seventeentimes

I beg you to read part of this New York Times article by Rebecca Skloot featuring a wonderful story about a man and his parrot. The section with Jim and Sadie is on the second page of ‘Creature Comforts’

“A few months ago, in a cafe in St. Louis, I met a man named Jim Eggers, who uses an assistance parrot, Sadie, to help control his psychotic tendencies. Eggers looks like a man who has been fighting his whole life. He is muscular, with a buzz cut, several knocked-out teeth and many scars, including one that runs ear-to-chin from surgery to repair a broken jaw. Eggers avoids eye contact in public — he walks fast down streets and through stores staring at the ground, jaw clenched. “I have bipolar disorder with psychotic tendencies,” he told me as he sucked down a green-apple smoothie. “Homicidal feelings too.”

Eggers’s condition has landed him in court several times: a disturbing-the-peace charge for pouring scalding coffee onto a man under his apartment window who annoyed him; one-year probation for threatening to kill the archbishop of St. Louis because of news reports about church money and molestations by priests in other cities (which the archbishop had nothing to do with). In describing his condition, Eggers says it’s like when the Incredible Hulk changes from man to monster. His vision blurs, his body tingles and he can barely hear. According to his friend Larry Gower, who often serves as a public liaison for him, in those moments, Eggers gets extremely loud. They both agree that Sadie is one of the few things keeping Eggers from snapping. (more…)

 

Actually, it’s an amazing video… Please watch in High Definition for full amazingness…

Animation by Sam3

reminds me of an amazing animator/artist I came across recently. Blu. Lots to explore on his website. I particularly like the details on the enormous painting on the side of the Tate Modern.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

words

1. Crepuscular

1 : of, relating to, or resembling twilight: dim
2 : occurring or active during twilight

“The boy turned and looked back over his shoulder at the high window. The curtain twitched, but even though he waited and watched for a full minute longer, he saw no further movement. Behind him his footsteps trailed off through the thick snow, around the corner and out of sight. He knew that beyond the corner they followed along the edge of the house for a few feet before making a sharp turn towards the front door. Suddenly he felt blinded by the pain of it, the unbearable feeling of loss crashed inside him like wave after wave. He could no more retrace those footsteps now as he could turn himself into a crow and fly up to the window. He turned back and looked again towards the woods. The light in the sky was slipping slowly past the horizon of pungent furrowed fields to his right. Back in the other direction were the houses of his neighbours, and lightly sleeping dogs, and beyond them the village. That would not do. The woods, as threatening as they appeared, were his only option. He had to stay out of sight. There were some who roamed at this hour, in the lonely fields and the dark alleyways of the village, and such crepuscular folk were perhaps more dangerous now than that from which he fled.”

If you can, please watch in the dark with your speakers turned up and in Full Screen…

I was being ever so quiet and tip-toeing as best I could (well, ok, I did tell my dad, but that’s all) and some of you heard me anyway… I’m so touched! Thank you for reading and commenting!

here is a kite x-ray and some pebbles to show my appreciation.

Yesterday a friend of mine drew my attention to a video of an intriguing activity that happened at Grand Central Station last month. The group responsible are called IMPROV EVERYWHERE and I highly recommend a little browse of their website to check out some of their Mission Highlights… I can’t wait to try some of these out for myself!