In the dead of winter...

...there is colour in Halifax.

Assignments in the foreseeable future.

Renaissance Drama Short Essay: Feb 1.
Contemporary Critical Theory Essay on the Problem of the Author: Feb 4.
Journalism Proposal Assignment: Feb 4.
Journalism Essay on how the "discipline" advances the "conversation": Feb. 7.
Journalism Mystery Assignment: Feb 13.
Romantic Era Presentation on the Romantic Heroine: Feb 11.

I am really loving Cat Power's Jukebox. It is quite amazing. Very powerful.
My favorite song so far is her re-recorded version of Metal Heart.
But maybe that's just a cop-out. It's easy to love a song you're already
familiar with. Truly though, all the songs are fantastic.

It seems the more I have to do, the more I procrastinate, which then means, I blog more.

In the Next Galaxy

In the Next Galaxy
by Ruth Stone

Things will be different.
No one will lose their sight,
their hearing, their gallbladder.
It will be all Catskills with brand
new wrap-around verandas.
The idea of Hitler will not
have vibrated yet.
While back here,
they are still cleaning out
pockets of wrinkled
Nazis hiding in Argentina.
But in the next galaxy,
certain planets will have true
blue skies and drinking water.


I love when my academic career allows me to explore contemporary culture. Ruth Stone is possibly my favorite poet ever, and I am worried that I don't own any of her books. There are, in fact, no books by Ruth Stone in any Halifax library. I think this is sad.

I have to write an essay about a poem for my Contemporary Critical Theory class in which I talk about the death of the author and the problem of biography when interpreting poetry. I'm allowed to choose any poem I like, I'm thinking about either doing the above poem, by Ruth Stone, because she is awesome and I don't really know anything about her biography, which could make it a bit easier. However, Tanya Davis is incredible and I like working her into academia as much as possible.

I just found a Great Lake Swimmer's song covered by Don Brownrigg with Tanya Davis. It's amazing.

I'm trying to get all my stuff done, so that I can start working on a more up to date blog template.

Today is a very big day for Slean fans.

This week I am excited about, Field Manual, Chris Walla's new record.

Also.

In the Dead of Winter Festival starting Wednesday.

new found birds.

Shannon brought me these birds from Newfoundland.

Today, due to the sleet outside, and the colds that we had inside we declared a snow day. Much sleeping and reading and sushi making ensued.

Sushi is definitely an art. I'm not sure how well I did, but I managed to get rice wrapped in nori with some avocado and cucumber somewhere in the middle.

We have no shower/bathtub. Our poor landlord is beside himself.

I need to do some organizing of school stuff and take the next day and a bit to get as much done / ahead as I can.

Hopefully, my cold is on the upwards swing. Though, today Shannon is looking particularly miserable, so I'm sure I'll be feeling like that around tomorrow afternoon.

I've been sitting in the big chair in the living room, and Shannon has been on the couch. The big chair is usually Jane's, since we don't use the living room often. She's quite distraught that her napping schedule has been interrupted. She has started falling asleep while sitting up.
Silly cat.

Overflowing.

Today, I was cleaning out the litter box, (I was rinsing it out in the bath) and then I discovered that I couldn't get the shower to turn off. At first it was leaking a little bit, but now, it's leaking like a waterfall.

I tried aome basic plumbing, called my dad, then Shannon's dad. Then our landlord.

We gave up, opened the window for Jane and left it running.

Jane is having a ball.

i seem to like blogging again.

I'm really enjoying being an English student lately. Today I'm handing in big essay number 2 for my Romantic era class. I did miserably on the first one, so I went to the writing center yesterday for help editing, and I think I did better on this one.

I'm reading a lot. Right now I'm reading Song of Solomon, it's pretty awesome so far.

Yesterday, I skipped the second half of journalism for the first time ever, it felt pretty good.

recipe card birds.

Tell me everything you know about Canadian Queer Literature/Spoken Word/Art.

