A musical experiment

I’m not sure what I think of this Pandora thing I’ve tossed into the sidebar but I’ve put it there for the moment as an experiment. I suppose it would have been almost as easy to simply code in links … but then I’d have to hunt down places to link to.

It’s really just there as a short list of what I’m listening to these days. I tend to go in phases. My current phase causes some friends of mine a degree of alarm because it’s kind of jazz, folk, country, blues with a smidgeon of alternative. I haven’t heard anything rock, hip-hop, pop … or basically mainstream that hasn’t sounded like a billion other things I’ve heard over and over.

The most recent additions to my music?

- Marc Knopfler & Emmylou Harris – All the Roadrunning
- Bruce Spingsteen – We Shall Overcome: the Seeger Sessions
- The Little Willies – The Little Willies
- Elvis Costello – My Flame Burns Blue
- Lucinda Williams – Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

I’ve also got a fistful of Duke Ellington discs that I’ve picked up over the last year – plus Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong and so on.

Anyway … I really never know what I’m going to like. But for the moment this is what’s catching my ear.

Oh ... my favourite song on All the Roadrunning is the song Love and Happiness, with the wonderful lines:

And if I could only have one wish,
darling then it would be this:
love and happiness for you.

Another flashy fiction entry

I've posted my latest flash fiction: Dinner is cancelled. This is for JJ's latest - Flash Fiction Friday #34.

(Now this is interesting, if confusing. It's called Flash Fiction Friday. I've written and posted it on a Saturday. And I've put it on my blog called Sunday Stories.)

Puzzling things – like raisin bran

It has been years – maybe decades – since I last had a bowl of raisin bran. There have been some changes. For instance, today it seems there are as many raisins as flakes of bran cereal. Now, I like raisins but it did seem excessive.

Also … why must they put sugar on them? Especially when they’re pushing it as some kind of wonder health food? Such as:

- Made with Whole Grain (that’s in big letters)
- Wholesome Classics
- Sensible Solution (I was unaware there was a problem requiring solving)
- A Healthy Diet Low in Saturated and Trans Fats
- May Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease
- Lots of Raisins Covered in Sugar! (That one is mine)

It just doesn’t make sense to me to tout the health wonders of something covered in sugar. (For that matter – since when did raisins need to have sugar on them?)

Another puzzle … I came across an odd Web page today – How to To Nothing.

Is this really something that needs instructions? Who the hell needs a how-to manual on doing nothing?

The links in the sidebar were equally disturbing:

- How to Meditate
- How to Buy Nothing
- How to Become a Taoist
- How to Call in Sick When You Just Need a Day Off
- How to Be Thankful
- How to Be a Lazy College Student

I see two areas of concern here: a) someone might actually be looking for this kind of information and, b) someone is taking the time to write it.

I’d say this though – if you’re writing this kind of a how-to, or looking for these kinds of things, you already are pretty much doing nothing.

Note: It’s amazing how difficult it is to find an image of a simple bowl of raisin bran cereal on the Internet. I’d have taken my own picture but I’d already eaten the cereal.

(Geez … what a pointless post. I see my Saturday is off to a productive start.)

I would just like to say ...

From the heady reaches of Piddleville ... I'm really fucking glad this fucking week is fucking over.

Well, almost over. Sometime today (Friday) it will finally feel as if it's over, and thank heaven for that.

Yes, the problem (as usual) is work, the world and so on.

JJ has a post worth a read over here. I suggest a perusal. (By the way, for the one comment wondering … any one who has listened to Neil Young over the years knows exactly where he’s coming from politically, so Let’s Impeach the President ain’t something out of the blue. Give Rockin' in the Free World a listen, or Ohio.)

By the way … while I’m with JJ on this I think there’s considerably more to it. The question I think needs asking is, why do we feel the need to use drugs, particularly to the degree we do? I think when you start asking that question you start getting a sense for how fucked up our culture is. Not that we’re the first, however.

Sorry … I don’t usually use the f word to this degree, but it seemed fitting today.

What is the point of this picture?

