Canadian girl out and aboot

I am reading a fantastic book called You couldn't ignore me if you tried . It's about the Brat Pack, 80s movies and John Hughes. I think it's going to inspire a little film fest over here :)

I've been feeling a little overwhelmed and here's why-

1. I've been working and driving a lot since the end of January. This is the busy season for ag conferences and so I've been on the go a lot. In the past 2 weeks, I have been to Leduc 3 times, Red Deer, and to a variety of meetings in Edmonton. Next week I'm in Morinville and Red Deer. The driving and the hours of listening do take their toll. However, I'm learning a great deal and it's hard not to get excited about my work and some of the things I do. Last week, I learned about the possibility of pennycress for biofuel. This plant is a weed, but produces better oil than canola, making it immune to the food vs fuel debate. The plant also has phytoremediative characteristics and can take metal out of soils. It's already been proposed as a growing project for Detroit. Actually, Detroit itself is very interesting right now. The destruction of the auto industry in the city has resulted in many opportunities for growth in urban agriculture. I'm going to keep my eyes and ears to the ground on this one.

Similarly, the urban sprawl in Calgary has also resulted in a variety of opportunities. I met a producer who is in charge of helping with the organization of a new farmers' market for Calgary- the Kingsland market. I'm going to do a story or two about it and am very excited about the project. So work is good, even though it's crazy busy.

2. My parents are in China. They flew there on March 16. My dad took a netbook with him, but I didn't hear from them for a few days, which made me a tad worried, mostly because my mom had a cold and I wanted to know that she was able to get into the country without getting quarantined. I wasn't sure if Dad could get through because of the Great Firewall situation. However, he managed to email from his gmail and he is getting emails from my hotmail, although he is unable to open my friend's Picasa photo albums. Parents are having a lovely time in China. However, it's weird to have so much limited contact with the parentals. I'll confess- I talk to the parentals almost every day. This is partly because they are my good friends and partly for security reasons. Since I live alone and travel all around the province by myself, it's good for at least one person to know where I am. When I go on long road trips, I call my mom when I am leaving and when I get back, so that she knows I am safe. I also email my parents frequently and send them links to interesting articles, youtube clips, etc. I feel like a bit of a baby because their absence definitely has an impact on me.


3. My computer has still not been fixed. It's with another tech and hopefully the problem should be resolved, but it does give me more challenges for working and I have a few deadlines that I need to meet. I might end up spending some time at an Internet cafe to get all these things done.

4. I need to sort everything out for my trip to Toronto, figure out what to where etc. This is a very cool opportunity, but it's basically a version of "So you think you're a poet" and I want to give a great performance and knock the judges' socks off.

5. One of my checks was extremely late. I was fretting a bit because I could really use that cash when I'm travelling to Toronto and have some expenses related to my dance recital and dance classes. Fortunately, it arrived and things will be good.

6. I have to acculturize Fergus to Henry and Mari. We went over there last week, and the two dogs were not best friends. Fergus is a very timid guy and Henry is extremely friendly. He jumped all over Fergus and Fergus growled, but as time went on, they sort of ignored each other and Fergus found some comfy places to sleep and hang out. I know that Mari will take very good care of Fergus and I hope that he does not cry too much when I leave him. He's a bit of a suck and a rather timid little guy, but I'm sure it will be fine.

Just writing this all out made me feel better. I'm also going to have a peaceful day alone, do some work, walk the dog, watch some DVDs, and go to the market. Tomorrow I teach my teen writing group and then I'm going to see Shanghai Express, which I've been trying to see for years. This is the movie that defined the concept of "dragon lady" and made Anna May Wong into a star.

Seriously, I've been really busy.

On Thursday, I went to see Last Train home , a documentary film created by a Chinese Canadian Lixin Fan. Fan was a broadcaster who moved to Montreal. His documentary "Last Train home" focusses on the annual trek home for Chinese New Year. Viewers are introduced to a family of migrant workers. The parents work in a factory together and send money home to their two children, who are being raised by the grandmother. Life is hard in the factory and the family communications are suffering. The daughter is torn between staying in the countryside and the life in the cities.

I won't tell you what happens, but this is quite a powerful documentary. It's disturbing to watch and gives you an understanding of what life is like for a Chinese migrant worker.

I've been working really hard the past few days and have been writing like a fiend. My brother and his Fiancee arrived late Friday night, along with my dog. So I now have to take care of Fergus in addition to my other duties. Believe me, I'm not complaining.

Saturday I did a bunch of errands and then went to see a presentation of Wen Wei Dance's Cock pit. The piece is a 70 minute contemporary dance number featuring 5 dancers. It was inspired by the 5 years that Wen Wei spent in Beijing as a Chinese dance student. Pheasant feathers symbolize the masculine in Chinese opera. In his piece, Wen Wei uses the feathers to show movement, competition, sexuality and masculinity. The piece featured 4 male dancers and one female dancer and was a moving, erotic and sexually charged piece. I enjoyed it a great deal, but thought it was just a little too long. Still ,it's been a long time since I enjoyed contemporary dance, and this was a treat.

