October 16, 2005
Stuff to see
Robbie Williams wants a pop amnesty. Free verse is doing Stephen Fry’s head in. On author photographs. Maryam Namazie and the clash of liberalisms. Plath to Moss: The Primrose Hill set. A friend of ours in Japan got married this past weekend, and photos are posted here. Sasha Trudeau goes to China.
October 15, 2005
Saturday Morning
What now? Check out my arts and crafts/recycled object furniture at Now Doing. This website continues to be wonderful. Now reading Eight Months On Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel, and it’s absolutely enthralling. And “Spring Comes Suddenly” was printed yesterday. Next up is the binding. It’s turning out really beautiful.
The clouds sail by like ships on a sea.
October 9, 2005
Lurkey
Post Thanksgiving dinner. I found a 2002 article by Margaret Atwood on To the Lighthouse. Zoe Williams says it’s ok to have normal-sized things. On Ethan Hawke, who as “Troy” in Reality Bites taught me loads about cool. Joan Didion in the NYTimes.
October 7, 2005
Miffy Enjoys Singapore Airlines
This page has been crying for a picture, and as nothing photographical has happened of late, we will remember Miffy’s flight. You may note that this photo was taken in Japan where our Miff is ubiquitous, and the passenger to Miffy’s left has a Miffy neckrest.
Speaking of Japan, I got a package in the post yesterday from a former student. She sent me a box full of Japanese cookies (oishi) and a wall hanging that she had made. It was the first package the had ever come in the mail for me with patterned wrapping paper and a bow on the outside.
I continue to be so busy. However paper for Spring Comes Suddenly has been purchased. Did I mention we’re going to the Toronto Small Press Book Fair? You should come too!
Gleanings: At Maud Newton, a take on the Harpers Ben Marcus corrects J. Franzen article. Guardian books is obsessed with poetry. Andrea Levy notes the influence of Coronation Street in shaping her storytelling. I take this as meaning I can watch Eastenders for homework.
And congrats to Tom and Katie! Pickle Me This is going to be following their pregnancy closely. Heaven forbid Katie goes the Marie Osmond in the closet route, because of course she’ll be dealing with her postpartum depression with vitamin c tablets. And now she’s been banned from making noise during the birth, under John Travolta’s recommendation. When I marry a man old enough to be my teenage dad, I want to be a scientologist too.
October 5, 2005
Gourmet Microwave Cookery
Currently bogged down in marking, readings and in assignments of my own. However I must mention the boxes and boxes of books on microwave cookery that were available at the Vic Book Sale yesterday. They were fabulous relics, with photos of revered microwaves in kitchens with gold or green appliances. The books nobody reads just fascinate me.
Gourmet microwave cookery is ten thousand times worse than soup-mix recipes. That’s a fact.
October 3, 2005
I've been shopping
First, I can’t stop listening to “Helpless” by Buffy Sainte-Marie. You can find it here.
Second, the following books were exuberantly purchased from the Vic Book Sale.
1) Passing On by Penelope Lively
2) The Fourth Hand by John Irving (for Stu)
3) Judgement Day by Penelope Lively
4) A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel
5) Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
6) Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel
7) A Fine Old Conflict by Jessica Mitford.
Heads are gonna roll.
October 2, 2005
Flowers in the Window
Went all Mrs. Dalloway this morning and decided to buy the flowers myself. The price of flowers has gone up at bit since either Mrs. Dalloway or I last bought them, so I only got a small bunch but I was desperate for them, a proper party. We had a wonderful brunch time gathering, with piles of food and good conversation, tea, coffee and, of course indispensibly, flowers. Our house is now officially warmed.
A publisher writes of first novel submissions, “as I waded on through… I wanted to engrave one sentence on all their hearts – read more, write less”. India Knight celebrated marriage, and uses the word “tofu” which stands for “totally fucked”.
September 29, 2005
Read these
Michaëlle Jean’s installation speech as Governor-General of Canada. Also, an excerpt from “Why Experimental Fiction Threatens to Destroy Publishing, Jonathan Franzen, and Life as We Know It” in the latest Harpers. Which I’d buy if it wasn’t $7.50. Outlandish!
