Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel

1) Red Rain
2) Mercy Street (for Anne Sexton)
3) Don't Give Up - with Kate Bush

From the album So.

Crimes And Misdemeanors

Woody Allen's Crimes & Misdemeanors from 1989 was on one of the movie channels last night. An irresistible flick for a rainy Friday night.

Allen at his best:

The Friday Evening Nudes

Delacroix
Aspacia

Rubens
The Hermit and Sleeping Angelica

Van Gogh

Nude Reclining
1887

(above)

Alma-Tadema
Maeides After the Dance
1874

Matisse
Odalisque with Magnolias

Peace Tree

Thursday is Peace Tree night. Go on over and read my post entitled Surveillance.

But before you go, here is a post-related song that should take you back. In 1967, I was eight years old and I'd just immigrated to the U.S. with my family. I loved this song, didn't really understand it for many years, but in the three months it took me to learn the language fluently, I remember loving the line "young people speaking their minds" - thinking that a very, very good idea. :-)

Paranoia strikes deep;
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, The Man come and take you away...


Buffalo Springfield
For What It's Worth
1967

Wake Up America!

The Pagan Bookshelves

Steve at Color Sweet Tooth photographed his bookshelves for a recent post and invited others to do the same. DCup has since followed suit and I, a bit late as usual, have a sampling of my shelves.

When I go to someone's home for the first time and the situation calls for it, I love to browse through their bookshelves, don't you? So here are mine for your perusal. And as Steve stated in his bookshelves post: I challenge readers to show your bookshelves.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Art Bookshelf
(above)
Please meet Cesar le Lizard but please don't ask me to translate!

Random Bookshelf
some rock music biographies, a cookbook that I haven's looked at twice and some novels
Stones From the River by Ursula Hegi is one of the best books I've read in the last ten years

Mostly novels and some Yeats
I Spy Books shoved on top
I love this series for children and I don't like to leave my personal copies in the classroom
I'm a Yeats fan...

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

William Butler Yeates

from the collection Crossways (1889)
The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

A stack of mostly novels, a couple of which I've yet to read, and behind it, some parenting books I've kept in anticipation of grand kids one day.

Poetry and novels

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb and The Diaries of Jane Somers by Doris Lesing are two other favorite novels.

The little dish with ashes is where I burn incense and the little you can see of the cloth doll in the corner is Amelia Earhart - a flea market find of many years ago and one of those things I just can't get rid of.

There at least four more bookcases in my house that are not represented here. While I've diligently gotten rid of a lot of excess junk (mine and that of other family members), I admit to having a hard time getting rid of books. A couple of years ago, after filling four boxes full of books and taking them to a used book store, I felt as if I was dropping off a litter of kittens. But it had to be done.

I rarely buy new books anymore unless it's something I know I will refer to often. I find the cost of books exorbitant, so I use the library and buy used books. I am much more at home in a good used book store or a locally owned one than in a Borders or Barnes & Noble. We're lucky in the Happy Valley and the north in Brattleboro, Vermont to have so many independent book stores to choose from; some with unique personalities such as Beyond Words, which boasts a great collection of books on mysticism, religion and spirituality and Food for Thought, which is a workers collective bookstore, carries an incredible selection of books on political themes and issues; including books by local authors with limited exposure and books printed by small, independent book makers.

I admit that I don't read nearly as much as I once did. In this phase of my life, it appears I need long stretches of uninterrupted reading time in order to stay focused. The vacation in Nova Scotia proved to be just what I needed to rapidly devour several books; five, in fact. More on that in another post, I hope.

Halifax Busker Festival

Nova Scotia Part III

From Meat Cove, we made our way down to Halifax for the annual Busker Festival - street performances on the waterfront. Good thing because on the day we left, Meat Cove was rainy and cold and I would have suffered miserably from cabin fever. We needed us a city fix and some entertainment.

Trampoline champions from the U.S.

Amazing, funny, adorable acrobats from Jamaica

A likable, hilariously funny fire-eating, sword stepping crazy man from Montreal.

A fire dance artist, originally from Halifax, currently living in Bali. Theatrical and sweet.

A tourist boat on the Halifax port.

A more humble but picturesque vessel.

We finished the evening with drinks and dinner at an elegant restaurant.
Just the icing on a gorgeous day full of live entertainment and our love for each other.
Cheers.