Ooh I just found this T shirt for sale. It's super cool. I'd buy it if I wasn't broke.
It's summer!! Spent the day with Piera and Heather working on stuff...like finding a job. Went to the beach yesterday, Ward's Island, so nice to be in nature. I want to live in the trees. I set up a Wordpress of all of the writing that I have published (11 articles up til now).
I decided that I would like to focus on journalism/producing. This will be my main job hopefully. It feels good to make a decision, because when I tell people what I am into, it's kind of endless. So it will be helpful to narrow it down I guess? Maybe this will also help me figure out what I would like to do my Masters in. People like Emilie Wapnick, of Puttylike fame, might disagree.
Pat Benatar's We Belong is my favorite song right now.
This is a piece done by Aubrey Bearsley. He was a Nouveau illustrator, inspired by the grootesque and Japanese illustrations. His stff is very beautiful. I found it while looking up one of my all-time favorites, Poe's "mask of the Red Death".
I also fell in love with Theo Dimson, a Canadian poster designer who went to OCAD and was pretty big in the 70's, mostly for doing theater art. Pretty great.
Hannukah party tonight at some cousins' who I've never met! Is it tacky to bring Krispy Kremes???
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
I've been in Toronto for over four months now. A lot has happened, I guess. It's always nice to learn a new city. Listening to the Smiths now, on my pretty MacBook Pro. I am still working at Sun Media and I think it's driving me crazy. I work from 4-9 Monday to Friday. I work alone pretty much, with some funny old ladies. The York Mills office is completely deserted by 6 pm. I try to read as many different news sources as possible while I make my 300 calls.
There are other good things that are happening in my life right now though. There are some video/movie/web/sound projects starting with new people that are very exciting and encouraging.
Today I went to OCAD to check out their masters' programs. I got a great vibe, especially while looking through a classroom window of a class watching the British Queer as Folk in a film and sexuality class. I used to tape that show. Stuart Jones, played by Aiden Gillen is exceptionally sexy.
My feelings of inspiration/confusion are heightened. I am taking quite a few supplements these days. My favorite song, found on Sunday:
I am blogging again for the first time in almost a year. Life has changed dramatically. I have a lot of opinions and feel the need to rant and analyze; I am happy to have a forum for it.
I moved back to Montreal at the end of November to work at a film production company, which I did until April. In July, I moved to Toronto, where I am now working at Sun Media. I call people to see if they've received their copies of the National Post.
I've had serious culture shock moving here. In some ways more than when I moved to NY. When I moved to NY, I was sort of in awe of all that was going on around me. Here, it seems too easy to be critical of this place. It's Anglo, unhip and quiet. Last week's general feeling was that of jumping out a window. This week it's not so bad.
I work with funny ladies. I have a huge room. I bought a pair of Birkenstocks. I ran away from a bad date and jumped into a bar where I happened to know five people from Montreal.
Today I did a Power Pilates class and then a Butt Legs and Thighs class at the gym. The instructor told me to avoid some exercises because she thought I was pregnant. I'm not. I guess I need to cut down on the sugar.
Tomorrow I go to Kripalu yoga retreat in the Berkshires with my mom. I'm excited for clean air. I'm going to get perspective on what I should do for the rest of my life.
When I have extra time at home, like at a time like this, I tend to watch a lot of Madonna interviews. I love the song, Causing A Commotion, from her Who's That Girl period.
And then to Montreal for a week. I am very excited, because I am kind of homesick. I've heard it's snowing there, though, so I think it will be a good kick in my pants. Whatever I decide to do, I guess I won't want to go back. Permanently.
I am home in Montreal now, the first time since October and I love it. Everything is clean, green, calm and easy. It's taken me like 6 days to start to feel normal again, and I do, but I think I get extra cranky at the end of the night. Last night I was driving up Pins with three other people and I had been driving all day and really just wanted to go home and they did all this construction around the area and I was really confused and nobody would shut up so I ended up driving up a road on Pins the wrong way! A cab was driving about to hit me head on and it stopped and the cab driver started screaming at me and then this guy in the back of the cab knew my friend and everyone started laughing but I was still really annoyed.
BTW about a month ago I went to this Carribean resto/club in NY for Majbrit's birthday and I drank too much of Captain Jack's or something and cream soda and I ended up puking in my purse after getting out of the subway. As I am walking home I see this guy in a corner, wearing a black sweat outfit with a mustache jerking off and laughing. Still drunk, I screamed, "Ew!" Ten minutes later, I am almost at my apartment, I see the same guy jerking off in front of me, in a different part of the neighborhood, smiling and laughing. This time I say, "Why don't you go somewhere in private?" I spent the next day eating a cheeseburger from Comic Burger and watching Kids in the Hall and feeling like I was gonna die.
I saw a woman peeing behind a truck at the UN. Nobody else cared.
The only thing, it seems, that is not falling apart in and on body are my teeth. I went to the dentist today and they were very pleased. I have actually started flossing on a regular basis. The rest of me is not doing very well, physically. But I am happy. Golden Girls is getting me through.
After a day of saving women, writing reports about how the recession is affecting women, all I want to do is stay home and watch this:
The song isn't that great but the visuals are.
A little background history to the previous post:
The first tape I ever bought (from the Cavendish mall) was Erasure's S.O.S. It was all ABBA covers. I learnt 'Take A Chance On Me' and tried to lip-sych it with my friend Jackie for the talent show (we were in grade three). We didn't make the cut.
I never really liked ABBA that much before. But they are good.
