New Ad-Free Blog

At long last I’ve removed the advertisements from this blog that WordPress inserts into every free account.

I’ve paid to remove the ads and create a URL for the blog.

Years ago I read the Kim Gordon memoir Girl in a Band. She was the bassist and vocalist for Sonic Youth while the band performed.

They are my favorite band of all time. Dating from when I played them on the radio when I was a disc jockey in the 1980s.

To get readers to go out and buy Gordon’s memoir I want to quote from the book.

Kim Gordon wrote:

“I believe the radical is more interesting when it appears ordinary and benign on the outside.”

Reading that sentence and thinking about this for a long time I was inspired to want to publish a second memoir.

In keeping with the title Girl in a Band I thought about talking in the new book about what it’s like to be a Girl on the Left.

A person asked me if the title Left of the Dial referred to politics.

It refers to doing your own thing–my literary agent understood the theme was “Enjoy your quirkiness.”

In the last week I have been thinking about this some more. And thinking about it again: how I always wanted to live an artist’s life in the city.

It can be a challenge when as a woman you rebel the role you’re expected to play:

Suburban breeder with two kids two dogs a Land Rover and white picket fence house with a porch.

Though hey if you want to raise a family and bake brownies for your kids that’s okay too.

I’m fascinated by everyone’s personality.

There’s a reference in my memoir to where I’m riding the subway and wondering about the inner lives of my fellow straphangers–the other riders.

Those of us who are ordinary and benign–I say watch out for us!

Postcard from the Ledge

The postcard shown above I took off a ledge in a bookstore.

It’s a reminder to me and a warning to challenge the status quo.

Living through the pandemic [the outbreak hasn’t gone away] I find myself pulled away from conforming.

I resist conforming to societal rules and norms.

What changed?

In my Republican neighborhood most of the people walking down the street have open faces. They don’t cover their face with a mask or bandanna.

Seeing this brazen contempt for respecting the health of others got me thinking: Who should I want to or try to impress at this point in my life?

I go outside wearing a red or black bandanna like a gunslinger in the Old Wild West. I walk in the middle of the street to avoid the people who haven’t covered their faces.

Seeing open-faced yahoos put people’s health at risk–as if the COVID-19 outbreak is no real threat–was the catalyst for my resistance to accepting the status quo in society.

Over 100,000 people have died from the COVID-19 outbreak.

Wearing a mask is a sign of respect.

It eludes me what part of “I respect you and you respect me” the bare-faced folk don’t get.

I will end here by telling readers:

Resist living for self-interest and personal gain at the expense of others.

Resist following the trend of “everyone out for themselves.”

Dare to have compassion.

Having compassion might not be in fashion.

Yet I submit the alternative is no option.

Key of Life

Alicia Keys in her July 2020 InStyle interview echoes what I’ve always thought.

In Keys own words:

“You know, we do a really good job of judging each other and assuming who people are when we don’t even know them. To me, the most important thing we can do right now is take a second to see and appreciate each other as we are.”

Two years ago I titled a blog entry See Who We Are. I wrote then: see who I am not who you think I am.

It’s a fact: Alicia Keys skipped two grades and won a full scholarship to Columbia University.

“See Who We Are” is the title of an X rock band song from three decades ago. I played this song on my radio show back then.

What’s on the surface really has no ability to predict the content of a person’s character.

In the next blog entry I’m going to talk about what I’ve learned living through four months of the pandemic.

Dressing Your Truth

I want to talk about a system that I was skeptical about until I read about it in detail.

The personal stylist I talked with referred to the fact that I must be a Type 4 in the Dressing Your Truth system.

Would it be possible not to buy things on impulse that wind up shoved in the closet and unworn?

This I wondered about. How could a person’s facial features and body movement determine the clothes they should wear?

It seemed astounding and then I was astonished. So I bought the Style Kit for $59. There’s a private Facebook page for each of the four types. The women on the Facebook pages are encouraging and wonderful toward each other.

This might seem frivolous. Yet I’m all for anything that can give a person joy and hope in the time of the pandemic and beyond.

On the Style Kit envelope this message sums it up:

“The greatest thing you can do today is be your true self. When you are confident about who you are, opportunities open. When you live authentically, you inspire others to do the same.”

Optimism is called for. Change must happen if you ask me. I believe today is the day that change is possible.

In the next blog entry I’m going to quote Alicia Keys from her July 2020 InStyle interview.

She echoes what I’ve written in here before: see who a person is not who you think they are.

I find Dressing Your Truth and the corresponding book It’s Just My Nature! to be a fascinating study of what makes people tick.

Dressing Your Truth website.

Spring Cleaning in July

I was having an email conversation about the protests with another person. She understood that the root of injustice predates Floyd. She feels it’s a factor of the strictly capitalist American society.

I thought about this:

Buying a ton of stuff feeds into our capitalism-on-steroids where companies exist for pure profit on the backs of an underclass.

Going through a burst of spring cleaning got me thinking. This week I started tossing shoes sweaters and pocketbooks into a bag to donate to the Salvation Army.

It felt wasteful to have bought a tweed beret I wore only once and two sweaters that remained on a shelf unworn for 9 years.

For those of us who carry credit card debt because we buy too much stuff this is a different kind of burden.

Laboring hard at a job to pay The Man–the Billionaire who owns the company–depletes your life energy.

Going forward I’ve decided to set an upper dollar limit for each item I buy like a pocketbook. I won’t go over that limit.

In my burst of spring cleaning I got rid of the stuff that weighed me down. A trash bag lies on my bedroom floor ready to be taken out.

The idea that “Maybe I’ll wear this some day” is the biggest myth going.

These unused items didn’t “spark joy” like Marie Kondo attests things should in order to keep them.

Revelations flew into my head as I filled the trash bag. This was only the start of a great big clean-out.

De-cluttering I can vouch for is often the gateway to making new changes in your life:

Out with the old. In with new people, places, and experiences.

55 and Alive

The older I get I’m aware that “change or die” as I’ve written repeatedly in blog entries here is the only way to live today.

The government can’t help us.

We must carry our ideals with us wherever we go–in bedrooms and boardrooms; in private and public; on trains and planes–everywhere is where we have the chance to make a difference.

Living through menopause in the time of the pandemic and protests has set in me the desire to make a difference in new and improved ways.

I’ve decided to start with this blog. To continue to tell stories to illustrate themes about living and loving Left of the Dial.

The work we have to do is ongoing. We cannot expect those in power in this often troubled society to give up control or cede to the demands of the disenfranchised.

I make the case for not remaining silent on the things that matter to you.

I’m 55 and Alive in the World. What I’m going through could make readers think or light a fire in you to make positive changes.

In future blog entries I want to return to thoughts on how the pandemic has impacted me and what I’ve learned going through a bout of reinvention.

If now is not the time to express your Self when is the time?

For me it all began with spring cleaning in July.

I’ll talk about this next.