Good Things

Today I took a day's holiday on the spur of the moment. It feels like stolen time and is all the sweeter for not having been planned.

I'm catching up with my blog, so just doing a little post on things I've enjoyed recently.

image copyright the artist

I went with my daughter to see the John Stezaker exhibition at the Whitechapel a couple of weeks ago. We both found it very stimulating. Stezaker makes new images from old, combining old photos in ways that almost but not quite make new images -- the tension between the originals and the suggestion of a new image is quite disturbing to the brain and hence rather entertaining. I can't really use too many of his images but they are easily found online.

I Am Dina

     I also recently watched a rather wonderful Norwegian film, I Am Dina, which had me and the friends I saw it with screaming in horror at some points but which, overall, I very much enjoyed for its beautiful cinematography and crazy plot. Dina is an unfortunate child who accidentally causes her mother's death and, as a result, grows up with a strange attitude to both life and death. The film has an international cast including Gerard Depardieu and Christopher Eccleston -- perhaps not their finest performances, particularly the latter, who has to grapple with a very strange accent. Everyone speaks English in the film, some more jauntily accented than others. Unfortunately the DVD I'd bought had Dutch subtitles that I couldn't switch off, but it all added to the multilingual fun.

Dina gets married -- watch out Mr Dina

Continuing the Scandinavian theme, I'm addicted to Lykke Li's new album. It's just brilliant, specially the first three tracks.

Wounded Rhymes -- highly recommended

When I'm on my computer, I like to have a live webcam open in a browser window, so that if I'm waiting for something to print out or load, I can look through this little window into another part of the world. At the moment, I love the Mila site with its five live webcams of Iceland:

Above is Gullfoss. The difference it makes seeing the water actually moving and people coming and going is amazing. In fact today is the first time it hasn't been misty there for a while, so you can really see the water pounding down. It's brilliant.
     I also love the Blue Lagoon where you can watch people popping in and out of the steamy water all day long:

I'm sure there were loads of other nice things I was going to mention. I got a little sniff of spring yesterday and was very taken (who isn't?) by the gorgeous blossom, and also by these wonderful furry twigs:

Just finally to say that I am really enjoying getting ready for the postcard swap. I'm trying out things I've never done before and am finding that having a specific project and people to make things for is really making me stop wasting time and get moving. Some of my ideas are a bit wild and possibly a little bonkers but it's definitely making me think that I'll come back and try them again, perhaps on a larger scale, after the postcards have all been sent.