preposterous transitions

Winter Shenanigans: Potlucks, Murakami and Hitchcock

Ah, man, since I became a working stiff there is just never enough time in the day. I never take pictures, never write about what's happening. And this site used to be such an important part of my routine!

Cold this morning and it's been a strange winter of mild temperatures with occasional bursts of bitter cold. Today was a perfect morning: I woke up at 7, made coffee, grabbed two donuts and crawled back into bed with both and read the news and my Google feed all morning. Now it's pushing 10.30 which means it's high time I get up!

Just finishing up a very stressful five weeks back at work since the holiday break and only now the last few days have I started sleeping properly again. Why when I am stressed does sleep just become impossible? I dream about work, wake up at 3am thinking about something I should have done or may have forgotten. Sometimes it's just a "good idea" which occurs to me and robs me of my precious beauty sleep!

M is off to Tokyo in a few weeks for three entire weeks, the first time he's been in Japan since November of 2007! He is so happy about but man it's going to be weird to come home every evening for three weeks and not have him here.

No real plans this weekend. Taxes, ugh. Maybe a bit of reading. Been slowly working through Murakami's 1Q84 which I've been dipping in and out of. Finished with book one but I should try and read book 2 this next week now that things at work have calmed down somewhat. At the same time, M's reading the version in Japanese so we've had a few chances to talk about it which has been interesting since we never read the same books or even types of books. A few months back he found a Japanese copy of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and I was thinking I'd re-read it at the same time for another Japanese/English literary book club chez nous.

Spent the evening last night at Marie's place, chatting with her, drinking some beer, and playing with Mags. She adores the dog and always asks if he can stay over but when M's working (as he was last night), I want him around! Anyway, it was nice, walking home at almost 10, a bit buzzed from the beer and dancing around the living room with them both.

Today I think I am going to go see an Alfred Hitchcock film at Cinema du Parc. M has something to do on the West Island this evening. I have a potluck for tonight but I could probably even squeeze in a movie or two and then still have time to make an appearance at the potluck.

So that's it. Not much else going on. Just happy that a very busy period at work is over for now. Smooth sailing for the rest of my life!

 

Blog Posting

I just wrote a blog post on this site.

I really do have to figure out what I'm going to do with this Typepad site one of these days....

So 2011 is over and what a year! I worked hard this year and more than anything, I'd say that 2011 was focused on my career, such that it is. I met some amazing new people through work, I went out with a few very famous authors, I had dinner and drinks a few times with some of the most powerful and wealthiest Canadians, as well as low key affairs with poor anonymous writers. I had a nice mix of social engagements.

We got a dog. He's a lot of work in many ways, but it's great having him around. Even in the winter, he's fun and this has surprised me. I don't midn at all taking him out for a long walk at least once a day, even when it's cold and icy.

I have the same core group of friends I had a year ago though a very close friend went back to Tokyo in April and we all missed her terribly the first few months. We still miss her, in fact, but life carries on and just last week, she was Skyping us at a Christmas party, the little netbook passed around hand to hand at the party, almost like she was there.

I do hope I can get this blog back up and running. It was a nice document of all that was happening and though I highly doubt I will ever get back to my one or two posts a day, posting at least once a week or so would be good. Though with a work blog and all kinds of other things going on in my life, it'll be a challenge.

Patricia Clarkson, Campbell Scott and The Dying Gaul; Dan Futterman and Urbania

I came across this film a few weeks back called The Dying Gaul and I really enjoyed it. And what a cast: Campbell Scott, Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard. The movie is about movie-making but in a highly cynical and rather frightening way. Saarsgaard plays a screenplay writer whose movie gets optioned by Scott's character, a studio producer. Starts out with a typical story: producer wants to heterocize the gay love story and the struggle that the two experience in order to balance what "sells" with one artist's vision.

 But the real meat of this story is the relationship that Saarsgaard has with the the producer's wife (Clarkson). When the screenplay writer and the producer begin having an affair, it becomes a highly psychological (and unpredictable) cat and mouse game and the ending is shocking.

All three main performances are excellent and it's hard to say which actor I adore more: all three are fantastic actors. And a real California film with lots of imagery of LA, the beach, the desert, etc. This one stayed with me for a week and certain images and scenes still haunt me.

This weekend I watched Urbania, another really fascinating film. It stars Dan Futterman (who I knew mainly because he's one of the producers of that Gabriel Byrne HBO show In Treatment) as a gay man who's relationship has ended though to say more about this would spoil it. Suffice it to say that the film manipulates you from the start with its opening sequences about stories we hear in cities ("This happened to a friend of a friend. You're not gonna believe it but it really happened...").

Not sure I quite buy Dan Futterman in this part (though he's adorable) and the central crux of the movie, the event which starts everything, seems slightly far-fetched to me. It also has a very "indie" feel to it (which means in this case that it seems inexpensively produced).

But there are some fascinating issues anchoring the film and I love the way the director manipulates you from start to end so that when the final pieces come together near the end, you feel a huge payoff. Good film.

My Latest Occasional Update

Nothing much that's new, really: work is good. I have these moments of total stress but then a friend told me the other day that when he feels stressed out, he remembers that it's HIS fault and not his job's fault that he's stressed. That he has the power to either be stressed or not be stressed. For some reason this really hit a nerve and I've been actively trying to let it all go. It has worked decently, too. I still have my moments (I dream about work constantly) but if I can I just take a deep breath and force myself to think about something else! I blog for work on this site.

