Settler words&music in S'ólh Téméxw, (leanpub.com/upsun) living where privilege meets precarity in MST country. she/her/they———– Novels: Midnite Moving Co., Upsun; Sweep Off Those Waves coming soon, Hair Sinister after that. —Restore All Indigenous Lands!
Poor George. No matter how many doubting Thomases he converts, there’s always one more.
Enniwess, word count for the day done, banana bread is in the oven, Miss Margot is missing Jeff and wandering about the house calling. He is off to fix computers and chew gum, and he’s all out of gum. Or no, I think I saw some in the car.
Beyond the Edge is an excellent documentary about Hillary and Everest. Recommended.
I did a shop this morning; while out a katydid crawled over the visor of the MR2 and waved its long green feelers and googled its googly eyes at me. I ejected it from the vehicle.
People in New Westminster amaze me. One stood in the middle of a crosswalk and laboriously blew his nose.
I dropped of my library books (yay, no fines) and also all the alkaline batteries we’ve used in the last six months. I feel happy about keeping them out of the garbage stream.
Sandra posted a pic I sent her of the Chanterelle mushrooms; it’s at the FAQ part of her site. I am also thinking of her these days; a mutual acquaintance is a professional German translator so maybe since all of her best customers are German tourists we can get her site translated.
I am getting fairly nasty arthritis pain and loss of mobility in my finger joints; practicing each day does not improve it, but I’ll lose all my skillz if I don’t keep on it. I’ve been practicing almost every day for a year now and everybody including me can tell. Bless Interfilk for sending me to Georgia! I had such a good time. I’ve got Conflikt 8 to look forward to… I’ve never missed one!
Paul took me walking in Oakalla (otherwise known as Deer Lake Park) yesterday. It was a simply gorgeous day, and we saw a green frog sitting up in one of the little ponds next to the walkway. Thanks be, they’ve put in a portable potty in the parking lot on the Royal Oak side, I sure needed it as I was exiting the walk. Then back to Geekhaus for beers on the back deck. Paul brought jello! it was a welcome respite from the heat. I got the ceiling fan fired up in my room and it’s been much more pleasant sleeping… most mornings these past two weeks I’ve woken up collared in sweat, bleaugh. I swapped parsley salad and nuts for the jello.
This morning I’ll be off to a late breakfast with my friend Sue.
It’s been absolutely sweltering here in Vancouver, but some things are great….
The dogwood is in flower again, astonishingly, all over; it shines in the sun.
Still all happy about Guardians of the Galaxy. It won’t be as much fun the second time but I am looking forward to it.
Saw Zero Theorem, a film by Terry Gilliam, and it’s interesting. I liked the end and thought it made sense, Jeff was kinda meh about it.
Finally finished Europe Central; I’ll be heading back to the library today after my dentist appointment. I’m having a filling replaced. Not looking forward to it.
Paul and I are supposed to get together and do something exercisy today. Maybe we’ll swim in Katie’s pool cause it’s damned hot for a walk unless we’re going up in the hills to hike.
Right now all the doors are open … we’re trying to cool the place down since it’s like an oven in here even with the air conditioner.
Thick cut porkchops for brekkie.
…. Jeff and I went to the opening day of Star Wars on June 24 1977. It was a glorious day, and from the first moment to the last, we were enmeshed in it. Jeff went on to see it in the theatre at least half a dozen more times – I’m pretty sure I saw it once more on the big screen.
And until today, we haven’t seen a science fiction / fantasy / superhero movie which came even close to grabbing us and taking us someplace cool. We just cleared the door back from Guardians of the Galaxy.
Just go see it. Guardians of the Galaxy has everything your heart longs for in a big summer movie. Characters you can invest in; a plot so full of cheesy holes it’s like a big slab of Swiss; whacky universe destroying technology; dancing; a tongue in cheek soundtrack; talking raccoons; stentorian villains; crash landings and lots and lots of hilarious dialogue. Lots.
Just go see it. Big fun.
Bill and Brenda Sutton ask the question….
Tre and Battery came over yesterday and we laughed and talked and drank beer and broke out the pinball machines for the little guy. Very pleasant afternoon, and Jeff and I love that they never call first. We’re either here and happy to see them or away and sad we missed them. It’s like slipping back into another era, when it’s good that friends drop by.
In about twenty minutes we’re going to jump in the car and guh help us PAY for a movie. But 10 am on a Sunday sounds like the perfect way to avoid the crowds; Guardians of the Galaxy is supposed to finally be ‘the summer hit’. The fan reviews have been AWESOME. We shall see.
I am working on the novel still… it’s still fun after all.
Keith called yesterday (how good to hear his voice) to basically just check in. Happy sigh. If it wasn’t so oppressively sticky and hot, I’d say my life was a big old dream.
A lovely time filking yestreen at Tom and Peggy’s, Cindy also in attendance. I got to sing soprano for most of the evening, which is fine if I’m not singing loud.
