It has been a while since I last updated, and mostly because the past week has been fairly difficult to get through.
This brings up an interesting question about how personal I want this blog to be. Generally, I don't think I will write anything here that is too personal, or violates the privacy of any of my friends. So I'll talk a bit about what has been going on, but not much.
Sadly a very close friend of mine passed away about a week and a half ago. I knew it was coming, but it was still very upsetting and shocking. Her parents asked me to help them with a number of things to try to give her the best funeral possible, so I spent most of last week using my meager talents and skills to honour her memory as best I could.
Wherever she is right now, I hope she is watching me, and willing to pass on to me tons of strength to help me continue on and push through this life of mine.
Okay, that's now done.
Now on to random musings on the Olympics.
I have become addicted to watching curling lately. It's a fascinating sport. Once you know the rules and strategy behind it, the pace of the game suddenly picks up, and the tension mounts. I'm impressed by how well the Canadians have been doing, but I am worried they will get upset in the gold medal matches. We shall see!
I kind of want to try it out. I have some friends who play on teams...maybe I can talk to them about it.
(I probably won't).
And last night, I am not ashamed to say, I watched the Ice Dancing competition. Canada won Gold, and I don't think is should be considered as any less of a gold medal than any purely athletic competition. I think people should be rewarded just as much for creativity, artistry, and originality, as for getting the best time in something.
I often hear people (mostly men) complain that they shouldn't have artistic competitions in what should be an entirely athletic competition. I disagree. Why shouldn't the olympics also be about artistic achievement? Isn't art and creativity also a component of the perfection and idealization of the human form?
In the ancient games back in Greece, they would include competitions in Poetry and Music composition. Though yes, these technically didn't happen in the proper OLYMPIC Games, but instead in the PYTHIAN games, which were held in the two years between the Olympics, at Delphi in the honour of Apollo. But I think my argument here still holds up. Artistic achievement was viewed as just as much of a way to honour the Gods as the athletic events. And the ancient greeks had no qualms about differentiating a winner from the group. There was none of this "oh, but it's all so subjective" nonsense.
Sure, art can be subjective at times, but I think we often say "it's all so subjective" as a way to prevent us from actually thinking about the piece of art we are viewing in a meaningful manner.
Speaking of the ancient games, I really wish they'd bring back the Pankration. Though I guess that's technically what UFC is these days?
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
#fakeolympicsports
I've been trying to start a twitter trend called #fakeolympicsports, but so far it seems I'm the only one who has put up any suggestions.
I even petitioned John Hodgman to see if he'd be willing to mention this hashtag so that other people would get on board, but he hasn't replied to me.
So I'll list some of the fake events here:
1. Snowball Fight
2. Biathalon - 15k pig shoot
3. Polar bear provocation
4. Mass-start bobsled
5. Romantic snowscape poem composition (free-form)
6. Romantic snowscape poem composition (iambic pentameter sonnet)
7. Exposure
8. Avalanche triggering
9. Avalanche rescue
10. Name pissing
11. 5 m spring board diving (outdoors)
That's all I can think of right now. Does anyone else out there have any suggestions??? I'll try to think of more later....
I even petitioned John Hodgman to see if he'd be willing to mention this hashtag so that other people would get on board, but he hasn't replied to me.
So I'll list some of the fake events here:
1. Snowball Fight
2. Biathalon - 15k pig shoot
3. Polar bear provocation
4. Mass-start bobsled
5. Romantic snowscape poem composition (free-form)
6. Romantic snowscape poem composition (iambic pentameter sonnet)
7. Exposure
8. Avalanche triggering
9. Avalanche rescue
10. Name pissing
11. 5 m spring board diving (outdoors)
That's all I can think of right now. Does anyone else out there have any suggestions??? I'll try to think of more later....
Thursday, February 11, 2010
"It's been a strange life"
After a moment the small man came in carrying his bag, and Forlesen's son placed a chair close to the coffin for him and went into the bedroom. "Well, what's it going to be," the small man asked, "or is it going to be nothing?"
"I don't know," Forlesen said. He was looking at the weave of the small man's suit, the intertwining of the innumerable threads, and realizing that they constituted the universe in themselves, that they were serpents and worms and roots, the black tracks of forgotten rockets across a dark sky, the sine waves of the radiation of the cosmos. "I wish I could talk to my wife."
"Your wife is dead," the small man said "The kid didn't want to tell you. We got her laid out in the next room. What'll it be? Doctor, priest, philosopher, theologian, actor, warlock, National Hero, aged loremaster, or novelist?"
