January 23, 2007
Shopping
Today I came home with the following in my bag: a bundle of spinach for our supper; an AS Byatt novel from the library (purchaed for a quarter); a Montreal-style bagel for my lunch; and two passport photos. The new passport photos mean I will no longer resemble a fat Italian man internationally, but I will now be going abroad as a fat Italian woman. Yesterday I got brand new brilliant winter boots, and a black turtleneck sweater. I might hasten to say that I’ve got everything I need.
January 22, 2007
Don't say you'll stay cuz then you'll go away
I am talking about the writer/reader connection. I am thirteen years younger than Rob Sheffield, author of the memoir Love is a Mix Tape, but I think we bookended the same formative years. He gets sentimental for the 1990s, and I knew I’d like his book. But then. He’s waxing nostalgic. He notes, “On 90210, Dylan and Kelly were making out on the beach to ‘Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover”. That’s what I’m talking about, because I was watching. It was the year the 90210 season ran into summertime, and Donna and Brenda went to Paris while Kelly stayed home to steal Brenda’s boyfriend. But not steal, exactly, because they were meant to be. And I was thirteen or fourteen years old, watching that scene to that Sophie B Hawkins soundtrack, and I felt more longing than I’d ever known in my life. All the angst in the world wrapped up in my just-teenage heart, but Dylan and Kelly felt it too, and one day that was going to be my life. Or something like it, and it would involve kissing at the very least.
Rob Sheffield was twenty six at the time, and I doubt that scene for him was also merely a most hopeful crystal ball, but he remembered it for whatever reason, and just for that, his book will mean something infinitely more to me.
January 21, 2007
Confronted by Fiction
The book I just finished, I am embarrassed to name, and the book I am reading at the moment, I don’t like much at all. This state of affairs is a deep dark hole which doesn’t please me, and I’ll be climbing out of it in a day or two.
Part two of the Treatise of Zadie Smith. “To read The Virgin Suicides followed by The Idiot followed by Despair followed by You Bright and Risen Angels followed by Bleak House followed by Jonah’s Gourd Vine followed by Play it as it Lays is to be forced to recognise the inviolability of the individual human experience. Fiction confronts you with the awesome fact that you are not the only real thing in this world.” (Oh Zadie I swoon!). Edith Wharton in France. Go Hillary! (How refreshing– a chance for a better world!)
The Robber Bride’s TV adaptation is on tonight. I’ll be watching, mainly because I’ve just started a knitting project and TV becomes handy then– particularly when it’s bookish.
January 21, 2007
Call for Submissions
Now seeking submissions is echolocation, which through its last two issues has proven itself one of the best new literary journals in Canada. (Watch for the Issue 6 Launch on Feb. 1 details to follow). As fiction editor, of course, I’ve calling for short fiction submissions in particular. See here for details, and email me if you have any questions.
January 19, 2007
More than words can say
I like words a great deal, but I’ve never been tempted to decorate my house with them. Except in the form of bookshelves of course, but does that not go without saying? No, I’m talking about those letters you can buy that spell out “JOY” or “HAPPY”. There’s something just a bit too desperate about them really. I mean, my ever-battling Enrique-blasting basement neighbours have a cream PEACE spelled out above their fridge, and I don’t think it’s doing them much good. Yesterday I saw “IT’S ALL GOOD” spelled out in glitter script, for sale at the local card store, and I just wondered how manic must you have to be to want to proclaim that insipid phrase in your home decor. “LAUGHTER” is another one, though if I had it at my house, I think I’d just assume the walls were mocking me.
January 18, 2007
How I wasted my time today (and what I learned in the process!)
Productive mornings never make for productive afternoons, but I guess I’m just grateful for my morning. Nevertheless, I’ve still received quite an education today.
All right, we begin with the lyric “Love of my life, you are all I’ve ever wanted”, which has been running through my head for years now. Where from? I consult the Great God Goog. And after much searching (and I realize it’s “you are all I ever wanted”), I discover I’ve been fixated by “Dream Come True” by Canadian Rock Mullets, “Frozen Ghost”. Of course! “I’ve been waited my whole life for you, you’re my dream come true.” Further investigation reveals that half of “Frozen Ghost” was the early eighties band “Sheriff”, which had a hit with legendary power ballad, “When I’m With You”. And more research unearths the fact that the other half of “Sheriff” went on to be “Alias”, which soared to the top of the power ballad heights with “More Than Words (Can Say)”. Which explains so much: mostly why “Dream Come True”, “When I’m With You” and “More Than Words (Can Say)” sound like the exact same song. Who knew? I mean, other than the Great God Goog.
