Whew, and even with a tvtropes binge, I have 18 minutes to finish this last post and make quota. Ha ha! Once again! And even though this was my absolute cheating-est showing ever (really, 9 posts in one day?) some of these entries are downright interesting.
So last Thursday was a performance at The Piston by a friend of mine who performs as Jake/Alphabot! But my journey to the place to a few detours.
My understanding was that the show started at 9pm, right when I got off work (okay I left at like 9:10). I stopped at the McDonald's at this here Eaton Centre, never tried the new one before, and got a dirty look from the cleaning staff when I sat in their precious closed area. I'm sorry!
(Uh, definitely need to skrimp on details)
On the subway, who should I run into but, someone I know! A friend of mine! So we had a grand old time chatting it up, and I passed my stop by two so we could continue to hang and I walked her home. Fun surprise! Then I hop back onto the subway, get off at Ossington, head out the back way (Dovercourt?) cross the street where the Comedy Bar is, and who should I spy but ANOTHER FRIEND!! OF MINE! Fantastic! So I chatted with him a bit about what have you... I slightly forget. Community vs. Modern Family definitely came up. By this time it was about 10:20pm and I hoped I hadn't missed the Piston show.
Walking over the two or three doors, heading to the back... almost totally empty. Wha-? Did I miss it?
I walked out, and who should come up on the street, but the man Jake himself. Apparently heavy delays happened for some reason, I don't know. But soon after the show started. The show started with this girl Gabby singing and guitaring it up, and I talked to her after the show. She went to York studying music, and seemed to intuit that I did comic stuff. It's highly HIGHLY possible that she'd seen me at York somewhere's about with my personal comic project. I don't know, maybe. Regardless, she was super nice, so that was cool.
The next performer was from Norway... or someplace similar? I'm sorry Norway! And Mark! I think your name was Mark. He had a voice that you can tell will only get more awesome with age in that Johnny Cash way, and sung some darkly hilarious stuff (bit of a trend, with this guy and the last, Wax Mannequin... ah, no time to check spelling!!)
Alphabot was third, and had far and away the most audience participation. Lotta dance-thing happening. Not necesarily by me, unless you count extreme foot tapping and head nodding (I'm so cool, obviously) but yeah. Big success times for everyone!
Yeah, if you couldn't tell, my typing has become rather frantic. And I think I'm call it there.
In summation: a good time was had by all!
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Kamen Rider Blade
Though I complained about it the whole way through, those complaints were accompanied by the idealistic/cynical (depending on your perspective) comments from my brother expecting me to eventually love it, like with what happened with Kamen Rider Ryuki. Well, I can now unequivocally state that I have a least favourite Rider series. Easily.
And it is Blade.
The problems with Blade are twofold, though they relate to a single problem. The main Rider, Blade himself, is not just the least interesting of the characters, it's almost they worked at making him uninteresting. Part of the core concept was that this was a series where it was the characters job to be a Rider. We'd often hear the echo of, in regards to going off to be a hero, "it's your job, isn't it?", however when the power upgrade thing shows up by a new mentor that only really shows up for two or three episodes, he asks Blade to figure out his REAL motivation. "To protect people!" or something. Cut me some slack, that was a while ago.
The point is, there is no overarching theme to Blade the character. He isn't even a generic nice guy! One of the earliest episodes had him despondently decide not to do the Rider thing until he was talked back into it.
He apparently wants to save everyone because his parents died in a fire before his eyes, but this is never a major plot point, with the slight exception of when he has to prove that heroes exist to this one girl who similarly lost her family in a tragic accident.
In the first episode we're introduced to Blade as almost an apprentice Rider to Garren... but it's immediately established that Blade is totally stronger than Garren.
The second problem, which, as I said, ties into the first, is that the series can't decided on a storyline to pursue EITHER.
Fighting against a Rider turned rogue, Garren? Nope, he was good.
The Chief of the B.O.A.R.D. that created the Riders is evil, and that's why Garren kidnapped him.
Nope, more of a misunderstanding on both parts.
The Chief is in a coma with necessary info- we need to find him, heal him, and get this info! They immediately find him, he isn't in a coma.
A Category King monster (the series is based off of a card deck, with the heroes seal and use the powers of the monsters, Aces to transform, King-Jack for power ups, 6 card is an elemental attacks, and I suppose the other cards get proportionately stronger the higher number they are...) with crazy telekinetic powers wants to create the ultimate rider by sealing another Ace monster and doing... something with it. He gets Garren to serve him in exchange for stopping Garren's psychosomatic power meltdown. Things are looking up! This guy will totally be the bad guy of this series!
...Nope. The monster kills Garrens girlfriend, which removes the psychosomatic problem (I'm not afraid of anything now..) and Garren seals the guy, though not before sealing that Category Ace Spider Undead (the monsters are called Undead) and having a new Rider belt made. An EVIL belt!
Okay, so this new evil belt Rider, Leangle, is TOTALLY the bad guy of the series, right? You get where I'm going with this.
We go from there, to various suped up Undead that end up getting sealed easily enough, a cool guy with a desire to kill criminals for the slightest of crimes and who has a sweet machine arm that electrifies people (he's a reference to Riderman!) to the guy that originally released the Undead, except he turns out to be, essentially, a monster clone of himself, and taking orders from the ORIGINAL guy in charge of B.O.A.R.D. that we'd never heard of before, and this guy is looking promising, but we're already like, seven episodes from the end of the series, and it's too little too late... but even HE doesn't make it to the end, getting killed off by the last King level monster, who takes this special card to power up enough to be a threat... and then THAT guy doesn't last. The final two episodes revolve around the Joker Undead being the last one standing, which, based off the rules of the "Battle Fight" (ha ha, that's a great translation) means everyone gets destroyed.
So I think I've made my point. What were they doing? What were they trying to say? I don't think they even knew.
Let's get into the Riders a bit:
Credit where it's due, the suits were actually pretty sweet this series, unlike the Ryuki suit which I didn't like. That's Blade second from the left, Leangle to his right, Garren on the far right, and last but not least, Chalice on the far left. I could have made that clearer.
In order from left to right: Chalice, Blade, Leangle, and Garren, who represent Heart, Spade, Club, and Diamonds respectively. I kind of think Leangle suit is doofy with his helmet, but his character spends most of the time as an antagonist, so who cares I guess.
The most interesting Rider is Chalice, or Hajime-san in his human form. Because the dude is actually an Undead that is at first simply curious about humanity, so assumes their form, but gradually grows to love them and wants to remain with them, even while keeping up his rather gruff exterior with everyone but little Amane-chan... and to some extent Amane's mother. Seriously, the degree to which Amane loved Hajime should have REALLY freaked the mother out, but they glossed over that. Yet another thing they could have explored in this series but NEVER did.
At first it was assumed that Hajime wass really the Ace of Hearts Undead, but nnnnnope. In truth, he's the Joker Undead, the one monster that, if it wins the "Battle Fight" will result in the end of anything. And as Joker, Hajime is a beastly omnicidal maniac, however when he seals the Ace of Hearts he gets some consciousness of his own, which is expanded on when he seals the 2 of Hearts Undead, the Human Undead. all of this happened before the series starts, so we had no clue about what being the Joker Undead meant until well into the series.
Okay, I need to explain the purpose of the Battle Fight so that a "Human Undead" makes sense. The idea is that 10, 000 years ago all the Undead fought in the Battle Fight, and each Undead monster represented a potential dominant species for the planet. The last Undead standing would determine the dominant species of the planet. So, impossible though it seems, in that big time fight 10, 000 years ago, the lowly 2 OF HEARTS won. How exactly the human Undead won is NEVER explained, even though that surely would have been an awesome story.
When Blade (real name Kazuma Kenzaki) achieves his ultimate powered form, the presence of this power overides Ace of Hearts and 2 of Hearts ability to suppress the Joker, so it runs rampant again. Not wanting to seal Hajime who is usually a friend despite his surliness, Kenzaki goes about finding all the Heart cards, assuming that having all of the cards would provide a power boost similar to Kenzaki having all his Spade cards gave him, thereby suppressing Joker again. To do this Kenzaki had to barter away first his super form enabler thingy, and then he had to give up his actual henshin device with a promise that he'd surrender himself to the evil clone monster dude (though he didn't know he was evil at the time), and THEN he had to get the cards themselves to the rampaging Joker, all now without the ability to transform to Blade. In my mind this was far and away the most interesting thing Kenzaki did.
And now that I think about it, he also was blackmailed into losing the henshin device when his little buddy Kotarou was kidnapped, and again when that one girl who needed to see heroes exist, he was forced to ditch the henshin device then too, and ended up getting shot a bunch of times by the monster in question. Finally, there's how Blade saves the planet at the end, where he sacrifices his own humanity, becoming an Undead, so that he and Joker both exist and the world won't end, and Joker can continue living as Hajime with Amane-chan and what's her name. The mother.
So there was a perfectly serviceable method of giving Kenzaki/Blade a unique way as a Rider, making his one of self sacrifice. I'd have totally gotten behind that! However, without it's use as a deliberate, or at any rate, overt, them I can't give them the credit.
Also, it's said that Kenzaki being able to absorb the power of his 13 cards to power up his King Form was an anomaly. This WAS foreshadowed early on, when the three available Riders at the time had their "fusion ratings" measured- Tachibana/Garren's fusion rate went down (curse you psychosomatic fear ailment!), whereas Chalice and Blade's went up.
So Chalice's went up because he was an Undead/Joker. WHY did it happen to Kenzaki? This was ALSO NEVER EXPLORED. It was said that Kenzaki was recruited to be a Rider by B.O.A.R.D. because of his desire to save people after being unable to save his parents in that fire. To have this all tie in together, they should have said that that trauma specifically somehow made this turn-into-an-Undead thing possible, and that he was recruited specifically because of the power being an actual Undead would yield, or for some sinister purpose by the leader of B.O.A.R.D. that we'd never met before... or something. And that girl that similarly lost her family could have also shown some turn into an Undead fusion power thing (not that she ever transformed... though it'd have been easy enough to grab Kenzaki's device in the fight when he had specifically dropped it..).
To sum it all up and move on, even as I thought Ryuki wasted it's premise, Blade didn't even fully develop a premise to waste. And is therefore an exponentially bigger waste of potential.
And it is Blade.
The problems with Blade are twofold, though they relate to a single problem. The main Rider, Blade himself, is not just the least interesting of the characters, it's almost they worked at making him uninteresting. Part of the core concept was that this was a series where it was the characters job to be a Rider. We'd often hear the echo of, in regards to going off to be a hero, "it's your job, isn't it?", however when the power upgrade thing shows up by a new mentor that only really shows up for two or three episodes, he asks Blade to figure out his REAL motivation. "To protect people!" or something. Cut me some slack, that was a while ago.
The point is, there is no overarching theme to Blade the character. He isn't even a generic nice guy! One of the earliest episodes had him despondently decide not to do the Rider thing until he was talked back into it.