Sunday I taught a workshop to 3 women who write for the Rat Creek press, a community newspaper on the north side of the city. We went through the basic journalism techniques and tricks and I had a really good time. Apparently I did a good job with the workshop, because I got a lot of compliments from the people who attended, which is always nice to hear.

Sunday night, I watched the Oscars (of course), which were kind of boring. I'm glad with all the wins (specifically that Avatar didn't win), but hope for a better show next year.

I'm having a hard time concentrating this morning. I definitely don't feel like working, and have done very little. Normally I start actually working at about 8 or 9, and today I've only written a few paragraphs.

I didn't actually watch the Grammys but just youtubed a bunch of the performances. Pink's was crazy. I can't believe that she was actually singing while being in that sling. It's obvious that she is in really good physical shape, as those movements that she was doing take a lot of body strength.

I don't have much to say about the Oscar noms except that I really don't want Avatar, James Cameron or Quentin Tarantino to win. There's a lot of ridiculousness in the noms this year. I don't plan to go see "A Serious Man" and I think that "A single man" should have been nominated for cinematography. I'm pretty happy with the best actress noms, and the best actor noms and it's nice to see "The Cove" and "Food Inc" receive recognition. They were both great docs. I'm also happy for the recognition for "District 9" and "An Education", and think that I'll have to get to "Crazy Heart" in the next couple of weeks.

On Friday I took part of the day off, did a bunch of errands and then went downtown to see "Nine." My verdict, great production numbers, low on plot. It's a bit like "Avatar" because you have to turn off your brain. In reality, all it is is a festival of boobs. Everyone's boobs are hoisted up to their chins and look amazing. Even Judi Dench displays an impressive rack in this movie. My annoyance with Nicole Kidman continues to grow, especially since she has now had so much botox that it has become difficult for her to move her face.

The camera seemed determine to linger on various breasts and was even more intrusive during a dance number starring Penelope Cruz. In that particular number, Cruz is wearing this tiny little body suit with an extremely thin strip of fabric between her legs. Actually, a lot of the outfits worn in this movie are tiny, and I think a Brazilian waxer must have been employed on set. There are a lot of crotch shots and I think I might have even seen her uterus in one dance move. It was rather disturbing and I felt slightly violated. So yeah, there are some great dance numbers, but I wouldn't run down to see this one. I'm curious as to how the Oscars treat it.

That night, it was Mari's birthday, so 8 of us gathered to go out for dinner. We had good food, but our waitress was probably baked out of her skull. She seemed VERY stoned. One of the diners at our table was celiac. He ordered the salmon, as did our friend Tom, a non-celiac. After they'd been eating for a while, the waitress came out and told us that the wrong plates had been delivered and that Clinton had been consuming gluten. I was more pissed about this than anyone else at the table, probably owing to my severe nut allergy. I had a hard time not glaring at the waitress.

Saturday I did more errands, walked around the area and did a bunch of things, then went to a wine and cheese at my friend Amanda's. Amanda has just cleared the over 30 milestone, and so there were a lot of people (and about 10 different cheeses) at the party. I decided to bring a tray of cut up pears, because I thought the fruit would go nicely with the wine and cheese. It was a massive hit and people just went crazy over those pears. So there's my recommendation to you if you are ever at a wine and cheese party and don't really know what to bring.

Oh, and I finished watching all of Glee. Interested to see what they'll be doing when it starts up again.

I decided to make 2 movie lists. One list consists of my top movies released in 2009 and the other includes my favourite films that were created in other years.


Released in 2009 (not in any particular order)

1. Up in the Air
2. State of Play (someone described this as a wet dream for journalists. I loved watching Helen Mirren yell at Russell Crowe)
3. District 9
4. Fantastic Mr. Fox
5. The Hurt Locker
6. An Education
7. 500 Days of Summer
8. Precious
9. Food Inc
10. Adventureland/Zombieland/I love you man

11. Cherry Blossoms (a German film by director Doris Dorrie released in January 2009. Watched on video at my parents' house. It's about life, death, grieving, family and identity. Brilliant and beautiful and sad.)

Mostly from the Great movies list-

I'm doing a project that involves watching all the movies mentioned on Roger Ebert's Great movies list. I have the book and refer to it (and other film criticism) after I watch the movies.

1. Ali, fear eat the soul- My first Fassbinder. A German film mainly about racism and love. Brilliant and disturbing.
2. Persona- Ingmar Bergman (Second Bergman) A short film about insanity and identity. Done in black and white, and like a stage play.
3. Woman under the Influence- Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands is perfect as a woman suffering from mental illness. This is hard to watch and so life like that I had to look away and take breaks while I was watching. You can also see how her illness affects her family.
4. Kiss of the Spiderwoman- (not on the Great movies list)- Two men, Raul Julia and William Hurt, are cell mates in a South American prison. Great dialogue and tension, mainly created by the 2 actors.
5. Who does she think she is?- An American documentary that Mari and I saw in the theatre. It's about women creating art, and the challenges of balancing art with motherhood.
6. Giant- An epic film about an oil, and rich families. I never really understood all the fuss about James Dean, but now I get it. Liz Taylor is also brilliant. This was the first film that featured young actors who were shown aging through the effects of makeup.

