Andre Gide - "Be faithful to that which exists within yourself."
Also...I have to admit my dirty secret. I freaking, freaking, freaking LOVE Harlequins. Crammed between my David Sedaris, Jonathon Franzen, and the History of Canadian Economics you'll find:
My thoughts? Well, it's CHOCKED full of bad French cliches and expressions, the heroine has the same sense of logic as a spatula, and there's little plot but lots of 'romantic' scenes that border on the pornagraphic. To sume up, I have to say it was one of the best books I've read this year. Perfect braincandy.
Seriously, I love this shit.
I spent years never admitting to it - but something changed in my life. I was working at the uni and I remember being in a meeting where a group of academics were sitting around doing the all time competitive sport, 'How much I don't watch television'.
'I rarely watch television, maybe once a week.'
'When I do, it's limited because I don't have cable.'
'I don't own a television so I wouldn't know.'
'I've never even heard of television.'
I remember my boss, who had her doctorate from Harvard just piping up. 'Well, I do have a television and every single night I come home and watch 'The Simpsons' and I also try to catch 'Southpark' when I can.'.
I think that's when I fell in love with her.
Well, for one, it's pirate day at my grandniece's school.
And second, I don't hate PETA today. (We have a very, VERY tumultuous relationship.) I don't hate them because they got KFC Canada to change the way in which they raise and slaughters their chickens.
But OMG, they also got them to introduce a Vegan Chicken.
Seriously, it's like a dream come freakin' true. As you all know, I'm not someone who's a big meat eater but unfortunately the two things that keep me from becoming a vegetarian are bacon and KFC...and it's not the chicken I'm addicted to, it's the freaking secret coating.
So, now I get tofu covered in KFC? oh fuck off. Now, someone invent a GOOD veggie bacon and I'll be a very happy vegetarian.
I'm really happy about this. It's one of the things that makes my life easier because unless you go to a restaurant that caters to vegetarians, half the time your choice on the menu is salad, bread or olives .
As David Alexander of the Toronto Vegetarian Association says,
YES! Give us more choice!
So I read over at Shatnerian's about this senior's choir called Young @ Heart that sings contemporary(ish) songs such as 'I Want to Be Sedated', 'Stayin' Alive', etc. As John says the result is quirky and wonderful.
I went to youtube myself to see more of their songs and I came across 'Downtown'. The lyrics were so shockingly age appropriate that it seemed as if their entire generation had claimed such ownership that no one under 70 would ever be allowed to sing this song.
I'm thinking how interesting it is when songs are transplanted. We've all heard covers of songs put into different context - move it out of their original music genre or culture which puts a different twist on the lyrics and music This definately does the same, by giving a song over to a different generation, it puts it into a whole different light. The reality of and 80 year old how has a lot of history and maybe not so much time, gives these songs a beautiful new meaning. Especially the next song I watched was Coldplay's 'Fix'. As stated on the youtube description, there's a rather sad story behind this performance.
The performer here is Fred Knittle, who suffers from congestive heart failure. This song was intended to be a duet between Fred and another chorus member, Bob Salvini. Sadly, Bob died of a heart attack and it was left to Fred to carry the song on his own.
Other songs, however, merely have a charm because of how oddly displaced the words in the mouths of seniors, including, ironically enough, David Bowie's 'Golden Years'. But that's not to discount the wonderfulness of hearing 'I Will Survive' on a violin.
Last week I finished ”Tis’, the sequel to ‘Angela’s Ashes’. I got to say I think I kind of liked it more than ”A.A.’
Angela’s Ashes was great in the sense that it was almost a historical document - what’s it like to grow up poor in Ireland during the late 30 to early 50’s - with an alcoholic father. Of course I enjoyed the story and the humour - but I liked how in ‘Tis’ Frank’s personality starts coming through. In the earlier novel he really is a bit of a pawn, a faceless player in all the drama that is happening around him. I’m not saying that he has no personality, but he’s not too much in charge of his life and I recognize that has a lot to do with the fact that he’s a child in 90% of the book and not really too in control of his destiny.
But in ‘Tis’ you can really see the way he develops and starts to take control of his own life. He goes from hapless poor and naive immigrant (even though the US is the land of his birth) to a man with a career and realized dreams.
His personality really shows through and he’s not as pure or good as he is in Angela’s Ashes. He gets angry, he’s conflicted about making commitments, he’s frustrated with his job, he drinks, he gets angry at his mom…etc. I LIKE that so much, he’s actual a real person in this book.
