Trips and Ukuleles and Anarchists, Oh My!

I do believe this marks the longest time I've gone without blogging since I started this blog almost three years ago.  Part of me feels like I should apologize, but a much bigger part of me is down with the whole blogging without obligation idea, and even more importantly, realizes that I've been mentally/emotionally not really able to blog.  I just haven't been in the right head-space.  I've been dealing with some pretty high levels of anxiety and stress, and have felt a strong need to retreat from more public areas of expression and instead focus on spending time with friends, meeting new people in real life, and otherwise trying to maintain and build my community.  I'm not sure what most of the things I want and need to change in my life are, though I'm well aware that some changes need to be made, but I do know that having a strong community and network of friends is one of them.

So now that you know a bit about how I've been feeling, I figured I'd update you on what I've been doing since last I posted anything here.

Near the beginning of this month, my sister and I went to a small NBTSC gathering in New York state.  A friend swung a few hours out of her way to pick me and my sister up, and we had a nice little roadtrip through the mountains to a small and really lovely town.  There we stayed, with a handful of other people, at the house of the friends who were hosting us.  And what a lovely house it is!  Which for me, someone who absolutely ADORES old buildings, was quite a big plus. (I didn't take many pictures, so I'm afraid the few I have aren't so hot)

A skatter of instruments and luggage.

I think this shot is "atmospheric," but some might say it's just "dark."

How come new houses don't have awesomely long hallways?

Emi has a ukulele!

Part way through the gathering, Emi picked up a ukulele, and asked her friends to teach her some chords.  Then she proceeded to not put down a ukulele for the rest of the time we were there (except for brief breaks to use the bathroom and sleep)!  In three days, she went from having never played a stringed instrument to knowing several songs on the uke well enough that she could sing along with them as she played!  I'd say that's passion driven learning at it's best, and yet another example that passion driven learning is the best kind there is.

On the day we left we stopped at a music store, and Emi picked out and bought her own ukulele before we headed out of town, so we were serenaded frequently on our drive home.

Her playing has become less frequent in the couple of weeks since we got home, but we'll still hear the sweet sound of the ukulele at least once a day, so it seems to have become a real part of daily life.  So I decided to record her playing, and singing, one of my favorite songs in her repetoire, Over The Rainbow:

Over the Rainbow on ukulele from Idzie Desmarais on Vimeo.

Now, a few years ago I heard about Couchsurfing.org (at my first year of Not Back to School Camp, I believe), a website that is "a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit."  Things I love about this site is the sheer size of the network it provides (it's the biggest and best known site of it's kind), the fact there are multiple safety thingies built into the site, and the fact that it's free.  As in, the hosts don't charge their guests, just offer a spare bed, futon, couch, or floor space to travelers because they WANT to meet cool people from all over the world!  I also really like that you don't set up an account as *either* a host or surfer, and that most people on the site seem to both host and surf.  So anyway, I think the idea is really cool, so I got an account as soon as I was able to, which was at 18 (I could have just lied about age as everyone does on most sites, of course, but since there's real life verification stuff involved, and I wasn't planning any couchsurfing adventures just then, I figured I'd just wait!).  But then for a while, it just sat there.  The traveling I was doing was to conferences and the houses of people I already knew, and no one contacted me through CS about surfing, so I pretty much forgot about it.  But in the new year, I actually started getting contacted by people through the site, though not many and nothing worked out, until something did work out and we had our first couchsurfer here for the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, which was just this past weekend!

I find it really cool that though she found me through couchsurfing, she's a former unschooler and NBTSCer (Not Back to School Camper), so we already had friends in common!  We hit it off really well, and for the five days she was here, I had a great time. We wandered the city, helped set up for the bookfair, ate yummy food, chattered through long bus rides, hung out at the bookfair a bunch, met lots of cool people, bought some cool shit, lay around in the sun, went to a seriously awesome punk show...  Photos would probably make things look more interesting, but I have none.  Anyway, a very good time was had, which is good, because I was really looking forward to the bookfair this year, and also really looking forward to my first couchsurfing hosting experience, so it's lovely that everything actually met my expectations (which doesn't happen as often as I'd like)!

Sadly, after that week of partying (around people bringing germs from all over the continent, no less), I got sick.  So I've had a sore throat for a few days now.  Seems to be getting better, but even just a few days of not being able to talk are hard for my chatterbox self!  I think that's what finally spurred me to actually write a post, really: if I can't use my voice, I'm forced to "talk" in other ways!  Even then, this post took me three days to finish.  Like I said, I haven't been able to easily write publicly lately.  Right now, I feel like I might be ready to write a bit more on this blog again, but I'm not sure whether that feeling will change or not.  Lately, hell, for months really, I seem to be swinging between "yay I love my friends, I love the world, life is great!" and "everything sucks, I really suck, I can't handle anything except basic hygiene, maybe a bit of time with people, and reading fantasy novels."  So I suppose time will tell...

