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- Literature:
Novels I've read lately include The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen, The Handyman by Carolyn See, and I'm currently making a second go at A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Eggers), though so far I think the most "genius" filled part of the book is the front- and backmatter, which gave me more than a few really good chuckles. This book is written by a writer for writers, and the front- and backmatter caters to the self-conscious vanity a writer feels about his or her work. (At least, it spoke to ME.)Novels that had a lasting impact: Memoirs of a Geisha, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Thompson), Clockwork Orange (Burgess), all of Barbara Kingsolver´s books, The House of Spirits (Allende), Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), Dharma Bums and On the Road (Kerouac), Last Call (Tim Powers), and in my early childhood, The Secret Garden, all of Louisa May Alcott´s books, and The Earth-Sea Trilogy (LeGuin).
Poetry: My favorite poems are by Edna St. Vincent Millay (First Fig), Charles Baudelair (Be Drunk), Denise Levertov (The Mutes), Walt Whitman (I Sing the Body Electric), Jim Morrison (can't say I have ONE favorite here) Pablo Neruda (Poet´s Obligation), e.e. cummings (i like my body when it is with your), .
Nonfiction: Existentialism, Jean Paul Sartre. Living My Life, Emma Goldman. Freedom is a Two-Edge Sword, John Whiteside Parsons.
- Performing arts:
Burlesque, circus (of the new variety), dance (favorite choreographers: Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham. Favorite styles: Modern ballet, hip hop, flamenco, and garden-variety stripper.), performance art, monologue, theatre.- Film:
Foreign, independent and American classic. Faves: Cabaret (with Liza Minelli and Joel Grey), The Scent of Green Papaya, Tampopo, Bagdad Cafe, Blade Runner (director´s cut), After Sex (Post Coitum) (Briggite Rouan), An Afair of Love, The Graduate, and anything by Almodóvar, but especially Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, Live Flesh (Carne Trèmula) and All About My Mother. I appreciate foreign films because they are often not as formulaic or predictable as American films. You don't always get a happy ending, so you get to keep on guessing up until the film ends.- Music:
I love old-school, political punk rock, with faves being Crass and the Clash. I also love working class folk, with Billy Bragg and Ani diFranco at the top of that list. On other fronts, I like the traditional chick shit; Tori Amos, and, ummm, Liz Phair, Macy Gray, Dido (cringing in embarrsment, here, to admit to liking anything so pop)... Then there's the not-so traditional chick shit, like pj harvey, Mystic, and Aimee Mann. And the pseudo-witchy chick shit, like Sarah McLachlin.I have lately been listening to the recent Dixie Chicks album, Home. I think their cover of Landslide is probably as good as the Fleetwood Mac original, and have found a lot of the other songs on the album, like the title track Home, to be really excellent as well. It´s a little visit to my childhood; I was a huge country (that's old-school country!) listener as a kid. For my 12th birthday I wanted a cowboy hat, a horse and a cowboy...
Defying categorization, and other left-overs: I love Tricky (Maxinquaye), The Cure, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen. Husker Dü. Michael Franti. David Bowie. And my husband, Bobby Cochran, of course.
- Website development:
I do all of my own website design and maintanance, using only HTML coding. It's lo-tech, but it works!- Sex, Sexuality and Gender:
I believe sex is a revolutionary topic. My heroes of sex and gender revolution are Victoria Claflin Woodhull, Emma Goldman, David Bowie, Susie Bright, Madonna, John Whiteside Parsons, Prince, Dr. Carol Queen and Anka, among others.- Philosophy:
My thinking has been vastly impacted by Jean Paul Sartre, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, Martin Buber, and John Whiteside Parsons.- Family:
Attachment parenting, the Continuum Concept, new formats for relationship, negotiation, communication, integrity.- Community:
Thinking beyond the Nuclear Family, extended families and support, giving back, plugging in, connecting. Egalitarian models of social structure.- Religion and Spirituality:
I refer to myself, when pressed for a defintion or a lable, as an eclectic spiritualist. I am a second generation Pagan, now raising my two children with an Earth-based consciousness and a polytheistic worldview. My spiritual orientation is a mix of Thelemic, Celtic, American Indian, Hellenic, Buddhist, Sufi, Gnostic Christian, Ceremonial, and Shamanistic influences, with a healthy dose of Existentialism, Anarchism, and the natural sciences thrown in.I was raised "on the land" in Mendocino County, California. The land, and my experience of it, impacted the construtction of my spiritual sensibilites greatly. As a child I was blessed with faerie sight, and I still believe. I am an experienced ritualist and a recreational religious historian. Home schooled through high school, I learned history from Oberon (previously Otter) Zell, founder of the Church of All Worlds (CAW). I was ordained by the CAW in 1999.
- Health and Fitness:
Alternative healing and health maintenance, fitness, meditation, mental health, psychology, biopsychology, medicine, body image, stress relief and awareness, exercise, outdoors, martial arts.Site Map: LaSara's Calendar of Events LaSara's Workshops News!
Publication History Media Appearances Associations Achievements Personal Interests
Links Of Interest Sexuality Resources