Archives 2006
31 December 2006
Annus Roundupitus
A Happy 2007 to all.
Another year gone, and time for the obligatory 'year in review' from your humble narrator. First, the 'Best' List (a highly personal list, btw):
Best Movie: Borat | Sure it was the only movie I saw all year, but it was the only movie worth the hell of going to the theatre to see. Theatres are now like giant walk-in video games, or cheesy pinball machines complete with flashing neon, loud music, bad 'food' and questionable entertainment. For $12 you get all this and an ever-expanding gauntlet of over-produced commercials to sit through before the movie begins.
Best CD: British Sea Power, 'Open Season' | It's impossible to describe music without engaging in a comparison to one or several other artists, so I won't try. BSP sound like all/none of the following: Echo and the Bunnymen, The Dears, The Stranglers, Interpol, Blur, and every other Britpop/powerpop band ever. But gooder.
Best Book (fiction): Douglas Coupland, 'Jpod' | My two favourite authors of late are both Canadian, and neither is part of that whole Canada Reads touchy feely literary snob scene. One is William Gibson, father of cyberpunk lit, and the other is Douglas Coupland. His books all seem kind of light weight in a way, but there's always a deeper thing going on just behind the story, it seems to me. Plus he likes to write about technology and popular culture in a way that seems very natural. Jpod is populated with his usual collection of dysfunctional slackers and technovictims, and is told in the usual Coupland style; sly, offhand, modern, and with a kind of wink that makes you feel like an insider. Most of his books leave me with a kind of downer aftertaste, like Kurt Vonnegut's best stuff. But I still read 'em all.
Best Book (non-fiction): Tim Flannery, 'The Weathermakers'. Still think climate change / global warming is a myth? Read this book. I'm talking to you, Rex Murphy.
Best TV Show: Robot Chicken. Demented stop-action puppetry starring GI Joe & Barbie dolls from Seth Green, creator of Family Guy. With theme music by Les Claypool of Primus.
Best New Beer: King Pilsner. It's beer. It's good. It's good beer.
Best Sporting Event: IronMan USA. It's like NASCAR without the noise, or the inbreeding, or the mindless repetiton, or senseless waste of time.
Best Rock and/or Roll Concert: Aimee Mann at the Mod Club. Low key, she was touring with only 2 backup players. I doubt she'll ever play venues much larger than this, which is all right by me.
Best Restaurant: Fresh, Bloor and Spadina. An amazing menu of non-boring vegetarian cuisine, plus the best exotic protein shakes and smoothies ever.
Best Art Thingy: Italian Arts & Design, ROM.
Best Website: Fixed Gear Gallery. A daily dose of fixed gear bikes from around the planet. Some truly beautiful machines.
And now the 'worst' list. Again, highly personal and biased.
Worst CD: Robert Pollard, 'From a Compound Eye'. Pollard's former band, Guided By Voices, was always known as a hard-drinking band but they could still churn out brilliant melodic rock gems at least 62% of the time. The other 38% was alcohol-fueled rubbish, but they put out so many CDs there was always a large pile of great GBV tunes to choose from. Pollard broke up the band last year, and his first solo effort is 99% alcohol-fueld rubbish. Not a good ratio. Time for an intervention or a GBV reunion tour.
Worst Book: A tie - Bible/Koran. Enough already. Guess I'm goin' ta hell fer that one.
Worst TV show: CSI anything. Again, enough already.
Worst Sporting Event: any NASCAR race. How many of these things are there, anyway? Every time you channel-surf past the Speed Channel there's another one - The Krispy Kreme 500 from Black Lung West Virginia, the Hooters 250 from Gatorville FLA, and I swear, something called the Food City 500. You can look it up.
Ok, that's enough. Nothing too in-depth here, sorry. A good year for us here in the Spacedog household, with the notable exception of losing a close friend suddenly and too soon. You can read about Tom Rogers here, if you like.
I hope you had a good year, and may 2007 be even better for you.
11 December 2006
Maus in zer Haus
If you don't do 'cute' I'd advise you not to read the following tale.
Yesterday Henry the Cat was hanging about in the neighbour's back yard while I was in ours futzing around with some bikes. I could tell he was up to something so I went to look and sure enough he had a wee mouse he was playing with, so I tried to rescue the poor thing and was able to scoop him up in my hands before Henry could make a meal of him.
