My Factory of Extravagant Marvels

This article was published in the New York Times. It made me think of how upsetting it is to be denied something you have the right for: "For weeks now, James Jones has been extra courteous in traffic and at the gas station because he has an Obama sticker on the back of his truck. “Something like that might make a difference for Barack Obama,” Mr. Jones explained. “I’m not taking a chance.” Mr. Jones, a black warehouse worker, bought campaign signs for his yard and made sure his family had valid voter registration cards. He and his wife cast their votes 10 days early to avoid last-minute problems at the polls. So imagine Mr. Jones’s disappointment this week when he got word of a rumor making its way around his humble southeastern part of town — that early voting is nothing more than a new disenfranchisement scam, that early votes are likely to be lost and never counted. “I went to the library where I voted and I said, ‘Ma’am, I heard rumors that early voting is dangerous, is that ...

According to Wikipedia, “Simchat Torah means "rejoicing with the Torah" and refers to a special ceremony that takes place on the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret. This holiday immediately follows the conclusion of the holiday of Sukkot. The last portion of the Torah is read, completing the annual cycle, followed by the first chapter of Genesis. Services are especially joyous, and all attendees, young and old, are involved.” Last Wednesday, October 22nd, I experienced for the first time the celebration of the Simchat Torah. I was invited by my voice teacher, Gail, to join her and her family at their synagogue. The ceremony was very pleasant, with a lot of singing and dancing. People were invited to walk around the temple 7 times with the Torah Scrolls which in this particular synagogue were covered in white, a different color than during the rest of the year. In the end, the covers were changed back to the usual royal blue. By the way, they have a total of 7 Torah Scrolls in ...

Barack Obama will make a pause of 36 hours in his last days of campaign to go to Honolulu visit his ill grandmother, Ms. Dunham. I think this is absolutely lovely. I have an empathy for Barack Obama ever since I started hearing about him, during the primaries, among other reasons because his face reminded me of my grandfather - granted a good 30 years younger. But he's a politician, so I was very skeptical of this feeling. He turned out to have good ideas, so I was quite pleased to know that my empathy wasn't going to waste. “When [he] announced he would stop campaigning for more than 36 hours starting on Thursday, and would instead fly to Hawaii to visit his gravely ill grandmother, presidential historians noted that it was an unprecedented step for a candidate this close to Election Day, but they differed about the political risks of such a personal decision.”1 I hope that Americans can see how important it is for a big politician to be a human being, and rule for human being...

Check this out, it is funny! http://brokershandsontheirfacesblog.tumblr.com/page/1

From The Star and Tree Hugger Peter Gorrie of the Star makes some interesting points about cul-de-sacs. Owners love them; Gorrie describes one family: "The Bennetts love their enclave. It's quiet and friendly;a safe place for not only road hockey but also learning to ride a bike or sled down a mound of snow in the centre of the turning circle. Their parents all know each other; visit while their kids play, watch each other's homes and sometimes sip wine together on a Friday evening." He also teaches us the the derivation of the term: "Cul-de-sac began as an old French hunting term: It translates, literally, as "bottom of the bag "– where snared rabbits were shoved, face down, to keep in the dark and restrict their motion." Owners may love them but planners and environmentalists don't; Gorrie writes: "Cul-de-sacs consume vast amounts of land. They create car-dependent zones whose inhabitants spew ...

Wikipedia says: "The term " swing dance " commonly refers to a group of dances that developed concurrently with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, although the earliest of these dance forms predate swing jazz music. The best known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, a popular partner dance that originated in Harlem and is still danced today. While the majority of swing dances began in African American communities as vernacular African American dances, a number of forms (Balboa, for example) developed within Anglo-American or other ethnic group communities." Swing Dancing is a lot of fun and I love it. Since my friend Guillaume moved away from Montreal to work in Abitibi, I haven't been dancing very often - but tonight he is in town and we're going to dance our feet away!

From http://www.reason.com/blog/show/128999.html

More at http://www.smbc-comics.com/

I was thinking about what to write today and then I remembered an essay I wrote for music history class last semester. I thought of publishing it here because it was quite an interesting subject, but since it was music, I thought of searching youtube to see what I got as example. Then I came across this marvelous video of some TV show called Robin and Marian , which I did not know until that very moment. Check it out below (and read the essay, if you feel like it). I am seriously thinking of making a cover of this song with my acoustic guitar - it's a piece of poetry! “ Le Jeu de Robin et Marion ” is perhaps the earliest secular musical drama known to history. Written in the latter part of the 13 th century (around 1283 or 1284), the work was composed for the entertainment of the court of Robert II, count of Artois. It consists of a dramatized pastorelle (a lyric depicting an amorous encounter between a shepherdess and a roving knight) 1 and a dramatized bergerie (a lyric...

Shugo Tokumaru played last Friday at O Patro Vis, as part of Pop Montreal Festival. He came on stage barefoot, with his acoustic guitar and a very polite smile and started to play. The whole show was only him and his guitar, but what a show! Montreal was part of his first North American tour. The show included songs from his new album "Exit", which features " Parachute ."

Machado de Assis is not as widely acclaimed outside Brazil as an author of his caliber deserves to be. Among his works are novels, short stories, plays and poems of great literary quality, always witty and still current more than a century after their publication. Considered by many as Brazil's greatest writer of all times, his style is extraordinary and exposes the many social dysfunctions of 19th century Brazil (and often of today, interestingly enough). L iterary critic Harold Bloom places Machado de Assis alongside writers such as Dante, Shakespeare and Cervantes . His father was a son of freed slaves who married a Portuguese housekeeper. Machado de Assis learned to read by himself , and spoke French and English fluently . He started off by working as a typesetter for newspapers, where he later published his first works. Apart from his own writing, he also translated many of Shakespeare's work into Portuguese. 2008 marks the centennial of his death, and here is a bit o...