“Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed—there’s so little competition.” —Author Unknown

“The Labor Movement; the folks who brought you the weekend.” —From a bumper sticker, 1995

“Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.” —Douglas Pagels

Well, it’s time for another glorious national three-day weekend. This holiday weekend is always a little bittersweet because it heralds the end of summer and the time to buckle down and get back to school. I hope the forecasted cold front that is expected to hit Ohio is not a harbinger of the dreaded cold weather to come. It’s not officially fall until September 22, and I want to fully savor these last 19 days of summer. I’m not ready to start wearing socks and turning on my mattress heater just yet, and, dammit, I will wear white after Labor Day!

Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in the United States since the 1880s. The original plan was that it should be observed and celebrated with a street parade to show “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” of each community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. Ha ha…I love that description.

I don’t think I’ll be making any parades this weekend, but you can bet I’ll be seeking out some recreation and amusement! To take us all out on a high note, here’s my favorite ’80s weekend anthem—sing it, Loverboy…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Come on, baby, let’s go! You gotta love a rocker in tight red leather pants. Hope you have an amazing Labor Day weekend.

“I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me. I have accepted fear as a part of life, specifically the fear of change, the fear of the unknown, and I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back, turn back, you’ll die if you venture too far. –Erica Jong

I’m working on Episode 6 of No Songs for Men, and it is all about Roxanne coming to terms with her fear of performing in public and her self-doubt about her musical talents.  I was looking for a good quote about fear and found this ditty from Erica Jong and just had to share it. Erica is not a stranger to MariaMedia, her first quote appeared on May 14.

Fear is such a big part of our lives. It’s easy to say “I’m not going to be afraid,” but somehow all those nagging doubts just creep back into our cerebellum. I love the fact that Erica is hip to the fact that those fears are going to be there, but the key is not to let them control you. Keep getting in the face of fear, smack it in the face, get that adrenaline pumping, and do something that really scares you today!

Woman Who Rocks: Erica Jong

Occupation: Novelist, poet, and essayist

Why She Rocks: Erica has used her incredible writing skills to bring about a feminist consciousness in women around the world.

Nickname: I couldn’t really find a nickname for Erica, but she did come up with a great term: the zipless fuck, which basically means having sex without any attachments. A sexual encounter free of all remorse and guilt–the perfect one-night stand.

Life Span: March 26, 1942 –

Major Accomplishments and Honors:

Erica has published eight novels, six volumes of poetry, six nonfiction books, and a ton of articles that have appeared in publications like the New York Times, Elle, Vogue, and the New York Times Book Review.

Her first novel, Fear of Flying was an international best seller, with 18 million copies sold worldwide.

Some of her honors include the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature; Poetry magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize; from France, the Deauville Award for Literary Excellence; and from Italy she received the Sigmund Freud Award for Literature.

Erica has lectured, taught, and read her work around the world.

In 2007 Columbia University in New York acquired her literary archive.

Fun Facts:

• This is a direct quote from Erica: “Because my first successful book was thought to be about sex, sex, sex, I got stuck being the happy ho of literature, and that image has been hard to dodge—especially in sex-crazed, puritanical America.”
• Her standard poodle’s name is Belinda Barkowitz.
• Erica is a poet at heart who believes that words can save the world.
• Her name is mentioned in the Bob Dylan song “Highlands.”

What You Need to Know: Even though Fear of Flying was first published in 1973, the story and feminist message is still relevant today. I selected this book as one of my book club picks and loved reading it. I guarantee your club will have an enlightening and interesting conversation on the role of women, our relationships with men, and our search for purpose. The heroine of the book, Isadora Wing, plays a key role in the three subsequent novels that Erica penned—How to Save Your Own Life, Parachutes and Kisses, and Any Woman’s Blues. I have not read these last three yet, but they are on my reading list.

Web site: The official Erica Jong Web site

The Erica Jong Experience: Are you an aspiring writer, student, or part of a book club? Erica has a whole web page with tips for you at http://www.ericajong.com/tipswriters.htm. How cool is that? It’s a great place to get inspiration and encouragement, and you can read her “20 Tips for Writers.”

Even Erica’s memoirs, published in 2006, became a national bestseller and you can read all about her life as a writer inSeducing the Demon: Writing for My Life.

