Scott Pilgrim saw a woman in the Wychwood Library and he fell in love. The woman was Ramona Flowers, an American who had recently moved to Toronto. She was working for Amazon, as a delivery girl, and Scott used this knowledge to get her to him, and get her to go out with him. Shortly after their relationship starts, Scott learns he must defeat her seven evil exes if he wants to keep her. Books one through five chronicle his journey in defeating the first six of her evil-exes¹

In Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, Pilgrim faces the final evil ex, Gideon.

For those who are unfamiliar with the series, it’s basically an old-school video game which is not grounded in the real world. The only thing remotely realistic about this is how well and accurate O’Malley draws and represents Toronto.

Scot is an asshole. He’s been an asshole to all the previous women in his life; he’s been an asshole to Wallace, his roommate and best friend; he’s been an asshole to his band, Sex Bob-omb; and he’s even been an asshole to his girlfriend Ramona. Yet we still like the character, I have no idea why, because he doesn’t deserve any compassion, but O’Malley does a great job of making Pilgrim’s personality something we can overlook.

Spoilers ahoy.

In this final book, we learn that Ramona is an asshole, too. Sigh. That’s good, however, because when Scott and Ramona end up together at the end of the book, we can be happy that they’ve both grown and learned from their pasts, and that they deserve one another.

O’Malley did a rather good job of wrapping up the Pilgrim storyline. The main characters all resolve their issues with their surrounding supporting characters who then go on to leave full productive lives. Here’s hoping the film does just as well as a job at wrapping up the story, seeing as the script was written before the final book.

1. Two are a set of twins, so they get to share a book. [↩]

[The Liberals]¹ bit the dust because they treated Parliament with contempt.²

BT Richardson’s Canada & Mr. Diefenbaker is a book which isn’t so much about the then-Prime Minister, but is more about Canada in 1962. I thought it was really ambitious to write a biography of a sitting Prime Minister, but I was mistaken, Richardson wasn’t talking about Diefenbaker’s childhood and early years, he was talking about Canada. Even in the few chapters that did discuss Diefenbaker was more interested in painting the picture of a family living in rural Ontario³ and moving out to Saskatchewan to start a new life with free land and the great opportunities of this new western expansion. The specifics of Dief and his parents is barely touched upon, thus creating a classic Canadian story which could be related to by most 1960s Canadians. Instead of Diefenbaker as a person, Richardson discusses Canada’s place in North America, the Commonwealth, bank policies, the downside of the Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition Lester B. Pearson⁴,

Richardson talks at length about James Coyne, who was at one time Governor of the Bank of Canada. His policies were at odds with the Tory government. Thusly, six months before his contract expired, Diefenbaker’s government passed a bill through the Lower House which would relieve Coyne of his job. It was vetoed by the Liberal-held Senate. His statements on the Senate seem to frame Canada in this frozen political landscape.

The Senate’s rarely used power of veto has never been accepted by the Canadian voters as a true curb on representative government. On the other hand, it has never been repudiated by the voters, either. The Coyne affair brought closer the day of Senate reform, which has never quite materialized.

The Canadian Senate has one hundred and two members⁵, when it has no vacancies, and its working force is only a fraction of that number.

And it doesn’t stop there. Richardson’s descriptive of his pre-centenial Canada’s issues seems to mirror many of the 21st-century Canada’s issues, but there are two distinct differences between between modern Canada and that of Diefenbaker’s Canada. We read about the Progressive Conservative party which Diefenbaker was the leader of, and we cannot help but see more similarities between that party and the Liberal Party than we can see between the PCs and the Harper led Conservative Party of Canada. Diefenbaker came out of rural Saskatchewan, and fought to make the PCs a viable party in a land dominated by the Social Credit party and Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (who would later become the NDP). Yes, western Canada was once dominated by the left-wing values of the NDP.

Finally, the other major difference is the Canada that Richardson knows is a Canada of pioneers who came from the United Kingdom and France. They colonized the lands we know now. The Canada I know is a land of immigrants. Canada has seen so many immigrants come into our nation that it is no longer English and French, it’s now every ethnicity known to man.

Another worry that Richardson was that Canada was slowly getting more and more confident and less and less of an inferiority complex, I’m not sure why he saw it leaving, but he predicuted that “the risk that Canadians now run is that they will present to the world the image of materialistic, loud mouthed people with pockets stuffed with money.” Something that only recently happened for the first time, and that was during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.⁶

I’m finally going to end with a quote of former foreign minister Sidney Smith’s which was quoted in the book. He was discussing Canadian and American cooperation, and these are words that I wish George W. Bush had taken to heart.

