familiar somehow

some garden is better than no garden

I get happy seeing this view. (I mean the one you see after you hit the play button.)

animated

Animation test for "Le Chat du Rabbin" from Andrzej Radka on Vimeo.

I love the look of this artwork.

And, in a very random association, here is a quote from C.S. Lewis that I came across this morning:

To love and admire anything outside yourself is to take one step away from utter spiritual ruin; though we shall not be well so long as we love and admire anything more than we love and admire God.... In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.... If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.
— C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity

each dirty letter

This came in the post from Calamateur just a few days ago.

It's my friend Andrew's new album and it is fantastic. Very moving (in all senses) and very wonderful. You can buy the whole thing here. And, generous soul that he is, Andrew has made his previous work, recorded over the last ten years as Calamateur, available here. You can pay what you want for that (as little as $0). Generous man.


I was honoured to be asked to contribute drawings to the project and 12 of them appear throughout the very handsome CD booklet, designed by Al at DUFI-ART. I was very happy to be associated with such good work. Huge thanks to Andrew for his trust and encouragement.

Definitely worth a listen.

imagining the pictures

There's an energy and conversation that starts before seeing a film and continues for a long time after. Following Mike Riddell's Insatiable Moon blog has been a particularly pleasurable form of this experience. As the scriptwriter, he's blogged since well before the camera's rolled and the film is now in the later stages of post production. It may be at least a year before you or I get a chance to see it. For some reason, I have latched on to the character here. I don't know anything about him, so I am doing a lot of projecting (he looks vulnerable, which I have been feeling a lot this week). I am looking forward to the film as much as to any for a long time (without having seen a single frame).

Here's a fun video introduction to some of the characters and crew.

increase my bewilderment

From Peter Cole's poem, Notes on Bewilderment.

XLVI.
Lord, goes the prayer, increase my bewilderment,
which really means allow me to question
everything, but not to be lost within that
stance to the small flowers of common sense
in season. Increase, Lord, my discontent.

L.
And may my love and language lead me into
that perplexity, and that simplicity,
altering what I might otherwise be.
But let it happen through speech's clarity -
as normal magic, which certain words renew.

These stanzas stood out to me, not least, because they read as a gloss on the wonderful Pip Wilson's blog (Pip speaks against becoming too comfortable - Increase, Lord, my discontent) and on the also wonderful David Dark's thought (the sacredness of questioning everything and what we mean by what we say). I also like this.


Emmanuel Guibert's illustration in the latest New Yorker.

heal thy imagination

So, this does not really look very like Tracy Thorn. But her album does sound brilliant and you can listen to it here at the moment. I loved her band Everything But The Girl (formed with her partner Ben Watt). If I had a bedsit phase they were at the heart of it. The only time I saw them perform (in Montreal, 1997?) they were in their post-op years and it was far from their accoustic beginnings. I loved it.


Shappi Khorsandi is very funny. I have not read her book but I will.
And this was my misreading of an advert in a magazine. Heal Thy Imagination sounds like a call or command - to me it is a call. A task for the weekend (and a long time to come).

fare thee well

The British election has reached its conclusion and Gordon Brown left office this afternoon. He spoke movingly in his farewell speeches and I think he'll be missed a lot more than people realise right now. I have to confess that I hope he gets to have a good rest and to be with his family in a way that I don't imagine is possible when one is leading a country. He certainly looked more relaxed today than he has for years. The queasy feelings about what is to come in British politics remain.



Also available here.

another conservative prime minister

It looks as though the Conservatives and Lib-Dems are going to reach some sort of agreement. Oh dear. Stephen Fry has written illuminatingly on the situation and likely long term outcomes here. Its all a bit queasy again. I quickly drew Edward Stanley while thinking about all this yesterday.

election night doodling

A very random set of drawings made while listening to BBC Radio 4. Fun being able to listen into the UK wee hours without the usual feeling of jetlag. And the most feared thing did not happen. And there is now a Green member of parliament. When the queasiness passes it all makes me feel quite homesick.

where there's dancing there's hope

Wow! (via Andrew Sullivan)

And now I have been out of work for 10 months and that feels like a long time. Last week I sent out a letter to everyone I could think of, explaining where I think things are at on the jobsearch front and looking for some direction. There have been some lovely responses. If you did not get the letter but are reading this and want to see it let me know and I will get it to you.