Friday, January 31, 2014

I Did This



Why is this a big deal? Well...for a whole year I've been on an anti-procrastinating thingie. And this is actually one of the last things I hadn't finished. It's going to be a mirror. If you look closely I need a couple more plush toys...and a mirror then that is done. I put this together today after saving and collecting stuffed animals for the past couple of years. I feel that I have closed a number of doors thereby opening some new doors to projects etc. I wonder...is anybody out there?

Monday, January 13, 2014

Magna Carta


Part of this post is me experimenting with embedding a video at a desk top...then writing a post at home on my iPhone...let's see if I can do this!

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Party Till You PukeThoughtfulness In Pop



This summer my daughter and I had a discussion about why so many popular songs right now seem to be about partying. I'm not sure we came up with any hard answers or insight but...it led me to think about this song. It's by a dj from Sweden who is part of EDM scene...and it's a very thoughtful song. Part coming of age story, part existential or spiritual
 This song really plays with country traditions.

Here is a must see video that links Avicii to Bill Monroe...



Feeling my way through the darkness
Guided by a beating heart
I can't tell where the journey will end
But I know where to start
They tell me I'm too young to understand
They say I'm caught up in a dream
Well life will pass me by if I don't open up my eyes
Well that's fine by me
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself, and I
Didn't know I was lost
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself, and I
Didn't know I was lost
I tried carrying the weight of the world
But I only have two hands
Hope I get the chance to travel the world
But I don't have any plans
Wish that I could stay forever this young
Not afraid to close my eyes
Life's a game made for everyone
And love is a prize
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself, and I
Didn't know I was lost
So wake me up when it's all over
When I'm wiser and I'm older
All this time I was finding myself, and I
I didn't know I was lost

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Holiday Tree

I hadn't decorated a tree in five years! I had a lot of fun digging out the ornaments and picking up a tree. We had to drive to get a tree because we couldn't find one in our neighborhood...so we put the tree in the back seat of the car with the roof down. This was our tree last year
. And here is the tree we had in 2008. In these pictures as well as the tree in 2008, you can see the homemade "star" I put...with "star" spelled out all artsy. I got some arctic animals this year for the tree too. Okay and I think that wraps up my catching up posts for this past holiday season. Hopefully I can stay on top of blogging this year...I miss it!I like looking at the decorations in pictures...weird I'm sure...There is a narwhal...and an orca with sequence...and a felt letter A and a felt letter C.

A A glass poodle decoration
A bear and a mexican skull


A wedding cake decoration from our sister Kathy Stagg.
A pope from Grandmas collection of decorations

An owl...a coke bottle a wolf
Yes and a smore playing guitar!



And a decoration that says "all you need is art"

Friday, January 10, 2014

It's Not About A Girl...THAT Song



"Women have, in men's minds, such a low place on the social ladder...that it's useless to define yourself in terms of a woman. What men need is men's approval." David Mamet 

I LOVE the song "Blurred Lines" by David Mamet. The song was on the radio all August and September last year, and it also got a few pop culture write-ups discussing it's lyrics as being "rapey" or sexist. The idea that the lyrics objectified women so severely and with some violent fantasies it may promote rape. 

The thing is, the song is not "about women". It's actually about men bonding over discussing women. It's a kind of dozens game between men...and the lyrics are "narrated" by two men, Robin Thicke and Pharrel Williams. The narrators are tossing concepts of ideal women and sexy women back and forth and thus bonding by stating what kind of women they like...as this is a display of masculinity and good taste competing rather than objectifying the women.

many years ago during a discussion in an online book club for Cormac McCarthy a verbal kerfluffle broke out between a female and male participants. The woman was offended at the men in the group discussing what kind of women they like. For women, this was a fairly irritating activity. But one of the male participants pointed out that this activity was almost completely immune to actual women...it was a game between men bonding. I was quite surprised by this observation and practice always thinking it had been an act of lowering women and turning or using them as objects when it was actually able-bonding practices.

I have a friend who is a lesbian and mother. She said to me a couple weeks ago that she was disturbed by the song "Blurred Lines" when she hears her 8 year old daughter singing the lyrics. BUT when she is at a nightclub dancing she embraces the sexuality of the lyrics. I felt this confirmed my feeling that the song is a tribal intense male-bonding tradition rather than a form of social objectification of females by men.

The whole album when played in full is a series of wonderful love songs and many lyrics that celebrate fun and life...and hearing the highly sexual "Blurred Lines" in that context makes the whole record feel very through in portraying love.


If you asked me last spring what album I really was gonna love this past summer...I would have thought you'd lost your mind if you told me it was Robin Thicke's album. I liked it more than Justin Timberlakes! (but I like Justin Timberlakes too)

Hard to believe that some of pops dirtiest lyrics were written by that guy there with the long hippie hair! High school sweethearts who have been married for 20 years Robin Thicke and his wife. Thicke has said to people who have criticized the lyrics to Blurred Lines, that he wrote it for his wife.

Here is a song from the album which seems more suited to a classical marriage love song...

(The main part of the song, "Blurred Lines" that offends some people are these lines...)

Hustle Gang Homie
One thing I ask of you
Lemme be the one you back that ass up to
From Malibu to Paris boo
Had a bitch, but she ain't bad as you
So, hit me up when you pass through
I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two
Swag on 'em even when you dress casual
I mean, it's almost unbearable
In a hundred years not dare would I
Pull a Pharcyde, let you pass me by
Nothin' like your last guy, he too square for you
He don't smack that ass and pull your hair like that
So I'm just watching and waitin'
For you to salute the true big pimpin'
Not many women can refuse this pimping
I'm a nice guy, but don't get confused, this pimpin'




Related Links:

1)Rape Lyrics?
2) Universities ban the song
3) The most controversial song
in the decade?4) Under fire at Huff Post coverage


Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Reading Light

Up north about 3 from Toronto with no power... This lamp has led lights powered by a tiny tea light. From Lee valley http://www.leevalley.com/us/garden/page.aspx?cat=2,40731&p=68887

A Winter Walk

Tuffy p, mister anchovy, their huge dogs took is for a walk on Lake Ontario.

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Holiday Music

We got a great little record player this year. Our record collection is a combination of records we have found in alleys, on the street, a few from grandmas place and about 5 we got at vintage stores. I guess we have about 30 records. We didn't know which ones to play first until Stagg said, the Clash because they are the reach between the past and the present.

Near Algonquin Park New Years

More Up North

Three of us drove up to property near Algonquin park for New Years. I got a cold as soon as we got there and pretty much slept for two days. Very good though to be there so quiet. -25 celcius. No running water no electricity. We read most of the daylight hours. 
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