That stuff? Oh, that's tough.

How I love language. Right now I am reading about linguistic anthropology, which has required a dip into basic phonetics, stuff I haven't touched for years. But it's just as fascinating now as when I first explored it; and better now I'm able to apply some of the ideas in the grammar project I'm working on.

In case you didn't notice, the title of this blog represents differences in perceived junction that might easily be misunderstood. (Ditto A werewolf versus Aware wolf, gracias, B.) But we don't, because our brains are amazing.

Next up, morphology and syntax. Also, a trip to the stationery store because I've used up my highlighter and half of my colourful pens.

Poetry Friday

Here's another poem that delights me.

"Ellipse"

My father has a parenthesis

on either side of his mouth.

His new words

live inside his old words.

And there's a strange semicolon

birthmark on my neck —

what does it mean,

my sentence is incomplete?

Please,

live with me in the open slope

of a question mark.

Don't answer it!

Curl up in a comma

that says more, and more, and more ...

— Naomi Shihab Nye, from her collection A Maze Me: Poems for Girls (2005)

Reading week and Zzz

This is Zak's first Reading Week, and I hope he's enjoying it. Because we've been away and I miss him, today's TBT post is about Zak.

First, a picture from Christmas in Brooks. I think this was 2005.

Next, a picture from Zak's sixteenth birthday party, also in Brooks. (We're all a little tanned because we had just come back from sailing in the Gulf Islands.)

 And finally, Zak at eighteen, in the St. Albert house.

Here's to more success in the second half of the term. Cheers!

A spot of poetry, today

I love love love this poem!

"Night-Spider's Advice"

Build a frame

and stick to it,

I always say.

Life's a circle.

Just keep going around.

Do your work, then

sit back and see

what falls in your lap.

Eat your triumphs,

eat your mistakes:

that way your belly

will always be full.

Use what you have.

Rest when you need to.

Dawn will come soon enough.

Someone has to remake

the world each night.

It might as well be you.

— by Joyce Sidman, in Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night, a Newbery Honor Book

Well, if he can do it ...

The him/her/them issue is troubling, isn't it? But look how long we've been using they/them — and particularly themself, the word most currently vexing grammar purists — to obscure the gender of a sentence agent or object. And from no less a canonical authority than Thomas Wyatt.

They flee from me that sometime did me seek
With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That now are wild and do not remember
That sometime they put themself in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily seeking with a continual change.

Happy gender-mashed Valentine's Day!

xx

L

More for my commonplace book

"We do not need magic to transform our world; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already." — J.K. Rowling

An apt thought for this day and this week.

Libraries in my life

This week I am reading a wonderful book called The Artist's Library: A Field Guide, courtesy of the marvellous Ms C. The book invites us to be inspired by the wondrous work of the humble library. Libraries have been important to me for the entirety of my life, so today's post is a reminiscence about my formative libraries.

Centennial Library: Some of my earliest memories, which are little more than flashes of image and feeling, involve the Centennial Library (now the Stanley Milner branch). It's a very different place now, and poised to receive yet another facelift soon. But it is perhaps the library at the heart of who I am. When my parents took me to the library, it was a very special event. The children's section at the Centennial kept animals, which I found fascinating, and then there were all the books. I have memories of my mother reading library books to me (which she tells me she did only to keep herself entertained). When I was older and in Mr Van den Born's enrichment program, he took us to the Centennial Library to do research and write our first "articles." (He later took us to the University of Alberta, which was ultimately much more important for me, although as I sit here and fumble about what to write next academically, I do wish I'd formed a stronger habit of research and dissemination back then...) Strangely, Centennial was not one of my teenage haunts, despite that I spent many hours downtown. But it still feels welcoming whenever I go there.