I hope all my readers are doing well, and I want to let you guys know how much I appreciate you all, the support you've provided over the years I've been writing this blog, and the fact you stick around even when I go long periods without writing much or at all!  

Driving Driving Driving

I usually don't shy away from learning about the things that anger me, horrify me, and sometimes break my heart.  But with the damn oil spill, I've been avoiding hearing about it as much as I can.  I feel so incredibly helpless, and every time I think of it I just want to burst into tears.

"Even now, we hardly love the Earth or see with eyes or listen any longer with our ears, and we scarcely feel our hearts beat before they break in protest." Stanley Diamond

But today, I saw this new song on Facebook by Kimya Dawson, an artist I adore, and loved it.  So I wanted to share it with you.  It's called Driving Driving Driving.



Peace,
Idzie

Watching, listening to, reading...

Now, I usually avoid memes like the plague.  Not the reading of them on other peoples blogs, I don't mind that, but the doing of them.  However, I finally found a meme that I'd actually like to share on this blog, because I think it's pretty damn cool!  This meme is called F.A.B share: Film, Audio, and Book share.  In other words, sharing what you're currently watching, listening to, and reading!  Thanks to the blog Holistic Mama for introducing me to it. :-)

Doing this in order, since I occasionally get an urge to do things in an orderly fashion, first up is film (which I'm considering to be "watching", so including TV shows)!

Last night, I watched the 6th Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  It just came out on DVD yesterday, and though I saw it in theaters, my Harry Potter nerd friend missed out on that experience, so really wanted to see it right away as soon as it was available!!

The 6th HP book was probably my favourite.  I felt the characters had really matured and were much more interesting to read about.  Because of that, I think I was expecting too much from the movie, so was rather disappointed.  A high point of the movie was Malfoy, though, since I felt that they handled his character very well!  I'd even go so far as to say that I liked the Malfoy of this movie better than the more cowardly one of the books...  Also, Ron and Luna were a pleasure to watch, as always. 

In terms of TV shows, we, as a family, have been majorly obsessed with House lately.  We've worked our way through season two...

Season three...

And now we've just started season four.

 

Emi, mum, and I simply LOVE the wonderful characters, terrific dialogue, and just find this show to be extremely enjoyable!!  We've even managed to drag my dad into the appreciation of this show, even if he doesn't share the actual *obsession*! ;-)

My mum, Emi, and I also just finished watching (because the season just ended on TV) the second season of Being Erica, which again, is more appreciated by the female members of my family. :-P It's a sweet, funny, moving, comedy-drama that airs on CBC, and we're thrilled with the fact that it's Canadian, as well!  So many of the shows that air on Canadian television are actually American, so it's really nice to find good shows that aren't!

Moving on to the audio section, there's been Christmas music playing near constantly in the our house, lately.  Most notably and by my choice, however, have been two great Loreena McKennitt Christmas CDs: To Drive The Cold Winter Away

And A Winter Garden.

I've been a fan of Loreena McKennitt for a long while now.  My mom has liked her since I was born, and at some point while growing up, I decided that she was pretty cool, too!  Lately I've been making an effort to collect all of her lovely music...

And finally, books!  I've read several very average teen fantasy books lately that I don't feel are particularly worth mentioning...  Other than that, I just finished For The Sake of Our Children by Leandre Bergeron:

It was a good book, and it was also a review copy.  Which means there will be a review of it posted on this blog soon (the only reason I haven't already is that I've been having trouble writing about any one subject for longer than a paragraph...).

I also *just* started reading Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto.

Because I'm barely into it, I don't really have much to say about it yet...

Hmmm, I think that's it for now!  Let me know if you think I should avoid all memes, even ones like this, in the future, or if I should put aside my usual aversions to memes if they're cool enough. ;-)

Peace,
Idzie

Lovely music

I very recently discovered for myself a band called Chumbawamba.  I thought I'd share one of the songs from their newest album, The Boy Bands Have Won.  I present to you the lovely song Words Can Save Us.



I find it quite annoying how much talk and arguments there are to do with music.  What's "good" music, what's "bad" music, who's "sold out", who's *really* political and who's just doing it for the attention...  I love listening to music with a strong political message, especially if that political message is anti-civ or at the very least anarchist.  However, I listen to music that I like listening to.  I'm far more concerned with how a song makes me feel than if the band has sold out or not!  So that's my mini rant on that.  And just so you know, the members of Chumbawamba are anarchists... ;-)

Peace,
Idzie

Political dump (aka interesting stuff to my green anarchist self)

Attractive title, right?

Anyway, I realized that I've only really talked about unschooling for a while now, and been really quiet (for me, anyway) about my political (or lack thereof) views. However, that doesn't mean that I haven't been watching, reading, talking, and thinking about said lack of politics views. So, I decided to share a bunch of stuff that's been interesting to me lately. I hope this is of interest to at least a few of my readers!

