Tiger Bean

Tiger Bean
Rants & Roars

Saturday, January 03, 2004

posted by Cherine | 10:04 PM

Hello? Anybody out there? Saw Something's About to Give this evening. The chemistry between Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson was positively electric. I loved the movie - can't recommend it enough. I put forth the caveat, however, that I am a hopeless romantic and always fall hard for romantic comedies. The rub though is that inevitably these kinds of movies get me thinking about the lack of romance in my own life. I realize that the type of Jack&Diane soulmate/destiny kinda love, as portrayed in the movie, is pretty much a Hollywood mythology, but is too much to ask that there's a decent guy out there somewhere that I might be able to have five minutes of intelligent, thoughtful conversation with? That I might be able to fathom inviting into my bedroom? To date, he's remained maddeningly elusive. I think I met him once, but he turned out to be already married. Now, there's a movie.

posted by Cherine | 9:59 PM

Friday, January 02, 2004

To read or not to read? Today was the day of marathon reading for my seminar on risk communications, which begins on Monday. Polished off three of the articles before my eyes finally went caput. More than three house of consecutive reading always turns my eyes to jello - a genetic weakness. My grandfather, who in his day was an esteemed lawyer, labour specialist, professor, and dictionary writer (yes, he actually wrote dictionaries, how cool is that?) in Egypt, ultimately went blind. It's my greatest fear. So, I saved my eyes for another day, put the hi-liter aside, ventured into the arctic tundra outside my condo and headed off to see House of Sand and Fog. Chinook was packed. Apparently every other person in Calgary also decided to go see a movie tonight.

I enjoyed the movie, though I can't say the earth moved. I mostly enjoyed it because of Ben Kingsley. I'm the only person I know who thinks that bald, crotchety old actor is hotter than shit. Love him. And he gave one hell of a performance to boot. The movie is based on Andre Dubus III's book of the same name. I've seen two Dubus stories now on the screen (the other one being In the Bedroom), but have yet to crack the spine of one of his books. Sign of our times, I guess. Why read the book when you can see the movie? For a bibilophile like me, this is not good, in fact it's the beginning of the end. But resist one must, even when it means you need to hold your magnifying glass and your head nanoinches from the paper as you struggle make out the words. Exactly what my grandfather was doing the last time I saw him alive.

posted by Cherine | 11:53 PM

Thursday, January 01, 2004

Tonight, we ride! Over six months since my last post. I've been launched out of my indolence by my friend's brother, Mike, who I spent New Year's Eve with in Canmore. We live in different parts of the country and yet it was revealed that we both came to blogging via a mutual acquaintance, Not My Dog. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of how he came to know Jane exactly (not sure even if they've met tete-a-tete), because, oddly enough, the shock of the revelation eclipsed all further discussion on the matter. A truly uncanny six degrees of separation moment. Turns out that while I've been perusing Not in My Back Yard via Not My Dog I've been unwittingly tapping into the random thoughts of Anne's brother! The subversiveness of the Internet has no bounds, and apparently, has a seemingly endless capacity to shock me.

So thanks to Not My Dog, Not in My Back Yard, Anne and New Year's Eve in Canmore, Tiger Bean has returned from the urban jungle in which she was lost and at last will blog again.

Plus, it's January 1 and what better day to make a new resolution? Despite years, nay decades, of not even coming within a football field's length of meeting the lofty resoluations I set for myself, on the first day of January my terminal case of resolutionitis flares up again and I find myself convinced that this year will be the one. So without further ado, here are the improvements I will strive to make to my meagre self to awaken the Uberbeing laying comatose within me:

1. Run Police Half Marathon on April 25th. Goal time: 2:15.
2. Maintain zero debt on credit card. For me, this would be a seminal achievement in my life.
3. Read 52 books. Note to self: you made this exact same resolution last year and managed to read a whopping 16 novels. Ok, then. If I make it to 26, close enough. (Current read: How to Be Alone: Essays by Jonathan Franzen).
4. Write a short story.
5. Entertain at home (read: cook) more often.
6. Blog every day.

There are a couple of others, but they are too personal for public consumption. It should be noted that last year I actually kept two of my resolutions (completed a triathlon; got the swanky corporate job, which actually has improved 300-fold since my last blog). In Tiger Bean's eyes then, 2003 was considered to be a smashing success.

posted by Cherine | 10:29 PM