Shooting on Sweeney the Movie Begins! Wait, Why Aren't I In This?!


Ahhh, the Sweeney Todd Movie. I'll try and get over my bitter disappointment at not being cast in it (couldn't I just be an extra in Fogg's Asylum?!)...Sweeney is by far my favorite show and the ONLY show I've ever done two separate productions of. Of course Tim Burton casts Johnny Depp as Sweeney and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett. I only worry that Tim Burton will make Sweeney TOO campy...sure, it's Halloweenishly funny and over-the-top, what with the whole killing-people-and-putting -them-in-pies motif, but it's meant to be dark and sad and Victorian; I would hate to see Sweeney look like a cross between Edward Scissorhands and Willy Wonka. Oh, wait. Too late. He actually looks like a cross between Edward Scissorhands, Willy Wonka and Cruella DeVille. My bad. Nice razor, though.


I am a Bad Mother.

OK, so I'll admit I've been working long hours lately and haven't been home as much. That's why I have a cat, not a dog or a child (!). BUT, correspondingly, Currie has been worse and worse behaved. It's culminated in the last few nights with her meowing all night. And I mean, ALLLLLL night. Even when shut out of the bedroom, she's meowing and crying in this really pitiful I'm-too-upset-to-even-meow type of moan. And she's biting my feet. Alot. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, when she started attacking my feet as I walked around the house. Today I was lying on the bed talking on the phone and she jumped at my face. I was starting to freak out that maybe she had rabies or something (nevermind that there hasn't been a case of feline rabies in BC in...decades). Where had my happy, sunny little cuddly kitten gone?

So I did a bit of a Google to find out why the hell my cat seemed to think my feet were new items of prey and why she all of a sudden had a temper. Turns out...she's neglected and acting out. I'm not playing with her enough and the fact that I carry her around like a sack of potatoes when I AM home is apparently not enough...the kid needs exercise. She's the kitten equivalent of an obese 7 year old playing videogames instead of playing outside. The foot-attacking is the main symptom of neglected kittens.

Do I feel like a crappy mother now? Yes I do. And my hopes of ever trying to balance this job with, oh, I don't know, a healthy home life, have gone out the window (at least for tonight) when I can't even keep my frickin' CAT happy. To assuage my guilt, Currie and I have just wrapped up half an hour of playing with her Cat Dancer (read: a piece of string stuck to a wand), topped off with a few rounds against Uncle Skunk (a little catnip skunk). Then, in true bad mother fashion, I plied her with treats to make her feel REALLLLLY loved...

I Am Changing...

I like to read Jann Arden's online journal. In her latest entry, she said the following about changing:

What I have thought about myself, I have surely become. It's hard coming to terms with that. What you think you are, you are. What you think you can do, you will do. What you think you can't do, you won't.

I like it. It makes sense. I would say I believe it to be true. I guess my challenge is, how do you get to a place where you THINK you can do something that right now, you think you can't? Where do you get the strength to go from thinking one thing about yourself, something destructive, to thinking something positive? Where does that journey start? Who starts it? Can only YOU start it for you? That's a little daunting. There are things about myself I have wished for years that I could change, and yet I feel they are unchangeable. How do I go to a place where I can think what I am, and become it?

Jann Arden: www.jannarden.com

Television Confessions Part 2

My new TV drug of choice is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I know, I know, I've come to it a little late when it's been put on indefinite hiatus and it's too late for me to spearhead a Saving Aaron Sorkin campaign. But damn, that show is good. It combines all your favorite Sorkin elements...brisk, witty walk n' talks, Brad Whitford, sarcastic quips, Timothy Busfield, sarcastic quips, Brad Whitford...and minus all that pesky U.S. politics, pro-America stuff! And with SHOWBIZ! Could a show be any more tailor-made for me? I don't think so. Anyways, I watched 16 (yes, I said 16) episodes in a row on Saturday.

Yes, I have no life. But I have good TV. And that's all that matters.

You Never Know What's Under the Couch...

...it could be some spare change, or it could be something more, uh....substantial? So my friend Zak in New York told me the best "what the hell is that under the couch?!" story tonight. He was cleaning up last night because his parents were coming for dinner, and turned one of the couch pillows over and found what appeared to be...a chicken breast. Then he found another one, and was understandably bemused at he and his roommate's horrific housekeeping blunder in allowing what appeared to be two chicken breasts rot under the couch cushions.

Upon closer examination, he realized they were the largest silicone bra inserts he had EVER seen. A few weeks earlier, Zak and his friend had brought some lovely ladies home from some New York club and Zak's friend and some girl had gotten busy on the couch...and obviously at some point mid-makeout session she distracted Zak's friend by shouting "Hey, what's that?!" and pointing in the opposite direction so she could slip 'em out of her bra and under the couch unnoticed. But, from Zak's account, these puppies were so big there's no way he COULDN'T have noticed.

