Monday, May 14, 2007
My youth...
I got this Corb Lund video off a friend's blog and it really reminds me of being young again...sigh...
Almost makes me a teary as Toby Keith's "I Love this Bar"...
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Bricolage
Found in passing. Work, school, and technology conspire to keep me from resting. No, no, I do that to myself. Anyway, here are some kibbles and bits to keep you entertained and inspired. Stay well!
Leslie
**
They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum. — Tallulah Bankhead
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once. — Jennifer Yane
The double agent looked up from his lunch of Mahi-Mahi and couscous and realized that he must escape from Walla Walla to Bora Bora to come face-to-face with his arch enemy by taking out his 30-30 and shooting off his nemesis's ear-to-ear grin so he could wave bye-bye to this duplicitous life, but the chances of him pulling this off were only so-so, much less than 50-50. — Source unknown
What the world really needs is more love and less paper work. — Pearl Bailey
A tree is a wonderful living organism which gives shelter, food, warmth and protection to all living things. It even gives shade to those who wield an axe to cut it down. — Buddha
Leslie
**
They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum. — Tallulah Bankhead
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once. — Jennifer Yane
The double agent looked up from his lunch of Mahi-Mahi and couscous and realized that he must escape from Walla Walla to Bora Bora to come face-to-face with his arch enemy by taking out his 30-30 and shooting off his nemesis's ear-to-ear grin so he could wave bye-bye to this duplicitous life, but the chances of him pulling this off were only so-so, much less than 50-50. — Source unknown
What the world really needs is more love and less paper work. — Pearl Bailey
A tree is a wonderful living organism which gives shelter, food, warmth and protection to all living things. It even gives shade to those who wield an axe to cut it down. — Buddha
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Oh MY F'n GOD!
I have discovered GodTube.com and I am now officially scared...
I thought it was a joke...but nope, he's serious.
More here
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Where's Terry Eagleton when you need him?
Just finished flipping through, grazing on, and generally musing about last year's collection 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (a companion volume to 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die). If you haven't already seen it, you may want to spend some time with this book.
The collection presents an amalgam of high culture and popular titles, beginning with the ancients and continuing right up to 2005. The pre-nineteenth-century sections are quite thin; the twentieth century forms the essence of the book. It was produced in England and betrays some British favoritism alongside a strong American presence; interestingly, there are very few Canadian, Australian, or postcolonial authors included — there is, as we would have said in the 1980s, a clear Anglo-American axis. The bulk of the authors are male and white, and the listings make routine observations about those inclusions who are not male or white.
I truly wonder about the purpose of a collection such as this. It certainly evokes class-based standards for cultural knowledge and participation. Many of the listings use theoretical and formalist explanations for the selections, suggesting that only a reader with a thorough literary education will be able to appreciate the full meaning of the text. Many texts are glossed with information about their adaptation to the stage or screen — an access point for those unable to cope with the literary apparatus, perhaps? There is certainly more than a whiff of canon building in this book — and aren't we through with that yet?
I have an MA in English, the follow-up to an undergrad honours degree in English. While I'm not exceptionally well read, I had believed I have a reasonable literary background and a fair knowledge of major texts in English and world literature. This book has proved me wrong, wrong, wrong. I have read perhaps twenty percent of the "must-read" titles — and appallingly, I read at least half of those after receiving my MA. While I know where my weakness exists (primarily in concentrating on reading books by women and Canadians), I'd be interested to know how others fare when comparing their prior reading history to this prescription.
But this book has got me thinking. Perhaps one of the reasons I am no longer interested in completing my doctorate in English — why I am in fact completing a doctorate involving the deconstruction of English by way of another faculty — is that the class mechanism of English is simply too obvious for me now. The Department of English at the University of Alberta, my alma mater, is so interested in its self-construction as radical that it rarely stops to consider its own site of privilege or its complicity in oppression. Even decades after telling itself that reading literature doesn't really make us better people, the Department continues to chant the liberal motto of better living through literature. (Well, why not? It's the same bill of goods the rest of the schooling enterprise is selling.) And if you don't have access, you're really not one of us after all, are you? Of course, it's not all high modernism and the Leavises today; now the badge of admission is the mindless iteration of post-colonialism, identity feminism, and theoretical Marxism. Yet the song remains the same.
