Docu Bliss

Two fantastic documentaries I watched recently, uplifting, inspiring, hopeful.
Between the Folds is about the inner world of Origami - folding paper like you've never seen before.

Wasteland is about trash pickers in Brazil and the art they help create with visual artist Vik Muniz and use the funds raised to change their lot in life.
In the image below you see an adaptation of the famous Marat portrait made from recycled materials from the trash lands in Rio. It was sold in auction in London for $50,000 which went back to pickers.

Bits of Local News

Southern Ontario - the land where suburban stupidity grows to new heights daily.
They (The Powers That Be) ban cats from spending time outdoors because they do what nature tells them - they hunt birds. Read this

On the other hand, there is a call for hunters to kill as many coyotes as possible and compete on a prize for the most successful killer. Why? Because they scare the sheep and sometimes steal them.
Human nature's propensity for new levels of ignorance and cruelty is never ending.

Alanis in the Nude

Listen to her - heard it on the radio recently and liked! The video is surprising.

Dead Writers

I've been reading lately the journals of Sylvia Plath and the letters of Gustav Flaubert. The differences between those 2 people of letters are giving me a split headache.
One - secluded and resilient in his hatred of society, alone and unflinchingly intolerant towards conventions of his time, astounding ability to pursue purely intellectual projects which took years to complete, unfailing and independent of criticism, which came his way in buckets throughout his entire literary life.
"We must laugh and cry, enjoy and suffer, in a word, vibrate to our full capacity … I think that’s what being really human means."

The other - personal, revealing writing rooted in experience, thirsty for approval, destroyed by depression and loneliness, by the need for an unbound love she always sought, and not even the existence of her young children could save her from herself or provide a center around which she could focus and go on living after that love proved its true nature.
"Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted."

My Very Own Renaissance Man

Happy Birthday to my VORM - husband, friend, a man of science, thought and much laughter - still lovely in every way after all these years, and many more to come!

Cats Don't Like Snow

They love being out there, but when they jumped into the foot deep snow and got all covered up, they looked at me with deeply disappointed eyes as if it was all my doing that their whiskers were covered with the white cold fluff.
Since then they look out very suspiciously before they go outside, trying not to be tricked again.

Fresh Snow for a New Year

It fell slowly yesterday, quiet and fluffy, and made the gray winter look a bit better, at least for a few hours.

I bought this new shovel, the old one got nicked from our front porch last year. I suppose I should step out and use it now.