The Written Word...Not Spoken

It's been a while since I blogged here at Veni, Vidi, Vici, Vickie....Sort of....Maybe.  In fact, the life I have now no longer resembles the life I had when I started this blog back in 2010.  Back then I was married, just starting college, had been retired from the service for one year and my son still lived at home.  What is clear now that was not so clear back then was that my life was already beginning to unravel, everything I thought my life had been about turned out to be an illusion: the family unit was coming undone.  These last four years have been many things: challenging, rewarding, happy, sad, tough, peaceful, chaotic are but a few of the adjectives that I can think of to sum up my life.  I have lost a lot but I think I have gained a few things that are pretty substantial: independence, intelligence, compassion and wisdom.  The intuition that I was born with has made a return engagement and I am glad to have it back...and I am listening to it....

Anna Magnani, you've got to love her. She didn't want her wrinkles retouched and her hair always looked like she just fell out of bed, a natural beauty, one of Italy's finest actresses. Check out Mama Roma , it's classic Magnani.

We just finished watching Black Orpheus , I saw it many years ago with my parents, but this was my husband's first time seeing it. This 1959 classic won numerous awards (The Palm D'Or at Cannes and both an Academy Award and Golden Globe in 1960). The film is fondly remembered for introducing Bossa Nova music to the world as well as introducing us to one of the loveliest African American actresses to grace the silver screen: Marpessa Dawn. Born in Pennsylvania, she traveled to Europe as a teenager, eventually married the French Director Marcel Camus (controversial at the time, he was white) and went on to star in her husband's movie Black Orpheus. Ms. Dawn passed away in 2008, but she lives on in this wonderful film which captures the beauty of Rio De Janeiro during " Carnaval ", the emergence of Bossa Nova music into the mainstream and Ms. Dawn in her absolute lovely celluloid prime. If you get the chance (and you can handle subtitles, the film is in Po...

In the word of inconsistent bloggers/blogging...I rule, I reign supreme.  What is it that gets in the way of setting aside time to just write down a few thoughts?  Or share an observation or two..or twenty? Life I say. When I started this blog (3 or  6 years ago) the landscape of my life looked different from today.  As the world approaches the end of 2016 and faces what will surely be a year of uncertainty, what I have come to realize is that in the time since my blog was born what I was trying to do was identify who I am.  In that time I have changed my appearance, changed my mindsets and formed opinions (opinions are something I prefer not having..they are wasteful thoughts that manifest into wasted words), judged others, tried to convince myself that I was/am moving in the right direction and finding inner happiness. As I write this what I am seeing are all of the things I didn't get quite right and that's ok because what I have come to realize is that the...

Who wrote it? Julius Caesar Who was he writing to? The Roman Senate When did he write it? 46 B.C. Where did he write it? Zela What does it mean? "I came, I saw, I conquered." Why did Caesar say it? He was describing his  swift victory against Pharnaces II of Pontus                        For your listening pleasure while you read the rest of the blog:          The U. S. Air Force Band plays "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (1896) by Robert Browne Hall I have known "Veni" for a long time, having first heard it years ago when I was a kid studying Caesar.  Years later, when I was serving at Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile, I was presented a mission patch from the "Hammerheads" which read "Veni, Vidi, Vici."  The patch now occupies a special place on my old leather flight jacket. When I decided to become a ...

I started Veni back in 2010; my life today is nothing like I would have imagined it four years ago.  In 2010 I was married, had retired from the military and was attending college.  My ex spouse and I had grown apart, as much as two people who never really grew together could do.  We met in the service as he was getting ready to retire: I still had 10 years remaining before I could hit my 20 year mark and call it a day.  With the exception of the first two years of marriage, we were hardly ever together...we just never had the opportunity to get to know each others good sides.  I am thankful that the relationship is over. I can remember when I started this blog, I can also remember the many emotional highs and lows I was experiencing at the time, (mostly lows) that in some manner, influenced my decision to write and also informed how and what I would/should write about.  Blogging became a sort of outlet (when I had the time to do it), a way to communicate...

I love documentaries, in fact the bulk of what I watch these days are documentaries.  I got rid of Direct TV over a year ago and now I stream Netflix, via Roku.  They have an impressive array of documentaries and one of the most well done, thought provoking docs I have watched recently is "The Myth of Pruitt-Igoe."  This documentary details the Pruitt-Igoe housing project that was first occupied in 1954 and the first building demolished in 1972 and the final demolished in 1976.  Pruitt-Igoe is considered by many to be a textbook example of urban decay and the failure of the government's housing project program. If you get the chance please watch this documentary, I feel it is a very important social commentary that not only presents the housing projects but also introduces the viewers to some amazing people who lived there as children and, as adults, give some pretty heart-felt testimonials to what it was like to live inside of Pruitt-Igoe.     Some b...