Wonderful Day

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.


Stupendous! In support of Mickey Smith's mastery, please watch, enjoy, and spread his work onwards into the world. For as he explains,

"It's an art form in itself. (We are) Silent work horses of the surfing world... Most folk don't even know who we are, what we do, or how we even do it, let alone want to pay us for it."

Who says statistics can't be fun?

Oh heavens, this site is so much fun! For all of you, young and old, this is one smart software tool to experiment with. For you who are parents or educators, there are a lot of stories you and your children can come up with using the information here.

David Lynch: A People's People

Did any of you watch the series, Interview Project, by David Lynch? He went from the east coast to the west coast, interviewing people in apparently a very happenstance way. The interviews are short portraits of these people's lives. Collectively, they create a portrait of a country.

He's now doing a series, Interview Project Germany. The interviewees speak their dialect or local accent, but there are subtitles. Even if you do not like reading subtitles, please spend some time and reading them, for often what the people say is touchingly vulnerable and honest. What I like about these three interviews is the fact that the people live(d) modest lives, but seem genuinely happy with them.

Can you hear the difference between the way that Karl speaks and Luci? Luci comes out of ex-DDR. When the Berlin Wall went down over twenty years ago, the life she knew up to that date vanished. I was talking to a friend of mine recently about why it is that foreigners living in Germany don't say they are German, even after they have received citizenship. She responded with the fact that she feels she is a East Berliner and not a German. The area that she grew up in, the education she received, the social values she was raised in, they have changed or disappeared. This is not to say she is unhappy. Contrarily, like Luci, there is an acceptance mixed in with loss of that what they once held dear.

Then there is Betty, who talks about dressing up fashionably in the 60s and 70s. It's hard to imagine bellbottoms and hot pants. Friday night disco in the local bar. Yet, it is reassuring to know that she did live those moments.


Do enjoy.

Bitter Sweet, But Oh So Dear

OK, another Guardian gem:

"Randy Newman gives an exclusive performance of his song Losing You and talks about the difficult events that inspired it."

There is also a wonderful article, a fine piece of journalistic writing, that accompanies the video. Do enjoy.

Facebook Offline

The Offline Social Network (HUNGRY BEAST) (by abchungrybeast)

What I like about this video is how the whole concept of social media sites like Facebook really doesn't make much sense if you remove it from the online world and into IRL. The idea of poking and befriending and message wall... Strange. Recently, my family Facebook group announced the death of a relative on our Facebook wall. It doesn't appear that anyone but me felt this totally inappropriate.

Modern Haiku

Don't know if I mentioned my journey with Twitter... here's the short version. Joined. Found some people to follow. Was followed by some of them and few others. Basically didn't get it. Basically, thought I felt as if I was sitting underneath a waterfall of rushing information. This left me with a sensation of pressure building in my head. So, I quit. Walked away.

Journeyed on with no twitter, though lots of friends kept saying come back into the waters. Decided that rejection is not always the best consequence of critical thinking or social activism. So, I started to tweet again. This time, as a poet of modern haiku. If you wish, my twitter name is shortshortstori.

I have followers. Most who I do not know personally. It is a puzzle how they found me. It is also a delight.

It Gets Better, Social Media with Ice Cream on Top

Sometimes social media and the people on the forefront do something that is just fantastic. "It Gets Better" campaign is one such case. All the hot shots are doing it...



Even the geeks are on the bandwagon...



In my university days, studying electrical engineering, any gay engineering student had to hide his gayness. Not because they feared being ostracized, but physically beaten. "Gay bashing" was a weekend pastime of some of the more seriously homophobic tech students. Just love this Google employee's video contribution to the campaign.

But, my real hero when it comes to stirring up the dust is Rick Mercer. Please look at the following two videos. Don't you just love a good rant?



And, lastly, Rick Mercer and a group of famous Canadian media people and artists.



To all you out there to whom this message is directed to... find someone today to help you, and don't wait until tomorrow.

Mediation Weekend

Wandering out into the garden in the early morning hours... to catch the threads of spider webs on my face, the drone of the bees amongst the apple blossoms, and the droplets of dew on the edge of my pantlegs.

Having Gone Astray

Clive Stafford Smith, legal director of Reprieve discusses the information contained in US government records made public (leaked) about the 779 prisoners of Guantánamo Bay. According to the records, over 80% of the people were completely innocent of those crimes they were suspected of. 606 people have already been acquitted and were known to have no intelligence of value for the government.

The purpose of Guantánamo Bay was/is intelligence gathering to prevent future attacks. He says that the problem is the US was trying to gather intelligence in a very unintelligent way,

“If you sweep people up who you know are innocent (and it is in these documents), and if you mistreat them horribly, then you are not going to get reliable intelligence; you are going to make yourself a lot of enemies.”

The reason he feels the US and everyone else needs to take a close look at what happened (and still is happening) at Guantánamo Bay is simply,

“You can’t learn the lessons of history, if you don’t know what that history is.”