Where are the working-class poets? Somewhere in China, or Africa, or Southeast Asia, assembling your next DVD player, sewing your new lululemon leggings, or answering your calls at an international call centre. They're not here: the North American working class lives elsewhere now — and that whole notion of class is so out of date anyway!
And what has three decades of identity-based literary criticism given us? A powerful belief that individual identity trumps collective needs every time. A liberal embrace of the marketplace of ideas. A vague sense of dread that can be diffused only by consuming faster and faster the digital enhancements of a mediocre age.
So why should we read those 1001 books? There's no need, really. They'll be coming to you soon enough on Google Books, digested into their essential fibres for those with the means to buy them — or for the truly pixellated (and perhaps the pixillated too), on YouTube. Will civilization as we know it come to a lurch if we all don't stop what we're doing and read? We can only hope so...
L
The collection presents an amalgam of high culture and popular titles, beginning with the ancients and continuing right up to 2005. The pre-nineteenth-century sections are quite thin; the twentieth century forms the essence of the book. It was produced in England and betrays some British favoritism alongside a strong American presence; interestingly, there are very few Canadian, Australian, or postcolonial authors included — there is, as we would have said in the 1980s, a clear Anglo-American axis. The bulk of the authors are male and white, and the listings make routine observations about those inclusions who are not male or white.
I truly wonder about the purpose of a collection such as this. It certainly evokes class-based standards for cultural knowledge and participation. Many of the listings use theoretical and formalist explanations for the selections, suggesting that only a reader with a thorough literary education will be able to appreciate the full meaning of the text. Many texts are glossed with information about their adaptation to the stage or screen — an access point for those unable to cope with the literary apparatus, perhaps? There is certainly more than a whiff of canon building in this book — and aren't we through with that yet?
I have an MA in English, the follow-up to an undergrad honours degree in English. While I'm not exceptionally well read, I had believed I have a reasonable literary background and a fair knowledge of major texts in English and world literature. This book has proved me wrong, wrong, wrong. I have read perhaps twenty percent of the "must-read" titles — and appallingly, I read at least half of those after receiving my MA. While I know where my weakness exists (primarily in concentrating on reading books by women and Canadians), I'd be interested to know how others fare when comparing their prior reading history to this prescription.
But this book has got me thinking. Perhaps one of the reasons I am no longer interested in completing my doctorate in English — why I am in fact completing a doctorate involving the deconstruction of English by way of another faculty — is that the class mechanism of English is simply too obvious for me now. The Department of English at the University of Alberta, my alma mater, is so interested in its self-construction as radical that it rarely stops to consider its own site of privilege or its complicity in oppression. Even decades after telling itself that reading literature doesn't really make us better people, the Department continues to chant the liberal motto of better living through literature. (Well, why not? It's the same bill of goods the rest of the schooling enterprise is selling.) And if you don't have access, you're really not one of us after all, are you? Of course, it's not all high modernism and the Leavises today; now the badge of admission is the mindless iteration of post-colonialism, identity feminism, and theoretical Marxism. Yet the song remains the same.
Where are the working-class poets? Somewhere in China, or Africa, or Southeast Asia, assembling your next DVD player, sewing your new lululemon leggings, or answering your calls at an international call centre. They're not here: the North American working class lives elsewhere now — and that whole notion of class is so out of date anyway!
And what has three decades of identity-based literary criticism given us? A powerful belief that individual identity trumps collective needs every time. A liberal embrace of the marketplace of ideas. A vague sense of dread that can be diffused only by consuming faster and faster the digital enhancements of a mediocre age.
So why should we read those 1001 books? There's no need, really. They'll be coming to you soon enough on Google Books, digested into their essential fibres for those with the means to buy them — or for the truly pixellated (and perhaps the pixillated too), on YouTube. Will civilization as we know it come to a lurch if we all don't stop what we're doing and read? We can only hope so...
L
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Playing...
Made a few changes using the new template system. I'll have to put some thought into it. I used Adobe Lightrooms flash gallery to upload some Rip & Grip images. Have a peek. They are on the iMac at home so don't expect super fast response. Speaking of which I got the iMac back so be sure to swing by and visit macblaze.hopto.org. I turned the shaw space over to Zak and he's been busily uploading Halo pics. I made him hand code the web pages so they don't have the polish of packaged stuff, but overall pretty darn good...
