Isle of Bile

Tea Appreciation and Complexity

2012-02-01T21:05:00.005-05:00

A good tea tends to have many layers of complexity without losing the tastes associated with lesser teas.

For instance, all teas tend to have a general tea flavour, which instantly identifies something as tea. Oolong teas also tends to have a general oolong flavour shared with other 0olongs. Some teas have strong regional characteristics. An oolong from Wuyi mountains, for instance, would be difficult to be mistaken for an oolong from Anxi or Taiwan. The last layers are the most varied, and are often associated with tastes and aromas outside of tea: butter, cocao, honey, spice. A mixture of these can identify a certain tea as a specific varietal. I don't have much skill in being able to distinguish different varietals of tea that are from the same area, of the same type (oolong, for instance), and processed similarly. The differences tend to quite subtle. A little more floral characteristics in one, a little longer finish in another perhaps. Maybe more accomplished tea drinkers can identify varietals with more confidence.

For me, a really great tea needs to have all these layers in appropriate proportion. An oolong that has outstanding fragrance but lacks the base layers of tea taste and oolong taste is just not satisfying. A cheap bag with an abundance of tea taste may be more satisfying. Perhaps there is a hierarchy involved, you need to have a good foundation to build the more subtle tastes on. The yorkshire teabags I had with Mr. Arvelo-McQuaig had satisfying tea flavour, a noticeable black tea taste, and had a fat layer of malt on top of that. I don't recall the fragrance and the more subtle nuances of the tea, but I remember quite enjoying it based on those few layers of taste alone.

Most yancha (Wuyi oolong) fits these criteria. These teas tends to have a nice tea base, a lasting oolong taste that often lingers on the palate for hours, an instantly identifiable regional taste that is incredibly satisfying, and, for the better examples of this genre, a distinct and exceptionally delicious mineral taste. Other tastes that aren't exactly desirable but adds to the fun of these teas is identifying the degree of roasting employed (lending a roasting taste), and the length of storage (noticeable after a number of years only). Fruit and fruity fragrances are abundant and contribute to the more ephemeral and varying characteristics. Generally its of apricots and other stone fruits; sweet, heavy, with a slight tartness.

My appreciation for tea's complexity is not motivated by a desire to impress others with how refined I am. It's not about reducing its complexity to a list. Tea's complexity is analogous to the type of complexity that people have. We are all human, some of us are from Canada, a few of us are from Toronto, and each of us have our own unique attributes. However, those unique attributes would be not be flattering if we each didn't have shared human attributes.

The complexity in tea makes it more whole. Even though it has many layers, the layers relate to each other in a way that affirms its identity. There is something extremely satisfying in drinking teas one is familiar with. I have this sensation whenever drinking a yancha. The fruit, the mineral, the roast, the tea base... it's a complexity that heightens familiarity and intimacy. I think to myself with each taste sensation: I know the tea I'm drinking very well.

2012-01-30T07:57:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure how popular this video became, but it's pretty neat so I thought I'd share anyway. Two teens from Canada got together and ballooned a lego man and camera into space!

Sad Comrades?

2012-01-30T01:03:00.003-05:00

I'm wondering about the depressive tendencies of other Isle of Bile-ians, so I made this poll. I kind of pared down the possible answers so there isn't any distinction made between self diagnoses and doctor-made diagnoses, but it's not all that important. Here are my definitions:

Depression - a two-weeks-or-more sad mood and/or loss of interest in activities that are normally pleasurable to the individual

Seasonal Affective Disorder - depression that occurs year-after-year during the same season, often winter

Reactive Depression: depression in reaction to a pin-pointable external event or circumstance (e.g. a death, being continually harrassed at one's job)

Endogenous Depression: depression that's not in reaction to any identifiable external cause

Enjoy!

The Many Faces of Xuian Fashion

2012-01-29T21:26:00.026-05:00

Presuming Mr Xu’s permission, I present a brief slideshow of the motley stages of his sartorial experimentation and evolution (since I met him, of course). Since Xu is easily one of the best and most assiduously dressed people I know, having sported many different variations on a general theme that I will call “retrospective Western intellectual,” there is much to learn and be inspired from in his various sartorial phases. I encourage him or others to do the same of myself and others.

Phase 1: ’90s Science Nerd

Interpretation: Potentially right wing

Date: 19 December 2003

Phase 2: ’70s Marxist

Interpretation: An inchoate Marxism professor of Norwegian origin

Date: 30 June 2004

Phase 3: ’90s British Environmentalist

Interpretation: Going to an environmental ethics class in London

Date: 11 December 2004

Phase 4: ’40s Kentucky Wild Man

Interpretation: Banjo-toting, southern U.S. weirdo or rebel

Date: 9 March 2005

Phase 5: ’00s San Francisco Video Artist

Interpretation: On coffee break at the studio

Date: 20 October 2005

Phase 6: ’80s Harvard Student

Interpretation: Getting a business degree

Date: 8 November 2005

Phase 7: ’00s German Designer

Interpretation: Berlin typographer

Date: 26 May 2007

Phase 8: ’90s Scottish Bike Courier

Interpretation: Cycles through Edinburgh and tours pubs

Date: 29 December 2009

Phase 9: Timeless Swiss Taxonomist

Interpretation: Reminds me of the Life Aquatic; Jacques Cousteau chic

Date: 3 July 2010

Phase 10: Timeless Architect

Interpretation: Current and highest manifestation of his (and my) sartorial ideals of formal, urban, New Yorker-mascot-esque, Charlie Chaplin-era minimalism. If I saw such a person on the street I would feel an almost inexorable desire to meet them. It’s the sort of look that casts a wave of depression over me to think I’ll never get to be their friend. I inevitably would think about them for the subsequent month with great sadness.

Date: 2 October 2011

Intense Tribal Dance

2012-01-28T19:10:00.000-05:00

Vintage Times: 27 Dec. 2005 (by Hubbarde)

2012-01-28T14:08:00.003-05:00

Millionth Murmuration

2012-01-28T10:44:00.003-05:00

I know we've all seen murmurations before, but this is one of the better ones:

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Just to kill the mood: do you think there's any chance they didn't get pooped on?

Play This

2012-01-26T01:16:00.002-05:00

This game is ridiculously simple, fun, and free.

Victims of Privilege

2012-01-26T01:15:00.000-05:00

[Proceed to Home of Sky]

2012-01-22T23:34:00.003-05:00

"All models are wrong, some are useful."

2012-01-14T18:57:00.002-05:00

- a phrase overheard in my Environmental Modeling class, but for me applicable to much more than predicting elevations. Can anyone else generalize their philosophical strategy more or less successfully with a sentence?

Frank and Sammy

2012-01-02T23:51:00.002-05:00

Something like this can always cheer me up. Frank and Sammy mime each other's words so well that sometimes I can't tell if which one's singing. At 1:19 - 1:21 for instance, are they trading every other word?

I can't say enough about Sammy Davis Jr. How can one person have so much talent. One of the greatest dancers ever. One of the great jazz singers. A comedian who can always put a smile on my face and make me feel great. An unbelievable impressionist. This song seems to be a specialty of Sammy's. I have seen another version on Youtube in which he does a hilarious impression of Maurice Chevalier, and does a great dance routine. I hope you enjoy this.

Cathedral of Modena

2012-01-01T19:46:00.004-05:00

I found this while researching the vinegar. One of the most evocative images I have ever seen.

My Melancholy Baby

2011-12-26T22:43:00.002-05:00

Despite the fact that music usually doesn't get much interest on the blog, I'd like to post this as a kind of reference. The saxophonist, Lee Konitz, is a musician that I either have brought up or likely will bring up in conversation, since he is one of my favourites, and my teacher studied with him. When he plays the melody, he does so with so much feeling and conviction. When he improvises, he seems to think of the music note by note, and it feels very spontaneous. Some of my other favourite moments in this performance:

0:14 A great run on the bass.