"I don't know," Forlesen said again. "I want to feel, you know, that this box is a bed - and yet a ship, a ship that will set me free. And yet ... it's been a strange life."
"You may have been oppressed by demons," the small man said. "Or revived by unseen aliens who, landing on the Earth eons after the death of the last man, have sought to re-create the life of the twentieth century. Or it may be that there is a small pressure, exerted by a tumor in your brain."
"Those are the explanations?" Forlesen asked.
"Those are some of them."
"I want to know if it's meant anything," Forlesen said. "If what I suffered - if it's been worth it."
"No," the little man said. "Yes. No. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Maybe."
Today I finished reading "Forlesen", a short story by Gene Wolfe, which I read in his collection: The Best of Gene Wolfe
In Gene Wolfe's afterward on the story, he writes:
There are men - I have known a good many - who work all their lives for the same Fortune 500 company. They have families to support, and no skills that will permit them to leave and support their families by other means in another place. Their work is of little value, because few, if any, assignments of value come to them. They spend an amazing amount of time trying to find something useful to do. And, failing that, just try to look busy.
In time their lives end, as all lives do. As this world recons things they have spent eight thousand days, perhaps, at work; but in a clearer air it has all been the same day.
The story you have just read was my tribute to them.
Chilling.
I wonder which of his stories I will read next. I definitely still need to read "The Death of Doctor Island", but that is a longer novella. I might want to read his shorter stuff first.
It is impossible for me to overstate how much Gene Wolfe's writing means to me, and how much it has affected my life. I seriously recommend giving his work a try. It can be intimidating yes, because he requires every ounce of your concentration, and his books usually demand second or third readings before the finer details and mysteries become apparent. But once you read the beauty of his writing, it is impossible to go back.
He is the greatest writer alive today, bar none, and you have never heard of him. And that's not just my opinion. Neil Gaiman agrees, as does Michael Swanwick, Patrick O'Leary, and many others who know what they are talking about far better than me.
"I don't know," Forlesen said. He was looking at the weave of the small man's suit, the intertwining of the innumerable threads, and realizing that they constituted the universe in themselves, that they were serpents and worms and roots, the black tracks of forgotten rockets across a dark sky, the sine waves of the radiation of the cosmos. "I wish I could talk to my wife."
"Your wife is dead," the small man said "The kid didn't want to tell you. We got her laid out in the next room. What'll it be? Doctor, priest, philosopher, theologian, actor, warlock, National Hero, aged loremaster, or novelist?"
"I don't know," Forlesen said again. "I want to feel, you know, that this box is a bed - and yet a ship, a ship that will set me free. And yet ... it's been a strange life."
"You may have been oppressed by demons," the small man said. "Or revived by unseen aliens who, landing on the Earth eons after the death of the last man, have sought to re-create the life of the twentieth century. Or it may be that there is a small pressure, exerted by a tumor in your brain."
"Those are the explanations?" Forlesen asked.
"Those are some of them."
"I want to know if it's meant anything," Forlesen said. "If what I suffered - if it's been worth it."
"No," the little man said. "Yes. No. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Maybe."
Today I finished reading "Forlesen", a short story by Gene Wolfe, which I read in his collection: The Best of Gene Wolfe
It's a heartbreaking story about the modern working man. As in most works by Gene Wolfe, identity is a mixed up, irresolute concept: easily interchangeable and in flux.
A man wakes up in his house knowing absolutely nothing about himself or how to live life. Everything he learns is from pamphlets left for him in his house, and from his wife (who also has woken up knowing nothing).
He is instructed to go to his job in a management and supervisory position at Model Pattern Products, a company that does not seem to do anything of significance, and where the positions of every worker seem to flip flop regularly. It is a workplace where you find yourself in meetings discussing non-sensical concepts, and where you are plopped down at your desk with a list of incredibly vague responsibilities, and told to make yourself useful.
It is sadly far too similar to how the working life these days actually is like.
It ends with the paragraphs I posted at the start of the entry.
In Gene Wolfe's afterward on the story, he writes:
There are men - I have known a good many - who work all their lives for the same Fortune 500 company. They have families to support, and no skills that will permit them to leave and support their families by other means in another place. Their work is of little value, because few, if any, assignments of value come to them. They spend an amazing amount of time trying to find something useful to do. And, failing that, just try to look busy.
In time their lives end, as all lives do. As this world recons things they have spent eight thousand days, perhaps, at work; but in a clearer air it has all been the same day.
The story you have just read was my tribute to them.
Chilling.
I wonder which of his stories I will read next. I definitely still need to read "The Death of Doctor Island", but that is a longer novella. I might want to read his shorter stuff first.