He apparently wants to save everyone because his parents died in a fire before his eyes, but this is never a major plot point, with the slight exception of when he has to prove that heroes exist to this one girl who similarly lost her family in a tragic accident.
In the first episode we're introduced to Blade as almost an apprentice Rider to Garren... but it's immediately established that Blade is totally stronger than Garren.
The second problem, which, as I said, ties into the first, is that the series can't decided on a storyline to pursue EITHER.
Fighting against a Rider turned rogue, Garren? Nope, he was good.
The Chief of the B.O.A.R.D. that created the Riders is evil, and that's why Garren kidnapped him.
Nope, more of a misunderstanding on both parts.
The Chief is in a coma with necessary info- we need to find him, heal him, and get this info! They immediately find him, he isn't in a coma.
A Category King monster (the series is based off of a card deck, with the heroes seal and use the powers of the monsters, Aces to transform, King-Jack for power ups, 6 card is an elemental attacks, and I suppose the other cards get proportionately stronger the higher number they are...) with crazy telekinetic powers wants to create the ultimate rider by sealing another Ace monster and doing... something with it. He gets Garren to serve him in exchange for stopping Garren's psychosomatic power meltdown. Things are looking up! This guy will totally be the bad guy of this series!
...Nope. The monster kills Garrens girlfriend, which removes the psychosomatic problem (I'm not afraid of anything now..) and Garren seals the guy, though not before sealing that Category Ace Spider Undead (the monsters are called Undead) and having a new Rider belt made. An EVIL belt!
Okay, so this new evil belt Rider, Leangle, is TOTALLY the bad guy of the series, right? You get where I'm going with this.
We go from there, to various suped up Undead that end up getting sealed easily enough, a cool guy with a desire to kill criminals for the slightest of crimes and who has a sweet machine arm that electrifies people (he's a reference to Riderman!) to the guy that originally released the Undead, except he turns out to be, essentially, a monster clone of himself, and taking orders from the ORIGINAL guy in charge of B.O.A.R.D. that we'd never heard of before, and this guy is looking promising, but we're already like, seven episodes from the end of the series, and it's too little too late... but even HE doesn't make it to the end, getting killed off by the last King level monster, who takes this special card to power up enough to be a threat... and then THAT guy doesn't last. The final two episodes revolve around the Joker Undead being the last one standing, which, based off the rules of the "Battle Fight" (ha ha, that's a great translation) means everyone gets destroyed.
So I think I've made my point. What were they doing? What were they trying to say? I don't think they even knew.
Let's get into the Riders a bit:
In order from left to right: Chalice, Blade, Leangle, and Garren, who represent Heart, Spade, Club, and Diamonds respectively. I kind of think Leangle suit is doofy with his helmet, but his character spends most of the time as an antagonist, so who cares I guess.
The most interesting Rider is Chalice, or Hajime-san in his human form. Because the dude is actually an Undead that is at first simply curious about humanity, so assumes their form, but gradually grows to love them and wants to remain with them, even while keeping up his rather gruff exterior with everyone but little Amane-chan... and to some extent Amane's mother. Seriously, the degree to which Amane loved Hajime should have REALLY freaked the mother out, but they glossed over that. Yet another thing they could have explored in this series but NEVER did.
At first it was assumed that Hajime wass really the Ace of Hearts Undead, but nnnnnope. In truth, he's the Joker Undead, the one monster that, if it wins the "Battle Fight" will result in the end of anything. And as Joker, Hajime is a beastly omnicidal maniac, however when he seals the Ace of Hearts he gets some consciousness of his own, which is expanded on when he seals the 2 of Hearts Undead, the Human Undead. all of this happened before the series starts, so we had no clue about what being the Joker Undead meant until well into the series.
Okay, I need to explain the purpose of the Battle Fight so that a "Human Undead" makes sense. The idea is that 10, 000 years ago all the Undead fought in the Battle Fight, and each Undead monster represented a potential dominant species for the planet. The last Undead standing would determine the dominant species of the planet. So, impossible though it seems, in that big time fight 10, 000 years ago, the lowly 2 OF HEARTS won. How exactly the human Undead won is NEVER explained, even though that surely would have been an awesome story.
When Blade (real name Kazuma Kenzaki) achieves his ultimate powered form, the presence of this power overides Ace of Hearts and 2 of Hearts ability to suppress the Joker, so it runs rampant again. Not wanting to seal Hajime who is usually a friend despite his surliness, Kenzaki goes about finding all the Heart cards, assuming that having all of the cards would provide a power boost similar to Kenzaki having all his Spade cards gave him, thereby suppressing Joker again. To do this Kenzaki had to barter away first his super form enabler thingy, and then he had to give up his actual henshin device with a promise that he'd surrender himself to the evil clone monster dude (though he didn't know he was evil at the time), and THEN he had to get the cards themselves to the rampaging Joker, all now without the ability to transform to Blade. In my mind this was far and away the most interesting thing Kenzaki did.
And now that I think about it, he also was blackmailed into losing the henshin device when his little buddy Kotarou was kidnapped, and again when that one girl who needed to see heroes exist, he was forced to ditch the henshin device then too, and ended up getting shot a bunch of times by the monster in question. Finally, there's how Blade saves the planet at the end, where he sacrifices his own humanity, becoming an Undead, so that he and Joker both exist and the world won't end, and Joker can continue living as Hajime with Amane-chan and what's her name. The mother.
So there was a perfectly serviceable method of giving Kenzaki/Blade a unique way as a Rider, making his one of self sacrifice. I'd have totally gotten behind that! However, without it's use as a deliberate, or at any rate, overt, them I can't give them the credit.
Also, it's said that Kenzaki being able to absorb the power of his 13 cards to power up his King Form was an anomaly. This WAS foreshadowed early on, when the three available Riders at the time had their "fusion ratings" measured- Tachibana/Garren's fusion rate went down (curse you psychosomatic fear ailment!), whereas Chalice and Blade's went up.
So Chalice's went up because he was an Undead/Joker. WHY did it happen to Kenzaki? This was ALSO NEVER EXPLORED. It was said that Kenzaki was recruited to be a Rider by B.O.A.R.D. because of his desire to save people after being unable to save his parents in that fire. To have this all tie in together, they should have said that that trauma specifically somehow made this turn-into-an-Undead thing possible, and that he was recruited specifically because of the power being an actual Undead would yield, or for some sinister purpose by the leader of B.O.A.R.D. that we'd never met before... or something. And that girl that similarly lost her family could have also shown some turn into an Undead fusion power thing (not that she ever transformed... though it'd have been easy enough to grab Kenzaki's device in the fight when he had specifically dropped it..).
To sum it all up and move on, even as I thought Ryuki wasted it's premise, Blade didn't even fully develop a premise to waste. And is therefore an exponentially bigger waste of potential.
A Fistful of Dollars
Whoa there tvtropes, stop distracting me, I'm trying to catch up on blog posts!
I've wanted to watch this Man With No Name Trilogy for a while, and have finally seen the first installment. And it's mega cool.
Eastwood as the eponymous man, though he does get called Joe by the undertaker (or possibly the bartender). It's my understanding that he's called something else random in the other films... also, these movies weren't necessarily about the same person. But come on. All star Eastwood, and they all wear the same outfit.... it's the same guy.
So Eastwood drifts into a junky town inhabited by two rival gangs. He proceeds to take out three gang members ("my mistake... four"), then go to the other gang for a job based on his killing credentials. He secretly goes back and forth between the gangs, essentially getting both groups to pay HIM to take them apart. It's awesome.
He eventually decides to help this one terrorized family out, sneaking them away from the gangs and giving them a huge chunk of his money (if not all he had at the time) so they could escape. This act ended up getting him caught, and he gets beat near to death by the gang. Until they leave him alone for a SECOND and he sets up a trap for them and crawls away from the compound (literally crawls).
He gets the coffin-maker to sneak him out of town in a coffin (of course), where he holes up in an abandoned cave to heal up before he heads back in to town to finish cleaning the place out.
... but not before fashioning a bit of protection. "A bullet proof vest! Great flic! Great flic!"
I had to watch this one! Big time referenced in Back to the Future III
Looking forward to the other two.
I've wanted to watch this Man With No Name Trilogy for a while, and have finally seen the first installment. And it's mega cool.
Eastwood as the eponymous man, though he does get called Joe by the undertaker (or possibly the bartender). It's my understanding that he's called something else random in the other films... also, these movies weren't necessarily about the same person. But come on. All star Eastwood, and they all wear the same outfit.... it's the same guy.
So Eastwood drifts into a junky town inhabited by two rival gangs. He proceeds to take out three gang members ("my mistake... four"), then go to the other gang for a job based on his killing credentials. He secretly goes back and forth between the gangs, essentially getting both groups to pay HIM to take them apart. It's awesome.
He eventually decides to help this one terrorized family out, sneaking them away from the gangs and giving them a huge chunk of his money (if not all he had at the time) so they could escape. This act ended up getting him caught, and he gets beat near to death by the gang. Until they leave him alone for a SECOND and he sets up a trap for them and crawls away from the compound (literally crawls).
He gets the coffin-maker to sneak him out of town in a coffin (of course), where he holes up in an abandoned cave to heal up before he heads back in to town to finish cleaning the place out.
... but not before fashioning a bit of protection. "A bullet proof vest! Great flic! Great flic!"
I had to watch this one! Big time referenced in Back to the Future III
Looking forward to the other two.
Overnight with Romanians
In preparation for some big howdy-do even at the Yorkdale mall (I assume) the Michael Kors was doing some construction at the place overnight. For whatever reason, the regular guy was sick or couldn't make it, or whatever, so I got the call at 2 in the afternoon to go do this.
In theory I could have said no, but I could really use the dough. So.
I packed up some essentials, a big bag of jelly beans for one (just thinking about them makes me want more... which is funny, because I was plenty sick of them by the end of the night.) and headed over. For my reports sake I asked the name of the Guard who was there beforehand.
"You don't remember my name? Aww.."
Ah, I see what's going on here. You think I'm my brother Jordan (who works at this store, and I USED to work at this store). No, we've never met.
"Oh, well, good to meet you man. I'm Darryl."
"Oh, you're working overnight now?" One of the Michael Kors girls... thinks I'm Jordan too.
No, I'm not my brother.
So, not entirely surprising, everyone seems to have assumed a continuity of guards. I was naturally offended by the lack of interest in whether or not they know who it is standing in front of their store all day.
When the girls were leaving I told one of them to be nice to my brother. She said "we'll treat him as if he was you!"
I replied "treat him better than that." Hopefully my disapproval was registered.
Of the four construction guys that showed up, one was this affable, slightly chunky guy (he really wasn't that bad, but he self described himself as a 'fat kid', so I'll.. give it to him?), an older, almost surfer, dude, and the two eponymous romanian guys.
