Packing for two months into something I can carry on my back is frusturating.
Being home has been nice. We drove to Grand Bend. Partyed on the beach. Drank copious amounts of whiskey. Danced at a bar to Rage Against the Machine.
In London I've been running errands and organizing. Looking through old pictures and getting nostalgic about everything.
Tomorrow the summer really begins. The roomate and I leave for a two month Israel/Europe adventure.
Jerusalem. Tel-Aviv. London. Edinburgh. Dublin. Amsterdam. Berlin. Prague. Vienna. Venice. Naples. Rome. Florence. Pisa. Nice. Avignon. Barcelona. Paris.
I hope to have many stories of adventure and misadventure which I shall impart to you upon my return in August.
Song: Summertime cover by Sublime
Film: Before Sunrise and Before Sunset- Richard Linklater
Cultural Artifact: (band) Angry Agency (rip)
Monday, June 9, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
updatez.
The show was amazing. We drove down in a rainstorm. I stood gazing up at my heroes on stage and they rocked so hard. The crowd was excited and there was movement and screaming along with the words and 'wao ohs'. It was cathartic. I found myself singing along until my voice hurt and pushing my way forward until my entire body was in pain. Wow Coheed and Cambria tottally rock. I was not dissapointed. I spent a few more days in Toronto. I had pitchers of beer with attractive boys. I read. I walked around. I took the subway a million times to many different places. I saw a boy reading Nietzsche on the subway. I spent some time with my family and got some stuff together for the trip. I drove back to London and am just packing up and organizing my life. I saw a band Angry Agency and drunkenly danced for like 23 seconds at a gay nightclub. It was a werid night. Today I need to start conquering the list.
My trip begins in only three days. We fly to Israel, spend a few days there visiting my sister and some friends and then have six weeks backpacking through Europe. It's insane. I'm really excited about it but also a bit nervous. The End.
Song: Beastie Boys - In a world gone Mad
Film: The Princess Bride - Rob Reiner
Cultural Artifact: (book) Darkness at Noon.
My trip begins in only three days. We fly to Israel, spend a few days there visiting my sister and some friends and then have six weeks backpacking through Europe. It's insane. I'm really excited about it but also a bit nervous. The End.
Song: Beastie Boys - In a world gone Mad
Film: The Princess Bride - Rob Reiner
Cultural Artifact: (book) Darkness at Noon.
Friday, May 30, 2008
the graduate.
"You know that awkward feeling when you're in an elevator with someone you don't know?
My life is like that all the time. Every momment in my life is an elevator momment.'
Cue to laughtrack.
I was lying in a swimming pool in Arizona (similar to California) and staring at the top of palm trees. Thinking about graduation. Listening to Simon and Garfunkle. And all of the sudden I was Benjamin Braddock. I had been reading all day about the making of the film and Mike Nichols and Dustin Hoffman.
Robert Redford auditioned for the role but Nichols said he couldn't play a loser.
Sydney Pollack died and Robert Redford is beautiful so I rented The Way We Were but it was bad because the characters were all wrong for each other. It wasn't like the Hottest State or Love Story and that was the sort of movie I wanted. I wanted to fall in love with the characters on screen and cry when it didn't work out. It didn't happen.
I watched Lars and the Real Girl which was like Harvey. Ryan Goseling is a great actor but he's not Jimmy Stewart. Harvey was like Donnie Darko but Lars was not like Donnie Darko at all. This is possible. None of those movies are like Southland Tales. But nothing is.
Spencer Tracy's acting method: learn your lines and don't bump into anything.
Val Kilmer said that if Chuck Klosterman studied method acting than he could presumably act like Val Kilmer better than Val Kilmer himself.
I watched Notorious and Ingrid Bergman was beautiful and classy and I loved the film. Carry Grant was overshadowed. I was glad. He gets too much credit sometimes. Sassy and suave.
The thing to remember about Ginger Rogers is that she did everything that Fred Astaire did but backwards and in heals. I think about this statement far more than I should.
In the video store in London they have a section called Classics and one called Drama. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) was in classics while the Graduate and Guess Who's comming to dinner (both 1967) were in drama. When I asked the video store employee what requirements a film has to have to be in classics he said "well, they have to be old, like the sound of music or something". Eraserhead was in the comedy section. I hate video rental stores.
Indiana Jones 4 was a fun movie. Harrison Ford has a lot of class too. I think he and Ingrid Bergman would make a great couple (minus the age difference). Connection: Harrison Ford played Linus in Sabrina and Humphrey Bogart played that character in the origional a few years after he was in Casablanca with Ingrid Bergman. Best on-screen couple? No way. I think Bogart was always meant to be with Lauren Becall.
Six degrees of seperation was a movie where Will Smith pretended to be Sydney Portiers son. I think that is weird. I watched it on TV once.
I like movies from the 1940s better than movies from the 1960s but I am working on it.
I read a book by David Sedaris.
I am using popular culture to avoid personal drama and post-college angst.
But for some reason I am using popular culture that isn't really popular anymore.
History means always living in the past. But old Hollywood movies live forever.
Isn't that the point of Sunset Blvd.?
I only really like music that I liked five years ago. But old movies give me a sense of nostalgia the way classic rock never will.
The Graduate is an excellent movie. But it was better when I read about it and thought about its meaning. Sometimes art has meaning. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes its mindless escapist entertainment. But perhaps, there isn't anything wrong with that.
Song: The Gladiators - Title Unknown (this is not the name of the song...I genuinely have no idea what it is called)
Film: Son of Rambow
Cultural Artifact: a live-action Archie comixs movie. Hello Hollywood Blockbuster?
My life is like that all the time. Every momment in my life is an elevator momment.'
Cue to laughtrack.
I was lying in a swimming pool in Arizona (similar to California) and staring at the top of palm trees. Thinking about graduation. Listening to Simon and Garfunkle. And all of the sudden I was Benjamin Braddock. I had been reading all day about the making of the film and Mike Nichols and Dustin Hoffman.
Robert Redford auditioned for the role but Nichols said he couldn't play a loser.
Sydney Pollack died and Robert Redford is beautiful so I rented The Way We Were but it was bad because the characters were all wrong for each other. It wasn't like the Hottest State or Love Story and that was the sort of movie I wanted. I wanted to fall in love with the characters on screen and cry when it didn't work out. It didn't happen.
I watched Lars and the Real Girl which was like Harvey. Ryan Goseling is a great actor but he's not Jimmy Stewart. Harvey was like Donnie Darko but Lars was not like Donnie Darko at all. This is possible. None of those movies are like Southland Tales. But nothing is.
Spencer Tracy's acting method: learn your lines and don't bump into anything.
Val Kilmer said that if Chuck Klosterman studied method acting than he could presumably act like Val Kilmer better than Val Kilmer himself.
I watched Notorious and Ingrid Bergman was beautiful and classy and I loved the film. Carry Grant was overshadowed. I was glad. He gets too much credit sometimes. Sassy and suave.
The thing to remember about Ginger Rogers is that she did everything that Fred Astaire did but backwards and in heals. I think about this statement far more than I should.
In the video store in London they have a section called Classics and one called Drama. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) was in classics while the Graduate and Guess Who's comming to dinner (both 1967) were in drama. When I asked the video store employee what requirements a film has to have to be in classics he said "well, they have to be old, like the sound of music or something". Eraserhead was in the comedy section. I hate video rental stores.
Indiana Jones 4 was a fun movie. Harrison Ford has a lot of class too. I think he and Ingrid Bergman would make a great couple (minus the age difference). Connection: Harrison Ford played Linus in Sabrina and Humphrey Bogart played that character in the origional a few years after he was in Casablanca with Ingrid Bergman. Best on-screen couple? No way. I think Bogart was always meant to be with Lauren Becall.
Six degrees of seperation was a movie where Will Smith pretended to be Sydney Portiers son. I think that is weird. I watched it on TV once.
I like movies from the 1940s better than movies from the 1960s but I am working on it.
I read a book by David Sedaris.
I am using popular culture to avoid personal drama and post-college angst.
But for some reason I am using popular culture that isn't really popular anymore.
History means always living in the past. But old Hollywood movies live forever.
Isn't that the point of Sunset Blvd.?
I only really like music that I liked five years ago. But old movies give me a sense of nostalgia the way classic rock never will.
The Graduate is an excellent movie. But it was better when I read about it and thought about its meaning. Sometimes art has meaning. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes its mindless escapist entertainment. But perhaps, there isn't anything wrong with that.
Song: The Gladiators - Title Unknown (this is not the name of the song...I genuinely have no idea what it is called)
Film: Son of Rambow
Cultural Artifact: a live-action Archie comixs movie. Hello Hollywood Blockbuster?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
the final countdown.
Oh Man.
Six days ago I arrive in Halifax. I buy beer. Go to a party. Then to a sketchy bar. Talk to a cougar. She tells me I'm pretty. I am terrified. I loose at pool. Badly. We go back to the hotel and have a Hotel Party.
Five days ago I stay in bed all day and watch movies. Walk in the rain. Meet up with friends. Have to a BBQ. Roll four neat small joints. We smoke. My friend (J) has a freak-out. I try to calm her down. I don't know what to do. She goes home. I feel awkward. I Loose my buzz. Walk home. Deep Reflection. Party alone in my hotel room.
Four days ago I sit in the park in the sun and read. I buy an overpriced hoodie. I have a beer on a patio with aforementioned friend J. I walk in the park. My family arrives. I am happy to see them.
