The Yellow Review

Okay, so as the final part of my creative writing blog assignment I’m reviewing a short story.

The story is called The Yellow and it was written by Samantha Hunt. It was published in the November 29 issue of the New Yorker in 2010, so this year for anyone counting.
I loved this story. Now I know you’re supposed to keep objectivity and stuff, but it’s really good. Personally I found it really moving, and maybe it’s because there’s a dog in it and I love dogs. I am actually repeatedly haunted by dreams of my own dog, Freckles, who passed away last year. In the dreams she’s alive and well and we’re going for a walk. Usually part way through the dream I realize she’s dead and, become confused by her resurrection. I end up waking up to the realization that she’s in fact dead and not some how brought back to life, and I spend the morning coming to terms with it. I think it’s all due to the fact that I spend a good part of my life convincing myself she would never die. You’d be surprised what you can convince yourself of.

Anyway I digress. The story has very interesting characters. I found the character development to be fantastic, there is one character who only appears for a short time and says one thing, but that’s all you need to know that character. The two main characters have much more time spent on them and they are both as interesting and likeable as they are unlikeable.

The pacing of the story is very interesting, it beings with a slower pace then acculturates quickly. It’s very fitting of the story, it seems panicked and out of control, which reflects what the characters are going through.

I also enjoyed the dialog; it seemed quite realistic and slightly detached, which I think reflected the characters. There’s quite a bit of depth and I don’t want to give away what happens in the story, but that makes it hard to really get the depth across. This is the description the New Yorker gives the story:

“Short story about an unemployed man who moves back in with his parents and hits a dog while out driving…”

That doesn’t exactly explain it all. So do yourself a favor and go read the four pages.

Annie's Bright Idea: A Book Launch

Last night I attended a book launch and reading for the children’s book “Annie’s Bright Idea: A Christmas Adventure” by Audrhea Lande, illustrations by Jenny Prest.



It was nothing like what I expected. In my mind I had contrived this preconceived idea that it would be a small area with the author sitting on a sofa or a leisure chair reading to a small group of people who sat around her listening attentively, as she read from her book occasionally turning it around to show pictures. Not unlike what library class was like in elementary school.

Well this wasn’t like that at all the place was packed. I almost didn’t get in. Luckily some people left right as I was being turned away, and the hostess asked me to return.



The seat I ended up getting was way in the back and I could hardly see anything.



I was able to get a view of the large projector screen that showed images of the pages as Lande read the book, which I have to say was quite entertaining. I actually wanted to buy a copy of it, but it sold out so quickly that I didn’t get a chance.



Lande only read about half the book stopping at a perfect cliffhanger, which is probably part of what caused the books to sell out so quickly. Other than, of course, the fact that it was very entertaining. Lande later, said she didn’t plan on stopping at that point, which I suppose, makes it a very fitting coincidence.

After the reading Lande went table to table signing books for children and adults alike.



It was an interesting experience to say the least. I had no idea what book readings were like and the kind of following they generate.

Lest We Forget

Yesterday was Remembrance Day. I had originally planned to make this post last night, but because I was up late working on a journalism assignment I didn’t get a chance to write it.
Part of my journalism assignment was to go to a Remembrance Day service. I hadn’t attended one in a very long time. I’m not sure of the exact time, but it’s been about eight years since I finished high school, and I think it was sometime before that, when I last attended a Remembrance Day service.

My memories of them are kind of blurred. I remember that a few uniformed soldiers would attend. Students who were military cadets would also attend the services dressed in uniform. Everyone would be given poppies at the beginning of day. The gym would be full of students sitting cross legged, and some one would recite Flanders Fields. I have a particular vivid memory of two girls singing Imagine by John Lennon at one service.

The Service I attended yesterday seemed much different than the services I remembered from my youth. Part of it is probably my age, which I think comes with a higher understanding of the significance of what Remembrance Day means.

There was an understanding of the weight and seriousness of the event by everyone involved that came across in the presentation. The solemn looks on the faces of the veterans who experienced conflict first hand was instantly recognizable. They really know what this day means.

The readings at the service were moving and powerful. A particularly well spoken reading of the Soldiers’ Prayer moved many of the people in attendance to tears. It was a performance, but the speaker wasn’t performing to show off his ability to clearly articulate and emphasize the words he read. He was bringing to life all of those that are now without a voice, clearly illustrating what the words representing them meant, and attempting to show all of us who couldn’t possibly begin to imagine what they went through what they felt while going through it.

