Thursday, September 16

Robert Plant, Alison Krauss Video of Please Read the Letter

A beautiful song about unfinished business.

Please Read the Letter
Lyrics written by Michael Lee, Jimmy Page, Charlie Jones, and Robert Plant
Performed by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
From the album Raising Sand


In the album Raising Sand, legendary Led Zeppelin front man, Robert Plant, pairs with extraordinary country songstress, Alison Krauss, to create a transcendental work of eclectic auditory art. The album in its entirety compels the soul with exquisitely blended harmonies to haunting and eerie effect, gypsy violin, and fascinating production.

At the 51st Grammy Awards, Raising Sand won all five awards for which it was nominated. Album of the Year; Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album; Record of the Year (for "Please Read the Letter"); Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.

Producer, T-Bone Burnett, has given us the award winning soundtracks to O Brother, Where Art Thou, the Johnny Cash/June Carter biopic Walk the Line, Crazy Heart, Across the Universe, The Ladykillers, Cold Mountain, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Down From the Mountain, Horse Whisperer, Stealing Beauty, Until the End of the World. He has also produced for many artists including Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, Los Lobos, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Elton John, Natalie Merchant, John Mellancamp, and BB King, among many other works in his fruitful and interesting career.

One Amazon review from Ian Chalmers:"This is one of those serendipitous occasions when the right people and material find each other, the planets line up, you draw against all odds …common sense and commerciality are thrown to the wind. If you have any faith in the essential goodness of man, any hope that art is a good thing, a taste for good music regardless of the labels slapped on it, experience that love will break your heart, but you'll fall into it anyway, and a suspicion that Rounder Records has more artistic sense in its (figurative) little toe that all of the major labels combined, you'll buy this CD. And besides, looking at the jacket photos, I have to wonder if Robert and Alison don't share a hair stylist."

The following are the CD, mp3 album, and mp3 single, respectively:

Among the many great reviews, one says,
“Burnett turned up the gothic horror and planted it down South.”

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Custom Vintage Letterhead 4 - Free Printable

I am excited to continue the series of Art of the Letter Free Printable Custom Vintage Letterhead. Letterhead4 was designed to fit 8in. x 11in. standard printer paper. Letterhead4 is the same image as above, but will contain the text of your choice. I will use Photoshop to design your AOTL custom vintage letterhead. All letterhead design is black, with the font being your choice of color. This is a simple image not of high quality, but is a genuine victorian period vintage/antique image, and will lend a special touch to your handwritten letter. It would be lovely made into stationery on a lightly colored or tea stained page.

To receive AOTL Free Printable Custom Letterhead:

1. Please write a quick blog post with a link to Art of the Letter included, or add an AOTL button and link specifying Free Vintage Letterhead from Art of the Letter.

2. Specify the Letterhead number you want. The letterhead in this post is called Letterhead4. Previous versions of AOTL Letterhead can be found here and here and here.

3. Select the font for your text:

Special font circumstances: Special characters are limited to what is available with the font choice. If numbers are not displayed next to the font choice, there are no numbers or special characters available for that font. If you have a font that you would like me to use, please refer me to the font on dafont.com, and I would be happy to use your specific choice.

4. Select the color you want for your font:
5. Develop 1 or 2 lines of text with up to 40 characters each.

6. Send an email to artoftheletter (at) gmail.com with your text specifications and your blog link. Your email address is kept strictly confidential, used only to return email, and will never be revealed to any outside source.

Please allow 1-7 days for processing. The full page file will then be sent return email for you to save to your computer and print as you choose. I will be offering this free letterhead promotion for a limited time, whereafter only the letterheadx.jpg will be available. Any further requests will be considered with respect to currently running promotions.

If you use the image on your web page, please give me a shout out with a link. I would be thrilled to see any creative uses of this letterhead, and would be delighted to feature your project with a link to your blog. I am happy to receive email from you at any time. Please enjoy!

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Wednesday, September 15

Old Letters by Poet, Norman Rowland Gale

OLD LETTERS

Last night some yellow letters fell
From out a scrip I found by chance;
Among them was the silent ghost,
The spirit of my first romance:
And in a faint blue envelope
A withered rose long lost to dew
Bore witness to the dashing days
When love was large and wits were few.

