Friday, December 12, 2008

How a 42-year writer is like a 108-year old vampire that is a bit manic depressive and might kill you if he has sex with You.....

Okay, I know, I know I have become way too obsessed with popular vampire fiction. But you know what? I don’t care! I like it. It’s dangerous and sexy and hot and tragic. And it helps me get through my humdrum days of boring, un-dramatic relationship problems when I can imagine I’m actually caught up in some sexy vampire werewolf love triangle or am spending my last moments with my vampire soul mate before we are both killed by the Volturi; or am innocently trying to seduce my vampire boyfriend while he tries to be “good” and not drain my blood.

I think it’s like that whenever you read a lot of first-person narrative. You start noticing things the protagonist would notice. You start comparing things in your life to things in the protagonist’s life. Now I know 42 is nothing close to 108 but since I seem to talk and act like I am 15 years old, at times it can feel like a monumental difference. He says some funny expressions that sometimes makes me think that he has lived through the black plague, the civil war and the women’s suffrage movement. Like the other day I was just like petty mad about something and he tugs on my arm and was like “Why are you acting so cold?” I totally had to bite my tongue, but inside I was like “what is this 1881?” And that tiny quick-witted quip starts me on another daydream. It is 1881. I am a suffragette and an carrying a parasol and wearing petticoats marching through the streets of London when a dark-haired stranger with a huge widow’s peak and an heavy gait saves me from being pelted with pebbles from the angry throngs of pig-headed men. It’s all confusion and chaos as a riot breaks out and I am disoriented amongst the masses. But he leads me through the crowds and down a dark alley where he grabs me by the shoulders and.... you know.... like drains all my blood. And then I look up and he’s like “What’s wrong with you? Now You’re giving me the silent treatment too?” I can’t very well be like oh I was daydreaming you were a vampire in the 1800s again. I already have reached my threshold of teen girl teasing from this one. There is no room for any more.

The Daydreaming happens more often than I’d like. I’d say for the last two months, if I’m not with him, I’d reading about Vampires, talking about vampires, talking about him, thinking about vampires, thinking about him, googling vampires (like the stars of the movie, the behind the scenes stuff about the authors and movie and TV shows... nothing like how do I actually become a vampire, I’m not that far-gone!), or like with my parents or at Bikrams. The two were bound to collide in my small pea-sized brain someday.

Sometimes when he is lecturing me about safety or rudely making me nervous about my trip by creating crazy What-if scenarios and sending me horror-stories of women raped and beaten in Buenos Aires, I try to not stomp my foot like a 10 year old or do the whole Nyah Nyah Nyah Nyah thing with my fingers stuck in my ears, but imagine that he is nervous about my safety because he is so old and he has seen so many terrible things and he sees himself as my world protector (although the whole he won’t carry my groceries anymore in an attempt to prepare me for lugging my backpack around Argentina for 15 days doesn’t really jibe with this particular daydream). Sometimes I imagine that he was a poet laureate in WW1. So as the battles at Flanders Fields were being fought and the battles on the Western Front were being waged, he strolls the sidelines watching young men getting shot at and blown to bits and he quietly writes down his reflections like a fly on the wall unable to help or engage with the soldiers in any way. He enters the barracks and sees the cruel hazing amongst comrades and feels the undercurrent of fear and loss through everyone. But he isn’t able to help them through their pain or even tell a few fresh jokes to clear their heads for a few minutes because he is not one of them. He sees all the pain in the world; he sees the worst of humanity but remains disengaged from it all.

The daydreaming is fun for the most part. I almost always “awake” back to reality with a smile on my face. But the Carl Jung part of me would say I am obviously subverting my personal fears for the relationship behind a superimposed heightened reality in order to save my psyche from acute self-awareness. (thank you damned 3rd-year Psychology elective). I don’t really want to deal with the problems we have. So I imagine we don’t have those problems. I imagine we have the problems that can be resolved in a 600 page novel (well a four-part series, is more accurate I guess).

