I’ve just started tracking BiblioOdyssey and I love it. Arcane and beautiful and disturbing and challenging book illustrations from a wide range of cultures and historical eras.
I could browse for hours…
Archive for November, 2006|Monthly archive page
Bibliogem
Thursday, November 30th, 2006snort
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006Adam and Jamie testing out an exploding washing machine myth. Adam pouring dog pee captured at a nearby park on baking soda wearing full flame-retardant gear, including a face mask. Jamie standing behind the plexi-glass bomb shield.
It’s pee on soda, man. Nothing happened (except me snorting).
Father of the dick-waggers
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006I’m re-reading George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Victorian in girth; Renaissance in spheres of knowledge: it’s a chewey novel.
Because I did my MA thesis on Eliot, I’ve kinda avoided her novels like the plague for a while (um, like over 10 years), but I’m finding that I’m able to come back to her now and see her as a writer again, instead of some dessicated specimen to be overanalysed and turned inside out to get at the Lacanian feminist goodness.
I turned back to Eliot due to a post from quietbubble,who sees a continuous line from Eliot to our dick-wagging post-modernists, like Thomas Pynchon or David Foster Wallace. I’ve been quoted as calling this line of literature “masturbatory”, so I guess I’m on the same track :)
Reading Eliot through this lens is quite interesting. I’m noticing more science in Eliot’s fiction. She opines at length on medicine, is in love with alchemical/physic metaphor, and interlaces domestic life with observations on engineered objects and politics and business. In short, I could jump from here to Pynchon and feel like it was but a generation. I wonder if she’d be non-plussed to be the “father” of this generation of writers.
It’s like finding a whole new author.
Holiday cheer for the sardonic
Sunday, November 26th, 2006I’ve got almost al of my holiday shopping done, and I’m very happy about that.
Was wandering around a store, my last of the day, thoroughly fed up with the “cheery” songs, people who stop in the middle of the aisle to stare at chopstick displays, and gold sparkle decorations, when I accidentally ran over a toy that was misplaced on the floor.
It was some stuffed doggy thing that, um, plaintively whimpers when moved. I carried an awkward smile for another two aisles…
Semantic Nation/Nation Sémantique
Sunday, November 26th, 2006PM Stephen Harper (he of the dead eyes) says his government will be introducing a motion to recognize Quebec as a “nation” within a “united Canada”. Government line is that they have to because Gilles Duceppe is forcing Harper’s hand. Minority government hand would make that clearer. Folly and fou share have the same root precisely for this occasion, it would seem.
I’m in UR bathroom
Saturday, November 25th, 2006Perfect night for a nice, hot bath. Bubbles. Book. Relax.
Until your cat wanders in, says hello, and deposits the stinkiest of poops in his litter cave.
Meme: 5 Things
Friday, November 24th, 20065 things in my refrigerator:
1. Cut-up veggies in a bowl for easy access
2. Curry paste
3. Peas
4. Ruby Red grapefruit juice
5. Cheese!
5 things in my closet(s):
1. A whole whack of coats & jackets
2. The bin I use for composte scraps in the summer
3. Shoooooes
4. Hidden stash of family photos where we look like zombies
5. Hot pink velour track suit
5 things in my purse:
1. BlackBerry
2. Film canister with pills in it
3. Wallet
4. Lip balm
5. Some leftover Euro coinage
5 things in my car:
1. Two scrapers
2. An empty gum wrapper
3. A blanket
4. Garbage bags
5. 1980s Bolle sunglasses
In honour of my American friends
Friday, November 24th, 2006I too am thankful:
- For snuggling on the couch with Jean Luc
- For the healthiest relationships I’ve ever had with my family
- For a job at a company where I feel welcome
- For living in a great country
- For my little house
- For books
- For my friends
- For jammin’ in my living room
- And for scotch :)
The Man in Black
Thursday, November 23rd, 2006New video for one of Johnny’s last songs: God’s Gonna Cut You Down.
Johnny Cash’s soul was writ large, and I think that explains the star-studded cast. His music played a huge role in my life. And I may not agree with his religious beliefs, but he makes me want to belt it out, real gospel, falling completely flat on your ass and getting up and feeling the lives of the ordinary people, and of people on the edges.
Crank it up.
Two little posts. A whole lotta thinkin’.
Thursday, November 23rd, 2006Okay, before you get to the writing, you need to do some reading:
>This
> and This
Go ahead. I’ll wait. Take notes if you need to…
So, now what are you thinking? I’m not primarily connected in any pseudocommunity, though I know people who are. But I do have relationships that are maintained because of what technology affords me to do – namely, continue and extend and maintain a relationship.