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John at Musings from Myopia tagged me for a meme about literature, music, film and art. I’ve tried to answer the questions as best I can. Rather than tag anyone in particular, if you like this meme, why don’t you answer the questions either on your blog (if you have one), or in the comments below if you don’t have a blog of your own. If you do the meme on your blog, send me a link and I’ll post it here.

Q: Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving copies away.

A: I can rarely ever settle on one thing, so I’m giving three for this one:

To a paddler or anyone who likes the outdoors, I’d give one of the books by Gary and Joanie McGuffin. Their books are about paddling journeys on or near Lake Superior, or in places like Temagami. The books are filled with Gary McGuffin’s photographs, with some text by Joanie (not actually all that much text). Not sure which I like best — maybe In the Footsteps of Grey Owl: Journey into the Ancient Forest, although I also like Great Lakes Journey: Exploring the Heritage Coast . Incidentally, if you go to either of those links and look below the description, you can look at images from the books.

Second one would be for my naturalist friends — Bernd Heinrich’s A Year in the Maine Woods. I liked the mix of nature, science, and storytelling.

Third one would be for my naturalist-artist friends — David Carroll’s Self-Portrait with Turtles: A memoir. There are so many parts of this one that I can identify with. Most naturalist-artists would probably like it too.

Q: Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music

A: Hmm.. for some reason, this one seems difficult. This is the best I can come up with. In recent years, Ry Cooder and Manuel Galban’s Mambo Sinuendo album got me hooked on listening to music from warmer climes when I’m feeling like I can’t take another winter’s day here in the Frozen North. The soundtrack from the movie Frida (mentioned below), is also good as a winter fix.

Q: Name a film you can watch again and again.

A: Another three way answer. The movies are as follows:

* Rivers & Tides – a documentary film about British artist, Andy Goldsworthy. I should probably write some kind of review about it — in fact, I was eventually going to do so. I particularly like the first section when he is creating a rock “seed” cairn, a round structure out of drift wood, and a sculpture out of icicles next to the ocean. The additional shorts are fascinating, especially the one where he’s fashioning a curling ram’s horn using folded leaves and bits of thorn — incredible — well, the whole movie is.

* The Bill Mason movie Waterwalker, that I recently wrote about.

* The movie, Frida with Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo and Alfred Molina as DIego Rivera. I’ve watched it several times over the past few years. It’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’ve always liked Kahlo and Rivera’s art, so it’s probably not too surprising that I liked it. There’s so much to like about this movie — the art plays such a large part in it; the acting is excellent; the set design in wonderful, and the music.

Q: Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief

A: I don’t watch many movies other than documentaries, so I’m going to go with Hayek and Molina in the above described movie, Kahlo. I’ve read Kahlo’s letters and other writings, etc…and have studied quite a bit about the artists. I feel that both actors brought the artists to life in a way that exceeded my expectations.

Q: Name a work of art you would like to live with.

A: There are so many that it’s difficult to pick just one. However, first choice will be:

The Bird Creature sculpture by Kiawak Ashoona (Eastern Arctic’s Cape Dorset, Nunavut) which is in the National Gallery of Canada.
I couldn’t find much in the way of photos of it (guess I should go downtown and photograph it myself!), however, I did find a couple of views on a Flickr gallery:
this one and this detail of the head.

If I couldn’t have that, it would be a wooden transformation mask carved by Haida artist, Robert Davidson.

Q: Name a work of fiction that penetrated your real life

A: Oh.. let’s see… I have to go a long way back for this one.
At 12 or so, I was given the Lord of the Rings trilogy. That summer I used to tear through the woods on horseback (with no saddle) pretending I was an elf being chased by Orcs. (well, what can I say… you *did* ask this question).

Q: Name a punch line and/or a sight gag that always make you laugh

A: I couldn’t come up with the “right” kind of answer for this one, so I’ve had to modify it somewhat. Here’s something that made me laugh recently. I don’t watch much television, and this description may not be entirely accurate, but this is how I remember it. A commercial that begins with a Buddhist monk turning a turtle right side up after he sees it flipped upside down. Later, he reaches for a facial tissue when he sneezes. After blowing his nose, he reads the label on the box: “Kills 99% of all germs”. The scene cuts back outside to the turtle – and you hear a scream in the distance.
Made me laugh both times I saw it.

EDIT: Susannah from Wanderin’ Weeta has also done the Arts Meme. You can visit her blog to read her answers to the meme questions here. If you’re a blogger and decide to do this meme on your blog, feel free to send me a link to your post and I’ll add it here. Thanks!