redtree_innerviews_past redTree you have been chosen as the world's new super hero, but you can possess only one power that you must select from the following two choices... 1. the ability to fly 2. the ability to be invisible which one do you choose? why? what will you call yourself? 080704 ... redTree what are the top five events of your life this year? 081209 ... past wow, i apologise for not replying to the first one. must have been a blather_holiday! i'm flattered by the questions and will respond soon. 081209 ... past flight. i don't think i could get by well as a shadow. the hero shouldn't make the epithet. 081217 ... past the second question is more difficult. thinking of personal events in a january to december "year" is unnatural. i've been in school for too long. september to april, in my mind, becomes a "year" and may through august a 'summer' that comes either after or before a year. so in thinking of things from 'this year' i unconsciously keep limiting myself to the last four months, and it seems disingenuous to reach further back, it feels so long ago and so much has changed. or it hasn't, but i've /felt/ so much over the duration, january to december, and have picked up new habits, dropped others, circled in different social circles (how rarely they meet, how interesting it is when they do), written a longer paper than before, started a 'real job' (and just applied for another, long shot position with my current boss as a supportive reference). i've loved, lost, been enveloped in bitterness and hope. i've listened to so much music, from the city, from bands, in concert halls, living rooms, and in fields. i've travelled more than ever before, i've tucked myself away and stayed in. in short, i'm refusing to number things. deal with it :) 081217 ... redTree what habits have you dropped? which new ones have you picked up? 081218 ... past i've stopped sleeping in, started waking early. i've stopped working in spare moments and started slacking. i' beginning to haunt certain coffee shops (finding motivation in the subtle, silent peer pressure of strangers), i no longer buy broccoli every time i go to the grocery store. earlier in the year i picked up running again, as a habit, after work to wake the mind, but that's fallen away again. too cold, too icy now. habits major, habits minor. 081218 ... past i close doors behind me, even when i'm in my apartment, alone (excepting the bunny). 081218 ... redTree how do you find motivation in "the subtle peer pressure of strangers?" do you have a pet bunny? 081219 ... past to the second, yes. she doesn't have a name as such, but everyone calls her "bunny" or "the bunny" or some variation on that theme. she seems to be a happy critter. to the first, i find that being around people who seem to be working who i don't know helps me work, because the atmosphere is such that i know i need to work, and as i don't know these people past our very casual acquaintance of being the in the same space, i won't go and talk to them as i would at my (school) office. but it's different from sitting at home, because as they seem to be working, and turning the space into an intellectually productive space (at least in my mind), i feel like i should help, where as at home i might play with the bunny instead. 081219 ... redTree why broccoli? 081219 ... past it tastes good raw and cooked, on pizza, in pasta sauce, in stir fries and salads. it's price is relatively stable, and it is relatively inexpensive compared to other vegetables. i eat more peppers now, and artichokes and brussel sprouts, a sign of a progression from a student budget towards that of the middle class. another sign: there's always cheese in my fridge. (though, living between three grocery stores means that it's almost always on sale somewhere.) 081220 ... redTree i dig cheese as well. we have a great fromagerie in pittsburgh that is run by a lady who calls all of her customers "dear heart" and travels the world in search of the perfect type...what are your favorites? 081220 ... past i usually have marble or cheddar brick cheese, but i like brie, camembert, and other similar soft cheeses a lot. one of the highlights of my stint as a cook in a fancy restaurant was getting a steady supply of fancy cheese ( i ate well those years ) 081220 ... redTree very cool...my oldest daughter and her husband both cook in fancy restaurants. what is your work now? 081220 ... past part time student (i'm two seminars and a day and a half of solid effort on my thesis away from an M.A.) and part time bureaucrat (i research past reactions and policies regarding plant, animal, and food borne diseases, basically i'm a historian of scientific policy) but i've applied for a long shot position at one of the country's biggest museums, to basically spend a year researching and possibly putting together an exhibition (online or physical) and trying to publish papers. it'd be like having the best parts of being a student, plus a venue for the public to learn as well, plus a salary that will allow me to pay off my debt while doing something i love. it's a long shot though (i will only barely have the requirements for application at the start of the job's term, but i figured what the hell, might as well give it a go, and i had two professors and my current boss [who is a part time prof] tell me i had a shot, which boosts the ego enough to actually make the application). 