I also really liked the ’struggling to make it in a new city’ aspect - which is what I went through in 1984 when I moved to Toronto. I related to a lot of the faux pas and troubles he went through in this.
As an extra bonus, I had no idea that his brother Malachy was a famous radio personality and has written books himself. So I’m off to read the other brother’s books as soon as I can.
What is your favorite scent or smell and why?
Submitted by Nebraska Plates.
Lilacs...remind me of my grandmother's house. Yes, it's the cheesiest answer ever.
I borrowed ‘Angela’s Ashes’ from my mother in law back in November (does it REALLY take me 2 months to read a freakin’ book?). Her and her sister warned me that it’d be super depressing and did I really want to read it.
Okay, it’s not a 100% happy story, but maybe I’ve read too much Irish literature because I didn’t actually GET depressed. Sure it was sad enough, but it’s a great story about life in Ireland during the 30’s/40’s and certainly is a testimony to the human spirit to overcome god awful conditions. As he says in the book, it’s a wonder they survived childhood at all.
The only thing that really got to me was the father’s drinking, but I think that just comes of having had dealt with an alcoholic before in my own life (NOT my father though)….that waiting for someone to come home and knowing they’ll be drunk.
But you know what was weird? I kept reading the book in an Irish accent. That’s so messed up. I don’t know why I do that with some books. I do it when I read books about the Carribean - I start reading in a Jamacian accent. Maybe I’m just a freak.
At least I’m not B.E.W.B. (Being English while Britney)’
My friend Lisa in Japan sent me a book that I normally wouldn't have picked up as it's a suspense/mystery novel Out- A Nove' by Natsuo Kirino. Well, thank God she did because it was one of the best reads I've had in a long time.
I just finished it last night and am still kind of dazed by it.
The story was totally up my alley. I don't know how gruesome I found it, but it was pretty disturbing....but a disturbing that I kind of liked if that makes any sense. You know, fucked up and dark but in a good way.
What I'm kind of impressed by is how at the end, that last little bit how I could 'get' what Masaku and Sato were feeling. I could understand their need to share in that one final moment with someone. Both of their lives were extremely hollow and empty and in need of some stimulus or some extreme intimacy with someone else.
I'm kind of shocked that I could understand why they would feel like this, and I think that's why I really dig this book. It's written so that you can almost feel what the characters are feeling.
I'd love to recommend this book to everyone, but I think some scenes would be a bit too much for some people. It's a bit similar to if you asked someone which is scarier, clowns or aliens, it would depend on the person which response you would.
Personally, I wish I had never seen 'Silence of the Lambs', or indeed heard anything of it. I put off by the idea of serial killers and cannibalism, for some reason. So the caveat I will offer when I recommend this book is that if you are put off by murder with a side order for rape or by dismemberment - this book is not for you.
If you are game, then Out will offer you some very great cat and mouse games, interiguing dective work (although it seems to end abruptly and I assumed it would come into play again at the end.)and just all around noir genre writing.
Finally, I *believe* this is the first adult Japanese fiction I've read (although I could be wrong) and I have to say it's sparked an interest. I really like the way Kirino describes the everyday life of the four women in the book, which gave me side of Japan that I don't think I've been exposed to before. (I mentioned to Lisa that I also really dig the way she writes about the women dealing with a corpse - after the initial shock, it because just another messy household chore that housewives have to dea with.) So I'll definitely be buying more Kirino books and am really looking forward to reading Norwegin Wood by Haruki Murakami, which is the other book Lisa sent me.
So two thumbs up for 'Out' and for Lisa!
So the niece and I decided to check out a couple of the installations from Nuit Blanche on Saturday night. Those of you unfamiliar, Nuit Blanche started in Paris and this is the second year that Toronto has done it. It's billed here as 'an all night art thing'.
From 7:30 pm to 7 am there are a hundred art installations in three areas of Toronto. I'm blessed by the fact that I live right smack dab in the middle of one of those areas so that the niece and I could at least look at some. (Our run for the cure was the next morning, so we couldn't spend more that a little time looking at it.).
But children, this is what you really need to hear.
On the north side of Stanley Park, there is a children's play park with swings, slides, etc. One artist, Simla Civelek turned one of the swings into a Wish Swing.
It was wrapped in silver fabric and covered in fairy lights. You were invited to take a number and take a turn on the swing.
Who could resist?
When my turn came, this lovely woman with a Birmingham accent took me to tent and asked me to select my music for the swing. You couldn't select by song, but rather by a number. So I selected 977. She put a cd into a player and then into a big fuzzy white bag that I ended up throwing over my shoulder.