The first two did next to nothing that night, partially fair enough as they couldn't do their thing while the romanian dudes worked on cleaning the tiles on the floor. The first two left for several hours, this night was St. Patricks Eve, or Eve's Eve. Regardless, when the two returned the surfer guy was... he seemed drunk. In a related story, I have a souvenir of that night, a Steam Whistle brewery glass (pint glass?) shaped like a boot. I didn't necessarily want it, but it's something for the trophy room commemorating my adventure of the night spent at Michael Kors!
Anyways, I felt embarrassed to not only be standing around with the insulting job of making sure these guys don't steal anything, but to be in anyway culturally affiliated with the first two construction guys. The Romanian duo put in their time and effort, they worked hard all night.
The younger of the two, Danny, was 21 and engaged to be married. I correctly assumed his fiancee wasn't from Canada. No, she was from Romania as well. I pointed out that girls here are different from Europe (seemed a pretty fair assumption as well) and they agreed. They counseled my to head over to Europe for a wife. I'll, uh, take it under advisement.
The second one, I forget his name, but he was slightly older and already married. He's got a kid, coincidentally named 'Isaac', which I think was a good call on his part, with another on the way.
Actually, this guy was pretty ripped bicep-wise, which made it (sorry) kind of funny when he had trouble lifting this one thing that should have been a cakewalk. Seems clear to me that the guy was at the gym earlier that day, hence the especially bulging aspect of his bicep and relative weakness. I didn't ask him to confirm my guess, but I'm pretty confident.
They asked me if I'd ever get into contruction, and I replied that though I have a ton of respect for the act of concretely (heh pun) contributing to society, a) it's not really my skill set, and b) how do you even get in to construction? It seems to be the case that everyone in construction knows somebody in the business, and that's how you get in.
So, how did you guys get in construction?
"Everybody's in contruction in Romania."
Ah, well in that case, you definitely did know somebody. Like, anybody.
As we were talking about travel, and with my experiences limited to Canada and the U.S., I naturally expressed my opinion of "boo America" (it's a technical term). The married guy, his wife I guess has dual citizenship with the U.S. and Romania, so he has closer ties with the country, and it was funny to watch the younger guy, Danny, needle the elder with the slightly accented cry of "Yeah, America SUCKS" a good humoured smile spread across his face.
It's funny. In many ways, these two have lived a life far beyond my purview, with an enviable certainty of "the next step". Get married. Have a big mess o' kids. Keep at the construction thing. They're part of a tradition stretching back generations. The absurdities of life, to them, are just "the way it is". They are cogs in the machine, and I mean that with absolutely no disrespect. To contrast, I'm more like a cog laying outside the machine. A hunk of metal, but not really doing much.
At least I'm a hunk *wink*
The two were done their stuff by 4:30am, but I was stuck there until 9am or the management showed up and let me loose, whichever came first. After an interminable period of head buzzing, teeth rotting (jelly beans) every-10-minutes-phone-alarm-sounding time the management arrived around 8:30am. They were shocked to find all the furniture still shoved together, and I explained that, ah, Shawn was his name, the older surfer drunk guy, had said "aw, you guys can leave everything as is, they've got morning guys that can take care of this."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's fine."
"Really?!?"
"Yes."
So there really is no one to blame other than that Shawn guy. He was in charge and the others asked him several times for clarification, but there it is.
I agreed to help the two girls move everything into place, and they said they didn't know what they'd do without me. Other than call the mall security guys to help. So there's that.
But still, it was pretty gratifying to see how much stronger I was than they were. Not that I had to do anything particularly special to achieve that other than have a male physiology and be a foot taller (square/cube law has been my catch phrase lately). But MAYBE my years of exercise helped? Maybe?
Come on. Let me have this one.
Thank you.
In theory I could have said no, but I could really use the dough. So.
I packed up some essentials, a big bag of jelly beans for one (just thinking about them makes me want more... which is funny, because I was plenty sick of them by the end of the night.) and headed over. For my reports sake I asked the name of the Guard who was there beforehand.
"You don't remember my name? Aww.."
Ah, I see what's going on here. You think I'm my brother Jordan (who works at this store, and I USED to work at this store). No, we've never met.
"Oh, well, good to meet you man. I'm Darryl."
"Oh, you're working overnight now?" One of the Michael Kors girls... thinks I'm Jordan too.
No, I'm not my brother.
So, not entirely surprising, everyone seems to have assumed a continuity of guards. I was naturally offended by the lack of interest in whether or not they know who it is standing in front of their store all day.
When the girls were leaving I told one of them to be nice to my brother. She said "we'll treat him as if he was you!"
I replied "treat him better than that." Hopefully my disapproval was registered.
Of the four construction guys that showed up, one was this affable, slightly chunky guy (he really wasn't that bad, but he self described himself as a 'fat kid', so I'll.. give it to him?), an older, almost surfer, dude, and the two eponymous romanian guys.
The first two did next to nothing that night, partially fair enough as they couldn't do their thing while the romanian dudes worked on cleaning the tiles on the floor. The first two left for several hours, this night was St. Patricks Eve, or Eve's Eve. Regardless, when the two returned the surfer guy was... he seemed drunk. In a related story, I have a souvenir of that night, a Steam Whistle brewery glass (pint glass?) shaped like a boot. I didn't necessarily want it, but it's something for the trophy room commemorating my adventure of the night spent at Michael Kors!
Anyways, I felt embarrassed to not only be standing around with the insulting job of making sure these guys don't steal anything, but to be in anyway culturally affiliated with the first two construction guys. The Romanian duo put in their time and effort, they worked hard all night.
The younger of the two, Danny, was 21 and engaged to be married. I correctly assumed his fiancee wasn't from Canada. No, she was from Romania as well. I pointed out that girls here are different from Europe (seemed a pretty fair assumption as well) and they agreed. They counseled my to head over to Europe for a wife. I'll, uh, take it under advisement.
The second one, I forget his name, but he was slightly older and already married. He's got a kid, coincidentally named 'Isaac', which I think was a good call on his part, with another on the way.
Actually, this guy was pretty ripped bicep-wise, which made it (sorry) kind of funny when he had trouble lifting this one thing that should have been a cakewalk. Seems clear to me that the guy was at the gym earlier that day, hence the especially bulging aspect of his bicep and relative weakness. I didn't ask him to confirm my guess, but I'm pretty confident.
They asked me if I'd ever get into contruction, and I replied that though I have a ton of respect for the act of concretely (heh pun) contributing to society, a) it's not really my skill set, and b) how do you even get in to construction? It seems to be the case that everyone in construction knows somebody in the business, and that's how you get in.
So, how did you guys get in construction?
"Everybody's in contruction in Romania."
Ah, well in that case, you definitely did know somebody. Like, anybody.
As we were talking about travel, and with my experiences limited to Canada and the U.S., I naturally expressed my opinion of "boo America" (it's a technical term). The married guy, his wife I guess has dual citizenship with the U.S. and Romania, so he has closer ties with the country, and it was funny to watch the younger guy, Danny, needle the elder with the slightly accented cry of "Yeah, America SUCKS" a good humoured smile spread across his face.
It's funny. In many ways, these two have lived a life far beyond my purview, with an enviable certainty of "the next step". Get married. Have a big mess o' kids. Keep at the construction thing. They're part of a tradition stretching back generations. The absurdities of life, to them, are just "the way it is". They are cogs in the machine, and I mean that with absolutely no disrespect. To contrast, I'm more like a cog laying outside the machine. A hunk of metal, but not really doing much.
At least I'm a hunk *wink*
The two were done their stuff by 4:30am, but I was stuck there until 9am or the management showed up and let me loose, whichever came first. After an interminable period of head buzzing, teeth rotting (jelly beans) every-10-minutes-phone-alarm-sounding time the management arrived around 8:30am. They were shocked to find all the furniture still shoved together, and I explained that, ah, Shawn was his name, the older surfer drunk guy, had said "aw, you guys can leave everything as is, they've got morning guys that can take care of this."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's fine."
"Really?!?"
"Yes."
So there really is no one to blame other than that Shawn guy. He was in charge and the others asked him several times for clarification, but there it is.
I agreed to help the two girls move everything into place, and they said they didn't know what they'd do without me. Other than call the mall security guys to help. So there's that.
But still, it was pretty gratifying to see how much stronger I was than they were. Not that I had to do anything particularly special to achieve that other than have a male physiology and be a foot taller (square/cube law has been my catch phrase lately). But MAYBE my years of exercise helped? Maybe?
Come on. Let me have this one.
Thank you.
Pokemon Tournament!!!
Several weeks back now the anime club up at York University held a Pokemon tournament. Yes! There was a single and double battle format, and a lot of people were pumped and had been preparing for the thing for a while. Apparently one guy, who did very poorly last year and wasn't up on the game at all... got better. He studied all the tips and tricks, he didn't care if it was cheap, so long as the rules allowed it, he was going with the best of the best. I ended up going against him in the double battle tournament, and I'll get into how that went when I get there.
Mine was basically a water team, a baton passing, dream world Vaporeon, a Whiscash, a Ludicolo (mine's named Eastwood, and is the man), a Kangaskhan bred special for the event with the scrappy ability, a baton passing, quiver dancing Venomoth, and a basic Rotom for light screen/rain dancing.
Getting ready for the tournament, battling Jordan, I continually smoked him with these guys, even with his crazily good trained Espeon, so I was confident going in.
However, the first guy I fought, a dude actually dressed up as Red from the first game, started off with a Skill link Cloyster with shell smash and focus band. I didn't stand a chance. He swept my entire team with that one guy. In retrospect, what I probably should have done was lead off with a rain dance, then next turn when he probably kills rotom, switch to kangaskhan, sucker punch attack to break the focus sash, and then when kangaskhan gets killed switch to Eastwood, who has the double speed from the rain dance, and mega drain the guy, whose already terrible defences are made worse by shell smash.
But even IF I knew about the focus sash, and did all that... well, that's ONE of his guys down, and I've lost two already. Do-able.... except the OTHER guy he had (we showed our teams after the match to each other) was a dream world ditto, which would match me if I ever tried to power up a guy with baton pass and attempt a sweep of my own. Which is something I almost certainly would have tried. Basically, this was the worst possible match up for me. Boo.
So I was knocked out right away from the singles tournament.
While waiting for the doubles a couple of girls from the psychology department entered to ask anyone in a relationship to fill out a survey. Darkly hilarious- the anime club? Relationship? At a pokemon tournament? These two were barking up the wrong tree. We bullied PJ into filling out a form, he's got a baby with this girl, he's definitely relationship statused. This other club guy, Richard (cool guy) was also spoken for, but didn't volunteer to help. When I realized he just didn't want to fill anyhing out, I had to mentally applaud him for keeping his cool.
For my part, I was sorely tempted to ask one of the girls out, just for the sake of immediately after taking a form and filling it out. It woulda been... sort of funny? Yeah, probably for the best that I didn't.
