January is beginning to feel like the shortest month. Already she is one week down and I still have things from the previous year left unattended and undone. I have not made resolutions and I have not begun with a clean slate and organised cupboards.
I have, however, indulged (or rather, continued to indulge) in seeing the odd movie in the mid morning, from the pastel splendor, and very little else, of Marie Antoinette to Babel, seen this morning. My journey to Versailles could not come close to my recent experiences in Morocco, Mexico and Tokyo. My head is still spinning with thoughts, and visual memories hang in my mind, set to a film score of Mexican music. I have crossed the border between the U.S. and Mexico with Gael Garcia Bernal and Aunt Amelia. I can still feel the crowds in Tokyo and recall the hum of all that energy, all those lights... all those people. I have yet to take it all in, at the moment they are all sitting close to the surface of my skin waiting to sink further in. With a lump in my throat and a glass ring from my Mum on my finger, I cannot think of a better way to start the day than in a darkened cinema with two or three other like souls.
The ring on my finger is a large, clear glass rock, cut as if it were a precious and valuable diamond. My Mum wore it on her finger as she headed into Mexico by crowded bus, with my Dad, in the early 70's. A small boy mistook it for a diamond, and my Dad bought a pale pink suit, the pants of which he later dyed upon returning to the greyer skies of Melbourne.
I've yet to go to Mexico, and as January lies largely unattended and somewhat overgrown with weeds, I realise that I'm probably going to travel no further than 50 kms from my front door in the next three weeks. So, to appease my travel longings, I head to Istanbul via an increasingly dog-eared paperback and enter the dark woods with a Russian speaking hedgehog as my guide. (If anyone knows what the bear is saying, towards the end, I'd love to know.)
Yezhik v tumane... new terrain to explore, a beautiful short film unearthed by Alyssa and sent my way. Enjoy! (Thanks again, Alyssa. Oh, and you can download the soundtrack here.)
And finally, some new collages for a new week...
The Coney - The Conies are a feedable folk, yet make their houses in the rocks.
(From The Weekly Times supplement, March 31, 1934.)
King Penguins - The Emperor stands about 3 feet in height.
(From The Weekly Times supplement, July 28, 1934.)
A Spotted-tailed Tiger-cat - Always the Tiger-cat faces its foe.
(From The Weekly Times supplement, December 10, 1932.)
More wild nature with gem stones to come... in the meantime, meet this little one.
See you at the Tea Party!
