Friday, July 31, 2009

July's Progress Report

Short Stories:
"Of Light and Darkness" - in revision*
* this is part of my Twilight of the Idle short story series along with "Labellypock", "A Night on the Fronde" and "Out of Time (Ped Xing)"
"How My Uncle Faught The Spanish Civil War" - 1000 words
"Il Brute" - 700 words, a short story about living in Bridgeland

Novel Ideas (and working titles):
A Saturday Afternoon By The Slurpee Machine - 2100 words, growing up in NE Calgary, circa 1990
Games of Chance - 11000 words, quasi-related to the current economic downturn
The Last Days of the Daily Wenzel - 8150 words
Father Borsato di Sangi - notes only, about a priest in small town Alberta, circa 1910,
Mt. Pilatus Calls My Name - notes only, a corporate satire

Good Ideas At The Time (Whole draft novels):
joculatores domini - in revision, a novel about parking attendants and the Calgary Stampede
The Liminal Trip - in revision, backpacking through Europe,

July's Total Word Count: 11000

While I didn't quite make the 15000 words I'd set for myself, I did manage to finish my revisions to one of my short stories ("Out of Time"), so on the whole I'm fairly pleased with my output. The bulk of my writing has been for "Games of Chance" which is starting to take on a fairly rough shape. It feels pretty good. I'm headed on a road trip for bit of this month, so that will probably be reflected in August's tallies.

July Book Ends

Even though I've been on holidays this month, it hasn't really seemed to increase my reading speed at all. On the plus side, I don't think I picked up any new books this month so I've made a net gain on my book collection.

Books Read:
Kaya Oakes - Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture (2009)
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2002) (I'm reading this to my daughter)
Aravind Adiga - Between the Assasinations (2009)
Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science (1885)

Currently reading:
Jeb Brugman -Welcome to the Urban Revolution (2009)
Gary Small - iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind (2009)
J. Lloyd Trump - A School For Everyone (1977)*
Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter - Rich Dad, Poor Dad (1997)*
*I'm in no hurry to finish these, but for different reasons

Books Acquired:
None

I'm headed on a road trip this month, so I'll be spending part of today trying to figure out what books I have to bring. I'll be looking for something rather lightweight to offset the Brugman book.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Why Phantom Menace Sucked (and it's not Jar Jar)

I recently watched Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace with my daughter. She's six and loves the whole Clone Wars franchise, in much the same way that I was smitten with the original when I was her age. However, her reaction to Phantom Menace is rather different from mine as she is completely unfazed by Jar Jar Binks. She saw it first before the others, and as such carries no emotional baggage when viewing it. Even then, the film is her least favourite.

Phantom Menace suffers from a lack of focus. Who is the hero? Is it Anakin? Obi-Wan? Qui-Gon? We know that the trilogy is supposed to focus on Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader, but is he really the hero of Phantom Menace? He isn't introduced until a third of the way through the movie. Furthermore, in most classic story construction, the hero undergoes some kind of self-growth overcoming obstacles. In many modern cases, audiences perfer some of these obstacles to psychological (self-doubt, etc.). Anakin never really has the moments in Phantom Menace, nor is he particularly challenged by external obstacles, outside perhaps the pod race. Perhaps Lucas could have gone another route, focusing on Obi-Wan Kenobi, giving him all the emotional heavy-lifting to do, much in the same way J.K. Rowling later relies on her characters of Snape and Dumbledore.

Granted Lucas doesn't have it easy as any attempt to create psychological tension is undermined by the fact that we know Anakin becomes evil. Introducing Anakin as a good little boy who sometimes throws temper tantrums does not help Lucas out either, since it's very difficult for older audiences to accept. It would have been better if Lucas had created an Anakin who tortured cats, pushed Greedo around, loved his mom, was fiercely loyal to his friends, and wanted to be good. At least this would have created some tension for the audience, since we know ultimately he's going to fail. Even Harry Potter wondered if he was evil. These moments start to come out in Attack of the Clones when Anakin kills the Sand People and the new trilogy picks up steam. It's my daughter's favourite one and, at age 5, even she knew what was going on, asking me, "Is this when Anakin joins the dark side?"

