August 10th, 2010

Litsy Stuff

A few things:

Via Scott, a list of literary pickup lines created in anticipation of a new dating website based around book preferences. The website plan is dubious, I think, but the lines are pretty funny, especially the one about Dan Brown.

I actually liked the music of Library Voices before I knew their perhaps overcute name. But they are truly both bookish (they have a song called “Kundera on the Dancefloor”) and unpretentious (another called “Drinking Games,” which I think is my favourite).

The new issue of the New Quarterly came last night, the On the Road issue, and it came with a PRESENT!! A bonus little magazine that’s *not* about writing, which I am much looking forward to reading. And there’s also a story by me, which I am quite pleased about too. But mainly the present!

I’m reading with Jill Battson and Mat Laporte tomorrow night at Pivot at the Press Club. I’ll be reading something from Road Trips as a kind of unofficial delayed launch, and I’ll have a few copies to sell, too. And I’ll be so excited that Pivot has reopened for the season!

July 27th, 2010

Moodily speaking

Various items of late have been contributing to my good mood–sunshine, Toy Story 3, nice friends, pizza, etc. I also got what probably the nicest massmail ever, and I thought I’d share it. It was from the guy who used to run CD Baby. I bought a cd from him back in the day (according to his records, 2003), not because I had ever even heard of CD Baby, but because it was the only thing that came up when I tried to buy Electroshock Blues Live album (they no longer have it; weirdly, they do have something by a band called Unagi, which came up in my Eels search!)

Point? What point? Oh, yeah, so apparently a couple years ago the founder of CDBaby, Derek Sivers, gave the company to charity and himself to other projects. Why do I know this? Because he sent me a really friendly massmail to tell me. I don’t think his other projects are going to make him the kind of millions selling music did, but they are pretty cool. Especially the Music Thoughts website, which has a “random thought” generator that is good fun. I am a sucker for random (as you regular readers will know), but unlike say, the random kitten generator, the random music thoughts actually make me feel a bit smarter! Ie., “The poem the reader reads may be better than that which the writer wrote.” (Brian Eno) This actually helps me! (ok, so do the kittens, but in a different way).

What else is good? Ooooh, new Meatloaf song! You can totally mock me after you listen to it–but you won’t, because it’s brilliant. I liked ML when I was a youth, too, and knew even then it wasn’t cool. Then a couple years ago, I got sucked into watched a Meatloaf biopick (stupid internet appears to deny all knowledge of said film) and he was clearly a guy I could get behind–and admit it! I mean, “I’m just a white boy/I play a guitar/I put my pants on/I drive a sh*t car.” Hooray for rock and roll!

You know, I think the main problem with my life right now is that I don’t have a toad. In my childhood, summers were full of toads–it seemed like every day I would come across one hopping through the grass and I would put it in a sandbucket and give it grass and rocks to eat and we’d hang out together, maybe with my brother if he was being good that day.

Inevitably, I would be called into the house for a meal or bed, and while the toad appeared content in his sandbucket world, my father would release the toad the second my back was turned. Of course, my dad likes animals and did not one to die due to my not knowing what toads eat or that they like freedom. However, my father never adequately explained this to me and for years I thought he did it simply to be mean and deprive me of toad-friends.

Now, there are no toads. Partly because I no longer live in a rural environment, and partly I think I just don’t see them because my eyes are farther from the ground than they used to be. And I’d really like to see a toad again. *Not* because I’m seeking to defy my father by keeping it indefinitely in a bucket, but because they are so fun, so patient and blinky and good at hopping, and their little bellies are silky when you stroke them (although FYI, toads excrete poison from their skin when they are frightened, so always wash your hands after stroking at toad’s belly). I would just like to hang out with a toad for a little bit, and maybe even my brother, too.

So really, can’t complain about things around here. Hope you guys are well too…and if you have any surplus toads, please send’em my way!

July 14th, 2010

New Literary Critic

Yes, I am aware there is another CanLit deba(te/cle) going on right now, and of course I am following it even though I find it depressing. Smart people *are* making astute points, but when it’s criticism of criticism of criticism, I find it hard to believe their efforts aren’t better spend elsewhere.

Thus, I won’t link to it, in case you are as-yet undepressed (I just checked and googling “literary debate canadian” doesn’t bring this one up–it’s mainly Canada Reads, though the first one is about the Salon des Refuses!)

