Goodbye, Canadiania

So, I broke my fast last night. I figured it was time to call it quits, and broke the seal with half an episode of Pussycat Dolls Presents: Girlilicious. After three weeks of Canadiania, I feel less ADD and more sincere. Good times.

Last Weekend

This is the last weekend of the experiment. Have "Eve and the Firehorse" on DVD. Am caught up on Canada's Obama scandle. It's a little early to begin reflecting, but this has been a really positive experience for me. I probably have shook off a couple of bad habits that I'm hoping don't start up again once this is through. Anyway.

erudite conversations in the car

So tonight's topics of conversation:

If there was a hockey game, and two American teams were playing in the States, but it was aired on a Canadian network, would it be allowed?

If a Canadian radio show played a few Bob Dylan songs in a row because they held so much meaning for the Canadian DJ, would I be able to listen to those songs? The content is US, but the intention, earnest commentary between songs and its context, is Canadian. The fact that those songs are meaningful to a Canadian, does that make it Can Con?

With me, the fun never stops.

20 Mile Diet

It occurs to me that it would be cool to take this whole exercise even farther, and go on a 20 mile culture diet. I live off of Main St., and there's probably enough culture being produced by people sipping coffees in this cafe to keep me going for a week. Why not try and just consume music/art/print from people who are doing good work in this neighbourhood - lets say for a week rather than 4. Maybe when I come back from LA, that will be the next challenge - the 20 mile diet. I'll get my fill of Brit and Election Night in America when I'm down there, and will be ready for a new challenge.

Urgent Matter at Hand

Where is Kofi Annan when you need him? Forget the food shortages, there's a real problem at hand. The UN has cited international leniancy towards celebrity drug use as urgent enough to write a report. Are there that many drug-addicted celebrities in the world to mark a trend? Guess so.

Haven't got to those Walrus's yet. Maybe today? Definintely by the end of the week.

The Walrus

The next step? Taking that pile of unread Walrus's, sitting all huntched and droopy in the corner, radiating guilt, and reading them. If last week was all about Canadian TV and film (just saw C.R.A.Z.Y. So good), this week will be all about the mags.

Maybe its the fact that the print is so tiny, that they manage to cram so much information into one issue, that makes me admire the cover then put it down. I didn't renue my subscription, and after many pleading emails from the Walrus, found in the mail a "personal letter" from the editor, begging me to reconsider. Literally begging. It made me worry about the mag. Are there not enough Masters students in Canadian Studies to keep it going? So I renued my subscription. I felt bad. And it does have amazing "visual essays," graphics, insightful articles, ect. Maybe I'll put aside a week every month to get through an issue.

OMG - Plants and Animals are f***ing amazing. Again, I listened to the album all the way through, in part becuase of the lack of shuffle on my ipod, and because I had many beers and helpings of casserole to burn off. "Faerie Dance" is one of the best songs I've heard in a long time. I didn't get much farther in the album because I kept playing that song over and over again.

For all this talk of regionalism, music seems to transcend it. They definitely sound like they're from Montreal; there's a big, collective, strings-heavy drunken sway to it. Like smething they'd play at an indie strip bar in Montreal. But it doesn't matter. You don't need to understand the signs to get the joke. I can find still find it fantastic. It probably just comes down to the fact that some things are really good, and some things a poop, depending on your taste.

I'm a cheat

So I've cheated. But I swear she was on my list. Jennean Gerafalo did a free show at The Media Club on Friday night. It's not like I'm not going to go, just because of this very, very long experiment. I've fallen off the wagon.

But it was worth it. She was hilarious. She talked about politics, but also dedicated a large portion of her show to her battles to become sober. She doesn't want to leave her house, as it just means having to talk to people, and who wants to do that sober. At the end of her show, some idiot gets on stage with a shot of tequila and shouts "We love you!!! This is for you!!!" If you love her so much, listen to her act.

As it is in relationships, I suspect that the cheating is a symptom of my doubts about this whole experiment in general. I missed Spaceballs last night. I mean, Spaceballs, on a tired Saturday night, while eating cold casserole. But it's really just a momentary impulse. Twenty minutes after leaving the room (Boyfriend laughing uproariously in the living room "Carrie, it's the part with the alien!") it didn't hurt so much, like the waning urge for a cigarette.

I miss reading the New Yorker. I want to go to a movie theatre. I want to listen to Sound of Silver. I haven't really learnt THAT much more about Canada, as a lot of the content is about the other places anyway. I can't watch John Candy and Rick Moranis be hilarious, but I can listen to a two hour interview with the Turkish winner of the Nobel Prize in Lit (Well, hypothetically I could. Didn't quite make it all the way through.) I can't watch Juno, which is the expression of talent by Canadians, but I can read an obsessive profile of Hilary Clinton in the G&M.

I have watched the same four actors in everything I've picked up lately, most of them of Corner Gas fame. Each movie/show was shot in Vancouver, and in each, the smoking and/or growing of weed eventually becomes an important plot point.

Before I started this, I was going to copy that couple who did the 100 Mile Diet, and consume only BC fare. It's turning out that way without any effort or intent on my part. Can Con is so regional that it reflects not some bloated idea of "Canada," but something specific to the experience of living in Western Canada (weed, straight-talking RCMP chicks, men with masters degrees in Womens Studies, the value of the male friendship bond, frontierism.) That's what's available to me at least, in the Canadian section of my small, indie video store (can you still call the "video stores?") especially if "The Border" is what the East has to offer.

I won't mention how many episodes of "Robson Arms" I watched this weekend. It's by far my favorite show, Canadian or not. Funny, smart, slightly strange, good sex jokes, fantastic writing, great performances. Maybe I enjoy it more because I recognize the characters and the setting, and that's why culture needs to be regional in this country - we're too spaced out (espeically in BC, ha ha), too far away from each other, to even get the other side's jokes.