Bill Evan's solo. He mostly plays the notes one at a time, without comping, which is unusual. I also love how minimal his accompaniment is when Lee Konitz improvises. I think he doesn't play anything for about a minute, and then adds very soft, quick touches.

Enjoy.

Tea manners

2011-12-25T17:42:00.003-05:00

What would be the appropriate tea to serve a guest who is a none tea drinker or casual tea drinker? Would it be a simple, plain tea, perhaps something fragrant which is more easily appreciated by none tea drinkers? Or should it be from chosen from among the more valuable collections of the host?

Seasonality

2011-12-18T19:55:00.009-05:00

The spirit of Gingerbreads Past

Winter Greens

"I love winter. You can see everyone's faces."

- Emile Dirks

I miss Whitevale.

Yes, that is referring to the one and only Evan Taggart.

Pato and I's first date, February 6th-ish, Toronto Island.

Nuit Blanche?

Farm

(Warning: Treetops at work!)

Mom as a tree.

The Transfiguration of the Commonplace

2011-12-15T14:24:00.002-05:00

Just a few pages of this book convinced me that it was to be one of the most important things I read in my life. The following is written and transcribed as my attempt to share some of the joy and erudition that I have gained from this work by Arthur Danto. Please excuse the unconventional formatting: proper indentations are impossible, and I have decided to distinguish quoted text through with italics. Here is an exerpt:

Let us consider a painting once described by the Danish wit, Soren Kierkegaard. It was a painting of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. Looking at it, one would have seen something very different from what a painting with that subject would have led one to expect, were one to imagine, for example, what an artist like Poussin or Altdoerfer would have painted: troops of people, in various postures of panic, bearing the burdens of their dislocated lives, and in the distance the horsed might of the Egyptian forces bearing down. Here, instead, was a square of red paint, the artist explaining that "The Israelites had already crossed over, and the Egyptians were drowned." Kierkegaard comments that the result of his life is like that painting. All the spiritual turmoil, the father cursing God on the heath, the rupture with Regina Olsen, the inner search for Christian meaning, the sustained polemics of an agonized soul, meld in the end, as in the echoes of the Marabar Caves, into "a mood, a single color."

So next to Kierkegaard's described painting let us place another, exactly like it, this one, let us, suppose, by a Danish portraitist who, with immense psychological penetration, has produced a work called "Kierkegaard's Mood."

This is the way that Danto begins his book, and sets up the problem of indescrinables. Actually, to see how he sets up the problem will take a few more pages. However, I think this excerpt already demonstrates the kind of pacing that distinguishes an argument which is made in the fullest detail. Later in the same book, Danto says this about philosophy:

...whatever I think about, I at the same time learn something about it and about thought, so that the structures of its objects as revealed by thought are relevations about the structures of thought itself.

I have long thought that the central value of reading philosophy, especially for the layperson, is that it serves a model for the thought process. In this book (and in every example of Danto's writing that I have come across) is thinking of highest calibre revealed.

Dramedy

2011-12-12T10:31:00.008-05:00

"Do you know how hard my life is?"

- Said seriously by one young women to her friend over the ATM in Centennial College's cafeteria. She was complaining about having lost her debit card. Dec. 12th, 10:25 am.

Flake-Tipped Paint Chip

2011-12-09T17:08:00.002-05:00

I was falling asleep last night when the semi-sensical phrase started running through my head. I tried saying it once; it was unsurprisingly hard. The surprising thing was that it was equally hard to say it quickly in my head, or imagine my voice saying it quickly. I woke myself up and wrote it down in anticipation of making this blog article today. I remember once that I may have read that your skill with certain tasks, like playing a piano passage, is equal to the extent that you can imagine yourself performing them. It was still very odd that I couldn't make myself imagine saying this simple phrase, given that I can easily imagine myself flying (even from a POV perspective), singing opera, or being a kangaroo. Was my difficulty saying the phrase just psychological? Can you all imagine tongue-twisters faster than you can say them?

An interesting follow-up: today, having repeated the phrase countless times in my head since last night, I was able to imagine it faster. I thought perhaps yesterday was just some kind of tiredness effect, but then when I tried to say it this afternoon (for the first time since last night) I was able to say it more quickly as well, which wouldn't be expected (as it is objectively a hard thing to say, I think), unless the imaginary "practice" had been equivalent to real practice.

The Band

2011-12-07T12:44:00.006-05:00

In a series of excurcionary writings, the author examines the band as a creative unit

In rock music, the band has a strong cohesiveness and identity. Inventing a name which captures the identity of the band is a common tradition in rock which continues to the present day. A book could be written about trends in band names. The evolution from the pithy and playful 'Beatles,' to the contemporary trend of using phrases such as 'Godspeed You! Black Emperor' is an interesting one. Also of note is the contemporary practice of having what appears to be a 'band' name although the musical unit maybe a solo song writer and/or performer. Clearly, the need to establish an identity beyond what is suggested by the musician's name outlasts the need to homogenize the identity of several musicians into a single, memorable image (such as 'The Beatles').

Each member of the Beatles has an identity in the public imagination outside of the group. However, 'The Beatles' had an identity that was quite different, bigger or more magnificent, then the sum of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. As the stature of each member grew, together they outgrew their collective identity of being Beatles. I'm not aware of names having this kind of function in, say, jazz music. If I refer to the Miles Davis Quintet, or, more specifically, what is termed (by critics and fans) as his "first great quintet," I'm merely referring to the gathering in one place of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Jo Jones in a musical capacity. In some ways it's an unfair comparison. The information we have from a name like 'The Miles Davis Quintet' is as practical as you can get. We know that the leader of the band is Miles Davis, and that the group is comprised of five musicians. There is no image that is unique to the group, no invention.

How to Think

2011-12-06T00:31:00.010-05:00

Pamela and I are starting a new podcast called How to Think. It'll consist of us wondering/debating how to best think of things, or what I call “advocatory philosophy,” and it'll include the usual preponderance of ums and uhs and pauses to think to which all Deep Madder fans should be accustomed. Here is our first episode. It was inspired by the religious content of Joel's recent choir performance (in a good [albeit critical] way, not a bad way; we loved attending it). If anybody would like to participate in the show please tell us.

01 by howtothink

Would You Rather...

2011-12-04T21:51:00.004-05:00

Imagine two hypothetical societies. One is a prosperous communist society, the other a poor capitalist society. Both societies produce teapots as their sole economic activity. That is, both societies are comprised of potters almost exclusively.

The communist society is an ideal egalitarian society. It's citizens enjoy a high and equal standard of living, comparable if not above the typical North American. There is no governing class, or even elected officials, for everyone participates in politics and government, for which there is barely any need for since there is so little conflict. The teapots for which this society owes its riches are poorly made, mass produced (but still hand-made) items valued for their low price only, and floods the world's dollar stores and Walmarts.

The capitalist society consist of two classes: potters, who comprise the majority, and a very small minority of capitalists. Let's say one, just for fun. The capitalist takes advantage of the potters, forcing them to use her kilns and clay since she does not pay the potters enough for them to buy their own. The potters live in poverty, but have enough to eat, and are able to enjoy very small luxuries such as tea. The teapots this societies produces are nearly works of art, coveted by tea drinkers and ceramics enthusiasts the world over, and each is treasured by its owner.

You are a potter. Which society would you rather live in?