Yet standing there all worn and grey
The teardrops quivered in my eyes
To think of Youth's unshaken front,
The forehead lifted to the skies;
How rough a hill my eager feet
Flung backward when upon its crest
I saw the flutter of the lace
The wind awoke on Helen's breast!

How thornless were the roses then
When fresh young eyes and lips were kind
When Cupid in our porches proved
How true the tale that Love is blind!
But Red-and-White and Poverty
Would only mate while shone the May;
Then came a Bag of Golden Crowns
And jingled Red-and-White away.

Grown old and niggard of romance
I wince not much at aught askew,
And often ask my favorite cat
What else had Red-and-White to do?
And here's the bud that rose and sank,
A crimson island on her breast--
Why should I burn it? Once again
Hide, rose, and dream. God send me rest.

Norman Rowland Gale
Norman Rowland Gale was an English poet and story-teller. He served as a reviewer, and spent some time as a schoolmaster. He must have lived a rather private life from March 4, 1862 until October 7, 1942 as there are few biographical details available for us to learn. From about 1885 until his death, he published many books, with his most famous work being the poem The Country Faith, which made publication in the immediate classic Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1918 (1939 edition). This photograph is purportedly of Norman Rowland Gale, the poet.



The melancholy poem featured in this post is titled Old Letters, and is a constituent of the book
Love Letters of Great Men Vol. 2.



The beautiful painting of the forlorn lady opening this post is from an antique postcard featured on Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City. The artist is not named, and I see no identifying mark on the image. If you have any information about the artist, please contact me.

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Thursday, September 9

Custom Vintage Letterhead 3 - Free Printable

I am pleased to offer the third in a growing series of Art of the Letter Free Printable Custom Vintage Letterhead. Letterhead3 was designed to shrink-to-fit 8in. x 11in. standard printer paper. Letterhead3 is the same image as above, but will contain the text of your choice. I will use Photoshop to design your AOTL custom letterhead. All letterhead design is black, with the font being your choice of color. This is a simple image not of high quality, but is a genuine victorian period vintage/antique image, and will lend a special touch to your handwritten letter. It would be lovely made into stationery on a lightly colored or tea stained page.

To receive AOTL Free Printable Custom Letterhead:

1. Please write a quick blog post with a link to Art of the Letter included, or add an AOTL button and link specifying Free Vintage Letterhead from Art of the Letter.

2. Specify the Letterhead number. The letterhead in this post is called Letterhead3. Previous versions of AOTL Letterhead can be found here and here.

3. Select the font for your text:

Special font circumstances: Special characters are limited to what is available with the font choice. If numbers are not displayed next to the font choice, there are no numbers or special characters available for that font. If you have a font that you would like me to use, please refer me to the font on dafont.com, and I would be happy to use your specific choice.

4. Select the color you want for your font:

5. Develop 1 or 2 lines of text with up to 25 characters each.

6. Send an email to artoftheletter (at) gmail.com with your text specifications and your blog link. Your email address is kept strictly confidential, used only to return email, and will never be revealed to any outside source.

Please allow 1-7 days for processing. The full page file will then be sent return email for you to save to your computer and print as you choose. I will be offering this free letterhead promotion for a limited time, whereafter only the letterheadx.jpg will be available. Any further requests will be considered with respect to currently running promotions.

If you use the image on your web page, please give me a shout out with a link. I would be thrilled to see any creative uses of this letterhead, and am happy to receive email any time.

The Graphics Fairy has many wonderful vintage images she has collected, this letterhead being edited from an image she shared. It is one of my favorite blogs to visit.

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Wednesday, September 1

Custom Vintage Letterhead 2 - Free Printable

It is my pleasure to introduce the second in a series of Art of the Letter Free Printable Custom Vintage Letterhead. Letterhead2 was designed to shrink-to-fit 8in. x 11in. standard printer paper, and the full page actual size is somewhere close to 9.5" x 11.4". The margins are wide enough to be unaffected by most cropping or scrapbooking/binding if you should deem necessary. Letterhead2 is the same image as above, but will contain the text of your choice. I will use Photoshop to design your AOTL custom letterhead. All letterhead design is black, with the font being your choice of color. This is a simple image not of high quality, but is a genuine victorian period vintage/antique image, and will lend a special touch to your handwritten letter. It would be lovely made into stationery on a lightly colored or tea stained page.