Three days ago I show the family around Halifax. We walk by the ocean. It pours rain. We go to to Pier 21- The immigration museum. It's interesting. I drink hot chocolate. It becomes sunny. We walk in the park. We go out to a fancy dinner. Everything is calm.
Two days ago we go for brunch. Jane on the Commons. It's pleasant. I give family the campus tour. We go to my graduation ceremony. Eugene Levy is there. I stand in line. Listen to speeches. Watch friends and strangers walk across the stage as their name was called. I go up onstage. They mispronounce my name. I'm annoyed but excited. "Mirit -----, Honours History with a Minor in Film Studies - First Class Honours". I walk across the stage and kneel in front of a guy in a huge robe and funny hat. He holds a hat over my head. I guess I am now a university graduate. I walk across and take my diploma. I think people cheered. Then the reception. We chatted. Parents and Grandparents are proud. I said goodbyes. We take pictures. Napped at the hotel. Big dinner with the Roommate and her family. I eat fish. There was a cake. We take more pictures. The families went home and we had a martini night. We meet other friends and drank. We talk. We toasted. We decide to go to the Alehouse. We smoke a huge cuban cigar on the patio. We drink more. I go back to the hotel to sleep.
Yesterday the family left. I remain alone in Halifax as it had always been. I meet up with my friend J. We sit at her house. I listen to stupid conversations of her houseguests. We drink a beer. We go to see Bob Dylan. He sang It 'Aint Me Babe. Like a Rolling Stone. All Along the Watch Tower. Dozens of others. He mumbled. He played keyboard. He sang loud but said nothing. He had zero pretension. Not a rockstar. Not a celebrity. Just an artist. We left and I felt excited. I wanted to dance. I want a night out on the town. My last night in the city. J says no way. We go back to her house for more silly conversation and a movie. An hour later the boys call. Two best buds of the past four years. Come down to the dirty Dome they plead. It's our last night. Let's live it up. End our time in Halifax the way we started it. Drunk at 3 am on the dance floor at the club. Crash in our hotel. We'll drive you to the airport. So I ditch the friend. She is mad but I don't know what to say. I want to party and be immature and get drunk with the boys. She won't come. She thinks I'm a bitch. I take a cab downtown and chat about lesbians and Edinburgh with my Scottish cabbie. I get to the hotel. We down a few beers. Head to the Dome. We drink $2 shots. Mostly G&Tonics and Whisky Sours. When Journey comes on we dance. The boys and I are drunk and we are all ecstatic. I am nostalgic and talk about when we met four years ago. They just want to party. After three we leave. We have a last pizza corner. I get BBQ Pizza. It is delicious. We reminisce about past pizza-corner nights. We go back to the hotel room and chug water. We watch Much More Retro. It is 4. I fall asleep.
Today I wake up confused. It was 7ish. We eat breakfast. Loaded up the car. Said our goodbyes. My buddie and his family gave me a ride to the airport. (where I am now). Five hours before my flight leaves. We take care of buddie's nephew as the family checks in. He is rambunctious. I buy him a little stuffed lobster and name it Lester. He is happy. I eat Burger King. I plug in my computer. You have two messages. One is from J. She is mad that I ditched her last night for partying with boys. She is mad. She thinks I'm an immature bitch. I walk all over people. I feel horrible. Friends seem to be mad at me all the time these days. I have no balance. I am tired. I am hungover. I miss Halifax and I haven’t even left yet. I stand in line at the ticket counter and talk to one of Dylan’s roadies/groupies/cronies/people about the show. He says they are off to Newfoundland and then Rekyavik Iceland for the first time ever. I want to go with them. I don’t want to go back to Toronto. I want to spend my life following Bob Dylan concerts from city to city. Always moving. Never hurting people. Never connecting or getting nostalgic or having to say goodbye to a city after living there for a few years. Friend I feel I’ve known forever.
Life on the road. Like a Rolling Stone.
Song: Led Zeppelin – When the Levee Breaks
Film: Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008). Yes!
Cultural Artifact: Aging Hipsters – Grey Hair dreadlocks. So cool.
Six days ago I arrive in Halifax. I buy beer. Go to a party. Then to a sketchy bar. Talk to a cougar. She tells me I'm pretty. I am terrified. I loose at pool. Badly. We go back to the hotel and have a Hotel Party.
Five days ago I stay in bed all day and watch movies. Walk in the rain. Meet up with friends. Have to a BBQ. Roll four neat small joints. We smoke. My friend (J) has a freak-out. I try to calm her down. I don't know what to do. She goes home. I feel awkward. I Loose my buzz. Walk home. Deep Reflection. Party alone in my hotel room.
Four days ago I sit in the park in the sun and read. I buy an overpriced hoodie. I have a beer on a patio with aforementioned friend J. I walk in the park. My family arrives. I am happy to see them.
Three days ago I show the family around Halifax. We walk by the ocean. It pours rain. We go to to Pier 21- The immigration museum. It's interesting. I drink hot chocolate. It becomes sunny. We walk in the park. We go out to a fancy dinner. Everything is calm.
Two days ago we go for brunch. Jane on the Commons. It's pleasant. I give family the campus tour. We go to my graduation ceremony. Eugene Levy is there. I stand in line. Listen to speeches. Watch friends and strangers walk across the stage as their name was called. I go up onstage. They mispronounce my name. I'm annoyed but excited. "Mirit -----, Honours History with a Minor in Film Studies - First Class Honours". I walk across the stage and kneel in front of a guy in a huge robe and funny hat. He holds a hat over my head. I guess I am now a university graduate. I walk across and take my diploma. I think people cheered. Then the reception. We chatted. Parents and Grandparents are proud. I said goodbyes. We take pictures. Napped at the hotel. Big dinner with the Roommate and her family. I eat fish. There was a cake. We take more pictures. The families went home and we had a martini night. We meet other friends and drank. We talk. We toasted. We decide to go to the Alehouse. We smoke a huge cuban cigar on the patio. We drink more. I go back to the hotel to sleep.
Yesterday the family left. I remain alone in Halifax as it had always been. I meet up with my friend J. We sit at her house. I listen to stupid conversations of her houseguests. We drink a beer. We go to see Bob Dylan. He sang It 'Aint Me Babe. Like a Rolling Stone. All Along the Watch Tower. Dozens of others. He mumbled. He played keyboard. He sang loud but said nothing. He had zero pretension. Not a rockstar. Not a celebrity. Just an artist. We left and I felt excited. I wanted to dance. I want a night out on the town. My last night in the city. J says no way. We go back to her house for more silly conversation and a movie. An hour later the boys call. Two best buds of the past four years. Come down to the dirty Dome they plead. It's our last night. Let's live it up. End our time in Halifax the way we started it. Drunk at 3 am on the dance floor at the club. Crash in our hotel. We'll drive you to the airport. So I ditch the friend. She is mad but I don't know what to say. I want to party and be immature and get drunk with the boys. She won't come. She thinks I'm a bitch. I take a cab downtown and chat about lesbians and Edinburgh with my Scottish cabbie. I get to the hotel. We down a few beers. Head to the Dome. We drink $2 shots. Mostly G&Tonics and Whisky Sours. When Journey comes on we dance. The boys and I are drunk and we are all ecstatic. I am nostalgic and talk about when we met four years ago. They just want to party. After three we leave. We have a last pizza corner. I get BBQ Pizza. It is delicious. We reminisce about past pizza-corner nights. We go back to the hotel room and chug water. We watch Much More Retro. It is 4. I fall asleep.
Today I wake up confused. It was 7ish. We eat breakfast. Loaded up the car. Said our goodbyes. My buddie and his family gave me a ride to the airport. (where I am now). Five hours before my flight leaves. We take care of buddie's nephew as the family checks in. He is rambunctious. I buy him a little stuffed lobster and name it Lester. He is happy. I eat Burger King. I plug in my computer. You have two messages. One is from J. She is mad that I ditched her last night for partying with boys. She is mad. She thinks I'm an immature bitch. I walk all over people. I feel horrible. Friends seem to be mad at me all the time these days. I have no balance. I am tired. I am hungover. I miss Halifax and I haven’t even left yet. I stand in line at the ticket counter and talk to one of Dylan’s roadies/groupies/cronies/people about the show. He says they are off to Newfoundland and then Rekyavik Iceland for the first time ever. I want to go with them. I don’t want to go back to Toronto. I want to spend my life following Bob Dylan concerts from city to city. Always moving. Never hurting people. Never connecting or getting nostalgic or having to say goodbye to a city after living there for a few years. Friend I feel I’ve known forever.
Life on the road. Like a Rolling Stone.
Song: Led Zeppelin – When the Levee Breaks
Film: Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008). Yes!
Cultural Artifact: Aging Hipsters – Grey Hair dreadlocks. So cool.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
rosebud.
Being back home has been nice.
However, today especially has been strangely nostalgic.
Went back to my elementary school and said goodbye to the old building and looked around and reminised about my childhood, chated with my teachers, felt old and acomplished and strange.
Then met up with the gang and went to the same old dingy downtown diner where we spent all our time in high school. Same silly high-school-esq conversations. I feel so old and so far removed but also so young and upon returning to London, strangely intergrating to my former life.
