gerund

It was then that the Bergerons' television tube burned out.

Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to George. But George had gone out into the kitchen for a can of beer.

George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. "You been crying" he said to Hazel.

"Yup," she said.

"What about?" he said.

"I forget," she said. "Something real sad on television."

"What was it?" he said.

"It's all kind of mixed up in my mind," said Hazel.

"Forget sad things," said George.

"I always do," said Hazel.

"That's my girl," said George. He winced. There was the sound of a rivetting gun in his head.

"Gee - I could tell that one was a doozy," said Hazel.

"You can say that again," said George.

"Gee-" said Hazel, "I could tell that one was a doozy."

Boomtown Cafe

1910

tusk

these fought in any case

"frankness as never before,
disillusions as never told in the old days,
hysterias, trench confessions,
laughter out of dead bellies. "

the greatest good for the greatest number

it keeps snowing little bits but not enough to be winter, just enough to be inconveniently slippery.
Rocktober, you're the one.
Maybe october is my favourite month? That might be based largely on halloween though-- hard to say. I have yet to decide upon a costuming scheme, though i do have a few "good" "ideas". I am always so tempted to go for the conceptual costume, but i fully realise that will only serve to make me look like even more of an art fag than i already do. Concept costumes also run the risk of being really unclear to the outside viewer and necessitate constant explanation, which can get tiresome, nay impossible, as the night ( and her drinks...oh the night's ghoulish drinks) goes on.

Do you have to soak barley before you cook it? i have no idea, so i opted for yes. I guess i could use the barley water in olde-timey cure fashion. I think it's supposed to be good for jaundice, which i clearly have by now.

{non sequitur break}

I had a fairly elaborate dream about Penguin Park last night (which is impressive because
a) i don't sleep much, which cuts down on the dreams b) i usually have nightmares and c) i was crunk to the maxxxx, which often results in me forgetting my dreams).
Remember Penguin Park? That depends entirely where you're from and how old you are.
It was also called Penguin Village. I don't remember which name came first. Regardless, it was a kick-ass (maybe?) water park in Saskatoon when i was a kid. It had some really vertical slides and one of the kind you go down in a tube. Sweet. I figured i'd be able to regale (and i use the term loosely) the blogosphere with pictures of how kick-ass it was, but i'll be damned if i can find one on t'internet. Bizarre. My quest for Penguin Park pictures did, however, lead me to this confusingly named destination:

Yes, Noah's Ark Waterpark. It's everything you dreamed of a biblical waterpark. According to their website,
"Noahs Ark Water Park in Wisconsin Dells is a destination that you don’t want to miss. With 41 waterslides, 2 wave pools, 2 endless rivers, 5 gift shops, 12 restaurants & outdoor lounges, 18 hole mini-golf, 3 arcades, and 1 incredible adventure, Noah’s Ark is definitely worthy of the title of “America’s Largest Water Park.”"

sign me the fuck up. Watersliding and vague religious references: my two greatest passions aligned.


parting questions:

how did i get to these Pyrenees Mountains?

where is my Bloc Quebecois campaign sign?

why does my broken 'k' key now cause random ks to appear when i press other keys?

what should my thematic approach be for my radio show on friday?

what would you be if you were in the circus?

who's the owner?

favouritism

my bike. for the time being. it makes me really happy.
yesterday i downloaded EVERYTHING joy division has ever released.
So susequently i went for one hell of a joy division bke ride today.
I love joy division. It is so morose. Reminds me of myself at 15.
I made a pretty sweet "film" in media studies 20 that featured "Trainsmission" as its soundtrack.
Apparently at 26 not much has changed.
Self-pity and bad dreams.
Lst night i had a pretty elaborate Louis Riel dream. Hard to explain, but pretty involved.
Not nearly as unpleasant as the one about the minks from the mink farm all in my car and dying and killing each other. It was especially creepy because it was set at a real place, an actual abadonded mink farm in Furdale (really what it's called) that i used to drive past to my house outside of Saskatoon. Anyway, there was a big watch tower for spotting foxes and coyotes that were trying to stealz the minks, and the whole property was lined with tall spruce trees, all the same size. Very eerie looking. I wish i had a picture. (Un)fortunately, my brain still has a picture, so i dreamt it was still an active fur farm and i was going there to save the minks. I had an old mustard yellow ford falcon, and i was loading them all in the car but they were going berserk (as they would i'm sure) and clawing and scratching and screaming. It was pretty unpleasant.
Maybe i feel repressed guilt for using mink oil.

Surfin' Bird is a pretty unusual song.

i have no nice things to say. except that i have an adult bed now (aside from the accoutrements) and i am pretty happy wit dat.
I never have things to say. most of my conversations are with myself or arguments.
i bet that's a bad sign.
Good bed though.





And because i couldn't think of anything nice to say, here is something nice to see.

My aforementioned Green-Shanty:



Cucumber


Tomatoes


Lobelia


Nasturtiums (sp?)


Tomatoes


Brussel Sprouts and Cabbages


Zucchini

"from Mozambique to these Memphis nights"

Yes, life truly is a highway.

I do not exactly believe that Tom Cochrane has ever been to Mozambique, but why not toss it in yer lyrics anyway right?

I have seen quite a series of them there highways (and skyways) over the last seven days; covered some serious ground and sky. 1894.40 miles between Dawson and Saskatoon. But it was an important wedding, and entirely worth each mile.

