Stone #52

Note on street over potted plant that is later gone-

free to a good home

a cedar where birdsong can one day take shelter

White Petal (clip 1:35min)

direct link: White Petal (it's unlisted, so won't show at my public YouTube site)

On mornings when my adult children aren't around, I have begun to try to dance. It's a small space; there are kilim carpets and furniture. I have a 24min tape which is short enough to convince me to go ahead, and which you can hear a little of here. I've videoed a few of these exercise sessions to see what sort of moves I make, never having seen myself dance before beginning to make video dance poems recently. I am trying to choreograph two long pieces for tracks composers and musicians have sent me to work with.

This cut was 'live,' as is, though I did layer it with filters. And then I went out late afternoon to video white flowers in the neighbourhood for it. I have layered a few of those beauties in - not sure if this works the way I have done it, or not. I added a touch of flicker to the white rose at the beginning and think maybe I should carry it through to the hibiscus-like one at the end. If I wanted to make a proper video out of this piece, I would need to re-do it I think - because with the flowers added, the table and chest in the corner are visually distracting. In my morning practice, I put on the music and begin moving (ok, not with the outfit, but that's to see if it works for a future video), and I do not, repeat, do not move furniture!

Danced, videoed, edited by Brenda Clews; background music by Gabrielle Roth and the Mirrors, from an old favourite, Initiation.

As usual, some stills (click for larger) (I always think my work looks better in stills from than in the video:) (posted these in a previous post too, impatient with waiting for the videos to upload:):

Each of those boxes is a video layer - 

to give you an idea of the construction of the piece. 

The footage of white flowers in the neighbourhood worked

quite well, I thought. Though perhaps it looks too 'pasted' in?

I did add a little flicker to one to make it less static. They are not 

stills but actual video - shot using a monopod on the sidewalk.

Stone #51: Canada Day

A crackling dark: sleek streamers of light, flashing strobe-lit exploding jellyfish, flying thunderbolts, fountains of neon flowers.

July 'River of Stones'

Lots of people are joining, about to toss pebbles of poetry --- haiku-like moments of noticing, meditating, writing --- into the river. You should too:

Why you should join the river: Because having a notebook, or a blog, and a vow to write one small stone in it each day can help you keep a sense of wonder about the world. Deciding to take part in the July challenge, to notice something each day and write about it, sets in motion that willingness to reach out - that willingness to really look and listen to the world - and to stand in awe.

On the black river,
a pair of great-crested grebe nod
towards the ceremonies of spring.

Kate Noakes

Kaspalita Thompson and Fiona Robyn, beautiful, newly-wedded couple, are the inspirations behind River of Stones.

Documentary: "Call of Life: Facing Mass Extinction"

View this movie at calloflife.org

Watching this, while of course I already knew, but the summer heat, the late hour, half in the dreamtime, I understood at a deeper level. While a pessimistic part of me does not believe that we can change the path of destiny that we are creating for ourselves as the world-force we are, as a species, the speakers in this video offer hope at the end. Already the facts and issues raised in this video has brought into focus a deep anxiety, a life-threatening worry, something indefinable, troubling and thus Call of Life is a life-changing video for me. I urge you to watch it.

And, though we are not world leaders, nor run vast multi-nationals, we are the grassroots. Dance, drum, meditate daily on mass extinction...on unimaginable numbers of species dying out, life force, soul fleeing an uninhabitable world...

And march when there are marches, and sign petitions, and write letters, emails, and post in all the places you can.

Synopsis of the documentary:

Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction

Director: Monte Thompson | Producer: Chera Van Burg
Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2010 | Story Teller's Country: United States
Tags: Ecology, Environment, Global, Globalization, Spiritual Awareness

Synopsis: If current trends continue, scientists warn that within a few decades at least HALF of all plant and animal species on Earth will disappear forever. “Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction” is the first feature documentary to investigate the growing threat to Earth’s life support systems from this unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Through interviews with leading scientists, psychologists, historians, and others, the film explores the causes, the scope, and the potential effects of the mass extinction, but also looks beyond the immediate causes of the crisis to consider how our cultural and economic systems, along with deep-seated psychological and behavioral patterns, have allowed and continue to reinforce the situation, and even determine our response to it. “Call of Life” tells the story of a crisis not only in nature, but also in human nature, a crisis more threatening than anything human beings have ever faced before.

From my blogroll:

Mass Extinction Math

by Timothy Morton

So if the previous mass extinction 55 million years ago took two thousand years as a result of 2 gigatons per year of carbon being released:

Does that mean that this one, given 30 gigatons per year, will take fifteen times faster, namely about 130 years?

Does anyone know how the math of mass extinction works?

Silver-Tint Photo

...the mask was exactly what she was searching for, exactly
what she needed: a face threaded over her face,
a light threaded over her light.

You speak, and the mask begins to speak,
and the listening takes fire.

Dale Favier

                  Slipping away, between
      restraints.

_
(click photos for larger size)

Dale's Mask slightly paraphrased, a change of pronoun

Stone #50: Is Rosette's

After the rain, roses everywhere, their thorn-bitten thick lips, petals falling like tricks, lipstick red pistils around their bushes.

...

(a wee note to myself, if you ever want to see them, just email me for the key)