ephemera, etcetera

i love it here

2009-07-18T05:33:08Z

aceart currently has an installation on consisting of a gigantic, wooden slope constructed in the gallery. things i have witnessed on the slope in the last five days include:

*a secret film screening

*a concert of accordion-based music with improvisational tuba, slope-as-group-percussion implement, and slide projection, also featuring a significant number of people waltzing

*liz from aceart playing the theme from beverley hills cop on keyboard with amanda from urban providing dance moves

*this, this, and this

there's also plans for a giant pie fight in the next few weeks. winnipeg is basically the best.

prairiecity @ 2009-07-13T17:54:00

2009-07-13T23:01:59Z

just home from folk fest a couple of hours ago, and subsequently had what always turns out to be the Shower of the Year - four days of camping-related god-knows-what pours down the drain.

amazing weekend: i'm totally burned out and a shade of deep red-brown; saw the great lakes swimmers, neko case, iron & wine, gentleman reg and lots of others; lots of prairie sunsets; campfire dinners prepared by a four star chef; friends galore - it's kind of like my annual tune-up.

coffee and smokes, now.

prairiecity @ 2009-06-28T02:05:00

2009-06-28T07:05:27Z

i just participated in the traditional, Manitoban Juice Newton thirtieth birthday circle dance. life is grand.

also, i invite your comment on the following, whiskey-laden hypothesis: shania twain, wynonna judd, juice newton and anne murray are the prairie fag's equivalent for cher, bette midler, alanis morissette and barbra streisand, respectively.

five

2009-06-13T06:48:57Z

as a disclaimer, much of this is malleable:

five authors:

margaret laurence
zadie smith
kazuo ishiguro
margaret atwood
toni morrison

five books:

the diviners - margaret laurence
the stone angel - margaret laurence
as for me and my house - sinclair ross
on beauty - zadie smith
to kill a mockingbird - harper lee

five musicians:

neil young
leonard cohen
emmylou harris
r.e.m.
joni mitchell

five songs:

for the turnstiles - neil young
heart of gold - neil young
so long, marianne - leonard cohen
talk about the passion - r.e.m.
don't have to be so sad - yo la tengo

five albums:

murmur - r.e.m.
time (the revelator) - gillian welch
blue - joni mitchell
everybody knows this is nowhere - neil young
painful - yo la tengo

five aritsts:

mona hatoum
yoko ono
krzysztof wodiczko
felix gonzalez-torres
rebecca belmore

five directors:

atom egoyan
john waters
mike leigh
robert altman
denys arcand

five movies:

the sweet hereafter
nashville
who's afraid of virginia woolf?
secrets and lies
last night

five tv shows:

my so-called life
six feet under
degrassi
jeopardy
golden girls

five places:

winnipeg
montréal
newfoundland
gimli
new york city

five celebrity crushes:

adrien brody
mark ruffalo
gord downie
levar burton
ALEX TREBEK

this quiz is stupid.

prairiecity @ 2009-05-23T21:02:00

2009-05-24T02:09:25Z

it's nine pm and full daylight and i'm half-cut on bad whiskey and probably getting ready to go out, so i suppose it's officially summer, and here's a meme i stole from idance2anything:

2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone comments and asks!

Copy and paste this into your journal, delete my answers, type in your answers, etc.

80 or so questions...answer them all!
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

