Lotta water under the bridge, lotta other stuff too

I finally got around to watching Scorcese's No Direction Home, and I was not disappointed. Bob Dylan is a fascinating subject. The other great documentary, Pennebaker's Don't Look Back is a favourite of mine. While much of this new documentary understandably revolves around Dylan going electric, the film also traces Dylan's roots: from growing up in the Iron Belt of northen Minnesota, his discovery of country, rock and folk music, his first trip to New York. There are a number of interviews with folk singers, active in the Greenwich Village folk scene, who give their perspectives on the young Bob Dylan. The best thing about Scorcese's film is the scope: the interviews, the performance footage not only of Dylan, but other musicans. You get a real sense of the New York folk movement.

Of course, the footage of Dylan performing is the absolute highlight of the film, especially the much mythologised electric performances at the Newport and England. It is surreal to watch Dylan and what will become "The Band" play classic Bob Dylan songs to a chorus of boos and catcalls (like "Judas") from the audience. The Newport footage is punctuated with interviews with other folk musicians who were there, including Pete Seger, who apparently had an axe and was going to cut the mic cables and later locked himself in a car. So much for peace, love, and harmony, eh Pete?

The Long and Winding Road

Yeah, I'm a terrible, terrible person. I haven't been updating much lately. My bad.

This weekend has turned into a sort of "invesitgation into my ancestry." I've been watching Wagner's Ring cycle on DVD (which takes care of my German side) and, last night, I attended a Burns Dinner (appealing to my Scottish side).

Rachel calls the Wagner "that Star Trek opera," becasue she came home while the giants, who looked a lot like Klingons, were singing in Das Rheingold.

The Burns Dinner was fantastic. One of my Prov colleagues and his wife hosted it, and we followed most of the Burns litany. We toasted the haggis* (and then ate the haggis), we read poems, we used the Selkirk grace. Michael's wife, Kyla, more than out did her herself on the food: I may never have had roast lamb as good as that.

* For those of you who don't know, haggis is made with sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with oatmeal and spices, mixed with stock. It's traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for an hour. It looks like a big sausage and tastes MUCH better than it sounds.

So let's forget about it

I have just returned for submitting 3 copies of my dissertation to Grad Studies. The process from here? Those copies are distributed to my committee (including the external reader). They submit a form when they've read the dissertation and from there Grad Studies sets up a defense date. If everything goes according to plan, I'll get my PhD three days before my next birthday!!!

In other news: I'm becoming a serious fan of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Das Rheingold has been on my iPod all week. Who knew German opera could be so fun?

This is the end, beautiful friend, the end

In less than one week, I shall to submitting my PhD dissertation to Graduate Studies for distribution. They will send the copies out to the members of my committee and sometime in the next few months, I will be defending it before a committee of my peers. My entire time in Winnipeg has been building up to this moment.

And when it is all over, I shall sleep.

Song instead of a kiss

One of my classes started today. I thought I was prepared. After all, it was just an introduction: "Hey, I'm Mike, etc."

Nothing too taxing.

Well, upon my arrival at the school, I tried to photocopy the syllabus. You'd think that the button that says 2->1 means that the photocopier is going to take two separate pieces of paper and doubleside them, right? Well, if you think that you'd be very, very wrong. Apparently that button means that the photocopier will take a 2 SIDED document and reproduce each side on a separate piece of paper. How many people actually use this function?

The long and the short of it: instead of cutting the number of pages of the ayllabus in half, I wound up doubling it. I photocopied a whole blank page for the back side of every piece of paper. I ended up with a stack of papers to rival my longest chapter. There's a bit more photocopy-drama as I try to get everything in order, but nothing too serious. I eventually get all the syllabi together, have lunch, and head off to class. I walked into the room ... and realize there are a lot of students in the room.

My class this semester is 37 students, almost a dozen more than last semester. So, I'm a little surprised by that. I believe started with, "Good afternoon, everyone ... My goodness, there are a lot of you."

I pass out the syllabi, and then the heat hits me. It was like a sauna in that classroom - at least 10 degrees wamrer than the hallway. The air was thick and heavy, like the air in a gym after an aerobics class. I was suddenly very sleepy. I cracked a window, but it didn't help. (Must remember: no sweaters this semester.) I tried to be hardline on a couple of things - due dates, participation, plagarism - but all I wanted to do was curl up and nap. When I finally dismissed them for the day, the collar of my shirt was soaked with sweat. Very attractive, friends.