And yet, I've been back only a few days and suddenly I'm packing a bag to go back to Halifax for my Graduation and then off to Arizona to visit my grandmother for the weekend. But being home has actually been really nice. I've been shopping and running dozens of errands with my Mum, some hanging out with the friends, one drunken night that I can not entierly remember and I think there was even some swimming.
I feel in a state of perpetual motion. Living out of bags, making planes, trains, unfarmiliar rooms, new places. Off to travel, back home for a week or two at a time sporadically throughout the summer. With none of my family members spending any time in London, Ontario anymore it's feeling less and less like 'home' and more 'a farmiliar place I once lived in'. That's sad.
I won't be at a computer much the next little while but I'll try to get around for updates.
I'll tell you all about the boring graduation ceremony, by crazy family all being together, the Dylan concert, a random punk show, doing the senior citizen thing in scotsdale and a few days of partyin in Toronto, the coheed and cambria and M.I.A shows respectivly and then I will come back in London for a few days of R&R before my Israel/Europe-trip. Woa.
Song: Gogol Bordello - Ultimate
Film: Citizen Kane/Snakes on a Plane (these two movies should only be watched in unisance)
Cultural Artifact: (quote from song) "There were never any good old days, they are today, they are tomorrow. It's just a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow". Also Eugene Hutz (the lead singer of Gogol Bordello)'s super cool Mustache. Hot.
However, today especially has been strangely nostalgic.
Went back to my elementary school and said goodbye to the old building and looked around and reminised about my childhood, chated with my teachers, felt old and acomplished and strange.
Then met up with the gang and went to the same old dingy downtown diner where we spent all our time in high school. Same silly high-school-esq conversations. I feel so old and so far removed but also so young and upon returning to London, strangely intergrating to my former life.
And yet, I've been back only a few days and suddenly I'm packing a bag to go back to Halifax for my Graduation and then off to Arizona to visit my grandmother for the weekend. But being home has actually been really nice. I've been shopping and running dozens of errands with my Mum, some hanging out with the friends, one drunken night that I can not entierly remember and I think there was even some swimming.
I feel in a state of perpetual motion. Living out of bags, making planes, trains, unfarmiliar rooms, new places. Off to travel, back home for a week or two at a time sporadically throughout the summer. With none of my family members spending any time in London, Ontario anymore it's feeling less and less like 'home' and more 'a farmiliar place I once lived in'. That's sad.
I won't be at a computer much the next little while but I'll try to get around for updates.
I'll tell you all about the boring graduation ceremony, by crazy family all being together, the Dylan concert, a random punk show, doing the senior citizen thing in scotsdale and a few days of partyin in Toronto, the coheed and cambria and M.I.A shows respectivly and then I will come back in London for a few days of R&R before my Israel/Europe-trip. Woa.
Song: Gogol Bordello - Ultimate
Film: Citizen Kane/Snakes on a Plane (these two movies should only be watched in unisance)
Cultural Artifact: (quote from song) "There were never any good old days, they are today, they are tomorrow. It's just a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow". Also Eugene Hutz (the lead singer of Gogol Bordello)'s super cool Mustache. Hot.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
hfx vs. ldn.
Things I already miss about Halifax:
Oland/Scooner Beer in 8-packs.
Specific brands of food in the grocery store.
Dance-party's in my apartment.
Being able to walk everywhere.
Video Difference Movie rentals.
The Maskoka Chairs outside the library.
The Grad House for Keiths.
Saturday Night deciding between Tribecca or the Alehouse.
Things I like about being back in London, Ontario:
Free laundry.
Boxes of journals and pictures from high school.
Getting together with the old gang.
Delicious food. Lots of it. Everywhere.
My backyard/frontyard. Not just steps.
Driving fast blasting Streetlight Manifesto.
Hanging out with the folks.
Cool TV channels - Turner Classic Movies, American Movie Classics, etc.
Song: Angry Agency - Weapon for Industry
Film: New Waterford Girl - Allan Moyle
Cultural Artifact: (tv show) Scrubs.
Oland/Scooner Beer in 8-packs.
Specific brands of food in the grocery store.
Dance-party's in my apartment.
Being able to walk everywhere.
Video Difference Movie rentals.
The Maskoka Chairs outside the library.
The Grad House for Keiths.
Saturday Night deciding between Tribecca or the Alehouse.
Things I like about being back in London, Ontario:
Free laundry.
Boxes of journals and pictures from high school.
Getting together with the old gang.
Delicious food. Lots of it. Everywhere.
My backyard/frontyard. Not just steps.
Driving fast blasting Streetlight Manifesto.
Hanging out with the folks.
Cool TV channels - Turner Classic Movies, American Movie Classics, etc.
Song: Angry Agency - Weapon for Industry
Film: New Waterford Girl - Allan Moyle
Cultural Artifact: (tv show) Scrubs.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
more travels. london at last.
The past few days have been stressful, serene and utterly surreal.
There was the weekend at my Dad's place in Toronto where I had the photographer and her boyfriend over for drinks. We stayed up and talked until 6am and watched the sun rise in the morning. I found a book on my Dad's desk which had a post-it-note with my name on it. It happened to be a book which I had my eye on and was recommended to my by amazon and I was extatic and have been unable to put it down. It's called Pictures at a Revolution and is about the contenders for Best Oscar in 1967 (the Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, In the Heat of the Night, and some others) Luckily, I've had lots of time to read.
Monday morning four of us headed to my friend's cottage in Gravenhurst/Maskoka. There we read and lounged and ate and sipped (more like chugged) champaigne in the hot top and relaxed in the sauna, and went on a nice long walk and watched movies and jumped into the freezing ice-just-unfrozen lake. I felt relaxed and pretty content.
Wednesday morning we drove back to Toronto and I took a train to Ottawa where I met my Mum and her husband and changed into formal wear and went to a book launch with them followed by a very cool Yom Hatzmaut Party at the Israeli embassy (for Israel's 60th birthday). All sorts of posh cool goverment-type people were there and I felt very young, out of place and unimportant. Mum and step-dad were happy to have me around and the Israeli ambassadors wife kept pointing out young avaliable guys to me, which was pretty awkward but also kinda funny (because, by young I mean 30+). It was a really splendid event and I felt tottally glamourous. Afterwards I met up with my friend from elementary school and we went out for a few drinks and back to her parents place in Ottawa. We stayed up late and sat in her backyard and chated for hours and it amazed me that someone I met when I was five still had a lot in common with me at twenty-one. We talked all night until 4ish when I went to bed.
At 5:15 my alarm went off and I hopped a taxi to the Ottawa train station where I slept most of the way to Oshawa. When I arrived in Toronto I took a subway to the wrong stop and wandered around downtown Toronto cranky, confused and crying until I figured out where to meet my Dad and he drove me back to London. Being home, finally, after nine days in transit feels tottally amazing. I picked up all my stuff from the shipping place and now have ten dufflebags/boxes to somehow unpack into my room that I grew up in. Things are strage but somehow, it's all working out. Wow. What a trip.
Song: You Drink, You Drive, You Spill - NOFX
Film: Woody Allen 2006 - Scoop
Cultural Artifact: (book) Lunar Park - Bret Easton Ellis. This book is fabulous. Or at least the first chapter is. The rest is mostly nonsense but the first chapter is 'Gen-X writing at its finest and most absurd'.
There was the weekend at my Dad's place in Toronto where I had the photographer and her boyfriend over for drinks. We stayed up and talked until 6am and watched the sun rise in the morning. I found a book on my Dad's desk which had a post-it-note with my name on it. It happened to be a book which I had my eye on and was recommended to my by amazon and I was extatic and have been unable to put it down. It's called Pictures at a Revolution and is about the contenders for Best Oscar in 1967 (the Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, In the Heat of the Night, and some others) Luckily, I've had lots of time to read.
Monday morning four of us headed to my friend's cottage in Gravenhurst/Maskoka. There we read and lounged and ate and sipped (more like chugged) champaigne in the hot top and relaxed in the sauna, and went on a nice long walk and watched movies and jumped into the freezing ice-just-unfrozen lake. I felt relaxed and pretty content.
Wednesday morning we drove back to Toronto and I took a train to Ottawa where I met my Mum and her husband and changed into formal wear and went to a book launch with them followed by a very cool Yom Hatzmaut Party at the Israeli embassy (for Israel's 60th birthday). All sorts of posh cool goverment-type people were there and I felt very young, out of place and unimportant. Mum and step-dad were happy to have me around and the Israeli ambassadors wife kept pointing out young avaliable guys to me, which was pretty awkward but also kinda funny (because, by young I mean 30+). It was a really splendid event and I felt tottally glamourous. Afterwards I met up with my friend from elementary school and we went out for a few drinks and back to her parents place in Ottawa. We stayed up late and sat in her backyard and chated for hours and it amazed me that someone I met when I was five still had a lot in common with me at twenty-one. We talked all night until 4ish when I went to bed.
At 5:15 my alarm went off and I hopped a taxi to the Ottawa train station where I slept most of the way to Oshawa. When I arrived in Toronto I took a subway to the wrong stop and wandered around downtown Toronto cranky, confused and crying until I figured out where to meet my Dad and he drove me back to London. Being home, finally, after nine days in transit feels tottally amazing. I picked up all my stuff from the shipping place and now have ten dufflebags/boxes to somehow unpack into my room that I grew up in. Things are strage but somehow, it's all working out. Wow. What a trip.
