I'm A Dreamer, But I'm Not The Only One

So a new year has begun, again. As I drink some more Baileys, I tell myself I'd come up with a few resolutions. I tell myself all sorts of things. Yes, I want to create more art and music, and get healthier and wiser and do all the same things I want to do every year. They are just part of the lifetime to do list. Still it's kind of exciting turning the page into a new year. A new year with unforseen adventures and possibilities. And blah blah blah.

I'm focused on making it feel more like home here on this beautiful rainy island. It might not be my home for life, but its my home for life right now. I want to come home to a place I adore. A place that feels real and all homely and cozy. I want to have kindred spirits over and cook turkeys and pour wine and laugh and dance. I am keeping a lookout for a larger space in a more central location...but will know when the time is right. I know that you cannot live in the past, and I know for sure that you cannot live in two provinces at once. You can visit, but you need a place where you can call your own. I am tired of being torn in half and not certain of where I stand. So this is my promise to myself to get off the fence. That fence is poking me in the ass. I will land on solid ground. On my own two big feet.

I am watching The Family Man right now. It's an oldie but goodie. The man who gets a glimpse into what his life would have been like, if he had made a different choice. And a look into the things that really matter. It's kind of sad really. But at least, in the end he was able to make another choice and change his future. I wonder if things could really be that simple. Some things are I suppose, if we can see it.

I wonder if I really would have made different choices. Alright, a few. Mostly no...as who would I be now? But more importantly, I wonder what kind of choices I will make. How do you know what the right choice is? What will I choose? What will you choose?

Choices are to be made. They will define the future. And the future looks bright.

The future is not some mediocre existence where we are settling for each other because it's easy or because it's too much work to do something different. And we're too afraid to do anything about it. It's a future where we will decide to live our best life. And if we do choose to be with someone, it will be with someone who makes us a better person. Someone who pushes us to grow, to change, to explore, to love, to sacrifice without sacrificing who we are, to understand and to live. Someone "strong enough to be our champion"...as someone wise I know once put it. Thank the sun and the moon for putting incredible people in our paths. All of them.

What will I do? Where will I be? Who will I be with? Will I marry? Will I have babies? Will they grow up to be successful and passionate about their own lives? Will I grow old with someone I adore, who adores me just the same? Or will I settle for someone I can tolerate, and vice versa? As so many people do these days. What kind of sick and twisted life would that be? No, it is not enough!

What will we do with our lives? With our 2010. 2011. 2012. Nothing changes but the number, unless we choose to change it. So I'm choosing to change it. To figure out what needs changing. What can stay, what can go. But that's about it really.

Oh yes, and my final resolution is to eat all the freaking chocolate I want when I want. Because this is my life and I'm choosing to not restrict myself to one of it's finest indulgences any more.

All within moderation, of course.

Portraits of a Lady

"Subconsciously or not, the figures I paint are a reflection of myself and whatever mood I am in at the time, so every painting is in essence a self-portrait." ~ Lori Earley

Lori Earley is a New York artist and I must say, I like her style...

Belladonna

The Parting

Angela

Drained

Regret

Ms. V

loriearley.com

Skating Around The Frozen Pond

Ah, Christmastime. How I adore thee. I love the fact that I can play Christmas carols for an entire month, drink Gingerbread lattes (pure heaven in a cup), and walk along a street lit up with bright twinkling lights and crunchy white snow....though rain seems to be the norm here on the West Coast. It makes me appreciate the snow even more. What I wouldn't give right now to go skating outdoors at Hawrelak Park. I reminisce. There's something insanely romantic about holding hands under the moonlit sky and gliding around.

I love the fact that my neighbour up the street put up the tree in November. I love that there is a fuschia Christmas tree sitting in the window of a downtown store. It was there last year, and still there it is. Who wants a fuschia tree? I love that this season brings out the heart of people. There's more laughter, more giving. I'm moved by stories of strangers doing something kind for another without expecting anything in return, even something simple as recognition.

The only thing I don't love, is the insanity. After yet another year of this, I'm tempted to spend next year on a ski hill in Banff, in a lodge with a huge fireplace and room service. Just escape all of the hustle and bustle and noise of the city. Just relax, enjoy and reflect on the year past and the year ahead. It's easy to get caught up in the madness of the season. The impatient drivers. The crazy shoppers. Yes, the rude ones who forget manners and joy as they rush around for last minute gifts. These situations bring out the worst in me, if I allow it. But I don't want to be that person. Just because someone is an ignorant bastard to me, doesn't mean I should be one in return, does it.

Have yourself a happy non-specific seasonally correct interdenominational pseudo holiday festive occasion.

In other words,

Merry Christmas.

Extreme Storm Surgin'

Now here's a sport I think I can do...too.

Changing the way you look at the world. I like that. I like the entire concept. No two people have the same experiences. We are restricted to our own consciousness. Confined by our paradigms. We need to break out of these molds and live.

Live fully.

Life is short. We need reminders, because so often we forget. To look and see the world and experience the moments it offers. Dare. Dream. Laugh. More importantly, laugh at yourself. Give. Give to the world, your heart, your soul, your voice ~ in whatever way which makes sense to you. BE. Be brave. Be who you are. Be different. Be present. Be open to new ideas. Be willing to run, to leap and land on our feet or fall flat on our face. We need to have more faith in ourselves and more faith in others. Because we get each other through. We need to live a life congruent to our values, ideals and dreams. To never cease to wonder. To imagine what will be. To see all possibilities, when no one else will.