I always knew Remembrance Day was important, but after attending yesterday’s service, speaking to a veteran and seeing pictures of a now 80 year old man, when he was younger than me, dressed in uniform, and imagining the magnitude of the responsibility that was taken on by that generation, gave me a whole understanding of its significance.

I don’t know if it’s entirely appropriate, I decided to embed Shine a Light by the Rolling Stones.

The Mystery of the Sticky Fingers Bandit

Well, I think it’s been far too long since I made a decent blog post. Today, I want to talk about a mystery. This particular mystery happens to be unsolved, yet there are a few theories that possibly explain what happened. However, none of these theories have been proven.

It all started just over three years ago. Some months before I had purchased the Rolling Stones album Sticky Fingers, I say some months because some of the records for the case were destroyed in a fire that I made up to create continuity in this blog post to make it look like I’ve actually been investigating this case. Sticky fingers is in my humble opinion is one of the Stones’ best albums, one could even argue that it is their best album. So the some months that I spent with that album were some of the finest rock and roll months of my life, but it all came crashing down one infamous July evening in 2007.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I walked to the kitchen table where my CD wallet had been sitting, and opened the wallet. I stood astonished and aghast. There was an empty slot where previously there had been a CD. I quickly went through the wallet looking at all the CDs trying to figure out which was missing. After making sure that it wasn’t mistakenly put into the same slot as another CD. I tried to control my anxiety. I began searching everywhere I could think.

“Maybe it wasn’t in the CD wallet. I’ll check the Case. Not there. Maybe the CD player, check it. Not there. I know I’ll check my car CD player. Not there.”

Soon I was overcome by the horror of knowing my CD was gone. I pursued all the avenues, the lost and found at work, My CD player at work, the inside of my car, my work’s parking lot, all to no avail.

I had been working the overnight shift that week and had a caller that morning before I went to bed for the day. Immediately my suspicions turned to her. However, that was quickly ruled out, not for lack of evidence, but because I don’t really think she even liked the Stones. I don’t really even actually consider it a theory, I just threw it in because I said I had a few theories, and I didn’t want to have to go back and change that to a couple.

The second theory is probably the most likely. There’s a good chance the CD could have fallen out of the wallet when I was walking to my car that morning. Then anyone passing by throughout the day could have picked it up. I mean it’s Sticky Fingers, some guy was probably walking by and saw it and was like, “score!” On the other hand though, it’s likely that if someone had found it they would turn it in to the lost and found. One time, I did this pen experiment in the atrium, and this pen just stuck around for weeks. I bet the thing is still there even a couple of years later. Anyway, that’s probably better left to a different blog post. I did check the lost and found and scoured the parking lot looking for it. So if someone did find it they took it, if that is in fact what happened.

This is the third and final theory, and the one that I choose to believe, despite my lack of evidence or real investigating.

This will take a little bit of back story. It all started when this crazy thing happened at my work. I can’t really go into detail about it because I’m pretty sure it’s not really supposed to get talked about. So to make a long story that I can’t talk about short, I’ll just say for a particular reason security guards were hanging out in the area that I worked in for the over night shift for a couple of shifts. Anyway, basically what I think happened is that one of the security guards made off with my copy of Sticky Fingers. (It’s kind of fitting right? He’s like the Sticky Fingers bandit.)

At first I had thought it was a different security guard than the one that I currently suspect. The first suspect was an older man and he had talked to me about my music that night, but his demeanor towards me never changed and I had several conversations with him after the incident so it became really hard for me to believe that he could be the guilty party.

Around the same time that I began to realize that it was probably unlikely to be the older security guard. I began to consider that I might have brought the theft upon myself. Now if that sounds peculiar, allow me to explain further.

See the second suspect, who is a much younger guy, is a bit of an odd duck. The shift I was working where he was in the room, he kind of looked lost and was wondering around with a dumbfounded look on his face. Because he was there for a reason which was, and for the sake of my story I’ll give out this one detail, to look out for a crazy former employee who had just recently started no longer working there, I decided because I thought I was clever and because he looked so lost to say, “I think he might be over there in that back corner, you should go check it out,” which he then proceeded to do. He, of course returned from the corner with a slightly confused slightly annoyed face. I hadn’t expected him to go off to the corner. I kind of thought he would have picked up on my humor.