Have you ever…
Kissed any one of your livejournal friends? --- yes
Been arrested? --- yes
Been in a fight? --- yes
Fallen fast for someone? --- yes
Regretted a relationship? --- yes
Been in a tornado? --- no
Stayed in bed all day? --- yes
Kissed someone you didn't like? --- yes
Slept in until 5 PM? --- yes
Fallen asleep at work/school? --- yes
Held a snake? --- yes
Run a red light? --- no
Been suspended from school? --- no
Experienced love at first sight? --- yes
Totalled your car/motorbike in an accident? --- no
Been fired from a job? --- no
Fired somebody? --- no
Sung karaoke? --- yes
Pointed a gun at someone? --- no
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? --- yes
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? --- yes
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? --- yes
Kissed in the rain? --- yes
Swum in the ocean? --- yes
Been to a concert? --- yes
Laughed 'til you cried? --- yes
Kissed on the first date? --- yes
Had a close brush with death (your own)? --- yes
Seen someone die? --- no
Played spin-the-bottle? --- yes
Sung in the shower? --- yes
Smoked a cigar? --- yes
Sat on a rooftop? --- yes
Smuggled something into another country? --- yes
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes? --- yes
Broken a bone? --- yes
Skipped school? --- yes
Got a speeding ticket? --- no
Eaten a bug? --- yes
Sleepwalked? --- no
Walked a moonlit beach? --- yes
Ridden a motorcycle? --- yes
Dumped someone? --- yes
Seen a baby born? --- no
Lied to avoid a ticket? --- yes
Ridden in a helicopter? --- no
Shaved your head? --- yes
Played a prank on someone? --- yes
Hit a home run? --- no
Felt like killing someone? --- yes
Cross-dressed? --- yes
Been falling-down drunk? --- yes
Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? --- yes
Eaten snake? --- no
Marched/Protested? --- yes
Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? --- yes
Puked on an amusement ride? --- yes
Seriously & intentionally boycotted something? --- yes
Been in a band? --- yes
Knitted or crocheted? --- no
Been on TV? --- yes
Shot a gun? --- yes
Skinny-dipped? --- yes
Given someone stitches? --- no
Eaten a whole habenero pepper? --- no
Ridden a surfboard? --- yes
Drunk straight from a liquor bottle? --- yes
Had surgery? --- yes
Streaked? --- yes
Taken by ambulance to hospital? --- yes
Passed out when not drinking? --- yes
Peed on a bush? --- yes
Donated Blood? --- no
Grabbed an electric fence? --- no
Eaten alligator meat? --- no
Eaten cheesecake? --- yes
Eaten your kids' Halloween candy? --- no
Killed an animal when not hunting? --- yes
Peed your pants in public? --- no
Snuck into a movie without paying? --- yes
Written graffiti? --- yes
Still love someone you shouldn't? --no
Think about the future? --- yes
Been in handcuffs? --- yes
Believe in love? --- yes
Slept on a certain side of the bed --- yes

in other news, i dropped $85 on bedding plants today, and nearly bought some cut-rate mennonites but instead opted for a pair of old $5 ice skates.

so basically i'm awesome

2009-05-15T04:11:27Z

itunes tells me that i've listened to islands in the stream 34 times since downloading it a couple months ago.

i died a dozen times tonight

2009-05-01T04:50:36Z

just back from leonard cohen; it couldn't have been any better or more poignant, truly.

prairiecity @ 2009-04-22T23:47:00

2009-04-23T04:53:32Z

you know how when you click on a hyperlink it turns purple? this sometimes has alarming manifestations - like a couple of seconds ago when i discovered that at some point i had already visited a page on the complete discography of toad the wet sprocket.

it's been a really stressful couple of days.

prairiecity @ 2009-03-26T10:17:00

2009-03-26T15:18:36Z

a mcsweeney's i find particularly hilarious

Actual Examples of Model Conversational Phrases That the Travel Guide
Les Etats-Unis Dans Votre Poche: Edition Bilingue (Haiter, 1980) Felt Were So Central to the Experiences Likely to be Undergone by French Visitors to America That It Included Them on Its Companion Study Cassette Tape.

