Friday, June 29, 2007

quoth...

I may have posted this one before, but while we're on quotes, and music, and memory...

I think there is something we were supposed to do before we lost our memories.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

and more quotes...

I've blogged this song before... but while I'm on quotes, here are the words.
What happens to imaginary friends? (or real ones...) I keep listening to this song.
You can too:
1. Lisa (Esopus Magazine 2005)
-----
There’s nothing I could call this
No architecture for the order of things
When I sat and watched you sleeping
Before the trucks arrive, boxed up your better life
I wrote you letters for awhile

Left to haunt this sad estate
In hollow walls and empty halls but all I saw was
Some doll that you’d abandoned
So I crawled inside where the stitching held me tight
And hoped that you’d come back to find me some time.

I hope that you’ll forgive me for being so severe
Your proximity was clouding my account of what was real here
You’re eight years old I’m stuck inside the wall
you always talk but never hold me
And I wish that you would ask me how I’m feeling
There’s so much I want to tell you about the way I’m disappearing
And so many years have passed since that
I left the house I left the map to my new wall
You must have never found it
And I heard that you got married
And I hope that she helps you fall asleep these days

'Cause I knew the ways
When you were eight
You’re not what I imagined
You’d become when we were younger
But I’m still in love with that one

But I’ve since found your parents’ house
And live inside the wall
But you don’t ask about me when you call

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

while I'm doing quotes...

Here's one that I found on the Cold War Kids website, from an essay (which I have not read) by David Foster Wallace.

The next real literary ‘rebels’ in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles. Who treat of plain old untrendy human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction. Who eschew self-consciousness and hip fatigue. These anti-rebels would be outdated, of course, before they even started. Dead on the page. Too sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic. Maybe that’ll be the point. Maybe that’s why they’ll be the next real rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk disapproval. The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal:shock disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. Today’s risks are different. The new rebels might be artists willing to risk the yawn, rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the ‘Oh how banal.’ To risk accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Of overcredulity. Of softness. Of willingness to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and ridicule above imprisonment without law.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Back at it

So - we are back from a week of vacation in N.S.

Things that happened since last posting:
visited the family
drove +4000 km
turned 30
watched the first two Freaks and Geeks DVDs
felt shame at my monolinguality
ate poutine in Quebec
listened to many, many CDs
saw some of Sackville, N.B.
drank some rum and Coke
met Elliot Pashley (age: 4 months)
bought some new drums
found an apartment
watched some Trailer Park Boys episodes


Perhaps I might post a couple of pictures here when I get a chance.



On an unrelated note, I thought this quote from a recent Jack White interview was pretty neat:

I think there's too much opportunity. In general, opportunity tends to kill creativity. I think people don't realize that. A painter goes into an art supplies store and sees all these different colours and supplies and thinks, "Oh, goody! This is going to make me a better painter." Of course it's not. It's just going to make it harder to decide what not to use and what not to do. That's what happens with a group of 20-year-old kids who walk into a studio with ProTools and a computer and they can record 400 tracks if they want to. Maybe now with the state of the music industry they'll start spending less on albums and people will go back to reality. They should put up a plaque in every studio that says, "The Beatles recorded Revolver and Sgt. Pepper on four tracks." That'll clear everyone's head.





That's it for now...

Thursday, June 14, 2007

An old, old, old, old tree

Today I stumbled upon this wikipedia article. This is really amazing... I figured the tree was named Methuselah because it is so old - while this is indeed the case, it turns out that the estimated germination date is actually some time during the human Methuselah's lifetime.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

midweek

It's Wednesday.

Last night we went to church at Adrienne's. She is leaving for India this Friday, which is pretty crazy (and by crazy I mean amazing). Also, Becky read some quotes, psalms, and poetry which she had beautifully written out in ink on scraps of paper - it was very good...

And we spent a good old amount of time just hanging out and covering a typically random and bizarre range of topics.