Check out her poetry Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected

The Women Rock category at the Cool Stuff Shoppe is full of great books, DVDs, and merchandise from the women who rock featured on MariaMedia. Thank you for clicking on the ads every time you visit to help pay for this site!

I love finding new, cool outdoor things to do in Ohio, and if you live near the Akron area, you have to check out the new Lock 4. And no, I didn’t get it wrong and mean to say Lock 3. Akron’s popular concert venue, Lock 3, has a new sister venue, that is über trendy, intimate, and complete with waterfront views.

Right across the street from Cascade Plaza and in the place of an old parking lot for the Civic Theatre, downtown Akron has built a new public park. A set of concrete steps takes you down to an urban space with picnic tables and trees that are hugged by cascading waterfalls of the Cuyahoga River and downtown buildings. If you work downtown, this would be a great place to escape for a lunch break while listening to the soothing sounds of the flowing Cuyahoga River.

On Wednesday nights this summer, the park transformed to the Lock Bottom Jazz and Blues Club. The city of Akron, which spent two years constructing the space, was trying an experiment with summertime jazz and blues concerts that started a few weeks ago, and I think they may have started something! The small, intimate venue is the perfect place to sit outside and listen to local jazz and blues musicians on a beautiful summer night.

There’s even a Peroni beer garden that serves up cool, refreshing beverages, the world’s best peanuts from downtown Akron’s Peanut Shoppe, and cool cuisine from Cleveland-based gourmet food truck Dim and den Sum. I was lucky to have someone tell me about the first concert, featuring local jazz quartet the Stingers, and have been back every week since for great blues and cold Peroni.

If you want to check out Lock 4, you’ve got to go this Wednesday, September 1, for the last concert of the series, which will feature Peggy Coyle and her jazz trio. The fun starts at 7:00 p.m. Based on the success of the concerts this year, I have a feeling they’ll be back for a longer run next summer.

Oh, and did I mention the concerts were free?Yeah, a free jazz concert in a cool setting on a summer night…life is good! Thanks, downtown Akron!

Do you know how much fun you are going to have?

Do you know how lucky you are to be able to attend college?

Do you know how jealous I am?

I always get a little nostalgic in the fall when the kids go back to school. It brings back so many memories of the first day of school and that glorious day close to 25 years ago (yikes, it can’t be that long ago; I’m only 30!) that my parents dropped me off for four years of bliss at Marietta College. That day is up there as one of the best days of my life. I was one of those kids who couldn’t wait to get out of the house and start living on my own.

Over the past few years, this time period has brought a whole new set of feelings, as I have seen my friends and family members send off their kids to both kindergarten and college for the first time. Some are thrilled to be empty nesters again (one of my friends calls the first day of school “Mother’s Day”), but most of them are sad to see their kids go off. It really is a big deal and, I’m sure, a tough adjustment to make.

If you have sent a kid off to college this year, just remember, leaving home is an inevitable part of growing up, and one of the reasons you had kids in the first place was to experience the joy of seeing them grow up and become adults. Don’t worry; they’ll be back for laundry, food, and, hopefully, to thank you for making such an amazing investment in their future!

I remember the day we took my stepdaughter to college. It was sad but also a bit depressing when both my husband and I looked at each other and said, “Damn, I’m jealous. I wish I was the one being dropped off for four years of ‘higher’ education.” Instead, we got four years of frugal living while footing the bill for college, but it was worth it!

I’ve heard a few people say recently that youth is wasted on the young. If we could go back to college knowing what we do today, it would be really cool. I don’t agree with them. Part of what made college so much fun were all the crazy new experiences, getting thrown together in a crappy dorm room with an assigned roommate, being open to all kinds of study, trying funky drink combinations from a trash can, cheap beer, and the stamina to pull off an all-nighter before an exam. How many middle-aged people do you know who can stay up past midnight anymore?

So, to my sister and friends sending kids away to college this year: Hang in there and get ready to enjoy a whole new wonderful phase of your life. To your kids: The best piece of advice I can give is to work hard, play hard. Study hard during the day so you have plenty of time left at night to hang out with friends and party! You’ll learn some pretty important stuff outside of those classrooms.

Let me know if you have sent a kid away to college this year and how you are dealing with it or what your fondest memory of those first few weeks of college is. Mine was meeting all the wonderful women on the second floor of Elsie Newton Hall who became my close friends!

