The nature of things

simply aria, originally uploaded by arialee miles.

It seems useless and meaningless,
surreal and unbalanced, reckless nonetheless .
It looks like a joke and you won’t believe me!
It seems strange but I swear it is true.
Like a slow dance following its own music,
It starts from my legs, crawls along my sides
passes by my tummy, tickles my navel
and goes to sit just behind my heart,
where is said stays the place of the soul.
It allows the body to shake and twist
and my heart to make somersaults,
then it reaches my mind in a nonsense symphony .
It might seems odd and not true,
adolescent exaggeration,
psychotic addition, maybe a compulsion !
But fact is that I can’t help it,
it takes over me and makes me
full of a meaning I had never had.
I am aware, I acknowledge, I know it
and yet I flow in this conscious trance
enjoying every minute of it,
knowing I have never been this way before.
I don’t wonder about the nature of things,
I am not the exact semantic police
nor the labeling feelings watchdog !
I don’t give definitions, calculations, previsions,
observations, information, assumptions !
I don’t blackmail any other persuasion
with the strength of my sure conviction!
I just know what I feel and I stay with my
determination, secure and sure.
Eyes well open and well steady heart.
I am where I am, where I have to stay
and where you will find me tomorrow.

no violence.

no violence., originally uploaded by arialee miles.

Too often they call love what is only craving of possession, they call affection what is only prevarication , too often they sell for fondness what is only desire of revenge .
Too many women are maltreated , abused ,threatened , wounded and murdered by whom should have care of them. Too many times women are silent for a misunderstood , twisted sense of loyalty , too many times they cover who should face the consequences of their actions .
Lets tell NO to the violence , a little voice that with other many little voices becomes a deafening rumble . Lets stand up and say NO to violence agaisnt women .

STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN SPREAD AWARENESS !!!!

Troppo spesso chiamano amore quello che è solo possesso , affetto quello che è prevaricazione , troppo spesso vendono l'affezione per quello che è solo voglia di vendetta .
Troppe donne sono maltrattate , perseguitate , ferite ed uccise da chi dovrebbe aver cura di loro . Troppe volte le donne tacciono per un senso distorto di lealtà , troppe volte coprono chi dovrebbe affrontare le conseguenze del loro agire .
Diciamo no alla violenza , una piccola voce si alza e con altre piccole voci diventa un boato . Diciamo no alla violenza sulle donne .

DI NO alla violenza sulle donne

Diffondi consapevolezza !

passionate in vain

into white, originally uploaded by arialee miles.

The sluggishness of a day, passionate in vain,
catches me unexpected, and the air of a new fall
surprises me again.

The sun in its envious turning flatters me with an embrace.
Late season, ultimate attempt
of languorous mildness.

I observe myself crying, and I don’t see my face.
How have I been able to not recognize myself
in my true nature ?

I can’t say I’ve gotten lost, because I don’t know
if through the flowing of time, I have ever been able
to find myself .

I live halfway, suspended in an undefined space,
in the acute percipience of my senses,
being on the alert.

I am going away, I leave myself.
My strength slowly extinguishes itself,
engulfed by still parasites.

Eyes more empty, a more tired heart,
my mind chases after my soul in its
failed outbursts.

That’s why I survive under this sick sun,
driving myself back, refusing myself
the colour of a thought.



Via Flickr:
dress Entre Mares

noise
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJNH6l9APJU&feature=related

Hope for Emilia

July 22 opens the doors Hope for Emilia the charity event organized by Miss Virtual World Anna Sapphire to raise funds to benefit the population affected by the earthquake in Emilia Romagna (Italy ).
The event will last till August 9 and will include a summer  fashion fair , fashion shows, an art expo  and other entertainment events.

Every designer will present a selection of their recent products  and has kindly created an exclusive items that will be sold to benefit 100% the charity.

In next days this blog and other credited ones will showcase the exclusive items created by the talented designers who joined Hope for Emilia.

