St. Asaph's

Spotted this on my way home from BMFI the other day and looped around the block to get a shot of it. Messages of love are so uplifting and this one made me smile the whole way home.

Karl the Courthouse Dog

I came across this story over the weekend and was crying reading about Karl. This is such a phenomenal idea and the part about the little girl on the witness stand rubbing Karl's fur with her toes made me sob out loud. I have, maybe, three times in my life truly burst into tears, and this was one of them. From completely fine, to instantly weeping. Seriously, this was the sweetest and most touching thing I've read in, I can't remember how long.

The K-9th Circuit Program in Orange County pairs children with therapy dogs to help them become more comfortable with the process of testifying in court. The dogs stay with the child through depositions and other questionings and all the way through to the trial, if necessary, and sometimes even after.

These children are in a difficult situation. Sometimes they’ve been abused or neglected. Sometimes they’ve witnessed abuse or neglect — or worse. It can be scary for these children to open up, especially to strange adults. That’s why dogs like Karl are important.

One child had to go through two depositions and a trial, and Karl stayed with her the whole time – without doing much at all.“It was a lot of hours on the witness stand, and Karl slept through the whole thing, which was really wonderful,” Hart-Rittenhouse said. “He did his job. Because she couldn’t really reach down to pet him, she kicked her shoes off and ran her toes through his fur and knew that he was there if she needed him. He accompanied her into the witness stand, which gives a child confidence.”

Karl is not just a courthouse therapy dog, though. He also visits a nearby hospice center, reads with children, and even has his own coloring book, in which he teaches children the proper ways to approach and care for dogs and other animals.

(photos and story kidnapped from dogster)

Maggie's Plan

On Sunday evening I went to the Bryn Mawr Film Institute to catch the latest Rebecca Miller flick. Since I really loved Personal Velocity and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and I also adore Greta Gerwig (I think that she is incredible and genuine and honest in each role she takes on) I had no doubts that I was in for an enjoyable couple hours. Arriving wicked early, I took a seat toward the back and noticed that the crowd at the theatre seemed to be primarily retirees who provided non-stop entertainment for this little eavesdropper. My favourite moment was from the three ladies to my left who after spending way too much time complaining about the lack of visitor parking at their complex (apparently all the caregivers take the spots up front - why this is a problem is beyond me), anyway the one 70-something-ish gal relayed the story of a friend of hers who was lounging on the lawn and enjoying the sunshine. I felt truly blessed to have actually heard her say the following: "A rabid raccoon was being chased by a swan......ripped her arm right open...." Clearly I was horrified that some poor elderly woman was out catchin' some 'rays when she suddenly is attacked and maimed, but hearing someone say "A rabid raccoon was being chased by a swan" made me feel like I was overhearing the dialogue from a David Lynch film. It was very "there was a fish in the percolator." But I digress....

As the film came to a close, most of the theatre-goers were giving blah reviews on their way up the aisle toward the exit. It always makes me a little sad when people do this, since I really liked the movie, I feel like they are criticising me and my opinion. Anyway, after my suspicion was confirmed that the singer at the lodge in Quebec was the delightful Ms. Kathleen Hanna, I dashed to the loo. There I ran into a lovely early 30s gal with cute wire-rimmed glasses and a pale green sundress with a grey cardigan who asked me, "What did ya think?" while she washed her hands. I told her I liked it, that I feel that Greta Gerwig always gives a solid performance and how I have liked Rebecca Miller's other films, to which she replied, "She's like the feminist Woody Allen." I thought that was such a cute thing to say, but really, I don't think Rebecca Miller's style of film-making is similar to anyone else on the planet. Maggie's Plan could have been so typical and cliché, but it wasn't. It didn't try to be anything other than the story of the lives of a handful of people. It wasn't trying to be campy or screwball or melodramatic or Indy-New-York. It was a good film and why try to make it into anything other than that? I will say that I loved Travis Fimmel's character (almost as much as I loved Maggie's apartment and all of her books) the most out of everything. He seemed perfect - passionate about his pickle business (how freakin' cute is that?), generous, charming, quirky and a bit eccentric. Plus that beard... I'd pick his odd-ness over Ethan Hawke's hum-drum-ness anyday. All in all it was the perfect end to my weekend and there were no cockroach sightings like the last time I was at that theatre. Thank gawd!

(photo kidnapped from ew)

Bill Cunningham

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling still sleepy and not quite ready to join the waking world. I grabbed my cell and decided to check my IG account and scroll through some posts. That's when I saw a post (in my suggestions feed) with Bill Cunningham's face. I immediately thought the worst, which was confirmed when I read the post and saw the #RIP. On Saturday June 25th, the world lost a beautiful and remarkable person, Even though he may have had a long and exceptional life, full of colour and joy and kindness, I can't help but feel sad that he's gone forever; that he's taken his endearing and effervescent being to someplace else. Wherever he is, I hope Bill is smiling and riding his bicycle, snapping photos of fabulous things.

Grace VanderWaal

I am obsessed, obsessed with this girl's song. It is so beyond catchy and gorgeous - it is a gorgeous song. I need someone to secure this lady a record deal because I need more.

(photo kidnapped from youtube)

The Boy with the Arab Strap

One of the best albums ever. I first heard of this group back in those BMG / Columbia House days. Since I clearly liked The Smiths, having ordered as many of their CDs as the companies sold, they recommended Belle & Sebastian. I took their advice and all these years later I'm still listening to this album and it is as fresh and seductive as when I first played it, on my Sony Discman while lying on my Ikea bed in my teenage bedroom.

(photo kidnapped from genius)

Grantchester

Season one of this series is currently listed as "In Transit" in my library cart, which means this weekend I will be binging on a new TV series. Just as I finish season 3 of Vikings (which, btw, I totally loved this series even though so many of the characters irk me or gross me out.) I can prepare for some non-stop British hotness in the form of James Norton.

(photo kidnapped from telegraph.co.uk)