A Humany-wumany Christmas

On Christmas Eve the Space channel showed a whole bunch of Dr Who Christmas specials. (Having special Christmas editions of TV shows is a particularly British thing--they're often longer than an hour, have special guest actors etc.)

A man running around Victorian London calling himself the Doctor! Wha? Wha?

I taped the Dr Who ones and we watched them over two days. They were SO GOOD. I'd heard that the new series was great, and sampled it a couple times, but now I'm ready to be hooked baby!

The Master! And Time Lords!!

When the series was rebooted in 2005 I watched the first episode or so, but was underwhelmed, so I didn't continue. By the time it got great I was in school and didn't have time to watch. (Same reason why I didn't get beyond season 1 with Battlestar Galactica, even though I was loving it.)

Lion, Witch & Wardrobe inspired, so WWII setting - which always makes me weepy!

What's so great about the new Dr Whos is that they're a wonderful combination of imagination, action adventure, strange creatures and robots, humor, and sadness. They're very touching--or "humany wumany" as the latest Dr would say. In fact, they're very much like Connie Willis' books.

A well done play on A Christmas Carol.

I loved them all, but my favorite one took place on a spaceship with a Titanic storyline. If I'd been alone I probably would have let it all go and wept buckets, like I did watching the movie Starbuck (no relation to Battlestar G.) But I didn't want the husbando staring at me, so I just wept a couple silent tears into the non-vegan cheesies, and blew my nose a bit.

It also had a good joke about London's inhabitants all fleeing for the countryside at Christmastime, because every Christmas there's some sort of alien disaster (that is to say, all the previous Christmas specials.)

Hope you guys enjoyed your Christmases too. :-)
  

He was far from being gruntled

I'm re-reading one of my Jeeves and Wooster books, The Code of the Woosters. (These Wodehouse books are about a young man-about-town of negligible intelligence but a kind nature, who's always getting into trouble when trying to help his friends out; and his genius valet who unravels all the problems.)

Here's an excerpt from the first scene in the book--I put in bold the stuff that makes me faint before the brilliance that is Wodehouse's writing.


'Well, Jeeves, what goes on in the great world? Is that the paper you have there?'

'No, sir. It is some literature from the Travel Bureau. I thought that you might care to glance at it.'

'Oh?' I said. 'You did, did you?'

And there was a brief and -- if that's the word I want -- pregnant silence.

I suppose that when two men of iron will live in close association with one another, there are bound to be occasional clashes, and one of these had recently popped up in the Wooster home. Jeeves was trying to get me to go on a Round-The-World cruise, and I would have none of it. But in spite of my firm statements to this effect, scarcely a day passed without him bringing me a sheaf or nosegay of those illustrated folders which the Ho-for-the-open-spaces birds send out in the hope of drumming up custom. His whole attitude recalled irresistibly to the mind that of some assiduous hound who will persist in laying a dead rat on the drawing-room carpet, though repeatedly apprised by word and gesture that the market for same is sluggish or even non-existent.

'Jeeves,' I said, 'this nuisance must now cease.'

'Travel is highly educational, sir.'

'I can't do with any more education. I was full up years ago. No, Jeeves, I know what's the matter with you. That old Viking strain of yours has come out again. You yearn for the tang of the salt breezes. You see yourself walking the deck in a yachting cap. Possibly someone has been telling you about the Dancing Girls of Bali. I understand, and I sympathize. But not for me. I refuse to be decanted into any blasted ocean-going liner and lugged off round the world.'

'Very good, sir.'

He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled, so I tactfully changed the subject.


Of course, they were also made into an excellent TV series, which is on youtube. If you've only ever seen Hugh Laurie in House, then you won't know how good he is at playing stupid. I've been cultivating his way of saying "Good Lord!"



The series loses a lot of Bertie's narration, but they make up for it by all the great scenes of him singing 1920s songs at his piano.




