March 15th, 2012

Entertainments

Life continues busy, but not of all of it is work, so if I can’t be providing substantial updates here, at least I can share the fun stuff I’ve been doing so you can (if you care to) do it too!

Watch Goon. Not-so-secret RR fact: I love Seann William Scott. I think he’s a great comic actor–not infinite range, perhaps, but Goon definitely expands it. It’s a funny, sweet, gory movie–I imagine it could only be better if one actually liked hockey or could look at violence without peeping through one’s fingers. I thought it was really interesting how realistic the violence looked. If you watch a lot of romantic comedies or even action flicks, you start thinking it’s pretty easy to knock a man down with one punch. If you watch *Goon,* you learn/remember that if that man is strong and used to fighting, it’s actually pretty hard to knock him down with seven punches–but you’ll make is face look like rotten meat in the process. Some of the negative reviews say this movie glorifies violence, but I think it really really doesn’t. But don’t let me go heavy on it–the best part is really SWS charming charming portrayl of a loveable goof, especially when he talks about how garbage sometimes blows in his face. Oh, and the city shots of Halifax are great!

Read the latest issue of The New Quarterly Even-less-secret RR fact–I adore TNQ. That said, not every issue is my personal delight–they celebrate a range of writing styles and forms, all interesting but–I just love character-heavy, witty, involving, open-ended short stories the best. There it is–my literary prejudice. And there are some great ones in this issue–by Michelle Berry, Caroline Adderson, Michael Bryson, and others. And intereviews about the short story form with the three listed above, including some interesting discussion about what a short story *is* and what it can and cannot do, alone, and with a book filled with sister stories. The differences between a short story collection, a linked short story collection and a novel in stories are fascinating to me right now–this issue couldn’t have come at a better time.

Read this review of *The Big Dream* in *The Gauntlet*. Thought-provoking, no?

Some other things I’ve done lately that can’t quite fit under the “entertainment” category though I, in my way, found them entertaining:

–I used up a lipstick, was has seriously happened maybe three times in my whole life.

–I rode in an SUV limo, which has happened zero times in my life and probably never will again. Fun, though.

–My cat learned to climb the shower curtain, to open the closet, and that the things flying around outside our window are birds that he could eat if it weren’t for the damn glass. Except sometimes he forgets about the glass.

–I bought a wedding dress.