Desert Blues

Tinariwen are a band of nomadic musicians from the Northern Sahara in Mali.  They have been called the most rocknroll of them all for their blues rock sound, but while they do feature some electric guitar their sound actually developed in relative isolation along the Niger River from Timbuktu to Gao.  The band features traditional Tuareg elements: the shepherds flute (men), imzad 1 string fiddle (women), tinde drum (women), teherdent lute (griots poets).  Their core influences are traditional Tuareg melodies and rhythms, Berber music of N. Algeria, griots - the wandering poet musicians of W. Africa, Moroccan Arabic and  Egyptian pop.

Stephen Biesty's Cross Sections

I had forgotten how much I loved this Stephen Biesty's books until I came across them again recently in the library.  I had always loved pouring over their pages for interesting little subjects.  His books feature freehand pen and watercolour cross sections with accurate and fine details.  Some were historical (Rome, Ancient World, Stowaway) or informative - showing things you'd never usually see (Helicopters, Space Shuttles) but my favourites are the ones that show every day life (Castles, Subways) miniscule scenes with tiny people doing funny things.  When I got home and checked him out online, I also found this absolutely stunning video:

Building Tower Bridge on Vimeo.

recycling bin luminary

This little craft uses only items from my recycling bin - a glass pasta sauce jar, some tissue paper from a gift and a chicken pot pie plate.  I punched holes in the pie plate, and curled its rim into leaves, inspired by tin lanterns.  Then I mod-podged the tissue to the jar to create a colourful little luminary.  Propped in next to a candle in a mason jar and my balsamic vinegar, its a perfect fit for the culinary corner.

The Tikvah Brunch

Ever have one of those days or weeks where you've got enough bland dried pantry food and not enough extra money to justify anything fresh or gourmet?  Well just as I was finishing up one of those weeks, my lovely neighbour Tikvah dropped off a bag of perishable foods because she was off to visit her parents out of town for the weekend!  Thanks hunni for the wonderful midday brunch :)  Just like the fisherman's platter and the ploughman's lunch there is now the Tikvah Brunch!

• avacado 
• blue cheese w apricot
• carrots
• cucumber
• melba toast
• strawberries

monica & david: a love story

This is a touching, lovely documentary about two adults - Monica and David - living with Downs syndrome, who fall in love and decide to get married.  Their dream is simple, what many others take for granted:  a "normal" independent life as adult partners.  While they may still need assistance from their family, with whom a deep connection is evident throughout the film, Monica and David constantly surprise everyone around them with their capacity to thrive in fairly ordinary daily situations.  Codina, the director (and cousin of Monica) said some treated Monica and David’s wedding as a “cute gesture.” but she saw it as “something very powerful, very serious and very adult.”


The full length film is available from CBC's Passionate Eye

Anatomical Valentines Printables

This homemade digital valentine (right) is based on an anatomical print from the Dover Publications Weekly Free Sampler, which you should definitely sign up for if you haven't already!  Their printable images are really unusual, and of great resolution/quality.  Enjoy this non-Hallmark free Valentine!

Egypt

Dictator Successfully Uninstalled 

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Would You Like to Restart Egypt?

Support Local Businesses

BUMP: This is an older post, but I'm reposting it at the top for a new reader  :)
 
I shop primarily at the farmers market and eat almost all food grown within my local community, but sometimes there are things you just can't get at the market!  I loooooove mangoes for example and those definatley aren't grown in Niagara.  I discovered a great little Asian food mart on Geneva St called Dinh Dinh's today where I got some fabulous things: a huge can of Mango pulp for smoothies, some candied tamarind, a waft of colourful rice paper, a cute teeny little pommegranate drink and a few other things!  If I can't find something at the farmers market then I like to support local community small businesses instead of things like Walmart or major chains. Thanks Jamie!  Without you I'd never have found this place

walk the city late at night

My friend Seann spent the week in Toronto, and brought this super rad lil video home with him.  I don't think I'll ever want to live there permanently, but now that I'm away from it I miss the bustling busy 24hr nature of the city.  Also: functional public transit, every kind of ethnic food, a cultured nightlife and the ROM

Walking City Late @ Night from Seann Alexander on Vimeo.

I walk the city late at night
Does everyone here do the same?
I want to be the things I see
Give every face and place my name
I cross the street, take a right
Pick up the pace, pass a fight
Did I grow up just to stay home?
I'm not immune - I love this tune

I wanna love more
I just wanna love more

I drag the city late at night
It's in my mouth, it's in my hair
The people fill the city because 
The city fills the people - oh yeah
I cross the street, avoid the freeze -
A city's warmer by a couple degrees
The smell of food, The smell of rain
I'm not immune - I love this tune
. 

Wooden Spool Button Stamp

As you may remember my Grandma gave me an interesting box of lovely threads on wooden spools.  Most of them are still in use, but as I run out of thread I want to keep the interesting little spools.  Using this great tutorial from Maximum Rabbit Designs I made two button stamps, although I modified it slightly - I didn't have foam, so I just hotglued on real buttons instead.  I like how you can still see the top of one spool through the clear button.  They may not stamp exactly perfectly because they're not squishy but I was working with what I had, and I kinda like the messy 1/2 stamp look :)

An Icy Night at the Magic Kingdom

Once a month the Queens and Kings of Niagara's oldest GLTBQ fundraising organization: The Imperial Sovereign Court of Niagara put on a fabulous drag show at the Envy Lounge!  Tonight these bombastic babes and dashing dudes paid tribute to Disney characters (especially princesses and vixens!)  Of course my personal favourite was my friend Al/icia's rendition of Snow White - but I might be biased as I helped put it all together in Value Village (quite the hilarious experience)

Wordle

I discovered this neat word-cloud tool a while back called WORDLE, and I frequently put chunks of my school papers into it to check that I haven't repeated any words too often.  But today I got to playing around with it - inputting some of my collection of literary texts to see what happens.  Two of my favourite results were Desiderata and Lady of Shalott:

  

Mousetrap Quick Grab Pad

Cleaning out around the house, I found  a handful of mousetraps left by the last tenant - must've worked well because I've never seen any mice!  Their morbid purpose aside, these mousetraps are actually quite striking!