I was taken to the swing and then Simla came to me wearing a white wedding dress and a crown of fairy lights. She was absolutly gorgeous with lovely curly/wavy dark hair and dark eyes. She wore silver nailpolish and silver lipstick. She told me to think of a dream that I've always had while she pushed me on the swing.
She pushed the play button on the player and began to push me.
It looked like this.
Imagine. It's night time in a playground, the weather is perfect - not hot nor cold and there's not a lot of traffic going by so it's kind of quiet. You're on a swing covered in silver and lights, listening to a beautiful song and dreaming of your biggest dream while a beautiful woman pushes you higher and higher.
It was incredible. It'll never happen again, but I'm so happy that I could do that once in my life. It was like being in a surreal movie.
At the end she took me back to the tent, but we went to the back half of it and sat on a bench. She asked me if I wanted to hear something. Of course I agreed and she picked up a book and read me a passage of poetry. At the end, she wrote down the name of the music I listened to on a black piece of paper in silver pen .
You can hear the music here:
She then asked me for a word that would make me think of my dream - which she wrote on the other side of the paper.
I think about this whole experience when I go to bed at night now. It was very strange/beautiful.
Nuit Blanche has made me fall in love with my city all over again and I honestly think this is the best festival we put on. I heard complaints on the street that it's commercialized art and that the whole even is more of a party than art.
Get over yourselves.
The park across the street from me had Japanese animation show sunrise to sunset, the south side of Stanley Park had a baseball diamond pitch covereted to a starry night where you could sit on blankets and sleeping bags and look up, and the CAMH had a giant carpet designed like a road running up along one of it's car paths. When we walked past it, a girl asked us if we would like a piece of carpet. Like you have to even ASK.
It was beautiful and fun - so again, get over yourselves.
Even the moon had fun.
Each year I particpate in the CIBC Run for the Cure. This is a 5K run that I do in order to help raise funds for breast cancer research and education.
I've been very fortunate to have very generous people support me each year to raise thousands of dollars.
It's become a very important cause to me as I've personally seen how this research actually does save lives and let's victims of breast cancer survive and thrive. You're donations really do make a difference.
This year my goal is to raise $1,500 and my personal running goal is to ...well...just be able to run the entire 5K...lol. (Yeah, aging knees and back are complaining this year.)
If you'd like to support me, you can make an online donation here or send me an email if you'd like to donate by cheque or cash.
Thanks so much for your help.
Jacqueline
Okay, so there's mixed reaction to the Soprano's ending out there and I eagerly read the papers and reviews this morning. Then I thought, and thought, and thought.
I got to say, I'm still maintaining that it was a bad ending. What I have changed my mind on is that it was a 'lazy' ending.
It wasn't a lazying ending, it was an ending without courage. Let's face it, there was only two ways to end the show, with a bang or a fade to black. Either something big happens (Tony dies) or he lives and life goes on as normal. What we got was a bang to black.
As the minutes got closer and closer to the hour mark, I kept expecting the show to fade out with some deep words, as when Pauly comments on how he's there to serve or when Uncle Junior's only comment about past mafia glory is 'That's nice'.
However, the show took us to the family dinner at a very public restaurant, where one assumes it'll be a fade-to-black, life-goes-on kind of ending. But wait, there's a mysterious stranger that keeps looking Tony's way. Maybe this is it. But with only a minute left in the show, even I knew it couldn't just end with Tony being popped like that.
So we see Tony lift his head, Meadow walk in the door and blank. The end.
Write your own ending. Did it go to blank because Tony's life extinguishes? Maybe...but then again, the camera angle up to that point wasn't from Tony's view...but sometimes it was.. mmm. And who's this stranger? Mafia? FBI trailing Tony? Just a fan?
It's all so ambiguous!
And this is where I take exception. It's like the writers were not quite up to make a decision on how to end the series, so they decided to shock us by giving us no ending. They knew it would be talked about, without having to face criticisms on a real ending. I'm sure it can be argued that the 'blank screen' ending is opening themselves up for criticism alone, but I think discussion how 'what really happened' and even the artistic meaning behind the abrupt ending will show override it.
I just keep feeling it was such a nothing ending. Even if they had just faded out as the family is eating, at least there would be a sense of life goes on.
But then again, I used to hate those 'Write Your Own Adventure' books.
I'll be one of those ladies singing Nirvana songs. Smells Like Teen Spirit, perhaps? ;o) read more
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