Anyway, it was after that night that my copy of Sticky Fingers went missing. Now I know that wasn’t much proof, and the only other thing that I have to go on, which really isn’t that much at all, is that even though that guy was pretty awkward to begin with he became even more awkward around me and one day shortly after that night, I passed him in the hall, and the whole time he looked away from me. Then right after he walked by me he let out a sigh of relief. A sigh that said, “Whew, I got away with it.”

That’s pretty much my whole case right there. As you can probably tell it’s no surprise that this case remains unsolved today. So as I sit here looking at my empty Sticky Fingers jewel case I think back and remember better times when I could sit and listen to Brown Sugar, Sway, Wild Horses, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, You Gotta Move, Bitch, I got the blues, Sister Morphine, Dead Flowers, and Moonlight Mile all in that order. One of these days I’m just going to have to go out and buy it again.

P.S. I decided to embed the version of Bitch just because it was so good.

You're the Man

I decided to post this song in the spirit of the Winnipeg civic election tonight.

Cause if you got a master plan, gonna have'ta vote for you. You're the Man.

The Social Network Movie

Right now, I’m going to do a little bit of speed blogging for you. This one is an assignment for PR class. I’ve got a time limit and everything. It’s like blog time trials. Okay here I go.

Today’s post is about the new movie The Social Network. I’m pretty sure everyone has heard of it, and if not, everyone has for sure heard of Facebook.com. That’s exactly what The Social Network is about: it is a dramatization of Mark Zuckerberg’s life during the period in which he created the immensely popular social networking website.

From what I’ve heard from talking to other people I have been given the impression that most people seem to think that this movie was a great achievement. I’ve heard so many people say that they thought it was such a good movie, an Oscar contender even. I think I even remember hearing someone say that they thought that this movie defined our generation. Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and here’s mine.

I didn’t really like this movie very much. I don’t think it was the worst movie ever, but it’s not great. It’s not even good; on the other hand, it’s not awful,or terrible. The Social Network is averagely bad like the Kings of Leon. You know, sort of boring, sometimes mildly entertaining, but over all unremarkable.

I’m not going to do a total breakdown of the movie. There might be a spoiler coming though, so if you haven’t watched it yet, you might want to put off reading any further. Now just to get things moving I’m going to do a quick overview of what happens I’m not planning on going into much detail. Basically, the movie opens with Mr. Zuckerberg getting dumped. His girl friend feels that he’s being an arrogant asshole. She has enough and kicks him to the curb. From that part on he’s in a bad mood, and ends up screwing over pretty much everyone. He does all these shady dealings where he kind of steals intellectual property or right out screws over his best friend. A big part of the movie is made up of litigation scenes where he is getting sued, and they’re just having meetings with lawyers going over the cases. That part takes place after the main story in the time line, but those scenes are intermingled with the scenes of the process of the creation of Facebook throughout the movie.

The movie really makes Zuckerberg look like a jerk. He starts off arrogant and then switches to a more devious persona where he’s kind lying to people and doing things behind their backs. Then he kind of turns back arrogant, with an I’m rich so I’m more important than you and I can do whatever I want kind of attitude. He’s really not shown in the best light. However, in some ways he’s still a likeable character. It doesn’t ever seem like he’s evil or inhuman. I would describe him more as a character that sort of loses himself and makes the wrong decisions. I’m pretty sure everyone has made a wrong decision before. So people can still relate to him.

I think that Zuckerberg’s response to the movie makes sense. It’s just a movie. I don’t think that all of a sudden he is going to find himself vilified by all the users of Facebook just because of this movie. In some ways I think that audiences will be able to relate more to Zuckerberg after watching The Social Network. He came off like a twenty-something college kid, who hadn’t fully grown up yet. Isn’t that the same demographic that most Facebook users find themselves in? I think that when he said that his life really wasn’t that dramatic, it was a very good response to the film, because it’s probably pretty likely that his life wasn’t that dramatic. It is a movie after all. I don’t really think that the establishment of his charity foundation and the donation of 100 million dollars was really a big deal. Yeah the timing was a little sketchy, but I figure that if he waits a bit, and then donates another hundred mil, and then does it a few more times after that, so that it just becomes something he does; people are going to forget that the first time he did it was when The Social Network came out. They’ll just think, “Man that Zuckerberg, he sure gives away a lot of money. Good for him.”

I don’t think the movie will affect Facebook in anyway: people are going to keep using it. What it might do, referring back to what I said earlier, is give people in our generation a reason to say, this our movie it’s about something that happened when we were the target consumer demographic. Other than that, as far as I can tell, and I’m no expert, Facebook is an unsinkable ship.