This 5-minute DIY is a practical (and not gross) way to display the cute Victor-mouse.  It actually reminds me quite a bit of Maus.  I simply pried off the trip release, slipped a small stack of index cards under the spring-loaded bar and bent the metal catch into a ring to hang it by.

Fruit Relish Bruschetta

Made right near my parents house in Waterdown, ON - this Frootogo Orchards Fruit Relish has been sitting unopened since Christmas... far too long!  So tonight I made bruschetta :)

First I defrosted the waffles in my regular toaster and topped them with the Fruit Relish.  Sticking them in the toaster oven on a bake setting at 350* to warm the relish, I started making the meringue topping.  Earlier I had separated 3 cold egg whites and left them to warm to room temperature.  Beating them until frothy in a metal bowl, I added 1/2 tsp of vinegar and continued until soft peaks start to form.  I then added 1/3 of a cup of sugar, 1 tbsp at a time until it dissolved.  At this point the mixture should have stiffened, but it didn't and I was impatient so I spooned the mixture onto the warm fruit relish anyways.  Returning the now topped waffles to the toaster oven I baked them another 10 minutes until the topping was golden brown.  Despite not being floufy and airy like a meringue should be, it was surprisingly tasty!  {alternate version: cover the waffles with cocoa hazelnut spread first}

Time Out

In the spirit of my recent break I've been listening to the Dave Brubeck Quartet's iconic album Time Out on my new record player.  Featuring eccentric time signatures and broad minded melodies, the album is a classic.  My personal favourite is either the Balkan (Zeybek) themed Blue Rondo a la Turk in 9/8 and 5/4 time or the signatureless Strange Meadow Lark but the most critically notable track is certainly Take Five.

I've always been a fan of his music, but as you can see from this article in Jazz Times, he's also quite the character:

“One morning I woke up and I heard somebody playing Beethoven on my piano, by memory. It was a roadie for my son Chris’ band. I said, ‘My God, this kid who’s a roadie can play better classical piano than I’ll ever play.’ Just looking at these kids kind of turned me off but I started thinking, don’t judge people by their hair and how they’re dressed. Pretty quick I had long hair.” 

Iola Brubeck, Dave's wife of 67 years is also a formidable force behind his career, having been both his partner and the mother to his children:

“I was a stay-at-home mom until everybody was out of the nest. But I also worked with Dave. When he was traveling with our sons, I did all the booking for traveling and took care of the business. Some people give me credit for getting Dave started [playing on] college campuses. I don’t think it was that I was so smart. I like to eat!”

A Political Statement, of Sorts

On a pair of hanging lamps in the living room:

Dave: “Iola, did I bring these from Iraq or Iran?”

Iola: “From Iraq but they’re falling apart, like Iraq is.” 
.

on the note of librarians...

my on-the-go books: I seem to always have a few books on the go and right now is no different.  Along with The Book of Awesome which has taken up residence in my bathroom I'm also reading:

Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin
Risotto with Nettles: A Memoir with Food by Anna Del Conte
The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

As I'm not too far into any of them I wont give any reviews just at the moment, except to say my mum (who gave me all 3 for Christmas) knows exactly what I love to read: creative, narrative non-fiction - communicating information, like a reporter, but shaped in a way that reads like fiction.  Or, if I'm going to read fantasy: I love magical realism - blending the real world and the fantastical one seamlessly within the grasp of possibility.

DIY beaded glasses chain

Having to take my glasses off for a variety of things (certain cameras, my microscope, reading on the computer) I was getting tired of sitting them down somewhere and losing them.  So I made a simple glasses holder chain out of a dollar store necklace.  Using a pair of pliers I pried apart one link of the chain and slid the beads off each side.  I folded the end of the wire over into a little spiral to stop it from being scratchy and then rounded it off into a loop that I can slide onto the arm of my glasses.  Plus it helps me pull off a quick thinking Bunny Watson look ;)

Tempura Onion Rings

I mixed up some "just-add-water" batter - it was remarkably simple but incredibly bland.  No amount of spices after the fact could fix it, so maybe I'll try adding dry spice to the dry tempura batter.  They only got the teensiest bit soggy overnight - leftover quality is key ;) next time I'll be trying the authentic Japanese batter.

Mismatched Mix n Match Sox

LittleMismatched was born to inspire creativity, embrace individual style and celebrate self expression.  This is the second time now these awesomesocks have ended up in my stocking and I say the more the merrier!  Some people like socks for Christmas!

In our world, socks don't match-- MATCHING is mundane -- MIXING is MONUMENTAL and COLOR is cool. While we started with socks sold in odd numbers, we recognized that there’s an entire universe out there who shares our passion for creativity and self expression: think “outside the socks" - You can be a kid forever. Be BOLD, FASHION is FUN.

Since I'm usually wearing 2 different socks anyways, having a set of 3 to pick from means I'm more likely to find at least a pair amidst the rubble on my floor :)  The first set I received (left) were bi-coloured socks of the thick striped variety.  This time (right) I get two thin rainbow stripy ones and a puzzle piece sock just to change it up!

Short Hills Provincal Park

The little red gorillapod that Santa brought me came in handy while 

a friend and I were walking around Short Hills Provincial Park today!