For Everyone We Lost This Year

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and, in the wake of the AirAsia debris being discovered, I've been thinking a lot about all of the people we lost this year.  I've always preferred to use the expression "passed on" when referring to dying because I personally/spiritually don't believe this life is the only one we have (one of the most important people in my life passed on unexpectedly when I was little, and I feel she is still very much here), but, however you put it, loss is still an incredibly heartbreaking thing. 
This song is a dedication to everyone who passed on this year, young or old, near or far.

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World"

<3 Frances

Underwater Photoshoots, etc.

These photographs were taken underwater at a shipwreck near Bali.  How cool is that?  Plus, the models' dresses are really distressed and beautiful.  It's like a dark, ethereal take on Ariel the Little Mermaid (not that the original version of the fairy tale wasn't already dark enough!).
 You can find more info on this shoot at Lost At E Minor. 

In non-photography-related news, I'm seriously distraught over the missing AirAsia plane.  After Malaysia Flight 370 went missing earlier this year, I was traumatized but assumed that such a thing would hopefully never occur again.  I'm a fan of the show LOST, but when I watched it I always thought that things like passenger planes disappearing, while possible, probably didn't happen.  I'm hoping with all my heart that we find something.

<3 Frances

Pop Music Mash-Up 2014

Though I'm not necessarily a pop music person (yay indie!), I really enjoy watching the pop music mash-ups put together at the end of every year.  This is "Pop Danthology," compiled by Daniel Kim.

Happy Saturday!

<3 Frances

2014 Review: Events

Oh, wow...four more days! 

Some really happy things (Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi share the Nobel Peace Prize) and some really terrible things (Malaysia Flight 370 disappears) happened this year.  Here's a brief rundown of 2014's events, as seen on Wikipedia:

January

• January 1 – Latvia officially adopts the euro as its currency and becomes the 18th member of the Eurozone.

February

• February–ongoing – The Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa begins, infecting over 19,000 people and killing at least 7,000 people, the most severe both in terms of numbers of infections and casualties.
• February 7–23 – The XXII Olympic Winter Games are held in Sochi, Russia.
• February 13 – Belgium becomes the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia for terminally ill patients of any age.
• February 22 – The Ukrainian parliament votes to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from office, replacing him with Oleksandr Turchynov, after days of civil unrest left around 100 people dead in Kiev.
• February 26–ongoing – The pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine leads to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and an insurgency in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

March

• March 5 – Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, severs diplomatic and political ties with Panama, accusing Panama of being involved in a conspiracy against the Venezuelan government.
• March 8 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 airliner en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, disappears over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board. The aircraft is presumed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean.
• March 16 – A referendum on the status of Crimea is held.
• March 21 – Russia formally annexes Crimea after President Vladimir Putin signed a bill finalizing the annexation process.
• March 24 – During an emergency meeting, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, and Canada temporarily suspend Russia from the G8.
• March 27 – The United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 68/262, recognizing Crimea within Ukraine’s international borders and rejecting the validity of the 2014 Crimean referendum.
• March 31 – The United Nations International Court of Justice rules that Japan's Antarctic whaling program is not scientific but commercial and forbids grants of further permits.

April

• April 10 – In response to the 2014 Crimean crisis, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passes a resolution to temporarily strip Russia of its voting rights; its rights to be represented in the Bureau of the Assembly, the PACE Presidential Committee, and the PACE Standing Committee; and its right to participate in election-observation missions.
• April 14 – An estimated 276 girls and women are abducted and held hostage from a school in Nigeria.
• April 16 – Korean ferry MV Sewol capsizes and sinks after an unmanageable cargo shift, killing more than 290 people, mostly high school students.
• April 27 – The Catholic Church simultaneously canonizes Popes John XXIII and John Paul II.
• April 28 – United States President Barack Obama's new economic sanctions against Russia go into effect, targeting companies and individuals close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

May

• May 5
• The World Health Organization identifies the spread of poliomyelitis in at least 10 countries as a major worldwide health emergency.
• Boko Haram militants kill approximately 300 people in a night attack on Gamboru Ngala.
• May 20 – Terrorists in Nigeria detonate bombs at Jos, killing 118 people.
• May 22 – The Royal Thai Army overthrows the caretaker government of Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan after a failure to resolve the political unrest in Thailand.