And so then I head over to Youtube (as you do), hoping to hear a bit of Sheriff. and I discover there is someone whose hobby is using clips from Three’s Company to make Jack and Janet Love Videos, set to beautiful music (like Sheriff and REO Speedwagon!). As far as I know, Jack and Janet never got together, which must cause this individual particular regret.
How absolutely fascinating. So I’m learning all the livelong day.
January 18, 2007
Joons and Places
Last night’s Asian meal out was brought to us by Joons for Korean with Curtis, and I had bibimbap– the deliciousist. We have to stop going out for dinner though, before we become chronic. In other news, I’m reading The Hunters by Claire Messud, which is actually two novellas. The first was stunning, and the second currently has me in its grip. Remarkable too, as the first story (“A Simple Tale”) takes place in Toronto, and the second (“The Hunters”) is set in London. And of course, The Emperor’s Children, which I read last November, is all about New York. I like that writer can evoke so many different places, but then again Claire Messud gets around.
January 17, 2007
The End of the Ugliest Boots in the World
Last winter we were going through a period of great impecuniousness. I had just started graduate school, and Stuart was in the midst of a long wait before receiving his permanent residency and being able to work in Canada. And so when the snow came in late November 2005, we didn’t have a lot of choice in terms of winter boots. We had to buy the Cheapest Winter Boots in the World, which were on sale two for one and came to about $80 for both pairs. And the Cheapest Winter Boots in the World were also the Ugliest Boots in the World. I was absolutely ashamed of them. They were also horribly uncomfortable too. We both hated them from the start, but they were what we had. And I’d forgotten about their awfulness until this week when I hauled them out of the back of the closet. I wore them to work and back Monday and Tuesday morning this week. Last night I showed Stuart the damage to my ankles which had resulted: blisters bubbling up on the bone, and the top of the boot also cut in through my skin a few centimetres above. In addition, these boots put holes in socks. Anyway, the happy ending is that upon seeing my ankles, Stuart proclaimed that I can buy new boots this weekend. He’s not being so generous. He hates his boots too. I am pleased, however, as I was intending to put in another season on account of thrift. Thrift schrift, though, apparently. How nice.
January 17, 2007
My Wedding Dress by Whelehan and Carter (eds)
I can provide you with some sort of an idea of what it’s like to read My Wedding Dress: True-life Tales of Lace, Laughter, Tears and Tulle. Read the post below, and the imagine in ten times as long, and multiplied by twenty six. It’s a bit much, but then it also works.
It works because most of the pieces in this anthology are truly excellent. With contributions by such well-known names as Michelle Landsberg, Stevie Cameron, Lorna Crozier, Kerri Sakamoto, Edeet Ravel and Ami McKay, this is unsurprising. The wedding photos included are also a great addition to the text. There are an assortment of happy tales, hard lessons learned, and sadness endured. Jenny Manzer’s story of her wedding, just days after her mother’s death from cancer, had me in tears. When, after all the drama, Ilana Stanger-Ross’s mother stepped on them hem of her dress and it ripped, and Stanger-Ross just laughed. I do wish that Elyse Pomeranz had been a little less earnest about the fact that she knit the clothes she and her husband wore on their wedding day. She’s included a photo. I won’t say any more.
At their very core, anthologies are terribly self-indulgent. My blog post below is an example of this, I know it: my story, and I want you to hear it– no, I want to TELL it– and I won’t consider the likelihood that it’s not so extraordinary to you. Where My Wedding Dress succeeds is when contributers stick to the focus, as most of the strongest pieces do. The few pieces that faltered use the dress motif to springboard over to what they really want to talk about, which could be anything, and I didn’t find these contributions so interesting unless they were in the hands of a very good writer. My other criticism of this book is my first one: it’s a bit much. Naturally, stories like these are inspiring (my blog entry case in point), and everybody wants a turn, but I don’t think this book with its twenty-six pieces really required a forward, and afterword and two introductions. (I have a feeling this book will also inspire a sequel).
Target audience here would be quite specific: recent brides, and mothers of brides, I think. This book will be appreciated. Forthcoming brides, of course, don’t read because they are way too busy with calligraphy and decoupage.