Warm fall this year: it's been in the low teens the last few days. Mid November! Crazy. Not complaining because the shorter winter is, the better. But I imagine it'll stop any time and we'll  have snow.

Since the time change, I've been getting up at six, ostensibly to go to the gym though only actually manage to make it there twice a week or so. But it's nice having a long leisurely morning without rushing around (since I don't usually need to be in my office until 9).

A friend in town this week for a conference, someone I was once very close to. We would spend days together because I was living downtown (in Guangzhou) and she was working at my school and lived way out in the suburbs, so she'd stay at my place. We'd stay up late watching Ally McBeal or The Practice on Hong Kong tv, cook dinner together many nights a week, go out to clubs in the city. But then we both left China and despite having been super close for almost a year, we've exchanged probably 7 emails or letters in the last 10 years. It'll be interesting to see if things just pick up where we left them or if time has changed us too much...

Not much traveling though I do get to Ottawa and Toronto quite a bit (and New York, too). Still tossing around a few ideas for summer 2012 but work feels like too much planning already so it's hard for me to do anything but think  briefly about the summer (which I should have off). Maybe France. Maybe Asia. Not sure yet.

Pete's hair all grew back. Cooper is almost full grown now and still a ton of energy but less naughty than he was as a puppy so I hardly ever have to yell at him (though I did last night for digging in the plants). He's fun and LOVES everyone...

So that's it. The last year my life has been about work. Hopefully not forever!

 

Wishing I had fewer responsibilities today. That I could be lounging on a beach somewhere in Asia, not thinking about work, RRSP, taxes or renovations.

That's all.

Victim (1961)

Great British film which looks at the helpless victims that gay men were forced to be in the 1960s. The movie opens with a young man on the run, calling or visiting people he knows, only to be ignored, brushed off, or turned away. We aren't given the full story until a good 20-30 minutes into the film when we learn that the young man is a homosexual who has been the victim of blackmail and has embezzled 2000 pounds from his employer in order to prevent a blackmailer from making some photos of him public, ruining his and a prominent attorney's careers.

The attorney (played by Dirk Bogarde, who lived as a closeted actor for much of his life) comes to realize too late (after the young man has been arrested and committed suicide) that he could have helped the boy but he chose to avoid him. He is haunted by his death because he was falling in love with the boy before he broke off their relationship earlier in the story. The movie then becomes somewhat of a thriller as the attorney attempts to find out the identity of the blackmailer. 

Throughout we are given speeches about the unjust aspects of the laws against homosexuality and the fact that it forces gay men to become victims: they are easy targets of blackmailers and because the justice system (and society generally) is so rapidly homophobic, it takes very little evidence (if any, in fact) to send a suspected homosexual to prison.

One character, in fact, in a tragic few scenes, is attempting to sell his hairdressing shop and move to Canada in order to escape the blackmailer and the justice system generally. He has already been imprisoned four times for the crime of homosexuality and when he is faced with one more threat, he can't take the pressure anymore.

At the center is the wife of the attorney who claims that she knew about his proclivities before they were married, that she loves him anyway and hopes to stand at his side.

Sure makes me glad I wasn't born or even alive as a gay man at this time. I think about all the tragic lives lost to such hatred (which still exists today in much of the world).

Anyway, a really interesting movie that is highly recommended. Though he's not really made up to be goodlooking in this film (he was made to appear older than he was), Dirk Bogard is so adorable in the excerpt of the interview they have on the extras, done as promotion for this film in 1961. If I had been alive at the time, I would have been desperately in love with him!

I've watched this like 20 times and I'm still laughing....OUCH.

 

Make new friends and associates!

By walking the dog, which is such a great way to meet people.  

At work, I do use French but I find that the French I am most comfortable in nowadays is work French (talking about literature, figures, planning, etc.) but if I need to have a chat about something day to day it's harder. But walking the dog gives me a chance to use French to talk about dogs and the park and daily life in a way I rarely do at work.

Yesterday, a 40 minute walk turned into a two hour walk because I kept running into people I've started seeing regularly: we talk about their dogs, my dog, our apartments, winter, what we do for exercise, mealtimes, supermarkets in the area, etc., but the dogs are the starting point. I also hear all the gossip about the other people in the park with dogs. It's very odd, like the little community that smokers cultivate (especially nowadays when they all have to go downstairs and outside to smoke).

Not every experience is a good one: I met this guy last week who was a real nutter: he just went on and on without taking a breath about his dog this and that, all the terrible dog owners, one of those people who don't really want to have a conversation but just to TALK at someone. Ugh. I avoid him like he's contagious now.

Anyway, usually we are in Parc LaFontaine which is a block south of here. But when we get bored there, we go to Parc Laurier, three blocks north. Photo here is the lake in Parc LaFontaine, taken yesterday when it was perfectly gorgeous outside.

Eduardo Galeano

He is such a great writer. I carry one of his books around with me (Mirrors) and it's perfect for an unpredictable day since each "piece" is only a page or so long.

Amazing history of the world, of Latin America, and of Uruguay generally.

Another book, Days and Nights of Love and War is one of my most favorite and cherished books.

And an excellent feature about him here (from NPR a couple of years ago).