tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:04:58 +0000http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Panic)Blogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-8300467368501263212Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:05:00 +00002009-04-02T12:06:08.782-04:00quotes"If my life wasn't funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable."-Carrie Fisher, Wishful Drinking"[A]n unhealthy soul requires a healthy body."-Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Runninghttp://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2009/04/quotes-without-context.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-4599874732380934458Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:24:00 +00002009-01-03T11:34:32.798-05:00anne sextoneverything fell apartIn April of 2008 I had the rug pulled out from under me. My already weak career trajectory took a sharp turn. I was no longer employed in publishing. Everything I wanted, my entire adult life, became completely unreachable to me. And for a couple weeks, I stopped reading. I couldn't do the one thing that I'd always done well. Picking up a book made me want to vomit. My entire life was http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2009/01/silence.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-1885924086607721549Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:28:00 +00002008-04-17T21:00:36.068-04:00fictionI just finished Nikolski and I can barely breathe. What a glorious way to drown. It's everything they said it would be. I can't even begin to think I could do this book justice in reviewing it. Just read it.http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/04/water-water-everywhere.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-2952688721637912306Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:33:00 +00002008-04-16T10:23:54.509-04:00internetsorange prizepost-modern whatnotfeminismI had some outside responses linking to my last post, which I wasn't really expecting. I'm always surprised when Steven W. Beattie links me, because his is the sort of writing I aspire to. I don't know if I'd ever want to review books professionally, but to be able to talk about them on a level slightly more academic than "durrr, book good" would make me happy. While Beattie didn't agree with http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/04/wild-west.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-7458045453478140357Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:18:00 +00002008-03-23T11:49:57.685-04:00the mediaorange prizefictionfeminismEvery year when the Orange Prize lists are announced (long or short), someone steps up and says that the women-only prize is "sexist" and not needed. Every. Damn. Year. Boring! Yet rage-inducing! Such ambivalence! This year, they've trotted out my beloved A.S. Byatt to do the dirty work (it's okay, Antonia, I still love you). Bah. I'm not going to get into all the arguments (wooops, I http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/03/orange-prize-brings-out-neanderthals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-370904477713665403Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:55:00 +00002008-03-25T10:48:49.726-04:00non-fictionbiographyEarly-to-mid 20th century British literature is a particular favourite of mine (The Rainbow is in my Top 10 of books). Thus, I've been meaning to read Brideshead Revisited for a long, long time now. I read this article earlier in the month, and was reminded, once again, of this glaring gap in my repertoire. So on Friday I went book shopping, picking up the latest issue of Bitch upon walking inhttp://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/03/visiting-lives.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-8951833879117832200Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:08:00 +00002008-03-07T12:57:48.521-05:00reviews of reviewsfeminismKatha Pollitt responds to the flagrant use of controversy to get page views*, Charlotte Allen's Washington Post piece on how women are just silly bints after all. Of course, the rebuttal was also in the Post, so they're just going to get more page views of out this. However, it's also right that they should publish the rebuttal, and kudos to them for printing a piece that calls the editors outhttp://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/03/i-love-you-katha-pollitt-reviews-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-4257435247036980853Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:02:00 +00002008-02-28T11:22:27.975-05:00internetstorontoAlmost everyone I know has been talking about -- and linking to -- Garfield Minus Garfield. What's just as interesting as the project itself, are people's reactions to it. For some it's just hilarious, while to others, it's poignant and sad. I fall into the latter group, but I suppose I took the author's write up (artist statement?) (too much?) to heart:Who would have guessed that when you http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/02/time-suck-recomendations.