Reason to love rain (#7)

 

via Random tea house

North Carolina needs a serious downpour right now - it is so darn hot. We get the occasional and brief rainstorm, but it only contributes to the humidity. At least for that second it rains - it looks pretty from the inside of my window (though I really need it to start feeling cool on the outside of the window too...)

 via These are a few of my favourite things...

 "Attempt at Flight" by 'Lilyas

via vi.sualize.us

via i am bittersweet

 

"Raindrops on the window" by Shooz

"April Rain Song"

 by soup & sunday (via these are a few of my favourite things...)

The following animated version of the poem, "April Rain Song," read by Langston Hughes and part of the HBO/Poetry Foundation's children's program, "Classical Baby (I'm Grown Up Now): The Poetry Show" makes me very happy:  April Rain Song : Classical Baby : Video.

Reason to love rain (#6)

For the literature! One of my favorites is the children's book "Umbrella" (1958) by Taro Yashima. (By the way, if either Lorelei or Mae is reading this post - stop now!! Because I want to get this book for your little girls one day). I adore this book's color palette, cityscape, the choice of perspectives, the way Yashima depicts the streak and fall of rain, but also the heartbreaking story.

"Vintage Kids' Books My Kids Love" sums up the effect of story beautifully as one which, at its conclusion, makes parents cry. It begins simply enough as being about a little girl who receives an umbrella as a gift and can barely wait until she can use it. But wait she must until it actually rains. Finally, a rainy day arrives and she is able to proudly and happily use her umbrella.

This alone would make for a charming and beautiful little picture book story, but then we get the following conclusion and a HUGE lump in our throats:

Momo is a big girl now,
and this is a story
she does not remember at all.
Does she remember or not,
it was not only the first day in her life
that she used her umbrella,
it was also the first day in her life
that she walked alone,
without holding either
her mother's or her father's hand. 

Jeez - those last lines get me every time!

images via Jill M. Casey and Vintage Kids' Books My Kids Love

quote via Vintage Kids' Books...

Aline Smithson's "In Case of Rain"

I keep going back to Aline Smithson's photo series, "In Case of Rain" (discovered on kris atomic) with its beauty and brightness on this rainy and gloomy day. Hope you fall in love with it too....

"We live in a world of technical distractions. I see my children gathered around their computers as though it's a summer campfire, faces aglow, as they peer into a world of friends and fantasy, participating in a new form of entertainment that further remove them from the childhood that I experienced.

Today's generation has lost touch with the activities that previous generations have enjoyed—reading a good book in a comfortable chair, playing board games on a rainy day, flipping through Life magazines, or sprawling out on the living room rug while listening to records and reading the backs of album covers.

And it's because of this that I have been looking at book shelves and untouched childhood pursuits with a new eye. With great sadness, I realize that these objects will someday be obsolete, at least in their current incarnations. And like a curator of antiques, I see them now as beautiful objects to be admired and preserved, if only on film.

I can only hope for rain, a heavy rain and maybe a power outage."

— Aline Smithson on her photo series, "In Case of Rain"

Reason to love rain (#5)

Because even when it looks like this...


Rain is still so romantic (especially as a metaphor for teen love):
photo by recurrent dream (via here)

passage from the young adult novel via ffffound
(By the way, the Alaska of the title? A girl, of course.)

Reason to love rain (#4)

image via cents-of-style

Ah, the classic trench and the obligatory blog homage to it. But the trench is much deserving - it is so practical and yet so perfect. Even my boyfriend thinks it's cute, but I acknowledge that that may be because he has a thing for WASPy blondes from the early eighties - Teri Garr worn one in "Mr Mom," Meryl Streep in "Kramer vs. Kramer," and Allie from the sitcom "Kate and Allie" rocked one too (the series is free on netflix and I've inflicted it upon him more than once. I know, I'm a horrible gf).

I, however, finally bought a trench coat last year and loved every rainy day in it even though I think I looked more like Colombo than anyone else. Nevertheless, I'm still looking forward for the rain to bring coolness instead of humidity so I can drag out my trench and have people ask me whether I've solved any crimes recently. I like the idea of it that much.

Oh, and for a lovely poem that further romanticizes the raincoat, see "Selecting A Reader" by Ted Kooser.

image by suffocatingIvy

That's Julie Andrews in a still from "Torn Curtain"

via movies.sky.com

I like this image because I like to think that it's the real Audrey Hepburn wearing a trench and not just her character, Holly Golightly. image via cdn.write.demandstudio.com

image via stylebytes

photo of Meryl Streep via vogue.co.uk

And, of course, no one looks as lovely in the classic trench as Catherine Deneuve (just spend an afternoon with "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg"), but who knew that she could also sell it with such sex appeal (clip from "La chamade").

Buckets of Rain

Image by Helen Olney via flickr

It has been raining endlessly here, but honestly I may be the only person who does not really mind.

Rain by Shel Silverstein

I opened my eyes

And looked up at the rain,

And it dripped in my head,

And flowed into my brain,

And all that I hear as I lie in my bed,

Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,

I walk very slow,

I can't do a handstand-

I might overflow,

So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said

I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.

Image courtesy of gettyimages via google

"Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in the Rain" courtesy of HarveNYC via flickr

"Why does it always rain on me?" courtesy of miceeatcheese via flickr