mutant animals

So I've been trying to get my pictures together from the Fremont Solstice Parade to post them on this blog, but haven't had the time to go through them yet to pick the best ones...in the mean time I do have some other pictures that I can post for y'alls viewing pleasure. These images were not taken by my camera...they were in fact forwarded to me, and I just couldn't resist not sharing them. So enjoy! And if you want to see more, let me know and I can forward them all to you :-)

Parkour

Parkour Craze Reaches New Heights

The above is an article from the BBC about the street art called Parkour that involves jumping from rooftop to rooftop, scaling walls and basically some pretty cool feats of acrobatics. I recently saw a French action movie called District B-13:

District B-13 official website

which features this new street sport, and I totally fell in love with the it. I know that I could never pull off being able to do these stunts myself, but I love watching others do it....the fluidity, grace and seeming ease of it is really awesome. Not to mention that the moves are just plain hot. One of the two guys who started Parkour in the suburbs of Paris will be featured in the new James Bond movie, and there are several documentaries that have been made about the sport. If you'd like to see more, here are some websites that I found with a quick google search:

Parkour::Free Running

le Parkour

Urban Free Flow

Foiled Again

I think that the boulangerie in Wallingford has something against me...over the past year I have been trying to get some of my favorite tasty treats from there, but every single time I manage to get there...THEY'RE CLOSED! One time if was because they were on vacation, one time it was a Monday which is their one day of the week off, but all the other times it has been during their open hours on their open days...but they've been closed! Like this morning for example: I was in desperate need for some comfort food cause I had a lonely night last night without Guinness (my dog sitting duties are on pause because Uncle Richard took him up to the farm for a few days). So I decided that what would make me really happy would be a brioche aux amandes, or really any tasty treat at the boulangerie. So I walk over before having to catch the bus in to work....and they were CLOSED!!! *gasp* I think they knew I was coming and closed up to continue this mean game they have going on here.

*sigh* I have such fond memories of that boulangerie from when I was a kid...my parents and I used to get Sunday breakfast there every week for years. It's actually the best place to get French bread and pastries in town. They're not super sweet like some places, and much more authentic in how they're made.

One of these days I'll trick that boulangerie into being open for me! Maybe I'll just keep going by every day and until they let me in. hmmm, must plot and plan.

How to watch the World Cup

I read TomDispatch from time to time...and today there was an article by Tony Karon entitled "How to Watch the World Cup: Politics and War by Other Means." It's a great article with great stories about the importance of the World Cup to all countries (except the USA). It's a bit long, but I highly recommend reading even just a portion of it, it covers a bit of everything:

TomDispatch: Tony Karon

And here's a great quote from that article:

"From contemporary geopolitical and cultural conflicts (or their historic echoes) to the impact of globalization, the World Cup offers a real-time snapshot of the state of our world."

I then, of course, had to look up Tony Karon's blog, Rootless Cosmopolitan, and here's the link to his World Cup commentary:

What do they of football know who only football know

Happy Art Is Fun

I'm back online after our modem crashed at work...that was difficult. However did we live life before the internet came along? Ditto for cell phones.

Anyway, I had some fun this weekend going through some old art material I had stashed away...and found some pretty funny mementos from my past. But the only person who will understand is Leah...and possibly Beks:

Hidden away between scraps of art paper was an ad for a French movie featuring a guy on a bike...taped over his head was the head of Legolas...and taped over the name of the movie was the slogan "Happy Art Is Fun". And then a few minutes later I found some other treasures...figures from a Buffy the Vampire Slayer game, all with talk bubbles wishing me happy birthday in true Buffy fashion. That's right Leah, I still have those little guys...and had a good laugh upon finding them again!