Thursday Thirteen - 141 - 13 Views of 2009 at A Piece of My Mind

Colleen at Loose Leaf Notes took a look back at her blog through 2009 last week - and I so enjoyed her post, I decided to borrow her format for my own blog this week.

Clicking on the month will take you to the entire post I've excerpted here.


1 - January 2009 - One of the things I'll be looking forward to is a new tradition I've begun with my two dads. Both of them passed away recently. When the first birthday for my dad rolled around on Dec. 29th, 2007 - the first without him - my husband and I were in Toronto. It's my intention to fill a day when my thoughts naturally turn to missing someone so very, very precious with something that brings me great joy. And so last Dec. 29th began My Date With My Dad - a glorious matinee watching my favorite ballet company with my Dad along with me, sharing my joy.


2 - February 2009 - Welcome to my Second Blogiversary Celebration! Come in. Find a seat. I've got a show planned that celebrates life as I love to live it. And I'm grateful to you, my blog readers and fellow bloggers, for sharing this life with me. First up is Gene Wilder singing Pure Imagination from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. My life just wouldn't be the same if it wasn't fueled by imagination.


3 - March 2009 - I got a good writing day in, which included some internet research on methods to treat cuts that my little laundry maid Helen would use in 1840's Van Diemen's Land. I settled upon tea, as it fit seamlessly with the preceding scene where three characters have a rather surreal tea party. And I realized all the information I just gathered would make a fabulous post for my Blog Improvement Project. Et voila! The Common Tea Bag and Its Uncommon Usefulness in First Aid.


4 - April 2009 - For my second interview here at A Piece of My Mind, I've got Thomma Lyn Grindstaff joining me from her home in East Tennessee in the United States. A big Down East welcome, Thomma Lyn from me here on Canada's east coast.

Question - Your novel Mirror Blue releases May 1st. Will you be doing anything special on that day?

Answer - I'd thought of having a Virtual Book Release party on that day, but my hubby and I are planning a celebratory hike on the mountain!




5 - May 2009 - I've got a busy weekend. Tonight, after an extremely challenging week at work, I had a dress rehearsal for tomorrow's choir concert. Tomorrow morning I'll be hopping on the bus and heading for Spring Garden Road, to have an afternoon at the ballet - La Bayadere. After the ballet, it's hurry-scurry home, get changed and drive my husband and me to my choir concert, where he'll watch from the audience.


6 - June 2009 - For Summer Stock Sunday, I've got my lovely peonies which I transported from their original home in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia when we moved to Cole Harbour eight years ago. As we packed up the house to move to Cole Harbour, I made one final walk-around to make sure we had everything. I looked at the garden to make my goodbye - and realized I hadn't dug up the peony plant. I grabbed a broken, jagged broom handle from the trash and started digging madly for the peony bulbs. I plunged my hands into the earth and felt around until I could grasp the tubers. I yanked as hard as I could until a few broke free and came to the surface. I threw them in a box with some dirt and we slipped them onto the back of the truck.


7 - July 2009 - If you're anything like me, the idea that 39 tall ships will sail into my home port of Halifax Harbour is enough to send you into paroxysms of joy. I have always been attracted to these majestic ladies of the sea for as long as I can remember. So when the first Tall Ships Festival arrived here 25 years ago in the summer of 1984, my sister and I went down to the transformed waterfront filled with awe, our necks cricked up to stare at the forest of masts, the elaborate rigging, to see the faces of sailors from all over the world and hear languages spoken we'd only heard in movies.

We didn't know that we were walking towards the most incredible summer of our lives - the Summer of My Sister's Russian Sailor.


8 - August 2009 - I've been a form of weather vane for several decades, a sort of Doppler radar as far as the weather was concerned. I've felt an oncoming low pressure system, even when it was a few days away. The really bad storms are just giant low pressure systems, and my degree of pain was unrelenting for up to 10 days at a time.

For some reason earlier this year, I began thinking to myself: I resign from my weather vane job. The Weather Network can do it.

