I just finished The Feminine Mystique. As in, the Betty Friedan book that started the second wave of feminism, and I can't say I'll be able to look at the world the same way anymore. That thing isn't even about emancipation, it's about becoming a whole, fully-grown human being. I still just can't get over how incredibly relevant it was and is, still, to everything on this planet with a heartbeat.

Now for some things that have caught my attention since:

- Lost. Yes, a friend of mine got me hooked onto Lost. Kate. Kate Kate Kate. Claire? KATE.

- Kung Fu Panda. Ohwow. Until the Po/Tai Lung fight, the humour was incredibly, incredibly refreshing. The whole damn thing was refreshing. If I ever have kids, they'll be raised on Kung Fu Panda.. And Rainbow Bright. Because there are some things about the 80's that should never be lost.

- WALL-E. I just came back from the tech showing at my theatre for WALL-E. Holy shit. There is almost no dialog in the entire film. Yes, there will be people who can't stand this aspect of it and will likely get bored. But if you're under the age of 10 or still have an imagination, my god. What an amazing, amazing movie.

- Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy. No. Not the friggin' video game. The band. But just as Bright Eyes is really just Connor Oberst + tagalongs, Final Fantasy is really just Owen Pallett. And he ranks it up there with Phillip Glass (The Hours soundtrack) and Simon Jeffes (who basically IS Penguin Café Orchestra). I have become mesmerized by this strain of new age classical-inspired, but also ethnic music-inspired, indie-rock inspired music that doesn't need words to say so much.

...which brings me to my next point. Katy Perry. If you've been following iTunes - her song I Kissed a Girl is currently at the no. 1 spot. The fact that a song with even that title could get that high on any music chart, is a testament to SHIT GETTING DONE. The song itself, while entertaining, is debateable in its lyrical quality. I like it, but the girl has better stuff. She can sound like anything from the latest synthesized pop douchebaggery, to Alanis Morissette. Some of her songs have this sense of honesty about them you just don't find in a lot of modern pop. Or most music, for the matter. My god, the live version of Mannequin I have. ANY version of One Of The Boys. Wish You The Worst. Hot n' Cold. I'm Still Breathing. I've just gotten beyond the point of calling it a guilty pleasure; it's just good stuff.
....she's also probably in some kind of closet. Definitely likes girls to some degree, regardless of how she denies it. I mean, c'mon, who actually writes a song called 'I Kissed a Girl (and I liked it)' and isn't at least partway batting for our team?




Beyond all that. I have a busy summer ahead of me, in some ways also a horrifically boring one. I'm doing grade 11 English online over the summer, as I couldn't fit it into my schedule. The Petes is skipping town to go live with Janice in Calgary, so we have a new drama teacher. Apparently she's got a lot of theatre experience, but it's her first time teaching, but there's also a lot of excitement about her being hired, so we'll see.

I'm going to a nerdy little science camp waaay up north for a bit, too, and I am incredibly stoked. The fact that my mom had to sign a paper vowing that she wouldn't sue if I died or got maimed on the trip though, with a signed witness and all, kind of worries me. But it'll be good.

I'm working a ton. Everyone's fucking off in July, so I work every day but... wait, no, I work every day. It's only box office though, so it's no big deal.

I just ordered (and received) a ton of books from Amazon.com. The Hours book/film/sountrack (oh my god, all three are so amazing), Aimée & Jaguar (book and film) - currently only surpassed by The Hours, true story of the wife of a Nazi soldier and a Jewish lesbian trying to survive in Berlin, middle of WWII, The Lolita Effect (about the sexualization of young girls), Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (autobiographical novel about a girl raised in a suuuuper Evangelical household who slowly comes to realize she's preeetty gay), Dude You're a Fag (about masculinity and homophobia), and this one about how it's dangerous to NOT educate youngin's about sex. Because you know, what they don't know can lead to babies. And AIDS.

Then at the end of August I'm going to Vancouver with the mom to tour aroud universities - specifically UVic, UBC, and Simon Fraser. Terribly excited for it.

Oh, and I'm in hospitality again for Folk on the Rocks - I volunteered to feed the hordes of vegetarians that come up every year, so my mom and I will be toiling away making vegan quiches and the like come mid July. It'll be good.


Beyond all that, I'm kind of sad that school is over. I had a really, really excellent second semestre, and really, year. It's strange how we spend our entire childhoods looking at our graduation day as if it's something so far off that attention needn't be paid, and now it's like, wow, my final year of high school is pretty much upon me. Good stuff.

I'm preeetty tired now though, it being three AM and me having to wake up in about five hours, I think I'll peace.