the review

alright kiddos.
2014.
a tricksy year.

see, on a global scale: it was not good. and i'm feeling that weight. my belief in the goodness of humans, on a grand scale, has been really shaken. and i worry, i fear. but we've talked about that a lot on here. so i'm going to walk away from that for a moment. for this here end-of-year look-back.

because on a personal scale 2014 was kinda kick-ass-inest. my own world: it was real good.

family time and travel was like whoa.
my bestie had a baby.
my sister got a married.
my roommate graduated law school like a total rockstar.
my nephew was old enough to have his first *real* grimas.
THE OLYMPICS HAPPENED!
i turned 30 and can confirm that being 30 is the best.
my birthday cake was beyoncé-themed and there were black balloons everywhere.
i saw robyn again!!
i learned i can run pretty fast when i feel like it.
i got a new job.
i bought an imaginary space that will one day not be imaginary, but will be a home that i will live in.

i met a really amazing new lady-friend. famjam was born.
then i met another super spectacular new lady-friend and famjam went next level.

ladies be drinkin was a constant source of joy and baking.

my bookclub got more and more feminist.
jian ghomeshi got dragged out into the light and seen for the sack-full of disgusting jackass he is.

my dog made so many jokes.

i re-connected with two women who i have known so long, and who feel so much a part of my heart and soul i can barely stand it. we looked at the adult women we have all become, and we said: yes, i like this person so much more for the dark bits and the unsure bits and the pain and change and time.

i saw scotland again.

i said goodbye to the home-est home i will ever know, and that was hard and sad sad sad.
i saw my parents in their new home and new world, which is exciting and full of love and jokes (and soaker bathtubs).

we lost someone. far too soon. and it blew through us and left us ragged. we did our best to hold each other together, to hold each other up. we miss you, mav.

and then there was the culture.

best books:

* the flamethrowers - rachel kushner (on art and independence and revolution)
* swamplandia - karen russell (on siblings and dampness and fear)
* the year of magical thinking - joan didion (re-read, but still a top-fave - on living and grieving and light)
* the elegance of the hedgehog - muriel barbery (on the ache and the void)
* the collected short stories of lydia davis (pure beauty and perfection)

best films:

* lucy (on insignificance and humanity and feeling everything)
* under the skin (on being a woman)
2014 officially goes to scar-jo. oof, wow. thank you.

best music: well that'll get its own post. there's a playlist a'comin.

so that's where we will leave it. 2014. goodbye.

civil

{iveson chan super fam}

it is such a great day in my hometown, oh man! it is ELECTION DAY!!! i wish i still lived there just so i could be a part of don iveson's super super exciting campaign for mayor. what a guy! i know that guy! so cool. so pleased and proud that my parents got up and involved in canvasing and flyering on his behalf. also, calgary is having an election. too. if you live in either get out and vote. voting is the most fun. if you happen to have not looked up where/how to vote check out the links below. eeeeeeeee!

vote edmonton!!!

vote calgary!!!

civic engagement is soooo hip and cool!

roger

there is a piece of writing that is circulating amongst my pals back in the homeland of edmonton. just in case you haven't run into it yet, i'mma throw to it here.
 
* on homelessness and support (or lack thereof) social aid/affordable housing

this is a lovely tribute to a loved man, and an eloquent rebuttal to the nay-saying NIMBYs of terwillegar, and a lot of cities in this country we're lucky enough to call home. i am grateful for her honesty and openess about her and her family's experience.  i am impressed that she remains kind and hopeful in the face of rage-making ignorance and close-mindedness.

"To those of you who say you are not affluent, I say there are many people in Edmonton who make more money than you do, and plenty more who make less, but if your wealth depends on keeping others poor, then you will never truly be wealthy.

Call me idealistic — I’ve been called worse — but I have to believe Terwillegar Speaks represents a very vocal but very minor number of people’s views in that part of my city."

{salena kitteringham for the edmonton journal}

(and going by the communities and people i know in old edmo, she is right. there's a lot of greatness and kindness and generosity in that city. i hope it wins out. i hope it makes noise. i think it will.)

in love with the hook

 

 {i see monsters, e & h}

EDMONTON! i have a show in the works art and design festival, and i'm pretty thrilled about it. 'in love with the hook' is up at manulife place, or site #7. (check out the full festival layout at the link above...)

and you absolutely MUST also visit site #9 and site #11 to see brenda draney and jill stanton respectively. those of you who knew me back in my undergrad days will remember brenda as being a studio-bestie, but she is also the greatest thing, and won the rbc canadian painting competition in 2009 and was longlisted for this year's sobey art award. like. huge dealz all over. and jill was a year or so behind me at u of a and is doing some of the coolest, grittiest, graphic-novel-like things out there. i don't know how to describe it effectively so just go seeee it. i'm sure the other shows are fan-freaking-tastic too because edmonton is just oooozing with talent. i so wish i could be in town to catch the festival. but i can't. so. YOU! DO IT! thanks, edmonton. (and thanks mom&dad for being such a great help in getting my work sorted and handed over to the appropriate folks. you're lifesavers. pineapple flavour.)

send it up

yes. exactly. awb is so fantastic. all of edmonton go to his show please. june 9th to august 18th at the art gallery of alberta.

skate away

{borrowed from here & here}

  

it is not winter here. not even close. it is barely even fall some days. yesterday? it was 12 degrees.

even though i am calling this city mine, there is still a whole lot of edmonton in my bones that i can't shake out. and those edmonton bits think that it can't be december, it can't be advent, without the cold. the snow. the crinkly-freeze-your-nosehairs-when-you-inhale kind of cold. toronto doesn't understand this cold even a little. which makes it hard for me to understand how toronto can understand christmas at all. i think it does it all wrong.

i can't wait to be home. where christmas is the realest thing. i've been spending time with wintery images to fill the hole in my winter-heart.

 {borrowed from here & here}

 {borrowed from here & here & here}

 {borrowed from here & here}

 {borrowed from here & here & here}

{borrowed from here & here}