Muffin's Return

Contrary to what mainstream media say, veganism is not the new trendy hype nor nutritional nonsense, but a way ahead for humanity. Besides spiritual consequences, “lesser consumption of animal products is necessary to save the world from the worst impacts of climate change” a UN reports says. (source)

In fact, in addition to the unnecessary animal suffering and health issues related to breeding and slaughtering are wastage and pollution of water resources, ocean degradation, deforestation, fossil fuel dependency, increased carbon dioxide emanations and greenhouse effect plus human starvation. However, it is not for me to convince you to make the switch but your responsibility as incarnated souls to make this choice or not. I just want to share my beliefs and the undisputed positive impact the new lifestyle has had on my physical and spiritual well-being.

A lengthy preamble to introduce a fully-vegan (using flaxseed instead of eggs) enhanced version of my homemade gluten and sugar-free recipe of cinnamon muffins posted last year. Definitely softer and tastier, it will keep even better and longer.

Ingredients

Makes 9 muffins:

- 50 g coconut flour
- 50 g rice flour
- 50 g quinoa flour
- 50 g tigernut flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp apple vinegar
- 3 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 2 tbsp ground almonds
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 6 tbsp olive oil (or melted coconut oil)
- 300 ml rice milk (or any vegetable milk)

Directions

In a large bowl, mix flours with spices and ground linseed, preferably using a whisk. Dig a hole in the middle and add baking soda plus vinegar.

Mix again then add milk and oil. Stir well until you get a thick, slightly elastic dough.

Transfer into a 9 cup muffin pan and press well to pack slightly. Bake for 35 minutes at 210°C.

NOTE: You may substitute ginger and cinnamon with 1 tsp of raw unsugared cocoa powder, add raisins, shredded nuts and flavour with rum or essential oils (25 drop orange oil) as you wish.

© La Pensine Mutine. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited.

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The Mirror Visitor Series

It feels so good to laze around and enjoy the sun with a good book for company! It's been ages since I wanted to share my mega literary “crush” with you. Three years to be precise. But since I didn't know how I could do that without risking any spoiler, I guess I was waiting for the right time and most especially for the next instalments to come out, just to make sure I wasn't going to be disappointed. And I'm not. I'm over-thrilled by this new series for « young adults » as never before since Harry Potter, and I would go so far as to say that it's absolutely not second to the latter. Still, comparing both would not only be simplistic but totally irrelevant since, unlike in J.K. Rowling's work, the hybrid world Christelle Dabos created is pure fantasy (with an added touch of steampunk¹) and doesn't expand into our own reality.

So The Mirror Visitor is a four-book French series (the third one having just hit the shelves about two months ago), written by a young lady based in Belgium and winner of the Gallimard Jeunesse-RTL-Télérama First Novel Competition in 2012. In the first instalment, we're introduced to a world shattered by a disaster and ripped apart into arks of land suspended in mid-air. Each ark is ruled by an immortal being  with a failing memory (there is a good reason to that as we'll find out later on) called Family Spirit who actually is the ancestor of its inhabitants, all gifted with supernatural powers.

A Winter's Promise

So Ophelia lives on Anima, an ark where objets have a life of their own. A clumsy, poorly-dressed loner who wears glasses like Harry, but any comparison ends here. Ophelia is a young adult who can read things — which means that, by merely touching objets she's able to recall their past and the thoughts of each person who came into their possession. But she's also got a secret unusual talent: the ability to pass through mirrors as if they were some kind of Portkeys². She's been enjoying a quiet life in a large, lively family (a bit like Tolkien's Hobbits) until, for political reasons, the Deans decided to force her into a marriage of convenience to an influential man from the Pole, which she cannot decline (again) without risking to be banned both by her family and peers and from her native ark.

So, along with her aunt Roseline who chaperons her, she leaves for the Citaceleste to meet her fiancé who is as cold and cheerless as an iceberg and actually doesn't seem anymore pleased to have her around than she is. There, she encounters a much different world and a decadent society where rival clans shamelessly compete in depravity, violence, murder and corruption. Not to mention the boudoir conspiracies where the favourites are battling to gain the attention of the great Farouk — all somewhat reminiscent of the court of Louis XIV and Alexandre Dumas's books.

