second last

                                         Since taking this course and thinking about edmonton in a  number of different conceptual ways, I get a kick out of quizzing my boyfriend's parents, becuase they grew up in edmonton and both attended the u of a in their early twenties, just like meeee and their son, my bf. His mother has a masters in english and his father a phd in education. Since starting their family theyve lived and worked in spruce grove.  Last night, over dinner at earls tin palace on Jasper and 118th, i asked his mom, Joyce, how she views edmonton. and she came up with one word: reserved.
"reserved how so?"
"Calgary is much more flamboyant, they like to flaunt their wealth, but edmontonians are much more reserved, and those who do have money.. its a quiet wealth."

it went on, like this, she talked about how her and her husband were going to move to calgary becuase it seemed more "fun", but by the time they were starting their careers they werent looking for that type of fun anymore. She said calgary's flamboyance is most likely due to strong american influences. those dang  flashy yankees! (i thought that last part, she didnt say it)

what i didn't say to her was, "how interesting that your outlook and views of edmonton are always in relation to calgary. "

I agree with her that there is a sort of reserved air about edmontonians. Like a quiet pride. or a sort of sophistication. i asked her if she thought edmonton was more cultured and she said "it's a different type of culture". which i also agreed with.
i had a pecan maple chicken spinach salad it was large and delicious and it's nice to have people that buy me nice dinners in edmonton, the city of reserved champions!

conducted rhythms

mike davis' dead cities made me sad. really? three types of lice will be the only mourners at our funerals? and then bobcats come down and eat their cousins. and finally the bridge falls. but that's a nice touch, to have such a magnificint invention as a bridge, be the last to crumble symbolizing the restart of civilization. very nice. especially in connection with our discussions of the high level, bridges as place for suicide, and bridges as connecting spcieties, binding us toegther. such rich language! geomorphing is also a nice word.
so now i don't think i am sad. perhaps, mildly contemplative/slightly hungover/passively dehydrated is a more correct diagnosis. of how i feel. i have gotten into a habit of saying "i feel like.." before everything i say. it's is, oh, most deffinately annoying to whoever is around me a lot, which basically is one person, that i live with so, being around em is inevitable, but whatevr i say, if it has the prelude of "ii.... feeel.. liikee...." no one can argue. because hey, you know, no one can argue with how someone else feels.
i feel like i want a giant bed made of pizza with chicken finger pillows.  see what i mean? ridiculous.

i've neevr seen a 'not in my backyard' sign, but i feel like , if placed in certain areas, it could be hilariously ironic!

i tried to find a picture of a sign but found this instead. weird illustration style. what does it mean? that girl is a b. and takes after her mom or soemthing? kids say the darndest things? kids grow up too fast and repeat with they hear adults saying? that boy has toxic waste in a toy truck? where are their parents? what year is it? where am i?

pepsi max v. coke zero

which cola is better? i fear i'll never know...

ah actually, i think i like pepsi max better....  ugh
 i wish i could conduct an authentic one on one interview with charlie sheen. i watched young guns last week, with the rat pack, with emilio estavez and charlie sheen..   yeah it was pretty funny. pretty good movie.  i'll imdb it right now..  1988 what a solid year of production! directed by... christopher cain, who also did "the pricipal" - a film where james belushi is a really hard ass principal! haha cinematic gold!

dowload this gem for the peyote scene alone!

through this class, i wouldnt say i appreciate or look at edmonton any differently, but i would say that it's more prevalent in my thoughts and associations now.   often things will happen and i think about being haunted by the ghosts of edmonton past.  huh? that didnt make sense.     well, in the last post i mentioned i was in vancouver in feb. and while there i went out with strnagers, adn then later found out there were all expatriates of edmonton, all of them! and we were at this bar and there was a musician playing and i looked up through the haze of pbr and realized it was a guy from edmonton playing. and it was really cold and everyone said "you brought the cold with you heyuck heyuck" which i dont know about that one... but. even when i leave town i unintentionally surround myself with it. these coincidences probably would have gone unnoticed if not for this class always pushing notions of space and place into the forfronts of my cranium


a suggestion of food to try in edmonton disguised as talking:
tonight im going to order in karma, its pretty good. i recommend it. but maybe pick it up, dont get it delivered. becuase it seems not as good or greasy or soemthing when it gets delivered.  104th and 99 ave, i do believe is where it's located. get the paneer nan bread its like indian pizza
i watched a bollywood movie in FS 412 and it wasnt nearly as outrageous and fantastical as i would have hoped. but it did make me want some karma
last semester my fs 410 class all on the japanese directors ozu and naruse made me want to eat sushi all the time!  young guns didnt make me want to eat anything. i watched another western parody starring billy crystal, a little film you might know as City Slickers. aaaaaaaaahahah  so macho. billy crystal is okay, he's no bill murray thats for sure.  or  whos that other guy that was in duece biggalow? ah he's not even comparable,

I can feel spring about to burst forward like the rabbit bursts out of the dragon's mouth at 1:01

fair bière

   I spent most of Reading Week in Vancouver where the only problem with the weather was one evening of snow. Everyone coming out of the bar was so overjoyed by the novelty that at least thirty people we lined up on the street throwing snow at cars (which depending on who you ask may be illegal). Sometimes I wish I was Superman and could move the planet closer to the sun, making Edmonton a city like Phoenix. I know it probably isn't as simple as that but let's suspend some disbelief and linger on the sentiment. That being said, I would prefer to be  confined in school when it is cold rather than when it is warm.

I've discovered this week that I might have a sixth sense for disease. The sacrifice of being away during Reading Week is that I didn't study for midterms and had to be cubically confined in Rutherford until closing nearly every night this week. If there is any large reform in education, let it be the inclusion of physical activity in studying. It really isn't healthy sitting in one space for hours, where your only intake is Subway and Cookies by George coffee. Getting back to my point of germs, I think that disinfecting wipes should be readily available everywhere at the school. Think about the horrors of door handles, keyboards, computer mice and tabletops. You know they don't wipe these things down. Your mittens wont protect you, exactly how often do you wash them? The lack of sanitation is coupled with the weather. We're all stuck indoors, bumping elbows and coughing into the air like infection factories. It's not easy to put the blame on anyone in particular but maybe we should get the campus fuzz to threaten quarantines on our more inconsiderate peers.

Things seem to be getting more optimistic. More and better shows are popping up, we're past half way done the semester, and soon student elections will be over so the eyesore posters will be gone. I don't plan on voting (I'm graduating) but it's nice to know people care about stuff. What I've started doing is counting down the days exactly: seven more weeks, twenty nine more days. Think about it like that if you're having as hard a time as me.