breakpoint

i began working at the purdy's chocolates in pacific centre in may of 1999. listening to massive attack, protection and any bjork makes me think of the smell of crushed almonds. the ones we put on ice cream bars. riding the skytrain back and forth. i would sit in the end of the train and take pictures of the track. for a long time i would get coffee from yogen fruz, because it was just across the way. then they closed, and i went to blenz. when blenz stopped their buy-seven-get-one-free cards, i started to go to tim hortons for a coffee and a canadian maple doughnut. this morning i had the same, on my way to class at harbour centre. that doughnut made my morning. there was a michael ignatieff event downstairs that i missed while in class. i'd like to meet him, because i don't expect he'll win. he's a terrible politician, and the liberals should know better than to elect a bumbling rookie. but on the break i ate my doughnut and returned the phone calls that i'd missed during class.

between lytton and lilooet we listened to joni mitchell, court and spark. from the campsite to pemberton, along duffy lake, we listened to the left banke. then from pemberton through whistler we listened to the best of bread.

up until 5 am last night after a night at the railway club and then denny's. fuckin' denny's. i went to class and then came home, getting no reading done in the process. i did get a book from the library, however.

my dad lent me two ferron albums. some absolutely incredible songs, esp. i never was to africa, a song that i know as a trapezoid cover. i do this: i stay up late, very focused, listening to songs over and over again, drinking tea and bourbon, reading bits and piece of my favourite books. so many books. but i find that the ferron albums remind me a lot of jane siberry. and of when i saw jane siberry in 2001 at st andrews wesley and it snowed on the way home. circular songs, precise.

i hope to get a chance to reread george melnyk's new moon at batoche soon. it was two years ago that i was still staying every other weekend at the delta hotel downtown, listening to damon and naomi, reading george melnyk. i say that john henry introduced me to cultural theory that spring but it was really reading george melnyk that fall, looking at the city. my city.