Planet Word

She still likes to read!

One of the great things about raising kids in Ottawa (and even small town Ontario) is that even if you are poor you have access to books. We had a television but to get more than one channel someone had to stand on the back of the couch holding up a metal clothes hanger attached to a wire attached to the back of the set.  We read a lot.

I am happy to say that all three of my adult children read constantly.  I don’t even think going to school is as important as learning to read and then to navigate a library index.  This is something I have to thank my parents for too.  I grew up seeing people reading. My father went to the library every Saturday and always picked out several novels.  I liked picture books. Dr. Seuss was my favourite. I struggled to learn the rules and no other rule breaker could make me laugh the way he could.

I was a quiet kid but learned to love words.  And my love of words started in the community library’s children’s section.

Oh and just a quick mention:  I am watching “Fry’s Planet Word” on TVO and loving it!

Artist in Garbage

This is so cool. As a creative “make-doer” I love this video!!!

Down the Music Alley

Down the Music Alley.

Borrowed photo and re blogged from Icelandpenny.

ARCHAEOLOGY – Roman mosaics discovered in Amasya

ARCHAEOLOGY – Roman mosaics discovered in Amasya.

Is it art?

Art is no longer of value…

The human condition is not curable but maintainable.
The right drugs can make it possible
to cope with the side-effects.
Having been valued
on the basis of an ability to
generate more economic activity,
people in need are filling up all the waiting rooms every where. They need diagnosis or sentencing.

The torturing of test subjects has become a cottage industry.
Stay at home moms in far away places
sell the results to pharmaceutical companies.
Sometimes
they get on television
or sell the rights to their stories to movie companies
generating more economic activity and making it possible for them
to buy the products that are advertised during the intermission
or along the side of computer screens
while people far away watch them
on You Tube.

I had a poetry crisis riding a bus!

I read a poem
where an advertisement should have been,
I got very excited and
I looked around
nobody else seemed to notice.
The words were what I would have said,
maybe they were mine.
I had no pen so
I sent myself a text:

dionne brand I have beenlosing roads land to.light on

I Googled “Dionne Brand” and she doesn’t look like me. I just thought, reading her poem that, as the words kissed my little grey matter, they belonged to me.

The Taste of Lawrence!

This Saturday, early before the heat and the crowds I took my mother to the Taste of Lawrence. There were street artists!

The artists were young people from Mural Routes. “Mural Routes is dedicated to training and supporting mural artists and communities involved in mural arts through teaching, learning and sharing initiatives in mural art together. Here you will find updates on our continuum of Education programs, from “Step x Step: Introduction to Mural Art” (for ages 14+, no skill level required), to “Leadership Training in Mural Making” (for emerging youth artists), and our annual Symposium (for professional development).”

You can check out the great stuff they do at: http://www.muralroutes.ca !

There were dancers and a midway and lots of food. We opted for ice coffee from a nice air conditioned coffee shop where we could watch the crowds and then headed home!

I am sad to say we missed Disco Nation’s performance!

They look awesome!

Toronto Islands and THE WEDDING!

You have to click on the image to see the naked guys at Hanlan’s point, well, to see anything really.

They wanted me to do a drawing of the map for the official wedding website…Things have changed since the 80’s when all you needed was big hair, several bottles of wine and a licence to get married.

Check out the Walking Woman’s post about Wards Island by clicking on the underlined text; lots of great photos!