Song: You Drink, You Drive, You Spill - NOFX
Film: Woody Allen 2006 - Scoop
Cultural Artifact: (book) Lunar Park - Bret Easton Ellis. This book is fabulous. Or at least the first chapter is. The rest is mostly nonsense but the first chapter is 'Gen-X writing at its finest and most absurd'.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
on the road.
After a few crazy days of packing up my apartement, saying my goodbyes, helping friends move, shipping stuff, giving it away and trying to finish all the booze in the liqour cabinet, Val and I found ourselves packing up the car to start the drive back to Ontario.
We left earlish Thursday May 1st from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Within two hours we found ourselves near Amherst in the midst of an insane snow storm. The snow was accumulating on the highway and all we could do was laugh because we haden't seen snow in weeks and suddenly we were on the highway (sans snow tires of course) in the middle of a blizzard. Luckily it was just a freak storm and the weather was glorious and sunny by the afternoon when we went to New Brunswick. We ate lunch at a Big Stop in Fredricton, New Bruswick and sat with an elderly couple who told us about their journey's and imparted their wisdom onto us (namely travel as much as you can while you're young and don't get married). They were sweet and old and liked to talk. They interacted with each other in such a sweet, loving and comical way. We said our goodbyes and hit the road and made it all the way to Quebec City before seven (including the time change). We drove around the old city and my dad booked us into a beautiful little bed and breakfast and then wandered around the old cobblestone streets and looked into quaint little shops and found a fancy resturaunt for dinner. We drank wine and ate extravagantly and our Quebecouis waiter was so hilarious. We wanted to go out for a beer and he recommended a cool spot just outside the city walls. When we arrived at the bar we found ourselves in a basement tavern completely packed with the drunkenest, loudest, youngest, trendiest Quebec students imaginable. A guy stood on a small stage with his guitar and sung loudly and passionatly mostly French rock songs that every person in the bar seemed to know and sing along to. We felt super out of place, dirty and exhausted but we started chating with these two late-20-something guys one of whom was a pilot and the other was a tour guide. They were friendly and we got a pitcher and they told us all about places to travel in Europe, their favorite bars in Halifax and London Ontario (they knew about both Split Crow and Call the Office). The mood was friendly and I was curious to hear about these well travelled-guys opinions and suggestions of what to do and places to go and see. We left the bar with the intention to go smoke a joint and the tour guide knew the perfect place. He took us to a lookout place on an old fort near the planes of Ambraham and as we smoked the joint he told us about the War of 1812 and other historical annecdotes about Quebec City. All four of us were soon midley drunk and very stoned and we walked along the walls of the old city and gazed out at Quebec all covered in lights. It was so beautiful and I felt so happy and comfortable and content. The guys walked us back to the B&B and we all exchanged numbers which was such a formality because we all knew that although the evening was lovely it would be unlikely that anyone would call anyone else. We went to sleep in our quaint little hotel room exhausted and elated.
Friday May 2nd we went to the Chateu Frontac for Breakfast. Here I was inside a beautiuful old hotel eating a delicious breakfast that cost more than I could imagine one would spend on breakfast. It was delicious though and I felt like I was really living it up. We hit the road and I slept most of the way to Montreal. When we got there I played guide and directed Val through complex highway intersections and took pictures of the mild-flooding which was actually much less severe than it had been in rural New Brunswick and North Quebec. In Cornwall Val was tierd and I happily drove the way back to Kingston listening to the Once soundtrack and singing along loudly. We arrived in Kingston and were extatic to relax and shower (for the first time in what seemed like a week). We went out for a wonderful dinner and watched a movie at home going to sleep before midnight and happy to no longer be 'on the road'.
Saturday May 3rd (today). I woke up at Vals and hung out for a while. She drove me to the station and I took a train into Toronto, where I plan to spend the next few days hanging around my Dad's condo (despite the fact that he is away). I can't wait to shower and do laundry and eat something not from a restuaraunt. I can't wait to be in one city for more than a few minutes or a few hours.
but now that I'm back in Ontario, SUMMER has really began. And I know it's going to be a great one: In the next four months I'm going to my buddies cottage, going to Ottawa, London, back to Halifax for convocation/graduation, visiting my grandmother in Arizona, 10 days in Israel, two months backpacking Europe with the roomate and maybe a roadtrip out to British Columbia. As we drove west over the past few days, leaving the blizzard in Nova Scotia behind I saw the country get greener and warmer and more Spring-like and it made me happy, waving goodbye to Dalhousie and Halifax and looking forward to what's next.
After only 20 hours on the road I find myself in Toronto ready for the party to begin!
Song: The Beatles - Revolution #9
Film: X-men 3: The Last Stand.
Cultural Artifact: The signs when you enter a new province. I got pictures of Quebec and Ontario but missed the New Brunswick one. I guess I have to do the drive again someday.
We left earlish Thursday May 1st from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Within two hours we found ourselves near Amherst in the midst of an insane snow storm. The snow was accumulating on the highway and all we could do was laugh because we haden't seen snow in weeks and suddenly we were on the highway (sans snow tires of course) in the middle of a blizzard. Luckily it was just a freak storm and the weather was glorious and sunny by the afternoon when we went to New Brunswick. We ate lunch at a Big Stop in Fredricton, New Bruswick and sat with an elderly couple who told us about their journey's and imparted their wisdom onto us (namely travel as much as you can while you're young and don't get married). They were sweet and old and liked to talk. They interacted with each other in such a sweet, loving and comical way. We said our goodbyes and hit the road and made it all the way to Quebec City before seven (including the time change). We drove around the old city and my dad booked us into a beautiful little bed and breakfast and then wandered around the old cobblestone streets and looked into quaint little shops and found a fancy resturaunt for dinner. We drank wine and ate extravagantly and our Quebecouis waiter was so hilarious. We wanted to go out for a beer and he recommended a cool spot just outside the city walls. When we arrived at the bar we found ourselves in a basement tavern completely packed with the drunkenest, loudest, youngest, trendiest Quebec students imaginable. A guy stood on a small stage with his guitar and sung loudly and passionatly mostly French rock songs that every person in the bar seemed to know and sing along to. We felt super out of place, dirty and exhausted but we started chating with these two late-20-something guys one of whom was a pilot and the other was a tour guide. They were friendly and we got a pitcher and they told us all about places to travel in Europe, their favorite bars in Halifax and London Ontario (they knew about both Split Crow and Call the Office). The mood was friendly and I was curious to hear about these well travelled-guys opinions and suggestions of what to do and places to go and see. We left the bar with the intention to go smoke a joint and the tour guide knew the perfect place. He took us to a lookout place on an old fort near the planes of Ambraham and as we smoked the joint he told us about the War of 1812 and other historical annecdotes about Quebec City. All four of us were soon midley drunk and very stoned and we walked along the walls of the old city and gazed out at Quebec all covered in lights. It was so beautiful and I felt so happy and comfortable and content. The guys walked us back to the B&B and we all exchanged numbers which was such a formality because we all knew that although the evening was lovely it would be unlikely that anyone would call anyone else. We went to sleep in our quaint little hotel room exhausted and elated.
Friday May 2nd we went to the Chateu Frontac for Breakfast. Here I was inside a beautiuful old hotel eating a delicious breakfast that cost more than I could imagine one would spend on breakfast. It was delicious though and I felt like I was really living it up. We hit the road and I slept most of the way to Montreal. When we got there I played guide and directed Val through complex highway intersections and took pictures of the mild-flooding which was actually much less severe than it had been in rural New Brunswick and North Quebec. In Cornwall Val was tierd and I happily drove the way back to Kingston listening to the Once soundtrack and singing along loudly. We arrived in Kingston and were extatic to relax and shower (for the first time in what seemed like a week). We went out for a wonderful dinner and watched a movie at home going to sleep before midnight and happy to no longer be 'on the road'.
Saturday May 3rd (today). I woke up at Vals and hung out for a while. She drove me to the station and I took a train into Toronto, where I plan to spend the next few days hanging around my Dad's condo (despite the fact that he is away). I can't wait to shower and do laundry and eat something not from a restuaraunt. I can't wait to be in one city for more than a few minutes or a few hours.
but now that I'm back in Ontario, SUMMER has really began. And I know it's going to be a great one: In the next four months I'm going to my buddies cottage, going to Ottawa, London, back to Halifax for convocation/graduation, visiting my grandmother in Arizona, 10 days in Israel, two months backpacking Europe with the roomate and maybe a roadtrip out to British Columbia. As we drove west over the past few days, leaving the blizzard in Nova Scotia behind I saw the country get greener and warmer and more Spring-like and it made me happy, waving goodbye to Dalhousie and Halifax and looking forward to what's next.
After only 20 hours on the road I find myself in Toronto ready for the party to begin!
Song: The Beatles - Revolution #9
Film: X-men 3: The Last Stand.
Cultural Artifact: The signs when you enter a new province. I got pictures of Quebec and Ontario but missed the New Brunswick one. I guess I have to do the drive again someday.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
packing/partying.
4 small boxes
1 huge box
3 duffle bags
1 suitcase
two gym-bags
1 ski bag
1 bicycle
Giving or throwing away things that were once important to me.
Ripping pictures of the wall. Tape stuck everywhere.
Naked white scuffed up walls.
Garbage bags everywhere. dust. dirt. change.
Random people in and out taking away my posessions.
Should I keep it? Do I need it? Is there room?
