catching up

This has been a busy semester for me and I am regretful that I haven't blogged more. I logged in more than a few times but never really knew what to write and ended up logging back out without writing anything.

And now here I am again, logged in and wanting to write something but without a clear idea of what to write.

The class that I took this semester was another English course - modern novel, poetry and film - and once again I loved it! I so love being a student. I'd never studied poetry in my life and this course seemed to ignite in me a 'like' of poetry. Or at least a curiosity to continue on and study it some more. I wrote my poetry exam last Thursday and think it went pretty well. We had two hours to read a poem, analyze it and write an essay. I think I wrote a good essay, I'm just hoping it's a good 'poetry' essay.

It was the film component though that I loved most of all. I adored studying film - watching movies, analyzing and discussing them. I may just take film study courses forevermore. One of the four films we watched was an Orson Welles film noir from 1949 called The Third Man. I ended up choosing it to write my term paper on and so watched it a few times and loved it. It was critically panned when it was released. Audiences didn't know what to make of it and critics thought it was terrible. In 1999 though, it was named the British Film Institute's best movie of the 20th century and is on the American Film Institute's top 100 films of 100 years. I got my term paper back last Thursday and got an A+ on it. Yay!

I should be studying right now, except I can barely call it that since what I need to do is watch a movie. Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother. I watched it once already but was so caught up in the story that I missed a lot of the elements that I am going to have to write about on my final exam this week.

Hopefully inspiration to write continues to hit and I log on here with something to say rather than the rambling I'm doing today.
til then,
cheers!

Oscar predictions

It's Oscar night tonight! And it's time for me to commit my predictions to the interweb.

Usually I spend hours researching the nominees. I watch the short films online if I can. I read up about the Foreign films if I haven't seen them. I read reviews and critic's picks. This year, I did no extra research; I have seen a lot of the movies nominated this year, (in fact I've seen all 10 movies up for best picture) but I watched them for entertainment when they came out and not as research for our Oscar competition. My competitors are my sisters and even with all my research, I usually come in third (out of three). So this year, research schmeesearch, I'm gonna wing it!

In black is who I think will win and if it's different from who I want to win then I will add that in green. (update - I am adding the winners in red if they are different than who I guessed)

Best Picture
The Hurt Locker

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges
Colin Firth

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock
Gabourey Sidibe
Meryl Streep

Best Supporting Actor
Christoph Waltz

Best Supporting Actress
Mo'Nique

Best Director
Katheryn Bigelow

Best Original Screenplay
The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man

Best Adapted Screenplay
Up In the Air
Precious

Best Cinematography
The Hurt Locker
Avatar

Best Editing
The Hurt Locker

Best Art Direction
Avatar

Best Costume Design
The Young Victoria

Best Makeup
Star Trek

Best Original Score
Up

Best Original Song
Crazy Heart - The Weary Kind

Best Sound Mixing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker

Best Sound Editing
Avatar
The Hurt Locker

Best Visual Effects
Avatar

Best Animated Feature
Up
Fantastic Mr. Fox

Best Foreign Language Film
El secreto de suis ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) Argentina

Best Documentary Feature
The Cove

Best Documentary Short
Music by Prudence

Best Animated Short
Wallace and Gromit in a Matter of Loaf and Death
Logorama

Best Live Action Short
The New Tenants

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye Olympics.

Whew! What a ride! I have to say that the past two weeks were some of the best of my life. I had no idea that I was going to have that much fun during the Olympics.

Universities and colleges in the lower mainland were closed for the Olympics and I have to say it was such a gift having that break. I am so grateful for those 14 days off. Before the games started, I had some pretty grand ideas of how I was going to spend my two weeks off of work and school; I was going to go to movies, visit with friends, see my grandma, maybe go away for a weekend, do homework, and maybe go to a couple of the free concerts that were going to be all over town. Oddly, that is one of the few things I didn't do - I never made it out to one free concert. And there were so many great ones: Sam Roberts, Blue Rodeo, Elliot Brood, Kathleen Edwards, Sloan - just to name a few.

I have so much to say and yet am feeling like I have no idea how to write about it. It may need more than one post. I want to write about what I did but I also want to write about the amazing swelling of pride and joy that our city experienced. I want to copy and paste a lot of other things that I have read so far that say it better than I ever could. My brother-in-law wrote a really beautiful piece on his feelings about the Olympics. I think I will ask his permission to copy it here.