Monday, July 27, 2009

Words and Music

With temperatures breeching thirty degrees celsius almost every day this week, I think it's fair to say that Calgary is in the middle of a mid-summer heat wave. For some reason, the heat has me thinking a lot about the Ocote Soul Sounds' Alchemist's Manifesto, loosely inspired, I think, by Paulo Coehlo's novel The Alchemist, which celebrated it's tenth anniversary this week.

Two other bands I've been thinking about lately are Calgary's Ded Souls and Beyond Possession. I've been making a lot of notes for a story that's partly based on growing up in Northeast Calgary, and these two local bands have been providing the soundtrack in my head. The Calgary Cassette Preservation Society has the Ded Souls available, but I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Melodiya Records-backed Beyond Possession reissue ten years ago. I guess I'll have to console myself with this (and other) YouTube clips. This one was recorded a short bus ride from where I grew up:







And remember kids, Beyond Possession is Beyond Possession!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Out of Time (Ped Xing)

I've justed posted the third in my four-part short story collection, Twilight of the Idle, over at Shortcovers. I wrote these short stories while at university, and not surprisingly, they're loosely based on my friends. There's a certain element of angst to them, but what makes them interesting to me now, over ten years later, is how they capture a certain slice of Calgary youth on the eve of the economic boom.

In this story, Out of Time (Ped Xing), the two main characters go and hang out in a suburban flophouse run by Frank, a delivery courier without peer.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Yann Martel v. Prime Minister Harper

Over two years ago, back in my Daily Wenzel days, we came across a news clipping of Canadian author Yann Martel (Life of Pi) taking Prime Minister Stephen Harper to task over ignoring the arts communities. To help combat this, Martel vowed to send Harper a book every two weeks. I recently discovered that Martel has been running a blog about the project, What Is Stephen Harper Reading. The blog details the (now) sixty books Martel has sent, along with a letter written to give a perspective on why he chose that particular book. Also included are a few replies from the Prime Minister's Office, curtly thanking the author for his gifts.

I'm guessing that some form of the correspondence is going to be collected as an anthology since there is November 2009 publication date listed.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Mid-Month Music Check-Up

July has been dominated by older albums as I've searched for soundtracks for particular writings projects. The 1972 live recording of the Modern Lovers, Precise Modern Lovers Order has been heavy on repeat.

While not from the live recording, here's a Kim Fowley produced demo from the same era:



I also found this cover by Iggy Pop of another song from the Precise Modern Lovers Order set list:



I also finally picked up two early releases by Bad Brains, the Omega Sessions EP and the self-titled full length (with the yellow cover). Then I discover there's a Live DVD from 1982. What's a boy to do?



In addition to these, I happened to be at Diner Deluxe last week while they were playing some Lead Belly, forcing me in a moment of weakness to pick up a best-of anthology.

As for new music, Moby's Wait For Me has provided some moody morning music, while Art Brut vs Satan has offered moments of tongue-in-cheek fun. However the real winners this month are local heroes Woodpigeon's Treasury Library Canada and Sonic Youth's The Eternal.


Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Space Travel For The Few?

Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the lunar landing, and amidst a marathong showing of the entire Tom Hanks' produced miniseries "From The Earth To The Moon" I came across a small piece of news mentioning that plans for space tourism had hit yet another snag. Personally, I am conflicted about the notion of space tourism, as childhood dreams makes it an exciting prospect, yet our legacy of exploitation and pollution as a result of travel is pretty shoddy.

However, what really struck me yesterday was the sense that astronauts, especially the early ones, represent tragic figures. I couldn't help but think of how lonely the astronauts must have felt upon their return to Earth. After having been through this incredible experience of going into outer space, who could they adequately share that experience with? When trying to describe it, all of the astronauts talk of the awe-inspiring nature of space. It's no wonder that many astronauts, like Alan Shepherd or John Glenn, try to get back into space, despite their advancing ages. They're probably haunted by those images, a unique kind of post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Walter Cronkite, The Most Trusted Man In America

Walter Cronkite passed away yesterday at the age of 92. As a student of American History I saw clips of many of his news clips from the sixties. As a former News Director of CJSW 90.9 FM, I was marvelled at his signature sign-off - the ability to state, and believe clearly "That's the way it was on (whatever date it was)." As a reporter I never had that sense of certainty. Too much Foucault and Derrida, perhaps, but also the sixties themselves ended the notions of consensus that Cronkite too for granted. I don't know how many people took him at face value by the 1980s, even though he was still referred to by many as "The Most Trusted Man In America".

