as needed, and then put away for another day… no hard feelings.<\/p>\n

Tears, drip down my face, from laughing at you, laughing at me in this ridiculous outfit, onstage. \u00a0The audience, eats up our raw chemistry. \u00a0We soar, creating jacked up rock-jazz-poetry, fresh with your hard chops and silver AXE and me, long legs akimbo, exploring the range of experimental accordion tactics, in a micro-mini. \u00a0How refreshing! Talent springs forth.\u00a0Together, we rock out. \u00a0Your friendship empowers me. \u00a0You get me out of the house, out of my books, and into the world. \u00a0I appreciate that. \u00a0Thank you. \u00a0When we JAM, the sound is so good<\/em> not only because you know music but because I didn’t until I bumped into my sixth grade music award… oh yeah, I’m a player, too… and I’m willing to make some righteous noise, just listen.<\/p>\n

ROAR!\"IMG_6241\"<\/p>\n

Now imagine: a zipping hornet of international black and pink polkadot WASPS! \u00a0Unlike bees, WE stay ALIVE, after we sting. \u00a0Honey, we don’t fight CANCER. \u00a0Instead, we DANCE! \u00a0Tango? \u00a0Anyone? \u00a0Buzzing. \u00a0Social Butterflies. Diving into the pleasure of being here in ernest<\/em>. \u00a0Double dipping. \u00a0Tax paying. \u00a0Party Animals!<\/p>\n

(Imagine it. \u00a0Mix all the metaphors, in your head. \u00a0Make a cocktail of images. \u00a0Bees. \u00a0Flowers. \u00a0Birds. \u00a0Painted rock stars in platform shoes performing before an eager and excited audience. Throw some gold in there, why don’t you? Diamonds, check! \u00a0Feathers. Add, graceful dancers in tuxedos, sequins, (fake) furs. \u00a0LIGHTS!!! Glamour. check. Frau Kolb. Check!)<\/p>\n

Everyday, irrespective of what goes, “wrong,” or isn’t perfect in our lives, we have the option of seeing the GOOD that IS and digesting the FACT of our good fortune. \u00a0We each have gifts. \u00a0Perhaps you are a writer or seriously good looking. \u00a0Perhaps you are a spirited salsa dancer. \u00a0It doesn’t matter if you are short. \u00a0IF you can salsa Hotties wearing elastic band dresses will follow you out on the dance floor. \u00a0YOU know it… You have seen it. \u00a0Remember Salsa Johnny? \u00a0Shortest guy in Salsa-Land. \u00a0The ladies don’t care. \u00a0They just shimmy up and wiggle to his smooth moves. \u00a0He leaves with the girl that twirls \u00a0and looks BOMB in glittering spandex.<\/p>\n

If you are the biggest NERD, well… everybody knows that the Nerds of the Eighties are the Tech Wizards of Today. \u00a0Rich as Gates… We all have a purpose. \u00a0Yet, it is easy to forget that everyone is special and worthy of love; so much is annoyingly WRONG, according to NEWS and Media. \u00a0We are ALL OVERWEIGHT! \u00a0People KILL people for no good reason. \u00a0We are all VIOLENT, angry. \u00a0History proves that humans are completely capable of hating themselves, and \u00a0their brothers and sisters. \u00a0The news confirms our worst fears and collective memories of HORROR. \u00a0The flexing of power, which renders some into killers, soldiers, and officers… others into robots that follow orders to torture and maim or worse, design methods of “extracting information,” which are inhumane. \u00a0Lest we forget, the\u00a0fact that killing is central to the diets of billions, including myself, who cannot conceive a life in which not a single pig is grown for Sunday Bacon. Yet, do I want pigs to die senseless cruel deaths? \u00a0No.<\/p>\n

Do I wish for humans to hurt each other? \u00a0Do I wish to harm? \u00a0No. \u00a0No. \u00a0No. \u00a0My mission is to remind you: BE GOOD. \u00a0Write. \u00a0Start your own blog. \u00a0Above all, enjoy your life and respect the lives of others, no matter how tempting it is to think of some people as “Pigs.” \u00a0It is wrong to demote humans into species traditionally farmed or hunted, hated… “rats,” the Nazi called the people they decided were not their brothers, sisters, and friends. \u00a0Suddenly, the Jewish people, so civilized and entrenched in their German lives, were worse than enemies, they were pests. \u00a0How we can transform into predators and others into prey is a mystery, if one forgets that not too long ago…<\/p>\n