June

• June 5–ongoing – A Sunni militant group called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (also known as the ISIS or ISIL) begins an offensive through northern Iraq, aiming to capture the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad and overthrow the Shiite government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
• June 12 – July 13 – The 2014 FIFA World Cup is held in Brazil, and is won by Germany.
• June 19 – King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicates in favor of his son, who ascends the Spanish throne as King Felipe VI.

July

• July 8–August 26 – Amid growing tensions between Israel and Hamas following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June and the revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager in July, Israel launches Operation Protective Edge on the Palestinian Gaza Strip starting with numerous missile strikes, followed by a ground invasion a week later. In 7 weeks of fighting, 2,100 Palestinians and 71 Israelis are killed.
• July 17
• After a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire, Israel confirms the beginning of a ground offensive in Gaza.
• Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes in eastern Ukraine after being shot down by a missile. All 298 people on board are killed.
• July 21 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2166 in response to the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.
• July 24 – Air Algérie Flight 5017 crashes in Mali, killing all 116 people on board.

August

• August 7 – Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan are found guilty of crimes against humanity and are sentenced to life imprisonment by the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
• August 8 – The United States military begins an air campaign in northern Iraq to stem the influx of ISIS militants.

September

• September 22 – The United States and several Arab partners begin their airstrike campaign in Syria.
• September 26 – The 2014 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, to be held in Cape Town from 13 to 15 October, is suspended after a boycott of Nobel Laureates to protest the third time refusal of a visa to the 14th Dalai Lama by a South African Government "kowtowing to China".

October

• October 19 – The Roman Catholic Church beatifies Pope Paul VI.
• October 31 – Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré resigns after widespread protests in response to the attempt in abolishing presidential term limits.

November

• November 2 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the final part of its Fifth Assessment Report, warning that the world faces "severe, pervasive and irreversible" damage from global emissions of CO2.
• November 12 – The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe successfully lands on Comet 67P, the first time in history that a spacecraft has landed on such an object.

December

• December 17 – U.S. President Barack Obama announces the resumption of normal relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

<3 Frances

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  Warmest wishes to everyone, regardless of whether or not this particular holiday is one you celebrate.

Lissie: "2,000 Miles" (Cover of The Pretenders)

<3 Frances 

2014 Review: Movies

2014 was a big year in film.  Here's a little wrap-up of some (not all!) of its most buzzed-about features.  Chances are, more will be added as we get to see more films....

<3 Frances

2014 Review: Music

There are only eight days left to 2014.  Eight days.  That's approximately 192 more hours until 2015 arrives.   #wow
In honor of this particular period of 365 days, we've compiled some of its significant events, and today we're posting about some of our favorite 2014 music.  Check back later for movies, events, etc...
 

 

Taylor Swift: "Blank Space"

 

Charli XCX: "Boom Clap"

Sam Smith: "Stay With Me"

Lykke Li: "I Never Learn"

Lana Del Rey: "Cruel World"

Sia: "Chandelier"

Lorde: "Yellow Flicker Beat"

<3 Frances

Shop for Charity

With the holiday season comes a lot of online shopping, but now all those purchases can be for the greater good.  The next time you order from Amazon, use smile.amazon.com, and 0.5% of every purchase will be donated to the charitable organization of your choice!

<3 Frances

Holidays

We are on winter holidays now, so I thought that the time might be right for some holiday music...just to get everyone in the holiday spirit :).

Trans-Siberian Orchestra: "Christmas Eve and Other Stories"

<3 Frances

One Week Until Christmas, etc.

Among many other things, there is one week left until Christmas, I'm surrounded by midterms, and the state of the world continues to be in a state of flux where some things are wonderfully good (Chernobyl Children International's trip to Dublin, for instance) and other things are unimaginably, heart-wrenchingly terrible (like the recent school shooting).
I want to send a virtual hug (image from Chibird) to the world. 

I also want to share some holiday music.  Doses of seasonal cheer can help make things better sometimes.  Not perfect, necessarily, but better.  So here's Bruce Springsteen...

<3 Frances

Russian Fashion Week

Paris Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week...wow.  There are a lot of weeks dedicated to clothing, aren't there?  Well, here's another to add to your watchlist: Russian Fashion Week.

Welcome to Moscow.

<3 Frances