Podcasts

The last few weeks, I've been looking around for something more interesting to listen to on my iPod, during my daily commute. (You'd think with 4,500+ songs in my iTunes library, I'd have enough music for a lifetime...but no.)

So I decided to do a little searching one evening, to see what's available out there in terms of podcasting. And was I ever in for a treat. So far, I've downloaded several weeks' worth of listening from the CBC, the British Library, and some of my favourite museums (the V&A, the British Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, which I hope to be visiting soon).

The exciting thing is, I know I've barely even scratched the surface. There's all kinds of amazing stuff out there, it seems.

Gordon Lightfoot

For the first time since 1990, Gordon Lightfoot is touring Atlantic Canada! Woohoo! Tonight I bought tickets for his show in Halifax on the 12th of May.

I've always really liked Lightfoot, and there's no doubt he's a bit of legend. I felt we should take advantage of the opportunity to go see him - after all, the man's 68 years old. Surely he won't tour forever.

Atlantic News

Went downtown yesterday and had a wander around the shops - you know, like I used to have time to do, before I started working two jobs. Anyway, I finally made it down to Atlantic News, the best newsstand in the city. I have not set foot in there for years (i.e. since 1995 or thereabouts). I have no idea why. And it's a grave oversight, because that place is excellent.

Massive selection of newspapers, they have - I see they get the Sunday New York Times in store by Sunday evenings, usually. Must look into that. But I contented myself yesterday with a copy of last Saturday's Guardian from the UK. And not that crappy international version, either - but the real, domestic version. Joy! The Guardian is one of the few papers that can be accessed online for free, but there's something to be said for holding a real newspaper in your hands.

The other fabulous thing I found at Atlantic News is that they import and carry BBC Homes & Antiques, one of my favourite magazines. Yay! I love that magazine so much - I even packed up my back issues and brought them home from Ireland with me, just for reference purposes. At $10.95 per issue (ouch), I think it will be an occasional treat rather than a regular monthly purchase, as it used to be - but great to know it's there, at least.

Pan's Labyrinth

Saw Pan's Labyrinth on Saturday night. Wonderful stuff! I must admit, I was attracted mainly by the fantasy aspect of the storyline - but I found the 'real' story (set during the early days of Franco's Fascist regime in 1940s Spain) to be just as compelling.

A dark film, with a noble heart. Definitely not one for the kiddies - but I'm sure that won't stop some nitwits from taking their children to see it. The scenes with that horrible child-eating monster, with eyeballs in the palms of its hands??!? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... *hides*

Pretty

I absolutely love receiving flowers - and this beautiful arrangement was just delivered to the house about an hour ago. Lucky me! :-)


(And no, they are not from my husband - they're from my best friend. ;-P )

EDIT: I spoke too soon. A. arrived home from work earlier bearing a lovely potted orchid. When it rains, it pours...

Bringing High Culture to the Masses

Yesterday, I came across this photo online. I don't know who took it or where it came from - all I know is that it's one of the funniest things I've seen in quite a while. And now, Dear Readers, I share it with you.

Business Lunch

This being International Development Week, as declared by the Canadian International Development Agency, we've been organizing various promotional activities at work, and attending events put on by other development organizations here in the city.

Today, one of my work colleagues and I got to attend a luncheon at one of the hotels downtown. I don't often get included in invitations to these sort of events, so it made for a nice change. It ended up being really interesting - the theme of this year's IDW is gender equality, so there were three guest speakers at the luncheon, all of whom were really interesting. There was a woman from the Caribbean, who works as a legal advocate and talked about issues of domestic violence and female poverty there. Next, the Vice-President of CIDA's Americas Branch (who is visiting Halifax from Ottawa this week) gave a presentation on what Canada is doing in South/Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly when it comes to aiding poor women. The last speaker was the best, however - a Guatemalan woman now based here, who talked about gender inequality in Latin America and where foreign governmental aid agencies are falling down in their efforts - made for a useful counterpoint to the official spiel of the CIDA VP.

There were three pieces of important, sobering information I learned today that stuck with me. I thought I'd better blog about them before I forget about them:

1. Studies in Brazil have shown conclusively that women who attend primary school for as little as three years have on average three children, nearly all of whom go on to undertake at least a little primary schooling of their own. In contrast, Brazilian women with no primary schooling have on average six children, nearly all of whom end up illiterate themselves and work from a very young age. Astonishing how even a taste of education goes a long way towards empowering the poor.

2. More women around the world die each year as a result of rape and domestic violence, than are killed by breast cancer, cervical cancer, motor vehicle and work accidents and warfare combined.

3. Women perform two-thirds of the world's labour and produce half the world's food, yet earn only 10% of global income and own less than 1% of the world's land.

Basement: The Final Frontier

This has been such a busy weekend. I had Friday off work, but spent much of the day doing teaching-related stuff. And yesterday, A. and I tackled the basement of the house.

Our basement really is the last frontier - part of it has never really been set up properly. The TV room/zoo/laundry end of things is in good order now. But the study end has been a mess for ages, with multiple bookshelves, A.'s desk and computer, and boxes / piles of paper everywhere. To wit:

BEFORE: Freakin' Disaster Area

We decided that we wanted to move the furniture around a bit, and also put out a large area rug we'd inherited from my in-laws, since that area gets quite chilly in the winter. It was a mammoth task, as we had to take hundreds of books off shelves, then move the bookcases around (as well as the desk). But the end result looks much better.

AFTER: Organisation!

Mind you, A. still has plenty of boxes to unpack, and the piles of paper haven't disappeared. But at least now he's got somewhere to put all that stuff. And perhaps the nicest thing is that when you come down the stairs to the basement now, the first thing you see is a row of orderly bookshelves - not a big messy desk. And that's a good thing, for my mental and aesthetic health!

The Love List

Last night was our first Neptune night of 2007 - and was I ever in need of a break. Very funny play called The Love List, written by a New Brunswick playwright called Norm Foster. Neptune doesn't often stage riotous comedies, so it made for a great change. At one point, near the end of the first act, one of the actors ended up doing a little improvisation and both the audience and the other guy on stage were laughing so hard that we had to applaud, to give them a moment to pull themselves together. ;-)

Before the show, we had dinner at Sweet Basil Bistro. I have only been there once before - some twelve years ago! I don't know why it took me so long to go back - I hadn't realised it's owned by the Scanway catering folks. As a result, it was very good - delicious food, and a lovely, cosy dining room. We'll definitely be going back there again.