I'm quite jealous

"When it became obvious what a dumb and cruel and spiritually and financially and militarily ruinous mistake our war in Vietnam was, every artist worth a damn in this country, every serious writer, painter, stand-up comedian, musician, actor and actress, you name it, came out against the thing. We formed what might be described as a laser beam of protest, with everybody aimed in the same direction, focused and intense. This weapon proved to have the power of a banana-cream pie three feet in diameter when dropped from a stepladder five-feet high."

More Kurt Vonnegut from In These Times.

I just recently started reading her site, but really and truly... I want to say enjoyed, but it's not the right word, it'd be like saying I am enjoying reading Lucky ... thought this was an awesome entry. I'd have left a comment, but Ismat had already said what I was going to say.

If there are any closet James Taylor fans out there - his Live @ Beacon Hall performance is airing on CMT at 9pm tonight. It's quite a good show. I'd watch it, but I own the DVD.

I didn't listen to the State of the Union address last night, but I hear it actually wasn't too bad. I hear Bush was actually quite eloquent (despite being unable to pronounce Nuclear). I watched Death to Smoochy which wasn't the best movie I've ever seen but perhaps better than I expected.

It's been a ho-hum kinda weekend. Can you believe I haven't bought a CD in over two weeks? I can't. I even went to a couple of the local CD shops on Saturday, but left empty handed. Best Buy has a bunch of discs for $4.99 though, so I'll probably pay them a visit. There are actually a few discs at the local used cd store that I wouldn't mind getting, but I've managed to resist temptation thus far. Friday night, G., N. and myself went and watched Narc. Afterwards we went to Red Lobster. Despite having already eaten a full meal before the Jasmin live movie, I couldn't resist the Seafood pasta. As a result, I've spent the rest of the weekend feeling pretty bloated. How I manage to remain relatively thin despite being a bottomless pit, I'll never know, but I am quite grateful that that's become my lot in life.

On the reading front, I tore through Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler. I've never read anything by Anne Tyler, but you may know her as the author who wrote The Accidental Tourist, which was made into a movie starring William Hurt. Anyhow, I really enjoyed the book, and will certainly be investigating Tyler's work further. I've also started on Confessions of a Dangerous Mind which should prove interesting. I have to wonder if Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation of The Orchid Thief didn't come as a result of his work adapting Barris' autobiography. In Confessions, Barris's life certainly takes on an even greater interest with the inclusion (creation?) of his life as a hitman. In Adaptation, Orlean's story of an eccentric orchid thief is embellished by Kaufman's self-insertion into the storyline, and the ensuing drama/hilarity that results.

In other news, I'm currently thinking about a redesign. I've had this design for nearly a year, so I think it's time for something fresh.

I really need to start looking out the window when I wake up. It wasn't until I was in my car and backing out of the garage that I realized it was snowing. Not a lot of snow, mind you, but I still passed one car that had run into a lamp pole and another that had flown off the highway, through a fence and onto the Service Road. Maybe if it looked a little worse, they may have driven a little better.

Hadn't even gotten my jacket off when my boss passed on some new software package for me to install. The same software he and another guy had been struggling to install for a couple of days. Lovely. It actually installed quite nicely (I thought I'd be different and follow the instructions).

My aunt is flying to the Bahamas today.

In lieu of anything terribly interesting to report, I'll recount my weekend events.

Some Liz Phair goodness to be had over at Glorious Noise

Went to S.'s to watch some movies. Her brother downloaded a bunch of things from the Internet - and we opted for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Chicago. Both movies were quite good. I really enjoyed Clooney's direction - certainly not bad for a first time effort. I haven't seen Moulin Rouge, which strikes me as the obvious comparison, but Chicago was great. Not sure why Gere won an award for it, but maybe they're giving out awards for being good, when normally you're pretty bad. As for the bootleg movie deal - I can see this as being a major destroyer of the Chaturbate movie industry, if bandwidth ever greatly improves, or the files somehow shrink dramatically. Aside from a few "PROPERTY OF MIRAMAX" captions popping up, the quality of both films was great. With mpthree's, I see it as taking a sample, before buying (or opting not to buy as the case may be). With movies, there are plenty of movies I'd be quite content not seeing on the big screen afterwards, so downloading them for free is appealing. Then again, I'll always go to the movies, because it gives me something to do, and there are some movies that just demand to be seen on the big screen (Lord of the Rings comes to mind).