Die Entwicklung der Menschheit<\/em><\/p>\n

Einst haben die Kerls auf den B\u00e4umen gehockt,<\/em>
\nbehaart und mit b\u00f6ser Visage.<\/em>
\nDann hat man sie aus dem Urwald gelockt<\/em>
\nund die Welt asphaltiert und aufgestockt,<\/em>
\nbis zur drei\u00dfigsten Etage.<\/em>
\nDa sa\u00dfen sie nun, den Fl\u00f6hen entflohn,<\/em>
\nin zentralgeheizten R\u00e4umen.<\/em>
\nDa sitzen sie nun am Telefon.<\/em>
\nUnd es herrscht noch genau derselbe Ton<\/em>
\nwie seinerzeit auf den B\u00e4umen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sie h\u00f6ren weit. Sie sehen fern.<\/em>
\nSie sind mit dem Weltall in F\u00fchlung.<\/em>
\nSie putzen die Z\u00e4hne. Sie atmen modern.<\/em>
\nDie Erde ist ein gebildeter Stern<\/em>
\nmit sehr viel Wassersp\u00fclung.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sie schie\u00dfen die Briefschaften durch ein Rohr.<\/em>
\nSie jagen und z\u00fcchten Mikroben.<\/em>
\nSie versehn die Natur mit allem Komfort.<\/em>
\nSie fliegen steil in den Himmel empor<\/em>
\nund bleiben zwei Wochen oben.<\/em><\/p>\n

Was ihre Verdauung \u00fcbrigl\u00e4\u00dft,<\/em>
\ndas verarbeiten sie zu Watte.<\/em>
\nSie spalten Atome. Sie heilen Inzest.<\/em>
\nUnd sie stellen durch Stiluntersuchungen fest,<\/em>
\nda\u00df C\u00e4sar Plattf\u00fc\u00dfe hatte.<\/em><\/p>\n

So haben sie mit dem Kopf und dem Mund<\/em>
\nDen Fortschritt der Menschheit geschaffen.<\/em>
\nDoch davon mal abgesehen und<\/em>
\nbei Lichte betrachtet sind sie im Grund<\/em>
\nnoch immer die alten Affen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Erich K\u00e4stner<\/p>\n

In other words, no matter how SPIRITUAL and LOFTY we like to think we are… we are merely, the same old apes that slipped down from the trees a second ago. \u00a0We are working on becoming BETTER.<\/p>\n

I work to remind myself that It is mostly on television, in movies, or in novels, that people shot people. \u00a0I’ve never really had much attraction to guns and can’t image why one would ever want to shot anything, except of course for target practice or in the case of, “a brace of pheasant,” being secured for Christmas<\/p>\n

\""A<\/a>
“A Brace of Pheasant,” \u00a9 R.M. Hogan, 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

dinner. \u00a0Yet, some decide to go into “Law Enforcement,” which means they are paid by taxes “protect and serve.” \u00a0We appreciate their valor. \u00a0I couldn’t do it. Imagine going out and responding to the calls of the insane and abandoned, hurt and abused. \u00a0You’d have to be very brave. \u00a0It must be very scary!<\/p>\n

The thought of serving the public as a police officer is overwhelming to me, but I appreciate that IF there is an emergency, we have the option of dailing 911. \u00a0We are glad to have specially trained support, a social recourse, on call. \u00a0That police officers work for our benefit is part of the story. \u00a0That some have loss sight of the value of each human life or see some citizens as instant targets for investigation, intimidation, and worse is NO NEWS. (Yet, we can not come to accept evil. \u00a0We must continue to demand reforms, amends, and justice for all those caught in the net of evil that is prejudiced or violent Law Enforcement. \u00a0We must or we are part of the problem.)<\/p>\n