True Friendship cannot be wrecked by honest frankness.

1. Specifically Louis St. Laurent. [↩]
2. The Liberals lost the 1957 election, but had been in power since Mackenzie King’s regained power in 1935. For those bad at math, that’s 22 years. [↩]
3. William Diefenbaker actually lived in Todmorden, which is a few metres from my Toronto house. [↩]
4. Something I hope he regretted when Pearson proved himself to be one of the greatest Canadian Prime Ministers. [↩]
5. One hundred and five today. [↩]
6. Can you blame us? We won the Olympics! [↩]

Judging by the time, I’m going to guess that I’m somewhere over Saskatchewan¹², and so far I’ve read more than half of Sarah Silverman’s debut book The Bedwetter. Last night³, I took a walk along the Danforth in Toronto to visit the bank, and on my way back, I popped into Book City.

I had two books to take with me on my trip, and though my trip is only five days, I tend to pound through the reading while on vacation, and if I’m going to attempt to visit a beach, I’ll need to find a way to not get bored, because beaches are boring. So here, I sit, laptop on tray, with a Canadian in hand⁴, pondering the meaning of Sarah Silverman’s book.

For those uninitiated, Sarah Silverman is a Jew. Oh, and she’s also a comedian, but do you really need to add that? Jew and comedian are practically synonyms, just look at me, and my hilarious Jew-ways. Silverman is the front-woman of her hilariously outrageous show The Sarah Silverman Program, and created the outstanding DVD of her standup Jesus is Magic.

The book is an autobiography, and though there don’t seem to be any major life altering events, it’s still an interesting read. Silverman’s humour shines through. It perfectly excels at what it aims to be, bathroom reading to make you laugh. The only difference being that I read it on an airplane rather than on the crapper.

OH! I think we’re over Alberta now, I see mountains.

That was a fun trip. I took the SkyTrain into the city, and my god, the TTC could learn a thing or two from Vancouver. Then I took a short bus⁵ around to the area where my hotel was. I was slightly confused by the walk, but it was cool. The hotel wasn’t ready for me yet, so I had to wait, I stowed my bag and headed to the beach!

So, here’s the thing about Vancouver’s beach versus Toronto’s beach. It’s a real beach. Theirs is on a bloody ocean, ours is on a lake, sure it’s a GREAT lake, but it’s a lake. It also kinda smells⁶.

While I was on the beach, I continued reading, and even finished the book. Hooray! The book continues and gets more into her career than into just her early life. It’s really more of the same, however what I really liked was the chapter about her being a Jew. Did you know she’s a Jew?

1. Send someone to fetch us, we’re in Saskatchewan.” – Kermit The Frog & Fozzie Bear [↩]
2. Yup, it looks flat and boring out there. [↩]
3. Well, two nights ago, if you’re reading this when it’s posted and not when I wrote it. [↩]
4. Mmm, mediocre lager. [↩]
5. Not a school bus, but the buses we in Toronto use for Wheel-Trans. Weird. [↩]
6. Lake Ontario, not the Pacific Ocean [↩]

In December, I set goals for myself, how many films to see this year, how many shows to attend, how many records to purchase, and how many books to read. This is the standings, as of the end of February…

Books I read (6/10) – 60%:
Nothing this month.

Films I saw (32/52) – 61%:
The Sweet Hereafter | Originally released 1997   
Nine | Originally released 2009
The Runaways
Sleeper | Originally released 1973

Albums I bought (24/52) – 46%:
“My Father’s House” b/w “The Digger” (Regional 7″ Volume 2) by $100   
What The Boat Gave The River by Mark Berube & The Patriotic Few   
new EP by Fred Squire   

Shows I attended (14/52) – 27%:
Daniel, Fred & Julie (w/ Baby Eagle & Jerry Leger) @ The Horseshoe Tavern; April 16, 2010   
The Cheap Speakers (w/ Mark Berube and The Patriotic Few, Lordy Lordy & Big Crimes) @ El Mocambo; April 17, 2010   
Sloan, The Meligrove Band, Adam Green & Valery Gore @ Sonic Boom; April 18, 2010   
Daniel, Fred & Julie @ Soundscapes; April 26, 2010   

