writing, speaking, web-making, and best of all, I get to dance later
I'm the author of YA novels, Rhythm & Blues and Break On Through.More about me »
I’ve made it safe and sound to Volcan. Yesterday I spent some time walking around Casco Viejo, in Panama City, where I snapped the photo above, of the newer city, across the bay. I’m still kinda sick, so today I tried to lie low and just concentrate on breathing through my nose. This is the [...]
Here I am at my gate at Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, waiting for my flight to Miami, to connect to Panama City, inauspiciously curled up on the floor, stealing electricity for my laptop & phone. I’ve got my coffee and all the Just For Laughs Gags I could possibly desire on the gate TV. [...]
I ended my hiatus from breaking last night with back-to-back Break and Break-Fusion classes with Helen at Studio Sweatshop. I so missed the feeling of my hands on the floor and my elbows on my knees, and my weight on my head, etc, etc… It felt amazing to get back to it. I decided to [...]
Looking back over these photos, I can still remember the exact temperature (brisk) and smell (outdoorsy) of the air in this place on this day. The trails that lead from to and around the Observatory in Griffith Park give you amazing views of all of LA, from the city to the sky. The iconic sign. [...]
The neighborhood in LA that Cecil calls “home” has another name, and that name is Silverlake. Normally when I’m in a new city, I like to find out how it works at an infrastructural level– subways, traffic, sanitation– and how these details impact or reflect back on the people who live there. I’ve already discussed [...]
Part of my research for my upcoming novel, Rhythm & Blues (Doubleday, 2010) involved subscribing to RSS feeds from celebrity “news and gossip” sites (or gossip and gossip if you prefer). So I’m almost too familiar with the narrow view of LA you can glimpse past the preening and puking stars that populate celebrity news [...]
Good morning! Today we continue our blog back in time to the distant era of March, and the mythical land of Los Angeles. I was in LA primarily to hang out with my friend, YA author Cecil Castellucci, invade her apartment, and make it impossible for her to get any serious work done. I’m happy [...]
My friend Cecil Castellucci, author, lady and artiste, will soon return to a warmer place from this colder one. You may know her for her YA novels, Boyproff, Beige and Queen of Cool, or for graphic novels like Plain Janes, but what you may not realize is that Cecil is Canadian. She’s only been hiding [...]
We’re getting one extra “leap second” tonight to compensate for the Bay Of Fundy’s rotation-slowing grip on the planet. See? Canada matters. Now I have to go figure out what I’m going to do with all that extra time.
Tofu, the movie:
[iPhone] Can’t beat the house on 12seconds.tv We went to my parents’ house for our second glorious Christmas dinner of the season. My family likes board games at Christmas, and usually only at Christmas. I decided to mark the occasion with my first experiment with 12seconds, on my phone. Basically, you get 12 seconds to [...]
Feeling just a little threadbare after a week of visiting and vacationing…
Alright, high fives everybody, 2008 is almost over. We made it. I’m officially on vacation for a week and a bit. We’re going to be hanging out in Toronto, then we’ll be back home to see some people, and hopefully squeeze in a little tobogganing. See you in 2009!
One of the many hassles of renting instead of owning is that we’re not allowed to change anything serious in our apartment, and we have no control over how problems are “fixed.” We’ve had a leaky ceiling in our living room since September, due to a leaky roof. The whole roof needs replacing, but the [...]
Last weekend was a long one in Canada. We all had Monday off, but no one could really agree why. In most of Canada, it was called Victoria Day, in honour of an English queen that no one in England bothers to take a day off for anymore. In Quebec it was the Journée nationale [...]
I don’t normally get involved in Blog memes because I like to think of mysef as a) lazy and b) an island. But this one comes from E. Lockhart’s blog, and I’ve been wanting to mention her anyway, because I recently read her latest book, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks– a rousing indictment of [...]
In the great tradition of b-girl Maehem’s long-since-melted Bonnie & Clyde partner, Bruce the Angry* Urban Snowman, the K-town Kold Krew burst on the scene this weekend in Kingston. Formed mere hours ago under the direction of Missy Fit and Renewable Energy, they are already fans of Street Dance Academy, Hip Hop Karaoke, and (I’m [...]
Here’s one last angle on the train bridge over St-Laurent street, at Rosemont blvd. Here we see the broad side of the cool anvil-shaped building, with its doubly awesome rusty old water tower. I like the way the big block letters of the graf around the base of the building echo the ghost-advertising around the [...]
The Rapper cries into his hair when he writes lyrics in this one.
