In Christ's Name, to serve God and follow Christ's example in proclaiming the gospel

Yes

Note: title is St. Paul's Mission, which is tacked up beside this computer... a couple months in Alberta hasn't turned me religious or anything.

So, I arrived in Dawson last night. The bus was OK, for the most part, except for the parrt about spending almost 10 hours in Whitehorse (zzzzz) and arriving there at 4:20 AM. I spent today going to the museum and taking a nap. We may go drinking or up to the dome tonight. "Cultural studies" (in the anglican rectory!) has been great so far though we will need to speak more about it as the days go on. I have missed "my Kathryn" ... (tear).

Another note, I might be in Vancouver in August... perhaps as soon as the 7th or 8th ... i'll be in town for a very short time though. My dad has moved and he doesn't seem to have the space in his new building for all of my stuff. Thus, I might need to road trip it out to the coast basically as soon as I arrive back in E-Town. People: ante-up on couch space and clear your calenders ... I must drink with you (if you're in Vancouver).

Listening to: Sleater-Kinney - Let's Call It Love

Head on straight, mask on crooked / Exit stage left with the cash gone took it

Bus

I am about to head off north in a few hours. I feel, well, excited and in a weird way terrified by this upcoming marathon trip. I'm paranoid I'm going to miss my connections. I'm antsy about getting left behind in Toad Creek Junction, BC. I feel slightly queasy at the prospect of being in a bus (or three) for 36 hours. I'm wondering what the hell I'm going to do in Whitehorse at 4:30 AM.

More from the Yukon...

Listening to: DANGERDOOM feat. Ghostface - The Mask

Music taking over your body / Beats taking over your soul

"I won't rest until I forget about it"

Addendum it's now a full 5 CDs. What was 3 and 4 are now 4 and 5; thus the newest one is 3. I mixed these out of order, just like Bjork-impregnator Matthew Barney...

------

It's taken a few hours and I downsized it from 8 CDs to 3 and then supersized it back to 4 5 CDs, but it's now done (for the most part). It's the Cremaster Mix Cycle to be listened to while on a bus for an insane length of time. I named it such because I expect there to be much "external stimuli" when I finally arrive and my cremaster will thus get put into the action of "raising and lowering the testes" when I arrive in Dawson City, as well as because Jackie, upon hearing (is that the right term if the "conversation" happened over MSN?) about the concept, called it a "Cremaster Cycle of mixing." Like Barney's film cycle, the themes inherent are hard to decipher and obscure (if they exist at all). It does go from one thing to another to another and finally to another, so there.

Cremaster 1

1. The Arcade Fire - No Cars Go
2. Spoon - I Summon You
3. The Futureheads - Hounds of Love
4. Stereolab - Fluorescences
5. The New Pornographers - Streets of Fire
6. The Fiery Furnaces - Single Again
7. Bend Sinister - Through the Broken City
8. Death From Above 1979 - Blood On Our Hands
9. Pussy Galore - HC Rebellion
10. LCD Soundsystem - Yr City's A Sucker
11. Chuck Berry - Tulane
12. Bloc Party - This Modern Love
13. Xiu Xiu - I Luv The Valley OH!
14. Feist - Mushaboom (Live on Conan)
15. Sufjan Stevens - God Bird
16. Bright Eyes with Emmyloy Harris - Land Locked Blues
17. Koushik - Be With
18. Black Dice - Endless Happiness (EYE remix)