In other news after viewing this clip, I now suspect EJ Woods has a second career. If ever there was a devious, anti-pet mind that would invent this contraption under guise of being helpful, Mr Woods is such a villian...
In other news after viewing this clip, I now suspect EJ Woods has a second career. If ever there was a devious, anti-pet mind that would invent this contraption under guise of being helpful, Mr Woods is such a villian...
Friday, January 19, 2007
All that is old is new again
I still don't have my computer back from the shop and I still don't have my blog up again. In other news, we've updated to the new and improved google blogger... I'm not sure I like change. I think its bout time I look into a domain for myself.
Anyway L is home, only 55 minutes late... I guess that makes her almost early...
Tah!
Anyway L is home, only 55 minutes late... I guess that makes her almost early...
Tah!
Thursday, January 04, 2007
86 It
A new custom playlist. Those who were there will understand. Those who weren't will simply be puzzled....
Video Killed the Radio Star, The Buggles
Goodbye 70's, Yaz
Relax, Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Kids in America, Kim Wilde
Brand New Lover, Dead or Alive
I Ran (So Far Away), A Flock of Seagulls
Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper
Young Guns (Go For It!), Wham
Too Shy, Kajagoogoo
Let's Go Crazy, Prince and the Revolution
Self Control, Laura Branigan
Hyperactive!, Thomas Dolby
So Alive, Love and Rockets
Father Figure, George Michael
The Ecstasy of Flight (I Love the Night), Chris De Burgh
Hungry Like the Wolf, Duran Duran
The Look of Love (Part I), ABC
Gloria, Laura Branigan
If I Had You Back, The Rubinoos
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), Kate Bush
Running with the Night, Lionel Richie
Billie Jean, Michael Jackson
Hazy Shade of Winter, The Bangles
Call Me, Blondie
Love Shack, The B-52's
Living in a Box, Living in a Box
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record), Dead Or Alive
I Did It for Love, Harlequin
4 Ever 2 Gether, ABC
Rebel Yell, Billy Idol
Der Kommissar, After The Fire
Geronimo's Cadillac, Modern Talking
I Drove All Night, Cyndi Lauper
Don't Go, Yaz
Steppin' Out, Joe Jackson
I Got You, Split Enz
Too Much Time on My Hands, Styx
It's My Life, Talk Talk
Sunglasses at Night, Corey Hart
Love Becomes Electric, Strange Advance
Faster than the Speed of Night, Bonnie Tyler
Safety Dance, Men Without Hats
Windpower, Thomas Dolby
Dancing with Myself, Billy Idol
Come On Eileen, Dexy's Midnight Runners
(Nothing But) Flowers, Talking Heads
First We Take Manhattan, Jennifer Warnes
Time (Clock Of The Heart), Culture Club
Like a Prayer, Madonna
I'm Your Baby Tonight, Whitney Houston
You Keep Me Hangin' On, Kim Wilde
Hold On, Ian Thomas
Change Of Heart, Cyndi Lauper
This Is the World Calling, Bob Geldof
If You Leave, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Here Comes the Rain Again, Eurythmics
He's a Dream, Shandi
Open Your Heart, Madonna
Cruel Summer, Bananarama
Walk Like an Egyptian, The Bangles
Part-Time Lover, Stevie Wonder
What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Pet Shop Boys
Sister Christian, Night Ranger
1999, Prince
Wham Rap!, Wham!
Situation, Yaz
On the Loose, Saga
Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, Ultravox
Controversy, Prince
I'll Tumble 4 Ya, Culture Club
Goody Two Shoes, Adam Ant
Venus, Bananarama
The Glamorous Life, Sheila E.
Stand Back, Stevie Nicks
Maniac, Michael Sembello
This Wheel's on Fire, Siouxsie and the Banshees
Like Flames, Berlin
Run Runaway, Slade
Something About You, Level 42
Obsession, Animotion
Our House, Madness
Road to Nowhere, Talking Heads
Walk of Life, Dire Straits
Twist in My Sobriety, Tanita Tikaram
Sign O' the Times, Prince
Don't You (Forget About Me), Simple Minds
Enjoy! - L
**
Q: What do you do if you're attacked by a troupe of circus performers?
A: Go for the juggler.
