Category: Film

Big News, small news, glad news, sad news

I put a deposit down on the cafe yesterday.  So begins an enterprise.

Expert, schmexpert.

The only thing I don’t understand about the rogue LAPD cop Christopher Dorner is not why he hasn’t been caught – he will be, and I cheerfully predict that he’ll go quietly and not die in a hail of gunfire – it’s why nobody’s bought the domain name yet.

My fellow board member Audrey has lost her mother.  She was well into her nineties.  Blind Lemming Chiffon, when we had dinner at Conflikt, said that until you’ve lost a parent you can’t understand what it’s like.  That was also the same supper where he gave me the Ebay overview on what allows him to sell like a master, and where he recommended Searching for Sugar Man, one of the best and most astonishing music documentaries I have ever seen.

Jeff is having pie for breakfast.  He’s a rebel.

I was thinking (as I had another crying bout thinking about John last night) about loss.  I thought, “Ah, so selfish.  It is not my love for him that hurts me.  I will have that forever; I can’t stop loving him just because he’s dead.  I’m sad because he loved me, and he’ll never stop me from falling off a mountain, or give me a lift on his motorcycle, or make me laugh, or sing with me, or feed me or lift my spirits or be a familiar face in a crowd of strangers ever again.  And that is why I am sad.  Not because someone I love died.  It’s because someone who loved me died.”

I saw both of the kids yesterday, yay, and fed Rob and Keith as well as Jeff.  I made pork schnitzel, taters, broccoli and carrots, and there was a tablecloth and pie and two kinds of ice cream, so it was rather festive, even without beer.  I’ve gone off beer again.  There is a medical condition which I’m too polite to whine about in public which improves by about 30% when I don’t drink beer, and it definitely hurts the insomnia when I drink beer.  I just love beer and wish it wasn’t so mean to me.

It’s a fine axemurderer’s fog out there this morning.

Obviously I have a lot of work to do before Katie calls me for our trek up to City Hall, so I’ll get to it.

Serenity Tea all gone

The Serenity Tea I purchased at the dealer room at Conflikt is now ALL GONNEE.  I has a sad.  Jeff and I were really enjoying it, but I guess we will have to make do with Yorkshire Tea now (by appointment to some English toff, don’t you know).

Miss Margot is very very slowly starting to develop brains.  She is getting out of my way when I make for “my chair”, which is good, because I actually sat on her this past week (Jeff was horrified of course) but all that fur saved her.  Speaking of which, I have a picture to post.

Watched this movie and if you are interest in art, archaeology, the films of Werner Herzog, Neolithic times, and data visualization (the fly through of the cave as data points had me gasping for air) it will blow your mind.  As with all Herzog films, there are points when he departs from the narrative so thoroughly that you are left shaking your head, but as with all Herzog films, you are enriched and challenged.

Every once in a while this past week I could hear a blast of Looney Tunes music coming from Jeff’s room and I couldn’t help myself smiling.

Church this morning.  It will be a rousing service by Robert Latham, and I am sure he will get as many of us as are able out of our chairs.  The workshop was fab by all accounts and well attended.

Zero dark thirty

Feels like when I woke up this morning.  Ah well.  At least I have conquered that part of me that takes a computer to bed.  I am sleeping longer and better as a consequence, even if I am going to bed ludicrously early.

The movie Zero Dark Thirty was excellent.  What I enjoyed about it most was that it was very easy to read the movie as a total indictment of how the Americans do foreign policy, and that it wasn’t just a rah rah torture porn American triumphalist spectacle.  I know that is how some people parsed it, but Kathryn Bigelow has stated repeatedly that she finds war and violence repellent but it’s a fact of life.  She once remarked that the dirty secret of war is that some men enjoy it, and knowing that makes some of her directorial choices seem a little more nuanced that a straight left wing parsing of the movie might suggest.

 

 

And your choice of one veggie entree….

In a spectacular outburst of insanity, I may buy a takeout/café.  It’s in a part of Edmonds that is very dead for restaurants, but in about three months the new rec/community center will open and there will actually be more traffic.  I’ll be talking to the current owner on Monday.  It’s a really good deal for the kitchen equipment though… looks like it’s all going for about 30 cents on the dollar.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND The Impossible, but not if you’re scared to drown.  The lead child actor, Tom Holland, is so good that it is obvious he will have a long and illustrious career, and Naomi Watts and Ewen McGregor are simply wonderful as the parents. It’s about the Boxing Day tsunami.

Words to live by

AMEN.