Doesn't the little mouse bury himself in my bulky fleece sweatshirt though. He wiggled right in there in the crook of my arm and wouldn't come out. I had to show B, of course, so I walked to the front door and in the house. The little guy was so tame, he would pop his head out and let me pet him - this went on for about 5 minutes while she took the snaps you see below. Just as she said 'you'd better hope he doesn't get loose in the house' he jumps down and makes a break for our couch!
We have 3 cats, so a live mouse in the house is just bad. Mainly for the mouse, but a pain for us too. He went from under the couch to behind the aquarium, where we tried to coax him out with peanut butter, but he was too quick and zipped back under the couch again where he seemed to disappear. Then B spotted him climbiing up the power cords for our other aquarium. I tried to grab him but he was too fast - he actually jumped into the tank, took a few strokes and jumped out again before darting out the open front door at last.
I know mice are dirty and their poo is Very Bad for you (Hanta virus) but man, how can you not find this guy cute as all get-out?
16November 2006
Let's Play Catch(up)
Some stuff that should have been mentioned but was not, due to extreme fits of business:
1. Fall Bike Ride Classic
The 9th Annual FBRC was ably hosted once again by M, a denizen of deepest Scarborough and willing tour guide through said environs each year for a more or less steady pack of more or less steady bike riders. The forecast cold snap materialized, but only for the first leg of the ride. Once the riders had circumnavigated most of the old borough and made their way to the lake, the night had warmed considerably. An excellent circuit this year brought us into Pickering, if only for a short while. Long enough for M. to treat us all to a daring faceplant, though, courtesy the lax safefty standards of Pickering Public Works Dept. A gaping hole in the 'sidewalk' on Highway 2 was left gaping, probably since nobody walks in Pickering, and lead rider M. drove straight into it. It was reportedly a 9.5 on the Wrecked 'er Scale, though no serious damage ensued. Highlights other than that: Wine & Cheese at the RK Estate, off-roading in the Rouge Valley, the marsh at Rouge Beach, hoisting the bikes over the fence at the GO station, the smoove new path along the waterfront in Scarborough, VIA trains thundering past as we tipped our glasses in the night, and sharing 'our' pub with a packed house of rowdy kids at the end of the night. High fives to M, once again. And also for the smashing pancakes saturday morning.
2. Toronto Municipal Elections
Mayor Miller cruised to victory, as expected. I have no problem with that, I think he's done about all he could have been expected to do in his first term. Considering that neither the Feds nor the Province give a toss for this city, he's done all right. Let's hope he can convince the other 2 levels of 'government' to stop pissing on us in the next four years. In my riding, ancient dinosaur and bike hater Case Ootes slipped in by a mere 20 votes over challenger Diane Alexopoulos. Four more years of this jackass, but after that I have to think he's gone. Of course in the meantime who knows what damage he might do to this ward? Rip out the bike lanes? I would not put it past him to try. A survey was sent to each candidate from the folks at tcat, the toronto coalition for active transportation, asking various questions about proposed cycling & pedestrian infrastructure in each ward. Ootes didn't even reply. Natcherly. For all the results, see the tcat survey page on the BikeToronto site.
For some excellent coverage of the election(s), check out Spacing Votes.
12 November 2006
Bye Bye BushCo.
As we all know by now, the Republican party in the U.S. got spanked last week in the mid-term elections. For those of us (on both sides of the border) who feared a 'permanent Republican majority' this was good news indeed, as it looks as though Americans have had just about enough of the inept, arrogant, and often criminal shenanigans of the Bush-Cheney-Rove Axis of Evil. I found this terrific article by Frank Rich from the New York Times reproduced on the Unknown Candidate website. It's not that long and well worth the read. An excerpt or two:
"... the 2006 returns more often than not confirmed that Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike, are far better people than this cynical White House takes them for. This election was not a rebuke merely of the reckless fiasco in Iraq but also of the divisive ideology that had come to define the Bush-Rove-DeLay era."