The Missing of Clairdelune

Ophelia is promoted to vice-storyteller of the great Farouk and in turn becomes the target of hatred and brewing conspiracies running under the cover of the golden ceiling of the Citaceleste. She unwittingly gets involved in a trail of events beyond understanding where she plays a keyrole. I'm aware that this is a lame attempt to summarise (without spoiling) a storyline much more complex including many twists and turns without any downtime in between.

The Memory of Babel

More than two and a half years have passed since the latest developments. Ophelia uses a fake identity to move to Babel, a cosmopolitan ark on the leading edge, which the author further describes as “a crossover between India, Reunion Island,  [...] and the Hanging Gardens of Ancient Babylon.” This new instalment leads us directly from a Dumasian/Pullmanian atmosphere to a full Orwellian dystopia quite reminiscent of Farenheit 451. Ophelia finds herself joining a prestigious college seemingly ruled by the law of bullying, elitism, betrayal and backstabbing. With an unpredictable storyline still  as compelling and tightly plotted as ever and never running out of momentum Christelle Dabos surprises us by treading off the beaten tracks of fantasy, providing a clever creative mix of genres while challenging all its codes and clichés. Her neologisms are even a match for those of her British predecessor J.K. Rowling. Her Trambirds and Upsidedown Lounges, for instance, are pure delight for our imagination and well worth all the Hourglasses in the world.

Below is a short excerpt I thought relevant to the actual prevailing level of consciousness in our own world:

My mother would have none of this. She keeps going and claims what happened to ***, ***, and ** is nothing more than a series of accidents. She dismisses ***'s testimony as pure nonsense. Her ill-will is so strong I nearly thought that she's... well, it's terrible to say... that she's withholding information. For me, worst is that she genuinely believes in her own assertions. She's so obsessed with the idea that our city is perfect that she cannot simply conceive it to be any different.

Now, it's going to be another year at least until we can read the next and final instalment. In the meantime, the good news is that since the first two books sold more than 130,000 copies each, the series will be translated in several languages such as English, Italian and Spanish. For more information, you may visit the official website of la Passe-miroir (in French).

UPDATE: A dedicated site to The Mirror Visitor Quartet is now available in English HERE.

Endnotes

1. ^ Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Although its literary origins are sometimes associated with the cyberpunk genre, steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the 19th century's British Victorian era or American "Wild West", in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has maintained mainstream usage, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. Therefore, steampunk may be described as neo-Victorian. (Source)
2. ^ In the Harry Potter series, any object can be used as a Portkey and be set to transport anybody who touches it to a designated location or to become active at a predetermined time and transport itself and anyone touching to its set destination.

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Paranoid Android

As mentioned a couple of days ago, today marks the fourth anniversary of the French edition of this blog with nearly 208,000 visitors and some 1,038 posts to date (almost double with the English edition) — and still plenty to say! A huge THANK YOU to my devoted readers. Since I couldn't repeat the birthday cake cliché (even if it's this month's theme, literally or otherwise) nor serve you the same old creeps again (stale pastries don't taste good), let's celebrate greatly and as we may with the awesome track (and accompanying video) which inspired the title of this summertime series. And for fun, I've also included an early draft of the lyrics written by Thom Yorke from the sketchbook included with the outrageously expensive collector boxset of the recent remastered reeissue of OK Computer released by Radiohead on their indie label (which, thanks goodness, I did not buy).

Paranoid Android

Please could you stop the noise, I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head

What's that? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
What's that? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)

When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all

What's that? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
What's that? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)

Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
Kicking, squealing Gucci little piggy

You don't remember... You don't remember...
Why don't you remember my name?
Off with his head, man! Off with his head, man!
Why don't you remember my name?
I guess he does...

Rain down, rain down,
Come on rain down on me
From a great height... From a great height, height...

Rain down, rain down,
Come on, rain down on me
From a great height... From a great height...