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-936180349698639107Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:35:00 +00002008-02-27T16:05:24.273-05:00star warsdorkvilleI have a massive case of the February "Go Fuck Off and Die Already"s.I want to eat an entire chocolate cake, and I don't even like cake.I have spent entirely too much time on Youtube today.So I bring you a theme post. The image to the left there, is something I made years ago, learning how to use Photoshop. I have no idea why I thought it would be funny to make Ackbar wash socks, and even less http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/02/thematic-star-wars-edition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-3914153409549571067Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:04:00 +00002008-02-26T12:40:55.281-05:00memoirbookish miscellanyI finished The Devil, the Lovers, and Me: My Life in Tarot a couple weeks back. I couldn't help comparing it to Eat, Pray, Love, with all the new age-y reflections on life, and how one can go about improving one's future. Kimberlee Auerbach is more down-to-earth than Elizabeth Gilbert, and thus, easier to identify with. The stories in her book weren't funded by a large publisher advance (http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-finished-devil-lovers-and-me-my-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-3537355744833439759Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:37:00 +00002008-02-25T22:48:42.871-05:00calgarySpacing Montreal has a post on legal postering spaces in Montreal, and a comparison with Calgary's spaces. Interesting stuff, but the part that caught me was the last photo: it's my old C-Train station! To class, and back home. Downtown. Crossing those tracks to go to the Safeway, or Second Cup, or on my way home from hanging out with that odd little Goth guy at 3 a.m. That photo sent a http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/02/random-nostalgia.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-4738034042825831857Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:06:00 +00002008-02-25T22:53:20.529-05:00bookish miscellanyI've always dreamt of living in a space with 12, 15-foot bookshelves, with a ladder on wheels to roll between them. There's a loft in Kensington Market that has such a thing (sorry for peeking in your windows all the time, lofters!). Though this just might replace the classic library in my dreams. It's a bookshelf staircase*! I think my heart stopped.The Book Inscriptions Project is another http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/02/just-some-cool-stuff.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-9019945157171362939Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:52:00 +00002008-02-20T13:09:19.927-05:00torontoMy life is often one big love letter to Toronto, so you can imagine I'm pretty down today.CBC: Toronto blaze guts row of historic buildingsToronto Star: Fire on Queen WestCityNews:Six-Alarm Blaze Tears Through Stretch Of Queen WestInteresting that a city block, containing heritage buildings, burns down, when that block is right next door to a new -- though not yet built -- condo development, http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/02/queen-street-fire.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-3869125834954216622Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:41:00 +00002008-02-07T13:50:22.288-05:00bookninjafoodI've had a few issues with the commenters, and content at Bookninja, but this is the Best Book Ninja Thread, EVAR.Best Soup EVAR:Potato, leek, and bacon. Made by BoyMan. You're jealous. Yes, you.http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/02/bonus-content-best-evar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-6916382510186642892Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:49:00 +00002008-02-07T16:27:47.771-05:00booker prizefictionvictorianOne of my nebulous New Year's resolutions was to blog more. Clearly, that didn't happen. Not that I haven't been reading. Here's a bit of a follow-up to my last post, though it's not nearly as well thought-out. To be honest, A Line of Beauty deserves a lot more space than I give it here, and I probably could have done far, far more with it. However, I'm clearly a lazy blogger, and I'm sure http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/02/realism-rears-its-ugly-head.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-2183908274804416801Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:18:00 +00002008-03-07T12:56:34.275-05:00fictionreviews of reviewspoliticsvictorianWhen I was in University I took a Victorian novel class. In that class we were assigned the Broadview* edition of Hardy's Tess of the d’Urbervilles**, which made mention of critics' struggles with Hardy's reliance on coincidence. To quote Walter Allen (as quoted in that edition):"[Modern critics] have found fault with [Hardy's] extensive exploration of coincidence. [...] [The character's] http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2008/01/reviews-of-reviews-pt-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-4318246188581049706Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:54:00 +00002007-12-31T17:01:26.926-05:00dorkvillelistsAll the books I read this year. 50 in total. Almost one a week. My only resolution is to make it 52 or more next year. I might have done it this year, but the enormous Neal Stephenson slowed me down, a lot.Also, my Top 5 for the year is up at That Shakespeherian Rag, if you're interested.http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2007/12/recap.