Cremaster 2

1. De La Soul - The Future
2. Jay-Z - Threat (Madlib Invazion Remix)
3. I Self Devine - Ice Cold
4. The Game - Church for Thugs (produced by Just Blaze)
5. Cam'ron - Somebody Gotta Die Tonight
6. Wu-Tang Clan - Reunited
7. DANGERDOOM - Mince Meat
8. Public Enemy - Brothers Gonna Work It Out
9. Lyrics Born - I Changed My Mind (Stereo MCs remix)
10. Atmosphere - @ It Again
11. Danger Mouse & Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life
12. MF DOOM - Doomsday
13. Little Brother feat. Joe Scudda - Lovin' It
14. Nas - The Honeymoon is Over
15. Jay-Z - Public Service Announcement (Madlib Invazion Remix)
16. Quasimoto (aka Madlib) - Rappcats, Pt. 3
17. Vordul Mega feat. Vast Aire (Cannibal Ox) - Handle That
18. Dizzee Rascal - Showtime
19. Big Pun feat. Inspectah Deck, Prodigy from Mobb Deep and Roc Raida - Tres Leches (Triboro Trilogy) (Produced by the RZA)
20. Crooklyn Dodgers '95 - Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers (Produced by DJ Premier)

Cremaster 3

1. Black Leotard Front - Casual Friday
2. Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights
3. Bloc Party - Helicopter
4. TV on the Radio - Satellite
5. Gang Gang Dance - Nomad For Love (Cannibal)
6. The Roots feat. Amiri Baraka - Something in the Way of Things (In Town)
7. The Perceptionists - Blo (Produced by El-P)
8. Wu-Tang Clan feat. CappaDonna - Triumph
9. Lyrics Born feat. Evidence from Dilated Peoples and KRS-One - Pack Up Remix
10. Blueprint - Big Girls Need Love Too
11. Quasimoto - Raw Addict, Pt. 2
12. Jay-Z - Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)
13. The Game - 300 Bars and Running

Cremaster 4

1. Daft Punk - Daftendireckt
2. Dizzee Rascal - Stand Up Tall
3. The Game - Put You On The Game
4. Missy Elliot feat. Mike Jones - Joy
5. !!! - Get Up (Nate Dogg cover)
6. Gang Gang Dance - Glory In Itself / Egyptian
7. The Rapture - Alabama Sunshine
8. Death From Above 1979 - Little Girl (Masterkraft Edition)
9. Xiu Xiu - Muppet Face
10. Pixeltan - Get Up / Say What
11. Chic - Good Times
12. Parliament - Flashlight
13. Jay-Z - The Ruler's Back
14. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
15. L.T.D. - Love Ballad (DJ Premier mix)
16. TV on the Radio - Ambulance

Cremaster 5

1. Jay-Z - December 4th (Produced by Just Blaze)
2. TV on the Radio - Staring at the Sun
3. Bloc Party - Blue Light
4. The National - Mr. November
5. Destroyer with Frog Eyes - Notorious Lightning
6. Jason Collett - These are the Days
7. The Arcade Fire - The Woodlands National Anthem
8. Bright Eyes - First Day of My Life
9. Broken Social Scene - New Country (live on KVRX)
10. Portishead - It's a Fire
11. The Postal Service - Brand New Colony
12. Shuggie Otis - Strawberry Letter 23
13. Marvin Gaye - What's Happening Brother
14. Jay-Z - Song Cry
15. TV on the Radio - Modern Romance (Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover)
16. The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
17. Xiu Xiu - Clowne Towne

Listening to: Quasimoto - Raw Addict, Pt. 2

pull down your pants by the she ass

female genitalia

I was at THE MALL tonight. (There is no other Mall than this one; you know the one.) I spot a few people with lululemon bags (affixed with messages from the Lululemon Manifesto and that damn logo) and decide to find the store in question. I walka round aimlessly for awhile. No dice. I grab a directory and map (the size of a Baudrillard book) and it only says "TBA" in regards to the store's location. I am disheartened and dissapointed. Who would have thought such a place would be so impossible to find? Heading out, I come across the store...

I had reached the pinnacle of the vulvosophic in the WTC tipped on its side

...one can only just stumble across this location. It has no signage per se. It has no large sign proclaiming it to the depot of all things lululemon in this city. Instead, there is just, just, just that damn logo! And it's huge, 4 or 5 feet (a metre or metre and a half, for the metric-ly inclined) in diameter. I stare at the wonderful logo, the vulva, the omega, the end of all things.

But, there is more!!!

