Through the Opera Glasses - 29 - Anticipation

Kim's year-long Blog Improvement Project at Sophisticated Dorkiness encouraged us to "look for blogging inspiration somewhere new.

There’s no real way to do this. If you’ve got a laptop, take it out of the house and write up a post somewhere different. If you don’t have a laptop, grab a pen and paper and do some brainstorming outside the house.

Go to the park, a local coffee shop, the library, a friend’s house, your backyard, wherever you feel like it. Just get away from where you usually blog to see what inspiration you might get from a change of scene."

I did this in a movie theatre while I was waiting for Gamer to start.

It wasn't hard to see that I was immediately drawing on sense memory for this exercise.


Many of you already know that one of my favorite places in the world - and favorite moment in life - is taking my place in a theatre seat, waiting for the show to begin.

It can be any kind of theatre, any kind of performance.

It can be a spot snagged among an outdoor crowd for the Busker Festival.

It can be a hardy sports stadium seat built to withstand drunken disappointment in a game, but serving me as a seat at the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo.

The hockey arena can be tucked out of sight so I can sit in surging anticipation for Lenny Kravitz and an amazing night of music.

It can be a no-frills wooden chair on homemade risers, awaiting a Fringe Festival performance.

It can be a seen-better-days upholstered seat scavenged from a renovated theatre as I sit just feet away from Michael Mahonen (Road to Avonlea's Gus) as he shows his acting chops in Salt Water Moon, a play by Newfoundland-born David French.

But there are two types of theatre seats that thrill me more than any other.

The basic cinema seat - where I have willingly whiled away countless sunny days in a darkened theatre. No matter how far technology takes us, no matter that I can watch films in an increasingly sophisticated home setting, I will always cherish viewing films as they are meant to be screened - in a theatre surrounded by other film lovers.



And the other one?

Why, a seat at the ballet, of course.

Where the orchestra tunes up as the lights go down to a quarter...






Thomma Lyn Grindstaff says The best part is often the anticipation of the delight to come. :)

Claudia says I love live theater - of any kind. We grew up watching it from an early age.

Michelle Johnson says Yes, a change of scenery can inspire one to write something fresh.

Blog Improvement Project - 17 - Update Old Posts

I'm actually skipping ahead because Week 16 urged us to Blog Someplace New. Which I did, but I'm saving that entry for my next Through the Opera Glasses.

Week 17 focused on Updating Old Posts.

And because this was Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I took a look at my Book Reviews Archives.

With 32 reviews listed alphabetically by author name, I realized it wasn't as user-friendly as it should be.

So I split every review by genre, and created 19 headings in my sidebar. I also included the title of the book as well as the author's name.


















It was quite astounding to see the varied genres I've reviewed. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I realized I've reviewed more Contemporary Erotic Romance than any other genre.

Tying for second place is another shocker - Contemporary Romance - and two expected categories, Regency Historical Romance and Victorian Historical Romance.

This was a good exercise. I can see that there are genres I really enjoy reading but which I've been overlooking recently. I'm sure this is going to nudge me toward reclaiming some of my favorite types of books.

Susan Helen Gottfried says You review contemporary erotics in a way that allows anyone nervous about the genre to see it's not so scary.

VA Bookworm says I'd say about 70% on my bookshelf is Victorian Historical Romance and 30% fantasy.

Akelamalu says I just almost choked laughing - after reading you review a lot of contemporary erotics the word verification I have to type in is 'kinkie'.

2009 Blog Improvement Project - 14 - Highlighting Best Blog Content Through Sneeze Pages

For Week 14 of the Blog Improvement Project, Kim steers us toward creating a Sneeze Page:

"Create a Sneeze Page: This was Day 18 in the Build a Better Blog Challenge at ProBlogger. Basically, it suggests making pages with posts that will help drive people deeper into your blog. He also suggests not just making the page a list of links — give people context for why the link is interesting and useful for them.

