Zub Tales

January’s wrapping up fast so I thought I’d fill everyone in on the last few days.

For the most part, things are quiet. My roommate Jean is away on a business trip and I’ve been enjoying some quiet time because of it. Actually, I’m enjoying it so much that I’m seriously considering getting a place of my own when the lease expires at the house. Finding a place in Kensington area could be tough, but the idea of having my own place all to myself is appealing. The only messes would be mine and I could set up a studio type setting as opposed to the drafting table in my bedroom set up I have now. Hmm…more details will come later if I decide to go ahead with it.

Socially, I was feeling a little bored last weekend. I didn’t want the rave environment I talked about in my last Newsletter to become a regular thing, so I opted out of that. Instead, I decided to try the LARP thing in Calgary again.

For those of you who don’t know, LARP stands for Live Action Role Playing. It’s like one of those Murder Mystery dinners where you dress up and act like someone else for a night. When I first went to Humber, I hooked up with a LARP troupe downtown Toronto and met some wonderful people. It made me more social and gave me a lot of confidence. When I first moved to Calgary, I hoped lightning would strike twice. The experience was a lot less enjoyable, with some of the worse parts of the Toronto scene magnified to obnoxious proportions.

But, time paves bad memories and I thought I’d give it another go. I figured the worst-case scenario would be that it would suck and I wouldn’t go back. In the end it was…okay. Not great, but not too bad. It didn’t have the spark of the Toronto group, but I met some new people who seemed nice. I don’t know if I’m in a rush to go back, but it could have been worse.

Movie-wise, I saw Snatch and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Snatch is a rapid fire caper film that’s a blast to watch. Fun characters, hilarious situations…I really enjoyed it from start to end. Crouching Tiger is a good movie, but not quite the Movie of the Year 2000 that critics are calling it. The story is very Chinese and you have to appreciate their storytelling style to get the most out of it. The sword fights are incredible, but the wire-flying work always feels strange instead of graceful to me. I don’t need perfectly real physics or anything, but the floating just looks odd.

I’m running an evening drawing course for beginners, which keeps me at the school for 14 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Between that and our answering machine being busted, I’m not getting phone calls. If you’re trying to reach me, be patient and keep trying or e-mail me instead and I’ll call you when I get in.

That’s the rundown for this time.