To receive AOTL Free Printable Custom Letterhead:

1. Please write a quick blog post with a link to Art of the Letter included, or add an AOTL button and link specifying Free Vintage Letterhead from Art of the Letter.

2. Specify the Letterhead number. The letterhead in this post is called Letterhead2. Previous versions of AOTL Letterhead can be found here.

3. Select the font for your text:

Special font circumstances: Special characters are limited to what is available with the font choice. If numbers are not displayed next to the font choice, there are no numbers or special characters available for that font. If you have a font that you would like me to use, please refer me to the font on dafont.com, and I would be happy to use your specific choice.

4. Select the color you want for your font: 5. Develop 1 or 2 lines of text with up to 30 characters each.


6. Send an email to artoftheletter (at) gmail.com with your text specifications and your blog link. Your email address is kept strictly confidential, used only to return email, and will never be revealed to any outside source.

Please allow 1-7 days for processing. The full page file will then be sent return email for you to save to your computer and print as you choose. I will be offering this free letterhead promotion for a limited time, whereafter only the letterheadx.jpg will be available. Any further requests will be considered with respect to currently running promotions.

If you use the image on your web page, please give me a shout out with a link. I would be thrilled to see any creative uses of this letterhead, and am happy to receive email any time.

Read more...

Tuesday, August 31

Drew Barrymore: Advocate for Old-Fashioned Correspondence

Drew Barrymore has a penchant for writing letters, and when it comes to corresponding, she eschews faster forms of conveyances in favor of the handwritten. She considers it more meaningful to pen a note, and insists people write letters to her instead of sending an email or other electronic communication.

In method preparations for her Golden Globe award-winning role in the
2009 HBO movie Grey Gardens, she isolated herself from all modern communicative technologies, and limited herself to letter writing as a way of entrenching herself into her vintage character, Little Edie Beale. Barrymore went into seclusion, “No contact with friends, no cell phones, no Black Berry, no newspapers, no magazines, no computers, no cars, no television. Nothing, for three months,” she said. "But she’d write,” said on-again, off-again boyfriend, Justin Long. Long tells of her creative letter writing, "She'd write beautiful, profound, poetic letters on a typewriter."

As for the
subject of the letters, Drew revealed, "They were about my fears of not being able to pull this character off; this icon, and about learning a level of discipline… about facing your fears." Barrymore said the old-fashioned letters, which she wrote on an avocado green IBM Selectric typewriter, helped her work through her jitters about the part. "I had to understand what isolation was really like."

Even after the role ended, Drew explains "I
still write letters. I don't want to communicate in a relationship via text and email. I love a letter. You are thoughtful when you write it, and someone can read it, and hold onto it, and go back to it. For me, there's something very dangerous to have everything so instantaneous."

The star of
Grey Gardens has wishes for social betterment, where folks become more gracious and mindful of their manners. As in times past, people were polite and ceremonial in their conduct, and acted out of consideration. She longs for a resurgence of this courtesy and gallantry, “There's a part of me that misses the grace and formalities of the past," says Drew. "Like, when gentlemen wore hats and opened doors.” Although, she is not all old-school airs and elegance. “I love that now, we're not trying to pretend so much that everything is prim and proper,” laughs Drew. “I'd like to find a balance."


Both gorgeous photographs are of Drew Barrymore looking like an old-Hollywood, living vintage doll in an Alberta Ferretti gown, and a true vintage headpiece as she appeared at the Ziegfeld Theater, New York City premiere of Grey Gardens.

The exceedingly interesting characters of "Big Edie" and "Little Edie" are true-to-life socialites from an era past.
Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale were the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. The two women lived together at Grey Gardens, a decrepit mansion at 3 West End Road, in the wealthy neighborhood of East Hampton, New York for decades with limited funds, resulting in squalor and almost total isolation. The home became the center of quite a scandal when it was revealed in 1973 that the reclusive aunt and cousin to Jackie O. were living in a state of poverty and filth.

Both the
original documentary, and the modern HBO movie, are critically acclaimed, award winning, and gleamingly reviewed by viewers.

