"Love & Light" By Elizabeth Baron

The world of the paranormal is one of the most misunderstood and ill-researched fields of life on earth and has, in this day and age, become all but a joke with the broadcast of countless reality shows run by people with questionable credentials. Phenomena beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation has proven to be almost impossible to investigate and accurately document. Elizabeth Baron's research is the rare exception; she has consistently sought to prove the existence of life after death over a period of nearly 40 years. Other researchers throughout history (Blavatsky, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Houdini, Maurice Maeterlinck, et. al.) all tried in earnest to find evidence that there is life beyond this world, life after death. But no one has been as tireless and determined to document true accounts of the many examples that evidences such phenomena; and this great teacher shows us these lessons by the example of her own life.

Elizabeth's memoir is about a real American girl born in the Depression Era deep south - a "Coal Miner's Daughter" tale, if you will, that follows her metamorphosis from a small cocoon to a woman of the world in 20th Century America, and on into the post 9/11 21st Century. She actively sought and found her place in order to live out a highly challenging destiny - what she refers to as her "sacred path," rife with obstacles, pain, suffering, loss and ultimately surrendering to the paternal comfort of the Great White Light she calls her Creator. Her undying belief in the power of prayer, the endless searching through the marvels and wonders of the many faiths that inspired her, constantly striving towards the reconciliation of her physical body to her spirit body, not to mention what she calls the mainstay of her life's work: her consistent message that meditation, going within and the silence of the mind could stop all wars, heal all wounds and bring about great revelations in body, mind and spirit is more than provocative. From the back hills of Tennessee to big city Chicago to San Diego where she studied and honed her craft - to her home in Charleston, South Carolina - the stories are entrancing, enthralling and full of vim and vigor. This book will surely end up having a second volume to follow... the stories are too numerous for a single edition. [more...]

Sandy Frazier News Update

Sandy has had a wonderful 2013 with the release of "Windows of My Soul" - 25 Years of Original Poetry, Song Lyrics & Art, Lyrics from Sandy's record, "Resurrection"...and songs from "Painting Music."

Her new single, "My New York Mood" is out on i-Tunes and Amazon... [see the lyrics here]. Go here to see the original artwork for the cover design. 

The new updated revised 2nd edition of "The Mystic Artist" is out on Amazon.com - with almost 100 more pages of Sandy's writings on art, culture, entertainment and mystic artists of all kinds.

She's working on her next book on art: "The Art of An American Girl" - which will be out late Winter of 2014.  This book tells the story of Sandy's life in art, complete with full-color photographs of some of her best paintings.

Sandy's next full length record, "Painting Music," is coming in 2014.  She is working with a wonderful producer and great musicians who are helping her to realize her dreams of the original visions for her songs. "Spectres," her next single, will be out at the end of December.  You can listen to some of Sandy’s songs on SoundCloud.

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• Mystic-Art Resources 
• Best of Photography 
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World Premiere of "My New York Mood" - Sandy's New Single

Sandy's new single, "My New York Mood" is out on SoundCloud - coming on i-Tunes, Tunecore, Amazon MP3 and more... 

Listen on Soundcloud

Read the Lyrics

Treasure Trove of Nazi-Looted Art

A trove of Nazi-looted art discovered in a German apartment contains previously unknown works by painters including Henri Matisse. More than 1,400 paintings, drawings and prints were found – dirty, but undamaged – in what experts say is one of the largest and most significant discoveries of masterpieces plundered by the Nazis, and which could be worth more than $1 billion.

After the first reports detailing the catalog of Nazi-looted art that was being stored among trash by Cornelius Gurlitt, new information has surfaced that indicates Gurlitt may have more artwork stored in Austria. In addition to learning more about the reclusive Gurlitt, German officials are calling for the list of artwork, 1,400 pieces that include works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse, to be revealed.  [more...]

"Windows of My Soul" Hits the Net!

Available Now on Amazon.com!

25 Years of Original Poetry, Song Lyrics & Art

Lyrics from Sandy's record, "Resurrection"

...and songs from "Painting Music"

Digitizing the Creative Heritage of Tolstoy

90 Volumes of Tolstoy in a Single Click: The work of digitizing the creative heritage of Leo Tolstoy united volunteers from the U.S., Germany, Brazil, and Argentina.    