Firstly, I absolutely LOVE Submedia.tv. They have a show called It's The End of the World As We Know It every week or couple of weeks, usually around 15 minutes, that just does a wonderful job of putting current events, news, and information on green anarchist (anarchist in general, but with a very definite green lean) stuff in an amusing, engaging, and informative way. You should definitely check it out: Submedia.tv

The newest episode:


Next, I also enjoy watching videos by these two guys on YouTube, AdamHintz and MeursaultBateman. They both talk about issues of green anarchy, sustainability, and similar things.

Something I'm very against is the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia (if you look at the sidebar of my blog, you may have noticed that I have a badge against the Olympics). Lots of people react with surprise when I say that. "What's wrong with the Olympics?", they ask. Well, here's what's wrong with the Olympics: Why We Resist 2010 (taken from the website no2010.com)

I've also been looking into the G20 summit protests since I got home from camp, and there seems to have been the seemingly fairly normal amount of police brutality. Here are a couple of videos showing what I mean:

Police State Uses Violence Against Protesters - Intro by Howard Zinn



Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh



Also, I may have mentioned a while back that I really wanted to go to the Rethinking Education conference, especially so I could hear Daniel Quinn speak. Well, I didn't end up making it, but his speech was posted online! Thanks to both Eli and Josh for sending the link to me! :-) Check out part one here.

Oh, and here's Derrick Jensen's newest article from Orion magazine: Side with the Living

FINALLY, for a long time, I didn't like rap or hip-hop music. However, relatively recently I've discovered that there's some really good stuff out there! The main thing I never liked was the lyrics. The whole gansta hip-hop thing, with ho's and money and guns, never appealed to me. Radical political hip-hop, on the other hand, is totally different! So here are a couple of my favorites...

Light It Up 2.0, produced by Ratatat, and as far as I can tell, lyrics and (obviously) sung by zzz33333



You're a Fucking Terrorist by Resident Anti-Hero (you can listen to, and download, all of their music for free at their site)



Annnd that's all for now! Hope I didn't make this too long!

Peace,
Idzie

Punk, jazz, and good times!

Yesterday was lots of fun! I was a bit worried, because Ty and I were going to see the bands Rise Against and Rancid at an outdoors venue, so although I really wanted to see Rise Against again (they're one of my favorite bands (you may remember me talking about them when I saw them back in December)) it was also rainy, which isn't so much fun when you're standing outside.

Since it was downtown, and my mom also had to pick my sister up and drive her downtown a bit later (Emi's drum teacher, who's a really cool guy, offered to have her sell her handmade stuff between sets at the place where his band plays), she dropped Ty and I off at a Metro (also know in other places as the train/subway) station, and we headed downtown! It was rather funny, by the time we got to the last leg of our commute, it was so obvious that the great majority of people on the train with us were also heading to the same punk concert we were! When we got there, the opening band, The Riverboat Gamblers, were about halfway through their set, so we watched them for a while. They were pretty good! However, it was raining pretty hard at the start, so even though I had a raincoat on, I still got pretty wet. Wet, but not cold, so I was still quite cheerful. :-) Next came Rancid. They're good! I'd only ever heard a few of their songs, so I didn't enjoy them as much as I could have, but I really want to hear more of their music now...

By the time Rancid finished, it was getting pretty dark, it had stopped raining for the most part (yay!), and you could feel the crowd energy rising. The crowd was definitely made up mostly of Rise Against fans! We stood around waiting, feeling the occasional cool rain drops on our face, breathing in the tons of secondhand marijuana smoke (there were seriously TONS of people smoking weed! I was amazed at the joint to cigarette ratio, since there really weren't many people smoking cigarettes at all. We were even offered some for free, though we turned it down of course. ;-) (Seriously, we did turn it down. Unknown dealer=bad idea!)), hearing the intermittent chants of "Rise Against!", and waiting with excitement. We worked our way right up into the front of the crowd, where we'd have a good view. When they finally came on, the crowd went wild! I was very happy to have the earplugs that we'd brought (always a good idea to have at concerts!). We had a great time, jumping up and down, singing along loudly, and getting bumped into nearly constantly by people. I've never really been in "the pit" at a concert before, and it can get pretty rough. You have to be aware of the people around you, keep your arms up to easily protect your head and upper torso, and not mind being squashed against multiple people! Except for one jerk who literally smashed into people with no care for injury, everyone was really cool though. The worst injuries I got were frequently squished toes and a fairly light elbow to the throat (and in the latter case, I instantly had a complete strangers hand on my shoulder and a concerned query if I was alright. As I said, most people were really cool. :-)). It also helped that there was very little real moshing, and when there was we were careful to stay out of it! At the closest, there was only one person between us and the barrier in front of the stage. It was really cool to have the lead singer actually that close, and singing straight to those of us right in front! :-D We ended up moving to a safer location later on in the show, when the aforementioned jerk moved into our area, but it was still a good spot.