I guess it all stems from wondering if he really likes me. Who is the chasee and who is the chaser? I thought I was the chasee at first and I would say like 60% of the time I still do. But in the most important times, I feel like the chaser. Like a very inadequate chaser that stumbles around in the dark and falls asleep with a kitty cat at her feet but wakes up with a birds nest on her head. So I dream. I dream about what it would be like if early to bed really meant early to bed because if we stay up I might have sex with you and kill you by accident. I dream that t is enormous self-restraint that keeps us apart not lack of attraction or the building piles of work waiting for him the next day. I dream that one day there will be broken bed frames and holes in the walls and bruises and fang marks all over my body. I dream about it all. And then I wake up.

Monday, December 8, 2008

TV Placement killed the Video Star

There was a time when song and video went hand in hand. What is Teen Spirit by Nirvana without the iconic image of the anarchy cheerleaders and the chubby janitor headbanging away? What is The Scientist by Coldplay without the images of the backwards car crash? These were both iconic songs and iconic videos. But nowadays the only songs that really have videos that stick in your head are those few that get overplayed so much on radio you are ready to murder the tuner. I mean I love T.I.’s Live your Life song as much as anyone and even like Katie Perry’s Hot N Cold but I swear those are the only two music videos I ever see on TV anymore. Let’s face it. Music videos are not on music video channels much anymore. MTV will show a few seconds of new music videos if you’re lucky and Much Music will basically only show you Jonas Brothers or Simple Plan music videos or shows making fun of music videos (I love you Video on Trail but you are on like 20 times a day).
Today new music is brokered not through the dead radio format or the newly buried music videos; it’s found through television shows and commercials. At one time it was considered selling out but these days artist have few other choices with both radio and music television refusing to embrace new genres and take risks. For new artists it is a great opportunity to get their music out there and up their MySpace hits. For television shows it’s instant cool cache. The more indie the featured artist is, the more allure he/she hold for fans eager to find something new and already crowned cool by the tv execs who manufacture their favourite show.

When’s the last time you saw a Bright Eyes video? I would say maybe never? A quick Youtube search shows that he has plenty but I’ve rarely seen any. But I’ve downloaded over 20 of his songs and he routinely sells out 3,000 seat venues in minutes wherever he tours. I mean who can forget the first “Chrismakuah” episode of the O.C. with Blue Christmas by Bright Eyes? Or when “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” by Bright Eyes was featured in that hawt make-out scene between Marissa and Volchuk in Season 3? Or where would Snow Patrol be without “Chasing Cars” in Grey’s Anatomy at the end of Season 2 when Denny Ducette dies and Izzie is so upset in her pink prom gown?

I’m not sure what show started this trend, but I definitely know which shows do it best: Any Josh Schwartz-produced show, (The O.C., Gossip Girl, Chuck), Greys Anatomy, One Tree Hill, So You Think You Can Dance, Brothers and Sisters. Actually any melodrama works well.. Come to think of it, I think I even remember learning new music off the original 90210, like in the later years when they had the Peach Pit After Dark and like Toni Tony Tone played there, and Brian McKnight and Christina Augerila, and R.E.M..... Now none of these acts were really indie darlings or new discoveries by any means but they all hit a new cache of cool when they appeared on the hit show and I am definitely from the school of anything cool that happens on teen serials happened first on 90210.

All in all I think it’s for the best. Finding new music through television shows forces you to go out and find music as opposed to radio and music video channels that just spoon-feed you everything you are supposed to like. Undoubtedly by searching out an artist’s MySpace or downloading their featured single on itunes, you are exposed to more of their music and maybe even other artists similar to them if you are perceptive enough or so inclined to follow the consumer bread crumbs.

It’s a bit sad though. I mean there are a lot of artists still making very interesting videos like the Ting Tings, Radiohead, Rosin Murphy. But their videos get little play on music television. So your choice is either watch new videos on Youtube or just create your own music videos in your head. Just don’t be surprised if your mental music video contains steamy scenes from last week’s Gossip Girl.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Um... Like You Should Be a Writer or Something!

Wow! What a novel idea! OMG NOBODY has ever suggested that to me! Actually all my life I’ve wanted to be a secretary. I used to write next to my goals in grade school right next to wanting to be a princess and wanting to be the head coach of the Canucks.
Hey buddy, here’s an interesting idea how about you take your preconceived notions about what makes someone a writer and shove it! It’s not the 1980s anymore. People aren’t defined by what they do from 9-5 pm. I’m a sister 24 hours a day and nobody ever calls me that ( well except of course for my sister).

