It's amazing the difference a smile can make

Is it just me, or is this the best/youngest/freshest Lindsay Lohan has looked since the era of Mean Girls? My theory? It's because she's smiling and her hair is off her face. What do you think?

Photocredit: UsWeekly Magazine

Could I be more excited?

NO!!

I'm so stoked, it almost hurts. No really, it actually does hurt, just a little.

So, I'm at home the other day, rushing to get from the gym to work via the shower. While I'm in my room, I hear an extended ad featuring Jay-Z songs. I listen harder, because let's face it, top 40 radio in Ottawa doesn't play a lot of Jay-Z.

Turns out, he's coming to Ottawa November 1st! I said to myself "holy crap! holy crap!!" because I was ON the ticketmaster website in the winter trying to buy tix to the Mary J Blige/Jay-Z show in MTL the day it got cancelled. I call my friend John, who was sposed to go with me to the aforementioned cancelled show, and tell his wife that we're going to Jay-Z and she should put it on the calendar. I told him that night and he seemed equally stoked.

I went to the website to see when the tickets went on sale, and found out it's today at 10am. Sadly, the same time as a management team meeting. But look! I said, that meeting is scheduled three times over two days. Which time slot is it actually in? Turns out, it was rescheduled to yesterday.

So yeah, I am now the proud owner of two floor tickets right in front of the stage. Okay, 20 or so rows back from the stage, but in that general area. I'm SO EXCITED!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

Are you excited?

Glee Sept 09 2009

Yeah, I'm calling a spade a spade. I love this TV show. I love the stereotypes. I love the campiness. I LOVE Jane Lynch and her snarky nastiness. Who doesn't love her and quotables? "You do with your kids what I did with my wealthy, elderly mother... euthanize them!" Dang. And the wife? "We can't buy a used house. They're not clean!"

And, the music. Le Freak, by Chic? With the uber-gay cheesy dance moves? Nice. Gold digger! Who doesn't love that song? Especially rapped by a dude as white as I am! Am I alone in having thrown my hands in the air with the "we want prenup!" line? I think not. Push it! OMG, I totally listened to this on my iPod this afternoon!

Man. I love this show. I love it, love it, love it. LOVE it!

What did you learn from summer TV?

Nothing. Absosmurfly nothing. No lie, I didn't even learn from SYTYCD. Man, this summer was boring for TV.

Every year for the past few years, I've fallen in love with a new show. First it was Grey's Anatomy. Then it was House. Then it was SYTYCD. Now... nothing. Don't talk to me about Big Brother and Wipeout. Those are nothing but background noise for while you surf the internet or talk on the phone.

I know, it seems like sacrilege to say this because the critics are raving about shows like Nurse Jackie and whatever, but yanno what? I don't get those channels. And I just don't care about those shows enough to try them out.

I'm waiting for fall, I'm waiting for Glee and Grey's and the new season of House. I'm clinging to Mad Men, but not enough to have watched last night's show yet. I'm wondering which, if any of the new shows will call to me. I want there to be a show that I love like the West Wing or Friday Night Lights. I don't care about Melrose or 90210. I couldn't give a hoot about Gossip Girl. I'm too young for the DVDs of Thirtysomething and too old for anything on the CW. I'm in between the zeitgeist and the fogeys.

Have you read about the new shows for this fall? Are there any that you're interested in so far?

Organizing makes the world go round

(aka a post is for my mum, the queen of clean)

So, today I spent the day doing two things: sleeping and cleaning. What, you say? You were cleaning? Don't you have a cleaning lady? Why yes, I do (hello Tara!), but she cleans and I am supposed to organize so that cleaning is facilitated.

I've been in this house for 14 months. Not that long, but you'd be surprised at the dust that can be generated in 14 months when you've been living next to a construction site for most of that time. How do I know that? Because the room with the windows open the most is my bedroom, and today I both slept in it and cleaned it.

