At age 17, she achieved early admission to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Her music videos – such as clips in a recent Barbara Walters interview with her – show her love of costume artifice and theatricality – and play.

She admires photographer Cindy Sherman, another artist who intrigues me for creating so many personas as performance art.

Lady Gaga (Stefani Germanotta) identifies herself as a feminist, and says, “I find that men get away with saying a lot in this business, and that women get away with saying very little.

“In my opinion, women need and want someone to look up to that they feel have the full sense of who they are, and says, ‘I’m great.’ ”

She also sees herself as unique: “I don’t see myself as ever being like anybody else. I don’t see myself as an heir.”

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“Some of us have great runways already built for us. If you have one, take off! But if you don’t have one, realize it is your responsibility to grab a shovel and build one for yourself and for those who will follow after you.” Amelia Earhart

She also commented, “Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.” … “I lay no claim to advancing scientific data other than advancing flying knowledge. I can only say that I do it because I want to.”

Developing multiple talents

In addition to flying, Earhart published books, wrote newspaper articles, promoted her own lines of luggage and fashion, and became an advisor at Purdue University.

In her review of the new movie “Amelia” directed by Mira Nair and starring Hilary Swank, Rachel Abramowitz notes Earhart became “the first woman and second person to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932. In 1935, she was the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California and from Los Angeles to Mexico.

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Excerpted from Keeping up with Exene Cervenka, By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times October 6, 2009:

“Exene Cervenka has transitioned successfully through a variety of career phases, starting with her stint in X, the band that perhaps best embodied the character of L.A.’s punk subculture of the early ’80s.

“She moved on to the rootsy folk-country side project the Knitters with other members of X and the Blasters, then launched a solo career that included spoken-word performances of her own writings.

“In the last decade, she started taking her interest in visual art seriously to the point of regularly exhibiting in galleries around the country.

“A recent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis has done little to slow her creative output, but it is one factor that has figured into her return to Southern California after four years spent living in rural Missouri….”

“The sudden loss of her friend [fiddle player and singer Amy Farris], with whom she had begun writing songs, comes at a time when Cervenka has been dealing with upheaval of her own in the MS diagnosis.”

“I’ve got to say that like a lot of people who have something really bad happen to them, it’s a blessing and a curse,” she said.

“I’m learning a lot about people, about my friends, my family, about me.

“I’ve completely changed my lifestyle around to be healthier, and I think it’s one of the things that’s helped me make a leap forward, hopefully. It’s kind of platitude-ish, but you always want to be a better person.

“As you get older, you want to be more productive, slay your demons, move forward . . . . Hopefully, I can use this as a furthering of that process.”

> Related: Healing & art – quotes articles sites books

healing and art, developing creativity, psychology of creativity, creative mind

“I have, like, hyper-awareness. It’s like a disease. I can’t help it. I notice everything.”

[From Courteney in Control, By Hilary De Vries, marieclaire.com August 2006; photo by James White]

A newer profile article says “Cox, who considers herself always to have been sensitive, has grown even more so since having a kid [5-year-old daughter, Coco]. To the point where she can’t bear to landscape the front of her house because it would involve killing the plants there.”

“I can’t tell you how much time I think about taking up the plants that don’t really work anymore,” she said. “Something has completely changed in me. I don’t know what happened. I’m sure it’s after Coco — I’m sure. I have a life to take care of.”

[From Courteney Cox: 'Cougar Town's' really normal Hollywood star, By Kate Aurthur, Los Angeles Times, September 6, 2009]

> Related page: Intensity / sensitivity

> Related site: Highly Sensitive

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More quotes by Courteney Cox :

“I came from a big family where everyone was talking and no one really listened, and I just need to be acknowledged.”

> Related post on Inner Actor blog: Acceptance – rejection

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“I was starting to notice some things, and I wanted to stop judging myself so much. I’m such a nurturer of others, I thought maybe it was time to start nurturing myself.” [About starting therapy again.]

> Related article Being Creative and Self-critical – by Douglas Eby
> Related page: Counseling / therapy
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high sensitivity personality, highly sensitive people, highly sensitive person, inner-directed personality

Video and transcript from The Rachel Maddow Show June 4 2009 -

MADDOW:  If choosing a summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Princeton graduate with the J.D. from Yale, and 11 years experience on the second circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals—where only three of her hundreds of opinions have been overturned by the Supreme Court—who happens to be the first Latina ever nominated to the high court, weren‘t enough to secure President Obama‘s first Supreme Court nominee, her confirmation, if that weren‘t enough?  The Obama administration deployed its most powerful asset on the campaign in support of Judge Sonia Sotomayor yesterday.  They deployed FLOTUS, the first lady of the United States, whose favorability rating stands at 76 percent, which does happen to outpace Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton at similar times in their husband‘s presidencies.

Here was Michelle Obama speaking yesterday to a high school graduation in Washington, D.C.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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