A job is a job. And I shouldn’t be judged on whether I seem too smart for the job or what my motivations are for the job. I should be judged on whether I can do the job. And you know what? I can. It’s not brain surgery. Don’t try to cram everything you learned in your three-week Human Resources workshop into a series of juggling acts for a basic admin job. Get over yourself. It’s not that hard.

Humpfh!!!!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

I Can Make Love to A Crocodile

I’ve never liked ‘the oldies.’ They bug me and a lot of the time it all sounds like the same droning mid-tempo elevator music. Gives me a headache! But lately I’ve developed a new appreciation for the ‘oldies.’ At least some of them. I like the blues. I like the down in the gutter; going to shoot myself with a bb gun and make you watch blues. I like the I’m so poor, so desperate so drunk that I can’t even keep my words apart blues.

Have you ever heard of Koko Taylor? She sings this song called I’m a Woman and it so raw, so gutter, so real. I love it!
Here’s a sampling of the lyrics:

When I was a little girl Only twelve years old
Couldn't do nothing
to save my dog gone soul
My mama told me.
the day I was grown
She says "Sing the blues child, Sing it from now on".

I'm a woman,
oh yeah
I'm a woman, I'm a ball of fire
I'm a woman, I can make love to a crocodile
I'm a woman, I can sing the blues
I'm a woman, I can change old to new


I also decided I love It’s a Man’s World by James Brown. Now the James Brown I know was all hip shaking and hooting and hollering. But this song shows a desperate and vulnerable James Brown. It is so sexy. (It doesn’t hurt that I first heard this song when Nico and Arrasay danced contemporary to it on SYTYCDC).

My next favourite right now would have to be Van Morrison. Now I am not so dim to have never heard of Van Morrison. I promise. I knew who he was. I knew he influenced everyone from Elvis Costello to Jay Z. But I only was familiar with his big hits like Brown-eyed Girl and Moon Dance. The best song of his has to be “Do Go to Nightclubs Anymore.”

I'm not a legend in my own mind
Don't need booze to unwind
Don't have no reason to pretend
Ain't got no huckleberry friend
Alcohol was too big a price
That why I said hey no dice
When it comes to men or mice
Don't go to nightclubs no more.

I bought four new CDs online on Monday but I’ve barely listened to them (although I have listened to 808s and Heartbreaks a lot and it is so genius! Oh and the Virgins EP is so infectious I feel like shaking convulsively every time it comes up on my iPod.) I am obsessed with my oldies favourites right now.
Does this mean I am officially getting old???

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

30s the new 20, yo, I’m so hot STILL!!!

I don’t know why I always hated my birthday when I was younger. Actually I do, but that’s a story that involves a trip to the Shrink’s couch and some 2-ply tissue. I want to talk about fun stuff today.

I think maybe when I was about 28 I started being like OMFG my birthday’s coming! Where are you taking me? What nice things are you going to say to me? What are you getting me? Not out loud of course, that would be rude and presumptuous. But I love the idea of people taking you places and being extra nice to you and you know loving you long time.

This year I will be all by myself on my real birthday. Away from my friends and family and my cat. But I don’t know. It doesn’t exactly sound scary to me. It sounds exciting; adventurous. Maybe I’ll be travelling across the world’s biggest waterfall on my birthday. Maybe I’ll be at a boca juniors football game on my birthday. Maybe I’ll be tangoing on the cobble streets of Buenos Aires on my Birthday. Maybe I’ll be getting spa treatments and getting shitfaced in the hotel bar on my birthday. I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing but I’m sure it will be fun.

And then when I get back I hope to celebrate over and over again with everyone I know and love.

Traiga en el 30s sucio!!!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Top Five Reasons I’d Rather Sleep with me Cat than HIM!

1. The cat may scratch my arms and legs in his sleep but at least he doesn’t burn my face with his three-day old beard or rip my hair out with his damn Mexican silver rings that he won’t even take off at bedtime.

2. The cats only wakes me up once at 7:30 am wanting to be fed, while he wakes me up intermittently to ask random questions about his latest article/story/upset feeling in his tummy.

