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After dropping off passengers at the Trudeau International Airport in Dorval, I headed back to Ottawa driving an empty van, torn between the comforting inanities of the sports station on the radio (go Habs go!) and the distorted eco-rock of the eternally-rejuvenating Neil Young, playing with the much-younger men of Promise of the Real.

Anyway, ( Read more... )

The other day Raven and I set out to replenish our supply of printing paper, on account of we'd run out and I needed to print something toute-suite, as they say over in Hull.

Our mission was interrupted however as, barely out of the apartment, we missioned east towards Bank Street.

On a stretch of sidewalk ahead of us was a very old Oriental ( Read more... )

Girls gone funny

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Secret in plain sight

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I like to think I am, if not colour-blind when it comes to human beings, at least colour-indifferent. And more, that I am at the same time reasonably sensitive to cultural nuance and to words and phrases that, however innocuously intended, can carry offensive or painful baggage.

In other words, I am white (or at least, perceived as white; ask me ( Read more... )

More memeage: In this edition, Young Geoffrey ponders the words of folks he admires.

I had a couple of interviews yesterday - we'll see whether I qualify for a security clearance; if not, getting a decent job in Ottawa is going to prove a little, er, problematic (no, I haven't given up on freelancing. There's a possible ghost-writing gig coming up ( Read more... )

Making up the real:
Middle-aged white guy writes teenage black girl as heroine, tries not to offend or to Mary Sue

More memeage: In this edition, Young Geoffrey talks about culture, making use of the familiar, making it up and (sort of) appropriating the other.

( Click for Question 13, 'What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?' )