Sparks on Streets & Screens

I have seen "sparkling rain" that crackled and struck up sparks when it hit the ground.
--From Breathing Jesus

This line had just been sewn into my thoughts... I'm deep into Amy Hempel's Collected Stories now, and yesterday we had sparking rain. Well last night, since that's what happened. Is it a purely modern night time urban phenomenon, reliant on pavement and head/street lights? After pilates, I got drenched, so I had to quick run home to change to less absorbant clothes before catching An Inconvenient Truth with Josh. When I went back out, I walked without my glasses on, faced the warm rain, and caught some great lightning flashes.

An Incovenient Truth was an incredible film, accomplishing several things at once. Primarily, it lays out the threat and possible solutions to global warming with great clarity. Second, it presents a rich, layered portrait of Al Gore and how long he's absorbed this issue. Third, and I think this is paradigm shifting, I think this will lead to the politician as film subject rather than book author to herald national ambitions. The rich portrait of the person, the thorough treatment of an issue protrayed as complex and controversial, a unifying film, of nation and species. It is truely populist.

Please see this film, for yourself, for me, for our kids.