From the Vault

This is another piece of writing I did for a class. It was entitled 'Soundtrack' and we had to write about one song that would be included on the soundtrack to the movie of our lives.

Soundtrack

I hear the phone ringing in my mom's room. A quick glance at the clock shows that I still have an hour before I have to be up for school so I roll over and being the process of falling back to sleep. I am interrupted by a knock on the door.

"It's your dad," my mom says as she walks the phone over to me. "He wants to wish you a happy birthday."

I take the phone and mumble some sort of greeting that vaguely passes for 'hello'. My dad had moved back to Ireland for a year with my stepmom and Baby Bro. I had last seen him seven months earlier when we said good bye in Belfast. We had gone for a pint and then to a Christy Moore concert, just the two of us. It was the best send off I could have asked for.

"Good morning, Claire," came the response. Claire. I haven't heard my name since his Christmas phone call. His time in the old country as he called it has strengthen his previously mild accent and I can hear the accent my friends had always commented on growing up. "I wanted to make sure I was the first to wish you a happy birthday and of course..." He starts to sing.

When first I saw the love light in your eyes, I thought the world held nought but joy for me,

I sit up and smile. It's a song I've heard so many times in my life, I don't recall not knowing it. My dad had always said he was going to sing it to me on my sixteenth birthday.

And even though we've drifted far apart, I never dream but what I dream of thee.

My knowledge of this song comes from my dad blasting his tapes of The Furey's through the house on Saturday mornings. Name a Furey's song, and I have a memory to go with it. Green Fields of France is my Remembrance Day song of choice. From Clare to Here reminds me of driving the length of Ireland many times over to visit family when I was six. The Old Man made me break down in tears after my dad fell ill for the first time. I Will Love You takes me to the day when I learned my aunt Eileen had finally died of cancer. The list is endless and it runs the gamut of every emotion I have ever felt.

I love you as I never loved before since first I saw you on the village green,

I had heard him sing this song many times--along with the recording, when driving in the car, with his musicians friends (usually fellow immigrants) at his parties--and now here I sat, alone in the dark, with my dad thousands of kilometres away while he sang it to me. My dad is not a great singer but in that moment it was the most beautiful rendition I had ever heard.

Come to me e'er my dreams of love are o'er

I am my dad's only daughter and I was also the only child who really took to music. Long before the explosion of Celtic music occurred in North America, I knew more Irish folk songs than I did popular songs. I got that love of the Furey's, the Chieftains, Christy Moore, the Dubliners and countless others from my dad and I got my pride in being Irish from those songs.

I love you as I loved you when you were sweet, when you were sweet sixteen.

The last note hangs in the air for a moment before slipping into the darkness along with my anger at having been woken up so early.

"I love you, dad."

"I love you, too."

"But, dad?"

"Yes."

"It's my seventeenth birthday today."

Books, Movies, Reviews. Oh My!

I've been doing a lot of catch up work this morning which is why there was a flurry of posts this morning. Finally, all the books I've been reading are up to date! Part of the reasoning is that I don't have Internet in the apartment this morning and if I'm going to haul my laptop all the way to the coffee shop, I should at least be productive while I'm there...

I mentioned briefly that I attended the Victoria Film Festival. Every year I pick about ten films I want to see, try to find people to go with and then end up maybe seeing one. This year, I decided to pre-pay for tickets and go regardless of company. In the end, I saw The People vs. George Lucas, Le Poil de la Bête, Out of the Ashes, Two Indians Talking, and Kinshasa Symphony. I really enjoyed all the movies. The People made me think about how I view George Lucas; Le Poil was a lighthearted comedic romp through werewolf lore, Ashes was wonderful film about the power of sport, Indians could have used some editing but I thought the ideas put forth were very interesting and a great jumping off place for a discussion on the current state of natives in Canada, and Kinshasa Symphony did for the power of music what Ashes did for sports. As someone who is a lover of music in all forms, I really enjoyed this documentary.

I feel like I have a million more things to say, but I've now been at the coffee shop for over two hours so it might be time for me to pack up and head home. That floor isn't going to vacuum itself... unfortunately.

GBC Book Review: Stardust

Stardust begins in the village of Wall. A young Tristran Thorn, consumed by love, sets off on an adventure through the mythical land of Faerie (located on the other side of the rock wall which runs along the village) to find the falling star for the young lady. Little does he know that when a star falls in Faerie, it appears in its human form and Tristran is not the only person who wants to find it.

Six out of seven ghost brother's agree: Stardust is fabulous!