Meanwhile, this guy Zack was freaking out that he lost. Which was something he does everytime he loses things. It's, uh, pretty annoying. He let loose some pretty major sighs to try and get some attention, but I wasn't having any of it. It's not all about you bud. You want a conversation, I can make that happen, and I'll even ask you about yourself, there'll be a whole back and forth.. thing.
Jordan was impressed that I didn't tell the crazy depressed guy anything horrible. So I see my bar is pretty low with that guy.
At the beginning of the tourney we had to record who we were using for the single tournament so we could get started. Fine by me, since I'd had that planned for weeks. It was just the doubles format that I still hadn't decided on.
"Do you also want us to tell you our doubles picks???" said Jordan.
"Oh, yeah, so everyone also add your doubles picks." said event organizer person.
And I just looked at Jordan with acid tipped daggers flying from my eyes. "I TOLD YOU I WASN'T READY TO CHOOSE THAT!"
"Oops." Classic Jordan.
Fortunately, they didn't force me to pick then, so it was all good. But man, that goombah.
So for the doubles I went with my Reuniclus Akira, my Cofagrigus Kiyoko- both hefty pokemon, slow as molasses, both with Trick Room to switch speeds around for 5 turns or so. These two were actually holdovers from my team from the last years tournament. We only needed 4 for the doubles match, so then I went with my Conkeldurr Mr Myx that Jordan bred for me with Mach Punch, AND a guy I'd just transferred from my gold version, who was himself sent forward from one of the Hoenn games, my Crawdaunt named Longshot!
What happened to me last year with this team is that either Akira or Kiyoko would get dog piled on, and because I didn't use Trick Room with both of them (as doing that cancels out the effect) there was a 50/50 chance of even getting the move out... a move essential to the success of my team.
My solution? Have both pokemon use Trick Room, even if that's stupid. AND IT WORKED!
My first matchup in doubles was against Jordan. He used fakeout, so one of my guys (Akira, the guy actually vulnerable to fakeout) wasn't able to use his move. So Kiyoko did it. And that was all she wrote, all my guys were faster, I took him out.
My next match was against Mike, the fellow I mentioned at the beginning who had dedicated his recent life to becoming "the very best/Like no one ever was". I've actually got this match saved on my DS due to the awesomeness.
Mike started with Haxorus and Hitmontop. PJ was watching my moves and thought I was being a stupid idiot to have two guys use trick room... but again IT WORKED. Hitmontop faked out Akira, and Haxorus used outrage on Kiyoko (to be fair, outrage goes where it wants to go, no choice on that).
Well, hefty being that it is, Kiyoko takes the hit, uses trick room, and now I'm the fastest thing alive. I use Destiny Bond on Kiyoko, killing the formerly full HP Haxorus, and Psychic attack the fighting type Hitmontop. mu- mu- MWHAHAHAHA.
Oh yes.
And that was it basically. I tore apart his opener, and finished with both My Myx and Longshot still alive... which was quite a trick for Longshot, who was burned and took an earthquake from my own other guy and yet still lived. Dude, Longshot is a boss, just throwing that out there.
PJ was dumbstruck at how stupid the strategy of using Trick Room with both guys, but also figures it would work on him too because of it's stupidity. Which, you know, really means its genius.
My next match, the finals were against this really cool guy Nam. Very chill, but was a finalist for a reason. Let's see, he started with Gyrados and... someone. Can't remember. I took a long time with my first move, because I didn't think fake out was coming (again) so I needed to decided whether this was the time for two Trick Rooms again. Eventually... I went with no. I got Akira to trick room, and Kiyoko to shadowball (I'm pretty sure that's how it went down). Nam used taunt... on Kiyoko! My trick room goes off, and things are swinging from there.
Unfortunately, he's got a Staraptor on his team, who's got super effective attacks for both My Myx and Longshot. I aim a stone edge at him... and it misses! Augh! That was what cost me the match. He couldn't take my own hit, I couldn't take his, I was faster, but I missed, he didn't.
Curse you rock moves! Curse your lack of perfect accuracy!
Regardless, it was a great match, I was happy to play against the guy and I earned second place in doubles, the prize being a $10 Best Buy gift card and a little foam luxury ball. Score!
It's called being a Pokemon Master, brah.
I got way too into this post.
Mine was basically a water team, a baton passing, dream world Vaporeon, a Whiscash, a Ludicolo (mine's named Eastwood, and is the man), a Kangaskhan bred special for the event with the scrappy ability, a baton passing, quiver dancing Venomoth, and a basic Rotom for light screen/rain dancing.
Getting ready for the tournament, battling Jordan, I continually smoked him with these guys, even with his crazily good trained Espeon, so I was confident going in.
However, the first guy I fought, a dude actually dressed up as Red from the first game, started off with a Skill link Cloyster with shell smash and focus band. I didn't stand a chance. He swept my entire team with that one guy. In retrospect, what I probably should have done was lead off with a rain dance, then next turn when he probably kills rotom, switch to kangaskhan, sucker punch attack to break the focus sash, and then when kangaskhan gets killed switch to Eastwood, who has the double speed from the rain dance, and mega drain the guy, whose already terrible defences are made worse by shell smash.
But even IF I knew about the focus sash, and did all that... well, that's ONE of his guys down, and I've lost two already. Do-able.... except the OTHER guy he had (we showed our teams after the match to each other) was a dream world ditto, which would match me if I ever tried to power up a guy with baton pass and attempt a sweep of my own. Which is something I almost certainly would have tried. Basically, this was the worst possible match up for me. Boo.
So I was knocked out right away from the singles tournament.
While waiting for the doubles a couple of girls from the psychology department entered to ask anyone in a relationship to fill out a survey. Darkly hilarious- the anime club? Relationship? At a pokemon tournament? These two were barking up the wrong tree. We bullied PJ into filling out a form, he's got a baby with this girl, he's definitely relationship statused. This other club guy, Richard (cool guy) was also spoken for, but didn't volunteer to help. When I realized he just didn't want to fill anyhing out, I had to mentally applaud him for keeping his cool.
For my part, I was sorely tempted to ask one of the girls out, just for the sake of immediately after taking a form and filling it out. It woulda been... sort of funny? Yeah, probably for the best that I didn't.
Meanwhile, this guy Zack was freaking out that he lost. Which was something he does everytime he loses things. It's, uh, pretty annoying. He let loose some pretty major sighs to try and get some attention, but I wasn't having any of it. It's not all about you bud. You want a conversation, I can make that happen, and I'll even ask you about yourself, there'll be a whole back and forth.. thing.
Jordan was impressed that I didn't tell the crazy depressed guy anything horrible. So I see my bar is pretty low with that guy.
At the beginning of the tourney we had to record who we were using for the single tournament so we could get started. Fine by me, since I'd had that planned for weeks. It was just the doubles format that I still hadn't decided on.
"Do you also want us to tell you our doubles picks???" said Jordan.
"Oh, yeah, so everyone also add your doubles picks." said event organizer person.
And I just looked at Jordan with acid tipped daggers flying from my eyes. "I TOLD YOU I WASN'T READY TO CHOOSE THAT!"
"Oops." Classic Jordan.
Fortunately, they didn't force me to pick then, so it was all good. But man, that goombah.
So for the doubles I went with my Reuniclus Akira, my Cofagrigus Kiyoko- both hefty pokemon, slow as molasses, both with Trick Room to switch speeds around for 5 turns or so. These two were actually holdovers from my team from the last years tournament. We only needed 4 for the doubles match, so then I went with my Conkeldurr Mr Myx that Jordan bred for me with Mach Punch, AND a guy I'd just transferred from my gold version, who was himself sent forward from one of the Hoenn games, my Crawdaunt named Longshot!
What happened to me last year with this team is that either Akira or Kiyoko would get dog piled on, and because I didn't use Trick Room with both of them (as doing that cancels out the effect) there was a 50/50 chance of even getting the move out... a move essential to the success of my team.
My solution? Have both pokemon use Trick Room, even if that's stupid. AND IT WORKED!
My first matchup in doubles was against Jordan. He used fakeout, so one of my guys (Akira, the guy actually vulnerable to fakeout) wasn't able to use his move. So Kiyoko did it. And that was all she wrote, all my guys were faster, I took him out.
My next match was against Mike, the fellow I mentioned at the beginning who had dedicated his recent life to becoming "the very best/Like no one ever was". I've actually got this match saved on my DS due to the awesomeness.
Mike started with Haxorus and Hitmontop. PJ was watching my moves and thought I was being a stupid idiot to have two guys use trick room... but again IT WORKED. Hitmontop faked out Akira, and Haxorus used outrage on Kiyoko (to be fair, outrage goes where it wants to go, no choice on that).
Well, hefty being that it is, Kiyoko takes the hit, uses trick room, and now I'm the fastest thing alive. I use Destiny Bond on Kiyoko, killing the formerly full HP Haxorus, and Psychic attack the fighting type Hitmontop. mu- mu- MWHAHAHAHA.
Oh yes.
And that was it basically. I tore apart his opener, and finished with both My Myx and Longshot still alive... which was quite a trick for Longshot, who was burned and took an earthquake from my own other guy and yet still lived. Dude, Longshot is a boss, just throwing that out there.
PJ was dumbstruck at how stupid the strategy of using Trick Room with both guys, but also figures it would work on him too because of it's stupidity. Which, you know, really means its genius.
My next match, the finals were against this really cool guy Nam. Very chill, but was a finalist for a reason. Let's see, he started with Gyrados and... someone. Can't remember. I took a long time with my first move, because I didn't think fake out was coming (again) so I needed to decided whether this was the time for two Trick Rooms again. Eventually... I went with no. I got Akira to trick room, and Kiyoko to shadowball (I'm pretty sure that's how it went down). Nam used taunt... on Kiyoko! My trick room goes off, and things are swinging from there.
Unfortunately, he's got a Staraptor on his team, who's got super effective attacks for both My Myx and Longshot. I aim a stone edge at him... and it misses! Augh! That was what cost me the match. He couldn't take my own hit, I couldn't take his, I was faster, but I missed, he didn't.
Curse you rock moves! Curse your lack of perfect accuracy!
Regardless, it was a great match, I was happy to play against the guy and I earned second place in doubles, the prize being a $10 Best Buy gift card and a little foam luxury ball. Score!
I got way too into this post.
Robert Coover II Ghost Town
Where Noir had a tendency towards hopping from place to place, the earlier work Ghost Town (12 years older than Noir, published in 1998) takes this quality to the extreme. While I picked it up to get a feel for the author, I ALSO wanted a western. Keep in mind, I ordered both books at once, and I probably wouldn't have got two after reading the one. And that's especially true had I read this one first.