I didn't do a heck of a lot, other than watch Goonies and go to the library (where I picked up the "Confession of a Dangerous Mind" book and a couple of movies). I watched the Trading Spaces "live reveal" which was really quite pointless and not at all different than any other episode.

I visited my grandmother's (My brother, sister and mother all had birthdays last week, so we celebrated those), and then watched Pumpkin which features Jason's doppelganger, Hank Harris, in the title role. After that I watched the Golden Globes. I don't have much to say about that. Although this picture speaks volumes about the movie industry.

Kangaroo Jack tops the box office and Richard Gere wins a Golden Globe Award. Today has been a weird wacky day, indeed.

Here's to another goddamn new year. Really dissapointing news from the Dismemberment Plan today. The breakup seems pretty amicable, and I'm hoping they follow through with their one last tour of the States, and that they hop over the border and pay us a visit while they're at it If they're in your neck of the woods, and you havent' seen them live - do make a valiant effort to see them.

The world is a scary scary place.

The last time I posted a link to a Vonnegut review, it was received quite well, so here's another one. Once again, from Larghearted Boy.

Just a reminder that Ben Kweller and Spoon are on Austin City Limits tonight at 11:30 (if you live in the GTA that is - check your local listings to see when it plays in your area).

If things worked out the way they were supposed to, yesterday would have been the day I moved into my new house. As it turns out, it's still being built (I went by last weekend and it was in the same condition it was in a month ago - is having drywall too much to ask for?). It's probably just as well, because I'd be really really poor if I had to move in today. Another handful of paycheques will be quite helpful.

Since I don't actually get to go home to my own house, I've opted to go to the Home Show this evening, instead. I'll also be getting the remainder of my boxing day purchases (Aimee Mann: Lost In Space, Papa M: Whatever, Mortal, Neutral Milk Hotel : In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, and The Fall: This Nation's Saving Grace) off of Frank.

First day back to work today

Nick Hornby discusses Ryan Adams and the importance of being depressed over at McSweeney's. Hornby's Songbook is a delightful little package - I've still got a lot left to read though.

Maybe if you're trying to buy cigarettes in a convenience store, and you therefore need to be 19 years old, and you don't want the clerk to check your I.D, well maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't wear your Catholic high school uniform when you ask for the cigarettes.

It's a shame that Ben Kweller isn't visiting here for his latest tour. I saw him last summer, and he was great (and quite stoned). Every interview I've read with him makes me like him even more, too.

Thanks to Laura at coaxme.org for the link.

How could she do this to me?

Mother trucker, The Weakerthans are playing the Hammer tomorrow and Saturday. Since there doesn't appear to be any upcoming hot sex shows that I'm interested in, I may have to partake. If there are still tickets to be had, that is.

Considering I drink at least 2 litres of water a day, finding the water cooler empty at work and no replacement bottles is a little disconcerting.

William Gibson now has a weblog. I'm not a huge fan of his work. I aborted an attempt to read Neuromancer years ago, but returned to it at some point in University and quite enjoyed it. I hope his weblog will prove a more interesting read than most of the other celebrity blogs I've come across.

I went a little crazy on the Damien Jurado purchases on boxing day. The one I was most unsure about was the Gathered In Song EP, which I wasn't even aware existed. Turns out it's quite good. Damien's got a Weblog that is updated every couple of weeks or so. He's got a new album out in March, and is apparently working on a play.

As much as I wish it were going to be a horrible year for music, 2003 is shaping up quite nicely. Massive Attack,, Cat Power, Damien Jurado, Uncle Tupelo re-releases, Toshack Highway/Sianspheric Split, Sparklehorse, Ryan Adams, Mojave 3, Nick Cave, and more all have something scheduled. It looks like I'm going to need a roommate to subsidize my cd buying habit.

Agnes has completed her excellent Top 15 list over at This Is Not An Exit. I've enjoyed reading, and chances are you will too.

It was nice being away, but I always feel like I accomplished very little after these breaks. I did buy a heck of a lot of cds, and I watched the Back to the Future trilogy, so maybe that counts as something?

If you missed it the first time, they're repeating Bruce Springsteen's appearance on Saturday Night Live tonight. His solo piano/harmonica version of "You're Missing" is so good it'll make your dog weep and your roof leak.

It's just rumour!

