No posts yesterday as my hosting provider seemed to be down for maintenance. You didn’t miss much, honestly. Just the countdown to relaxo-vision.
[tags]relaxo-vision[/tags]
Month: December 2006
"I'd call that a philosophical argument."
Last night we had our (heretofore) annual Swiss Chalet festive special. We watched Love Actually but not Die Hard as there’s some debate as to whether or not it’s a valid Christmas movie. We had many chocolates and other such delicacies. After everyone left I wound down the evening by watching the recorded Canadiens game (they won again) until about 2 AM and went to bed. Unfortunately, how late I went to bed seems to have little to do with when I wake up, and I was out of bed by 8 AM. Just as well; I have a ton to do today.
.:.
Over the weekend we managed to squeeze in a long film (though not so long as its predecessor): Manderlay (imdb | rotten tomatoes). It didn’t have the same impact as Dogville, since the set was neither as stark nor as surprising as in the original, and the Iraq metaphor was a little too blunt to be as clever as I think Von Trier wanted it to be.
Ultimately it’s hard to compare the two films fairly as I saw them under such different circumstances (film festival crowd at the Elgin theatre vs. my living room) but I don’t feel Manderlay had the same punch that Dogville did.
[tags]xmas party, manderlay[/tags]
Hah bumhug
The war on Christmas exists mainly in my head right now. I like buying gifts for people, I like knowing that I’m heading back to Nova Scotia soon for several days of relaxation, and I like the general idea of a time of year when people are meant to be nicer to each other.
However, judging by what I saw today, the vast majority of the population turns into jerks around the holidays. Our first few shopping stops — Toys ‘R Us, Future Shop, Indigo — were fairly uneventful. But then, walking along Yonge near Rosedale, some fuckass threw his gum from a moving car and hit me in the head. I would’ve given almost anything to be holding a can of pepsi or a baseball right then; unfortunately all I could do was watch the car drive away. A few minutes later in a bakery I was waiting my turn in line when I was butted in front of not once, but twice. Once I could tolerate; it was busy and exactly where the line ended might’ve been unclear to an addle-minded customer. The second time, though, was blatant: some big-haired big-spectacled Rosedale matron bullhorned her way ahead of me in line. A third person tried to do it; fortunately the clerk waved her off and pointed to me just as I was about to lose my holiday spirit. Pa rum pa pum pum.
Though we had only one more stop it was a killer. Note to self: avoid all yuppie furniture stores after December 1st, if not altogether. We left with giant bags piled atop smaller bags, and by the time I got home, because of the way I had to carry one of the heavy bags, I’d pulled something in my left forearm. We ate our lunch and went back out to finish off our errands, but in one of the stores the lineup was at least 30 people long, so I’ll have to do that one Monday.
“Hell is other people.” –Sartre
“Especially when they’re carrying shopping bags.” –Dickinson
Fortunately, we were able to hole up in the apartment to do some cleaning before friends come over tonight — Swiss Chalet and Die Hard, baby! — while listening to my indie holiday music mix, and now I have a few hours to relax before they arrive. It may not feel much like Christmas (especially the weather: 11 degrees and rain tomorrow!) but at least I’m ready to jump on board when it gets here.
[tags]christmas shopping[/tags]
Like calling oneself a teetotaller while drinking a beer
Our second shipment from Green Earth Organics came this week, and we were much happier with the quality. Nothing slimy or wilted; in fact, everything looks a lot better than I’d normally expect in local grocery stores. Our fridge is now loaded down with quality fruit & vegetables. Nellie has pictures that she plans to upload to prove to our mothers that we actually are eating well.
.:.
Speaking of vegetables, Dino sent me a link to this article:
Ten-year-olds with higher IQ scores may be more likely to be vegetarians at age 30.
So say British researchers including Catharine Gale, PhD, a senior research fellow at England’s University of Southampton.
I have a question for the 123 people who called themselves “vegetarians” despite eating chicken and fish though: what do you think the word means?
Hmmm…I just re-read my segue. Dino, I wasn’t calling you a vegetable, I swear.
.:.
Girlfriend du jour: welcome back.
[tags]green earth organics, iq, vegetarian, university of southampton study, girlfriend du jour[/tags]
Best music of 2006
Yeah yeah yeah, I’ll change my mind in 3 months, but for now here it is. Not ranked this year, just ordered alphabetically; no one stood out as a clear winner.