After the concert ended, we stumbled into the packed Metro caked in dirt (the rain had made the ground very mushy, to say the least), sweat (ours and others), and beer (one time when someone threw their cup over the crown, I actually got beer in my eye. Ouch+eww) bruised, sore, tired, and smelling strongly of weed. We went to a station (still in town) where we were picked up by my mom and brought to the place where Emi's drum teacher, Nick's (not the Nick I've talked about previously, a different Nick :-P), band was playing (their set only started at 12:00). They are a really fricken' good jazz band! I loved their music. Apparently the previous two bands that had played before were good as well, so although Emi hadn't sold anything, she'd enjoyed the music. My one problem with the evening: a university student ended up hanging out with Emi for a while, and he was TOTALLY hitting on her. My little sister. Getting hit on. By a guy in his early twenties!!! He thought she was older than she was, and she made no move to tell him otherwise. Instead, she gloated at me, since I'd informed her she would never pass for 18, and she did. *Grumbles* But big sister over protectiveness aside, it was a great evening. :-P Frequently, Ty and I would wander out and wander around the street. Ty got something to eat, a slightly drunken guy played us a song on a ukulele, and, considering, he was pretty good! When Ty handed him a couple of dollars, the ukulele player happily informed us that it was enough for another beer. Oh dear. :-P

By the time we headed home, it was about 2:30. We said goodbye, told the band how much we'd enjoyed them, made plans for Emi to attempt to sell her stuff at the bands next gig, and headed to the car. We then proceeded to get lost almost instantly. Since we got lost near one of Montreal's well renowned bagel stores (one that's open 24/7), we picked up a dozen deliciously fresh bagels. "It's okay that we're lost" we giggled in cheerful tiredness. "It's an adventure... WITH BAGELS!!" Said Emi happily. "Every adventure is better with bagels.", I agreed with my mouth full. We also saw a depaneur (corner store) advertising that they were open 25 hours a day... Hmm, someone seems to be unclear on the concept. I also broke my personal record for how late I'd stayed downtown!

When we finally got home at about 3:40, I took a quick shower to get rid of the concert grime, then collapsed in bed. I slept until past 3:00 this afternoon, and I still feel tired! But it was a very good time had by all last night. :-)

Peace,
Idzie

Montreal

I love downtown Montreal so damn much, especially in the Summer.

I went downtown yesterday with my mom, Emi, Ty, and Nick (Ty is here visiting again). The Fringe festival is going on right now, so there was plenty of activity. As I think of what to write, the sensory impressions are what come to mind first. The smell of cigarettes, weed, and good food. The sound of cars, music, laughter and voices. The sight of a numerous amount of people. Dyed bright hair, dreadlocks, bright summer dresses, studded everything, cool piercings...

We headed down in the afternoon, and as we walked along the streets, the first thing I noticed were the colours. The bright purple of someones railings; street art splashed on multiple walls, bright colours, faces, abstract scenes. I can't understand why some people don't see the value in such art. To me it's a beautiful art form, and the artists who create it are no less talented than their more traditional counterparts!

We passed a small garage sale on our way, and I bought another pin for my purse. I'll have to post a picture of my small but ever growing pin collection sometime soon.

In the square where the folk music was being played, we hung around briefly. Cigarette smoke hung in the air, and the twang of bluegrass folk sang in my ears. Since it wasn't really our type of music, we left my mom there to listen while the rest of us threaded our way through the band booths, poster plastered temporary walls, and eclectically dressed people. Some sounds we did like were the Fringe fest Cabaret, a motley group of people who wandered through the streets in pirate/gypsy-esque costumes, playing plaintive gypsy tunes. We passed them several times, and always enjoyed their music (and the juggler, in Ty's case). There isn't any feeling quite like wandering down the street with friends, the sun beating down and warming my back, watching the people that pass, taking in the sights, sounds, smells...

When we headed back to meet my mom a little while later, we were all slightly hungry, so after applying a few temporary tattoos supplied by one of the shows, we started on the twenty minute walk that would bring us to a cafe that was selling vegan food by donation. It was a lovely little fair trade, vegetarian cafe, with friendly people. We happily consumed millet pie, ginger cake, and spiked fruit juice with much happiness, at least on my part!

Afterwards, we wandered around for a while, Ty bought a new hand drum, and we headed home, sweaty, tired, and sore-footed. The day ended on a worse note than it had started on, but overall, it was still a good day.

Next Saturday, we're going downtown to see the fireworks (every year Montreal hosts an international fireworks competition, so the shows are truly spectacular), and we'll be there again at least once more this week for an outdoor concert.

I love this city. I really do. And I love long Summer days wandering it's streets, taking in everything, and just enjoying the vibrancy that is all around me. I'm biased, of course, but I truly believe that I live near one of the greatest cities there is!

Peace,
Idzie

My 18th Birthday, and St. Pat's day!