This weekend, Leah and I are driving to Nova Scotia for the week.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Weekend

a house in progress
It's Monday morning, and I'm avoiding the beginning of my work day.
Let's ease into it with the weekend recap...

On Friday I get off work at noonish - but I stuck around to work on a competition entry that I will hopefully develop enough to enter (deadline is July 23rd). The little house that you see above is all I have done so far (don't worry, I'm going to add windows!) I am modelling each stud, and will then add each sheet of drywall inside, and cladding outside (every brick?)... then all I have to do is explode all the individual elements into a zillion peices, and animate the process of going from one state (whole) to the other (totally shattered)...
Yeah - the competition is kind of a weird one (the title is RUPTURE, and one of the judges is Lebbeus Woods)... we'll see if I can get it done in time.

On Saturday we went and looked at a pretty nice apartment that is too far away from where we would like to live. Afterwards we biked all the way back home, via Fresh, where we ate lunch.
That evening we watched Lucky Number Slevin. For some reason I felt like watching an action kinda movie... It was alright, in a kinda-too-graphic-but-with-a-pretty-decent-plot kinda way...

Sunday - church was kinda crazy - I was drumming, and for whatever reason was playing most of the evening pretty far beyond the level of my normal/safe capabilities. The whole time I felt like I could totally lose it at any moment... and it was indeed pretty messy here and there... it was scary and funny, but it seemed to work well. We had a guest speaker preaching/teaching - and it was pretty interesting. Dr William Webb is apparantly a hugely controversial theologian - he has written a book called Slaves, Women & Homosexuals, and he introduced us to his approach to examining the Old Testament. In particular he addressed some of the difficult parts about beating slaves, seizing women, killing babies, genocide etc. which the bible appears to endorse!
The sermon should be up some time on the website - if you want to check it out...

Afterwards we went for sushi/Korean food with a good bunch of church peeps.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

sweet deal / potential mistake ???

affordable, music-friendly, central, 2 bedroom apartment (+++++)




... in a basement (-----)
drawing by john maeda

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

MidWeek

So yesterday got straight cold... with a possible frost alert overnight.
After work, we went to church at Becky and Paul's (minus tree-planting Paul)... since it is the summer and pretty much nobody is around, we just hung out, ate food, and then went home much too late.
This morning I had to make my first ever work-related trip to City Hall. Not a bad way to start off the day, really - you sign in, and then you sit around waiting and drinking your coffee for a good while...
Afterwards I ran into Kevin, who was checking out the Wednesday morning farmer's market at N.P.Square... I bet those farmer's might sell more stuff if they didn't set up at a time when everybody is at work.
I am pretty tired today... and pretty boring.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Weather

Some things about Canada really suck...





It's June, right???

Monday, June 04, 2007

It's Monday

This morning I came in to work at the new office. The place is pretty much still under construction, but overall it is pretty nice. It feels more large-urban-design-firm than the old office did. I should try to get some pictures up or something...

The weekend...
...was long, 'cause Friday was a day off (for moving). I rode my bike down to Second Cup, went to some used CD stores and bookstores, and then met Leah for lunch. That evening, we dropped by the Madison to say goodbye to Lisa. There was a huge posse there to celebrate the successful defending of the PhD thesis, complete with free-flowing drinks and equation cupcakes.
It was tragic to see Lisa leaving.
Afterwards, Sue and Leah and I walked down to take a look at the ROM spectacle...

Saturday - we went to help Josh pack up his family's things and move away. We arrived as the last of the bicycles was being shoe-horned into the van, and just in time for some sandwiches. After that we hung out with Becky for a while... and then biked home through Kensington. That evening we played some church music.

Sunday - church was fun. Setup was a little stressful (not really for me!, but for some people) and I had fun playing the drums. Andrew is back, and played the upright bass, Anne sang backup, Leah lead on acoustic guitar, and Brad played space guitar... it was rad! I had to laugh every time I looked out to see our church congregation mostly just standing there... I am still not used to how reserved these people can be!

And that is about it for now...