Photo: Harrison Keely

“I have a problem about being nearly sixty. I keep waking up in the morning and thinking I’m thirty-one.” —Elizabeth Janeway

Well, that is kind of funny, because I keep waking up and thinking I’m still 25. Hey, whatever works for you to help you stay young! Elizabeth led a full life until her death at age 91. She also contributed our quote of the day on August 20, 2010.

Woman Who Rocks: Elizabeth Janeway

Occupation: American author, critic, and feminist

Why She Rocks: Elizabeth grew up during the depression and had to drop out of Swarthmore College to help support her family. She did so by writing bargain-basement advertising sales slogans. She did end up getting her college degree from Barnard College a few years later and was so determined to become a writer that she took the same creative writing class repeatedly to hone her craft. I love the fact that winning a competition sponsored by Story magazine encouraged her to keep going, and she went on to write seven novels. Throughout her career she served as a reviewer and critic for the New York Times and Ms. Magazine. While she was a critic at the New York Times, she helped champion controversial literary works of her time, like Lolita.

Some of Elizabeth’s early works focused on the struggles of women dealing with modern society, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that she began writing about feminist topics. Her works—Man’s World, Women’s Place: A Study of Social Mythology (1971), Between Myth and Morning: Women Awakening (1974), Powers of the Weak (1980), and Improper Behavior (1987)—gained her a critical voice for women stifled by the home or workplace. She was a major supporter of the women’s movement and abortion rights.

Some of her best friends included Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan.

Nickname: She was called a modern Jane Austen and a precocious writer

Life Span: October 7, 1913 – January 15, 2005

Major Accomplishments and Honors:

Her 1945 novel, Daisy Kenyon, was made into a motion picture, starring Joan Crawford.

Elizabeth served as the president of the Authors Guild from 1965 to 1969, working toward copyright protection for authors.

Barnard College, her alma mater, granted Elizabeth their highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction, at their 1981 graduation ceremonies.

She served as a judge for the National Book Awards and the Pulitzer Prize.

Elizabeth served as director of the National Organization for Women’s legal and education fund.

Fun Facts: Elizabeth described her husband as “the most intelligent man I have ever met.” She was married to Eliot Janeway who was the economic adviser to Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson (there aren’t many woman I know who would say that about their husbands!).

As part of their social circle, Jane and Eliot hung out with several U.S. Supreme Court justices, and I think it is hilarious that Jane recommended Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying to Justice William O. Douglas. By the way, I’m with Jane; I highly recommend Fear of Flying. It is one of my favorite books.

She signed the contract with her publisher for her first book, Girls, on the way to the hospital to deliver her second child. She has said that if her delivery were not a few days late, she would have never finished the book.

Star Trek Voyager’s Captain Janeway was originally named Elizabeth. The name was changed right away to avoid any legal issues when they show’s producers figured out that a prominent woman already held the name Elizabeth Janeway.

The Elizabeth Janeway Experience: Here are a few links to the book Elizabeth wrote on the women’s movement and the classic Fear of Flying.

Fear of Flying

Mans World Womans Place: A Study in Social Mythology

Between Myth and Morning Women Awakening

Daisy Kenyon

Photo: Dmitry Mayatskyy

“I kind of have a happy magnet. I can’t stand being depressed, so I work my ass off to get out of it as soon as possible.” —Sarah McLachlan

Woman Who Rocks: Sarah McLachlan

Occupation: Singer, songwriter, and musician

Why She Rocks: Well, obviously because she is an amazing singer and songwriter. But more important than that, she has done so much to promote women in music through the creation of Lilith Fair, a celebration of women in music. I can’t think of a better way to support and encourage women than through this amazing music festival. Since its inception, the Lilith Fair has raised over $7 million for charities and also helped launch the careers of several female recording artists.

Sarah also uses her celebrity to help raise money for charitable causes, one of which is the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which Sarah lent her voice and talent to a commercial to raise funds to protect animals from abuse. Since 2006, this commercial has helped raise $30 million in revenue for the SPCA.

She also has formed and funds the Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach program, which offers inner-city kids in the Vancouver area the chance to take music lessons (guitar, piano, percussion, or vocal) taught by professional musicians. The program is having a major impact on these kids and is greatly needed since so many school music programs have been eliminated.

