The Golden Compass

So I just finished reading The Golden Compass trilogy, and let me tell you... those books have messed me up in deep and profound ways. Likely more deeply and profoundly than any other books I've ever read. I think I loved them, but at the same time they destroyed me. Does that make any sense? My thoughts on it are still fairly jumbled, but here are a few items of note:

- I usually don't like fantasy books, but J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman have really managed to captivate me. The Harry Potter series and The Golden Compass trilogy are the only book series in history to make me resent working because it takes me away from reading the books. Not in a "gee, I'd rather be reading right now" way, either. In a "seriously, this sucks, I want to quit my job so I can read. Stupid work." way.

- These are NOT meant for Children. This is the only series that I would NOT let my children read. Actually, that thought is one of the things that has been messing with me, because probably in a lot of ways these books would make a lot of sense for kids, but I would probably have to approach it on an individual basis. If my child were brave and stubborn and over the age of 12, sure. If my child were a sensitive soul like me? Not on your life. Just knowing how badly they messed with my emotions? No way.

- Onto the emotions, gee, I don't even know where to go with it. It was a hard series to read, based on subject matter alone, and I'm not surprised that the church was pissed about them. There was nothing subtle about the church=evil aspect of these books. It wasn't even just the hard topics that came up, the often uncomfortable moments, but they also made me feel so dreadfully alone and hopeless at times. I cried on the bus, and spent an entire Sunday afternoon feeling heart-sick that I didn't have a daemon. It was rough, people! And I know I'm Miss Hyper-Emotional, but still, yikes. I know I have a tendency to get really emotionally involved with imaginary things, which is silly, but I was raised on imagination and empathy, so not really surprising. Sometimes I have trouble giving myself the appropriate amount of distance.

I now want to discuss these books with everyone, so if you've read them and have any insight then let me know. I haven't seen the movie yet, and I'm not sure I want to. Nicole Kidman? Really? I can't see it.

At any rate, on a similar note of getting too emotionally involved, I got TOO emotionally involved about an incident this weekend and spent Sunday moping around, needing The X-Files to cheer me up. Sadly, my DVDs are in Nova Scotia, so I had to make do with what I could scrape up on YouTube. I thought these little clips were raaaaather amusing (just fast forward through the trailer to get to the end.)





"Dark, gloomy forest!"
"yyyeah"

Oh those guys!
Love,
Gillian

Song of the Month for August

Well, well. This month has sucked, there's no way around it. There's just too much drama to post about, though, so I'm not going to ;)

One of the reasons it's been a bad month is because I've been seeing a few guys and they've all turned out to be ridiculous and bad news. I've also been listening to a lot of Nat King Cole lately, and though he's talented and well-intentioned, some of his songs just hit me in the gut with romance. "OOF," I say, and spiral into some sad romantic fantasy involving ballroom dancing and moonlight kisses. I mean, I'm not giving up yet. I still have one promising lead whose name I seriously want to write in swirly heart-shaped letters all over my notebook. But I'm using this particular Nat King Cole song as a sort of anthem for myself. It's terribly romantic, but in a solid, sensible kind of way. "When I fall in love it will be forever, or I'll never fall in love." I mean, that makes sense. Quit losing your head over losers, girl. Hold out for Prince Charming. Admittedly, it makes me want to cry whenever I hear it, but anthems are supposed to be emotional, right? So here's to August... thank God it's almost over ;)

When I Fall In Love - Nat King Cole



In other news, I think this is terribly cute:



I also love, love, love this song right now :)
"In THESE shoes? I don't think so..."



And finally, because it makes me laugh every time....



Lots of love!
Gillian

My New 'Do!

I got my hair cut quite short on Friday. It was pretty long before, and now it's between my chin and shoulders! I told some people I'd post a picture, but of course it figures that the only picture I like features my hair blowing around in the breeze. You can't really see the cut, buuuuut here ya go anyway :)

Gillian: Still Silly, Now With Short Hair!

Love,

Yours Truly

Oh My God...

I just about lost it at work watching this. So sweet and sad *sniffle*

Death Cab For Cutie - "I Will Follow You Into The Dark"



Love,
Gillian

Mmm, Educational!

Today I went to the Glenbow museum with my friend Matthew. This involved much hilarity, especially because I broke out my favourite old game "but not really." (eg: Your friend is eagerly telling you how cool Japanese swords are and you go "uh-huh.... but not REALLY", even though they are. They he defends himself, and you reply to every argument with a "yes *pause* but not REALLY." Yes, it's juvenile, but so much fun!!! "This looks just like Vegas... but not really." Okay, just trust me! Go play it!)

