A Grey November Rabbits to You

Paris in 2.5 Minutes

I went to Paris for a little holiday this September.  It was lovely.  I had been there before, but that was when I was fifteen, and it was part of a choir tour.  Needless to say, we were well regimented and travelled around in our bus.  We saw many things, but there were few that I remembered, and I really felt like I had yet to experience the feel of the city.  So, when a cheap flight and good hotel rate appeared right when I had a week off work, I went.

People (family mostly) have been asking for pictures.  I took over 900 (thank you digital camera!).  No one wants to sit through that kind of a slideshow, least of all me, so I’ve compressed the show into a 2.5 minute slideshow of the some of the visual highpoints.

Something that pictures can’t capture is the feeling of vibrant history in Paris.  Like in many of the other European capitals I’ve had the privilege to visit, people live in harmony with the ghosts and heroes of a legendary past.  Spectacular ancient buildings are incorporated into thoroughly modern life.  There is also a different speed at which things happen.  Sure, getting on the enviable subway system at rush hour you experience the same crowds and bustle as you do here, but the speed of food, of coffee, of pretty much everything else is somehow more comfortable.  I was also struck, almost continuously, by the care that went into the design of everything, even apartment buildings.  Everything has beautiful detail in the stonework.  Metal gratings have swirls.  It is all beautiful.  I know that can’t be said for the whole city.  I was in a bus that went past the new National Library, and it is hideous, and the outlying modern areas suffer from some of the same brutalism that is seen in many North American buildings.  But the downtown is all incredibly beautiful.

Without further ado.  Here is Paris, in 2.5 minutes:

done

Torrie and the Dragonslayers

Torrie and the Dragonslayers, by K. V. Johansen

Book Five in the Torrie Quests Series

http://www.sybertooth.com/kvj/

Canadian/fantasy/late junior

 

Torrie and the Dragonslayers is the fifth Torrie adventure.  Torrie is a mythical forest creature, who is small and furry, but man-like in appearance.  He is ancient, and of indeterminate age.  In this adventure, he tells the tale of his time with Cossypha, the daughter of a powerful sorceror, and Rufik, a young Prince on his first quest.

As the story begins, Torrie has taken up residence with Cossypha in her father’s isolated castle.  Cossypha has a terrible burden to bear, as her father has gone mad with grief, and has begun to perform terrible magics.  She can feel magic in herself, but cannot control it or use it, because there is no one to teach her how.  She is becoming desperate in her home life, and plans an escape.

Meanwhile, in a neighbouring land, a dragon has begun to terrorize the countryside, and Prince Rufik heads out on a quest to find a magic sword that is rumoured to be the only weapon capable of slaying the dragon.  As Rufik crosses the sorceror’s land, he is set upon by guards with the heads of wolves who take him captive, and place him in the dungeon of the castle.

This is the event Cossy needs to push her into escape from the castle.  She frees Rufik from the dungeon, and with Torrie, sets out to join in Rufik’s quest.

The story is narrated by Torrie, who had previously mentioned these two dragonslayers in one of his other books.  As a narrator, Torrie speaks with an air of wisdom, but does not lose humility or humour in his descriptions of  the young people’s adventure.  The story is imbued with a flavour of legend, and does not disappoint in its fantastical and adventurous elements.  It gives the feel of being a tale told many times.  It is fast moving, and flows steadily toward the climax and resolution.  The characters are engaging, and find their greatest strengths in working together.  They each suffer setbacks along the way, but persevere in their quest, growing as people through the course of their journey.

As always, with K.V. Johansen’s books, I appreciate the strength of the female characters.  Without pointing out the fact that Cossypha is in anyway special or different from other girls, she ensures that the character is just as adventurous, and just as active as her male counterpart.  The main characters, male and female, interact on an equal footing, something not always present in fantasy literature.

An excellent read from a delightful series.  Definitely recommended to fans of fantasy, adventure, or medievalistic stories.

Dear Blog

Dear Blog,

I apologize.  It has been over two months since I last visited.  It isn’t you.  It’s me.  What can I say?  Life’s gotten in the way.  It isn’t that you aren’t important to me.  It is just that you are so forgiving.  The good news?  I’ve got a stockpile of reviews just waiting to be posted.  And I did a little traveling.  So there are some pictures.  Oh, and I got a new camera.  So there are some more pictures.  Um.  And yes.  Lot’s has been happening.  Work has been crazy.  I’ve had a lot of commitments outside of work, so I’ve hardly been home.  And, when I am home, I’m exhausted, and find myself flaked out watching old episodes of some godforsaken television show, instead of paying attention to you, dearest blog.