I hope everybody has a happy pride day! or not.
I light a candle for pOp, and he knows why. You have a visit from Jeff to look forward to, and once he’s back I’ll come out and see you.
Got a call back from an employer NOT A FRICKIN AGENCY. I have to wait another week.
Saw, and loved, Edge of Tomorrow (stupid name, good movie though; it’s Starship Troopers meets Groundhog Day.)
Jeff and I have been permanently ruined by A Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. Mr. Nosepuller told us to pay attention to the recreation of the couple, and now it’s in every single thing we watch.
Made wordcount yesterday and practiced.
I very much enjoyed this cartoon. SFW.
Click here if the embedded audio player doesn’t work for you.
It’s all about a fannish party that gets a little, uh, surreal. The first two verses are more or less as it happened, and then it goes into the stratosphere of implausibility and meta. Well my momma lived next door to Bela Lugosi – he kept trying to give her cigars – and I was too polite to say, “I think you’re lying,” so I said, “Alan, I think you’ve been working too hard!” He said, “No, she really DID live next door to Bela, call her in Ft. Lauderdale and you will see!” I thought, I gotta think of something to one-up this puppy, so I dug down deep in my memory (and said)
“I was seen by our Royal Queen in my crib when I was less than a year! And she leaned right in, and she cooed so loud, my auntie and my grandma could hear! And then… they misspelled my name in a newspaper clipping, if I clap my hands it appears….” and he said,
“That’s real nice, but it cuts no ice, cause Bela Lugosi is the king around here (Bela Lugosi is the king around here, Bela Lugosiiiiii Bela Lugosi is the king around here, Bela Lugosiiiii)
Drunk woman interrupts: “Well I shared a cab with Sinead O’Connor. I could tell she’d kill for a smoke. I said, “As soon as we get out and hit the sidewalk, we’ll go someplace quiet and crack some jokes… wish ta hell I could remember, what she said, it was a cutting remark and she cut me dead -”
(Allegra sings the chorus) “I live in mortal fear that we’ll run out of beer, but Bela Lugosi is the king around here!” (Bela Lugosi is the king around here, Bela Lugosiiiiii Bela Lugosi is the king around here, Bela Lugosiiiii)
Extremely high and goony woman interrupts, “Well I want you all to know I had an alien’s baby, and everything came out fine, but the eyes, and when she smiles, all her teeth are a little bit pointy, and she never seems to be the least bit surprised. I showed her “Plan 9 from Outer Space” – she said, “That’s IT, I give up on the whole human race….”
Allegra exultantly sings the chorus, “HAVE NO FEAR, SOMEONE BROUGHT MORE BEER, And Bela Lugosi’s still the king around here….(Bela Lugosi is the king around here, Bela Lugosiiiiii Bela Lugosi is the king around here, Bela Lugosiiiii)
So now you know the backstory for this song I wrote about 20-25 years ago, just after I met the gentleman in the first verse, whose mother DID live next door to Bela Lugosi.
We braved the Vancouver morning rush hour to get to the Tomahawk, the lamentably named Vancouver institution which has been serving breakfast since 1926. It’s also directly upwind from a mosque – how tired they must get of the smell of swineflesh cooking. It was lovely; we got to eat outside in a lovely arbour, hemmed about with nicely draped weeping sequoias and enlivened with the cheeping presence of a white crowned sparrow. The food and service were excellent, but since it involves driving across town in rush hour to do breakfast, we won’t be doing that agin except for very special occasions. Like Jeff’s birthday.
On the way we got treated to the excrementally bad signage (go right, no not here you idiot, ignore that previous sign), being forced to stop in the Cassiar tunnel, and you KNOW how I feel about being forced to come to a standstill in a tunnel, and the ludicrously self important driving of many, many miscreants. We stopped off at one of Jeff’s clients’ place of business on the way back to save him a trip and I got a little work done on the novel.
The Amazing Spiderman 2 is one half of a good movie. The script made me long for lightning to strike, somebody, somewhere. Jamie Foxx was entirely wasted and the little nimrod who plays Spidey, whose name escapes, has all the energy of re-wetted papier mâché. The action sequences had us cheering; the talking sequences had both of us begging for swift unconsciousness.
Jeff enjoyed Dead Snow II – a Nazi zombie movie sequel that was, so I’m given to understand, more inventive, scarier and funnier than the first. Zombies using a length of intestine to siphon fuel? Clever people, these Germans.
Sandra informs me that her cat, Shadow, has been stomping around the house calling me, which is funny because all I did was take pictures of her butt and skritch her a few times, also I did the doorwarden cause you have thumbs thing a couple of times. She is a magnificent beast, and a mighty hunter, which when the cabins get varmints is a good thing.
I made a meatloaf! It is so garlicky that vampires two counties away suddenly feel ill at ease.
Today I may or may not make coleslaw.