Rain down, rain down
(that's it, sir, you're leaving, the crackle of pigskin)
Come on rain down on me
(the dust and the screaming, the yuppies networking)
From a great height
(the panic, the vomit, the panic, the vomit)

God loves his children
God loves his children, yeah

Thom Yorke, 1997

Alternative lyrics

Mealy-mouthed bitchy little boys, playground bullies,
Intent on your supremacy and your valiant battle of shitty spiteful words,
Tearing each other's hair out and spitting reconstitued bullshit that nobody wants to hear,
Living out Lester Bang's misguided rock'n'roll bullshit dream like sad rain-coated red-faced perverts,
Living life on the edge of a glass of lager and your pathetic opinions which are of no consequence,
Your opinion is of no consequence...
Your opinion is of no consequence!

Waving your blunt little swords and declaring an invasion,
Fighting amongst yourselves because there's nothing else to write about.
Your stunning insights into your precious out-of-date youth culture,
Your puerile obsession with the voice of youth in the midst of your midlife crises,
Your precious little planet of indie middle class retro shitpop,
Your opinion is of no consequence!

Your are out of touch,
Neurotic pathetic battery-farmed evil little idiots who have no guts.
Failed writer, failed musician, failed person... you know who you are.
You know this is about you telling me I just can't take a joke.
I can't take a joke!
But you see honey,
You're the joke...
You're the joke...
You're the joke...

All this would be of no consequence but now you've hurt the ones I love
So now I declare war on you.
Telling me I cannot take a joke:
Wrong, you're the joke...
I didn't mean it,
I was only joking but you can't take the joke
So now you're the joke.

© Thom Yorke, 1997

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Love No Evil

See how comfy he is
In times of trouble,
Woes to say,
Words to curse he has,
He, Evil.

Set up as a phallocracy,
Ruled by a demonocracy,
Pedantic boaster,
Taunting smug he is,
He, Evil.

Deliberately sickening,
Feasting on our ups and downs,
Incredibly heady,
On our fears he feeds,
He, Evil.

Both sneaky and sly,
Snide and deceptive,
So convinced of his inerrancy,
Believe himself invincible he does,
He, Evil.

Worshipped today
By all the disenchanted
He's been deceiving,
Ultimately deposed he'll be,
He, Evil.

Good on him,
He'll lose face,
And so bad the hurt,
Bugger off he will,
He, Evil.

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Sunshine and Wings

I made this graphic a very long time ago and I hope, today, it brings eyecandy to your soul and lifts your spirits in these shady and troubled times we're all going through. Let's wake up the chloroformed butterfly within, bursting to emerge from its chrysalis.

No colour is more cheerful than yellow. Being the colour of sunshine, celebration and joy, it has the ability to comfort and brighten any place. Yellow truly is a warm and inspiring colour. Like the sun shining his soothing, life-inducing rays on Earth, yellow is the colour of life and movement. (source)

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Thrive: What on Earth Will It Take?

THRIVE is an inspiring over two-hour long unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what's REALLY going on in our world by following the money upstream — uncovering the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives. Weaving together breakthroughs in science, consciousness and activism, THRIVE offers real solutions, empowering us with unprecedented and bold strategies for reclaiming our lives and our future. Here below you'll find the official version in English, but if English is not your mother tongue, you may want to view on the Thrive Movement channel on YouTube where it's available in 27 languages (10 overdubbed, 19 subtitled) and also you'll be able to watch in full view. Even if you believe you know everything there is to know about this world already (well, some people actually do), you may still learn fascinating stuff such as the toroid infinitely renewable energy pattern commonly throughout the whole universe both in the micro-cosmos and macro-cosmos, the existing free energies which have been suppressed, and many other things. Watch it in episodes if you may, but do not ignore this wonder. I'll say no more, make you own idea but watching it thoroughly.

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Apathy Child

Wild-eyed,
Mind-controlled,
Pill-addicted
Apathy child
Of the Ark of the Inconvenant,
Marianne, daughter of Joan
Of the Cavalry,
Below the Arch
Of her mother
Burnt to ashes,
Silently lays
Her bruising blue,
Shroud white,
Blood red
Wreath.

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