Life Span: January 28, 1968 –

Major Accomplishments and Honors:

• She has sold over 40 million records worldwide.
• Her album Surfacing won two Grammy Awards (out of four nominations) and two Juno Awards.
• She founded Lilith Fair, an amazing concert event that showcases the talents of women in music. In 1997 it was the top grossing of any touring festival and one of the highest-grossing concerts of the year. Lilith Fair is the most successful all-female music festival in history!

Fun Facts: Sarah is a surfer babe! She started surfing when she was 30 and absolutely loves it. In a recent Yoga Journal article by Kaitlin Quistgaard, she said, “I stood up, and I rode a wave, and that was it. I was hooked. I think about it every single day, and I wish I could do it every single day.”

Her high school yearbook predicted that she was going to become a major rock star and they were right!

What You Need to Know: Sarah does really cool stuff. For example, when she released her album Afterglow in 2003, instead of creating a typical music video, she used the $150,000 budget and donated it to charitable causes around the world. She then used the video to explain how the communities that received the money had benefitted.

Web site: The official Sarah McLachlan fan site; the official Lilith Fair Web site.

The Sarah McLachlan Experience: It’s been seven years since her last release, so if you’ve been waiting, check out Sarah’s latest album, Laws of Illusion. During those seven years, she married, raised two children, and separated, so the album is chock-full of material from her experiences over these past years. If you want a sampling of all her best, check out Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan.

Here’s my favorite Sarah song: “Sweet Surrender.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

“It’s hard to imagine a civilization without onions.” —Julia Child

Julia, I am with you on that one! Thanks for summing up civilization for us with the most versatile member of the root vegetable family. There’s nothing like a good onion to spice up a dish or a salad. Onions, you either love them or hate them! I’ll go on the record to say that I am an onion lover, not an onion hater.

Last night we had grilled onions and green peppers on Italian sausage sandwiches (mine was the veggie version from Morningstar Farms). Like the Italians say, delizioso.

The onions were pretty special too. I bought them from a local farmer at a farm market, so they were fresh and still had dirt on them, and the green stems were still sticking out. There is something so satisfying about buying fresh, unprocessed food, and it’s not just the superb taste. These onions were a special variety that was supposed to be even sweeter than Vidalia onions and they were. I’m going to have to go back to the market this weekend and ask the farmer the name of this onion variety (sorry, I’m bad at forgetting names; from people to root vegetables, the names just never stick), because it was yummy.

What do you think civilization would be without ______fill in the blank______? Come on, let’s get creative with the comments today!

While you’re pondering the question, here are a few great works from Julia:

Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1

My Life in France

Stop by every weekday for the daily quote from Women Who Rock. Your daily serving of fun, attitude, and brilliance courtesy of an amazing woman!  Check out the Women Rock category at the Cool Stuff Shoppe for great books, DVDs and merchandise from these great women. Thank you for clicking on the ads when you visit to help fund this site!

“If one is going to change things, one has to make a fuss and catch the eye of the world.” —Elizabeth Janeway

Elizabeth Janeway was a successful American author and critic who lived to be 91 years young. She was an amazing woman, and we’re going to hear more from her with a complete Women Who Rock profile next week.

Aah, change. You gotta love it. To say I’ve undergone a great deal of change in the past year would be an understatement. I’ve changed careers, the way I approach work and life, become a yoga fanatic, started writing a Web novel No Songs for Men—and am loving every minute of it.

I’m kind of a change junkie. I thrive on it. Love to mix things up and do something I’m afraid of doing every day (thanks, Eleanor Roosevelt, for that lovely quote). So, I couldn’t leave a good thing alone here at MariaMedia; I had to change things up, and today I’m officially announcing that the Daily Downward Dog (D.D.D) is going to be moving to a new home at http://www.dailydownwarddog.com. It’s time for the D.D.D. to spread its wings and morph into the kick-ass yoga-inspired Web site it needs to be.

I’ve been making quite a fuss over the new D.D.D. these past few months, and now I really hope to catch the eye of the world with the new D.D.D.

Actually, the song “Changes” by David Bowie is one of my all-time favorite songs. So, on that note, I’ll leave you with some video footage of David performing this classic live. Look out, you rock ’n‘ rollers, the D.D.D. has changed!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image: Gabriel Pico

Stop by every weekday for the daily quote from Women Who Rock. Your daily serving of fun, attitude, and brilliance courtesy of an amazing woman!  Check out the Women Rock category at the Cool Stuff Shoppe for great books, DVDs and merchandise from these great women. Thank you for clicking on the ads when you visit to help fund this site!