In books, noir detective novels, sexy smoky films with women in clingy gowns and men in linen suits, that show up, armed, dangerous KILLING is COOL. \u00a0Imagine the moment when the fedora wearing man felt, “a calling to work with guns,” on the streets, sorting out the cigarettes and the fabricated misery from the true distress call of the frail, the battered, helping heiresses sort out their complicated family history and teaching these wayward girls how to slip in and out of a martini before the gangsters arrive and…. It would take almost superhuman power to face the world with a gun, badge, and number. \u00a0 Image, your first murder case… I mean in novels, murder is the novelty, the spark which propels the action of the narrative forward. \u00a0Undoubtedly, there is a THRILL of reading of the dark passages where assassins lurk, waiting until apprehended by cleverer detectives… Yet, in real Life, murder is no laughing matter, no passing fancy, no story backdrop.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I did not become a police officer. \u00a0I am not sure I would have ever qualified. \u00a0I am fit but in a funky spirited art waif, way. \u00a0As it is, I live a much safer life, than I image is that of either criminals or law enforcement. \u00a0Really, I spend most of my time and energy, hiding out, in study, and cultivating peace. \u00a0I invest my time in observing and encouraging goodness, prosperity, and harmony. \u00a0People call to ask for advice because they know I’m pretty good at navigating through this sea of possibility we call, “LIFE.” \u00a0Yet, I’m not one to shy away from discord in music or my private life…. In other words, HERE hiding in the comfort of my womblike abode, I am brave, I am willing. I protest by forwarding some news stories and commenting, however obliquely, on current events. \u00a0I feel outrage mingled with great joy at being here in this world, now. \u00a0 Sure, I’ve had moments of intense confusion, RAGE beyond control, induced by… you don’t care to know… yet, I’m mostly about peace and cultivating global acceptance and mutual understanding. \u00a0REMEMBER: FRAU KOLB is not Perfect. \u00a0I know… I know… you don’t believe me. \u00a0Unless, of course, you have read this blog for long enough to know that I am indeed, far from perfect… perhaps… I am like YOU,\u00a0divinely<\/em> flawed!<\/p>\n

One thing I know: we are but shades of each other, each a little more, a little less and identical, the same. \u00a0We try as we might to differentiate but we must all eat, shit, and die. \u00a0Therefore, we are left with this instant in which to decide for what we stand. \u00a0Or are we with the BIG BAD WOLF howling and gorging himself on fear? \u00a0Do we binge on BAD NEWS? \u00a0Do we cultivate DRAMA in our lives? \u00a0How, precisely, are we investing our days, spending our lives? \u00a0Are we designing with our actions a Romantic Comedy or a Horror Flick? \u00a0Let’s forget about pointing fingers. Let’s LOOK at our own actions in the mirror and forget about a perfect people, perfect race, perfect blog. \u00a0FUCK perfection. \u00a0Let’s LOVE what is. \u00a0Let’s love each other, flawed, ugly. \u00a0Fat. Poor. \u00a0White. \u00a0Trash. Priceless princess. \u00a0Devoted servant. \u00a0Teacher. \u00a0Scholar. \u00a0Voluntary Sex Slave. Let’s collectively forgive our employers, parents, neighbors, therapists, siblings, and friends for all the harm they have caused us and let’s LET GO of the anger, pain, entitlement that allows us to make victims of ourselves and others on a global scale and let’s KEEP DANCING!<\/p>\n

(You can tell that I just finished reading a fabulous work of fiction by Los Angeles resident, author, Lisa See, “China Dolls<\/a>.” This book was a light, fun, sexy romp into the dark crevices of HORROR which history, World War II era, Asian American DRAMA, a classic love story following the tried and true boy meets girls… has sex with both, marries the nice respectable lovable predictable SHOW girl…YET enchanting pattern… I loved it, because sometimes we all need a little stability in a story line to keep us turning pages.)<\/p>\n

Lately, I’ve been tortured that my writing is not to par. \u00a0How dare I keep writing this awful blog? \u00a0I mean, my best friends tell me how horrible the BAD grammar in the earlier stages (remember when I went through that ass for as, phase, when I couldn’t resist playing with my butt and my buts in public…) listen, forgive me… I was just getting words OUT. \u00a0OUT. \u00a0OUT. Some people may be able to wait, I can’t or couldn’t. \u00a0I had to get the words OUT. \u00a0I’ve been writing in diaries, journals, most of my life. I read and read and read some more… I’ve so many books, ideas, and art images in my head. \u00a0I’m bursting.<\/p>\n

The BLOG, this blog, is an extension of three strong urges. One: have FUN! \u00a0Two: Get WORDS OUT! \u00a0Three: connect with my kind, my friends, my people.<\/p>\n