So the inserts have pride of place on Zak's bookshelf at the moment, but he's planning on delivering them to his friend at work, in a Tiffany's box. Classic.

At the Dog Park



People are crazy about their dogs here. I mean, craaazzzee. More crazy than I am about my cat... today I went with Annie and Drew when they took Stoke to the beach at the Maritime Museum for a swim, and there was a birthday party in full swing. Yes, Logan the Pug was one year old, and there were balloons, "pupcakes," goody bags and coffee for the parents. I met a very nice black pug named Herbie. I have always said that if I get a dog, it will be a black pug named Iggy. I don't know why but Herbie's mom got mad when I kept calling Herbie Iggy and tried to smuggle him away in my overcoat...



Revelstoke Kaderly-Demerse, aka My Favorite Dog, with a Big Stick (also-the snout of his friend Brody the black lab).



And, just because, Ms. Currie the Kitten, in the laundry basket. Unimpressed by all this dog talk and wondering when Vancouver will have its own Kitten Bakery, since we have like, 4 dog bakeries...

Indian Night


Last night I tried my hand at following in my dad's footsteps and cooking Indian for my friends. On the menu: chicken korma, pilau rice, masala green beans with fenugreek, naan with homemade raita, and a dish my dad made up called Fish Curry Dani. I think everything was edible and fairly enjoyable (at least my friends made a good attempt to make me feel that way); I have to work on my timing so that I can, you know, feed everyone by midnight...

Rick aka Popo's Fish Curry Dani

1 medium onion, sliced in strings
1 1/2 cups chopped tomato
1 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 1/2 tbsp. Biryani curry paste
1 1/2 cups Rogan Josh sauce (tomato, buttermilk, masala spices)
white fish such as cod, snapper or halibut (2-3 small pieces per person)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for 2-3 minutes, until soft. Add the Biryani paste, and fry onions in Biryani paste for another 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and Rogan Josh sauce. Heat to a soft boil; add the fish pieces, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve with basmati rice.

There are Moments of Perfection.

Saturday morning, running through Lost Lagoon. Sun, for once, shining. I rounded a corner and at a park bench, a couple in their mid-50's...I'm not sure how I knew they were a couple, there was just an intimacy to the way they interacted with each other that suggested a long, long association. He was in a wheelchair, and on a respirator, clearly not well. And his wife? Standing behind him, giving him a haircut while he watched the swans and ducks play in the water, with the sun reflecting on the water in such a way that every splash seemed like a spray of diamonds in the air...

This is NOT Sour Grapes but...


Doesn't this girl seem a little SKINNY?! My god, you can see every rib! And this in a Victoria's Secret catalogue? Isn't Victoria's Secret supposed to stand for bosomy, buxom women with a little meat on their bones?
Now, I know I'm not a size 6 and that people could critique me aplenty if I ever showed up in a lingerie ad, but to me, this girl isn't sexy. It's disappointing. Her boobs are huge, and look totally fake on top of the rest of her skeletal little body. Her arms are pins. She looks seriously undernourished. Since when did thin=beauty? I'm all for fit, healthy people, but this is ridiculous...this isn't healthy, it's sad. If you tried to get this girl to run around the block she'd keel over, I'm sure. When all you've had for breakfast is a Diet Coke and a cigarette it's pretty tough to stay physically fit. Way to go, Victoria's Secret. Way to make your North American customer base of women whose average size is a 14 feel good about themselves. Happy Valentine's Day.

I Love Doing Videogame Law.

Check this out:

A local blogger, Darren Barefoot, who is amused (or bemused, dunno which) by the Second Life craze, has started a parody site called "Get a First Life," which looks like the Second Life site but has links like, "What is life," "Find out where you ACTUALLY live," and "Fornicate using your ACTUAL genitals." Haw. For those of you who don't know, Second Life is an online environment, a "metaverse" if you will, where your virtual avatar can pretty much lead a parallel life for you...new friends, new relationships, new job, new BODY, you can buy virtual property that you can sell with real money...basically if you suck at your real life, you get a second chance here. Many, many people are obsessed with it.

Anyways, "Get a First Life" has a link inviting cease-and-desist letters, and they actually got one from Linden Labs, who created Second Life, which is quite funny. As CBC reports, the lawyer starts out with the usual scare-the-hell-0utta-you language, then pops this in for good measure:

"Linden Lab objects to any implication that it would employ lawyers incapable of distinguishing such obvious parody...Linden Lab is well-known for having strict hiring standards, including a requirement for having a sense of humour, from which our lawyers receive no exception." The lawyer then goes on to say that Barefoot's invitation to submit a cease-and-desist letter is "hereby rejected."

This made my day. Funny lawyers. What will they think of next?!