Fluff and Stuff

Dissertating is now a verb...watch as I perform!

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Flirtations with the Maintenance Man...or the Sorry State of my Dating Life

For several months now I've had a bizarre little flirtation going on with one of my apartment complex's maintenance men. I must admit, however, that it is a largely one-sided [his] flirtation. And quite frankly, I don't know what to make of it.

First off, he's not a bad looking guy. I only ever see him when he's in his "work" clothes though, which are practical--i.e. worn t-shirt and shorts or khaki pants. Despite this, I get the impression he would clean up quite nicely when he's not trimming the hedges, cleaning the pool, etc.

The whole thing started off innocently enough. As most of my good friends know, I have a tendency to sort of disappear into my own mental universe a lot of the time. This is a common occurrence especially when on my way to the bus stop (I need to distract myself from the heinous heat and humidity of Florida). So one day, I was leaving my apartment and I ran into said maintentance man. He stopped, said hello, and then gave me a sort of "come hither" smile accompanied by a little batting of the eyelashes. I, of course, was startled out of a mental conversation with myself on the details of my next dissertation chapter and the musical merits of the latest Yeah Yeah Yeahs album.

Thus, I believe I responded with a rather stupefied grin and shuffled along.

About a week later, I meet him again and we once more engaged in this oddly charged but banal conversational mode. Little did I know that this was to be the beginning of a pattern. At least once a week I would run into him. And believe me when I say that on several of these ocassions I was not looking my best. I recall one particularly memorable day in which I ran into him in the laundry room when: a) I had not showered yet, b) was wearing my jogging pants with the hole in the crotch (I had no clean clothes dammit!), c) and my hair was pulled up in some crazy pseudo-bun to get the scraggly curls out of my face. Nonetheless, he gave me the hairy eyeball and a friendly grin. So I'm assuming even my most unkempt appearance is not a huge turn-off.

Now we come to our current predicament. The other day I was on my way to the bus stop as usual and I ran into him again. Our conversation went roughly as follows:

MM: [flashes smile] Hi honey, how are you doing?
Sparks: [look of befuddlement] Er...hi. Fine, thanks.
MM: I haven't seen you in a while. I've been kinda lonely.
Sparks: Oh...uh...I've been...busy. Sorry, gotta run! [scurries away in confusion]

What is the crux of my dilemma you might ask? Well, what the hell does all of this mean? For instance, is he looking for a personal invitation up to casa de Sparks? Is he envisioning some trite pornographic scenario where my dishwasher breaks down and I have to call him to come and fix it?

I guess you could say that this situation has me confused because: a) honestly, he's fairly good looking, b) young--I'd say my age or maybe a little younger, c) and he genuinely seems interested in me. I find this extremely tempting because I haven't had any dating prospects in far too long. But I'm not sure that this fellow really wants to date so much as do the nasty. My hormones are okay with that, but my brain is rejecting the possibility because it wants a relationship. Granted, I don't really know anything about Maintenance Man, but I don't get the impression that "relationship" is his primary objective.

Urgh. Feling very confused and sexually frustrated. Any helpful thoughts or suggestions would be welcome at this point.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Feeling my Canadian Roots

Much to my horror and (I admit) excitement, quite a few tenure-track academic job listings have already been posted online. This is a bit early for the job market search, but it seems like this process is beginning earlier and earlier each year. I've been diligently searching out these advertisements and I've even begun compiling a small folder with potential Women's Studies positions that I plan to apply for. Given the interdisciplinary nature of my research I'm eligible to pursue Women/Gender Studies, American Studies, and Feminist/Queer Theory jobs. Unfortunately, these kinds of jobs are often few and far between. Nonetheless, I'm trying to remain optimistic.

The official MLA job list, also known as the JIL, won't be up for at least another month so there's still a lot of information yet to come. (Relax, Sparks, relax...) However, I must say that the best job listings I've seen thus far have all been in Women's Studies and mostly located in Canada.

As a Canadian citizen, I already have a distinct advantage in applying for these kinds of jobs. Most Canadian universities give priority to applicants who are citizens. They only consider external options if they don't have luck with internal applications. And let me just say, several of these jobs are really "cherry" tenure-track positions that already have me doing enthusiastic mental cartwheels at the prospect of nabbing a job so well-suited to my research interests.

Of course, I'm anticipating that these jobs are also going to be hugely competitive. I need to be realistic. I only have a 50/50 chance of getting to the first round of interviews. So right now I'm just crossing my fingers that I might get the opportunity to make it that far. Then I feel certain I can win them over with my glowing personality! :)

Contemplating a possible return back to the Arctic tundra has made me a bit nostalgic. I feel like I've been a bit out of the loop as far as what's been happening in the Great White North of late. Thus, I decided to tune in to the CBC 3 Radio online in order to get hip to the most recent Canadian indie music offerings--I need to have my finger on the music pulse before I even start investigating elsewhere.