 I hope to see everyone there having fun and shopping for a great cause .
HOPE FOR EMILIA slurl   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Creative%20Virtual%20Worlds/70/80/1026

* HOPE FOR EMILIA OFFICIAL BLOGGERS *
FEMALE BLOGGERS:
Ai Hienrichs - http://aihienrichs.wordpress.com/
Amalia Foxtrot - http://www.glance-international.com/
Amita Yorcliffe - http://amitayorcliffe.blogspot.com/
Anabella Ravinelli - http://anabellaravinelli.blogspot.com/
Angels Milena - http://www.angelsmilena.blogspot.com/
AnnaG Pfeffer - http://lookforatrend.blogspot.com.es/
Arialee Miles - http://arialeeslook.blogspot.it/
babychampagne sass - http://babychampagnesass.blogspot.hk/
Betrice Serendipity - http://beatriceserendipity.blogspot.co.uk/
Carley Benazzi - http://carleybenazzi.wordpress.com/
Chirzaka Vlodovic - http://www.modaviafashionmarketing.com/wordpress/the-home-of-couture/
Cindy Gedenspire - http://cindygedenspire.blogspot.com/
Dove Triellis - http://sldelights.blogspot.com
Draakje Dailey - www.daileydoodles.wordpress.com
Ellendir Khandr - http://hestrofashion.blogspot.it/
Falbala Fairey - http://falbalafaireyfashionblog.wordpress.com/
Jenie Jennings - http://slfashionlife.blogspot.com/
Joselyni Ferber - http://joselyniferber.wordpress.com/
Keira Tyles - http://keirastyles.wordpress.com/
KymSara Rayna - http://notionstyle.wordpress.com/
Leah McCullough - http://leahmccullough.net
Ligia Aries - http://ligiaaries.blogspot.com.es/
Locuala Madruga - http://elbauldelaconchapiquer.blogspot.com.es/
LolaLove Lecker - http://lolalovelecker.wordpress.com/
Mischa Cuttita - http://mischacuttita.wordpress.com/
Nala Kurka - http://fashionjunkies.wordpress.com/
Natalia Corvale - http://x-ahotmess-x.blogspot.com/
Nyree Soulstar - http://naadawid.blogspot.co.nz
prazillo Lemon - http://prazillolemon.blogspot.com
Rehana Seljan - http://rehanas.blogspot.jp/
Sequoia Nightfire - http://notionstyle.wordpress.com/
sinontherocks Resident - http://absinthemontenegro.wordpress.com/
Skylei Caproni - http://skyleissecretcloset.wordpress.com/
Teyara Mayo - http://teyara.slmame.com/
Wicca Merlin - http://wiccamerlin.wordpress.com/

MALE BLOGGERS:
Liam Netizen - http://liamnetizen.wordpress.com/
MathieuL Bravin - http://mathieulbravin.wordpress.com/
Tadeu Gartner - http://tadeugartner.wordpress.com
Zachary Zufreur -  http://zacharyzufreur.wordpress.com

STAND4LOVE

STAND4LOVE, originally uploaded by arialee miles.

STAND4LOVE
Each one of us has the right to liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. Everyone has the right to love and be loved in return. GAY, LESBIAN, STRAIGHT, TRANSGENDERED or BISEXUAL…..Sexual Orientation or Race shouldn’t Matter. The FREEDOM to LOVE is fundamental as the FREEDOM to BREATHE. Two adults should have the right to love without discrimination and intolerance. Marriage should be available to any loving couple. Let’s end hatred and discrimination now. Stand UP and be counted!!!

