Who wants to watch Young Einstein?

One of my practically-heroes, filmmaker Yahoo Serious, (he had his name legally changed in 1980), has proposed a new flag design for Australia. I hope it takes off. I really appreciate how his brain works and entirely support not only his logic, but the design.

Letters from Johns.

Remember when the news came out that not only was there a re-make of The Day The Earth Stood Still going to be filmed, it was going to star Keanu can’t-act Reeves as Klaatu? Well, it turns out they’re filming it here in Vancouver. I just got the call, I’m going to be in it too. That they’re filming here AND during the writer’s strike seems to confirm my suspicions regarding what quality the film will be when it’s finished, because even though rationally I understand that the script was likely finished months and months ago, the haughty little film reviewer that lives in my heart just knows it’s going to be YouTube-comment-bad. Klaatu barada nikto, indeed.

But opinion aside, work is work and a paycheque is not only a paycheque but rent, food, and bus-fare, and I’m glad for it. Not only will I have fun doing what I’m doing, every day on set is a day I get paid to meet new people and another day farther from dubious Craigslist ads. (Not that I have anything against unique Craiglist postings, like this fellow who wants to play accordion with a metal band. More power to him, I think he’s great.) I’m sure that when it comes out, Ray will be one of the first in line to see it and Nicole and I will be standing staunchly by his side, ready to play real-life Mystery Science Theater 3000 from somewhere far too close to the screen.

Letters from Working Girls.

friendly rabbit reminder, this sunday

365 day twenty-four: calling you
365: twenty-four

Dan Johnson says,

Three weeks from today (Sunday the 27th) is Lewis Carroll’s birthday, which means once again it’s time for your LiveJournal to fall down a rabbit hole and document a different sort of day from the ones you always have. Get away from the same-old and be someone else, somewhere else, doing something else for a change!

The Rabbit Hole Day community remains http://community.livejournal.com/rabbitholeday/

My previous Rabbithole entries: 2005, 2006, and 2007.

It’s only two days until Rabbit Hole Day!!

Korea wins at advertising.

speaking of experimental artists, I’m going to see Benoit Delbecq tonight

365 day twenty-three: portrait of a girl
365: day twenty-three

Avant-Garde Dating is a new experimental dating service for artists. Very experimental. Hosted by Wooloo, an artists-run organization based in Berlin, it’s not for actually for dating at all, but exists soley to host a competition exploring issues associated with relationships. To apply, artists must explain how they will pry at the sticky conventions of monogamous love, challenge the very idea of artistic collaboration and/or explore one of the other diverse stereotypes of human pairing. Based on the applications, a Dating Board will pair artists off with each other, then later judge the “winners”, as three of these couples will be later awarded a one week exhibition during the Art Forum in Berlin to “further explore the concept of human partnering.” No, I am not applying.

Anyone up for teaching me to drive, like, yesterday?

edit: yay brian! any other takers? this has shuffled to the urgent pile of my things-to-get-done.

oh hell, I think I just missed Michael Green’s birthday.

365 day twenty-one: did I?
365: day twenty-one

The sky was strangled by pale blue today, cerulean seen through milk, so novel that people could be seen stopped in the street, staring. Clear as pastel glass, but no more kind than that. The sunset brought cold as immediately as it does in the desert, as if all the warmth in the world could not soak into this city’s tightly woven bones, too attached to woolen gray skies and shadowed clouds to dream of summer.

“Can’t We Talk?” a simplified explanation how the conversational styles of men and women differ.

that humming might simply be nutrition, too.


365 day sixteen: drop
Originally uploaded by Foxtongue.

Dine-Out Vancouver started this week, an annual food festival that involves wickedly-worth-it expensive restaurants offering three course menus for either $15, $25, or $35 per person. (This doesn’t include drinks, tips, or taxes). Running from January 16th to February 3rd, it’s a wonderful opportunity, delicious, cheap, and super fun. There’s almost 200 restaurants involved, which can make it seem a little over-whelming, but they all have searchable on-line menus posted, and easy to find phone numbers for reservations. (The trick is to always call them in. The place you pick might claim on-line that they’re full up, but anyone with experience with this knows better.) They’re sorted alphabetically, by price, or by the type of cuisine they offer.

I almost always forget, of course, until it’s practically too late, but not this year. Ellen reminded me in time to keep an eye on the date, so tonight Mishka, my mother, and I went to Feenie’s this evening to take advantage. I’m a bit of a secret foodie, so it’s one of my favourite restaurants. You can keep your salty Kettle of Fish, your over-hyped Gotham Steakhouse, I’ll take Feenie’s any day. They may serve deceptively simple dishes, but it was started by a fellow who appeared on Iron Chef and the food, of course, is lovely, utterly lovely. Tonight didn’t disappoint. I had braised veal cheeks with an exquisite sour cherry gelati I would love to have enough to bathe in some day. My blood-stream’s still singing, hours later, a little happy song of contented tasty yum. Obviously I need to start roping other people into dinner.

So now you’re all properly In The Know, where are you planning on going?

some nights I wish I wasn’t sleeping alone, but the other options seem so much worse

365 day fifteen: in silence
365: day fifteen

I neglected the dirty work of living today. Entirely. I went out for tea which turned into breakfast which turned into finding myself still out in time for dinner at seven and walking home in the cold at one in the morning. Not that I walked, I caught a ride with some higher end time-share realtors who happened to be going my way, who glittered as they laughed, secure and lovely, and their friend who picked them up, smoking out the window as he drove, black leather, SUV, a higher tax bracket than I could breathe. This is my street, ribbed for her pleasure, Brian’s joke falling off my tongue. They tried to tipsy-memorize my building number as they dropped me off, and I told them they were welcome to drop by for tea. Anytime.

A Bill Waterson speech: some thoughts on the real world by one who glimpsed it and fled.

post party

365 day twelve: post party
365: day twelve

I was going to help Howler bodypaint at the Workless Party Party tonight, but the Scotia Bank called me with an evening shift, and even minimum wage is better than nothing, so I missed that colourful fun and went after work instead. By the time I arrived, it was eleven and the main room had already transformed from a gymnasium into a sauna made of sweat. There were friends there, but I wasn’t comfortable at the party. I had a much better time after when a group of us, (Liam, two of his friends, a Michael and girl I was never introduced to, Burrow, Jonathan, Howler, and I), went to wait for food at the Naam.

(Their poor service is legendary. At three a.m., they are good because they are open. A particularly zen restaurant, one goes there not expecting to eat, but to wait).

That was my favourite part, just everyone sitting around the table being irrepressibly clever.

The Superest: an ongoing game of an illustrated Your Team My Team.

this is my new favourite thing

365 day eleven: swept on
365: day eleven

Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller has a new video blog called Penn Says up on Crackle. It’s incredibly satisfying, as they consist entirely of Penn, a refreshingly intelligent individual, picking up a camera and talking into it about whatever he feels like. He’s astute, cynical, charming, and hilarious.

“Now let me just tell you, I don’t care at all about Britney Spears. Britney Spears is in that category of, I think, someone I could have sex with and still not care about her. Usually, there’s something that that would trigger in me on automatic, but I think I could with Britney and still not even answer her e-mails.”

Also, oh my mercy, not only does he compare Hillary Clinton to Jerry Lee Lewis, I think he just flashed his bits during a political rant about the possibility of a Mormon President’s magic underwear. Win. If there were more, I would leave these playing when I went to bed.