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Tuesday, August 24

Custom Vintage Letterhead - Free Printable

I am happy to introduce the first in a series of Art of the Letter Free Printable Custom Vintage Letterhead. The letterhead on a full size sheet was designed to shrink-to-fit 8in. x 11in. standard printer paper, and the full page actual size is somewhere close to 9.5" x 11.4". The margins are wide enough to be unaffected by most cropping or scrapbooking/binding if you should deem necessary. The letterhead is the same image as above, and will contain your text. I will use Photoshop to design your AOTL custom letterhead. All letterhead design is black, with the font being your choice of color. This is a simple image not of high quality, but is a genuine victorian vintage/antique period image, and will lend a special touch to your handwritten letter. It would be lovely made into stationery on a lightly colored or tea stained page.


To receive AOTL Free Printable Custom Letterhead:


1. Please write a quick blog post with a link to Art of the Letter included, or add a button specifying Free Vintage Letterhead from Art of the Letter.


2. Select the font for your text:

3. Select the color you want for your font:

4. Develop 1 or 2 lines of up to 20 characters each.


5. Send an email to artoftheletter (at) gmail.com with your text specifications and your blog link. Please allow 1-7 days for processing. The full page file will then be sent return email for you to save to your computer and print as you choose.

I will be offering this free letterhead promotion for a limited time, whereafter only the letterhead .jpg will be availabe. Any further requests will be considered with respect to currently running promotions.

If you use the image on your web page, please give me a shout out with a link. I would be thrilled to see any creative uses of this letterhead, and am happy to receive email any time.

Read more...

Wednesday, August 11

Love Letters To Elizabeth Taylor

Hollywood royal, Elizabeth Taylor, has offered a generous and intimate glimpse into her bedside stand by revealing her treasured, personal, and never-before-seen love letters from star crossed lover, Richard Burton. The scandalous relationship between these two charismatic and legendary stars was infamously passionate and equally as tumultuous. It turns out, Richard's love letters to Elizabeth parallelled those lines of passion and turbulence with his writings of his profound desire for her and a remarkable darkness revealing his extreme vulnerability in the face of existing without her. In this momentous collection of magical love letters from Richard Burton, he reveals himself to be a charming, talented, lusty letter writer, and creatively exposes his mischievous spirit in effortless mastery.

Richard found that Elizabeth's allure was impossible to escape. He mused, even until his end, in the possibility of rekindling their relationship. To Richard, Elizabeth was a painful temptation, irresistable and magnificently attractive. He was fascinated by her - delighted by her - dashed by her.

This spell-binding couple created fan pandemonium in their outings, which in turn gave rise to the paparazzi phenomenon. The unprecedented access to Richard's personal love letters and diary writings came in time to promote and support this juicy and scathing biography of the two:

In an short excerpt from a Kathleen Hughes review of the book Furious Love:
It's a mesmerizing tale - sad, sometimes ugly -
as the two stars engaged in vicious fights,
nursed their jealousies and insecurities,
and descended into alcoholism,
while outwardly living a life of glamour and sophistication.




The beautiful illustration leading this post is from the original motion picture soundtrack of the movie The Sandpiper, starring both Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton while they were in their honeymoon phase. The few Amazon reviews for this soundtrack are of astounding compliment, worthy of a read themselves, and the music has been described as haunting, intoxicating, seductive, and romantic.
We are privileged to to behold these private letters from
a legendary and powerful love affair.

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Friday, April 9

Letters From Great-Grandmother


This letter was once held by Great-Grandmother's hands.  The light scent of her lotion fading from these pages, though still evident, is feared to disappear.  Her meticulous handwriting reveals the coordinated efforts of her heart and hand.  Once arriving as faithfully as the rising sun, I am now at loss without her weekly handwritten letter.  Evermore, will there be mere veteran issues to survey in these treasures, though rediscover I shall, this time, reading between every line.  Eternally grateful, I will be, of the time she took to communicate her gentle spirit, revealing her thoughts and letting me know in a tangible way that I was cherished.

In Loving Memory of Grandma.
Tracey Elaine

The darling painting is named La Lettre by French painter Émile Munier (1840–1895)

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Thursday, April 8

National Card and Letter Writing Month


Spring is a time of hope and renewal, and the U.S. Postal Service has a message to everyone who needs to reinvigorate relationships or rekindle romance: “Touch them with a letter they can feel — and keep.”
April is National Card and Letter Writing Month.