What we're given here is rather a long wet dream the author had, and it was cowboy themed. Characters that had previously been killed return, the town rolls to and from the protagonist, he can't go where he wants/lacking in personal autonomy. Every other line is "X happened, as if Y", the reliance on simile is jarringly obvious to extend the "narrative".
Once again, the story is nothing more than tropes piled one on top of the other, unique only by the utter lack of original substance.
It was a draining book to read.
Interesting note: Noir had only 192 pages, with very large print. Ghost Town is 147 pages, but with much smaller print. So, both are small books, but what appears to be the shorter of the two is actually longer... uh, but again, there's more of an actual story in Noir, so take from this what you will.
Another similarity: In Noir, the secretary turned out to also be the Widow that hired the detective. Ghost Town has the Chanteuse either also be the Schoolmarm, or assumes the identity of the schoolmarm- although considering how everything follows dream logic it can be both/neither/any permutation you want. It's super lame when the only two things you read from a guy have that same twist. It's an odd thing seeing an author tackle the same themes time and again... although, tackling themes is obviously different than having literally the same thing happen.
There is, however, at least one part I thought was pretty funny:
P.72 (needed context- the main guy is getting married to the chanteuse, despite his objections. Remember, no one listens to anything he has to say, because it's all dream logic and he can't do nothing about nothing. Super frustrating. Anyways)
"Belle, I know yu're wantin t'git right at it, says the pegleg, but shouldnt he have some pants on? Anyhow leastways fer the cerymonies? He's desprit unsightly down thar, it kinder turns my stomach.
I ain't finished patchin em up, says the chanteuse, wiggling her hips into a velvet and silk wedding gown. And they stink purty bad. He'll hafta go like he is.
Well aint yu at least got a ole skirt or sumthin t'hide him in?
I ain't wearin no skirt, he says flatly.
And I aint marryin no cowboy in one niether, says Belle, buttoning up.
Awright, gimme it then, he says. I'll wear it."
Credit wear it's due, Coover is good at phonetically copying the western dialect. But I aint readin another book of his anytime soon.
What we're given here is rather a long wet dream the author had, and it was cowboy themed. Characters that had previously been killed return, the town rolls to and from the protagonist, he can't go where he wants/lacking in personal autonomy. Every other line is "X happened, as if Y", the reliance on simile is jarringly obvious to extend the "narrative".
Once again, the story is nothing more than tropes piled one on top of the other, unique only by the utter lack of original substance.
It was a draining book to read.
Interesting note: Noir had only 192 pages, with very large print. Ghost Town is 147 pages, but with much smaller print. So, both are small books, but what appears to be the shorter of the two is actually longer... uh, but again, there's more of an actual story in Noir, so take from this what you will.
Another similarity: In Noir, the secretary turned out to also be the Widow that hired the detective. Ghost Town has the Chanteuse either also be the Schoolmarm, or assumes the identity of the schoolmarm- although considering how everything follows dream logic it can be both/neither/any permutation you want. It's super lame when the only two things you read from a guy have that same twist. It's an odd thing seeing an author tackle the same themes time and again... although, tackling themes is obviously different than having literally the same thing happen.
There is, however, at least one part I thought was pretty funny:
P.72 (needed context- the main guy is getting married to the chanteuse, despite his objections. Remember, no one listens to anything he has to say, because it's all dream logic and he can't do nothing about nothing. Super frustrating. Anyways)
"Belle, I know yu're wantin t'git right at it, says the pegleg, but shouldnt he have some pants on? Anyhow leastways fer the cerymonies? He's desprit unsightly down thar, it kinder turns my stomach.
I ain't finished patchin em up, says the chanteuse, wiggling her hips into a velvet and silk wedding gown. And they stink purty bad. He'll hafta go like he is.
Well aint yu at least got a ole skirt or sumthin t'hide him in?
I ain't wearin no skirt, he says flatly.
And I aint marryin no cowboy in one niether, says Belle, buttoning up.
Awright, gimme it then, he says. I'll wear it."
Credit wear it's due, Coover is good at phonetically copying the western dialect. But I aint readin another book of his anytime soon.
Robert Coover I Noir
Appropriately, Noir is another go at distilling the detective novel to its base elements for consumption, but unlike the New York Trilogy approaches it from the opposite angle. Instead of taking it to its simplest terms: a man, a mystery- Coover loads cliche and trope after cliche and trope, appropriating the atmosphere that the mystery writers who've come before have established. So OF COURSE the protagonist has a trenchoat and fedora. Of course he smokes and drinks to excess. Of course he has a weakness for dames. Of course he loves his city. And hates it. Descriptions of Chiaroscuro lighting ("One bright light source leaves everything else in shadow"- tvtropes laconic description of Chiaroscuro, common in noir stories) and time spent checking out gams (P. 34- "Legs are legs, Mr. Noir. There are more of them than there are people." Ha, true.)
Coover gives too unlikable a protagonist, who isn't good enough at his job. Things just happen to him, the mystery more or less solves itself. Granted, the feeling isn't entirely unique to this story, The Big Sleep had this element to it, however that one, along with being a seminal work in the tradition of the gumshoe, also brought with it the feeling that the hero did acconplish something, and something pretty cool too. Not so with Noir.
More important is the wishy-washyness of the narrative. It jumps back and forth in time, diverges to past cases (not too often, too bad. The past cases were kind of enjoyable). I thought I was doing a good job of keeping things straight, and then one character was talking that I was sure was dead at that point. The wool was pulled over my eyes, and I couldn't forgive the story for it.
Spoiler. The novel ends with the whole thing being an invention of the secretary to get a partnership in the detective agency. I thought that was pretty lame.
Coover has a prodigious vocabulary, so more dictionary terms!
appurtenance 1. something subordinate to another, more important thing; adjunct; accessory.
2. Law. a right, privilege, or improvement belonging to and passing with a principal property.
supine lying or resting on the back with the face, palm, etc, upwards
assiduous constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive
penumbral 1. a fringe region of half shadow resulting from the partial obstruction of light by an opaque object (actually for "penumbra")
jodhpurs riding breeches cut very full over the hips and tapering at the knees to become tightfitting from the knees to the ankles. (I KNOW I've looked that one up before..)
deicer a device or a chemical substance for preventing or removing ice. (Ooooh a de-icer. I was thinking like, a 'dice-er', what's that?)
bascinetts (apparently not a real word? The internet has failed me, and I didn't record where in the book this was, so I can't recheck context and spelling..)
supercilious haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.
métier a field of work or other activity in which one has special ability or training; forte. (ooooh you mean bailiwick)
cosh a blackjack; bludgeon
Coover gives too unlikable a protagonist, who isn't good enough at his job. Things just happen to him, the mystery more or less solves itself. Granted, the feeling isn't entirely unique to this story, The Big Sleep had this element to it, however that one, along with being a seminal work in the tradition of the gumshoe, also brought with it the feeling that the hero did acconplish something, and something pretty cool too. Not so with Noir.
More important is the wishy-washyness of the narrative. It jumps back and forth in time, diverges to past cases (not too often, too bad. The past cases were kind of enjoyable). I thought I was doing a good job of keeping things straight, and then one character was talking that I was sure was dead at that point. The wool was pulled over my eyes, and I couldn't forgive the story for it.
Spoiler. The novel ends with the whole thing being an invention of the secretary to get a partnership in the detective agency. I thought that was pretty lame.
Coover has a prodigious vocabulary, so more dictionary terms!
appurtenance 1. something subordinate to another, more important thing; adjunct; accessory.
2. Law. a right, privilege, or improvement belonging to and passing with a principal property.
supine lying or resting on the back with the face, palm, etc, upwards
assiduous constant in application or effort; working diligently at a task; persevering; industrious; attentive
penumbral 1. a fringe region of half shadow resulting from the partial obstruction of light by an opaque object (actually for "penumbra")
jodhpurs riding breeches cut very full over the hips and tapering at the knees to become tightfitting from the knees to the ankles. (I KNOW I've looked that one up before..)
deicer a device or a chemical substance for preventing or removing ice. (Ooooh a de-icer. I was thinking like, a 'dice-er', what's that?)
bascinetts (apparently not a real word? The internet has failed me, and I didn't record where in the book this was, so I can't recheck context and spelling..)
supercilious haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.
métier a field of work or other activity in which one has special ability or training; forte. (ooooh you mean bailiwick)
cosh a blackjack; bludgeon
The New York Trilogy
The New York Trilogy, a 308 page book of three parts, was something else I had read during my university career, but the difference between this and Gatsby is that I really wasn't too concerned with the idea that I'd forgotten what the thing was about. Instead, re-reading this was a bit of a fact finding reassurance mission- I'd recommended it to a friend of mine, and wanted to recheck whether I was right to do so. I bit of an out of the way thing to check, but whatever. And I can say with some confidence that I think I have indeed made a good call. So yay me.
The books contained within are 'City of Glass', 'Ghosts', and 'The Locked Room', all done by Paul Auster in the late 80's. Which still feels like they're brand new.
Let's get some dictionary housekeeping out of the way:
penury extreme poverty or scarcity
scrofulous 1. pertaining to, resembling, of the nature of, or affected with scrofula. aka tuberculosis. 2. morally tainted.
divagations to wander, stray. To digress in speech
harangue
1. a scolding or a long or intense verbal attack; diatribe.
2. a long, passionate, and vehement speech, especially one delivered before a public gathering.
3. any long, pompous speech or writing of a tediously hortatory or didactic nature; sermonizing lecture or discourse.
Baudelaire
1821--67, French poet, noted for his macabre imagery; author of Les fleurs du mal (1857) (someone to look into in the future- though I have heard of him before)
Special Quotes:
P.137: "Blue looks through the binoculars and reads the title of the book that Black is reading. Walden, by Henry David Thoreau."
The quote here isn't particularly important, however I couldn't help but wonder if it's this reference that got me to read Walden. I know I was reading this at the same time I took an American Literature class that mentioned Walden. Most likely after those two references I went "Okay, I get it, I'll read Walden! Stop shoving it in my face!"
P. 292: "But that was the thing that thrilled me - the randomness of it, the vertigo of pure chance."
Important quote because, considering who I recommended this book to and why, well, this quote is perfect.
So, City of Glass. It's about a writer who writes detective stories getting confused for a detective who is named the same as the author Paul Auster, who does appear in the novel, but again, isn't a detective, having to follow the father of his client Peter Stillman, who is himself named Peter Stillman. Yup, it's one of those stories. And I've actually left out some of the craziness. It (like all of the New York Trilogy) is actually a very minimalist detective story. Very little action, few clues. It just sort of goes on... it just astounds me how a novel can be written with such sparcity of detail. And be good. There's a comic book adaptation of this one, so you can check the whole thing out in an hour if you like. Mentioning that fact before I said "adaption" instead of "adaptation". Embarrassing.