Yesterday was my 18th Birthday. In some ways, it seems rather surreal that I've been around this earth for 18 years. In other ways, it seems like no big deal. Nothing much has changed. I'm the same person I was two days ago, despite the change in age! Yet since my 17th Birthday, so so much has changed.

It's been years since I was actually happy on my Birthday... Throughout most of my teen years, my Birthday stood as a reminder of all the things I hadn't done. One more year where my life wasn't where I wanted it to be. But as I'm sure I mentioned before, this past year, especially the past 8 months, has held so much change, and lead to such a different perspective on life, on who I am, and on what I want. I'm no longer pining over what has yet to happen. Sure, there are still plenty of things I want to do, but I will do them. And for now, I'm happy at where I am in life, and content that I'll figure out where I'm going. So this Birthday, I went outside, breathed in the beautiful Spring air, played music, and laughed. Life is good.

I've never been much of a St. Patrick's Day celebrator, although I certainly have Irish ancestry, and love Celtic culture and music. So although I'm not doing much to actually celebrate today, I wish you a Happy, joy filled St Patrick's Day, and leave you with this song, 'The Night That Patty Murphy Died' by Great Big Sea.



Peace, love, and happiness,
Idzie

Several things that make life pretty good right now

I just came in from a quick grocery store run, and as my mom and I pulled into the driveway, we saw a Robin just a little ways along the street! Now, as you probably know, Robins are a sure sign of Spring. And then to make things even better, when I got out of the car, I heard a sound that I'm very familiar with: geese! And sure enough, when I looked up I saw the distinctive V formations heading across the sky. When the Canada Geese come back, it means Spring is here! Woo hoo! I walked into the house with a huge smile on my face.

Also, an unschooling friend is coming to visit in early April, which makes me very happy! We can wander around downtown Montreal, sit around by the water, or simply chill in my room listening to music. Whatever we end up occupying our time with, I'm sure we'll have a good time!

Another thing that's been making me very happy lately is music. I'm in love with virtually all types of music, but something I love particularly is Celtic inspired rock and folk. Most of my favorite songs are Celtic inspired. I just love it. So here are a few wonderful songs in that category that you may want to check out...

The Bard's Song by Blind Guardian
The Islander by Nightwish
Loser by Ayreon

Other than that, my life is too quiet. I'm bored. So I need to think of some new activities to start, some new things to do... Hopefully I'll come up with some things soon, before I go entirely out of my mind! ;-)

EDIT: Oh oh, and I also really enjoyed dressing nicely last night! I'd gotten very used to just throwing my clothes on with no attention to what actually makes me happy, but last night I pulled out some of my punk and goth type stuff and felt that I looked very nice. I really do have to put the effort into my outfits, because I feel so much happier, and much more confident, when I feel like my clothes not only look good, but also reflect my personality and individuality. I changed my blogger profile pic to one from last night. :-)

Peace,
Idzie

Words

My love affair with words began many years ago.

My parents have always been avid readers. My father is a big science fiction fan, as well as a reader of assorted locomotive, car, airplane, and motorcycle books that have always inhabited our house. My mother has always read fantasy, mystery, and assorted books on a million different topics, whatever happened to be of interest to her at the time.

When I was young, they read to me. Children's books, the newspaper. Poetry. The written word was (and is) an ever present member of our household.

And do I love the written word! Words dance, they twine around each other, create beautiful images, patterns, forms. Words have souls.

Poetry always held a certain fascination for me, and now holds a special place in my heart. When I was about eight I memorized The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. I wasn't even a strong reader at that time, but my mother helped me with the words I wasn't sure of, and I read it, re-read it, recited it endlessly. To this day I know it by heart.

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old in door.

I've heard poetry compared to paintings, and it's an apt description. Words can be rather like brush strokes, painting out pictures in your mind.

The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson was always another favorite, although I've never fully memorized it. In evocative verse, it tells the story of a fairy woman brought down by love.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She looked down to Camelot
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side:
"The curse is come upon me" cried
The Lady of Shalott

When I got slightly older, and became very interested in the world of Faery, I fell in love with The Stolen Child, by W. B. Yeats.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands, and mingling glances,
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap,
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles.
And is anxious in its sleep.
Come away! O, human child!
To the woods and waters wild,
With a fairy hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than
you can understand.

It's only relatively recently I started reading and appreciating less traditional forms of poetry, and my newest favorite is Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town by E. E. Cummings.

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

I love the layers in the above poem (you'd have to read all of it to appreciate it), and how it feels both complex and simple at the same time.

Of course, my love of words is not limited to poetry alone. I also love quotes, short bites of words both beautiful, funny, and profound. And lyrics, song lyrics are lovely.

Some of my favorite lyrics come from the song Hallelujah, written by Leonard Cohen, although I like K.D. Lang's version best.

Baby I've been here before,
I know this room, I've walked this floor,
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch,
Our love is not a victory march,
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah!