As part of our campaign for a greater, more prosperous life, the Rapper and I have it on our radar for the mid-term to stop living in Canada’s top creative postal codes, and start living in Canada’s future top creative postal codes. In the late fall, I took my bike around different neighborhoods where real [...]
These were taken a couple of weeks ago during a multi-day snow extravaganza in Montreal, through the window of the lunchroom at a client’s office. They were all shot in full colour– it was the day that went black and white, just like when Calvin’s dad (of Calvin & Hobbes) was a kid. Most of [...]
We got a video camera in October, finally! Its for work, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also use it to capture “life’s most precious moments” such as Frances playing with her best friend, a wimpy doberman named Jersey, and neighborhood shaggy dog, Tiger. This was taken at the end of October, on my mother’s [...]
The other day, in a comment thread for my post about the revolutionary new triple-post human stabilization system currently being deployed across the STM metro system, I described an art-transformed subway car that had caught my attention back in the fall. The car belonged to a programme called L’Art Prend le Metro (Art Takes the [...]
Montreal has introduced this feature into its subway cars that is so functional, it’s hard to understand why all subways everywhere haven’t always used it: it is the revolution of the TRIPLE POST. It’s only one post on the floor, so you can’t get your foot stuck in it, but it branches out to three [...]
Lately, I seem to have a habit of always living near train bridges. This one is at Rosemont Blvd., over St-Laurent. The building that’s so completely tagged is the far end of a big lumberyard, because hey, what’s more convenient than living near a lumberyard while we’re at it. Cheap offcuts for all, yay! I [...]
This awesome dude tiptoes through the tulips opposite that downtrodden blue heart on St-Viateur Street East. To me, this blends two themes: the near-universal contempt of street artists for law enforcement, and the altogether more citizen-friendly approach of integrating police into communities by taking them out of cars and putting them on bikes. I mean, [...]
Overhead last night, on my friend’s street, after all the little trick-or-treaters headed home for bed, leaving the streets to the overgrown, aren’t-you-a-little-old-for-this treaters: “Yeah, well you look like a virgin in your costume.”
We let ourselves into my mom’s house– the house where I grew up– the other day, to discover this crime scene in the kitchen: It was accompanied by this note: I could not have been more astounded if the note had told me that my real parents were from Krypton and this whole time, I’d [...]
This is one of my favourite bits of street art currently adding soul to the very semi-abandoned-factory vibe of St-Viateur Street East. I think it was either made by two separate artists, or the same artist at two intervals, as there are other more generic plain blue heart stencils nearby. Only this one has the [...]
I’m in the elevator with my co-worker. “Have you ever thought about how much time we spend in this elevator?” he says to me. “Too much time.” “Yeah. Way too much. I’m sick of this elevator. They should do something to jazz it up. Some plants.” “Magazines.” “TV. A little waterfall in the corner. Make [...]
“That’s it. I’m never trusting the Weather Network again. I’m taking them off my toolbar. They’re Out. It’s over.” The weather station at the airport in Dorval is totally inadequate for predicting, or even describing current weather on the other side of the mountain, where most of us live. When I wrote this, it was [...]
Quoth the rapper: When it comes to sportswear, women’s ish comes in way better colours… … I know this because I was at La Senza shopping for yoga pants today.
The weirdest thing happened to me at work the other day: the phone on my desk rang. I’ve been working on contract in this one office since June. They were short on desk space when I arrived, and I took the client seriously when he joked that I’d have to make do without a phone. [...]
Needed: hairdresser in Montreal. Must understand big/curly hair and be amenable to take direction.
Are you aware of the face-melting awesomeness that is the folding bike? I was going to buy a cheap used bike, but finding one halfway through the summer, with my particular specifications, turned out to be practically impossible. So I caved, and spent money on a Nice Thing: this cherry red Avenir folding bike*, with [...]
The ultimate purpose of my Journey To The Centre Of The Earth last week was to take in some of the battles at the Rocksteady Crew 30th Anniversary. This year is my 30th too. 1977 needs to stick together. If I can just interrupt myself here (self: “Sure. Why not?”), I’d like to use this [...]
Of course, like everyone (except my Mom), I love New York. But I think that more than I love New York, I love the NYC subway system. In Canada, subway systems are tidy grid-like networks that shuttle you between strategic, budgetworthy locations while keeping their arms inside the car at all times. In New York, [...]
I flew into New York in broad daylight for the first time ever on Friday. In the past I’ve driven or landed at night. It was a classic hot, muggy New York city July day yesterday, as it is today, so the view was a little hazy, but that only seemed to add to the [...]