It is simple. A few weeks from now, that sky will be obliterated.

From the balcony, looking up, you see sky and branches and budding leaves. But soon you shall see nothing but green. Well, actually you won't - I will.

Because this is from my balcony. At this stage of spring's annual progress of moving back in, things (like leaves) are in the process of arriving.

Other things, like the sun, have arrived. And so mornings are incredibly bright in my place. But soon the sun-shiney mornings will be muted as the leaves, fully arrived, act as curtains.

Not sure why, but I have a thing for taking pictures of branches. I seem to have a lot of them. A quirk, I suppose.

Is it really Monday already?

The weekend was pretty uneventful. You can tell because I was posting about hockey games. That's a good indication not much interesting is happening in my world.

As you can see by the image on the right, spring is making its way here. Well, actually it is here. That's why guys like this are budding all over the place.

One thing about the weekend ... The oddest dreams. That must be because it's spring and the weather is "unsettled" (that's the term the weather guys love to use).

Or perhaps it's not. I dunno. But it strikes me odd that Patti Smith would be there in my dreams showing me her new house complete with cats and Laura Ashley furnishings.

How bizarre is that?

A happy afternoon

Normally I would dislike an "afternoon" hockey game. Not only is it just plain wrong to have hockey games in the afternoon, I place quotation marks around "afternoon" because while it may be after 12 on the east coast, it ain't out here.

So today's Oilers-Red Wings game started at 11:00 a.m. That's like starting a football game at 8 in the morning. It's idiotic. It offends sensibilities. It's just not done in polite society.

However, given that the Oil beat Detroit 4 to 2, I can live with it.

Still, since everyone in the east seems to be moving out west, they may want to rethink their notion of what "afternoon" means.

Sometimes I make it into the office

This week was unusual in that I actually made it into the office. On those days when I do, this is where I go.

People were fainting in the hallways when they saw me. For the last little while (or long while, depending on how you view these things) I've been working largely from home.

Why? It's more efficient. At home, I have one computer connected to the network but I also have another (actually two) that are not. And that means they work a lot more quickly.

And even if that weren't the case, I just seem to get a heck of lot more done working from here.

By the way ... how flat is it here in Alberta? Here's one of the views from the office.

All right thinking people ...

... are Oiler fans. Edmonton Oiler fans. And tonight, two hours from now actually, the Oil skate out onto the ice at Joe Louis Arena to tussle with the Detroit Red Wings.

This is a fun time of year because the "experts" are almost always wrong in their predictions about who will win the Stanley Cup, which bodes well for the Oil but not so well for the Wings. Teams that are expected to win seldom do. (Just ask the Vancouver Canucks.)

The great thing about this first round is that the Oilers aren't playing Dallas. Thank heaven for that. I don't know what it is about the Dallas Stars but the Oilers are largely luckless against them.

But Detroit? Despite their record, the Oil have fared pretty well against them.

And for those of you who care little for events such as this (which carry with them the fate of nations), I don't expect to post often about hockey. But this post was necessary because it is, after all, hockey.

I go back to work; it disagrees with me

Today was interesting in a disagreeable way. I returned to work registering 0 on the enthusiasm scale and there, at work, was everyone jacked as if they were on crystal meth and there were a gazillion meetings and I was just trying to figure out why they cared.

In almost every meeting I was thinking, “But you know, the Stanley Cup playoffs begin this weekend. The Edmonton Oilers take on the daunting Detroit Red Wings. Surely this is more interesting than what that middle manager is babbling about?”

Anyway … there is some talk of me relocating to Vancouver. This would be fine with me except I hate the idea of moving. Relocating I’m fine with – I need a change. But moving! I’d rather have an enema.

But it’s a notion playing in my head (Vancouver, not the enema – though there are some who would argue there is little difference). (I have a kinder view of Vancouver – though I love telling Vancouvites their city is like Toronto with salt water. They get so feisty when you say that!)

