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Showing posts from December, 2011

well thank christ that's over with

Santa: just one more guy who likes to sneak around my house. * * * * * Ah, Christmas. It was wet and it was green. I wore my t-shirt inside-out (which C said was very 80's), went for a run, nearly died (see: run), got called a grinch because I wanted Oona to actually *look* at each toy she was given, yet the mad wrapping-paper-ripping continued, watched Oona's eyes quickly empty of all meaning and comprehension, presided over her (completely expected) consecutive meltdowns, ignored C's attempts to make me look at the IKEA catalogue, planned supper, made supper, we had stuffed turkey breast and baked butternut squash and peas (for C, these must be from Quebec) and extra stuffing and cranberry sauce and gravy, and it all came out fine and lovely and we sat down to eat, and Oona melted down again, and refused to eat any supper, and C and I tried to ignore her, and we talked about how awful Christmas music is, and I said I didn't understand why most of it is made, becau

sneak attack trickery style

Sneaky? Manipulative? I don't care. Because sometimes, if you *really* want your niece to write to you, you have to provide your own self-addressed, stamped postcard.

the myth of bad daddy

Due to some rather unfortunate *disinformation* that has proliferated lately, I've been forced to post this video in order to set the record straight. Watch and weep, good-daddy naysayers.

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why i like this

Because it's nearly flawless. Because it's the perfect coalescence between the classic and the modern, between the organic and the mechanical. Because that gorgeous yellow has real vibrancy, and actual shades within it, and that red 'x' has just the right gestural quality. Because there are just a few elements at work here, and they're all working together. Because it's simple. Because it's Bette Davis, and that look is so iconic.

what I watch when the person I'm watching the movie with doesn't want to watch (the movie)

Watched District 9 the other night. Thought C might half-like it because she has half-liked other science fiction stuff before (albeit randomly). Boy was I wrong. When C isn't interested in a movie you're watching, several things will happen, often all at the same time: ++ letting the cats in, then out, then in again, then out ++ talking to cats ++ anecdote time! with this movie, it was all sorts of information about the giant slag heaps of Johannesburg ++ getting up to go get snacks ++ eating snacks ++ complaining that I bought the wrong kind of dip ++ asking if there's anything (else) to drink in the house, and does it taste any good? ++ going to check on (snoring) Oona every five minutes ++ sleeping ++ snoring I'd like to tell you if the movie was any good, or even what it was about (aliens? ghostbusters?) but there was too much going on around me to really pay attention.

early theories of the universe

acrylic inks on old textbook (astronomy) paper * * * * * There's a member of our writing group who is always bringing in poems about stars. Whenever she hands me a copy of her work, I ask, "Is this about stars?", and she usually laughs and says yes . Sometimes I'm even looking for the poem to be about something else, and I'm not quite getting it, and she'll say, "Nope, it's just about stars." I guess if you're going to get lost in a subject, the cosmos is as good as anything. It has a certain ... vastness . And the language, while viscous in that blackly scientific way, is at the same time enigmatic and quite beautiful: supernova remnant, accretion disk, event horizon, cepheld variable, chasma, faculae, gamma-ray, lunation, penumbra, right ascension. So while the meaning sometimes escapes me (in poems the metaphors seem to come spinning at you in whole clusters), I'm learning to appreciate the musicality of the words themselves, and

some thoughts on shopping

Have you ever gone to the food court before the rest of the mall opens? There are two types of people around: (a) people who obviously work there and (b) people who obviously don't work anywhere (old people, disabled people, strange people) * * * * * Is the Sears business model entirely predicated on sales? I can't remember the last time I was in there when there wasn't a sale going on. Heaps and heaps of pressed polyester pants, all 40% off. * * * * * O look, Orange Julius still exists. Huh. * * * * * And HMV. How the fuck are they still viable? * * * * * In line in EBGames and I could not hack it, had to abort. It wasn't even a line, really. But the geek quotient was absolutely off the scale -- coughers, mumblers, gigglers, stinky boy-men in dirty sweats and facial hair that made me think of insincere rounds of chemo. * * * * * Jesus, only 10:30 and it's already getting busy. * * * * * Why are these old ladies carrying their own little ch