7. Pandora's Box- a German film starring Louise Brooks as a loose woman. She's so fun to watch that this one made my list.

8. Strangers on a Train (not on great movies list)- Another brilliant Hitchcock film.

9. The Last Picture show (not on great movies list)- Set in a small Texas town which is dying out. Starring a young Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges in his first film role. Good dialogue, interesting story, etc.

(I am going to track all the movies I watch in 2010, as I did a piss poor job.)

I just got the funniest Xmas card from a friend. As most people know, I love Leonardo DiCaprio. My friend Sunni just sent me a postcard with a picture of Leo from Romeo and Juliet. On the back the card reads, "My Heart will go on at Christmas and year-round." She signed it from Leo, but I could tell that it was from her from the handwriting. It's hilarious! I laughed really hard when I saw it.

We've been living in a deep freeze here. The cold started on Saturday. I woke up and completely wimped out. I was determined to stay inside, but my friend Ben offered to pick me up and take me to the Edmonton Journal bookfair. Once I decided to go out, I was okay. I ended up bundling up and walking to the farmer's market, so I left my house even before Ben came to get me. The bookfair was a blast. We listened to some children's writers, then talked to Todd Babiak via Skype. Todd was in France, but his Internet connection died. So he ran to a bar and we could talk to him while he was in the bar, surrounded by French patrons. Then his French friend came onto the connection and talked to us for a long time. We heard some other writers read, but one of the highlights was definitely the security guard at the Journal. He is a writer and journalist who is in exile from Iraq. He has continued to write his poetry and fiction and has written a book that was copyedited by one of the Journal writers. So he read his poetry in Arabic, and then his friend read it in English. It was very cool. After this, Ben took me on a tour of the Edmonton Journal newsroom and I tried to identify various writers by their desks.

That evening, I went to a party. It was in the -40s but I walked the 10 blocks there instead of starting my car. I have a great winter system. I have a very warm parka and I wear a tuque and a face warmer. Then with my boots, mitts and cords, I'm good to go. The only exposed skin is around my eyes, and the only thing that really gets cold is the area between my boots and my parka. So basically, I had cold knees.

The party was quite fun although no one was dressed up and everyone left at about midnight, due to the cold. I ended up talking to a high school drama and dance teacher and an engineer whose wife is doing a masters' in international development. He and his wife had just done some overseas work in Zambia, and it was quite interesting to hear about.

On Sunday, I stayed home the entire day. I did not get dressed or change clothes until 8 at night, when I changed into a different set of pyjamas. I read 2 newspapers, watched two movies (The Apple and the Triplets of Belleville) and read most of "The Bishop's Man" by Linden MacIntyre. I think I'm going to have pyjama day every couple of months. It was wonderfully refreshing.

Today my brother called me at 8 a.m., wondering where our parents were. Please note that my brother lives in the same city as them, while I do not. I had talked to them on Friday, but immediately became concerned since it is so damn cold. I was imagining them stranded in a snowbank somewhere. So I called them repeatedly, and found out that they're okay and fine, although their water has been shot off for a few hours due to a water main break. The ironic thing about this is that my brother went to Calgary without telling them, and then he was concerned that they went away without telling him. Weird.

I will only be in meetings for two days in December, which is completely lovely. It's wonderful. I'm finding it a welcome change to be in the city. It's also good as people are hosting parties and activities and I can attend them. I still have a backlog of stories to write for work and have been wading my way through them. Yet I've also been reading, writing a new short story, watching movies and doing a whole bunch of errands and Xmas shopping type things.

Last week I went with my friend to play pub trivia. I was very excited, as I love trivia games. Unfortunately, the games were cancelled, but I still got to hang out with a bunch of new people, which was cool.

We had a blizzard on Friday. I decided that I wasn't going to drive anywhere, which was genius. I did a few errands earlier in the day, but then spent the rest of the day at home, which was divine. Fortunately it snowed a lot, so I can now start skiing! I'm going to get my skis waxed tomorrow.

I went to see "Precious" this week and really recommend it. It's a rough story, but it's really about empowerment and how people can help one another and survive. Forgot that it was produced by Oprah and go see it because of the incredible acting. (I did cry twice)

Today I attended my dress rehearsal for the dance recital tonight. My sequin bra DID NOT arrive, but I have a pretty halter top and I got some compliments on that, so I felt okay about my costuming choice. Our rehearsal went well. Unfortunately, there was a wardrobe malfunction in one of the groups ahead of us. One of the women was dancing and her nip popped right out of her bra. No one in the class seemed to notice, but a few of the dancers in the audience did. I went over to tell the teacher afterward so she could tell her dancer. I felt bad for causing some embarrassment for her, but I thought I'd better tell someone so that it didn't happen in the actual performance. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the recital tonight.