8 Post Types to Expand and Highlight Your Blog’s Content: This post shows a lot of different kinds of posts that can highlight different parts of your blog. Only a couple apply to this task, but other ones might make great post ideas if you’re stumped.

Feel free to do this in any way you want. Write a new post highlighting past posts then put a link to that post in your sidebar, add highlighted posts to your About Me page, add a section to your sidebar with highlighted posts, or do something else I haven’t thought of." - Kim

I've already created Archives blogs that hold featured content from A Piece of My Mind, and are linked over in my sidebar.

If you've never visited my archives, here's what's on the shelves:


For book reviews, browse through my My Book Reviews.















For paintings, illustration and sculpture, stroll through My Cyber Gallery.















In addition to the Cyber Gallery, I have my Sidebar Gallery which features nine pieces every month. A new show goes up at the beginning of each month, and the show for August is Roses. An added feature of the Sidebar Gallery is a link to biographical information on each artist, which is accessible by clicking on the piece of art.





For samples of my fiction writing, flip through My Fiction Excerpt Archives.














For original poetry, wander over to My Poetry Archives.





For a collection of my arts industry posts, settle in at Through the Opera Glasses Archives.


For a taste of something different, try out my collected posts from my group blog at My Popculturedivas Archives.


And a little more variety at the earlier incarnation of the same group blog - My Missmakeamovie Archives.


Travis says I did this with some original fiction I posted on my blog.

Kim says I like how you explained what each one was.

2009 Blog Improvement Project - 7 - Making Your Blog More Comment-able and the Keeping it Real Tag

Here's what's up for April's part of the year-long challenge:

"April is going to be focused on comments. The interaction between bloggers and readers via comments is, to me, one of the best things about blogging, so I think this month will be fun.

Week #7 is going to be all about making your blog more comment friendly. I think it’s vital that once you get a new reader at your blog, it’s easy for them to engage with you by commenting on your posts.

Take an inventory of your blog comments. Write down how many comments you have as of today, then track how many comments you get per day over the next two weeks.

Pick 3-4 of the techniques from the articles (on ways to improve commenting at your blog) to implement over the next two weeks.

Spend these weeks trying to make your posts more comment friendly."

- Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness

Here are several of the article ideas I'll be exploring in the coming weeks:

"Only 1 out of every 100 readers comment on your blog. Jakob Nielsen’s study finds that 90% of online community users are lurkers (read or observe without contributing) with only 9% of users contributing ‘a little’ and 1% actively contributing. The vast majority of readers leave a blog without leaving a comment or contributing to it in any way.

I find that when I include questions in my headings that it is a particularly effective way of getting a response from readers as you set a question in their mind from the first moments of your post. If someone leaves a comment interact with them. This gets harder as your blog grows but it’s particularly important in the early days of your blog as it shows your readers that their comments are valued."
- Darren Rowse, Problogger

"Berkeley Economist Brad DeLong was one of the first to use the term hoisting to describe highlighting user comments. His hoisted comments often inspire users to comment even more, and hoisting comments is another strong community building technique. Kent Fischer, education blogger for The Dallas Morning news, hoists comments to the level of their own posts. He looks for comments that deserve more attention, then makes a separate post for those strong comments that users can comment on, furthering the discussion."
- Patrick Thornton, BeatBlogging.org

In looking back at my two years of blogging, here are my highest-comments posts:

* the first time I received comments that went above 10 was my 3rd Thursday Thirteen post

* 30 comments for 13 Things For Which I Am Grateful

* 32 comments for 13 Favorite Things About Halifax

* 32 comments for 13 Reasons to Read Julianne MacLean

* 32 comments for 13 of My Favorite Peace Globes From Last Week's Blogblast For Peace

* 33 comments for 13 Works by Nova Scotia Artist Holly Carr

* 33 comments for 13 Ways to Enjoy Gerard Butler in Honor of His Birthday, Nov. 13th

* 36 comments for 13 Ways to Celebrate My Grandmother's 93rd Birthday

* 37 comments for 13 of Heath Ledger's Films

* 40 comments for 13 Paintings By My Sister-in-Law, Anna Baccin

* 42 comments for Introducing 13 of My Ancestors

* 43 comments for My Very First Contest

* 47 comments for 13 of My Mom's Paintings

* 56 comments for Rhian's Blogiversary

* 83 comments for My Second Contest

What can I see straight away?