3. When I wake up from a nightmare, the cat either runs away or stares up at me quizzically. I prefer that over the pseudo-Freudian mumbo-gumbo that makes the possibility of getting anymore sleep that night almost nil.

4. The cat likes to cuddles and then goes away to its own section of the bed, while he flops on top of it all and claims the bed like a conquering explorer ploughing over everything that was there before.

5. The cat may sniff at something funny but I have yet to hear him ask when was the last time I washed the sheets!


**DISCLAIMER** This is about no one in particular, more like an appropriation of many men exaggerated for effect! I love you long time!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Barack the Future

Every time the American election rolls around we get sucked in. It’s easy to see why. The campaigns are louder, flashier, and sexier. But for the last eight years and the bells and whistles have been for naught. In 2000 it was all for naught over 543 votes. Not to get all slogan-y and cheesy but I think a change might be coming this time.

Barack Obama is one of the most eloquent speakers I have ever heard. I have a feeling that if he wins the election, he will go down as one of the most influential leaders of our time. Although I really loved Hilary Clinton and think that she would have made an excellent president she definitely did Not have the same star quality/ everyman mentality of Obama. Obama is like the guy next door but also very enigmatic. The only other president who comes to mind with the same quality is JFK.

What has really set Obama apart is his ability to stir the masses. His huge rallies have attracted 100s of 1000s of supporters and his ability to cater to both the rich company owners that donate to his campaign and the everyday people that would be the most impacted by his policies.

“You got these $10,000-a-plate dinners and Golden Circles Clubs. I think when the average voter looks at that, they rightly feel they're locked out of the process. They can't attend a $10,000 breakfast and they know that those who can are going to get the kind of access they can't imagine.”

He’s got the uber-rich so stirred by his policies and the prospect of change that they don’t realize or maybe don’t even care that they will be paying 20% more in taxes annually under Obama’s leadership. The fact that he is half-black, that he can actually speak (unlike the last Democratic candidate John Kerry), and that he is young and full of idea has really galvanized his position not only in America but across the world. But even he seems all the hoopla as extreme. He is just a man not some “MAVERICK” who is going to change America’s image around the world in 6 months ( sorry, Joe Bidden. I am actually NOT hoping for a crisis in the first 6 months of 2009, thank you!). He will have problems getting his bills passed just like every president.

“It's crucial that people don't see my election as somehow a symbol of progress in the broader sense, that we don't sort of point to (me) any more than you point to a Bill Cosby or a Michael Jordan and say, "Well, things are hunky-dory." There's certainly racism here. Professors may treat black students differently, sometimes by being, sort of, more dismissive, sometimes by being more, sort of, careful because they think, you know, they think that somehow we can't cope in the classroom.”

Barack is something everyone can swallow. He’s black, but not full-black. He’s against the war but supports the troops and the Iraqi people. He is rich and has rich friends and supports the free market but he wants to look after the impoverished.

“How does America find its way in this new, global economy? What will our place in history be? Like so much of the American story, once again, we face a choice. Once again, there are those who believe that there isn’t much we can do about this as a nation. That the best idea is to give everyone one big refund on their government—divvy it up by individual portions, in the form of tax breaks, hand it out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own health care, their own retirement plan, their own child care, their own education, and so on. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it—Social Darwinism—every man or woman for him or herself. It’s a tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say that those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford—tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job—life isn’t fair. It let’s us say to the child who was born into poverty—pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life’s lottery, that we’re the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won’t be the chump who Donald Trump says: “You’re fired!” But there is a problem. It won’t work. It ignores our history. It ignores the fact that it’s been government research and investment that made the railways possible and the internet possible. It’s been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools that allowed us all to prosper. Our economic dependence depended on individual initiative. It depended on a belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity. That’s what’s produced our unrivaled political stability.”

His opponents claim he is too idealistic and too inexperienced. That is definitely a valid point. But I believe his convictions and his ideas save him. He doesn’t have much experience in Washington and maybe that’s what America needs. Someone who has actually lived in America and understands its problems as a citizen and not a politician.

“Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face. So what they are going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know he--oh, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all of those other presidents on those dollar bills.”

I really hope America makes the right decision!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

F*** the Media....