Books I read (6/10) – 60%:
Overqualified by Joey Comeau | Originally published 2009  
Fear of Fighting by Stacey May Fowles & Marlena Zuber | Originally published 2008  
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 4 Time Of Your Life by Jeph Loeb & Joss Whedon | Originally published 2009
Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby  | Originally released 2009
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 5 Predators & Prey by Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, Steven S. DeKnight, Drew Z Geenberg, Jim Krueger, Doug Petrie & Georges Jeanty | Originally published 2009

Films I saw (28/52) – 54%:
In The Loop | Originally released 2009
Inglourious Basterds | Originally released 2009
Eastern Promises | Originally released 2007   
The Last Station | Originally released 2009
The Silent Partner | Originally released 1978   
Shivers | Originally released 1975   
Zombieland | Originally released 2009
Videodrome | Originally released 1983   
Weird Sex and Snowshoes | Originally released 2004   
Les Raquetteurs | Originally released 1958   

Albums I bought (23/52) – 44%:
Thrush Hermit box set   

Shows I attended (11/52) – 21%:
Bitter City & Ramona @ Rancho Relaxo; March 25, 2010   
Thrush Hermit (w/ All Night Long) @ Lee’s Palace; March 26, 2010   
Thrush Hermit (w/ Attack In Black) @ Lee’s Palace; March 27, 2010   

Duncan is a fan of Tucker Crowe, a singer-songwriter from the ’80s who’s last record Juliette was critically acclaimed. Out of the blue, Crowe abandoned his career. Duncan, and Annie are touring the United States on a pilgrimage to the homeland of his beloved¹. Duncan spends much his time evaluating, critiquing, and discussing Crowe’s brief artistic output along with a small fanbase on the internet.

I am a fan, or at least was, and have spent way too much time on an internet message board dedicated to this band. The fictional message board in Hornby’s novel is filled with middle-aged men who are constantly discussing the work of a long retired musician. The real message board is filled with a vast array of twenty-somethings who rarely discuss the band in question, and more frequently are interested in Picode’s Thursday ritual, Anne’s bathtime, Danada’s over-informative posts, wondering who will bring the pop and chips², pretending that Ed MacMahon was actually a friend of ours³, discussing Que’s Super-wang, or being told to suck a deaf white woman’s “big black cock.” I can relate to Duncan, I understand that internet community, I have made some of my best friends through this message board⁴, but I can’t relate to Duncan, because he looks down on his  fellow Crowe-natics⁵, he’s their intellectual superior and is right about everything⁶.

Duncan and Annie return home from their American vacation to find an envelope addressed to Duncan. Duncan ignores it and goes to work, Annie opens it and discovers it’s a new Crowe release, Juliet, Naked, a collection of demos compiled together for the first time. Tension ensues, as Annie listens to it before Über-fan has a chance to, and worse yet, Crowe himself likes her negative review of the album, and contacts her.

I think that’s a place to stop in the story, doesn’t give away too much.

It’s a Nick Hornby novel. If you’ve ever read one of his novels, you know what to expect, love, rock and roll, hopeless relationships, the usual. In addition, it might be Hornby’s best novel. I don’t think he’s ever written for female characters before (or at least I don’t remember) and his writing of Annie is damn good. The characters are much more mature than in any of his previous work.

Overall, I likes it! And it gave me an excuse to write about the SMB!⁷⁸

1. Tucker, not Annie. [↩]
2. We all know this will be GG. [↩]
3. We miss you, ya Mary! [↩]
4. Real life friends, too! One even lives across the street from me, and is the one who lent me the book. [↩]
5. That’s Crowe and fanatics. [↩]
6. I’m definitely right that PT is the worst record ever. [↩]
7. SMB party time at the Horseshoe during the Thrush Hermit reunion! WOOO! [↩]
8. I’m drunk. [↩]

I used to work at a computer store. It wasn’t a great job. I worked in corporate sales. My then-coworker Vince¹ used to befriend his clients, he really liked them. I didn’t get it. Customers were the bane of my existence, they came in, asked stupid questions, wanted better pricing, took up time that could be better used drinking, or reading, or what-have-you.

Maybe this is why I wasn’t a very good salesman, I never understood the joy of sales, to me, the job was a means to an end, not a career, but a stop-gap until I figured out what the hell I wanted to do with my life. Surprisingly it worked, that job led to my career. I’m a twenty-something with a CAREER. Back then, I was a character from Clerks, two-dimensional characters making Star Wars jokes. Sure there were a handful of stories I could tell from my time there, which did give me joy. There was the time I fixed Geordi LaForge’s iPod.² I also created a flag in the company POS, for what we called lame-ass celebrities,³ then we’d type in “LAC” under keywords.

