It’s been cold and snowy here for weeks. Not Minnesota cold, or Montreal cold, but still. We all have our tipping points, and mine happens to coincide with the freezing point.  When things freeze, I stay in.  Warm stuff come out of the oven and mugs of chai are always within easy reach, and I spend my time in the company of a (good) book and a few (remarkable) movies.

The book:

Somehow I’d made it this far in life without ever reading it. However that happened, I’m thanking my friend Teresa for saying, “You must read this!”   Why? One word: timshel. It blew my mind.  (If you’ve read this book, you know the reference. If not, get thee to the library, now.)

The movies:

#1:

Allen Ginsberg, the obscenity trial, the lives of the young poets, the gorgeous jazz-inspired animation interspersed with toothy docudrama. And bonus cupcake: Jon Hamm as the defense attorney. So good.

#2

True tale or elaborate put-on, it makes no difference to me. I just loved the spirit and energy of these artists, their genius and their sometimes questionable sanity (same thing, maybe.) “Tonight the streets are ours.”

And #3:

Compelling on so many levels, not least of which is the compassion of these young filmmakers, one of whom was deceived to an embarrassing degree by an internet flirtation that wasn’t what it seemed to be. It could have been very ugly.  It wasn’t.

Three artful films and one superbly artful novel.  So much good stuff to keep me happily indoors until the thaw.

And one last thing.

Late on Sunday I realized I’d never shown you the end result of that wire-and-bead bra I was working on a few weeks back.

Ooh la la, no?

The original design included a mini hoop skirt, so I named her Bijou Tutu. The hoop-skirt idea was abandoned, but the name stuck. I think she’s very Space Age, in a loopy kind of way.

I hope it’s warm and cozy (and a little loopy) wherever you are this week.