Guilty Pleasure

2011-12-04T01:47:00.001-05:00

Solitary Pleasure

2011-11-27T21:21:00.008-05:00

I was listening to Lamont Dozier on the subway the other day and seriously mentally grooving out to a tune and felt really, really good. I remember thinking, "Wow! Does it get any better than this?" It was an excellent moment, one where lyrics, song, surroundings, attitude, and mood all converge into a beautiful feeling. I started to think about solitary experiences and being truly happy – times when I've been at some apex, if you will, of emotional satisfaction. I remember watching a movie once and having a glass of wine and really enjoying myself to a surprising degree. This was, interestingly, during the middle of one of my most emotionally difficult summers. But according to my feelings, I couldn't have improved on that moment at the time, I don't think. Reading also has given me certain mental and emotional pleasures that are unmatched, though I guess not so much in terms of level of pleasure, but rather in quality of pleasure.

I'm wondering if any of you have every had an solitary experience where you consciously remember thinking "This is the best. It doesn't get any better." Do you actively seek out those moments, or do they surprise you when you experience them? Do you think, for yourself, that there are solitary moments that can be unmatched, or unsurpassed by social experiences?

My Favourite Fish: The Frogfish a.k.a "The Most Apex Fucker in the Deep Blue Sea"

2011-11-25T17:12:00.008-05:00

I guess I don't have much to say, but what is with this fish and being amazing? Zicheng?

Under the next video, someone comments that the Frogfish is " a fucking beast, if that was the size of a shark it would be the most apex fucker in the deep blue sea".

What does "apex" mean in that sentence? Zicheng?

Final Question: How do they choose the music for these things?

Embarrassing Graduation Photograph

2011-11-16T23:51:00.001-05:00

"Literally"

2011-11-13T15:12:00.004-05:00

The first time I remember thinking this word was often used strangely was during a conversation with Joel in art class. He used the phrase "literally postal." I interjected, and said "why did you say 'literally,' when you obviously meant metaphorically?" I don't think he was amused.

Since then, I have found myself using the word from time to time in the sense that he did. It's use this way is a joke in itself. However, I find that it raises some large problems for me.

I believe that language should convey specific meanings. When I write a sentence, every word in it should carry the meaning that I intend them to carry. Although a lot of words can carry several different meanings and connotations, you should be able to decipher which meaning I mean from the way I have used the words. If I use the word "literally" often as a superlative, its meaning used in this sense has the potential, in time, to conflict or even supersede the original meaning of the word.

Take a sentence like: the current labelling convention on Isle of Bile is literally a joke. I want to convey the meaning that the use of labelling on Isle of Bile is used for humourous purposes, and is therefore a joke in the literal sense. However, the phrase "literally a joke" is more often used to mean something like "egregiously careless" or "disastrously ineffective." Part of the problem is also that the word "joke" is used in different senses that has the potential to be confused. To be certain that I am conveying the correct meaning, I would be tempted to write something like: the current labelling convention on Isle of Bile is literally (and I mean 'literally' in a literal sense) a joke. This is obviously so awkward as to be unacceptable.

What am I to do?

Potty-mouthed Irishman Explains Financial Crisis

2011-11-11T16:12:00.001-05:00

Best Mainstream Coverage of Police

2011-11-04T13:40:00.000-04:00

E-readers or Books?

2011-11-02T22:11:00.009-04:00

As I'm progressing in my publishing program I'm starting to think more about where I might want to work. I've been very interested in e-books (largely because it's a new and exciting area, and is generally considered the more environmentally-friendly way to go). But lately my research has me stumbling into all sorts of ethical potholes regarding both books and e-books. Here are some issues I've discovered:

Environmental

It's still somewhat questionable concerning which is more green. Some people say that e-readers are more environmentally-friendly because they have less of a carbon footprint. However, as this article points out, there are other factors to consider when determining environmental impact, like waste, and types of materials used. For instance, there are certain minerals and metals that are used in electronics that are finite and have to be mined. To me, this raises issues of sustainability. Do we know we'll always have access to those materials?

By comparison, trees are a renewable resource that can be grown, harvested, and then replenished in order to produce the paper for the books. Books can also be printed on 100% (or any percentage) of recycled paper. E-readers cannot be recycled in the same way and are largely made of plastic. However, the iPad 2 is apparently highly recyclable.

The New York Times did a useful comparison here. Judging from the NYT article, switching to an e-reader can be more environmentally friendly – but only if (before you bought the e-reader) you tended to buy books as opposed to borrow them, buy new books instead of used, buy books often, and won't end up replacing your e-reader more than a few times.

Realistically, Apple and other e-reader companies will continue to market their products like hotcakes, and everyone will want the newer, shinier version of their e-reader as time goes on and the newer devices can do bigger and better things than the older ones. This fact is often overlooked in articles about the environmental benefits of e-readers. The older versions of those devices are already painfully outmoded and I'm sure there are plenty of people who have updated a few times already. Here is a more broad article on digital media's environmental impact in general.

Social

The manufacture of e-readers, along with cell phones, computers, game consoles, and other mobile devices, often participates in the extraction of conflict minerals (in particular: coltan, tungsten, tantalum and gold.) The Second Congo War (1998-2003) saw 5.6 million people die largely regarding disputes over the trade of conflict minerals, and though the war is officially over, Congolese paramilitary forces are still controlling mines and mineral extraction through mass killing, rape, child and slave labour. In 2010 Steve Jobs told Wired magazine:

"We require all of our suppliers to certify in writing that they use conflict few materials. But honestly there is no way for them to be sure. Until someone invents a way to chemically trace minerals from the source mine, it’s a very difficult problem."

It's difficult to even begin to make sense of a modern-day war, fuelled by Western technological interest, that is on the same scale as WWII and yet so quiet in the media. It makes me feel ashamed to have a computer and iPhone, and makes me want to hold off on buying any type of e-reader (no matter how environmentally-friendly) until I know that the parts are verifiably 100% conflict-free.

Economic

A classmate raised concerns that e-readers are still prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, and can further the gap between classes. As information and popular media become more and more digital, and require more expensive devices for mere access, where does that leave people who simply can't afford to keep up? Great perspective on that here.

Also, publishers are having a difficult time with pricing because though it still costs the same amount to produce the content, people want e-books for cheaper than physical books. Since there is such a small return on books in the first place, this is a huge crunch for publishers, and they are having to weigh competitive book prices with properly valuing their content.

Physical

(Phew. This is a long one. Are you even still with me?) More trivially, lost, broken, or stolen e-readers are a problem. You're out your entire library if that happens. And on some readers you can't lend books to friends. Though now you can borrow e-books from the library; they're files that are scheduled to self-destruct once they're due. But, you can't re-sell an e-book, or buy a used e-book for cheaper.

So there's a brief, yet not so brief, overview of the two, for anyone who might be interested. Please share if you know more, or if some of my info is incorrect – I'm very interested in this topic.

Pale Celluloid Dot

2011-11-02T00:40:00.004-04:00

Here are some wonderfully edited and arranged film clips set to a portion of Carl Sagan's The Pale Blue Dot. I just really like this and thought I'd share.

A hilarious amazon.com review

2011-10-22T11:23:00.002-04:00

Amazon.com reviews are a treasure trove of hilarious comments, particularly ones from people who have a vindictive agenda against a controversial yet popular title. I have previously posted some comments left on an album of Kenny G, here is one left on "Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance."

As a teacher of philosophy I was dismayed to find that many people who claim to be interested in philosophy found this book to be an effective introduction to the topic. It is perhaps no accident that the people who tell me that this was the first "philosophy" book they read, and that it was foundational for them, turn out to be among the least philosophical people I know. Indeed, many of them appear to be ineducable in the subject, a property that I ascribe to having used this book as their introduction to the subject.

