Monthly Archives: June 2014

Jun13

The moon looks upon many night flowers; the night flowers see but one moon. Jean Ingelow

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Under the Spell of the Moon: Art for Children from the World’s Great Illustrators
by Patricia Aldana (Editor), Various contributors (Illustrator), Stan Dragland (Translator), Katherine Patterson (Introduction) 

The illustrated picture book is one of the most important genres of children’s literature. Great artists have devoted some or all of their working lives to creating art that accompanies a text written for children. While book illustration has been practiced for thousands of years, picture book illustration is a relatively new phenomena. This beautiful book is a collection of poetry from all around the world, illustrated by some of the finest picture book artists working today including Peter Sis, Anthony Browne and Quentin Blake.

IBBY (the International Board on Books for Children), at the heart of whose mandate lies the promotion of books of the highest quality, has been honoring illustrators through the Hans Christian Andersen Awards for nearly forty years. IBBY has also been helping to support the spread of book illustration for children to countries and cultures where such artistic activity is relatively new. In honor of IBBY’s work and to support its future work, many of the world’s greatest illustrators for children have donated art based on a text of their choice drawn from their childhood and culture. The result is a book that celebrates art created for children from around the world. The texts in the book are in both the original language and in English. Noted author and editor Stan Dragland has translated the texts.Groundwood Books will pay a royalty of 15% of all sales to IBBY.

I’ve never seen a moon in the sky that, if it didn’t take my breath away, at least misplaced it for a moment.
Colin Farrell

 

 

 

 

 

Jun12

balls: world cup day one.

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10462432_648248928577162_1859792449697730735_o-2it’s world cup time and team oz is ready.

these guys seem pretty unruffled.

and who needs shorts down under?

best of luck to team u.s.a.

let the games begin!

—

I say if you’re going to take a chance on something, you just go full balls to the wall.
Toby Keith

—

image credit: the kangaroo sanctuary Alice Springs

Jun11

I’m in competition with myself and I’m losing. – Roger Waters

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picturehouse dendy cinemas

what do you get when you combine the 1980s, video arcades, the guinness book of world records, human drama, sabotage, corruption, power, cheating, trash-talking, genius, ego, and insanity?

why, you get ‘the king of kong: a fistful of quarters’ of course. one of my all-time favorite documentaries. this eccentric film, released in 2007, features ‘self-proclaimed legend’ in the world of video arcade games, billy mitchell, florida hot sauce magnate and the holder of the ‘donkey kong champion of the world high scoring’ record for 25 years, and the first perfect game scorer in the history of pac-man, as he is challenged by quiet and brilliant unemployed aerospace engineer/now science teacher from washington,  steve wiebe, who has never won a thing in his life.

in this film, their long distance rivalry and ultimate challenge is played out right before our eyes and under the careful watch of walter day, creator of twin galaxies, and online gaming website gatekeeper. what follows is a classic tale of good vs. evil, davy and goliath, sheer will and karma, and the suspense never stops right up until the very last second.

watching this, i spent 79 fascinating minutes glued to the screen, laughing, crying, cheering and yelling, right along with it. and most of all,  i love that it was categorized under ‘sports’ in the documentary world.

film quotes:

Walter Day: This rivalry is among the greatest: the Yankees and Red Sox… Hekyll and Jekyll.

“I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to be the center of attention. I wanted the glory, I wanted the fame. I wanted the pretty girls to come up and say, “Hi, I see that you’re good at Centipede.”

Jillian Wiebe (Steve’s wife) : Work is for people who can’t play video games.

image credit: picturehouse/dendy cinema

Jun10

The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word. ~ Mata Hari

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as the baby ballerinas wait backstage for their moment in the sun
 –

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emotions are mixed.

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and at last

they are in the spotlight.

and one little dancer goes rogue.

and decides to go solo.

and that is a sure sign.

that she is one of my clan.

and i love her even more for that.

—

Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery. ~Martha Graham

Jun9

epiphany

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happy 4th birthday baby b with much love, and looking back to when you were just 2, and already understood some basic truths.

beth's avatarI didn't have my glasses on....

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       itwas a moment i will forever remember. while playing with my 2 year old grandbaby, i watched her face, as she suddenly pointed to herself, and turned to me with a shocked and joyful face, full of pride and unbridled amazement, only to announce, “i is me!, i is me!, i is me!” some adults never attain this level of self-awareness and so funny to watch a baby have an epiphany.

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Jun8

the moment

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The moment when,

after many years 
of hard work

and a long voyage

you stand in the centre of your room,


house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,

knowing at last how you got there,

and say,

I own this,



is the same moment

when the trees unloose 
their soft arms from around you,


the birds take back their language,

the cliffs fissure and collapse,

the air moves back from you like a wave

and you can’t breathe.

No, they whisper.

You own nothing.

You were a visitor,

time after time

climbing the hill,

planting the flag,

proclaiming.

We never belonged to you.


You never found us.

It was always the other way round.

—

image credit:  along the kerry way – ireland  http://leiraenkai.deviantart.com

poetry credit: margaret atwood

 

Jun7

the aussies are coming! the aussies are coming!

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KangarooHop4

and i couldn’t be happier.

part of my family lives down under.

and soon

they will be up top with us for a while.

and i will have my dream

of all of the daughters

and all of the sons in law

and all of the grand babies

in one place at one time.

and it is sure to be an adventure.

—

Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.
Gail Lumet Buckley

Jun6

relax. and celebrate national donut day. at the same time.

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josh atlas

“Between an optimist and pessimist, the difference is droll.
The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist the hole!”
~ Oscar Wilde

—

image credit: josh atlas

 

Jun4

Children have neither past nor future; they enjoy the present, which very few of us do. ~Jean de la Bruyere

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it is our last day today as a class.

and as we look back –

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and look ahead –

we find

that a part of each of us

is still right here.

always has been.

and always will be.

—

Always jump in the puddles! Always skip alongside the flowers.

The only fights worth fighting are the pillow and food varieties. 

Terri Guillemets

Jun3

What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.  – Titus Lucretius Carus

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bcwedding1f

 

back in my catering days,

we hosted a party in a very small, yet charming victorian house.

it was for a women’s group,

a lovely luncheon that began with tray-passed appetizers.

as i made my rounds through the rooms,

squeezing past people engaged in little groups,

i offered up tray after tray of beautiful bite-sized food.

and one woman ignored me the entire time

and continued her conversation,

she wouldn’t even look at me or make eye contact at all.

and never took one thing from me.

until finally –

she reached down and popped one into her mouth.

and i was sure she did it just to appease me

and hoped i would go away.

but –

she had grabbed the flower on the tray instead of the appetizer.

and it was not an edible flower.

and she put it in her mouth and chewed it.

and got a strange look on her face.

and delicately deposited it into her napkin.

and went back to her conversation.

and i hurried to the kitchen to let the chef know.

who asked if it was the woman in the pink sweater.

and i said yes and wondered how she knew.

and that was when she told me

that the woman in the pink sweater was blind.

—-

The food here is terrible, and the portions are too small.
 Woody Allen