A couple of weeks ago my mother made a good point. I have a lot of workout clothing. It's always a mess, because it doesn't fit in my dresser (okay, it would if I hung up all my tshirts and casual pants). Since I moved in, I've been storing this gear on a bookshelf. I have this to say about that: dryfit may be the best thing ever, but it's very slippery and thus hell on earth to keep organized.

So, every couple of months I take everything off the shelf, refold it, and put it back on the shelf. And it expands. So I went from one shelf to two, so the piles would be smaller and better organized. Which meant I really never wanted anyone in my room because there were sports bras and polyester shirts all over one part of the room.

Mum told me rather emphatically that I needed to "address" that situation. When Mum suggests these types of things, it's a good idea to heed that advice in order to prevent an "I told you so" the next time you ask her to help you straighten up and organize your life.

So today was all about addressing not just that situation, but also the jewellery and the books. I have a lot of both of those, too, also stored on the aforementioned bookshelves.

I'd like to present to you (with an official "voila!"), the newly organized space.

My bed. The duvet cover is light green with yellow and white leaves outlined. Note the lack of stacks of books next to the bed. Sweet!

Look Mum! No workout clothing! Organized books! No stuff! Yes kids, this is my trashy book shelf. That's why it looks like the romance section of the bookstore. With a little Shakespeare and Harry Potter thrown in for good measure.

Hey Mum! Look! Nothing on the top of the dresser! And, the picture that Dad broke the glass on is now reframed and hung (I need to teach him how to add, as he hung those picture hangers wrong...).

This picture makes me realize how much I hate that stereo. I shouldn't, since it was free, but really all I need is a radio that's digital so I can switch stations easily. I don't need the tape player or the CD player or the giant speakers anymore. Perhaps a christmas gift in the making? Of note in this photo: on the dresser you can see a necklace holder, nicely reorganized and culled. On the third shelf (next to the stereo) is a white box. See it? It has a piece of batting in it and on that batting are all of my pendants. Turns out I have quite a large number of them. Next to that box are little baggies with silver chains of various lengths, labelled of course, so that I can choose the right necklace with the right pendant. There's also a jewelry box (for nostalgic stuff and bracelets), my three watches, and the pearls. Cause yanno, you need to keep those in the right boxes. On the shelves below? Travel stuff.

Yes mum, I took your "advice" and organized. I'm still waffling about the placement of the bookshelves (at either end of the room). I'm not painting it yet though, so I'm good for now. But... eventually I'll have to come to terms with how that side is laid out on the wall. It's off kilter and that makes me uneasy for some reason.

I've got a number of other little projects like this to go through over the next few weeks. Shelves for the craft room (painting, too), a complete overhaul of the front entrance, and a reshuffle and cleanout of the basement. With luck, by Christmas this house will feel more like home, and less like a really nice building that I happen to live in.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

What what what, you say? I know all about Pride and Prejudice, but zombies? Those two things can't go together!

Actually, they can. Yes, a crafty dude named Seth Grahame-Smith has seamlessly blended the use of Shaolin martial arts to kill "unmentionables" (zombies) into the text and plot of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Now, I have a degree in English Lit and Cultural Studies. Look at these course listings, people. I know some of you haven't met me, but I'm about the most conservative and boring person alive. Can you imagine how poorly I fit in with the cultstud gang? Yeah. Enough said. But, I love me some books, I love movies, and I love music.

About two years ago I read a book called World War Z, which I pretty much thought was the most fascinating update of Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year that you're ever going to read. Trust me. You might think zombies are stupid (so did I) but this was a study in how society disintegrates and rebuilds itself. Oh! I just noticed there's a new book coming from that author in 5 weeks. Sweet!

But, I digress. Back to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. For one of my courses (En 211, with Stephen Brown (holla!)) we had to read poetry out loud and work with the Brontes and Jane Austen. I pretty universally despise literature from before 1910. And I am pretty shy, and I stumble over my words occasionally, which really made reading poetry out loud kind of torturous, no matter how many times the Snapple boat cruised past our class (outdoors on the steps of the Champlain College docks - best classroom ever!).

