Getting Over Dykes to Watch Out For

For the past few years, I've been carrying a torch for a few things: Alison Bechdel, Dykes to Watch Out For, and the notion that one day the former would go back to creating the latter. Bechdel started DTWOF in the early '80s, and continued expanding the cast and their increasingly tangled relations right until 2008. In 2006, she also published Fun Home, which was Time's book of the year and enjoyed a run as the acceptable graphic literature of the bookish set. There isn't an award for that, but if there was I think it should be called the Mausie for Spiegelman's enduring legacy to the genre. Anyway, as much as I enjoyed Fun Home, I feel that DTWOF should receive an equal amount of attention and even more critical praise. Though published in serial form - first as comic strips in alt-weeklies, then mostly on Bechdel's blog - it's more of a graphic novel than half the stuff filed as such on bookstore shelves.

I'm talking novel in the sense of those 19th century novels, where a large cast and complex interwoven plots take up a brick's worth of paper. Think Middlemarch, but with the American Midwest instead of the British Midlands, and more on lentils, tempeh and the Iran-Contra affair. Bechdel wrangles a huge number of characters over nearly three decades. They're mostly lesbian, largely queer, but diverse in race and earning potential, each one developed sympathetically. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For collects most of the strips, so you can see the characters grow and Bechdel's art evolve, all in one convenient volume. A note about the switch: according to The Indelible Alison Bechdel, her linework thickened after she collaborated on a project for the Village Voice with Howard Cruse, whose Stuck Rubber Baby is also worth reading. She found that her drawings disappeared next to his.

Then 2008 hits, and they all stop, before Obama could even be inaugurated. I've been waiting since then for Alison Bechdel to write more, though I know she's working on a sequel to Fun Home. What did the characters think of the Obama presidency? The death of Osama Bin Laden? The extended recession? Somehow, I care more about Mo would think than what real-life columnists do think. But, almost four years later, I've decided it's time to let go. I keep on hoping Bechdel will come back and give readers a big epilogue so we know if Clarice and Toni got back together, if Mo and Sydney ever broke up, if Sparrow ever made Stuart get a real job. But I suppose it's more in keeping with DTWOF for it to end without a finish, just like a visit with friends. Read it!

Fridays Are For Five Dollar Hamburgers and Vanilla Porter

So. Bars are dark. The photo of Mill Street's Vanilla Porter, then, is all about the "atmosphere." Or, "artistic blurriness." But I swear there's beer in there! Vanilla beer! Vanilla beer that doesn't like a melted ice cream cone dropped into somebody's spilled PBR. I swear. Instead there's notable vanilla sweetness, backed up by a robust maltiness. It's obviously not for purists, but why would you be ordering a vanilla porter if the purity laws of 1516 mean anything to you, anyway? Lighten up. Embrace the beershake. It goes just as well with hamburgers as the regular kind of shake.

Domestic Thursday: Dry Edition

This Thursday will be a quickie, since I spent most of the day running around Toronto. Here's proof: I took this photo in RSquared on Queen West this afternoon. Pictured is my growing Short and Sweet cardi. Not pictured are the friendliest baristas I've ever encountered. All of them earned their tip, and here's a tip for you, if you've ever thought of crocheting this cardi: Check the errata. The first set of corrections points out the missing chain 2's in the written instructions, but canny folks could catch that either by looking at the chart or using common sense. The second set of clarifications is truly useful though. In one row a short chain needs to be added, and what to do with this little yarn outgrowth and why it's necessary is mystifying without this explanation. Beer will be back tomorrow. Until then I rest my weary legs and cramping crocheting fingers.

Bodies in Motion: Pina and Mission Impossible

I spent hard scratch to see two films in theatres over the holidays, Pina and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. They would seem, at first, to be a pretty odd couple. They're also a pair that cost me about $35 in admission, the price of a cheap pair of pants at Old Navy, but perhaps that is a thought for another time ("Does art ever justify pantslessness???") Together, though, the blockbuster emphasizes the human body as much as the arthouse documentary on the German choreographer, both sharing a fascination with how those bodies interact with architectural space.

I can't take credit for focusing on this theme in Pina. I was too distracted by the clips of a dance featuring a hippo costume. But as my friend Richard pointed out, there was a "connection between human forms and architectural ones" running through the film. Dancers move through an empty glass building, a café with its chairs, up an escalator, and around the spare concrete room of what could be an apartment or a grain elevator. It's hard to tell just what it is, except that it's a man-made space. Sometimes it's easy to impose a traditional narrative on the movement, like, here's a couple falling in and out of love. Other times perhaps it's an abstract idea or an emotion, but trying to make narrative sense of it all feels insulting. But throughout, the body had to interact with the architecture, whether it's moving against the space or in ways the space inspires.

Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol would seem like an odd choice to continue this theme, as its budget could probably buy ten Pinas, with enough left over to clone Wim Wenders. But the highlight of the movie, and the scene that nearly justifies the absurd Imax ticket price, features the Burj Khalifa. It's the tallest building in the world, and one of its most distinctive-looking, but if you need more proof of its place in the public consciousness: It's one of the 11 buildings that make up the Lego Architecture series*. With all this cultural context, the architecture of the space the IMF team must infiltrate is already primed in the audience. And then Tom Cruise sprints across one side of the Burj, leaps, and swings back into a knocked-out window. For a few moments, it's as graceful as anything seen in Pina, the viewer reminded that collectively we can produce architecture that the individual can interact with and around, rather than push through. I was again reminded of this scene while talking with my friend**, after saying how clumsy MIGP made me feel. She pointed out that Tom Cruise and Co. were always banging into things, and for a few moments here he dangles off the edge, barely making it inside for all of his previous grace. So, in spite of Pina's sterling arthouse credentials, MIGP may just be the more interesting film when it comes to the friction people we can experience with current architectural forms- and the social structures from which they spring.

* A side note for Canadians: they're considering Moshe Safdie's Montréal landmark Habitat 67 as a future set. You can vote for it here.
** Jo, a lovely person who was at Pina too. For a sense of why she makes such a good movie watching buddy, check out her feminist critique of The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.

Oh, hey there, 2012

With two exceptions, I've decided not to do New Year's Resolutions for 2012. First, the world is ending, so who the fuck cares if I lose 20 pounds? I want to die the way I lived... with a donut in each hand. Also, although I've usually kept away from doomed resolutions like financial responsibility, I still end up missing some and then feeling all sad in January. Even if the resolution was as ridiculous as "see an octopus underwater," I still feel as though I've failed myself. And the cephalopods.

Exceptions:
1. Learn more about Cuban history. I refer to my recent tweet:

"New year's resolutions? Maybe to learn more about Cuban history, 'cause right now all I know comes from Dirty Dancing II: Havana Nights."

2. Sew more often. Because, otherwise, how will I have adorable dresses for the summer? Without a daring theft at an Anthropologie store, of course.

Also, on a more personal note, 2011 was rough. Not awful. It was completely survivable, and there were some great moments, but there was also a months-long slog from about June to, oh, last week I could have done without. So I'm setting very reasonable, cautious expectations for 2012, while furtively nurturing the hope that they'll be exceeded.

Domestic Whatever: Crochet and Uncrafty Beer

I missed my usual Thursday date for these posts because I was in Toronto, seeing friends, but Friday also ends in "day", so this is close enough for me. I'm still recovering from the holiday knitting, so the needles haven't been touched in a few days except in the most minimal way. You know, stockinette socks with self-patterning yarn. Not even finished, not worth a photograph. So here's what I've been doing with hooks instead:

Short and Sweet from Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. A little, lacy cotton coverup, the perfect thing for Ontario's current windchill factor. Well, no, but I had this Mission Falls 1824 Cotton hanging around, giving me a guilt complex. It was a discontinued colour, so it was on sale, and since it was a yarn I had always wanted to use I bought 10 balls of the stuff- though the colour confounds. It's not quite terracotta, it's not really desert brown, it's the colour... of impulse purchasing. Or, according to the shade card of the now entirely discontinued yarn, "musk." It's been in my house for years, and after thinking about turning it into a drab utilitarian bag, I settled on this pattern. Not that my wardrobe largely features "musk" in any form, but I think it could find its place over a summer dress.

And this week's beer: Hop City's Barking Squirrel Lager. I found this in the LCBO and wondered what Hop City's deal was- I didn't remember seeing it on the Ontario Craft Brewers site. But it met my current beer requirements ("Anything but another IPA"), so I grabbed a can. Now, with the benefit of Google, I've learned that it's Moosehead's attempt on the craft beer market. The Creemore to its Molson, if you will, or the McCafé to its McDonalds. But I'll give even not-so-crafty beers the benefit of the doubt. Conclusions: not as hoppy as the brewery name and label promise, nor as flavourful overall as one could hope, but a respectable lager. Be wary of all that though, as I'm dealing with some leftover congestion.