Video Killed the Radio Star, The Buggles
Goodbye 70's, Yaz
Relax, Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Kids in America, Kim Wilde
Brand New Lover, Dead or Alive
I Ran (So Far Away), A Flock of Seagulls
Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper
Young Guns (Go For It!), Wham
Too Shy, Kajagoogoo
Let's Go Crazy, Prince and the Revolution
Self Control, Laura Branigan
Hyperactive!, Thomas Dolby
So Alive, Love and Rockets
Father Figure, George Michael
The Ecstasy of Flight (I Love the Night), Chris De Burgh
Hungry Like the Wolf, Duran Duran
The Look of Love (Part I), ABC
Gloria, Laura Branigan
If I Had You Back, The Rubinoos
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God), Kate Bush
Running with the Night, Lionel Richie
Billie Jean, Michael Jackson
Hazy Shade of Winter, The Bangles
Call Me, Blondie
Love Shack, The B-52's
Living in a Box, Living in a Box
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record), Dead Or Alive
I Did It for Love, Harlequin
4 Ever 2 Gether, ABC
Rebel Yell, Billy Idol
Der Kommissar, After The Fire
Geronimo's Cadillac, Modern Talking
I Drove All Night, Cyndi Lauper
Don't Go, Yaz
Steppin' Out, Joe Jackson
I Got You, Split Enz
Too Much Time on My Hands, Styx
It's My Life, Talk Talk
Sunglasses at Night, Corey Hart
Love Becomes Electric, Strange Advance
Faster than the Speed of Night, Bonnie Tyler
Safety Dance, Men Without Hats
Windpower, Thomas Dolby
Dancing with Myself, Billy Idol
Come On Eileen, Dexy's Midnight Runners
(Nothing But) Flowers, Talking Heads
First We Take Manhattan, Jennifer Warnes
Time (Clock Of The Heart), Culture Club
Like a Prayer, Madonna
I'm Your Baby Tonight, Whitney Houston
You Keep Me Hangin' On, Kim Wilde
Hold On, Ian Thomas
Change Of Heart, Cyndi Lauper
This Is the World Calling, Bob Geldof
If You Leave, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Here Comes the Rain Again, Eurythmics
He's a Dream, Shandi
Open Your Heart, Madonna
Cruel Summer, Bananarama
Walk Like an Egyptian, The Bangles
Part-Time Lover, Stevie Wonder
What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Pet Shop Boys
Sister Christian, Night Ranger
1999, Prince
Wham Rap!, Wham!
Situation, Yaz
On the Loose, Saga
Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, Ultravox
Controversy, Prince
I'll Tumble 4 Ya, Culture Club
Goody Two Shoes, Adam Ant
Venus, Bananarama
The Glamorous Life, Sheila E.
Stand Back, Stevie Nicks
Maniac, Michael Sembello
This Wheel's on Fire, Siouxsie and the Banshees
Like Flames, Berlin
Run Runaway, Slade
Something About You, Level 42
Obsession, Animotion
Our House, Madness
Road to Nowhere, Talking Heads
Walk of Life, Dire Straits
Twist in My Sobriety, Tanita Tikaram
Sign O' the Times, Prince
Don't You (Forget About Me), Simple Minds
Enjoy! - L
**
Q: What do you do if you're attacked by a troupe of circus performers?
A: Go for the juggler.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Are You a Grizzly Bear?
Perhaps you are a grizzly bear and don't know it! Take this simple quiz to find out.
Are you loud?
Are you hairy?
Are you big?
Are you strong?
Are you scary?
Do you like berries?
Do you like salmon?
Do you sleep a lot in the winter time?
Are you irritable when you first awake?
(females only) Are you protective of your offspring?
Do you roar?
If you have answered yes to all of these questions, you are a grizzly bear.
I am.
Eeks!
Are you loud?
Are you hairy?
Are you big?
Are you strong?
Are you scary?
Do you like berries?
Do you like salmon?
Do you sleep a lot in the winter time?
Are you irritable when you first awake?
(females only) Are you protective of your offspring?
Do you roar?
If you have answered yes to all of these questions, you are a grizzly bear.
I am.
Eeks!
Monday, January 01, 2007
Happy New Year!
Hello all!
I hope you had a warm and wonderful holiday season and the new year is finding you optimistic. I'm simply procrastinating right now, so I'll keep this short. This year I resolve to write more often. Writing is a good way to achieve many of my goals.