Instead I’ll just share this nice little short-story shout-out from my current most favourite band, The New Pornographers. Since I think AC Newman is a genius, it makes me happy to think he likes the thing I do. And I think he describes it pretty well, too:

You always love short story form
The science behind it, the hidden doors

(from MY Shepherd on the album Togetherness)

June 17th, 2010

Rose-coloured reviews The Pornographers June 15 concert at The Sound Academy

The nicest thing, in my opinion, to do before the concert is to have a good cheap meal downtown and avoid the baffling expense of trying to eat in the Distillery District (The Old Spaghetti Factory throws in salad, bread, tea/coffee and ice cream with all entrees! And the ice-cream is spumoni!). Failing that, one could likely have gotten something delicious en route at T&T grocery story on Cherry Street, or else the hotdog vendors outside the venue. And then walk–the buses from Union station and Pape station baffled us, but it was a perfectly pleasant 45-ish minute strolled the The Sound Academy, which is down by the Docks (where I had never been).

The Sound Academy turns out to be a nice big venue with enough bars and restrooms and a nice sort of patio area where you can go with your wristband and buy (expensive) snacks and pops. There was a lot of space (the whole second floor, it seemed) devoted to VIPs, but I guess VIPs have to go somewhere.

News of the opening acts didn’t interest me at all, as they went on really early and I hadn’t heard of them. We missed the Dukes and Duchesses entirely but we caught the The Dodos mainly by accident and they were wicked good. This seemed to be a three piece band (I couldn’t really see very well; there could have been more stuff up there), one and a half piecesof which was drum kit. So one guitarist, one traditional drummer, and one guy who played some drums, some xylophone, and a few other instruments I didn’t really understand. Let’s talk about how much I like xylophone music. Let’s talk about the song when Mr. Ambidextrous played one stick on the drums, one stick on the xylophone. Swoon!

The NPs had a very simple stage set up–just illuminated letters spelling their name hanging above a smoke and light filled stage. It was so great to see them in person (I never had before!) There are so many of them! I think I knew that but forgot–I’m a fan, but not a rabid one. But let’s talk about how in awe of Neko Case I am–and there she was with all that red hair in some sort of Grecian shiny headband-crown. Swoon! I love her voice so much–friends I ran into at the show said they thought she got a little squawky at times, but I thought she was perfect, especially on “Go Places,” which has never sounded sweeter to me.

It was so nice and fun to run into people I hadn’t seen in years in a big crowded concert hall. One great thing about Toronto is how often I think I am surrounded by strangers and then a face looms out all friendly and familiar. Of course, I wasn’t completely surrounded by strangers anyway, as I went to the show with B., who had given me the tix as a birthday gift (along with a tin of custard powder and a card that read, “To a Great Grandson”).

What else did I like about the show? Man, I bad at reviewing concerts–I don’t even think I attend them right, as I sucked hard candies at intervals and danced in my spot. Almost no one danced at this show–has that gone out of fashion now? Or maybe it was the age of the crowd. Someone commented, when I said I was going, that the band had been around more than 10 years so they are really The Old Pornographers, which I think is laughable–being born in the 1990s is not old! But the crowd was, in places, old*er*–some grey hair, some paunchiness, some real eagerness to get home and sleep when the show ended. But then fully half the crowd was probably a lot younger than me. I don’t know what my point is, but I am happy to announce that I now think I’ve finally figured out what a hipster is, so I can join the rest of you in laughing at them!

I dunno, this is a terrible review, but the show made me really happy. Maybe I have to go to concerts more than once every other year. Maybe I need to adjust to staying out later. Maybe they really should have played “Letter from an Occupant” just for old times sake. Maybe tonight is another late night and I should really get to bed…

June 15th, 2010

Various Goodnesses

This is going to drive me crazy–The Literary Type is searching for a cover image for their “On the Road” issue, which is about travel and transit of all kinds, which is a much beloved them of mine (see last book, as well as the story of mine that’s actually in the “On the Road” issue). But I can’t come up with an image for them–why? Maybe you can come up with an image and solve the problem for us all…?

The National Post ran a piece We’ve Read Your Book, Now What? this weekend, about what authors would recommend people read *after* our own books. Lots of good ideas, including one from me!

I am going to see The New Pornographers in five hours. Well, that’s when the openers come on–TNP will I guess be later. I haven’t been to a concert in a couple years and I sort of forget how they work. But I’m still pretty sure I’m going to like it.

I feel less lousy on less caffeine today. The goal here, after all, is not to eradicate a nice thing from my life, but simply not to be dependent on it. And varying the time and amount of caffeine I consume is *like* not being dependent–isn’t it?

