“Most Influential Woman Photographer”

That would be Mary Ellen Mark. She was voted Most Influential Woman Photographer by American Photo magazine. All I can say is WOW ! Her work is awesome. I know, I use the word too much, yet her photos are, indeed, awesome.

I saw her on the Today show...when? Why, today of course. If you missed it and want to check it out, the link to msnbc's site with her interview follows below. If you have the connection, I encourage you to 'launch' the video play of the interview... you'll only have to sit thru one short commerical before it plays.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8390735/

(one of these days I'll learn how to embed the links...if 'embed' is the right term.)

She has a web site: http://www.maryellenmark.com/

Sweet Honey In The Rock

Sweet Honey in the Rock... an "American Master"... awesome female performers singing for the most part, a cappelle. They sing gospel, civil rights songs, about social and legal injustices, they make political statements, encourage personal empowerment, and share their inspiration.....they bring goose bumps, tears, and a heart swelling of emotions.

I just saw a program about them on the public channel. If you have a chance to listen to them I strongly urge you to do so. Even if their performance is not your cup of tea, the ability of all these different voices to come together, each sharing their strengths and skills, so it creates one sound with layers upon layers of beauty is awesome.

Here is the description from the web tv guide for my area:

"Sweet Honey In The Rock: Raise Your Voice - With singular creativity and emotional depth, this Grammy Award- winning ensemble of six African-American women has been performing for the past 30 years - raising their powerful voices against injustice. Faithful to a rich cultural history, spanning slavery, the foundations of the black church and the civil rights movement, they impart the essence of the African musical legacy in America."

Here is their web site:

http://www.sweethoney.com/aboutshir.html

oh oh... what is this??

What is this? Two rodents having sex?!

That's what I was thinking as I cleaned the shower drain.

The shower has always been very slow to drain...from the first day I moved into my apartment. Its an older apartment and was built by someone who didn't do a very good job as evidenced by the slooping door frames and odd cabinets. But its cheap.

I had tried the liquid plumber route and it worked a little, but the results only lasted a couple of showers. It was taking several hours for the water to complete drain. And that makes it very difficult to clean.

I didn't have any money for more liquid plumber and I was getting frustrated. Finally I reached for the BIG GUN... my "plumber's friend"... my plunger. This particular plunger has been with me for decades. Its part of the family. Its the cream of the crop... and it always gets its blockage. If it doesn't, it means the whole plumbing system needs to be replace. (start big sounding drums in forboding rhythm) I went beserk in a plunging frenzy....and baby was sucking it dry...shlup, shlup, shlup.

One of the keys to getting the plunger to work is to do it twenty times. I plunged...one, two, three.....twenty. Nothing. I went after it again....one, two, three....twenty. Suction, I had suction! It took some muscle to finally break the vacuum seal. I love when that happens, the vacuum seal part... but when it gave it up out came rusty yucky water. Oh please let it just be rusty water. I could see a little hair sticking out of the drain. Oh crap....the water was still a little slow to drain. I was stuck with a rusty, crusty shower. How many times can I use the term YUCK.

Once the water was gone I put on the rubber gloves and grab a couple of thick paper towels. I wanted all the protection I could get cause I was going in for the hair. I said a quick prayer and reached for it.

It didn't want to come out. I had to pull and pull hard before a big ball of hair finally burst out. I almost dropped it think it was a rat or something. Oh please don't let it be a dead rodent!! (Prayers come in many fashions. ) And thank God it wasn't. Just a huge hairball.

After I dumped the hairball I went back and pulled on the remaining hair.... another huge clump of hair. My gawd, no wonder so many men are bald...their hair was all in my shower!

I turned on the water to check things out... was it as successful as I hoped? Yessssss...it was wonderful. I let the water run for quite a while and it all went right down the drain, similar to what happens to my money.

There's nothing like winning the war of the drains... me and my plumber's friend forever. And there's nothing like a good draining shower, either.

This is the best I could come up with... after all, this is the Crone's Corner.

Testing...testing...one three six

Well, here we go...ready or not. My first goal of the day is to become familiar with all the bells and whistles here at Blogger.com. That means this first post is my little test rat... there may be changes made... lots of changes.

I'm not sure about the font. We'll see... or at least I will.

Oboy... I've gotten started but there's a lot to read and I don't feel like doing that right now. It's great being able to say "I'll do it later" and not feel any pressure. I just hope I'm able to find my way back here.....

(Later)
Man, what was I thinking? I've been blog surfing (is that what its called?) and there are some really funny people...even if they are likely to piss you off at one time or another. And if they aren't funny, they're still entertaining and interesting.

oh sure...just what the world needs... another boring blog. HOWEVER, on the other side...who will notice? At least for a while.

And I haven't been reading instructions or testing things so that's still going to happen here. Well, it will happen here if things work.