Well, this’ll be handy to know when we move into our new place (which is actually on the 24th floor).

The Americans have lost their nuts. And their constitution, by the look of it.

.:.
Interesting to see Paul Martin coming out so aggressively against Stephen Harper. It’s a good tactic; as sad as it seems, many Canadians will choose between the media-fuelled outrage they feel at the Liberal party and the media-fuelled creepiness that Harper gives off. If Martin can remind them that Harper’s views largely don’t really match their own, he should eliminate this biggest threat; Jack Layton is as much an ally as an opposition party leader, and Gilles Duceppe is an afterthought in federal politics.

.:.
I fly back to the Maritimes in a few days. Seems like everything here is well in hand, except for the packing which I’m sure I’ll do at the last minute while watching Die Hard and scarfing down a festive special. That’s about the closest thing I have to a tradition.

.:.
Nellie and I swapped anniversary presents yesterday, even though it’s not for another nine days. I already knew what my gift was (a spring/summer jacket from M0851, which is currently a hipster fashion staple, but in five months, when I actually wear it, it’ll be a plain jacket again), but she was surprised by the giant magenta Holt’s box that I came home with and the uber-soft bathrobe therein. So we both managed to stick to the traditional 2nd anniversary gift of cotton; next year (leather) should be interesting. Who knows, we might both end up at M0851…

I’m sitting in my bedroom, working on my wireless laptop, finishing & submitting my economics assignment. Nellie’s in the den working on the other computer.

I send a message to my gmail account knowing that an alert would pop up on the desktop with the subject line, which reads “Nellie stinks!”

I hit send.

I wait a few seconds.

“OH REALLY!?!!!!???!”

[grin]

What an age we live in.

The best movies* I’ve seen all year:

1. Murderball
2. Syriana
3. Good Night And Good Luck
4. Thank You For Smoking
5. Capote
6. The Constant Gardener
7. A History Of Violence
8. Sin City
9. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith
10. Brokeback Mountain

The best of the rest, in alphabetical order:

• Batman Begins
• Crash
• Jarhead
• March Of The Penguins
• No Direction Home
• Sorry, Haters
• Street Fight
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin
• Walk The Line
• Winter Passing

* Keeping in mind that I haven’t yet seen The Aristocrats, Be Here to Love Me, The Best of Youth, Breakfast On Pluto, Elizabethtown, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Everything Is Illuminated, Hustle & Flow, King Kong, Lie With Me, Munich, North Country, Proof, Shopgirl, The Squid And The Whale, Thumbsucker, Touch the Sound or Transamerica.

My ten favourite albums of the year:

1. Sleater-Kinney . The Woods
2. The Heartless Bastards . Stairs And Elevators
3. The Duke Spirit . Cuts Across The Land
4. Spoon . Gimme Fiction
5. The Dandy Warhols . Odditorium Or The Warlords Of Mars
6. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead . Worlds Apart
7. The New Pornographers . Twin Cinema
8. Low . The Great Destroyer
9. The Constantines . Tournament Of Hearts
10. Sigur Ros . Takk…

The best of the rest, in alphabetical order:

• Black Mountain . Black Mountain
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club . Howl
• Bright Eyes . I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
• Death Cab For Cutie . Plans
• Elbow . Leaders Of The Free World
• Explosions In The Sky . The Rescue
• The Fiery Furnaces . EP
• Great Lake Swimmers . Bodies And Minds
• Ladytron . Witching Hour
• LCD Soundsystem . LCD Soundsystem
• Metric . Live It Out
• Nine Inch Nails . With Teeth
• Rogue Wave . Descended Like Vultures
• The White Stripes . Get Behind Me Satan
• Wolf Parade . Apologies To The Queen Mary

There were two other albums that I left off the list, but felt they deserved a mention: Mogwai‘s Government Commisions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 and the complilation Sunday Nights: The Songs Of Junior Kimbrough.

As I do every year I’m sure I’ll change my mind as I pick up more 2005 music in 2006, but for now…this is it.

We went to see Brokeback Mountain (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night, and $5 says I was the only heterosexual male in the movie theatre. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal getting in on ponderosa-style? If I were gay/female I’d probably dig it too.

It’s a beautiful story (how did Annie Proulx fit that all into 40 pages? They *must* have added material for the screenplay), the scenery is mindblowing, and the performances — especially by Heath Ledger — were incredible. Don’t believe the hype about how the sex scenes will make you uncomfortable; they’re much tamer than you’d think. In fact, the hetero sex scenes are probably racier (who knew Anne Hathaway — Ms. Princess Diaries — was so hot?) than the Jake-Heath love.

Put it this way: not everyone will like this movie (it’s a talkie character drama…certainly not everyone’s cup of tea), but anyone who avoids it because they’d feel icky about the two male leads making out probably isn’t capable of enjoying everything an intelligent, emotional film has to offer anyway. They should stay home and watch Fear Factor.

Shopping? Done.

Economics assignment? Done.

Hallelujah.

“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.” –Thomas Jefferson

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Ack. Not only did the Canadiens lose last night, but I was finally knocked out of first place in my hockey pool. My guys have just sucked ass lately.

Today was a nice light pre-xmas day. I took my time getting to work, my right ear still ringing from last night’s Rheostatics concert (which I’ll be talking about on radioDan later tonight). I took care of a few things in the office before my team went out for its holiday lunch thingy. Tried out the Bishop & Belcher down the street, in its new transplanted location (that website still points to their old Queen Street home). It’ll be a nice addition to the local pub choices. Anyway, the snow started during lunch and most people fled the office shortly thereafter; the rest of us who didn’t have to worry about driving didn’t stick around long either.

.:.
Speaking of snow it’s really started to come down out there. Supposed to get 15-20 cm by tomorrow morning, all told. It’s times like this I’m glad we don’t have a sidewalk to salt & shovel.

.:.
Once again the magazine situation has gotten out of hand as my time spent reading economics has increased. I have this week’s Eye and Now, two issues of Spin, Esquire, Toronto Life, Playboy and Stuff. These should be the last issues of Spin, Playboy and Stuff as they were gifts from Nellie and I’m not renewing them; I’ve decided to take a stab at reading actual novels in between chapters of textbooks.