Fife Library: Perhaps this is the library of my heart. I still dream of this library; it formed the core of the school, and I would be crushed to go back to Fife today and discover that the library's glorious crow's nest and open area shelves are gone. My early elementary schooling was somewhat strange, but I imprinted on Mrs Campbell, who was my grade two teacher and also the school's librarian. She was a delightful woman and a fabulous teacher; I stayed in touch with her until I finished high school. (To be clear, I don't know whether she was technically a great teacher, as I was far too young to notice such things when I was her student, but she inspired me and many other students to read, to learn, to know things. That makes her great to me.) When I was finally in "Division Two" (grades four to six), I joined the library team and was an assistant captain in grade five and a captain in grade six. (Yes, a sports metaphor for librarianship. Go team!) Working in the library was SO much fun! I loved shelving, filing sign-out cards, stamping pink return date cards ... all of it. And of course I read many many many of the books in this library. In dreams I walk around the shelves trying to find books that I miss. Of course they're never there.

Dickinsfield Branch: This is the library where some integral parts of my being formed. I became independent and individuated from friends and family in part because of this library. In Todd Babiak's history of the Edmonton Public Library system, he dedicates only a few sentences to this branch (in part because it no longer exists), but that does not reflect the place it held in the community. Dickinsfield branch tried valiantly to contribute to the growth of north Edmonton and had an admirable collection for a small, out-of-the-way location. It is another place I can walk through in my memory, although not a place I dream about. Still, I was sad when the branch moved to Londonderry Mall (though Londonderry Mall was and is one of my safe places).

This reminiscence seems to be developing a theme of loss and change, but if libraries teach us anything, it is about permanence, resilience, and adaptability. For continuing to be champions of books, reading, and learning, libraries are amazing. And if you want to learn more about how libraries can incubate creativity, be sure to read The Artist's Library.

Not my usual advisor ...

... but I completely agree with his position.

"He who would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." — Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer

Another piece in my commonplace book!

 

Reading Riot

Greetings! As you know, over the last few weeks I've been trying to finish my long-promised book-editing textbook. When I haven't been writing, I've been reading. Yet January hasn't been a good month for writing down books toward my annual count, according to my rules. Although I record most books I read, I make some exceptions. For instance, I don't usually record graphic novels (although I have in a few cases) and don't record picture books. So the number of books I've read in January looks pretty terrible, but that's not the whole picture. Here's what I haven't counted as "read":

Graphica

Exquisite Corpse (Penelope Bagieu)

Sex Criminals V. 1: One Weird Trick (Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky)

Sex Criminals V. 2: Two Worlds, One Cop (Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky)

Nimona (Noelle Stevenson)

In Real Life (Cory Doctorow, Jen Wang)

El Deafo (Cece Bell)

By the way, I loved Nimona: so sweet! And I think the Sex Criminals series is excellent, though certainly not to everyone's taste. I'm keen for the third volume to arrive at the library.

Kids' Picture Books

This Is Sadie (Sara O'Leary, Julie Morstad)

Louis I, King of the Sheep (Olivier Tallec)

The Skunk (Mac Barnett)

Today I Will Fly! (Mo Willems)

Bears Don't Read! (Emma Chichester Clark)

Big and Little (Ruth Krauss, Mary Szilagyi)

You're Just What I Need (Ruth Krauss, Julia Noonan)

The Happy Egg (Ruth Krauss, Crockett Johnson)

Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead (Ruth Krauss, Jane Dyer)

Posy (Linda Newbery, Catherine Rayner)

Right now, as you can see, I'm very interested in writer Ruth Krauss. I've read most of her books (she was one of Ursula Nordstrom's authors, so you know I'd have to like her) and think I may have an article / chapter to write about her; but so far I haven't found much written about her, other than a single book about her and her husband. But that's what research is all about.

So, welcome to February, and here's to more reading — of the kind that I can record and count!

Laterally thought

It's Thursday, so it's time to make another post. Today's post is all about memory. First, here's a picture.

Zak and Samantha in the living room at the St Albert house, summer 2002.  This photo represents the strange convolutions of memory.

Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle. (I would have sworn it was a Monday in 1986, but a look at the calendar says it was in fact a Tuesday.) I can walk around the places of that day in my mind, rustling through chains of memories for which I have no pictures. Today's picture reminds me of things I miss, things we lose, and is therefore wistfully appropriate.

