Solitude is Blessed

This video was shared via Facebook. I've watched it a few times now, and each time am equally enthralled. Today seems the appropriate day to share it as I've spent the day puttering around the house...alone. I am, luckily, a person, who for the most part, does not mind being alone. Oh sure, I like interacting with others, but I also chose to embrace and cherish the time when I can keep myself company and be my own entertainment. I have no idea how unusual that is as each of us experiences the same differently. So if you find yourself by yourself, play this little video and think about how lucky you are.

Exceedingly Nice

I am so enamored with the delightfully delicious lyrics from Charles Edward Carryl's almost forgotten 19th century poem, the Sleepy Giant brought back to life by Natalie Merchant's smokey sweet voice. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Who would've known? Little boys do not like being chewed.

Tree Planter's Waltz

A little snippet of BC mountain culture for you. This was apparently filmed May 2009, however, if I didn't know better, I'd guess the filming in the Merritt night club took place sometime in the eighties. But then again, I have passed through Merritt, the culture is its own. Warning, the song will grow own you despite all protestations.

Tyger! Tyger!

Take a walk through the urban jungles with this magical short by Guilherme Marcondes of Brazil loosely based on Blake's, "Tyger! Tyger!" This mesmerizing little production combines puppetry, illustration, photography and CGI. Wow!



Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symetry?

Lost Generation

This really is quite brilliant and gives us all reason to hope. We can put faith in those who will come after us.

Happy New Year

As we venture into the new year, many of us get reflective. We ponder our life thus far, think about where we want to go, create resolutions, decide what we will no longer do, what we will do from hereon in. I'm perfectly okay with goal setting, but have never really been one for making a large set of resolutions. I am more of a free spirit who cherishes her freedom to follow at will whatever opportunities present themselves. I have difficulty being strictly regimented. I find it a kill joy that stifles creativity. But that being said, I do respect those of you who do go the resolution route. Life would be so utterly boring if we all did things the same way and I've always been of the opinion that what works for one does not always work for another. That being said, I really like the idea that Chani presented over at "Finding My Way Home," to chose a word for the new year: the idea being to "create a theme for the year...a central concept that will change the way we look at things." The lens with which we look at life may not change our circumstances, but it can change how we react to events that come our way and I think that this makes all the difference. If you had to choose a word, what word or words would you chose?

As many of us are looking inward and being reflective, I thought you might enjoy this short animation by Lasse Gjertsen as he ponders the age old question, "who am I?"



Happy New Year everyone. I wish you all joy, happiness, peace and lots of love in the coming year.

Culinary Curiosities

“Well, we tried the lutefisk trick and the raccoons went away, but now we have got a family of Norwegians living under our house.”

Nothing, aside from perhaps language, ties us to our culture more than food. In an instant, food can bring back the comforts of childhood. It’s soothing and can stimulate a flood a memories like nothing else.

In my family, around the holiday season, we were inundated with goodies, many of them Norwegian treats that we rarely ate at other times of the year: lefse, rosettes, krumkake, fattigman, almond rice pudding… foods, at which the mere mention, make me salivate. These treats strengthened our bond with the other Scandinavian brethren in the area with whom we made much merriment as Christmas neared and during the days of festing that followed. But of all that bonds Norwegians, nothing bonds us more, than lutefisk. It is one of those dishes that every single Norsk has a strong reaction too. Whether we love it or hate it, we do so with passion. In my family, it was not on the menu, although I have kin who rave about it, and perhaps the emphasis should be on the word, “rave.” Personally, I side with a Norwegian friend who put it like this, “Lutefisk is not food we actually eat, it’s a test to see if outsiders really, really want to marry into our family. How much do you love my child? Eat this lye soaked fish to prove it.”

For those of you who have never heard of lutefisk, you did not just misunderstand. It is indeed lye soaked fish or more precisely, dried cod soaked in lye and then boiled. That’s right, sodium hydroxide, you know the stuff you use to clean drains, which will burn you chemically if you come in contact with it, and will explode when in contact with aluminum. It is also a major ingredient in soap. So what does this delicacy actually taste like? Well, when all is said and done, the fish has a translucent jelly like appearance and doesn’t taste much of anything. It certainly isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever eaten, although I do question its safety. The taste mainly comes from what you eat with lutefisk. Usually it’s drenched (and I mean flooded) in melted butter, and then often additionally topped with bacon. Boiled potatoes and stewed peas usually also make an honoured appearance beside this delicacy.