I saw the movie for Stardust shortly after it first came out on DVD. My roommate at the time and myself watched the movie and when it ended at roughly 9:00pm, we agreed that we had enough time before bed (it was a work night) to watch it again. Since that time I've read some of Neil Gaiman's writing but never any of his full novels. I've always enjoyed his writing so I don't know why it took me so long to read this book but I'm so happy that I finally did. Mr. Gaiman creates a beautiful fantasy world and weaves its existence into every day life with ease. The descriptions of both places and characters are detailed and in depth without being laborious and plot-delaying.

I would highly recommend this novel to anyone. It's sure to delight teenagers and adults alike which is not easy to do. I also recommend the movie, but approach it as a separate body of work.

GBC Book Review: A Study in Scarlet

I recently watched the BBC version of Sherlock and was inspired to go back and read the original works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A Study in Scarlet is the first book in the series so it seemed like a good place to start. After the small formality of learning how Dr. Watson and Holmes meet, the reader is taken along on the journey of Dr. Watson’s first foray into being Holmes’ sidekick when a man is found to have ingested poison in an abandoned house.

This novel serves as the basis for the first episode of the updated Sherlock, so I knew who the killer was before I had even started the novel. In that sense, it didn’t grip me trying to figure out who the culprit was (although it did in the TV episode so I’m sure if I had read the novel first, it would have as well). What I really enjoyed about the novel (and all the Sherlock mysteries) is that it’s told from the point of view of Dr. Watson and so Holmes is slowly unveiled to you as if you were also meeting him for the first time. It’s a great way to introduce a character as dynamic and yet socially inept as Sherlock Holmes.

I’m part way through the third book in the series (I don’t have the second book) and I can honestly say that I’m really enjoying them. Doyle has created some really memorable characters and some very interesting mysteries of which I’ve had varying degrees of success in solving. It has also given me a great appreciation for the amazing effort that went into updating the stories for their use in Sherlock. The series is incredibly true to the original stories in tone and pacing and suspense with lots of little running gags that pay homage to Doyle’s work (much more so than the recent movie version).

GBC Book Review: A Holiday for Murder

I found this Agatha Christie novella in my laundry room almost a year ago. I’m a big fan of whodunits and it’s a quick read. It centres around the murder of an old disliked patriarch who has assembled his family for Christmas after years apart. In true Christie style, there’s a huge cast of characters who almost all have motive and opportunity and the book abounds with red herrings. Written in a way that makes me want to beat Stephanie Meyer about the ears with the book screaming “this is how you write a plot driven novel while filling in back story”, I was guessing the whole way through changing my mind every few pages.

It wasn't an earth-shattering book, but it was quick and enjoyable. Like many of her works, it's a great option if you want something just a little more involved when you're on a plane or sitting on a beach. I don't want to give away the ending but I will tell you that the butler didn't do it.

GBC Book Review: The Girl Who Kicked at the Hornets' Nest

I’m well behind in my novel reviews because I finished this one on Christmas Day! It also means that I don’t really remember a lot of the details I wanted to talk about except that I enjoyed it. Most of the things I do remember would give away plot points for those who haven’t read it yet and that’s just a cruel thing to do. Stieg Larsson had created some really interesting and unique characters without turning them into clichés; I would really have enjoyed seeing where the series would have gone had he been able to finish it.

Love To You All!

I don't hate Valentine's Day but I don't love it. I've done the coupled-up-over-priced-dinner. I've done the single-ladies-hit-the-town-en-masse. I've done the coupled-up-cook-a-romantic-dinner. I've done the single-ladies-fancy-drinks-and-chick-flicks. Ugh, none of them really made me feel any better about the day.

This year I decided to do something a little different. This year I'm taking myself on a date. In about an hour, I'm heading out to see Casablanca at a nearby theatre and I'm getting dressed up for the occasion. My original plan had been to find people to go with and then I just decided 'fuck it'. Not to say that if a friend had wanted to join me I would have said 'no', but I liked not having to worry about whether or not I'd find someone to join me.

Maybe I'll run into someone up there that I know or maybe I'll be the lone single ticket in a crowd of couples. Either way, I have a date with Rick and Ilsa and that's more than enough for me.

Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

UPDATE:
After I posted this entry, I disappeared into the back of my apartment where there are no windows. When I returned to my living room less than 5 minutes later, torential rain was pounding against my window.

If I was driving I would have still gone, but I'm a public transit gal and I really don't like wearing my dry suit on the bus. So instead I've had a quiet Valentine's evening doing a few jobs I had on my list for tomorrow. Romantic, I know.

But don't worry, I still plan to keep my date with Humphrey. Just a few more items to cross off the list, and then it's me, Humphrey and a glass of wine.