snoopy dance!

Hey, very cool...my copies of Applied Arts magazine and Harp Column magazine came in the mail yesterday! The March/April issue of Applied Arts contains my profile of Vancouver illustrator, Luc Latulippe (p40-47). Luc's artwork is featured on the cover. The March/April issue of Harp Column contains my article, "Online Resources For Harpists" (p26-31) and includes a short profile and photo of Gwen Knighton from The Weird Sisters. I interviewed Gwen on the #filkhaven IRC channel. :-)





I know I've sold other articles, but the main reason I'm so excited about these is because they're my first visible publications since Inkspot was shut down, the first sales I made after I came back from my sabbatical.





By the way, I was tickled to receive the following e-mail yesterday:

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Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 12:43:56 -0600
From: James Garrison
To: ohi@electricpenguin.com
Subject: Hello...

I visited your site "blatherings"... as a result of a search for "AlphaMassage". You are a very entertaining writer. I had a hard time leaving. :) I found your description of the AlphaMassage in the August 1998 blatherings a great description of a hard-to-describe experience.

I designed the AlphaMassage in the 90's for Sybaritic Inc. in Minneapolis. Since then it has undergone many design revisions, and has even had the distinction of being "knocked off" by a chinese company. They took molds right off of our parts and are selling them cheaper and beating us in the asian market.

We have since designed a steam unit and others, which you may see at http://www.sybaritic.com if you are inclined.

Well anyway, thanks... may I use the description you wrote as a testimonial in my own product design marketing materials?

Many thanks.

Sincerely,

James Garrison
James M. Garrison Studio

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I said yes, of course! :-)





Today's Blatherpics:

	Magazine covers of Harp Column and Applied Arts, two publications in which my articles appear this month.
	Top of the Portfolio (profile) piece I did for Applied Arts.
	First two-page spread of my Harp Column piece.
	Hey, I even get my photo and bio in the Harp Column table of contents of the current issue. :-)

resident evil

So I admit to being the biggest wimp in the world when it comes to horror movies.

You may think you're a bigger wimp than me, but you'd be WRONG. I'm the type of person that movie directors love. I fall for every manipulative cliché. I jump when the heroine backs slowly away from a false alarm and then turns to -suddenly- find that the actual danger is right behind her!!!; I scream when the supposedly dead villain turns out to be alive after all, I recoil at every sudden noise, cringe at every wet and squishy "obviously the living dead sucking someone's brains out" sound effect.

Some of my friends refuse to sit beside me anymore in the movie theatre because I tend to hit them or dig my fingernails into them when things get tense. In my defense, I think I've only drawn blood once.

So you think I'd know better than to go see "Resident Evil" with Scott and Jeff last night. But I heard that there were science fiction elements in the flick, so I figured it might be more like "Aliens" and I'm a sucker for sf movies. Though I still haven't seen Battlefield Earth, mainly because most of my friends saw it while I was in Philadelphia and were apparently so traumatized by the experience that none of them will see it with me now, even on video rental. (An aside: what the heck was John Travolta THINKING?!)

Anyway, I spent the first hour of "Resident Evil" cringing in my seat and clutching Jeff's arm, burying my face in his shoulder. At some point I realized that I had my eyes shut pretty much ALL the time, that I was still getting freaked out by the gross noises (heads being chewed on, etc.), and WHY THE HECK WAS I PUTTING MYSELF THROUGH THIS TORTURE, ANYWAY?!?

So I got up and left, whispering to Jeff (or rather whispering LOUDLY, to be heard over the shrieks and squishy head-sucking noises) that I was going to hang out in Chapters and would meet him after the movie. To his credit, he didn't make fun of me. I haven't walked out in the middle of a movie in a very long time, but I couldn't take it anymore. I'd rather be coddling a Tazo Chai and browsing books.

I'm starting to do more work offline, by the way. I took my laptop to a coffeeshop yesterday morning and got more work done on my novel than I've done all month so far. This is a good thing, so I might start doing this sort of thing more often. Sold another article this week and also have an article to write on spec (about the Renaissance harp). Marketing/Finance day tomorrow!

Current favourite work music:

Still Locanda delle Fate (thanks to Parki)

Current favourite non-work music:

Hawksley Workman (thanks to Rand) - a Canadian, no less!

Workman's "Striptease" has replaced BNL's "One Week" as my preferred private office dancing ritual music (though "Jealous of Your Cigarette" comes close). His voice makes me swoon.

bikini nightmares

I found the responses to my grocery shopping poll interesting. Some felt that shopping on an empty stomach was best, some felt the opposite. Some prefer doing it alone, some with the whole family.

