Saturday, September 26, 2009

Elephant Engine High Dive Revival

My love affair with poetry is largely due to Mongo at Indeefeed:Performance Poetry. There's a link to it on my blog. If you don't go there, go there. It is the main reason I'm becoming a poet and while it's not where my interest in poetry began, it's where my interest in poetry was fixed.
The Elephant Engine High Dive Revival is a tour of some of the more regular spoken word poets that I discovered from listening to Indeefeed. This is something I would love to see. It's been a really long time since I've seen live poetry performed, and never by these people in person. I also admit that most of this is because of Andrea Gibson. I don't know if she's on the official tour, but she is my favorite living poet. Give me a second to see if she's on the tour...
...alright, couldn't figure it out. I'm pretty sure she is though. That's not really the issue anyways, since the tour doesn't go to Canada. Damn it. How come all the poets I know and love are either dead or American or both. (Leonard Cohen doesn't count, because he's doesn't have the same place in my mind as someone like Andrea Gibson, i.e. I can see myself sit down with Andrea Gibson and talk. I don't think I could do that with Leonard Cohen no matter how cool he is).
How come I feel more interested in American writers and not with Canadian writers. There are very few Canadian writers I'm interested in. Cohen is the only one that I can think off. I might have worked Robertson Davies in there once, but I was frustrated by "What's Bread in the Bone." The majority of my favorite writers are Americans, though this is due to the fact I'm a fan of the Beats. The rest are from England, and also special notices from Russia and Chile. Is this bad for me or is National Literature going to be dead because of the internet? There's really not a lot to be proud of about being a Canadian. I'm proud of the health care system, because it helped me fix my back without bankrupting my family. This is something I am thankful for, though with all the town hall meetings in America it's something I don't think I'm being as vocal with. I'd write something about it, but the entire fact that a bunch of rednecks believe that a government that cares about your health is evil, while having an army full of gun wielding murderers to slaughter innocents is God's will and thus should be actively supported. This is such an alien idea to me that I am filled with a rage that feels like a cubist painting, all crooked and out of sink and that my body is distorting into a way that is not normally scene by human eyes.
Anyways, before I got onto that tangent about rednecks and being Canadian I was talking about poets and poetry. I was talking about my identity of being a poet. I don't know if I'll be remembered as a poet, or even if my poetry is that good. Either way I like this kind of poetry and I liked at least one of the poets involved. If any of you guys are reading this, if you could run this through Waterloo at some point that would be wonderful.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Game One of Weimar Mage

Alright I better make this quick. I've got Kabbalah class in awhile. It's a good thing I'm blogging from the Kabbalah room. Well, it's not much of a Kabbalah room, but I suppose real Kabbalists wouldn't have specific rooms. I probably shouldn't even be in the real Kabbalah room because I had bacon for lunch. My professor would probably be cool with that, but I can't help feeling the eyes of hundreds of old dead Jewish guys looking at me in a funny and not-nice way.
Anyways, Weimar Mage was last night and all in all it went over very well. It was a bit slow and nothing really important happened story-wise. I do feel that I have everything in game set up for fun stuff to go down. All the characters are in Berlin now and know off each other, and one even has a position in the Consilium.
Woaps, my prof just showed up. Got to run.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Chair


So yesterday my parents got me a chair. I now have a chair to sit in and read while I'm at University. It will help me sleep. That is all.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

First Weekend


Strangely, this is not were I am located at this moment. I am in fact back in my hometown, sitting in my favorite coffee shop and seeing if any of my hometown friends are going to pass through. There's a guy who kind of looks like Michael Court, only younger, but he doesn't seem to recognize me.
So yeah, I'm home for the weekend. I even got some movies to watch from Generation X in Waterloo. Three of them, two of which I watched last night. Those movies were Aguirre: the Wrath of God and The Films of Kenneth Anger: Vol 1. They were both alright, and I think I liked Aguirre better, probably because it had an actual plot, where as the Anger films were basically surrealist shorts with not dialogue and music in the background. I still have one more movie to watch, but I can't remember the title.
My dad also got the new Wolverine movie, which I wasn't as impressed with. It really seemed like an excuse to get Wolverine to beat stuff up, and something of a contrived one at that. Bits of it were good, but the over all production felt lacking. Also, I didn't appreciate what they did with Deadpool, because even though I don't read many comics, and those I do are generally from DC's Vertigo line, I am familiar with Deadpool. Anyone who plans on having fun with all the little yellow boxes that their thoughts are in is awesome. Still, to work in all the fourth-wall breaking computer-meme spouting looniness that this would involve would take away from the actual movie, which as I said was Wolverine beating shit up. And again, that would just be too loony for normal people. Imagine taking a perfectly traditional action movie and then throwing in a random guy to make genre-savvy postmodern comments about how mindlessly violent everything is before engaging in said mindless violence and you've got what this would look like. This would screw up with the unwashed masses enjoyment of the mindless violence. Nerds and Postmodernists would love it, but the guys who usually go to the action movies would just be confused.
Alright, besides movies I'm also starting Weimar Mage on Monday. I've got four people, a Fascist, a Communist, a Russian Monarchist and a default Zionist, and I'm pretty sure that half of them will be killed once the Nazis get in power in 1933, at worst. I'm going to try and come up with an idea for Game 1. Something to get the characters together for a limited time so they can be a group.
I have to go now because I'm in conversation with a friend.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

I think New Testament is a cool guy. He heals sick people and dosen't afraid of anything.

