She was an anti-pioneer.

What I'm into these days:

1) Fair Trade Organic Dark Chocolate by Camino.

Great stuff.  I am off of white sugar, as you know, but my one indulgence is a bit of dark chocolate.  These are great and there are different flavours; my faves are mint, orange, and coconut.

2) Re-listening to old favourite albums.

2013 isn't really doing it for me musically.  I've only bought three new albums so far this year which is very low for me.  This means that I've been spending a lot of times with old favourites.  I've been playing the heck out of The Weakerthans lately and right now I'm listening to Feist's Metals.  I have listened to that album so many times and it always brings something new for me.

On a side note, I am looking forward to the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Phoenix albums coming out soon, and I think Neko Case has an album coming out later this year.  Until then I'm either going to have to discover some new bands or make do with old favourites.

3) Documentaries.

Lots of people complain about the movie selection on Netflix Canada, but it's got a great selection of docs on there.  This weekend I watched three: Into the Abyss, Dear Zachary and Hungry for Change.

Into the Abyss is by German filmmaker Werner Herzog.  It's an examination in the fallout of a triple homicide in Texas: the murderers, their families, victim's families, and law officials are all interviewed.  It was a bit slow, but rather interesting and a holistic look at the causes and effects of such a crime.  Moreover, it touched upon the ethics of the death penalty, and the stress that the death penalty had on those whose job it is to carry out the sentences.  I'd give this movie a 7/10.



I don't want to say too much about Dear Zachary except for the fact that it was absolutely riveting and very well edited.  It's a really really messed up true story, and was very hard to watch in some places.  It's one of those documentaries that becomes more fascinating because the real-life story twists and turns as the film-maker is making the movie.  (The Queen of Versailles, also on Netflix, is like this.)  The focus of Dear Zachary turns to Kate and David Bagby who are amazing people and advocates.  The story is quite dark, and I felt uncomfortable watching it at times, but it was an excellent doc.  I'd give it a 9/10.



Hungry for Change falls along the lines of my post last week about food.  It was great for me to watch, because it's about adopting a healthy lifestyle when it comes to food, exercise, sleep and more.  I liked it a lot, and plan to re-watch some of it.  It reinforces my commitment to reducing the amount of white sugar, processed foods, and refined grains in my diet.  My only criticism of this documentary is that at times it felt like an infomercial for the whole "juicing" lifestyle.  However, the rest of it was quite powerful.  It actually gave me some specific self-care advice that I've already applied to my life.  I'd give it a 8/10.



Next weekend, I am going to see the documentary West of Memphis at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema.  I've been following this case for a few years, and I recently read the memoir by Damien Echols.  I love the opportunity to see documentaries in a theatre, and Toronto is lucky to have a cinema devoted to docs.



Finally, the Hot Docs film festival is at the end of this month.  I'm going to go through my program tonight and perhaps purchase tickets for a few films.   Then it's bed-time because sleeping reduces your cortisol levels you know.