Even if he seemed a kindly grandfather, and his personal politics often questioned the government, his was, by then, the voice of the establishment. That otherside of the consensus, the side that refused to believe him when he said "That's the way it was", after Nixon they just stopped watching and reading the news. The Daily Wenzel has article on Obama healing the wounds of the 1960s, and I still maintain, as we did then, that 1968 was a year of great schism in the United States and a significant proportion of American society dropped out. From my perspective, 1968 was also the last year that any singular perspective could be uttered as a certainty, and perhaps like many, when I think of the voice of certainty, I still think of Walter Cronkite.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Best Pirates In Film

It's pretty easy to think that Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow is going to be the go-to-pirate of my daughter's generation, but I queried my family and friends on Facebook a few days ago and the results were impressive. Here's a quick breakdown of some of their suggestions:

The Pirate King (Kevin Kline), The Pirates of Penzance (1983), He sings, he dances, he makes us laugh. Kline warms up for A Fish Called Wanda (1988).

The Dread Pirate Roberts (Cary Elwes), The Princess Bride (1987), Granted we never get to see the Dread Pirate engaged in the nefarious acts that earned him his moniker, but clearly after besting the Spaniard, the Giant, the Sicilian, and Prince Humperdink, he proves himself to be a paragon worthy of any princess this side of Guilder.

Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Star Wars (1977), Set the stage for all interstellar scruffy-looking nerfherders to follow.

Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), Elizabeth II: The Golden Age (2007), Clive Owen is clearly living out a boyhood fantasy as he cheerfully smiles his way through every smouldering scene.

Errol Fynn, more familiar with his work in the Robin Hood series, Flynn brought the same sense of acrobatic dynamism and physicality to many of the pirate movies he made. Top on our list of Flynn pirate movies to watch is 1952's Against All Flags, but we're willing to bet that 1940's The Sea Hawk set the standard.

Gene Kelly, Serafin/Fake Macoco, The Pirate (1948), It's hard to decide who came first. When Serafin, an actor, decides to impersonate the legendary pirate Macoco, the pirate he creates is based on character types clearly established by Flynn in his earlier films. Kelly's Serafin-as-Macoco is an inspiration for Kline's Pirate King, as well as contributing to the device that William Goldman uses to establish the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Walter Slezak, Don Pedro Vargas/Macoco, The Pirate (1948) For my money, Macoco is one of the best pirates going for several reasons. First, Macoco is at the top of the pirating world when we meet him, having successfully "retired" from his corsairing life. As with many outlaws and bandits, surviving into old age is the only real measure of success, but for Macoco old age and respectability prove elusive. Unlike a lot of current action films where the bad guys are all bad all the time, or ultimately redeemed, Macoco carries an element of hubris around him as heavy as immense bulk. Macoco wants to put his past behind, but he can never successfully bury the greed and anger that made him the scourge of the Caribbean, allowing Serafin to trick him into revealing himself in a fit of rage.

The one pirate we find notably absent from this list is the legendary Sinbad, he of the famed Seven Seas. Brad Pitt voiced him back in 2003, but good ol'Lou Ferrigno was that last to portray him on camera in 1989. I smell a remake?

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Bridgeland's Spooky Forest



Urban development is a strange thing. Something of a mixed blessing, since one person's charming locale could be another's vision of blight. When I moved into Bridgeland ten years ago, it had already begun being redeveloped, albeit the pace of gentrification and in-fill development would quicken was the housing boom really took off.