The great thing about reading books is that it makes us better than cats. Cats are said to have nine lives. What is that compared to the girl, boy, man, woman who reads books? A book read is a life added to one’s own. So it takes only nine books to make cats look at you with envy.
- Yann Martel

Everyone dies in the Spanish Tragedy

I have become a giant waste of paper as I no longer seem able to think in a word processor.

I have updated my reading list, should you want to track my progress.

oh.

Also, I have discovered the endless joy of avacado sushi.

AND.

I want this camera.

My Winter Term Reading List

In order of when I need to read it:

January
Shklocsky: Art as Device (essay)
Eco - Over Interpreting Texts (essay)
Wordsworth - The Prelude
Gillmor - The Gates Come Down (essay)
Marlowe - Tamburlaine the Great (play)
Nabokov - Pale Fire (novel)
Kovach - The Elements of Journalism
Shelley - To Wordsworth & Alastor
Kyd - The Spanish Tragedy (play)
State of the News Media 2007
Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49 (novel)
Shelley - Te Mask of Anarchy & Ode to the West Wind (poems)
Briggs - Web 2.0 (chapter)
Cary - The Tragedy of Mariam (play)
Online State of Emergency (essay)

February
Byron - Manifred
Iser, Hisch, Fish (essays)
Middleton - The Revenger's Tragedy (play)
Knowles - The French Lieutenant's Woman (novel)
Online Reading: Historical Reference Points
Byron - Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (poetry)
Saussure, Kristeva, Jacobson (essays)
Barthes - Mythologies (collection of essays)
Poetry by Hemans
Morrison - Song of Solomon (novel)
Webster - Duchess of Malfi (play)
Online Media Magazine (article)
Middleton - The Roaring Girl (play)

March
Austen - Northanger Abbey (novel)
Silko - Ceremony (novel)
Middleton - A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (play)
Essay by Noam Chomsky
Delillo - White Noise (novel)
Beaumont - The Knight of Burning Pestle (play)
Keats - The Eve of St. Agnes (poem)
Kureishi - The Buddha of Suburbia (novel)
Jonson - Volpone (play)
Briggs - Chapter 6
Online Canadian Newspaper Association 2007
Keats - The Odes of 1819 (poem)
Speigleman - Maus(novel)
Middleton - The Changeling (play)
Keats - Ode on a Grecian Urn (poem)
Shelley - Ozymandias (poem)
Hemans - Image in Lava (poem)
Shelley, M - The Last Man (novel)
Ford - 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore (play)
More Online Journalism articles
Ryszard Kapuchinsky (essay)

Justification.

This is how I justify taking six courses.

Taurus:

The longest waves on the planet unfurl in the place where the Atlantic Ocean flows into the mouth of the Amazon River. The phenomenon is called the "pororoca" (from a word meaning "tumultuous noise"), and has become a favorite challenge for surfers. In 2003, a Brazilian daredevil named Picuruta Salazar rode a single wave for 37 minutes, gliding and plowing for almost eight miles. Judging from your current astrological omens, Taurus, I'd say that's an apt metaphor for the kind of wave you now have the chance to jump on. If you choose to give it a whirl, don't plan for a short sweet burst of adrenaline. Be ready for a long, rollicking balancing act.

Your head is cloudy now and this weather system is called regret,
And it's gonna rain down soon, you haven't even taken cover yet,
if you're gonna stay out then do it,
but don't complain about the storm around you,
'cause it's you who brewed it, and you can't undo what you did,
but you can move through it.
You can see those arms for the chameleons that they are and get used to it,
quit blaming them for holding you,
maybe they only do that cause you told them to,
and they'd be happy to let go of you and wave you on.
You could lay blame to save face but that's only an excuse,
and while you name names and lay waste you stay here and time moves.

- Tanya Davis, Don Brownrigg - Time Moves

It's strange walking through a community full of artists and musicians listening to a CD by one of the neighbors, featuring a poem by another one of them, and mouthing along, knowing full well that it's likely that you will walk past someone who knows (of) them. I seem so attached to this song right now, I have been for a while now. I think I'm waiting impatiently for Tanya's new CD.

family.