One of my favorite bands of all time is Rise Against, not only for their musical skills, but also for their wonderful (and extremely political) lyrics.

When faith alone is not enough to keep our heads barely above
We look for a reason and come up empty handed,
And when our children fight our wars while we sit back just keeping score
We're teaching murder not understanding, now...

We're setting the fires to light our way,
Burning it all to begin again,
With hope in our hearts, and bricks in our hands,
We sing for change!

Another passion of mine has always been BOOKS! When I was young it wasn't uncommon for me to read three or four novels in one day! My all time favorite novel would definitely have to be The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. His writing is enchanting, strange, heart wrenching and haunting. That story will stay with me for the rest of my life. I should let you know that the story is narrated by Death, which will probably make the below excerpt make more sense. If I owned the book, I'd find one of my favorite excerpts, but since I don't, this one will suffice.

I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

At that moment, you will be lying there (I rarely find people standing up). You will be caked in your own body. There might be a discovery; a scream will dribble down the air. The only sound I'll hear after that will be my own breathing, and the sound of the smell, of my footsteps.

And my love of books is not limited just to fiction, either, as you probably know from seeing how often I quote Jensen. ;-) His writing is impassioned, fascinating, and often poetic.

As a longtime grassroots environmental activist, and as a creature living in the thrashing endgame of civilization, I am intimately acquainted with the landscape of loss, and have grown accustomed to carrying the daily weight of despair. I have walked clearcuts that wrap around mountains, drop into valleys, then climb ridges to fragment watershed after watershed, and I’ve sat silent near empty streams that two generations ago were “lashed into whiteness” by uncountable salmon coming home to spawn and die.

And this video, of an excerpt from Endgame vol 2. read by Jensen, is a beautiful piece about the interconnectedness of all life.

As usual, I had no clue where I was going with this post, but I've greatly enjoyed writing it. Over two days, I dug around in poetry books, read aloud to empty rooms, cherished each word as it left my lips. I love words. I hope you can see their beauty, too.

Peace,
Idzie

Some random things I happen to be thinking about today...

1. The Unschooling Winter Water Park Gathering in Ohio, which we are now going to in absolute certainty! The reservations have been made, and now we're busy discussing the logistics of it all...
2. The lovely new guitar my mother got today. The one she got for Christmas turned out to be too big for her, so she now has a beautiful little parlor guitar, that as a bonus is made in Quebec, instead.
3. The sci-fi book I've been reading, entitled Anathem, that's far more science-y then the novels I normally read, but still a very good book.
4. The fact that I can no longer watch or read anything without a little vioce in my head pointing out all of the things it supports or pressumes that are completely against my beliefs. Luckily that vioce isn't loud enough to actually ruin my enjoyment of whatever it is I happen to be doing...
5. The fact that I know several people with relatives in the hospital and in really bad shape... I've been holding them in my heart, and hoping for all the best.
6. The fact that EVERY single photo I've posted on my 365 photo blog is a close-up shot. Every one.
7. My dad's sweet harmonica playing.
   
8. That I should finally get around to actually learning at least one of the instruments that I want to learn
9. How encouraging it is to stumble across cool unschooling blogs, especially when the people writing them are just setting out on their unschooling adventures! It positively delights me that a whole new generation is growing up unschooled. :-)
10. The really exciting/scary unschooling editor job I may be taking on at the homeschooling magazine I write for... More on that possible project coming soon!
11. How wonderful it is that I've found so many awesome online friends. *Waves at awesome people!*
12. How much I love music.
13. How much I hate advertising, propaganda, and traditional education, especially when all three are combined.
14. How beautiful, and strange, eyes are close-up.
15. How beautiful songs, and voices, and light, and sparkles, and eyes, and emotions, and sweet looks are.

Peace,
Idzie

Loose Lips

My sister and I have decided to learn the song Loose Lips from the Juno soundtrack.



Wish us luck!