When I moved in, small scales were the normal; single family, one and a half story homes, hovering aroudn the one thousand sq.ft. threshold. Closer to the hill, north of Fourth Avenue, two-story homes predominated, and the large million dollar in-fills had already started appearing on Drury. My wife and I used to walk home from City Bakery on First Avenue to the tiny little house we were renting on Colgrove Avenue at the top of the hill. We would often come up by way of Drury, dreaming perhaps of living in a house with a view of downtown from the ridge (the house we were renting had a gorgeous view and only Drury offered better ones).

Once my daughter was born, we would continue to walk home the same way, but my daughter always fussed along that particular route. Eventually she told us that she didn't like walking through the "spooky forest". The blocks of 8th Street south of Fourth Avenue are heavily canopied, to such an extent that the street is mostly shadowed throughout the day. The picture above, for example, was taken at noon today, when the street gets it's most sunlight. I must admit, to a three year old it must have looked quite spooky, particularly in the Fall.

In general, I love my neighbourhood, but the I am often surprised to find myself saddened by the development of a fourplex at the corner of 8th and Fourth. It's the bright spot on the distant corner.


Prior to the fourplex, that particular corner was perhaps the spookiest part of Bridgeland's Spook Forest, comprising of not only more trees, but nestled in and amongst the trees were three or four small working man's cottages, the likes of which I had never seen anywhere else. I've include a link that gives something of an impression of what the cottages looked like, except they were smaller. One cottage was barely wide enough for a large man to extend his arms. The shae from the trees had killed most of the grass and plants, so none of them had much of a garden or lawn. Sometimes my wife and I would cross to the otherside of the street, half-expecting Boo Radley to emerge from one of them. Between ourselves we referred to the cottages as Shack Row.

Then, one summer, the cottages and the trees were gone and I've missed them ever since.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

The Wild West

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of country and western music, cowboys, and such. I do not find the myths of the Calgary Stampede exciting, and am tired of people sentimentalizing the past. However, I do enjoy watching period westerns, in large part because they are opportunities to reflect on the meaning of our common history (or as the case may be, American History), something I like to do.

The other thing I currently like to do is watch Deadwood, in part because it reminds me of the debates that we used to have when I was in graduate school at the University of Calgary. My thesis advisor was Dr. Elizabeth Jameson, who has written a lot on the pioneer experience in Minnesota and the Dakotas, as well as silver miners in Colorado, basically writing in and around the time that Deadwood occurs.

For me, one of the most informative debates that we had in class centred around the concept of 'How wild was the wild west?' During the period of time when I was a student, a group of historians had been suggesting that based on historical documents, the Wild West was not necessarily all that wild. This was certainly supported by the documents used by the historians. However, part of the allure of the West was that it appealed to men and women as being a place beyond the law and documentation. Looking at histories of the West we can see many groups at work, some with common purposes, some not. Two of the largest of these would have been the settlers, people who wanted to put down roots in a particular place, and nomads, people who were happy to move from place to place. The legends of the 'Wild West' dealt with this nomadic group, but the documents and written histories were written by the settlers.

In Deadwood we see these tensions played out. One can imagine that the eventual history of Deadwood would be written by those of remained to see that history made. The members of the nomadic group would have kept going, appearing only as footnotes or in brief episodes. Furthermore a history of this wild, nomadic, group would have been difficult by several factors:

1. It's membership was fluid, people might have been nomads only until they found the proper place to settle down.
2. Nomadic individuals had fewer solid relationships, making it harder to record their story. For example, the real Charlie Utter, friend of Wild Bill Hickock, eventually disappears from History once he leaves Deadwood.
3. Travel in the West still remained somewhat perilous, and nomadic individuals were also more likely to engage in high risk behaviours and more likely to meet an untimely end than a successful farmer or businessman.

So in short, a historical record might moderate the oral traditions of the "Wild West", but might just as likely prove be biased towards overstating how quiet and sedate the West actually was, since it was written by those predisposed towards those values.

Friday, July 10, 2009

How To Spend My Summer Vacation

It's summer vacation and the hours role unmercilessly into one another as the days begin to blend. The overall meaninglessness of time makes me an esy candidate for going on pop culture jags. One year it was Hemingway, another it was Gene Kelly. This year, I had originally thought that maybe I would read Proust, since I had picked up a complete set of the new translations a few years back, but then I found out someone over at BlogCritics was planning their own Summer of Proust. Hopefully they'll be more successful than I would since I'm taking a road trip later on, and my reading schedule is kinda busy anyways.