2 of the highest amounts of comments came from contests.

1 came from a party, which generated a lot of back-and-forth conversation.

2 came from posts featuring actors - Gerard Butler and Heath Ledger.

4 came from art shows.

9 came from posts where the subject matter was very personal to me.

Nearly all of the highest-comment posts were Thursday Thirteen posts. The power of the popular meme!

All good to know. I have made it a basic part of my blogging routine to return the visit to everyone who comments here, and leave my own comment there. Recently I've begun responding to comments in my own comments section, which has been recommended for the April assignment.

Something new I'm going to do is the comment hoist. Claudia from On a Limb With Claudia does this regularly. Also, I'm going to try asking questions to stimulate discussion. This is what I love about the Blog Improvement Project - the constant pushing past my comfort levels.

And now - onto the Tag! You're it!

VaBookworm from Confessions of a Bookworm nabbed me for this one earlier in the week. Ever the honourable blogger, I answered her challenge - and had my husband immediately take my picture as-is, as soon as I read the tag.

Keepin' it Real

Here are the rules:

Take a picture of yourself right now.
No primping or preparing.
Just snap a picture.
Load the picture onto your blog.
Tag some people to play.
NO CHEATING!

Okay. Here's my picture, taken a few days ago after work, in my comfies ready for blogging.














And now, a-tagging I will go, a-tagging I will go...

Dorothy
Dorte H
Ryan Ashley
Sheila
Shelley

Ladies...I throw down the glove.

Leah Braemel is trying to read the titles on the spines of those books. *squinting*

Travis says before I started my own blog, I lurked quite a bit.

Ryan Ashley Scott is amazed at the 1 in 100 visitors percentage.

Akelamalu says if I comment on someone's blog a few times and get no response I stop visiting that blog as I feel I am just wasting my time. Definitely with you on that one.

Dorothy and Dorte H took up the challenge!

2009 Blog Improvement Project - 6 - Taking My New Social Media For a Test Drive

Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness nudges us to explore our chosen social media tools for our next improvement quest.

"Week 6 for the Blog Improvement Project is going to be pretty simple: trying out a new social media tool.















1. Pick out a new social media tool, or reacquaint yourself with a social media tool you already use. If you’re new, sign up and create an account.

(Check! I joined Twitter.)

Make sure to include your blog URL in your new profile so you can connect across social media platforms.

(Thanks to Cathy at Kittling: Books for mentioning Twitterfeed. That gave me instructions to link my blog to my Twitter page.)



2. Update your blog to include your new social media contact information.

(Check! I've got my tweets in my sidebar with a link taking you to my Twitter page.)






3. Spend the next three weeks actively using your new social media. For example, set a goal of tweets per day or how many comments you’ll leave on GoodReads reviews to make sure you give it a good shot.

(Check! I've just learned how to use the @ feature, which allows me to respond directly to a tweet from someone I follow or one of my followers.)













4. Don’t be afraid to connect with other people. Find authors, publishers, famous people, or bloggers that are 'bigger' than you and connect with them via social media. Don’t be intimidated, just try it!