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-5399635844256549545Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:51:00 +00002008-03-07T12:56:34.277-05:00the medianon-fictionreviews of reviewspoliticsfeminismBack in September, Feministing wrote a piece on sexist book reviews, citing The New York Times review of Katha Pollit's Learning to Drive as an example of such. Jessica Valenti writes:Sometimes it seems like women are criticized just for having the audacity to speak the truth about their own lives. I'm so over this kind of hackneyed, backlashy bullshit. It's the easy way out: Don't want to http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2007/12/reviews-of-reviews-pt-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-4032001493685457572Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:20:00 +00002008-02-25T22:50:46.873-05:00lifetorontoAfter a wonderful snow day, had to get up an hour early, and leave warm bed with BoyMan in it to travel across the city to go to work.Zipper on my skirt broke, so I am wearing boots over jeans, which is uncomfortable, and was only supposed to be a weekend snow measure, not a poor fashion choice.Left BoyMan's house at a time that usually gets me to work 20 mins early; the joke was on me.I) Huge http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2007/12/slice-of-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-6058050363986623357Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:37:00 +00002007-12-12T23:29:29.835-05:00child-freenon-fictionfeminismI did promise a post about Nobody's Mother to a commenter a while back, so that's where we'll go today.Nobody's Mother is mostly written from a upper-middle class, middle-aged, white, straight perspective. There is one essay from a lesbian, and one from a Native North American. I was hoping for a few more younger voices, because a common issue that child-free women have, is not being taken http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2007/12/overdue.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-7039971940936928641Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:03:00 +00002007-11-15T18:26:29.172-05:00screw you oprahfictionI was in University, desperately seeking some nice pulpy distraction, when my Dad handed me my first Ken Follett novel: Pillars of the Earth. Knowing my love for anything over 500 pages in mass market form, and historical fiction (Clan of the Cave Bear in the 6th grade, up to Edward Rutherford novels in the 9th grade), he simply said "You'll like this. It's about a church." And we were off.In http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2007/11/my-guilty-pleasure-gets-more.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-7200459544994112101Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:24:00 +00002007-11-12T15:04:36.592-05:00fictionpost-modern whatnotcouplandI admit it: I'm the worst blogger ever. There's no rhyme or reason to when you'll read my exciting prose. Today, half my systems are down, and I really can't do much without them, so I might as well create some content. Because you miss me. You know you do.With a salute to Steven W. Beattie, if you're still out there...If you want to know why I love Coupland so much, it’s for books like The http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2007/11/writing-about-writing-about-writing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-7836391985254199Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:04:00 +00002007-10-19T12:41:01.064-04:00memoirI'm currently a third of the way through Eat, Pray, Love, the Feel Good Book of the Year. Bookslut tipped me off over the summer, and I put in my reserve at the library. (How ironic that publishing doesn't really pay enough for me to buy all the books I want to read, though I guess the case could be made that I should mainly be reading the books I work with. No matter.) Three months later, I http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2007/10/hardback-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-7461709609459209554Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:18:00 +00002007-10-22T18:00:30.674-04:00morrisseyfictionfeminismI have an English degree, from a University not really known for its Arts programs. Nonetheless, I did spend many years, reading, thinking, and writing about literature. I preferred dealing with the novel over poetry and plays, and did my best work on the Victorians. I was good at it. I wrote many a fine paper. I saw things other people didn't see (oh this crazy thing I did on Alias Grace ashttp://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2007/10/have-i-whinged-about-this-before.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017089181576705744.post-105540739595799453Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:23:00 +00002007-09-27T11:03:03.585-04:00bassmusicfilmThings have been a bit hectic since I got back from my Montreal mini-break. The new profile photo was taken at the Botanical Gardens. Well, actually, outside the Botanical Gardens, since the two Scottish earth signs in attendance balked at the $16 entry fee. Oh sure, they throw the Insectorium in there... *shudder* No thanks. I did see a couple movies at the TIFF, including Control (the Ian http://weareindebtetc.blogspot.com/2007/09/not-really-book-related.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Panic)2