The work of French artist Fabien Morello, 35, involves creative combinations of dreams, experiences, and his early childhood imagination. He blurs the line between reality and fiction. Mérelle’s complex works are small and he pays close attention to detail, two qualities that can be seen in this particular work, entitled Pentateuque. The piece is a whimsical sculpture that depicts a man, balancing the weight of an elephant on his back. It is made out of resin, paint, hair and fabric, and stands only 30 x 27 x 12 inches. The three dimensional form is a replica of the artist’s original Pentateuch 2010 ink drawing, both of which visually interpret the phrase “carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
You can find “Valley of Love” (2016) playing on Netflix. The cinematography of Death Valley – Wow.
Manohla Dargis, in her excellent NY Times Review of “Valley of Love“, closes her review with this statement: “This movie is finally only about Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu, and that’s enough.”
Of life are woven woes
the days dissolve to live a bit
a lot!
dissolve.
—Anne-Marie Alonzo, from “Lead Blues,” Voices in the Desert: The Anthology of Arabic-Canadian Women Writers
Anne-Marie Alonzo is a Quebec poet, translator, literary critic and editor who made a major contribution to the culture of Canada despite her severe physical disabilities. Alonzo was born in Alexandria Egypt in 1951 and came to Quebec with her family in 1963. In 1966 she was the victim of a car accident which left her quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair. She earned a B.A. in 1976, an M.A. in 1978 and a Ph.D. in French studies in 1989 from the Université de Montréal.
“This is an uplifting story of one of those chance encounters that can radically change the course of someone’s life. Germain is a large and almost illiterate man in his fifties. He is unmarried and still lives with his mother with whom he has a fractious relationship. Margueritte is a tiny, elderly woman with a passion for the written word. There’s 40 years and 200 pounds’ difference between them and only one thing in common, a shared fondness for pigeons. When Germain happens to sit beside her on a park bench and Margueritte reads extracts from her novels to him, an unlikely and unexpected friendship develops. Under Margueritte’s tutelage, Germain discovers a love of literature and with it, a wisdom which confounds his friends at the bistro who have always treated him like an idiot. As Margueritte begins to lose her eyesight, Germain sees an opportunity to use his love for this sweet and mischievous grandma to improve both his own life and hers.”
Not always are love stories just made of love. Sometimes love is not named but it’s love just the same. This is not a typical love affair I met her on a bench in my local square. She made a little stir, tiny like a bird with her gentle feathers. She was surrounded by words, some as common as myself. She gave me books, two or three. Their pages have come alive for me. Don’t die now, you’ve still got time, just wait It’s not the hour, my little flower. Give me some more of you. More of the life in you.
If you have a passion for reading and books, you’ll enjoy this movie. A slow, gentle, feels-like-Disney-for-adults, fits-on-Sunday movie. French with English subtitles. Can be found on Amazon Instant Video for $2.99.
LOVED THIS! Don’t pull up early on this video. Take it to the finish line. (Un Cygene La Nuit = A Swan At Night).
Yes. Yes. Yes. I agree. She stopped me in my tracks:
Every now and then a singer comes along with such an unusual approach to her voice that the Canadian folk scene stops in its tracks to make space for something they didn’t know they were missing. Darkly theatrical and deep-voiced, Toronto-raised, Montreal- and Paris-based trilingual (English, French and Spanish) singer Alejandra Ribera is such a performer. (Source: nowtoronto.com)
A bit of Edit Piaf. A bit of Tom Waits. A bit of Joan Armatrading:
Ribera was born to an Argentine waiter and a Scottish actress and raised in Toronto. Her wildly bizarre vocal range and eclectic writing style have led to comparisons stretching from Edith Piaf to Tom Waits to Joan Armatrading. Growing up, Alejandra studied violin, viola and classical choral music. As a teenager her habit of sneaking into cabaret bars and her obsession with greats such as Mercedes Sosa, Odetta and Jimmy Scott began to shape the distinctly unique vocal style she would later apply to her own compositions. After abandoning York University’s Vocal Jazz program after only four days, she headed off to Europe to study energy healing. “Yeah, I dropped out of school to study with a witch doctor in the mountains of Slovakia … it seemed like a good idea at the time… ” she chuckles, “but this is where it lead me, so I think it was an important detour.” Unable to deny the call of music she returned to Canada, this time to build her career as a gifted singer/songwriter. (Source: alejandraribera.com)
Alejandra Ribera’s new album released February 4, 2014: La boca (Canadian store). Her previous album Navigator, Navigateher can be found here.
Live & Learn 