Some paintings

June 13, 2005

The other day, we took ourselves out for a treat at Zambri’s to celebrate some finished exams. After a while, I noticed the display of paintings on the walls, all by Diana Dean, a local (Saltspring Island) painter. As someone who has received enough innoculation (via theory) against liking representational paintings, I usually give “realistic” […]

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Talking to computers

June 12, 2005

On Thursday I installed Skype on my iBook and by Friday morning I was talking to my friend Betsy Burke in Florence, Italy, all via computer, all for free. The technology works well. Sort of. The problem lies in the interfaces: I simply shouted at my iBook, in the general direction of where I think […]

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Naked political protest on bicycle in Victoria, BC (a multitude of Godivas)

June 11, 2005

Ok, I know my readership is miniscule (I’m trying to teach my dog Jigger to read, just to boost the numbers…), but is there anyone in Victoria (or beyond) who can tell me details about what I saw this afternoon? I was in Munro’s, skimming through Allan Levine‘s book, The Devil in Babylon, when I […]

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Watch this!, or: adverporn

June 10, 2005

My husband really has this …um, thing, for wristwatches. He is a connoisseur of high-end collectable mechanical watches, and he occasionally — well, ok: often! — goes slumming on websites that advertise watches. During dinner preparations, he sent me this: I don’t know about anyone else, but this kind of stuff ranks right up there […]

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Schadenfreude? Alas, no. Anthropology.

June 3, 2005

At the beginning of the year, my neighbourhood association held its annual general meeting, during which a police officer gleefully announced that Victoria was introducing the Bait Car program. We get a fair amount of what I call “stupid crime”: stolen or vandalised cars, break-ins based on opportunity (someone leaves their doors open while they […]

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If Johnny can’t do the math, can you?

June 2, 2005

File this one under my favourite rant heading (“Work does not make you free”): interesting article, Too much homework can be counterproductive, which reports on a study by Penn State researchers, David P. Baker and Gerald K. LeTendre, who published a book, National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling. The claim […]

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Sculpture working

June 1, 2005

This past weekend I came upon Sculpture Magazine, new to me. Inside the May issue is an interview with Cai Guo-Qiang, whose work strikes me as fantastically disturbing, attractive, thoughtful, and magical. No, it’s not all flying tigers shot through with arrows, like this: … His other work, describing …consumption?, interchange? — it’s as disturbing. […]

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Technology troubles of the spin cycle kind

May 31, 2005

Have I mentioned before that I’ve had trouble with gadgets and all electronic things since moving into this house in November 2002? Yes, I have mentioned it. My iBook is fritzed; some other computers have gone glitchy; and my oh-so-ecologically-correct (water & energy saving) Bosch dishwasher is a piece of shit that’s leaked on me […]

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Pink is the New Brown

May 30, 2005

I have a theory about why the deadly-dull, trite, hackneyed, and utterly predictable Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has been a far-too perennial best-seller. It goes something like this: If you want to be a popular (read: successful) writer, pick a topic everyone thinks they know something about. Even if they’re not religious, everyone […]

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Another quiz: what (romantic) poet are you?

May 30, 2005

Thanks to Maria at Alembic, another weird quizilla to enlighten and amuse: You are Samuel Taylor Coleridge! The infamous “archangel a little damaged!” You took drugs and talked for hours, it’s true, but you also made a conscious choice to cultivate the image of the deranged poet in a frenzy of genius. You claimed you […]

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