2014 Week 25: Art3mis’ Immaculate Conception

La De Blog - Hedgehog Babies made by Art3mis

Friday morning I went to say goodbye to Art3mis when I pulled back her fleece and found 3 SQUIRMING LITTLE BABY HEDGEHOGS under her fleece. The Hedgehog Welfare Society was told that the two female hedgehogs were housed separately from the male hedgehogs, so Art3mis immaculately conceived her babies. It all makes sense that Art3mis seemed more distant from us every day – that’s what future hedgehog moms do when they are preparing to give birth. SO, crazy surprise for me that morning. I called in to work saying I was running a little late and might possibly need to take a half day because I needed to find out what I had to do. After doing research, the word is to take out her cage and do nothing for 2-3 weeks and be very quiet. We only hear Art3mis when she runs out to feed and have only caught glimpses of her. So freaking surreal to have tiny baby hoglets in there but we can’t check in on them at all. MADDENING!

This week: Music Box with Z and Jason Anderson for Night Moves. Daddy’s Gonna Kill Ralphie, Z’s high school friend Toby’s band @ Burlington. $6.50 Movie @ Regal City North. Dragonlady. Music Box to see Filth with Q&A by Irvine Welsh. Sold at Renegade Chicago Mini Market @ Mana Contemporary – what a nice space, wonderful customers old & new, and great vendors – I loved splitting the booth with Betsy of Foxglove Accessories. Dinner at Bite. Sold at RCF Chicago Mini Market Day 2.

Additionally, I made two brand new cards to debut at Renegade Chicago Mini Market; a Malort birthday card and a lady date card! They are up in the Rhymes with Twee Etsy Shop.

Films watched 25th week of the year:

Night Moves (2013)
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Rust Never Sleeps
Bad Milo!
Filth

One of the best movie weeks in some time. Night Moves really did a number on me. It compared extreme environmentalists to the people they are trying to convince that large changes need to be made in our countries/lives. Dakota Fanning is truly one of the great film stars of today. It was a really stressful film to watch. Felt like The Cove meets early David Gordon Green cinematography. Masterful filmmaking by Kelly Reichardt.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 was even better than the first. I LOVED the message that, even with a physical disability, you can do amazing things, even better than others. I read a number of articles about the film because it struck me so. One interesting article on The Dissolve called We’re losing all our Strong Female Characters to Trinity Syndrome was one I disagreed with about Valka in this film essentially not having a point. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. SPOILER ALERT. Her role is not a throwaway one. She never went back to the island after being taken away during the dragon siege because no one ever listened to her that dragons could be allies rather than enemies. Listen to a woman? No way! She did a brave thing by going against the social norm; killing dragons, and finding her own path of studying/befriending dragons and this was A MAJOR plot point in WHY Hiccup became Hiccup. I felt there was a good amount of time on Valka in the film. When she was attacked at the end, her pacifist nature came out and she just could not bring herself to kill. This is her true nature – how could she kill a dragon? Yes, it is a truth that we need more strong female lead characters in film, but Valka was a strong supporting character who stayed true to her convictions, and she was one I was very glad to see.

NY&CH:RNS was good to have on in the background while I was editing photos. Bad Milo! was pretty bad, but fairly fun. I knew James McAvoy was a great actor, but in Filth, man, he proves he is multi-dimensional. The film was good, but it felt like something I’ve seen numerous times before.