Proof that love is blind

This couple is clearly happily in love and we should all respect it. We are entitled to our opinions but keep them to yourselves for the sake of hurting others.
It seems that once we get close to a person, the brain decides the need to assess their character and personality is reduced.
The study, by University College London,
The researchers found that both romantic love and maternal love produce the same effect on the brain.

True love story

Katie Kirkpatrick, 21, held off cancer to celebrate the happiest day of her life. Katie had chased cancer, once only to have it return-to clog her lungs and grab hold of her heart. Breathing was difficult now, she had to use oxygen. The pain in her back was so intense it broke through the morphine that was supposed to act as a shield. Her organs were shutting down but it would not stop her from marrying Nick Godwin, 23, who was in love with Katie since 11th grade.

Nick Godwin, 23, left, takes a moment of rest while his bride Katie Kirkpatrick, right, gets an intravenous procedure to reduce the amount of fluids her body is retaining at McLaren Regional Medical Center in Flint on January 12, 2005. Nick Godwin who works night shift as a Lapeer County Sheriff’s deputy took Katie to the medical center after a night’s work, three days before their wedding.

Katie Kirkpatrick, 21, puts on some hearings a few minutes before walking down the aisle to marry Nick Godwin, 23, who she had known since 11th grade, at Church of Christ in Hazel Park on Saturday January 15, 2005.

Dave Kirkpatrick gives the thumbs up to his new son in law while admiring the couple with his wife Niki Kirkpatrick, right, after Nick and Katie got married at Church of Christ in Hazel Park on Saturday January 15, 2005.

Katie Kirkpatrick Godwin, right, gets serenaded by her new husband Nick Godwin, and his best men during the wedding party on the dance floor at Boulder Point Golf Club and Banquet Center in Oxford, MI, on Saturday January 15, 2005.

Katie Kirkpatrick, 21, and Nick Godwin, 23, cuddle up for a moment while waiting for the wedding photographer to get ready after getting married at Church of Christ in Hazel Park on Saturday January 15, 2005.

Katie Kirkpatrick Godwin, center, rests for a few moments during her wedding party at Boulder Point Golf Club and Banquet Center in Oxford, MI, on Saturday January 15, 2005. Katie was exhausted. Her face looked as white as her gown.

Five days later, Katie died. She did not let sickness stop her from living, take away the hope or faith that made her believe she had a future. She had a lovely wedding and she had love and she gave love and love doesn’ t die. And that is how Katie beat cancer.

Money can’t buy love! Here are 7 vital signs that you tend to ignore

Do you remember the song by Beatles?

“….I’ll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright,
I’ll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright
‘Cause I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love”.

Are you in love but torn by money? You must be having tip offs with your better half? Love often seems to be attacked by the terrible money syndrome. Money is a sweet sensation and can buy anything material. But can it buy love for you? Know those vital tell-tale signs and let love reign in your hearts.




