Watch and Learn

Recently I treated myself and ordered one of Mr. Jones' beautiful watches.  I think his watches are not just beautiful but also thought provoking and unusual.  I chose the Cyclops, and really do think of it more as a piece of jewelry rather than a timepiece.  Whenever I look at it to try to figure out what time it is, I just get distracted by how pretty it is and forget why I need to know what the time is.  It is very relaxing in this way.

I also love how it reminds me of the Chromatic Diet from Sophie Calle's Double Game, in which she responds to the use Paul Auster made of her in his novel Leviathan.  I read Double Game in the library a week or two ago (although I have not yet read Leviathan), and really enjoyed Calle's work.  She seems like the best kind of crazy (and so very lucky that her father was willing to fill her bank account with francs until she made it as an artist).

Often when I look at the watch, I try to relate the mood and feel of the colours to the activities I commonly undertake at that particular time of day.  What makes 4 am or 4 pm green, anyway?  Considering that I have clocks almost constantly in sight--on my laptop, my work computers, my iPod, my cell phone--a watch that makes me think of something besides time is a very pleasant thing indeed.

Have I mentioned how pretty it is?  I would like to collect twelve nail polishes that exactly match the watch so that I can alternate but always co-ordinate.

Desk versus Desk

Today when I left my helicopter job, my desk looked like this:

And when I arrived at the library half an hour later, my desk looked like this:

Meat & Potatoes #48

Aired Sunday September 18.

I nearly fell over one day in the library last week when my wandering eyes happened upon this book:

I have wanted to read Invisible Cities for years and years and years, but have never come across it so conveniently before.  Despite the long wait and the anticipation, it did not disappoint.  I shared the love on the radio last Sunday, and read several of the short chapters, interspersed with (totally unrelated) music.

1. Elvis Presley--Suspicious Minds
2. Chad VanGaalen--Sara
3. Orillia Opry--Lucky Wind
4. Jane Vain & the Dark Matter--C'mon Baby Say Bang Bang
5. Final Fantasy--The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead
6. Bell Orchestre--Quintet
7. Beirut--Brandenburg
8. Chic Gamine--Say It
9. Melissa McClelland--A Girl Can Dream
10. Luke Doucet & the White Falcon--Cleveland
11. Fleet Foxes--The Sun It Rises
12. Iron & Wine--Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)
13. Bon Iver--Bracket, WI
14. Slow Club--Giving Up on Love
15. Wintersleep--Weight Ghost
16. Patrick Watson--Giver
17. Jefferson Airplane--Plastic Fantastic Lover
18. Velvet Underground--Sweet Jane
19. Led Zeppelin--You Shook Me
20. Queen--Fat Bottomed Girls
21. David Bowie--Young Americans
22. Daryl Hall & John Oates--Maneater
23. Robbie Williams--Millenium

Mind.Blown #2

Domus is a gorgeous design and architecture magazine.  English and Italian text live side-by-side; this adds a certain level of sex appeal.  Today in the library I read the special report on hotels (August 2011, I believe), and now feel the need to travel, solely for the purpose of staying in hotels.  The Domus-inspired grand tour would have to include:

• Dar HI in Nefta, Tunisia.  My preference would be for one of the Pill Houses.
• Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, Germany.  Almost unbearably hip, but if I'm fantasy-travelling, then I'm also cool enough to get in the door.
• Lloyd Hotel, Amsterdam.  Because it's time I associate Amsterdam with something other than John Irving novels.

Clearly I have a few stops to make after Vietnam and after Russia.  Maybe I enjoy planning vacations more than I enjoy taking them?  No, wait.  That doesn't sound quite right...

Mind.Blown #1

Of all strange things, I have landed a job as Library Technician at the art school here in Dawson.  Add that to my other job title of Tech Records and Quality Assurance, and my other ([un]official) titles of filmmaker, artist, radio host, Vice-President of the Board of Directors, committee member (x2), and I sound like I am an awfully busy person.  I am an awfully busy person.  But this library gig is amazing: when I received my master key to the school, I felt like I had been given the key to the universe.

I have hardly begun to explore the 1700 volumes housed in the SOVA Library, or looked at the dozens of beautiful periodicals, or figured out what we have access to online, but I know I am going to find incredible books, dvds and magazines at every turn.  So I am going to keep a list, starting with these gems:

• "DIY: Make Your Own Vegetable Orchestra" in the summer 2011 issue of Musicworks.  This is exactly what it sounds like (har har):  instructions for how to make a carrot slide whistle, parsnip oboe and carrot ocarina.  Musicworks; The Vegetable Orchestra; Mr. Koyama Junji on YouTube.
• Sophie Calle: M'as-tu vue is the catalogue for an exhibition at the Pompidou Centre.  I have already read the description of her fake marriage three times, and will read it again before I shelve the book.  N6853.C26
• Learning to Love You More is a collection of projects created in response to Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July's web-based art project of the same name.  It seems like it would be sickeningly sentimental, but the book is actually rather magical and poignant.  I may have to do an assignment or two.  N72.S6 F596
• Michael Snow: almost Cover to Cover is something that I am officially dying to read.  He was interviewed in Brick last winter, which made me suggest that we invite him up for film fest.  That didn't happen, but this book will help make up for that.  N6549.S66 A4

And now back to "work"...