I’m in NYC this weekend! Tons of photos and stories to follow if I ever get my electicity/chargers/wireless/access/card reader/cables act together. But for now, an anecdote just for Jess, if she’s reading: I was walking back to the subway after a slightly awkward Lindy Hop party with some friends last night, and we passed a [...]
Item #36: The way they can spontaneously turn almost any alternative space into a private lounge once their group reaches a critical mass of 4 or more. Like this narrow strip of grass near my mom’s house, between the mall and the road; I’m not sure what came first– the kids or the couch. There [...]
First off, a big thank you to Team Toronto: Andrew, Dalia, Eva, Greg, Jennifer, Luke, SJ, and Trina, and to Team Montreal: Jess, Jim, Kevin, and Tash, for helping us move. The Rapper was injured in a relatively serious bicycle accident just days before (he’s doing much better now), and we could not have made [...]
No, not one of those gas guzzlers: This horizontally activated cell re-charger: But it’s still hip-hop to me. And it was three different kinds of on-sale, too. I’m going to be so much easier to get along with now that I’ll be sleeping through the night on the regular.
One of the more remarkable things I noticed this spring in Montreal: police cadets on the corners of Ste-Catherine street to prevent jaywalking. I brings to mind that Arrogant Worms song about the RCMP…
Frances has figured out how to play, at long last. She can’t chase or catch, so she plays with us like we’re dogs too, with varying degrees of success. It’s endlessly entertaining, a fun way to tire her out, and she only pretends to use her teeth.
My hair sends me dramatic warnings whenever it’s time to get back to the hairdresser. This time, I went to sleep with my hair up, and when I awoke and let it down, I found myself staring down the barrell of my mother’s hairdo, circa 1977-1989.
I’ve decided not to write for Torontoist.com anymore, the leading reason being that I’m moving to Montreal, and a good follow-up reason being that it’s become less and less the kind of blog where you can just dash off a random post about a strange thing you see on your lunch break. If there was [...]
Experienced while phoning a major DIY truck rental’s 1-800 number: Jill: Hi. I’m planning a move from Toronto to Montreal. Do you rent trucks for one-way moves? American Agent (AA): Oh yeah, we sure do. Jill: How can I found out about your rates? AA: Ooh ah, well… You’ll have to call your local office. [...]
Egads, internet, it’s been so long. I have so much to tell you. But I think I’ll just tell you one post at a time, or my head will explode, trying to weave it all into one coherent entry with a theme and matching photo. First things first: I am so not on my honeymoon [...]
Tax season, man. We need all the help we can get. Sorry if it’s a little quiet around here for the next couple of weeks. There are some heavy deadlines afoot.
Enter The Rapper, rubbing his head against my elbow as I try to eat a bowl of pasta. Me: What are you doing? He: I’m rubbing my scent on you, so when I smell you later, I’ll feel comfortable.
There is a window between our office and the living room, and Frances has finally figured out what it is for. No, not watching Oprah while testing web sites. (Because I never do that), but for poking her head through and whining in the very specific light, chirping frequency that only she and irritating, spoiled [...]
I’m so excited that the air is finally warming up. No more clunky boots! Lighter jackets! And best of all, I get to start wearing this wonderful scarf that Monica of NaMoDa gave me. It’s warm enough for winter, but I think it will go best with my spring jacket, so I’ve been saving it. [...]
It’s a little scratchy because it was taken indoors, in low light, with my phone, but it pretty much captures exactly how happy the dog gets, only on weekends, when both the rapper and I are home, and she gets twice as much Happy Family Hug Time, which, right after walks, is what she pretty [...]
I’ve been having a rough month since about early November. This time hasn’t been without its highlights as well (more on that later), but mainly it’s been difficult. I’ve been trying to push through everything and pathetically, joylessly, melodramatically get on with it, but lately my stress has been catching up with me in the [...]
Yeah. Somehow I ended up with a Dr. Who fan who wants more than anything to be able to see through walls. As you can plainly see, our life together is the stuff that childhood fantasies are made of, and if we have children of our own someday, they will absolutely never be embarassed.
Fact: I forgot how much I love taking photos of animals. They’re like, always around, and they move and have neat expressions and are furry n’stuff. Fact: “No one” seriously reads blogs on Sunday. People read blogs to waste time at work. Hypothesis: Sunday is a good day to post photos of my dog. Sundays [...]
I win! I win, I win, I win! I moved live/work spaces quite some time ago. Let’s say it was two years. At the time that I moved, I was able to change my address on all 1,999 of my personal and business bank and credit accounts with a few quick phone calls. Except one. [...]