The entrance to the store is not a traditional entrance in a mall. Instead, with the massive Logo mounted on a rocky, rough (pubic like) wall surface, which, instead of being set in a bit is actually blocking most of the entrance. From the outside, one can only see LOGO and ... (let me catch my breath) ... AND a waterfall right next to LOGO. I cannot see anything of the inside of the store; all I see is LOGO and the waterfall and that wall.

And it stikes me:

The store itself is female genitalia with the LOGO as the clitoris.

The store functions as the logo does ... as a becon of vulvosophy. Our esteemed chair of vulvosophy, Allen, would be awestruck by this store, even more so than Kathryn's deconstruction of a bagel sandwich. Even the dean himself, SGB (because who else knows more things vulva than a gay man?), would be impressed.

Lululemon is the greatest force in all things.

Listening to: Xiu Xiu - Muppet Face

Us kids know

jazz

This summer seems to be all about weddings and marriage. From my brother's possible marriage in Indonesia (perhaps still to come?) to the definite marriages of Malcolm A. and Jamie, it seems like this summer has been one damn big thing after another ... from graduation to wedding to wedding to drama about a possible wedding.

I realized today that this is the latest into the summer that I have stayed in Edmonton for a long time. In the previous three summers between school years, I had always gone back to Vancouver for summer school or Montreal for the language program (etc.) by early July, in time for the jazz festival in either city. Edmonton's jazz festival - Jazz City - went tits up this year after they were denied funding by the government, so I've missed the chance to catch any part of any jazz festival this year and it feels kinda strange. Instead of jazz, I've had weddings to go to.

Malcom's reception was fitting and singular, like him. He's in Egypt right now on his honeymoon (check his blog for some dispatches from afar. I had to duck out super early because I had worked that day from 7 to 4 and was working the next day again from 7 to 4. I also really didn't know anyone there. Regardless, once it got going, it was fun and I felt happy for Malcolm. Hopefully he and I will hook up before I leave for Toronto and after he comes back from Egypt/Lebanon to talk about his book (for that Trent/Carleton Canadian Studies conference supposedly put on by Evil).

Jamie's wedding/reception was this past Saturday. On Friday, we went out to the movies and saw Wedding Crashers, the latest "frat pack" comedy. The first half an hour were good and Vince Vaughn was amazing as Jeremy, the psychotic he-whore (tm, SGB). After the promising beginning, the flick devolved into pap sentimentality, complete with one of our heroes getting married. After that, we went for beers and burgers but no strippers or coke. The wedding itself was more traditionally anglican han I expected, complete with pledges to live according to "the ordinances of God" and "trothes" being exchanged. The minister was also vaguely creepy and really bad. His sermon seemed more like a plaintive attempt to convince Jamie and Sarah not to marry. They did marry though despite his attempts to the contrary.

The reception at the UofA's Falculty Club though was aces. In between the ceremony and the reception, Joel and I went back to his apartment with his girlfriend and picked up a 12 pack Granville Island mingler set on the way. (He was going to buy Big Rock but I balked at that resulting in a charge that I had become a "BC nancy boy" which is probably true.) We split the 12 pack in an hour and a half and then smoked a j on his balcony which suitably fucked us up. I wish I remember much of what I said at the beginning of the reception because much of it, including the composition of a free verse modernist poem using magnets that were provided, must have been gold. Jamie and Sarah aren't heavy drinkers nor rich so it was a cash bar. We knew this ahead of time so we brought flasks of scotch (not single malt though, sorry Dr. J) and jag to drink with our free cokes. Soon, everyone (that was drinking) was fucked up and it became a riproaring party. My friend Colin, one of the groomsmen, had also brought a flask (of crown royal) and by the time we left hours later he was more drunk than I had seen him in a couple years. There was a dance too though I didn't pay too much attention to it. (Jamie suitably, as a musician himself, hired a band and not a DJ.) I think everyone had fun and was happy for Jamie. I crashed at Joel's apartment that night and left before 8 AM (Joel too had to leave at that time to go to the Edmonton Grand Prix race), walking, busing and then walking home by 11 AM -- god, ETS sucks.

