This Halloween, I'm gonna dress up as a slutty sailor cop....bunny.

Halloween has always been a pretty fantastic holiday, and like most fantastic holidays, it is ruined by people between the ages of 16 and 22. It's amusing that most "costumes" aren't really costumes at all, just odd outfits and color combinations.

So, since Halloween falls on a Wednesday (booo) this year, festivities are mostly taking place this weekend, which is why I write to you from under a very loud, bass-heaving party. No doubt they are having a seance! And resurrecting the spirits of all the people who have died in mosh pits. Let us never forget them.

Our Pre-Halloween (Pralloween?) weekend has been a rather enjoyable one. Last night, we went to FUSE, a weekly party hosted at the Vancouver Art Gallery. There was art, dance, and drink, all of which I enjoyed greatly and would very much like to experience again. The centerpiece of the evening was a performance art........performance that was two women sitting at a tabe set for a great and decadent feast that consisted of cakes and tortes, while the audience member's mouths watered over the various marzipan-colored delicacies that were spread across the banquet table. The performance itself had lasted for twelve hours, and throughout the evening the table was wrapped in cellophane until every inch of it, cake and all, was covered. Then, at the end of the evening, the artist unwrapped the table and walked away, leaving us to eat what was left of the cakes and such. There was a lot. Deciding to keep with the performative aspect of it all, we ate some cake and shoved the rest in each other's faces:







Ugh, we are all so cute. (the ladies in the pic-a-tures are Aletheia and Manda, and they are the greatest)

So then tonight was the Parade of Lost Souls, which had some entertaining aspects....but to tell you the truth, I had more fun at FUSE. There's something about the Vancouver community events or art scene events that sometimes leaves a bit more to be desired, at least in my opinion. Still, there was lots to enjoy...an interesting performance on a fire escape, dancing on stilts, dancing with fire, and lots of musicians and groups everywhere playing music. I wish we had been there to see the parade, as it was, we showed up an hour late. Oh well. Hopefully we can get a complete taste of it next year.

One last picture; the facepaint that I did this evening for the festivities:




It was supposed to look like a mask of leaves, but now I think I just looked like an owl. Huh. A girl on the bus told me that I should say I'm "Autumn".

"What are you going as this Halloween?" "Oh, I dunno. An abstract seasonal concept, maybe." "nice."

Come on, little buck, you can do it

Today's exchange rate is a depressing 1.00::0.962, in favor of Canada (of course).

I'm not trying to turn this into a political or economics blog, because I'm just not capable of that sort of thing. But I did learn today that the increase in Canadian prices is due to there being a distributory "middleman". The idea is (in typical Canada-wants-recognition style) that every U.S. company has to have a specific Canadian "branch" that imports most of the products but spends extra on the packaging and distributing, so that the product can then be written in poorly translated Franglais (ex: Ketchup="Ketchup") and be covered in maple leafs. This additional packaging jacks the price up. Add on the provincial and government taxes, and you can see why we're in such a fix over here. Now that the dollar is in surplus, you would think the problem would be solved (or less bad), but such is not the case. Also, Canada's biggest trade partner of exports is the U.S., and now the states aren't really as interested in buying Canadian. So, like before, nobody wins, and we're getting shafted all the more.

Mix Tape!

Every now and again I like to put these together, driven by fancy of curiosity or that cumpulsion of "I wish I could hear these 10-14 songs all together instead of skipping around on my iTunes, that would be the best. The best!". This is the first time I've done it on Blogger, but there are a couple over on Myspace. On that note, have you ever noticed that by one's mere existence on Myspace, they automatically think that you will want to listen to whatever crappy band takes an interest? Call me loopy, but I don't think that's the case with most people; even though it's nice to get the "THANKS FOR ADDING OUR CRAPPY BAND WE LOVE THE SUPPORT YOU ARE THE GREATEST" comments afterwards, because it gives you the impression that the fame of such a band relies on a single person who they've never met.

Moving on to the tape. Actually, it's a bunch of mp3s.

The theme here is loneliness. Not outright despondent "my lover has left me for another and i'm so far behind on my electric bill it's not even funny, but i'll sit in the dark and cry anyway" loneliness, but that sort of growing loneliness that wraps around you like a warm blanket. It's comforting and painful at the same time. At times like this, all you want to do is wallow in your lonely adriftness, and this is the soundtrack for you. The download (if you choose to download it) won't list the tracks in the order i want them to be on the list, so here's how I have them:




As is the best way to do it, here's a short lyric from each of the non-instrumental pieces to help explain how they got there:

"River": I wish I had a river I could skate away on (duh)
"Disappear": I don't think we're meant to stay here very long//I don't dream of bringing heaven down//not like this, I'd rather move on
"I Wish I Was The Moon": God bless me I'm a free man with no place free to go//I'm parylized and collar-tight//no pills for what I fear
"Listening to Otis Redding At Home During Christmastime":Home is where beds are made and butter is added to toast//On a cold afternoon you can float room to room like a ghost//Take the creche out and argue about who gets to set up the kings//And I know that it's hom because that's where the stereo sings "I've got dreams to remember"

"There is a Light that Never Goes Out": Driving in your car//oh I never never want to go home//because I haven't got one anymore
"Hallelujah":Even though it all went wrong//I'll stand before the Lord of Song//With nothing on my tongue but "hallelujah"
"Fox In The Snow":Girl in the snow, where do you go//to find someone who will do//to tell someone all the truth before it kills you//and listen to your crazy laugh before you hang a right and disappear from sight
"The District Sleeps Alone Tonight":The district sleeps alone tonight after the bars turn out their lights//and send the autos swerving into the loneliest evening//and I am finally seeing why I was the one worth leaving