On Sept. 9, on Leo Tolstoy’s 185^th birthday, the web portal www.tolstoy.ru was launched, offering details about the life and works of the great Russian writer. This was done concurrently with the opening of the Tolstoy State Museum and the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Estate.

For the first time, the web portal will present an electronic version of the 90-volume collection of Tolstoy’s writings.

The work to digitize the author’s writings was organized by the crowdsourcing project entitled “All Tolstoy in a Single Click.” This project was launched in June 2013, in cooperation with the Russian company ABBYY. [more...]

Long Lost Van Gogh Found

The Van Gogh Museum says it has identified a long-lost Vincent Van Gogh painting that spent years in a Norwegian attic because it was thought not to be authentic. It is the first full-size canvas by the Dutch master discovered since 1928.

"Sunset at Montmajour" depicts a dry landscape of oak trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van Gogh's familiar thick brush strokes. It can be dated to the exact day it was painted because Vincent described it in a letter to his brother, Theo, and said he painted it the previous day — July 4, 1888. [more...]

Rodriguez - Real Live Soul Minstrel

"Searching for Sugarman" is a documentary about a Detroit-based folk singer who faded into obscurity in the early '70s.  You might think at first glance he's a combination of Jose Feliciano and Bob Dylan, but this man is more a combination of Gandhi and John Lennon.  Humble, rich in soul and truly his own man, Rodriguez is one in a million. Listen here.
His official site
The documentary

Bob Gruen - Chronicler of NYC Rock 'n' Roll

I always wondered who took that great photo of John Lennon wearing the New York City T-shirt.  Bob Gruen is the photographer extraordinaire behind many of the most iconic photographs that literally wrote the history of rock 'n' roll in New York and beyond. 

Bob Gruen has been in the business of photographing the New York City rock scene for decades. Rock 'n' Roll Exposed tells his story and is a great documentary that will inspire musicians, photographers and artists for generations to come. [more...]

The Frick Collection: The Impressionist Line from Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec

I was lucky to be able to catch this exhibition at the Frick Mansion in NYC yesterday.  It took my breath away.  From the Toulouse-Lautrec lithographs, to the Gauguins to the incredible Degas drawings, I was in awe.

This exhibition presents a selection of nineteenth-century French drawings and prints from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Sheets by Millet, Courbet, Degas, Manet, Pissarro, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and other masters are on view. Ranging widely in subject matter and technique and spanning the entire second half of the nineteenth century, these works represent the diverse interests of Realist, Impressionist, and Post-Impressionist artists in a rapidly changing world. Graphite and charcoal drawings of classically idealized nudes exhibit the virtuoso finish and illusionism long championed by academic tradition while rapidly executed sketches present more candid and provocative renderings of the body. Luminous pastels and watercolors capture impressions of city and country, and lively etchings and vivid color lithographs convey the spectacle and atmosphere of modern life. Populating these images are peasants, performers, racehorses, and mythological goddesses. Settings vary from the French countryside and far-flung islands to Parisian cafés and dancehalls, shifting back and forth between labor and leisure, highlife and low. [more...]

Carol Burnett: Great American Humorist

Carol Burnett, who became famous for playing a variety of characters in sketch comedy routines on her namesake television show, was named the winner of the nation's top humor prize on Tuesday.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts said Burnett will receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Oct. 20 in Washington. A gala performance featuring top names in comedy will be taped and broadcast nationally Oct. 30 on PBS.

The 80-year-old Burnett said she can't believe she is receiving the prize from the Kennedy Center. "It's almost impossible to be funnier than the people in Washington," she said in a statement. [more...]

Bourdain Continues to do Important Work in the World... His Own Way

They originally labeled him the 'bad boy chef,' but Anthony Bourdain, throughout his extraordinary exploration of the world and all its many cultures - not to mention his metamorphosis from chef to writer to world traveler, back to the realization that he himself made that he is truly a WRITER - has matured into a true ambassador of the Earth.  Many of his fans - me included - were suspicious of his new contract with CNN; however, we secretly understood that it was a natural evolution for him to continue his work in this world.  We didn't think he could be 'himself' bound by the limitations of prime time television.  We were wrong.