BY BETH MAYNARD

- - - -

* It's enough to make you sick.
* But these jumbo jets are quite comfortable.
* To put it in a nutshell, you can't escape the fact that you're a product of capitalist culture.
* Well, crash pads are kinds of very cheap hostels, or rather shelters where you can spend the night for 25 or 50 cents, sometimes for no charge at all.
* Yeah! I'll bet if you laid those burgers end-to-end they would reach to the moon. Let's go try one, shall we?
* Are you alluding to the multinational corporations?
* Where's the fine democratic American melting pot?
* Better keep our strength to investigate some of those famous Kentucky bourbons they serve around here.
* Mobile-home living has really come a long way.
* We often wonder what is the true design of that remarkable and monolithic society. Yours is a complex subject.
* I'm never lucky at these kinds of luck things.
* We're becoming homogenized, pasteurized robots.
* Hello! We're visitors in Chicago and we were noticing all these security precautions you take to protect your store. Is all this really necessary?
* If you really want to help us, Jim, let us manage our own affairs.
* All right, wage slave, don't get mad! Get back to your toil before they sack you for goldbricking!
* I found your great optimism, your vision of a rosy future, to be encouraging and, shall I say, "seductively" infectious. But I also expect that you and I have different eyeglasses when we look at the current world economy crisis.
* That's not expensive, honey, that's "Dream Whip."
* It's no secret that the CIA operates in South America mostly to protect American business interests. Witness that ugly disclosure, some time back, that the CIA helped overthrow President Allende in Chile to prevent nationalization of more U.S. firms there.
* Fascination indeed!
* I never dreamed they were so religious here.
* Hey, let's change the channel.

prairiecity @ 2009-03-23T00:14:00

2009-03-23T05:18:15Z

the entirety of my weekend spent outdoors was done so in a hoodie under a thin wool jacket; i'm getting prepped for seed-sowing, and it's light until nearly eight: the will to live has returned. and oh yes - possible thunderstorm tonight (please!)

well my friends are gone and my hair is grey/i ache in the places where i used to play

2009-03-07T02:38:27Z

*****

QUIZ!

a friday evening that begins with whiskey on the rocks in the bathtub while listening to leonard cohen can only end in:

a) euphoric things
b) horrific things

i'm going on an indefinite sabbatical to europa, the lesser of the galilean moons of jupiter. i'll be sure to write.

this is the best thing

2009-02-13T14:10:36Z

an ode to my new bff

2009-02-08T23:34:01Z

okay, forgive the repetitious prostheletyzing here, but i would once again like to heartily extol the virtues of the slow cooker for those of you who are uninitiated. i've got what promises to be a delicious lentil sloppy-joe concoction a-cookin' right now, the recipe for which was lifted from an amazing book of vegetarian slow cookery, (which i will reveal the title of only on request, for fear that you will put a hold on the library's copy thereby forcing me to return it).

i noted with some amazement this afternoon that - prompted by a complete and total lack of money, and a thus far fairly steadfast resolve not to sink any further into a quagmire of debt - i haven't eaten a single scrap of restaurant food in over a week. with the exception of stretches of time spent miles away from the nearest restaurant, i can honestly (and ashamedly) say that this is the first time i've achieved this distinction in about 13 or 14 years.

in other news, a slow 'plock-plock' water leak mysteriously appeared in my ceiling today, and then just as mysteriously (and mercifully) disappeared. melting frost in the attic, maybe? i have no means of accessing my attic; i think the access panel must, in a moment of brilliance at some point over the last hundred years, have been plastered over. it's no secret that my finances are presently a very unsteady house of cards, and one unexpected repair that would require calling in a professional (or, god forbid, being out of work) would be enough to blow it all over. there's a minor leak behind my shower for example, which i plan to continue ignoring until tax return time comes around. ditto insulating the basement, which i can't afford the materials for (i just barely make too much raw income to qualify for the low-income grant, but WAY too much of said income is allocated for debt repayment to qualify for any kind of useful loan). anyway, whatever - i'm far from starving to death. it would just be nice to not have to panic at the first drip of water from the ceiling, (and to have a fourth pair of pants). oh, pink collar ghetto.

my neighbourhood association conducted one-of-two community consultations yesterday morning, and - not that i purport to know what's best for the neighbourhood - i was yet again thrilled by how excellent and inventive my neighbours are. i sort of half-expected to show up and have to make a very active case for and against certain things, (safety and its cultivation is a fairly key issue in these parts, for example), but everyone was pretty unanimous in their desire for community-based solutions for everything from crime to economic development to affordable housing to community greening to resource accessibility. it was pretty terrific.