Not that I've been oblivious to what's been happening in terms of Canadian music. Like most indie grrlz, I've been enjoying The Dears, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, etc. But once I tuned into the fabulous CBC 3 I found there's quite a bit I haven't heard about. I've really been grooving to this station while working on my dissertation. I strongly encourage everyone to check it out at: http://radio3.cbc.ca/

Also, I've updated my the list of music I've been listening to lately. Take a gander at the sidebar if you're interested.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Is Tadanobu Asano the Japanese Johnny Depp?

For quite some time now, I've had a big crush on Japanese movie star Tadanobu Asano. Not only is a he supremely gorgeous man, but he's also an incredibly talented and versatile actor who takes on all kinds of unusual and quirky character roles.

I got my first real taste of Tadanobu when I watched Nagisa Oshima's film Gohatto a few years ago. This movie is all kinds of hott! First of all, it's set in the Shogun era (= sexy costumes). Secondly, the story is all about a group of young (male) warriors training at a samurai compound. But wait, it gets even better! All that...er...sword training, makes for some horny guys, and with no women around their obvious alternative is the available pretty boy. Needless to say, tension builds to frenzied heights as several men vie for this young lad's attentions. This bishonen is played by the truly beautiful and fantastically androgynous Ryuhei Matsuda.

(He's soooo pretty!)

Eventually, Tadanobu Asano's character becomes lovers with him--and damn, that's some hot shit! Seriously. Then they have a pretty intense sword fight to the death at the end of the film.... I really want to teach this film in a seminar some day.

Much to my delight, it seems that Ryuhei Matsuda and Tadanobu Asano also recently teamed up again in the film Rampo Jigoku. The trailer for this film looks so fucking awesome--the stunningly surreal mise-en-scene has already got be salivating. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available over here yet so I am keeping a frequent eye on IMDB just in case it comes out soon.

Well, a few nights ago I watched another recent film (2004) starring Tadanobu Asano called The Last Life in the Universe. This quirky little film has a number of interesting elements. First of all, it shifts rather seamlessly from Japanese, to Thai, to English language throughout the story. Secondly, it makes a bizarre introductory allusion to the cult classic Harold and Maud because Tadanobu Asano's character, Kenji, seems to be constantly trying to kill himself. Of course, he isn't successful. It isn't apparent quite why he wants to commit suicide, just that he seems to think it will be a very peaceful experience.

Kenji is a quiet Japanese librarian living and working in Thailand. He has a slightly shady brother who drops by all of the time and takes advantage of Kenji's giving nature. But one night the brother comes over with a "friend". They get into an altercation and the "friend" kills Kenji's brother and then tries to shoot him as well. Kenji is able to defend himself, but ends up with two dead bodies in his normally pristine apartment (he's quite OCD about being neat and tidy). Unable to go back to his home (he's hidden the bodies there), Kenji ends up meeting an unusual young Thai woman named Noi while trying to throw himself off a bridge. Their meeting, however, is marked by another tragedy when Noi's sister is hit by a car on the bridge and killed.

Kenji and Noi share a weird connection as a result of this incident and start living together at her house. Their relationship, however, remains platonic. I actually really enjoyed the fact that the film focused on them trying to get to know one another as friends rather than devolving into a trite love story in which they immediately jump in the sack with one another.

At times it was quite cute to watch their interactions because they both have to overcome language barriers to communicate. Noi speaks Thai and Kenji speaks Japanese. Their knowledge of one another's languages is pretty limited, so they often have to resort to using broken English to understand each other.

Overall, the story didn't have the kind of closure I tend to prefer. At one point it is revealed that Kenji must be a former yakuza because there is a splendid scene in which Tadanobu Asano appears, dripping wet and in nothing more than a towel. Grrrr! When he turns around the camera displays a magnificent tattoo covering his entire back. This is an obvious yakuza marker, because the Japanese don't tend to have body art unless they are involved with organized crime. And later a bunch of yakuza thugs appear and try to kill Kenji, but it remains unclear exactly why they want him dead.

Despite the loose ends, I thought the film was really interesting and demonstrated just how versatile Tadanobu Asano is. I mean, the lad has played everything: a homoerotic samurai, a crazy sadomasochistic hit man, a cyberpunk, a shy librarian...the list just goes on and on. Thus, it was no surprise to me when I cruised over to IMDB.com and found a reference to him as Japan's answer to Johnny Depp. I'd have to say, I wholeheartedly agree. Now, here's to hoping he ages just as well!