I was amused by Heather Munn's comment, "For clothes, I would rather give birth during a root canal." Though I don't feel as strongly about clothes shopping (except when it comes to swimsuit shopping), I have to admit I don't usually enjoy it. I'm not sure where women got the reputation for enjoying clothes shopping so much...perhaps from a few very high profile women who were obsessed with it, or maybe it's all a scam perpetrated by the major clothing stores. :-)

My problem is that I have a very limited attention span re: clothes shopping. I'll enjoy briefly browsing through a rack of colourful peasant skirts (I have a weakness for peasant skirts, mainly they're as comfortable as my pjs but I can wear them outdoors). If I'm forced to clothes-shop for more than about twenty minutes or so, however, my eyes glaze over and I start getting crabby, bitching about the prices, the lights in the change rooms, the muzak.

For me, the biggest hassle is in the process of taking off and putting on clothes when you're trying things on. I *hate* this. Usually because things that look great on the rack suddenly lose all appeal as soon as I put them on. I especially hate clothes that I have to pull over my head, because my hair usually ends up a static-filled horror, clinging to my face, turning my body into one giant electrostatic shock waiting to be unleashed.

Swimsuit shopping is the WORST, though. It's difficult to find a more humbling experience. The harsh overhead lights, the magnifying changeroom mirrors, the perky little clerks with their Britney Spears bodies...they all make me want to go screaming into the night. Here's my idea of the perfect swimsuit.

Guys are lucky...their basic decision is usually just between boxers and tights. Guys are better off in clothing all around, really. Sure, you have to wear ties, but that's a small price to pay for escaping the mental ravages of women's clothing psychology.

And don't even get me started on the topic of pantyhose...

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Deadline for the Oscar Poll contest: this Saturday!

poll: grocery shopping?

My Life In A Nutshell updated
Waiting For Frodo updated

Gorgeous day in Toronto yesterday. I decided to take yesterday off; my original plan had been to do some work, but I don't want to slip into my old habits of feeling compelled to work all the time and thus feeling guilty whenever I'm not, AND that sometimes I need to purposely take (*gasp) an entire day off.

Jeff had to work all day (he had already taken Friday off to go skiing with Sara), so I decided to explore the Kensington Market and Chinatown area on my own. Despite the fact that I've been living in or near Toronto all my life, I had never visited Kensington Market, an ethnic marketplace area packed with interesting little shops selling everything from vintage clothing to cheese to Chinese herbs to fresh seafood and produce.


I bought a freshly baked potato and cheese and broccoli bagel in Kensington Market and a mango bubble tea in Chinatown for lunch. Ok, I know I made fun of bubble tea back in January, but I confess that I kind of like it now. The little tapioca balls are gross but have an addictive texture mixed in with the flavoured drink. Mango's my favourite so far. I'm still working up my nerve to try chocolate bubble tea sometime.

Whenever I visit Chinatown, the shopkeepers inevitably speak Chinese (or maybe Korean, I can't tell) to me. I've generally found it easier just to smile blankly instead of trying to explain (over the crowd noise) that I only speak English. Reminded me of our visit to Japan, when the same sort of thing happened...I could generally blend into the crowd until I opened up my mouth and said something, immediately identifying myself as an outsider.

Picked up some smoked apple cheddar (my favourite cheese since discovering it at the St. Lawrence Market earlier this year) at the shop below:





Wonderful cheese shop, packed with every kind of cheese imaginable. Generous with taste samples, too, if you were curious about a particular kind of cheese.

Walked home via a bustling Queen Street, browsing the craft stands of some of the street vendors, listening to a guitarist singing a tantalizingly familiar folk tune. LOTS of great people-watching opportunities, and it was also interesting to compare the Queen St. crowd (more tourist-types, trendy chic, younger) to the Kensington Market (ethnic diversity, more grocery bags...people out to buy, not just look).

In the late afternoon (after a vigorous nap), I headed out to the St. Lawrence Market area for some ground beef; I'm making shepherd's pie for dinner tonight; my sister's family and my dad are visiting. I'm sure there were good meat shops in the Kensington Market area, but for some reason I only found the following:





As happy as the meat inside might have been, I decided to buy my ground beef from a place I was more familiar with. And this brings us to today's poll question:

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POLL:
Grocery shopping habits?

Do you enjoy grocery shopping? Do you take a list, or do you prefer to shop on impulse? Do you do one massive shopping every week or so, or just shop as you need things? Do you shop with your partner, or do you prefer shopping alone? Do you shop mainly by price, or by brand? Do you prefer shopping in mega supermarkets, or little shops? Do you tend to always shop in the same place? Have you ever done your grocery shopping online?