“My lord, what the hell does this have to do with that book cover pictured above?”

I was getting there. I had this one⁴ client, Stacey Fowles, a really incredible woman. She was working for a non-profit, who went through a lot of ink. I tried to convince them to switch to colour lasers, they nixed that, oh well, it meant I got to see Stacey more often. I looked forward to her visits, and when she’d pop by we’d spend an hour or two on the sales floor chatting, rarely about anything work related, with lots of “I should get back to my desk” or “I should get back to my office.” It’s through her that I learned the term “gaybourhood” which I much prefer to “the village” and use in everyday conversation.⁵ I assume she doesn’t remember me, but I enjoyed that intermittent friendship we had.

So Stacey was writing her first novel, somehow I believed that she was actually writing a novel, and not one of the million people who are “writing a novel.”⁶ She wrote that novel, it’s called Be Good, and it’s really good. The day I found out it was published, being the poor stalker I am, it was considerably after it was published, I immediately hopped in my car and drove to da Yorkdale.⁷ I read the book cover-to-cover… over the span of a week, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now, sick in bed, a couple years later I had the opportunity to read her second novel, Fear of Fighting, over the past two days.

Bored as you are with my personal attachment to Ms. Fowel’s writing, I’ll now tell you about the novel.

Fear of Fighting is told in the first-person by Marni, a twenty-something woman who guides the audience through her relationship with Ben. From first “date” when Marni stands by his side as he wretches, through sex, through love, through aggression, through breakup, through hatred, through acceptance and standing by Ben’s new girlfriend’s side as she wretches.

Fowles’⁸ describes a breakup that is perhaps the most accurate and bare of any I’ve previously read.

In our final days Ben got drunk more often and I got high more often, and it got to the point where all the time we spent together was simply time spent watching Battlestar Galactica and tolerating each other via intoxicants. Ben would fall asleep on the couch to avoid sharing a bed with me, and while he slept and snored I would stare at him with utter disgust.

Her prose are compelling, straight to the point, and beautiful in their nude honesty. She will occasionally include a chapter, which is four pages at the most, told from the voice of Neil, her older neighbour who’s in love with her, but she assumes is gay, based on the fact that they live in the gaybourhood. It’s a narrative choice she made in Be Good, to tell the story using different voices, and I think in Fowles’ first novel causes a clutter that is often hard to navigate between. With Fear of Fighting, Fowles clears up the clutter, and the narrative jumps are much clearer and better aid the narrative of the story.⁹

Fowles doesn’t pull punches, and chapter 24, which is transcribed below in its entirety really sums up Marni’s paranoia, and depression.

I think at some point the fear of dying alone outweighs the fear of fucking the same person for the rest of your life.

Because I knew Stacey in the limited nature of a flirty, but professional relationship, reading this book I’m seeing many aspects of the woman I once knew in Marni, but it’s hard to resolve my mind’s connections between Stacey and Marni. The Stacey I knew was never insecure or unsure of the woman she was, and that is the central makeup of who Marni is and yet there are so many pieces here and there which I relate to the author and so while reading it I was imagining Stacey, an altered Stacey, but a Stacey none the less. Those who have never met her, fortunately will never make that connection, and so they can see Marni as I’m sure she’s intended.

I’ll leave you with one of my favourite excerpts from the novel.

I can remember a time before, when I was not this alone. A time before, when I was part of a “we.” I got invited to dinner parties and was treated as if I was worth something more simply because I had someone to share my bed with. That’s the way the world works; people in partnerships are somehow worth more simply because they have someone to consistently fuck.

ETA: Allegra says this post makes it sound like the book is a “chick book” and I thought I’d mention that it totally is.

All my best,
Adam

1. Vince later became my coworker once again, when my current employer took my suggestion that hiring him would be brilliant. [↩]
2. I fail at geek, I had to check to see how to spell Geordi’s name. [↩]
3. Mike Bullard. [↩]
4. I should amend this and say there was one other client, Richard Bell, he played keyboards for Janis Joplin, The Band, Burrito Deluxe and numerous other bands. He died a few years back. One of the most genuinely sincere men I’ve had the pleasure to meet, and it took about a year before I knew who he was beyond that really nice customer. [↩]
5. Such as, “going to the gaybourhood is a great ego boost.” [↩]
6. If you’re wondering, I’m not. [↩]
7. If you too had a Yiddish Bubie, you’d also call it “da Yorkdale.” [↩]
8. If I write “Stacey’s” it seems like I’m saying the voice is her own and not that of Marni’s. If I say “Fowles’” it sounds too distant from the woman I knew. [↩]
9. As I’m sure my second post using footnotes will better aid the narrative of the post. [↩]

Overqualified tells the story of a troubled soul. The protagonist loses his brother in an accident with a drunk driver. Then the remaining parts of his life seem to crumble around him. The narrative is told through over-informative and awkward cover letters.