I want my MTV! Wow, I’m showing my age with this one.

Do you want your Daily Downward Dog (D.D.D.)?

Are you wondering where the hell the D.D.D. is?

Well, something really exciting has happened (for me, at least). The D.D.D. was feeling a little cramped over here at MariaMedia. It needed a bigger yoga mat to grow in its yoga practice. After months of URL hunting, packing, moving blogs, setting up the menus, and building new fixtures, the D.D.D. is ready to announce its new address at www.dailydownwarddog.com.

If you click on the D.D.D. at MariaMedia, you will be redirected to the brand-new Daily Downward Dog site. Go on, click it; I know you want to check it out.

With its cushy new digs, the D.D.D. will have a place to expand on special topics, like healing back pain with yoga, demystifying yoga, and the best yoga music videos. I’m also really excited that the Daily Downward Dog will feature a marketplace where you can find affordable yoga products. You don’t need a pair of hundred-dollar black stretchy pants to achieve bliss. The D.D.D. does all the work to find you outstanding yoga products with the best prices.

America, demand your D.D.D.! You don’t need to call your cable company; it’s free 24 hours a day and in stereo. Too much is never enough, so be sure to also follow the D.D.D. on Twitter (@downwarddog) and Facebook.

It’s time to pick up your mat and set it down at the new D.D.D.! We still have a few more boxes to unpack, so be patient as we settle into our new digs. We’re looking forward to seeing you.

Here’s one more MTV promo video, just so I could get a look at the younger tantra-tastic Sting (is that red hair he’s sporting?).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well, I got my bubble burst this past weekend. I’ve been working out a lot lately with a mix of yoga, Zumba®, bike riding, and long walks on the beach. I felt like I was getting in pretty good shape and my body was toning up. That is until I was thrust into the Vermilion Harbour Triathlon, held August 14 and 15, in Vermilion, Ohio.

It all happened when I decided to get up early on Sunday morning to go out for a bike-ride workout before it got too hot. Riding along on one of my back-road jaunts, I started to see flashing lights and flags, and all of a sudden, my chosen route had put me smack-dab on the second leg of the triathlon, the 20k (or 40k, if you really want some fun) bike ride. I actually wanted to turn around, but my co-rider insisted we move forward since we would only be on the trail for a short while before we would turn off (and don’t worry, we got the blessing of the local police as they waved us through).

As soon as we turned onto the street we were instantly transported into the Tour de France Vermilion. There were people on the sides of the streets cheering us on, taking pictures, and offering us water.

We peddled along, hugging the right side of the road so as not to delay the triathlon competitors as they whizzed by us in their skin-tight biking apparel, clip-on bike shoes, and aerodynamic helmets. I swear there was not an ounce of body fat to be seen in a three-mile radius. Not only were these riders kicking our ass, they were doing so after already swimming the first leg of the race in Lake Erie. I’ve never felt so out of shape in my entire life.

At one point a buff athletic woman rode past me and yelled out enthusiastically, “You’re doing great. Keep it up.”

I yelled back to her, “Thanks, but we’re not in the race.”

I could barely hear her reply, as she like all the other triathlon participants had zoomed by me by now, but I think she said, “I know!”

Was it that obvious we weren’t part of the triathlon? I’m suspecting the combination of our Erie Kai Tavern T-shirts, non-aerodynamic baseball caps, mountain bikes, and our exceptionally laggard speed may have clued her in.

We finally made it to our turnoff and had a good laugh about being the most out-of-shape participants in the triathlon. I have to admit, the experience didn’t make me want to train to be a triathlete, but it did motivate me to push myself harder in my yoga practice and workout routines. Perhaps I could get into just a little better shape.

We decided to attend next year’s Vermilion Harbour Triathlon, but this time we’ll be on the shores of Lake Erie at Linwood Park as spectators.

Photo: Paul Chessare

Stop by every weekday for the Daily Downward Dog, my daily journal of cool yoga and meditation experiences!  Check out the Yoga category at the Cool Stuff Shoppe for great books, DVDs and yoga products. Thank you for clicking on the ads when you visit to help fund this site!