Today, Tom Petty would be 69. Sadly, he left us on October 2, 2017.

The trailer from Echo in the Canyon features (as does the documentary by Jakob Dylan and Andrew Slater) Tom Petty. NPR: “one la community where folk and rock converged.”

Given the lost of Petty, this Traveling Wilbury’s song in particular is even more poignant.

 

Today, Bela Lugosi would be 137. Given his roles as Dracula, it is definite possibility he might still be around! Born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, in Hungary, Bela arrived in Hollywood in the late 1920s. After his appearance as Count Dracula (1931), he became type-cast in horror films. And addiction to methadone further limited his career. Although the Lugosi family and others dispute the accuracy of his portrayal by Martin Landau in Ed Wood, Landau received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the film in 1994. The movie is worth a watch for the outstanding performance. As Halloween draws nigh, a Bela binge is very appropriate.

Some Canadian birthdays:

1904:  Tommy Douglas, Canadian Baptist minister and politician, 7th Premier of Saskatchewan  His cabinet was the first democratic socialist government in North America and introduced the continent’s first single-payer, universal health care program. (d. 1986) Federally, he was elected as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), and first leader of it’s successor, the New Democratic Party (NDP) BTW, Kiefer Sutherland is his grandson.

1961: Les Stroud, Canadian director, producer, and harmonica player (Survivor Man makes for interesting television)

1963: Julie Payette, Canadian engineer, astronaut, and Governor General. Payette flew as a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Discovery from May 27 to June 6, 1999, and again in 2009 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. Both flights included time spent on the International Space Station. In 2017, she became Canada’s 29th Governor General.

and an event

1818: The Convention of 1818 [commonly known as the Treaty of 1818] is signed between the United States and the United Kingdom. This treaty sets the British North American-American border on the 49th parallel. However, the precise location of the border in the Pacific Northwest remained in dispute (54 40 or fight!) until the Oregon Treaty in 1846 makes the 49th parallel the official border from “sea to shining sea.” Canada, as an amalgam of several existing British colonies, came into existence with Confederation in 1867. In 1931, Canada won the right to conduct it’s own foreign affairs; in 1982, Canada achieved total independence from the UK with the constitutional now solely under the purview of the Canadian parliament. This micro-burst history is in honour of the October 21st federal election in Canada.

Wikipedia further notes:

“The Convention of 1818, along with the Rush–Bagot Treaty of 1817, marked the beginning of improved relations between the British Empire and its former colonies, and paved the way for more positive relations between the U.S. and Canada, notwithstanding that repelling U.S. invasion was a defense priority in Canada until 1928.”

And since you asked  what I’m . . .

listening to:

The Decemberists, I’ll be your Girl (amazing video!), Lana Del Ray, Honeymoon and lots of Tom Petty.

[looking forward to] reading:

third installment of Theodora Goss’ The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club, The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl.  Just published in early October, I’ve requested it through the interlibrary loan system. Otherwise, I’m almost finished the second book in The Once and Future King, and continue to dabble in The Illustrated Earthsea Trilogy.

[looking forward to] watching:

Red Joan, starring Judi Dench, on Wednesday with my “ladies who lunch” friends

eating:

my version of tea biscuits “laced” with ground flax, chai seeds, and herbs (sometimes sharp cheddar cheese, too)

recording as my daily gratitudes:

helping a monarch butterfly navigate a busy street, advising against low flight paths, and directing it to the library’s garden. As I entered a crosswalk, the butterfly swooped down around my head, and I talked and gestured it towards the flowers. Thought I’d lost it at the body piercing emporium, but the butterfly caught up with me a block later.

I pet bees as they gather pollen. Did take me a while to feel comfortable doing this “mindful meditation”.  This week, a bee petted me, by gently hovering over my flowered rain shoes, delicately “tasting” my shin, and settling for a moment on my skin.