Peace,
Idzie

RISE AGAINST

So, I don't even know if I've mentioned it previously on this blog, although I've certainly thought a lot about it, but about a month ago I bought tickets to a show by one of my ABSOLUTE favorite bands, and that is, of course, Rise Against. Well, last night was the concert. And it was great. I love that band soooo much. Their message, the fact that they're all vegetarians, and most importantly (of course) their music. The passion, enthusiasm, and energy I get from it is just amazing. I was really excited seeing them live, with my sister and our friends Nick and Tim, and of course we watched from the floor (this is only the second concert I've been too, and I was on the floor for both. I can't help but think you'd miss out by sitting in the stands). Traffic was AWFUL getting there, so we missed the first opening band, but the second opening act, Thursday, wasn't bad. I didn't really like the singers voice, but the music was cool. Rise Against supports PETA (I don't like PETA but I figure the band has good intentions by supporting them) so during the break before RA came on, Nick and I wandered over to their table, signed a petition requesting all meat be labeled with it's environmental impact, and got these awesome Meat's Not Green buttons. I was so shocked when Nick said he wanted to go vegetarian, his parents just won't let him! When I think of what he was like when I first met him, I can see his opinions have changed so much! We've certainly dragged him away from the mainstream (MWUAHAHA). Anyway, when Rise Against finally came on, the crowd went wild! And I was thrilled that they opened with one of my favorite songs, Drones, and played nearly all of my favorites by them. The only complaints I have, and the first one is pretty major, is that the volume ratio between voice and instruments was off. I could hardly hear his voice at times! Another thing that wasn't so great was getting shoved by a couple dozen people as they pushed through the crowd (can't you just find a spot and stick with it, dammit!) and getting stuck with an extremely drunk guy beside me, who bashed into me multiple times. Luckily, Nick was kind and took that spot, then the guy went away, most likely to find more beer. But back on topic, I'm really glad I went. Crowd enthusiasm was great. At one point Tim (lead singer) had everyone chant RISE while pumping their fists in the air (I don't remember if it was Nick or Emi who called it a communist moment, but both agreed it was really cool :-P), when the crowd was urged to sing certain bits themselves, everyone sung loud and clear, and for Hero of War, a very sad folksy anti-war song, the whole crown sung along to the entire song. It was beautiful. As always seems to happen with things, it was over too soon. When we were talking about it afterward, I was saying to Emi how the crowd seemed more enthusiastic here then for the Linkin Park concert we went to last year, and she disagreed. We finally realized that the difference was that for Linkin Park, the crowd liked the music. They got exited for certain songs, but weren't great for crowd participation. Whereas for Rise Against, the crowd loved THEM as a band, and loved their very political message.

We were supposed to get picked up by my mom at 11:00, but the concert ended a bit before 10:30, so we called to let her know then wandered off to find a warm place that served food. Sadly, the concert was at a university building, surrounded by other university building, and lots of residential streets beyond that, so finding anywhere to go took lots of walking (in what felt like at least -15c, with lots of ice on the sidewalks, and snow). We discovered that Subway closes early, much to our unhappiness, and the only open coffee shop we saw was packed. We finally bought some food from a grocery store and then headed back to the coffee shop, which had thankfully become less crowded. I should mention why my mom hadn't arrived at this point, and the reason she hadn't was traffic. How can there be awful traffic at past 11:00 at night? She finally arrived at a bit past 11:30, with hot chocolate and chai waiting in the car (I love my mom!), which made our cold selves happy. I was saying later on to Emi how awful it must be to be homeless. Spending an hour outside in the Winter, finding anyplace warm we can to stay, getting suspicious look when we try and hang out in the warm grocery store... Can you imagine knowing that no one was coming to get you?? O_o Emi and I both agreed it made us want to donate large amounts of money to homeless shelters.

I think I've rambled on enough now. Since no camera's were allowed at the concert, I'll leave you with these photo's taken off of Rise Against's website.

Peace,
Idzie

Several things of note...

The poll that has been open for what feels like forever has now ended! The results are as follows:

Vegetarian	11 (33%)
Vegan	5 (15%)
Small amount of meat	8 (24%)
Meat lover	9 (27%)

Erm, actually, I voted twice by accident (I figured it was OK to vote once, because really, I proofread my blog so that counts as being a reader of this blog, right?). It glitched and said I hadn't voted but after I voted again I was like 'wait a minute...?' Anyway, moving on.

In blogger buzz they talked about the iLike gadget, and since I already have it on Facebook and like it, I decided I'd add a playlist to my blog as well! So you can now listen to clips of my favorite songs if you so wish. :-)

Something else I should probably make my readers aware of is that I'm no longer vegan. I had a war with myself, trying to decide if I should wait out the entire month as I'd originally planned, or go back to being vegetarian after only two weeks since I'd decided I didn't want to stay vegan. Finally, the lure of cheese made up my mind! So I'm now back to being vegetarian, but I'm no longer drinking straight milk (even after adding a tiny bit of milk to my water and hot chocolate powder I felt sick), and no longer eating eggs. I am eating baked goods tht contain milk and/or eggs, and I'm also (as I may have mentioned earlier) eating CHEESE! I love cheese. :-)

I'm now off to a friends house. I don't think I've posted pictures in a while, so I'll try and get that done soon...

Peace,
Idzie

So, to sum it up...

Several days, no post. Oops. I don't really want to do a post for every day, so instead I'll just make a random list of things I did in the last few days:

• Wrote the reviews that were due for the magazine I write for
• Discussed (online and with friends and family) anarcho-primitivism and direct action
• Discussed (online) education, the educational system, and how it could be improved, with an education specialist
• Watched a fascinating video of a lecture by this anarcho-primitivism guy called Derrick Jensen, who's books I am now reading (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=derrick+jensen&sitesearch=#)
  
• Listened to lots of music with tin whistles in it
• Found out where to buy tin whistles and made plans to get one
• Sat and soaked up the beautiful outdoors
• Took a series of photo's of a spider in it's web
• Watched lots of stuff from the Olympics
• Greeted a friend who just returned home
• Went for brisk (and pretty long!) walks two days in a row
• Wrote a poem, which can be found at my poetry blog www.art-is-expressions.blogspot.com
• Pulled a million burs off of the stupid dog
• Danced around excitedly
  

So, a pretty good week. I'm still super exited about life in general, I'm still uber exited about camp, and that's about all I feel is important to say right now!

