Let the madness begin

Indianapolis, 2008

Rock on.

A+

Hello winter... already!?

Once again, the lack of blogging covers me with shame much like mucus covers a slug.
Other things that cover me in a similar fashion...

Homework
Ungraded papers
Crumbs (I'm a messy eater in the morning)

Not enough time to even reflect on this post. Many papers need grading. Many papers need proofreading. One paper needs to be finished soon. Argh.

A+

Good golly...

Golly gee... has it been this long since I last blogged. I'm, frankly, shocked by this.

I seem to notice lately that time is no longer passing in days. It passes me in weeks now, and I notice only at the end of a week that something has changed. I once asked my mother how she felt about time and she gave me a similar response, saying that as kids, Summer is an eternal playground that never really seems to end, and that school always seems twice as long. For adults, the months mark a change, and eventually the seasons mark changes. Scientifically I suppose there are lots of ways to explain it, but for me it's just strange suddenly realizing that I no longer really feel like I have time at my disposal anymore. Busy-ness is a bad thing.

As for me, it's been a full 3 years of grad school, I'm starting what feels like my "senior" year all over again, just with a different place name. At the same time, I feel like a sophomore having just completed my first year of Doctorate.

Time confuses me. That's all I can say right about now.

A+

New Poem Night

Last night was great. I felt confident about my work (after the fact, of course) and got a great response from the audience. All of the new poems during the open mike were top notch, so much talent in the group, good coffee, haikus about Marsupials... who could ask for more.

I read:
The Amish Mafia Guy
Dance Magic Dance
Tooth Fairy
Bone Structure
On The Proper Response
Inevitable


I will get around to posting these somewhere soon...

Back to work now!

A+

Brief update...

Okay... poetry fans unite. Here's what I've been working on:

Poem about death - one of the only serious poems I've done recently
Poem about a disappearing pipe organ - Meet Sister Mary Louise, Father Garret, and their quest to stop the organ (UPDATE find this poem HERE)
Poem about the French Tooth Fairy - mmm... warm bread
40 pounds of lard - and don't even think about taking any, it's all MINE
A poem about abolishing bone structure - flop your arms about for a while... now imagine if you had no bones... oh yeah, you get where I'm going with this!

Short and sweet.

A+

I know they're better than this...

An open letter to the Canadian Film Board,

Okay... I've seen four of your films now, films that have been dubbed classics. Kamouraska, Maria Chapdelaine, Mon Oncle Antoine, and Jesus de Montreal. I must say that of these four films, only one was any good.

Come on Canada... I know you're better than this. Kamouraska may have been the worst two hours I've spent watching a film in the last ten years. Maria Chapdelaine, NO FUN AT ALL. Mon Oncle Antoine, a pre teen choir boy watching a barely clothed woman bouncing on a couch (seriously, did you go into the future and find footage from the Man Show?) and this after he gets drunk and loses a body that he's bringing back to the funeral home.

I loved Montreal. I really liked Quebec City. Your people are nice, friendly, serve good food, play nice music. Winter sucks, I'll give that to you, perhaps you came up with all of these film concepts in the middle of winter after getting stuck in the snow and having to kill a bear and crawl inside of its stomach to keep warm (seriously, do you guys still do that, because it sounds pretty darn cool if you do).

SO... I think I have one film left to watch in this class. It better be good. I'm giving you another chance.

Don't screw this up, please.

A+ (but your films are right now D+)

Quarterly stuff...

I've read three French-Canadian books so far this quarter and, as I recall from having read a few during my Undergrad Years, they are still depressing and deal with snow, starvation, misery, and death. Surprisingly enough, the current cycle of books also deals with Incest, Alcoholism, and Race Wars between the English and the French Canadians.

Uplifting stuff... let me tell you.

The films... oh yeah, even better.

Nevertheless, if you wish to give any of these books a try here they are.

Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hemon - boring, like Little House on the Prarie without any of the good family times.
Une saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel by Marie Clair-Blais - Incest, Pedophelia, etc. A real scream. Read it on the weekend when you can shower in between chapters.
La Guerre, Yes Sir! by Roch Carrier - Interesting... All about war, but in a very non-traditional narrative way.

Up next... Kamouraska by someone I have forgotten. I should really look that up, or at least purchase the book since I should probably have it read by the end of the weekend.

A+