also, why did nobody tell me that emmylou harris released a new album months ago?

prairiecity @ 2009-02-04T23:38:00

2009-02-05T05:46:36Z

as a confirmed culinary incompetent, my singular triumph of 2009 thus far has been demonstrating dominance over the slow cooker. armed with new-found confidence and an arsenal of recipes, i feel as if the world has completely opened up to me. lasagna in 6-8 hours, everybody!

also the februaries - and more specifically the trauma of waking up in the dark 5 out of every 7 days - are only just starting to take their usual toll, and right on time. to compensate i intend to use a lot of my overtime in the near future, starting with this friday: my itinerary thus far consists of sleeping in, nose-picking, not changing out of my pajamas, farting a lot, and drinking with corine.

ps. piece of me by britney spears is a really excellent song.

call in the army!

2009-01-29T17:48:45Z

prairiecity @ 2009-01-22T09:35:00

2009-01-22T15:45:16Z

honest to god, what the hell is wrong with this City? i could list any number of areas of inquiry, but what i'm referring to specifically is the fact that our entire urban planning ethos seems to center around replicating what other cities did in the early '80s, and have since rejected as colossal, community-destroying, ghettoizing failures. at which point, our hideously incompetent and short-sighted City Fathers (yes, fathers - let's be realistic) decide to take up the charge.

anyway, add this one to the forthcoming ikea debacle: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/gut_historic_buildings_hydro_substation_plan_angers_groups_in_exchange38129794.html

http://riseandsprawl.blogspot.com/2009/01/philistines-set-to-sack-city.html

the older i get, the more i just want to disappear people.

prairiecity @ 2009-01-19T16:48:00

2009-01-19T23:08:38Z

i woke up this morning to shadow (the cat) licking my teeth and purring like an outboard motor in a fit of touching but deeply misguided affection. this was not only a fairly gross way to start my day, but also represented a major setback in my efforts to teach her about what constitutes normal and appropriate amounts of love, (a subject to which we are constantly returning).

after brushing my teeth i immediately stepped squarely into a little pile of barf, stubbed my toe badly when recoiling from it, and then sneezed all over the clean dishes in the drying rack. suffice it to say, my day started off in a somewhat less than ideal manner, and was augmented by kira (the cat) mewling incessantly at me in a manner that might suggest i had threatened to put her in an orphanage for bad cats.

what with this being a day that i took off work, i committed to shaking off the cranky and took myself for a long walk on the river, followed by a long sit in the pleasant and quiet little coffee shop in wolseley where i drank enough coffee to give me the mild shakes. (incidentally, despite it being the middle of january, a significant swath of wolseley still improbably managed to reek of citronella. how is this accomplished?)

the weekend in general was filled with news of the heartening variety, (my friend jen is moving back to town for a job; corine is going to be moving up the street; etc), activities of the fun variety (namely art's birthday), and weather of the maybe-we-won't-collectively-all-kill-ourselves-after-all variety. the weather having been -50C/-58F on more than one occasion last week, and colder than -20C/-4F for 41 of the 45 days preceding friday, the sudden spiral up to 0C/32F seemed heaven-sent.

now with the long, last stretches of winter splayed out before me, i guess i should start thinking about which of my lingering tasks to attend to, (insulating the basement, i guess?), in an effort to stave off the worst of the cabin fever. who's with me?

change is coming!