Having known some philosophy professors, I can really sympathize with their frustration, yet the degree of their vehemence induces in me irrepressible symptoms of hilarity. The full review, entitled "The Art Of Boredom Maintenance" can be found here: http://www.amazon.ca/review/R1D2F4DAY7EC8H/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R1D2F4DAY7EC8H, although that paragraph was by far the funniest one in the review.

Ms Clark on the RADIO!!

2011-10-18T17:48:00.001-04:00

P. Clark on the Radio by arvelomcquaig

Please sign!

2011-10-18T02:49:00.005-04:00

I neverever do things like this, but I made a petition. Please sign it!

Best of Isle of Bile

2011-10-16T15:08:00.004-04:00

Apologies, despite the title, the implied list has yet to be compiled. However, I think there are so many wonderful posts, or rather, wonderful discussions encouraged by posts that it would be great to begin collecting them in some way.

Here is one that I was reading today. I was thinking about hipsters again, after encountering instances of hipster hatred on the internet, and realizing that what people call hipsters is basically indie, which is a subculture that I have some sympathy for. I vaguely recalled that I had initiated discussions on Isle of Bile previously, and preceded to find this treasure of a discussion:

http://isleofbile.blogspot.com/2009/03/on-hipsters-and-alternative-culture.html

Is it my imagination or has there not been this level of discussion for some time now? Nevertheless, I'm still surprised that there has been this level of thinking on a blog read by only a dozen or so people. I imagine another fairly long list can be made on "Funniest of Isle of Bile."

2011-10-16T03:36:00.001-04:00

A great clip of saxophonist Colin Stetson. I love the vocal mic sounds.

John Rawls

2011-10-13T22:28:00.005-04:00

I've been reading a book by Rawls about contract theory as an ethical framework. Although the main idea has a lot going for it, sometimes Rawls seems to lose the ability to appreciate how different people really are psychologically. For instance, I can think of a few people who may read this for which the following probably doesn't apply:

[A] person's good is determined by what for him is the most rational long-term plan of life given reasonably favorable circumstance. [...] This plan is designed to permit the harmonious satisfaction of his interests. It schedules activities so that various desires can be fulfilled without interference. It is arrived at by rejecting other plans that are either less likely to suceed or do not provide for such an inclusive attainment of aims. Given the alternatives available, a rational plan is one which cannot be improved upon; there is no other plan which, taking everything into account, would be preferable.

Have we discussed categorizing people as planners and non-planners? I think we can be pretty certain which faction Rawls belongs to, and he seems to be almost oblivious of the presence of the other.

Voting

2011-10-07T16:37:00.002-04:00

So.... how about it? Did you get your wish this election season? I just realized despite how much everyone talks about politics I know nothing about how you guys vote- who you vote for, how you decide, whether you strategize and consider each candidate's chances in your riding, how much time you put into it....

Pato was angry at me for voting, which I've never experienced before, and I think is largely cultural. Angry people here vote, angry people in Chile (as I've discussed with you, Lins) draw penises on the ballots. Maybe we're getting to that point. Actually one of my classes was thinking of voiding his vote- he didn't strike me as an obviously political guy, he was basically just irritated with the whole tone of the discussion this year and to him taking the time to go formally refuse to support any candidate was just one of his legitimate options, and a very normal and reasonable thing to do. Would you guys ever do that?

I was this >< close to voting liberal, which I've never done before, because I was scared about another conservative sweep, but instead I voted green, which was actually far less strategic and more heartfelt even than my usual NDP vote. Go figure. My mom voted liberal- again surprising. I have to say it was partly that I read some polls and thought the libs would win in Peterborough. Peterborough is apparently a "bellweather" riding.

Zicheng, fantastic fish post- I wish I had written it, as Caroline thought. Because in that world, not only would I have adorably nifty fish seeds, but an admirably clear and concise writing style as well.

Is Kerri reading? Do you take the time to mail in your ex-pat vote along with all the lovely parcels to friends?

Fish

2011-10-02T14:15:00.008-04:00

I've been up to some old tricks lately, resuming a hobby that was begun some 17 years ago and put on pause about 8 years ago. I ordered some fish off of a fish-specific internet auction type site. Embryonic fish. They came in a little foil wrapped bag, like this.

When the bag is opened, a small plastic container is revealed, containing moist peat moss, in which fish eggs can be found.

To hatch the fish, the peat moss is dumped in water, and with in a few hours, fish hatch out. The fish are very small. Here I have removed the newly hatched fish from their hatching container and put them in a film vial, so that they can be moved to their rearing container.

Here's another perspective, to get a better sense of scale.

The item I bought was advertised as containing 50 eggs, and while I doubt there were that many in the container, I suspect that there are at least 20 or so eggs. I hatched 6, which means that probably another dozen or so are still in there which haven't developed enough to hatch at the time I put the water in. The peat moss containing the eggs have been re-dried to the appropriate moisture content, and is being stored. I can hatch those at a later time. For now though, all six hatchlings have survived (to my surprise), and looking quite healthful. I also have a nifty looking snail.

I hoped you have enjoyed viewing my humble fisheries project.

My Definitive Answer to the Latest Deep Madder Post and the Ethicality of Reading

2011-09-30T18:05:00.004-04:00

Yes, this is erotic science fiction, that I possess and read, er... for the community.

Self Sighting

2011-09-28T21:19:00.004-04:00

I went to Curbside Cycle a month or two ago to get some bicycle lights and the employee I spoke to asked me if he could take a photograph of me for his blog about cycling fashion. Today I remembered this and looked it up and found this post.

Also, after looking through the archives, here are my favourite posts: A, B, C, and D. The first is one of the best looking people I've ever seen.

Deep Madder Radio Ep. 9

2011-09-27T19:44:00.001-04:00

Click here to proceed to the newest and best episode yet.

2011-09-26T00:57:00.004-04:00

Astronaut Bruce McCandless, 1984, untethered but guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit about 100 meters away from the Challenger shuttle.

Polar Bear Spy Cameras

2011-09-18T20:11:00.008-04:00

I just watched a segment on 60 Minutes about this and had to share. It was about a new way to collect footage of animals in their natural habitat — in this case, Norwegian polar bears. The first video is part of an extremely fortuitous shot that happened outside of a maternity den with a recently-born cub inside. The camera's lens had been covered with snow and had been considered useless at that point until the mother bear cleaned the lens off as it exited the den with her new cub for the first time. I couldn't find the whole thing online which is a shame because after the cub emerges s/he and the mother bear play with the camera and capture scene after scene of well framed shots. They toss around the camera, and somehow manage to realign it multiple times before sending the camera sliding down a hill while they remain centre-frame, watching it slide. Their final scene is the two of them, perfectly framed, walking off into the distance. Even though you can't see all of that, this video is still great. The second video is about polar bear inquisitiveness taking it's toll on the cameras and is adorable. Take a look at these:

Weird Youtube comments

2011-09-16T14:27:00.002-04:00

Today, I received a series of strange comments from a Youtube user calling himself (herself?) "frankhermitlives." The most bizarre of which was in response to a silly little video Alexander and I made almost two years ago about the pasta sauce we always make (watch here).

Mr. Hermit comments thusly:
"clean yourself up you bum, and quit playing the character of the dorky smart-guy. listening to the spit inside of your mouth is disgusting. however retarded asianboy is, he's smart enough to instinctively recognize twee-ass sickening self-indulgent bullshit when he sees it. I bet you or somebody you know is a writer with a name like andampersand, and I bet their stuff is cheeky and indulgent and banal like your face."

And in reference to our "Annex News Party" Video, he says simply this:
"lesbian book-store owners"

2011-09-08T00:53:00.000-04:00

Some great pictures of animals in the womb here.