May 27th, 2010

Some Links

Did you read La Vita Nuova by Allegra Goodman in *The New Yorker* last month? I think you should. I feel like I’ve read 35 versions of the “woman bereft in love struggles to reconnect with her life” story in the past couple years, and this is the best one. It’s simple, short, and specific–no straining for universality or “deep” meaning–when being really sad is examined with enough care and humour, that’s deep enough.

I can’t believe I forgot about Sinead O’Connor’s song The Emperor’s New Clothes, one of the favourites of my youth, for ten or so years. I had never seen the video before I went looking for a link for you guys (why is it you can always find video links and not audio ones?) and it’s actually sort of odd, but the song is brill. I actually didn’t recall what she looked like (I was never a fan–just the one song) before watching the video, and was shocked at how pretty she is! How come no one ever mentions that?

I did one of Alex Boyd’s One Question Interviews over at BoydBlog. The OQI is a really good idea, no?

April 13th, 2010

Transcribing The Stills

Oh my god, everything sucks. Not really; it’s pretty much limited to first-world problems around here, but morale is low. And what boosts morale faster than transcribing the lyrics of popular music? Transcribing the lyrics of angry popular music (note to anyone baffled by the above: I occasionally enjoy writing down the lyrics of a song I like while I listen to it. It forces me to really examine each word; a song that I still love after I’ve done this is lyrically unimpeachable).

I started with Destoyer, but in the end I didn’t want to post the whole song because when you *do* think a lot about the lyrics, some of them sound pretty psychotic. So I’ll just post the best verse, and suggest that you watch the video above and not overthink the lyrics, because it’s pretty catchy, and also I used to live next door to where the video was filmed.

And arrows are pointed
And the archers delighted
Oh the thrill oh the smell
The shit I’ve been put through
Let angels to no one [I think I have that line wrong, but the principles of the game preclude looking it up]
Well I hate you and your blood
So don’t make a goddamn sound
Well I’m comin’ well I’m comin’
To your town

I ended up doing The Stills’ “In the Beginning” which is vaguer but still wrathful. Also, I can’t find a good video for this, but you can hear it off their CBC3 page.

This story ends in bloodshed
The face I love
The city I’m from
Well the persons I’ve met
The persons I’ve let down
But our hero never turns around

It’s nice to see you’re moving on
I know hard to carry on
And it’s just never what it was
Oh in the beginning
In! the beginning!

And how did this start
And when did we begin
In a ball of fire and stars and soot [I think I have that line wrong]
And that brings me here now
Well my heart’s caving in
A tornado whips it round the poles
And it’s –rainin’

Oh!

It’s nice to see you’re movin’ on
I know it’s hard to carry on
And it’s never what it was
Was in the beginning
Well in! the beginning!

[bridge]

In a ball of fire
In a ball of fire
[do do do do do]
In a ball of…
[do do do do do]

Anyway, in case you didn’t pick it up, I totally love The Stills, and I feel their stoic deadpan guitar-fuelled rage is exactly in keeping with my own. Hope this has been a good pitch for them–you don’t even have to listen to their music exclusively when you’re angry!

RR

March 15th, 2010

It’s come to my attention…

That some young Canadian musicians took K’naan’s Waving Flag song, possibly the most perfect song to play on the radio in a good while, and made a slightly less good version to benefit victims of the earthquake in Haiti. I thought this idea was genius when I first heard about it, because it’s such a great song about personal empowerment and strength, but a little hazy on the details so it could conceivably work for lots of things (full disclosure: I don’t know what it was originally about). They added some specifics anyway (“out of the darkness / in came the carnage”–oh, dear) and a rap bridge (yikes) but it is kind of cool to hear all those voices rising together at the end. So I recommend you buy the less good version, because it’s a good cause and a song that you really can’t wreck. It’s sort of a superhero song, so maybe it can really do a lot of good for Haiti–look what it did for soccor.

That Rover Arts posted a nice review of the Journey Anthology 21.

That Bonjour Brioche in Leslieville is wonderful. Crowded on the weekends, but seriously, any carb in the place is probably gold. And waitress sometimes talk to each other in French.

RR

March 8th, 2010

That’s what I like

The song with my favourite lyrics ever turns out to be cowritten by Sam Shepard, which of course does not make it any better, but does sort of up the interest factor in Shepard for me. I’ve only read the occasional New Yorker story by him–does anyone want to recommend what play to start with?