A few quick updates.  I got transferred back to the branch I worked at when I first got out of school, as a wide-eyed, innocent and idealistic children’s librarian.  It is a little strange to be sitting in the manager’s office, but on the other hand, I always felt like my time there was unfinished.  I got transferred out against my will the first time, and it feels a little redemptive to be back, especially since so many of the things I fought for there have finally been put into place.

On the personal front it has been crazy busy as of late.  Yes, I’m home typing away at the blog on a Saturday night, which is basically sacrilege for a singleton, I know.  But honestly, this is about the first night I was able to come straight home from work at a reasonable hour, and actually be at home, in awhile.  And that is only because the Meandering Economist (speaking of not updating your blog!?) and I couldn’t get our act together for a visit while he’s in town.  (Dang it all!  Next time!  Definitely next time!)  I was meant to do all sorts of  cleaning tonight, but somehow it seems like I’ve hardly begun.  And here I am, babbling away instead.  Just like old times.

So I mentioned travel.  Yep.  I finally went on vacation.  I was in Paris for a little while this September, and it was gorgeous!  And the food and coffee and wine were all so good!  Pictures to follow, I promise.  I was also at the cottage almost every weekend this summer, but that’s not quite as exciting to blog about.

As for books, I promise, I have been reading.  And I’ve even been reading the YA books I’m supposed to be reading, so I’ll have some reviews shortly, I promise.  This coming Wednesday is the actual day for a giant project I’ve been working towards at work, so it is going to be a lot sunnier in my world come Thursday.  I expect everything to look up after that.

Right.  So, it is 8:30.  I put some homemade potato leek soup on to simmer a couple hours ago, so it is probably about time to puree it.  I can’t wait for a bowl.

Ta ta.

After the first storm

Yesterday evening, after the first of the storms, or perhaps the first wave of The storm, I saw both sides of a rainbow.  Yes!  Both ends of a curve.  Admittedly there was a blank space in the middle, so it wasn’t continuously visible, but it was incredible.

Sadly I couldn’t get the whole thing in one picture, because it was so big.  The clouds and sunset coming through them were super beautiful too.

Up the creek, with a paddle

Last year I blogged about an endangered ecosystem that is near and dear to my heart.  This past Sunday, before the storm of the summer, was the first time I got to visit this beautiful space this year.  Between the morning thunderstorm, and the evening thunderstorm, there was a beautiful few hours of actual summer.  We jumped on that brief glimpse of glory to take the canoe up the creek with camera in tow.

The creek is still in about the same condition it was last year.  The development has not yet arrived.  There are any number of beautiful plants and interesting creatures around.  Yesterday seemed to be dragonfly day, because we saw any number of beautiful specimens in every crayola colour of the rainbow.  No frogs sadly.  To be honest, I don’t know that I’ve heard the frogs much this year, and that worries me.  They usually provide a musical backdrop to the evenings.  Perhaps it is just that we have been forced inside most evenings.

I’m not sure how much time we spent, but it was quite awhile, because somewhere along the way it turned from being a gloriously sunny afternoon, into a threateningly windy afternoon.

It is late enough in the season that we had to get out of the canoe and haul it over a small sandbar to get up into the creek.  Along the way my flip flop got lost in a sink hole and I had to dig it out.  Needless to say, I braved the lightning to have a shower when I got home last night.

As an added bonus, I recently started experimenting with my camera’s video feature.  As far as I can tell, there is no sound capability.  The picture is also not super, but you get the idea with the clips I’ve edited together here.  The ducks really were that close to us, and really did have no fear.  We weren’t paddling at the time, but rather floating in the current, but still, they showed an incredible lack of fear.

Please forgive the jerky nature of the filming, I was mostly trying to paddle with one hand, and hold the camera with the other.

done

P.S. This is my first attempt at editing together clips taken on my camera, so, ya.  Ignore the choppy.