Meanwhile, here's a thought (agreement error notwithstanding), courtesy of the delightful little book The Five Hole Stories by Dave Bidini.
"... once you've found a goalie's five hole, they're yours forever."
Sigh...
Anon,
L
I hope you had a warm and wonderful holiday season and the new year is finding you optimistic. I'm simply procrastinating right now, so I'll keep this short. This year I resolve to write more often. Writing is a good way to achieve many of my goals.
Meanwhile, here's a thought (agreement error notwithstanding), courtesy of the delightful little book The Five Hole Stories by Dave Bidini.
"... once you've found a goalie's five hole, they're yours forever."
Sigh...
Anon,
L
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Mad World
This is the kind of week it's been...
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
— Tears for Fears
See you on the other side!
L
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
— Tears for Fears
See you on the other side!
L
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
BLAZE
My computer is fried so my website is down so I have no platform for my muse. Thus I present to you...Daily Doggerel The Blogspot Edition
For car(men) wherever you may find them
Toyota, Dodge, Datsun, Ford
A metal machine, a macho overlord,
Insensitive drivers, uncaring, obscene,
Driving us crazy, cursing their genes
Noisy, obnoxious, expensive and careless
Pervasive technology, quintissentialy worthless
Automotive desires are driving our days,
Credit ratings balloon, consuming our pay.
But I want that car, that awesome machine,
Oh and this one as well, and that one I mean,
Off road and on track and highway carousing
With 350 horsepower, I'll do without housing.
I love my cars mercury and subaru,
Such a pity, you know, I can't afford you.
B
For car(men) wherever you may find them
Toyota, Dodge, Datsun, Ford
A metal machine, a macho overlord,
Insensitive drivers, uncaring, obscene,
Driving us crazy, cursing their genes
Noisy, obnoxious, expensive and careless
Pervasive technology, quintissentialy worthless
Automotive desires are driving our days,
Credit ratings balloon, consuming our pay.
But I want that car, that awesome machine,
Oh and this one as well, and that one I mean,
Off road and on track and highway carousing
With 350 horsepower, I'll do without housing.
I love my cars mercury and subaru,
Such a pity, you know, I can't afford you.
B
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
A modicum of taste, a minimum of time
Hi-ho,
Your intrepid reporter is overwhelmed at the moment. In my place, please accept the following far more talented substitutes...
There is no O or U in "team", either. — source unknown
I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but couldn't find any.
If we want our world to be different, our first act needs to be reclaiming time to think. Nothing will change for the better until we do that. — Margaret Wheatley
You can say this for ready-mixes — the next generation isn't going to have any trouble making pies exactly like mother used to make. — Earl Wilson
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. — George Bernard Shaw
Never confuse movement with action. — Ernest Hemingway
Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand. — Ezra Pound
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
— Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. — Bertrand Russell
Tra-la! Keep passing the open windows...
L
Your intrepid reporter is overwhelmed at the moment. In my place, please accept the following far more talented substitutes...
There is no O or U in "team", either. — source unknown
I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but couldn't find any.
If we want our world to be different, our first act needs to be reclaiming time to think. Nothing will change for the better until we do that. — Margaret Wheatley
You can say this for ready-mixes — the next generation isn't going to have any trouble making pies exactly like mother used to make. — Earl Wilson
We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it. — George Bernard Shaw
Never confuse movement with action. — Ernest Hemingway
Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand. — Ezra Pound
A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.
— Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. — Bertrand Russell
Tra-la! Keep passing the open windows...
L
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Sunday, October 01, 2006
For Zak
"History is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever."
And from Chekhov: "Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice."
Tra-la!
L
And from Chekhov: "Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice."
Tra-la!
L
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Deadhead sticker on a Sunfire
1) How can it possibly be September 17?
2) Frost warning issued. Sigh. But at least we didn't get snow in Edmonton.
3) Meetings: the practical alternative to work.
Thought for the day: "One repays a teacher badly if one remains only a pupil." — Nietsche
L
2) Frost warning issued. Sigh. But at least we didn't get snow in Edmonton.
3) Meetings: the practical alternative to work.
Thought for the day: "One repays a teacher badly if one remains only a pupil." — Nietsche
L
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