Time Has Stopped

August Leave a Comment

Time has stopped. – Samuel Becket, Waiting for Godot Was I sleeping while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? To-morrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of to-day? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be? He’ll know nothing. He’ll tell me about the blows he received and I’ll give him a carrot. Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. But habit is a great deadener. At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on.… Continue Reading →

Fresh Like A Box of Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern

August Leave a Comment

I found, quite by chance (I was actually in search of a copy of A Tale of Two Cities, by the illustrious Mr. Dickens) copies of the first three issues of McSweeney’s, which I purchased for a price which I can only define as exorbitant, but which of course I paid, though I can ill afford it. I am confident that I will be repaid by the contents of the magazines. For those of you not familiar with the literary journal, I’m not sure how to describe it. Comically earnest? Sincerely ironic? It defies classification, except in terms of its intended audience, who are generally speaking wealthy white kids just out of college who think they know more than they do. This is why you will find the work of the talented but abnoxious David Foster Wallace creeping about its pages. Despite its best efforst, McSweeney’s is actually quite good,… Continue Reading →

I Shot A Man in Reno

August Leave a Comment

Before the holidays Jon and I went to an Irish pub in downtown Waterloo. They had a man with a guitar, like most pubs in the area, and he sang folk classics, acoustic numbers from the ’70s, and the odd country song (he was funny, too). When he played “Folsom Prison Blues”, Jon leaned across the table and said, “If country music were as cool as Johnny Cash, I would listen to country.” Truer words have ne’er been spoken.

Give the Gift of Literature

August Leave a Comment

I was going through a box of old books before going to bed last night, and in my copy of the old Book of Common Prayer I found a bookmark that looks older than I am, in fact almost as old as my father. The bookmark, printed for a store in Fort Frances called The Book Stop, expresses a fine holiday sentiment, and I would like to share it with you. Why Books Are Nice Presents They don’t require batteries They don’t give you a hangover Easy to assemble and operate Re-usable over and over No calories Available in a large variety of sizes and colour No messy maintenance Nothing to clean up when you finish They don’t make horrible noises They don’t wilt and die Books are excellent gifts. Every year I receive them with open arms, and every year I give more books as gifts than anything else… Continue Reading →

Best Wishes

August Leave a Comment

Yesterday Julianne and I drove from Sudbury home to Dryden, and it took us somewhere in the neighbourhood of twenty hours. Think about that for a moment. Twenty. Hours. Actually the only truly difficult part was the last four hours from Thunder Bay to Dryden. I think Dryden heard we were coming and was trying to run away. I’ve obviously not had regular access to a computer this last week or so, and my time online will continue to be irregular up until the fifth or sixth of January. If you have e-mailed me and I have not responded, this is why. Likewise this is why I have not e-mailed many of you. Or posted many entries. I will do what I can. Finally, I want to wish everyone a happy holidays, a merry Christmas, or a cheerful x (where x=your celebration of choice, religious or otherwise).

Harry Potter

August Leave a Comment

Julianne and I went to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets tonight at Silver City. It was good (probably better than the first), but (maybe because I was a little used to the world) didn’t seem to have the same sense of awe and wonder in it that the first had. Better acting and f/x, though. Kenneth Branaugh (sp?) wasn’t at his best, but it was a surprise to see him in it to begin with. I’m looking forward to the third movie, but it’s not going to be the same with a different actor as Dumbledore (sp?).

Almost There

August Leave a Comment

All the templates are up and built. I’m still of the opinion that the search and comment templates aren’t what they could (or should) be, but I don’t know enough about Movable Type‘s proprietary tags (are they proprietary?) to mess with them further at this point. After the holidays I’ll take another look. For now it’s enough that they work. I’m going to Julianne’s in the morning. The trip is eight hours via Greyhound, but I don’t mind. I’ll get some sleep, and maybe get some reading done. Speaking of reading, I recently finished a project on Nabokov’s Lolita for my Contemporary American Literature class. It’s a little rough around the edges, but have fun with it anyway. And as always, Wooden Fish is still accepting submissions for our second issue.

First Day With A New Toy

August Leave a Comment

I’ve got everything more or less working. Movable Type was a tremendous pain in the ass to set up, but it works, and that means I’m happy. Not everything works yet. Well, that’s not entirely true. everything works, I just haven’t built the templates yet. So everything except the index page looks ugly as all hell. But have no fear, I will work long and hard to get this blog looking the way it should, and then with a little luck you’ll hear from me more often. Also, I should probably let you know that this blog is just the first step in a complete overhaul of vestige.org. It will soon be a collection of five or six mini-sites, unified only through basic design principles, and the fact that they’re all built and run by me. This way I don’t have to feel so bad when I don’t update every… Continue Reading →