Jenna and i left Dawson at 8:00 am last wednesday morning on a lovely drive to Whitehorse. It was sunny and beautiful and we generally had a smashing time. Six hours in a car with someone great passes much faster than six hours in a car with my shitty-old-goat-self, i'll tell you that right now.
Joseph Beuys (my car) is a pretty good guy, all things considered. And still feasible despite ever-rocketing fuel costs. I particularily enjoyed being what i have termed the Co-Pilot car. On extra shitty stretches of the Klondike Highway you sometimes have to be lead by a Yukon Government Highways truck which eases you to safety, and i feel that by being the car right behind said Pilot Car my car becomes the Co-Pilot car. Logical? No! Fun? Yes!
So we got to be co-pilot on this drive, and it generally ruled. Other sexy results of the trip included the plans for Aaron and Jenna's White Magic cover band, Off White Magic, and the disclosure from Ms. Roebuck that she felt Greek Tony was "borderline attractive". Wowza.
Good trip.
We parked J. Beuys at the Whitehorse International Airport and prepared to fly to Edmonton.
It was immediately apparent that two of the most infuriating children in the universe were on our plane, but little did we know they would be sitting in our very row. Sweet jesus. N'er has such a short flight felt so trans-continental. Utter pain. Udder pains?
Jenna's little brother Andy, the responsible Roebuck, picked us up in Edmonton. We were in Saskatoon by 3 am. This is the first time in my life i have sucessfully made it from Dawson to Saskatoon in one (lonnnng) day.

Saskatoon is still Saskatoon. More Albertans, more condos, more bucks, but still Saskatoon.
It always feels very odd to be so very familiar with a place but not really feel like it is your place.
It sure is beautiful there in June though. Green everything and flowers and nice smells. Much more rainy than usual though, which put a cramp in my working-on-my-tan project for sure.
Got to see a rock show that i don't remember much of (with the exception of Steve Shatilla explaining that he brushes his beard before he showers, because otherwise it's all puffy and sticks out and then it just looks ridiculous) and got to see many people i really certainly wanted to see. A few i didn't as well, of course.
Saturday was the culminating event. The purpose of the trip was a wedding, which seems to be a prime reason to make long-haul trips these days; Marriages and babies.

Lorenne and Ben started dating shortly before our collective first summer together in the Yukon, so it was pretty mystical to see it result in a wedding. Super cool. The service itself was a fairly comical blend of their Christian families and their not-Christian friends and selves. The vows did include some sweet Corinthians action:

I Corinthians 13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

It had a nice sentiment i suppose, but man the bibble is weird and the only part of the whole thing i could remember (until i just looked it up of course) was the part about the rusty gate.
I guess it just always catches me off guard because i forget about Christianity as a lifestyle. It's much more of an abstract concept to me. Like post-modernism. Speaking of post-modern:

The reception part was awesomely outrageous and it was lovely to hang out with Lorenne's ultra fun sisters and dance dance dance. My shoes were outrageously high and impractical which made for some near misses on the dance floor. Probably some actual misses too but i wined those out of my memory.

Today Ben and Lorenne left for Terrastock (http://www.terrascope.co.uk/Terrastock7/main.htm) wherein they will see really excellent music and make everyone exceptionally jealous. Bah to them! And by bah i mean fondest congratualtions, obviously.

Lots of things i didn't get to do in Saskatoon, as usual, but it was truly a whirlwind tour. I'm now in Vancouver, on Kris and Antoine's lovely pull-out sofa bed, enjoying the sounds of birds and rain and not being able to sleep (jamais!). Kris and Allie came to get me at the airport and it was just great. I am excited to have a few days in the old Couv. It has been a while. I am going to see all the good people that live in this amoeba town and additionally check out a show at the VAG (which i will always say vaaaag like vagina, no matter how immature it may be) that's all about"The Delirious World Of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art". Ya.
And there's a baby beluga (lol) at the aquarium!

The hilarity of hilarities is that friend of real and digital life Wheelyapplegate is currently in my town while i am in his. I hope that Dawson is treating him as well as Vancouver is treating me. It's so warm and misty outside. And i truly enjoy peeing outside in big cities, which is certainly what i just did for no particular reason at all.

sleeping hard or hardly sleeping?

It turns out that sleeping longer isn't necessarily the answer at all.
I had extra sinister dreams all sweet 6 hours of my last night's sleep as well.
I won't go into elaborate details because the situations and subjects are either so wildly obscure that i don't know how i'd break it down or so awkwardly literal that i don't want to break it down.
I will tell you that i'm going to "sleep" with both eyes open tonight.

It is windy as an apocalypse here today. Despite the perilous bluster, i put the sweetpeas in the ground outside today. They are going to climb up a rusty bed headboard Molly and I got from the dump. I will of course spam this blog with a massive backlog of pictures of this and other garden/life related subject matter upon the return of my camera which is, according to the "good" "people" at Nikon waiting for a part. This does mean that they are going to fix it for me, which is sweet. Not having a camera is a real draggggg.

I realised today that in the next six days i will be driving to whitehorse twice and back to dawson one of those times....1,767 kilometres.
I'm also gearing up for a wacky car/van/bus zig zag on my way home...i'm in your BCs, stealin yer best place on earthz.
I haven't had a good long haul bus trip in a while though, and i think in order to balance karmic flow, i am due. Also it really strengthens one's disdain for humanity, which i feel is important to keep up on. Otherwise i might get too sweet.
[i don't actually believe in karmic flow. it may or may not even be a real term. -ed.]
Saskatoon in June eh? Haven't known that in quite a while. It better be nice out, but most likely it will be windy in a similar fashion to Dawson.

My mouth is raw from citrus. Lemons and strawberries all the time. There are worse ways to get a sore mouth, but then there are better ones too.

I'm pretty sure i just saw the third Horseman ride by...i hope the greenshanty doesn't blow down.