DOO WOP.

Man I love this song. I love when he yells "I'm in love" at the end. Oh I believe you.

I think what's also nice about this song is how I found it. I was at work listening to another album and before I had time to change to something else, this came on (the itunes library is full of songs from past people who have worked on my computer). And it was just so good and I was alone in the office and listening to it loud on a Sunday night. If I hadn't been listening to that certain album and hadn't had just let all the music play, I would not have found the song. At least that's what I think. It's nice to know small, nice, unexpected things come and that I can, haha enjoy them when they do.

I'm in love I'm in love I'm in love.

back to the days of color

Day at the studio:

pencil crayons saying something on a wonderfully thick piece of paper:

I bought a new pencil sharpener today (1 dollar!) and it's been a long time since I've sharpened several pencils to a fine point (hello elementary school and prisma colors!) and it sure felt good. Speaking of sharpening and elementary school, I remember having this deluxe set of CRAYONS and in the back was a crayon sharpener that was terribly ineffective and I was always disappointed by how it never really seemed to sharpen the crayon but just make it even more dull. Crayola for you. 

I also got around to listening to Marissa Nadler's Little Hells. I really like the title track of the album and you should listen to it:

hello all.

So it feels like the last few days have been spent chasing everything free and interesting that is happening for the Olympics, and holy crap is it ever exciting. 

lol. 

Okay this is no secret, but I was seriously so beyond stoked to see Wilco at Livecity the other night. When we got to the site, the line was incredibly thick and so long that just when you didn't think it could get any longer, it did. But we got in the line and it seemed like it was going to be the longest wait or near impossible to get in, but it moved surprisingly fast. It only took 45 minutes (I know it may sound long, but I was too excited and it felt pretty short) and once we were in it was the coolest feeling ever to see such a big, wonderful favorite band of mine (for FREE!) at this huge world wide event (the OLYMPICS!), such a great summation of things in one moment in time and man, WILCO. They played such a long set too, which was a nice surprise as well. 

I have no idea what happened here, but it's kinda nice.

Chinese New Year!

I so very like tulips and especially these ones that I bought from the corner of Granville and Broadway (2 for $5!)

This is such an exciting time and I am so glad to be here and around all these people doing all these things and man soooo gushy. 

oh you've changed.

A line I love from a song I really like by Wilco:

The way the song goes after this line, it's like sea waves crashing on top of one another, it's something I wish I could truly visualize, that I wish I could play, that I wish I could physically experience (hey let's go to HAWAII!), but this will have to do.

Shredder.

Maybe this should have been my costume for Halloween: Cousin Itt towel style! Or brown ghost towel style.


Learning fallibility.
Got my hair cut, got tickets to far places and not so far places, and I oughta, got-ta get a goin' now.

(ps man it's windy!)

remembered songs.

I woke up this morning with this song in my head. It stayed there all afternoon and it was driving me nuts and I wanted to know what it was. I had heard it only in Maggie's car and I didn't want to bug her so I kept guessing what it was through internet searches and some serious memory searching and it was like finding a needle in a haystack. So I called her and she instantly knew what it was and told me and I have been listening to it non stop for an hour now and I feel so satisfied, I sing to it and everything. Maggie has been my low fi shazam. But god isn't it so satisfying when you have a song in your head and you don't know what it is and when you find out what it is?

In other Ellen news I got a hair trim today and during the hair cut I let out some sighs (they weren't rude I swear) because I was just tired and honestly, it was kind of hard to talk to the hairdresser because she was ESL and she was only half listening and understanding me. She told me that I shouldn't be sighing because I am so young and I shouldn't be so tired and then later asked me if I go to a temple or have a religion. I said no and she said, well maybe you should so that my soul would be at peace. I said that my soul was already at peace.

I always kind of dread going to a hairdresser because I have to make conversation. Somehow thought it kind of always ends up being a funny conversation (at least to me), one time this 17 year old high school girl was cutting my hair and we were just talking about the ins and outs of what it's like to be a hairdresser. And I asked her if people come in with greasy hair, and she's like yeah, and I honestly don't know what compelled me to say this, maybe it was because I felt like she was being pretty open and genuine with me (ha), but I said, "Do you secretly judge them?" and it was insanely awkward after that and she kind of let out this weird laugh and looked at her middle-aged coworker and was like, "Uh did you hear that?"

