July 29, 2005
Blathering Blake
I've know shakenblake somehow since I was 5. Though I don't think I noticed until highschool. He's into women's make-up, professionally speaking. Otherwise he's being nature boy. I'll have to dig up some pictures.
Posted by jason at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2005
Finalists for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry include Maux!
[Maureen's a long time friend and inspiration. She and I taught together for a number of years. She will be reading at the ARt Bar in the Victory Cafe, Tuesday April 19th at 8pm]
OMDC - Finalists - 18th Annual Trillium Book Award
Maureen Scott Harris: Drowning Lessons (Pedlar Press)
“Everything comes to this - a pause where the material world thins and questions.” Everything in Drowning Lessons? No book so rich will reduce to a single line, but this line will conduct you to the rest, to the shadows, the edges, the depths, the biting sense of betweenness in a life that has not thrived. Such a bleak life concentrated in these pages - why is the book so wonderfully satisfying to read? Because Maureen Scott Harris has gone deep, down and in, and returned with news as strange as it is familiar…Between everything and nothing this compelling book shimmers like a liquid mirror.” – Stan DraglandBorn in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Maureen Scott Harris grew up in Winnipeg, before moving to Toronto in 1964. She has been Cataloguer of Rare Books and Special Collections at both the University of Toronto Library and at Trinity College Library, and from 1983-1993, was co-ordinator of the Cataloguing-in-Publication Program of the University of Toronto Library. Currently she works as production manager for Brick Books. Her earlier publications are A Possible Landscape and the chapbook, The World Speaks.
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A friend hits the big time...
[Laura is Ken's sister-in-law, and every time she and her hubby Landro are in town, the drop over for tea. YAY Laura!]
New 'Thoroughly Modern Millie' star overcomes sour sound system:
Borrowing a story line from a classic backstage musical, chorus member Laura Schutter replaced pregnant star Darcie Roberts in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" at Bass Concert Hall on Tuesday — belting, shimmying and charming her way into our collective hearts.Playing the pert country girl turned 1920s flapper — turned gold digger turned sweet romancer — Schutter was almost sabotaged by excruciatingly modulated amplification, which made her full voice sound shrill, while turning other performances virtually unintelligible.
Posted by jason at 10:46 AM | Comments (1)
April 02, 2005
The Algebraist: People You Know
I love Iain Banks, and I have imposed him on everyone I know... family, friends, students, and you. I'm just finishing his latest book The Algebraist (link is to interview with Banks). I'll send it off to one of the kids soon to be read. The coolest thing about this book is that I know some of the characters. KAT! and Jeremy, AKA the Dwellers are the oldest form of life in the galaxy; easy going your friends and mine, who just happen to potentially be the most dangerous non-civilization in the galaxy. Except no one takes them seriously, with all their clowning about and protestations of omnipotents... until it is too late.
From Review of Iain Banks Algebraist:
"Anyway, we have this well-established future human colony (civilization really) throughout a distant planetary system. Humans are on the system's Earthlike world, in orbiting habitats and (importantly for us) on many of the moons orbiting the gas giant 'Nasqueron'. Nasqueron is inhabited by an alien species called the Dwellers.... the Dwellers themselves are simply delightful and hell bent on doing their own thing in their own good time (which given their millions of years longevity can be a while). Often this manifests themselves in getting slightly out of their minds. Less likeable attributes? OK, so Dwellers hunt their young, but get this in a lifetime perspective.... Aside from their attitude to youth, Dwellers have a very relaxed attitude to life. Their military is a sort of interest club for hobbyists and their internal 'wars' are kind of games. However they have been around a while and it is best not to upset a Dweller lest, long after you have thought the dust well and truly settled, they casually wipe you out. They are very capable of meaning business if riled."
Note: Dwellers are the coolest characters Banks has created so far.
[comments are on...]
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March 18, 2005
Mann on Video
I've got a new quicktime movie of Steve Mann playing with one of his funtains. This one's great as it shows him demoing it for a bunch of engineering students at UofT. If you've never seen Steve's favorite toy, check this out. It's 17megs, but worth it.
Posted by jason at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2005
HODER on BBC News
BBC NEWS | Technology | Persian blogging round the globe
Hossein Derakhshan, who keeps a weblog under the name of Hoder, has already made a name for himself in the Persian-language blogosphere.
Posted by jason at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)