"Onliest":Sweetness of the salty wind//Depth of love when it just begins//A pint for me and one for you//Say a toast with all who knew
"The Absence of God"I say there's trouble when everything is fine//the need to destroy things creeps up on me every time
"You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome" Purple clover, Queen Anne lace//crimson hair across your face//you could make me cry if you don't know

As you noticed, the songs are split into three categories, that are loosely linked thematically. Most of the correlation is in the style of music. The first section is folk or country-esque songs, as they are reprisented by "Dora Mae's Funeral". The next section is more poppy, and melancholy; dealing more with personal relationships. The last three are more up-tempo and brighter. The melancholy mood ends after "Onliest", and the last two songs are still lonely but a little happier to listen to. And I thought that Peyroux's lovely cover of "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesone" was a perfect cap on such a sweet little set of songs.

So feel free to download, wallow, and enjoy. You can find the file here.

Good news to start the week

$1 US=$0.981 CAD

This is pretty great.

If you've been paying attention to the world currency news lately (and why wouldn't you be?)you know that Canada has been celebrating it's unprecedented gain over the US dollar. As of some point last week when I checked (technical term: S.P.L.W.W.I.C.), it was at a disturbing $1 US=$.94 CAD, which is about the opposite of what it was last year. The mere fact of the US dollar being worth more than 90 cents Candian was tough enough for us expatriots, who have become comfortable with our parent's money being worth more in this country, thereby making us between 15% and 5% richer. However, Canadian trade being the complete fucking pointless mess that it is (technical term: C.F.P.M.), this feeling of added wealth was combated by the fact that goods in Canada (books, macaronia and cheese, clothes, soda pop, gold, silver, frozen concentrated orange juice, et cetera) often cost between 20% and 50% more than their US cost; plus an added 7% to 12% sales tax. If we can do simple math (yeah, right, this is an arts blog), that means that under last year's exchange rate, we Damn Yankee Expatriots (DYEPs) were actually paying 12%-57% more for these goods. To this, we would give a heartfelt and postmodernist "bull-shiiiiiiiiiit!".

Therefore, the benefit of the Canadian loonie gaining on the American buck should have been that Canadian companies would lower their prices to something other than the 1970s exchange rate (for proof of this, look on the back cover of any book that you have with you. Go on, look! See? $24.95 US, or $98.35 CAD). Did they? Nope nope. With this new gain on the dollar, Canadian's are still paying 27%-62% more than Americans are, and, as of last week, DYEPs were paying 33%-68% more. Is this fair? Nope. Is it logical? No. Does this post have a point other than ranting? I dunno, you're the one who's actually read this far (unless you were just skimming over the page and landed on this sentence, in which case, no cheating, go back to the top). I suppose that what I'm trying to point out is that our recently lost gain over the loonie wasn't much of a gain anyway, it was more of a slight discount. It's like in Florida when everyone goes crazy about the back to school tax-free week and buys billions of dollars worth of clothes (trust me, I worked Target that week, I've been on the front lines of that mess). Sure, you're saving money, but Florida tax is only 6.5%. If something was discounted 6.5%, no one would call that a steal, let alone line up before the store opens and pack three shopping carts to the brim with petite uniforms, khakis, and jumpers--it's all in the way that you look at it. The same goes for this Canadian gain over the dollar. Sure it's a bit of a boost to save 6% in the States (though one should remeber that, in Vancouver, Canadians do their shopping in Washington, where sales tax is about 8%, so it's only a 4% gain), but it doesn't do anything to help the Canadian dollars that are being spent in stores by the average-joe Canadian or DYEP.

Oh wait, I forgot that this was supposed to be good news. Well, it is. If the buck is coming back up, then the difference in Canadian prices might start to seem a little mnore resonable (meaning that they'll be back to their previous aforementioned unreasonability (unreasonness? Disreason?)) than they are now, as we can go back to bragging about how much richer and cooler we are than Canada, even though when you look at it we're not, and we don't have their health care and social support, blah blah blah, they still pay a ridiculous amount of taxes, so there.

And speaking of taxes: Oregon is voting to levy a tax on cigarettes that will go to benefit education. So we don't want people, especially kids, to smoke, but are more than happy to let them smoke so long as they give money to education in doing so, Hypocritical? Maybe just a little bit.

Random self-bragging: here are my current grades for the semester:

Shakespeare: A
Metaphor: B+
Grammar: A
Postmodernism: B+
Woolf: B+

Not a lot to brag about, unless you consider that two of those B+s are in 400+ level classes, one of which (Postmodernism) is a tough cookie to crack. Egg to crack. Yip yip yip yip yip uh huuuh uh huuh uh huuh.

Photoshop will someday be used to prove people right in cases of "A looks like B!"

For example:
This afternoon, while resting from a hard day's presenting on Mrs Dalloway and eating sushi, my roommates and I were discussing one of our favorite subjects: the approaching trip to England. At some point in the conversation, I mentioned that I thought the United Kingdom looked like a Little Old Man. Apparently, I'm on crack, because no one else sees that. Well, for the visually impaired, I offer this irrefutable evidence:

HA! Take that, non-believers! The United Kingdom is a little old man, a dwarvish or leprachaunish old man, and Scotland is the head, England is the body, and Wales is the hand. I guess Ireland is either his pot o'gold or a rock. It's so cute! But how can you deny that? YOU CAN'T. I feel incredibly smart. Now I have to go to class.

I just wanted some coffee....gosh, what were YOU thinking?

Yeah, I made it myself, after Amanda and I almost died of the giggles in Metaphor class.