STAND 4 LOVE is an awareness charity project to promote the visibility and rights of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Straight loving couples to have the right to marry and be recognized by the law across the world. It will be a picture campaign in Second Life to spread awareness and promote equality and tolerance. Each participant will take a picture of themselves in a plain white or black background then add the Stand4Love Logo. They will then put their message of support as well as their SL name and/or Title/Business (Optional) in the picture.



stand4love.wordpress.com/how-to-help/

Working with a photographer

Photographers, the good ones at least, are artists, so usually they don’t live on the same  planet of us mortals, they live floating in a third dimension and, if we are lucky,  they land on earth  just the time to make our shots, if we are not so lucky they will take our photos from the sidereal space where their busy minds reside. In that last case some problem of communication could arise.

Then as models, and well trained ones, is our duty to pull their jacket  (or their skirt)  to bring them on planet earth from their artistic vision  located on Mars  or its immediate surroundings.

Our duty is to be full of good sense  and try to build a good relation with the photographers we are working with.

That because an attentive, expert and well  trained  eye  can immediately sense by the result of the image if there was a good relation between the two professionals working together.

And that has nothing to do with the skills of the photographer or the skills of the model. It is an hint of attitude and  pure chemistry.

In fact the agencies, the jury of a contest and  the chief editor of a magazine can tell you  at first sight  if a photo came out  “well” or came out  “not-so-good”. If the two were able to build a good  professional relation aimed to the success of the picture  or if they simple packed a decent artisanal product.

And that not because the pose or the light or the styling, but because of that “thing” that “special speciality” which nobody-can-exactly-define  but  everyone (agencies, magazines, designers, photographers, fellow models, public of a show, reader of a magazine)  is looking for .

 So be ready to the surreal !!

We models when work with a photographer have the professional duty  to give definition and life to something which has no name and body and that none, not even the most experienced photographer, will be ever able to explain you. But everyone will expect from you to express.

Moreover the artistic outcome can easily translate  in the overall judgement about  you and your attitude,  if you are a  model easy to work with, an expressive one, one who can be called again. In few words a good print  model.

I know it is not fair but, without any doubt,  life is not fair at all !

Because, and none of us dares to think something different, unless the photographer has really a bad character and so lacking of communicative abilities or he  is really a bad professional alas poorly technically skilled,  usually the responsibility of the good result of the teamwork is on the model.

First, because good photographers are really rare and far more precious, for designers, agencies and magazines  than average  and even than  top models, secondly,  because if the photographer has a good relation with a “N“ number of models and not with you,  usually is not the photographer’s fault,  it is yours.

To build a good relation with the photographer you work with is something different that to have an average good relation with someone you occasionally work with,  because he/she will be the one who will bring your image from  your own private to the public.

The photographer is the one that with his work will translate your inner world into a public image aimed to give emotion.

The photographer is the mean to realize successfully your public printed  image, is the bridge between your individual sphere to the collective eye.

And I don’t mean only the display of the dress you are wearing, the right angle for the right pose, because that is in the professional luggage of every good artisan of the camera.

I mean the patience and the will  to wait that particular light of your eyes, that glimpse, that moving of your head, that particular floating of your dress, that line of your hair,  that move of eyelashes  which can  transform a portrait or a  simple commercial for a shop  in a little “work of art”.

Of course, a part some general rule which pertains  more to the good training of a model, the overall  good education and the right attitude,  the case in which you work with a photographer “working for yourself “ is different from the case in which you work with a photographer “for a designer, a magazine,  or for the photographer itself ”.

Meaning the first, the case when you booked a photo session with a photographer you usually picked among the others  to have one or more photos  for yourself (portfolio, contest , portrait  and similar), and the second case when you work with a photographer (that usually you didn’t choose) aimed to make vendors for a store,  photo for a magazine  or for the photographer’s use  and other aims that are not your exclusive personal use.

Anyway there are common rules that pertain to both the cases and make the difference between a professional model and a simply good looking  girl with some poses and a few decent dresses in her inventory.

So try to always arrive there with the outfits selected and styled exactly like for a fashion show so  to allow yourself  to  change quickly when required.  If the photo session is outdoor or you wear a particular difficult dress, jewels or hair try to select in advance some appropriate poses and  have  them ready in a HUD.