Ugh. (don't worry, he's critical)

2011-09-06T22:06:00.003-04:00

Photo Booth Freak Show 2006-2007

2011-09-02T12:08:00.016-04:00

Tuned to an undead channel

2011-08-27T01:03:00.008-04:00

Sparrowhawk-Carmen would come over and we would sit down and talk for hours on end about love, or history, or books, or what it means to enjoy a virtual glass of virtual wine and watch a virtual sunset. We would talk about whether or not the brain, stuck inside its dark, dank lockbox of a skull where only electrical signals pass in and out, can differentiate between the real and the virtual. We would talk about Tarl, the one she'd had to bow down to, who was having an impact on her life, and how even though she had a new avatar, their relationship had continued. We would talk about how love does not need to be a thing that's in the real world. People have married who once were penpals; phone relationships have blossomed into weddings; online dating has created all kinds of waves in the emotional landscape of people's lives. We considered that romantic love may be best where there are no real concerns. The body might be a bit overrated, we wondered. We talked about these things and sat with our virtual legs dangling over the virtual cliff below, or stood together in one of the lookouts of Tenaya Spirals. As we watched the cold, fake sun cast its neon orange glow across the ripples of a synthetic sea, we talked about real things, real emotions, and real people, but we did it there, in-world.

From I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life

This book is really amazing. It focuses on what avatars mean to people and how avatars interact with other avatars and just how big a deal they are to more and more people. I never had much interest in playing Second Life until now. The worlds the author talks about are so odd and sound really interesting and fun, and sometimes messed up. The game is anarchic — it doesn't bind you by any pre-set rules; you create whatever you and others want to create. It sounds to me like a limitless and more customizable version of Minecraft. In the book (which I haven't finished yet) he covers bizarre topics like virtual sin and grieving.

Also, the economies of the game reach into real life in interesting ways. The author is a real-world artist who makes money in the game by designing and making artwork that people buy from him in order to decorate their Second Life homes. Someone once bought an island in the game for $20,000 US — and this was in the mid-2000s, so even crazier purchases have happened since then probably. Plus, all these real-world universities have opened up online versions of themselves in the game. Noam Chomsky has given a lecture at one.

Next to this book in the library, I saw a book completely dedicated to librarians who want to pursue their librarian practice in Second Life. I couldn't believe it — whole book on that!

But the worlds in Second Life aren't real-world mimics by any stretch, which is why when popular apparel designers open up small islands attempting to cash in on virtual dollars from users outfitting their avatars, they don't do well. People's avatar purchases and priorities are to a large degree unpredictable, and completely unlike their actual selves.

Anyway, I find this stuff fascinating and just thought I'd share the above quotation, which I found rather beautiful.

Journal Survey

2011-08-25T00:50:00.002-04:00

Just curious, how many of you are keeping journals or diaries? I have kept one since early 2010, with 12 entries and 14 pages so far written.

Ben Webster In Mourning

2011-08-24T21:10:00.003-04:00

A moving Ben Webster performance was filmed in 1970. Like many American jazz musicians at that time - including the pianist in the performance, Teddy Wilson - Webster had been living and working in Europe, where audiences were more appreciative of their work. Webster and Wilson had been informed moments before of the death of alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Hodges had worked with Webster in Duke Ellington’s band, and some say Webster had learned to play ballads through observing Hodges.

I generally assume it is the music that sets the emotional tone of a performance instead of the circumstances that surrounds it. This must be true most of the time for musicians who perform music regularly as entertainment. In this case, however, it is the circumstances immediately prior to the performance which creates the emotional atmosphere we witness.

I’m not sure I would be able to tell the difference between Webster’s playing on a regular night against his playing on this occasion. It seems possible to me that he could have been more artistically inspired during another performance than he is emotionally inspired here. However, this is special because his playing seems to provide him with emotional comfort. This music, which has the qualities of a solitary meditation, here is really about expressing personal grief and gaining comfort through that expression. The connection with an audience is an accident of his professional obligation to continue the gig.

To me, this "performance" is a solitary musical experience, and as such, a thing rarely captured on film. It is interesting to me not only because of its rarity, but also because I usually play music in solitude; a situation that I think will continue to be the norm for me since I don’t have aspirations to become a professional musician. The extreme introspective character of Webster's playing transcends the category of entertainment, and becomes more like a life-sustaining meal. This kind of art is truly rare in my experience, and I hope if you come across it you will share it with me.

DEEP MADDER SYMPOSIUM 2

2011-08-23T03:02:00.001-04:00

See Deep Madder Log

More New York City Pictures

2011-08-15T19:29:00.005-04:00

Time's Square

Vegetarian Dim Sum in Chinatown

This was from my iPhone. I love this shot.

That man was making drawings with coloured sand.

A silver Andy Warhol statue watches on from the background

Diableros!

Delicious tacos from an almost impossible-to-find taco

truck parked in the courtyard behind a bar in Brooklyn.

The Hotel 17 elevator shaft.

(The stuff nightmares are made of.)

This is near Madison Avenue.

Where's Don Draper?

The Brooklyn Bridge

Mural detail

Brooklyn Bridge again

People were ballroom dancing in this square one night near our hotel.

A flower shop with outdoor fridges.

Chinatown

Some subway thugs.

Donut Plant

Peanut-butter and homemade jam donuts!

In Brooklyn somewhere.

A mosaic in the subway.

Harlem

Julia at the Cloisters Museum.

The Sociopolitical Relevance of Science Fiction

2011-08-15T19:06:00.000-04:00

Canadian Science Fiction author Robert J. Sawyer on why Star Wars is terrible and what true science fiction is really about.

Finally!

2011-08-14T20:04:00.010-04:00

2011-08-10T10:51:00.003-04:00

I was researching reviews of L'Opera, my favourite coffee shop in North York, and came across a funny part of a review. It's funny how concerned the reviewer is with bathroom dangers. Maybe he learned the hard way?

TIP: Be careful of that elevated step in the washroom. If you trip over it, you will therefore crown yourself with the mighty throne. More than that, it can be a hazard so please be ALERT.

Shields I designed

2011-08-06T13:40:00.000-04:00

Localness Promotes Accessibility

2011-08-03T22:00:00.002-04:00

[See Home of Sky]

Activism as Decadence

2011-07-28T15:10:00.000-04:00

[See Home of Sky]

Reasons to Believe Rob Ford is Superhuman

2011-07-28T15:09:00.001-04:00

[See Home of Sky]

2011-07-27T12:43:00.002-04:00

Haute Culture: General Idea Opening Reception

Image information
Friday, July 29, 2011, 6 - 9pm, remarks at 7pm
Art Gallery of Ontario
FREE admission; Cash bar

The Art Gallery of Ontario invites you to celebrate the OPENING of Haute Culture: General Idea – A Retrospective, 1969 – 1994 with a free, after-hours public opening in Walker Court.

Featuring more than 300 works spanning 20,000 sq. ft. of Gallery space, Haute Culture is an exhibition of unprecedented scale celebrating the groundbreaking work of the seminal Canadian artist group. The exhibition is the first comprehensive retrospective devoted to General Idea, the collaboration between artists AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal that began in Toronto in 1969.

This exhibition is conceived and organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario in conjunction with the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris.The exhibition is generously supported by the Volunteers of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Contemporary programming at the AGO is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Most wholesome and long condom song ever

2011-07-26T19:15:00.003-04:00

I'm sorry to interrupt Alex's well-thought out political writings with another goofy video post, but I just had to. You don't have to watch the whole thing, but it is rewarding in various ways the whole way through.