I've been in this city for four years and this wonderful crappy little apartment for three years. And it has become my home. And now I'm just sapposed to leave? Move on? Let someone live here and use my stuff and move my college life back into my room from high school and start thinking about what I should bring to Scotland next year.
This feels very strange. I am uncomfortable with this kind of change. Saying my goodbyes. Hope I see you again someday. Will I remember this place? Or how I've felt when I've been here?
This is all happening really quickly. Where is the pause button --> What a cliche.
Song: A Wilhelm Screm - The King is Dead
Film: The Hottest State - Ethan Hawke. (I love this movie!)
Cultural Artifact: David Cronenberg (not-as-fucked-up-as-David-Lynch-but still-tottally-psycho-weird-Canadian-director)
1 huge box
3 duffle bags
1 suitcase
two gym-bags
1 ski bag
1 bicycle
Giving or throwing away things that were once important to me.
Ripping pictures of the wall. Tape stuck everywhere.
Naked white scuffed up walls.
Garbage bags everywhere. dust. dirt. change.
Random people in and out taking away my posessions.
Should I keep it? Do I need it? Is there room?
I've been in this city for four years and this wonderful crappy little apartment for three years. And it has become my home. And now I'm just sapposed to leave? Move on? Let someone live here and use my stuff and move my college life back into my room from high school and start thinking about what I should bring to Scotland next year.
This feels very strange. I am uncomfortable with this kind of change. Saying my goodbyes. Hope I see you again someday. Will I remember this place? Or how I've felt when I've been here?
This is all happening really quickly. Where is the pause button --> What a cliche.
Song: A Wilhelm Screm - The King is Dead
Film: The Hottest State - Ethan Hawke. (I love this movie!)
Cultural Artifact: David Cronenberg (not-as-fucked-up-as-David-Lynch-but still-tottally-psycho-weird-Canadian-director)
Thursday, April 24, 2008
whining wino.
Packing has oficially commenced. Today I bought boxes. I am prepared.
Last night I went to a posh wine tasting where I sampled various different types of delicious wines. There was chardonary, sauvinion blanc, merlot. Some were too sweet and others too oakey but most were delicious and I tried to look cool and mature despite the fact that I was one of the youngest people in a room of fancy wine conesseurs.
Afterwards we went to the dirty Dome and got trashed and danced.
It's passover which means I can't eat most of the foods I really like or drink beer, which is frustuating. But it's a holiday I really enjoy. I went to two seders (passover diner) which were pretty fun. It was pretty weird being away from my family but it was still lots of fun.
I got my thesis returned and am pretty content with it's outcome. I went to kinko's today to get it copied/bound and I felt pretty good about the acomplishment and chatting up my old co-workers who were really nice and happy to see me. It was sort of nice to end the year how I started it, but on the other side of the counter. Quite good.
I've been out partying and being social and hanging out with cool people and having fun and saying my goodbyes.
There is underlying personal drama but it is sort of silly and would take a lot of wasted space to explain. It's all good though. Really living up my last week as a Haligonian.
Song: Propaganda - The Slackers
Film: 21 (2008)
Cultural Artifact: Francis Ford Copolla Wine. Delicious. What can't that man do?
Last night I went to a posh wine tasting where I sampled various different types of delicious wines. There was chardonary, sauvinion blanc, merlot. Some were too sweet and others too oakey but most were delicious and I tried to look cool and mature despite the fact that I was one of the youngest people in a room of fancy wine conesseurs.
Afterwards we went to the dirty Dome and got trashed and danced.
It's passover which means I can't eat most of the foods I really like or drink beer, which is frustuating. But it's a holiday I really enjoy. I went to two seders (passover diner) which were pretty fun. It was pretty weird being away from my family but it was still lots of fun.
I got my thesis returned and am pretty content with it's outcome. I went to kinko's today to get it copied/bound and I felt pretty good about the acomplishment and chatting up my old co-workers who were really nice and happy to see me. It was sort of nice to end the year how I started it, but on the other side of the counter. Quite good.
I've been out partying and being social and hanging out with cool people and having fun and saying my goodbyes.
There is underlying personal drama but it is sort of silly and would take a lot of wasted space to explain. It's all good though. Really living up my last week as a Haligonian.
Song: Propaganda - The Slackers
Film: 21 (2008)
Cultural Artifact: Francis Ford Copolla Wine. Delicious. What can't that man do?
Saturday, April 19, 2008
done dalhousie.
I just finished my last exam of my undergraduate degree.
I am extatic. I smoked a nice cuban cigar on the porch with my roomate in the sun. Amazing.
The past week has been most excellent. There was occasion that I was at the Grad House for pitchers three seperate times in a 24 hour period (10pm Tues, 1pm Wed, 8pm Wed). The next night we went to the Seahorse and heard the Mellatones play amazing sorta-funk music and drank and danced the night away.
I am so happy to be done school. I feel a real sense of acomplishment.
I'm on top of the world!
Song: Streetlight Manifesto - The Big Sleep
Film: Death at a Funeral - Frank Oz (2007)
Cultural Artifact: (short film) Francois Truffauts 'Antoine and Colette': Excellent recommendation.
I am extatic. I smoked a nice cuban cigar on the porch with my roomate in the sun. Amazing.
The past week has been most excellent. There was occasion that I was at the Grad House for pitchers three seperate times in a 24 hour period (10pm Tues, 1pm Wed, 8pm Wed). The next night we went to the Seahorse and heard the Mellatones play amazing sorta-funk music and drank and danced the night away.
I am so happy to be done school. I feel a real sense of acomplishment.
I'm on top of the world!
Song: Streetlight Manifesto - The Big Sleep
Film: Death at a Funeral - Frank Oz (2007)
Cultural Artifact: (short film) Francois Truffauts 'Antoine and Colette': Excellent recommendation.
Monday, April 14, 2008
lazy confessions.
Since finishing my thesis not a lot has happend. I am finishing up the last few essays/exams of undergraduate university. Going to pack up and leave. We've been drinking lots, afternoons in the Grad House, Split Crow Power Hours. Watching crazy amounts of movies and episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. We went to Peggy's Cove and took pictures and it was beautiful and rainey. I rememberd that my favorite momments amoung friends is driving down the highway singing along to music. I have been lazy but I like it. I love having full days where I have nothing to really do: Maybe work a bit on a paper, maybe make plans to go out for drinks later. Vauge, relaxed, chill. The house guest is at work but we've been having a lovely time. There is a concert on Friday and and some semi-random guy who likes Angry Agency suggested I should go. I might. I don't want to start packing, i feel like that will take a long time and be really depressing. I want it to be sunny and warm so I can go for a bikeride, but instead, spring/summer in Halifax means perpetual rain. Urk. I want to go back to London to see friends/family and stuff like that, but I just feel weird about leaving this place, that after four years, has really become my home. I think i still have a few weeks to party though.
Song: Simon and Garfunkle - At the Zoo
Film: The Deer Hunter with Robert DeNiro (1978) (this movie does not deserve to be on AFI's top 100)
Cultural Artifact: (tv show comparissons) Curb Your Enthusiasm = Extras. Awkward.
Song: Simon and Garfunkle - At the Zoo
Film: The Deer Hunter with Robert DeNiro (1978) (this movie does not deserve to be on AFI's top 100)
Cultural Artifact: (tv show comparissons) Curb Your Enthusiasm = Extras. Awkward.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
thesis.final.version.
In 12 hours I will hand in my undergraduate honours thesis.
This is something I have been working on for over a year.
This will someday soon be a book on my book shelf. A real bound book that I have written.
It is currently: 25,350 words, 83 pages (+8 pages of bibliography), with over 320 footnotes.
It is long and disgusting and horrible. But it is done (aside from some minor last minute editing/formating/etc.)
It's called: "Capitalists, Workers and Bolsheviks: Interwar Soviet and American Film"
I chose the font Garamond. It looks fancy.
I feel a sense of acomplishment. But I also feel gross, having not showered or eaten a proper meal in far too long.
I am deffinitly not cut out for this academia-lifestyle.
Song: Feist- Lonely, Lonely
Film: Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times (1935)
Cultural Artifact: Microft Word formatting. So many possibilities, so complicated. My buddie showed me how to make it make my table of contents for me. so cool. so nerdy.
This is something I have been working on for over a year.
This will someday soon be a book on my book shelf. A real bound book that I have written.
It is currently: 25,350 words, 83 pages (+8 pages of bibliography), with over 320 footnotes.
It is long and disgusting and horrible. But it is done (aside from some minor last minute editing/formating/etc.)
It's called: "Capitalists, Workers and Bolsheviks: Interwar Soviet and American Film"
I chose the font Garamond. It looks fancy.
I feel a sense of acomplishment. But I also feel gross, having not showered or eaten a proper meal in far too long.
I am deffinitly not cut out for this academia-lifestyle.
Song: Feist- Lonely, Lonely
Film: Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times (1935)
Cultural Artifact: Microft Word formatting. So many possibilities, so complicated. My buddie showed me how to make it make my table of contents for me. so cool. so nerdy.
Monday, April 7, 2008
top tens.
Things I like at this momment:
1) rock night at tribecca.
2) the movie southland tales.
3) seriously, richard kelley is a genius. and yes, he most probably is on crack. this movie was so insane. I can't stop thinking about it's sheer ubsurdity.
4) concerts, i am itching to go to one.
5) summetime, when the livin's easy
6) jaggermeister.