Anyways.

paces and spaces

man, this week has gone by fast. along with the week before that, and the one before that too. it's nice but it feels like i haven't done enough. here's what i've done/eaten/seen:

This has been my favorite meal this week. Pasta with sauteed chanterelle mushrooms, dried porcini mushrooms with freshly grated parmesan on top. Godd! This is the first fall ever that I've eaten chanterelle mushrooms, and I am not really tasting what the big deal is about these things. I like the porcini, but the chanterelle. Hmm. I think that needs more consideration.

The book in the corner is the new David Sedaris book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I had been wanting that book for quite some time and vowed to only buy it at a used bookstore . One day, Jane and I were passing by one and there it was on display, but at that moment, someone picked it up and started looking through it. Jane and I just stood there and watched him, waiting to see if he would buy it or not. She told me I should just go up to him and ask if he was going to get it, and I thought that be kind of weird and too confrontational, but I guess it's even more weird to watch someone without them knowing. He didn't notice and ended up putting the book back on the shelf and me and Jane ran in and she told him we were watching him the entire time. He kind of laughed and said "Oh."

I saw Okkervil River on Thursday. And man! Seriously! I love this band. I first heard them through my ex-boyfriend in high school, and I thought they were good, but I couldn't really see what my ex-boyfriend saw in them that was so great. Then I saw them this summer in Calgary at the Sled Island Music Festival and something just clicked. When they played the songs I liked, it was like when you have a craving for dill chips and when you get the dill chips, it is the most satisfying and completing feeling in the whole wide world at that moment. And I think it was also that I thought at one point that the band was pretentious and one dimensional and too sad and intellectual for me, but when they played live, they looked happy, they look like they loved what they were playing and their later albums are way different from what I heard in high school.

But anyways. The show on Thursday was fun and I screamed and there were times where I was bursting with happiness and it was wonderful.

I went to the farmer's market in Kitsilano today and I ended up buying a pecan bar (along with 2 other bars and a bunch of chocolates), and god it was so good. I am now obsessed with bars and I shall be making them some time soon and maybe if you're lucky and I know you, I'll most likely give you some too. And hey did you know that ivy plants are bad because they choke out local plants? and that they totally dry out the soil underneath them and they are absolutely horrible in vancouver and we should never plant them again? Anyways. I ran into Hamza there and he sat with me while I ate a buckwheat crepe that had smoked salmon, dill, onion, greens and tomatoe (oh gooosh).

A poster submission for the Alcuin Awards that I am working on.

Hope your week was swell and went at a speed that was enjoyable.

secret dictionary

i went to calgary for a couple of weeks.

In my parent's backyard there is a raspberry bush. It's not nearly as big as the one at old other house, we used to have so many that we would give some to the neighbors. Neighbors who had a compost which apparently smelled really bad and turned my parents off of composting.


CALGARY GHOST TOUR.

During the ghost tour, there was this Calgary hospitality channel filming the tour, and the light on their camera was insanely bright and gave me a headache.

long island ice teas!

harrison in a parking lot. there is a story behind this parking lot. so it is called the 'James Short' Parking lot, because it is named after that guy. Anyways. This parking lot is located in Chinatown. Back in the day (like 1900's), Chinatown used to be located somewhere else in downtown Calgary, and the big business people of Calgary wanted to get rid of it because I guess they hated the chinese. But of course the chinese didn't go away and made Chinatown somehwere else. One of the big business people that wanted the chinese out was James Short, and his parking lot is right in the middle of chinatown. So I'm not too sure how he feels about that.

"Pretend to be laughing"

Calgary was all about getting into music again. I want to record songs!

For the most part I like going back to Calgary. But it's kind of weird. It's supposed to be home, but the thing with home is that you have set in your mind as something, and when it's slightly different, it's a bit jaring and takes a bit of getting used to, which is something you weren't quite planning on. What I mean is that you think you're going to go eat your favorite duck at this restaurant, but that restaurant closed because the cook is too old and wants to retire. Sometimes I would like things to stay the same. But I guess that's how it goes and really, what am I expecting anyways and new sort of interesting things fill up what seem to disappear and change.

Oh yah I went bowling and got 130 points! That was another highlight of Calgary.