Now, I just want to leave with two more thoughts:

The thing that really bugged me about the movie was, like I said, it was slow moving and I waited two hours and ten minutes to find out that he decided to settle his lawsuits out of court. I mean, really. It actually happens like this: the one lawyer is like, Okay, you’re probably going to lose in court. You should settle. And then, “I don’t think you’re an asshole. You’re just trying really hard to be one.” If that quote isn’t exact, sorry. Oh, and then he pines over the girl that dumped him in the beginning for a bit more. And then, let’s wrap it all up in a nice bow by explaining what happens to everyone with their own text paragraph. You can’t see it, but I’m making an unimpressed face.

And the second and last thing I want to say is that the best part of the whole movie. And I mean best part by far, was when the credits rolled and Baby, You’re a Rich Man started playing. Seriously, that nearly made the whole movie worthwhile.

If I Ventured In The Slipstream...

I’ve been meaning to do this blog post for a while. It’s kind of funny, it was actually originally intended to be my second blog post, but somehow as more and more posts came up it kept getting postponed. I had actually got to the point where I started to worry if I’d ever get around to doing it. It appears, however, that not getting around to it will no longer be a problem, since I’m posting it right now.

Anyway this post is about the Van Morrison album Astral Weeks. It’s easily one of my favorite albums of all time. I’m pretty sure it even makes my top five list. I’m not going to do a top five albums right now, just because I don’t really want to go and start thinking about it. I’ll leave that for another blog entry. Okay, so getting back on track, Astral Weeks is a perfect album. That is, of course, based on my opinion. There are other albums I think are perfect, Astral Weeks just happens to meet that same criteria.

It’s difficult to explain exactly what Astral Weeks is like to anyone who hasn’t listened to it. It’s sad, and beautiful, and happy, and epic all at the same time. In the end it is just an immensely powerful and emotional album.

Now I kind of feel like I have to back up a bit, because to most people when they think Van Morrison, they think Brown Eyed Girl. So just to be clear, Astral Weeks is nothing like that. Not even close. Don’t get me wrong Astral Weeks is in some ways pop-like, but it’s really a whole different animal. It’s not nearly as accessible to a main stream audience.

For arguments sake, lets take Van Morrison’s album Moondance which was released in 1970, two years after Astral Weeks. Moondance is a fantastic album. It’s the album that got me into Van Morrison. It’s much more poppy and probably a little bit closer to what people who only know Brown Eyed Girl would expect. Moondance is still a very powerful album. All the songs are great. It’s just, in my opinion, more of a song oriented album. Each song stands on its own and the listener feels a distinct division between songs, and can listen to any one song on the album by itself without listening to the rest.

After getting into Moondance, which happened immediately after I bought it. I was actually shocked by how much I liked Van Morrison. I was sort of upset with myself for not getting into him sooner. It was an eye opener. Anyway, probably a few weeks after that, I went out and bought Astral Weeks. The first time I put it on I couldn’t even make it though the whole thing. It wasn’t anything like Moondance and that really threw me off. It ended up taking me quite sometime to get into it. I guess one thing that helped was when I borrowed my copy of Moondance to a friend of mine and she decided she was never going to return it. In fact she is still in possession of that copy, and I have since replaced it.

Getting back on track, once I did get into Astral Weeks I discovered that I liked it a great deal more then Moondance. (Again I’m not trying to down play how good Moondance is. That album is killer, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get into Van Morrison and isn’t sure what to get first. Get Moondance first, trust me.) I found that Astral Weeks worked as an album, all the songs are great, but what really makes them great is the way they are sequenced. The album just unfolds. It’s a masterpiece. When I listen to it, it feels like it’s a musical summary of a life or a relationship. It’s just extremely powerful. I kind of wanted to do a break down of each track, but after kind of trying I decided that there was no way I could really do them justice. So if you want to hear what they’re like you’re just going to have to go out and find yourself a copy. I will say this though; keep in mind it can take a little while to get into. The album is very heavy, not in today’s sense of what heavy is, but in the sense that the arrangement is very thick. There’s so much going on at first that it can be hard to take it all in. Once you do however, you’ll get lost in the melody and find yourself picking new thing out of the mix even after over 100 listenings. Each time you find something new you’ll find something new to love about it.

There’s also a bunch of other stuff Van Morrison has put out that’s great too, Wild Night for example. And of course there's Gloria, Which has to be one of the ten best rock and roll songs of all time.