some driftless areas

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The Driftless Area by Tom Drury. I like this book quite a lot. It's a strange kind of noir, where the main character acts like he's watching himself from a distance, and is charming in a self-aware but disconnected way. At the same time, this never feels shallow or contrived; events just trundle along, and you don't know where they'll go. This is not about deep character exploration and there's an element of the supernatural here so if you're one of those people who goes around stomping I ONLY LIKE TO READ THINGS THAT ARE REAL then this book is not for you. Also, please get away from me.

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This VIA RAIL bomb plot is annoying, if only because now we have to hear idiotic questions like ARE OUR RAILWAYS SAFE? and DO WE NEED MORE RAILWAY SECURITY?, which automatically makes me wonder if they had targeted a bus (a lot easier), then would we be subjected to ARE OUR BUSES SAFE? and DO WE NEED MORE SECURITY ON BUSES? Short answer being: no. Because the only thing that saves us from these 'terrorists' is the fact that they're usually more like the Apple Dumpling Gang, and police work is the only anti-terrorist work that matters. I wrote a story about this back in 2007, wherein the narrator has a pair of grooming scissors taken away by airport security, and from there erupts a declamation about all the other ways the narrator could cause all sorts of terror, and they are innumerable.

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science fiction picture show, mixed media on cradled wood board, 16 x 20 inches. In the shop .

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Also, I've started drawing for lunch.

glamour, by extension

C is friends with the fashion stylist Rebekah Roy (left in both pics above) ... one of those people who personify calm and smiling success. On her blog she presents glamour in this very sincere, straightforward way ... whether she's taking pictures of people on the street , talking about stain removers , her favourite videos , or attending some glittering party . One minute she's ruminating on hair extensions, and in the next she reveals how she's been featured on the Vogue UK site. A real disarmer and charmer (and this without meeting her yet, although I feel like I know her because we both did our time in Winnipeg). * * * * * Coming home from Russia, we did many bad things. ; mixed media on canvas, 10 x 10 inches. In my own life, the glamour is wholly imagined. * * * * * witches, smoke ; mixed media on canvas, 10 x 10 inches. My second go at this one, and for some reason I'm painting a lot of smoke lately (note to self: tell C that I want to be cremated). *

the indisputable weight of the ocean

People are always telling me that my work is too dark. So I've put up this sunnier story, but even it has a shadow, as its original publisher – a fine Atlantic Canadian literary magazine called the Gaspereau Review – is no longer in business. ---------------- It was a simple enough thing and that thing was simply this: Edmund Kelley was a gentleman. Of course his mom called him her 'little gentleman', as in 'Oh Edmund, you are my perfect little gentleman,' which did seem to hold to a certain logic that these type of things often follow, considering her affection for him and the fact that he was, after all, only ten years old. Still, Edmund himself was not particularly fond of the diminutive aspect of that title. Gentleman was enough; gentleman summed up the whole thing rather nicely, thank you. He was definitely a more refined version of your average child. He lived in a state of perpetual Sunday m

Oona Balloona (doesn't care about new tables)

Well, it's Friday, and since I'm pretty depleted in the chit-chat department, I might as well put up some pictures of Ol' Giggles At Ghosts before Grandma starts sending me hate mail. Man, what a goofball. At this rate it's going to be, like, eighteen years before she has gainful employment and moves out of the house. I mean, come on . * * * * * C is especially crazy and frantic today. About two months ago she decided that she no longer liked our dining room table (take that, dining room table! no more BFF for you!). Since then she's switched the dining room and kitchen table (and all the rest of the furniture in the house -- about thirty times, but that's another story) as a provisional solution while she scoured area stores for an upgrade. And she thought she had found one, on Wednesday, at JYSK ( Whatever , I said). But when she ordered it, JYSK called back to say that they were really low on stock, and that the stock they did have was damaged, and

red-handed

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