Getting to know all about you

I receive a weekly newsletter from Michael Kerr, a professional workplace humourist. (Notably not a corporate jester, as I've learned others in this field call themselves.) In last week's issue he suggested a fun workplace exercise: getting to know you. I think this would be a great ice breaker for adult education classes (although I'd adapt it for time concerns) and also for upper undergrad seminars (where trust and openness may be important).

And so, as with other tasks I'd make students do, I have done this exercise myself and have elected to inflict it on you.

3 nicknames you've had

Meghan Mauve Muffin, Lester, Doc

3 jobs you've held

Counter staff at a bakery, pizza maker, executive assistant

3 places you've traveled

Edinburgh, Newfoundland, Ohio

3 of your favorite movies

Sophie's Choice, French Kiss, Hannah and Her Sisters

3 of your favorite foods

Pizza (despite the job above), croustille au fromage, raspberries

If you do this exercise too, please let me know!

 

Let's pretend it's still Thursday

Hello, hello. I've been tardy posting this week's Throwback picture. We were travelling on both Thursday and Saturday, and busy with friends on Friday.

In recognition of ferry travel, this is me and Zak in the queue for the ferry in late winter 1994 (early spring on the coast). On this trip, we visited Pender Island as well as Victoria and Vancouver. A good break from the routines of winter — much like the last few days have been for me and B.

 There are so many striking pictures of Zak in this series. I'll likely post others later. 

That was almost twenty years ago

Today's Thursday throwback comes from May 1997. This is the hair and makeup I wore to Nicole and Jim's wedding, thanks to an early-morning appointment at the salon. (Nicole subsequently divorced the stylist because she was unhappy with the wedding party's hair and makeup. So ...)

So many random details associated with this picture, which was taken in Nik's parents' house. For instance, I know Zak was in the limousine Nicole and Jim rented for the wedding, but I no longer recall at what point. And I really really miss the shirt I'm wearing in this shot — it's not mine, of course, but all my favourite shirts started out belonging to someone else. (I have, however, given up wearing the Bow Slope jacket: I take my professorship seriously, obviously.) Oh, and the art I'm standing in front of is by a semi-famous artist whose art is in the National Gallery. If this photograph were to be discovered in a few centuries, I suspect people will know more of the artist than of me — and I'm really good with that!

Phew! Got this throwback in under the wire. Thank goodness for the Pacific time zone!

How it feels to be edited

This lovely illustration is from Today I Will Fly by Mo Willems. Elephant is in the process of explaining to Piggie all the reasons she won't fly today — or ever. For some reason, Piggie's expression reminded me of an author's expression when the author is receiving notes. Et voilà: how it feels to be edited, the visual edition.

Winding river of memory

Well, we're back on the coast, and as promised, here's another photo post.

1. Me and the 'rents: I was surprised to find a picture of me in my twenties with my parents. My parents are not photo-taking people, and my mother usually actively avoids being caught in the camera's eye. This picture was taken on Long Beach, near Tofino, on the trip that produced our personal "trees and rocks, trees and rocks" meme.

2. Me on vacation: After the camping trip near Whitecourt, during which I illegally picked raspberries in a provincial park and earned the eternal vigilance of bears, I picked and then copped to picking these raspberries in a national park. Y'know, to up the ante.

3. Me at work: This picture was taken by Earl in my office at WBM in August 1995. (Nice string of prep phrases, eh?) Little has changed in my office habits, except that I'm perhaps even better at making piles. Note the photo of Zak taped to my monitor.


Thanks to Earl for inspiring today's post with his recent Polaroids post. Where better to hide from the present than in a box of old photographs?

Boys to men

I've spent several hours digitizing photographs over the last few days. Lovely to see some of these pictures again — it's been years! Here are a few with a common theme.

1. One of my favourite pictures of Zak as a toddler. So cute! (IMHO, of course.)

2. B, Brian, and Doug on the day we moved into the Bonnie Doon house. What have they been up to in the basement? Hmm.

3. B, Mitch, Brian, and Brian on the day of Mitch and June's church wedding. (They were married in a civil service in the US a week or so before the wedding in Brooks.) How the decades fly!

4. B and Ken at our "grown-up" dinner at La Ronde. Regrettably, that dinner ruined La Ronde for us; and sadly, Ken is gone. But I still giggle ironically at memories from that night.