You can click this picture to download it as desktop wallpaper. I swear this wasn’t my idea. Jennrock asked me for it. I’m not that obsessed with my dog. Really. So I adopted this dog and named her Frances, after Baby’s real name, as revealed at the end of Dirty Dancing. I chose the name [...]
Given Name: Frances. (Free dog kisses to anyone who can guess why. TSG? I’m looking at you.) Back Story: She’s a four year old beagle from Ohio– just a country dog trying to make it in the big city. Disposition: Friendly but shy; well-behaved but knows no commands; a slave to her nose. Loves: going [...]
New Year’s Eve, right? Whoo whoo, yeah, greatest night of the year! XNZZzzzzz. Who am I kidding? I have a limited tolerance for going out late to loud, crowded places, especially if it’s cold or damp out. I’m so sensitive, I can actually feel my feet starting to hurt and my eyelids drooping a week [...]
I could finallly be one of the cool kids. This happened by accident while I was watching TV. I don’t even own a can of hairspray.
Would you believe I am blogging while babysitting? My good friend Eria is upstairs pretending to sleep, having enjoyed the first chapter of a Christmas story about seven-headed mice, and exhausted my explanation for why magnets don’t stick together. (See next week’s Infrequently Asked Questions: Jill, Why Don’t Magnets Stick Together?) But for now, back [...]
Welcome back to the blog. Did you even know I was gone? I’m just back from Salem, MA, where the venerable iMo was getting married to the honourable Chad Gambone. I was the maid of honour. I’m going to spend this week sharing photos and commentary from the weekend, and maybe even end with the [...]
Lately, I’ve been waking up in the morning with hair like a troll doll. There’s not much else to say about this, except that there are some bloggers who will only post flattering and fetching photos of themselves. Others will even go so far as to Photoshop away their imperfections fashion-mag style. I am clearly [...]
A waterproof iBook, so I can type in the bath, stat. I’m sick and achey today. A submersible laptop would make everything better. Plus, I could use all that excess heat from the battery to keep the water hot longer. Update: TSG, if you’re reading this, I am lying on the couch with your fish [...]
The Toronto Public Library site has a link to Les’ web site because they’ve included his first album, I only stop for the Red Ants in their new Local Music Collection. Check it out, he’s right there on the sample page, between LAL and Ninja High School. We were a little confused when they came [...]
I came up with this idea in the shower last night. It’s like a diet pill, but it doesn’t “control your appetite” or “melt pounds away” or whatever, and it has no unpleasant side effects like “anal leakage.” It’s more like a memory enhancer because how it works is, once you finally remember to go [...]
According to SparkPeople.com, a great free tool if you need to track what day of the week it is, but can’t even remember what you ate for breakfast: “Results showed that people took an average of 491 more steps each day if they wore casual clothing to work. That means that just by dressing comfortably, [...]
In case you were wondering, these are the logos of the metros I have ridden thus far, in order of ridership. I’m not sure why you would be wondering that, but I do love public transit, and there is something dorkily appealing about perusing all the metro system logos of the world at b3co.com, and [...]
Is it wrong that I’m absolutely charmed and delighted to discover that my iBook battery may burst into flame at any moment? I bought my computer second hand, and while it still totally rocks, the original battery is so old, it can barely sustain a strong enough charge to prevent data being lost while I [...]
.flickr-photo { border: solid 0px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } You may not know this about me yet, but with iMo (right) I (left) am a multiple champion of lifejacket-assisted synchronized lake swimming. This was taken at her wedding un-shower– an [...]
It has been brought to my attention that I currently look pregnant when I wear certain of my favourite dresses. I first noticed it myself in this photo: And it was confirmed for me today on the Dufferin bus when another woman around my age spontaneously and completely without judgement sprang from her seat to [...]
.flickr-photo { border: solid 0px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } the best kind of shower is a waterfall, originally uploaded by codejill.
Children have a remarkable knack for sucking all adult attention out of the air and centering it upon tehemselves. This is especially true if the child in question happens to be very small and extremely talkative. My young friend, Eria, is audible 100% of the time she is awake, which makes her very easy to [...]
.flickr-photo { border: solid 0px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } playmate for only child, originally uploaded by codejill. My youngest friend, Eria, aged 4 1/2, is very social, but also an only child. In the isolation of the family cottage, this [...]
.flickr-photo { border: solid 0px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } poor couch, originally uploaded by codejill. I submitted this to an ugly couch contest, but they didn’t let me submit a description along with my photo. It’s not so much ugly [...]
The Truth About Rap album release party last Wednesday was a success. The rest of the week was pretty much a fog.
La S and I took a roadtrip to Montreal a couple of weeks ago. We took almost no photos during our time there, electing instead to use up our memory cards and batteries on the exciting, exciting highway on the trip back. If you’ve never driven between Toronto and Montreal, you might be tempted to [...]