"Perhaps the most interesting finding in the exit polls Tuesday was that the base did turn out for Mr. Rove: white evangelicals voted in roughly the same numbers as in 2004, and 71 percent of them voted Republican, hardly a mass desertion from the 78 percent of last time. But his party was routed anyway. It was the end of the road for the boy genius and his can’t-miss strategy that Washington sycophants predicted could lead to a permanent Republican majority. "
Go, read, enjoy.
10 November 2006
The Henry Rollins Show
Henry Rollins is on the web on IFC (Independent Film Channel). I highly recommend this show if you're tired of the usual bullshit on tv. Great interviews and performances with (and from) musicians like Aimee Mann, Perry Ferrell, Ben Harper, Thom Yorke, The New York Dolls, Ozzy Osbourne and a bunch more. Plus some hilarious segments called "Teeing Off" where HR shouts into the camera about all kinds of Important Stuff. Here, watch him go off on Intelligent Design. Way to go, Hank.
1 November 2006
Number Nine... Number Nine...
On November the 3rd it will once again be time for the annual Fall Bike Ride Classic. This year's version (the 9th Annual) is shaping up to be a true fall ride - cold with a chance of snow. Perfect. In years past there has been a contingent of non-riders who have participated by attending the post-ride refreshment session. That tradition, sadly, has fallen by the wayside and the riders have had to take their pints without outside help. No matter. For the riders, and perhaps for certain non-riders may I present this short Flash movie in honour of the FBRC 2006 edition.
19 October 2006
Party On, Garth
Conservative MP Garth Turner was summarily dumped from the Tory caucus this week, allegedly for spilling inside information on his blog. The real reason of course is that he refused to hand in his Independent Thinking Chip and join the Cult of Stephen. I'm no Tory, but after reading the aformentioned blog I have to tip my hat to Mr. Turner for doing an admirable impression of a reasonable man. I guess it was only a matter of time before the party that brought us Stockwell Day and Stephen Harper and the rest of that sorry pack figured out that Garth didn't belong.
Rumours have him joining the Green Party (unlikely) or even the Liberals (unlikelier still, the man has an obvious dislike for the Liberals and their policies), but for now he's an indie MP.
This may be the first time a politician has paid the price for indiscreet blogging - some might say that constitutes a historical event of sorts. I'm not so sure - shooting one's mouth off on Parliament Hill is a risky thing no matter what the medium, so just because his comments were (allegedly) made on his blog rather than to a newspaper or radio show seems kind of irrelevant to me.
Plus also! I just noticed that Turner's site conforms to Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ensuring that visually impaired visitors to the site can still access everything. His geeks pat themselves on the back and claim
No other web site for federal elected representatives or government departments offers such a high level of accessibility for disabled Canadians.
Kind of a lofty claim, but good on them for getting the site right at least. I had a look at the site with all styles switched off (a Firefox trick) and it looks ok.
28 September 2006
Spacing Out in Toronto
Live in Toronto? Like reading stuff about your city? Then by golly you should check out Spacing magazine, a nifty little once-in-a-while magazine that covers all the issues that are so important to us here in the Centre of the Universe. Hear that Calgary? That's right - we rock and you don't. That's why Stephen 'King of the Dorkwads' Harper left and went west. He's your problem now. Wait, he's also our problem... but never mind that, the important thing is that Spacing magazine is one fiiiiine publication.
The new issue is an election issue, and covers in detail all the big stuff that our upcoming civic election will turn on: the Gardiner Excessway, Cars, the urban forest, transit, bikes, development, and the waterfront. Sounds dry as toast the way I describe it, but it's worth picking up. Hey, they also have a website. How modern is that?
27 September 2006
A Damn Good Rogering
So the latest move from the Federal Regressive Conservatives (aka Those Who Know Best For Canada) is to slash a couple of Billion with a B dollars from the budget, even though we are running a hefty surplus. Some hacking of medical programs here, some slashing of museum budgets there, and oh, what's this - no more funding for medical marijuana research. Nothing to do with the fact that their core supporters hate this kind of stuff - museums and marijuana, that's for city folk. Eastern city folk, like those heathens in Tronna. No no, this is all in the name of, wait for it... "Common Sense". This according to Treasury Board honcho John Baird (my former boss, incidentally, when he was Energy Minister for the Provincial Tories) on a CBC Radio interview yesterday. Hey, fellow Ontarians - remember the Common Sense Revolution? Remember how much fun that was? That was pretty swell when they slashed the funding for the ministry of the environment (ahem - Walkerton anyone?), or when they ordered the OPP to stomp the 'fucking Indians' at Ipperwash. Oh, what a great laugh that was. And of course it was simple Common Sense to download hundreds of millions of dollars of provincial responsibilities onto municipalities who couldn't pay for them. That was great, too. Good times. And if the noise out of Ottawa this week is any indication of things to come, there will be similar good times ahead for the people of Canada. They may call it common sense, but Ontarians remember it as nothing less than a damn good rogering. I can hardly wait.
