I like it when you talk dirty in Hebrew, baby…

A few months ago I met and befriended the lovely Sofi – a documentary filmmaker and world traveler extraordinaire. Looking at her you’d never guess the amount of sheer badassery and tenacity she’s got going for her. We met in a summer course and bonded over our mutual loves of religion and its portrayal in the media (not-so-coincidentally, this was the topic of the course)  Instead of studying and writing essays as we intended to each time we met, we spent our time in coffee shops discussing religiosity and the state of the world.

This meeting was obviously fate – it just happened to occur a few weeks after the birth of my obsession with documentary film. I love them…whether they are about homeless shopping cart racers in North Van (Carts of Darkness), the man responsible for Foreign policy  in the US during Vietnam and the Cuban Missile crisis (Fog of War),  a man who decided to live with grizzlies in remote Alaska (Grizzly Man), or the fall of a popular Evangelical preacher (The Trials of Ted Haggard). They’re so good I just want to sit on the couch watching docs all day every day. I’m particularly in awe of many of the filmmakers’ ability to stay silent while their subject ponders his or her next words, or contemplates the terrible things they’ve witnessed, or even done.  I don’t know that I would be brave enough to sit quietly in such potent silence.  I find these silences to be simultaneously compelling and uncomfortable…and I like it.

Sofi has inspired me. She kicks ass and takes names doing what she is passionate about and is super successful. We only knew each other for a short time and then both promptly left the city, but I am definitely looking forward to catching up with her the next time we’re both in town.  It’s about time I got off of my ass to start taking steps towards where I want to be instead of being stuck where I am.

I will be one happy lady if this year I meet a few more people who I find as interesting and inspiring as Sofi and who I connect with. Fingers crossed…

I told you to be better and I told you to be kind.

I love love love this song right now.  None of the live video versions sounded quite as good, so you’ll just have to put up with the lame graphic.

Shark vs Zombie

I’ve gotta say, when I agreed to go see Zombie last night, I certainly didn’t expect to be this blown away. Really, it should be called Zombies and Nips, due to the overwhelming amount of female nudity coupled with narry a bare chested dude, but who’s complaining?

A shark. Battling a zombie. Winner? Unclear, though my vote is for the zombie.

Workin’ 9-5

Actually I’m working 8-5 plus a 40 minute commute on either side of that. Boo. Luckily, my job is interesting enough and wicked good experience. In an effort to expose me to as many aspects of policy writing/health administration as possible, I’m being paid to do things that I am wholly unqualified for. For example: interview people for positions that are vastly superior to my own. Woo woo!

Lessons that I have learned so far:

• real jobs suck up way more time than school
• rush hour is horrible
• it is incredibly difficult to at a desk staring at a computer for 8 or 9 hours
• learning to relate to people on a professional level is important, but deciding when to exercise discretion is confusing…it also leaves something to be desired in terms of actually getting to know people
• riding in an ambulance when you or someone you know is not the patient is a super awesome adventure!
• corporate red tape is inordinately frustrating
• many a tax dollar has met questionable ends (e.g. segways)
• always say yes when asked to go to a meeting in another city/town. 6 hours in a car with bosses inspires interesting conversations

Conclusions that I have drawn from these lessons: -

• Stay in school as long as possible
• Find small ways to keep your brain and eyes from melting into your skull due to too much screen time (e.g.: start a blog, listen to your ipod, write endless ‘To Do:’ lists on multicoloured post-its, make a free playlist and discover cool Canadian musicians on CBCradio3) 
• I don’t like only being able to relate to people on a non-personal basis…it can be isolating
• I am awestruck by powerful women who command attention and respect and get shit done (if only I could be so awesome)
• When in doubt, use everyone else’s storytelling as a benchmark for workplace appropriateness (eg: drunken revelry) but be cautious when attempting to one-up someone else’s anecdote
• Every road trip is fun, even business trips

That is all.