Since I am a big fan of The History of Rome Podcast, having enjoyed it since it's beginning, my next great idea was to take advantage of various mail-order rental companies to watch the BBC's I, Claudius, since that is the time frame currently under discussion. However, the letter-carrying gods being the fickle creatures they are, I have been receiving Deadwood instead, probably because it's Stampede Week. Nevertheless, Al Swearengen is one of the most charming anti-heroes I've come across in awhile, and the description of Deadwood as Shakespeare-in-the-mud is certainly most fitting.

The only problem is, I'm already on Season 2 of Deadwood, so I'm going to need a new idea pretty soon. Suggestions?

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Polaris Prize Short List

Looks like I'm on the outs with the Jury this year, since most of the albums that I enjoyed on the Long List got cut. I'm only two for ten on the short list, and one of those was my least favourite of all the Polaris-nominated albums I've heard so far. Oh well! I look forward to hearing the other eight.

See the list here:

Summer Indulgences

It's summer and I'm on holidays the next few weeks and that means late nights playing video games with my wife, quiet mornings reading books, Illy espresso, cherries, gelato, and an almost constant stream of music.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Dirty Projectors v. Nico

The full-length debut from Brooklyn's Dirty Projectors has captivating me of late, in particular their song "Two Doves", which borrows from Nico's Jackson Browne-penned "These Days", one of my iPod's most played songs.

For your pleasure:





Now compare:



*Live version of Dirty Projectors can be viewed here:

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Father, Daughter, Rock n' Roll


Last night I took my daughter to her first rock n' roll show. It was part of the CJSW Outdoor Summer Concert Series at Olympic Plaza and featured The Stables, Gunther, Jay Crocker, Hot Little Rocket, and Dojo Workhorse. She was very excited about going to the show and didn't want to miss a single song, even though she could barely keep her eyes open during Dojo Workhorse's set. One of the reasons I thought about taking her to this particular concert was the opportunity to introduce her to Andrew Wedderburn of Hot Little Rocket who I knew well from our days together at CJSW. The other reason I brought her was that I want her to grow up thinking that music, regardless of whether it's rock n' roll or whatever, is made by regular people, singing about stuff that happens to them in their daily lives. It's not made by fantastical celebrities who live in mythical modern castles, but normal people like Andrew Wedderburn, Dojo Workhorse's Dan Vacon who I went to high school with, or Woodpigeon's Mark Hamilton who lives down my street.

One of the odd moments of the evening came between sets. Those of you not from Calgary may not be aware that the Olympic Plaza is made from bricks, and people could pay to have their names engraved on the bricks as part of the project's attempts to raise funds. Looking around, I saw that my daughter and I were standing on this particular brick:


While I have no idea if this brick actually belongs to Kara Keith, ex-of Calgary's Falconhawk, Earthquake Pills, and many other local bands I grew up on in the 1990s, but it was certainly fun to think that maybe, ten years from now, my daughter will feel comfortable being the next Kara Keith (if she feels like it).

(For the record, Kara Keith is now living in Montreal and her latest project Your Dignity was recently listed on the Polaris Prize's Extra-Long List).

Friday, July 3, 2009

Society of the Spectacle, on YouTube

One of my favourite books, Society of the Spectacle, was made into a "movie" by it's author Guy Debord. Debord was part of an artistic collective called The Situationist International and they influenced folks as diverse as Abbie Hoffmann and Malcolm McLaren, manager of the New York Dolls and Sex Pistols.

I had given up hope of ever seeing the movie version of Society of Spectacle, assuming that the film was ultimately lost and forgotten, but here it is, on YouTube. You can check out the opening parts below:



Thursday, July 2, 2009

June Progress Report

In his latest collection of The Believer columns, entitled Shakespeare Wrote For Money, Nick Hornby suggests that if you can write 500 words a day, you can write a novel within a year. Of course, he leaves it unsaid that you should probably dedicate those 500 words to a single project. Even if he had deliberately spelt it out like that, I probably wouldn't have listened since starting too many things at once has become my hallmark.