27 August 2006
Slow is the New Fast
Yesterday was the annual running of the Bell City Chase, a giant corporate marketing scheme disguised as a scavenger hunt held in various cities in Canada, the UK and Australia. Yesterday was Toronto's turn, actually the 2nd event in Hogtown this year. I guess we just can't get enough o' that corporate-y goodness here in the 416.
The race itself is fun, in spite of all the product placement. Myself and partner D (Team name: Slow is the New Fast, prophetic indeed) navigated through 13 of 15 checkpoints in just under 6 hours (the cutoff time), in spite of the fact that we only need to complete 10. A minor screwup saw us lose our 'map' of the event, forcing us to do most of the race by memory - I guess our memories aren't that great, because some events were of the 'Do either A or B but not both' variety, and we did both. That forced us to find another checkpoint (again from memory) which cost us much time and added greatly to our mileage for the day. Whatever, it was still a fun day. Corporate whoring was never so enjoyable.
One thing I took away from the day was a newfound respect for squeegie kids (and squeegie geezers too - possibly even moreso for them). On what would have been our final checkpoint we were to wade into traffic at King & Spadina with bucket and squeegie and raise $20 for the Children's Wish Foundation. A worthy cause for sure, and even though we were provided with a an obviously official CWF banner to show motorists, they were having none of it. The range of reactions to our attempts to squeegie went from a dismissive wave to looks of fear and horror. I think part of the trouble was that we were two middle-aged dudes and not two foxy young women, since I saw a team of FYW across the street having some pretty good success. We bailed on the endeavour pretty quickly when it became obvious we were getting nowhere (but still emptied our pockets for the cause). So - my hat is off to all you squeegie professionals out there. I promise to contribute next time I'm approached.
Hats are also off to the East York Rangers, B and C, our arch-nemesis team. They stormed back from an early defecit, taking advantage of our navigation snafu to cross the finish line an impressive 1 hour ahead of us. Wait until next year...
2 August 2006
Lake Placid Bike Course
Here for the first time anywhere... the world premier of Ironmen Drive the Lake Placid Bike Course. In stunning lo-fi sound and Flash video. Rated PG (contains some strong language).
Click here to view the video. (5MB file, requires Flash).
28 June 2006
Cats N Dogs
Some lovely websites for your browsing pleasure:
- HitlerCats! I'm not sure why this is so funny but it is.
- Exploding Dog - totally nonviolent. Send in your odd phrase and have this offbeat artist draw it for you. Oddly moving, somewhat addictive.
- StuffOnMyCat.com - just what it says. Send in your own pics if you like.
19 June 2006
Race Report: Binbrook Tri
On the day when every heavy hitter in Canadian triathlon was up in Muskoka trying to win a qualifying spot for IronMan Canada, your host was in the Binbrook Conservation Area down Hamilton way for a sleepy little race put on by the Other Triathlon Organization (Multisport).
The race: A sprint. 750m swim, 27km bike, 6.5km run.
The course: A calm lake swim, wide open bike across windswept farmland on generally good roads, followed by a figure 8 loop around a reservoir and a campground where there was mercifully a bit of shade. So the temperature must have dropped down to a cool 31 degrees.
My performance: 1:42:01. Acceptable. 20th of 116 overall, 3rd of 13 in 45-49 age group. Not really a good race to extrapolate to IM performance levels, but still a good way to start the season. Unfortunately the race organizers decided to hand out hardware in 10 year age increments rather than the usual 5, otherwise I would have been sporting some bling today. Only finished 6th in the larger age group (out of 30 or so). Oh well.
The T-shirt: meh. Water bottles? Come on you guys, you can do better than that.