In other words, a good time [was] had by all (GTHBA).

In other news, I finally finished registering for courses next year. It was a three week, two stage, unnecessarily complicated process (which isn't even done for me because I want to take a comp lit course too.)

Term 1:

-"African Canadian Literature" with George Elliott Clarke (link)

"...We will examine early texts, mid-20th-Century texts, as well as contemporary creativity in literature, music, and film, to determine the ways, if any, in which African-Canadian literature adds distinctive tones and resonance to Diasporic African culture..."

-"'Raciness': Race and Sexuality in American Politics, Literature, and Criticism" (link)

"...Our overarching concerns: what can "raciness" teach us about large theoretical, literary, legal, and political categories such as dissent, difference, desire, visibility, nationality, pleasure, violence, radicalism, diaspora, and utopia?"

-"Theorizing Asian North American Studies: Globalization and Nation" (link)

"... we will ask what the object of Asian North American studies is, what methodologies it has developed, and how it understands its own intellectual and political function."

-"Psychoanalysis and Race" (link)

"Until recently, psychoanalysis and "race" had little to say about each other. Not surprisingly, the task of bridging the informal cordon sanitaire separating them fell largely to dissident Western intellectuals such as Frantz Fanon..."

-"Bibliography I" (link)

Term 2

-"Literature and Culture of the Urban Crisis" (link)

"... The unfamiliar neighborhood proves an interpretive void into which a powerful cultural narrative of urban fear is easily inserted—with fatal consequences. This seminar asks how, and why, a discourse so overwhelmingly fearful of urban space developed in the years following World War II. We will focus on the ways in which postwar American literature and film represent cities, with particular attention to the ways in which texts inscribe identities and social differences onto urban geographies...."

-"Popular American Lyric" (link)

"...Beginning with the start of rap’s recorded history in 1979, we will consider with careful attention the development, obsolescence, and renewal of its forms, themes, and tropes." (also looking at black face minstrels, fireside poets, Bob Dylan, and Tin Pan Alley, to be honest.)

-"Liberalism, Its Critics, and Literature" (link)

"...liberalism is an indispensable context for the study of modern literature, and yet many advanced students of literature lack a sophisticated understanding of its theory and its history. This course aims to provide an advanced introduction to the theory and history of liberalism with an eye towards how this bears on literary expression and interpretation..."

-"Interdisciplinary Approaches to an Interdisciplinary Artform: Opera"

this is a comp lit course which I have to be actually physiclaly in Toronto to register for...hopefully they'll let me take this. This is cotaught by someone from music and Linda Hutcheon from english/comp lit, and the main focus will be looking at Siegfried from Wagner's Ring Cycle, complete with a field trip to a performance (they are eventually staging all 24 hours of the Ring Cycle in Toronto.).

It all sounds so fun.

I've also done some record shopping as of late. I got the new Buck 65 to celebrate Canada Day (mostly good but weird at times), the new Xiu Xiu (darker, less poppy, genius at times), the Arcade Fire EP (No Cars Go is classic), Felt 2 record (funky and fun) and the new 9th Wonder & Buckshot collaboratory album (dope).

9 days or so until I leave...

Listening to: 9th Wonder & Buckshot - Chemistry 101

The mute orgasm of the smile

Klein Bottle

I have bought a bus ticket to Whitehorse (and by extension to Dawson City) now and thus will, barring catastrophe, slicer induced hospital stays or the wrath of Kahn, be heading up North to visit Kathryn for about a week (two weeks from now!). I leave for the Klondike on the 28th and then to Toronto on Aug. 11. Soon, I will be loosened from the grips of this Locus and into the Place (etc.). I look forward to seeing and living in a city that I haven't visited (except for transfers at Pearson international) since 1987 (the same year that Eric B & Rakim put out Paid In Full!). It will be fun and it will be hard (dirty jokes not appreciated; I'm doing the MA in 8 months). I'm still harbouring lingering fears that a turn in the major leagues (as it were) will expose me as laidback "UBC Guy," a Trple A third baseman trying to match talents and wits with major league, central canadian go getters. That's probably ridiculous. I'm so a pretentious git that even they will be in fear of me. (Or something along those lines.)