Tree Killah Tarzo

Taryn is one of my BFFs – like me, she adores the Spice Girls, though her fixation on Melanie C definitely dwarfs her Spice Girl love. We are currently in the process of creating our own Best of Calgary list, to be completed by the end of the summer.

Last week we went to a free screening of the movie 500 Days of Summer starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Aka: awesome. I usually find Zooey Deschanel to be incredibly one note (despite her overpowering cuteness), but she brought her A game to this movie. It follows the two all the way from the day they meet to the day they get together and so on and so on (I wont ruin it for you). Every now and then there is strangely voiced, semi-out-of-place narration, but somehow it fits. Suffice to say, I loved it and it is now on my list of favorite movies.

 

Taryn once taught me how to gangsta rap and we made a music video in a back alley. I’ve seen her take a bocce ball to the spine and live to tell the tale! We like to blame her for the ridiculous number of trees her motherland must have to kill in order to make enough yen to pay for things, due to its comparatively low value. Hence, the name Tree Killah.

Tree Killah and her friend Kaur write a super cool blog called Keiko and Kaur that is full of music and lists and interesting tidbits. I read it everyday and so should you!

 

*It has just occurred to me that Canadian money isn’t made out of paper, so perhaps Japan is the same and we were wrong all along.

 

Night Walks and Knee Burns (the search for Polaris)

The night walk with Taryn was highly successful, though we’ve both agreed that we need to bone up on our astronomy (and astrology). We managed to spot one of the dippers and then wildly speculated about the location of Polaris. A quick wiki search has just informed me that we were way, way off. Whoops.

Last Sunday we went to Folk Fest and had a lovely time…it was the perfect summery activity. We weren’t particularly interested in any of the headliners so we spent the day lounging on the grass, spending exorbitant amounts of money on food, and following Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, Mirah, and Bell Orchestre around as they moved from workshop to workshop. Mirah is amaaaazing and Bell Orchestre was a great compliment to her style. MBF was super cute.

Here are some musical treats from these stellar musicians!

Naturally, I forgot to bring the necessary large quantities of sunscreen and had to use my limited supply on my face and tattoos. Due to my uber white, near-translucent skin, I somehow managed to get terrible, terrible burns only on my knees…large circles directly on and above my kneecaps. I also nearly wobbled off of a rock into the river. Obviously walking in flip flops on shakey rocks near bodies of water is not a good activity for me.  It was a satisfying, if hazardous day.

JimJam

The loveliest boy I know has a blog, too! His name is Jimmy and his blog is called hiKITTEN! Sometimes he takes pretty pictures and puts them on it, and the contents of his blogroll are highly entertaining and oh-so socially progressive…often at the same time. I recommend “Men who look like old lesbians” for starters.

I once held a late-night interview with him as a source for a term paper I had due the next day. He’d been waiting for me at my house for a few hours, and by the time I arrived he was rather intoxicated. Purple-wine-lips intoxicated. Luckily for me, in the midst of his drunken rambling was quotation gold and thanks to him I blew that paper out of the water! This is just one of many reasons why Jimmy is one of my faves. <3

Tonight I am going on a night-walk with Taryn…I plan to lie in a field and look at the stars, provided Calgary’s light pollution agrees with this plan. My fingers are crossed.

She sucker punched Einstein and outsmarted Ali.

Robyn is one badass Swede.

She was awesome in the 90’s and she’s still awesome now.

Her Curriculum Vitae is bananas and I’m a big fan of Be Mine!, With Every Heartbeat, Konichiwa Bitches and Handle Me at the moment.

I need to get her to write my CV. Maybe all it needs is some rain, thunder and some hells bells?

Truth Enforcement Officer

This dude used to picket Roddick Gates at McGill pretty much every day. He’s pregnant with Christ and likes to wear Tommy Hilfiger toques. That is all.

(i know the guy interviewing him is a douche, but seriously…picketing EVERY day)

The Love All Around

Speaking of artists from Winnipeg, the Royal Art Lodge is based out of Winnipeg, and Marcel Dzama is a member.
http://www.royalartlodge.com/

Good stuff.