I haven't been to the Museum in years, although I have been intending to go for quite some time. What I didn't know is that they have been busy updating the Alberta History exhibit and have come up with some pretty fantastic local history. I was pleased to see that they'd even saved the old Telstar drug sign, and it now spins in all of its neon glory in the Museum! What fun! I actually learned a lot today about the Social Credit party and a number of philanthropic Calgarians. There's a neat new train exhibit (although it looks like it replaced that really creepy old train tunnel! I loved that thing!) But overall, it has been updated and really well done. Good job, Glenbow!

Yesterday I actually invested in a new Canon Powershot camera. I've been looking for a new small digital camera that I can carry around in my purse. My SLR is so heavy, and I miss a lot of good photos. I tested it out at the museum today and am really pleased with it :)

I stopped caring about minerals. Matthew was still excited... but not REALLY! :P

One of my favourite, favourite, FAVOURITE exhibits is the Asian Art exhibit. Sculpture blows my mind. They used to play really lovely, zen music in there, but no music today. A Buddha was out for repairs, though, so we thought perhaps it was him making the tunage (a la iPod docking station? No?)

This is my favourite Buddha. He always seems on the verge of opening his eyes and singing "Rubber Ducky" *** Nice camera, hey???

He is the ultimate in cool. Just chilling...

Really love sculpture. Really pleased with my camera.

So much fun :) Check it out if you have the chance.

Love,

Gillian

*** When Sculptures come alive and sing "Rubber Ducky":

Reviews and Updates!

Wow, blogger tells me that this is my 200th post! I talk a LOT!

I suppose a lot is new around here! I had a break-down the other day and spontaneously booked a week off work and bought a plane ticket to Nova Scotia for September. Even with the seat sales it's still a lot of money, but I just can't take it! I miss my darn parents!!! So I'm very excited about that. It feels better just knowing I'll see them soon.

Now for the reviews!

Calgary Folk Music Festival 2008

The Folk Fest this year was fantastic! Blue Rodeo was amazing live, they played so many great songs (including "Lost Together"!!!) Bedouin Soundclash was also fantastic, and played my faves ("Walls Come Down", "12:59 Lullaby.") Great Lake Swimmers did loads of workshops, so I got to see them about 4 times, and each time they played "Changing Colours." Tony Dekker is one fine looking young man, and one of my friends sent me a text message from across the field of tarps suggesting I use my Artists Lounge pass to "back on" him. Hahaha! I dunno what "back on" means, but I have a pretty good guess!!!

Of course, one of the best things about Folk Fest is falling in love with new bands! I am now a huge fan of The Weakerthans, Josh Ritter, Andrew Bird, The Duhks and others that I'm sure I'm forgetting right now. I spent a looooot of money, but music is so worth it :)

Here's a video to one of my FAVOURITE songs by The Weakerthans! Such delightful lyrics!!!

The Weakerthans - Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)



The X-Files: I Want To Believe

Oh, I believe!!! I really enjoyed the movie! I think it helps that I went in with rather vague expectations, because it was rather more like a long episode of the X-Files than a movie, if that makes sense. They could have done a lot more, but I think they stayed true to the show, and the time lapse, really. I was just so happy to see Scully and Mulder again that I was grinning most of the time. They still ran off into dark buildings, still talked conspiracy, still walked the line between religion and science. I could have asked for a little more witty banter, and there was an upsetting scene with a dog, but aside from that I was pleased :)

Batman: The Dark Knight

Wow. This is one disturbing but fantastic movie. I was horrified but completely drawn in. Visually stunning, but creepy. I was gripping my popcorn the entire time thinking "this is MESSED UP!!!" Oddly enough, I was fine coming home alone after X-Files, but last night I totally left lights on in case The Joker showed up.

I was wondering if I'm just reacting badly to it because I've been really emotional lately, and because, of course, I kept remembering that Heath Ledger (who plays the Joker) died from an overdose after filming the movie, and because of the recent Greyhound bus incident. Maybe I was just taking it more seriously than I usually do with movies, but damn. Messed up. Have you seen it? What did you think?

I think that's it for now! Yay for lazy long weekends! (as I post, still in my pyjamas, sipping coffee at noon. Ahhhh!)

Love!
Gillian