Now I have hundreds of scanned images to review, so you can anticipate more photo-based blogging for the next little while. And we're back to the coast again soon, so more "living the dream" posts, too. Ta!

Since we're home ...

A few weeks ago I wrote about a photo that Nicole took, years and years ago, that became the basis of "being cute" with Zak. (He was always the cute one, obviously.) Since we're back in the condo, I thought I'd try to find the picture, and here it is.

It was taken by Nik on New Year's Eve 1994. Quite a significant throw back!

Finding the picture has led to an afternoon of scanning other pictures, though. Nothing like procrastinating to make me resourceful...

Two readings

Welcome to 2016! Here's my first exploration of the year ahead.

Significator: Queen of Cups

Environment: 5 Cups: disappointment, loss

Obstacles: 7 Swords: quarrelling, futility

Resources: Page Swords: direct observation, authority

Past: 3 Swords: sorrow

Best outcome: King Wands: loving, open-heartedness

What is coming: Queen Wands: honour, determination

Self and attitude: Page Pentacles: scholarship, reflection

Influences: 2 Cups: love

Hopes and fears: 7 Pentacles: work or business

Outcome: 8 Cups: walking away, stepping back, change

Significator: King of Wands

Environment: Queen Swords: Sadness, absence, separation

Obstacles: 3 Cups: plenty, happiness

Resources: 7 Wands: valour, combat, success

Past: 6 Wands: triumph, announcement, realization

Best outcome: Knight Wands: departure, change

What is coming: 6 Pentacles: money, prosperity

Self and attitude: Page Cups: a studious youth, communication

Influences: Ace Wands: creation, enterprise

Hopes and fears: Knight Swords: bravery, confrontation

Outcome: 2 Cups: love

The textual year in review: 2015

As has become my tradition, this post is a reflection on my reading and listening over the last 365 days. In brief, 2015 wasn't a great year for reading: I did much more writing than reading. It was, however, a good year for music, both recorded and live, and — surprisingly — a good year for catching up with television.

Music — Top Thirty Plays

Exile, "Kiss You All Over"

LP, "Someday"

Rosanne Cash, "Seven Year Ache"

The Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer in the City"

Duran Duran, "Hungry like the Wolf"

Brandi Carlile, "Dreams"

Queen, "You're My Best Friend"

Dead or Alive, "Brand New Lover" (single)

Joy Williams, "Woman (Oh Mama)"

Bonnie Pointer, "The Beast in Me"

Deep Purple, "Hush"

Jenson Interceptor, "Tiny Thing"

Sophie B. Hawkins, "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover"

Brandi Carlile, "The Eye"

Beyoncé, "Run the World (Girls)"

Nightwish, "End of All Hope"

Andy Gibb, "Shadow Dancing"

Max Webster, "Let Go the Line"

ABBA, "Summer Night City"

Klaatu, "The Love of a Woman"

Over the Rhine, "When I Go"

Sonic Youth, "Superstar"

The Doobie Brothers, "Long Train Runnin'"

Michael Andrews featuring Gary Jules, "Mad World"

ABBA, "Take a Chance on Me"

Diddy with Dirty Money, "Hello Good Morning" (remix)

One Republic, "Love Runs Out"

Siouxsie and the Banshees, "This Wheel's on Fire"

Sufjan Stevens, "Once in Royal David's City"

Rage Against the Machine, "Renegades of Funk"

What I see in this list is a continuing trend of comfort listening — not surprising, considering the year that's been. I am happy to see a few new-ish songs in the top thirty, however. I also note an overall reduction in the number of repeat plays in my top thirty: no fewer than 25, but no more than 55. These play counts are lower than in the past, which translated into higher play counts in iTunes overall. My iTunes library includes more than 13,900 tracks; of these, 3,268 remained as "new" (play count 0) at the end of the year, meaning I listened to more than three-quarters of my library at least once. I listened to nearly 1,500 songs at least 5 times each.

Now my play counts have been reset and I'm tracking for 2016.

Books

Although I got nowhere near my goal of 200 books this year, I did tally more than 150: 157, to be exact, or an average of three books a week.