(Check! At the moment I'm following 50 people, and 26 people are following me. High profile people I'm following on Twitter:
Gerard Butler - he's got 7599 followers
Stephen Colbert - 114,159 followers
Jon Stewart - 6931 followers
Kevin Smith - 115,411 followers
Seth MacFarlane - 13,167 followers
Seth Rogen - 10,386 followers
Ellen DeGeneres - 12,041 followers
Quentin Tarantino - 364 followers)

5. At the end of your three weeks using more social media, write up a post about how it worked for you. I’ll do another Social Media Carnival post at the end of March wrapping up what everyone learned." - Kim

So far, so good. I'm enjoying Twitter far more than I thought I would. It will be interesting to see if I notice any more traffic here at A Piece of My Mind in a couple of months.

2009 Blog Improvement Project - 5 - Exploring Social Media - Scroll down for my review of Hugh Jackman in Australia

Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness is showcasing the social networking aspect of the internet and how bloggers can tap into this source to increase readership.

"Because I love alliteration, March is going to be Social Media Month for the Blog Improvement Project. For the next 31 days, we’ll be focusing on using social media to improve your blog.

I’m no expert in social media, and there are a lot of social media options to think about. There’s Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Ning, and about a million other options I don’t even know about. In that spirit, Social Media Month is going to be about educating each other about social media. Our first project is the much-anticipated Social Media Carnival!" - Kim

The only social networking space I inhabit is Facebook. I don't have a cellphone, so Twitter is out. At least - that's how I've been feeling. I can't see myself Twittering much on my computer, but maybe it's worth joining as a what-the-heck thing. Technorati I joined last year and promptly forgot my password. But now Kim is giving me the carrot to look into that again.

The others are foreign moonscapes to me. But that's why I joined the Blog Improvement Project. I shall suit up and bounce the floaty space-walk into new territory.

2009 Blog Improvement Project - 4 - Blog Basics and Bloggy Bingo Update - Scroll down for Through the Opera Glasses

Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness suggested the following change-ups during the last challenge. I only managed to complete half of them, because my blog has a pretty set schedule and I could only manage those. But I was very pleased with how they did change things up for me, and I'll comtinue on with the other styles until I've got the whole list completed:

"1 - A Link Post - share a series of links your readers might find interesting * Here's a list of sites I frequent on the web. *
2 - A Short Post - less than 200 words * This redirect post pointing the way to my missmakeamovie post clocks in at 19 words. *
3 - A List Post - simple as it sounds, a list of some sort * My list of tins pictures for Dorte H fits this one. *
* A second list post: My Favorite Female Film Characters From the Past Ten Years *
4 - An Opinion Post - take an event, news, or another blog post and share your opinion on it
5 - A Poll or Question Post - post a poll or ask your readers a specific question for feedback
6 - A How-To Post - You’re an expert in something; big or small, share how to do it * My fiction writing research led to The Common Tea Bag and Its Uncommon Use In First Aid.*
7 - A Long Post - more than 700 words
8 - A Review Post - self-explanatory, I think. * Here is a review of the HD broadcast of the ballet La Fille Mal Gardee at Empire Theatres across Canada, this past Jan. 31st. *
9 - A Definition Post - show your expertise about a topic related to your blog
10 - FREE SPACE - a type of post of your choice (that is not the same as one of the previous posts)" * My Second Blogiversary post is a once-a-year extravaganza, so I'll count that as my free space. *

This week's challenge:

"Write (or update) your “About Me” Page — Make sure you can see your About Me from the main page of your blog because someone just arriving at the site should be able to easily see a little information about you

Update your contact information

Add some sort of picture of yourself (if you’re comfortable with that)

Update your Blogroll

Create a link to your Archives on your front page (there are a lot of widgets for this, or you can find other ways to do it — either way, it’s important to do so people who want your archives can find them to get a sense of what they can expect from your blog)

Add a link (or make sure a link is there) so readers can subscribe to your blog via RSS

Get to work on other basic blog maintenance you’ve been meaning to do" - Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness

I'm very, very interested in finding out how Archives widgets work. And a redo of my About Me page would definitely be in order, as well as perhaps moving it up from the very bottom of my sidebar...

