I was tickled to see this fun article in the NYT travel section the other week - a bit of reportage from the rather wonderful Carrie Fisher, on her recent trip to Dildo, Newfoundland. She had a larf, by the sounds of it.
And why wouldn't she? Over the years, while chatting with travelled acquaintances, Dildo has often been mentioned (and snickered over) when the subject of oddly-named places comes up. When it does, I do so enjoy playing my little trump card. See, I've not only been to Dildo, but some of my forebears hail from there. My mother's mother's family, specifically - though she herself left for Toronto at a young age. But there are still plenty of cousins there. My great-grandmother, 'Aunt' Marion Gosse (who passed away just a few years ago at the venerable age of 103), lived all her life in Dildo. And all of us in the family descended on her in the summer of 1997 to celebrate her 100th birthday.
Yep...a good time in Dildo was had by all.
08 October 2005
04 October 2005
Bill Philip
Imaginus, the travelling poster fair that has been going around Canadian university campuses since before I was an undergraduate, are at my workplace this week. As I still need a final picture for my living room, I wandered over to the Student Union after work and had a gawp.
Of course, it took ages to wade through the miasma of typical student dorm-room subjects - Bob Marley, Che Guevara, bikini babes, kittens, 'Beer: It's Not Just for Breakfast Any More', etcetera etcetera etcetera. But there were a few interesting things. I got a small reprint of a hilarious 1950s advert for Scott paper towels bearing the slogan "Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks?" Heh. I'm hanging it in the downstairs bog, of course.
And amazingly, I did actually find something for the living room. It's a triptych of photographs called Palazzo Staircase, by an English photographer called Bill Philip, whom I'd never heard of before. It's really quite nice and goes well with something else hanging on the opposite wall - an original photographic print of a spiral staircase in a chateau in Burgundy, which we bought at a market in Belfast. I googled Bill Philip and found that his work is really very good. And weirdly enough, he's based in Arundel, West Sussex - not even an hour's drive from Brighton. Small world.
Of course, it took ages to wade through the miasma of typical student dorm-room subjects - Bob Marley, Che Guevara, bikini babes, kittens, 'Beer: It's Not Just for Breakfast Any More', etcetera etcetera etcetera. But there were a few interesting things. I got a small reprint of a hilarious 1950s advert for Scott paper towels bearing the slogan "Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks?" Heh. I'm hanging it in the downstairs bog, of course.
And amazingly, I did actually find something for the living room. It's a triptych of photographs called Palazzo Staircase, by an English photographer called Bill Philip, whom I'd never heard of before. It's really quite nice and goes well with something else hanging on the opposite wall - an original photographic print of a spiral staircase in a chateau in Burgundy, which we bought at a market in Belfast. I googled Bill Philip and found that his work is really very good. And weirdly enough, he's based in Arundel, West Sussex - not even an hour's drive from Brighton. Small world.
02 October 2005
In My Garden - October
Lots of work in the garden this afternoon. This past week, I bought loads of spring bulbs, and today we planted the lot, as they've got to be in the ground before the first frost (which is doubtless imminent). Of course, when I say 'planted', I mean I played Lady Muck with a trowel and gloves. Then one can employ one's manservant for the actual hard graft...hee. ;-)
The rest of the garden planning can wait, but it's nice to know that we should have a beautiful display in store come March and April. I bought multicoloured narcissi, parrot tulips, double-petalled tulips, grape hyacinths, wood hyacinths, crocuses, and snowdrops - all my favourites. I can't wait to see them come up - if they make it through the winter and don't get eaten by squirrels first, that is.
While A. was turning over the soil in the beds, we came across several salamanders. I haven't played wiv a salamander in years. My brother and I used to collect salamanders and froggies and toads when we were kids. I made a makeshift terrarium out of clingfilm, a glass dish, and some dirt and moss, and kept one of them captive for the afternoon until I had time to play with him later. Isn't he cool?
Don't worry, I let him go right after I took the pic!