This is my beautiful family. They are the most precious thing in my world.

Today, I feel is blog worthy. It's been a hard day. I feel like I have no right to say that, but it has been, regardless. I woke up from a terrible dream, the kind that makes you cry for real, to discover my phone was disconnected. Shannon is in Newfoundland and so I check my messages every morning to see if she called. So ok, no phone line. I'm on the computer trying to figure out why. No clue. I get an e-mail from Shannon saying that her cousin is in the hospital, unconscious, and not breathing. I completely fall apart, dream had me unnerved to begin with. So I walk to the Eastlink building, which apparently isn't the Eastlink building anymore. Then I walk home.

Shower. Walk to the Rock Garden and try to use Rob's phone. I think I freaked him out a little. Then I went downtown, hung out with Marion, ate some food, called my mother, called my answering machine. Got an official update from Shan. Then I went to see Shannon P. she made things better, She is amazing and has a talent for making any situation seem like it's manageable.

All things considered, my life is fucking amazing, and I know this.

Tomorrow school starts again, and I don't know if I'll get to class. I don't think it's the end of the world if I don't go. Mental health day.

There are a million things that I needed to do over the break, but they didn't get done and seem irrelevant now. Tomorrow is going to come and go whether I am ready for it or not, so I might as well just let it come.

I am so lucky. I am not letting go of them ever.

Top 10 CD's from 2007

Feist - The Reminder

I got this CD when it first came out. I was in Montreal. It came out on the day that I was leaving, but I had to go downtown to pick up a copy from the HMV on Saint Catherine's St. I then listened to it when I was in Oshawa, and also when I was working alone at Colours. The Feist concert in May in Calgary was fantastic.

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Dave the shipping and recieving guy at work was listening to this. I thought it sounded a bit like Broken Social Scene. I wasn't sure what it was at first, so I asked, and then realized that it could only be Thom Yorke imitating the Little Mermaid.

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

Modest Mouse at the Metropolis in Montreal might be the best concert I have ever attended. I saw the concert before I listened to this CD. They were so amazing, I can't really believe it.

Jose Gonzalez - In Our Nature

I've not listened to this CD very much yet, but it is so beautiful and calming that I had to mention it.

Don Brownrigg - Wander Songs

Don has to be one of the friendliest people in Halifax. His CD is amazingly perfect. Of course, the song in which Tanya Davis makes an appearance is my favorite, and like usual I've memorized most of her lyrics and make a habit of completely butchering the song by saying her lines while she says them. The strange thing, is that Tanya lives across the street, and Don lives down the street above the Newfoundland store, and various members of his band live in our neighbourhood.

Handsome Furs - Plague Park

What can I say? Awesome. More of the kind of stuff that I like from the Wolf Parade crew.

You Left Saving the Planet - Here But Not Found

Stuart is amazing. I've listened to this CD so many times that I know the sounds of most of the words, though not the words exactly. I like putting this CD on and cleaning. It sounds like Wolf Parade and Sunset Rubdown if they were academics.

Jenn Grant - Orchestra for the Moon

Jenn is a magical little creature who created a masterpiece. This was recorded over a huge span of time, and I had heard most of the songs live before the CD came out. But I was still REALLY excited about it. The release show was postponed a few times, and when it finally happened I was in Calgary or Oshawa or Montreal or something like that. Apparently there was a finale of the Traveling Willbury's Handle With Care.

Blonde Redhead - 23

I bought this CD in Montreal as well. I was listening to it at the listening station and the first song, 23 came on, and I thought the drumming sounded exactly the same as Lindsay's drumming style. So I had to buy it, because Lindsay is the best drummer I know. This connection really only makes sense to me I'm sure.

Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

I was never a huge Iron & Wine fan. I got Our Endless Numbered Days a while after it came out, and I'm sure I only found out about him because of his cover of the Shin's song. I listened to this CD for the first time at my Grandparent's house in Northern New Brunswick over the Thanksgiving weekend. I've been obsessed with the songs Boy With a Coin and Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog).

*Most photos taken by Sylvie Au Contraire