* Vital sign 1: For couples, money and sex are the only reasons for stress and estrangement. For those who have tied the knot, one person is in charge of the finances and the other one has no knowledge of the money being spent. At the end of the month, when it is time for a review, couples end up accusing each other for overspending. So as a first step, start sharing everything including money matters. Stop escaping from your responsibilities and instead of blaming each other, sort out ways to pull back the reigns of your household expenses. This will reduce arguments.
* Vital sign 2: The most common rift that takes place is due to different spending habits of two people in love. This is natural. Two individuals hail from different backgrounds and may have different spending habits. Only love is the common factor that binds them. It can be so that while you are enjoying a weekend golf, your partner is busy making efforts to consolidate debts to pay off arrears that you both have incurred. So in that case, the one who is enjoying golf must rush to support the other one in paying off debts. You need to sit together and sort out your priorities when it comes to expenditure. Talk it out. Help your partner to clear debts rather than piling them up.
* Vital sign 3: Most couples suffer from the very common “why” syndrome. For every little thing that they do or want to do, they ask each other “why”. It may be so that the lady might want to have a nice haircut at a posh salon but the man might ask “why”. At the same time the man might want to have a drink with his colleagues and the lady might ask “why”. From this stems up another tassel. So why keep a space for this irritating “why”? When you both are planning a household budget to regulate your expenses, make sure you keep aside some amount for both of you separately. If you want you can spend independently without having to give any explanation for your desires. It is important for you to understand that people may have different demands. Respect and love each other just the way you are. Ruth Hayden, author of “For Richer, Not Poorer: The Money Book for Couples,” thinks that the right choice is to avoid conflict by keeping some accounts separate. His idea echoes, “You should have some autonomy money, I should have some autonomy money, and we need to learn how to practice being a couple together with our money.”
* Vital sign 4: The most challenging situation for a married couple comes when they have to deal with a monetary crisis. No matter how much you try to control your spending, life is unpredictable. There can be a rush hour when you might have to pay for high medical or maternity charges, car repair, mortgage and many other unanticipated situations. But why so? How can money take over your love? Start maintaining an emergency fund. So both of you can decide how much you can contribute. Make sure this amount is directly proportionate to your respective income.
* Vital sign 5: Are you throwing tantrums at each other regarding a big purchase? If you are thinking about buying something big such as a house or a car, first check the agreement level. It can be that you want your partner to contribute whereas he/she cannot. So why not give some time? Postpone the idea and let the other person settle down with finances.
* Vital sign 6: If you are in love, you must be honest with each other. Lack of integrity is another vital sign that leads to a financial crisis followed by a charged up emotional battlefield. Credit cards are one of the most used financial accessories. Whenever you go for shopping, you usually swipe cards. But are you swiping your partner’s card without his/her knowledge? Stop doing this. Even if you are spending, let your partner know about this. It happens that you keep on swiping cards and at the end of the month when your partner discovers this, it is kind of shocking. This instantly makes way for a big challenge. If you feel you cannot control your temptations, start communicating. Don’t let your partner get disillusioned. It is important to be transparent. Divulge all that you are doing so that nothing is hidden between you two.
* Vital sign 7: Couples suffer from another complex-“I am right”. Usually the one who earns more tries to gain an upper hand. So any kind of advice from the one who earns less gets unheard. If you want to be happy, be a good listener. It is very important that you start respecting each other’s views. Since you earn more, it is not necessary that you are making the right decision. Your partner may have a strong say since you both are connected by love. Discuss problems and sort out solutions that would ensure your conjugal well being.

Well known therapist and author of “Overcoming Overspending: A Winning Plan for Spenders and Their Partners’, Olivia Mellan says, “people with different spending attitudes tend to “polarize” when they become a couple”. So the basic idea is to give a conscious effort towards a mutual consonance. If you think digging your head in the sand will drive away your problems, you are not thinking it right. Take the initiative to ward off these issues. Now you know a few vital signs. What next? Act on it. Knowledge is power but actions always speak louder than words as the adage goes. Realize the priority of love over money and don’t let money ruin your happiness.

Summer of Love Exhibit at the Whitney – A short review

The Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era exhibition at the Whitney Museum features a series of work from the 1960’s through 1970’s; the artists that range from Andy Warhol to Lucas Samaras. Work from this era are characterized as being a direct reaction to popular culture and instead of art being an activity only to be performed by (and for) the elite, art was created by people from all walks of life. Two pieces of work, both by Abdul Mati Klarwein, demonstrated not only the new wave of art that focused on every aspect of popular culture, but his work also touches on the rise of consumerism and how it affected old conventions of society.

The first piece, The Aleph Sanctuary, was originally a 3×3 meter, metallic cube which contained over sixty paintings1; each piece arranged to resemble the more famous Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. The deliberate religious architecture behind Klarwein’s sanctuary seems to belittle the Christian institution by rendering the monumental church in a minimalistic manner. The small size of the Aleph Sanctuary can serve as representation of the church’s quickly shrinking influence. The younger generation was no longer restricted to finding happiness through God and the church, but through any means necessary. The pursuits of happiness of this generation ranged from the explosion of consumerism to the use of drugs and excess alcohol.

The original Aleph Sanctuary features a series of paintings that lined its walls1, each depicting scenes that characterized pop culture in the 1960’s and 70’s; however, the most ‘Pop’ artwork inside the sanctuary was the “Grain of Sand” (also by Klarwein). This painting depicts sexual themes, consumerism, racial equality, civil unrest, and the psychedelic nature of the decade. Naked women are littered throughout the entire painting; however unlike the roof of the Sistine Chapel, women of both races are depicted. Women and men of color replace the white religious figures and the Caucasian female on the upper-left quadrant of the painting is shown with red skin and green eyes; immediately this colorization seems to give of the connotation of evil. This is a complete upheaval of society’s current attitude towards different races.