Hello readers. And a special shout out to that Missionary from West Africa who commented on my 56 pencil post awhile back. Good to know I'm being read in places like West Africa.
I am now in class sessions and today is by busiest day. Two classes, both religious studies. I'm going to try and get this post done by around 11, because at 12:30 I'm going to go to my Kabbalah class (yeah Kabbalah). I do feel a little guilty going straight for the Kabbalah when I haven't even taken the Judaism course, and I'm worried I might tick of my Jewish Professor. Though he probably can expect this what with the whole Madonna thing. Don't know what he'll think when I bring up the fact I'm coming at this because of the Hermetic aspect of it. Also, I have a night class about Jesus. The Professor is a cool guy and it should be fun.
Weimar Mage has yet to start. I have one yes, and lots of maybes. I also need to look into a way to keep the timeline basically similar without being a jerk about this. The problem is quite literally the Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act. The time line must remain more or less the same. Thankfully, there's a book that can help me with this so I don't come up with things like "Hitler is being protected by really powerful shit from hell," to often. Though I did tell them that Stalin is going to be a Mage in all likelihood and he'll probably be a kick-ass powerful Moros with lots of bodyguards and traps and things. I may even make him a character at some point. Anyways, I think I got a few tricks up my sleeve.
Well anyways, I'll try to keep up with all my posts. See you guys around.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Untitled

I'm getting a bit bored with all this Frosh Week nonsense and would like the real meat and potatoes of University to start. I've got all the books and things. I guess what I'm really feeling is, well something like isolation but also that I'm not being fulfilled intellectually or spiritually. I wish that there were other writers I could talk with. Unfortunately I don't know where to find such people. I could ask people passing by if they are writers, but I don't think that it would be particularly efficient.
So far I haven't written anything but blog posts at University. This makes me feel a bit sad and I feel I should try and get some writing done while I'm here.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Day Two: Lots of Foot Work

That thing on my shirt says "23 was born in 718." I have no idea what it means. I think it was just a non-sequiter someone put on a t-shirt. Maybe someone can shed some light on it's meaning. The artistic side of my mind says that this will only lead down a rabbit hole of ancient conspiracies akin to a Robert Anton Wilson novel.
Well, it isn't even lunch and I've had a busy day. I scavenged the yard for abandoned items from the Penny Event and came up with a candle (that I can't use but will probably give to my mother. It apparently smells like Angel Food Cake), an old gas lantern and a dirty old water cooler. So now I have a water cooler in my room. I think it will be largely for show however.
I also got most of my books for my classes, except for a book on Kabbalah they didn't have. I'll have to go back for that. I also went to the library were I got quite a bit of poetry and some short fiction of Philip K. Dick. I also checked the OPD to see if I had an appointment and I did have something of an appointment approaching regarding exams.
I believe I am largely done for the day; I can't think of anything else that could occupy my attention that is pressing. I'll probably just get some reading done and wait till Lunch. I would like to get most of the two novels I'm reading now done, though I don't know if I'll need to worry about my school reading getting in the way of my pleasure reading.

Monday, September 07, 2009

Pencils and Pie

A better title may be "I'm In!", but my little sister Scout wanted me to write especially about Pencils and Pie. Unfortunately I have nothing as yet to say about pencils or pie. I just choose this title to draw her attention.
Moving in did go very well. My room is very nice and cozy and I expect to enjoy it very much. So far I haven't really been able to get all the stuff I want to get done done. The Dana Porter Library is not open, but I was able to run into my friends from Watsfic. The Changeling LARP fell apart, but good news, there is a Mage LARP being held this very weekend. I'm going to have to see if I have time to go and I'll also need to run up a character for that. I'm either going with Thyrsus Warrior-Poet or Obrimos Ezekial Talbot-from-the-last-Hunter-Game-redone-as-Mage. Or I'll make up a character.
That's it so far. Further updates will be forth coming.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Going Back To University


Today is for all intensive purposes my last day as an unemployed cafe dweller. This is largely because I will be going to University on Monday and the coffee shop is closed on Sundays. This isn't to say I don't have a job, because I picked up a position as a dishwasher at my residence. So yeah, I have a job now. I may even have it for Fall and Winter Semesters. I only have to work one day and I'll be making more then if my parents just gave me money.
I have a bunch of things to do in my first week. For one thing I still need to pick up my books for my classes, so I'll have to check them. I also should check in with the OPD, see what they have for me. I also have a meeting with the Pysch office, which should be very fruitful. In other news I also plan on taking advantage of Dana Porter the first day and getting a few new bits of reading material. Also, if I am going to start getting that RPG going. I have what I hope will be a very good short quest set up so I can get to know the characters, but at the moment I want to set up there Awakening and get to know what kind of characters I'm dealing with. I'm curious to see what they'll come up with as characters, for all I know this is the first time they've been in a historical game. I don't know if that's true, but I'm interested in what kind of characters they'd be. I wish I could have come up with more ideas for character ideas. I still might bring up "Thyrsus Jazz Musician."

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

56 Pencils

I don't think I made this wide knowledge on my blog, but I love pencils. I would consider a big box full of fresh unsharpend pencils a great present and logically presume that whoever game me such a gift cared deeply for me and if not a blood relative was probably coming on to me. This is something that my sisters make fun of me for, saying I have a thousand pencils. Well today, because I had nothing else to do I decided to look through my pencil case and figure out how many pencils I have anyways. And the answer is that there are currently 56 pencils in my pencil case. The question has been answered. I also have two pencils hiding somewhere and 48 let to be sharpened pencils. That would make a hundred and six pencils. By then however, most of the pencils featured in the above picture will be to small for usage.
Also, if anyone has any environmentally friendly ideas for what I can do with my discarded pencils that would be excellent.