Ron Nurwisah, Boy Reporter

I realize over the last few weeks that I’ve really soured on 2008. The year started great and just seemed to really fall apart sometime in late October or early November. But right until then it was actually pretty awesome. So just in case things get really grim in the next few months, and they might. I thought it would be a good idea to remind myself of all the really amazing, fun, memorable things that actually happened this year.

In no particular order:

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• Young Guns II video
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• Listened to great music (Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, etc.)
• Reading more than my fair share of great books
• Held tons of dinner parties with great friends
• The new dutch oven
• Really grew to love cooking
• Brunch, bike ride in the park, art galleries (repeat)
• Picnics on the Island
• Late-night drinking session in the bowl at Trinity-Bellwoods
• A rainbow over Manhattan
• Checking out the gardens at P.S. 1 Plaguers dvd
  
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• Being freaked out by Finnish art
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• Eating burgers after a rainstorm outside MOMA
• Bocce at some random bar in Brooklyn
• Receiving more birthday wishes than he knew what to do with
• Having his sister visit
• Making it back to Toronto for Fake Prom with two hours to spare
• Having lunch with Junot Diaz
• Slowdancing with more than one attractive woman
• Seeing his friends become actual working journalists before his very eyes
• Drinking with said work buddies (stir, repeat)
• Seeing nattily dressed columnist Peter Kuitenbrouwer rock out on the dance floor at the Spacing 5th anniversary party
• Putting his Swedish friend in a room with attractive women…
• Summer nights on the Ronnie’s patio
• Kissing more than one beautiful woman
• Playing basketball so hard that I strained a dozen muscles
• Coming back the next week to do it again
• ‘Bullets Fever’
• Dim sum with the basketball crew
• Working Super Tuesday, Election Night, Debate nights and more with really great co-workers at nationalpost.com Get Rich or Die Tryin film
• Writing letters at the Regional Assembly of Text
• Passover dinner at Jonathan Goldsbie’s house
• Seeing Jonathan move out of his house
• Hannukah party at Jonathan’s apartment
• Covering the TTC strike
• Picnic at the Scream in High Park
• Bocce, bread and booze in the park with Craig
• Track Meet(s)
• Seeing Jon-Rae in the city again
• P.S. Kensington
• Winning a fashion competition with a very ridiculous Col. Sanders get-up
• Mad Men
• Live-blogging the Emmy’s
• Live-blogging the Olympic opening ceremony and then going to work
• Geek bonding at The Trekzac Festicon
• Not getting threatened by random drunks at Nuit Blanche
• Drinking in the newsroom watching Jesse Jackson cry as Obama gives his victory speech
• Christmas pot luck with a roomful of people from B.C. I hadn’t met
• Summer bike-rides
• Finding the perfect, cute red Peugeot
• Lunches with Jenn Polk
• Drinks with Mats
• Feeding my friends
• Countless bowls of soup
• Still having my health
• Still having all my friends (and a few new ones)

See ya later 2008.

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I’m going to be in Vancouver from Jan. 1 to Jan. 9.

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Riders movie Shrek 4-D trailer “Wait, that’s like two weeks away. Why so much notice, Ron?”

Well. I just thought I’d give you advance warning to leave town if you want to avoid me.

I’ve always been unenthused about going back to Vancouver. But somehow, it feels different this time around. I’m spotting awesome things in Vancouver that I want to check out (I’m sure they’ve always been there and I’ve just missed them).

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So for all my friends in Vancouver, let’s hang out, coffee, sushi, karaoke, jumping into puddles, whatever you guys want. I miss a lot of you! It’ll be just like old times, but better because they’re new times.

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With apologies to Alexis for stealing a simple yet good idea.

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Been meaning to read Bolano for some time and finally got nudged into reading the book. The first third was a raw and visceral bit of writing. The second, a collection of diary entries/anecdotes from about half-a-dozen viewpoints is a bit more of a slog. But apparently the last third is worthwhile… so onwards.

