foxtongue: (Default)
The first interview went extraordinarily well. We talked in the owner's office for over an hour, chatting about theater, arts culture, the people we have in common, and my job history. The second interview, a more serious thing with the office administrator, went fairly well. It was less casual, more the regular check list of the sort of formalized corporate queries I always find awkward, like "what is your five year plan?", to which I gave near desperate answers like "to work steadily at something I like until I win the lottery and can move somewhere warm enough to open a sloth preservation foundation." Despite this, they called the next morning and offered me the job. (While someone else at the office was apparently still on the phone with one of my references.)

So now I have a real job.

*ahem*

NOW I HAVE A REAL JOB.

Just in case you didn't get that.

As of first thing tomorrow morning, I will be the new office administrator/receptionist-in-training at Stage One Accounting, a firm specializing in entertainment industry clients, which no, is not a euphemism. I am thrilled, intimidated, and incredibly relieved. On one hand, accountants, my justifiable fear of math, working on Saturdays, and joining a tax office in January. On the other, everyone I've met there so far has been smart, funny, interesting, and competent, the sort of person I always feel lucky to make friends with, and reliable, solid pay-cheques from a company not running on crazy. Heaven!

Of course, because the universe is a quirky place, to add an extra dash of ridiculous to the whole situation, I have turned down three very promising job interviews since accepting the job just yesterday. Three! THREE! That's as many as I usually have in a MONTH. I have saved their numbers, though, just in case, as I cannot get over the foolish notion that I will sleep in and blow the whole thing, just out of some sort of residual existential despair left over from two years of unreliable contract work. David has offered to make certain that I'm awake tomorrow at seven, but even so, I am sure that when I go to bed tonight, it will be in dread.

Oh! And I totally got to chat with William Gibson tonight! And though I was initially terrified of speaking, it turns out we like each other! He thinks I'm "funny and smart"! Hooray! Exclamation mark! Annnnd! AND! I fit into my kilt again, just in time for Robbie Burns! EEEEEEEEE! PERSONAL VICTORY DAY! HAVE AT THEE!
foxtongue: (Default)
"We just completed the 12 -- foot diameter, 500 foot deep vertical shaft for the 10,000 Year Clock."
We used a mining technique called raise boring. Take a look at the video -- it's an interesting operation. Instead of drilling down from the top, you pull a large diameter reamer up to the surface from the bottom using a smaller diameter pilot hole -- more efficient than a top-down drill because the rubble isn't fighting gravity. It rains down beneath the advancing bore and gets hauled out a horizontal shaft at the bottom. Our next major step will be cutting the spiral stairway using a robotic stone cutting saw. In parallel, we're also manufacturing and testing the Clock components.
foxtongue: (moi?)
Spending this weekend in Seattle to attend the Ainsley baby shower and take some pictures of Rebecca's baby bump. It's going to be a great trip. Not only am I staying with some of my favourite people on the planet, there's plans in the works for an obscenely epic Friday. If you're in town, you should come! The rest of you, start your jealousy engines revving. I'm starting with an early dinner in Belltown, the better to attend the opening of a Kris Kuksi show at La Roc La Rue, (also featuring monochrome pop-alt darling Travis Louie), then dropping South to see the Scala Choir hit the stage at the Showbox. Oh yes. YES. Favourite tumbled upon favourite upon favourite. I'm drooooooling. Drooling like a happy kitty. Meaow purr durr.

Also, reading that over, I am considering that my considerable lack of sleep lately has left me with temporary brain damage.
foxtongue: (the welsh got you)
The Backwater Gospel, an unmissable Bachelor film project (2011) from The Animation Workshop.




Some other stunning shorts from the same school: Out of the Forest, (a long held personal favourite), The Lumberjack, (a very NFB tinted short), The Saga of Biorn, (funny even before the nuns), Mighty Antlers, (intense), Last Fall, (elegant steampunk horror), Pig Me, (fairly cute), and Dharma Dreameater, (entirely adorbz).
foxtongue: (the welsh got you)
FLUXBLOG 2010 SURVEY MIX:

This eight-disc, 157 song mix is a survey of some of the best and most notable music from 2010. It’s fairly comprehensive, covering indie, pop, rock, punk, folk, rap, R&B, soul, dance, country, modern classical, ambient and electronic music, and in many cases, hard-to-classify genre hybrids. I inevitably had to leave out some things, but I think you’ll find that this serves as both a helpful guide to some of the year’s most exciting music and a surprisingly listenable series of mixes. Discover new stuff! Rediscover familiar artists in a new context! Jam out to ten and a half hours of world-class tunes! If you enjoy this, please do pass it on.

mad skillz

Nov. 20th, 2010 08:42 pm
foxtongue: (the welsh got you)
Epic Victory!