The rest of the garden planning can wait, but it's nice to know that we should have a beautiful display in store come March and April. I bought multicoloured narcissi, parrot tulips, double-petalled tulips, grape hyacinths, wood hyacinths, crocuses, and snowdrops - all my favourites. I can't wait to see them come up - if they make it through the winter and don't get eaten by squirrels first, that is.
While A. was turning over the soil in the beds, we came across several salamanders. I haven't played wiv a salamander in years. My brother and I used to collect salamanders and froggies and toads when we were kids. I made a makeshift terrarium out of clingfilm, a glass dish, and some dirt and moss, and kept one of them captive for the afternoon until I had time to play with him later. Isn't he cool?
Don't worry, I let him go right after I took the pic!
01 October 2005
New A-ha Video
A-ha - those darlings of my teenage years - are back. A new album is due soon, and a single, 'Celice', has been released in Europe. I like 'Celice' a lot - it's a bit dark, and has a pretty classic A-ha sound. The video, however, is quite unlike any other A-ha video I've ever seen. It's viewable online here - but don't watch it at work, cos it's a bit rude and has naked ladies in it. As sexy videos have never really been the purview of A-ha, it's quite surprising. There's no way it will ever be played on MTV in its current form, either. But maybe they thought a little video controversy would get the new album some attention? Who knows? 'Tis not for the likes of me to understand the workings of the music industry...
30 September 2005
Absent Friends
...
Don't be shy
Don't be shy
For if you are shy for tomorrow
You'll be shy for one thousand days
Hey
Don't be shy
Don't be shy
Don't let the tide of your soul
Drown your nights and flood your days
But still it's better to be shy than a screaming drunken old queen
who's always got to have his way
But don't be coy with me
I am too clever to follow you down
To the dark and stormy weather, babe
The bracket's wider now
So what's your pleasure?
Swallow your pride
But please...
Don't be shy
Don't be shy
For if you are shy for tomorrow
You'll be shy for one thousand days
Now is your time to shine
Dance and hear your song
or you may wake up one day in the last chance saloon
to find your last chance has been and gone
...
Don't be shy
Don't be shy
For if you are shy for tomorrow
You'll be shy for one thousand days
Hey
Don't be shy
Don't be shy
Don't let the tide of your soul
Drown your nights and flood your days
But still it's better to be shy than a screaming drunken old queen
who's always got to have his way
But don't be coy with me
I am too clever to follow you down
To the dark and stormy weather, babe
The bracket's wider now
So what's your pleasure?
Swallow your pride
But please...
Don't be shy
Don't be shy
For if you are shy for tomorrow
You'll be shy for one thousand days
Now is your time to shine
Dance and hear your song
or you may wake up one day in the last chance saloon
to find your last chance has been and gone
...
28 September 2005
Female Chauvinist Pigs
Wow. I've got to get this book:
This is the first extended analysis I've seen which tries to make sense of what in the hell has been going on with the pornification of our culture over the last decade. It's something that has disturbed me for quite some time now, but it's difficult to raise the issue, even with other women. The winds of the zeitgeist have been blowing the doors of this particular line of enquiry firmly shut. As Ariel Levy herself has noted, "...nobody wants to be the frump at the back of the room anymore, the ghost of women past -- it's just not cool."
So why are so many young women now complicit in their own objectification? The answers suggested by Levy, in the excerpts from her book (available over at Amazon), are tantalizing. As is the writeup from Sunday's NYT Book Review:
This is the first extended analysis I've seen which tries to make sense of what in the hell has been going on with the pornification of our culture over the last decade. It's something that has disturbed me for quite some time now, but it's difficult to raise the issue, even with other women. The winds of the zeitgeist have been blowing the doors of this particular line of enquiry firmly shut. As Ariel Levy herself has noted, "...nobody wants to be the frump at the back of the room anymore, the ghost of women past -- it's just not cool."