Yesterday was completely derailed by a low key Katie thang followed by me coming back home and folding up in a ball.  Yes, I can haz post Conflikt letdown, happens every year, now I am expecting it.  It is time to do things.  I have THIRTY FOUR airs, songs and melodies on my new phone that I haven’t transferred into my lifetime list, so at this point I am way past two hundred and fifty songs.  I still haven’t written words for the Beacon birthday song, and that is starting to be RATHER PRESSING given that I’m supposed to be rehearsing and performing it within the month.  Churchy stuff awaits in bucketloads, may the completely value neutral laws of physics help me.  My room awaits.  Excited talk with Jeff about a business idea awaits.  Putting stuff on eBay awaits.  Finding homes for the instruments I will never play awaits.  Or maybe just plain getting rid of the musical instruments I will never play awaits.  Finding a fricking job so I have some options awaits.

However I have made breakfast and consumed it, and I am going to make myself some tea and take on the day with a little more enthusiasm now that I have some protein on board.  Oh, and I guess I should get dressed?

Saw this and loved it GRRRREAT SOUNDTRACK.

Trying… to summon …. enthusiasm.   GLERK.

 

Duck Duck

 

A Christmas Duck not for eating.

Went to the job hut yesterday and I’ll see a career counselor today at 9.  I know how to write a resume and get interviews but since I’m not finding employment I’m obviously doing something wrong.  And when you’re doing something wrong, you have to stop doing it and get on the right track… you know, that stop digging advice.

O gosh the bean with bacon soup is amazing!  There is lots of yummy food in the fridge right now.

It is snowing very steadily and the wind has picked up.  V. glad I don’t have to cross a bridge today.

What would Jack Do and My Needle have gone off to the songbook compiler (Cindy!) for inclusion in the Conflikt 6 song book.  Hard to believe that John was still alive for the first Conflikt.  He sure brought the fun with him.  And I think he would have enjoyed SG1, and every time I write a new song I can see him rocking with laughter or listening intently (or going meh) as the song required.  I think also he would have approved of me finally practicing enough… speaking of which, another item on the to do list!

Paul gave me some coffee that he bought in Maui.  I made it really strong, but I haven’t had any yet so I think I will follow Jeff’s example (he said I made it like espresso).

Paul’s mum dislocated her hip.  Lois is with her now and Paul will be going later.  I hope she can stand the idea of assisted living; I know she’s still sharp and fiercely independent but sometimes the flesh does not cooperate with the spirit.

Watched the documentary about Boubakar Traore called I’ll sing for you.  Mali does not come across as a place I’d like to visit, although Dogon architecture kicks ass, and the guitar work (a Takamine!) is cherce. And too infrequent.  At one point, with no commentary, there are a group of pictures shown about the ‘grin’ (shebeen) movement and there’s a line of people, including a woman with a huge shiner, and I’m thinking, oh great.  I know, I can get downcast too easily.

The Dalai Lama’s book on interfaith dialogue is very interesting (Toward a True Kinship of Faiths).  He says that a global religion is both impossible and undesirable because of cultural and linguistic divisions, but interfaith dialogue is crucial because of the underlying human drive towards religion (or the numinous, or the feeling that we are all part of one big family).  Interfaith action enobles all religion.  (Yeah, as long as we’re not hating on queers…. and women…. don’t think I’m not seeing the lacunae, but I’m trying to elevate the tone here.) He talks about his relationships with other faith leaders, and what a naive little monk he was in 1956, when he first got exposed to other religious practices. He spends a lot of time on India as the model of interfaith dialogue, which is interesting, because they really have been doing it longer than everyone else.    He also talks about his understanding of the other major faith traditions and their similarities and differences… He also talks about how he wishes his English was better – he uses a translator for everything he writes in English.  Anyway, recommended.

More life

  • Wonderful meeting with Bareld; I am now feeling MUCH better about being a treasurer. He said “I’ve seen it all” and he shared.  We often end services with “You are not alone” as the benediction, and he provided coffee chocolate and sage advice so I really felt the benediction!  Also got to see Marylke briefly as she came in from erranding about.
  • Paid UPS so we won’t lose our church mailbox.  Given it’s the address on the cheques…. you see the problem.
  • Tomorrow, cleaning and cooking for the board meeting at my house.  It will be a potluck.  I’m actually kinda looking forward to it.
  • Keith has framed and will be hanging up his ‘shingle’ – his diploma and professional designations – at the place he is now working.  I AM THRILLED.
  • Katie phoned me yesterday to ‘hear the sound of my voice’ (and can there BE words a mother more wants to hear, at least a partway functioning mom) and to tell me she’s trying to rearrange her sched so she’s got Sunday Monday off.  This is partly because she wants to actually SEE Kyle, and also because as she said, “If I get it you’ll see more of me in church.”  THRILLED ALSO.  Two very very happy making convos in one day, it was rather delightfully dizzying.
  • Saw Premium Rush AND LOVED IT.  I had heard it was a guilty pleasure of a movie, but all I can say is that it was very well constructed and didn’t have airs or pretensions – it was made to entertain, at which it succeeded marvellously.  I now have Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s evol chuckle percolating through my brain.
  • Margot barfed on my copy of Red Roses and Dead Things.  This does not accord with my opinion of this fine work of music.
  • Jeff continues to be the World’s Most Awesome Broâ„¢.

