Category Archives: Art, Theatre, & Film

Potpourri

We finally saw Matrix Revolutions, and all the Pagans in the back row of the theatre sort of nodded and understood why masses of people Just Don’t Get It: it’s about cycles, not about a linear storyline. In every ending, there is a beginning. The story was told in order to show us how a cycle can function without being a carbon copy of the previous (or successive) cycle. Of course, because the protagonist died, folks are confused – the Wachowski Brothers didn’t provide a nicely gift-wrapped Happy Ending (TM) to the Hollywood pap-fed masses. Granted, the film can’t stand on its own; then again, it wasn’t originally designed to be a film unto itself, so I don’t count that against it. I’ll be very interested in seeing all three installments in a row when Revolutions comes out on DVD, in order to get the proper overarching storytelling flow. The film felt very different from the previous two in the trilogy, most likely due to the emphasis on story as opposed to action. It was, if you’ll forgive me, a more human story. The men in our party were suitably impressed by the King Arthur/barge send-off for Neo as he Returned to the Source (which I missed, somehow – odd for me. But then, a burning ship sort of burial isn’t my personal cup of tea. I think it’s a guy thing.) Had there been four queens in attendance, I’m sure I would have seen it. No, really.

Teaching didn’t really pause for the holidays due to the mid-week placement of the civic holiday. Yesterday’s class on animal energies included a beautifully behaved Great Dane, a flamepoint Siamese, a corn snake and a fat-tail gecko. Nox, the corn snake, got extra cuddles from me after his turn at show and tell, and after wrapping himself around my waist for a while slipped into the hood of my cardigan for an hour of serious napping. There’s something remarkably smugness-inducing about walking around a store knowing that there’s a four-foot snake curled up between your shoulderblades and no one else is aware of it.

The weekend ended with a nice relaxed dinner with Scarlet and Skippy, and giving holiday love to the many cats who were boarding at the vet over the vacation period. An excellent weekend, all around.

Loot

Okay, everyone else has done it: highlights of the holiday swag!

The very best were the digital cello tuner I asked for, and the Pride & Prejudice DVD set (possibly the only things I did directly ask for). Classic sweater sets; much chocolate; a new set of winter accessories (hat, scarf, mitts); a sweet little fox picture; and many gift certificates (as Roo says, “the gift of getting what I want”!). Oddly enough, no books. Well, okay, one; every year my mother finds me some sort of antique volume, and this year was a red leather-bound edition of RLS’ A Child’s Garden of Verses. (Last year it was Tennyson!) Although Indigo has a Boxing Week sale on that gives 30% off all hardcover books, and the new Ronald Hutton Witches, Druids, and King Arthur is out; at $45 it’s a bit steep, but with 30% off it becomes very affordable. Especially with a gift certificate. And with a gift certificate, it sort of becomes a holiday gift, right?

And from the “completely unconnected to holiday swag” pile of nifty stuff: for skaldic fans who are also LOTR geeks, take a look at Eowulf, an epic retelling of Dernhelm’s heroic actions in the battle of Pelennor Fields. Not bad.

On Going Home

There’s something odd about going home for the holiday season as an adult. Sure, my parents now live in a different province, in a house that features in absolutely zero of my childhood memories, but there’s more to it. My parents seem to look forward to having us here, but sometimes I wonder why. I arrive with laundry to do, change their radio stations, have classical music on all the time, and light candles. I either sleep at odd times, or hide in a corner with a book, or go out to roam Oakville (they have a remarkable invention here called parking lots, making shopping a much less harrowing experience).

I look forward to coming here. There’s something terribly comforting about having familiar meals served to you by your mother. Sometimes they’re new meals instead, which I look forward to discovering just as much because my mother is a fabulous cook. Last night we had slow-cooked lamb shanks with polenta, which was divine. Some things are best left to discovering as an adult. Had my mother served me polenta as a child, I would have pushed it around my plate until it got stone cold and even less appealing, tasted a speck and decided it was too much like oatmeal, which I hated. (I’m still not fond of oatmeal; it’s something about the texture. Thin or thick, I just really have to be in the mood, and it needs plenty of salt.)

