more than a few drunken words less than random infidelity silence deep into the winter night rains acid on my stainless heart armies gather, generals scheme africans starve, legions offshored terrorists forged, unpaid mortgages our souls vagaries not even news but you see them, loud and high a tsunami of emotion breaking into timeless centuries in your steps in these strophes of mourning and i thank you for this. for one day you and i really exist. and i wonder why it is we cannot pass paradise and in silence collect our bliss. 31.I.2004, toronto
Leave a CommentMonth: January 2004
finally saw lost in translation tonight. would have preferred to have been working on my own film, but on the strength of astrid’s recommendation and out of the need for human society of some kind, i ventured out into the (very) chill toronto night over to the revue cinema. i was astonished by what i saw and heard. or more significantly didn’t hear. there is almost no dialogue. i had thought this film was supposed to be about two disparate people hooking up and exchanging things from their different lives. historically, under such circumstances the individuals in question speak to…
3 Commentsseductive the sun wherever she wandered, followed wrack and ruin, light to dark, the sky ever dim. immune to time, she laughed and passed the glade once more hoping for more than is given on this earth to man or woman. but gods mate no longer with mortals, no zeus or apollo, no olympia beyond the horizon, instead another city more cafes and bars and empty talk loved by many but keeping none, the fragile self hardens and wears thin, sudden the light not so bright, the love not so fierce, desire inane.
Leave a Commentafter my daily swim at trinity bellwoods in toronto, i met some men and from one of them heard an amazing tale. this fellow has a friend, you see. and the friend moved to germany. the friend is some kind of an engineer and likes to put in long hours. he was stymied in his desires. when he arrived at the german company he was given a ten page book of work rules. highlights include. no eating lunch at your desk. a fireable offense. obligatory half hour of socializing in the lounge with co-workers after lunch. not a fireable offense…
Leave a Commentfionnuala suggested i see le divorce – not because it is a good movie – but because of the subject matter. english language film set in paris. dropped by rottentomatoes.com to have a look at the synopsis. a priceless quotation from the lovely kate hudson. She was particularly intrigued by the French willingness to say almost anything, no matter how seemingly outrageous or controversial, and to utterly disregard any notions of political correctness. “However they feel, whatever they want to express, they just say it,” she notes. “They’re quite a passionate people.” it turns out in europe one can actually…
Leave a Commentin this weekend’s globe and mail, there is more debunking of the american dream. apparently, for the less advantaged if you really want your children to live the american dream, you’d be better first stepping across the border to canada. You know how it goes: The kid born in the log cabin becomes the president of United Steel. The prairie girl takes the bus to Hollywood and Vine and gets her name in lights. The ghetto kid makes it in the NBA. It may be called the American dream, but it is far more likely to happen in Canada. We…
Leave a Commentvisited the AGO today for the last day of the degas bronze scuplture exhibition. loathesome work. the degression of scuplture since the greeks is astonishing. of course, i love rodin’s work. the power of his bronzes. the scale of the work. but degas’ work in scuplture is largely an afterthought. he only created one bronze for exhibit in his lifetime, la danseuse à quatorze ans. all the rest are fabrications. another sculptor went in and working on the basis of wax and plasticine models of dancers created by degas for his paintings. why would degas create these things if not…
Leave a Commentsocial opportunity is on the run too. in early december, businessweek noted that significant social mobility had dropped by two thirds from 1978. the nation poses the question if you wanted to create a caste society how would you go about it… One thing you would definitely do is get rid of the estate tax, so that large fortunes can be passed on to the next generation. More broadly, you would seek to reduce tax rates both on corporate profits and on unearned income such as dividends and capital gains, so that those with large accumulated or inherited wealth could…
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