2009 Blog Improvement Project - 2

Brainstorming Ideas

Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness posted the second installment of her Blog Improvement series. This is a year-long challenge, and I've already reaped benefits from it even in its first month. Her first challenge to set goals and define my blog resulted in this definition for A Piece of My Mind:

This is a blog that celebrates the arts, encourages the creative, cheers the artist on and revels in the wonder of life.

I found myself really latching onto this idea from Kim:

"Use your brainstormed ideas to come up with a new, regular feature for your blog.

There are a lot of memes and stuff out there to participate in, but I think it’s cool when a blogger has a feature that is unique to them. Think about what makes your voice different, then come up with a feature that reflects that. There aren’t any 'rules' about the feature — just be yourself."


I can feel a new feature percolating already. An arts feature that will likely find its home on Tuesdays. I've had wonderful feedback on arts-related posts I've done, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on Through the Opera Glasses, debuting soon at A Piece of My Mind.

Poetry Train Monday - 82 - I Asked the Ash-Tree / 2009 Blog Improvement Project - 1

On New Year's Eve, my husband and I joined along with millions of Russians - as well as residents of former Soviet-bloc countries - to watch The Irony of Fate, a film made in 1975 and which has been broadcast on Russian television every New Year's Eve since then. Of course, we were watching our version on YouTube, thanks to a wonderful fellow by the online name of GalaBiR who has a giant cache of subtitled Russian films (yippee!)

The Irony of Fate is very dear to Russians, as dear as It's a Wonderful Life is to North Americans. I discovered this film through one of my favorite actors, Konstantin Khabensky, who stars in the 30-years-later sequel, The Irony of Fate 2.

It was so much fun to watch this film on the same special night as the story's twisty-turny plot. It's a fabulous combination of farce (which I love) and a very heart-tugging romance (which I love even more.) Peppered throughout the film are songs sung by the characters to one another, not in the sense that a musical will stop the action in a stylized manner, but in a real-time event because the characters are musical and enjoy playing the guitar and singing.

These songs are all poems by well-known Russian poets set to music, including the work of Boris Pasternak, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Marina Tsvetaeva and Bella Akhmadulina. All of the song lyrics function the same way as a song in a musical, or an aria in an opera - giving the audience a window into the hidden emotions of the characters.

I was especially taken by this song, set to a poem by Vladimir Kirshon. For the Poetry Train today, I'd like to share it with you.


I Asked the Ash-Tree (Ja sprosil u jasenja)


I asked the ash-tree:
Where is my loved one?
The ash-tree didn't answer me
It just shook its head

I asked the poplar:
Where is my loved one?
The poplar threw its autumn leaves
All over me

I asked autumn:
Where is my loved one?
Autumn answered
With a pouring rain

I asked the rain:
Where is my loved one?
The rain shed its tears
Outside my window

I asked the half-moon:
Where is my loved one?
The half-moon hid behind a cloud
And didn't answer me

I asked the cloud:
Where is my loved one?
The cloud disappeared
In the blue of the sky

My only true friend
Where is my loved one?
Tell me where she went
Do you know where she is?

My only friend
My only true friend answered me:
She who was your loved one
She who was your loved one
She who was your loved one
Is now my wife

I asked the ash-tree
I asked autumn
I asked the poplar

- Vladimir Kirshon

- arranged for the Russian film The Irony of Fate (Ironiya sudby) by Mikael Tariverdiev


Ride the Poetry Train! Your ticket aboard is creativity. Got a poem? Some prose? A painting? Anything goes.




You can listen to the I Asked the Ash-Tree song in this clip from the 1975 film.