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I’ve been meaning to read Plimpton’s work for some time, so I snatched up this anthology when I saw it at a used bookstore. Also I’ve been meaning to read this highly-regarded bio of the Paris Review editor. Red Mist aka Freakdog ipod

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

I’ve always enjoyed Vowell’s tongue-in-cheek take on American history and this look at the Massachusetts Bay colony is no different. For all the joking around, there’s a lot of seriousness and big ideas about the DNA of the American project in this book. I interview her for the Post here if you missed the video.

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After years of picking up various bits and pieces of Pia Guerra and Brian Vaughn’s gripping comic book series about the survivor of a plague that kills of (almost) all the men on the planet, I finally picked up the last volume. It’s been a fun ride.

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Joseph Boyden’s Giller winner Through Black Spruce, John Hodgman’s More Information Than You Require, Joshua Ferris’ Then We Came to the End, Chip Kidd’s The Learners. (Yes, I know, the last two are about ad agencies… I’m not planning a career switch, don’t worry)

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Yes, I know. I’m a work of art. Actually this photo was part of a rogue Nuit Blanche project my friend and uber-photoblogger Rannie Turingan

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I’m quite fond of the mascots in a frame myself. Click below to see the lot of ‘em.

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So a bit more from my New York trip. One of my favourite things was my visit to P.S. 1, a public school out in Queens that was converted into a public art museum. Jonny Dovercourt and I went to see the building because I kept raving about it. There was some great Finnish art, including a haunting installation inspired by the doomed Russian submarine Kursk.

But the neatest thing is the agriculture installation out in the courtyard called P.F. 1 (Public Farm 1). From the press release:

P.F.1 (Public Farm One) is an urban farm concept that evokes the look of a flying carpet landing in the P.S.1 courtyard. Constructed from large cardboard tubes, its top surface will be a working farm, blooming with a variety of vegetables and plants.

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More photos after the jump

(more…)

I took the water taxi with a new friend in New York City after checking out Oliafur Eliason’s Waterfalls. We ended up staying on the boat longer than we thought we would. The ferry went up along most of the East Side (and parts of Brooklyn) and is a pretty good way to see New York on the water.

Aliens in the Attic dvdrip While we were ogling the view, a very nasty looking grey cloud crept in over lower Manhattan and within half-an-hour a rainstorm started and then this:

I didn’t take this photo (thanks Flickr user B.I.L. NYC) I didn’t take too many photos actually, I think I was just stunned by it all.

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It’s been about three years since my last visit to NYC so I’m looking forward to it immensely. Coincidentally, a good friend of mine (Jonny ‘Dovercourt’ nee Bunce) is also in town to take part in this amazing guitar ensemble Body Bags movie download The Time Machine dvdrip .

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From this story in Jazz News:

For Rhys Chatham’s work, which was specially commissioned by Lincoln Center for this Out of Doors performance, 200 volunteer electric guitarists, including 16 bass guitarists, are needed to join Chatham and section leaders John King, Ned Sublette, David Daniell, and Seth Olinsky (Akron/Family) in a “super-sized” orchestra. Reflecting Chatham’s interest in polyphonic and antiphonal music

I’m hoping I’ll be able to check out a rehearsal.

I always joke about incredibly good things happening to me in New York, this time it happened before I even get there.

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may be my new best friend (at least while I’m in the 212).

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In the best possible way. I had a very small part in the Sydney Olympic Opening Ceremony. The music in the background while the torch was making its way through the stadium, including when Cathy Freeman

lights the cauldron and she’s surrounded by the curtain of water and the Close Encounters of the Third Kind ring of fire, that was us, the 1000 + strong choir that little old me was part of.

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When the cauldron begins to climb we’re actually standing just a couple of metres away from the cauldron. Crazy.

Also, Google’s got a slightly longer version of this that’s not embeddable but it reminded me of the fact that Australia’s Governor-General was three sheets to the wind when he was “declaring the Games open.” I think at one point he almost bats the mic away AND forgets which Games he’s actually opening.

I’ve added a few new widgets to the blog:

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I’ve decided to be more diligent about adding links I’ve found on del.icio.us and have added the widget on the right.

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Also, you’ve noticed that I’m back on twitter. What this will do to my productivity at work remains to be seen. But now you’ll know my general mental state all the time.

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