I started acupuncture for my migraines in June. There's another big storm coming up along the eastern seaboard toward Nova Scotia this weekend. Tropical Storm Danny. I first heard about it on the news in the middle of the week. I stared at the TV screen in confusion. Whenever a storm system appears on the weather report, I'm already feeling it. But this was actual news to me.


9 - September 2009 - I'm currently reading Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer for the Dewey Reading Challenge. The writing is so exceptional that I could craft found poems from every single page in this 382-page book. Here is one little nugget.

Terribly Lucky

By her twelfth birthday
My great-great-great-great-great-grandmother
Had received at least one
Proposal of marriage
From every citizen in Trachimbrod

She forced a blush
Batted her long eyelashes
Said to each, Perhaps no
Yankel says I am still too young

They are so silly, turning back to Yankel


10 - October 2009 - A few weeks ago I didn't even know who Eugene Hutz was. But I'm reading Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer for a reading challenge, and even though I hadn't finished the book I asked my husband to bring home the DVD of the film adaptation from Blockbuster, where he works. Playing the Ukrainian translater for New York-Jewish Jonathan was Eugene Hutz, turning in a remarkable performance for a non-actor. Now I'm quite obsessed with him.

I started thinking about Eugene's charismatic hold over women. I believe it's his Unattainable Man persona. Who could be more unattainable than a part-Gypsy globetrotter whose undying passion is Music?


11 - November 2009 - Whistleblower diplomat 'Richard Colvin sent senior Canadian officials no fewer than 17 messages in 2006 and 2007 warning that Afghan interrogators used torture as 'standard operating procedure,' that Canadian troops were handing over 'a lot of innocent people,' and that could make them complicit in war crimes. He also copied more than 70 people.' (Toronto Star)

'I find it insulting to listen to the governing party in Canada trying to discredit someone who is standing up for the Canadian sense of human justice.' (Rod Sarty, letter to the editor, Chronicle Herald)


12 - December 2009 - 13 Things That Kept Me Going During NaNoWriMo:

Stewie Griffin ('Victory is mine!')
Gogol Bordello - Forces of Victory ('I can't go on/I will go on')
My fellow bloggers who also did NaNo
My fellow Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada sisters who also did NaNo





13 - Since we don't have thirteen months in the year - although, think of all the stuff we could cross off of our collective lists if we did - here's an extra post that's a favorite of mine from 2009:

13 Reasons Why It's So Much Fun To Go To The Writers' Retreat

Poetry Train Monday - 130 - Christmas Wonder

December rings in the final month of my year-long found poetry challenge. It's really been amazing. It's altered the way I want to write poetry in the future.



For today's found poem, I've taken snippets of lyrics from everything we sang during my choir concert last night.















Christmas Wonder

All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice
I wondered as I wandered
Out under the sky

Let It Snow

Mary said to Joseph
So meek and so mild
Joseph, gather me some cherries
For I am with child

Gloria Tibi
Glory to Thee

'Twas in the moon of wintertime
When all the birds had fled
The weather outside was frightful
Each wild breast stiffened at remembered ice

Thula Sizwe
Hush nation

Hodie in terra canunt Angeli
Today on Earth the Angels sing
Go tell it on the mountain
Jesus the Saviour, come

That day is far away
This Christmas morn

Jesus, Jesus, rest your head
You have got a manger bed
The little Lord Jesus
Asleep on the hay

Ungabokala
Do not cry

It's the most wonderful time
Of the year
The stars in the bright sky
Looked down where He lay

Laetantur Archangeli
Archangels rejoice

Are the shadows deep and dark
As you sleep upon the hay?
Jesus the Saviour, come
For poor on'ry people like you and like I

Ujehova Wakho
Our God

I wondered as I wandered
Out under the sky
Constant was the love He gave her
Though He went forth from her side

Over the hills and everywhere

Forth to preach
To heal and suffer
The darkness that will fall
Though the sun is overhead

Gloria Tibi
Glory to Thee

That day is far away
O child upon the hay
Rejoice and sing
The stars look down

The fire is so delightful
Let It Snow

In the stable
I can see the shadows dark
In the moon of wintertime
That day is far away