Here is June's Fiction Writing Progress Report:

Short Stories:
"Out of Time" - in revision*
"Of Light and Darkness" - in revision*
* these make up part of my Twilight of the Idle short stories "Labellypock" and "A Night on the Fronde"
"How My Uncle Faught The Spanish Civil War" - 1000 words
"Il Brute" - 700 words, a short story about living in Bridgeland

Novel Ideas (and working titles):
A Saturday Afternoon By The Slurpee Machine - 2000 words, growing up in NE Calgary, circa 1990
Games of Chance - 1000 words, quasi-related to the current economic downturn
The Last Days of the Daily Wenzel - 8150 words
Father Borsato di Sangi - notes only, about a priest in small town Alberta, circa 1910,
Mt. Pilatus Calls My Name - notes only, a corporate satire

Good Ideas At The Time (Whole draft novels):
joculatores domini - in revision, a novel about parking attendants and the Calgary Stampede
The Liminal Trip - in revision, backpacking through Europe,

June's Total Word Count: 12850

Theoretically, Hornby would suggest that by August 1, my word count should be approaching double what it is now, though I confess I'd be happy to finish off some of these "in revision" projects.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Future of Canada Day

Canada Day is pretty good, but let's make it great! Here's how:

July 1 is the traditional Dominion Day celebrating the creation of Canada's Constitution and official recognition as a quasi-independent unit within the British Empire. It also works well with the majority of Canadians because it coincides with the end of the K-12 school year. Here in Calgary it also unofficially kicks off the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede. People get together and frolic outside, families host BBQ's and block parties. It's great - there's poutine, beer, maybe some lacrosse, but no hockey.

What's Canada Day without hockey? I'm surprised no one has thought about it before.

Let's make Canada Day June 1.

Not only will we make it June 1 but we'll also strong-arm NHL Commissioner Gary Bettmann into confirming June 1 as the mandatory end of hockey playoffs. Imagine one of Games 4 - 7 of the final series being played on a national holiday in Canada! It'd be like the Super Bowl! It'd be like the '02 Olympics every year! If June 1 fell on a Friday we could make it a long weekend and have an extra game on Sunday night. Nothing would get, a nation would shut down, and the people would cheer!

Wimbledon Recap

For me, today marks the start of seven weeks of holidays and what better way to celebrate than a national holiday and the chance to watch Wimbledon quarter-final action. The last two weeks of my nine-to-five life prevented me from staying abreast of all the action, but luckily, I was able to sit down this morning with Lucy from Good Grief Lucy fame. While she might have put her blog on the backburner, her love of knitting and sports still remains strong, and she was quick to bring me up to speed.

Week 1 of Wimbledon was dominated by the crafty play of the veteran men. Later today Lleyton Hewitt will play Andy Roddick, having made it farther than anyone expected. It seems like Hewitt is drawing more inspiration from Nadal's absence than anyone else and why not? Apart from Federer, Hewitt was the only other Wimbledon Champ who showed up on the men's side this year. The big shock though has been the play of the tournement's oldest man (at 31), Tommy Haas. As I write this, Haas is battling Novak Djokovic in a second set tiebreak to try and go up two sets to love against the former Australian Open champion.

On the women's side, things are overshadowed by the possible return of Kim Clijsters in time for the US Open. Echoing her statements from last year, Lucy argues that the current women's game is beset by inconsistent play and mental consistency. Only the Williams' sisters, who met each other in the final last year, have demonstrated anything close to professional form. Barring a major meltdown by one of the sisters, this year could very well be a repeat of last year.

The men's game however could play out very differently. While Hewitt and Haas are playing above and beyond, Andy Roddick has been rolling through opponents, liking nothing better than to meet Federer again in the final. What he'll do there is anyone's guess, since he hasn't shown any knew weapons in his arsenal, and Federer has shown in the past that he knows all about Roddick. Andy Murray, the Andy that most are cheering for, remains potentially the biggest wild card. Expectations are high for the young Scot to do well at Wimbledon, and Britain as whole is holding it's breath waiting for the next British champion to appear.