Turning a sorrow into a joy

I found this article on line and felt it was too important to just read and forget. 

So lets do it!

"When my grandmother gave me her fox fur coat, I didn’t know what to do with it.
As an animal lover, I wasn’t going to wear it, but I didn’t want to sell a valuable gift from my grandmother, either.

Thankfully, there’s an organization that will take your fur coat and give it back to those who need it the most: our tiny, furry animal friends.

The Cuddle Coats organization turns animal cruelty into animal care.
Located in Minnesota, the non-profit strips old fur coats of buttons and zippers and
sends the furs back out to animal rehabilitation centers around the country.

The program is a branch of the Animal Rights Coalition.
They seek to make the world a kinder place for all animals. 

The pelts have a tremendous impact on orphaned and injured animals.
 The fur keeps them warm and makes them feel safe.

It also helps foster their bond to the natural world, with the hopes of making their reintroduction to the wild easier when they are ready.

The fur also helps minimize the amount of touching that happens with humans hands.
This helps animals feel more at ease.

Over 1,000 coats have been donated since the program began. They have helped bunnies, chipmunks, squirrels, beavers, mice, and countless other ailing animals."

boredomtherapy.com/cuddle-coats/?pas=113&as=5160000001175

JoyDay: Stuff that sticks in my head and heart

Sometimes its all the little details that make a place or an experience memorable.

The colour of the coffee cup ,
the wallism outside,
the music that was playing.

Just stuff that sticks in
your head and your heart.

Enjoy every moment.

Celebrate all the things that bring you Joy, even little things, on JoyDay, 25th November every year.

Same same but different

One word: Light.
One room was facing East.
The other was facing West.
And yet they are both the same.

Pat a pup today (please).

Puppies, and by that I mean, all dogs, rock.
Love factories, they be.
So say hello to any and all dogs that may enter your day.
It is a nice gesture on our part to recognise their worth and value.

They are the epitome of JOYDAY.

Branching out in Tokyo

Japan has wonderful food…right? 
It is a palette of flavours that are so different from our western range of salty and sweet.
 
The food in Tokyo is all about raw fish and seaweed…right? Wrong!

The food in Tokyo is as diverse as the fabulous city that it is.

There is a famous landmark in Tokyo called the Tokyo Tower (funnily enough). It looks like the Eiffel Tower of Paris.
 
There are lots of French clothing brands like Chanel and Dior in the Ginza and
if you go to the Sunday flea market at the International Forum, you will find beautiful,
 hand painted La morgue plates among the many French delights and antiques.

So Japan and France, Tokyo and Paris, who knew that there was such a connection.

Branch is a French cafe, nestled in a Tokyo neighbourhood called Yutenji.
It is the creation of a wonderful, open hearted, much talented cook called Naomi.

She produces a small, but perfect array of French meals every day.
She feeds the locals of Yutenji and any travellers who may be lucky enough to find 'branch'.

On any one day you can have: Soup of the day; Pate; Sandwich; Deli plate; Tart; Fresh pie; Lemon cake. 

All made daily by Naomi. This dynamo produces food from the gods, that delights us and leaves us contented.  This place was one of the real highlights in a city that is never ending in the highlights it reveals.

ありがとう

Colours of Tokyo. No.1 : Old and New

Tokyo is know as an electric, neon garden of lights and delights:
aglow, dazzling the inhabitants with all the hues of the illuminated graphics and screens
that populate the night landscape.
It is a 21st century world city. 

But the old world and all the elements of its style and grace,
which includes such beautiful things as kimonos, are ever present in the electric wonder land.

Colour Audit No.2: Colours of Frienze

The colours of Frienze (Florence, Itlay) are not like it's sunny, southern sister, Roma.

An audit of the colours of Frienze found that it was a city of soft tones and hues.

It is all Ice and grey, silver skies, crisp, defined, still, objective classical.
In refinement, measured and reasoned. Sharp like the ice that clings to the facades.

Wallism_Peeling back time

‘Triumphs and Laments’ is comprised of a 550 meter-long frieze along the urban waterway of the River Tiber in Rome.

It is the South African artist, William Kentridge’s largest public work to date.The figures, which are up to 12m high,
chart the city’s historic victories and defeats, ranging from Romulus and Remus to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s murder outside Rome in 1975.

The dark silhouettes were created from the layers of accumulated grime on the naturally pale travertine embankment wall by
applying high-pressure water jets to giant plastic stencils, a technique better known to street art as “reverse graffiti”. 

It will, sadly, fade away as grim returns.

The Light and The Shadow

The physicality of light and shadows has always been such a great visual seducer to shiftazine’s eye and sensibilities.
Does not really matter what the subject matter is, it is the interplay of the light and the subsequent shadows that yell, whisper, sing to me.

It is an archetypal theme, response, connection from both a physical and a psychological consideration.
One of the best pieces of contemporary art of this century was based on the notion of simply light and dark when Martin Creed created Work 227 “The lights go on and off”, Tate Britain 2001.

So much has been said about the presences of shadows, real or metaphoric,
so many beautifully turned observations and reflections, shiftazine felt it was a great opportunity to bring some of them to you.

“Shadows, sometimes people don't see shadows.
The Chinese of course never paint them in pictures, oriental art never deals with shadow.
But I noticed these shadows and I knew it meant it was sunny.” David Hockney

“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole”. C.G. Jung

“Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadow…” Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“What would your good do if evil didn't exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?” Mikhail Bulgakov

“Stop in somebody's shadow to rest and cool down, and you are lost. No one can make anyone else happy.” Petar Dunov

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“Everything that is,casts a shadow”. Neil Gaiman, American Gods

Yellow spot

It is no secret that yellow is an oft featured colour in Shiftazine.

It is such a universal colour that generates similar emotions from the viewer regardless of the culture one comes from.

It always communicates the notion of energy, life and positivity.

"Yellow is my favourite, but what is yellow? Handmaiden to white, it is a slight tarnish of pure light.

Take away a bit of white's absolute luminosity, and what remains is yellow -- 

sunlike, golden as a crown, buttercups in a field, marsh marigolds, 

a finch's wing, a plastic flute." RICHARD GROSSINGER, The Bardo of Waking Life

Drunk like Sinatra: Hip Bars of Athens:- No.1

So here are some stats that were found on Trip Advisor about Drunk like Sinatra that might be of use to you.

Traveller Type:

Friends x 26
Couples x 8

Solo x 2

Business x 3

Travellers rating:

Excellent x 14

Very Good x 22

Time of year:

March – May x 15

June – August x 13

September – November x 8

December – February x 9

Language:

English x 45

Greek x 41Italian x 2