Hedgehog in the Fog

Charming little film, made by Soyuzmultifilm, a goldmine of Russian animation. Folklore and traditional tales of each country are fun to watch and read. Remembering  reading the real Grimm's fairy tales for the first time it was lots of death, torture and pain, not happy clean endings as Disney would have us believe!

Hedgehog in the Fog can be viewed on Youtube, its quite delightful in its simple charms...

Death of Cleopatra in art

Cleopatra's death still not agreed on by all historians, lots of depictions in art. Here are some by Guido Reni, Jean-Andre Rixens and Reginald Arthur. 

Pink Floyd's The Wall

Whether a fan of their music or not, The Wall has some of the most incredible imagery and animation. It represents so many things to so many different people, which makes it even more accessible and wondrous..

the moomins

Days spent reading and watching The Moomins, are days spent well. The wistful winds of Moomin valley are far more wanted than grim reality some days...

time flies tomorrow

how it does. for now,

tare panda

I wish tare panda were real! then he could sit with me and do nothing all day and i would cook and we would lie on our backs digesting lunch, staring at clouds. He's a big hit in Japan, San-X characters always brighten my day! There's a stack of 4 plush tare pandas that i have my eye on at the moment on eBay! For someone my age, this seems a bit ridiculous, but one can never have enough toys! Totoro, Catbus, Soot sprites, Pochacco, Pucca, Moomin, all have happy places in my room!

Bukowski's bluebird

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pur whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

Charles Bukowski on the exterior seems like the most unlikely person on earth to have written something as beautiful as bluebird. His Cynicism, Alcoholism and penchant for prostitutes comes through heavily in one piece and then is gone in the next, ranging from plain disturbing to heartbreaking. Most of his short poems are incredible, as are all his full length novels. Post Office, Ham on Rye, Factotum, Women, Pulp, Hollywood and his help on the script for Barfly the movie, all written by him, all achingly beautiful, heavily recommended if one hasn't chanced upon them yet.