The Food: This is critical. Too many races, and running races are notorious for this, offer a really poor post-race selection of food. Dry bagels, orange slices, green bananas and maybe a juicebox or a bottled water. Soldiers in the trenches of WWI ate better food. The post-race offerings here were quite good: the ubiquitous bagels but with plentiful cream cheese to accompany them, fresh fruit, and copious amounts of 2 different kinds of pasta salad. Not up to K-Town Tri standards, but still a welcome sight after a hard race.
The Verdict: 8/10. Well run race on a nice course, not too large, none of the usual mishaps that seem to befall the Multisport crew in so many of their races, and a decent performance by your host. I'd go again.
13 June 2006
Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour 2006
This year was my 5th consecutive year of riding the famous Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour, an annual bike ride sponsored by the Ottawa Bicycle Club. The RLCT is over 30 years old now, and attracts some 1200-1500 riders each year, all keen on 2 days of suffering, unpredictable weather, and cafeteria food.
Day One: last year's first day saw temperatures approach the 40 degree mark by the afternoon, causing many riders to DNF and many more to cancel the return trip to Ottawa. This year? A starting (and startling) temperature of 9 degree celsius with a lovely 20-25kmh NW wind. No danger of heat stroke for anyone this year. Riding into a wind like that is an interesting experience. You move through various mental stages as the day wears on:
1. Denial: "it's not so bad - and it will probably calm down later on or we'll have a tailwind eventually"
2. Anger: "This bloody wind! Why won't it let up? I'm frying my legs to ride at (insert value here) kmh?
3. Despair: "Why didn't I stay in bed? I'll never make it to Kingston"
4. Acceptance: "Fine. I'll just keep plugging along. Actually, this wind is kind of refreshing" (also known as Self-Delusion)
Eventually you reach a kind of zen state where you forget about the wind entirely and just ride. You've always been riding into the wind, you will always be riding into the wind. And to be fair, saturday we did pick up a tailwind after Westport which made the home stretch kind of fun.
Day Two: In spite of a wildly optimistic weather forecast received second hand from an optically challenged and (we now believe) possibly wind-deranged co-rider, the day broke cold, grey, and windy. If anything the wind had picked up in the night and was now blowing hard enough to threaten serious flag damage. Right into our faces, too, since we would have to start out in a northerly direction. On the other hand, it rained for about 1.5 hours as we started out, so that took our minds off the wind, which was nice.
Another sadistic weather forecast, this time from one of the race directors (it's 24 and sunny in Ottawa!), did nothing to alleviate the misery of the morning. Fellow rider M. somehow made it through the day wearing nothing but a light shirt and a vest. A lesser rider (ie. me) would have been hypothermic within 10 minutes. And again with the wind - we did not pick up a true tailwind until almost in Ottawa.
All in all, however, a great weekend in spite of the crappy weather. Those who rode now also have permanent bragging rights over those (and you know who you are) who did not.
For some photos from previous years please see the menu on the right. Not as many from last year or this, since they all start to look kinda the same after awhile...
London Town (Photo) Diary
Since I haven't updated this miserable excuse for a blog in so long I've missed some important stuff. Most notably an excellent vacation in London England in May. Too much to cover here, but for a look at many many photos you can check out my London 2006 Flickr set.
19 March 2006
More Begging (the) Question
"You are European?"
It sounds like a question, but it's really more of a statement of fact. I'm standing on Queen Street around Bathurst waiting for B and a friend to come out of the pizza place we had just been in, doing my best Keanu / Neo impression in the cold wind and bright sun.
"No. I was born here." I have to respond, he's right up in my face, his thick walrus mustache and direct stare about a foot away. A 'street person', as we say. I saw him heading towards me out of the corner of my eye so I knew he had me in his sights, but I guess I thought I'd get the pitch right away. This oblique approach catches me off-guard.
"But your parents - they are from Europe, no?" A slight undertone of hostility now, but I can see he isn't drunk or high. Not enough to show anyway.
"My grandparents were from Scotland." This pleases him. Neo nazi? Too old, he's in his 40's or close to it, and no skinhead look or other aggro regalia that I can see. Just a regular-looking guy, maybe needing a haircut but he looks like about a dozen guys I've worked with in various blue collar jobs over the years. Some kind of racial thing going on though. Anyway he's friendly now that he has my credentials.