You may recall that last Wednesday I had an incident. It may be that I have Meniere's Disease. This sounds more awful than it is – it’s really just a screwed up sense of balance due to the inner ear caused by weather changes. (Which is why Vancouver may not be so bad - a coastal place, as opposed to where I am on the right hand side of the Continental Divide, may be better suited for me.) But, if it’s what I have, it really freaks you out – well, freaks me out.

But I don’t know that that is what I have. More research required. And hopefully someone with a medical background who knows what I’m talking about.

Note: This post makes complete sense to me. Unfortunately, you probably need to live inside my head for any of it to make sense to you. Sorry.

May I throw you a line?

I got it from jeopardygirl and she got it from Ben. And it all comes from across the water with the UK's favourite song lyrics. Actually, it's lines from songs that were voted on.

Anyway ... the spirit moved me and I came up with five of my own favourites (though these could change or be added to if I put any actual thought into it). If you haven't heard these songs - well, you've no idea what your missing. In no particular order:

Richard Thompson - Beeswing
"And they say her flower is faded now, hard weather and hard booze,
But maybe that's just the price you pay for the chains that you refuse."

Lucinda Williams - Those Three Days
"And I have been so fuckin' alone since those three days."*

Elvis Costello - Accidents Will Happen
"It's the words that we don't say that scare me so."

The Kinks (Ray Davies) - Oklahoma U.S.A.
"All life we work but work is a bore;
If life's for living what's living for?"

Leonard Cohen - Anthem
"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

Feel free to add to this list.

* Alternatively, another line from the same Lucinda Williams song that could I could have used would be this:
"Did you love me forever just for those three days?"

Mumblings recounting an Easter Sunday

Most of this weekend has been warm and sunny. But today was cold and rainy. And that made me glum. All day long. Thus, my whining …

Easter Sunday has come and gone at the time I write this. My Roman Catholic upbringing is curious why the entire day passed by without my hearing a single reference to Jesus though I did come across numerous references to bunnies (chocolate and otherwise). I’m not particularly religious but that both puzzles and troubles me.

Curious weather … yesterday it was shorts and t-shirts. Today, it was rain and snow. Alberta is such an odd place. Tomorrow? Shorts and t-shirts again, I believe. Very peculiar.

I’ve had about nine or ten days off. The day after tomorrow (Tuesday) I go back to work. Problem? I don’t wanna. In fact, the last thing on earth I want to do is pretend again I give a flying rat’s ass about what matters at work.

Hmm. Must figure that one out.

I’ve a fistful of new movies on DVD. So far, none have overwhelmed me. Surely there’s one great movie out there?

At brunch today, it had been such a busy day they ran out of food at the restaurant I was at. Well, not completely out. I got a Cesar salad. But they couldn’t provide me with what I wanted because they were out of baked goods. How is that possible? It’s a long weekend. Don’t they plan?

And that was today.

Gonzo waits for the Easter Bunny

The thought of an unwitting rabbit coming by to drop off candy was too much for Gonzo. She stayed up all night waiting despite my assurances there would be no such visit.

Of course, this isn't a case of a cat with a sweet tooth. She couldn't give a hoot about candy. She wanted that "wascally wabbit." (She identifies very strongly with Elmer Fudd.)

Alas, it was a disappointing morning for Gonzo.

What happened to yesterday?

Very strange. I kinda woke up yesterday but kinda didn’t. I woke for a moment, experienced an acute sense of vertigo then was asleep again. In fact, I spent most of yesterday sleeping.

I did get out of bed for a while. But each time I did I would soon get the sense of vertigo again, as if I would pass out or have seizure. I think I may have had a nocturnal seizure (I’ve had them before) because my muscles, especially the lower parts of my legs, were in knots.

That sense of vertigo, or oncoming seizure or whatever it is, is a very odd sensation. It’s accompanied by an intense sense of déjà vu with all these images and familiar sensations flooding into your head. It’s almost like your brain going sideways or something. Very unsettling.

Anyway, the end result is I spent most of yesterday doing nothing but sleeping, reading, and sleeping some more. (I did manage to almost finish “The Ghost Writer” by John Hardwood – it’s a kind of a ghost story.)

