Love for sale (on Amazon for 0.01 US cent!)

I met Adam Gopnik in Chicago a couple of years ago & he was one of these rare people who not only are very smart (in writing), but also are excellent public speakers.

So that's why I later decided to buy this book. Its topic didn't particularily seduce me at the time.

What I fell in love with, though, was the fact that this book came with a love message, from Allegra to Russ. Allegra, in love with both Paris, and Russ.

And Russ who sometime later sold this very book on Amazon.com for 1 cent.

The sad end of some love stories.

Allegra less allegra. Allegro non molto.

Paris to the moon awaits me.

And the love story.

How it will unfold, go & end - who knows. But you have to go for it. Courageously!

Survive St. Valentine, everybody & be wild at Carnival!

We live only once!

If you can't stand the heat...stay out of the bedroom!

And when the temperature rises, off they fly (the blankets first, along with everything else, second!)

Toulouse-Lautrec is, indeed, hot!

"I've got my love to keep me warm"

Love is a warm & fuzzy feeling & even though my love is surprisingly cold for a man (meaning body temperature) he is very warm in the emotional sense, so let it be it.

You can always get a warm wool blanket to hide under for the first couple of minutes...

As shown in these little interventions on Toulouse-Lautrec.

St. Valentine falls on Carnaval. Or what (and who) falls on who (and what)?

Yet another 'compare & contrast' visual exercise & the continuation of the previous post on the double-faced nature of all of us.

So in the past few weeks I have been feeling, quite a-typically for me, like the white angel on the left. The femme fatale days wrapped in black lace seemed to be the thing of the past.

Still, old habits die hard & I felt uneasy admitting that I was going to Paris for St. Valentine's. Now, the trip wasn't planned for that reason but since I was going I wanted to stay longer and extending my trip ...extended it all the way to the romantic day.

Luckily for me though this year St. Valentine's coincides with Carnaval.

Last year I was in Rio - Carnaval in Rio, by the way, contrary to the New Year in Rio which is hugely overrated, is something that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime!!!

This year I will be back to the 'origins' - Parisian Carnaval, and its theme is "Improbable couples"...

So February 14th you will see me not in white lace but in black lace, back in my cruel seduction mode (huge exaggeration on my part here, be warned!)

Wearing a mask and all that... only to hide my face that has changed becoming more sweet, for if before I was pretty much all 'black' inside, now I am made of pure white lace but I am still trying to fight this new feeling....

The Battle of Love & Chastity. Let the Chastity win (for once in my life) & the Love will follow!

Double-faced me: the battle of Love & Chastity

Those who pretend to be 'pure' are not to be trusted.

Those who, like me, tend to show just how impure they are, are to be trusted even less...

So if the truth is somewhere in the middle, how about a 'double-faced' piece to correspond to our ever-changing nature?

Here's a necklace called "Day & night: the battle of Love & Chastity".

The idea is that you can turn it around depending on the situation and the time of the day, letting the world see your pure side in the wee hours of the morning & alluding at something much hotter after dawn...

As for 'battle' between Love & Chastity, I am not at all sure they are or should be at conflict. They can peacefully coexist adding more spice to each other.

P.S. Hans Memling's representation of Chastity (top right) as a woman in a rock/tower with lions waiting beneath is worth a second look.