081221 ... past oh, i'm also a part time teaching assistant/substitute instructor (when my boss is travelling i sometimes teach his class), basically i help those who want to be helped develop their research and writing and presentation skills, or i sit in my office for a couple hours a week if no one visits me. and i mark. 081221 ... redTree what's going on in montreal for you next week? 090209 ... past my grandfather was admitted to hospital over the weekend, and the earliest chance to get there (and to the hospital that is on the island but not in the city proper, or at least not downtown and therefore relatively hard to get to by transit for someone who has only used the subway in that city once) is early next week due to my siblings' schedules. i'm in a spot where i can drop everything, they are not. a few days in west island will be... something. 090209 ... redtree what are some of your fondest childhood memories of the grandfather you are about to visit? 090210 ... past and that question gets to the root of it. my family was never really all that close to this side of the family. montréal island, or whatever the island is called, point claire, west island, and the rest of it, stand out in the familial memory as the home land. the place of landing, where the roots are so close to the surface. this is the grandfather who brought my father to canada fifty years ago. (my mother's family is originally from a bit further upstream, on the mainland, but moved to point claire in her early teens.) when my family left québec, leaving the separatists with their language police and their bill 101 behind, there weren't many visits to the island, or by those who remained (except for those who left for the united states--i actually have a cousin in iraq, or recently back from iraq). as a result we saw my mother's parents more, as they also resettled in ontario, and her sisters, as they'd visit us. i have memories asking my parents to see that side of the family, or to invite them to ontario, of phone calls, and of gaudy sweaters on christmas. a couple of visits to their traditional campground near lac champlain. between the last time i saw them, two or three christmases ago, and the time before that it has had to have been about 7 or 8 years. so the memories are thin on the ground, to say the least. but i have some of my grandfathers stories, of india during the war. of a tour of duty in canada, of marrying my grandmother against her families will and sending money for her rent during the war (as her father wouldn't have her in the house). she lived through the blitz while he was stationed in a jungle on the other side of the world, building telephone lines. a different kind of war of conquest. a fortune teller said he'd live to be an old, old man. the oracle said he'd live until 40. he's done well better than that, indeed. 090210 ... redTree you mentioned your siblings...brothers? sisters? what's up with them? where do they live? how long has it been since you've seen them? 090211 ... past i have two of each, one older and one younger of each gender. the brothers are both in town with me. my younger sister is still in highschool, my older sister lives on a farm closer to my folks. we see each other, en masse, a few times each year, the last being christmas. i see my brothers at least once a month, but often more. this weekend they're helping me move. my family used to always fight (i_am_part_of_a_large_family "i said my piece, i said peace, i said peace"), but as we moved apart we got over the pressures of cohabitation and now get along extremely well. always able to help each other out. they're good people. 090212 ... rt "give away what cannot be taken." what does this mean to you? 090717 ... past question for context: did i write this somewhere? 090717 ... rt not that i know of...it is a quote from a story i'm rewriting called, "affame le geant" that long ago appeared at blue when i wrote under the name of fyn gula. i was curious for your valuable insight. 090718 ... past i am honoured. i will think on it while awash with music over the next few days. 090718 ... past the essential components of the self cannot be wrenched away, but only released and given, if even in pain and duress. base and not-so-base emotions, even when not under control, remain with the feeler until she releases them to the stars, giving to the universe what it can never take without the willing, if sometimes coerced along, consent of the conscious being. 090730 ... rt in what ways are we "sometimes coerced along?" 090730 ... past i think the range goes through the passions (from violence to sexual ecstasy), the emotions (from rage to love), and the mundane (from daily interruptions that become routine to habits that form with seemingly little external stimuli). 