       

Turning over a new comment

I had another blog where I was posting news headlines and funny comments on them, cause I love reading news story comments. But I've decided to simplify my life and just post them on this blog now, as last year I brought my personal blog into this one as well.

My .com address disappears on January 1st, so I'm first going to copy the old blog postings over here. And then post new ones. My mum, who reads the news more regularly than I, helps me find them and I have a bunch saved up.

The Headline

 

The Totally Sidetracked Comments on How the Polling Was Done

2nd My fave books this year: Graphic novels

Read a lot of these this year! I couldn't even pick one as my top fave, cause these ones below are wonderful for different reasons.

Fun Home - Alison Bechdel

Memoir of a young woman around college age, coming out, dealing with her family and the secrets her parents had, etc. Just superbly drawn and interesting and touching. American author.

Burma Chronicles - Guy Delisle

 Delisle lives in other countries and cartoons about his time there. As these are usually usually non-democracies (North Korea, China, Burma) it's super interesting! Though his next one will be Israel and I'm sure it will be great too. I read it in English, but it's originally in French. Quebec author.

Aya #3 - Marguerite Abouet, illustrated by Clément Oubrerie

Series about a young woman in an Ivory Coast village, and her buddies. It was in number 3 that I really got hooked, wish my library would get books 4 and 5! I read it in French, but it's available in English (though not books 4 or 5, yet.) Ivorian-French writer, French illustrator, published in Quebec.

Ice Haven - Daniel Clowes

Clowes writes touchingly about social misfits. Ice Haven's my fave--I love how all these disparate stories feed into each other. And I love how he changes his drawing style, as though a variety of authors are illustrating his works (à la American Splendor). American author.

Paul series by Michel Rabagliati

I read 3 of these (just added one to Goodreads which I missed!) Loved loved loved. It's about a man in his 30s thinking back to his youth--each bande dessinée represents a different period. One from his summer job as a camp counselor, one about his first apartment w/ girlfriend, etc. They're funny, charming, the character is SO real, the drawings are beautiful, and in the end they're touching. I read them (the first three) in French, but the whole series exists in English. Quebec author.

  

1st My fave books of this year: Fiction

The Imperfectionists - Tom Rachman

A series of short stories, all about a little period of time in the lives of various *imperfect* people. Like Daniel Clowes, he's often writing about social misfits, and draws you in and makes you care about them. What I really admired, though, was how well he draws characters! A couple pages into each story the characters are already 3 dimensional. And he pulled it off chapters after chapter. Great writing. English-Canadian author.

(Ooh he has a short story on amazon as a kindle single. Gonna get that!)

Superficialities: I love this cover. I'm sure it's part of what persuaded me to plunge in and buy.


Un petit pas pour l'homme - Stéphane Dompierre

Like High Fidelity --> guy working in indie record store, and his relationship problems. But I found it funnier and more charming than Hornby's book. I liked the protagonist more.


Superficialities: French book covers in general are truly wretched. I don't know if it's because it's a smaller market, so there's less money? Or publishing conventions from France. A different aesthetic. I can't stand it.

Best books I read this year

Here's the list! In the coming days I'll post more info about them.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

Un petit pas pour l'homme by Stéphane Dompierre

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Burma by Guy Delisle

Aya 3 The Secrets Come Out by Marguerite Abouet

Ice Haven by Daniel Clowes

Paul series by Michel Rabagliati

Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by PG Wodehouse

A Little Ray of Sunshine by Lani Diane Rich

Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer

Hold Me Tight by Sue Johnson

Writing the Other by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward

Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner

Writing the Romantic Comedy by Billy Mernit

      

Listen to A Christmas Carol and Pickwick's Christmas

Merry Christmas! Or Have a Nice Day to any non-Christmasers.