You will resume your callow ways

Not much to report today, other than some awesome dissertation news. I'm only a few steps from handing the damned thing in. Just got word that my advisor's really happy with the last chapter I submitted (a whopping 62 page chapter on film noir). There are just some minor revisions and another chapter to submit Wednesday. Then just some copy editing, an intro, conclusion and an abstract! WOOO! Once all this craziness is through, there's going to be a party. And some of you are invited!

Oh, and games night the other day was F.U.N. Jenga? Yeah, we kicked its "block-from-the-bottom" butt.

The Ipod's rocking Brandburg Concertos this week. Run out and tell a friend.

A junk yard fool with eyes of gloom

Happy 12th Night, friends! This is it, the twelfth day of Christmas, kiddies. I hope you all get your twelve drummers drumming. I mailed them on Monday.

"The Office" continues to be the best show on American television. The past few episodes (one penned by original Office creators, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant; another directed by Harold Ramis) have been the smartest, funniest of a very funny season. Last night's was no exception. The show is smart, funny, and, most importantly, radically different type of sitcom. The scene of Pam crying in the hall almost killed me, but crystalizes what I love so much about the show. The writers have enough faith in the audience to leave the subtext of the scene as subtext. There was no overt explanation for her crying, no talking head segment "I was sad because..."

I just found out that one of my co-workers at the UM Press has become addicted to the show. In the words of Tommy, "'come to my lair' said the spider to the fly."

Listening to: Beta Band's "Dry the Rain" on repeat. Spray on dust IS the greatest thing.

When you drunk my health in scented jasmine tea

Not much to say today, but given the overwhelming response to my return I figured I'd better post something. Can't disappoint the fans. (That's dripping with sarcasm, BTW)

Okay, what's new? Well, I really want to see Guillermo del Toror's new flick, Pan's Labyrinth. While I never bothered with Hellboy or Blade 2, I loved The Devil's Backbone. Too bad no one in Winnipeg has Pan yet, though I really don't have time to see it right now anyway.

On a darker, more embarassing note, I find myself strangely drawn to "The Facts of Life" season 3 which my wife just bought. Must be strong. I'm sure that it's only the appeal of completely mindless television and the idea of simple answers to difficult questions in a time of great mental exhaustion. Surely, nothing good that way lies.

Currently on the Ipod: Rolling Stone's Let it Bleed.

No one ever said it would be this hard

All right... the blog silence is broken, and another year of inane posting begins. Sorry for the lack of posting. I really did think I'd get a chance to post while I was in Saskatoon, but I never even bothered to check my email.

Saskatoon was nice. A week away from the dissertation was just what the doctor ordered. I didn't even watch any of the "work" movies that I brought along. Although we did see MANY movies, most of which I really, really liked.

1) Little Miss Sunshine Brilliant. Almost peed myself during the dance at the end of the movie.

2) The Good Shepherd De Niro's film about the early days of the CIA. I liked it, but felt it was a little overlong. Good acting throughout, though Matt Damon hardly seemed to age. I was also a little distracted by his son's physical appearance (ie, it was hard to imagine that Damon and Angelina Jolie had a kid so unattractive).

3) Casino Royale Best Bond film ever. A gritty and intelligent turn in a franchise that had turned to the worst of the Moore era with an abundance of ridiculous gadgets and silly names. Daniel Craig was great as a novice Bond.

4) For Your Consideration Christopher Guest's take on Hollywood lacks the sparkle of his previous films. While there are some wonderful scenes (Fred Willard's hair deserved its own credit), the film failed to build to anything. It just sort of ended.

5) An Inconvenient Truth This Al Gore documentary should be required viewing. I think if Gore had shown this much passion and personality during his Presidential campaign, the world would look a little different today.

6) Charade Yes, Cary Grant was far too old to be romantically linked with Audrey Hepburn, but who cares? This is one of the smartest, most enjoyable non-Hitchcock caper films.

7) Love Actually My in-laws asked us to bring this along, thinking they'd not seen it before. They realized almost immediately that they had, but we all watched it anyway.

8) Once Upon a Time in the West How does Sergio Leone make the perennially likable Henry Fonda so evil? Magic. Claudia Cardinale may be one of the great screen beauties of all time.

Flew home yesterday to discover that Winnipeg had been hit with 30 cm of snow. Spent a good portion of New Year's morning shovelling my car out. Stupid snow.

Now that the holidays have come to an abrupt end, I'm back at work, type, type typing away.