Archive: Posts from November, 2003
November 28th, 2003, 2 Comments »
Last night I saw Jessie Farrell at the Arts Club Backstage Lounge. It was a pleasant surprise–she was a commanding performer with a strong voice and a tight band. She plays kind of folk-pop music–sort of the Corrs meets Sarah Mclachlan. If this sounds appealling, go to her site and check out some of the MP3s there. To be honest, I thought she sounded better live. At her age, performers develop quite quickly, though, and she may have grown a lot since those recordings.
Given the venue, and her dreadlocks and singer-songwriter stylings, had I been unmarried with two goofy sidekicks, the evening could have turned out like that scene from High Fidelity. Had she, you know, been attracted to a slightly geeky guy with glasses. And if, you know, dreadlocks didn’t kind of gross me out.
I have Bree to thank for this discovery. She recently linked to the Tyee, which had a feature article on Ms. Farrell, which piqued my interest and brought me to the show. Thanks, Bree.
2 Comments »
November 28th, 2003, 1 Comment »
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As Waxy.org
reports, Opus
is back. I’m so pleased. Bloom County was my
favourite comic growing up, and its oddly-named creator Berke Breathed
is back after a lengthy hiatus. Waxy also reports that newspapers have
cut several long-running, incredibly humourless strips–Mary Worth, Prince
Valiant, Herman, Marvin, Ziggy–to make room for Opus, and people
are upset. That link did lead to this interesting meta-comic
online comic book.
Unfortunately (bastards), you can’t view Opus online. Hopefully it will
appear in my local paper tomorrow.
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1 Comment »
November 28th, 2003, 2 Comments »
All about computer games, or games on the computer, or gamers, and so on.
2 Comments »
November 27th, 2003, 1 Comment »
One of our clients in Ireland is look for some new staff. Specifically, a Web Application GUI Developer and a Test Engineer. These jobs are only available to those in Dublin, or interested in moving to Dublin. Incidentally, I can recommend it. If you’re interested in either of these positions, drop me an email and I’ll forward you the job description.
1 Comment »
November 27th, 2003, 1 Comment »
So I linked to Stuart McLean’s weblog, which sn0wangel followed to this page about saving Joy Kogawa’s childhood home in Marpole, a Vancouver neighbourhood. Joy Kogawa wrote Obasan, a pretty important novel in Canadian history. It’s about the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II. Pretty much ever child in English Canada read this novel in high school or university.
While I’m generally in favour of saving important historical buildings, I’m not sure this one qualifies. If the house becomes a kind of museum to this shameful chapter in our history, then that might make sense. There is already a Japanese Canadian National Museum, so maybe it could be moved into this house.
However, the Kogawa Web site doesn’t necessarily suggest that. They appear to just be in favour of saving the house. That, in itself, isn’t enough, and will just turn it into a third-rate tourist attraction.
1 Comment »
November 27th, 2003, No Comments »
Sean Bonner links to an interesting story from the BBC. Generally I’m not down with the media reporting on themselves, but when they’re criticizing the American news organizations, I’ll cut them some slack. The unfortunately-named BBC Director General Greg Dyke attacked the US media:
In his speech, Mr Dyke quoted research that showed that of 840 commentators aired on US TV, only four were opposed to the war. “I have to tell you if that was true in Britain the BBC would have failed in its duty,” he said. “Telling people what they want to hear is not doing them any favours. It may not be comfortable to challenge governments or even popular opinion, but it’s what we are here to do.”
The article also mentions that The Kumars at Number 42 received an award. This is an extraordinary chat show, set in a British-Indian home and hosted by the whole family. They invite their guests in through the front door of their home, and offer them tea and Indian treats before heading to their backyard studio. It’s quite funny and a refreshing take on an otherwise tired format.
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November 26th, 2003, 5 Comments »
In English, that’s Grace O’Malley. She was apparently a heck of a sailor, among other things:
This wonderful, yet ardous life on the sea, gave her great physical strength and vigor. Sydney, the Lord Deputy, who met her in 1576, described Gráinne when she must have been in middle age, as being “… famous for her stoutness of courage, and person and for sundry other exploits done by her at sea.” Whatever formal literary education Gráinne received in her youth, must have been from the Carmalite Friars on Clare Island. Although she was later married to two of the greatest chieftans in the West, it’s very likely that Gráinne knew and cared far more about rigging and sailing a galley and warfare than she ever did about drawing-room accomplishments.
I never heard this story while in Ireland–I saw some of a documentary on her yesterday. Apparently the patriarchal historians didn’t think she was an appropriate female figure in Irish history. Of course, I never asked anybody: “Hey, do you have any famous female pirates?”
Incidentally, Gráinne is pronounced GRAW-nya. It is one of many Irish names that take some getting used to. Other favourites for women include:
- Aoife
- Ãine
- Niamh
- Sorcha
- Dearbháil
If I’ve got the right name, I believe that last one is pronounced Dervil. With apologies to all those sweet colleens so named, it’s not the most poetic of first names.
5 Comments »