Jesus the Saviour, come

Uzokunqobela
Will protect us
We'll tak a cup o'
Kindness yet

Do not cry

Mary gave us all her child
He went forth from her side
A donkey standing near
Like the one that you will ride

Through the cheering pilgrim throng

I wondered as I wandered
The stars in the bright sky
All the sagging orchards
Let It Snow


- American folk tune / Appalachian folk tune / Robbie Burns / Sammy Cahn / Paul Caldwell / Rachel Field / French Canadian folk tune / Langston Hughes / Sean Ivory / Richard Leach / Eddie Pola

I'll let The Women's Chorus of Dallas stand in for my choir - The Dartmouth Choral Society - so you can listen to our show-stopper, Hope For Resolution. For more poetry, Ride the Poetry Train!



Susan Helene Gottfried says I'm going to miss the found poems when 2010 begins.

Kim Richardson says Just beautiful, Julia!

Akelamalu says Lovely Julia :)

Poetry Train Monday - 125 - Something Told the Wild Geese

I'm making a slight detour from my all-found-poetry-all-the-time for today's Poetry Train.

These lyrics are in a piece my choir will be singing in concert in a few weeks. The first time we rehearsed it I was struck by the beauty of the words. Then I realized that the piece is in fact a poem set to music.















Something Told the Wild Geese


Something told the wild geese
It was time to go,
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered, "snow."

Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,
But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned, "frost."

All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice,
But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly,
Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.

- Rachel Field

Here's a version I found on YouTube by a children's choir - enjoy!



For more poetry, Ride the Poetry Train!















On Nov. 5th I'm taking part in the Blogblast For Peace. Won't you join me?


"Goals are dreams with deadlines."

- Diana Scharf Hunt

Busy, Busy, Busy

I've got a busy weekend.

Tonight, after an extremely challenging week at work, I had a dress rehearsal for tomorrow's choir concert. It went the way dress rehearsals generally should go - not so super fabulous that we won't be paying close attention to all the spots that sounded shaky tonight. It's a strange-but-true thing - a really great dress rehearsal usually results in a flat performance.

Tomorrow morning I'll be hopping on the bus and heading for Spring Garden Road, to have an afternoon at the ballet courtesy of Empire Theatres and Opus Arte Ballet in HD.

I've had this picture as my screen saver at work all month, waiting until tomorrow:










It's the Kingdom of the Shades sequence from La Bayadere, where the entire corps shows us what its made of.

"The shades (usually thirty two of them) enter down a zigzag ramp coming down the back of the stage. They take two steps into an arabesque in plié, then two steps to pose in tendue derriere (the pose shown.) This short phrase of movement brings all of the shades on stage in single file. They zigzag down the ramp, then continue down the stage. The lead dancer has to repeat the phrase an incredible number of times, with the same leg every time." - Ballet Encyclopedia

"Like a patient drillmaster, original choreographer Marius Petipa opens the piece with a single, two-phrase theme in adagio tempo, repeated over and over until all the dancers have filed onto the stage. Petipa gives it a long time to creep under our skins. The choreography is considered to be the first expression of grand scale symphonism in dance. The subject of The Kingdom of the Shades is not really death, although everybody in this scene except the hero is dead. It's Elysian bliss, and its setting is eternity. The long slow repeated-arabesque sequence creates the impression of a grand crescendo that seems to annihilate all time." - Wikipedia















Ooo! I can't wait! Especially since Cuban wonder Carlos Acosta will be dancing, as well as Marianela Nuñez and Tamara Rojo.











After the ballet, it's hurry-scurry home, get changed and drive my husband and me to my choir concert, where he'll watch from the audience.














This was taken at the last concert in February, by my cousin's wife, Heather. Saturday's performance starts at 7:30 at Grace United Church, 70 King Street, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

And then Sunday I'll head out to have lunch with the writers, and afterwards I'll be giving the workshop at our monthly Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada meeting. It's called A Date With Creativity.

So what are you up to this weekend?









