Created by Carolyn

"Imaginary Bands..." book cover + Finger Lips Records logo Hey Reader, After four years of angst, frustration, and ‘page fright’ about facing an audience every week, I’ve finally wrapped my heart around creating a consistent email missive. Writing in different disciplines for different platforms sometimes feels like dangling between Oz and Middle Earth. But after I started following the advice I give my students about utilizing their ‘power of perspective’, I’m excited to launch this digital...

CLICK HERE TO HEAR ME READ THIS Reader, It feels like Christmas music slithers its way onto to the airwaves earlier and earlier every year. 2025 was no exception, when I was accosted by an EDM version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” strolling through a retail outlet on Halloween. When it was followed by a weak ‘discofied’ version of “All I Want For Christmas”, I left the store, because it felt like they were trying to scare the Christmas spirit into me. Or subliminally guilt me into coming...

CLICK HERE TO HEAR ME READ THIS Reader, While inanimate human-generated objects often litter my path, I also frequently encounter an array of natural wonders that intuit their stories. Though they appear to pose for the spotlight of my lens, I’ve never staged one. Not the 3 tiny rocks carefully placed along the spine of a feather on the beach. Nor any of the heart-shaped rocks and leaves in my “Love Fearless & Dance” collection, or the “Time + Tide” glyphs etched into the sand by sea water....

CLICK HERE TO HEAR ME READ THIS Hey Reader, In last week’s epilogue, I promised a crackling quirky love story. But on the eve of commemorating the 40th anniversary of my brother’s death, due to senseless violence, my heart was engulfed by a graver tinsel. Like the .001% of us who have been creatively nourished by ancestors who maintained their authentic voices by being as transparent as Saran Wrap, I’d be disingenuous at best to ‘play in your face’ like a social media influencer, only...

CLICK HERE TO HEAR ME READ THIS Hey Reader, If you’ve been following me a minute, you know I’ve been shooting still photographs since I was 7. Inspired by a first and second grade assignment to ‘use our vocabulary words’ to write stories about pictures from Time and Life magazines, and classic artworks. Thus, when I picked up my mother’s Brownie camera my first instinct was to tell stories with pictures. Early subjects were trees and fields in different seasons, cats, my dog Snoopy, and of...

Click HERE to hear me read this “Some day when I’m awfully low, and the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you, and the way you look tonight.” — “The Way You Look Tonight” Written by Jerome Kern & Dorothy Fields. Sinatra’s version is my favorite! In my recent “Reflections” story, I cited the contrasts of past and future, place & time. I was definitely feeling ‘some kind of way’ when I shot this photo. It was October 2016. I’d just come back from Belfast, Northern Ireland,...

Listen to me read this HERE Dovetailing from last week’s note, I want to reiterate how much I love shooting ‘still life’ objects on sidewalks, beaches and places where things don’t seem like they belong. Or evidently wound up in a location by some kind of drama: boots, bras, panties, roses and plastic bats to name a few. This lone ‘ultra-low-karat-gold’ earring carried a vibration of its own. Though I didn’t witness the moment it tumbled down to the curb, one can imagine the resounding light...

Hey Reader, On my walking meditation this morning, I contemplated how blessed I’ve been to not have a car the last few years. Once considered a deadly sin in the olden days of Southern California before Lyft, Uber & the Metro (which can get you from Sunset & Vine to Universal City in 10 minutes. Impossible on 'the 101'), ‘carlessness' has enabled me to experience the world with new eyes. Often more entertaining than shows created by people navigating 6-figure vehicles across freeways. No dig....

Hey Reader, Who doesn’t sing along with Diana Ross harmonizing, “Reflections of, the way life used to be. Reflections of, the love you took from me…” every time you hear it? Some of us may not remember why we went into the kitchen, but we can recall every lyric in that funky baseline, littered with psychedelic motifs. While that melody serves up a soothing groove, the lyrics recount the anguish of heartbreak. Rhythmic evidence that life’s flow often dangles between light and dark. More on...