Ghosts may be my favourite, just listen the description the book jacket gives: "Blue, a student of Brown, has been hired by White to spy on Black. From a window of a rented room on Orange Street, Blue stalks his subject, who is staring out of HIS window." It can be a little hard to keep people straight, what with the unusual names. You don't think of Blue or Brown or Black or White as names, the characters are abstractions, with their actions arbitrarily hung on person A, B, C, D, etc. Which really just brings attention to the fact that that's what we ALWAYS do when reading, it's just easier to pretend what's on the page is a real person with a name that doesn't break our willing suspension of disbelief. No one is ready to accept a universe where Brown/Blue/Black/White are all interrelated... but why not? They're all legitimate names (maybe not Blue..)
Interesting note: the phrase "willing suspension of disbelief" was apparently coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge- that's right! He of the Kubla Khan, and Rime of the Ancient Mariner fame! Cool!
Locked Room helps to tie the books together, though no one is getting easy answers. It breaks the formulas, despite being part of the New York Trilogy of detective stories, where the other two specifically star detectives (even if the first one is only pretending, he's still taken on a legitimate case, so, at what point does he become a "real" detective?) and all the action takes place in New York- in The Locked Room there are extended parts which take place outside New York, and only one out-of-the-blue line where the main character refers to himself as a detective.
This isn't a book for everyone. But the cover of this Penguin edition is totally awesome. Pulpy.
The books contained within are 'City of Glass', 'Ghosts', and 'The Locked Room', all done by Paul Auster in the late 80's. Which still feels like they're brand new.
Let's get some dictionary housekeeping out of the way:
penury extreme poverty or scarcity
scrofulous 1. pertaining to, resembling, of the nature of, or affected with scrofula. aka tuberculosis. 2. morally tainted.
divagations to wander, stray. To digress in speech
harangue
1. a scolding or a long or intense verbal attack; diatribe.
2. a long, passionate, and vehement speech, especially one delivered before a public gathering.
3. any long, pompous speech or writing of a tediously hortatory or didactic nature; sermonizing lecture or discourse.
Baudelaire
1821--67, French poet, noted for his macabre imagery; author of Les fleurs du mal (1857) (someone to look into in the future- though I have heard of him before)
Special Quotes:
P.137: "Blue looks through the binoculars and reads the title of the book that Black is reading. Walden, by Henry David Thoreau."
The quote here isn't particularly important, however I couldn't help but wonder if it's this reference that got me to read Walden. I know I was reading this at the same time I took an American Literature class that mentioned Walden. Most likely after those two references I went "Okay, I get it, I'll read Walden! Stop shoving it in my face!"
P. 292: "But that was the thing that thrilled me - the randomness of it, the vertigo of pure chance."
Important quote because, considering who I recommended this book to and why, well, this quote is perfect.
So, City of Glass. It's about a writer who writes detective stories getting confused for a detective who is named the same as the author Paul Auster, who does appear in the novel, but again, isn't a detective, having to follow the father of his client Peter Stillman, who is himself named Peter Stillman. Yup, it's one of those stories. And I've actually left out some of the craziness. It (like all of the New York Trilogy) is actually a very minimalist detective story. Very little action, few clues. It just sort of goes on... it just astounds me how a novel can be written with such sparcity of detail. And be good. There's a comic book adaptation of this one, so you can check the whole thing out in an hour if you like. Mentioning that fact before I said "adaption" instead of "adaptation". Embarrassing.
Ghosts may be my favourite, just listen the description the book jacket gives: "Blue, a student of Brown, has been hired by White to spy on Black. From a window of a rented room on Orange Street, Blue stalks his subject, who is staring out of HIS window." It can be a little hard to keep people straight, what with the unusual names. You don't think of Blue or Brown or Black or White as names, the characters are abstractions, with their actions arbitrarily hung on person A, B, C, D, etc. Which really just brings attention to the fact that that's what we ALWAYS do when reading, it's just easier to pretend what's on the page is a real person with a name that doesn't break our willing suspension of disbelief. No one is ready to accept a universe where Brown/Blue/Black/White are all interrelated... but why not? They're all legitimate names (maybe not Blue..)
Interesting note: the phrase "willing suspension of disbelief" was apparently coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge- that's right! He of the Kubla Khan, and Rime of the Ancient Mariner fame! Cool!
Locked Room helps to tie the books together, though no one is getting easy answers. It breaks the formulas, despite being part of the New York Trilogy of detective stories, where the other two specifically star detectives (even if the first one is only pretending, he's still taken on a legitimate case, so, at what point does he become a "real" detective?) and all the action takes place in New York- in The Locked Room there are extended parts which take place outside New York, and only one out-of-the-blue line where the main character refers to himself as a detective.
This isn't a book for everyone. But the cover of this Penguin edition is totally awesome. Pulpy.
Great Gatsby (the book) part II
Some slight connectivity problems had hindered my ability to post here. Followed by the more serious lack of motivation problems. Ah well. I've got my topics lined up- but man! This is the worst I've ever been as far as spacing out and whatnot. Hopefully, there'll be something of interest to you in the following- there's certainly a bunch of things to choose from!
What interested me the most about reading Gatsby again, since this was, naturally, for my own benefit, instead of for any class assignment, was to take the time to answer the question: why have I had so much difficulty keeping in my head the plot of this book? Yes, there's a green light, fantastic, so I'm all set for Trebek's questions, but what ELSE happens?
The answer seems twofold to me now. (Is 'twofold' a word? Should it be 'two fold'?) The greater barrier, to my mind, was the sheer number of characters involved. There's an odd bit of debauchery where Nick goes off with Tom and his mistress Myrtle (man, I have got this book down now! It's been about a week since I've read it and returned the thing to the library, and I still remember Myrtle Wilson's name. Good job me!) and I know in the past I'd always remembered Daisy or Jordan Baker also being in attendance at that party... it turns out that isn't so! In fact, the only really significant characters that return from that party are Nick and Myrtle. Myrtle's sister gets a sentence near the end after Myrtle has been killed, which has it's own brand of significance, but nothing pivotal to the books success. This is a party with six characters with speaking parts, but we only ever talk to Nick and Tom again.
Similarly, at Gatsby's parties, there are loads of people. The one chapter even begins with Nick listing off the names of some attendees- and it's quite a long list! I think my problem was one of conflating characters in a way that was impossible to make sense of.
The other problem, and this will be the issue for a large chunk of the readership, is the poetic language used throughout the novel. There's no doubt it's lovely, but it does often take some deciphering, something I wouldn't have had much time for in my university days- which sounds horrible, but it's true. I probably had two or three other novels to read the week I read Gatsby, and this one does take some focus to appreciate. Although, while I'm thinking back on my modernisms class (my favourite class) I'd like to note the similar vibe I got between Gatsby and the novel 'Passing' by someone who I forget who it was (cut me some slack, this must have been, ugh, 7 or 8 years ago? Wow.) It was about the phenomenon of people with mixed white and black heritage that could pass for white in society, and so they had this big secret to hide away that could ruin them. I guess Gatsby had a similar secret, that of his money making ways. Yeah, I don't know, the books are just linked to me.
Ah, that's another thing that would have got in my way of understanding the book. It had been hammered into me the notion that Gatsby himself was a metaphor for American ambition, and that it therefore didn't matter how he got his money, Gatsby having money was more a device to tell this story than anything else (a point hilariously made again in the Kate Beaton Gatsby comics she drew "I heard he's a metaphor..." "...I don't think I like this Gatsby fellow!"). I took it for granted that there was no explanation for his fabulous wealth, that there COULDN'T be an explanation for his fabulous wealth, because Gatsby was less a person than a literary device. But that way of thinking blinded me to the goings on of the novel. Yes, it is explained how he made his money! All the time it's brought up! The sketchy jewish guy (ugh, that's horrible, but HIS name is currently escaping me... it's a pretty stereotypical sounding name too) needed someone who looked respectable, because he himself would never appear so, and thus Gatsby was taken under his wing. And IF Gatsby himself didn't participate in the rigging of the one world series game for gambling profit, Gatsby certainly enjoyed the results of it courtesy of... Wolfshiem? Is that the jewish guys name? Well, that money would certainly have been used to help set up the bootlegging operation running out of those various pharmacies that had been bought up.
Ultimately, I'm going to go with: I needed a bit of space to sit down and absorb this book. Which I think is fair enough. Man, that Gatsby is a tragic dude. The movie is going to be really cool.
What interested me the most about reading Gatsby again, since this was, naturally, for my own benefit, instead of for any class assignment, was to take the time to answer the question: why have I had so much difficulty keeping in my head the plot of this book? Yes, there's a green light, fantastic, so I'm all set for Trebek's questions, but what ELSE happens?
The answer seems twofold to me now. (Is 'twofold' a word? Should it be 'two fold'?) The greater barrier, to my mind, was the sheer number of characters involved. There's an odd bit of debauchery where Nick goes off with Tom and his mistress Myrtle (man, I have got this book down now! It's been about a week since I've read it and returned the thing to the library, and I still remember Myrtle Wilson's name. Good job me!) and I know in the past I'd always remembered Daisy or Jordan Baker also being in attendance at that party... it turns out that isn't so! In fact, the only really significant characters that return from that party are Nick and Myrtle. Myrtle's sister gets a sentence near the end after Myrtle has been killed, which has it's own brand of significance, but nothing pivotal to the books success. This is a party with six characters with speaking parts, but we only ever talk to Nick and Tom again.
Similarly, at Gatsby's parties, there are loads of people. The one chapter even begins with Nick listing off the names of some attendees- and it's quite a long list! I think my problem was one of conflating characters in a way that was impossible to make sense of.
The other problem, and this will be the issue for a large chunk of the readership, is the poetic language used throughout the novel. There's no doubt it's lovely, but it does often take some deciphering, something I wouldn't have had much time for in my university days- which sounds horrible, but it's true. I probably had two or three other novels to read the week I read Gatsby, and this one does take some focus to appreciate. Although, while I'm thinking back on my modernisms class (my favourite class) I'd like to note the similar vibe I got between Gatsby and the novel 'Passing' by someone who I forget who it was (cut me some slack, this must have been, ugh, 7 or 8 years ago? Wow.) It was about the phenomenon of people with mixed white and black heritage that could pass for white in society, and so they had this big secret to hide away that could ruin them. I guess Gatsby had a similar secret, that of his money making ways. Yeah, I don't know, the books are just linked to me.
Ah, that's another thing that would have got in my way of understanding the book. It had been hammered into me the notion that Gatsby himself was a metaphor for American ambition, and that it therefore didn't matter how he got his money, Gatsby having money was more a device to tell this story than anything else (a point hilariously made again in the Kate Beaton Gatsby comics she drew "I heard he's a metaphor..." "...I don't think I like this Gatsby fellow!"). I took it for granted that there was no explanation for his fabulous wealth, that there COULDN'T be an explanation for his fabulous wealth, because Gatsby was less a person than a literary device. But that way of thinking blinded me to the goings on of the novel. Yes, it is explained how he made his money! All the time it's brought up! The sketchy jewish guy (ugh, that's horrible, but HIS name is currently escaping me... it's a pretty stereotypical sounding name too) needed someone who looked respectable, because he himself would never appear so, and thus Gatsby was taken under his wing. And IF Gatsby himself didn't participate in the rigging of the one world series game for gambling profit, Gatsby certainly enjoyed the results of it courtesy of... Wolfshiem? Is that the jewish guys name? Well, that money would certainly have been used to help set up the bootlegging operation running out of those various pharmacies that had been bought up.
