{April 2026 End}

Woah, April is over. It was a very productive month, I had a job and everything. Had my birthday and turned 27! That's pretty cool. There was still a bunch of shit I didn't get done, the usual, but it feels like less of a dead weight this month. A little more economic stability also doesn't hurt.

Goals 

 1. A-Z Blogging

Total fail... I got so busy this month it took a toll on me. RIP. 

2. Go to all my meetings

Done, went to a lot of meetings. 

3. Kiwi planting work

Also done. 

4. Draft 2 of Marmoris comic

Didn't have time, moving it to May. 

5. Pen! Pen! Pen!

Yeah, it's here! Best day ever! 

6. FINALLY mail letter

Er, literally almost! I'll be mailing first week of May. 

7. Turn 27, don't die 

Didn't die. 

Best Of: March

 

 Movies

There was a theme to the movies this month: Al Pacino. Yes, I made what was a pretty good decision early in April to get through a bunch of his filmography because I realized I hadn't actually seen his best work at all. Embarrassing, anyway, from the movies that I did see this month, here they are ranked:

7. Glengarry Glen Ross

Pacino's performance in this is great, his whole scene at the end with his panicked client is tense, claustrophobic, and antsy. Over all I found moments where either he, Alan Arkin, or Ed Harris were not on screen to drag. I also just hate Kevin Spacey, he's not bad in this or anything, but I just hate him.

6. Cruising

A dark and sleazy tale of specific subculture of gay culture in New York that has the shadow of murders hanging over it. Police abusing random queer men is honest and brutal, I hate movies that steer away from being true about this. There are some pacing and editing moments that are... interesting. Let's say for example the scene where Burns (played by Pacino) and Skip Lee are arrested and then slapped around out of nowhere by a huge dude in only a jockstrap and a cowboy hat. I don't dislike it, I'm just wondering about the process which led to the scene is all. At the time it was boycotted by many gay activists as in their eyes it associated gay culture with violence which can easily lead to even more hate crimes. I can see this point, but also in my mind this is really a distinct world from everyday gay culture: it's the world of S&M within the gay community. I don't know, it just feels like a look into a very specific and vulnerable group of people who nobody really gave a shit about and for that I guess I appreciate it.

5. The Godfather

I have little to say. It's obviously an exceptional movie, one of a kind with a million copycats. Pacino in it is intentionally off-putting and while his performance is undeniably excellent, I was actually so impressed with Robert Duvall. I watched this as a kid and obviously didn't care at all so it's good to watch it with new eyes. 

4. Serpico 

I really don't like cops. I also like stories, both fiction and reality, where cops and soldiers and who ever else works in the industry of fear and oppression wakes up from it and takes a stand at last. So Serpico is great, it's a story about this guy who wants to be a cop, a detective, so bad that he does it anyway he can. He's got a whole new approach, plainclothes, fitting in with the crowd and all. But when the corruption and how high it goes becomes obvious and when he fights it, he ultimately fails are every turn. He's sabotaged at every turn until it gets so far he catches a bullet. It's got all the cliches that everyone thinks work: internal investigations, just giving it time, and going to other branches of the government for help only to get denied. I think if it was made now it would pussy out of such a wide-spectrum criticisms. I'm sure Pacino would catch a few bad apples and everyone would happily go back to beating up suspects, be they guilty or not.

3. Scarecrow

After I sat with it for a few days, it grew on me more and more. Pacino is so funny in this. It's always funny until it isn't. In the same movie he goes from some kind of proto-manic pixie dream girl to someone who's been traumatized into collapse by a set of events no one can ever brace for. Gene Hackman's no slouch either, he's so serious, you think he'll crack at some point but he doesn't. 

2. ...And Justice For All

Okay. Okay, I know rating this movie above Scarecrow, Serpico, AND The Godfather looks a bit insane, I get it. But this is my list! If you want a 'correct' list, go elsewhere. I just love this movie. It's funny but I don't find it to be a comedy. It's a tragedy but it's not a soap. It's got Al Pacino as a deeply cynical but emotionally invested DA that tries his best to get the most poorly treated defendants some damn justice. In his pain he breaks into tears that hurt to look at. It's an exceptional performance and many people highlight only the last scene as being memorable, but to me it's the whole movie. 