So why are so many young women now complicit in their own objectification? The answers suggested by Levy, in the excerpts from her book (available over at Amazon), are tantalizing. As is the writeup from Sunday's NYT Book Review:
Reading "Female Chauvinist Pigs," Ariel Levy's lively polemic, gave me an epiphany of sorts. Finally, a coherent interpretation of an array of phenomena I'd puzzled over in recent years: the way Paris Hilton's leaked sex tapes seemed only to enhance her career; the horrifying popularity of vaginoplasty, a surgical procedure designed to make female genitalia more sightly; and a spate of mainstream books about stripping and other sex work, some reviewed in these pages. Levy has a theory that makes sense of all this. Our popular culture, she argues, has embraced a model of female sexuality that comes straight from pornography and strip clubs, in which the woman's job is to excite and titillate - to perform for men. According to Levy, women have bought into this by altering their bodies surgically and cosmetically, and - more insidiously - by confusing sexual power with power, so that embracing this caricaturish form of sexuality becomes, in their minds, a perverse kind of feminism.I'm really looking forward to reading this book. But then again, I am a psycho feminazi from hell, so this is hardly surprising. Heh!
26 September 2005
The Guns Fall Silent
Well. Rather fittingly, I was listening to Irish radio over the internet at work today when the news came through that the IRA has at last decommissioned its weapons. It was verified by John de Chastelain, the retired Canadian general who heads the independent commission appointed to oversee the decommissioning process. The official IRA statement, signed (as all IRA statements have ever been) by 'P. O'Neill', ran:
But a leopard will never change its spots, so it's to be expected. I have always said that even if Gerry Adams were to crawl on hands and knees to the feet of Ian Paisley, with the entire IRA arsenal clenched between his teeth, Paisley would still dismiss it as some sort of Republican trick.
The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann (IRA) announced on 28 July that we had authorised our representative to engage with the IICD to complete the process of verifiably putting arms beyond use. The IRA leadership can now confirm that the process of putting arms beyond use has been completed.And now, let the death throes of Unionism and Loyalism commence. For without an active IRA to rail against, what is the point of the likes of Rev. Ian Paisley continuing to spew his hateful invective? Unsurprisingly, he grumbled to the press today that the confirmation of IRA decommissioning was meaningless, in the absence of photographic or other 'hard evidence' - which is an insult to de Chastelain and all those who have worked so tirelessly for years to make this day happen.
But a leopard will never change its spots, so it's to be expected. I have always said that even if Gerry Adams were to crawl on hands and knees to the feet of Ian Paisley, with the entire IRA arsenal clenched between his teeth, Paisley would still dismiss it as some sort of Republican trick.
25 September 2005
How To Be A Domestic Goddess*
(*with apologies to Nigella Lawson)
I've come over all Martha Stewart this weekend. Weird.
Yesterday morning, I dragged my carcass out of bed at quarter to seven, and hitched a ride down to the Farmers' Market. I keep meaning to go more often, but never seem to get around to it - the early hours always put me off. The hardcore marketgoers are often there from half-six, queuing for the stalls to open at seven, and anything good or special is generally sold out by eight.
Anyway, this being harvest time, I wanted to get some local fruit and veg. It really annoys me that we live not two hours from the Annapolis Valley - a major agricultural area - and yet when you go into the grocery store, all the produce is from Ontario and California. There must be at least a dozen Valley farm stands at the market. While some are organic (which I don't usually bother with - am faintly suspicious of the claims of the organic food movement), all of the stuff for sale is pesticide-free, so that's good. I got myself some salad greens, Clapp pears and Victoria plums, and resolved to start going at least once a month during the growing season. Though I may go back next weekend to order a turkey for Thanksgiving.
I was home again by half-nine, and spent the rest of the morning doing housework. In the afternoon I blanched and skinned all the tomatoes that have ripened in the past week, then packed them in mason jars and put them in the deep freeze. Then I went outside to cut some flowers. There were beautiful bouquets of dahlias for sale at the market stalls that morning, which I nearly bought before remembering that I had a garden full of dahlias back home. So I cut some of them, along with some pansies:
And on the agenda for today? Well, we took delivery of a bunch of stuff from Ikea last weekend - end tables, bedside tables, chests of drawers, etc. And in typical Ikea fashion, almost all of it is untreated pine. So I'm going to do a little sanding and varnishing this afternoon. A. has borrowed an electric sander from his dad, which I'm going to have a go with. Hoping I don't injure myself.