Ultimately, I'm going to go with: I needed a bit of space to sit down and absorb this book. Which I think is fair enough. Man, that Gatsby is a tragic dude. The movie is going to be really cool.
Monday, March 25, 2013
The Great Gatsby (book)
Now two days overdue, which is what happens when you stay in your room all Sunday. Read this book incredibly slow, occasionally because I was tired and had to re-read parts, but mostly because I was determined to sink this book into my head (fourth times the charm).
Maybe fourth time is too generous... the way I was re-reading lines so meticulously I've practically gone through the book two more times.
Page numbers:
P.38- "Mr. McKee was asleep on a chair with his fists clenched in his lap, like a photograph of a man of action. Taking out my handkerchief I wiped from his cheek the spot of dried lather that had worried me all the afternoon."
I really hope this passage gets played up in the movie, like when we get to the scene the camera will keep quick cutting, close up to the spot of lather on the guys neck with an intense look of concern from Tobey Maguire staring at it. Tobey has the eyes to make that hilarious. You know the kind of look I mean.
P. 77- "A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: 'There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.'"
Liked the phrase, recorded it.
P.85- "...so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple..."
Just recording the lack of reference I have for that one. Need to look up Kant in this context. Likely still Kantian philosopher guy.
P. 129- After the big confrontation between Gatsby and Tom, really the turning point where Gatsby is defeated, things get awkward for outsiders Nick Carraway (narrator) and Jordan Baker (professional golfer, flake, and Nick's girlfriend throughout the book. Nick says:
"'No... I just remembered that today's my birthday.'
"I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade.
It was seven o'clock when we got into the coupe with him and started for Long Island. Tom talked incessantly, exulting and laughing, but his voice was as remote from Jordan and me as the foriegn clamour on the sidewalk or the tumult of the elevated overhead. Human sympathy has its limits, and we were content to let all their tragic arguments fade with the city lights behind. Thirty - the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair. But there was Jordan beside me, who, unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age. As we passed over the dark bridge her wan face fell lazily against my coat's shoulder and the formidable stroke of thirty died away with the reassuring pressure of her hand.
So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight."
Checking the birth and release dates, Fitzgerald was 30 when this book was made. Reminds me of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", which was itself, according to wikipedia, published in the Chicago area in 1915, and was certainly read by Fitzgerald (Gatsby was written in 1926). All together, it's more evidence for Nick as author avator of Fitzgerald, not that that's too surprising. I'm sure the argument can be made for Gatsby as author as well... though I doubt Fitzgerald himself would agree with that statement!
P. 154- "It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete."
Can't help but be interested in that passage, use of "holocaust" before advent of THE holocaust.
Long list of words to look up for this book. As ever, in my defence, most of them I know partially or get the gist from context, but if I were point blank asked "define THIS" I'd be in trouble. So it goes. Oh, though some are clearly names or somesuch, the historical context would of course be outside my grasp.
Adventitious associated with something by chance rather than as an integral part; extrinsic.
Trimalchio is a character in the 1st century AD Roman work of fiction Satyricon by Petronius. Trimalchio is a freedman who through hard work and perseverance has attained power and wealth. The fundamental meaning of the root is "King," and the name Trimalchio would thus mean "Thrice King," "greatest King."[Trimalchio is known for throwing lavish dinner parties. He seeks to impress his guests—the Roman nouveau riche, mostly freedmen—with the ubiquitous excesses seen throughout his dwelling. By the end of the banquet, Trimalchio's drunken showiness leads to the entire household acting out his funeral, all for his own amusement and egotism. So he's "Ancient Gatsby".
nonolfactory of or pertaining to the sense of smell
abtrusive seems to just be a corruption of obtrusive. No dictionary results.
dilatory
punctilious strict or exact in the observance of the formalities or amenities of conduct or actions.
modish in the current fashion; stylish.
echolalia 1. Psychiatry. the uncontrollable and immediate repetition of words spoken by another person.
vinous of, resembling, or containing wine.
meretricious 1. alluring by a show of flashy or vulgar attractions; tawdry.
sharper 1. a shrewd swindler.
El Greco born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 7 April 1614) was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname,[a][b] a reference to his national Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school.
pasquinade a satire or lampoon, especially one posted in a public place.
extemporize
contiguous
peremptory leaving no opportunity for denial or refusal; imperative
hauteur haughty manner or spirit; arrogance.
supercilious haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.
mincing (of the gait, speech, behavior, etc.) affectedly dainty, nice, or elegant.
Kaiser Wilhelm ruler of Germany, 1871-1918
Belasco David Belasco (1853-1931); U.S. theatrical producer, playwright, and actor.
Frisco looks like this is just short for San Francisco
tortuously 1. full of twists, turns, or bends; twisting, winding, or crooked: a tortuous path.
Maybe fourth time is too generous... the way I was re-reading lines so meticulously I've practically gone through the book two more times.
Page numbers:
P.38- "Mr. McKee was asleep on a chair with his fists clenched in his lap, like a photograph of a man of action. Taking out my handkerchief I wiped from his cheek the spot of dried lather that had worried me all the afternoon."
I really hope this passage gets played up in the movie, like when we get to the scene the camera will keep quick cutting, close up to the spot of lather on the guys neck with an intense look of concern from Tobey Maguire staring at it. Tobey has the eyes to make that hilarious. You know the kind of look I mean.
P. 77- "A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: 'There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.'"
Liked the phrase, recorded it.
P.85- "...so I stared at it, like Kant at his church steeple..."
Just recording the lack of reference I have for that one. Need to look up Kant in this context. Likely still Kantian philosopher guy.
P. 129- After the big confrontation between Gatsby and Tom, really the turning point where Gatsby is defeated, things get awkward for outsiders Nick Carraway (narrator) and Jordan Baker (professional golfer, flake, and Nick's girlfriend throughout the book. Nick says:
"'No... I just remembered that today's my birthday.'
"I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade.
It was seven o'clock when we got into the coupe with him and started for Long Island. Tom talked incessantly, exulting and laughing, but his voice was as remote from Jordan and me as the foriegn clamour on the sidewalk or the tumult of the elevated overhead. Human sympathy has its limits, and we were content to let all their tragic arguments fade with the city lights behind. Thirty - the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair. But there was Jordan beside me, who, unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age. As we passed over the dark bridge her wan face fell lazily against my coat's shoulder and the formidable stroke of thirty died away with the reassuring pressure of her hand.
So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight."
Checking the birth and release dates, Fitzgerald was 30 when this book was made. Reminds me of T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", which was itself, according to wikipedia, published in the Chicago area in 1915, and was certainly read by Fitzgerald (Gatsby was written in 1926). All together, it's more evidence for Nick as author avator of Fitzgerald, not that that's too surprising. I'm sure the argument can be made for Gatsby as author as well... though I doubt Fitzgerald himself would agree with that statement!
P. 154- "It was after we started with Gatsby toward the house that the gardener saw Wilson's body a little way off in the grass, and the holocaust was complete."
Can't help but be interested in that passage, use of "holocaust" before advent of THE holocaust.
Long list of words to look up for this book. As ever, in my defence, most of them I know partially or get the gist from context, but if I were point blank asked "define THIS" I'd be in trouble. So it goes. Oh, though some are clearly names or somesuch, the historical context would of course be outside my grasp.
Adventitious associated with something by chance rather than as an integral part; extrinsic.
Trimalchio is a character in the 1st century AD Roman work of fiction Satyricon by Petronius. Trimalchio is a freedman who through hard work and perseverance has attained power and wealth. The fundamental meaning of the root is "King," and the name Trimalchio would thus mean "Thrice King," "greatest King."[Trimalchio is known for throwing lavish dinner parties. He seeks to impress his guests—the Roman nouveau riche, mostly freedmen—with the ubiquitous excesses seen throughout his dwelling. By the end of the banquet, Trimalchio's drunken showiness leads to the entire household acting out his funeral, all for his own amusement and egotism. So he's "Ancient Gatsby".
nonolfactory of or pertaining to the sense of smell
abtrusive seems to just be a corruption of obtrusive. No dictionary results.
dilatory
1.
tending to delay or procrastinate; slow; tardy.
2.
intended to cause delay, gain time, or defer decision
punctilious strict or exact in the observance of the formalities or amenities of conduct or actions.
modish in the current fashion; stylish.
echolalia 1. Psychiatry. the uncontrollable and immediate repetition of words spoken by another person.
2. the imitation by a baby of the vocal sounds produced by others, occurring as a natural phase of childhood development.
vinous of, resembling, or containing wine.
meretricious 1. alluring by a show of flashy or vulgar attractions; tawdry.
2. based on pretense, deception, or insincerity.
3. pertaining to or characteristic of a prostitute.
(dude, I was way off on this one...)sharper 1. a shrewd swindler.
2. a professional gambler.
El Greco born Doménikos Theotokópoulos, (1541 – 7 April 1614) was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" (The Greek) was a nickname,[a][b] a reference to his national Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters. El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school.
pasquinade a satire or lampoon, especially one posted in a public place.
extemporize
| to perform, speak, or compose (an act, speech, piece of music, etc) without planning or preparation |
contiguous
| 1. | touching along the side or boundary; in contact |
| 2. | physically adjacent; neighbouring |
| 3. | preceding or following in time |
peremptory leaving no opportunity for denial or refusal; imperative
hauteur haughty manner or spirit; arrogance.
supercilious haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.
mincing (of the gait, speech, behavior, etc.) affectedly dainty, nice, or elegant.
Kaiser Wilhelm ruler of Germany, 1871-1918
Belasco David Belasco (1853-1931); U.S. theatrical producer, playwright, and actor.
Frisco looks like this is just short for San Francisco
tortuously 1. full of twists, turns, or bends; twisting, winding, or crooked: a tortuous path.
2. not direct or straightforward, as in procedure or speech; intricate; circuitous: tortuous negotiations lasting for months.
3. deceitfully indirect or morally crooked, as proceedings, methods, or policy; devious.
FINALLY THAT'S ALL OF THEM!
All right, that should be everything I need the book for. I'll post this, return the book to the library, and then talk a bit about the book when I get back.
Friday, March 15, 2013
The Ides of March (how much you want to bet I said the exact same thing last year?)
I'm back working security at a Michael Kors store to earn my money. And yes, that's as depressing as it sounds. 8 hours of just standing around being useless, with two half hour breaks.