Sunshine on tulips! The ones on my dining-room table look like this and are absolutely splendid.

The weather this week! Yesterday was perfect wandering around weather and I hope that’s what you did. And now, we don’t have to panic, because the rest of the week will be nice, too. But then next weekend, it’s supposed to be 5 or 6 degrees and snowy, which makes no sense. But we have five glorious days until then.

Taco King at Danforth and Donlands. I’m linking to a largely negative post because it’s all I can find–but most of those people didn’t eat there, just looked at the pictures through the window. I think it’s great–cheap fast Mexican food that does not come out of a box, bag, or tube (ie., no cheese of the whiz variety). After a lovely delivery experience (embarrassingly, me and my dining companion ordered so much they gave us three forks–we thought at those prices the portions would be small but they weren’t) I went on Saturday to see the establishment. They grill the chicken in front of you and apparently the tortillas are homemade, and everything’s a wicked good deal. Let’s not let prejudice taint a good thing–just because the owners and some of the staff are Asian, doesn’t mean they haven’t learned to do Mexican food extremely well! I’m scared it will close because so many restaurants in that area do, and I’ll be back to Moe’s Southwestern, which is actually good too, but I’d rather have local indy than big American chain if I can.

RR

January 23rd, 2010

Bits

I have no major theme or connective tissue for today, just a little things I’ve been thinking of and would like to share with you. Please do not attempt to take them as a whole; they certainly do not come to more than the sum of their parts. I’ll try to visually separate everything on the page for you.

——————–

I like rules. Maybe more than a so-called creative person should or is expected to, I enjoy being told what to do. I gleefully tell potential employers that I take direction well, and I really mean it. My friend P calls this my desire to “outsource my thinking,” and she’s spot-on–I appreciate it when someone will bother to form a plan or opinion where I have none–saves me the trouble, and provides the illusion of an ordered universe. Obvious, this won’t work well with things that matter a lot to me (ie., my writing, my clothes, what I’m going to eat), but I am really appreciative of advice (or imperitives) on such low-stakes issues as where to put the butter dish, when to send thank-you notes, and where I may wear my hat.

Yep, I’m an etiquette junky. When I was a tiny, I somehow picked up the Emily Post Book of Etiquette a great aunt had given my mother for high-school graduation (in a much much different edition than pictured here). And I’ve been a lifelong devote to her newspaper columns, and now the family (there’s dozens of’em) have a website. Lately, when I’ve been feeling blue or harried or as if the world just weren’t up to the white glove test, I’ve been turning to the Post family’s Etiquette Daily blog, and it’s been making me feel better. I thought I’d share my story, and the link, in case it might make you feel better, too.

——————–

Kerry Clare wrote this amazing post I think you should read, called Escape the Ego. Don’t be alarmed by the fact that it seems to be about a book called Eat Pray Love–I’m not sure what that is either, but I’m wary enough of the title that I’m not going to Google you a link (sorry!). Anyway, the post isn’t really about that book–it’s about why we read, and write, and what happens when we do. And it contains this beautiful paragraph:

“…I read, I think, to break it down and enable me to see the world in miniature, as manageable. Which, however conversely, is to be able to look at the big picture and regard it all at once, perhaps for the very first time. Fiction is a study in the hypothetical, a test-run for the actual. An experiment. What if the world was this? And we can watch the wheels turn and this bit of sample life run its course to discover. And I don’t mean that literature is smaller than life, no. Literature is life, but it’s just life you can hold in your hand, stick in your backpack, and I’m reassured by that, because the world is messy and sprawling, but if you take it down to the level of story, I am capable of some kind of grasp. Of beginning to understand what this world is, how to be in it.”

To which I say, yes. Also, wow.

——————–

Paul Quarrington has died, another hard blow in a rough week for CanLit. I hadn’t, in truth, read much of Quarrington’s work, but I was a big fan of his live performances–a great reader, a great speaker, a surprising good singer (I saw his band, The Pork Belly Futures play in Winnipeg because I was all alone and it was either that or stare at my hotel-room wall–and they were brilliant!!) He had a wonderful big warm presence, and an off-the-cuff joy in performing. I actually went to so many Quarrington events, and just ran into him randomly at so many litsy things, that he started smiling and saying hi to me, even though he had no idea who I was. I was in the process of working up the nerve to introduce myself, and now I am not going to get to do it. Which is sad. But I will be reading the books.

——————

And so ends another miscellaneous week. Hope this finds you well!
RR