1. Dog Day Afternoon 

Yeah, it's probably his best performance paired with excellent acting from everyone around him and deceptively simple but blistering and concise cinematography. Like most of the movies Pacino stars in, this one ends tragically and I think the tragedy is preordained the moment things start to go wrong during the bank robbery: so, straight away. It's also got incredible sensitivity towards it's queer character's in the year 1975! I know a lot of people may argue that since both Sonny and Leon are flawed people (deeply flawed in Sonny's case) that the work is transphobic/biphobic. And I won't invalidate those opinions but I do have my own take. I don't like the idea that queer characters always have to be good, or unmarred, characters and people. It strips them entirely of their humanity. I love Sonny as a character, even though he's a shitty guy. I never steer away from bisexual rep that's about imperfect people so long as it respects their humanity, even if it doesn't respect everything about their actions. This kind of empathy is the most important thing about a movie. What makes a work queerphobic to me is erasing the queer character's point of view or their reality. To make them bland and unrecognizable as real people, and Dog Day Afternoon does not do that at all.

TV Shows

I actually didn't watch any TV this month... well, with the exception of Storage Wars: Texas. It's goofy, it's silly, it's low-stakes.  

Games

Together with Tom and Mo, we've being trying to finish the competition side of Deathrow. It's going pretty good. I've also been trying to get further along with Apollo Justice as I've left it on hold for a while. However, the most important event of the month was surely the Expanse: Osiris Reborn beta. I've talked about it a lot in other blog posts but the rundown is this: excellent visuals and gameplay, awful and disjointed dialogue and voice acting. Huge issues with tone! Still, I'm hoping for the best and for Owlcat to get on that ASAP. And add Belter creole!

Books

Bad book month for me, didn't have much time to read. Still in the first half of Westing Game.

Music

Lots of great albums this month but my top pick has to be Lo-Pro's self-titled as it ahs no bad songs at all. But my fave is the total sci-fi-ish and spacey Oblivion. It's so beautiful and desolate.

Animation 

Also slow! Watched the first episode of Witch Hat, it's looking good but I fear it may be a bit of what happened with Sakamoto days for me where I just prefer the manga no matter what. 

Full Log: April 2026

Belta Lik Pashang! {Week 17}

Greetings. I'm doing a little catch-up, soon April will come to an end and it will be May! I don't do Mermay in the traditional sense but I do feel an urge to work on my mermaid project during this time and the summer. Hopefully I'll do some of that. 

Otherwise, the week was pretty great, very busy with work but we had Tom over on the weekend which is always awesome. Haven't even had a minute to be bored.

Week 17.

Regular Monday, we had a day off since we work Saturdays.

On Tuesday we went to work as usual. Meanwhile my mum went to pick up one of her old classmates that's dropping in for a visit. So we saw them at the end of the work day and spent a little time together but I won't lie I was so tired I kind of just wanted to go deflate in my room by myself. However, afterwards I did get some energy back and we watched Project Hail Mary with Mo's friend over Discord. I'm gonna be real, I don't really like anything Andy Weir-written. The humour is just so derivative, and if the joke's not gonna be good why take away from the tension of a good sci-fi? It's just so Disney-fied, I liked Rocky but he's like E.T.-lite almost. I don't know, man. I also just don't think Ryan Gosling has the acting chops he thinks he does.

On Wednesday the Expanse beta was finally out. My brother's friend is playing first so I'm avoiding anything about it until I can finally get my hands on it and see for myself. Work was normal. I hadn't heard from my bestie from uni for a few months. I call her V on the blog and she has a habit of doing that but this time was longer than usual. Luckily, our mutual friend E is a social media tracking expert and found another friend of which we knew who was able to contact her. Woo, she's not dead! It did make me wonder though, if there's anyone I knew from before I stopped using all social media who's tried to get in contact with me only to be unable to. Nah, probably not!

Thursday we went to work at Noel's instead. He looks pretty good, he does cough often but is otherwise moving about. I was scared that he was totally immobile but he's holding out strong. Heard that when he got his cancer diagnosis, a lawyer and him backtracked and with the help of all the unions he's been in determined that he was exposed to asbestos which is carcinogenic. If I ever hear any motherfucker say shit about deregulation again...

He's suing the company responsible good and I'm glad. Fuck them. Lots of people are dying or dead because they thought it's okay to expose workers to asbestos. It's just such bullshit.

We re-furbished and re-painted some gates he had, it was in a nice and cool garage which was a great change of pace from the sun-baked fields.

