Author Archives: m99

Animals, Television

His Dark Materials

I just finished watching the first season of His Dark Materials. I really liked it. It was one of those shows where I binged watched. When I say binge watching, I don’t mean watching all eight shows in one night. My idea of binge watching is watching the entire first season in one week.

If you like a show with talking animals, you will love this show. His Dark Materials is based on trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman. The first volume, Northern Lights, won the Carnegie Medal for children’s fiction in the UK in 1995. In 2005, Pullman received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children’s and youth literature. Swedes regard this prize as second only to the Nobel Prize in Literature; it has a value of approximately CAD$ 725,000.

The series follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parrallel universes. One distinctive aspect of Pullman’s story is the presence of “dæmons” (pronounced “demon”). In the birth-universe of the story’s protagonist Lyra Belacqua, a human individual’s inner-self manifests itself throughout life as an animal-shaped “dæmon”, that almost always stays near its human counterpart. Lyra’s dæmon, Pantalaimon is her dearest companion, who she calls “Pan”.

I have to commend the show’s amazing cast of voice actors. If I were to ever meet animals that talk, they would definitely sound like they do in this series. My favorite voice is that of Pan, Lara’s daemon. His voice is done by by Kit Connor. I wonder how Kit Connor researches his voice role. Does he watch hours of nature documentaries on ermines on PBS? Does he visit the zoo and spend hours with ermines?

I give this series 5 stars out of 5 stars. You can watch it on Crave.

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Architecture, Movies

The Matrix

I am referring to the movie title. I tried to watch the movie recently. It definitely looked dated. I only watched the first couple of minutes and could not engage myself in the movie. Somebody please do a modern remake. Keep the plotline the same. Just make the movie using more modern looking sets.

Some movies are ageless. I recently watched Blade Runner. It still looked good. As I watched the movie a second time, I found out that many scenes in the movie were shot in house built by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of my favorite architects. The house is named the Ennis House. According to this Architectural Digest article, the house was also used by Twin Peaks.

Ennis House built by Frank Lloyd Wright

I think this dining hall was the setting where Decker meets Dr. Tyrell.

Looking for something to watch. Watch Blader Runner. If you have watched it before, watch it again and look for scenes shot in the Ennis House.

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Animals

More about the Bactrian Camel

I had written an earlier post about the bactrian camel. All the information was gathered from a Wikipedia entry which had no notations for the information cited.

I have been meaning to double check the info in the the entry but never got around to it.

Well, until now that is. I found a good article in The University of Michigan website which corroborates a lot of the information in my previous entry.

Click here to read the article on the University of Michigan website.

Click here to read my earlier blog post about the bactrian camel.

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Activism, Heroes, Video

Proud to be Canadian moment

Snowden Angels

There have been many moments where I have felt proud to be Canadian. I had one of those moments last week when I read in the news that Canada had given asylum to one of the refugees who sheltered Edward Snowden when he was fleeing from the authorities in Hong Kong.

Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana Kihinsa arrived in Canada last Monday.

“This is a really great day,” said her lawyer, Robert Tibbo. “She’s departed Hong Kong. She’s left behind all the distress, hopelessness and uncertainty in life, the discrimination and marginalization she has suffered.”

Five other asylum seekers who sheltered Mr. Snowden are awaiting decisions on their applications in Canada. Among them is Ajith Pushpakumara, from Sri Lanka, who said he had fled to Hong Kong after being tortured for deserting the military and faces the possibility of execution if he returns to his native country.

Ajith fled his home country of Sri Lanka in 2003. In Sri Lanka, Ajith signed up for the military when he was 18 years old. In the Ambepussa Army Camp, young recruits were abused daily and often raped by their superiors. A victim of sexual abuse and at one point left for dead, Ajith deserted. When he was caught by the military police, he was then tortured.

With his military background, Ajith acted as Edward Snowden’s bodyguard in Hong Kong in 2013.

For The Refugees is a Canadian not-for-profit organization fighting to prevent the deportation of the Snowden Guardian Angels from Hong Kong and compelling Canada to expedite their relocation to safety.

Click here to visit For The Refugees website.

Click here to watch video about the Snowden Guardian Angels on CBC.

Click here to read article on New York Times about the Snowden Guardian Angels.

Click here to read my blog entry about Edward Snowden and the Survellance State.

Notes: All information in this blog gathered from New York Times article and For The Refugees website.

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Art, Native American

Hoobiyee

Hoobix Spoon_750x496

Hobiyee celebration marks Nisga’a Nation’s new year in Vancouver. Click here to read article and watch video posted by CBC News.

Picture above is of Hoobix spoon made by Jaimie Davis. The spoon was exhibited at the 2017 Northern Exposure Art Exhibition hosted by the Spirit Wrestler Gallery. 

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