Can you imagine a time when being a journalist was as reputed as being a doctor? Today's reporter is on par with divorce lawyers or used car salesmen in terms of respectability. Some people see the Internet age as the death of the media. We see it already in the slow and terminal decline of the newspaper. Why read something that is so big and clumsy everyday when the "news" in it is already at least 24 hours old? When was the last time you read a daily newspaper from cover to cover ( the Globe and Mail weekend edition does not count!)



The only thing in print media that is actually increasing in sales is tabloids and that triggers another rant on the hypocrisy of celebrity culture and its impact on the Western World as a whole.



But does the rise of the Internet really mean the end for trained journalists? We can see the scary world of convergence all around us when we turn on Global and see a Province news writer delivering his take on the latest Premier's address; or when we flick on the Fox and hear the weather girl from CTV giving the afternoon traffic reports. The loss of independent news Media also means the loss of jobs for those of us standing on the outside of the inner sanctum of the CanWest conglomerate. But that is a given. If I was the owner of Canwest I don't think I would pay one person to write the news in my newspaper and one person to say it on my TV station and one person to read it on my radio station. You don't need an MBA to see that convergence is just another way for the company bigwigs to squeeze those last drops of water out of a dry well.



Newspapers, radio and TV news are all battling for second fiddle status behind the fast and varied news sources available to us through the click of a mouse. News on the Internet engages the reader in a way news in the paper, on the radio or on television can't. In the Internet age, it is up to the reader to seek out what news they want to know about. The reader seeks out information they want either by subscribing to RSS feeds from sources they trust like the Guardian, the Tyee or StreetNews or by actively searching out what stories they are interested in learning more about. While a snippet heard on the radio or flipped to during a commercial break of the Hills may pique the readers interest it is on the Internet that most readers will head to seek the full story.



It's almost a given that the article in the newspaper or the 2 minute story on the 5 o'clock news doesn't give the full story. TV news is edited for time and maximum impact. Articles in the paper are edited for length and often coloured by the bias of the writer and the publisher. Most conventional forms of news are dumbed down to reach the masses. However, on the Internet you can find news stories that are dumbed down and in-depth and told from a variety of angles.

I believe that the times when the newspaper or the 6 o’clock newscast would shape our days and impact change across communities is gone if it ever existed. The media is not that altruistic. The readers and watchers are not that gullible. Well, I’m sure some are. But those are the same people that buy whatever record gets the most airplay on the radio from Payola. I know there are a lot of people like that but I would argue those are not the people changing the world or contemplating running for office.

Newspapers and newscasts need to embrace technology and encompass it into their approach to news. We can already see that with newspaper websites and in-depth videos available online. But in order for them to continue to hold onto whatever small percentage of the media share they hold they need to increase their web presence. They need to invite pundits and local activists to write online columns and commentary on the stories in the papers and on the news. This would help to stimulate dialogue and help reach that lofty goal of inspiring change within the community. Without embracing the Internet more, the media as we know it will continue to dwindle and suffer from a lack of understanding and a lack of active readership.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Ravi's Birthday!

Ravi turned one year old today! And what a day it was. He went outside for the first time.  He wore a leash for the first time. He wore a dress for the first time. He growled at someone for the first time.  My little guy is growing up!!!

Monday, September 8, 2008

The Hottest Things in Pop Culture Right Now...

(in no particular order)

1. Britney won 3 MTV awards! It's britney Bitch! She seemed so sweet and happy and appreciative. Woot Woot Brit Brit is back in full effect!

2. The new NKOTB album, "The Block" Don't even front. It is sooo good! Grown Man and 2 AM are the best songs!
I <3 U Donnie! See you in November! I'll be the one wearing the top hat wih the lid cut out of it to let my curls out a la Joey McIntyre in 1989.

3. Gossip Girl. OMFG this show is da bomb and I don't care how much I get teased for liking teen shows. I know there are lot sof almost 30-year olds (and older) who watch this show ( just none that I have actually met in real life). I see lots of older GG fans in the cyber world.

4. BARACK-MANIA: Am I the only one fascinated by all these BARACK t-shirts? Is this really the way to make it seem like he is right man to lead the United States? Sell t-shirts endorsing him to 15 year olds at Urban Outfitters for $30? Although I will admit I want the BARACK to the FUTURE one so bad!