When it comes to fake craft beers, I like to see major breweries offering better brews to the masses. But I would rather have them do so openly, rather than taking taps away from real craft breweries,or outshining them with larger marketing budgets. Still, I think good taste will often win out over good label design, which may be why, even two years after its launch, Hop City still has less space on LCBO shelves than Mill Street products.

What I Did On My Christmas Vacation

I spent my Christmas full of goodwill towards men and snot. I got a cold over the holiday, and provided a handy memento mori to my family, as a kind of short Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. "Ye too shall wither and die," I implied, while sitting in my room going through tissue after tissue. And also reading through that olde Yuletide favourite, Joan Didion's Political Fictions. Maybe a series of icy essays about the American political climate from 1988-2000 will never replace A Christmas Carol, in spite of their flawless diction. But with Newt Gingrich threatening to bring the worst parts of 1994 into the still-innocent 2012, it was timely. My cold is nearly gone, but a strange nostalgia for Bill Clinton's presidency remains.

Happy Holidays!

Pick your seasonally appropriate greeting.
Smitty and I wish you all that and more!

Domestic Thursday: Resting Mittens, Flying Monkeys

Oh God, Christmas knitting. I'm ready to convert so I never go through this madness again. Anyway, here are two sets of mittens- both versions of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Mitered Mittens from The Knitter's Almanac, and both made with Ontario yarns- that were mailed out to BC a few days ago. The red ones are, once again, Briggs and Little Tuffy in Red Mix, and have longer cuffs. The whites ones are made from Upper Canada Village yarn. It's spun on-site using fleece from the village's own flock, so think of it as the fibre equivalent of last week's beer.

The pattern has you knit the hand, then make the thumb by snipping one stitch and unravelling the others. Eeep. I did it this way, reluctantly. Apologies to my friends if the thumb spontaneously explodes once they put them on. Between this and her love of garter stitch (the devil's stitch!!), I'm not sure I trust Elizabeth Zimmerman.

Pattern: Lace Cable Socks by Véronik Avery, Knitting 24/7
Yarn: Lion Brand Sock Ease in Circus Peanut
Since we're on the topic of garter stitch, these lace cable socks, with their garter stitch heels and toes, are now completed. And not a moment too soon, as most of my knitted socks are hanging by threads. Literally. Well, they're not hanging, but patches have been worn down to the polyester. Now my feet can be chipper and warm in these orange socks.

Something that may not make me warm, but will definitely make me chipper is The Flying Monkeys Smashbomb Atomic IPA. Made with Citra hops and varied malts, including Crystal malts, this is a pale ale that drinks like a bubblier version of last week's Black Creek IPA. The taste reminds me a lot of Florida-fresh grapefruit, and the assorted malts keeps things chugging along smoothly enough that the 6% AVA goes by unnoticed. Before you drink too many, check out the brewing information on The Flying Monkeys site. You'll learn just how often and how much hops were added, that is, at all possible times and in great volume. And now we finally have an answer to the question of which beer would go best while watching The Wizard of Oz.

The Iron Lady Trailer: Queen Elizabeth with Hairspray

The trailer for Dark Knight Rises came out, but you already knew that, didn't you? In all the hubbub, the trailer for The Iron Lady was also released, and I'll be interested to see how well it reflects the finished product. Growing up as the daughter of a man of progressive tastes, I was raised on a steady diet of gritty British social dramas of the 1980s. Acceptable video rentals were children's cartoons... or anything directed by Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Stephen Frears, so Margaret Thatcher was my childhood boogeywoman. As Voldemort was to other kids, Thatcher- and to a lesser degree, Ronald Reagan- was to me. So I was surprised to see a trailer that made the Iron Lady out to be the heiress to the Virgin Queen. It makes me think of the spot for Elizabeth: The Golden Age more than My Beautiful Laundrette. If a filmmaker has a different ideological bent than mine, I suppose he can find more heroism in Thatcher's story than I can, since I think of her as a viper in pearls. But any movie, no matter how conservative, that casts the Falklands War as some sort of grand, just war I find both morally and factually questionable. Not that I was any great fan of the Argentinean junta, but as Jorge Louis Borges said, the Falklands War was like "a fight between two bald men over a comb." Well, it seems that the director, Phyllida Lloyd, has chosen to add driving strings to that comb fight.