where am I + what do the clues mean?

technically, I'm not here {there} at the moment.
no googling! be specific + try to list which each refers to.

1. Airmiles
2. Showcase
3. Shoppers
4. "mind the gap"
5. express/collectors
6. roti
7. the dip
8. leafs/habs mural
9. dr. mustard
10. pellat's place
11. viljo's design
12. raiders
13. bridle path
14. 6 boroughs {list}
15. sotto sotto
16. "double-double"
17. mr. sub

The Juiced Olympics

yeah, it's sad. I drink the kool-aid™ when it comes to certain sporting events. as a kid, I remember thedodgers-yankees world series in '77 & '78. in high school, I started to get into wimbledon {end of school year} + the usopen {beginning of school year}.

more recently, it's been the world cup + the winter olympics. I really got into this year's games in beijing. I could care less about the medal count or who might be underaged, but I'm just a sucker for the dramaturgical spectacle. Now, I feel a withdrawal coming on. it was like a 16-day party coming through the tv at all hours and now the party's over. bummer. it's like the end of the truman show.

so, in the vacuum, I was thinking of how a reality show could be created to quench the culture's thirst, no...lust for olympic-style competition and trainwrecks. why not have the juiced olympics? coke, speed, steroids, opiates, etc. fuck that pros versus joes shit on spike, pitting regular guys against has-been athletes. I wanna see the numbers on:

WR = World Record
OR = Olympic Record
JR = Juiced Record

How would Phelps do when competing against a guy whose blood has a street value?

Soooo....

Any sports events that are a part of your ritual?

Which events would you like to see in The Juiced Olympics

I just saw Gonzo + I bet HS Thompson would cover it.

Qu'Appelle? (Place names you remember)

So, as the plane descended, I saw white blanketing the ground as far as the eye could see. I thought of a friend with ties to the 'Peg and wondered if the snow covered all that way.

I thought about the last time I was in Manitoba. It was 1992 and I was on Trans-Can driving my corolla and making sure not to put in 85 octane fuel. I remember going through Qu'Appelle, which I thought was in Manitoba. Wrong. It's in Saskatchewan, but it got me thinking about place names I remember.

Humptulips, Washington {no thanks, I'm good}

Cool, California {had a place there for a few years}

Rough and Ready, CA {good friends live near there}

Coos Bay, OR {sounds vaguely dirty}

Weed, CA

Paw Paw, MI

Places I have my eye on:

Mianus, CT {the "Beavis" in me wants to go here after seeing 'poo diving' at the sewage treatment plant on Jackass}

Radium Hot Springs, BC {Just love that name}

Voltaire, ND {until I find a town called Sartre}

Kooskooskie, WA

Almost made it:

Boring, OR

Liberal, KS

Any place names stick in your mind?

seventy-seven:: NYC Blackout, Where Were You 30 Years Ago?

I'm fixated on the year 1977, as part of my personal nostalgia. I wish I was cool enough to be into Paul Weller back then or had stories of listening to Bowie's Heroes. No, my friend and I were listening to his older brother's Queen album snickeringly trying to decipher "Get Down Make Love" and thinking Cheech and Chong was the funniest shit.

I think my parents didn't know what to think of me watching the news back then. That summer, news of the Son-of-Sam taunts and whack poetry were watched by 8 year-old me. I was getting a sense that outside of suburbia, times were bad (Carterian malaise?) and cities were places to fear. When the news broke the next day on the radio about the looting and how NYC was in "anarchy," I remember I was in the kitchen (trying to wish my sister into the cornfield) and being amazed that this was occurring. I'm sure my mom explained riots/civil unrest with a leftist, sociocultural bent. I don't recall a 24/7 TV blitz out in California. If there was, we didn't watch it but I wonder if it was on.

I only knew of one person who was in NYC that summer. She was 17, going to summer school, and scared shitless.

Was anyone in NYC during the blackout?
If not, do you recall it affecting you?

photo:: I think this was the only blackout that the Twin Towers were in.

video:: "pâte filo," Malajube [2006]

video:: "pâte filo," Malajube [2006]
Time:: 03:43

Dot to dot & colour spots. More colour, always beguiling in ways & days from a to Zed. I'm not sure how I came across Malajube, but I'm somewhat fixated on music videos with animation these days. More on that in another blog entry. Indie "grindcore" from Montréal, Malajube have wacky lyrics & an infectious funk savvyness that draws me in. It also serves my fixation on Québec & L'Alizé may steer me towards a pâté of a different sort...à la viande où tourtière.

VIDDIE:: Camera Obscura. "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"

The song is a response to "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?" by fellow Scot, Lloyd Cole. In the video, how many cultural references can you find??? The Ikea-meets-Tokyo vibe is just too good.




He said “I’ll protect you like you are the crown jewels” yet
Said he’s feeling sorrier for me the more I behave badly I can bet

Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment

Jealousy is more than a word now I understand
I know you can stay a girl by holding a boy’s hand

Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment
Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment

I’ve got my life of complication here to sort out
I’ll take myself to an east coast city and walk about

Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment
Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment
Hey Lloyd I’m ready to be heartbroken
I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment

ANAGRAM DU JOUR:: SADDER PET
cheatcode:: metres/second, mendacity. dead giveaway::latter-day Arouet Le Jeune {Voltaire}

liner notes:: "cheer-up Lola" as for me, I'm not, despite my presskit on both the anagram & the video.

Film Clip:: Running Through the Louvre {Godard & Bertolucci}

Anyone else skeeved out by Bertolucci's "gaze"? I turned a blind eye when watching his Stealing Beauty for some reason, but I just couldn't help but feel like I was watching a lecherous old man's horne?y, voyeuristic fantasy when I watched The Dreamers. It's all very beautifully shot & edited, playing with a Michel Gondry-like theme of the blurred edges of reality, which is why I put up with it.

I recently raced down the steps of Kodak Theatre in the spirit of the Louvre scene in Bande à Part& The Dreamers on a springish evening in Hollywood. In the genre of the moment, I wound up at the noirish Formosa Café, trying not to raise the ire of the waitstaff. I just quietly sat drinking my martini w/olives & not being raucous or noisy, but maybe I was thinking "one of us, one of us!!!"

international weather now Wednesday yonge 34ºF/1ºC mostcldy 32ºF/0ºC partcldy mulholland 60ºF/16ºC mostcldy 67ºF/19ºC partcldy