Friday we went back to Noel's, but this time to work on these rock-metal cage contraptions that work as fences and also anti-flood protection. They live in a flood-heavy zone, they even had to boat around in the latest flood. Hopefully these hold up when the next one comes. They should, it's like tons and tons or rock! On the way back, we biked, two huge dogs chased us down the road and one even tried to take a bite out of my brother. I mean, huge dogs! Like if that thing stood up it would be human-tall. I don't get dog owners like that, man. First of all, it would have mauled a kid. And they could have been hit by a car. 

When we got back, bad news. Rose, a family friend and a friend of Monique, passed away in the night in Paris. She was with her family. Also cancer. She was really cool, really didn't care what anyone thought and said what she wanted but she wasn't cruel. I miss her.

I got a call from my French teacher, Aicha. She said there's some spots in a B2 course and she'd like me to join. Like, duh! I love classes. So I have a meeting with her on Monday for the sign-up process. Hopefully nothing goes wrong... 

Went out to the kiwis on Saturday, it was a very cloudy day. A little rainy even. Amazing. I invited Tom over for Sunday and surprisingly he said yes, usually he's super busy. Mo went out and bought us kebabs which was the bomb, nobody wanted to cook. 

On Sunday I went to the grocery store pretty early to get some stuff to make milkshakes. Tom came over at about 2PM and I made some for everyone. I have a weird interest in sweet drinks. I also have an urge to make some mocktails...

Sugar overdose!

We played some MW3 and then moved straight to Deathrow and this time we finally fucked up those training droids. I have no idea how tutorial enemies were somehow harder than actual enemies but yeah... 

In the evening time I finally got to try the beta. I have very mixed opinions that I've already rambled on about in the Owlcat survey. Almost no notes when it comes to gameplay and the visuals, they are pretty amazing. But the story, the dialogue, and the voice acting... so underdeveloped. It feels like a first draft and it seems I'm not the only one who thinks so. Hopefully they do some very serious re-writing. And! And there was basically no Belter creole or even Belter accent. Fuck right off!

Some shots from the beta.

I'm pretty exhausted but there is yet more to do come next week. So I'm gonna brace for that. 

The end.

This Week I'm Excited For...

To see Aicha and sign up for the B2 course. Don't wanna get too excited in case it interferes with work or something but I do feel I progress the most in an academic setting so this would be pretty great.

Song Of The Week... 

Kind of been a messy week for music so I did somehow miss that mad routine released a new EP, insomniac! Double life is so catchy, it's moody and dark, I really dig it. The diverse vocals are especially great.

Accident-Prone {Week 16}

Good evening, readers. At least good evening in my timezone, and good anything you want in yours. As usual, I've made an involuntary creative decision to be late to everything! Yes, for anyone who's also been reading on my fashion blog, the A-Z challenge has been a total bust. More on that on the fashion blog. New job has been a time. You know I'm a material girl and my favourite material is cold, hard cash so in those terms work has been good. Well... I actually get paid in checks. And I'm working minimum wage. Who am I fooling...

Week 16.

Had a meeting with my social worker on Monday, everything is seemingly on track. My temporary insurance document came in so I can go to the dentist when I want to (when there is a free slot sometime this year if I'm lucky). However, I still don't have my carte vitale and there's no news about that. Thanks a lot, Macron! You dick.

On Tuesday we went back to work and I gave myself another sunburn. We had a new task for the whole day. Deceptively simple. We had to clip these little hooks onto a metal line and later pop on a hose that would supply the irrigation system with water. Easy, right? Hell no! Those clips were so damn tight we had blisters and bleeds all over our hands within the first half of the day. I also managed to sprain my shoulder and trip over nothing, injuring my knee. That's right, a few weeks of digging and driving heavy equipment ended without any injuries but some plastic nearly obliterated me. I still haven't recovered.

Cute pics of grass.

At home I finally finished The Godfather, it is after all the national holiday of Al Pacino April. Don't fact check me. And I followed that up with The Verdict because it also happens to be Attorney April, another important worldwide celebration. Don't look it up. 

Things got worse on Wednesday because I had my period. Hurray! It was hot and gross and somehow in a combination of despair and sweat I managed to give myself practically second-degree burns on my belly via hot water bottle. Second-degree? Surely you fib, is what you're probably thinking. Nope! I will not assault you with medical photography but I earned some blisters filled with that weird liquid that popped and left raw skin right beneath. Oh yeah, and it hurt. Like a bitch. 