It is impossible for me to overstate how much Gene Wolfe's writing means to me, and how much it has affected my life. I seriously recommend giving his work a try. It can be intimidating yes, because he requires every ounce of your concentration, and his books usually demand second or third readings before the finer details and mysteries become apparent. But once you read the beauty of his writing, it is impossible to go back.
He is the greatest writer alive today, bar none, and you have never heard of him. And that's not just my opinion. Neil Gaiman agrees, as does Michael Swanwick, Patrick O'Leary, and many others who know what they are talking about far better than me.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The Dada Polka
Monday was the Magnetic Fields concert, and a great time was had by all. I was really impressed by their arrangements. You can really tell how talented a songwriter is when they take a song largely based on electronic instruments, and can make it sound even better as an acoustic version sans drums.
Well done, Magnetic Fields.
They played a lot of material, from the whole of their catalogue. Including:
Summer Lies
Falling in Love with the Wolfboy
100,000 Fireflies
The Nun's Litany
You and Me And The Moon
All The Umbrellas in London
I Don't Really Love You Anymore
Infinitely Late at Night
You Must Be Out of Your Mind
Interlude
We Are Having a Hootenanny
And many more. One thing I am surprised by is that they didn't play anything from "Holiday". It would have been great to hear them do "Take Ecstasy With Me". But you can't have everything.
I bought a t-Shirt. This is the Front.
Well done, Magnetic Fields.
They played a lot of material, from the whole of their catalogue. Including:
Summer Lies
Falling in Love with the Wolfboy
100,000 Fireflies
The Nun's Litany
You and Me And The Moon
All The Umbrellas in London
I Don't Really Love You Anymore
Infinitely Late at Night
You Must Be Out of Your Mind
Interlude
We Are Having a Hootenanny
And many more. One thing I am surprised by is that they didn't play anything from "Holiday". It would have been great to hear them do "Take Ecstasy With Me". But you can't have everything.
I bought a t-Shirt. This is the Front.
This is the Back.
And this is a close up of the front art.
The shirt was designed by M + E, whose work can be seen at that link.
They are also keeping a blog about their travels on the tour (they run the merch booth). That can be found at: We Are Having a Hootenanny. Look at all of the nice things they have to say about Toronto.
I am fiddling on my guitar while I type this, and I really am not doing very well at it. I need to get back to basics and work on my fingering.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Under More Stars Than...
Who gets to see The Magnetic Fields live on Monday night? Oh yeah! I do!!!
Not only that, apparently someone has spent 10 YEARS making a documentary about Stephin Merritt. I hope it gets to screen in Toronto some time soon...maybe it'll have to wait for the festival.
And here is an example of one of my favorite songs by him! Not to mention an amazing video...
Not only that, apparently someone has spent 10 YEARS making a documentary about Stephin Merritt. I hope it gets to screen in Toronto some time soon...maybe it'll have to wait for the festival.
And here is an example of one of my favorite songs by him! Not to mention an amazing video...
Oscar
Let's go through this year's Oscar Nominees for Best Picture, shall we?
1. Avatar (James Cameron)
I honestly was underwhelmed by this movie, which was disappointing because I was definitely looking forward to it. I was very impressed by the trailers, and it looked to me like the movie was going to have a very interesting story. Unfortunately, I don't think it delivered on that promise. The story was instead overly simplistic and heavy-handed; I have very little patience for a story that has a big bad guy just for the sake of having a big bad guy. The movie never offered me any option about whose side I should be on in the conflict. Not that there always has to be two sides to every issue, but I felt like this story would have benefitted from introducing some complexity into the storyline.
But no, instead we get good guys who are obviously very good, and bad guys who are obviously irredeemably bad. It was just so easy to see through the movie, to what its "message" was. And the movie never bothers to offer us any middle ground. The only characters who might represent some sort of middle ground (Sigorney Weaver and the other scientists) almost immediately get marginalized as ineffective and useless. No, in this world you either are a tree-hugging (or hair-latching?) technology-shunning native, or an earth-raping ignorant capitalist. It's a choice that I don't believe is very constructive for our modern times, and is also completely impractical. Does Cameron really think the only solution for our troubles these days is to throw out all of our scientific progress and engineering, and to just go off and live in the woods in small communes, allowing all of the negative things that would come with that, like a high mortality rate? I don't think even James Cameron believes that's the right course of action. But it's the convenient answer to the dilemma he poses in the movie.