I have no idea what to call what I experienced yesterday but I think it’s related to shifting weather systems. You know, warm southern wind suddenly shifing to cold northern wind or vice versa, air pressure shifting dramatically. At least, that’s about the only thing I can see is common to the times it has occurred in the past. I really have no idea what it is and thus far no doctor has been able to explain it to me.

Yesterday was a complete waste of a day.

New specs? Why, yes

As I examined the progress of the buds on the branches just off my balcony, I felt the urge to tell everyone I have new glasses. Yes, it’s the news the world has been waiting for. Everyone can get back to work now.

From the picture in which I'm somewhat dishevelled looking, it seems to me they look a good deal like the old ones but take my word for it, they are different. A bit geekier I think. But as long as they aren’t aggressively clunky, I can live with them.

However … Ahem, they are a slightly different than the old ones. To be specific, and in the interests of full disclosure, they are old man glasses. Yes.

In a neat bit of linguistic sleight-of-hand, they are “progressive lenses.” This is the nice way of saying they are bifocals. Although my eyes are stunningly healthy (or so says the ophthalmologist) and the prescription has not changed, I am near-sighted and it has been driving me nuts taking my glasses off and then putting them back on all the time. And I read a lot. And I’m on my computer a lot. And it’s a pain in the ass.

The answer? Progressive lenses. Actually, this is an accurate description. Old school bifocals were two lenses jammed together. This is like a slow morphing from one lens to another and it’s more like about four different lens slowly progressing from one into another and back.

The end result is a wild ride. It’s like being three sheets to the wind all the time without being drunk. You know, the whirlies each time you look at something new.

I’m slowly adjusting. But I’ll have to check my birth certificate again to see just how old I am. I’m sure these are my Dad’s glasses. Good grief!

Flashing fiction at JJ's

I've managed to get off my butt and post something for Flash Fiction Friday #32, over at JJ's (Purgatorian). I guess you could call it a ghost story of sorts. Whatever it is, it's:

The porcelain urns

Tag: Fiction, Flash fiction, Sunday stories

A few asides; some passing mumblings

I have new glasses. They’re driving me crazy. For a number of reasons. I hope to explain those reasons in a future post, one I’m sure the world is anxious to read. For now, I’ll leave it at this – repeating: they’re driving me nuts. I’ll endeavor to adjust.

Meantime … I watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tonight. It took me by surprise in that it is a big movie, lots of special effects and yet manages to actually be a good movie. I just about fell out of my chair. It is easily the best “big” movie I’ve seen recently. Of course, it actually had a story. That had a lot to do with its success.

I’m not working now. I won’t be working again till a week from Tuesday. And I haven’t planned my time off, so I don’t have to run around doing nonsense – like getting up early to catch a plane, packing and so on. I can simply wake up and go, “Hey! I don’t have to anything today.”

I like that.

I like that a lot.

I took next week off

Did I mention that? I took next week off. What do I have planned? Not working. Not thinking about work. Not giving a monkey’s bottom end about anything connected to work.

I could have gone to Mexico. The opportunity presented itself. But it was last minute. It would have involved a lot of running around getting things in place and so on. But the week off is about not running around. So it seemed a poor idea.

Besides, sunny places don’t have nearly the same appeal now that the sun has returned dragging spring behind it to this part of the world. I rather like it here, to tell you the truth.

So I’d rather be home and doing whatever passes through my ramshackle head to do.

My guess is there will be at least one half-interesting post here next week since I’ll have time to actually think. And the odds are good I’ll be into the wine at least once. I may even post about some of the things I’ve threatened to post about, like 3 a.m. camping in the middle of nowhere Alberta wearing nothing but chaps and boxer briefs (I get the willies every time I conjure that image!).

By the way … anybody know any good spirit channelers? People in touch with the dear departed? I wanna do Carole Lombard.

More alarm clock issues

Instead of the CD player, I went with the radio to wake me up. I set it to a station that seemed inoffensive while I was reading late at night. I guess I wasn’t paying close attention.