"I am from Poland." I nod in agreement with him - he does have that Lech Walensa thing going on and I pegged his accent already. "I live on the street" Here it comes... "Can you maybe help me with some -" I don't hear the rest of the spiel, don't need to. No big deal. I reach into my pocket and feel around. Feels like about 3 or 4 dollars in there. I pull out half and instantly feel guilty for not grabbing it all and then pissed off that I'm being hit again by a panhandler, then guilty that I'm pissed off then pissed off that I'm feeling guilty about being pissed off, all in about a tenth of a second. I hand him some coins; it looks like about a buck fifty.
"That's all I've got in my pocket, but it's yours." I lie. "Sorry." Shrug.
"That's ok." He smiles, and I know he knows I didn't give him all I had.
B and Co. have by now arrived and I'm aware of them standing off to the side. "So, it's not too bad today, eh?" I look up to the sky briefly, the universal gesture meaning 'today's weather'. Christ, I'm making small talk with the guy like he's some suit on the elevator at work. Thankfully he ignores me.
"You are policeman?" He says it with the accent on the 'po' and I mis-hear him at first.
"Polishman?" I grin at him, catching what he actually said on the internal instant replay. He grins back.
"No, police man. You look like you could be police." First time anyone ever said that to me, but maybe he's a bit paranoid or has had run-ins with the cops, who knows?
"Nah, not me - see?" I lift my sunglasses and look him in the eye, like this proves something. "No cop".
This is funny to him and he laughs loudly, a friendly conspiratorial kind of laugh. I laugh too and for a moment we are just a couple of guys sharing a joke on a bright, cold March afternoon on Queen Street. He claps me on the arm as I start down the sidewalk to join my friends.
"All right my friend!" he says. "Take it easy" I say.
15 March 2006
Begging (the) Question
Point 1: There's an LCBO store not far from here that I go to sometimes. It's the closest one to where I live so it makes sense to deke over when the need for a bar restocking arises. The only thing I don't like about it is that there is ALWAYS someone panhandling outside the doors, so when you walk out with your $100 worth of fancy wine and imported beer you get a short, sharp shot of guilt to go with your bourgeois purchases. If I have any change I'll assuage that guilt by donating to the cause, even though I know it's my guilt that's making me reach into my pocket, and even though I know that he (the panhandler) knows I feel guilty, and he knows I know he knows it. It's a crude but effective ploy that I'm sure they teach in Panhandling 101.
Point 2: Everything on the internet is free now. Though there are still a few pay-to-play sites around (most notably of course the porn sites that seem to have cornered about 80% of the web's real estate), the most successful (ie. most popular) sites are all wide open, free of charge and somehow doing quite well. Check out Flickr for a prime example, or MySpace, or Blogger. These are wildly popular, technically astounding, and totally free of charge to anyone who cares to use them.
What does Point 2 have to do with Point 1? Racetracker.ca, that's what. This is my other site, an online service that lets triathletes (and duathletes and runners) log their race results and then compare them all against each other in a variety of charts, graphs and tables. It launched last year, and I tried to make a subscription model fly at $20 CDN per year. Response was less than I'd hoped, so rather than bang my head against that particular wall for another year I decided to make the site free. I will probably run ads to generate some revenue, but for now I'm trying the Panhandling 101 ploy and asking for a PayPal donation when users log out of the site. Cheap tactic? Not really - it's used a lot by sites that could never survive on a subscription revenue model and it seems to work reasonably well. Time will tell. If it becomes successful enough to rival the revenue I could make from ads then it will stay as a permanent feature.
I'll think about that the next time I make a run to the LCBO.
4 March 2006
Watch the Birdie...
Who says there's no real wildlife in the city? Today I was walking down to the subway and to keep out of the cold wind I took a route through a nearby laneway that runs parallel to Donlands Ave. I happened to look up at one point and I saw what I thought at first was a pigeon (since all birds of a certain size in Toronto are automatically pigeons). It only took a second to realize that it definitely was not a pigeon, but was actually a falcon standing on top of it's recently deceased prey. I watched the bird tear some chunks from whatever it was dining on before remembering that I had my camera with me. I only got one shot off before the bird took off, with what looked like a starling in its talons. Here it is, with a decent look at the bird in the inset. Is that cool or what?