I have this friend Joel here in the E-hole. He's normally a good, fun, intelligent guy with seemingly never ending supplies of hash and dope. In first year at the UofA, he joined a frat and thus has a side of his friends who are frat boy poseur morons. (They are also engineers too, mostly.) On Monday, I went out with Joel and a couple of those guys (one is called "Beef" and not for his proclivity to feud with gangsta rappers).

The night started out with Joel picking me up and driving our equally fun and intelligent friend Ken home. Ken gave us a tour of the place he will be moving out of in a couple weeks (he's moving into the apartment of his girlfriend's sister...). His two roomates are old, balding and, can I say this, pathetic. They both have literally 10 to 20 computers (in whole or in part) at their workstations. They wear sweat pants. They have a Yoda poster displayed unironically in the living room. One of his roomates was painting his tower (after disassembling it) so it will "look cool" at "fragapalooza" ("frag parties" are also known as LAN parties ... you know, a bunch of guys playing computers together that are hooked on a local area network), while watching female bodybuilding vids on one of his computers. The other roomate was in his "hovel" (an unfinished part of the basement) fixing computers -- his celebration for quitting IBM.

After leaving Ken's place, we picked up the "Beef" at his mom's house. We then drove to three different places trying to smoke a few bowls but were turned back by (a) mosquitos in the ravine, (c) a malfunctioning lighter and (c) matches. At this point, I was desperately needing to smoke or drink something in order to tolerate "Beef" (his real name is Nathan, hahahaha). His first words upon entering the car: "I went to Regina to get some vagina." And then he went on about his trip to Regina to fuck his "girlfriend" but her parents' proximity scuttled those plans. (Haha.) He kept using terms like "chicks" without any irony. He saw Garden State and thought it was "weird" and "gay." When we finally smoked, he homophobically criticized my pipe smoking skills. (What the fuck? "Dude, I lived in Vansterdam for 4 years, lived in Totem" etc. etc. etc. He's only been smoking harsh shite in the E-hole.) While high, we went to the pub ("Cliff Clayvin's") for wings which eased the munchies. I also drank as much as possible in order to deal with "Beef."

Another frat boy, this one named Chris but he was not trouble, joined us. He was OK, even decent except for his conversation with "Beef" about sports, weight lifting and well sports. My drunken, stoned "baseball is all about sex and war" comments were met with silence. I tried to explain it but they wanted to talk about the home run derby, earnestly, instead. Later, unrelated, I relayed Baudrillard's ideas about the erotic value of unscrambled porno. And finally, after another picther, I told them about Baudrillard's "strange dream" - you know, the one involving one penis penetrating another penis forming into a klein bottle. You can guess how that turned out.

We left to move a fish tank at Joel's apartment. After moving the heavy tank (I did nothing of course), we went to Joel's room and he showed us pictures of his Canada Day party which turned into a mass e-trip. I'm now sorta glad I didn't go. The pictures though were telling as out of the 10 to 15 people there, only one (Joel's girlfriend) was female. What a sausage party. Then, Joel showed more pictures (of a camping trip, of smoking up in "Beef"'s jeep, etc.) before showing a final set of "Beef" flexing for the camera in his underwear. The homoerotic aspect of these pictures (and the homosociality of that side of Joel's friends) is striking especially when put in contrast with its overwhelming homophobia. Those phots were frightening really as "Beef" went on and on about his (flabby) body i.e. his pecs, his triceps, etc. His first reaction to the photos: "I must have been on a cycle [of steroids] at that time." Steroids? Castration by any other name? Good luck getting that vagina (who, besides teachers and doctors, says vagina anyways?) in Regina, homeboy.