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien – Shatner Does Palin (07/27/09) – Video – NBC.com

Goodbye, Sarah Palin. How I will miss thee…

If the embed doesn’t work, go directly to NBC.  They’re currently allowing Canadians to view this clip.

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Flooded in at the cottage

This weekend I happened to have four days off in a row.  Three of them, I spent at the cottage.  I went up on Friday, and joined my parents, brother, and grandfather for lunch, the afternoon, and dinner.  After dinner, they all left, and I was completely alone there until I left this afternoon around 5:00.  By alone, I mean alone.  None of our neighbours were around, and with the weather being testy, there wasn’t much activity on the lake either.

It was incredibly rainy all weekend.  Below, you can see pictures of our completely flooded yard.  This meant that I was fairly marooned indoors, but that’s what I was looking for.  I spent the weekend vacillating from one end of the table to the other, and from one end of the porch to the other.   There is something glorious about spending somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40 hours completely alone, and completely cut off from the world.  Yes, I did venture out Saturday morning to pick up a paper, but otherwise, I was there, and it was lovely.

I got about 3000 words written of a story I’m working on.  That doesn’t sound huge, but believe me, it is.  I previously had about 20,000 words, and that’s been a few years in the working.  This 3000 is not at all clean, or finished, but the bones of what it will be are there now.  And that feels great.

In one of the bouts of sun, between the rains, I went for a little walk.  I found a time each day when it wasn’t raining to have a little swim.  I watched a couple movies that had been on hold for me at the library in the evenings.  I worked on a puzzle and the Saturday crossword.  I finished reading a book I’ve been struggling a bit with.  I hardly thought about work at all.  Basically, a great little weekend.  I feel somewhat rejuvenated.

Away We Go

I recently went to see this lovely little movie, which seems doomed, despite endearing charm, to stay in limited release.  It is one of those great character driven movies, with a simple plot, but lots of great story.

Away We Go is directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty and Revolutionary Road fame.  It contains much of the same aesthetic, but the tone is much lighter here.  That might have something to do with the writers of the screenplay, Dave Eggers – author of the book with the best title of all time A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -  and his writer/magazine editor wife Vendela Vida.  I really enjoyed the writing in the film.  It is crisp and light, sarcastic and heartfelt.

The movie follows the adventures of longterm, but unmarried, couple Burt Farlander, played by John Krasinski, and Verona de Tessant, played  by Maya Rudolph.  Both of these actors are relative newcomers to the world of feature films.  Maya Rudolph is best known for her hilarious work on Saturday Night Live.  John Krasinski plays the delicious Jim on The Office.  Both actors have been known most for light, broad comedy.  They both show off very different acting chops here.  Maya Rudolph’s character, Verona, is a woman dealing with becoming a mother, while still mourning, and not knowing how to deal with the death of, her own mother.  John Krasinski’s character, Burt, is feeling delightedly overwhelmed with the idea of fatherhood, and with not knowing if he is grown up enough to take on that role.  They both play the subtleties of their character’s feelings beautifully, while finding all of the little moments of humour in what is, really, a very funny movie.

Burt and Verona embark on a road trip that drives the movement of the film, trying to find the perfect place to raise their daughter, and to become grown-ups themselves.  Along the way, they visit family and friends, trying to find their place with them.

The supporting cast is amazing. Catherine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels are Burt’s over the top parents, whose decision to move away from the expectant family is the catalyst for the road trip.   Alison Janney plays a crass, horribly drunk, terribly sad mother.  Jim Gaffigan is her apocalypse predicting husband.  Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a self-righteous university professor of women’s studies, and evangelical practitioner of continuum parenting.  Chris Messina and Melanie Lynskey are a seemingly perfect couple, and adoptive parents of a whole slough of kids, who are tragically sad in their own way.

I think my favourite part about this movie is that Burt and Verona are basically a functional couple, who love each other, and are really excited about having their baby, but who are going through the same period of questioning that anyone having a child finds themself facing.  They don’t have any romantic comedy break-up scenes, and the movie doesn’t end with their first kiss.  This is a story about a couple who want to make life work, and who are doing everything they can to make it work together.  I find that refreshing.

Buffy vs Edward (Twilight Remixed)

I love it. Totally shows the creepiness/mysoginist elements of Edward. I also like that the classroom discussion used is promoting abstinence, a la Stephanie 4 giant books to get to the sex Meyer.

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