And don't get me started on the portrayal of the Na'Vi. Sure, they are an alien culture, but it's pretty obvious to me that we are meant to draw parallels between them and our own native cultures here on Earth, whether they are American Natives, or African Natives or what have you. The idea that somehow these native cultures are more in-tune with the environment, or live more "in balance" with the land, is a false one that is constantly being debunked. Native cultures never treated their environment any differently than western ones (the only difference being that western cultures developed technologies that ended up having a far greater impact). They fought wars with each other...they took all they could from the land without realizing potential consequences...in short they are just like any other group of humans on the planet. We are all a lot more similar to each other than we give credit.
The evidence is clear that whenever the first humans migrated to new land areas that before had been free of humans, the migration coincided with the mass extinction of local animals. This happened in Australia, and in the Americas, and it happened QUICKLY, usually taking just a few hundred years. As well, there is convincing evidence that the Sahara Desert was created by the over-farming of cattle by African natives. You can look at pretty much every culture of humanity and see examples of how that culture negatively affected its environment. So the idea that a native culture lives an idyllic, peaceful existence in perfect harmony with its surroundings is a misrepresentation of the facts. Once again this speaks to the oversimplification of Avatar's story. The movie is afraid to introduce any complexity.
And speaking of the Na'Vi, if James Cameron really did want to portray an alien world in a very realistic and biologically correct manner, why not make the Na'Vi have more variation in their appearance? Do they all have to be blue??? It would have been nice if when you showed the Na'Vi from the other parts of the world, you could see definite evolutionary differences in their traits, instead of just pigeonholing them all into a single homogenous entity.
Wouldn't it have been cool if maybe there was a section of the Na'Vi who were collaborating with the humans???
I'm just glad this one wasn't nominated for best screenplay.
But anyways...
2. The Blind Side
I haven't seen this, and don't have much desire to. It seems a bit too sentimental for my tastes.
3. District 9
This was an incredible movie and one of my favourites from last year! I think it was a far better sci-fi film than Avatar, and was far more revolutionary in terms of special effects. I think the effects even looked better here than in Avatar. Something about the handheld documentary style of the action gave the CG a greater credibility. And it was nice to see a sci-fi action film that wasn't American centric. The movie does get a bit confusing in terms of style (it plays fast and loose with its documentary form), and it does introduce a bad guy that is there just for the sake of being bad...but the movie is just so cool that those shortcomings are easily overlooked!
4. An Education
Haven't seen it, and I know nothing about it. It looks like a pretty standard sort of "Best Picture" movie. I wouldn't mind giving it a go.
5. The Hurt Locker
Also haven't seen it. I've heard very good things from people who have, which probably means if I did see it, I'd try to find reasons to hate it.
6. Inglourious Basterds
What an amazing movie. There's a lot of stuff going on in this one. Quentin Tarantino is a director with a very focused sense of style, but I never find his style gets in the way of enjoying the movie, which is admirable. It'll take me a while to figure out just what this movie was trying to accomplish, and I like that feeling. There's a lot more I want to say about this movie, but it'll take me time to figure out how to word it properly.
7. Precious
Please see what I wrote in regards to "The Blind Side"
8. A Serious Man
I haven't seen this either, but I love the Coen Brothers, and I'll hopefully see this movie one day. I just hope they end up making that adaptation of "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" that I heard about a few years ago.
9. Up
One of the best animated films Pixar has ever made, and that says a lot. But I am conflicted...this movie is also nominated in the Best Animated Feature category, and I have a feeling it will win that category instead of this one. Why is that a problem? Because "Coraline" is also nominated for Best Animated Feature, and it would just be amazing if "Coraline" got to win an Oscar. Wouldn't it be cool if Neil Gaiman got to go on stage with Henry Selick to accept the award? He probably wouldn't, though...he'd want Selick to get all the attention.
10. Up in the Air
Haven't seen this one. Not dying to see it. Not sure why not.
1. Avatar (James Cameron)
I honestly was underwhelmed by this movie, which was disappointing because I was definitely looking forward to it. I was very impressed by the trailers, and it looked to me like the movie was going to have a very interesting story. Unfortunately, I don't think it delivered on that promise. The story was instead overly simplistic and heavy-handed; I have very little patience for a story that has a big bad guy just for the sake of having a big bad guy. The movie never offered me any option about whose side I should be on in the conflict. Not that there always has to be two sides to every issue, but I felt like this story would have benefitted from introducing some complexity into the storyline.