Reasons to Believe Rob Ford is a Magician

2011-07-24T00:45:00.000-04:00

5. He can alleviate traffic by compounding traffic
4. He can conjure a thirty year tradition out of thin air
3. He can simultaneously lose and gain $70 million
2. He can turn 107% into 1000%
1. He can turn $70 million into $700 million

Weakly Picture Stories

2011-07-24T00:23:00.003-04:00

Earlier this summer, Ryan, Christopher, and I started a comic-per-week initiative and a blog on which to post them. I haven’t announced this until now, since the comics I was making needed to be a secret until Pamela’s birthday (30 June), and subsequently I forgot to mention it. I hope you like our comics.

Note: As you can see, our productivity has suddenly halted, and some participants have more to show than others (partly due to joining later or not having consistent access to scanners). Please excuse our recent stagnation; hopefully we are just in a temporary lazy summer mood, and will continue our regular comic posting soon.

2011-07-23T12:37:00.001-04:00

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having just read Homecoming Earth, my opinion of Card was that he made interesting projections about societies under various contexts, but wasn't particularly strong on building real human characters and relationships. The main mission of this book, however, was to make the reader feel Ender as a human being enduring the awfulness of having to act against his nature over and over to fulfill the dehumanizing role of leadership during conflict in a very realistic way, and he was successful in this. Many people see science fiction as irresponsible in the sense that it doesn't tackle issues that are relevant to the human spirit in the "real" world, but I feel that many in our generation are breaking under the combined pressures of a) incredibly competitive job markets and the need to cultivate technical skills obsessively, b) cruel ideals of human physical, mental, and even emotional perfectionism, to the extent that we can even become neurotic through our attempts to over-perfect our inner well-being, and c) the constantly looming threat of global catastrophe, which I find has the paradoxical effects of creating a deep sense of the need for immediate action and making all our frenetic efforts within the current context of north american society seem futile and "part of the problem". While we may not feel like superheroes, Ender's inner world reflects our state faithfully in many ways. I would suggest that science fiction is actually better equipped than most genres to capture the state of a human in today's world, which I suppose is obvious given that many of the previously bizarre projections that made science fiction a distinct genre in its infancy have now come to pass.

I also found that the way Card shifted levels of focus throughout the book kept it refreshing and fascinating. Within a chapter he could reveal centuries of historical plotline, sketch out a very evocative and realistically detailed wargame between the young soldiers, or focus in all the way to Ender's subconscious in the computer game/dream state in a very poetic and elegantly simple way. This is one of those moments where I'm excited to have a whole untapped series ahead of me.

Ps- Can anyone else not figure out which books you're supposed to read next?? Suggestions??

View all my reviews

Through Thick and Thin

2011-07-22T04:08:00.002-04:00

With the war currently being waged against Toronto by our own mayor and a disturbingly obsequious council, it’s easy to feel so alienated that one would be tempted to leave the city. Several of my friends have casually suggested the prospect of moving elsewhere in response to the increasing hostility to progressives and our principles. It feels like nothing is safe, and that no battle – no matter how much reason is on our side – can be won.

However, remember that the more hopeless we feel, the more work we have to do (and, consequently, the more we want to leave, the more Toronto needs us). Unconditional, long-term devotion to this place – what I call geographic fidelity – is what Toronto needs now more than ever. We (that is, those of us who are so privileged that we can even consider moving elsewhere) should act and think as though there is nowhere else to go, that we’re stuck in this place forever, that we’re in this for the long-haul so we better make it good. Political actions are rendered less meaningful – and political causes less urgent – if one lives as though moving away is always an option.

Furthermore, it’s fair-weather activism. To care about your city is to care not only when it’s convenient, but to keep caring when it’s difficult to care, when caring is disrespected, and even when caring seems futile; activism is the most important when it’s the least fun. To behave otherwise would be exploitative, benefitting from the city when it’s in a good state but abandoning it in bad times.

When Miller was mayor it was easy to love Toronto; it was during his mayoralty, after all, that the then-revolutionary movement to not hate Toronto took flight. Progressive ideas and principles were relatively prominent and somewhat respected by council, if not in the media as well. Where we used to have a mayor who would even regularly attend relatively-esoteric Spacing magazine release parties to show his civic devotion, the current mayor can’t even be bothered not to snub everything related to one of the city’s (if not the country’s) biggest events. Now that our civic heart is being broken daily, we have to work harder than ever for our love.

Matlow: Rebel Without a Cause

2011-07-21T20:00:00.001-04:00

Councillor Josh Matlow, king of compromise, continues his disavowal of all things partisan. “Some of my colleagues,” he complains on Twitter, “seem to be deliberately targeted by politically-partisan activists.” He speaks of politically-aligned people the way that American politicians speak of al-Qaeda. Over and over again, Matlow’s vendetta against partisanship is made clear. In fact, trumpeting compromise and demonizing partisanship seems to comprise most of what publicly comes out of his mouth, a defender of neutrality above all else. His votes often reflect this, in that he pleases neither the right nor the left, but is likewise inoffensive to all.

There is an extreme individualism to Matlow’s neutrality. “I am loyal to no side” amounts to “I am loyal only to myself.” What matters is only what Matlow surmises independently; no matter how ignorant he is about the given issue, he refuses to be guided by either side. I get the feeling that he not only avoids being guided by political alignment, but he is ultimately guided by eschewing political alignment. It seems that he would sooner dull his position than be associated with a larger group of councillors who share a common political compass. If his opinions are disproportionately to one side of the spectrum, he must be wrong.

History is also irrelevant in Matlow’s political approach, as learning from what happens would eventually develop one’s allegiance to one side more than the other. Matlow’s only consistency is his hatred of consistency. Nonpartisan theory prescribes being engaged in politics while somehow refusing to recognise patterns. No matter how many times, for instance, one finds right-wing politicians to be deplorable and left-wing ones to be favourable, to be nonpartisan is to never remember this. Always approach politics as an infant, with a tabula rasa as to what will occur and what is worth supporting. But what if the principles that Matlow professes to value are consistently upheld by one side more than the other? For instance, he wrote, “[W]inning isn’t always about ‘beating the other side.’ Rather, it’s about finding solutions.” What if this sincere desire for solutions, time after time, guides the left and the not the right? Should one not, then, eventually identify with the left?

As Matt Elliott said, “In some cases councillors must fight, not compromise, for that which they believe.” The easiest thing someone can do is take no side and always coast down the middle. When I hear what he says, I want to like Matlow because he seems to sincerely care about being a good politician, but the way he approaches this – through the middle – really bothers me. I wish he would step out of the safety of the middle for once and do something that requires vulnerability.

2011-07-19T00:25:00.003-04:00

"What or who is Drive Test?"

- First question on FAQ page of the DriveTest website.

Pato and I's future progeny

2011-07-16T01:12:00.001-04:00

My New Favourite Sandwich

2011-06-18T12:16:00.005-04:00

Recently I made a sandwich (pictured with fried tempeh) with the aforementioned buttermilk biscuits. I fried an egg inside the same shape-cutter that I use to cut/shape the biscuits, so that it would fit perfectly in the biscuit, and put buffalo ricotta on top. It was amazing. Does anyone have any suggestions for a vegetable that could be added? I think it needs a little crunch, is all.

Buttermilk Biscuits

2011-06-18T11:14:00.010-04:00

For the past few months I have been regularly making a recipe for buttermilk biscuits from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home. I like it so much that I have seriously been making them almost every other day ever since I first made them (though initially I was making them every day). I will give you my own slight variation of the recipe, as I make half of what the recipe prescribes, and take a few shortcuts.