7) snow in april. (I am aware that this contradicts number 5)
8) these eyes, by the guess who, not the who. that is confusing.
9) christian slater's anti-authority emo teen angst tirades in pump up the vollume.
10) simon and garfunkle/bob dylan/bright eyes sing along with the houseguest and his sick guitar capabilities.
Things I don't like at this momment:
1) waking up with a red 'x' on your face that rubbes off from your hand.
2) selective memory of drunken debauchary.
3) immenent exams.
4) IMDB trivia.
5) my soar throat/mini-cold that isn't really bad but won't go away.
6) video difference got rid of foreign top 100 section. made me mad.
7) the internet/my computer/technology
8) what to write on my acknowledgements page.
9) little first years outside my apartment being loud and obnoxious.
10) this weird doc. we watched in my class...about documentaries called 'animal love' it was really awkward. it made me feel super uncomfortable. I fell asleep and when I woke up my prof. was talking about if the scene where the guy jack's off was staged. seriously. fucking awkward.
Song: Bob Dylan - Oxford Town
Film: Southland Tales - Richard Kelley (let me not exxagerate, it was nothing compared to Donnie Darko, which isn't even *such* a great movie, it was just significantly better than I expected. therefore, if you expect it to suck, which you shoud, you will also see that it isn't really that horrible. It's just not very serious. it's a pastiche/comedy and it's so weird. it has a killer soundtrack though. there is like a drug-induced video in the middle where justin timberlake, as an veteran of the war in iraq sings the killers "I got soul but I'm not a solider" right to the camera and it's just the weirdest fucking thing you've ever seen. K, maybe you should go see the movie and then we can talk about it, because clearly I am itching for discussion.)
Cultural Artifact: (food) party sandwhiches. yum.
1) rock night at tribecca.
2) the movie southland tales.
3) seriously, richard kelley is a genius. and yes, he most probably is on crack. this movie was so insane. I can't stop thinking about it's sheer ubsurdity.
4) concerts, i am itching to go to one.
5) summetime, when the livin's easy
6) jaggermeister.
7) snow in april. (I am aware that this contradicts number 5)
8) these eyes, by the guess who, not the who. that is confusing.
9) christian slater's anti-authority emo teen angst tirades in pump up the vollume.
10) simon and garfunkle/bob dylan/bright eyes sing along with the houseguest and his sick guitar capabilities.
Things I don't like at this momment:
1) waking up with a red 'x' on your face that rubbes off from your hand.
2) selective memory of drunken debauchary.
3) immenent exams.
4) IMDB trivia.
5) my soar throat/mini-cold that isn't really bad but won't go away.
6) video difference got rid of foreign top 100 section. made me mad.
7) the internet/my computer/technology
8) what to write on my acknowledgements page.
9) little first years outside my apartment being loud and obnoxious.
10) this weird doc. we watched in my class...about documentaries called 'animal love' it was really awkward. it made me feel super uncomfortable. I fell asleep and when I woke up my prof. was talking about if the scene where the guy jack's off was staged. seriously. fucking awkward.
Song: Bob Dylan - Oxford Town
Film: Southland Tales - Richard Kelley (let me not exxagerate, it was nothing compared to Donnie Darko, which isn't even *such* a great movie, it was just significantly better than I expected. therefore, if you expect it to suck, which you shoud, you will also see that it isn't really that horrible. It's just not very serious. it's a pastiche/comedy and it's so weird. it has a killer soundtrack though. there is like a drug-induced video in the middle where justin timberlake, as an veteran of the war in iraq sings the killers "I got soul but I'm not a solider" right to the camera and it's just the weirdest fucking thing you've ever seen. K, maybe you should go see the movie and then we can talk about it, because clearly I am itching for discussion.)
Cultural Artifact: (food) party sandwhiches. yum.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
conclusion confusion.
I am having a lot of trouble writing my conclusion.
Should it just sumarize? Should it put everythiing in a broader context? Should it look forward to what will happen in the future?
Is she talking about her thesis or her entire University expirience?
I just don't know.
Song: Big D and the Kids Table - Hell on Earth
Film: On the Waterfront - Elia Kazan
Cultural Artifact: Moleskine Notebooks
Should it just sumarize? Should it put everythiing in a broader context? Should it look forward to what will happen in the future?
Is she talking about her thesis or her entire University expirience?
I just don't know.
Song: Big D and the Kids Table - Hell on Earth
Film: On the Waterfront - Elia Kazan
Cultural Artifact: Moleskine Notebooks
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
april's fool.
My alarm goes off at Nine. I hit the snooze and roll over. I can hear it softly raining out and I tottally don't want to get up. Besides, I already know about the Gulf War, It is actually one of my earliest memories. In the end, I compromise and decide I will go to ten oclock class, but I won't shower or eat breakfast and I'll just get up fifteen minutes prior. This decision relaxes me and I hid under my blanket. Fifteen minutes pass. My phone rings. Who the fuck calls me at 9:15. I answer.
urhhhh hello.
Hello, is this Mirit?
uhheh yeah.
This is Professor McProfessor. (but he doesn't say this, he just says his full name, and I'm confused)
Oh! Professor, Good Morning. What's up?
Mirit, are you going to class today?
Ummm...I was intending to, why, what's going on?
Would you do me favour.
(awkward pause)
Would you mind announcing that class is cancelled today? I don't think I'm going to make it in.
(So my professor is calling in sick to me? What?)
Yeah, sure, no problem. I'll just put a sign up and let everyone know.
Great Thanks! Oh, and would you mind asking JM to make a similar annnoncment in his class that I teach later this afternoon.
Yeah, sure, I'll tell JM. Have a good one.
Thanks Mirit, Bye.
Click.
This convorsating is super awkward. Now I know class is cancelled but I need to go anyway. And I have the honus of responsibility of letting 85 people know. This is insane. Then I look at the date. April 1st, this must be a joke. I feel like a tool. I'm not going to be gullible and stupid.
So I go to class at 9:50. I announce to the 5 people sitting there that class is cancelled. They don't believe me. I put a note on the door. Everyone arrives but noone believes class is cancelled. They think it's our witty profs idea of a joke. Are you sure it's cancelled? everyone persists. I don't know. That's what he said. It could be an April Fools Joke, but I don't think that's very funny. I suggest you all go home. Well, why don't you leave? They ask me. Urk. I want to go but I need to wait for JM to show up so I can deliver this message. (It should be noted that JM is not a friend, but an aquaintance, who although I have had classes with, don't really know that well). Finally I see him and let him know. It is 10:05. Class is clearly not going to happen. The crowd disperses and everyone is in good cheer about the cancelled class. People keep asking me why I'm the one who he called with this mission. I have no idea. This day is too weird for me, and it's ot even 10:15.
So clearly I go home, go back to bed and sleep until noon.
Perfect!
Song: Butthole Surfers - Pepper
Movie: Dogma - Kevin Smith
Cultural Artifact: Shoelaces.
P.s. Did I mention I'm going to see Bob Dylan on May 21st! Well, I am. MAY: 20=graduation, 21=Bob Dylan, 22=Indy IV. Best Three Days Ever!
urhhhh hello.
Hello, is this Mirit?
uhheh yeah.
This is Professor McProfessor. (but he doesn't say this, he just says his full name, and I'm confused)
Oh! Professor, Good Morning. What's up?
Mirit, are you going to class today?
Ummm...I was intending to, why, what's going on?
Would you do me favour.
(awkward pause)
Would you mind announcing that class is cancelled today? I don't think I'm going to make it in.
(So my professor is calling in sick to me? What?)
Yeah, sure, no problem. I'll just put a sign up and let everyone know.
Great Thanks! Oh, and would you mind asking JM to make a similar annnoncment in his class that I teach later this afternoon.
Yeah, sure, I'll tell JM. Have a good one.
Thanks Mirit, Bye.
Click.
This convorsating is super awkward. Now I know class is cancelled but I need to go anyway. And I have the honus of responsibility of letting 85 people know. This is insane. Then I look at the date. April 1st, this must be a joke. I feel like a tool. I'm not going to be gullible and stupid.
So I go to class at 9:50. I announce to the 5 people sitting there that class is cancelled. They don't believe me. I put a note on the door. Everyone arrives but noone believes class is cancelled. They think it's our witty profs idea of a joke. Are you sure it's cancelled? everyone persists. I don't know. That's what he said. It could be an April Fools Joke, but I don't think that's very funny. I suggest you all go home. Well, why don't you leave? They ask me. Urk. I want to go but I need to wait for JM to show up so I can deliver this message. (It should be noted that JM is not a friend, but an aquaintance, who although I have had classes with, don't really know that well). Finally I see him and let him know. It is 10:05. Class is clearly not going to happen. The crowd disperses and everyone is in good cheer about the cancelled class. People keep asking me why I'm the one who he called with this mission. I have no idea. This day is too weird for me, and it's ot even 10:15.
So clearly I go home, go back to bed and sleep until noon.
Perfect!
Song: Butthole Surfers - Pepper
Movie: Dogma - Kevin Smith
Cultural Artifact: Shoelaces.
P.s. Did I mention I'm going to see Bob Dylan on May 21st! Well, I am. MAY: 20=graduation, 21=Bob Dylan, 22=Indy IV. Best Three Days Ever!
Friday, March 28, 2008
fourteen days.
Two weeks left.
Two weeks left of school.