And now for the annual listening of my favorite childhood Christmas album:

 A Christmas Carol as performed by Ronald Coleman (side A)

The Christmas chapter from The Pickwick Papers, as read by Charles Laughton (side B)

My reading roundup 2011! - Anticipation Edition

Hey there ho there. Here are the books I read in 2011 (I love Goodreads for tracking this stuff! Join Goodreads and friend me!) I don't read a lot of new releases, so my coming list won't be the best books pubbed in 2011, just the stuff I read.

I read about 3-4 books per month, which tends to be my average. Here they are in reverse chronological order (Dec 19 2011, to late December 2010).

 

I also read:

From my friend Onthatmidnightstreet

- The Deed of the Monkeys (short story, a reread)

- The Sickroom (novella)

- The Grimly Queen (novella)

- Hide and Seek (short story)

From my bloggyfriend Judy, Judy, Judy

- Hungry Ghosts (online serial novel)

Books I gave up on:

To see my 2010 reads click here.

   

How cold IS it? (news of me update)

1. Wanna know how cold it can get in Montreal in the winter? Check out this post from 2009:

 

2. So far we've had no snow this year, that stayed on the ground. Gonna be a brown winter--though today we got freezing rain.

3. Finished my gig working for my pallio at the Salon. She gave me some lovely vegan chocolates as a thank-you! And the lady next to her, for whom I did a few hours, let me pick out a pair of earrings. And I had just been eying a little green set. None of these artisans are rolling in the dough, so I was quite touched. What lovely boss ladies I had! And the other chickies around me were cool too. Will have to post about them later.

4. Speaking of veganism, I've been a vegan for about 10 years? But I decided to downgrade to vegetarian just for the month of December. It's been a rough year, and whenever Fernando had junk food in the house, even if it had some milk or egg ingredient in it, I starting *caving* and eating them. I finally decided: Well if I'm going to unveganize, let's give 'er.

So for this one month I've been buying every food that I used to like, esp stuff that's hard to replace taste-wise: Doritos, tsatziki, donuts, chip dip (I've never been able to make a satisfactory vegan dill dip... maybe cause I'm too afraid to experiment with my nice vegan cream cheese, so I use other crap). And then there's stuff that I can make super vegan versions of, but I just haven't had it in me to cook this year --> so store brand shortbread cookies, and these cookies that are like peanut butter cups. "Menoum menoum" as my francophone stepmother would say.

I do think about the poor battery cage hens, though. So I'm pretty confident I'll be able to veganize again in January--my sad-i-tude will get me back in line. But I don't feel very guilty cause I'm into the veganesque thing for the long haul. I'm a pragmatist--I'll do what I need, to make this something I can do long haul.*

Anyway, so this month I've been eating like CRAP. Waaaay more junk food than I normally eat, and milky foods tend to be higher in fat than vegan equivalents. And I just don't care. I refuse to beat myself up over this orgy of excess.

I'm going to (try to) save my vegan chocolates for when I revert in January. Mind, I'll probably still have Ovaltine left cause I only remembered it on my Nonvegan List today, and there were no small jars!

5. Minion's discovered the ladybugs! Gulp.

___________

* I should explain my veganeque-a-tude. ...I'll make a tab or something. Will let you know.

Christmas Songs Roundup 2011!

When I last reported in on Christmas Music 2011, I had recommended the new Kate Bush, and Hawksley Workman, but otherwise hadn't discovered anything. But my dad offered to buy me an album for Christmas so off I went through iTunes. In the end I asked him for this awful Prince symphonic cover album, which I hope youtube will let me share with you soon. And then bought myself a couple of the ones below (zamzarred others.)

So here we are: Not the best Cmas songs of all time, but the best ones I discovered this year (I own over 700 Christmas songs.) And for the record, I include winter songs as part of "Christmas music."

If you don't see a video, it's cause one wasn't available.

UNDERSTATED

Breath of Heaven - Oleta Adams - Perfect singer for this song. She emotes, but the arrangement is quiet. No drama.


