This was a great chat about the show& I also need to add re: Canada having 12 people in it that the casting director (Jenny Lewis) is the sister of Avi Lewis (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avi_Lewis), who’s currently running for leadership of the federal NDP & is married to Naomi Klein!

A peek at my next pottery batch — depending on how the next few days of work go they’ll all be at the next 613flea (Jan 24th, 10-4, Aberdeen Pavilion, Ottawa) with me! Anything that doesn’t sell there will be going online and I hope to be able to reopen US shipping for that 🤞

I appreciate that this category sounds like a list of episodes we have done

went down a wiki hole and ended up here and it cheered me up for ten minutes, which has to count for something today en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesanni...

participants from Benin's Vodun Day Festival, celebrated every January 10th.

Today's pigeons are the hottest rookies of the year.

I’m trying to develop some new vessels/forms this year & my first one is big slab-built jars that are also sort of little narratives (at least the medieval sea one definitely is…I suppose the story of the seal one is ‘seals are pretty’ 😂)!

I love The Terror, BUT thankfully the show version is better than the book in many/most ways, so I can still enjoy my Franklin Expedition special interest/sad cold boys without some of the weird shit from the book 👍

Broke my ankle so badly I needed 8 screws & a plate to put it back together (fracture-dislocation, broke the bottoms off my tibia & fibula)…by missing the last step on my parents’ basement stairs & landing SO badly 🥲👍

I carefully fold the holds slips from my library books into bookmarks, then curate them every once in a while & only keep the ones from books I loved, so I get a little bit of happy book-stalgia when I use them 👍

Q: where does a person buy music these days (not iTunes)? Is bandcamp still the best place? I’m looking into the little portable music devices that exist now to reduce phone time & have absolutely no idea where to purchase my tunes!!

I’ve managed to compile my end of year book-favourites on time this yr, hooray! There’s a text-based/accessible version available on my website here: www.jessicabartram.ca/books2025 (& prev years here: www.jessicabartram.ca/booksread)

Co-signed!!!

We’re both still recovering from colds, so we stayed in & made use of my neglected Criterion Channel account — started with Big Trouble in Little China & wanted something romcom-y for round two. It was a great plan!

Fun fact: If you start playing It Happened One Night (1934) at about 11:20, King Wesley’s fuckass gyrocopter thing will land on the lawn at 12;00 (also, what a sweet, funny movie?? It was also neat watching something just on the cusp of Hayes Code enforcement seeing how far they could push things)

honestly vlad’s first inning home run in the first playoff game against the yankees, which single-handedly banished some lingering playoff ghosts and signaled a special post season both for him personally and for the jays

I woke up this morning just to see we broke the subscriber goal! Holy fuck! 972 paid Patreon subs + 30 Paid Burns Notice subs = 1002 THANK YOU EVERYONE! You have changed my life this year!

Whale fall mug with a fall backdrop 😜🐋🦀

I’ve been listening to Cancel Me, Daddy for a couple years now & love the perfect balance of insightful critique with humour & also the way big issues are made accessible via the pod

I'm so obsessed with Heated Rivalry I'm making Shorts and TikToks about it for the podcast channel just for fun. I haven't been able to stop thinking about this one part about that one kiss scene that I haven't seen anyone else talking about... (spoilers) youtube.com/shorts/-CpSQ...

Look how shiny!

We have wild turkeys that live in the big cemetery in our area and I got to see them on our walk yesterday!!! Every once in a while they wander down into our neighbourhood & let me tell ya — rounding a corner & seeing these dinosaurs in an urban yard? Is so surreal (& I love it!)?

Malt vinegar and/or mayo!

I can’t stop giggling about the fact that there’s a burger place in Peterborough that has burger spelled normally on all its signage except their big main sign, which says BORGERS made with passion

They say imitation crab is the sincerest form of crab

Sweetest Boy in the World, a series 🥹💕

Reading about Alberta Clippers & wtf Ontario who approved this

Happy holidays! Pigeons make milk, and I hope this fact fills you with joy and concern during this festive time of year

Parisot (the Director) tells a story about how Tim Allen just started crying after a scene one day "I don't like these feelings i'm having." Says Tim. "I'm going back to my trailor" and walks off. There's silence for a second. "Oh my god." Says Rickman. "I think Tim just experienced acting."

Back at my mom’s, back with my Best Boy Minou 🥰🥰🥰

‘The Shortest Day’ illustrations by Carson Ellis

Rick Steves!!!!

It’s not optional!!!

I said “it sounds like you’re just feeding municipal vehicles to the hill” and the mayor of Montreal started crying

Also, a peek at the second batch of frogs/toads!!!!! I am SO happy with these guys!!!! (Also happy that the sun was out for like an hour today 😍🌞)

I’m going to be quiet on the art front for the next few weeks while I take some time off, but I also NEEDED to show off some of the weird little guys who came out of my kiln last Friday! I tried some new glaze combos (all but the second guy) & love how funky & sort of moldy they look!!!

I wrote about the narrative importance of the sex scenes in Heated Rivalry, how this reflects the magic of romance novel storytelling, and how the plot is fuelled by a genuinely bleak view of homophobia in hockey culture. (Spoilers for ep 4!)

It, uhhhhh…snowed a bit today (it was regular-snowing for most of the day, but around 3-4ish pm, we went full blizzard for a bit!

"pent up demand for rail options" also explains much of the success of Heated Rivalry

#FrogFriday 🐸: J. Martin Pollock “I AM AT THE ZOO BRING ME A FLY.” 1923 Lithograph in colours, backed on linen, 40 x 25 in. (102 x 64 cm) London Underground / London Zoo www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5...

A student in 1829 tries very hard to draw an arctic fox :

Next up is my own market this Saturday! The Maybe Market is organized by me and Tory Woollcott with sporadic help from a few others. I thought maybe I’d start a little thread with all the vendor spotlights I’m posting to IG. #toronto #holidaymarket #themaybemarket

“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.” Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻

'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.' Photograph by Daniel Ibanez

I’ve posted this before but the light was perfect today- a little Victorian cat paw in a brick at the front of the old Norfolk & Norwich Hospital. As this is on the front-facing corner of the main gates, the bricklayer quite clearly put it there on purpose, at a height where children would spot it.

Love to see the Sedgwick County Zoo putting out a good explainer on why GenAI slop videos of animals are a problem & how to identify them! It’s succinct, easy to read, and doesn’t shame people for not knowing better. A+ useful link to share with family and friends. scz.org/blog/the-rea...

Movie you’ve watched more than six times (no LOTR, star wars, marvel, disney)

All my boys 🥰🥹

A little reminder that my shop is open for one more week (closing til sometime in the new yr on Dec 13th) & if you order by end of day tomorrow (Sunday the 7th), you’ll be in the first round of orders going out on Monday! See what’s still available here: heywitch.bigcartel.com