It's been nearly a month since my last post so I figured I'd write another. In five days time I shall turn 22, the same age that Buddy Holly was when he died. I shall use that excuse to continue to avoid airplanes. I have an extreme fear of heights which is somewhat inconvenient. Well, it's good for my wallet as buses and trains are generally a cheaper way to travel. Even so this fear made going through the rockies in B.C. a bit scary at times. I remember looking over a cliff that the bus was driving along and I suddenly started to panic inside. I didn't let it show. From that point on I did not look down from the window.
This morning I finished reading Ernest Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast". I read it in three sittings over about a week. It was recommended to me a few months ago by a friend of mine. I had never read anything by Hemingway and so I decided to start with this. I also have a film adaptation of "For Whom the Bell Tolls" but have not watched it. If I can find a copy of the book I'll read it before watching the film. Anyhow, back to "A Moveable Feast". It's a memoir of sorts about Hemingway's time living in Paris during the 1920s. His introduction to the book leaves it up to the reader to decide whether the book is fiction or not. It makes no difference to me, I enjoyed it in any case. I particularly liked the last third of the book as it focused on his experiences with Scott Fitzgerald who at the time had just finished "The Great Gatsby". Hemingway writes of Fitzgerald's weaknesses for both alcohol and his wife, Zelda. Hemingway considered both of these influences to be a negative thing for Fitzgerald. Though Hemingway had the benefit of hindsight as he wrote this book several years after Fitzgerald died. In fact, most of the people he speaks of in this book were dead by the time he wrote it. In fact Hemingway himself was dead by the time it was finally published. Though I suppose hindsight isn't really needed to recognize an alcoholic in a toxic marriage.
I spoke to my father about a week ago about going to North Bay next month. He's up to it and so I shall go. I'm going there to see Steven Page perform, if my father isn't working he'll be joining me. I look forward to it. Page will be promoting his album of cover songs called "A Singer Must Die". Judging by the track list to that album I'd be fine with him only playing songs from that album. Speaking of "A Singer Must Die", I've been listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen over the last two months or so. I've been reading his poetry as well. I find his work to be quite interesting, enjoyable and at times shocking. Well, if it were written today it wouldn't be too shocking but for the time it was written it was.
Today I shall go to the library if the weather permits. That is all for now. Fare-thee-well.
