Hi folks. I don't have much time right now but wanted to say that today is my last day of work for the year. Due to the office closure after Christmas and stacked with my annual holiday time, I managed to get the whole of December off so I may just have more time to post over the next month.

I've been saving up and hopefully will have some interesting stuff for you.

Until then? Have a great time!

I went to see the film Control over the weekend. In case you're not familiar with it, it's the Anton Corbijn film about the life of Ian Curtis (singer of Joy Division) based on the book "Touching from a Distance" by his wife, Deborah. I went alone because those friends old enough to remember were busy and the others are too young to know who New Order are, let alone Joy Division... It's a good thing I did, now that I think about it...

Visually, it was raw, yet beautiful. The B&W images do real justice to Anton Corbijn's amazing photographic ability (for a bit more about him on Wikipedia, please check here). While being quite stunningly beautiful, it was also quite devoid of connection with it's characters - probably due to the disconnection that the wife eventually felt in her marriage. Being that the film was based on her perspective, this entirely makes sense.

I really enjoyed this film - if you could call it enjoyed. The nostalgia of it all brought back so many feelings. Mostly of angst, but also it reminded me of a time where creativity was fueled by the insecurity of existence and one's place in the world. I was ready to resurrect my goth wardrobe and sink back into the depths of that part on my psyche. The only trouble with that is that I'd have to turn my back on the banality of working and surviving in the adult world that I've slipped into.

One interesting thing that happened at the cinema was seeing the three women in the queue ahead of me - two were well-dressed pensioners and a younger woman. I thought the pensioners were quite progressive seeing a film about a post-punk singer of the 1970's. It wasn't until I saw them depart after the first ten minutes of "Control" that I realized they must have thought they were going to see a different film. I cannot remember what was playing there last week but it's an art house cinema and plays soem pretty eclectic fare. The whole situation was quite cute but also slightly amusing.

What about you out there? Seen any good films lately?

I'm afraid I don't get the whole Black Friday thing. In fact, the whole thing just disgusts me...

Just what we need is another event that perpetuates the overconsumption of goods and the materialism that exists these days...

And, above and beyond that, there are incredible amounts of Canadians flocking to stores south of the border to take advantage of both the exchange rate and the sale prices. There is no thought into the accumulative amount of fossil fuels that are burned for them to get to the US. It seems that neither the environmental OR the economic issues are even thought about by these people. Burning gas just creates more greenhouse gas emissions AND all those shop owners in Canada that they're helping to put out of business are really going to appreciate it as well.

I say that we let them all flock down to the shops in the US on Black Friday and then put the country into lockdown so they cannot get back into Canada. Just see how far the exchange rates and those discounts get you when you don't have a Green Card to work there.

It's this kind of thing that puts all the family-owned businesses out of business. How can they compete with the "one-stop shopping" mentality? Even though their goods are higher in quality, they are still avoided because people would rather pay less money for items lower in quality and standards.

I, for one, may have fewer bucks in my bank account having spent locally and trying to use smaller family-owned businesses but at least I can sleep better at night.

By the way, did anyone out there participate in Buy Nothing Day this year?

Did anyone out there know that Agent Provocateur opened in Vancouver recently? I ventured in while I was visiting the city over the weekend after noticing it while I was walking down Alberni Street. (Actually, I had to go back the next day because I had my friend's six-year old daughter with me the first day and she kicked up a fuss about going in because it was yucky to go to "an underwear store".)

It was well worth the visit and if you get a chance, you should probably check it out. Not only did I get to see some rather racy lingerie but I also got a great idea for decorating my room at home.

And to answer the question by a friend of mine (and any others out there who have wondered about it), they are applied with a special glue or tape - thus the word "pastie".

I was wondering if any of the boys at TAG had had a chance to check out the new shop. It's definitely worth just taking a look because it's the first in Canada... Boys, if you need an excuse, just take your girlfriends with you and buy her something nice.

I opened my email this morning to find an email from a special friend from the past who has since moved on to bigger and better things who reminded me that it was ten years ago that I had tripped on some stairs at work and twisted my ankle at work while wearing some really silly shoes. After walking on it all day, we ended up in the hospital getting it x-rayed. All this, after hangin out at the bar, partaking in some bar sports. I'd like to share an excerpt of the reminder.

This time ten years ago it was “Late Wednesday”. You had fallen on the stairs and hurt you ankle in those Lucite shoes you had. But we still went to the bar and had a rousing game of “Condom Volleyball”. Then off to the
hospital for some wheelchair racing! Your foot was “Ten sizes too big”. “SAVE THE SHOES” she yelled as they discussed cutting the straps.

Cheers, J, it remains a great memory!

Just a note... the shoes pictured above were not the ones that this incident revolved around, this is one of the photos that I took as the result of one of my b&w photography classes. The actual shoes were part of my wardrobe that was inspired by my love of drag queens. Did I ever tell you that it was once my dream to be a drag queen? I certainly had the stature and the attitude. The fact that I couldn't really walk that well in those shoes certainly resulted in me being mistaken for one...

Can anyone tell me - besides a sympathy vote - that Marie Osmond is still a contestant on Dancing with the Stars?

I don't mean to be disrespectful because she's had a challenging couple of weeks in her personal life but how can a person who scores lowest not be eliminated? The only thing I can assume is that after the fainting on stage, the fact that she's America's sweetheart and the death of her father, the fans just feel really sorry for her. I don't know about you, but I would prefer to be voted off than to have people feel sorry for me.

And before you say "Why, Lola, are you watching Dancing with the Stars when you hate reality shows?", I suppose that I should just say that I'm rooting for Mel B. I think that she is a force to be reckoned with. I guess that I can admit that I was a closet Spice Girls fan (that is, before Geri left) so I just hope that she wins. Although she does have tough competition in Helio...

Anyway, I hope that things are going well for you all. Take care and I'll try to post again soon.

I was out with friends on Sunday night and while we were at dinner, we heard the most interesting album of cover tunes by groups like the Dead Kennedys, The Cure, The Smiths, The Sex Pistols, Bauhaus and others from the same time period & genre. The covers were mostly by women. Can any of you guess who did it?

Well, in case you cannot, it was done by a group called Nouvelle Vague. Has anyone out there heard of them? And if so, what do you think?

Personally, I thought they were great. What was really great about it was that I was actually with people who are old enough to recognize (and enjoy) the music. That makes all the difference. There's nothing worse than being made to feel old because the youngsters that one might be hanging out with don't have a clue what the songs are or the groups that sing them.

Anyway, I hope that everyone survived the weekend. Oh, and have a great week as well!

(Hi Dave! It was great talking with you and yours yesterday. Take care, yeah?)

"The main character is prone to using decapitation as a control method" is a deliciously descriptive yet at the same time disconnected comment about one of the characters in 30 Days of Night... Yes, I did go and see it and must say that it was pretty entertaining. The vampires were a little over the edge and a little too eager to kill off the whole town. You'd think if they'd had thirty nights to feed that they might have wanted to pace themselves.

Despite all of the little holes in the plot, there were lots of opportunities to jump out of one's seat. I'm glad that the friend I went to see it with was a patient person. What can I say?

I managed to lose my watch that night as well. I think it must have fallen off in the theatre but it hasn't been found yet. I'll have to stop being so cheap and buy myself a new one.

Have a great weekend all. I should apologize for not posting too often but what can I say? I've been busy.

I'm not really a knitter but I was in a bookstore a while back and couldn't stop myself from buying a book called Domiknitrix. It was full of cool ideas for interesting knitwear.

Even more exciting, I found a website of the same name. I'm so excited and I'm going to add is to my links!