Commander Hadfield's fantastic finale.

He's tweeted, and tweeted, and tweeted. He's done video links, and duets from space, and ham radio interviews, and overseen a successful unscheduled space walk to fix an ammonium leak. Which worked! And tomorrow, after a spectacularly successful mission, Commander Chris Hadfield will return to earth. And into the arms of his family, who lent him to us for five months.

And he left us one particular gem. Ladies and gentlemen, "Space Oddity", sung from... space.

UPDATE! They've added captions! I was impressed when Commandeer Hadfield started posting sounds of the International Space Station for his visually impaired followers. This is extra special too,



His entire country is so proud of him. We're just waiting for him to come home to show him how much.

ronnie

CO-MIX: In the Shadow of Art Spiegelman

I have meetings next week in Vancouver, too, so that sees me with a weekend to amuse myself in this city. (Although some of it will be spent working due to my workload right now.) So imagine my delight when on my first day here I saw this on my way to work:

It's a retrospective of Art Spiegelman's work at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Today, I got to take it in. The exhibit was amazing - not only the hundreds of pieces of original art and studies, his commercial work (did you know he was responsible for the Garbage Pail Kids stickers? I was floored), his underground comics, Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers and all the rest, but artifacts like photos of Spiegelman and his parents, the record of his parents' arrest, his mother's passport and his father's application for naturalization in the US. There was even a quiet corner in the back of the exhibit with a deep sofa and many copies of Maus so that you could curl up and read it.

I'm blogging mobile which has its challenges, so I won't go into more detail, but there's a lot more about the exhibit here if you care to read more.

ronnie

He haunts us.

Here he is at the Harrison Gallery in Vancouver, 901 Homer St.

It seems I can't take a trip, read a book, or turn on the telly without encountering this riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma that rides around on my shoulder, anyway.

ronnie

Another pretty picture from my hotel room in Vancouver.

Excited to be here. This trip completes my set of 10 provinces! No Territories yet, but there's still time!

Upon arriving in Vancouver.

Is Somebody Singing?

I mentioned previously that Commander Chris Hadfield, astronaut and musician, was going to collaborate with fellow musician Ed Robertson of The Barenaked Ladies on a song, written half on earth, half from space. Today they debuted it. It's called ISS (Is Somebody Singing?) and it is a treat.

See it debuted live on CBC radio here.

What an incredible time we live in!!! Think of the Mercury and Apollo astronauts, with their grainy video.

Anyway, to the song - snippets:

"There goes home, that brilliant ball of blue...
What once was fueled by fear, now has fifteen nations orbiting together here...
So sing your song, I'm listening, out here where stars are glistening,
I hear your voices bouncing off the moon;
If you could see our nation, from the International Space Station,
You'd know why I want to get back soon."

I was especially touched by "what once was fueled by fear..."

Sheet music and lyrics here (PDF).

And I believe I already mentioned that the song is in aid of Music Monday, a project of the Coalition for Music Education. A very good cause indeed.

ronnie (humming)

@Cmdr_Hadfield redux

Further to my previous post, if you'd like to watch the CBC's Chief Correspondent Peter Mansbridge's interview with Chris Hadfield from the ISS on the program "Mansbridge One on One", you can do so here. It aired today and was a really good interview.



ronnie

@Cmdr_Hadfield

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is currently on the International Space Station. (As of March, he will become Commander of ISS Expedition 35, and the first Canadian to hold the position of Commander.)

In the meantime, he is conducting and participating in experiments and doing all the astronauty, sciency things that get done on the ISS. But he is also doing something really extraordinary. He is, for the first time that I am aware of, using social media to really interact with people on earth from space. He does the standard interviews and PR exercises that astronauts have always done since the Mercury days; but he keeps up a steady stream of brief messages - and even better, photographs, hundreds of photographs - to over 250,000 followers via Twitter, from the account @Cmdr_Hadfield.

I know most of you guys aren't on Twitter, but you don't have to be to look at the messages and photos - of earth from space, of life on the ISS - Hadfield is posting. They're all available for viewing right here. He has sent photographs from so many locations all over the globe  you are sure to find one that speaks to you, whether it's New York City or the Suez Canal or a corner of Australia he compares to a Jackson Pollock painting. Brian will probably like this one. Deserts, and the juxtaposition of deserts and habitations within them, particularly fascinate him.

And he should get some kind of award for this video alone.

He's also a musician and has his guitar with him on the ISS. He's done some recording up there, and is collaborating on a piece with Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies for Music Monday, a project of the Coalition for Music Education.

Who says the Renaissance Man is dead?

ronnie