It looks to be a peregrine falcon, of which there are rumoured to be quite a few living in and around the city. It's not unusual to see the occasional hawk gliding overhead, especially since we live close to the Don Valley, but to see a falcon close up is pretty rare.
27 Februrary 2006
The Unknown Candidate
I came across a blog tonite for The Unknown Candidate while surfing on Blogspot. This is supposedly the site of someone who intends to run in the next American presidential election, which in the opinion of a growing number of Americans can't come soon enough. It's compelling reading, though depressing too since it's really a collection of articles (mainly from the New York Times) and short pieces that together paint a truly harrowing and disturbing portrait of the United States as it exists now under the Bush administration. Whether the claim (of being a candidate) is legitimate or not, it's compelling reading. What the hell is going on down there?
14 February 2006
Guns & Roses
On this 14th day of the second month we have two top stories requiring our attention.
First, it's Valentine's Day, another pseudo-holiday designed to generate revenue for the greeting card industry with a bone thrown to florists and candy shops. Tuesday night hockey-leaguers everywhere will find out tonite who among them is either single or long-time married (the guys who show up) or, on the other side, have new girlfriends/marriages or are just plain pussy-whipped (the guys who don't). Me, I don't play hockey so my status will have to remain a topic of debate for now.
The other big story is of course the little huntin' accident involving the Vice President of the United States of America. Three days after Dick Cheney 'peppered' a member of his party in a case of mistaken identity (an honest mistake, really, I've often confused 78 year-old white men with 2 pound game birds. It can be very embarrassing) the press is still all over it. Which is cute, but come on. It's not like there are no other issues to chew on involving the White House, are there?
The always reliable Smoking Gun has a copy of the Texas Parks and Wildlife incident report available for browsing, for readers so inclined.
I guess the NRA has it's new poster boy for 2006. Hint: it's not Harry "Peppered Quail" Whittington.
7 February 2006
Aimee Mann
The previous 2 times Aimee Mann came through Toronto I couldn't make it to the show, so this time I was determined not to miss what was being billed as an 'acoustic tour'. Normally the thought of one of those execrable MTV-style 'unplugged' gigs would have me running in the opposite direction but Aimee's music is perfect for the stripped down approach. And so I went.
The Mod Club on College Street was the venue, and the crowd was an odd mix of hipsters, geezers, and gayboys on dates, plus myself and a 'friend' from work. The show was Aimee plus two sidemen on piano or bass or accordian as the songs required, and she dug into her now considerable back catalogue for tunes from Lost In Space, Magnolia, Bachelor #2 and some older stuff than that (which i'm not as familiar with) plus of course the excellent Forgotten Arm. It was the newest material that sounded the strongest to my ears, which you would expect from a songwriter who has matured with each passing release. Little Bombs was a real gem, coming through so clear and heartfelt in the small room and played to an almost reverent stillness in the crowd. Beatiful.
Not that the show was slick in any showbizzy kind of way - Aimee was charming and off-the-cuff between songs, cracking jokes and generally putting us all at ease. She even took requests at one point, which led to one of the highlights of the show. Someone requested Driving Sideways, which the piano player (aka the New Guy) admitted to 'sort of' knowing how to play. So off they went, winging it, and you could see New Guy becoming more comfortable with the changes as the song got going. By the end he was adding some truly beautiful lines to the tune and you could see Aimee was impressed. As were the rest of us, I think. A genuine musical moment there that you don't often get at live shows these days, overpackaged and over-rehearsed as they so often seem to be.
Spacedog rating : out of 5
Visit Aimee's website and have a listen to some of the great tunes from The Forgotten Arm.
22 January 2006
D-Day Minus One
Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your political life, Canada. All the pundits and entrail-readers are predicting victory for the Regressive Conservative Party, and if you look at the polls and listen to the call-in shows it's hard to disagree. Mr. Meek n Mild, aka Steven Harper 2.0, appears poised to take his band of rednecks, bigots, misogynists and olde tyme religion enthusiasts all the way to Ottawa this time and there appears to be no stopping them. Certainly not by Paul Martin, who is looking more frantic by the day. His proclamations this weekend of a miraculous late rally seem more desperate than confident, and the Liberal attack ads are really looking kind of pathetic.
