Category: Uncategorized

The weather has turned so very strange in the past couple days. It’s super-hot for November, more like the end of September, and people are turned out in the oddest ways. I saw a man tonight at the movies wearing a French-inspired black and white striped long sleeved shirt with a pair of black racing shorts. This was his date attire. He got up this morning, felt the sun come in through the window and decided to cross dress between Lance Armstrong and the mime on the corner in Montreal.

Annnywaaay. I went to see Prime tonight with Wing Chun. You know, I was totally afraid that it would be another complete let–down, but it wasn’t. It’s not a great picture by any means, but it’s solid, and has a funny script. Bryan Greenberg (ah, Jake!) is super-hot, and Meryl Streep is excellent as per usual. Uma’s a bit flat, but I’m not her biggest fan (Kill Bill obviously excluded).

The film turns the whole May-December romance stereotypes inwards as a much older woman (37!), just divorced, falls for a very young man (23!), and they have a complex, but rewarding relationship. He’s in love for the first time; she’s in love after a very long time. The one problem? His mother is her therapist. But it’s not slapstick, even though it could be. It’s kind of tender and sweet, and it shows how love sort of happens and then you have to deal with the fall out. I liked it even better than P.S., which has the same theme: young artist falls in love with older, influential woman.

Hell, and Bryan Greenberg is super, duper, duper hot. I don’t care what EW says.

Is it wrong of me to think of this as somehow anti-Canadian in some way? I can understand how thinking that Harry Potter might have some sort of fallout for the Winnipeg band in terms of how huge a machine it actually is, but is it really going to adversely affect their careers in any way? And so what if it does?

The whole thing reeks of money grubbing to me, but that’s just me—I suppose they’re really worried about their artistic integrity. But that’s a big supposition, in my opinion…

Ouch. This re-design sort of scares me, and was it necessary?

That someone put him up on wikipedia. How cute is that? He’ll be so happy to hear that Austin Powers is number one and he’s number two. So. Cute!

One of my favourite quasi-academic topics is Shakespeare, or rather, the debate surrounding his identity. Who was that masked man, allegorically, of course? Bookninja sent me over to a fun article in the NY Times this week that puts forth a newish-oldish debate about Shakespeare’s religion, and that he was a closet Catholic. Considering he wrote in Elizabethan England, that’s actually kind of interesting to think about.

If I had any inclination to go back to grad school, I might actually think about examining some of his plays in light of the theory. How differently might they be read? I know, it’s early in the morning. Just ignore me if I’ve already put you back to sleep.

Oh, and just for fun, here are a couple of articles I’ve written about the Shakespeare question, two of my favourites: one from my old work and one on Chicklit.

We had one kid come to our door last night. One poor lonely little ghost with a plastic pumpkin. I almost gave him the entire bowl of candy because who wants it hanging around the house?

I suppose it’s my own fault, considering I had an appointment during prime Halloween trick-or-treating time. But still, one kid? Now I’m stuck with 150 pieces of candy and no RRBF to eat them.

Next year I’ll do it up right. Maybe I’ll even remember to change the outdoor light bulb so they know I’m sitting there on the steps with a big bowl of candy for them.

My very first royalty cheque arrived in the mail today. What a welcome surprise. Especially because today I started crying spontaneously at work because I felt so bad. I’m working from home tomorrow. And I think I might call the doctor and see if he has any suggestions as per why I’m feeling so rotten.

I have emailed long lost friends, answered the phone every time it rings (three calls from my RRBF, three other calls (two wrong numbers and one firm doing market research). All in an attempt to avoid writing. How do you procrastinate?

I’ve been actively grading the songs in my iTunes Party Shuffle as well, pretending that’s work. The last few to come up:

1. Mr. Brightside, The Killers (four stars)
2. Take It Or Leave It, The Strokes (three stars)
3. Hey Ladies, The Beastie Boys (two stars [I’m in a mood!])
4. The Future Hangs, Cuff the Duke (five stars)
5. Please Don’t Make Me Cry, UB40 (four stars)
6. Countdown Our Days, Fembots (five stars)

I’ve watched a couple episodes of Coronation Street, and a half an hour of Veronica Guerin.

I’ve vacuumed some, washed the tub, dusted and put away my clothes.

I’ve danced around my office to The Strokes and The Pogues. I bought Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart. Fond memories of bad high school dances.

I’ve written quite a few silly blog posts.

In fact, the only thing I haven’t done is take a nap&#151but don’t count that option out.

Comes via a link from Bookninja:

In the end, it didn’t quite put me off. Now I know where my novel is heading, I don’t panic when a first draft is drivel (and it is always drivel), and most of all I understand that writing is mostly a question of hard work.

That’s the part that I have trouble with, the hard work part, most of the time I want to write it and have it be done, sort of like it is with the blog.

(She says as she’s been sitting at her computer for hours revising the story for her creative writing class, looking over two poems and changing one or two words and writing more of her abridged classics).

In the attempt to procrastinate even more regarding my abridged versions, I’ve just sent off some poems to Contemporary Verse 2. Judging from the big, fat rejection I got from The Fiddlehead, I’m not hopeful, but am going through the motions if only to develop a thicker skin. I sent 4 poems off: “January (My Violent Heart)”, “April”, “Born in the Sign of July” and “October’s Teenage Wasteland.” I’ll keep you posted if and when I hear anything.