So I whipped my way through Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre and pulled some essay about heroic women and them being templates for how perceptions of women evolved into modern times. Man, I'm telling you, I could pull a 5,000 word essay out of my ass in those days.

The thing about Pride and Prejudice is that most chicks LOVE it. I mean really? They love it. It made Colin Firth's career, for the love of Pete. Helen Fielding based Bridget Jones' Diary on it. It's practically legend. I hated it. I hate the contrived language, the phony interactions, the painfully trite relationships. I just hated it.

You know what though? It's a lot better when spiced up with some zombie action. Our heroes are still the Bennet sisters, five young ladies who range from meek to trampy to feisty and in defiance of social conventions (revolution is the theme of hte week, so I like this chick). They're trained in "the warrior arts" by Master Liu, a Shaolin master from Beijing. Heck, Elizabeth Bennet (the heroine) was once forced to hold a headstand for 6 days under his tutelage, so nothing that society puts her through can be all that bad, right?

Oh, but it can. Society is full of evil snot-nosed women, lying deceitful men, scheming mamas and yes, lots of zombies. They were infection at least a generation ago by something called "the strange plague". Everyone has to learn to fight because England is a wet country and every time it rains the zombies ooze up to the surface. The Bennet sisters fight in a pentagon formation and are able to wipe out a ballroom full of the beasts with only one casualty. Their fighting skills are something to behold.

Now these are heroines I could get behind. They're self-sufficient. They aren't even worried about their father's estate being entailed to a lily livered cousin because they could each make a handsome living as bodyguards or zombie assassins.

Seriously? What's not to love about this conversion? It's totally seamless. You're literally looking to see if you think that whole sentence was in the original book or just part of it, or if it's entirely new. You have to wonder about what the new phrasing replaced. And you have to marvel at the cojones of Grahame-Smith in even trying to pull this off.

I gather this book has been so popular that other authors are doing the same thing with other classics and vampires. You know what I have to say about that? Leave it. This book is so perfectly done that anything else will pale in its imitation. It's a blind cash grab and I hope the reading public is too smart for it.

I'm only halfway done, but I have to say, this book is seriously kicking up my commute a notch and a half. 'Nuff said.

Awesome photo

Who doesn't get mushy at a picture of a dad holding his baby? Leo and I went for a walk tonight. Okay, technically his mum and I went for a walk, while Leo passed out in the sling. John stayed home with Max who was frantically throwing the family's collected plastic bags around the living room when I arrived. Dad was pacifying him with Bob the Builder on the computer when we got back. I'm so glad I'm kidless :o)

Music that makes you feel [insert emotion]

I've been going through quite a music slump lately. I remember the days when I could troll through iTunes and pick up a dozen songs that I'd love without even breaking a sweat. Every other day someone would say "hey, have you heard [tune]?" and I'd say "no! is it great?".

Lately, it's seemed like my love affair with music has cooled. I'm buying more audiobooks and less tunes; the people I work with aren't music fans; and my friends have all had things interfere with their cultural lives. Even Entertainment Weekly, my cultural touchstone, has been letting me down.

When faced with a slump like this, I turned to one of my best friends, who used to know more about music than anyone you ever met. He's got kids now, so he's slightly less informed, but his knowledge is still impressive.

John has some very handy lists (he's a statistician, and he likes lists and charts). One of his lists is his Top 300 songs of all time. Clearly, he's way smarter than me because he'd already thought of this. He sent me his list, and I pilfered from it madly. And I fell in love with music new and old all over again.

Sometimes you forget the way certain songs made you feel, back in the day. The beauty of music is that even decades after you first heard a song, it can still evoke the same strong feelings it did the first, second, or thousandth time you heard it.