Here were some of my favourite books in 2015:

• Michael Crummy, Sweetland

• Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

• Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes

• Peter Mendelsund, What We See When We Read

• Maria Nikolajeva, Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature for Young Readers

• Jennifer Niven, All the Bright Places

• Mary Norris, Between You and Me

• Mallory Ortberg, Texts from Jane Eyre

• Andrew Steeves, Smoke Proofs

... as well as two books I was responsible for editing, but it seems biased to mention them (and perhaps unfair to the other authors I edited whose books weren't among my favourites).

According to LibraryThing, I have catalogued 4,217 books to date, although more than 1,500 of those are tagged "Read but not owned." Book ownership remains a "problem" for me: I love books and reading, but keep running out of shelves. I also have a weakness for books that need rescuing. Even living on the boat hasn't completely tamed my collecting. Maybe in 2016?

Television

TV, by which I mean series on DVD and Netflix, has become a fun way to turn my mind off in the evening. Since May I've watched more television than I have in the preceding five years. When my evenings are once again overtaken by marking and prepping, my TV watching will presumably drop, but right now it's fun.

Series watched (all available seasons):

• Portlandia

• Gilmore Girls

• Grace and Frankie

• The West Wing

• The News Room

• The Tudors

Also bits and pieces of The Muppets and Black Books, as well as numerous movies. I'm also looking forward to new episodes of Downton Abbey in the new year.

So that's my year in textual consumption. Looking forward now to comparing lists and numbers with friends. Happy New Year!

At the dock, le deuxième: Views from Victoria

As follow-up to my previous post about the marina in which we live, here are a few pictures I've taken out and about in Victoria and the Saanich Peninsula.

 

1. Artful mermaid: There's a lot of public art in Victoria, although photographing much of it is challenging. We found this mermaid en route to Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub.

2. Sweets: There are dozens of souvenir stores on Government Street, including a Rogers' Chocolate shop and a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory shop, where this picture was taken. I haven't bought anything here so far ...

3. Sidney: A few weeks ago we took the bus to Sidney on a very stormy day. Here are two views of the Haro Strait in the middle of the storm. The second picture is looking toward the Sidney marina, where we stayed overnight in September. Not a great port in this storm, though.

4. Garrick's Head: I mentioned that we have a favourite pub. Here's the fire from my favourite seat in the place!

5. Pansies: This picture was taken on Saturday, December 19. Happy solstice! Some days I barely miss Edmonton. 

6. Xmas celebrations: As I've mentioned before, Victoria seems to take Christmas seriously. The lights are impressive — and I missed mentioning here the Lighted Truck Parade we watched at the beginning of December. These horses were taking families for rides around downtown.

Soon we'll be back in Edmonton for a brief visit. More pictures of "living the dream" in the new year. In the meantime, best wishes for 2016. Cheers!

 

At the dock

A few weeks ago I promised to write about living at the dock in Victoria's Inner Harbour. Here are some pictures to try to explain our living and working situation.

1. At the dock: In the first picture you see Never for Ever docked for the first time in our berth, at the end of September. In the second picture, taken a few weeks later, you see our boat bow on, with a very large yacht called Attessa in the background. Attessa is 332 feet long, roughly the length of a Canadian football field; Never for Ever is about one-tenth that size.

2. Coming and going: This is the gate through which we enter and leave our dock; it is protected with a passcode lock. In the first picture, you see our boat on the left-hand side (with Attessa in the background again). The second picture is the night view, which is how we see the entrance most of the time lately. Frankly, I find the area outside our gate a little frightening at night and don't often venture out alone.

3. Looking north: This pictures looks north from the next dock. Never for Ever has the tall mast at almost exactly the centre of the image. This is the view from Red Fish Blue Fish, a very popular seafood restaurant that is closed right now (it will re-open in the spring); it is also the view from the marina showers, which is where we do our laundry (in washing machines and dryers, of course, not in the showers themselves!).

4. Looking northwest: Night views from the dock. These picture are from early December, when some of the other boats had raised seasonal lights on their masts and booms. The yellow lights give the marina an eerie glow at night.