For those of you still morbidly curious or intrigued, check out the following videos.

Winter...the Best Time of Year

This video clip captures the mountain culture in which I grew up absolutely perfectly. It somehow conjures up all kinds of bits and pieces of memory and feelings from my childhood. Perhaps it's because for years I skied at WH2O...spent many hours on her powdery slopes watching some of the best skiers in the world hotdogging down her cliffs. Perhaps we weren't quite as hippie as those portrayed in this film, but there certainly were a good deal of VW vans. And all of us experienced fishtailing on icy roads. It was all part of the thrill. And those straight skis! When's the last time you've seen those? We all learned on them.



Bill Heath, a local film maker, spent a good deal of his career learning from the father of ski filmmaking, Warren Miller. Last year I had the honour of viewing his newest film "Nine Winters Old," the stories of random snow lovers and their mountain experiences. The cinematography is stunning and you will see some of the best scenery this area has to offer. See trailer below.

Halbtraum

Dreams take us to the oddest places. They transport us somewhat beyond our conscious imagination allowing us to live experiences that we never dared imagine as is seen in this delightful short animation. Enjoy.

Dance of Life

No time for posting today. Just a quick clip of life in its tragic but stunning beauty.

Things I Have Learned

"Air on the G String" will always sound dirty to grade 7 boys.



Isn't wonderful to know that there is always someone who can change your perspective on the way you see things?

The boys have a new appreciation for Bach. And I will never quite look at "Air on the G String" in quite the same way.

Paint my Silence with Music

Music expresses what words cannot. I fear that if I speak, I shall break the spell. There is something magical in the air. This one reminds me of the pied piper. Indeed, I think I would follow, run with full force, the wind at my back, right off the cliff for that intangible thing called hope planted deep within the hollows of my heart.



If you have time, and enjoyed that last song, you might wish to watch the full film “Heima,” or Homeland, Sigur Rós' first ever film (loose documentary). It was filmed during the summer of 2006 when the band decided to perform a series of free, unannounced concerts all over Iceland. The results of this generous gift are beautiful and inspirational in the way that it brought people of all ages and walks of life together. The images, along with the music are hauntingly beautiful.

When Darkness Falls

As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

~Justice William O. Douglas

Today I had a chance to browse through a book called, “The End of America – Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot,” by Naomi Wolf. Like I said, browsed, so I can’t give you a full synopsis, but what I read, was disturbing, to say the very least. This book is a wake-up call that brings to light issues of tyranny, democracy, and survival. It is a call to arms…compelling us to face the way the freedom in America is under assault. She draws parallels to the Bush administrations post 9-11 policies and events that took place during the early years leading up to the rise of Nazi Germany, Pinochet’s Chile and Stalinist Russia. She explains how Americans have the wrong idea of what a closed society looks like, how in the initial shut down, for the most part, for most people, life goes on as usual.

She takes one through the steps that dictators in the past who have taken over democracies or crushed prodemocracy uprisings by invoking emergency decrees to close down civil liberties, creating military tribunals, and criminalizing dissent have used and brings to light echoes of these events in America today. She calls to our attention important lessons from history about how fragile civil liberties are and how quickly freedom can be lost. Our fundamental rights and freedoms are being eroded as we apathetically sit back unaware. She clearly outlines the same ten steps that have shut down democracies all over the world at different times: invoke an external threat; develop a paramilitary force; create a secret prison system; surveil ordinary citizens; arbitrarily detain and release them; harass citizens’ groups; target writers, entertainers, and other key individuals for dissenting; intimidate the press; recast dissent as “treason” and criticism as “espionage”; and eventually subvert the rule of law. She then warns and illustrates how the United States is moving towards becoming a more closed society.

Naomi makes us aware of the urgency to become informed, act, and protect our rights and liberties. Although I am not American, being a close neighbour, and looking at the US’s place in the world, any movement the US might make towards a more closed society would have immense implications internationally. To quote one paragraph: “If a democratic America, with working checks and balances, often exempts itself from international agreements when its strategic interests don’t coincide with international goals, would a United States led by a dictatorial regime be likely to subdue in itself any level of aggression internationally or restrain itself from any plunder of resources that it seeks, simply because it was upsetting the rest of the world?

If you don't have time to read the book, I encourage you to watch the video below of Naomi speaking at a university campus. It's a little long, but she goes through most of the points covered in her book.