The author, Joey Comeau, might be known to you as the man behind the words of A Softer World, an online comic known for its strangely depressing sense of humour.

Though the novel is short and only took me a couple hours to read, it’s wonderful. The dark humour is a great way to spend a sick day in bed.

I’ll leave you with another strip from A Softer World… you should be a fan.

I recently finished reading a book which I bought for my mother’s birthday in August. When I gave it to her, I told her that I’d have to borrow it when she was done. My mother, a former English teacher, is one of those people with a list of books to read as long as her arm, so it did take some time to get to it.

The book, Heaven is Small by Emily Schultz, begins with:

Moments after his death, an event he had failed to notice, Gordon Small sought new employment.

That first sentence immediately captures the audience, and the story of Gordon, a recently deceased writer whospent the better part of his life working dead-end jobs, now in death has found a job in publishing as a proofreader for Heaven, a romance novel publishing house. The dead 30-something is bombarded by images of his ex-wife, who’s new novel once again overshadows him. Eventually Small puts two and two together and finds a means to contact his ex from the grave.

It sounded interesting, and that’s why I chose it for my mother. It’s hard to buy literature for someone, as it’s always a wonder if they’ll like it, but I figured a novel by a Toronto writer could perhaps peak my mother’s interest in the local literary community, something I know nothing about. I went with the idea that I was interested in reading it, and hopefully that was good enough. Now that I’ve read it, I’ll talk more in depth with my mother about her thoughts on it, beyond “weird.”

My thoughts, however, are that it’s great. It’s an interesting situation that Small finds himself in, and he’s surrounded by a very interesting cast of characters. It’s a very quick read, and a great way to spend a Saturday. Schultz’s narrative is witty and compelling. I suggest you read it. Did you know there was this great tool called the Toronto Public Library? You can borrow a copy from there, FOR FREE! There’s a bit of a line, but here’s the link.

Next up: Overqualified by Joey Comeau & Fear of Fighting by Stacey May Fowles. Stacey’s awesome.

In December, I set goals for myself, how many films to see this year, how many shows to attend, how many records to purchase, and how many books to read. This is the standings, as of the end of February…

Books I read (2/10 – 20%):
Heaven Is Small by Emily Schultz | Originally published 2009

Films I saw (19/52 – 36.5%):
Whip It | Originally released 2009
24 Hours On Craigslist | Originally released 2005
The Princess And The Frog | Originally released 2009
The Secret of Kells | Originally released 2009
An Education |  Originally released 2009
Invictus | Originally released 2009
The Blind Side | Originally released 2009
The Hurt Locker | Originally released 2009

Albums I bought (22/52 – 42.3%):
Next Year In Zion by Herman Düne (vinyl) | Originally released 2008
Realism by The Magnetic Fields (CD + vinyl)
The Beatles Stereo Box Set | Originally released 2009

• Please Please Me by The Beatles | Originally released 1963
• With The Beatles by The Beatles | Originally released 1963
• A Hard Day’s Night by The Beatles | Originally released 1964
• Beatles For Sale by The Beatles | Originally released 1964
• Help! by The Beatles | Originally released 1965
• Rubber Soul by The Beatles | Originally released 1965
• Revolver by The Beatles | Originally released 1966
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles | Originally released 1967
• Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles | Originally released 1968
• The Beatles by The Beatles | Originally released 1968
• Yellow Submarine by The Beatles | Originally released 1969
• Let It Be by The Beatles | Originally released 1970
• Abbey Road by The Beatles | Originally released 1969
• Past Masters by The Beatles | Originally released 1988

Shows I attended (7/52 – 13.5%):
The Magnetic Fields (w/ Laura Barrett) @ Queen Elizabeth II Theatre; February 8, 2010
The Hidden Cameras, Owen Pallett, Thomas, Kids On TV, The Barcelona Pavilion, Mean Red Spiders, Neck a.k.a. Christiana, Boars @ The Garrison; February 14, 2010