Took the time to finally watch No Country For Old Men. I know, it's weird I still haven't seen it and I know that I'm a fake movie fan. I know! I was too lazy to get up, and now littered with self-inflicted wounds so I decided to tune into another movie, Serpico. Some of the most unhinged fashion moments of all time. And ACAB. Fantastic.

Recovering continued on Thursday and not much of note happened. I was normal-ish by Friday and at work again. The boss said it's the last day for awhile on the account of he needs more kiwi trees that are apparently being imported. But they can't be imported due to, and I quote, 'fucking Trump'. I feel you, man. The motherfucker has me feeling bad for an employer.

On Saturday I dropped by the outlet store to see if they had any good snacks. They did not. I bought regular store stuff, I actually bought too much, I think. But Tom was coming over on Sunday and we haven't seen him in weeks! We've been watching Storage Wars: Texas recently too. It started as a joke but now everyone's kind of invested in the low-stakes drama caused by the meddler, Victor. Here's some dumb shit I saw at the store:

Possibly the ugliest hat I've ever seen...

Tween mags are back?

Sunday was a great day, I was fully healed up and we left bright and early to Monique's house because there was a flea market right next to her house. Spring and France is a thrifter's wet dream. Er, it's a good time! Okay, I'll do this without innuendo: all the brocantes are sparse in the cold seasons but they happen left and right as soon as it warms up. The summer is even better what with everyone being on vacation and such. 

I picked up some really cute stuff, you can check it out on the fashion blog if you're curious. I did a whole post about a lotta different stuff I found in the past few months. My sister picked up some good stuff too. I also saw Maria! She was in my class all of the autumn of last year. She's actually moving to our town it turns out which is neat.

Experienced cheapskates.

What a ride!

We were ready to head back home but Monique invited us for lunch so we had some nice and Cordon Bleus and watched her favourite game show. I can tell my French has improved because I got like half the answers right! She was nice enough to drop us off at home in time for Tom to show up. 

Cat outside Monique's house.

We tried out a bunch of games, obviously starting with some classic Modern Warfae 3. We also tried Brute Force but I think only me and Mo enjoyed it. Then we moved on to Deathrow. Hidden gem! It's such an absurd game: sci-fi death Frisbee set in a cyberpunk nightmare world. But it's so great for couch co-op which the superior type of co-op. 

Somehow we always start getting toxic when we play OG Xbox games because even when he had fun with Deathrow, complaining about who's being a team player and who wasn't' started up just like during Battlefront II. Something about the OG Xbox games possess us to be little shits, perhaps the soul of an eternally angry 12 year old still stuck in 2004?

As much edge as advertised.

I totally missed the premiere of the Witch Hat Atelier anime that happened on my birthday of all days! Work has really been kicking my ass. I won't lie, I'm not as excited about it because I feel like the style of the manga didn't totally transfer to the anime but I'm sure I'll still enjoy it so I will be catching up to it in the coming weeks.  

Take me away...!

And that was the week. Pretty wack. Check did not bounce. Life is sort of good, you know?

This Week I'm Excited For...

The Expanse: Osiris Reborn beta will be live next Wednesday and we are all excited. Me, my brother, his friend, that friend's friend, his roommate, some random hackers, our FBI agent... basically everyone who's sharing my brother's account to eventually play this game because we are too cheap to each get a copy. It's gonna be great. Yam seng!

Song Of The Week... 

Been listening to a lot of Lo-Pro's debut and self-titled 2003 album. It rocks a lot, basically no misses at all. Lo-Pro is so underrated. My top song has to be Oblivion, though you can't go wrong with pretty much any other track either.

Birthday Week {Week 15}

A whole second birthday on the blog. Woohoo! Yes, this Monday I turned 27. So old! Or so young? Who gives a shit! Getting older has become meaningless to me. I no longer feel shame, ambition, drive, or despair. No rat race, no career plan, no inconceivable get-rich-quick schemes, and bigger than life missions.

The inevitability of death has reached total saturation and cannot be anymore inevitable than it is now. This calls for celebration. Have a fizzy beverage of your choice in my honor, please.

Week 15.