Tony and I out on the mountain with Arron. Watch to the end for my double-take!
foxtongue: (the welsh got you)
What a roller-coaster! I started my week long 9 am - 4 pm employment program on Monday, luckily landing in with a bunch of unusually clever folks, only to fall deathly ill late Tuesday afternoon, (so feverish I deliriously went into convulsions and my mother stayed the night taking care of me), right after booking a wedding shoot for Saturday. All of Wednesday was lost to recovery, and today the fact that I only fell down once while walking around my apartment has been an incredible victory. Tomorrow I'm going back to my program anyway, then calling the groom, who I have never met and do not know, to finalize details, before meeting Tony's bus from Seattle, and racing as fast as possible on a broken foot over to the Folk Fest to catch Shane on the main stage. On Saturday morning, after what will feel like not half enough sleep, I will finally meet the bride and groom as they pick me up on their way to pick up a sailboat, which we will then sail over to the wedding, where I'm going to do my damnedest to not fall off a dock while trying to stay out of everyone's line of sight while still getting good pictures, while Tony likely sets off for the Folk Fest market, carrying my extra gear. If all goes well, we'll meet later at Granville Island for more pictures, the reception, and more pictures, where, who knows, maybe I'll even sit down. Will I be okay being so busy after being so sick and running around on broken bones? I don't know, but I can tell you this - I certainly don't have any plans yet for Sunday. Except to go to an evening movie and, oh yeah, Folk Fest until I drop. Hah!
foxtongue: (the welsh got you)
Via Xeni: Devo exploits cats to promote new record.
This CAT LISTENING PARTY on Ustream.tv for Devo's new release Something for Everybody is the best thing ever. Ongoing through 8pm PT today. The cats seem happy with the record, but there's an awful lot of toy mousie carnage.
foxtongue: (Default)
I was reading when when the tiny, bright bird flew in through the window and attempted, I suppose, to drink from the bright colours of my hair. To my credit, though it nearly surprised me out of my skin, I did not give in to my initial impulse to swat whatever was thrashing, panicked, a few inches away from my head. Instead I froze. I froze, and very gently began to turn, hoping sincerely that it was not a mouse, while putting my hand up, the better to support the creature as it was lifted from the cushion, held only by the tangled net of my hair. Imagine my surprise as I gathered the mystery in the palm of my hand, still swaddled in threads of hair, only to discover a hummingbird!

It was a beautiful thing, vibrant, green and red and amazing. I was astonished. Not only by the random luck of it, but the pure shock of discovering hummingbirds can be so far north. To my mind, they are practically tropical, another reason to love California. To discover one here in Seattle, a block away from the I5, against the backdrop of a gray, middling day, was shocking. It looked like a creature escaped from a fairy story, too much like a living jewel for rain or brick buildings, yet there is was, bound in my hair, beak like a black pin, feathers gleaming, chest thrumming, a lucid dream in the palm of my hand.
foxtongue: (while I hope)
our six month lunaversary


It was our six month anniversary this past weekend, so we went to Teatro ZinZanni, the dinner theater circus we went to on our very first date, as part of our glorious Halloween. Teatro ZinZanni celebrated with us, in turn, by signing us up for their costume contest, where we won third place! I'd never been in a costume contest before, so I was nervous, but it was ridiculously fun, and we won silly Teatro ZinZombie t-shirts. Plus, as a bonus, we were informed after that we were the number one staff pick! We're still thrilled. What better way to start an evening?

-::-

What was your costume(s)? Post pictures!
foxtongue: (dream machine)
  • Extremely rare shark found, then eaten

    Been addicted to Omegle all day, the chat program which connects you to a completely random stranger. I just wished a gay Brazilian teenager good luck on his exams, after spending a quite significant chunk of my day in a rather gratifying discussion with a Swedish student named Phillip about med school, music, Italian earthquakes, and, finally, the current global economic downturn and what it's been going to Iceland. It's also freaking fantastic for surreal fun, so much so I'm going to start a file of my favourite saved conversations. Have you got any?

  • Extinct bird rediscovered, then eaten
  • foxtongue: (femme)
    Six-Word Reviews of 1,302 SXSW MP3s
    via jwz:
    "You know, when I listened to all of the 2007 and 2008 SXSW torrents, I thought that was kind of hardcore.

    I was wrong.

    Paul Ford is hardcore. He listened to all of the 2008 songs, all the way through, and wrote six word reviews of each."

    Brilliant reviews, even. Fun, sparkling, delightful reviews like "This guitarist has too many feelings." rated with a well thought out yet amusingly arbitrary rating system gently broken into sections by band name anecdotes, clever charts, perceptive bon mots, and the occasional entertaining short-yet-rewarding paragraph about a particular song/artist/title/genre, like, "ANTHEM: This song by Born in the Flood is inexcusable. Consider: (1) It is called “Anthem,” and it is an anthem. (2) It sounds like Bono and the Edge riding around on Sparklehorses. (3) I can’t understand the lyrics but there’s a crown mentioned. It was heretofore considered impossible for any singer to overcome these cognitive challenges in order to create a distinct and memorable song. And yet this man does exactly that. Or to put it another way: When you were 23 and living alone without many friends and definitely no girlfriends, did you ever jerk off and cry at the same time? This is your song."

