March 2010
“There’s always been a strong and distinctive American distaste for...”
– David Foster Wallace in a 1993 interview with Larry McCaffery for Dalkey Archive Press, quoted by Zadie Smith in her essay Brief Interviews with Hideous Men: The Difficult Gifts of David Foster Wallace from Changing My Mind.
February 2010
Yesterday we drove up to the Blue Mountains (Oz’s carpeted Grand Canyon) and walked around Katoomba and Leura.
1 tag
Hey Canada:
What’s the status of the flu epidemic these days? Are people still freaking out about the piggy one? Or did things settle down over the winter?
I’ve spent the last 3 months in the southern hemisphere so I haven’t built up any immunity to this year’s winter viruses (I know, poor me, wah wah). I’ve started taking a daily homeopathic thing that makes your immune system...
Descending the valley from Majors Creek to Araluen
A day at Potty's Beach
My Dad just sent me a link to the Bell commercial he’s in that’s running during the Olympics. That’s him in the grey sweater! »Watch it online. Doesn’t everyone look soo Nova Scotian?
Ahhh we leave in 15 days!
How did that happen? Is winter over yet?
#back2lifeback2reality
“In two aspects it is reminiscent of a party in a university town. First, it is...”
– Zadie Smith in Ten Notes on Oscar Weekend, one of my favourite essays included in her book, Changing My Mind.
Adventures in Office Supplies
Lady: Hi there, I'm looking for some computer discs.
Conor: Ok, floppy discs?
Lady: Yeah. I want them in a hard box though. You know? A little pack of them. Maybe 10.
Conor: Alright, they're just over here. We don't really stock many of them anymore. Here's what we have. It's a pack of 10.
Lady: Hmm. What about that one?
Conor: Those are CDs.
Lady: Yeah, those look right.
Conor: You're looking for blank CDs?
Lady: Yes.
Conor: Ok then. We have lots of different size packs of CDs. Here's a 10 pack on a spindle. We also have them in cases if you want.
Lady: Yes, I'd like cases, but just the little ones. You know, for putting in the mail.
Conor: Ok. These ones here come with slim cases.
Lady: The post office has those mailers that fit them perfectly, I think.
Conor: Oh ok.
Lady: (thinking for a moment) Will I be able to put the singing on them too?
Conor: (cautiously) Yeeeah, you can put music onto the CDs...is that what you mean?
(I shudder and slink back into the staffroom to put on more coffee)
“At the end of the day, I’ll scroll through the day’s photos with...”
– Bethany, in Douglas Coupland’s The Gum Thief
Since we had to fly into Sydney on the way back from Melbourne, we stayed overnight at Conor’s brother’s place in Bondi Junction to get some extra hangouts in before taking the train down to Milton.
Yesterday we took the tram down to the Docklands to catch a daytime show aboard the Lady Cutler. While boarding, I received props from the captain and crew on my “very appropriate” “pantaloons”, by which of course they meant my bloomers. Score.
The bands: Love of Diagrams (pretty big here, they were really fun), Twerps (they’re opening for Black Lips and Yo La...
We had breakfast at Rowena Parade Corner Store, a cute 1950s country store-style cafe in Richmond where we’re staying. They served us delicious free range poached eggs on turkish bread with fresh veggies and coffee.
From there we walked up to Fitzroy (more), stopping first at vintage warehouse, Lost + Found Market, which was great but totally overwhelming. We stumbled onto the first...
Me in Bullet Time at the Australian Centre for the... →
I didn’t realize this was a Matrix thing until I got home and Conor explained it to me. I was just having a time. There was a room with cameras placed 360 degrees around and you could do whatever you wanted while it took a full circle image. Here’s the other one I did.
We got into Melbourne last night. So far, it feels mostly like Toronto. We’re staying in a one room studio apartment-style place with a little balcony. It’s nothing special, but it’s a perfect cheap homebase for the next 4 days. We picked up groceries last night to hopefully last us most of the trip.
Supplies include: cans of soup, beans, and fish, vegetables that don’t...
We went oyster hunting after work tonight. Popped on the crocs (actually very useful for wading through water) and headed out to the mangrove flats.
A friend of the family, Max, showed us what to look for and how to break the small young ones off the bigger full-grown ones with a chisel (so we could leave the young ones to grow). We collected a good number in a bucket and brought them back to...