YOU that read my words, regularly, observe that I’ve distinguished myself as someone that has a message. \u00a0Moreover, let’s not forget that I am a Columbia University graduate… I know grammar rules… let’s not forget that it is easy to criticize and much more of a challenge to build an audience, a rapport with the public. \u00a0For those of you that know me well, it will come as no surprise, that\u00a0I’ve always wanted to be a writer. \u00a0I’ve approached it in a myriad of ways. Yet it is here, on-line that I’ve found my voice, my outlet. \u00a0 (I’ve started novels and nearly three hundred pages of drivel to prove it. \u00a0I painted, \u00a0participate in art events, \u00a0and I draw daily… yet, there is a part of me that knows I don’t have the stamina to become a full time fine art painter. \u00a0It seems, to me that a person would have to be made of nails to want to do that. \u00a0You have to be very tough, maybe as tough as a cop… maybe not.) \u00a0Anyway, \u00a0I’m an artist, for sure… I write. \u00a0I dance. \u00a0My dance is impromptu, a jazz I fashion from the shock others experience when they witness me shake it. \u00a0Now, the fact remains. \u00a0I write. \u00a0I write right here. \u00a0Now. \u00a0I publish. \u00a0Miraculously, you read my words. Thank you.<\/p>\n

More amazing: you are not alone in reading ALL THESE WORDS. \u00a0You have waded through this long text. \u00a0You have clicked and dug around and spent… hours of your life here, reading. \u00a0Lots of readers frequent this site. \u00a0Maybe they LIKE BAD GRAMMAR. \u00a0I mean… there is so much good grammar out there… so many people writing scholarly reviews on Yelp…. yet SOME\u00a0of YOU are even generous and supportive enough to DONATE to the Talkinggrid, which really means the world to me, to us. \u00a0Now:<\/p>\n

Let’s be grateful IF we have fingers, with which to type of LIFE as a JOY, a pleasure to be shared! Let’s remember that not everybody is so lucky as to be able to see, touch, smell, type, read, write, and\/or tell the difference between right and wrong. \u00a0Nope. \u00a0You can, sometimes. \u00a0 So can I, until I can’t, but I don’t let myself forget my good fortune in being able to address these issues and share with you my perspective, my joy, my gratitude.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, it is my experience that goodness rules. \u00a0Most people want to be and are mostly good. \u00a0Sure we cheat, lie, and fail to live up to our ideals, but we have ideals and we will continue to improve. We may lose sight of this fact that most humans simply want to live, love, and grow old, when we watch children arm themselves and attack with weapons meant for military combat on our multiple screens and many NEWS (Horror) sources. \u00a0We may eat meat, but we aren’t here to steal the life of another over political cartoons and we aren’t planning on wearing a cartoon hero suit \u00a0and gunning down movie goers or drawing ourselves up to be warriors in video games, avenging High School Slights, paternal permissiveness, by gunning down our neighbor children. \u00a0Daily, all over the world, humans exchange so many little supportive gestures, courtesies, \u00a0which are the food that nourishes our collective spirit and allows us to continue despite the exceptional misery and astounding crimes that we know to be part of this endless narrative of sorrow and suffering, celebration and birth, called, “Life.”<\/p>\n

Here we are! \u00a0Dip. \u00a0Rumba! Soft shoe. Flip! Dancing? \u00a0Finding romance in the eyes of the partner we picked long ago, in our reproductive prime… finding the strength in ourselves to leave the abusive parent, the over taxing best friend (like the protagonist, Grace, in Lisa See’s stunning little novel of Asian American Show Girls shaking their cans into the retirement home lounge show circuit). \u00a0On must learn to let GO, swing it, shake it UP, roll around like a clown and find BALANCE in the midst of the madness by being honest about one’s true and unique position as a STAR in the introverted and meandering, luxurious, and unpredictable, fun and carefree world of Frau Kolb & Talkinggrid.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The years have punched us, around a bit, but we learned to duck. Together, “we fly like mandarin geese.” \u00a0We dip. \u00a0We dive. We fly past obstacles to Paris, France… Miami! Rome. \u00a0New York. No problem. \u00a0Hong Kong. \u00a0Here\u00a0we GO! \u00a0Effortlessly, we\u00a0transform from cocooned, invisible beings, into GRAND winged creatures. \u00a0Image: \u00a0WE wear ankle length, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[183,225,224,230,231,32,228,181,226,227],"class_list":["post-2259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asian-culture","tag-asian-studies","tag-china-dolls","tag-dancing-over-obstacles","tag-die-entwicklung-der-menschheit","tag-erich-kastner","tag-frau-kolb","tag-harmony","tag-lisa-see","tag-new-american-history","tag-peace"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2394.jpg?fit=3264%2C2448&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2259"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2295,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions\/2295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}