Rock interventions

Michael's Rock Club theme was a success. Most of us admitted that we struggled with our final choices, but maybe that's why they worked; people put a lot of thought into their songs, and they shared some crazy stories. I'm sharing the play list with you, to satisfy your curiosity, but I've left names and stories out of it because of their personal nature. My choice is pretty obvious. Can you guess?

Play List

Walkin' After Midnight, by Patsy Cline
Fuck Was I, by Jenny Owen Youngs
Pump It Up, by Elvis Costello and The Attractions
Holland 1945, by Neutral Milk Hotel
There Is A Light, by Great Lake Swimmers
In The Evening, by Nina Nastasia and Jim White
What Wolves Would Do, by Les Savy Fav
Rollercoaster by the Sea, by Jonathan Richman
The Morning of Our Lives, by Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers
Step Back, by DAT Politics
No Key No Plan, by Okkervil River
Smells Like Happiness, by The Hidden Cameras
Andante from the Dumky Trio, by Antonin Dvorák

I can't tell you how happy I was that there were two Jonathan Richman songs. They were played back to back, no less. I decided to bring my favorite, Roller Coaster by the Sea, for a variety of reasons. First, I thought it would be great to hear the actual song when I went on the Santa Cruz roller coaster last August instead of torturing Shannon with my rendition. Second, I like the message of the song and I wanted to share it: sometimes you need to do something silly to get you out of your head.

I might add some other musings about this Rock Club at a later date. It deserves some extra thought and I don't have energy for a longer post right now. Besides, I need to go buy cookies for my last Writing Popular Science class. We're having a party.

Everything is the worst

I'm at that point in the semester when I'm having a hard time showering when I should. I stopped taking my vitamins a couple of weeks ago. I'm not drinking enough water. The thing that is really getting me down is this political theory essay that I have to finish in a week. I was going to submit an essay about Marxian theories of alienation, but when no one offered to sell me this type of essay I decided change my subject to Kropotkin and Anarchy. My dad suggested that I refuse to write the essay in order to embrace the true nature of this political theory. He made me laugh and then I truly considered the option.

I've been listening to Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, the 2002 Flaming Lips album, while I slog away on the computer. Here's one of my favorite songs on the album: Fight Test.

The new mayor in town

Michael is the new mayor of Rock Club. Actually, he's been mayor for some time now. While he decided on a clever theme right away, he's failing to set a date for the big event. I don't mind, as I have no idea what I'm going to bring. I'm posting his Back to the future inspired theme below so you can help me brainstorm. Of course, you shouldn't tell me to change parts of my life or anything, but maybe you can tell me what song you would bring so I can copy you.

In my mayoral universe, I’d like to see how we rockers might respond to the realization of my favorite sci-fi scenario (and second, maybe third, favorite mutant ability) – time travel. Here is my challenge for the upcoming rock club:

You’ve been given keys to the Delorian together with ample supplies of plutonium and a functional flux capacitor. Marty has briefed you on the dangers of carelessly toying with the spacetime continuum. Satisfied that you understand the risks, Marty has approved your request for a “pre-present” personal intervention. That is, he has authorized you to travel back in time so that you may attempt to alter the outcome of a single decision/scenario that took place in your life in the past. You’ve been given the opportunity to remedy a regret, right a wrong, or otherwise improve on something you did or did not do in the past. However, as Marty has explained to you, the only tool your present self can use to exert influence over your past self is, well, music – specifically, a well timed song to be played by your present self in the presence of your past self. The “Dobler” effect has been shown to exert only minimal stress on the fabric of spacetime while at the same time offering surprisingly efficacious results. Duly warned and boom-box equipped, you have been given clearance for your 88 mph departure…

Where, and when are you going? What are you going to try and change? Most importantly, what song are you taking with you?