I had a pretty excellent week. It started with the aforementioned birthday. I got a raspberry pie first thing in the morning with some coffee. Because of Easter, everything was closed so we decided to stay home and have some burgers. I saw that Taskmaster was coming back for another season so I wanted to watch some of the earlier seasons with my mum and brother. For lunch we had burgers and my fave lemonade. The only thing I wish I did was watch a movie because it's been a bit of a tradition for a while but by the end of the day I was too tired. No gifts, we're all saving for that damn Huion.

Got lovely messages from friends, family, and even Neo mutuals and neighbors! You are all the sweetest people in the world. 

Shigeo who lives at Gran's.

On Tuesday it was borderline impossible to get up for work. Still, I did and we went out into the field only this day was not like the others... the sun was beating us down. We had maybe two hours of relative cool before it was at it's peak and blistering out of nowhere. We are... not built for this kind of weather. My brother was on edge since the morning and we were sniping and bitching at each other all day. Like non-stop. Anyway once we got home it was pretty easy to deduce what it was likely because of heatstroke or something. I am 100% the fat kid that dies first in a Lord of the Flies situation, like I cannot stand the heat at all and will become paranoid and insane. We were both acting completely deranged and paranoid and taking any comment as if it was a slight... until we cooled off, literally.

Better prepared for Wednesday, we actually brought our hats, me and Mo realized way too many days in that we can listen to the same stuff with his shitty earpods. We listened to a bunch of the GTAV stations, with ads of course. The day went much better. It got even better when I got home and settled in for a movie. For a few years now I was meaning to watch Dog Day Afternoon and finally I did.

Holy shit! It's a masterpiece. If ya haven't seen it, go in blind right now and watch it, I beg of you. I don't even wanna say anything. Wow, a perfect movie for me. Just a perfect movie, all in all.

Me lying at the job interview.

On Thursday my mum and Mo went to help a family friend with some stuff while I went to Monique's to set up her new printer. It sort of worked at first until it randomly disconnected and wouldn't print. I restarted her laptop and it went into a loop of rebooting and crashing for up to an hour. Mission failed, we'll get them next time. She'll probably have to take it to a repair shop sadly.

Friday was even better. The tablet pen came in. Victory, at last! 

Look who's back...

I also had a day off and decided to watch another movie with Al Pacino because he was fucking phenomenal in Dog Day Afternoon. And guess where else he was amazing? ...And Justice For All. With Christine Lahti too, who I loved so much in Housekeeping. I think about that movie often. Now this one too. The ending is so cathartic. The parking lot scene... man, I had tears in my eyes, I laughed, I fucking got so mad. Please, if you've seen this movie email me, message me, comment here, send me a letter, meet me at the corner store: we need to talk, and a lot.

I'm at my fucking limit.

On my mum's and Mo's way back from the friend's house they stopped by at a thrift store and my brother got himself the ugliest piece of decor known to man. I like Che Guevara and Cuba a lot but... graphic design was their passion it seems. 

I hate this.

On Saturday we went into work again, we've mostly been doing fertilizers this week. With little shot glasses and a 600 kilo bag of ammonium nitrate leaning like the tower of Pisa at the back of the tractor. All I'm saying is I feel like there's probably been some technological advancements in the past few decades that could have made this task a little bit more practical but since this is the south of France why bother? Yeah, we're doing it very old school here.

Way home.

It was all worth it in the end because I actually did get one present for my birthday. A full-body Thai massage with hot oil! I love massages, it's probably the only time I'm not averse to strangers touching me. I met Madame Kess after work and she did my massage for an hour at the local parlor/Thai restaurant. I think I saw God and she may be an angel. I got home and finally dropped onto the couch at around 6PM.

Because I'm insane and can watch the same movie basically the following day again, I put Dog Day Afternoon on for everyone in the evening time. I got the usual... 'it's the 70s? Like when they didn't have cars yet?' spiel from the two idiots born after the year 2000 (says me, hah!) but even my chronically online sister was into the movie. Didn't stop her from dropping a sarcastic 'wow, look at that, no one's on their phones' in the opening scene but we'll forgive it. 

On Sunday I was watching the Godfather. I'm officially making it Al Pacino April, friends. I have these very bizarre memories of my dad making me watch this as a kid for some reason and apparently he did that to my brother too. Don't really know what that's about. Instructions on what to do if he gets shot at? What? I didn't finish it because everyone wanted to watch a movie together. And so I put on ... And Justice For All on for everyone and watched it again. I know it may seem psychotic to just loop stuff like that right after you've seen it but me and movies have a very weird relationship like that. It doesn't feel like a waste, or repetitive, or the same thing. It always feels new in some way. I can't explain it. I just know that I need to come back, and soon.