5. NEW MUSIC:
omg! there is so much hot music on the radio right now. I haven't used my ipod in the car for like 2 weeks! new Kayne West, new Christina Augerila, rumbling of new Britney, new T.I., Neyo.... I think I might even buy lil Wayne! woot woot!

Don't You Forget About Me.

As you walk on by
Will you call my name?
As you walk on by
Will you call my name?
When you walk away
Or will you walk away?
Will you walk on by?
Come on - call my name
Will you all my name?
So I know I seem to have a lot of crippling insecurities that keep me from having as much fun as I like and saying what I mean about 80 per cent of the time. I understand that. That's just the way it is. Love me or lump me as they used to say...
But I want to know, what are YOU doing? What are you thinking about? Who are you thinking about?
I'm not obsessed or anything. Just sometimes when ther's nothing on tv and I'm waiting for my brown rice to come to the boil I stare at the espresso machine and see the weird stain you left on the coffee pot that time when you left the element on all day. Or when Ravi draws blood or I do my weekly count of cat scratches I think about the time he scratched your scalp and made you bleed. I wonder if you still have a scar? I wonder if you tell people a kitten almost clawed your brain out while you slept.
If so, do you say it was some random girl's kitten? An ex-girlfriend's kitten? Do I rate a funny nickname like Neurotico or Hysterika? Do you use my actual name when you talk about me? Or am I just the "EX?" Or the uber-bitch?
I don't think about these things often, just once in a while. And it would be nice to know that you won't forget about me.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Where have all the curly-haired boys gone?

Is there a magical land that they trot off to after they hit their 27th birthday? Are they like the elusive unicorn that is often talked about but never seen? Do they slowly blow out rather than fade away into the obscurity that follows with lacklustre locks and receding hairlines.


It’s depressing really. To think that all curly haired boys begin shaving their heads or the wiggly pigment in their hair begins to unwind and straighten up with the pressures of adulthood and responsibilities. I mean curly-haired women keep kicking it way into their 50s, becoming free-spirited hippies or Soho artists or crazy ladies with many cats and wild, wavy hair.

I mean there is no lack of cute curly-haired babies:


Definitely, no lack in curly haired boys: ( I 3> you, Nick Jonas, and Corbin Bleu and Rupert Grint!)

Absolutely no lack of hot curly-haired guys: (OMG Brody Jenner, Adrien Grenier, Zach Mann, John Mayer, Eric Dane)

But where do they go when they hit 40 and above? They all seem to fade away. There are almost no over-40 actors in Hollywood with curly hair and none that I would consider good-looking. So what happens to them?

Where have all the curly-haired boys gone? Have they shorn their hair so short that you can barely see a single curlicue and taken up with a publicity hungry ex Top Model with an addiction to reality television a la Peter Brady?

Or have they all suffered a far worse fate becoming models for Halloween masks for crazy mad scientists?


The truth is out there.. keep the curlicues alive!


Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I make Lists III

My Favourite Flavours of Potato Chips Right Now:

1. Ruffles Sour Cream and Bacon
2. Lays Ketchup
3. Old Dutch Corn Chips Original Flavour
4. Lays Salt & Pepper
5. Smart Foods White Cheddar Popcorn


That is all.

I Make Lists II

My Favourite Pieces of Clothing Right Now:

1. My beige striped sweater.
2. My Purple Prairie Dress from Value Village
3. My White and Red peep-toe pumps
4. My Maxi dress from Joe Fresh
5. My Julia.... sigh....

That is all.

I Make Lists

Best songs out there right now:

1. “I’m not going to Teach your Boyfriend How to Dance with You,” The Black Kids. www.myspace.com/blackkidsrock
2. “Just Dance,” Lady Gaga. www.myspace.com/ladygaga
3. “Blind,” Hercules and Love Affair. www.myspace.com/herculesandloveaffair
4. “Cath,” Death Cab for Cutie. www.myspace.com/deathcabforcutie
5. “Shut up and Let Me Go,” The Ting Tings. www.myspace.com/thetingtings

That is all.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Melancholy and the infinite sadness....

Sometimes I get tired of being sad. It is very exhausting you know. Constant crying gives you bags under your eyes and gives you combination skin. It is true. Please don’t argue with me. I am an expert. But I’m kind of over it. Not happy, mind you, far from it actually. But not like manically depressed and sobbing.