 

 

 

 

Quote of the day

Social media has turned modern friendship into a pixellated bar that serves kittens, soundbites and RPGs. – A Sloman.

Tony Scott, noted director and producer and brother of Ridley, committed suicide by jumping off a bridge.  He left a note. He was 68.  Depression’s a hell of an illness, and my condolences to his family, friends and associates. …added later – he had inoperalbe brain cancer.

What the hell I don’t even.  Binge drinkers are happier.  Science sez.  I only post this because this was the first weekend I really really really wanted to buy beer, but I managed not to.  Most of the time I don’t even think about alcohol but I came piteously close to purchasing same when I came out of the Heather Dale concert, and no jokes about how she drove me to drink.

Should get a call back about work today.  Guess I need to run some laundry.

Saw the Helen Mirren version of the Tempest.  Loved it.

Margot breathes at 14 -16 breaths per minute, which is apparently low.  She’s very noisy right now… I’m assuming she’s asleep.  Eddie did a phantom barf yesterday morning.  Jeff and I both heard him and we looked everywhere and couldn’t find it.  Speaking of Eddie, he’s scratching at the door, so I’ll get up and let him in.

I find this article really disturbing and can’t articulate why.

 

Friday teh 13th o noes.

Today the horror of the landlord’s minion coming to pressure wash the back deck, which will probably disassemble, it’s so rickety (or at least parts of it are).

Last night the horror of the evil across the street black and white cat whom I narrowly missed ejecting from the house. He came in and started fighting with Eddy, who has taken to guarding the cat door with Margot sitting about three metres back from him. Margot is showing signs of developing a healthier regard for her skin than has been evident previously.

Saw Brave yesterday with the kids and Katie’s beau, who was much distracted by the transmission on his month old car crapping out. I really enjoyed it. Lovely animation with some awesome sight gags.

Had a fucking uninspired and oversalted meal at Ihop yesterday, but Tamara’s company more than made up for it. We caught up (it’s been AGES since I saw her, like 10 years or something equally ludicrous) and LAUGHED our faces off. She looks radiant with health and enthusiasm and that is a special privilege to be around.

Too hot to bake today so I’ll go off and do other business related things, god knows there’s a list a mile long. I’ve already practiced and I’m just finishing up the instrument case for Otto so it will be ready tomorrow. I need to find some upholstery tacks.

The hell I do all day?

I completed two steampunk craft projects today (Distressed Cogs handbag and Steam-Bling Parasol (finally used the peel-and-stick copper foil)), got my repaired shoe back from Fluevog, practiced mandolin, hit Dressew for some sequins and some reflective piping, & had many people on E Hastings try to sell me smokes.  It was 18 months ago today I quit smoking, I fervently hope for the last time. Oh, and I saw the Brian Jonestown Massacre/Dandy Warhol doc(ew-drama), Dig.  Courtenay Taylor makes my widdy heart sing.

Casa Shadd

So yesterday around noon Cindy called and after a long phone call I thought screw this noise, I want to catch up in person.  So I drove to her place in the pissing pouring rain and then we sang and played and then we walked to Tops Restaurant where we consumed the specials and Cindy ordered blue Jello.  (MANGATORY SGA REFERENCE!!) I took pics, I was so charmed, but I’m not gonna post them.

Then we sang and played some more.  When I got home Jeff was five minutes into the Tintin movie WHICH WAS AWESOME. no srsly.

Today, looks like it may clear up enough for a pick-a-nick at church and then I’m doing supper for Father’s Day for Paul. The new minister preaches today for the first time so we’re trying to pack the hall, so I’m going to go pick up Carol around 10.  The ever awesome Sue heard that I was doing that and said, “Oh I have to be early for choir anyway I’ll open church!” and I coulda kissed her for that.