Rumour has it we're going to get hit with the worst snow fall in four years. I bought the Back to the Future DVDs today, so I'll busy myself with them instead of going out. I'm trying to remember how long ago it was that they called in the army to dig us out of the snow? I'd be quite happy if they were completely wrong and the storm concentrated all it's wrath on Buffalo.

Montreal was foggy and rainy and perfect. Also, although we didn't spend much time with them outside of the hotel room, G's friends were pretty nice. I'd forgotten what it was like waiting for girl's to get ready for a night on the town. How it can take them 3 hours to do what takes me 10 minutes is one of life's great mysteries. G. and I arrived in Montreal just before 4 on Monday, and checked into the hotel before heading downtown. After checking out what must be Montreal's shopping district, we grabbed some dinner and headed back to the hotel. The girl's arrived a little while later and we had a few drinks in the hotel bar before G. and I headed to the casino (the girl's were too tired). I won $6.75 which was quite exciting, even though I also partook in the most expensive meal of my life in the casino's restaurant.

Tuesday we did some touristy things - checking out the Cathedral and old Montreal, once again sans la femmes. I took some photos, but they're a bit depressing on account of the rain and fog. We spent New Years in a busy bar on Crescent St. Lots of young Americans and plenty of other non-locals. The girl's were, to use their words, 'whoring it up' most of the night, but we'd check in with each other pretty often. No one to kiss at The Countdown, but that's nearly always the case, so I don't get too depressed or anything of that sort. Headed back to the hotel, stopping once for one of the girls, who had over indulged in the bubbly. This morning, we headed to a buffet restaurant before heading home. Quite possibly the worst buffet food I've ever had. I hope to make it back to Montreal this summer - it was a fun town, and aside from the buffet, the food was great. The Montreal women reminded me of women in New York. Easy on the eyes, and sharply dressed. I was also enamoured with the abundance of iron fire escapes lining the buildings. I could probably handle moving to Montreal for a spell, if the opportunity ever arose.

So, I suppose it's 2003 now. I don't make much of the new year symbolizing an opportunity for rebirth, or anything of that sort. I don't really have any resolutions (although cutting back on cd purchases in comparison to 2002 should be both easy and necessary) this year, but I'm sure there's room for improvement somewhere. I would like to make a few mixed cds that I've promised or implied over the past year, but have yet to make any progress on. I also hope to make it to at least one of the following places throughout the year: New York City, Montreal and Ottawa (for Canada Day), Chicago, Alabama.

I hope everyone has a great year. The best ever, maybe? Maybe.

Anyone know what's up with the band January?

They used to be on Poptones but don't seem to be listed anymore.

Winter be damned, with gas prices at over 80 cents a litre I don't think I can afford to have the heat running while I drive.

I purposely brought only two cds into work (the two I bought at lunch yesterday) so I'd have a chance to listen to a bunch of the mp3's I've downloaded over the past little while but not really listened to. I also tried to listen to as many of yesterday's recommendations as I could get my hands on. I'll definetly need to listen to some more Ted Leo (I listened to him a while back and wasn't overly impressed, but I liked what I heard today), but the band that really grabbed me was Calla. I don't know much about them, but most of the album reviews I've read today have been pretty positive, so I'll certainly investigate further.

Does anyone have any experience with any spam filtering software for Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express? Preferably on the cheap/free side?

Bought two cds today at lunch. Mark Eitzel's Music for Courage and Confidence (Record store guy: "I knew you'd be the one to end up buying this, I'm surprised it took you so long") and Red House Painters Rollercoaster (for lack of a better title). So ends the lack of purchases of late. I'll pick up Nick Cave and Cat Power eventually - and am probably going to order a lot of the Bright Eye's back catalogue. I can wait on the Massive Attack. Anyone listening to anything new and exciting that they care to recommend? Lately I've mostly been listening to Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Sometimes even at the same time.

I picked up a bunch of cds from my local library this week. The selection isn't too bad, and the price is certainly right. Mostly, I'm just grabbing best-of's by older artists. I picked up a criminally short Johnny Cash's Greatest Hits vol. 1, Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home, and the 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration which has an abundance of great artists covering Dylan. The library also had The Bootleg Series vol.1-3 but apparently the discs were damaged, because they had it in for repairs, and then cancelled my hold. Finally, I picked up The Best of Carly Simon. They have some movies too, and I'm finally going to get a chance to see Don't Look Back. Sadly, it's only on VHS - but I figure if I like it enough I can buy it on DVD.

I don't know if I find it comforting or not that 24 writer's think Kim's annoying too.