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Out with the old, and in with the new. Painting by Julie Seyler.
Happy New Year
01 Tuesday Jan 2013
Posted in Art
Tag Archives: Art
What We Are Doing New Year’s Eve
31 Monday Dec 2012
Posted in Art
Tags
Art, Bob Smith, Frank Terranella, Julie Seyler, Lois DeSocio, New Year's Eve, The Write Side of 50
“What are you doing New Year’s Eve?”
Lois will be dancing; Julie will be swinging; Bob might be sleeping; Frank, if he’s lucky, could be kissing.
Click below to see:
The Saturday Blog: The Laugh
29 Saturday Dec 2012
Posted in Art
Tags
Photo by Julie Seyler.
We love this photograph because it screams unbridled joy. As 2012 winds down, and 2013 gears up, we wish you lots of unexpected laughter, and maybe a glass of wine or two.
An E-Mail Ode (And Reply) to the Oyster Pearl
28 Friday Dec 2012
Tree burls and pearls. Drawing by Julie Seyler
BY LOIS DESOCIO
An integral part of our blog’s beginnings were incessant e-mail exchanges between Julie and me, with ideas for what the blog should be about. Threaded into the scores of business e-mails and blog ideas, were some slices of raw revelation, as the ever-evolving voice of the blog drifted from a focus on food and travel to one about navigating our 50s. The e-mails generated tons of ideas, so we diligently filed them away in our queue.
One day in May, Julie dashed off a short poem and e-mailed it to me, thinking it was quite a witty characterization of being on the right side of 50. Her poem, and my e-mailed response, copied and pasted below, sums up how differently we view the physics of aging. For Julie, the two lines conveyed how fleeting the time is between the dewiness of youth, which we take for granted, and the next moment, when it has evaporated. As she sees it, it doesn’t come at one point in time, but throughout the transitions in life. You assume your oyster pearl complexion will always be a part of you, and then … it isn’t.
My poem was better:
On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Julie Seyler wrote:
One day you are the oyster pearl
the next time you looked you were the tree burl.
On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 3:28 PM, Lois DeSocio replied:
OOH – that hurts. Props on the poem, but I refuse to be deformed. I will be:
One day I was just a girl;
The next time I looked I was the oyster pearl.
Lemonade, Jule
The Saturday Blog: Reflections
22 Saturday Dec 2012
Martinis on 2nd Avenue. Photo by Julie Seyler.
The Write Side of 50 recently hit its one-month anniversary, so a celebratory martini and dinner was in order this past Thursday night. This is not unusual for us. We make a point to share a meal together as much as possible – to celebrate or to just catch up. We recommend it – take the time to break bread with friends and family.
We also want to send a big thank-you to everyone who reads us, follows us and shares our links on Facebook. And a special hats-off goes to Bob and Frank. They jumped in feet first, not quite sure what they were getting into. But they’re still here. Thanks, guys.
~Julie and Lois
A Fifth Avenue Christmas Pictorial
18 Tuesday Dec 2012
BY JULIE SEYLER
This past Saturday morning, I walked up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to see how it was decorated. This was my first major walk outside, without a cane, and with my camera, since my hip surgery on November 6. My camera is not very heavy, but neither is it small, so I was anxious at the thought of keeping my balance amongst the throngs that stroll down the avenue. If Midtown Manhattan is always jammed, the crowds are squared this time of year.
I got to Rockefeller Center about 9:30, and checked out the tree. It was lovely and huge but didn’t bedazzle me. I need to get over there at night when the lights are on. Statues of Little Drummer Boys and trumpet players surround the skating rink, and already the line to get in there stretched from the ticket window to Fifth Avenue.
I continued up Fifth, and was taken by the icicle drips on the Fendi windows, the rare jewels at Harry Winston, and the moving sets of waves and flowers that hid and displayed the jewels at Van Cleef & Arpels.
But the most fun and festive windows are always at Bergdorf Goodman. This year they celebrated the Follies. And as many photos as I took, it was difficult to nail down in a digital image their exquisite frivolity. Here is one example.
Click here, though, and you’ll get a better sense of the details.
I crossed the street and stopped at Tiffany & Co. 
And then Cartier. Their windows were filled with the simple red boxes that denote a Cartier gift. But like magic, they opened and, voila!,
the jewels were displayed. Sometimes all the boxes would open and close together. It was fun.
I walked into St. Patrick’s Cathedral and lit a candle for the children and families in Connecticut, and when I came out, the masses on Fifth left no room for movement of any kind. I scurried past the windows of Saks, which celebrated the innocence, wonders and discoveries of youth, and hightailed it back downtown.
The Saturday Blog: Aloft
15 Saturday Dec 2012
Posted in Art
Every Saturday morning, one of Julie’s photos will be posted for the weekend.
“Aloft.”
By Julie Seyler
Yesterday’s tragic shooting in Connecticut of 28 innocent people, including 20 young children, has left everyone we know, personally and in the digital world of Facebook, horrified, outraged, fearful, and speechless. It has given rise to universal cries for gun control. Now. We agree. This photo simply captures our sadness at these needless losses. Our thoughts and compassion are with the families and friends of the victims, and for all of us. Let us be safe.
The Year Before: Swimming Through New Currents
30 Friday Nov 2012
Tags
Art, Julie Seyler, Madrid, opinion, Palace Hotel, Prado, Reina Sofia, tapas, The Write Side of 50, Thyssen-Bornemisza
Swimming Through the Currents
By Julie Seyler
BY JULIE SEYLER
All photos and art by Julie Seyler
In our launch post on November 19, Lo wrote about how we have been thinking, gestating, mulling, ruminating, and contemplating our blog for a year. It’s true. But originally we were food-focused 
, primarily because Lo loves to cook and entertain, I love to photograph, and we both love to eat. We precede any meal with an icy martini- hers dirty with as many olives as possible, mine pristine and clean – a single olive may only grace my glass.
About this time (almost a year ago to the day), we also decided to treat ourselves to a four-day jaunt to Madrid – basically to see how many tapas we could consume.
And, OK the Prado, Reina Sofia, and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums were on my to-do list as well, but Lo was thrilled with the amenities of the Palace Hotel, especially after she discovered Hemingway used to drink martinis at that same bar in the ’30s.
The trip was short (December 6-11), sweet and fabulous. Without a doubt, the highlight was meeting our new friends, Miguel and Carmen.
After Madrid, we resumed our goal of starting a food blog, with sidebars on travel and art. We went through a variety of names like “Foodbaster, We Keep it Juicy,” and created a slew of original recipes featuring star anise.
The recipes sucked (Steel Cut Oats Chicken with Blackberries and Raspberries!), and the overall concept wasn’t working.
At the same time we started noticing “things” weren’t quite the same as when we were 40. It definitely took just a bit longer to recover from the overnight flight to Madrid (Lo didn’t sleep for four days), and a dull ache in my hip, diagnosed as bursitis, was not disappearing after a six-week course of physical therapy. In other words, we were swimming through a new set of currents – familiar, recognizable, but with a definite change in direction. And with that realization, the light went on: we want to talk about where we are now, because we are not in Kansas anymore. Ergo, The Write Side of 50 was born, and we are now 11 days old. So here’s to us! Have a great weekend everybody!
The Write Side of 59 