To mark this special time of creative correspondence and the friendly exchange of passionate, poignant prose, the Postal Service is extending this popular campaign by carrying it over into May, culminating with the writing and sending of cards and letters for Mother’s Day, May 9.

“National Card and Letter Writing Month is an opportunity for all Americans to rediscover the timeless and very personal art of letter writing.  Both in times of peace and conflict, cards and letters are the most effective way to share and permanently record our thoughts, prayers, hopes and dreams.”
As quoted by Postmaster General John E. Potter.

Since the beginning of recorded history, famous people, have written letters that helped shape the destinies of entire nations. By putting their thoughts on paper, some of the most powerful figures of all time created memoirs that not only withstand the test of time but also serve as guidelines for today’s youth. This month, post offices across the country will be sponsoring a variety of projects with local libraries and schools to promote literacy while teaching students about the lasting importance of written correspondence.

Teachers may be interested in developing lessons on letter writing that also discuss the historical significance of many of the people, places and things honored on U.S. commemorative postage stamps. Background information on current stamps can be found in the Collector’s Corner at the Postal Store or at the American Philatelic Society.
Since 1775, the U.S. Postal Service has connected friends, families, neighbors and businesses by mail. An independent federal agency that visits 137 million homes and businesses every day, it is the only service provider to deliver to every address in the nation. The Postal Service receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services. With annual revenues of more than $66 billion, it is the world’s leading provider of mail and delivery services, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world.

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Wednesday, April 7

Recapturing the Lost Art of the Handwritten Letter



Even before Great-Grandfather was toddling years ago, the only way to communicate with far away family and friends was to create a handwritten letter and send it away en post. The letter was crafted to be deserving of its cost to create. The expense of paper, ink, envelope and postage were occasionally proven to be a hindrance to the communication of isolated families with their folks. US postage rates in 1792 were at 6 cents per one sheet letter to a recipient not exceeding 30 miles away. Prices then increased incrementally until one was paying 25 cents for single letters to go to recipients more than 400 miles away.

In 1850, farming wages are estimated to have been as low as a paltry $0.40 per day in some of the more depressed areas of the country. In such cases, when the family trade garnered so little income, the stipend for entertainment was simply nonexistent. Certainly, postage allotted for casual letters to family or friends was regarded as a luxury with a prohibitive price.

By 1851, the cost of posting a letter was lowered to 3 cents per ½ ounce and could be sent up to 3000 miles away. This proved more affordable, but still, on a farm income, which had the potential to be meager and infrequent, postage stamps, stationery, and supplies were not guaranteed sundries. On occasion, more affluent relatives would send writing supplies and postage to help ease the prohibitive costs, which would otherwise inhibit the flow of precious correspondence.

Current postal rates do not demand nearly as large a percentage of our daily income as they once had. Yet, the fierce competition the Internet has waged with the postal service has given consumers a considerable edge with regard to the speed of delivery of their communications, and “snail mail” has become the widely accepted offending slang term used for the current US postal service. Crafting a note and sending it via digital means is certainly faster than old fashioned habits, but letters received in such a manner are robbed of some of the most charming personal aspects that are present in a handwritten letter. The rewards of a personal letter in the mail box are innumerable, and sadly, those rewards are largely missing today.

Dear Readers,

The challenge is to recapture the lost art of the handwritten letter.

Sincerely,
Tracey Elaine

P.S. The image is of the first general issue United States 10 cent Postage stamp from July 1, 1847.

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The Art of Letter Writing


"I have now attained the true art of letter-writing, which we are always told, is to express on paper exactly what one would say to the same person by word of mouth; I have been talking to you almost as fast as I could the whole of this letter."

As written by Jane Austen in one of the many letters she sent to her sister Cassandra. Dated January 3, 1801.

The image is of the controversial Rice Portrait of Jane Austen, by British society painter Ozias Humphry (1742-1810).  It is one of the single most disputatious and intriguing literary portraits in existence.

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About Me

My photo
Portland, Oregon, United States
I am a loving and grateful wife to a wonderful man, and aspire to be ever-more nurturing as Momma to our wonderful little boy. I am inspired by vintage and antique eras, which motivate my personal creativity. I am a Jane-of-all-trades around home, and find pleasure in all manners of good homemaking skills.

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