Two weeks left of classes.
Two weeks left to write my thesis.
Two weeks left of structured college life.
Two weeks. Fuck.
So, I've been busy. School work. Partying. Hanging out. Watching TV.
The house-guest is here and I'm extatic.
It's nice to have a boy around the house chilling out, playing guitar and just there for extra compnay. We went out for a crazy drinking night and other than that have just done lots of chills, a bit of 'baking' and lots of school work.
My thesis may start to come together. It's kinda ubsurd, and I have no idea if it makes any sense, but I will really be happy to finish it and think of it as an acomplishment. In sure has made all other school work seem easy by comparisson, so maybe that's a good thing.
Maybe I have learned a few things in these past four years.
Drinking is one of them. There has been lots of Alehouse/Fireside for Martini's/Pitchers at the Grad House. I think that's pretty good considering the Killam library marathoning that has insued.
It really seems like my life isn't very exciting, but that's actually not true.
It's just, my social life is complicated. I feel like soon I'm going to be saying goodbye to a lot of people, which really sucks, but it's been my expirience that anyone I really want to see again, I will make the effort to.
I like my life here, but part of me is really ready to move on.
I'm sorta sick of being a little undergrad college student.
I want to be a real adult: living in some downtown loft in a big metropolitain city and eat health food and drink wine all the time, and have a group of posh well-dressed girlfriends and an obnoxiously good-looking post-fratboy boyfriend who used to be a commerce major, who dresses better than I do. And some cool downtown job where I have to wear 'adult clothes' to work and where money and appearance and beauty are the defining qualities of life.
On second thought, I think I'll soak up every last momment of this college life: living in a cool apartment near campus with my best friend in a cold costal city, eating ice cream and drinking beer all the time. Having a bunch of randomly dispersed friends who have wildley different interests. A constant rollercoaster of exciement and dullness in my love and social life, my job involving going to the library in chords and parking in a isolated corner and typing incesiently, or the occasional meet with my boss (re: prof) to talk about work and South Park and Guitar Hero.
I think I'll stay here for a while...
or at least for the next two weeks.
Song: ACDC - TNT
Film: Sans Soleil (Sunless)
Cultural Artifact: that Bill C-10 thing. Man, the Canadian government is fucked up. (see, this blog is waay politcal)
Two weeks left of school.
Two weeks left of classes.
Two weeks left to write my thesis.
Two weeks left of structured college life.
Two weeks. Fuck.
So, I've been busy. School work. Partying. Hanging out. Watching TV.
The house-guest is here and I'm extatic.
It's nice to have a boy around the house chilling out, playing guitar and just there for extra compnay. We went out for a crazy drinking night and other than that have just done lots of chills, a bit of 'baking' and lots of school work.
My thesis may start to come together. It's kinda ubsurd, and I have no idea if it makes any sense, but I will really be happy to finish it and think of it as an acomplishment. In sure has made all other school work seem easy by comparisson, so maybe that's a good thing.
Maybe I have learned a few things in these past four years.
Drinking is one of them. There has been lots of Alehouse/Fireside for Martini's/Pitchers at the Grad House. I think that's pretty good considering the Killam library marathoning that has insued.
It really seems like my life isn't very exciting, but that's actually not true.
It's just, my social life is complicated. I feel like soon I'm going to be saying goodbye to a lot of people, which really sucks, but it's been my expirience that anyone I really want to see again, I will make the effort to.
I like my life here, but part of me is really ready to move on.
I'm sorta sick of being a little undergrad college student.
I want to be a real adult: living in some downtown loft in a big metropolitain city and eat health food and drink wine all the time, and have a group of posh well-dressed girlfriends and an obnoxiously good-looking post-fratboy boyfriend who used to be a commerce major, who dresses better than I do. And some cool downtown job where I have to wear 'adult clothes' to work and where money and appearance and beauty are the defining qualities of life.
On second thought, I think I'll soak up every last momment of this college life: living in a cool apartment near campus with my best friend in a cold costal city, eating ice cream and drinking beer all the time. Having a bunch of randomly dispersed friends who have wildley different interests. A constant rollercoaster of exciement and dullness in my love and social life, my job involving going to the library in chords and parking in a isolated corner and typing incesiently, or the occasional meet with my boss (re: prof) to talk about work and South Park and Guitar Hero.
I think I'll stay here for a while...
or at least for the next two weeks.
Song: ACDC - TNT
Film: Sans Soleil (Sunless)
Cultural Artifact: that Bill C-10 thing. Man, the Canadian government is fucked up. (see, this blog is waay politcal)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
apocalypse tomorrow.
Well, I had a bit of party weekend.
There was a really debaucharous kegger on Saturday. If there had been more people that I had known there I would probably be embaressed by some of my actions. However there was Rock Band, Beer Pong and Quarters so the excessive drinking kinda made sense. On Monday Ie. 'real St. Patricks Day' I went on a Propeller Brewery Tour followed by even more drinking at the Lower Deck. Luckily I don't think I tottally fucked up my Thesis presentation the next day. Today is Picture Day and I feel like I'm in high school. I'm going to get my Grad Photos done and I tottally hope that I don't fuck it up. Ie. blink in every one.
I officially sent in my acceptance for University of Edinburgh so I guess I'm off to Scotland next year. Weird, and kinda random, but I bet it'll be pretty cool.
I'm busy with school work, but I've been pretty lax about it all. I'm actually focusing on the fact that I need to do laundry more than I need to do school work (maybe because lack of doing school work doesn't mean you have to wear really dorky clothes).
My friend and I had a bit of a disagreement which has allegedly born into a full-blown 'fight'. Ie. she is pissed at me, but I couldn't really care less. I guess that sounds kind of harsh, but maybe there have been mitigating factors leading up to it. It's just tottally unecessary drama. The last thing I feel I need right now.
Anyway, I'm really excited because I've decided to put off moving back home until the end of the month which gives me a few weeks after exams to just sort of hang out in Halifax and say a long drawn out slow goodbye.
It's all Happening.
Song: Bob Dylan - Girl From the North Country
Film: Apocalypse Now (1979) - Francis Ford Coppola. Yes, I finally saw it, Yes it was amazing, Yes I am in love with young Martin Sheen.
Cultural Artifact: (tv show) Dexter. Well, I'm not addicted yet, just watching it on Sunday's sometimes on CTV. But seriously, it's a pretty decent show. A little too bloody for me, but the intro. is really cool.
There was a really debaucharous kegger on Saturday. If there had been more people that I had known there I would probably be embaressed by some of my actions. However there was Rock Band, Beer Pong and Quarters so the excessive drinking kinda made sense. On Monday Ie. 'real St. Patricks Day' I went on a Propeller Brewery Tour followed by even more drinking at the Lower Deck. Luckily I don't think I tottally fucked up my Thesis presentation the next day. Today is Picture Day and I feel like I'm in high school. I'm going to get my Grad Photos done and I tottally hope that I don't fuck it up. Ie. blink in every one.
I officially sent in my acceptance for University of Edinburgh so I guess I'm off to Scotland next year. Weird, and kinda random, but I bet it'll be pretty cool.
I'm busy with school work, but I've been pretty lax about it all. I'm actually focusing on the fact that I need to do laundry more than I need to do school work (maybe because lack of doing school work doesn't mean you have to wear really dorky clothes).
My friend and I had a bit of a disagreement which has allegedly born into a full-blown 'fight'. Ie. she is pissed at me, but I couldn't really care less. I guess that sounds kind of harsh, but maybe there have been mitigating factors leading up to it. It's just tottally unecessary drama. The last thing I feel I need right now.
Anyway, I'm really excited because I've decided to put off moving back home until the end of the month which gives me a few weeks after exams to just sort of hang out in Halifax and say a long drawn out slow goodbye.
It's all Happening.
Song: Bob Dylan - Girl From the North Country
Film: Apocalypse Now (1979) - Francis Ford Coppola. Yes, I finally saw it, Yes it was amazing, Yes I am in love with young Martin Sheen.
Cultural Artifact: (tv show) Dexter. Well, I'm not addicted yet, just watching it on Sunday's sometimes on CTV. But seriously, it's a pretty decent show. A little too bloody for me, but the intro. is really cool.
Friday, March 14, 2008
slacker day(zed and confused).
I'm having a slacker day. I just love slacker days. They are the days when you put in a movie at 2 and read the paper and maybe even a few pages of a book you've been meaning to finish. A day where only two hours after getting up you find yourself back in bed listening to music, maybe fucking off on the internet (ie. msn, facebook, webcomics) and being all-out lazy. On slacker days you forget your respnsibilities, the laundry that needs to be done, planning, school work, orgaizing and all that Bull Shit that probably won't affect you in the long run anyways.
On slacker days you cross off everything in your planner that you have to do and re-write it for the next day. Isn't that what weekends are for?
Here are random things I've been thinking about:
1) In the movie sunset blvd. (1950) the main female character's famous line as she walks down the stairs is "alright Mr. deMille, I'm ready for my close up" I think it may even be in AFI's top 100 lines of all time. The guy who plays her man-servant in the movie is Erich von Stroheim, argubly just as important and histoically significant a director as deMille. von Stroheim also comes off to me as a really jelous angry guy. I wonder if he was pissed that she mentiones deMille and not him. Although maybe if his name had been used, it would have complicated the plot, and maybe the fact that deMille is dead, helps to show how insane she is. For some reason this has been upsetting me a lot. I feel so bad for Erich von Stroheim and I have no idea why.