Photographers don’t read your mind and don’t know how your dress, your jewels  and your hair  will interact with a certain pose, so it is your job to present yourself in the best way and not compel both to spend hours after the search of a suitable pose.

Make of punctuality your honour point and be always there on time  to not delay the photographer’s agenda. 

Leave out the door any diva attitude and be ready to politely explain or even  discuss, if necessary, what you are able to discuss, alas things that are in your professional and experience luggage.   But please avoid to discuss his technical choices and  accept instead to be guided with humbleness.  You will gain from it.

You can be the most flattered and competent  of the top models, a styling proficient, the icon of the crowds and the queen of the runways in all known and unknown grids, but if the skin/hair /dress/whatever  you chose for the  shot doesn’t match with the item to advertise or with that  background you like a lot  or with  the light  required for that shot  (and I sure you  a bad styling moment can happen to everyone in every moment ) .....  it doesn’t match .....full stop !! There is very little to say more. It is not professional and utterly useless to further discuss.

We model have so much to learn by good photographers,  so instead to waste energies making useless polemic about the tone of a skin, the colour of the hair  or the allure  of an impossible fashion accessory we should stay cool, attentive  and silent  and  “ steal “ some professional secret about  photography  while we are there. At least that has always been my attitude. I try to be a sponge while I work with really good professionals.

And mind you if you are stubborn about one of the above issues  and the photographer, in the case the photo is for your exclusive use, at last (often exhausted) stops to discuss and does as you want, it doesn’t mean you have won but just that you are not worth any further loss of time.

Be ready to tweak your shape to meet the exigency of particular garments , or edit your accessories in unexpected ways  when required,  because  to edit  prim attachments for photos is very different than edit for runway, it depends by the angle of the photo and the eye of the photographer.

Do  not leave your gracious puppet  there on the pose stand   going browsing elsewhere, furiously sending IMs around  or worse going dinner or making something else. Stay there and cooperate. Never forget it is a team work.

 If you have to leave for a moment, excuse yourself as you would do (I hope that you would do !) in every other social situation and try to be right back.

Of course when we book  a photo session for ourselves ( and we pay for it) we are the “product to sell” so  to be the star of the photo we must be able to clearly explain, if we like or need to do so,  what we are looking for, what must be the overall feeling of the photo, what is the photo aimed for (contest, casting , portfolio etc.).

We have the right and the duty  to be clear, and more explicative and competent we are, easier will be for the photographer to follow us, to channel his creativity towards our needs and better will be the outcome.

We have the right to suggest a pose, or refuse another if we don’t feel it is suitable or worse we find it not  appropriate, we have the right to choose, suggest or refuse a background or the setting if it is not what we are looking for  and , if we have the competence (but only in that case),  we can even spend a word about the lights and the angle.

But I must say in my experience usually good photographers always like to discuss and cooperate with the model they are working with, and if the model is really a good one and the photographer is a smart one  the work  can even become an occasion of professional growth for both . As should be in all teams.

So the matter after all is only to make the right choice of photographer, and a choice is good when it is aware. So try to look their works around, take detailed infos about their availability, their reliability and the time and  effort they can/want  put in the work before to book one.

Another complete, different issue is when for a chance, a not controllable event ,  a mistake of evaluation we work with a-not-so-good photographer and we are not happy with the work.

Now the concept of good and bad is usually very relative, so to be more precise let  say a photographer we don’t share the vision  or that we are not in syntony with.

That is a very delicate moment because not only the work but even the whole relation can take a bad turn or even unpleasant consequences.

The dissent must be always polite, polemic must be avoided in any case,  and bear in mind none can go beyond their limits,  so specially if you chose the photographer by yourself maybe  the mistake  was yours, maybe you were not accurate about the understanding of his style  and your expectations maybe too high or divergent  compared to his actual  possibilities, tastes and skills.

