Reading list

A couple years ago, a friend posted a question on Facebook that went something like this: without thinking about it too much, list 15 books you've read that really stuck. I liked the question, and when I took on the task of creating my list (you were only supposed to take 15 minutes), many of the books that quickly popped into my head were accompanied by a flood of significant memories — some good, some bittersweet. Did these particular books "stick" because of nostalgia? Do these books help conjure up certain life events I don't want to forget? We know that's one thing we love about music (the whole "soundtrack to our lives" thing), and it's fun to think that a book sitting on a bookshelf — about the oil industry no less — can help us do that too. Anyway, without much further ado, here was my list of books (all of which I still highly recommend by the way):

The Human Stain by Philip Roth
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Oil & Honor: The Texaco-Pennzoil Wars by Thomas Petzinger
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Fall of Japan: The Last Blazing Weeks of World War II by William Craig
1984 by George Orwell
Capote: A Biography by Gerald Clarke
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
Naked by David Sedaris
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

(If it was 16 books, I would have included Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood.)

Photo by Laura Muir

I can believe that @#*!

Winnebago Man is about Jack Rebney, that pissed off RV spokesguy who turned into a viral-video sensation even before the invention of YouTube. The film rated 91 per cent on the tomatometer and was listed on Roger Ebert's ten best documentaries of 2010, so how can I not respect that. But, I don't know. What came between me and a real appreciation for this movie was its director, Ben Steinbauer, who tracked down Jack Rebney and then didn't know what to do with him. I kept thinking: "Let the man speak!" Does this guy seem like the kind of guy who wants to open up about his childhood? Let him rail against Dick Cheney, for $%!@ sake! 

Maybe five minutes of altercation between Ben and Jack would have told a story, but it seemed to go on and on. Until, finally, Ben steps out of the way and the movie takes off and we get to see Jack at his finest and receive the round of applause he deserves for, guess what, expressing his contempt for Dick Cheney (among other things).

So, I recommend renting (or ordering?) this documentary because you just gotta meet Jack. The confrontation between him and a Walmart manager is worth the price of admission. I just wish that someone like Steve James or Errol Morris or even Michael Moore had found him first.

Photo by Laura Muir (from YouTube)

Fun with macro

It's cold outside, work is busy, and I'm feeling a bit Vitamin D deficient. But rather than neglect my blog, I decided to putter around my condo and take pictures of things with my Canon G10 set on macro and see how that turns out. An organic strawberry made for a pretty subject:

How about that mundane cord on my sun blinds...

...or my vintage tin toy phone.

Photos by Laura Muir

Where would you be?

I was sitting on the streetcar today gazing out the window...

...and that's when my mind started wandering to, well, other locales. Wouldn't it be nice, I thought, to be accompanying my brother on that United States/Mexican road trip he's on. Or, it sure would be great to be hopping on a flight to Bali, just like that woman who I talked to last week about S.E. Asia. Then, my little daydream got me wondering, what do other people think? So I asked some folks the question: "If you could be anywhere but here, where would you be?" Here's what I found out (and thank you to you all!):

"Paris, sitting at Le Sévigné in the Marais." — Virginia Gaviller.

"New York, for love and fashion." — Kimberley Brown.

"Tahiti. I've never been, and always wanted to go. If I win the lottery, I'm retiring there. Besides, it's a French territory, so has excellent healthcare for my golden years, and there's no fear of civil unrest like in nearby Fiji." — Darren Simonelli.

"Driving with the top down through the Coachella Valley desert on our way to Palm Springs on a warm spring evening." — Arren Williams.

"Kelowna, where we're going skiing in March. I've never skiied out West and I'm really looking forward to skiing a mountain, as opposed to the smaller hills at home, and skiing for seven days in a row and hanging around in my long underwear." — Claudine Quinn.

Photo by Laura Muir

Power in numbers

I live right along protester alley here in Toronto. After gathering at Queen's Park, protesters make their way east down College Street, passing right underneath my south-facing 10th-floor-condo window, before they turn up or down Yonge Street, whatever the case may be. It's like having my own CNN such as it was back in the old days under the tutelage of Ted Turner. (I wish I had my handy G10 during the city's G20 protests.)

Today when I heard a group of anti-Mubarak demonstrators marching this way, I ran downstairs to take some snaps.

Photos by Laura Muir

Soul food

Yesterday during a visit with teacher/world traveller/blogger David Pimentel, I felt nothing short of crazy excited when he offered to make sandwiches for lunch. There's something about having a sandwich made for you that rekindles the spirit. And what spirit doesn't need a bit of rekindling right in the middle of a long, cold, grey winter?

First David started off with some freshly baked bread straight out of the bread maker...

... and if you're lucky enough to have a bread maker, here's the recipe that he kindly shared with me:

Then he heaped on vegetables, sprouts, a couple types of cheese, and (instead of mayo) hummus and vegetable spread...

...and the final creation came out like this:

I could go on and on, but I think this video says it all.

Photos by Laura Muir

The strum of a ukulele will never be the same again

Blue Valentine is as intense, raw and heartbreaking as everybody says it is. Indeed, I haven't been as unhinged by a relationship drama since watching Brokeback Mountain. I'm not sure why it didn't get more Oscar nods including a nomination for Best Picture, instead of The Kids Are All Right, and one for Best Actor for Ryan Gosling's performance. (As you probably know, Michelle Williams is up for Best Actress.)

I like how writer/director Derek Cianfrance explains the movie in this interview: "I wanted the past to feel like they were fish in the ocean and the present to feel like they were in a bucket."
And just something to keep in mind: instead of quickly getting up and putting on your coat after the last scene, pay attention to the closing credits. You'll see what I mean.
Photo by Laura Muir