My Funny Valentine

In honor of St. Valentine's Day, here are two great versions of "My Funny Valentine", originally written by Rodgers and Hart in 1937.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Funny_Valentine:

RIP - Whitney Houston

Whether Whitney Houston died this past Saturday as a result of crack cocaine isn't clear; but nobody can be in any doubt that her self-confessed crack addiction destroyed her career.  She had learned about press hype and public misconceptions by observing her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston, and cousin Dionne Warwick....but she was unprepared for the pressures of nonstop surveillance of her private life.  I also suspect that she felt spiritually drained having sold out by using her gospel background and amazing soulfulness for rather banal pop songs in her later years.

Long-eared owl in Chicago

My friend Jane took this photo of a Long-eared Owl in Bobolink Meadow, Chicago, last weekend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-eared_Owl

Photo: Jane Masterson

Bobolink Meadow was named after an Illinois grassland bird that once nested here. This area was created when part of a large lakeshore marsh was filled in to create Jackson Park for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The area was later used for athletic fields and, from 1958 to 1971, as a U.S. Army missile base. When the base closed, only weeds grew in the hardened soil. Bobolink Meadow was set aside as a nature sanctuary in 1982 and seeded with native grasses and wildflowers, creating more habitat for wildlife. Over the years, the ground is becoming less compacted as plant roots, worms and microbes enrich the soil.  There have been recent sightings of deer, coyote, red fox and yet it is only several miles from downtown Chicago!

Zen Quote for the Day - Dalai Lama

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

Dalai Lama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalai_Lama

North vs South Divide is Widening

http://www.angelofthenorth.org.uk/

I'm in the north of England this week and realizing that the economic downturn is much worse up here. As mentioned in this Guardian article, jobs losses are occurring at four times the rate in other parts of the country, adding to the north-south divide and bolstering the growing movement calling for a "voice for the north" through its own elected assembly:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/04/north-south-divide-job-loses

Art in roads and paths

I found this interesting website: http://www.stunningmesh.com/2011/04/awesome-roads-and-paths-making-the-art/

It's a lion-eat-owl world

According to the Guardian, an owl made an unfortunate trip into the lion enclosure at Colchester Zoo, UK, this week.  ASH, a female barn owl, collided with a window and was dazed. She then flew into the lion's den, where she was clubbed out of the air by a lioness and torn apart by another lion...yikes!!  This is a whole new take on The Owl and the Pussycat.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/shortcuts/2012/feb/01/lion-eat-owl-world-captivity

Edward Lear's poem, The Owl and the Pussycat:

http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/

I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea     In a beautiful pea green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money,     Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above,     And sang to a small guitar, 'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,       What a beautiful Pussy you are,           You are,           You are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

II

Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!     How charmingly sweet you sing! O let us be married! too long we have tarried:     But what shall we do for a ring?' They sailed away, for a year and a day,     To the land where the Bong-tree grows And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood     With a ring at the end of his nose,           His nose,           His nose, With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling     Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.' So they took it away, and were married next day     By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince, and slices of quince,     Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,     They danced by the light of the moon,           The moon,           The moon, They danced by the light of the moon.