Artist

He fancied himself an artist…a tortured, misunderstood soul crying into a wilderness that had no comfort or acknowledgement for him.  Smugly, he clung to his delusion and imagined that it set him apart…made him special…he imagined that he would, on one glorious day, be discovered and appreciated, lionized and understood at long, long last.

He was wrong, of course.

If he was an artist…if he was…he was an artist without an audience.  He was a dancer on distant, desolate stage.  He was a singer without a song that anyone else wanted to hear.  He was a dullard who fancied himself a visionary.  He was a warrior without real courage, a dreamer without realistic boundaries, a diplomat without portfolio, a lover who didn’t trust love, a demon stalker wrestling with ghosts made only of the gossamer tendrils of life as he imagined it should be.  He was another in the long line of sons of Job…and the long line of sons of Quixote.

He was a fool…a sometimes affable, sometimes angry and mean fool…but a fool nonetheless.

He fancied himself an artist…tilting at windmills and dragons, cursing fickle fate and imaginary gods, blaming everybody except the man in the mirror.

He was wrong, of course.

Blogs of Note: A Writer's Edge

The blog world is populated by, among others, an expansive community of writers. Writers who earn their living by writing….writers who want to earn their living by writing…writers who will never earn their living by writing but who write for the sheer love of it…writers who write because the words filling their minds and their souls and their feverish imaginations demand to be set free…writers who write because that’s what writers do. It’s a gentler madness…a wondrous calling…a sublime compulsion…

A community of writers is almost an oxymoron because writing is, in so very many cases, a solitary endeavor but a community exists just the same. There are many blogs for and about writers…for and about the art and the business of writing…so very many to explore, to learn from, to draw information and inspiration from. Georganna Hancock’s A Writer’s Edge is my favorite of these. It is warm and welcoming, very well-written and wonderfully informative.

A long-time resident on my blogroll, A Writer’s Edge has always been a blog of note to my mind and now it’s a Blog of Note officially :-) If you’re a writer, you’ll find an excellent resource with a compelling and charming hostess…if not, you’ll still find it a wonderful reading experience.

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And, of course, the previously featured Blogs of Note are still heartily endorsed:

Worldman

Michele

(The post on Michele's wonderful blog also features links to other Blogs of Note)

Blogs of Note: Worldman

The world of blogs is, of course, expansive and fairly all-encompassing. There are blogs for just about any interest and we all have our reasons for preferring the ones that we do. My personal favorite blogs tend to be those that are written by inquisitive, open-hearted people who share themselves and their view of the world (both personal and at large) in engaging ways. It is, therefore, not at all a surprise that one of my favorite blogs to visit and savor is Peter Voegtli’s charming, witty, and thought-provoking Worldman.

Worldman is never anything less than a delight to read and Peter is a wonderful blog host who makes sure that everyone who visits his site feels welcome and totally engaged. Another plus from my point of view is that music informs and permeates the entries which adds to the experience of the blog (especially considering that he has wonderful taste in music :-)

I am an unabashed fan of Worldman and I heartily recommend you visit…chances are you’ll become a fan, too (tell Peter that Michael sent you :-)

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FYI: This is, according to Blogger's count, the 400th Bread and Roses post. Yay! :-)

Blogs of Note: Michele

Blogs of Note was at one time a reoccurring feature of Bread and Roses; it spotlighted interesting sites that I had encountered during my excursions through the blog-o-sphere. As time and circumstance shrank my time to surf as much as I would have liked the feature fell by the wayside. But now I have been inspired to resurrect Blogs of Note by the site being spotlighted today.

You can find no more engaging a site than Michele Agnew’s delightful eponymous blog. She is a warm and welcoming hostess who encourages her readers to become part of an ever-burgeoning and interactive community through clever posts that ask thought-provoking questions, make pithy observations, and encourage dialogue and discovery by sending them out to visit each other’s blogs. It’s a lovely site well worth a visit…though I warn you if you visit once you will be visiting often (when you visit, tell her Michael sent you…it’s a Michele thing that you’ll understand when you get there :-)

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Some of the Blogs of Note that were spotlighted in the past have stopped being published or updated for one reason or another but most of them are still going strong and are still highly recommended (as are all of the sites on the blogroll on the left.) I happily direct your attention to:

A Gag Reflex (our very first Blog of Note. Most of the original posts have been removed because, happily, Cori Crooks' harrowing, beautifully-written memoir is going to be published next year but attention must still be paid. The original Blogs of Note post about this site is here.)

Dog Eat Doug (a delightful comic strip by the talented Brian Anderson...now being featured in newspapers around the country...that presents the sweetly humorous adventures of a puppy and a baby...the original B of N post is here.)

The Donegal Express (a thoughtful, well-written, and challenging site which features politics...but not exclusively. Original B of N post is here.)

My Neighbours are Hoors (a wonderfully charming blog featuring the wry and witty observations of a woman whose downstairs neighbors are "ladies of negotiable affection". The original B of N post is here.)

PSotD: Political Site of the Day (a great, incisively written site that, despite its title, is not exclusively political. Original B of N post is here.)

So What Can I Do? (Karima Neal's engaging positive action advocacy site. Original B of N post here.)

Waking Ambrose (the ever-erudite Doug Pascover's witty updating of Ambrose Bierce's classic Devil's Dictionary is always entertaining, thought-provoking, and undeniably clever. Original B of N post is here.)

Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

The amazing, avuncular writer of Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Cat's Cradle has died at the age of 84.