Almost yesterday

Tonight (/last night) was Nocturne - the Halifax nighttime art crawl. I missed it last year (adapting to a new city and getting used to my little corner of the city took all of my energy), but this year I really wanted to go. We wandered in and out of galleries, and saw a lot of (ahem) interesting work. My favourite moment, though, was when we walked into a (really rad) local store, Love, Me, and I realized after a moment that someone was sitting on a chair in the middle of the space, singing with a lovely voice. (This is her, Mary Stewart, below.) The moment (and her voice and songs) was so organic and simple and natural.

I also loved walking down Barrington, where two sets of shop windows on either side were set up to have rolling waves crashing down (in video format) on them. Ocean sounds were being played loudly. It sounds sort of ridiculous, and I don't know if I'm getting it across very well, but it was quite... Interesting? Evocative? Compelling? These were the "looking-at-art buzzwords" we were bandying about. I think most of them fit.

Welcome to May

On my list of ever evolving life goals I have this point: Have a magnolia tree in my yard. I walked outside the other day to see bits of pink emerging from what until then had been hard greenish buds. I looked closer. A magnolia tree. Right outside my window.


The top rectangular window there is mine.

Check.

I would like to continue having Magnolia trees in all of my yards from this point on, please and thank you.

University of King's College

This is the place where I live. Look how quaint. I love it. A lot.

Tonight was "Big Night" and it was ay-may-zing. The talent here. There was a pirate band, that I can't remember what they're called, but I love them.

And Ron's most hilarious diary entries from 2000. But they were made up.

I wish I could post clips.

It's weird how much of an inside thing this part of my life is.

I go out walking (way before midnight)

Today is such a glorious day that I had to abandon homework in favour of a long walk. It was so beautiful, and warm, and even though the trees are still bare I feel spring. Heck, I almost feel summer.

Two pictures from the walk:

When you live somewhere with winter for the first time

I am having wintertime firsts, and it is so exciting. The snow, today, was different than any other snow I have been in. Walking across the snow, it started to crack under my feet. The top layer was brittle, and it shifted and crunched down in big pieces as I shifted my weight. It felt like walking on top of a giant pie. I reached down and picked up a disk of the top layer of ice/snow, and tossed it like a frisbee. Luckily I didn't hit anyone.

It was cool. I feel about five.

Halfway there

I wanted the title for this post to be check, check, check, check. As in: I got all of the things on my to do list done. Alas, I did not. I got a little more than half of them done, though, plus some other ones.

Things I did do:
Had coffee (Way to get things accomplished, Angela) (I mean Ella)!
Bought my ticket to Halifax (probably have more to say about this... Booking a flight = wow, this is really happening. In less than two months I will be LIVING IN a whole other city. This was a one way flight. No return. No return (ominous music here)! I felt so nervous as I handed over my credit card. Eek. Okay, deep breaths. I will love it.)

Things I half did:
Went to Au Petit Cafe for Banh Mi. Actually I went for the second time to Kim Saigon Sandwiches (the second time in a week... yum). I really want to try the Au Petit Cafe ones, because they are consistently voted the best in the city, but it was too far for today. And the Kim Saigon ones are pretty delicious... will post further about this delightful experience later.

Things I didn't do:
Go see The Visitor. Apparently (argh) the Granville 7 (cheapest regular tickets in the city) no longer has matinees! Or at least during the week they don't! Even though a showtime was on the internet for today at 1:50! Okay, maybe it was on the internet yesterday... but still. So sad. I love weekday matinees. Fortunately...

Things I did instead:
I love solitary trips to the art gallery almost as much as solitary weekday matinees. My membership to the Vancouver Art Gallery runs out at the end of this month, and I've been meaning to go see KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art since it opened. It was a really cool exhibit to wander around, but my favourite part was the fact that they had shelves full of graphic novels and benches where you could sit and read them. I discovered Shaun Tan, whose work is thrillingly beautiful.
His drawings are so richly detailed and sumptuous.
I'm fairly sure I've seen another of his books before, but these two drawings (it feels almost insufficient to call them that. There should be another word invented just for these.) are from The Arrival, which is a beautiful book that is entirely illustrated, with no text, no speech bubbles, just wonderfully evocative greyscale imagery.

Then I went and bought expensive sunglasses (of course the ones that looked and felt the best were the priciest, although not ridiculously so in the grand scheme of sunglass pricing) BUT! I found out that the dress I bought the other week had been reduced in price by half, so I got $40 (!!!) back. So that paid for most of the sunglasses.

I love days off!