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup pastry flour

1/2 tablespoon salt

1/2 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter (chopped into about 1 square centimetre cubes)

3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 425 ºF

2. Prepare a pan for the oven (with aluminum foil or wax paper to reduce dishes)

3. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir it up

4. Add the little butter cubes, then mix it all (I do it with my hands) until the butter pieces (or shreds, as tends to be the case) are pretty small (the original recipe recommends “pea sized”)

5. Make a well in the centre, then pour in most of the buttermilk, and mix it in (but not too much)

6. Make the dough into a 2-2.5 centimetres-thick slab on the pan, then cut (or shape) biscuit shapes out of it

7. “Brush” the remaining bit of buttermilk over the tops of each biscuit (I drip it on and use my fingers to “brush” it around)

8. Put it in the oven for ten minutes on each side (sometimes I need 15 mins for the second side)

Before and after

2011-06-18T11:08:00.003-04:00

Since there has been so little activity on this blog (and our sister blogs), I have decided to consolidate my postings in this one blog, as it traditionally has the highest viewership. This way, as people are probably checking the blogs very seldom lately, checking only Isle of Bile will update one as to all the blog entries of the friendship group (i.e., if others wish to follow suit). I will tag posts, however, with the blog to which they would ordinarily belong, to easily allow for reorganisation of these posts in the future (should we choose such a course).

Thank you

Close Encounters of the Perv Kind

2011-05-21T19:09:00.008-04:00

On this fine day I was walking down George, the Peterborough main street, when I saw a slick-suited well-off looking man I took to be in his forties strolling hand-in-hand with what looked to be a stick-thin, black-haired pasty-faced teenage goth girl. This was such an odd couple that I looked at them. Like this:

As they got a little closer, the man started to look kind of familiar. He must have thought I was looking at him like this,

because he looked at me like this:

Except that wasn't exactly his face. This was his face:

Is this the dawn of Dmitri's Peterborough Era? If he is town, there's sure to be updates as the delightful stories slime their way down the grapevine. I'll letcha know.

Because of work

2011-05-10T19:21:00.002-04:00

I think I am losing my sense of humour. Is this what we do with the bigger part of our lives? One must be able to do better than this at some point, but it feels like a management position is supposed to be "the furthest" I've come career-wise, as of yet. I've vowed a million times to not go further in this particular direction, and hopefully going back to school for GIS will launch me off into that new trajectory.

But for now, jaw-clenching, stomach turning, tear-jerking anxiety attacks for problems related to facilitating the delivery of a bunch of meat sandwiches that I would never personally eat. Sorry, just needing to share a miserable moment. Home life, sublime. Hope you are all thriving.

Alain de Botton - On Pessimism

2011-05-03T17:11:00.002-04:00

Alain de Botton - On Pessimism from The School of Life on Vimeo.

Amazing Obama Speech

2011-05-02T17:34:00.001-04:00

2011-05-01T12:47:00.003-04:00

39 seconds of an elementary school music performance.

2011-04-29T21:32:00.002-04:00

“If they get rid of the land transfer tax, people’s taxes are going through the roof, or there’ll be very significant cuts, cuts that will affect middle class people. They’ll start with the services for the poor, that’s always what happens; they will gut services for people who are lower-income.”
-David Miller, on the subsequent mayor’s promised tax cuts, from this interview with Spacing Radio

Playing Minecraft

2011-04-27T23:32:00.001-04:00

Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight

2011-04-26T23:50:00.001-04:00

A poem by Galway Kinnell in comments.

Kyle Field - Cave people

2011-04-26T12:32:00.002-04:00

I'm slightly disappointed that the text in this drawing doesn't read "cave people of the world, unite!" as i thought i remembered it saying when i first saw it a few years ago, but it's poignant nonetheless.

2011-04-24T18:01:00.005-04:00

All of Byron Hurt's Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes is online. He's an ex-quarterback who loves hip hop but grew increasingly uncomfortable with it's messages, especially about masculinity. It's really good and he gets some great interviews out of people. Clipse make an awkward appearance.

Hospitality

2011-04-19T18:59:00.002-04:00

I know I should have planned this a million years in advance, but if there's any interest in coming out to Whitevale this Easter weekend, y'all (7-11 potential Bile readers/posters) are most welcome.

Would You Rather

2011-04-08T20:12:00.001-04:00

2011-04-06T02:20:00.001-04:00

We Went to Kentucky

2011-03-16T22:41:00.025-04:00

Dan and I went to Kentucky this past weekend with thirteen other people from the McMaster Outdoors Club. The goal was to visit Mammoth Caves National Park and to do some cave tours, one informational and one more physically-oriented, and we succeeded. We also went for a couple of hikes in the nicer-than-seasonal weather, got a bunch of Chewy Bears (Gummie Bear facsimiles purchased from Giant Tiger in Hamilton) stuck disturbingly well to our rental vehicle, and visited the Jim Beam bourbon distillery on our trip back. Due to popular demand, here are some photos, in non-chronological order, of what it looked like (and, as always, I can assure you the formatting will be as irritating for you to look at as it was for me to try to amend):

Gummi Bearschen

The Jim Beam distillery makes all the tree trunks black with fungus, which also stains the buildings. They said it isn't harmful though, and the trees look otherwise really healthy. They age the bourbon in barrels that they char on the inside to give the beverage that smooooth smokey taste and darker colour.

They found this beagle and another loose in the park and were hoping to find someone to adopt them. I can't stop thinking about those poor dogs...

Then there's Dan and I after a crawling bout in the cave. It was sometimes only 9 inches high (my head is about touching the ceiling here), and when we turned off all our lights at one point, it was pitch black and entirely silent. I was afraid I'd get horribly claustrophobic since I have claustrophobia dreams a lot, but it was actually pretty much fine.

Fuck, this formatting is a fucking joke, you should see what it looks like in the "Compose Post" window. Okay, well anyway in this series of photos is a picture of people's names written on the cave ceiling with candles. They did this in the 19th century, but since the place became a national park in 1941 it's been illegal. One of them that we saw was for a snake oil product called Hooflands Tonic. Then a photo of the Green River, which runs through the park, and some spring daffodils.

Here is a tree outside our hotel and then a cave cricket (they live mostly underground in the cave, but go outside about once a week. It looks like they also don't have the singing capabilities of normal crickets). Then below that is a truck we saw that doesn't need a lot of explanation.

These last ones are pictures from our hike in the sun and warmth. For whatever reason they refuse to build a bridge over the Green River inside the national park, so we took a little ferry across. You drive your vehicle onto the ferry (there was probably a maximum capacity of two vehicles at a time), and it takes you to the other side where you drive off. Finally, we also saw a garter snake.

What Makes Pistachio Nuts?

2011-03-16T01:23:00.001-04:00

Previous to Mister Lonely Korine had written a story about a pig named Pistachio. The film was to take place during a race war in Florida and have a boy who would saddle the pig, put adhesive on its feet, climb up walls and throw molotov-cocktails. "It was going to be my masterpiece," Korine comments. The script burnt in a fire and Korine spent $11,000 trying to recover it from his computer. He retrieved one sentence.

Bourdain Goes to Haiti

2011-03-13T16:54:00.004-04:00

This is really worth watching.

Judy B

2011-03-12T03:08:00.010-05:00

Earlier this week, Lindsay, Alexander and I attended a lecture by one of my Academic Heroes, Judith Butler, on the topic of "The Cultural and Academic Boycott of Israel." While Butler is often derided as being the Uber Post-Structuralist, for being too "ivory tower," too "theoretical," I personally found that her ability to take "real world" events I know little about and discuss these events in the context of their underlying philosophical assumptions about justice, equality, culture, etc, made the topic much more accessible to me, and her lecture immensely satisfying.

I managed to find some video of part of the event. Unfortunately it begins very near the end of her lecture (but includes the whole of the Q&A) and the video quality is quite poor. The video is chopped into multiple parts, and the others are available on Youtube.

