From the GLP site: "In this week's episode, Dani gets us thinking about craft as life and thought and spirit, the changing face of the publishing world, the artful practice that helped her become who she is, and how creative people can both be of the world and of service to it."
"Becoming a writer really did save my life." So says novelist and memoirist Dani Shapiro as she chats with Jonathan Fields on this episode of the Good Life Project.
From the GLP site: "In this week's episode, Dani gets us thinking about craft as life and thought and spirit, the changing face of the publishing world, the artful practice that helped her become who she is, and how creative people can both be of the world and of service to it."
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James Hashimoto is one lucky kid. His father, Daniel, is an after effects artist for DreamWorks studio and in his spare time he likes to spice up actual videos of James doing everyday things with some amazing CGI effects. The result? James can marvel at himself wielding a lightsaber at the toy store, blowing things up with his Lego blaster, and disappearing into a puddle at the garden centre. You can check out James and his adventures on his YouTube channel. Here is my favourite of the bunch: If you are viewing this post via email, click here to see the video.
Somehow, inexplicably, it is Friday yet again, which means it's time for me to contribute to the Scattered Life Collective. Current time: 6:29 a.m. Out the window: It may officially be spring, but that doesn't mean much around here. After a brief reprieve, we're back to freezing temperatures and the melting has halted. I heard just yesterday that even the geese have retreated - a spokesperson for FortWhyte Alive said that in the 30 years he has worked there, he has never seen the Canada geese arrive and then fly back south after a dip in the temperatures. I wish I could go with them. On the menu: I think I'll cheat a bit for dinner tonight - I'll cook, but with a pre-prepared sauce. I've been trying out the various Patak's brand Indian sauces and pastes and loving them all. So far my favourite is korma, but tonight's mango chicken might just move into first place. Reading: I've just started Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, in preparation for a book club that I might join. From the entry on Amazon.com: "What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways." I know I'm intrigued. I'm about 60 pages in, and so far, so good. Listening: I've been streaming KEXP radio from Seattle ("where the music matters") and loving it. Watching: Happy, the documentary. From IMDB: "Happy takes us on a journey from the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy. Combining real life stories of people from around the world and powerful interviews with the leading scientists in happiness research, Happy explores the secrets behind our most valued emotion." My opinion: I found this movie fascinating, and I've decided that I want to move to Bhutan, a country that places primary importance on the happiness of its citizens by implementing programs that emphasize GDH - gross domestic happiness. Fantastic. Good stuff:
Out and About:
That's all for this week. Sarah xoxo "The future is something that everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is." C.S. Lewis "You may delay, but time will not." Benjamin Franklin It's 4:30 in the morning, and I'm writing a blog post. Early morning activity has been a common occurrence around here of late. For some reason my internal clock has decided that waking in the middle of the night is something I need to look into. So I'm making the best of the situation. I've adjusted my daytime schedule to accommodate my nocturnal changes and I'm learning that I can accomplish a great deal if I just ignore the clock and get on with it. I live alone, so I'm not disturbing anyone, and if I ignore the darkness outside I can actually get a lot done. But it's got me thinking about how time is one of life's great equalizers. No matter how much money you have, or how important a figure you may be, you cannot affect the passage of time. It plods on, one second at a time, without any need for human intervention. (Vainly, we attempt manipulation via Daylight Savings Time. How ridiculous that we believe we can cheat time and actually gain an hour of daylight?) At the Olympics, all of the athletes compete against the same clock. When we are on a work deadline, we can't simply create more hours in which to complete our task. There are 24 of them per day, and that fact isn't changing. And as much as we might like to be able to turn back time at certain points in our life - to a happier time, to a simpler time - time spent is spent and we never get it back. What we can control, though, is how we spend the time we are given. And that's where I like to break free of the confines, somewhat. I like to eat breakfast food for dinner, and vice versa. I write blog posts in the middle of the night and take naps while others are having lunch. I don't much see the point in acknowledging birthdays (so another year has passed, so what?) and I think I'll celebrate the new year some time in April this year, if it suits me at the time.
I like to turn time on its head whenever I can. I know that this practice isn't revolutionary, but it does instil a certain sense of power. I can't stop time, but I can rebel against its passing by choosing how to spend it. I simply refuse to let time and its resulting "supposed-tos" dictate the course of my life. I'm breaking free of time constraints and living life on my own schedule. Are you with me? (Oh yeah, I forgot. It's still early. I'm sorry. Go back to sleep and get back to me later.) Sarah xoxo Shots of Awe is a video series on the TestTube network featuring "performance philosopher" Jason Silva.