I'm pissed at the Liberals, myself. Well, I'm not not actually by myself in that regard, obviously, but not for the same reasons as the "Liberals are baaaaad' bleaters out there. I'm pissed that they could have screwed up so comprehensively that the door would be opened wide enough for the Harperites (Harpies?) to squeeze back into the room. Because of some greedy sons of bitches in la belle province we now get to enjoy four years of smugnes, moralizing and bad social policy from Harper & Co. Like corruption in Quebec was invented by the Liberals. Please.
At least it won't be boring, though, which I hope will be enough to comfort us in the days ahead. I'm thinking of starting a pool to see when the real Harper sheds his carapace, like that bug in the movie Men in Black who took over a human body until it (the body) couldn't contain him any more and he comes bursting out, revealing the awful creature within. Big laughs there, let's hope it's just as funny this time.
As for Jack Layton... well, it's too bad that the party with the platform most resonant with issues that Canadians feel are important (health care, the environment, sensible application of tax revenues to name a few) are once again poised on the brink of crushing defeat. They may pick up a few seats from the Liberals, but in the end they will onlyl serve to help the Conservatives gain power.
The real threat, though, is not from the wingnuts in the Conservative Party woodwork, but from Harper's plans for a radically de-centralized Canada. He's angling for a weakened federal government and far more powers for all the provinces, not unlike what the Quebec separatists have been demanding for years. If he is able to implement this 'vision', Canada will change fundamentally. And not for the better.
Hang on to your helmets, folks, it's about to get interesting.
14 January 2006
Seventy Seven in Oh Six
Happy birthday to my dad, who turns 77 today. A nice round number, no? He'll be reading this post too, since he's a proud Mac owner and recent convert to high-speed internet connection. Which is more than can be said for his son, who still logs on using dialup the way he did back in the olden days of the internet (that would be 1994 in this case). Why dialup? A couple of reasons; I already pay Rogers more money every month than is healthy and I've been resisisting handing over any more. Plus, when you design websites for a living you don't want to get in the habit of assuming everyone has highspeed and so construct bandwidth-hogging monster sites for your clients. Staying on dialup has a way of keeping you honest.
11 January 2006
Election Blues
It now looks as though the Conservatives have opened up a big lead in the election campaign, which bodes not well at all for Canada, IMO. Sure, the Liberals are a bunch of swaggering porklords who've wasted and/or stolen more taxpayer money than we'll probably ever know, and sure they deserve to get the boot. But come on, people. The Conservatives?
Their 'moderate' platform is an act. The only reason they look like they're even in the same time zone as reasonable persons like you & me is that they have successfully put a lid on the raving wingnuts in the party, the Old Tyme Reform Party Faithful who want to abolish abortion rights and equal rights for gays and lesbians, beef up our military and snuggle up to the Real Christians south of the border. Just wait - if they win this thing you'll see the real face of the Conservative Party show itself soon enough.
Last week the Globe and Mail ran this photo of Herr Harper giving what looks like the Nazi salute to an unseen crowd. I'm not suggesting for a minute that Harpo is a Gestapo wannabe; that would be in poor taste (and hopefully incorrect). But it is kinda creepy, no?
A friend of mine put it this way: A U.S. ideology-friendly conservative government cannot fail to get the attention of the same type of people who bombed the London subway last year, and that would make Toronto the softest of soft targets. I hope he's wrong, because it looks like we're about to put these jokers in office. Pray for a minority government.
10 January 2006
MyPal
My old pal Stuart Robertson is, I am now forced to admit, a genius. I always suspected as much but since SR has always hidden his light under a digital bushel the evidence was merely circumstantial, a vague sort of 'that guy is on the ball' feeling. Until now.
Mr. Robertson has recently unleashed his latest clever web-vention, a Firefox extension called X-Ray that lets you peek at the underlying html code of a web page without the tedious 'view source' method. It's way cool, and it's available on his designmeme.com site.
Stuart is featured on Digg.com today, so he's getting traffic up the wazoo, but try to drop by his site. It's a beauty. If you're a web developer-type person you'll want the X-ray extension; just look for the link under 'Pages' on Stuart's site.