And so the week ended. I've got more work and some meetings come next week. Not excited, not excited. But living.

The end!

This Week I'm Excited For...

To get paid. We got our first paycheck on Sunday. Like, a literal check. I have to bring it into the bank and do all that and then wait ages for it to actually be deposited into my account. Why rush, right? Thank fuck for welfare!

Song Of The Week... 

Since it was my birthday I've decided to pick one of the most meaningful songs from my favourite artist of all time, Jason Molina. A song that's quite morbid with an unbreakable undercurrent of hope. Blue Chicago Moon is one of my top Jason Molina (Songs:Ohia in this case) songs and although it's quite a dark pick for what should be a time for something a little more fun, when I'm at my worst there's not much that can dig me out quite like this one. 

Trying Not To Say {Week 14}

Terrible week for the photo part of the photo blog because I have literally no photos. Not a thing. Well... I do have one pic of my sunburnt face that I have no memory of taking but that isn't exactly very interesting or new. 

Just another daunting precursor of a summer that is to come. Sure, I wanna go to the pool and make fun drinks but I also don't want it to be 40 degrees all day every day.

Week 14.

Monday through Thursday were normal and full work days. We met a kid who's also been hired to help out. He's going to Singapore this summer to do something... it was some Zoomer business plan I didn't really understand, I'll be honest. Man, I feel so fucking old...He's great though. He forgot lunch on the first day so we shared ours with him and he's 'forgotten' it every day now too so we just always make extra. Anything for some worker solidarity.

We found out lunch is not paid however, so we basically take only 15 minute lunches now so that we don't have to stay a half-hour after work to make up the time. Can't even bitch about it or anything. See, if I was fully committed to working in agriculture or the service sector or as a teacher or whatever I'd join a fucking union. And you know what? I will. In the future, I'll be in a fucking union, hold me to it. 

I was going to prank my brother on Wednesday, on April Fool's, by telling him that work was called off and that he could sleep in only to crush his dreams in the next moment. But it felt so cruel! I was actually unpranked most of the day until my mum pulled the classic 'there's a wasp in your hair'. It was bullshit though because there really are wasps that make nests on the kiwi plants!

I took a day off on Friday because I thought I had a meeting but turns out it was on a different day. Dammit! Cats are giving us more problems meanwhile, they've found a gap between the second-floor ceiling and third-floor floor and are crawling around above us like cryptids. They come out completely soot-covered and gross too. Don't like the sound of something creeping above me where I can't see it. 

You know it!

On Saturday I dropped by the thrift store and picked up some cute shoes and a simple long-sleeve. I've been doing really badly this A-Z blogging event, much like the one last year. I already feel like I'm gonna have to quit before complete disaster strikes but I'd like to at least go beyond 'D' which is where I fell over last year. 

And Sunday was quite uneventful. I don't even know when it happened but I got so crispy. I will absolutely never have the flawless skin all the skin-care girlies are chasing because the amount of times I've been sizzled is beyond counting. Ah well, wrinkles, scarier in theory than in practice. 

Finally, a little colour. Bright red!

And so, a very busy but actually quite uneventful week. I did manage to finally order the replacement pen for my tablet for which I am so terribly excited. I'm anxiously waiting. Give it to me!

The end.

This Week I'm Excited For...

My birthday! It's on April 6th, Monday next. Easter Monday? I don't know. I'll be turning 27. It's a good thing I'm no famous rock star or movie actor, that could mean very bad things for my life expectancy. No plans to be honest, probably staying in, hopefully watching a movie or something. And hopefully cake!

Song Of The Week... 

I've been ensnared by the Weakerthans this week. I've had their entire disco on my player for a while but taking more time to listen to some albums back to back. Many amazing songs but all week I have been catching myself singing 'I...hate...Winnipeg!' as if it's a place I've ever been to or will ever go. Well, perhaps when me and Alice finally go on our tour of Canada to see national landmarks such as the Rivoli we may drop by Winnipeg but that's all TBD. I guess the best part about One Great City beside the mournful guitar melody is that it doesn't have to be Winnipeg. Think of any mid-sized town you've lived through and hated and sing it with me: 'I...hate...Winnipeg!'.