- Asobi Seksu . Citrus
- Band Of Horses . Everything All The Time
- Neko Case . Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
- The Heartless Bastards . All This Time
- Jolie Holland . Springtime Can Kill You
- Amy Millan . Honey From The Tombs
- Mogwai . Mr. Beast
- Regina Spektor . Begin To Hope
- TV On The Radio . Return To Cookie Mountain
- The Yeah Yeah Yeahs . Show Your Bones
[tags]best music of 2006[/tags]
Best films of 2006
It’s way too premature for me to write this as there are still several films I want to see that could well make the list — Apocalypto, Bobby, Borat, Deliver Us From Evil, Fast Food Nation, Flags of Our Fathers, For Your Consideration, Half Nelson, Jesus Camp, Little Children, Marie Antoinette, Pan’s Labyrinth, Running with Scissors, Shortbus, Shut Up And Sing, The Fountain, The Good German, The Good Shepherd, The History Boys, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, The Last King of Scotland, The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Volver, World Trade Center, etc. — but screw it. Here it is anyway, in alphabetical order.
- Blindsight (what I said)
- Brick (what I said)
- Casino Royale (what I said)
- Day Night Day Night (what I said)
- The Departed (what I said)
- An Inconvenient Truth (what I said)
- Kurt Cobain: About A Son (what I said)
- Little Miss Sunshine (what I said)
- United 93 (what I said)
- Why We Fight (what I said)
Three of those — Blindsight, Day Night Day Night and Kurt Cobain: About A Son — were from the film festival and haven’t even hit theatres yet. Four were documentaries; I’m starting to think I should have separate categories.
These were the best movies I watched this year that weren’t made in 2006:
- 24 Hour Party People
- A Very Short Engagement
- Cinema Paradiso
- Darwin’s Nightmare
- Hustle & Flow
- King Kong
- Little Dieter Needs To Fly
- Match Point
- Mr. Death: The Rise And Fall Of Fred A. Leuchter
- Munich
- Omagh
- Primer
- Riding Giants
Oh look…four more documentaries.
"Aw yeah. That golden rule."
We finished season 4 of The Wire last night. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: best show on TV. And I cannot wait for season 5.
.:.
I see that someone has claimed my old Radiodan blogspot URL. In case anyone’s worried that I’ve lapsed into writing long treatises on the subject of radio dramas, t’ain’t me. Update your links & readers.
.:.
Use transit in Toronto? This map is quickly going to become indispensable, methinks. [via Torontoist]
[tags]the wire, radiodan, toronto transit[/tags]
The market at work
The Broker’s Bier Borse: how to drink beer and learn about economics at the same time. Brilliant. [via Freakonomics]
.:.
The Winterlicious menu is up. It’ll be tougher to pick restaurants as we’ll be fully vegetarian by the time it rolls around. Thankfully they mark the restaurants with vegetarian options, and Canoe has a sweeeeet-lookin’ gnocchi…
[tags]broker’s bier borse, freakonomics, winterlicious, canoe restaurant[/tags]
Happiness is a clean inbox
I love it when my work inbox is completely empty. I’ve become ruthless about managing incoming email. None shall pass!
.:.
Six days from now I’ll be on my way to Nova Scotia for the holidays. I’m quite excited; both my brothers are coming home, as are their SOs and kids (where applicable). Good thing my parents have the big farmhouse; 8 adults, 3 kids and two dogs are quite an occupying force. I’m thinking we’ll need an extra tree as well; all those presents are going to take up a lot of space. Then again, Nellie and I are doing our part to cut back on the gift volume; we’ve asked for donations to charities in our name(s) in lieu of presents.
In the meantime, we have a lot of xmas stuff yet to do. We still have to buy a lot of presents, send ~50 cards, and watch our traditional holiday movies — Die Hard and Love Actually — whilst mowing down on Swiss Chalet festive specials. I think maybe we’ve been slack on the gifts and the cards ’cause it still doesn’t feel like Christmas…no snow yet. And it’s 6 frickin’ degrees outside.
I’m also trying to finish off my last stats assignment before we go, but it turns out doing tons of regression analysis isn’t the most exciting exercise, so I’m having trouble getting through it awake.
[tags]email, clean inbox, xmas, die hard, love actually[/tags]
Sur la trace de Stephen J. Dubner
The TIFF group has announced their top ten Canadian movies of the year; I can’t say I’ve seen any of them. Actually, five of them have yet to be released to theatres, so I don’t really feel bad. There’s some controversy over what was left out, but I’m not sure how anyone could be surprised that a film festival group would skip the commercially successful (relatively speaking; this is Canada, after all) films.
Anyway, Cinematheque will be showing each of them in the new year, so perhaps we’ll catch a few.
On a related note I bought tickets to see Doc Soup’s presentation of Jesus Camp next month. I really should buy a subscription; they just had a screening of The Bridge, another one I want to see.
.:.
Last night I emailed the Freakonomics guys about this story in the Globe:
“Ontario teens under the age of 18 will lose their driver’s licence if they drop out of high school under a new law passed Tuesday.”
Today Stephen Dubner emailed me back with a link to their blog post about the story. I love that these guys have a mega-book and they still a) blog frequently about interesting things, and b) read (and answer) email from random people with something to say.
[tags]tiff top ten, cinematheque, freakonomics, ontario driver’s license dropouts[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 