The clip shows a Russian couple - Nadya and Zhenya - who have been brought together by a twist of fate on New Year's Eve, throwing their current relationships to existing fiances into chaos as they develop a powerful attraction for one another. Nadya goes to retrieve her fiance's photo which Zhenya, the new love interest, tossed out the window. She then goes to the train station to buy a ticket so the man in her apartment will return to his own life in Moscow. The song plays as she walks through Leningrad (these days, returned to St. Petersburg), trying to sort out her feelings. By the end we discover Zhenya has been singing the song to Nadya's mother, who didn't know who he was when she entered her daughter's apartment.




Setting Goals — What Is Your Blog For?


Kim over at Sophisticated Dorkiness is beginning a:

"year-long challenge that will consist of twice-monthly activities to improve your blog. Every first and third Monday of the month I’ll post an activity here at Sophisticated Dorkiness that will be related in some way to making your blog better. Each participant should spend the next two weeks focusing on that aspect of their blog. Possible topics include goals setting, writing better content, building community with readers, getting more readers and blog layout and design.

If you choose to participate in this project, there is no obligation to participate in every challenge, and you can customize each challenge so it makes sense for your particular blog and goals. Think of the design as similar to Weekly Geeks — participate when it makes sense for you. This is a group effort, because getting better is always easier when you have a support system, but the ultimate commitment remains with you — how do you want your blog to be better by the time we get to December 31, 2009?"

- Kim, a master’s student in the University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication

The first challenge is deceptively simple.

What is your blog for?

No time like the present is my second-ever blog post. Here's what I'd realized by this second post:

Yesterday when I set up my blog on a complete whim, I recognized my own Mrs. Putoffsky. She'd been hanging around so long she'd taken up residency. It was time to enroll her in the witness protection program.

Everyone's heard the phrase 'live each day as if it's your last.' If you're tossed out of the regular current of life and thrown gasping onto the bank, it's often hard to see your temporary vantage point for what it is. But it's a gift.

There's often a few cherished goals and desires permanently circling, waiting for the okay to land. I just got my clearance from the tower for my blog. I hadn't expected to get it from Dad, who's computer phobic.

Dad likes to make sure I'm safely launched and on my way. His recent detour onto his unexpected final journey gave me the push I needed to climb aboard the blog I've been yearning to sail.

For me, this blog began when I knew my dad's life was facing its final curtain. My writing took on a life-or-death quality, and I reached for life with everything inside of me.

Writers are constantly searching for time to get their stories out of their heads and onto the paper - or the screen. Successful writers make the time.

My blog was my first step toward making time for my writing.

For the Blog Improvement Challenge, I need to further define my blog's purpose. I've noticed that my arts-oriented posts put me in a category that encompasses more than writing. And I think that is a much more accurate depiction of who I am.

My group blog missmakeamovie focuses on film, television and pop culture. The dialogue with my fellow missmakeamovie bloggers fills me with joy. It's like oxygen to me.

The ballet performances I review show the heart beating inside of me.

The art work I've featured feeds my muse and excites my spirit.

Wordless Wednesday has given me a focus for my own photography as well as an enormous gallery of talent to visit.

The Poetry Train reawakened my soul in a way only a future poem can reveal.

The writers' network that my fellow bloggers have built between us encourages me beyond measure. The book reviews I've done for writers in my writers' group and for my blog friends have filled me with admiration and inspiration.

So to answer the question - what is my blog for?

A Piece of My Mind is a blog that celebrates the arts, encourages the creative, cheers the artist on and revels in the wonder of life.

The hard part for me is to set goals. I'm not a list-maker. I'm not a plotter. Goal-setting has the shadow of the list marring any possible attraction for me. But I set myself onto this challenge knowing I'd be pushing myself out of my comfort zones.

So my first goal for my blog is to showcase art work on my sidebar each month. I'm very image-oriented, and looking at the art feeds me in very important ways. I hope you'll enjoy my Sidebar Gallery - this month features the work of John Atkinson Grimshaw, Claude Monet, Arthur Lismer, Maud Lewis, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Carl Larsson, Cicely Mary Barker, Cornelius Krieghoff and Maxfield Parrish.