Me: So your dad has three unicycles now. When does the juggling start? iMo: I don’t know. He has enough chainsaws.
Me: We need to get more tattoos so we can set the right example for our future children. He: That’s your reason for wanting another tattoo? Me: That’s my latest reason for wanting another tattoo.
I haven’t really been sitting around the house taking showers all day, although it does sometimes feel that way. I’ve been picking away at the novel. It’s at a picky stage right now. Draft #2. Need to find all the good needles in the big bad haystack of draft #1. Such is novelising. One of [...]
“Ultimately, the only control I have is over my own breathing. And even then, sometimes it does it by itself.”
How the Delightful Rapper and I will ensure that we stop losing our small electronic gadgets, jewelry, keys & shoes: Upholster entire apartment in velcro and institute a “you put it down, you stick it on the wall” house rule. Also has potential application for soundproofing. Contract someone to build a central homing system that [...]
I often meet people who are fascinated and inspired by my ability to Stay Motivated and Accomplish So Much in a work-at-home environment. For the uninitiated, here’s a glimpse into a typical work day in the life of Jill Murray 7:30 am: Wake up. 7:45 am: Consider going for a brisk walk 8:00 am: Go [...]
Are you a new Mac user? Seem like a cool idea to change your short username? I mean… everything else in OSX is so intuitive, right? Stop! Don’t do it. Don’t even try. In fact, don’t even rename anything in your users folder. Suffice it to say, if I keep making mistakes and learning from [...]
I understand it now, what Dooce calls “finding religion.” I bought an iBook yesterday. It was a somewhat spontaneous purchase. I say “somewhat” because I’ve actually been visiting the trading board on ehMac.ca thrice daily for more than a fortnight, watching prices and specs. I say “spontaneous” because: There was a definite sensation of pouncing [...]
MaeHem is going to be opening a street dance studio, and she has scored herself the best location ever, right at the corner of Queen & Spadina. As Ted Dancin’ aptly pointed out, this is not only the best possible intersection in Toronto to locate such a studio, but possibly the best location in all [...]
Some may say that cleanliness is next to godliness, but this, my friends is a righteous mess. A messy counter is the sign of a creative mind, or in this case, two creative minds that have done nothing but work morning, noon and night, every day for what a core sample of the mess will [...]
Carry a briefcase at all times. Preface all sentences with “I’ll make you a deal,” as in, “I’ll make you a deal, you can have it by noon” or “I’ll make you a deal, Happy Valentine’s Day!“ Wear a tie, even to the pool. Answer the phone in the third person. Stop leaving my tag [...]
I’m just back from my daily constitutional right to vote. The voting is done. I’ve been for my walk. It took about 30 seconds from end to end. I am refreshed. This hassle-free voting thing is undoubtedly one of the benefits of working from home. Mailing in a ballot would have been more work, and [...]
I don’t know what this means. It’s from the Uhaul/storage place on Ossington, near Queen.
If you buzz my apartment and ask me to let you into the building and I don’t know you or the person you’re really trying to buzz, I am not going to be a sport and let you in. Neither will the Delightful Rapper. I’m not trying to be rude, that’s just where I draw [...]
1- Sean, next door. Listens to the same good music we do, well within acceptable volume levels. More importantly, also listens to the same bad music as I do. 1- (First place is a dead tie.) Julie, other next door. Keeper of the quietest, best-trained Rotweiller in the entire universe. I hear him play with [...]
While a nice old-fashioned Maehem-style ass kicking might have done me a world of good, and it would be great to get out among the b-people, I have developed a trembling aversion to the gym at Trinity St. Paul’s. I can’t make myself spend twelve of my hard-won earned-at-home dollars to practice on a possibly unwashed floor, without mirrors, when I have a perfectly good, clean, somewhat mirrorful dance floor in my apartment, and a list of moves to work on as long as my arm.
I’ll cook you dinner. I cleaned the bathroom. Your laundry is in the dryer. (Say them over an over to yourself in a Eurotrash accent.) They wouldn’t even need to put pheremones in the formula. That ish is powerful as-is.
I’m not distracted by the internet. This is so nutritious. I’m not allergic to soy. If you write about me on your blog, I’m only going to cook things you can’t eat.
Over the last five years, my Christmas holiday has slowly turned into the exact opposite of what it used to be. My Christmas ritual now consists of running home to Wysteria Lane for six continuous days of: Half an hour on the treadmill, followed by two kinds of push-ups and sit-ups or a vigorous hour-long [...]