This is nothing new. But it never grows old.

Think about it.

This is your life.

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

~ Steve Jobs

Fleeting Beauty

Sylvia Ji, an artist from San Fransisco, has some mesmorizing work...I revel in sensuality.

Sylvia Ji

Pregnant Women Pee 'A Lot'

The Trews, travelling all the way across the country from Antigonish, Nova Scotia (at least this is where they started out 'in the beginning'), graced us with an incredible acoustic show here in Nanaimo last night. They have a new album out, Friends & Total Strangers. Did I mention that I love musicians from the East Coast? They just breathe so much life into their lyrics & melodies. It was a thrill to hear these guys live, for sure. I hope they come back.

Unfortunately, the one song I wanted to capture (Locked Doors) was interupted half-way by the pregnant gal up the aisle who needed to get by on her trip to the loo for the tenth time! Ahhhh...C'est la vie!

Daniel Wesley opened for them. He's got some funky songs, I like his style. He hails from the little city of White Rock, BC, just across the water... We're practically neighbours. I should bake him some Nanaimo bars. The stage looked a whole lot bigger at the Port. iPods aren't very good for recording are they...

Good tune:

where will i go now
the life i knew is gone
someway and somehow
we all keep moving
on and on and on and on
tonight, tonight c'mon and
set me free from yesterday
and all it's haunted memories
but now it's closing time
and i don't wanna leave
i can't stop laughing,
i'm not even happy

Six Shillings A Dozen

How I get from point A to point B is an unsolved mystery, but there sure is a ton of random information out there.

What started out as a simple perusal of recipes ended with a rather strange, yet minutely amusing piece of entertainment: The Flea Circus (See it for yourself, right here)

I've heard of all kinds of sideshow acts, but this one kind of threw me in a loop. Only because I've seen the damn things falling off my cat, which by the way was beyond discusting. However, thanks to modern medicine I had Revolution on him in no time and they all died suddenly a few hours later. Not to mention the fact, that this week I had to personally pull a big fat tick off my cat with tweezers. These have since been sterilized. Bugs belong outside, no? Apparently, it's the time of year when they all want in. I still have night terrors.

So why the hell would I want to see them playing football and hauling heavy shit around?!

Interestingly enough, this has been going on for a while. Since the 1800s. Back then, fleas were common, so tracking them down for shows was quite easy. As hygiene improved over the years - they were harder to come by and cost six shillings a dozen. During shortages, a single flea even cost two shillings! Here I pay to get them the hell out of my cat, and these buggars pay them to put on a show. Nonsense.

Handbills of an exhibition of performing fleas, 1820:

To train the fleas not to jump, they are put in a jar with a lid for three days. After this, they jump no higher than the height of the lid.

The fleas are harnessed, so to not escape and ruin the show...

1891 description of the harnessing procedure:
The flea is taken up gently, and a noose of the finest 'glass-silk' is passed round his neck, and there tied with a peculiar knot. The flea, unfortunately for himself, has a groove or depression between his neck and body, which serves as a capital hold-fast for the bit of silk. (Buckland, 1891, p. 119)

Fleas can also be glued to things to give the illusion of a performance... For instance, to the floor of the circus enclosure. Instruments are then glued to the flea performers and the enclosure is heated. The fleas fight to escape giving the impression of fleas playing musical instruments.

Lucky for performing fleas, they don't live very long. And with cruelty such as this, it's a miracle PETA isn't after them. Or are they? I don't know, do you?

I Want Your Psycho, Your Vertigo Stick

I have decided that I really, really dig this video. She's ridiculous. Love the costumes, the shoes, the Thriller references, the harpischord, that cute cat, the moves, the eyes, the sexy, the creepy... what don't I love...



And well, it just... fits.

Ra-ra ah-aahh-ahh
Ro-ma ro-ma-maaah

You and mE could wriTe a bad romance...

Particularly Leather

I'm looking for a sofa, loveseat and big ol' comfy chair. I've been looking for a while and it's proving to be a challenge. Particularly when you're particular. There's very few things I'm actually fussy about, but this I admit is one of them. It has to be leather and when I say leather I mean the good stuff. Soft, warm, and cozy.

I want a hide with a personality. Wrinkles, stretch marks, brand marks, insect bites and run-ins with barbed wires, fence posts and raging bulls. That cow should have led a full life.

My current obsession is Restoration Hardware, they have some charming furniture. Dream with me why don't you... You might find something you like.

Lancaster sofa...

The Drake Barrelback chair...

I'm not asking for much, only that it outlasts these 18th century beauties:

(most people put these in the living room)

Some fun facts about leather:

It's the strongest upholstered material known to man & womankind.

To test if it's quality leather, lightly scratch the leather. If it scratches easily and leaves a lighter mark, it's probably the good stuff.

A sofa consists of a bunch of hides which compliment each other, but are not identical.

Quality leather does not get hot in the summer and cold in the winter. That's a myth! The pores in the leather allow it to breathe & adjust to its environment.

Over time, leather develops a "patina" - like a well-worn Baseball glove, giving it that vintage weathered look. Character. Like crows feet and laugh lines.

If you're lost for days and happen to be wearing leather shoes, put em in your mouth & suck em. The leather has nutritional value & will sustain you for a while. (It's true, I've tried it)

Leather is not just for furniture!