thoughts | jeanette joy harris

To bag or not to bag: Neiman Marcus accepts peasant cards

November 29, 2011 by Jeanette Joy Harris

When I am feeling highly optimistic, I hit Neiman Marcus where everything fashionable seems possible. From old lady glamour to funky minimal art snob and nouveau old-school sophisticate, I <heart> Neiman Marcus but not because I have bought a ton of stuff there. In fact, I have only purchased two items from NM, and that was this fall for a birthday present. My earliest experience with NM was when my grandmother would take me there to look at (over-priced) children’s […]

Categories: thoughts • Tags: expensive goods on budget, Neiman Marcus, Neiman Marcus accepts Visa, shopping with cash

T-Day: Thankful that I’m neither Emma Bovary or Bella Cullen

November 23, 2011 by Jeanette Joy Harris

I just finished watching Madame Bovary. I have read the Gustave Flaubert novel twice — once as a teenager, having much compassion for a young girl trapped in pastoral solitude and then again as adult, confounded by the interconnection between fate and desire. If you’re not familiar with the fate of Emma Bovary, here is a quick summary. Emma was educated in a convent in Latin, music, art, etc so so she be a proper gentlemen’s wife. Once her education was […]

Categories: thoughts • Tags: Bella Cullen, Madame Bovary

Viva la revolucion pero con banos! Occupy Wall Street kicked out of Park

November 16, 2011 by Jeanette Joy Harris

There is a fine line between protest and occupation, liberation and tyranny and that is why Occupy Wall Street continues to be a mystery to me. Hence the Delacroix, above. In the past day, Mayor Bloomberg has evicted Occupy Wall Street protestors from Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan. Here is my question — was he right to do this? Political ideologies notwithstanding, it’s interesting to think about this action in relation to the distinction between public and private spaces. Zuccotti Park […]

Categories: thoughts • Tags: Occupy Wall Street

My haiku is faster than yours!

November 2, 2011 by Jeanette Joy Harris

Poetry can be oh-so complicated and high brow but sometimes it’s just as good to “keep it simple” which is what my friend CS and I did over lunch yesterday when we had our very first haiku competition. But before that, a few rules about haikus that you might have forgotten since you last wrote one in the 3rd grade. They have a basic construction. Line #1 has 5 syllables. Line #2 has 7 syllables and Line #3 has 5 […]

Categories: thoughts • Tags: haiku

From Virginity to Marriage: Jeffrey Eugenides at Inprint tonight

October 26, 2011 by Jeanette Joy Harris

Pulitzer prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides will at Imprint tonight to read from his new novel “The Marriage Plot” and I am super excited. I was introduced to JE by my friend AB who lent me a copy “Middlesex” which, I fear, I did not return in the condition with which it was given to me. “The Marriage Plot” continues JE’s string of sexually charged novel titles whose works do not usually center around anything “sexy” at all. Because I haven’t read the […]

Categories: thoughts • Tags: book signing Houston, Inprint, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, The Marriage Plot, The Virgin Suicides

My muse is defective: James Franco versus Xanadu

August 24, 2011 by Jeanette Joy Harris

I was talking to KR this morning and she proclaimed — my muse is defective. Let me back up, we were talking about writing. Since we were able to hold a pen without thinking that we could chew on it and get equal enjoyment, we have written. Oh the tales our journals hold! Not written because we believed we would be the next Anais Nin but because it was a way to get out of our head, make sense of the garble […]

Categories: thoughts • Tags: creative strategies, creative thinking, creativity, Jmes Franco, Olivia Newton John, The Muses, Xanadu

The Office Tango

July 28, 2011 by Jeanette Joy Harris

Lately I find myself talking more and more about dance and not necessarily about the virtues of Ann Reinking. Mostly I talk about dance at work, which seems paradoxical. How could an office be likend to dancing? Most frequently I hear myself say, “well, we’re now going to do the dance.” Studying ballet, modern, and ballroom dancing partnering was something I became accustomed to. Trying to trust someone enough to work with them so you can create something beautiful, was an […]

Categories: dance | theatre | music, thoughts • Tags: Argentine tango, office politics, tango dancing

To Suit or not to Suit? The politics of dressing at work

July 11, 2011 by Jeanette Joy Harris

I have never been a suit wearer. There is something about it that just freaks me out. And even though Armani, Dior, Ralph Lauren and countless others have made careers out of beautiful women’s suits, I just can’t hang. Something about basically covering yourself up in one swatch of fabric with perhaps a pop of color for your undershirt and some appropriate earrings just makes me cringe. It’s just not my thing. When I told one of my friends three […]

Categories: fashion, thoughts • Tags: DIversity, DIversity in the Workplace, Express Yourself, Madonna, powersuit

After the Glitter Fades – Lady Gaga and Marie Antoinette

July 9, 2011 by Jeanette Joy Harris

I was at Target this morning, before everyone else was out of bed, staring at the tabloids. I saw an US Weekly devoted to Katy Perry. Really? I understand that I am in the minority but she annoys me. Additionally, I know she is good-girl-just-above-the-legal-age-reformed-Christian- sex- on-a-stick for many guys out there but I just want to shake my finger and say – Katy, you are so much smarter than this! So confused by an entire publication devoted to this short term pop […]

Categories: dance | theatre | music, fashion, thoughts • Tags: 50 Cent, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Carole King, Duke Ellington, Eddie Veder, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Marie Antoinette, Natalie Merchant, Petit Trianon, Sarah McLachlan, Shakira, Sofia Copolla, Stevie Nicks, Tori Amos, Versailles

jeanette joy harris

writing + art

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