Skip to main content

Year in Review, 2015 Sight of the Year: Imagine Peace


Always a tough category, this year, I loved seeing:
  •  rainbow carrots purple, white, yellow, orange and now often available at the local grocery and co-op;
  •  the Black Tulip Magnolia which my father bought for me and which we named Uhura, since he was a Star Trek fan, and planted so that it can block the view of my neighbor's house from the window in my writing room; 
  •  The Impressionists exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, which my husband surprised me by saying he particularly wanted to see. I especially remember: Auguste Renoir's "Woman With A Cat" (which inspired me to adopt a cat from our local shelter shortly thereafter - we'd been three months without our sweet Sophie, whose paws have been prominent on the Sensorium); Edouard Manet's"A King Charles Spaniel" (we are not quite ready for another dog - Storm's sister is happy as an only + cat) and Henri Fantin-LaTour, "Still Life With Grapes and a Carnation" and "Three Peaches on a Plate" — in another life I would love to be a still life painter and paint lots of apples and peonies as memento mori and I am sure we will be eating lots of peaches this summer — look for them in the summer Sensorium;
  • the cat's orange upturned chin — more Mary Shelley so late in the year, but so prominent;
  • I love NASA's astronomy picture of the day and the Witch Head Nebula - a cosmic crone — stands out.

Dance performance of the year goes to Shaping Sound  — although SYTYCD comes to Seattle on Dec. 26 tonight!— but I cannot imagine the show could surpass the innovation, energy and dynamic performance of the Shaping Sound company — Hurrah! Hurrah! (*but please try :-)*

However, sight of the year goes to the IMAGINE PEACE pillar of light on Viðey island off the coast by Reykjavik and the aurora borealis.



What is this? My Year in Review.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts on "Depression Hates a Moving Target": What I Mean by Relatable

Relatable — I used this word in my reviews of Depression Hates a Moving Target   by Nita Sweeney on Goodreads and Amazon . It's a nice word, but overused of late. So, it feels lazy. What do I mean? I connected with this book. It made me reflect more on my own first marathon experience. It made me want to put on my running shoes and head out the door again. In fact, I did. Now, typically, my mental health doesn't hinder my ability to do the stuff I want to do and my body flies under the radar. Still, I also felt goofy stepping out in my running gear a lot of the time. I didn't see myself as a "runner" or an athlete. And, I had no idea if I could run 13 miles let alone 26.2 when I started. More to the point, could I stay moving for the 4+ hours straight it would take to complete the marathon? To do the training mileage, I knew I'd have to run through streets and trails on my own and that made me nervous, too. Waves of grief wash us to strange shores. Whe...

What is Solarpunk? Good question, great answers from our community

What is solarpunk? My fellow Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers authors Commando Jugendstil and Tales from The EV Studio put together this video for the Turin International Book Fair . It features editors and authors from the solarpunk community sharing their thoughts. Together we're imagining optimistic futures based on renewable energy. My soundbite was: "Solarpunk futures are — green spaces with clean water that are pedestrian, collective, feminist, creative communities. And they include non-human animals. " Mary "solarpunk" Shelley cat did a great job (at 6:15) helping from her rather ridiculous cat tree which she absolutely loves. And what better time to wear this solar-colored "Veganism is Feminism" tee from The Herbivore Clothing Company . Seriously. I'm holding a stack of solarpunk books: Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers  edited by Sarena Ulibarri which includes my story "Watch Out, Red Crusher!".  Wings of R...

Springy story review: "State Change" by Ken Liu

Why it springs to mind:  You'll never look at an ice cube the same way again. Where read: In the 2014 Hugo award-winning Lightspeed Magazine , August. Length: 5,194 words Summary: A woman has an ice cube for a soul. Memorable: How the story invites us to think about the shape of our soul, how it (or our perception of it) influences us and how it changes. What ordinary every day object would your soul be? A silver spoon, a beech stick? A great party conversation starter, this. Quote:  “All life is an experiment." Notable:  The protagonist Rina is an avid reader (always a good choice). Pairs well with: T.S. Elliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay Origin:  The story was written in 24 hours based on a writing prompt. (See Author Spotlight: Ken Liu ) About the author: Ken Liu’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings , the first in a fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, is due out from Saga Press ( a new Simon & Schuster imprint ) in 2015.