Basically, I loved the Olympics! I loved having them in Vancouver. I love that Canada beat records with how many gold medals we won. I loved the excitement, joy and pride on the streets of Vancouver and that everyone mingled and talked to everyone else. This 'no-fun city' became the most fun city ever! I met so many people and something shifted in me...I wanted to meet so many people. I am one of those shy, reserved Canadians and something shook loose in me. I was out there chatting up people and engaging in conversations with just about anybody - something that I would love to continue doing. Having just spent about 15 minutes talking to the guy beside me at the coffee shop here, I think I'm proving that this is doable.

Thankfully with the Paralympics starting in 9 days we aren't just going cold turkey on the whole experience. The cauldron will be lit again for 9 days and the BC pavilion and the Mint will be open to the public until March 21st. The zip line will continue to run, hopefully with shorter lines, for the duration of the paralympics and those are just a few of the things still going on.

Alas, I am back at work and school and not as free and clear to head downtown whenever I want. But I will get out here and there and I will continue to cheer and celebrate and mingle. Even when the paralympics are over.

Go Canada!!

And away we go!

The Olympics are finally here!

We are 4 days in and I am exhausted. I wanted to make sure that I took advantage of everything I have going for me during these two weeks: I live in the city, I am off work, I don't have kids. I had initially thought that I was the perfect age to enjoy everything...old enough to appreciate it, old enough to drink, old enough to pretty much do anything I want. I forgot that I am now too old to party all night long without any consequences. Not that I've tried because I am also at an age where after a full day of walking and taking in all the sites, all I want to do at 9pm is put my feet up, chillax with some mindless tv and go to bed.

I will definitely make a point of checking out the nightlife but it will be the event of my day when I do - not tagged on at the end of a long day of festivities. It's one or the other for me.

So far I have been loving being out and about. I have spent so much time walking around our fair city (and I don't use the word lightly - this has been the warmest winter Olympics ever - way to go Vancouver) and taking everything in. And there is still so much to do and see.

Highlights so far include:

• seeing the torch
• the 4D movie at the Ontario Pavilion
• the green carpet (AstroTurf) and beers at the Saskatchewan Pavilion
• talking to all the locals and tourists that we wait in lines with
• seeing musicians at Granville Island, way up in the air, suspended from a crane while playing
• celebrating Canada's first home gold with other proud Canadians at Atlantic Canada House
• the glorious weather yesterday dispelling Vancouver's rainy reputation
• seeing groups of athletes(?) from other countries walking around the city (we saw one of the Russians smoking - always surprised to see someone smoking)
• the light show between English Bay and Vanier park
• and hanging out with friends while doing all these things.

I just got a text about going out tonight...looks like it'll either be the Heineken House or Sloan at Atlantic Canada House (which is the backstage lounge on Granville Island - Sloan in a TINY venue = cool).

Glad I'm taking it easy today to gear up for tonight. I'm sure it'll be grand whatever we do.

Ugh!

I am sitting in a computer lab at school and the guy beside me is furiously (and I mean FURIOUSLY) picking his nose. It is so unsettling that I can't concentrate on anything else. The movement of it, out of the corner of my eye, is even giving me motion sickness. He stops for a bit, types and then goes back to it. So now I am of course horrified at how filthy and disgusting the keyboard he is using is and that he could have very well been using THIS computer yesterday and now I am typing over his grimy, snotty germs.

Ugh!

I am actually covering half my face so as to block him out while I sit here. Must.Go.Wash.Hands.Now.

Short and not that sweet

I am sitting here in a coffee shop/cafe/restaurant and the plan was to write, but a ton of other things took precedent and got in the way. And now I am too hungry to stay so am going to meet ST for sushi and a movie and this is all I have time to write.

I could've not written anything at all but then that would defeat the purpose of coming to said coffee shop/cafe/restaurant.

Will attempt it again tomorrow.

2009 Year in Review - concerts

Over the years I have stopped going to as many live shows as I once went to. The price of tickets and the too big venues were the two main reasons why. What used to be fun and excited had become expensive and impersonal.

I only saw 6 acts in 2009 and for the most part they were great. Friendly Fires, Dragonette, Snow Patrol and Coldplay all top the list for enjoyable, energized, exciting and fun shows. Madonna was good, but our seats were far away and so it had that impersonal, I-could-be-watching-this-on-tv kind of feel. Tower of Power were fun. The sound quality wasn't great and we all had to plug our ears a various points during the show but they perform well and the audience makes up a lot of the entertainment with their enthusiastic dancing. Tower of Power is my dad's favourite band and so every once in a while he takes us to a show. Over the past 19 years I have lost count of how many times I've seen them live.

That was it for me and live acts in 2009. I think my mom even sees more live music than I do.