Also, as a bonus, here's a really fantastic clip from the film, "Examined Life" which features Dr. Butler discussing dis/ability with activist Sunaura Taylor.

2011-03-11T00:05:00.001-05:00

Mozzarella en Carozza

2011-03-07T12:42:00.002-05:00

Pamela and I had been wanting to try an Italian food called mozzarella en carozza, so yesterday we got the ingredients and made some. It’s like a grilled cheese that went through an Italian testosterone machine: Fresh mozzarella is sandwiched by two pieces of bread soaked in egg (and maybe milk) like French toast, and the whole thing is deep fried. It was ridiculous, needless to say. It gives my mouth separation anxiety to see these photographs. The bread was so crispy it was bubbly, and each bite would send streams of mozzarella like spider webs.

This is Beautiful

2011-02-21T01:44:00.002-05:00

"The Wind That Shakes the Barley" is an Irish ballad written by Robert Dwyer Joyce. The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young Wexford rebel who is about to sacrifice his relationship with his loved one and plunge into the cauldron of violence associated with the 1798 rebellion in Ireland. The references to barley in the song derive from the fact that the rebels often carried barley oats in their pockets as provisions for when on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley growing and marking the "croppy-holes," mass unmarked graves which slain rebels were thrown into, symbolising the regenerative nature of Irish resistance to British rule.

"Can't repeat the past?[...]Why of course you can!"

2011-02-14T20:23:00.005-05:00

I heartily recommend that everyone play this delightfully charming 8-bit Great Gatsby video game. You play as Nick Carraway and have to fight off drunkards, flappers, waiters, and so on, as you meet Gatsby and venture through various locales.

The game is pretty simple and doesn't take too long to complete (maybe 20 minutes), and it's funny and cute to play. I really like the idea of someone taking the time to make this game. It also makes me want to read the novel again.

Ryan Larkin - Alter Egos (2004)

2011-02-05T19:26:00.000-05:00

2011-02-01T21:50:00.004-05:00

You can now watch one of my favourite movies, Foxes, on YouTube. Many thanks to user 'ClassicRocknRolla2'.

ClassicRocknRolla2 describes Foxes as: A group of friends come of age in the asphalt desert of the San Fernando Valley set to a blazing soundtrack and endless drinking, drugs and sex. Starring Jodie Foster, Cherie Curry, Sally Kelerman, Randy Quaid and Scott Baio.

In case that's not enticing enough, a funny blog review:

Revolving around four friends: Jeanie (Jodie Foster), the responsible one; Annie (Cherie Currie), the rebellious one; Madge (Marilyn Kagan), the reticent one; and Deirdre (Kandice Stroh), the refined one. This girly foursome look out for one another like most friends do, but they mostly find themselves taking care of the aimless Annie who has a tendency to wander off on these strange narcotic-related tangents. This errant behavior worries the other members of their little idiosyncratic clique, especially Jeanie who bares most of the burden when it comes to Annie and her unpredictable antics. However, it should be said that Annie is not the only one with problems as the stressed out Jeanie, the virginal Madge and the seductive Deirdre have their own issues to deal with.

Beyond a scene that involves the girls taking care of plastic babies in some sort of home economics class and a couple of hallway moments, the film spends hardly any time at school. Which is kinda appropriate because neither do the characters. Nope, the majority of the film takes place in the unstable homes of the four girls. Well, except for Deirdre, but I’m sure her home life was all kinds of kooky. Anyway, the bond these girls share as they engage in sleepovers, attend concerts (Jeanie’s dad manages a rock band), and throw dinner parties is the main strength of the film. I also liked how each girl is given her own unique personality. Yeah, they probably wouldn’t be friends in real life (young people and people in general tend to hang out with other people who are most like themselves). But nonetheless, I appreciated the fact that an attempt was made to flesh out each character (like the fact that Deirdre doesn’t know how to shop for groceries).

The acting in Foxes was superb across the board. Sure, there were a couple of dodgy moments involving Sally Kellerman as Jeanie’s flaky mom that gave me pause. But on the whole, I found the cast to be topnotch in terms of raw emotion and unaffected pathos. She may have been only a teenager at the time but Jodie Foster displays a real maturity as Jeanie. The fact that she plays the most reliable person in the entire group might have illuminated this trait more substantially. However, there’s no denying that Jodie gives an impressive performance. Her best scenes, funny enough, are when she’s with SCOTT BAIO, who I must say, does a great job of listening to Jodie as she waxes semi-poetically about her nerve-wracking existence.

It's true. Those are the best scenes.

2011-01-28T13:11:00.009-05:00

The Temple at Thatch is an unpublished novel by the British author Evelyn Waugh, his first adult attempt at full-length fiction. He began writing it in 1924 at the end of his final year as an undergraduate at Hertford College, Oxford, and continued to work on it intermittently in the following 12 months. After his friend Harold Acton commented unfavourably on the novel in June 1925, Waugh burned the manuscript. This and other personal disappointments were followed by a parasuicide.

While waiting for Acton's reply, Waugh heard that his brother Alec had arranged a job for him based in Pisa, Italy, as secretary to the Scottish writer Charles Kenneth Scott Moncrieff who was working on the first English translation of Marcel Proust's novel sequence À la recherche du temps perdu. Waugh promptly resigned his position at Arnold House, in anticipation of "a year abroad drinking Chianti under olive trees." Then came Acton's "polite but chilling" response to The Temple at Thatch. This letter has not survived; its wording was recalled by Waugh 40 years later, in his biography A Little Learning. Acton wrote that the story was "too English for my exotic taste ... too much nid-nodding over port." He recommended, facetiously, that the book be printed "in a few elegant copies for the friends who love you", and gave a list of the least elegant of their mutual acquaintances. Many years later Acton wrote of the story: "It was an airy Firbankian trifle, totally unworthy of Evelyn, and I brutally told him so. It was a misfired jeu d'esprit."

Waugh did not query his friend's judgement, but took his manuscript to the school's furnaces and unceremoniously burnt it. Immediately afterwards he received the news that the job with Scott Moncrieff had fallen through. The double blow affected Waugh severely; he wrote in his diary in July: "The phrase 'the end of the tether' besets me with unshakeable persistence". In his biography Waugh writes: "I went down alone to the beach with my thoughts full of death. I took off my clothes and began swimming out to sea. Did I really intend to drown myself? That was certainly in my mind". He left a note with his clothes, a quotation from Euripides about the sea washing away all human ills. A short way out, after an attack by jellyfish, he abandoned the attempt, turned round and swam back to the shore.
-From here

2011-01-28T01:25:00.006-05:00

Comedian Josie Long.
Again.
Bloody fantastic.

She and Isy Suttie in a mental wellbeing PSA:

Ira Glass on creativity

2011-01-22T02:36:00.004-05:00

You should watch this video of Ira Glass addresses the "gap" between taste and talent, and how this hinders creativity. The video is super endearingly self-deprecating, and also among the most encouraging sentiments I've ever heard expressed about the creative process.

Bailan Sin Cesar

2011-01-07T18:11:00.004-05:00

Funky little music video from Chilean kids's show. "Bailan Sin Cesar" means basically "dancing" without Cesar. Cesar, the blue birdy guy, cuts in, objecting, "I want to express myself with my body". The rest allow him to dance with them, but he's so unco-ordinated he quickly knocks everyone outs of the picture. Another from the same show, and I think, the same group... he's funkin' out on his training wheels coming off:

From the CN Tower Zenith

2011-01-04T13:33:00.002-05:00

In the past two years, have you experienced depression?
	Yes, seasonal affective disorder
	Yes, reactive
	Yes, endogenous
	Yes, some combination of the above
	No