This morning I woke to someone urging me to accept the salvation of Christ. There was also something to do with a haven. Possibly in Califonia. It was a pleasant, if insistent voice. And whoever it was had concerns about The Da Vinci Code.

I recall groggily muttering, “For heaven’s sake, it’s a book, pal. Fiction. Get over it!”

(For the record, the book’s an okay thriller. Extremely well paced but written with pretty pedestrian prose.)

How did I manage to set my alarm to a station like that?

Another aside: the other day I watched the movie Domino. It is easily the stupidest movie I’ve seen in a very long time. Great example of cinematic gibberish. I would recommend seeing it if only for seeing how bad bad gets but it’s also offensively awful with it’s 13-year old boy’s idea of cool violence.

How grown adults can spend their time working on crap like this and hold their heads up is beyond me.

Am I cranky? Yeah. (The money spent on that moronic movie could have been spent on something useful. That's the tragedy of movies like that - not that they are bad. There are bad movies that you can tell someone was at least trying to do something worthwhile. In the case of Domino, this is a cynical display of bad movie making. It gets worse in that they try to sell it by telling you about the great Tony Scott cinematic style. What a load of manure.)

Quirkiness - my weird habits & inclinations

As I look at these, I see they aren't really habits. But from Lushy, I got this meme and this is what I came up with. But I think these are not so much habits as inclinations. Personality traits and so on. Whatever they are, they are here:

1. I once took $20 from my father's dresser. I hid it in my room just to see how long it would take to forget that I had done it. I don't remember how long it took but I do remember my father wondering where his money was, me telling everyone what I done and no one believing my reason. But I swear - it wasn't about taking the money. It really was a test to see how the brain worked. Really. (I was quite young at the time.)

2. I am a totally different person on sunny days. I've got energy and optimism to burn. The difference in my personality amazes me. When the sun is shining, I actually believe I can do anything and I will live forever. I am, as a result, obsessed with light. A room cannot have enough windows for me.

3. I don't enjoy watching movies I like with other people because I am constantly wondering if they get it and, when they don't, I find it very discouraging. And I don't enjoy the movie.

4. I am a minimalist. I hate clutter. I like things neat and orderly. Yet I live in chaos and clutter, the only order in my world is on my computer(s).

5. I believe in God and I don't believe in God. But that's okay because I think faith without doubt is stupidity in fancy dress. I hate anti-religious people as much as I hate religious wackos. (Like there's a difference.)

6. I like shirts with collars only when wearing a tie. Otherwise, I hate collared shirts. I don't have any in-between. (And I really, REALLY hate those polo golf type shirts, or whatever they're called - you know, basically t-shirts with collars and asshole logos on them. Which is another thing I hate - logos on clothes. And brand names. Aghh!!!)

Wake me in the morning – good luck!

What can you do? You can’t win because you’re not supposed to. The game is fixed; the odds favour the house. My new alarm clock has failed me.

The one I had before had a radio that didn’t work so I was forced to use the annoying beep function. It was like waking each day with a dentist’s drill going into my skull incrementally. Unpleasant to say the least.

This new clock allows me to wake to CDs – or so it says. Well, several days have dawned without the CD player waking up. So no alarm sounds. I’ve wakened to the panic of lateness.

It did work one morning though. And I discovered my plans for a kinder, gentler waking experience didn’t play out so well.

I put in the soundtrack to the movie The Terminal. It always struck me the opening track, Tale of Victor Navorski, had a morning quality to it. (Don’t ask why.) The entire soundtrack has a nice, oddball feel to it.

Anyway … it went off. A kinder, gentler waking. It was so pleasant I immediately went back to sleep.

The point of this whole indulgent aside posing as a post is that the entire week was screwed up by me waking up way too late and running around like a lunatic because of it.

There’s got to be a better way of getting up in the morning. Something that doesn’t involve trauma.

(By the way ... have you noticed that when you write quickly you tend to use lots of cliches like "kinder, gentler"? Well, I do. And I've noticed.)