find yourself a cup; the teapot is behind you… now tell me about hundreds of things -saki
For happiness, how little suffices for happiness!… the least thing precisely, the gentlest thing, the lightest thing, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a wisk, an eye glance-little maketh up the best happiness. Be still.
~Friedriche Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None
Things haven’t slowed down for me yet but here are a few shots from my summer break.
Hectic, hectic January.
But I’m managing to find the time to kick back, reconnect with peeps, dream, catch some movies, read, reflect and generally enjoy a lovely summer.
Thoroughly enjoying the rock/country/electro hybrid which is this:
Their best album for quite some time.
(Image from here)
Admittedly been leaving the camera at home and just enjoying the holiday moments which seem to be whizzing past. I don’t have an appropriate photo for the occasion, but here’s a lovely one, courtesy of Animalarium.
It’s summertime. And there’s nothing better than gadding about in the great urban outdoors, taking afternoon naps or putting up one’s feet and retiring with a book and the occasional snack.
Currently reading: Brideshead Revisited
Currently savouring: a home made pandan flavoured macaron
In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it Christmas and went to church; the Jews called it Hanukkah and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!
– Dave Barry, Christmas Shopping: A Survivor’s Guide
(with thanks to whiskeyriver)
Wow. The last year seems to have passed by in a flash. Suddenly, it’s the week before Christmas. Again.
As a practising (but struggling) minimalist, it’s a chance to lash out and purchase beautiful things for loved ones.
And to reflect on the year about to end, and the new one about to begin.
Not to mention an excuse to eat copious numbers of mince pies, enjoy bad music and pad about in pyjamas for elongated periods of time (joy!). And get all sentimental and nostalgic with friends and family at home.
Merry Christmas and safe, happy holidays to all!
(Image from Charley Harper Colours)
Walking back to the office from lunch last week, I spotted this globe in a second hand shop.
Ten minutes later (minus a small sum), I had the whole world in my hands.
Getting finger bunions and whittling down my ‘to read’ pile.
A new film from Studio Ghibli – preferably one in which director Hayao Miyazaki has a hand in (he did not direct Arietty but wrote the screenplay) – is always an event of significance for me.
Thanks to the Embassy of Japan and the Arc Cinema, the inhabitants of the Bush Capital were able to catch Arietty at the 2011 Japanese Film Festival, ahead of it 2012 commercial Australian release.
On a rainy Sunday afternoon, I popped along to the sold out screening, gleeful at the prospect of losing myself in another of Miyazaki’s lovely, whimsical tales.
Based loosely on Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, Arietty is the story of a family of ‘little people’ who get by in this world by keeping out of the sight of ‘human beans’ and ‘borrowing’ things misplaced or lost by humans.
The eponymous heroine is a fourteen year old ‘borrower’ who lives with her parents in the foundations of a large, rambling Edwardian house. Things come unstuck when Sho, a sickly boy who comes to stay in the house, sees her and, in a great movie tradition, an unlikely friendship begins.
I adore Miyazaki’s films for his plucky, pacifist heroines (and heroes). I love his subtle portrayal of the grander emotions such as duty, honour, guilt, sadness, love and the more pedestrian ones such as boredom and frustration. Miyazaki favours characters which are grey, rather black or white, and is particularly adept in showing their spiritual and emotional development . Though his characters may negotiate war, natural disasters and people out to do them (and their friends and families) harm, they are not merely people of action. Miyazaki seems to delight in showing moments where the characters take time out to simply enjoy a quiet moment, or to reflect on things.
Arietty ticks all these boxes. If I do have a complaint, it is that this movie touches on grander themes such as environmental destruction and extinction of species, but doesn’t explore these issues any further. The film also feels like the first of a series, rather than a complete, self-contained story. As such, Arietty doesn’t have the grand sweeping scale of Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind or Princess Mononoke but it’s always a pleasure to disappear for an afternoon into one of Miyazaki’s worlds.
Oh, and the hand-drawn backgrounds are always beautiful.
(French movie poster taken from here)
(Stills taken from the official UK trailer from here)
Stunning work from this year’s winner of the Observer/ Jonathan Cape/Comica graphic short story prize, Isabel Greenberg,
(With thanks to the Guardian)