    In a word, the article was glorious. Even better, thankfully, oh so thankfully, Paul Ford has done it again. Click. Read. Enjoy.


    ps. Dan's review, four out of five stars, "It’s difficult, living as an automaton."
    foxtongue: (Default)
    thru-you.com, by Kutiman

    Music + (Video/Sample) x Mash-up = Sexy
    "What you are about to see is a mix of unrelated YouTube videos/clips
    edited together to make ThruYou. In other words, what you see is what you hear.
    Check out the credits for each video - you might find yourself..."

    Unbelievable. Kutiman's ambitious project, to create an astonishing album of meta-song videos slash home-sampled music made up of a ridiculously complicated collection of cleverly layered YouTube videos, is entirely successful. It sounds half-baked, especially given every song is a different genre, like the sort of thing an undergrad would try to throw together for a media studies class because it sounded relevant on paper and they could use words like "synergy" and "interscape" in the artist statement. Instead? It's amazing and I'm thrilled. The videos are bloody brilliant, super impressive, as unexpected as they are incredible and compelling. As someone on StumbleUpon said, "I can't favorite this hard enough."

    I've actually been trying to post this for days, but the site's been down. Hit by too many people, Kutiman's bandwidth went bork. Now that it's back, set aside twenty minutes, turn up your volume, turn off your power saving screen settings, and expect to have your socks knocked off.
    foxtongue: (Default)
    The Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret, makers of a magical and fantastical world,

    in collaboration with

    The Pivot Legal Society, purveyors of justice and equality,

    present to you...

    The Listening Jar.
    (facebook event page)

    Thursday February 26th
    until Sunday, March 1st
    Doors 7:00pm Show at 8:00pm
    Followed by a dance party and social

    Russian Hall 600 Campbell Ave. in Strathcona
    Advance Tickets $16

    Also available at
    Pivot Legal (678 E Hastings)
    $20 - $30 sliding scale at door

    One performance by donation
    Saturday, February 28
    Doors 2:00pm, Show at 3:00pm

    I'm lining up between noon and one o'clock on Saturday with treats from the Elizabeth Bakery.
    Come join me for a line-up picnic! Bring sandwiches!
    foxtongue: (Default)
    Meredith for Victory: Associated Press just covered her DIY home-genetically-engineered "glowgurt"

    Meredith and I met in SF earlier this month through (The Amazing) Julia and immediately bonded over my improbable desire to have kittens implanted in my womb. She is, how you say, awesome. I'm glad everyone else is starting to find that out too. Of course, as it likely goes without saying, I really like people with unexpected hobbies and passions and ideas. As far as I'm concerned, they make the world go 'round. I love the future. I love that we create it, that we have no choice but to carry on. I love that two people can look at the same moment in time and come away with staggeringly different ideas. I love that we invent, create and discover daily, that we have filled our world with language, poetry, mathematics, music, and ideals.

    Who are your bright favourites who make a difference, who spark in the night and inspire you to new plateaus of fascination? Who is it that makes life bearable, that springs eternal hope in your veins, that keeps making tomorrow seem an alright place to be? What do they do, how do they do it, and why does it matter to you?

    I want to know. Will you share?
    foxtongue: (Default)
    As a one hundred percent fantastic welcome back celebration, Duncan's using his night at the weekly secret film school to present...

    THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT
    a movie so good that it was introduced to me as a way to get into my pants.
    (Just typing that in caps sets the music off in my head)



    "Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys, and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis. Written, directed and starring Cory McAbee of the legendary cult band The Billy Nayer Show, this sci-fi, musical-western uses flinty black and white photography, rugged Lo-Fi sets and the spirit of the final frontier. We follow Curtis on his Homeric journey to provide the all-female planet of Venus with a suitable male, while pursued by and enigmatic killer, Professor Hess. The film features music by The Billy Nayer Show and some of the most original rock 'n' roll scenes ever committed to film."

    Tuesday, December 9, doors at 7:30, Vancouver Film School, 400 W. Hastings Street


    facebook event page
    foxtongue: (the welsh got you)
    I came home from work today to this AIM message from Steen:

    (4:13:24 PM): so I meet this guy randomly at the laughing squid drinkup, and invite him to our hackspace. So we're standing outside talking, and he mentions that he lived in Vancouver for a while
    (4:13:58 PM): so I say, completely joking, because you know, it's a fairly large city, "So, do you know Jhayne?"
    (4:14:27 PM): and he says "Oh, yeah. Everyone knows Jhayne."
    (4:14:33 PM): totally deadpan, totally meant it.
    (4:14:41 PM): it was awesome
    went away at 4:19:44 PM.

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