Oh, and I just took this homely, but delicious little beaut out of the oven. Strawberry-rhubarb, in case you're wondering:
See? I told you I'm having a total Martha weekend.
I've come over all Martha Stewart this weekend. Weird.
Yesterday morning, I dragged my carcass out of bed at quarter to seven, and hitched a ride down to the Farmers' Market. I keep meaning to go more often, but never seem to get around to it - the early hours always put me off. The hardcore marketgoers are often there from half-six, queuing for the stalls to open at seven, and anything good or special is generally sold out by eight.
Anyway, this being harvest time, I wanted to get some local fruit and veg. It really annoys me that we live not two hours from the Annapolis Valley - a major agricultural area - and yet when you go into the grocery store, all the produce is from Ontario and California. There must be at least a dozen Valley farm stands at the market. While some are organic (which I don't usually bother with - am faintly suspicious of the claims of the organic food movement), all of the stuff for sale is pesticide-free, so that's good. I got myself some salad greens, Clapp pears and Victoria plums, and resolved to start going at least once a month during the growing season. Though I may go back next weekend to order a turkey for Thanksgiving.
I was home again by half-nine, and spent the rest of the morning doing housework. In the afternoon I blanched and skinned all the tomatoes that have ripened in the past week, then packed them in mason jars and put them in the deep freeze. Then I went outside to cut some flowers. There were beautiful bouquets of dahlias for sale at the market stalls that morning, which I nearly bought before remembering that I had a garden full of dahlias back home. So I cut some of them, along with some pansies:
And on the agenda for today? Well, we took delivery of a bunch of stuff from Ikea last weekend - end tables, bedside tables, chests of drawers, etc. And in typical Ikea fashion, almost all of it is untreated pine. So I'm going to do a little sanding and varnishing this afternoon. A. has borrowed an electric sander from his dad, which I'm going to have a go with. Hoping I don't injure myself.
Oh, and I just took this homely, but delicious little beaut out of the oven. Strawberry-rhubarb, in case you're wondering:
See? I told you I'm having a total Martha weekend.
23 September 2005
It's Friday Night...
...and what am I doing? Playing with LibraryThing, of course. I know this makes me an irredeemable geek, but I refuse to be ashamed, damn it.
So. Thus far, I've catalogued the contents of my 'to read' shelf. Apparently, there's some sort of widget you can add to your blog, showing what you've added most recently, what you're currently reading, etc., etc. Must investigate that. In the meantime, here's a link to my catalogue as it currently stands. I do not post this information lightly. I have always considered the composition of people's personal libraries (or worse - lack thereof) to be highly revealing indicators of character and personality. So, Dear Reader, consider yourself privileged for this glimpse into my literary psyche. ;-)
*EDIT* 26 September - HTML manipulated; widget now up and running in my sidebar - whoohoo!
So. Thus far, I've catalogued the contents of my 'to read' shelf. Apparently, there's some sort of widget you can add to your blog, showing what you've added most recently, what you're currently reading, etc., etc. Must investigate that. In the meantime, here's a link to my catalogue as it currently stands. I do not post this information lightly. I have always considered the composition of people's personal libraries (or worse - lack thereof) to be highly revealing indicators of character and personality. So, Dear Reader, consider yourself privileged for this glimpse into my literary psyche. ;-)
*EDIT* 26 September - HTML manipulated; widget now up and running in my sidebar - whoohoo!
22 September 2005
LibraryThing...Where Have You Been All My Life?
Holy hell...lookit what I just found. It's a site called LibraryThing, where one can catalogue one's books online! Imagine! I'm going to have a go RIGHT NOW and test the site with a sample from my collection.
The mere prospect of such a thing has me all aflutter. I think I know what I'll be doing this weekend - intensively channelling my inner nerd. YAY!!!
The mere prospect of such a thing has me all aflutter. I think I know what I'll be doing this weekend - intensively channelling my inner nerd. YAY!!!
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