15 December 2005

fin.

so. one year, one blog later.
i've dealt with some strange characters, become reacquainted with old Friends, had an adventure or two, found Two Great jobs, did a piece of art or fifty, did a bit of important thinking, had an interesting debate or two, or three, battled demons, moved, thought about books, read some interesting things in books, set my ass on fire, thought about human failings, dressed well,and delved some more into the profound language of self-identity.

and that's enough of that. without further hesitation, i now withdraw from blogland, for the time being, anyhow, to take my happy meanderings elsewhere. dear reader(s), thank you for your patronage.

06 December 2005

Crowego

EH, our new (and as yet unqueried as to prefered blog identity) Brick Office Sprite, proffered this to me today, after a recent discussion 'bout, (three guesses), books.
it is SOOO rare that i like any poetry. unless it's ee cummings, Lewis Carroll, or from Stephen Crane's Black Riders, the best book of poetry EVER written. but this, i love.
edification to follow:

Crow followed Ulysses until he turned
As a worm, which Crow ate.

Grappling with Hercules' two puff-adders
He strangled in error Dejanira.

The gold melted out of Hercules' ashes
Is an electrode in Crow's brain.

Drinking Beowulf's blood, and wrapped in his hide,
Crow communes with poltergeists out of old ponds.

His wings are the stiff back of his only book,
Himself the only page - of solid ink.

So he gazes into the quag of the past
Like a gypsy into the crystal of the future,

Like a leopard into a fat land.


Ted Hughes.

11 down, 5 to go.

and on and on i draw...

magnet mania.

Madame Gerard and I spent our evening yesterday discussing printing methods, comic books, and then making fridge magnets at the Cameron House for the second installment of the fridge magnet making extravaganza. all i know is the organizer's name is Lise, the website (click above) is anutforajaroftuna.com, and the evening was Lovely.


word of the day.

a few years ago i spent some of my time chasing around paltry pay cheques by doing extras work for film and all that. it was this word that prefaced every role description (so to speak) i got for work. when this was required, i was the first number on the list.
and today, today, dear reader(s), i finally find out what it means.


Today's Word: Funky (Adjective)

Pronunciation: ['fung-kee]

Definition 1: (1) Cowardly (1837 Dickens), (2) depressed, or (3) smelling of old and moldy cheese. The November 1954 issue of Time Magazine referred to "Funky, authentic, swinging blues, down to earth, smelling of earth." Today its meaning is very diffuse but is, roughly: authentic, less than fresh, earthy, in the broadest senses of these terms.

Usage 1: Today's word is used frequently but the meaning is difficult to pin down; we have attempted a brief survey of the possibilities above. The adjective may be compared (funkier, funkiest) and the adverb is "funkily." The noun may be "funk" or "funkiness."

04 December 2005

the cretin centre and the useless quest.

went to the open house for the Gladstone Hotel yesterday and it really was amazing. the Gladstone has been renovated, or revitalized, rather, according to the original building plans, and it looks Totally BEEAUUUTTIFFFUULLL. the rooms, for those not in the know, are individually designed by a whack of toronto artists and they include everything from fun-fur garden of eden murals to bookish early 20th century hideaways to buzzing brothel closets, to an easy rider theme room to fluorescent bright canadiana; take your pick.
they are going to have to handle it like Japan handles its love hotels: with a wall of illuminated photographs of the rooms from which patrons take their pick. but honestly, HOW MUCH did it make me want to be affluent enough to give up my little apartment and live by room hopping there?
this of course brings up the concern of how in effect this would be possible, given my antipathy towards all things that money tends to gravitate towards, from useless jobs, to (some) useless people, to useless objects.

which brings me to today's useless quest.

i decided today to try to love the eaton centre. somehow. at least for the 14 or so minutes i was condemned to wander through there, on a quest for a phone battery.
how can millions of people be wrong, afterall? i'm a little tired of the constant "it's all evil" shtick about these huge consumerist places. (even if it is all evil) it keeps things going...it keeps my jobs going, it keeps me (vaguely) making art...let's face it, people wouldn't make things if noone were buying...

but then i found myself accidentally tipping over an electronic rotating tie rack (oh,no, i'm NOT kidding) and somehow, somehow i lost my resolve to be tolerant.

02 December 2005

google image search.

doing research this morning, looking for pictures of circus MC's for reference, and who is one of the pocketful number of hits i get but some guy i went to university with 10(!) years ago. i had Totally forgotten, he did some fire performance for us during a festive night of revellry at Liberal Arts College. weird small googl-ish world.

01 December 2005

aaahhh, Rochdale.

as if TPM and Coach House and Houselink as well aren't enough, my mum revealed to me tonight that she used to make a weekly pilgrimage from Etobicoke to Rochdale (to a health food store that existed in that building in the 70's) so get the almonds and unhulled sesame seeds (or some such thing) with which she made my baby formula.
it's like some weird preordained thing, isn't it, the whole Rochdale connection. weird weird.