I am melancholy and the infinite sadness. I am melancholy but I will be infinitely sad. So what of it? What should I do? I can only do so much? My mobility is limited by circumstance. I can’t exactly go travelling. I can’t bring myself to go out and party every night. I can’t lull around hanging out with friends.

I need to do something. I have been trying my best to hold back on the self hair cutting because even I’m getting tired of that. I need something new to devote some of my melancholy towards. My kitten is a good source of mindless time passing, but he has his limits and is too blind to really peak my interest for that long. I think I am a bit too old to develop an eating disorder or start cutting. Drug habits and alcoholism: it’s like been there done that. Writing is a bit too self-involved. There aren’t very many interesting vices or habits left to pick up? Maybe I will try juggling or become a porn addict....

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Tears dry on their own.....

You can feel it coming but usually it is a slow build. I’ll hear the news, say all the robotic responses I am supposed to say and then say good-bye. Then without the tinging fear in your voice to concentrate on there is nothing left to save me from my fears. Alone with my thoughts, I can’t help but replay the scenarios over and over again. The regrets, the worries, the pain, the forgotten promises and dreams yet realized. There’s nothing that can soothe the wounded soul.

So I’ll excuse myself. I just need a few minutes to compose myself. To wail and to rail and to scream and to complain and to whine and then I will be fine. Minutes pass and I feel a reprieve. I wash the smudged mascara off my face. Take a few deep breathes. I look at my reflection and see nothing but swollen eyes and a fake plastic smile. But it will have to do for now. I need to get back before too many people ask what happened to her.

So I head back. Tail between my legs. Head down; no eye contact. Just try to make it back to the safe haven of the computer without causing a scene. But as soon as I sit down I see the phone where the news came from. The harbringer of disaster: you feel like throwing it across the room in frustration. I see the balled up tissue I used before I realized this would be a “time out cry” not a “quietly so no one notices cry.”

And it all comes flooding back. First sniffles and then waves and waves of tears. Still, I make no eye contact with anyone. It seems like the safest route. Then my heart starts racing. I want to just get up and leave. I want to just quit and live under my comfy down quilt for the rest of my life. I want to do something but I can’t seem to help her no matter how much I try.

But I just stay seated. Take a couple of deep breathes. Stick my head between my knees and just try to calm myself down from the brink of delerium. But it’s not working. My attempts to remain inconspicuous have turned ridiculously obvious and I can’t seem to calm down or even just breathe evenly.

So I work up enough stamina to coherently say that I won’t be able to work the rest of the day and hightale it out of there. Finally beneath the shield of my sunglasses out in the open I can cry and sniffle as I please. And by the time I reached my car, my tears had dried on their own.

Monday, July 7, 2008

You Give Me Fever

Maybe it's the heat. Or maybe it's the constant barrage of weddings and babies and lovey dovey coupledom. But for some reason I keep noticing them. Everywhere. Cute ones, not so cute ones, ones that look like ones I've dated before, ones that look like ones I wanted to date before. In groups, in couples or all by their lonesome. They are everywhere. Ones that are looking at me; ones that are looking at someone else; ones that I wish were looking at me; ones that I wish were looking at someone else.

What do they like make up half the population or something?

Friday, July 4, 2008

Live Like You Were Dying

Everyone contemplates what they would do if they have only one or five or ten years to live. I would travel. I would call my high school sweetheart and tell him I still love him. I would sky dive. I would walk in the surf. I would give longer and tighter hugs. But would you do if you knew your mom had only five or ten years to live?

Would you still take that trip you’d been planning in the back of your mind for about ten years? Would you still skip out on Sunday dinners to go smoke pot with your ex-boyfriend? Would you remember the past since the future is just too scary to contemplate? Would you think about all the things she will probably miss or would think about everything she has already been a part of?

Take whatever kind of pull towards home that these thoughts conjure up inside you and then multiply that by 1,000. Now you know what it’s like to be an Indian daughter.
You know that 1991 song “Everything I Do, I Do It For You,” by Bryan Adams? Sure I guess it is supposed to be all romantic but from the first time I heard that song, I thought of my parents. If you are brown you know this old sob story. They left their upper middle-class jobs in India to come to Canada and work hard labour for 40 years in order to provide better lives for their children. And then we turn around and end up all emotionally unstable and (gasp) still unmarried.