Nikki says Hey! I hope your choir concert goes really well! Hope you enjoy the Ballet too!

Akelamalu says Wow Julia, you have got a busy weekend ahead and an exciting one to boot!

Dorte H says Good luck to you with concert and everything - and remember to take care of yourself.

Tagged - I'm It! - 4

I just got tagged by Christine for an 8 Random Things Meme.

Here are the rules:
A. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.
B. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Here goes:

1 - When I was jockeying to finish my fourth year film at Ryerson, with a month to go, no more space available in the editing suites and absolutely zero funds left in my budget, my husband called around Toronto and discovered I could have an empty suite at the Film Board for a week. So I jumped at that magnificent chance, and got a lot done in that week, but was not finished by any means. As I packed up my trim bins (the carts with racks above to hold all the strips of 16mm film as you piece the rough cut together) a woman saw me and asked if I had anywhere else to finish up. I said no, my husband was in the process of looking for me. So she said I could use her suite overnight for as long as I needed, till my film was done. She was at that time working on a documentary for the NFB. Talk about Cinderella time!! She was my fairy godmother extraordinaire! Not only did she lend me her suite, she offered to look at my film and then offered suggestions till I got a third and more polished cut done. Such generosity. I'll never forget it, nor her - Miumi Jan.

2 - My first sale of my writing was for the narration and segue text for a documentary called "Tales of a Psychic Medium". This is an hour-long show done in 2003 for Canada's Vision network, about a Mi'kmaq psychic named Alan Hatfield. The program was narrated by Mi'kmaq elder Noel Knockwood, and I had to write in first person as if I was Noel. Considering I was explaining Mi'kmaq spiritual beliefs, that was rather daunting. But he agreed to speak everything I wrote, so that was a wonderful feeling!

3 - Part of the seasons of my life can be marked by spring and Christmas concerts, as I have always sung in choirs. My high school choir was very important to me - it holds a huge place in my life. I'm still very close to the friends I made there, and my first boyfriend was part of the choir, the Prince Andrew Chorus. I also sang with the Ryerson University choir, called the Oakham House Choir; the Yarmouth Community Chorale; and the Dartmouth Choral Society.

4 - I performed in plays and musicals throughout high school. My roles were:
Chorus/Adoring Girl - "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"
Miss Gossage (the English girls' school gym teacher) - "The Happiest Days of Our Lives"
Mabel (the factory secretary) - "The Pajama Game"
Amy Spettigue ( Victorian love interest for the college fellow ) - "Charley's Aunt"
Ado Annie (the girl who can't say no!) - "Oklahoma!"

5 - My uncle wrote and produced radio jingles when I was in junior high, and my cousin and I sang on two of them - "Atlantic Canada Plus" and "Farmer's Dairy". We went to the recording studio and got paid for our singing, which when you're 12 or so, feels awesome.

6 - I danced in the 1981 and 1984 Nova Scotia International Tattoos in Halifax with the Joseph Wallin Dancers. In 1981 we did a WWI number with the Charleston, the Black Bottom and the Cakewalk. I was also a German Doll in The Little Drummer Boy's Dream. In 1984 we did a 40's Big Band swing number and a Rockettes kickline.

7 - I directed two Nova Scotia Drama Festival entries (for high schools), "Box and Cox" in grade 11, and "The In Group" in grade 12. I discovered I LOVED directing while doing these plays.

8 - One afternoon when I lived in Toronto, I was looking up research books on the MetroCat computer, so I could have them brought down from the stacks at the resource library. I knew there was someone waiting for the computer, standing behind me. This is a given - there will never be a time that you're at the MetroCat and someone isn't waiting for it. So I finished writing up my request list, gathered up my stuff and turned to hand over the computer to the next person - Rick Mercer, from "This Hour Has 22 Minutes". Inside I'm "Wow! Rick Mercer!!" But outside I just continue on my way. I've got a strict don't-bug-the-celebrities-just-let-them-do-their-thing policy.

I'm not going to tag anyone, because I usually want to tag people who have already been tagged. Please feel free to play along!