Monthly Archives: January 2014

Apartment #23 – ChatterStory January 2014

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Apartment #23 – ChatterStory January 2014

I have spent the past six months of my life dealing with finally rectifying the unacceptable conditions in my apartment, taking my landlord to court, and then living through the actual renovations, which if I’m honest, I’m still reeling from. For those of you who know me well, you have perhaps some idea as to just how many years I have had recurring damp in my walls. And for those of you that don’t know – it makes a pretty good story – and I have the pictures to prove it! Lots of them… so this is but a few… This story may appear to be long, but it spans several years, so bear with me, and enjoy the read!

This is the “Interior” Living Room Wall They Didn’t Even Want to Touch – Until They Had To! October 2013 © Louisa J. Curtis

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Spinach Pie – ChatterRecipe January 2014

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Spinach © Lou Manna

This month’s recipe comes courtesy of one of my favorites Ian Gartenin her book The Barefoot Contessa, but she attributes the recipe to her dear friend Brent Newsom of Brent Newsom Caterer in Bridgehampton, NY.  Capricorns like their Spinach, they need the Iron, so this was an easy pick – a delicious Spinach Pie, baked whole and then cut into 6-8 portions, as opposed to the Greek Spanakopita that are made individually.

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Tips using Lead – ChatterTip January 2014

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Tips using Lead… As in Lead Pencils – ChatterTip January 2014

Some of my original old notebooks from when I lived and studied in Paris 1981 © Louisa J. Curtis

As I’ve mentioned before, the Planet ruling the sign of Capricorn is Saturn, and Saturn’s metal is Lead, the heaviest of all the metals – another reason as to why we literally feel weighed down by Saturn’s influence.  So this month we are bringing you a few Tips using Lead – Lead Pencils, that is!  However, I must clarify for a moment… Many of you are familiar with the term “lead pencils” and many of us grew up using them for drawing and writing at school. But did you know that most Pencil cores are actually made from Graphite mixed with a Claybinder – that makes sense since Capricorn is after all an Earth sign! The black core of pencils is still referred to as “lead” even though they never actually contained any Lead at all!

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Yousuf Karsh – ChatterQuote January 2014

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Yousuf Karsh:

“Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.”

Yousuf Karsh was an Armenian-Canadian portrait photographer and an “early” Capricorn, born in Mardin, a city in the Ottoman Empire (known today as Turkey) on December 23, 1908 and who died in Boston, Massachusetts on July 13, 2002, aged 93!  Karsh grew up during the Armenian Genocide witnessing the massacre of his relatives and watching his sister die of starvation. How incredible is it to think that such an incredible master of his craft was able to emerge from such horrendous beginnings? But thanks to his parents, he was sent to live with his uncle George Nakash, a photographer in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada when he was sixteen years old. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Self Portrait 1952 © Yousuf Karsh

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Capricorn: Structure, Buildings &; New Year- ChatterLog Jan 2014

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Capricorn, The Goat

Greetings everyone – welcome to the January 2014 ChatterLog, and what will be my first newsletter in a while. Some of you may have noticed that I took a break for a few months and much of the reason as to “why” ties in nicely with part of this month’s theme, which is Structure. January is the sign of Capricorn, which is ruled by the Planet of Saturn. Saturn gives us Discipline, Rules and Structure, so Capricorn is the sign associated with building and construction, whether it is building a big business, an empire, or the Empire State Building itself!

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Frank Villafãne – ChatterArtist January 2014

. ChatterArtists

Frank Villafãne – ChatterArtist January 2014

Our ChatterArtist for this month is a new client I started working with last year, architectural photographer Frank Villafãne.  I received an email from Frank recently informing me that some of his images would be appearing in a show in New Brunswick, NJ and the timing was kind of well, perfect. Why? The sign for this month of January is the Earth sign of Capricorn, and although Frank is not a Capricorn himself, he is one of the other two Earth signs, a Taurus. Frank photographs Architecture and man-made industrial structures – and it is our Capricorn who builds these very structures!

Rockefeller Center © Frank Villafãne

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