There is a basic principle borrowed from  the Ancient Roman Law and it is “ad impossibilia nemo tenetur”  (none can be compelled to do not possible things)  and that is even more true when we think  to things even vaguely related to the concept of creativity and  art.

In short if a photographer is basically a  not –so- good- one, or one with a style completely different from your desiderata,  it is impossible he will become suddenly good or compatible  just for us and our photos !

So relax and make a better choice the next time, experience is precious even in that . J

Namaste 

farewell smile

Will you regret the time we had
while you drive along your dreams?
Will I regret the words I didn't tell you?
So many questions left unresolved
lost in a gesture pale in background.

I walk  along the desert shoreline,
folding our past story like an origami bird
that  flies off singing its end
a lonely voice in this last blast of wind.

And I look a gust  twirling the sand,
a plastic bag attempting a  flight
stubborn continues its useless journey
moving its wings from nothing to nowhere,
gliding and falling down just near my hopes .

This leaden daybreak  embraces my thoughts
transporting them with the rhythm of the tides.
I lose my glance behind the horizon line
when I remember  your farewell smile,
and I understand that I won’t follow you.

A Sudden Rambling: Few words about love and passion

There are two kind of relationships, the first ones based since the beginning on a well-mannered nicety, that someone could even call love, and the other ones where, independently by the name, we decide or, better, we can’t help but to rip off the skin each other to look into the depth of the bare absolute abyss of the things, drinking its essence.


The first kind of relationships satisfy an ideal of esthetic formal correctness, they fulfill the human exigency to be social , they are compliant, they are soothing, they are reassuring for the social peace and the moral quiet, they are well-liked, they are the pillar of the civil cohabitation, they are actually relaxing and although they might be enthralling they seldom are overpowering.

The second ones are out of every scheme and classification, they are rebel, they imply a subversive strength because are overwhelming, they are revolutionary because they turn everything existing upside down, they destroy the past and they build a new future, they don’t take prisoners, they unhinge lives from the ground, they zeroize all the previous assumptions, they annul all the beliefs.

They are excessive, passionate, violent in the search of the truth, uncomfortable because aimed to create communicating vessels where the partners trade the souls and share caresses on the raw flesh.

I can’t say which kind is the best one, and maybe there is not a best kind because both the relations are aimed to satisfy different needs for different people and in different times of life and with different kind of partners.


They lead on different paths , unleash different emotions, create different bounds, cause different reactions and chains of events.

Sometimes the two kinds mix up and confuse. The plains alter and the cards shuffle. The first kind of relations for unfathomable reasons sometimes can develop in the second kind. The contrary is rare quite impossible. But usually the two kind of relations belong to different chemistries, almost to different solar systems.

So even the way the two kind of relationships end, the modalities of the separation are different. The first kind of relations can result in a solid and lasting friendship, the ex partners in this case can celebrate together the burial of the relation keeping extremely civilized behaviors and helping each other in a mutual aid agreement.

On the contrary the second kind of relations, the passionate ones, impose a total and sudden detach, they seldom lead to something common after the end because diplomacy and courtesy are rather inopportune after one has passed the hands under the other’s skin.

It is not possible to be nice while dragging the nails in the raw flesh, it is not possible being polite and detached after one has been living in the other’s body and soul, pumping the same blood in the same veins.

The passion when ends is never nice.

Someone, with a superiority grin calls all the above excess of reaction , calls it “drama”, and maybe thinking deep about it , I might agree.


But if we consider the matter with the mind freed of all the assumptions and prejudices , what would be a passion without a hint of drama?

What would be of the colors of the existence if we should limit ourselves to live in the bluish rarefied air of nice, polite and interchangeable well-mannered loves that never digress from our well organized schedule of life?

What would be of ourselves if we weren’t able to think out of the box even in sentimental matters ?

Is it really worth to deprive oneself of so radical but character- building and enlightening emotions only to not risk the eventuality of a little drama ?

