July 16, 2005

The future's in the air

I flipped through “The Believer” today, and though I am way too poor to buy it managed to read the excellent Three Songs from the End of History: Billy Joel, The Scorpions and Jesus Jones, about pop at the end of the Cold War, which is definitely a subject subject dear to my heart. It also concurs with my theory that the nineties were heaven on earth, and we were spoiled for it. An article on lost photos of Hiroshima, which made me think for the first time about why our enduring image of the attack there is of the mushroom cloud, whereas pictures of London or Dresden burning are almost gratuituous. We saw Ann Marie MacDonald read tonight at the Lakefield Literary Festival tonight, and she was brilliant. She read from “The Way The Crow Flies” and it was so gripping. I was gutted that it ended when it did, and it turned out they’d gone over time. I’ve really missed being engaged with culture the last year or so, and even when I lived in England, where I was still an outsider. Canadians are obsessed with themselves and with spend hours defining Canadianness and Can Lit etc. and I’ve really missed those conversations, that exchange of ideas. It’s really good to be back.