But no, instead we get good guys who are obviously very good, and bad guys who are obviously irredeemably bad. It was just so easy to see through the movie, to what its "message" was. And the movie never bothers to offer us any middle ground. The only characters who might represent some sort of middle ground (Sigorney Weaver and the other scientists) almost immediately get marginalized as ineffective and useless. No, in this world you either are a tree-hugging (or hair-latching?) technology-shunning native, or an earth-raping ignorant capitalist. It's a choice that I don't believe is very constructive for our modern times, and is also completely impractical. Does Cameron really think the only solution for our troubles these days is to throw out all of our scientific progress and engineering, and to just go off and live in the woods in small communes, allowing all of the negative things that would come with that, like a high mortality rate? I don't think even James Cameron believes that's the right course of action. But it's the convenient answer to the dilemma he poses in the movie.
And don't get me started on the portrayal of the Na'Vi. Sure, they are an alien culture, but it's pretty obvious to me that we are meant to draw parallels between them and our own native cultures here on Earth, whether they are American Natives, or African Natives or what have you. The idea that somehow these native cultures are more in-tune with the environment, or live more "in balance" with the land, is a false one that is constantly being debunked. Native cultures never treated their environment any differently than western ones (the only difference being that western cultures developed technologies that ended up having a far greater impact). They fought wars with each other...they took all they could from the land without realizing potential consequences...in short they are just like any other group of humans on the planet. We are all a lot more similar to each other than we give credit.
The evidence is clear that whenever the first humans migrated to new land areas that before had been free of humans, the migration coincided with the mass extinction of local animals. This happened in Australia, and in the Americas, and it happened QUICKLY, usually taking just a few hundred years. As well, there is convincing evidence that the Sahara Desert was created by the over-farming of cattle by African natives. You can look at pretty much every culture of humanity and see examples of how that culture negatively affected its environment. So the idea that a native culture lives an idyllic, peaceful existence in perfect harmony with its surroundings is a misrepresentation of the facts. Once again this speaks to the oversimplification of Avatar's story. The movie is afraid to introduce any complexity.
And speaking of the Na'Vi, if James Cameron really did want to portray an alien world in a very realistic and biologically correct manner, why not make the Na'Vi have more variation in their appearance? Do they all have to be blue??? It would have been nice if when you showed the Na'Vi from the other parts of the world, you could see definite evolutionary differences in their traits, instead of just pigeonholing them all into a single homogenous entity.
Wouldn't it have been cool if maybe there was a section of the Na'Vi who were collaborating with the humans???
I'm just glad this one wasn't nominated for best screenplay.
But anyways...
2. The Blind Side
I haven't seen this, and don't have much desire to. It seems a bit too sentimental for my tastes.
3. District 9
This was an incredible movie and one of my favourites from last year! I think it was a far better sci-fi film than Avatar, and was far more revolutionary in terms of special effects. I think the effects even looked better here than in Avatar. Something about the handheld documentary style of the action gave the CG a greater credibility. And it was nice to see a sci-fi action film that wasn't American centric. The movie does get a bit confusing in terms of style (it plays fast and loose with its documentary form), and it does introduce a bad guy that is there just for the sake of being bad...but the movie is just so cool that those shortcomings are easily overlooked!
4. An Education
Haven't seen it, and I know nothing about it. It looks like a pretty standard sort of "Best Picture" movie. I wouldn't mind giving it a go.
5. The Hurt Locker
Also haven't seen it. I've heard very good things from people who have, which probably means if I did see it, I'd try to find reasons to hate it.
6. Inglourious Basterds
What an amazing movie. There's a lot of stuff going on in this one. Quentin Tarantino is a director with a very focused sense of style, but I never find his style gets in the way of enjoying the movie, which is admirable. It'll take me a while to figure out just what this movie was trying to accomplish, and I like that feeling. There's a lot more I want to say about this movie, but it'll take me time to figure out how to word it properly.
7. Precious
Please see what I wrote in regards to "The Blind Side"
8. A Serious Man
I haven't seen this either, but I love the Coen Brothers, and I'll hopefully see this movie one day. I just hope they end up making that adaptation of "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" that I heard about a few years ago.
9. Up
One of the best animated films Pixar has ever made, and that says a lot. But I am conflicted...this movie is also nominated in the Best Animated Feature category, and I have a feeling it will win that category instead of this one. Why is that a problem? Because "Coraline" is also nominated for Best Animated Feature, and it would just be amazing if "Coraline" got to win an Oscar. Wouldn't it be cool if Neil Gaiman got to go on stage with Henry Selick to accept the award? He probably wouldn't, though...he'd want Selick to get all the attention.
10. Up in the Air
Haven't seen this one. Not dying to see it. Not sure why not.
Monday, February 1, 2010
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