The theoreticians of the friendly break-up now would shrug in disagreement and disapproval, but I can surely affirm that such theoreticians have never felt a true passion when they say or even only air the possibility to end a passionate relationship in a courteous and nice way.


A passion, especially if it is not extinguished, can’t be ended with polite and elaborate talks about the ifs and the buts of the circumstances ….. , it can’t be neither sublimated nor intellectualized or worse faded in attempts of friendship or civil acquaintance.

It must be cut.

The pain caused by a passion which ends requires in the best cases the black out. It is a form of respect toward the self.

The passion as self- defense tool requires the removal of the object of the passion. It must stay out of sight.

A passionate relation when ends needs the void around, there is neither consolation nor elaboration, can’t exist empathetic participation. There is only detoxification and like that must be treated. Maybe after a while can be rehabilitation !

This kind of relation is addictive so it is needed the complete cessation of the addictive material. The attempts of spiritual methadone are disastrous.

One can’t be diplomatic while fighting for survival , it is needed being drastic , of the same radicalism which passion is made, because in a clear selfish setting of priorities and needs sits the possibility of moving on with effectiveness.

I know it is someway a scary concept, but again this is the substance of what the life is made, that is what, beyond all the superstructures, makes the life such an extraordinary adventure.

But I agree passion is not for weak stomachs.

Love being an altruistic feeling makes people courageous and noble, passion instead is ungrateful, it is selfish, it has not good feelings, there are not noble words. When it ends it shelters in a den like a wounded animal.

It dismisses itself to disarm, it soothes only with time what the rationality can’t elaborate.

Passions are beyond rationality and balance … thankfully.

The passion brings back to the ground all the spirituality, makes the human beings basic, elementary, primal.

Love has songs to celebrate its end, passion has screams coming from the inside, from the hidden, dark side of the soul. No words only sounds.

But although uncomfortable, dirty, bad smelling and not well- mannered, the passion demands respect not less than love does. Because, even if extreme, it is a state of the soul and of the mind that has not comparisons among human feelings.

It is a thing I wish everyone to feel at least once in a lifetime, because it gives a higher sense to life, teaches to size the reality with different proportions , it gives new perspectives and opens the mind to a range of unexpected shades and meanings.

It helps to understand, to empathize and to forgive others’ human weaknesses making of us, at the very end , better people.

*namaste *

words like tears

violator capriccio di signora, originally uploaded by arialee miles.

Words like tears,
they flow on the face of the time
in a not existing space,
made of intervals,
built on pauses.
They like an absent minded caress,
a not too caring one,
stroke my heart from the depth,
envelope my soul,
drag me elsewhere.
I don’t complain,
I gave you this power,
and I listen , I listen , I listen….
One day I will stop to listen.
And you will miss it.

wisdom

Novel _caged , originally uploaded by arialee miles.

Wisdom follows
roundabout paths,
controversial at times.
Wisdom is not a revealed truth,
nor an axiom or a dogma.
It is an harmonious whole
of life elaborations,
arduously put together
to build something solid
that in a sideways fashion
crawls from the
womb to the brain
destroying every
previous certainty,
every stubborn assumption,
every naïve presumption.
This is the reason
I can’t reverse my life.
It is already upside down,
and to reverse it
would mean only
to bring it again to its
original position
without any real
pleasure or satisfaction.

there are things ..

There are things we do for boredom ,

other things we do for duty or pain,

other again we do to please

in the illusion to be pleased back .

We cover paths in the deepest darkness,

twisting our hands round the buckles of our soul,

twining ourselves round the logic of our fears.

Thoughtless and desperate we jump into the unknown

waiting for the abyss that follows us closely ,

carrying our burden of irresolute purposes.

We discuss freedom without feeling its taste ,

We talk of love without perceiveing  its colors,

We argue about conscience

without understanding its ambivalence.

Then worn out, enlightened, bothered and tired

we stop to walk and jump and search and talk

sheltering into a passion we glimpsed through the window

for the only reason we don’t know where to go.