this is what i do on weekends

143 canada

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 20:54:44 +0000

i love you douglas coupland...but there was imperialism, sorry.

Iceland

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 16:34:10 +0000

Keep Listening

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:09:57 +0000

Playlist

Beach House- Zebra

Beach House-Used to Be

Charlotte Gainsbourg- IRM

Charlotte Gainsbourg-Le Chat du Cafe Des Artistes

Charlotte Gainsbourg-La Collectionnieuse

Beach House- Norway

MGMT-The Handshake

Air-Do the Joy

Air-Sing Sang Sung

Animal Collective- Taste

Broken Social Scene- World Sick

Julian Casablancas- Left & Right in the Dark

Keep Writing

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:05:28 +0000

“Among the first things John and James showed me was a little red Moleskine pocket notebook, three and half by five and half inches in size. Each page within was covered in their father’s neat, extraordinarily tiny handwriting–the cursive equivalent of three point type. In his later years, Hughes never went anywhere without one of those notebooks in his person the better to record anything that popped into his head at any time he wished: observations, incidents, editorials, inventories, theories, vignettes, overheard conversations…JOhn and James have found, so far more than 300 pocket notebooks among their father’s effects and these are but a drop in the bucket of what Hughes left behind, archival papers, old correspondence, personal journals, thick binders containing works in progress, and gigabyte upon gigabyte of computer files.” -”Sweet Bard of Youth” Vanity Fair article on John Hughes

The view from my living room

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:44:03 +0000

This is what I was watching while drinking coffee last week. While the use of pesticides outside my window does concern me a bit, it’s also pretty nice to see real farm work from the comfort of my living room. I thought about the farmer’s life. Even though we occupy a similar geographic space, we live in very different worlds:

My house is perched on the edge of a modern-on-a-budget housing complex, a few dozen boxy houses with big cars parked in front. The front doors are usually decorated in some reference to the nearest holiday: plastic pumpkins in October, red hearts in February. Rowdy kids play in the street and their mothers stand together not far away, gossiping about the latest neighborhood problems.

But this insulated community is an island, a suburban outpost in a sea of rural life. From my dining room window, I can see farmers from another generation working in the fields. Their back are bent from years of bearing the slow stead weight of carrots and potatoes. An elderly farmer and his wife work a few feet below the window. We rarely make eye contact.

-jer.

Siphon coffee on the weekends

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:45:30 +0000

Siphon coffee: what a luxury. When I have enough time, I love making it at home. Usually, as the title of this blog suggests, it happens on the weekends because it’s such a messy, labour-intensive way to make coffee. But it’s also the nicest-looking way that I’ve ever seen coffee made, and it yields such a sweet, delicate drink that it’s totally worth the hassle. It reminds me of Clover coffee, but with a lighter body and more interesting high notes. I love it.

It’s starting to catch on in North America, but I would be surprised if it ever goes beyond the grass-roots stage. Siphon coffee is too messy and time-consuming for most of the larger coffee shops, although there are some curious exceptions. Here in Japan, it used to be the preferred method and is still quite popular. There’s even a siphon competition at the Japanese Barista Championships.

-jer.

Brasstronaut+ Aaron Read= Awesome.

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:23:20 +0000

Brasstronaut was supposed to have a new album out this month, but it’s been delayed until early 2010. Instead, there is a new video for Old World Lies.

Aaron Read, who you might recognize from the Sunday Service, is the guy in the boat. Apparently the open ocean is his biggest fear, and he almost drowned making the movie.

-jer.

The Greatest: Werner Herzog

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:00:49 +0000

I waived my right to have a personal assistant, I waived my right to have a shopper, and I waived my right to have a chair with my name on it, which saved the production 65 bucks! But I hate those chairs anyway. I loathe them. I’ve never had a chair like that.

I came across a Werner Herzog interview in Vice a couple of weeks ago and have been wanting to say something about him for a while. The first time I heard about Herzog was during an episode of Ebert & Roeper at the Movies maybe four or five years ago. They were reviewing Grizzly Man, Herzog’s documentary film about a man obsessed with protecting grizzly bears by living in amongst them, only to be eventually devoured by one, survived only by his documented footage which Herzog reclaimed. I remembered this a few years later during a documentary film class I took during my last year at SFU, where we were given the opportunity to do a research paper on one filmmaker and the issues surrounding doc films. Herzog was an easy choice for me because I wanted to watch more of his work and knew he had a reputation for being slightly mad, and working people who were a lot like him.

My paper discussed Herzog’s use of reenactment as a reflexive tool in Little Dieter Needs to Fly. I can’t believe this whole film is available on youtube.

This is an incredible story. What’s amazing is how Herzog and Dengler blend into one person through voice over. I love this type of subtle self-indulgence when done well in film.

An old barber shop sign

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:39:30 +0000

I love those classic barber shop signs. When I was very young, I would just stare at it, they look so cool! Now, when I see those blue and red twirling signs, I can’t help but feel small again.

-jer.

What’s wrong with this poster?

thisiswhatidoonweekends — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:29:26 +0000

What “revolution” is this phrase referring to? While advertising generally uses punctuation in the most liberal way possible, this is still too much. I think the point of those quotations is to draw attention to that one word. And that’s wrong.

Michael Cera does appear on this blog a lot, and yes, he does have a mustache in his newest movie. I have no explanation for either of those occurrences, but for some reason I’m happy about them.

-j.