I always find it ironic that the people who are doing the most trivial things, such as making a living off of being 'cool' and looking 'cool', tend to think that their lives and work are 'real life', more real than other people who are not engaged in the same superficial sorts of things. These people believe that their opinions on important matters such as, "Is this person hot?" meaning that they have value, or currency is, in their eyes, right. The people I work with are the least pretentious people I know and simultaneously dealing with things that matter, most importantly outside of themselves. Living in New York, I also find it interesting that people come from such different backgrounds to pursue their careers in, say, fashion, media or international development. It doesn't have to do with belonging to a specific class (I used to think it did, which was my excuse for how people could be so narrow-minded). I guess it's what we look for when we are growing up that saves us, whether it be knowing about really 'cool' hats, or music, or causes. I think the most important thing is not taking any of it too seriously. But when it's your livelihood, I think it's inevitable not to.
I am in Boston now for the WAM Conference, media and gender. I will tell you a secret: I don't really care anymore. I want to make experimental films about African music, something uplifting and artsy just for fun. I am still trying to get over the date I went on Thursday night, with a 42 year old French man with a nine year old daughter and girlfriend. I'm still in shock over the discussion we had. Without getting into it, it makes this whole feminist thing kind of besides the point in a way...
I am in Cambridge right now and it is amazingly quiet and clean and pretty and spacious and I understand the appeal now, after living in Brooklyn, it's so nice to have a bed and a window that faces other rooftops in silence. You can only hear the birds.
But I love New York sooo much, it's pretty addictive, I can see myself having an anxiety attack if I stayed here in Boston for too long and didn't go back.
The conference is at MIT, which is cool, because I love it there, I interned at the MIT Press three summers ago. It is very techno I must say. But I don't like walking through the school parking lots, it depresses me, reminds me of Loyola. I am sooo happy to be done with school, academia can be stifling at its best.
After interning at a certain graphics publishing company, I feel special whenever I see animation.
Who knew Elvis Costello had some animation in him?
I am moving tomorrow around the corner of where I am currently living. My job has gotten considerably less stressful since last week. Who cares that it's Valentine's Day? It's sunny in New York, like May weather for Mtl.
Lately, I have seen three rather good things at galleries all on surrounding blocks from where I live.
I bought a deep cleaning mask I will use it twice a week. It smells good.
I fell asleep Sunday night watching Grace Jones being interviewed by Joan Rivers. This video is seventies Grace. Around 2:12, Grace starts pulling the coolest dance moves I have ever seen. And she's dressed up as the most evil cat there ever was. The song's not her best, but her stage presence couldn't possibly be any better.
She just came out with a new album that is apparently wonderful. I heard parts of it and it was pretty amazing....
I am considering starting my own top ten countdown for my favorite videos. Any comments/suggestions? I just love the videos that I obsessively watch so much and I think they need to be shared.
Four books I am reading and rereading right now:
The Wisdom of Yoga- Stephen Cope Cathedral- Raymond Carver Final Friends 2: The Dance- Christopher Pike Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black- Cookie Mueller
The yoga book is amazing. I have been practicing Ashtanga yoga since 2001 and now am really interested in the philosophy and mental processes of yoga. This book details Patanjali's writing in a very accessible way. I'm thinking about volunteering at the Kripalu Centre in the Berkshires this summer. I might become a monk and never speak again. One word: KLESHTA.
Cathedral is alright, Carver writes short stories about couples in their thirties during the seventies and eighties. I love his stories because they are so mundane, although they are consequently also a tad depressing. They kind of give off the 'Sex, Lies and Videotape' kind of vibe, which I love. Like four adult characters, just living and vaguely conversing with one another.
The Dance is amazing. I loved it when I was ten and I still love it. It's perhaps my favorite book I am reading. I always picture his stories to resemble those Aerosmith videos from like 1994, particularly, 'Crying', starring Alicia Silverstone,when she is about to go bungee jumping onto the highway. Maybe that's because that's what I was watching when I was reading those books. According to Pike's wiki, there are only a few interviews with him; HE IS VERY MYSTERIOUS! No kidding.
The Cookie Mueller book I got from the MIT Press Bookstore a few years ago. Cookie was known for being one of John Waters' stars. I loved the book while reading it in Cambridge. She writes short stories about her personal adventures, from sleeping with Jimi Hendrix, being propositioned by Charles Manson's girls, to shooting the scene in Pink Flamingoes where Divine actually has to eat dog shit. Having travelled to Hong Kong and Burma, as well as just growing up a bit, my feelings towards her have changed. When I came back from Asia, I thought her tales of drugs and glamor were flaccid and hipster, but now I love them again. It's a really rare book published by Semiotexte, which I highly recommend. She writes from the perspective of being bad, tough, but insightful and coming from a particular sense of pain. She knew she would never fit into like in Baltimore, so she had to explore....Anyways.
I am looking for a room to rent and I would love any suggestions.
I am taking a class at the UN, for interns, different people explaining the different departments there and what really goes on. Maybe I shouldn't write this, but according to our moderator, Jacques Fournand (sp), after 9/11, Kofi Anaan received so much criticism from the American media, that he had a nervous breakdown, spent two months in Sweden and then was fired. Shit!
I was very broke last week and had to live on beans and rice. Now I am considering become vegetarian, maybe even vegan. I am craving kidney beans and avocado on flax bread and mango and red onion and tomato paste. Like the sandwhiches I used to eat in Spain. Yum.
Also in big news: Apparently the first joke was found etched on a wall somewhere, the first joke ever: "Wouldn't it be unusual if a young wife DIDN'T fart on you?" This is extra funny because I just finished working on this sex survey for a Montreal mag that I write for, Snap! http://www.snapme.ca/ The most embarassing thing about sex, it seems, is queefing. And now there's proof that it has been making sex awkward forever!