Jingle Bell Jamboree - Keb Mo


In the Bleak Midwinter - Loreena McKennitt


Ô traineau dans le ciel - Maryse Letarte


December - Regina Spektor


A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn't So) - The Flaming Lips

In the Bleak Midwinter - Bryn Terfel

Christmas Eve - Spirit of the West



BOMBASTIC

Another Lonely Christmas - Prince


Better Days - The Goo Goo Dolls


Carol of the Bells - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir



POPPY

Mistress Claud - Alyssa Red


Christmas Without You - Onerepublic


Last Christmas - Britt Nicole


This Time of Year - Nikki and Rich


PLAYFUL

Baby It's Cold Outside - Meaghan Smith and Buck 65 - Best part of this: The woman is the one making the come ons.

 
The Cowboys' Christmas Ball - The Killers


Last Christmas - The Puppini Sisters


The Chipmunk Song - Tegan and Sarah


And brother's choice: Sleigh Ride, from The Ventures' Christmas Album



FYI
Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" continued to dominate the holiday charts, as it has every other year. This year she's in two spots, because there's a duet version with Bieber. The rest of the list (iTunes Canada) is all Bieber and Bublé.


* The first A Very Special Christmas album seems to have entered classic status. As well it ought! In those days they got big artists for these albums, but over the years the series turned into pop crap.

  

PREVIOUS CHRISTMAS MUSIC POSTS

Fairy song
2010 Roundup
That crazy Dylan album
"There's Still My Joy"
Tori Amos' Christmas album
Annie Lennox's Christmas album
Joan Osborne's Christmas album

2009 Roundup (aka Broadway cares but I don't)

No 2008! ??

2007 Roundup

2006 Roundup

Once more unto the play, dear friend!

First:

Now the post. I put subheadings so you can skip around.

Gilmabelfest Background
For the last two years, bestie Gilby and I stopped buying each other presents, and instead I went down to Toronto and we saw shows. Because he loves shows, but is always too busy to go; and I love shows, but I just never go to any. And he's good at making me get out and do stuff, and I'm good at organizing. So I organize the whole weekend, and he does the driving and entertains me.

In 2009 we saw The Importance of Being Earnest, Cyrano de Bergerac, and West Side Story. His first intro to Oscar Wilde, whom he loved.

In 2010 we saw a small musical called [title of show] (which is great, if you ever see your local college or theatre putting it on), and Evita, and An Ideal Husband. --> My fave Wilde play, which he also loved! So we've decided to see all 5 of Wilde's plays, in our lifetime. Still have Salomé, Lady Windermere's Fan, and A Woman of No Importance.

2011
But we didn't go this year. First I didn't want to spend the money in Unemployment Time, but he offered to pay for all the plays (he usually pays more anyway, cause he likes front section seats). So then I suggested we go in summer cause he's doing an MBA, so I thought the fall would be too busy. But he said no, we should go in the fall. So then I was waiting to get a date from him, and never heard anything! Until I got a text from him that he was in Italy.

?? lol I have no idea what happened. But no biggie. There weren't any plays I was *dying* to see. I've missed his last couple calls, but he'll be in town next week so we'll see what's up. I mean, we'll see anything well reviewed, we're open; but no heartache was involved.

2012
But... I just got my 2012 Stratford Festival catalog... and as I stood by my mailbox I looked at the cover and fainted.

HENRY V!! THEY'RE PUTTING ON HENRY V!!

Weeeeeee!!!! It had better be good. I can't tell you how many times I've seen the Branagh version, and I've seen the Olivier as well. And of course, it's the basis of my next novel.

HENRY V!!!!

And Much Ado About Nothing, which is of course everyone's favorite Shakes comedy, right? It's like Branagh season or something. And there I was last year saying at some point we ought to see a Shakespeare.

They're also putting on Elektra, which maybe Gilby will want to see--he studied classics.

The Shaw Festival, which is nearby, is playing His Girl Friday...

and Shaw's The Millionairess. 

Hell we might need to see 5 plays! (Okay maybe that's a bit hectic... but tempting.)