2) Cinema Paradisio. I watched this movie just recently. Although the roomate didn't like it (she didn't explain why, but I bet it's because she thought it was cheezy. The movie WAS really cheezy), I loved it. I had one major problem, and this is a reoccuring peoplem for me. In the flick, three different actors play the same main character. Little kid, teenager and old man. The little kid and teenager looked kinda similar based on similar facial features and the fact that they both had really adorable smiles. But the old man, Bull Shit. He had none of the mannerisms or characteristics of the first two chatacters. Furthermore, he was...how should I say this without comming off like an ass hole...well, he was of a different race than the kid-versions of himself. His skin colour was drastically different. It was almost Michael Jackson-esque. This made me mad. If you're going to establish a chacter, and literally make me fall in 'movie love' with him, don't put some other random actor in at the end who has no relation to these earlier versions. Yeesh.
3) I think movies from the 1960s and 1970s are weird. I don't know if I am 'ready' for them. I know this sounds really silly, it being 2008. But because I spend the majority of my time watching movies from the "Classical Hollywood" era. Sometimes when I see these like 'new Hollywood films' which have more sex, drugs, drama than some of the earlier stuff I am geuienly shocked. I also don't think they light their films very well. Movies from this era are too dark. Like the Godfather. Everyone sort of in shadows. I don't really like it.
4) That being said, modern movies aren't that much better.
5) I am already starting to think about things I want to research for my Masters thesis. I think it needs to be European inspired, because I'm going to Europe for school. I was thinking about writting about infuence. I think a lot about influence. (recall the Led Zepplein sings about Lord of the Rings which is about WWI, so Zeppelin = WWI) For example. Truffaut is super obsessed with Hitchcock which means that those who are influenced by Truffaut/Godard are also influenced by Hitchcock. But Hitchcock was influenced by classical Hollywood stuff and like, it all comes back to the Soviets and the Germans and D.W. Griffith. But I'm not really sure who started it at all. But it matters because I don't want to give credit to the wrong person. I'm just bad at writing because I don't like making deffinite statements or arguments, but that is sort of what thesis writting is all about, Isn't it?
6) Studying history and film has made me pretty cold to human life/death. Studying war in school fascinates me and I find myself being encrossed in military strategy and guerilla tactics rather than being a pacifist/advocate for peace. Things are so much simpler in the history books than in real life. Film too. I just watched a movie and only four people were violently murdered and I though, Wtf? That was pretty tame. Only four? That's a pretty low body count for an edgy psych-thriller flick.
Song: The Weakerthans - Civil Twilight
Movie: Taxi Driver - Marty Scorcese
Cultural Artifact: (quote) "Life is tragedy when seen in close-up, but comedy is a long shot" - Charlie Chaplin
On slacker days you cross off everything in your planner that you have to do and re-write it for the next day. Isn't that what weekends are for?
Here are random things I've been thinking about:
1) In the movie sunset blvd. (1950) the main female character's famous line as she walks down the stairs is "alright Mr. deMille, I'm ready for my close up" I think it may even be in AFI's top 100 lines of all time. The guy who plays her man-servant in the movie is Erich von Stroheim, argubly just as important and histoically significant a director as deMille. von Stroheim also comes off to me as a really jelous angry guy. I wonder if he was pissed that she mentiones deMille and not him. Although maybe if his name had been used, it would have complicated the plot, and maybe the fact that deMille is dead, helps to show how insane she is. For some reason this has been upsetting me a lot. I feel so bad for Erich von Stroheim and I have no idea why.
2) Cinema Paradisio. I watched this movie just recently. Although the roomate didn't like it (she didn't explain why, but I bet it's because she thought it was cheezy. The movie WAS really cheezy), I loved it. I had one major problem, and this is a reoccuring peoplem for me. In the flick, three different actors play the same main character. Little kid, teenager and old man. The little kid and teenager looked kinda similar based on similar facial features and the fact that they both had really adorable smiles. But the old man, Bull Shit. He had none of the mannerisms or characteristics of the first two chatacters. Furthermore, he was...how should I say this without comming off like an ass hole...well, he was of a different race than the kid-versions of himself. His skin colour was drastically different. It was almost Michael Jackson-esque. This made me mad. If you're going to establish a chacter, and literally make me fall in 'movie love' with him, don't put some other random actor in at the end who has no relation to these earlier versions. Yeesh.
3) I think movies from the 1960s and 1970s are weird. I don't know if I am 'ready' for them. I know this sounds really silly, it being 2008. But because I spend the majority of my time watching movies from the "Classical Hollywood" era. Sometimes when I see these like 'new Hollywood films' which have more sex, drugs, drama than some of the earlier stuff I am geuienly shocked. I also don't think they light their films very well. Movies from this era are too dark. Like the Godfather. Everyone sort of in shadows. I don't really like it.
4) That being said, modern movies aren't that much better.
5) I am already starting to think about things I want to research for my Masters thesis. I think it needs to be European inspired, because I'm going to Europe for school. I was thinking about writting about infuence. I think a lot about influence. (recall the Led Zepplein sings about Lord of the Rings which is about WWI, so Zeppelin = WWI) For example. Truffaut is super obsessed with Hitchcock which means that those who are influenced by Truffaut/Godard are also influenced by Hitchcock. But Hitchcock was influenced by classical Hollywood stuff and like, it all comes back to the Soviets and the Germans and D.W. Griffith. But I'm not really sure who started it at all. But it matters because I don't want to give credit to the wrong person. I'm just bad at writing because I don't like making deffinite statements or arguments, but that is sort of what thesis writting is all about, Isn't it?
6) Studying history and film has made me pretty cold to human life/death. Studying war in school fascinates me and I find myself being encrossed in military strategy and guerilla tactics rather than being a pacifist/advocate for peace. Things are so much simpler in the history books than in real life. Film too. I just watched a movie and only four people were violently murdered and I though, Wtf? That was pretty tame. Only four? That's a pretty low body count for an edgy psych-thriller flick.
Song: The Weakerthans - Civil Twilight
Movie: Taxi Driver - Marty Scorcese
Cultural Artifact: (quote) "Life is tragedy when seen in close-up, but comedy is a long shot" - Charlie Chaplin
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
going. going. gone.
Friday: Movie Night. Saturday: Tribecca drinking Night. Sunday: Movie Night. Monday: Grad House Drinking Night. Tuesday: Smoking Hukkah Night. Wednesday: Well, I guess I have to go out drinking today, you know, just to keep up with the pattern.
Wednesdays are like Saturdays because I don't have class. This means that it is noon, and I am still in bed and eventually I will mosey on over to the library and get some thesis work done. Perhaps Chapter Three will finally get into the writing phase. I think It's going to be the key chapter so I'm kinda nervous about starting it. I also have to present my thesis next week, but I intend to dazzle them with power-point and divert attention away from myself. Great strategy.
The Cuba pictures are in and everyone looks like they had a disgustingly great time. I think we truely did. Being in Halifax is sort of back to normal. Despite the fact that in a month from now I have to leave my room in my little apartment (where I've set up a comfotable home for the past three years). Finishing my thesis, exams and moving are going to be super overwhelming. What is making me happy (and only a little overwhelmed) is that I'm going to have a house guest for the last three weeks, which is going to be a lot of fun, but might divert me away from all my silly little responsibilities.
Saying goodbye to Halifax, friends, my school are all going to be really difficult.
Okay, enough of that. There is still one entire month to party and study more than I ever have before. And I can't wait to show 'the house guest' all sorts of fun things about and around the city: The Lower Deck, Split Crow Power Hour, Citadel Hill, Point Pleasant Park, Tribecca, the Alehouse, Maxwells, My school, Fireside. Wait, I swear there is something to do in this city besides drink....let me think about it for a minute....
Song: Pearl Jam - Better Man
Film: Deliverance
Cultural Artifact: New "Traditional" Keiths Lager. Very Good.
Wednesdays are like Saturdays because I don't have class. This means that it is noon, and I am still in bed and eventually I will mosey on over to the library and get some thesis work done. Perhaps Chapter Three will finally get into the writing phase. I think It's going to be the key chapter so I'm kinda nervous about starting it. I also have to present my thesis next week, but I intend to dazzle them with power-point and divert attention away from myself. Great strategy.
The Cuba pictures are in and everyone looks like they had a disgustingly great time. I think we truely did. Being in Halifax is sort of back to normal. Despite the fact that in a month from now I have to leave my room in my little apartment (where I've set up a comfotable home for the past three years). Finishing my thesis, exams and moving are going to be super overwhelming. What is making me happy (and only a little overwhelmed) is that I'm going to have a house guest for the last three weeks, which is going to be a lot of fun, but might divert me away from all my silly little responsibilities.
Saying goodbye to Halifax, friends, my school are all going to be really difficult.
Okay, enough of that. There is still one entire month to party and study more than I ever have before. And I can't wait to show 'the house guest' all sorts of fun things about and around the city: The Lower Deck, Split Crow Power Hour, Citadel Hill, Point Pleasant Park, Tribecca, the Alehouse, Maxwells, My school, Fireside. Wait, I swear there is something to do in this city besides drink....let me think about it for a minute....
Song: Pearl Jam - Better Man
Film: Deliverance
Cultural Artifact: New "Traditional" Keiths Lager. Very Good.
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