5. Looking west/southwest: The first view is from Wharf Street, overlooking the marina and into the harbour itself. This is the water route we follow to leave the harbour — if we were taking a day sail to Race Rocks, for instance. It's a busy harbour, even in the fall and winter, in part because of the planes that come into and leave the Harbour Air dock several times a day, as you see in the second picture. When we told people we were spending the winter aboard at this marina, many warned us we'd find the planes loud and irritating, but that hasn't been the case. In the second picture, you can also see the marina showers (the small red-roofed building on the left-hand side of the image).

6. Looking south: If you've been in Victoria, you know the Parliament Buildings are lit at night. (By the way, they are "Parliament" buildings, and not legislative buildings, because Victoria was once a colonial capital. We took the tour!) Here's the view from our boat, including the Steamship Terminal, which is also lit at night. (If you were in Victoria when Mme Tussauds Wax Museum was still here, it was housed in the Steamship Terminal building.) Every morning I say hello to the lights in the southern sky, requiring that I stand on my tiptoes to look out the galley windows because I'm me-sized, aka short.

7. A better view: This picture was taken on Christmas Eve. This is the view from Ship's Point and gives you a much better sense of Victoria at Christmastime: lights everywhere!

8. Fort Street: Fort Street is our closest east–west road. This is the view looking back at the boat from halfway between Wharf Street and Government Street. The mast you see poking up behind the car is ours.

9. Our "office": Otherwise known at the Victoria Public Library on Broughton Street. Most days we arrive at about nine o'clock and work until four or five. We usually occupy the same table every morning, although it's catch as catch can if we leave for lunch and then return.

Amenities in downtown Victoria are great. We have our choice of three grocery stores, each about a kilometre away, and three liquor stores even closer — one around the corner from the library. We have memberships at the Royal BC Museum, which is next door to the Parliament Buildings, so we visit every week or two. (It's a wonderful place to rest one's mind.) We have also walked to the Victoria Art Gallery and visited a few private galleries. We have a post office about three blocks away, where we receive our mail, and a movie theatre a block beyond that. We have a favourite pizza-by-the-slice place, one block north of the library, and a favourite pub, about two blocks from our marina. And Capital Iron ("There's no store like it!") is close, but distant enough that we don't go there all the time — because a person could spend a lot of time and money there, especially in the kitchenware section. There's really not much else we need.

Next, I'll post some pictures of places and things in our Victoria landscape.

Merry merry merry

Happy Christmas! Here's how we spent our Xmas Eve: in the famous Bengal Lounge of the Empress Hotel, listening to Christmas songs from Maureen Washington & Karel.

It was a novel and lovely way to spend a mild Victoria evening. No appearance by the moon on our watch, however.

Here's to another grand year for all of us!

Ninety-five percent of the way there

Here's my manuscript as of yesterday afternoon:

In this pile are some 280 pages of information about various aspects of book editing and publishing. (By the way, the yellow pages don't signify anything special. The copy shop made a mistake and I didn't mind the coloured paper.) The manuscript is lacking the printout of chapter 10, which should be complete today (or else tomorrow, since everything starts to shut down for the holidays around noon), and I haven't printed out the back matters, since they're pretty straightforward. (For the record, though, my appendixes, glossary, and bibliography currently total more than 50 pages.)

Now the real writing starts: rewriting. Also reconceptualizing, reorganizing, and restructuring. Though my deadlines are arbitrary and self-imposed, I'm hoping to complete rewrites and submit the manuscript to the publisher by the end of January. Wish me luck!

Songs of the Season

 

I have a terrible, wholly nostalgic weakness for Christmas music.

Some of my fondest memories of elementary school are of singing carols in the gym after lunch during the last week of classes. (Also of the annual Christmas concert, but that's an entirely different strand of memory.) I grew up with Christmas music at home, of course, and I remember learning to play various songs on piano and violin, hearing the Band Aid single for the first time in 1984, and listening to radio and mall music at my various undergrad jobs — all neurally tied to potent emotions in themselves.

Add to that the fact that the melodies of some Christmas songs are very beautiful in themselves, particularly with the lush instrumentation that is common to seasonal interpretations. I am sometimes a sucker for sentimentality.