Music, lovely music

Later last night I decided I was hungry, having eaten a very late lunch and skipped supper, so I made myself some noodles vegetables and tofu in oriental peanut sauce. Next time I make that I'll have to actually measure and post the recipe here...

Today, I discovered some amazing new music. Dear Mr. President by Jason Fisher made me very sad. I listened to it about 5 times though, because it is also very moving, and very pretty. I also really liked Witness by Ember Swift. If you're interested in listening to either of those songs (or a whole bunch of other ones) in full for free, check out this link http://www.vegnews.com/music/. Oh, and all those musical selections are from the July/August issue of Veg News. I finished reading the articles I hadn't gotten to previously, and found myself once again energized and ready to make a difference in the world. I'd advise checking it out, perhaps it can do the same thing for you...

I wrote a new poem today. Quite possibly the most difficult to understand poem I've ever written (at least according to my mom. When I finished it she was the only one around, so I've yet to get other opinions...). Here it is...


Hope is a powerful word

How can you describe
The spirit of an open night
The shadow on the wings of flight

To feel your mind
The taste of summer on your tongue
A glittering expanse of icy tears

Ten thousand souls in laughing song

To smiling relate
A shattered window held by will
An only tree that's growing still

To try-

Yet you can't describe.

The deepest whole
An endless soul

Of night and light and windy skies
Of death and life and hands-held-high

We simply know

With tears of gladness filling
Cupped hands
And hollow hearts


If you would like to read some of my other poems (it would make me very happy if you did. Even happier if you left a comment or two. :-P), check out my poetry blog at: www.art-is-expressions.blogspot.com.

I wrote the start of another poem, but decided I didn't like it so stopped.

Tomorrow, when I'm hopefully more awake, I'm going to write a letter of protest to CBC. I find it disgusting that on one program, they talk about better animal rights laws (Fifth Estate is re-airing an older episode on the abuse of animals in entertainment) yet they air the Calgary Stampede every year, where the animals are hurt and their lives put in danger for the entertainment of the masses. I only wish our culture was evolved enough to no longer find entertainment in something that causes pain to others... Well, that's enough for now.

Listening to today: Witness by Ember Swift, Dear Mr. President by Jason Fisher, Tongue Tied by Faber Drive

Reading: Veg News

Fun with 'environmental studies'

My mother brought home a very interesting magazine today. On finding Veg News at the health food store, she was sure I would enjoy it! And I have. I've been a vegetarian for nine years and counting, having decided I would no longer eat meat at age six (except for hot dogs and chicken nuggets), and having been completely vegetarian since age eight. With magazine in hand, I sat outside in the sunlight reading about animal cruelty, health problems associated with the consumption of meat, and most worrying of all the environmental impact of the meat and dairy industry. The animal-agriculture industry puts out more green house gas emissions than ALL of the cars, trucks, trains and airplanes in the ENTIRE world. That's a ridiculous price to pay for a burger. All was not so heavy reading, however. I also enjoyed the section on vegetarian musicians, listing people from many obscure bands, but also quite a few more well known ones (Death Cab For Cutie, Black Sabbath, Fall Out Boy). I now have lots of cool sounding bands to look up. Yay! Along with just reading Veg Times, I also had an extensive conversation with my mom on the environment and how we can help to protect it, the deplorable animal cruelty that is a regular part of our mass production food system, activism, and how people who are activists or concerned with one of these problems, are usually also concerned with helping society as a whole. Being strong proponents of social freedom and global responsibility as well as working for animal rights etc. I'm going to try very hard to lead a responsible life in every way, and not to add any more nasty stuff to our world if I can possibly avoid it. The more I learn, the more I'm convinced that everyone must change their lifestyles considerably if we wish to survive as a species. On that note, I decided recently that I want to get involved in some form of activism, to try and help change things for the better.

After reading for a while, I happened to step into the backyard, just to find that things had gotten beautifully wild since I last explored it! Here are a few pictures I took that show just how much of a jungle it is back there...

The jungle between my shed and house.

I have no clue what this plant is, but it sure did grow tall!

A field of mint...

Our gorgeous grape vine.

The plants are taking over the compost bin!



After photography and supper, I walked down to the dock with some local friends, hung around at one of their houses for a bit, then headed home. I think I'll make tomorrow more interesting...

Listening to today: I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry, Land Of Confusion cover by Disturbed

Reading: Veg Times August 2008 issue