This is the best short film I’ve seen in a long time. Thank you, Cameron, for sending the link!
A heart-stoppingly beautiful tale about the magic of smiles, a little precious something to tide us over the rest of the holiday season, all wrapped in a delightful package of frothy whimsy. Ah, j’adore.
Currently listening to: “I’m A Realist” – The Cribs
Four exams down, one to go. I think we’re overdue for a blog entry.
In sheer reverse voyeuristic curiosity, I’ve been tracking this blog with Google Analytics. By far, the most epic feature involves tracking the keywords searched on Google that led to this blog, which range from predictable to mildly amusing to absolutely priceless. I’ve taken the liberty of showcasing some of my favourites verbatim (without editing for grammar).
The Literary Ones:
A good portion of these are book/author-related, which doesn’t really surprise me, as Arts One took up a good chunk of my life last year, which means plenty of rants about Rushdie and raving about Rousseau. On that note…
“artsone ubc rousseau questions”
Arts One kids, searching this is not going to help. Go to lecture, because if I remember rightly, Crawford does this lecture (and thus, is frankly brilliant).
“huis clos download”
Jean-Paul Sartre would be rolling in his grave! I do have an extra copy of the play though; any of the 30 people who might have thought it advantageous to Google for it can have it.
The Pop Culture References:
“john stuart mill, of his own free will,”
-from the Philosophers’ Drinking Song by Monty Python. Hint: go to the Philosophy section in your local bookstore, get out books from each of these authors (except Socrates) and shuffle through them while singing the song.
“what happens at the end of jeux d’enfants?”
Spoiler much? No, I won’t tell. You’ll just have to watch the whole movie. Better still, come over and we’ll have a French film marathon.
“i’d rather be, nine people’s favorite thing, then a hundred people’s ninth favorite thing.”
-from [title of show], which inspired the title of this blog. A little life philosophy for you there.
“in the night garden is creepy”
Yes. Yes, it is.
The Randoms:
These are my absolute favourites.
“glee is preventing me from studying finals”.
I definitely took that hour out of my Wednesday night and watched the Glee finale instead of studying for Political Science, so I totally hear ya.
“vintage double decker bus for sale in saskatewan [sic]”
I’ll be sure to ask my friends in Saskatchewan. I also wish you the very best of luck in your endeavour as you are officially my hero for being actively on the search for such an item.
“sad one liners from children”
Firstly, that’s terrible; I hope you are well and truly ashamed of yourself! Fancy that, looking for quotations from miserable children. It did make me laugh really hard, though; what a case of schadenfraude on both our parts.
“totem park residence ghost”
I HAVE NOT HEARD OF THIS. Can someone clue me in, please? This sounds terribly intriguing.
Anyway, enough said for today; remember, Google, Mystery Google, and Wikipedia are your best friends.
Currently listening to: “Paper Gangsta” – Lady GaGa
As we flail in the throes of examtime, I want to hear all your best (worst) intellectual puns and jokes! Erudition is fun!
This gem from Overheard at UBC was too good to pass up.
“How many free market economists does it take to change a lightbulb?”
“How many?”
“None, the Market would have done it already if it needed replacement.”
Ahahahahah. I don’t know about you guys, but I definitely laughed for a solid minute (or two) at that one. Ah, geekery.
Currently listening to: “C’est ma terre” – Christophe Maé
Having being exposed to Retail Christmas for the past month or so, I’m officially tired of it. Enough is enough. Retail Christmas is a scourge that seems to magically kick in the-night-after-Halloween, and threatens to ruin Real Christmas with its armies of limpid tinsel and squeaky carols. Now, contrary to my darling roommate (who has decided to call me Scrooge and threatens to purchase me a Santa hat), I am not opposed to happiness, joy, and Christmas. Far from it! I may not have Advent calendars galore (which melt anyway, due to our overheated apartment), but I am very much a proponent of the Real Christmas Spirit. Case in point: I fully intend on decorating the apartment for Christmas/Winter Solstice in due time – an event I am greatly excited about, so feel free to join in! Also, Christmas baked treats are definitely superior to those of other festivals…mmm, gingerbread and sugar cookies… The issue with Retail Christmas is the excess, god, the excess! Without even passing comment on the sheer hedonism and materialism of Retail Christmas, the sheer length of the season is in itself weary and more importantly, completely unnecessary. We don’t feel the need for a two-month lead-up to Thanksgiving; why should Christmas be any different? Thanksgiving doesn’t get enough love. How do you think fans of Thanksgiving feel that we’re spending all this time and money on Christmas?? And thank god there’s no two-month lead-up to Valentine’s Day. I’m pretty sure the irrational dislike I have for Retail Christmas could be much averted if it weren’t so ridiculously long. So, I am incredibly thankful for Finals (I never thought I’d be) which allows me to stay far, far away from work for the next few weeks. It’s time to reclaim back sanity sans Santa.
Currently listening to: “Camilo (The Magician)” – Said the Whale
Imagine sitting down with a mug of coffee and a biscuit at breakfast-time, and reaching for a copy of the newspaper. Imagine your newspaper coming in this form:
A sample article in the newspaper:
editorsweblog.org provides a fascinating profile of i, a newly-established Portugese newspaper which seems to be bucking the worldwide trend of a decline in print media. This is all extremely exciting and quite heartening, even as we hear of newspapers in Canada going under due to falling readership and advertising (and let’s not even get into the issue of Who Reads the News Nowadays Anyway, because being uninformed is Simply Irksome).
On first glance, it can be a little disconcerting. The print layouts are more reminiscent of Nylon Magazine than Time Magazine; likewise, the website seems a little National Enquirer meets Lomography. But of course, this shift in aesthetic is key. The way people absorb and obtain news has changed dramatically in the past twenty years. Media sensationalism is at an all-time high with tons of on-line outlets providing up-to-the-second updates satiating our need to know on a per-second basis and somehow, the act of picking up a print newspaper and leafing through it to find what you’re interested in just seems so trite all of a sudden. I mean, why would you do that when you could just click on the link? (I was actually having a chat about this with my roommate the other day, not knowing that I’d be spurred on to write this entry so soon after!)
But there is no reason why perfectly legitimate, well-written print journalism cannot keep up a competitive edge by aligning itself to these changes in how people absorb information without compromising its content. In decrying the dearth of literacy, print journalism has to counteract it not by dumbing itself down, but rather, by maintaining high levels of journalism in combination with mainstream stylistic appeal. And I think that’s essential- not compromising the actual quality of news and writing simply to appeal to the masses.
Well, what can I say for myself? Even as I digitalize and trot along reading the news on-line from a good three to five different newspapers/magazines a day, it’d be difficult to resist the charms of a sleekly laid-out newspaper, accompanied by a steaming mug of coffee.