Answer in Blatherchat

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Jeff and I went to Fune for dinner with his family last night. It was Brittany's first time at a sushi restaurant! She liked the edamame, liked the raw oysters (she sucked down six of them), liked the fish eggs, the broiled eel. I admired her willingness to try everything; I know adults who aren't nearly that adventurous. :-)

We talked more about Larkin's and Rick's wedding plans during dinner. Turns out they'd like me to play my harp during the processional as well! I said yes, of course. Not sure what to play for the wedding processional; I'm going to go through my harp music books to look for potential material. I'm nervous (I've never played my harp in public before) but super-excited about the opportunity; it gives me something to work toward in my practising.

In the evening, Jeff and Scott went to the Paramount to see an 11 pm showing of "Resident Evil". I opted not to go; neither the movie nor the time appealed to me. However, they ended up getting there too late so decided to come back to our apartment and see John Woo's "The Killer" on DVD instead, a loan from Bryan. And because I'm a fool (but mainly for the company :-)), I watched it with them.

Wow, super-violent, but almost in a comical way. It was weird seeing Yun-Fat Chow (who was the hero in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) in such a different role. I was hoping for some romance (stop laughing) but ended up wishing that someone would finally shoot the heroine and get it over with...I got pretty tired of her shrieking for help all the time. Found it funny that the English dubbed version of the movie had Yun-Fat Chow's hitman character named Jeffrey. Jeffrey the Hitman.

Thing is, IMDB has a 8.2/10 user rating for this movie. I don't get it. Are users rating this movie as a serious action flick, or as a campy movie to make fun of with a group of pals? Or maybe they're rating the number of bullets fired. I'd be interested in hearing from any John Woo fans out there about this (in terms of his Hong Kong action flicks). Please post your comments in in Blatherchat.

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Some of the menu choices at a food stand in Chinatown I visited yesterday.
	Mango bubble tea.
	An amazingly diverse cheese shop.
	Cheerful meat shop.
	Chinatown fruit market.

LOTR paper

Hey, thanks to Cory Doctorow for mentioning me in BoingBoing yesterday. :-)

Allison and I enjoyed meeting Janet Croft yesterday. Janet was exactly the same in person as she is in e-mail...easygoing, fun sense of humor, a good people-observer. I confess I was relieved; I've learned from experience that you can't really tell what someone is like solely by their online persona (through e-mail or message board postings). Some people come across way more outgoing online than they are in person, for example, or are much easier to communicate with in e-mail than in person.

We had lunch at a restaurant in the Sheraton Centre, and then went upstairs for the panel. The conference was an annual national meeting organized by PCA (Popular Culture Association) and ACA (American Culture Assocation) and was much more academic in tone than the conferences I'm used to. All the presenters on the panel were from various American universities. Papers presented at the conference were available for sale at the conference bookstore on another floor.

The bookstore, incidentally, was run by Solomon Davidoff, someone Allison and I know through filking...not a surprising cross-over when we remembered that Solomon did his graduate thesis on a popular culture theme. Solomon had the three of us sign a copy of Janet's paper, "Reading Lord of the Rings: The Final Attempt": An Analysis Of A Web Community, as a donation item for Interfilk. :-)





Allison and I also met Jay Shorten, Janet's research partner. Jay was responsible for collating and analysing the statistics for the paper. Unfortunately he had to opt out of speaking much during the presentation because of an ear infection he had developed during his stay in Toronto.

Janet's and Jay's paper was one of four being presented at the panel. I was struck by the diversity of topics of all four papers, which seemed to be similar only in the theme of fandom. Other paper topics covered aspects of Lovecraft fandom, digital copyright, and fan fiction. Each paper was presented in a 20 minute time slot, with a Q&A session at the end of the panel.

Sitting through the Janet's and Jay's presentation was a fascinating experience. I mean, this all started because of one of my fun sabbatical projects last year, when I decided to read Lord of the Rings because of the upcoming movie, and here we were listening to academic-types discuss the whole thing as if it was a scientific experiment, with handouts with charts describing relevancy of posts by gender, number of posts per day and by chapter, etc. I admit I got a huge kick out of the experience. Thank you, Janet and Jay! :-)





After leaving the Sheraton Centre, Allison and I had dinner at Milestone's and then went to see "Ice Age" at the Paramount. Cute movie; my favourite character is definitely the squirrel (or whatever it's supposed to be).

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Janet and Jay presenting their paper yesterday.
	Janet and Allison talking at lunch at the Sheraton Centre.
	Me, Janet, and Allison.