Do you remember March 19, 1996? I do. That was the night I saw Heather Nova perform at the Sidetrack Café. She was quite amazing (even live, her voice was pure and clear), but the most memorable part of the night was probably when she told the unusually loud and obnoxious table right in the front of the stage to "shut the #@&% up". (My guests and I were sitting stage right, midway back, in a booth.) She had a cellist as part of her band — too cool!
Incidentally, Heather Nova's new album, Redbird, is currently garnering strong positive reviews. Too bad it hasn't been released in Canada! Instead, it's available only as a rather pricey import.
Went on a bit of a CD binge over the weekend and ended up with, among other items, the 2006 Juno nominees disc. It's quite a good compilation, as those things go (although keep in mind that I have a large shelf of greatest hit / anthology / retrospective discs, so my opinion may not be entirely reliable).
A friend recently remarked that the Arcade Fire disc Funeral is "OK" — OK?!? (Hey, have you heard about the interrobang? Look here... ) Then she told me she preferred the Death Cab for Cutie disc Plans! Sigh. Insert witty Gertrude Stein remark about genius going unrecognized in its own backyard...
Oh, to have hair like Pete Burns, ca. 1987...
Meanwhile ... Happy Spring!
Here's a great new word: pronic. It refers to a number that is the product of two consecutive numbers: for example, 2 (1 x 2), 6 (2 x 3), 12 (3 x 4), 20 (4 X 5), 30 (5 X 6), and so on. There are apparently 99 pronic numbers below 10,000. The synonym for pronic is heteromecic.
(What a great day today is now. We've learned something!)
Ten most recently played songs on iTunes:
1. Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran
2. Bathwater - No Doubt
3. Steppin' Out - Joe Jackson
4. Ain't No Sunshine - Bill Withers
5. Straight from the Heart - Bryan Adams
6. You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) - Dead Or Alive
7. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) - The Arcade Fire
8. I'm the Only One - Melissa Etheridge
9. Mysterious Ways (remixed) - U2
10. You Can't Hurry Love - Phil Collins
(And now you're covered for tomorrow, too.)
I have too much marking to do. And other stuff too. Think I'll go to sleep now and avoid it all for a few more hours... Did I mention I've almost kicked my little antidepressant addiction? A few more of the dr's wicked tablets and then I'll be back to my normal state of weird. Oh how I've missed my insanity.
"The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished." — Daniel W. Davenport
Leslie (because the night)
"If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster." —Isaac Asimov
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Thursday, March 02, 2006
With cat-like tread
OK, OK, so it's been two months since I've written anything here. But you wouldn't believe the other, much more important things I've managed not to do in the interval.
"Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg." — Author Unknown
Ahem. So here's a little update on what's been happening with us lately.
Bruce injured his knee in January and has been forced to rest it for the last two months — which has meant a severely truncated climbing regimen! He's currently awaiting his date with the surgeon, which we hope will be soon, because his work keeps requiring bending and kneeling, less than ideal tasks in his current condition.
Zak is getting ready to register for grade ten, so we've been attending open houses and talking to teachers. With any luck, he'll be able to study Japanese, foods, and drama! (And all the core courses, too, of course.) We'll try to get phys ed out of the way over the summer. Then look out, world!
And me, I keep teaching. Still loving it. This semester is fairly manageable so far; my sections are smaller than they were in the fall, although the courses themselves generate considerably more assignments. But it's easy marking, thankfully. I've had to put my own studies aside for a few months, but I will be giving two presentations at ELAC at the end of April. (Yikes!) I am currently slated to assume responsibilities as Chair of my college department around Victoria Day. Oh, the power. Of course, I must get through my ASAC first... But I got my new business cards today — that's got to be an important sign.
If I had been so lucky as to have a steady mother
Who could talk to me as we are talking now to one another
Who could give me good advice when she discovered I was erring
(Which is just the very favour which on you I am conferring),
My existence would have made a rather interesting idyll,
And I might have lived and died a very decent interwiddle.
This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter
Isn’t generally heard, and if it is it doesn’t matter! — adapted from Gilbert and Sullivan, "Ruddigore"
So, that's what's been happening for the last few weeks. Fairly pedestrian, really. Oh, I should write about my Xmas iPod: 30 GB! 7500 songs! Colour display! Video and digital photo ready! Or my RoadTrip transponder, which allows the iPod to broadcast over my car radio — very cool! (Well, other than my potentially causing great traffic peril while searching for the perfect song and driving, that is.) I'm sure there are many other things I've neglected to write about, but I'll have to do that some other time. I'll be back in the habit soon, I'm sure.
À bientôt!
L
"Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg." — Author Unknown
Ahem. So here's a little update on what's been happening with us lately.
Bruce injured his knee in January and has been forced to rest it for the last two months — which has meant a severely truncated climbing regimen! He's currently awaiting his date with the surgeon, which we hope will be soon, because his work keeps requiring bending and kneeling, less than ideal tasks in his current condition.
Zak is getting ready to register for grade ten, so we've been attending open houses and talking to teachers. With any luck, he'll be able to study Japanese, foods, and drama! (And all the core courses, too, of course.) We'll try to get phys ed out of the way over the summer. Then look out, world!
And me, I keep teaching. Still loving it. This semester is fairly manageable so far; my sections are smaller than they were in the fall, although the courses themselves generate considerably more assignments. But it's easy marking, thankfully. I've had to put my own studies aside for a few months, but I will be giving two presentations at ELAC at the end of April. (Yikes!) I am currently slated to assume responsibilities as Chair of my college department around Victoria Day. Oh, the power. Of course, I must get through my ASAC first... But I got my new business cards today — that's got to be an important sign.
If I had been so lucky as to have a steady mother
Who could talk to me as we are talking now to one another
Who could give me good advice when she discovered I was erring
(Which is just the very favour which on you I am conferring),
My existence would have made a rather interesting idyll,
And I might have lived and died a very decent interwiddle.
This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter
Isn’t generally heard, and if it is it doesn’t matter! — adapted from Gilbert and Sullivan, "Ruddigore"
So, that's what's been happening for the last few weeks. Fairly pedestrian, really. Oh, I should write about my Xmas iPod: 30 GB! 7500 songs! Colour display! Video and digital photo ready! Or my RoadTrip transponder, which allows the iPod to broadcast over my car radio — very cool! (Well, other than my potentially causing great traffic peril while searching for the perfect song and driving, that is.) I'm sure there are many other things I've neglected to write about, but I'll have to do that some other time. I'll be back in the habit soon, I'm sure.
À bientôt!
L
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