April 12th, 2008

Natter

There are really too many posts about how much I love malls, but in truth, it’s *because* I don’t get to go that often that I feel compelled to kvell every time I do. Yesterday, killing time before dinner, I bought some lip balm that benefits AIDS research, which is funny because trying on lip-balm testers in stores used to be how kids thought you could get HIV. So I put on some of the tester, to prove to myself how far we’ve come. Or something. Mall symbolism gets a little murky.

Other items of mall joy: mannequins with furrowed brows! The hilarious security guard at Sephora! My new camisole, purchased for the sole purpose of compensating for tops and dresses that I buy, otherwise nice but far too low-cut. Is nipple-grazing the fashion now, or do I just have an unerring love for inappropriate shirts? Anyway, camisole=problem solved.

Gosh, this is trivial. But such is life.

Better: I’m going to see a little Victorian melodrama tonight, courtesy of the kids at Free Biscuit, still going very strong despite the fact that the blog is no longer being updated (hence no link!) Also now reading/looking at Alison Bechdel’s *Fun Home*. I really mean it about the “looking at” part–I’m getting way better at taking it all in when I read graphic novels. I used to actually skip the pictures and just look for words! Not consciously, but if there was narrative in the visuals, I’d miss it and then have to go flipping back for it. I’m picking up a lot better this time. Could help that Bechdel is both brilliant and extremely textual–she builds books and words into a lot of her images, and so those boundaries start to blur. Anyway, it’s an extremely compelling book, highly recommend if dig that sort of thing.

Sorry, I’m rainy-day groggy. Perhaps a more brilliant post tomorrow!

Taste it and tell me it’s savoury
RR

January 13th, 2008

Weekends Are for Wonderful

I have to say that the Free Biscuit performances Friday night were nothing short of astounding! To say nothing of the fact that Steph and Mark built a *stage* with *footlights* in their living room. To say nothing of the delicious food, the collapsable flying disk printed with sex-ed websites that Matthew brought me, to say nothing of the absolutely brilliant performances. Oh, wait, I already did say something about that. For my own part, I managed not to fall off the aforementioned stage, forget (m)any lines or, you know, die, which if you are one of those unlucky enough to have listened to much of the fretting I was doing about this performance, seemed like a possibility for a while. I’m really sorry about all that fretting, guys–I’m pleased to say that not only was it not horrible, I’m positively delighted I didn’t fake a stroke in order to stay home (also a possibility at one point).

The wonders slowed down slightly yesterday, consisting mainly of the discovery that Penny is right about whipped cream being better than CoolWhip, and that strawberry shortcake can (sorta) be created in January, if all concerned have enough patience and active imaginations. Also the joyous revelation that a first draft of a story that I thought might never be done is in fact nearly done. The thing about me and my dire predictions is that I have such a wide margin in which to be pleasantly surprised.

More pleasant surprises: gentle giants of my university years, the band Pigeon Hole has seemed defunct of late (hence the lack of hyperlink there), have a four-song artist page on CBC3 (search the song “Similar Promises”). This is handy for the vast majority of earthlings who do not own a copy of the chom 97.7 L’esprit 2000 cd, which is where I get my Pigeon Hole fix! Enjoy!

And so, when you wonder about the *next* draft of that story, the mysterious angry muscle in my back, the piercing hour of fire alarm that almost made me cry yesterday (I react really badly to loud noises) (it’s really hard to make me cry otherwise) (don’t try), or any of a dozen other scary things that I have do, we can really do little but be grateful for weekends.

Gloria / I think they got your number
RR

April 10th, 2007

Long weekend

Kicked off the long weekend with a stellar meeting of the Free Biscuit-reers, which would be the theatre group I’m helping out with. They’re a group of actors committed to innovation, inclusion and ingestion of biscuits, and they graciously allow me to play along and help with scripts and stuff. Ever fun. They’ got a blog, and to kill two birds with one stone, you could surf on over and find not only what the group is like but read a film review I wrote of “Reign Over Me” at Free Biscuit Theatre. If you haven’t the time, the short version is that Free Biscuit is awesome and so is Adam Sandler.

Anyway, that film plus a peck of writing is what I did Friday, and then more work of the teaching variety plus a delightful trip to see my family on Saturday. Over cocktails I flew into an inexplicable rage (not really, but I was snarky) because my father told a delightful story about a horse he encountered as a child that I had never heard before. I somehow felt, having known my dad for nigh on thirty years, I would only be hearing breaking news and I was alarmed to know that he was sitting on such good material. As a result of my snark, over the course of the weekend got two more brand new stories, also delightful. I am on the verge of demanding my parents and everyone else I know get a blog (that will never happen). Really, you might think this blog is very boring, but this is exactly the sort of information I want to know about you. Yes, you. Go on, tell me what *you* did Thursday night, or the last time you were on a horse. If you don’t, I’ll accuse you of holding out on me.

Hard rock radio
RR