For the second year in a row, my parents haven’t put up the Christmas tree; they put white fairy lights on their six-foot-tall silk fig in the corner and gather gifts underneath it instead. I don’t have any seasonal decorations up at home, either, which might have contributed to my lack of holiday cheer. Christmas seems to have arrived awfully quickly, something like all that snow at home.

The drive down was a breeze. The three feet of snow that the Montreal city crews are ignoring gradually vanished as we drove west, disappearing completely by a half-hour past Cornwall. I’ve been going about in my cardigan over a t-shirt outside here. Last night I woke up to the sound of rain hitting the roof and the window. I had forgotten how much I love that sound.

Tonight after dinner we have a date with some popcorn and The Return of the King; tomorrow we pick up our borrowed printer and do the official seasonal dinner and the ritual opening of gifts. For the rest of this afternoon, though, I think it’s going to be dozing with a book and perhaps a Maine Coone cat.

Ferret Visuals

And speaking of novels involving ferrets, my dad sent me this Robert Bateman jpg yesterday:

At the NaNo wrap party I realised that thanks to my NaNo research, I knew more about ferrets than my writer-type colleagues. There was something vaguely embarrassing about the discovery.

Weekend Roundup

I have a public who requests updates. I am touched.

A big thank-you to all who came out to support my husband’s studio launch on the weekend. All five members of Studio Elements were touched (and decidedly overwhelmed) by the response and enthusiasm displayed by the attendees. I think everyone sold a piece of artwork, too, which was unexpected; it was a party, not a show, after all. You just can’t hold back popular demand, however, or deny good art.

We also had the Montreal NaNo wrap party, where we discovered that many of us had story elements in common (apart from the psychic ferrets, I mean). We also played t!’s annual game of NaNo Questions, where queries such as “If your novel were a food, what food would it be?” and “Describe your novel in ten words or less!” were posed. It was a riot to hear the answers from such a varied group of people. The room was humming with creative responses from creative-types. So, overall, it was a remarkably artistic weekend.

The art theme continues this week as I make a Yule gift for a friend, which cannot be detailed here as she is quite likely to have the surprise ruined for her. You’ll all be kept up to date with appropriate vague references.

The Changeling game that Roo (dubbed “the very cute pagan gamer geek girl” by admiring friends who met her on Saturday night) and I have been discussing for the past little while is becoming more and more likely to actually happen, which makes me jump with joy inside, being as gaming-starved as I have been for months. It’s really making me think about when children lose their completely enchanted view of life. Playing with my goddaughter this weekend (whom, by the way, delivers the very best spontaneous hugs, complete with back-patting and sticky kisses) raised the same question. When do we lose that completely open, joyful celebration of absolutely everything we see? When do we begin to trap things inside, to deny our individual interpretation of life, to conform to consensual reality simply in order to make things easier? And, the ultimate question: why? Playing Changeling will allow me to further explore these questions. Plus it’s just going to be downright fun, ‘cos it’s with cool people and will no doubt involve large amounts of candy and giggling. Think the ultimate sleepover or the best day off from school and you might hit on the general feeling.

On a completely different note, my dreams have been remarkably vivid these past few days. I don’t know about how others dream, but my dreams tend to involve pop culture figures, most recently the Lord of the Rings film characters. The cast from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel pop up frequently, too. (There was a run last spring where my dreams featured the Buffy cast performing a different Gilbert & Sullivan operetta weekly.) My latest dreams involve lots of swords being passed from person to person as symbols of their identity. Entertaining, but one does have to wonder what it’s all about. (No, this is not an invitation to psychoanalyse me; it’s a rhetorical question.)

Or maybe it’s just all about the gorgeous costumes that my subconscious mind dreams up.

Hmm. Almost makes me want to drag out my toy sewing machine and get back into the construction of absolutely beautiful outfits with little to no practical purpose.