2009-01-19T06:24:08Z

prairiecity @ 2008-12-30T13:18:00

2008-12-30T19:33:57Z

though i have all but completely lost track of what day of the week it is (which is, psychologically at least, gratification at its richest), i've officially reached that critical holiday tipping point where i've been slothful and useless long enough that it's starting to get dull, and will shortly have to figure out semi-productive uses for my time. i realized with no insignificant horror, for example, that the last time i walked anywhere more substantial than to-and-from a waiting car was six days ago. yeesh.

my body continues its slide into total atrophy - led by my brain and a scratchy throat, and hastened by a diet of chocolate and alcohol. it's okay though - i feel like 3 days of decrepitude is an appropriate window of recovery time post-festive family bloodbath. today will see me at least as far from the house as the mountain equipment co-op, where i will pick out a new and sexy pair of snowshoes by way of a giftcard from my weirdo, cauldron-coveting boyfriend. i really ought to be researching how to frame in and insulate my basement, or something, but whatever.

the unstructured stretches of time have finally also allowed grandpa cam to familiarise himself with the biggest technological craze of 2003, the podcast, which has supplemented my recently stale music repertoire thanks to the good folks at cbc radio 3. i'm still pretty desperate for more though, so i encourage suggestions, (except from stacey).

prairiecity @ 2008-12-27T15:08:00

2008-12-27T21:09:06Z

what could say it better than this?

anyways, it's over now and that's what counts.

prairiecity @ 2008-12-25T21:08:00

2008-12-26T03:11:46Z

home now from the one of the least traumatic family get-togethers in memory. rest assured that this is relative however, and i will still be getting drunk by myself in the dark for the rest of the evening.

five-or-so-almost-certainly-less-horrid hours tomorrow, and then the Special Times part of the holidays are mercifully over.

edit:please oh please do not for a moment think that this was an enjoyable experience, however. just all the usual trauma, this year somehow a bit diluted

it's the most horrible day of the year

2008-12-24T23:08:27Z

mother of god, it's starting already: i think my family is planning to ratchet up the crazy by a good 75% this year if today is any indication. as stated elsewhere, i am taking a deep breath, spitting into the wind, and hoping i'm still standing in 72 hours. apparently it's a cliché to hate christmas, but it is, without question, the most reliably traumatic day of the year for me.

PS. I FUCKING HATE CHRISTMAS

PPS. I FUCKING HATE CHRISTMAS

informative:

2008-12-21T21:26:56Z

what's happening on nye, people? the cabin plans have died, so i'm thinking the albert might be a best second bet.

also, i recently finished some fairly rigorous snow shovelling, which left me simultaneously pouring sweat beneath my down jacket, while also unable to feel my toes. gross.

things that are better than working include: not working

2008-12-21T00:41:10Z

here's a change of pace for this tired old livejournal of supreme crabbiness: i had a great day today, which started with taking myself out for breakfast to the black sheep, which was typically packed to the gills. dominique and lancelot were there and kind enough to both invite me to join them and tolerate my pre-coffee nattering. this was followed by grocery-buying, notable mostly for the fact that it was really beautiful out: still well below normal temperatures, but snowy and pretty and a good 20 degrees warmer than recent days.

concentrated kitty-cuddling dominated the mid-afternoon, followed by a trip with lizzy to the cheap theatre to see nick and norah's infinite playlist which was an unexpectedly adorable and charming romantic comedy for the indie-rocker teen set. anyway, i bought it hook, line and sinker, which i was especially willing to do for the three dollar admission fee. it also reminded me of times when i was young and fun and not so deeply misanthropic, and went to places like new york and stayed up all night, and didn't know how to make an excel spreadsheet.

now i'm going to consume coffee and cheese and relax before a birthday party. it's also probably worth mentioning that i've been weirdly and intensely preoccupied with karen carpenter for the last few days.

two-or-so hours on monday morning, and then i'm on holidays. who's up for being young and fun and not so deeply misanthropic and going to new york and staying up all night and not making any excel spreadsheets? or at least getting a bottle of whiskey and leaving the house?

USA! USA!

2008-12-18T00:16:17Z

i am doing my best (and largely winning, i should note) to fend off the turbo, turbo cranky and wholesale misanthropy that are bubbling juuuust under at the moment. oh god, two more days until holidays - or the wholesale collapse of late capitalism, whichever comes first. as long as i get to work less and stop this hideous habit of getting up before the sunrise (while retaining the ability to pay the bills), i'm happy either way.

my plans for the holidays thus far mostly center around perogies and whiskey. i haven't gotten much further than that and frankly see no reason to.