From the TestTube site: "Every week Jason freestyles his way into the complex systems of society, technology and human existence and discusses truth and beauty in science. Follow (him) in this journey as he unearths the wonder and awe that surrounds us in his trademark existential jazz." A big thank you to my friend Deborah Weber for pointing me in the direction of The Made-Up Words Project. From the website: "The Made-Up Words Project is an ongoing undertaking by illustrator Rinee Shah. The goal is to collect and catalog the made-up words that we share with family and friends." Simple concept. Hilarious results. And I love Shah's illustrations. Here is my favourite so far: "When you're driving and you go fast over a bump in the road, such that it makes your stomach jump a little. As in 'Whoa! Did you feel that? That was a big woolly-doop-doop.'"
Find your favourite at madeupwordsproject.com It's time again for me to add a post to the Scattered Life Collective. My mind was elsewhere last week, so I didn't participate, and now I can hardly believe it's been two weeks since my last Scattered Life post. Lately I feel like the days are dragging but the weeks are flying by, if that makes any sense. Current time: 6:44 a.m. Out the window: Slush. And lots of it. There is so. much. snow. to get rid of - it's going to be a very wet and mucky spring. On the menu: I'm still on my slow cooker kick, and today I'm preparing this recipe for coconut and green curry pork. So simple, and oh so delicious. Reading: Raven Black, the first instalment in the Shetland series by British crime fiction writer Ann Cleeves. The series introduces the character of Inspector Jimmy Perez, and is set in the remote Shetland islands in Scotland. As winner of the Duncan Lawrie Dagger award for best crime novel of the year, Raven Black was described by the judges as having a "superb sense of place." Here the landscape plays almost as important a role in the story as do the major characters. I'm sold on Cleeves' depictions of how a murder investigation is affected by the insularity of this isolated community, and fascinated by the tales of local customs, including the annual fire festival known as Up Helly Aa. Listening: Baltimore-based band Future Islands appeared on David Letterman last week and afterward Twitter was abuzz (or should I say "atwitter?") with tales of their greatness. I will admit I wasn't blown away at first, but now the song - Seasons (Waiting on You) - has totally grown on me. What do you think? Watching: Portlandia. The fourth season of this hilarious sketch comedy show is now on IFC, but I'm catching up with season three on Netflix. All I can say is, may Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein never stop making the funny together. They are a match made in comedy heaven. And with guest stars like Kyle MacLachlan, Jim Gaffigan and Roseanne Barr, the laughs just intensify. My favourite characters? Toni and Candace, owners of the Women and Women First bookstore.
Good stuff:
Out and About:
That's all for this week. Sarah xoxo "A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much." Yogi Berra I've written before about living alone and how, overall, I'm okay with it. One thing I do miss about living with a roommate, though, is everyday conversation - both the light and the heavy. The things that are said in the in-between moments. The retelling of happenings and the chronicles of goings-on. The meaty stuff that takes time to surface. I miss it all. So much of my life goes by without the notice of anyone but me, and sometimes I feel like that's not healthy. Eleanor Roosevelt said that "great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." I think that what people talk about has a lot to do with the amount of time they have for the conversation, as well. It's tough to "go deep" when you're on the clock. Profound observations need time to percolate. Consider the difference in what you would talk about with a friend you haven't seen in years, one you haven't seen in months, and one whom you see every day. It's often the small things, the minutiae of life, that I find most fascinating, and those details usually don't come up when you're comparing notes on life's big stuff. I suppose I could always try to revive the idea of the salon, which originated in 16th-century Italy - a social gathering in a private home meant primarily for the purpose of conversation. That would solve part of my problem, but I'd still be missing out on the day-to-day chatter that I often crave. All I know for sure is that for now, living alone is my lot in life. So maybe, subconsciously, I need this time to listen to my own voice aside from everyone else's so that I can strengthen it enough to speak my own truth. Regardless, my life is what it is and I'm making the best of it. And for one thing I am very lucky - my cat is a very good listener. Sarah xoxo Funny-man Patton Oswalt is quite active on Twitter, and yesterday he sent out a hilarious string of tweets he affectionately entitled "Things my daughter says that would make excellent post-punk lyrics." I wholeheartedly agree with his assessment. Here are my favourites:
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