Some of my highlights and the way they make me feel include:

• Tom's Diner, Suzanne Vega, always reminds me of a vicious hour of debate about the opening lyrics, while playing cribbage in the cafeteria at Trent
• Jump Around by House of Pain and No Rain by Blind Melon remind me of going to the Commoner, also at Trent, in my first year of university. I had a lot of good times there.
• I Will Give You Everything by the Skydiggers makes my heart ache for romance and love
• We Need a Resolution by Aaliyah was the first time I recognized a mid-eastern rhythm (shaking my booty)
• Possession by Sarah Maclachlan reminds me of painting my bedroom between 2nd and 3rd year and not being able to get anywhere near the ceiling (frustration)
• One by U2 - the best summer of my life (pure happy nostalgia)
• Scared by the Hip, a poem set to a simple tune that makes no sense but moves me anyway
• Gobbledigook by Sigur Ros - I have no idea what they're singing so I make stuff up, but this song just plain makes me happy
• In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel always makes me remember the power of music in making a movie mean something. Do you remember how you felt when you saw Lloyd holding up his boombox? Yeah... I still get that feeling.
• Blister In The Sun by the Violent Femmes will always remind me of the time I went to see them with seats on the lawn at Ontario Place. It was raining so hard that my shoes never recovered. We sang til they kicked us out. It makes me feel connected.
• How Soon is Now, by the Smiths - this is what it felt like to drink to excess. Your stomach swooping, your head swirling, and you knew that you were just sliding.
• Mosh by Eminem - the first song that made me ashamed to have worked for the Republicans
• It Takes Two by Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock evokes the feeling of having just won a basketball game
• Straight Outta Compton by NWA is the anticipation of a game about to begin
• Born Slippy by Underworld was the only way I could understand my brother for years
• Wonderwall reminds me of Dee and Clay, dancing at Crawpaddies and looking like they loved each other but hated each other at the same time - very bittersweet
• Boy In the Bubble by Paul Simon gives me the thrill and fear of going to ski school
• Elderly Woman ... by Pearl Jam is the only song I've wanted to karaoke but am too scared to do
• Pluto by Bjork makes me wish I was a better dancer
• It's the End of the World by REM reminds me of Pete and Mark, eternally battling over whether REM or the Hip were better when I couldn't understand either
• Sabotage by the Beasties - the favourite song of the one who got away
• Killing in the Name by Rage - The most intense song I've ever loved. I wish I felt this strongly about anything
• Closer and Head Like a Hole by NIN - remind me of when I needed help, and was luckily able to get it. I still love these songs.
• Just a Girl by No Doubt - the first song I downloaded onto a computer, with a link between my external cd player and my hard drive. This song ALWAYS makes me wanna dance
• Razorblade by the Strokes makes me smile because of its lyrics
• Every You Every Me by Placebo evokes hot sweaty days filled with information about missile defence systems
• Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond - screw Boston. This is all about car trips with the 'rents.
• Canonball by the Breeders makes me feel like my chest is moving with the opening guitar shreds - it's a very physical reaction
• Torn by Natalie Imbruglia reminds me of a true disappointment. I had moved into a house with two strangers and was unpacking while listening to this song over and over. I knew I'd made a mistake.
• Loser by Beck makes me smile when I think about how jubilant I was when I found this song (I had the CD single, no less, having heard it on CFNY while home for a weekend)
• Drinking Song/Goodnight Irene by Moxy Fruvous reminds me of Jen and her parents SUV and driving to camping trips
• Dear Mr President by Pink and the Indigo Girls - the second song that made me ashamed to work for the Republicans
• Let Me Talk to You (Prelude)/My Love by JT. You know I love JT. I love him just a little more each time I hear this song.
• What a Good Boy by BNL makes me feel a little guilty that I didn't end up being the person I thought I'd be when I was 18 and learning about refugees
• Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard ALWAYS makes me sing. I had this video taped end to end about 15 times when it came out.
• Sweet Child of Mine by GnR reminds me of grade 8 and Danielle, the girl drummer in our school. She always dressed like a metalhead and didn't care what others thought of her. I wished I could be more like her and less like, well, me.
• Testify by Common makes sure you do not every underestimate the power of rap again. This is a life story in 3.5 minutes, and I'm sure glad it ain't mine.
• Needle and the Damage Done by Neil Young calls me, but I'm never sure why.
• Last Songs by Dntel makes my heart sing, kind of like Gobbledigook. No words, same feeling of happiness.
• D'yer Maker by Led Zeppelin. I just love it. I love Zep. I can't help it.