The entire painting is a surreal landscape where fashion and luxury are intertwined; these two elements relating to the heavy consumerism and the rush to be at the top of the market, both as consumer and producer. The painting seems to say that everyone who is a consumer is entitled to these luxuries. The vibrant colors of the painting overall represented the ‘life’ and energy of the decade. The youth was blooming, taking action in everything they could get their hands on. This wasn’t limited to drugs, but it also included activism against the government and environmental issues. These two pieces of art by Mati Klarwein, are the best examples of Pop artwork during the 1960’s, each demonstrating the mainstream culture during the period and the events that shaped the artwork.

Love Never Dies

The sequel to The Phantom of the Opera has been a regular topic of conversation for musical theatre fans for some time, and has been billed as the show to see this year.



It’s with no little fanfare that Love Never Dies finally opens.





Set in 1907, a decade after Phantom, a mysterious businessman invites Christine Daaé to perform at Phantasma, a new attraction in New York’s Coney Island. With her husband Raoul and son Gustave in tow, she journeys to America, unaware that it is the Phantom who has arranged her appearance.

Since it opened in 1986, The Phantom of the Opera has become one of the most successful pieces of entertainment ever created, but can Love Never Dies replicate its success?

If the fabulous staging is anything to go by, then yes, and then some. From the opening scene, with its forced perspective set, faded posters and generally unsettling atmosphere, it’s up there with the best.

Director Jack O’Brien has also made excellent use of multimedia projection, something which in other shows looks desperate and can often fall way short of the mark. In this case, however, the money spent on the effect is up on stage for all to see and the 21st century technology places you right in the middle of early 20th Century New York as a rundown Coney Island is brought back to life in vibrant, sparkling fashion.

The projection also allows for economical use of the set; sparse (though no less grand) pieces of stage furniture are combined with contextual imagery to create convincing environments.

O’Brien has a fantastic box of tricks at his disposal, and he makes full use of them, especially when he subtly integrates the Adelphi’s stage revolve while deftly sidestepping the accusations of gratuitousness that have dogged other productions. It never feels intrusive or gimmicky, and gives scenes a depth and cinematic quality that pull the audience in. The best example of this is during Christine’s big number; with the seraphic singer on the Coney Island stage, Raoul and the Phantom stand in opposite sides of the wings, each battling for her affections. What could be a fairly pedestrian moment is transformed into something truly mesmerising by the stage turning and forcing focus onto the different players.

Sierra Boggess as Christine has the serene beauty you expect, and her voice is incredible. However, the stand-out female in Love Never Dies is Summer Strallen as Meg Giry. Now a brassy, yet damaged, showgirl, Strallen gives Meg a tangible personality, brimming with humour and fragility.

Ramin Karimloo is evidently comfortable as the Phantom, having starred as the masked man in the original show at Her Majesty’s Theatre, but once again, the most impressive male isn’t the lead. Rather it is Joseph Millson as Raoul who gives Christine’s husband a believably bitter world-weariness and palpable hatred of his rival.

So, back to the original question. Can Love Never Dies match the success of Phantom? It seems unlikely. While the staging and casting are as good as any you’ll encounter elsewhere in the West End, the songs and story are sadly lacking.

While The Phantom of the Opera’s story isn’t particularly gripping, it has some of the best music to have ever graced the stage. Each tune is more memorable than the last and the melodies burrow into your brain, refusing to move for days. Love Never Dies however, has neither a strong story nor the sort of tunes that stay with you and encourage repeat viewings.

It’s not that the music is bad — there is worse out there in Theatreland — but it is not what we have come to expect from Andrew Lloyd Webber and certainly not what we, the audience, wanted from this long-gestating show.

Nonetheless, Love Never Dies is absolutely worth seeing. There are bound to be tweaks and improvements as the run progresses, and while there’s still money to be made, you can bet that Lord Lloyd Webber will make sure those changes happen.

The chances of it emulating its big brother and being with us in another 25 years are unlikely, but the West End’s latest musical deserves to be seen while it’s here.

Love Never Dies is the biggest thing to happen in theatre for years and anyone with a love of theatre will marvel at the exceptional staging and outstanding performances.

Sweet love.

It's been some time,
But,
you still absolutely mesmerize me.
You are on my mind,
all the time.
I swear,
When you're far away,
Or when I don't know how you are,
I feel this empty feeling inside.
I need you to hug me again.
To never let me go.

Please,
stay with me.
I need you,
More than I could tell you.

You're my reason,
My smile.

Have I said this before?
Yeah,maybe i have.
Loads of times,
But i just can't seem to help it.

I just want you to know,
I'm always always gonna love you.
I promise.

"Seasons are changing,
And still,
the only thing on my mind,
is you."