i've been thinking things over

+ i'm doing less reading in general than i'd like to. i'm also up far later than i should be, almost every night. but it's what i do. i slept over at sean's on friday night, after guinness at the mountain shadow. i'm the third person to report that bit of info to the internet, now. it's like a strange mutual affirmation. we were all there, and now we're letting each other know that we all independently noted the event as worth recording.

+ my mother took us out for sushi tonight. we went (actually, for the second time this week) to honjo, which used to be atami, at nanaimo and hastings. apparently she told my dad to 'fuck off' last week. there was no specific incident. they've been in a strange separation for three and 1/2 years. actually, they separated the same week that i left surrey to live on my own at sfu, before moving in with jan in august. the end of april, 2003. i still don't understand it all. i'm not sad about it, just confused. my dad and i went for an early dinner last monday and ended up drinking beer until 11.30 pm. we didn't even talk about it.

+ i still intend to write my geography of vancouver as a series of sushi restaurants that i've eaten at. of course, by geography, i mean autobiography. it's really the same thing. it won't really be about sushi, but it will, because sushi is a lens through which i see my city and ergo my life. these are the words: honjo, atami, kishu, kitto, toshi, ajisai, tokachi. i don't even know what these things mean. there could be a sushi restaurant called 'kandahar.' there is a tim hortons in kandahar, and a royal bank branch in dubai. i could go to dubai and use an ATM without incurring service fees.

+"come on, at least we don't have cancer, right?"

+ new records!

• broadcast, the future crayon (2006): this is a rarities collection, spanning 1998-2005. seeing broadcast live in 2003 was very exciting. this is uneven, naturally, but nice to have and really lovely. i like what this band does!
  
• leonard cohen, songs from a room (1969): i have not really listened to this much yet. just enough to know that it's terribly poker-faced. i'm far more interested by nu-cohen than classic cohen. i like him with a sense of humour. i'll spend more time with it.
  
• jim cuddy, the light that guides you home (2006) : this is solid.
  
• sloan, never hear the end of it (2006) : hooray; sloan is interesting again! i'd almost forgotten all about sloan, but this album is really, really enjoyable.
  
• joni mitchell, clouds (1969) : i can't believe that i've never heard this album before. i've probably listened to the mid-'70s albums more than anything else i own, from age 14 on. somehow i've always missed it, and never considered it consequential enough to pick up. initially, it's her weakest album. i will need to spend more time with it.
  
• jane siberry, bound by the beauty (1989) : not sure why i don't have more of her records. this one is really enjoyable, despite the dodgy production sound and sometimes trite arangements. it was only $7.99!
  
• yo la tengo, i am not afraid of you and i will beat your ass (2006) : better than summer sun, for sure. the first half is really fantastic, but i'll have to spend more time with the second half.
  

i made a conscious effort to only get albums that i hadn't already heard. it's a different way of getting to know albums. i'm trrying to restrict my soulseek habit to things that i can't get elsewhere. such as endless versions of what the world needs now is love. i've got 16 different takes now. i especially enjoy the version by sergio mendes and brazil '66, who were a easy-listening machine along the lines of herb alpert and the tijuana brass whose gimmick was running pop songs through a bossa nova filter with multiple vocalists. these are the things that ground me.