Close to a decade ago, I began collecting Christmas music. It's become somewhat comical at this point, as I have amassed nearly a thousand Christmas-themed songs.

The list that follows has endured for almost a decade. It has grown and contracted over that time as I've discovered new tracks and artists and grown tired of others, but the core has remained stable. Little did B know until this year, when our living proximity seems to have revealed all my strangest habits, but around the third week of November I start listening to selected songs from this playlist (interspersed with everything else I listen to, of course). By the second week of December I'm listening to most of it, and by the week before Christmas, I'm playing it in full, along with many other Christmas selections. (Some of these songs are really not appropriate until Christmas Eve, or a day or two before, in my imagination — and some of them can clearly hang on until at least December 27.)

And so: My Xmas Pop playlist. Every song embroidered with memory.

• Vince Guaraldi Trio, "Christmas Time Is Here"

• Rosanne Cash, "River"

• U2, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

• Band Aid, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

• Casey Stratton "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" ("Like a Prayer" mashup)

• Boney M, "Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord" (long version)

• The Pogues, "Fairytale of New York"

• John Lennon, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"

• Johnny Reid, "Waiting for Christmas to Come"

• Kate Bush, "Home for Christmas"

• Lawrence Gowan, "Ring the Bell for Christmas"

• Lenka, "All My Bells Are Ringing"

• Pink Martini, "Shchedryk (Ukrainian Bell Carol)"

• Paul McCartney, "Wonderful Christmastime"

• Billy Squier, "Christmas Is the Time to Say 'I Love You'"

• Chris De Burgh, "A Spaceman Came Travelling"

• Kate Bush, "December Will Be Magic Again"

• Sufjan Stevens, "Once in Royal David's City"

• Sarah McLachlan, "Silent Night"

• Sarah Slean, "What Child Is This?"

• Sugarland, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

• The Kinks, "Father Christmas"

• The Pretenders, "2000 Miles"

• Jane Siberry, "All Through the Night"

• Annie Villeneuve, "Minuit, chrétiens"

• Cat Power, "Merry Little Christmas"

• Prince, "Another Lonely Christmas"

• Murray McLauchlan, "Let the Good Guys Win"

• ABBA, "Happy New Year"

• Straight No Chaser, "Auld Lang Syne"

By the way, and not unrelated to my subject here, this year Sleeping at Last's Christmas song is "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," which would definitely make this list if U2 were not already on it.

The vault of lost lyrics, chapter 19

An adaptation from Molly Bloom's speech at the conclusion of Ulysses, this song is one my favourite Kate Bush singles. Both the vocal delivery and the instrumentation are so feminine! Sadly, like so much of her music, it was badly under-appreciated when it was released in 1989, despite a gorgeous video. So you've probably never heard this lyric — or Kate's original lyrical working of Molly's speech, which Kate released as "Flower of the Mountain" on her 2011 album Director's Cut.

**

"The Sensual World" (Kate Bush)

Mm, yes

Then I'd taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth

Going deep South, go down, mm yes

Took six big wheels and rolled our bodies

Off of Howth Head and into the flesh, mm yes

He said I was a flower of the mountain, yes

But now I've powers o'er a woman's body, yes

Stepping out, off the page

Into the sensual world

Stepping out

To where the water and the earth caress

And the down of a peach says mm yes

Do I look for those millionaires

Like a Machiavellian girl would

When I could wear a sunset? mm yes

And how we'd wished to live in the sensual world

You don't need words

Just one kiss then another

Stepping out, off the page

Into the sensual world

Stepping out, off the page

Into the sensual world

And then our arrows of desire rewrite the speech, mm yes

And then he whispered would I, mm yes

Be safe, mm yes, from mountain flowers?

And at first with the charm around him, mm yes

He loosened it so if it slipped between my breasts

He'd rescue it, mm yes

And his spark took life in my hand and mm yes

I said, mm yes

But not yet, mm yes, yes

Mm yes

Yes ...

Blow away, blow away

So there's this about living in Victoria...

