Since changing my blog interface a couple of days ago, I seem to have lost some readers… I’m wondering why so many people are sensitive to changes, allergic even… Didn’t they care about what was written or did they just like the way my page looked… I, myself, think change is rejuvenating and refreshes your brain constantly… So, I’m keeping this layout at least for a few months until I change it again… As Rosanne Cash once said: “the key to change is to let go of fear.”
S
The white flakes were all I saw…
at this very dawn.
All scattered in the gray horizon…
free as a graceful swan.
They reminded me of you…
dancing your way down into my heart.
Not as bitter… Not so gloomy…
sinking down in a hopeless ending.
Leaving me in an endless delusion…
in a world full of black and white fantasies.
S
November 6, 2008
Toronto – Chez Roxanne
Call it a tradition or whatever, we often get together on Torontonian fall or winter nights and watch cinema classics, be it black-and-white, francais, etc.
Thursday night wasn’t an exception… Watching “La Vie en Rose“, which was way overdue on my “must-see” movie list, turned out to be a great initiation to our movie nights this year… The story of the legend chanteuse, Édith Piaf… I mean, how can one possibly have such a life full of sorrow and unfortunate incidents and yet remain in love, singing like a bird with no regrets about her past… All I can say was that her voice makes you desperately want to live and experience her era, in Paris in 1940’s, wandering around Montmartre and falling in love… Even if you don’t fully understand what she is trying to tell you in her music, she grasps you with her voice, her strength, her patience…
Marion Cotillard, herself one of my favorite French actresses, made it hard to believe she was merely acting… Her jaw-dropping performance was nothing short of amazing… She was so real… So comfortable… So Édith Piaf…
S
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
OK gang… I’m back and this time I’m right on track…
It was a hectic month with happenings professionally, personally, and culturally… Toronto is getting chilly… the long nights don’t really bother me much though… I’ve learnt over the years not to nag for the entire six months of Torontonian winter… Instead, I’ve learnt how to enjoy the shorter days in dim lights with my loved ones around or on my own mind, tucked in my winter clothes, with my warm pashmina wrapped around me and sipping hot cups of tea!
So, on to a brief recap of my life in the past month…
Madonna’s concert deserves no word but “Fabulous”… It was indeed a “dream come true” occasion for me… I mean, c’mon, who can seriously dance like her, act like her, sing like her, and steal the two-hour show in a full-house ACC at the age of 50… at some point, when she was singing her classic hits from years past, I got choked up with emotion, honestly!
I’m also happy to report that I started reading again… Intensive reading, one book after another… I finished a couple of books in the last month… the one which I just finished and loved dearly was “84 Charring Cross Road” which made one of my favorite streets in London come alive in me once again… the book is in fact a collected volume of correspondence between a British bookstore owner and an American writer, Helene Hanff spanning over 20 years… I’m now ready to start what I’ve been told is a must-read classic by “Rebecca”…
AGO is ready to reopen next week… after many months of renovating, the gallery will be open to the public on Nov. 14 and give everyone the opportunity to admire the first ever work by the renowned architect, Frank Gehry, in Canada!
Last but not least, Mr. Obama won the president election last night and made so many people’s dream come true… including “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” who had a dream a few decades ago! I’m sure thousands of websites are covering the story of last night’s election, so there is nothing left for me to tell you…
C’est tout for now… and may I reassure you that I won’t be silence again for such a long time… I will update my blog world more frequently from now on… I will share the books I’m reading, the movies I’m planning to see, all the good stuff coming up in the city, and of course what goes on in my mind… Until then, I’m sending you my biggest smile and thanking you for waiting and checking out the world according to Shadan!
Much love,
S
If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; but if you live according to [public opinion], you will never be rich.”
Epicurus (34-270 BC)
Oh, I have so much to talk about since my last post but for now can I just say every time I come to Montréal, I fall more and more for the city? It’s freezing cold but the vibe warms you deep inside… Even tough it’s only a one-night business trip, strangely being here makes me kind of special and in love…
I’ll talk to you very soon… We have so much to catch up my friends!
S
I blew out my first candle last night and this time with my precious ones around me… When it comes to making a wish part, I usually wish for others and not me… The question that comes to my mind is, who then wishes for me? Is it others who do so, or my own fate and destiny regardless of wishes? Whether we believe it or not, our lives are unfolding according to a design that was set at the time of our birth…
Therefore, my lovely readers, I am going to let fate take its course and forget about heading off in a new direction… I reckon I’ve been so far on the right path…
I will blow more and more candles… and I will still wish for you, for him, for her, for them, for us… and for me!
S
“You only grow when you are alone.”
“A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in colour and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.”