Hey Eugene

Have you ever met someone and instantly felt an amazing connection? I'm talking about one of those situations that blows you right out of the water, where you seem to be connecting on all levels with that other person, so much so, in fact, that all you can think is, "wow!" And then, a little while later, something happens that makes you realize that perhaps, although you're completely baffled by how you didn't pick up on it, the connection wasn't mutual. How could this fact have slipped by you? You are now left perplexed, wondering, "what was that all about anyway?" Well, here we have it, Pink Martini performing possibly one of their best songs about just that. Please join me in listening to, "Hey Eugene."

More on Loreley

A gigantic stratification of slate (132 meters above sea) impressively overlooks the Rhine near St Goar. Far below, the Rhine twists its way through a narrow valley which over centuries has been the site of many a tragic shipwreck. German poets have immortalized this place through their romanticized writings. As a result, various legend and lore has come about.

In one such story, it is said that from the top of this rock a ghost-like image of Loreley sang sailors to their doom. As they heard her fascinating, sad voice when they passed the bend of the river, they would become mesmerized with her, crashing their ships onto the rocks. This tale goes on to say that she was once a mortal girl who threw herself from the top of the rock into the Rhine because her lover proved her unfaithful.

Clemens von Bretano tells yet another tale in his novel “Godwi.” Here a ravishingly beautiful woman was cursed to attract men and thus bring about their undoing. Because she could no longer bear this tragedy, she threw herself off the highest point of the rock into the Rhine to put an end to the spell.

Yet another slightly different version of the story is found in a poem written by Heinrich Heine in 1824. He tells of a girl who combs her golden hair and lilts a little song with such a powerful melody that the sailors below, instead of watching out for shallows and wild currents look up to her and crash their boats against the rocks only to be dragged to the bottom by strong river currents which at this point is almost 100 feet deep. Thus their fate was Loreley’s song.

Lest We Forget

On this eve of this Remembrance day, I encourage all Canadians to watch this tribute to Canadian soldiers in honour of the men and women who have sacrificed their "today" that we might have a "tomorrow." Although by nature I am more or less a pacifist, I acknowledge that many of the freedoms that we are blessed with today are a result of the sacrifice that others have made on our behalf. I don't take our freedoms in this country lightly. There are many places in the world where individuals are persecuted for speaking their mind, acknowledging their beliefs and speaking out about injustices. There are many of us, who have lost relatives somewhere down the line in our ancestry because of their differences or unwillingness to blindly follow those with power. Although I do not believe that all wars fought are justified, I have a great respect for the soldiers who have chosen to actively stand up for our beliefs and values and to fight for our freedoms. At the same time, I feel that we all have a responsibility. Even without an active war in this country, it is still possible for our freedoms to slowly be usurped. I hope that we will all have the courage to stand up and support our neighbours when we know that something is wrong and I hope that when the time comes, there will be someone there to stand up for us.

Things I Love About Nelson #5: Locally Grown Talent

Nelson is unique. Anyone who has every been here knows it. We're an interesting lot but we would have it no other way. Here are a couple videos of local talent. The first two feature clips of Charles "one man" Ross performing parts of the Star Wars Trilogy at his "day job." Obviously he is no longer in Nelson, but if he were, no one would think his performance in a diner to be out of place. That's just the way we are.





In this video, the guy you see on the right is another local Nelson boy. My understanding is that he and his friend threw together this catchy little rap just for fun. When word spread about the popularity of their ditty, McDonald's approached them and asked if they could purchase it for a commercial. The irony is that Nelson doesn't even have a McDonald's and has never really wanted one.

Medevial Help Desk

Here is some good Norwegian humour for any of you out there frustrated with your computer or technology in general. It seems that there have always been issues in keeping up with new technology.

Intermingled Souls

The soul doesn’t thrive on smooth, uncluttered convictions or on lofty promises of deliverance, nor does it thrive on ideology and dogma, but rather imagination and the mystery which is love.

Love comes from years
Of breathing
Skin to skin
Tangled in each other’s dreams
Until each night weaves another thread
In the same web
Of blood and sleep

~Mary Mackey

Guilty Pleasures #1

I had initially intended on writing of my indulgence in "guilty pleasures" yesterday, but alas, am pressed for time today. So instead, I thought I would share this little video that I had seen a few years back. Food is, after all, one of our first pleasures.