Most of those songs aren't new, which I find interesting. I was thinking about this today and wondered about you all and your tastes. What songs do you love and why? What do they make you feel? And yes, there will be shameless pilfering of your lists! I want new, I want old, and I want everything in between. Tell us all your music stories...

Summer Movies 2009

Hello all! It's been quite a summer, hasn't it? To wit, there were some crappy movies where shit blew up, some good movies where shit blew up, some boring movies where sit blew up, and a couple of really funny ones.

Here's a right quick summary of movies I saw this summary and how I felt about them.

• Wolverine: boring.
• Transformers 2: alright, but the issue of geography was enough to make me mental.
• District 9: thought it was great, but more about the holocaust than apartheid.
• GI Joe: I can see why they didn't screen it for critics.
• The Hangover: okay seriously. That movie was funny as hell.
• Julie and Julia: just as good as the book, if not better.
• The Proposal: See below for review.
• Up: man, this was a great flick.
• Harry Potter 6: Not my favourite. They added where they could have trimmed. It did not feel like how I thought it would.

I'm sure I went to more movies than that, but I'm very much blanking on them. Which indicates that they probably weren't all that great.

What movies did you see this summer? Which ones did you which you had?

The proposal, a movie review

Um, hello? Loved this movie. Loved it, loved it, loved it. No really? Loved it. Having seen it, I totally understand why Sandra Bullock doesn't want it referred to as a romantic comedy. It's a straight up screwball physical comedy along the lines of Tracy and Hepburn. It's very old school, with quick wit, physical humour, and actual relationships.

Bullock is right - a lot of romantic "comedy" has two or three funny scenes or lines (much like an action movie) and then the rest of it is really a drama. I'm thinking specifically of Definitely Maybe, another Ryan Reynolds "rom com". It wasn't funny. It was touching, and it had a couple of funny lines in it, but so did Transformers and Star Trek, and I wouldn't classify them as comedies.

Anyway, the chemistry between these two is insane. They both have a dry wit and a healthy sense of sarcasm. I'm guessing they were able to lipsynch some of their antagonistic dialogue on the fly, but no matter what, they have some wicked good timing.

The story is pretty slight. Workaholic uber-bitch with no life, no family and no friends is threatened with deportation because she left hte country while her visa application to stay in the US was being reviewed (totally doesn't work that way - they would have sent her back to Canada as soon as she tried to enter the US with an expired visa, but whatever - I can suspend disbelief). The evildoer (Satan's mistress) blackmails her editorial assistant into marrying her so she can stay in the country. The Citizenship and Immigration Services (as if - the whole world knows they're called the INS) look askance at the application. Hijinks ensue.

I really liked this movie, and not just because Ryan Reynolds is the hottest thing since toast straight from the toaster. I mean, really. He's funny as hell and has been since Van Wilder. Admit it, you saw and liked that movie too, didn't you? Uh huh. Hang your head in shame with me, people.

I liked this movie so much I think I might just go and see it again. For SURE I'm going to buy it when the DVD is out. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

How do you think I really feel? :o)

My blackberry is broken

Yeah, I'm totally not kidding about that. There's a fatal flaw in the use of the trackball instead of the scroll wheel, as in the older models. The flaw seems to be in the trackball mechanism. I saw someone's trackball fall out of their berry last week. Mine won't scroll up. Well, physically it will, but the machine isn't registering it. Oh well.

The bad news? I'm gonna have to drop it off at work sometime today so they can get it fixed tomorrow. The good news? Totally no email while they're fixing it. Sweet!

Sometimes technology works in your favour. Doesn't happen often, but when it does, hello! Thank you Jim Balsille!