The first hour and a half of yesterdays shift, however, evaporated as if it were nothing. WHILE STILL DOING MY JOB (emphasis very much needed here) I withdrew completely into myself, thinking, rolling along a stream of consciousness, striving to recall, to be my own wikipedia to sound crass about it.
And all the while all I wanted was to be locked up in a room somewhere, laptop in hand, and writing stuff down. Yes, that thought was another I specifically wanted recorded yesterday, and now I have done so.
I was completely obsessed with a dream, again, yesterday, that I wanted to get down, but I've forgotten it. At least, that was true until I got half way through that sentence.
I was at a school. In the auditorium a girl I know was wheeled to the front (she doesn't usually use a wheel chair..) but she walks out of it and stands at the podium to give an introduction to a movie she made. The movie, a violent cartoon of giant creatures on a rampage, all cut up with no clear narrative. The audience laughs at it for not making sense, and I want them to stop for the girls sake, but I can't help but feel they have a point. She's uncomfortable with the response she's gotten. She leaves, and I follow, trying to talk with her, but I keep following farther and farther behind her. No, it's not like those nightmares you had when you were little- my legs worked fine, I wasn't trapped in sand. I could have run, but that would have meant admitting that I wanted to keep up. All the while I was carrying a flag that had a burnt edge to it, still glowing like it could burst into flame at any time. Which has GOT to be symbolic of something, but I have zero idea.
In the cafeteria I found the group of people I played VS. cards with back in the day. Of course "back in the day" was still well after high school, and this wasn't any cafeteria I'd ever been in as far as I could tell, so who knows where that came from. They were discussing the merits of having random cards in to deal with whatever situation might come up (basically, how I often played) which is something they'd NEVER be in favour of, so this dream is crazier than you'd think.
Walking home, and this was along Pharmacy Avenue there were multiple houses with radio station/pizza places. As in you walked up the steps to the door, go in, and get a brand pizza right from the DJ while he's broadcasting live on-air. I think the two houses were Pizza Pizza and Domines chains... no idea which radio station they were. It was weird, not a bad idea though.
"Not a bad idea though" As in, maybe a good idea. I'm referring to "Litotes" understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”
It's one of those things I learned lately that has really stuck in my head- because people keep using examples of it. Not sure if the word is different for when you say "not bad" and specifically don't mean "it's good". The case for "it's neutral".
A friend of mine used the word "mansplaining". It's a pretty ugly portmanteau. It sounds like something Lucy should throw back at Desi Arnaz's face when he says "you've got some 'splaining to do!"
Thinking about stereotypes and prejudice. The first time you encounter X, you expect it to always be X, until you meet an instance of Y. Now it can be X or Y, until Z. The fact that you shouldn't be surprised by A-Z doesn't discount the realities of how often you seen X X's numerically greater than Y Y's. If you're a fan of Criminal Minds (I'm not, but I'm sure it's a legitimate thing to be a fan of. The math checks out) then you see the effectiveness of "fitting a profile". Well, it's a fictional show, but you get my point. There are real world criminal profilers. Okay, NOW you get my point.
You can't take anything for granted. Except that we do. All the time. We take for granted that the next step we take will land on solid ground, that the chair will hold up. That what we see is real. That was the other thing I took a while to remember yesterday, but it still came to me surprisingly quickly "cogito ergo sum". The only thing I know for certain, which is CRAZY.
I like how I had to dictionary.com "litotes" but am totally confident that I've got "cogito ergo sum" that I don't need to check if I've indeed got it right. I did have litotes wrong, in fact. I had first written "litote".
Today I woke up tired from a nightmare where I was fighting these killers in a sort of super speed zone, so that even if they got killed it would be a long while before they actually fell down dead, and could do whatever they wanted to you in the meantime. Terrifying. Similarly, some nigh invulnerable zombie dudes had it out for me, and had infected someone on my team with a virus carrying golf ball hours earlier that was a revelation I couldn't handle and had to wake up. Two hours later I safely went back to sleep, good thing too, I've an overnight shift to work. 9pm-9am, wish me luck, I'll be fine.
What is this, first post of March? Most of it sounds crazy, and is therefore awesome. Here's the info dictionary.com has on the "Ides of March" (haven't read it yet myself)
"March 15th marks a very inauspicious anniversary. Like a black cat crossing your path, the Ides of March has become a metaphor for impending doom. How did a day that was once celebrated by the Romans become so heavily cloaked in superstition?
The Ides of March is a phrase derived from the Latin idus, a term marking the 15th day of March, July and October as well as the 13th day of other months in the Roman calendar year, and the Latin martii, “March,” which is derived from the Latin Mars, the Roman god of war. The “ide”marks the halfway point of the month—most likely alluding to the day of the full moon. Apparently, devised by Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome, the early Roman calendar cited other dates of the month by counting backwards from the kalends (1st day of the month), kones (the 7th day of March, May, July and October; the 13th day in other months) and of course, the ides.
Once a celebratory day dedicated to the Roman god, Mars (complete with a military parade) the backstabbing of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. cast a dark cloud. Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” immortalized this dark moment.
Written by William Shakespeare around 1599, “Julius Caesar“ portrays the assassination of the Roman dictator by a group of conspirators. After ignoring the warnings of a soothsayer, a person who professes to foretell events, who uttered the phrase “Beware the Ides of March,” Caesar is stabbed 23 times in the back.
Thus, the same man who brought us the month of July involuntarily inaugurated the phrase “backstabbing.”"
The first hour and a half of yesterdays shift, however, evaporated as if it were nothing. WHILE STILL DOING MY JOB (emphasis very much needed here) I withdrew completely into myself, thinking, rolling along a stream of consciousness, striving to recall, to be my own wikipedia to sound crass about it.
And all the while all I wanted was to be locked up in a room somewhere, laptop in hand, and writing stuff down. Yes, that thought was another I specifically wanted recorded yesterday, and now I have done so.
I was completely obsessed with a dream, again, yesterday, that I wanted to get down, but I've forgotten it. At least, that was true until I got half way through that sentence.
I was at a school. In the auditorium a girl I know was wheeled to the front (she doesn't usually use a wheel chair..) but she walks out of it and stands at the podium to give an introduction to a movie she made. The movie, a violent cartoon of giant creatures on a rampage, all cut up with no clear narrative. The audience laughs at it for not making sense, and I want them to stop for the girls sake, but I can't help but feel they have a point. She's uncomfortable with the response she's gotten. She leaves, and I follow, trying to talk with her, but I keep following farther and farther behind her. No, it's not like those nightmares you had when you were little- my legs worked fine, I wasn't trapped in sand. I could have run, but that would have meant admitting that I wanted to keep up. All the while I was carrying a flag that had a burnt edge to it, still glowing like it could burst into flame at any time. Which has GOT to be symbolic of something, but I have zero idea.
In the cafeteria I found the group of people I played VS. cards with back in the day. Of course "back in the day" was still well after high school, and this wasn't any cafeteria I'd ever been in as far as I could tell, so who knows where that came from. They were discussing the merits of having random cards in to deal with whatever situation might come up (basically, how I often played) which is something they'd NEVER be in favour of, so this dream is crazier than you'd think.
Walking home, and this was along Pharmacy Avenue there were multiple houses with radio station/pizza places. As in you walked up the steps to the door, go in, and get a brand pizza right from the DJ while he's broadcasting live on-air. I think the two houses were Pizza Pizza and Domines chains... no idea which radio station they were. It was weird, not a bad idea though.
"Not a bad idea though" As in, maybe a good idea. I'm referring to "Litotes" understatement, especially that in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, as in “not bad at all.”
It's one of those things I learned lately that has really stuck in my head- because people keep using examples of it. Not sure if the word is different for when you say "not bad" and specifically don't mean "it's good". The case for "it's neutral".
A friend of mine used the word "mansplaining". It's a pretty ugly portmanteau. It sounds like something Lucy should throw back at Desi Arnaz's face when he says "you've got some 'splaining to do!"
Thinking about stereotypes and prejudice. The first time you encounter X, you expect it to always be X, until you meet an instance of Y. Now it can be X or Y, until Z. The fact that you shouldn't be surprised by A-Z doesn't discount the realities of how often you seen X X's numerically greater than Y Y's. If you're a fan of Criminal Minds (I'm not, but I'm sure it's a legitimate thing to be a fan of. The math checks out) then you see the effectiveness of "fitting a profile". Well, it's a fictional show, but you get my point. There are real world criminal profilers. Okay, NOW you get my point.
You can't take anything for granted. Except that we do. All the time. We take for granted that the next step we take will land on solid ground, that the chair will hold up. That what we see is real. That was the other thing I took a while to remember yesterday, but it still came to me surprisingly quickly "cogito ergo sum". The only thing I know for certain, which is CRAZY.
I like how I had to dictionary.com "litotes" but am totally confident that I've got "cogito ergo sum" that I don't need to check if I've indeed got it right. I did have litotes wrong, in fact. I had first written "litote".
Today I woke up tired from a nightmare where I was fighting these killers in a sort of super speed zone, so that even if they got killed it would be a long while before they actually fell down dead, and could do whatever they wanted to you in the meantime. Terrifying. Similarly, some nigh invulnerable zombie dudes had it out for me, and had infected someone on my team with a virus carrying golf ball hours earlier that was a revelation I couldn't handle and had to wake up. Two hours later I safely went back to sleep, good thing too, I've an overnight shift to work. 9pm-9am, wish me luck, I'll be fine.
What is this, first post of March? Most of it sounds crazy, and is therefore awesome. Here's the info dictionary.com has on the "Ides of March" (haven't read it yet myself)
"March 15th marks a very inauspicious anniversary. Like a black cat crossing your path, the Ides of March has become a metaphor for impending doom. How did a day that was once celebrated by the Romans become so heavily cloaked in superstition?
The Ides of March is a phrase derived from the Latin idus, a term marking the 15th day of March, July and October as well as the 13th day of other months in the Roman calendar year, and the Latin martii, “March,” which is derived from the Latin Mars, the Roman god of war. The “ide”marks the halfway point of the month—most likely alluding to the day of the full moon. Apparently, devised by Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome, the early Roman calendar cited other dates of the month by counting backwards from the kalends (1st day of the month), kones (the 7th day of March, May, July and October; the 13th day in other months) and of course, the ides.
Once a celebratory day dedicated to the Roman god, Mars (complete with a military parade) the backstabbing of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. cast a dark cloud. Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” immortalized this dark moment.
Written by William Shakespeare around 1599, “Julius Caesar“ portrays the assassination of the Roman dictator by a group of conspirators. After ignoring the warnings of a soothsayer, a person who professes to foretell events, who uttered the phrase “Beware the Ides of March,” Caesar is stabbed 23 times in the back.
Thus, the same man who brought us the month of July involuntarily inaugurated the phrase “backstabbing.”"
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