Friday musings

Maybe it's because it's Friday, or because the city is in a mild state of paralysis from the west-end blackout (amazingly, despite the fact that pretty much every home and building around my apartment was without power, my electricity hummed through the night), or that we're still experiencing terribly cold days (serving as a reminder of why I'm not much of a fan of winter; I've become a cold-weather wimp), or that my immediate supervisor is away until mid-next week, but I can't quite get my work mojo going. My pilot light must be out.

... and now it's a few hours later, and I'm home from said work environment. I actually managed to cobble together a few productive hours - and then celebrated the feat by having a glass and a half of red wine at 4:00 in the kitchen. (It was leftover from the staff xmas party; somebody had opened it, so naturally I felt compelled to indulge. I don't want the stuff to go bad, after all.) Ah, the weekend, and waiting on the lovely A. to come over.

So I finished reading All the Sad Young Literary Men last night. Not bad, but I had higher expectations. Not sure why, of course, since it's the author's first attempt at a novel, and the book screamed of self absorption. It was engaging, and it did bring me back to memories of my mid-20s. I have a ton of warm feelings around that period of my life, not to mention enough distance to realize it was important to my development. I think if things would have been overly stable and easy - I spent a chunk of it toiling away in near-poverty as a freelance writer - I might be a different person today. And since I generally like the person I am, it must have been important. (Ah yes, dime-store psychology again. One of my specialities.)

I guess the only big news on the reading front is that I'm going to tackle a beast next: War and Peace. Yes, that War and Peace, the one by Tolstoy, the one that's supposedly a classic. The one that, from the looks of it (I checked it out yesterday from the university library where I work) is going to put my back and shoulder out if I carry around it my bag. My friend M. was the one that convinced me to give it a shot. Over beers the other night, we got to talking about Obama and leadership (he seems far-less enamoured of the president-elect than me) . He says there are some "essays" in W & P pertaining to leadership that might be relevant to our time. (Ah, I get it, that's what makes something a classic: it's timelessness.) Anyway I'm somewhat daunted by the endeavour - I think the longest book I've ever read is Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, and the Tolstoy seems to have about 300 more pages - but also figure that winter is a good a time as any to read the tome. Wish me luck... I also have a couple of short story collections also on the go, to help break up any potential monotony.

Reading: War and Peace (most likely for the next year...), the Penguin Book of Canadian Short Stories
Listening to: in a 1970s mood of late, so some Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac, etc.
Watching: the doc Man on Wire