There’s a beauty we can’t deny in creations from the old masters. I remember seeing an exhibit of some of Anton van Wouw’s statues in the art gallery in Joubert Park once, and being deeply touched. Especially ‘Sleeping Basuto’ had me mesmerised, expecting that at any moment the bust would move.
He’s better known for his statues that grace famous monuments in South Africa, and I can’t find an image of Sleeping Basuto to show you. I also find that in photos the dynamism of his sculptures is lost. You just can’t understand how alive they are unless you see them in the flesh. And not the bigger, more famous ones, the smaller, more detailed works.
I was reminded of that long-ago visit to the art gallery when I saw these photos. The feeling of stepping into a fold in time, a different reality from the one waiting outside, when I entered the room where Anton van Wouw’s work was on display. The art is different altogether, and yet, there is that same feeling, of stepping out of the here and now and getting a glimpse, just for a moment, of something that little bit off the track of our consciousness.
Micky and I don’t really make a big deal out of our anniversaries. In fact, our first anniversary is an event I will never live down: I forgot it. It was a Sunday, and we did our usual thing at the time of reading the papers together and just chilling out. He kept peering at me in an odd way, but I didn’t pay much attention. Around lunchtime he says: “I bought us some chocolates.”
“Oh,” says I, “why?”
In keeping with that tradition, we remembered around ten of the morning of our fourteenth anniversary, 29 September 2009, that the day was significant. Our children were delighted when we mentioned it to them. The youngest, aged eight, trudged off to the corner shop and came back, beaming, clutching a white paper bag. “I got you a present for your anniversary.”
When we opened it, we were truly delighted to find what was inside:
Our fourteenth anniversary present from our 8yo son
This is one of those times when you just can’t find the words, you just can’t think of a way to express strongly enough what you feel.
Fiona Pilkington was harrassed for years by children who are probably immune from being punished for their cruelty becaaose of their age. Yet younger and younger children are capalbe of more and more terrible crimes these days, it seems. In the end, after being ignored or dismissed by police again and again, she killed her disabled daughter, then herself.
What really upsets me, is that a brother of one of the boys found to be responsible for driving this woman to her death, has the audatcity to defend him. “People are calling him a rat. He’s not a rat.”
Well, young man, after reading details of what your brother and his cronies put this poor woman and her children through, I think rat is too nice a word for you.
It makes me sickest that these people are probably protesting loudly that they didn’t kill this woman and her child. To which I’ll respond: have you ever seen a pack of dogs take down a buffalo? They surround the animal, all of them attacking it with little bites, repeatedly, on and on until all the little bites combined make this huge beast bleed to death.
Were any of the dogs individually responsible for killing the buffalo? Why, of course not.
I think we must all realise we have greater power over those around us than perhaps we think. Our little actions, nastily repeated again and again with our victims helpless to put a finger on the culprit, can in the end leave more blood on our hands than we’d perhaps anticipated, or even intended.
No, my friend, your brother is not a rat. He’s one of a pack of wild dogs. Just more despicable, I’d say.
I never knew this, but there are some animals who have their genitals on their foreheads. Sorry, make that their retractable genitals. Now, as a romance writer, I immediately think about those very popular characters in paranormal love stories: ’shifters’, people who can take on all kinds of different animal forms. Somehow, I don’t see a book featuring a chimaera shifter hitting the bestseller lists any time soon.
Heather Massey’s post over at Galaxy Express, about cliches in science fiction, made me remember a wonderful thing I haven’t read recently called Pete’s Evil Overlord List. These lists are even more hilarious because they’re so true.
The most excellent Mitchell & Webb have also…shall we say ‘explored’ this issue. Please go empty your bladder and don’t drink anything while you’re watching this, as either your chair or your keyboard will end up with liquid all over it.
Hunnies, admit it: we do so love those heroes on the big and little screens. Yet so often they turn out to be cads in real life. It doesn’t help us to keep our feet on the ground if the hot bastard turns out to be as to-die-for in real life as on the screen.
Case in point is Nick Knowles, it seems. He presents a DIY show, and though he’s no Brad Pitt, he has that rough and ready kind of teddy bear attractiveness spiced with humour. And he can fix your tap if it’s leaky. He helped rescue a woman and her baby from their upturned car. Awwww….
Was he trying to kill all of us with oh-my-god-perfect-man overload or something?!
Jokes aside, there are many hunks about, but the ones I really admire are those who show a good heart and a desire to do the right thing between the tabloid lines. When Russell Crowe recently got into trouble for throwing a phone at someone, all I could picture was a man far from home, probably exhausted, unable to get through to the woman he loves. Maybe he was just being an arsehole, but I prefer thinking otherwise, but I prefer thinking otherwise.
They’re endless fun, and make every task you do something less boring – if they’re awake, that is. Of course I’m also a devotee of icanhascheezburger.com, where today’s gem is…
We’re spoiled, really, in modern times, with an abundance of stunning photographs showing us things we have little hope of seeing ourselves. We often don’t really think of what a privilege it is to see these images, and what goes into capturing them.
Have a look here and here. It’s worth it, I think.
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