more Plume!
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010One of the ducky things about a beloved who works at home is that you can receive cheery mid-day pictures like this one of Plume in her bed next to Mark’s desk.
Archive for the ‘amusements’ Category
Hazards of corporate travel
Saturday, June 6th, 2009Elevator music in hotels.
I’m home now, but “Let your love flow” is still coursing through my brain.
Burning Plain
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009Mark sold this to me as A Lesbian Movie! Which I suppose is technically correct according to the Bechdel/Wallace test,* because right at the end a woman asks a thirteen year old girl what grade she’s in. But ultimately it’s about the spiritual and emotional sterility and soullessness of non-reproductive sex and the potential redemption to be achieved through reproductive sex.
Not very lesbian at all.
Any better suggestions? In 1985, Bechdel/Wallace identified Alien as a prototypical lesbian movie because the two women in it get to talk to eachother about the monster. Has there been anything since then?
*The Bechdel test [from Wikipedia]
The [Dykes to Watch Out For] strip popularized what is now known as the Bechdel test, also known as the Bechdel/Wallace test, the Bechdel rule, or Bechdel’s law. [Alison] Bechdel credits her friend Liz Wallace for the test, which appears in a 1985 strip entitled “The Rule”, in which a character says that she only watches a movie if it satisfies the following requirements:
- It has to have at least two women in it,
- Who talk to each other,
- About something besides a man.
Excitement!
Friday, March 6th, 2009Mark got his Canadian citizenship February 6th. It was very sweet and simple and bureaucratic and communal all at once. 375 candidates from 72 countries and their friends crowded into a college auditorium. The candidates were assigned seats in the front, friends and family at the back, tables of bureaucrats in between. The entire swearing-in took about two hours, most of which was taken up with candidates finalising their paperwork.
The citizenship judge was Croatian-born and gave a moving speech about how difficult emigration and the process of building a new life in a new country is, and warmly wishing all the candidates well in their common but individually difficult endeavours.
Mark, in front with the candidates, and I, behind with the well-wishers, each wept a little, moved.
For his citizenship present, Mark and I are taking the train two-thirds of the way across the country, east to west. We’re leaving Tuesday March 10. It’s a four-day trip, and we’re getting off to stretch our legs for an extra two days in Jasper. Then we spend two weeks in the Vancouver area and fly back.
Normally transportation for this trip would be on the order of $4,000 to $5,000. But I have a bunch of travel points from travelling for work and Mark is an excellent shopper, so we’re doing it for less than $800.
They say it’s spring on Vancouver Island: the cherry trees are budding, crocuses and daffodils are blooming.
I can’t think of anything else.
post-****** bliss
Friday, February 27th, 2009Mark called me urgently, urgently from the kitchen to his office so that I could share his enthusiasm for a design concept for a wide-screen tv. He is now singing to himself in Latin.
Oscar
Monday, February 23rd, 2009So how did Viola Davis not win for Best Supporting Actress in Doubt?