Tony is a fearless universal being - evidenced as he himself promised us all in his very first shows - from A Cook's Tour to No Reservations and The Layover - when he told us there was nothing he wouldn't try, that he'd go to the ends of the earth and that he had nothing to lose... from bungee jumping to skiing, swimming with sharks, almost dying of snail poisoning... visiting the ruins of Katrina and Haiti... his shows taught me more in one year - like a crash course in (to say the least) 'expanding one's horizons' while parked in front of a TV - than any class, book or college course I could ever have taken.  

His latest show, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown for CNN is Bourdain Deluxe - fatty, succulent, delicious, with a full side of fries, perfect Chinese pickles, dumplings, and a pho included!  It's panoramic, splendificous, tasty... "GOOD," as Tony, himself, admitted was the only thing left to say about the most delicious food he could find on the planet to eat and enjoy and describe as he devoured life at its fullest, to be filled beyond repair.

In my opinion his programs should be taught in every college classroom in the world! And it all started with a little memoir he wrote called Kitchen Confidential.


[Go here for the latest program on CNN...]

RIP Roger!

Roger Ebert, the most famous and most popular film reviewer of his time who became the first journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for movie criticism and, on his long-running TV program, wielded the nation's most influential thumb, died Thursday. He was 70. [more...]

Ready My article from 2011 on Siskel & Ebert: 
http://sandyfrazier.blogspot.com/2011/03/phantom-ebert.html

Hendrix Recordings Resurrection

Jimi Hendrix, considered by many to be the greatest guitar player of all time, will have three new albums out this week. But sadly, this isn’t a story of resurrection.

Hendrix died 43 years ago of a drug overdose. Since then there have been more than three dozen albums released of his songs, the most recent coming out in 2011.

One of this week’s albums, however, will have 12 previously unreleased studio recordings that the album’s co-producer said is a Jimi many have yet to hear, “away from his record company’s expectations and his working band’s limitations.” [more...]

Hendrix at 70: New album offers different look
Hendrix sought inspiration in the studio - jamming.
http://jimihendrix.com

Celebrating Ceija Stojka

Roma artist, writer on Nazi atrocities, dies at 79

Ceija Stojka survived three Nazi death camps and then found her life's work: Raising awareness of the Nazis' persecution of Roma - also known as Gypsies - in her art and her writings. Stojka carried the horrors of those camps with her until she was in her 50s, speaking out in words and pictures only decades after she was liberated from the Bergen-Belsen camp at age 12. The Budapest-based European Roma Cultural Foundation described Stokja's concentration-camp themed paintings to The Associated Press on Wednesday as reflecting "entrenched sorrow in the bodies and spirit of the victims." [more...]

CEIJA STOJKA 1933 – 2013 : "If the world does not change now, if the world does not open its doors and windows, if it does not build peace - true peace - so that my great-grandchildren have a chance to live in this world, then I cannot explain why I survived Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Ravensbruck." Go here to watch Marika Schmiedt’s film Vermachtnis Legacy about Ceija Stojka

Stojka, who is self-taught, didn’t begin to make art until she was 56. She suddenly felt compelled to paint and draw and used the materials at hand - pieces of cardboard, glass jars, postcards and salt dough. “I work with everything that comes between my fingers,” she writes. The constant torment of the living hell in her mind takes haunting form in her crude style: Stojka uses her fingers and toothpicks instead of brushes to apply the paint and ink. This lends the work an eerie, childlike quality that makes even more horrific her depictions of the day-to-day anguish of living under constant threat of dying from starvation or the gas chambers.  [more...]

Paul Williams: Still Alive

Paul Williams has always been one of my favorite songwriters.  He wrote and starred in The Phantom of the Paradise, a cult film from the '70s that changed my life!  It was surprising to me that a lot of people thought he was dead! 

Quite the contrary!  Paul is very much alive and still performs and writes songs.  There is a documentary playing now on cable called "Still Alive" that tells the story of this talented singer and composer.

"A funny thing happened to Stephen Kessler on his way to completing Paul Williams Still Alive, his affectionate portrait of the diminutive dynamo who loomed improbably large as a pop-culture luminary during the 1970s. After serendipitously tracking down his childhood idol, and starting production on what he clearly intended - initially, at least - as a melancholy ode to a faded star, Kessler wound up forging an unlikely friendship and, in the process, making a richer, deeper and more idiosyncratic documentary." Go here to watch the official trailer.

I actually heard from Paul in November 2005 and he recommended his fans visit his official site.