Halloween, yo

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, but we did it up this year. Michael's costume was unbelievable:

He was Buster Bluth from Arrested development (I couldn't find a picture of him after the seal ate his hand):

This was my costume:

I was Robert Smith from The Cure:

Dressing up is fun! I'm never sure about Halloween, what with the scandalous costumes and the masks that make me uncomfortable (my recognition skills aren't great at the best of times), but this year was an exception. We went to the Caribou show with friends who also dressed up (there was a wizard, a prom queen, a dead beauty queen and two mechanics) and we were all thrilled to see so many people dressed up at the show; I didn't expect that kind of enthusiasm at a hump day Halloween show, especially because there were so many parties the weekend previous. The highlight of the evening was when we spotted another character from Arrested Development: Tobias Funke. It was a beautiful reunion. The guy wasn't able to fake the baldness, so Michael suggested that he add a trickle of fake blood to his forehead to represent the time Tobias got hair plugs; we saw him later and he'd added the blood to great affect. He was wearing his never-nude jean shorts, if you were wondering. Our Halloween team schemed about going as the whole Bluth family next year, and I have to say, I'm already making tentative plans. If not the Bluth family, then some other team costume will surely be possible.

30 is the new 16

I haven't written for a while. It turns out that it's hard to juggle school and work and colds and 30th birthday party planning. But things have slowed down, and now I have time to sleep and ride horses.


Michael turned 30 on Wednesday. It's kind of a big deal, and we celebrated accordingly. Michael rented a Nintendo Wii since we had so much fun playing it in Ottawa, and it totally dominated the festivities. Thankfully my mom sent sparklers that managed to distract everyone enough to take a cupcake break. That's right, the reign of the traditional angel food cake has ended. I wasn't up for the headache with the egg whites, so Michael gave me permission to try something else. I surprised him with gingerbread cupcakes that were topped with warm caramel sauce and whipped cream, all made from scratch. I've never made caramel sauce before, and that was the most interesting learning experience. As far as health is concerned, caramel isn't very redeeming. It is sugar and butter and cream and a little bit of water and vanilla. That's it. It's scary to make in the same way that making donuts without a deep fryer (i.e. with a big pot of hot oil, like how my Baba makes them) is scary: you can really burn yourself. I got the cake and the caramel recipes from the Joy of Cooking.


In order to recover from the party and the cold that I had for a week, I slept for 11 hours last night. I'm not sure I've ever slept that long before, and it was glorious. Instead of spending the weekend in full recovery mode, I decided to sign Michael and I up for some horse riding today. It still seems like a totally random activity, but it was fun. A coworker of mine set it up, and I thought why not? I'm up for new activities. I was a little nervous at the beginning, but it turned out to a relaxing jaunt through the woods near Prospect Lake. I even calmed down enough to hold my camera up with one hand and take this picture:


I think I have the right amount of fear in my eyes.

A report on Ottawa

I like Ottawa. I'm not sure that I'd want to live there, but I like it. The city lost points when the PM didn't meet us at the airport, but it gained points when Michael pointed out that John Manley was on our flight to the capital city. We made him nervous while we giggled and pointed at him while waiting for luggage together.

We didn't do any of the wonderful things you suggested, except go for a drive in Gatineau Hills, and the only reason we did that is because the wedding was at a ski chalet in the Gatineau Hills (I was in Quebec for the first time!). It was as beautiful as you'd expect at this time of year. Michael said he wasn't impressed with the fall colours, but I think he felt their goodness before the trip was through.

Museums need more leisure time. Am I right? That said, I'm intrigued and I really want to go back and check them out sometime. The Diefenbunker? Awesome. Also: the Art Gallery looked amazing from the outside, as did the Civilization Museum. When I finally visit Montreal, I'll stop by Ottawa for the museums.

Parliament Hill didn't disappoint. In fact, I think Michael, Imtiaz and I were all pretty impressed by the magnificence of the buildings. We don't have old stuff like that on the west coast (uh, except for the legislature). When Michael saw the line-up for parliamentary tours, he said it was just like Disneyland.

We went to Ottawa for Nathan and Cindy's wedding, and it was really lovely too. The weather didn't work out, but everything else was perfect. The ceremony was short with lots of cute music: Badly Drawn Boy, The Cure, Nathan's mom and brother. The dinner was traditional Thanksgiving dinner and the wedding cake was a tier of cupcakes: yum. None of the speeches were inappropriate and the slide show was really touching. I want to get married just so I can put together a similar slide show. After all of the formal stuff wrapped up, we danced until dawn. My hips were hurting as we climbed onto the shuttle back to the city. I tried to take pictures of the dancing, but they never capture the moment, do they? If you want to see other, better pictures, check out the ones on Flickr or Facebook. None of those are as good as the patriotic one in this post though. Am I right?