It is important for us to know how terribly the American government went astray.

Why My Mother Is An Anglophile

One of the things that my mother and I used to disagree on when I was younger and Quebecois was how cats pyjamas the Brits are. She loved everything British. I less so.

Yet, the literature, the free London museums, and the Guardian has done much to make my views milder over the last years. But, it is Alys Fowler and her terrier (I believe called Isabel), who made me realise how Anglophilia is part craziness (in all the right ways), as it is a marrow transplant of fay. I love the fact that she looks incredibly elegant and happy in her garden, all the while having dirt under her fingernails.

If you wish to see more of Ms. Fowler's videos, do go... here.

Cherry Blossom Petals

photo from topmedic

Young boy loses himself playing in a sandbox populated with last year's toys and carpeted with this year's cherry blossom petals.

No Television Zone

Another collage in my television series. For someone who has not owned a television in her adult life, having diddled away many sunny childhood days in front of a television, I've used a television in five collages. Hmmm, what would Freud say about that?

It's been a while

It's been a while since I've posted a TED talk. Figuring that you guys have probably caught on to the idea of how awesome some of the talks are. And, there have been numerous occasions when I've been tempted and not given into the temptation.

Today, a beautiful sunny day, a day before a long Easter weekend, I want to post one more TED talk:



For Kathryn Schulz is so right about being wrong, so clever and unassuming at the same time. She brings joy to my heart.

Perfectly Precise

As someone who has never owned a car and always biked to work... this message made me feel a bit smug. Usually, I am not like this, preferring to let others live (or drive) as they choose. Fortunately, two car households are still in the minority where we live. Even though people do love their cars, most people don't automatically get into their cars whenever they live their homes, but use their bicycles or public transport system as well.

Quiet Sunday

It's a quiet Sunday afternoon after a very busy week. Another very busy week. As many have been this year. Going to have to rethink this busy-ness, or this business of constantly being preoccupied with the white noise of purposeful professional endeavours. Instead, why shouldn't I just try to discover a mindfulness, an awareness for small pleasures and tender mercies that unfold each day. Such gifts.

Thank you for reading this blog.

Come Outside To Play

We had the most lovely of warm sunny spring days today. As I sat on a park bench with my eyes closed, I heard the voices of all my childhood friends calling me to come outside to play. The residues of winter, dead leaves and broken branches, not quite vanished from the corners of the garden. Buds on the branches. Discarded jackets littering the lawn. We ran around crazily, wildly; pure joy.



What I like about this video is the playfulness. How they could take a simple idea and translate it into something that visually matches the beauty of the music note for note. Do enjoy it, my dear friends.

Darling

A few years ago, I discovered Jackie Kay a Scottish poet. She makes me cry and laugh*, in general, makes me believe that the world is a messy place, but sublimely so.



What a gift it must be to speak your mind and ponder your thoughts in such a way as with words well chosen.



I have a friend back in Montreal who does so by writing plays. Watching Jackie Kay read her poems today, made me miss my friend, for she can always shake me awake with her words.

* Be sure to listen to both of the poems in both of the videos.

Mangrove at Dusk

There is a mangrove near where my mother lives and where my parents used to keep their boat when they were not off sailing. Late afternoon and during dusk herons and cranes used to gather. Not in plenty, but like fishermen each carrying for their territory.

Cricket, A Mystery to Me

I've never understood how cricket works. Yet, in Grenada, as most countries that were once British colonies, cricket is played by young and old alike.

The Big Picture has some magnificent photos this week that show the every-dayness of the sport, as well as the mass hysteria.

Need to inspire

Nichole Pinkard from New Learning Institute on http://vimeo.com">Vimeo.

A friend recently asked me if I would hold a series of mini-workshops for youths and their parents concerning media literacy. I don't know what it is like where you live, but in Germany, there tends to be an enormous amount of discussion about the dangers of media and very little celebration of its potetial to influence our children's ability to develop their communication and problem-solving skills.

Nichole Pinkard speaks persuasively about how imperative it is for us to inspire our children toward learning a complex set of learning skills they will undoubtedly need in the future. Can you imagine what it would be like to have access to the Digital Youth Network program (especially library part) she discribes?

Mimi Ito from New Learning Institute on Vimeo.

Equally, Mimi Ito looks at the questions of "Why do we assume that kids socialising and playing is not a side of learning?" and "Why do we assume that schools can't have a spirit of entertainment and play as a part of what they are doing?". Her group has done extensive research about "friendship driven participation" and what short of beaviour and learning processes the children are involved in. They have also looked at all the things kids do beyond just chatting with each other after school.

She summarises succinctly the gap that exits between the generations. How the older generation places very little value on the time their children spend before the screen. How they even believe the internet is hostile to learning. What she says is must do is  to differentiate between friendship-driven activities and interest-driven activities. If we lump them all together we miss the opportunity to enter into a conversation with our children about something that has a huge potential to teach them important skills.