18th July Weekly Roundup

I’ve made myself a soy chai and am fully ready for the weekend. But before I get all fixated on seeing the Dark Knight tonight (what were we thinking getting tickets for opening night? Also, I anticipate being slayed by Heath Ledger and thus ending up a wrecked mess by the end of the movie, regardless of the story), and on spending tomorrow at the Folk Fest, I figured I’d round up the last week.

• I caught up on work. Oh. cantankerous. gods, I cannot tell you how good this is.
• I got an iPhone on the day of launch and didn’t even wait all night or day in line and I named it Doug. It’s possible I got one of the last ones in Vancouver. I lurve it. Someday, hopefully soon, MobileMe will come to Canada, and then I’ll no doubt begin to consider Doug iPhone a part of my anatomy.
• We harvested our first raspberries of the season. Yum yum. I’d better pick more when I’m done writing this.
• We saw Hancock on Monday night. Being caught up on work makes me far more comfortable, you know, having fun in the evening. Anyway. Hancock is good. There’s practically no plot, but the hype you’ve heard about the wicked twist is true. It’s a wicked twist, and worth admission. Also, the performances are excellent.
• I’m thinking it might be time for Dave Matthews to be cool again, for those of us around when he made the leap into uber popularity. I haven’t listened to him in years and years, and I think I could lose a day to his music if I got started. Whaddya thing?
• Thanks to a friend, we came into tickets to see Titus Andronicus at Bard on the Beach on Tuesday night, which was amazing for several reasons. First, we likely wouldn’t have chosen to see the play otherwise, and we would never have known what we’d missed. Second, it was fun to go with friends. Third, it’s simply outstanding. From what I understand, the play is one of the less-frequently produced of Shakespeare’s because it’s, well, gory. And weird. Frankly, I prefer this kind of weird to the normal weirdness of Shakespeare. He cuts through a lot of the usual innuendo in this play, and that leaves room for stunning controversy and the resulting discussions. The performances were spot-on, which is to say thoroughly devastating. That the actor who plays Titus Andronicus bears more than a minor resemblance to my father made it all the more affecting—if you’re not familliar with the story (and really, who is?), there is an important father-daughter dynamic in the play. I had very messed up—though totally unrelated to the play—dreams the night we saw it.
• Books. I’ve finished three in the last few weeks. The first is, speaking of him, my dad’s favourite sci-fi book, The Witches of Karres. It was good, but I didn’t totally love it. I’ll have to ask my dad more about why it’s his top pick. Next: After Dark, which we discussed at book club on Wednesday night. I really enjoyed it, and got more out of it through the discussion. Finally, Heat. This is the one that deserves a post of its own, but in case I don’t get to it in a timely manner, I’ll give it its own bullet:
• Go read this book right now. Never have I read something so very, very well thought out. I mean, even if George Monbiot is proved wrong, this book is a stunning example of how to think through a problem and of weighing options as objectively as possible while owning up to any subjectivities. If more people in power thought like George Monbiot, the world would be in a much better place right now, and not just physically. If nothing else, this book is the best-footnoted encouragement to vote ever published.
• Dr. Horrible. Not horrible. ‘Nuf said.
• But on the topic of it anyway, I’m thinking of asking the CrochetMe.com community to help get some grassroots buzz going so we can try to land an interview with Joss Whedon. Think it could work?
• The Princess Bride was on PBS the other night. I need to buy a copy of it. Also, I need to watch it alone so I don’t annoy companions when I recite the whole thing.

Party on, kids.