how ya like them apples?
ok, so i'm having a bit of a day, where i just wanted to be quiet and i did that.
last nite, i had the durian over for bastardpieces...mine was a sesame salmon over mixed organic greens with fabulous blender drinks and his was peanut butter/nut melties...along with the snoopy snooperton and kitty cat antagonization. all in all a good nite, and a good housesit, entertaining all my favorite boys...
today was supposed to be my day to stay in bed and finish the fabulous book i'm reading "dress your family in cordoroy and denim" by david sedaris...yet another gay man's narration of a nutty family. it's like augusten 2005 (the year attached is when i discovered the author, not a publication date) never the less, it's fabulous, and like maggie estep, it reminds me that there is a market for the type of writing that i do, not the least of which is included in this here bloggy poo of mine...but they all seem to be from new york...hmm...another sign? oh, you gotta put fran leibowitz into that mix, double scoop.
so it's pooring rain and i set out to conduct the business that i said i would with the internet available at my disposal. feeling confident with that, i proceed to get into my rain gear so i can head to UBC to the apple fiesta...me vs. 13,000 kg of apples, 60 different kinds. i'm not exactly sure where the botanical gardens are, but i figure, i'll find it. there's this kid on the bus that keeps walking up and down reporting transit informations, and i'm not sure where he's getting it from so i ask his guardian and she tells me that he studies all the schedules and routes incessantly every night and today is their day to put it all into action. how great is that? i tell him that he needs to move to new york. he contemplates it.
we finally make it to the sopping wet botanical garden and cut through the gardening staff's entrance and voila..the apples. i pay my $2 admission, and wait patiently to sample the wares. i'm only in there for about 10 minutes when they start saying..."time's up, everyone out", so fuck the line, i'm dashing table to table to stuff as many tiny bits of apple into my mouth as i can..it's cold and raining, and i want my damn apples! honeycrisp is rocking my world right now, i got into a heated argument with the dishwasher over it, and oline at the market keeps giving me the hookup because nick the crazy bulgarian that owns the stand gets free soup from us. ah, the politics of granville island market. but back to the apples..i bookended my tour today with ambrosia, which is now neck in neck with honeycrisp for my fancy...fuck fuji.
ok, apple gala over...time to try to head back to the city. i've long lost the transit kid, so i have to fend for myself. i start getting nervous and agrophobic (the chef who fancies me taught me that this does not mean a fear of livestock) and suddenly UBC seems too big and i feel the way that i felt about SFU over ten years ago. it's pouring rain and too quiet and here's the part where i start cursing north america for the sprawling expanses of space with not enough people to fill them and nobody being around and this is how will exner could have just disappeared into thin air like poof. and they found him in false creek. great.
but, some guy carrying kitty litter directs me to a street with buses and i jump on the first one, which is a 25 brentwood station. i have no clue where it goes, but it's an adventure, right? and it's steamy like people have been smooching, but that's just how it gets in the rain. the bus driver tells me some route that seems to make sense, but watching her from where i'm sitting, i think she is actually insane because she's whistling and having conversations with imaginary friends. i think we're going west, and feel relief when i recognize granville, and jump on the bline. not clueing in right away, suddenly i'm at 70th and i realize i've taken the wrong freakin' bline. after quickly deciding that an impromptu trip to richmond probably wouldn't be wise, i cross the street just in time to grab the right bus. jeez. where's the freakin' sixth sense transit kid when you need him.
i get home to the fireplace just in time to watch t-boz and chilli's "are you that girl?" and wonder who the hell these girls are trying to fool. first off: "lisa was like our sister, she will never be replaced" so hello?! what the freak is the premise of the show then dumbasses. second: do we need to see more celebrities behaving like idiotas? rhetorical question. third: why are all the girls they are auditioning so young? don't they know how old they are? anyways, it was mildly entertaining and i have to say it satisfied a curiosity that nick and jessica really did not, though when i need to see big hair and over-singing..i'll know where to look.
next up, i caught the tail end of some show documenting how an old-ass, tired looking flava flav is somehow hooked up with brigette nielson, and they're in italy eating proscuitto (or not eating in "mr. f's" case) and trying to give him charm school lessons. it's really bad....
then, the jlo and marc anthony empire...they made it big with their investments and their projects and their real estate. that's where it's at. gotta have the property to live properly...and i have my sights set high.
i fire up my dvd "side streets" starring the rosario dawson as well as some other talented folks and it's a movie that set in all the boroughs of nyc, and about how the heart of the city is based on the dreams and the backs of immigrants. it reminded me a lot of crash in a few ways...in its interlocking of people's lives and how they just don't see it, though it's a coastal difference, and it's not so antagonistic in racial relations, but rather speaks within the communities addressed, and how hard it is to be a designer, a creative person, or just a working person in the city...in a heat wave, but in the end it rains, and though people lose something, they calm down, and though they're broke or have been locked in a freezer, they're together...or have done the best for their relationship and let it go. also like crash though, i have to say that my beef is also with the lack of asian representation...restricted only to the important japanese designer who gets fucked up on ludes at the bar by a black drug dealer who buys her martinis....what the frick?!
but that leads me to the light at the end of this tunnel that has inspired me to write this and given me ideas to write for the RP...i caught Desiree Lim's co-directed Floored By Love on city tv tonite, and i've been meaning to catch it since it was at the queer film fest, but it was a good tip i got from my girl holding it down for queer "women of colour" over there on that lonely (not coney) island...big ups to that Hazel that i was desperately seeking years ago..the show was set in vancity, and it was nice to see something that was truly "better than chocolate" and it was nice to see "tofu" and chinese malaysians and asian boydykes looking ridiculous in geisha makeup and the legalization of gay marriage all rolled into the movie. it's also about crossing of paths, and the young gay boy who looks up to his nyc actor father who's not really present in his life other than in a superficial way ends up counselling the woman who hides behind her family's closet meet in the gay and lesbian support centre, but live in the same building...get it? "floored" by love...and yes, it does end happily ever after, but dammit, gays need to be happy too! it doesn't always have to be morose and tragic....it reminded me of "saving face" in some ways too, though that one was also set in flushing, nyc. (sigh) enough writing in circles yet? ai-ya.
