And fries with that

Welcome to today's McDonalds entry: short, fast, with the possibility of badly presented ideas or missing information. But I'll try to rise above that somewhat and add an element of importance in my parting paragraph, which concerns the arts.

My mind's all over the place and I've never been so anxious. I used to think that there were worse things than anxiety, but since I've been feeling it for over two weeks now, it's been a total nightmare. Anxiety is the worst thing and it is completely foreign to me. The lack of sleep from tossing and turning and bad dreams. The constantly worried thoughts. The feeling of balancing too much in one hand and dropping it all to the floor. I miss my old laid-back self! However, I slept well last night (and overslept this morning), so hopefully I'm getting back on track.

I've got an exam tomorrow evening. I should be doing some more studying but instead, I will be at Carleton University tonight to attend Michael Ondaatje's lecture on the publication biz and culture-based journalism. To be honest, I don't particularly like his work or his style, but he's a Canadian writer who has lots of experience in the field so I feel like it might be helpful. It better be, or else I'll be swearing all throughout the exam tomorrow.

Then I have four other Denys Arcand movies to watch and extensive research to do for an essay that's due in less than two weeks. Does anyone have any interesting comments of observations to make on his work? It always helps to exchange opinions.

I'm also leaving for Toronto in a few days to visit with my sister Julie and to see my friend Mike. Probably the worst time I could've picked, but c'est la vie and I have to deal with it.

Before I leave, here's the beef: Chris Lloyd, a Montreal-based artist, has informed me that the Canada Council is proposing a bunch of changes which will make it more difficult for visual artists to receive funding for projects: 'As a professional visual artist or supporter of the arts in Canada, I am deeply concerned about the proposed changes to visual arts funding at the Canada Council. As an artist, I rely on this funding and feel the proposed changes will dramatically effect support for all artists in Canada'. He has created an online petition for those who agree and would like to support his plea:

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/artsfunding

For more information about these proposed changes, visit the Canada Council's web site: http://www.canadacouncil.ca/visualarts/va_consultations.htm

Kerry's out and Bush won - so why not get back to some pressing national issues, which in my book includes the arts?