Christmas is coming

There are things about my childhood that I miss, and one of them is paper advent calendars. They were simple and pretty, and since my birthday occurs close to the end of advent, they always had something of a personal meaning for me.

The advent calendars I had as a child came from Germany. The pictures were old-fashioned and somewhat religious, although some had secular scenes. Each hinge I opened had a pretty picture behind it. I bought the last one I had in grade six, a memorable year in my then-young life. I haven't seen an advent calendar like this in decades, probably since before I left my parents' house. (And of course, I know there are advent calendars with chocolate and other treats in them; these were not the ones I grew up with.)

So imagine my delight when I recently found a paper advent calendar in the style of, if not exactly like, the ones I had as a child. (Sadly, I think there were others, but I waited a week to buy one and the selection was diminished.)

Here is my new advent calendar!

And now that I know they still exist, I can look for another one next year.

As wise people have said, it's never too late to have a happy childhood. Indeed.


 

The vault of lost lyrics, chapter 16

Another once-fresh song now rendered ubiquitous by covers. Not that I dislike the covers: the Michael Andrews/Gary Jules version from the Donnie Darko soundtrack is finely interpreted. But the original still hits me like a punch every time.

**

"Mad World" (as recorded by Tears for Fears)

All around me are familiar faces

Worn-out places, worn-out faces

Bright and early for their daily races

Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses

No expression, no expression

Hide my head, I want to drown my sorrow

No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny

I find it kind of sad

The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you

Cos I find it hard to take

When people run in circles it's a very very

Mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good

Happy birthday, happy birthday

Made to feel the way that every child should

Sit and listen, sit and listen

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

And I find it kind of funny

I find it kind of sad

The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you

Cos I find it hard to take

When people run in circles it's a very very

Mad world

(repeat and fade)

The vault of lost lyrics, chapter 83

Once startlingly fresh, now ubiquitous: the story of so many songs of the 1980s. But this one holds a special place in my heart. Is it, as the video suggests, a ghost story? Or just one's emotional weather?

**

"Here Comes the Rain Again" (as recorded by Eurythmics)

Here comes the rain again

Falling on my head like a memory

Falling on my head like a new emotion

I want to walk in the open wind

I want to talk like lovers do

I want to dive into your ocean

Is it raining with you?

So baby talk to me

Like lovers do

Walk with me

Like lovers do

Talk to me

Like lovers do

Here comes the rain again

Raining in my head like a tragedy

Tearing me apart like a new emotion

I want to breathe in the open wind

I want to kiss like lovers do

I want to dive into your ocean

Is it raining with you?

So baby talk to me

Like lovers do

Here comes the rain again

Falling on my head like a memory

Falling on my head like a new emotion

I want to walk in the open wind

I want to talk like lovers do

I want dive into your ocean

Is it raining with you?

The vault of lost lyrics, chapter 2

Consensus says the lyrics are about a girl getting involved with drugs, and perhaps that's what the writer intended. But when I first heard this song back in elementary school, I heard a different story. Boys, beware.

**

"Magic Man" (Heart)

Cold late night so long ago

When I was not so strong you know

A pretty man came to me

Never seen eyes so blue

You know I could not run away

It seemed we'd seen each other in a dream

It seemed like he knew me

He looked right through me, yeah

Come on home, girl

He said with a smile

You don't have to love me yet

Let's get high awhile

But try to understand

Try to understand

Try, try, try to understand

I'm a magic man

Winter nights we sang in tune

Played inside the months of moon

Never think of never

Let this spell last forever

Well, summer lover passed to fall

Tried to realize it all

Mama says she's worried

Growing up in a hurry, yeah

Come on home, girl

Mama cried on the phone

Too soon to lose my baby yet

My girl should be at home

But try to understand

Try to understand

Try, try, try to understand

He's a magic man, mama

He's a magic man

Come on home, girl

He said with a smile

I cast my spell of love on you

A woman from a child

But try to understand

Try to understand

Try, try to understand

Try, try, try to understand

He's a magic man

He got magic hands

Come on home, girl

He said with a smile

You don't have to love me yet

Let's get high awhile

But try to understand

Try to understand

Try, try, try to understand

He's a magic man