Sometimes when I hear my mom talk about her nieces and nephews, I wonder if she is jealous that they are all married and settled. I mean at least I got my degree, but I am not exactly working a great job that she can brag to her friends about. I’m not sure how I turned out all weird and artsy and without an iota of corporate ladder ambition, but I know that it is not very brown of me.

Sometimes I think I will try and be a better daughter by meeting and dating brown people (such a bad idea, but that is a story for another entry), getting a better job, cooking Indian food and spending more time with her. It is exhausting. Most of the time I just want to cry and mope and curse the world. But there’s little time for that in between the visits, and the walks and the phone calls. Maybe that is a good thing but maybe not. The other day I found myself wondering when my life would be mine again and my instant gut reaction was in five or ten years.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

The More you Ignore Me, the Closer I Get

When you sleep
I will creep
Into your thoughts
Like a bad debt
That you can’t pay
Take the easy way
And give in
Yeah, and let me in

Anyone who takes relationship advice from Morrissey has issues. I understand that. But there is no doubting that the Mozfather take on relationships is eerily akin to my own. However it would be sorely off base to say I enjoy the thrill of the chase. That would imply that the ebbs and flows of the relationship inspire a surge of confidence in myself and my pursuit of what I want. I liken the experience to that of a kitten nipping and meowing at its owner’s feet; following him around incessantly until he is so tired of tripping over you that he finally picks you up.

But then once he picks you up, you realize that in mere moments he is going to realize that you have kitty breath and can do little more than look at him quizzically. So you scamper off. But then you still want to be with him. So you stay close and jump up for quick cuddles every now and again.

And the longer he stays away the more I wonder what he’s doing. Even if just a day goes by without a phone call or a text or an email I find myself unconsciously heading to the Market on Yates, or the Black Stilt or even just a wanderlust walk that lands me smack dab right in his neighbourhood.

It a bit sad, I guess. I mean what would my women’s lib sisters say if they heard me comparing myself to a kitten and referring to him as my owner? Not good.

He’s not that great, I know. It’s a go nowhere situation. But there’s something about him that keeps clobbering me over the head and dragging me back by my hair.

So uncool it’s cool again.... The personal blog is resurrected

I think it was Plato that said nothing is officially dead until someone says it is. By today’s standards of cyclic trends and mass consumerism, I think the more apt statement would be once the media says something is dead it’s time to bring it back to life. If personal blogs are really dead as most media savvy pundits are claiming (http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2008/06/24/PleasureBlog/), then I believe it’s time to resurrect what has died.
There will be changes. No more drunk photos; there’s always flickr for that (http://www.flickr.com/photos/preetadelic/)! No more boring, “this is what I did on the weekend” diatribes. If you want to know what I did last weekend, call me. No more lambasts about Britney Spears’ latest trauma or Amy Winehouse’s weekly conjugal visit to go see Blake, my Blake incarcerated. This is a blog about me. ME! If it interests you, great! If it makes you laugh or think even better. But ultimately it is for me to sort through my issues and go on and on about ME. Self indulgent, self-obsessed, over contemplating ME.

ENJOY:)

Thursday, January 3, 2008

When I close my eyes I see ELECTRIC......

Okay, like I'm no scientist and not good at math and whenever someone says I am a genius or a brainiac it's usually because I added something wrong. But i think, sometimes at night, when I close my eyes, I can actually see my brain working. Like these electrodes passing through my eyelids to my brain. It's like all these different rainbow colours and they look like veins or something moving at light speed. It's crazy, right? Or is it? Everything has to go through your brain to happen. And things still happen even when you are asleep. Maybe I am seeing the signals that are sent to my brain telling me to go to sleep or to breathe or to make sure I locked the front door.
They go in all different directions but always up usually stopping at one or more dead-ends before heading off my eyelid path into my brain. Maybe it's like a lot of different signals that meet in my eyelids before travelling together to my brain.
And what makes these signals choose a certain colour? Like is Red an emergency? Or Code Blue? Or is it different for each person?