090809 ... rt what music do you awash yourself with? 090810 ... past these days it has centred on okkervil river, nickel creek, xavier rudd, the creaking tree string quartet and justin rutledge 090811 ... rt i'm also a fan of okkervil river from the black sheep boy days. another band you may be familiar with, shearwater, is made up of former members. npr all songs considered live concerts has okkervil river and nickel creek available...the okkervil river show is especially amazing. 090812 ... past ive vaguely heard of shearwater but haven't listened to them much. this summer, though, i managed to see chris thile and the punch brothers (twice) and okkervil river. all three shows were great, and my uninitiated friends really enjoyed themselves as well, which is always a plus. 090821 ... past (actually i also saw xavier and justin this summer, and will be missing a creaking tree show tonight as they've jumped to the great venue that is annoying outside of town to the point that i'd need a car, and i get around by bike, foot, and bus) 090821 ... rt in what ways has music defined how you make choices? 090822 ... past a definite answer with example: early may i went on a minivacation for no other purpose than to see mogwai, who had rescheduled a concert from my birthday to then. i added a pro-soccer game and visiting friends to the mix. another definitive answer: right now i have loudish music playing fairly loudly to drown out the asshole downstairs, whose wife must have left him back in since i've been out of town. the guy is either screaming incoherently or blasting shit upwards (their tv and stereo are located beneath my 'office', which is attached to my kitchen, and therefore where i spend a lot of home-time). more immaterial: it picks up moods and i am in part defined by the ways the music moves my feelings and thoughts. suggestions and lyric and contour and colour work in tandem with the rest of my experiences, sense-ual and not, to affect how i decide things, or how i feel. sad bastard music tends to draw out those kind of decisions, though recently with my outer sad bastard far away i have had no real desire to listen to the music. other music picks up connections. i lent/have had appropriated by my girlfriend a certain cd that i now associate driving around in her car, or, more generally, with her. i'm sure i'll listen to it more (electronically--i buy all my music on cd, keep most of the high rotation at work, but have it all on my computer and ipod as well) after she leaves to finish school across the country. 090829 ... rt how was the mogwai show? 090829 ... past loud 090829 ... past worth the wait 090829 ... past not one of the greatest shows i've ever been too--due in part to the context of it all, but a good solid start to the summer. how does the labour day weekend punctuate, if at all, your life? 090907 ... rt it has brought my middle daughter, hilary, home to robin_hill. she is living with a roommate in pittsburgh and drove the hour up to the mountains to spend the evening with us. she brought a the new cd her band, virgin birth, just recorded. check them out on myspace. now she's making spanish rice for dinner. later we'll be looking over some illustrations...how about you? 090907 ... past this is the first time in nineteen years that i am not going to school after labour day. public, middle, and high school, then a bachelor and master's degree all in succession. it hasn't really hit me yet. perhaps it is impart because i'm starting to think more seriously about a paper i am going to be giving in a few months, and that i have to write an essay and give a presentation for an interview this week, and so i've been spending most of my time re-reading literature from my school days. i also start language classes in just over a week, which will be interesting. fortunately my work and the classes align in such a way that i don't have to take night school for it, and still have my evenings on the days i have class. it is interesting how myself and my friends, almost all now professionals, mostly, somehow, in our field, have been noticing the undergrads coming out of the wood work over the past week. and how young they look and act. and how little the girls are wearing. six years is a long time. 090913 ... rt what do you have a master's degree in? what is the literature you are re-reading? how does it help you for writing your paper and essay? 090913 ... past my degree is in public history. we're the folks who, in various and sundry ways, practice history outside of the university. i have friends who are archivists, who work in museums, or who do research for government agencies and private firms. i was reading archival theory this week for the paper/presentation i have to do for a position as a departmental archivist. i have another interview before then, for something more like i do now (i'm one of those hodge podge research types). 090914 what's it to you? who go blather from