Following this, we smoked more but this time in "Beef"'s jeep (after sneaking to the jeep quitely in order to not disturb his mother's sleep ... christ!!!). At this point, he was manic calling us "niggas" (a word that should never, not even in its "a," form be said by anyone especially not a white guy from Edmonton who loves Metallica) and driving at 100 kmph down residential roads. Joel and I left "Beef" at his house and he dropped me off.

In a strange way, the night was fun. But also lame as hell. I was glad to have smoked up for free and spent the next couple hours listening to Madlib and Bend Sinister before passing out at 3 AM.

On endless repeat: Buck 65 - Blood of a Young Wolf

This is an unusual musical

greatest dancer with the ill c-cups

MixCDing for Kathryn:

CD1 - "He's the Greatest Dancer": Dancedancedanceparty

1. TV on the Radio - New Health Rock
2. LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk is Playing At My House
3. Daft Punk - Robot Rock
4. The Arcade Fire - Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)
5. Bloc Party - Banquet
6. The Buzzcocks - Orgasm Addict
7. Stereolab - Captain Easychord
8. Gram Parsons - Still Feeling Blue
9. Bright Eyes - Another Travelling Song
10. Oliver Nelson with Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Bill Evans, Roy Haynes & Paul Chambers - Hoe-Down
11. Kid Koala - Drunk Trumpet (Live at the Metro in Chicago)
12. Lyrics Born - Do That There (Young Einstein Hoo Hoo Mix)
13. Viktor Vaughn (MF DOOM) - Saliva (Produced by Rjd2)
14. The Roots feat. Cody ChesnuTT - The Seed 2.0
15. M.I.A. - URAQT
16. Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out
17. Sister Sledge - He's the Greatest Dancer
18. Parliament - Give Up the Funk
19. Marvin Gaye - Right On (Live at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC)

CD2: "the ill c-cups": makemakemakeout

1. The Arcade Fire - Crown of Love
2. !!! - Take Ecstasy With Me (Magnetic Fields cover)
3. Stereolab - Cybele's Reverie
4. Final Fantasy - This is the Dream of Win & Regine
5. Feist - Lover's Spit (Broken Social Scene cover)
6. TV on the Radio - Poppy
7. Blackalicious - Make You Feel That Way
8. Viktor Vaughn (MF DOOM) feat. Apani B as Nikki - Let Me Watch
9. A Tribe Called Quest - Find a Way
10. Nina Simone - Don't Explain
11. Miles Davis Nonet - Boplicity
12. Sarah Vaughn - Three Little Words (Live)
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cheated Hearts (Acoustic version, Live)
14. Neil Young - My, My, Hey, Hey (Out of the Blue)
15. Nick Drake - Cello Song
16. Bright Eyes - Lua
17. Xiu Xiu - Clowne Towne
18. TV on the Radio - Ambulance (Live on Air America)

More (read: actual content) soon.

Listening to: Jay-Z - Threat (MADLIB remix)

There's a curse in the air and a toe nail moon

If anyone could do it in hip hop, it'd be the RZA. He just guest edited some sort of literary magazine.

Also, this job sucks, etc. etc. etc.

Listening to: Buck 65 - Rough House Blues

Let's sully every stage

Why did he tell me first?

Listening to: The New Pornographers - Steets of Fire

I'm just sitting at the bar / Writing these hits about self inflicted scars

Work, um. Many feelings like "this is what my BA leads to?" or "I've read Joyce, you can barely read the deli signs, who are you to boss me around?" are abound. But, it's easy and shit it's only for a month before I can go North and then East.

So ... I cut myself at work today ... with the slicer. I didn't chop off my finger but it still hurt.

The funniest (read: most depressing) thing about this accident was the reaction of a customer whose meat was being sliced by my cowowrker, a good 10 feet away from where I cut myself. Upon hearing about the cut, the customer said "Is that going to infect my meat?" "Infect."

What the fuck?

Listening to: Bright Eyes - Poison Oak