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.