Yeah, I'm not even giving excuses anymore. Let's just move forward with some things, shall we?
1. I forgot to mention that one of the toys I picked up in Florida last month was an iPad 2. It was borderline miraculous I managed to find one, really. I popped in to the Apple store in Tampa and they were polite enough not to laugh at me when I asked. Instead, they pointed out the store opened at 10 and the line-up to get whatever shipment they received that day normally started at 7 am. Which was too stupid for me to seriously consider on vacation.
There was a Best Buy nearby, and they were laughing too when I asked. But on our next to last day there, I popped in at lunchtime on a lark and they had a few just come in. So pure dumb luck.
So how are they? I admit, we picked one up more for travelling than any practical use around town or anything. But the the damndest thing....I really like using it. If we're out watching TV I'll pop in and grab that if I just want to poke online for a few minutes during commercial. I like it a lot. It's a slick little gadget. It's much better than the iPod Touch, which I was kind of disappointed in. The games are fun, the keyboard is pretty easy to use for writing. I downloaded the Kindle app and bought my first ebook (Espediar Street by Iain Banks, which is an old favourite of mine) and I liked the experience of reading it on the iPad.
On the downside, the auto-correct when typing can be a bit annoying and we had one glitch with the iPad not wanting to switch away from the US iTunes store to the Canada one which meant I had to reset it to factory settings.
My laptop is going to be four years old this fall. I was beginning to wonder, in the back of my mind, if I might not need an upgrade this year. Now I'm wondering if I really need a new laptop as long as I have the iPad.
2. As long as we're talking about spending money, we're also in full car-hunting mode right now. I recently test drove a Subaru Forrester, which is a lovely ride. The downside is they do no warranty work in Nunavut. Which means if something goes wrong, we're totally on our own. Which can get pricy in a hurry.
So back to plan b. The only vehicles that get warranty work done in Iqaluit apparently are GMs, Fords and Toyotas. There's a place in town that sells Fords and GMs, so we're now looking at either a Terrain or an Equinox. They're essentially the same vehicle. The main difference is that I like how the Terrain looks and Cathy likes how the Equinox looks. Place your bets on who is going to win that battle of the wills.
It's not ideal, but it's better than going to Ottawa, going through all the hassle of buying it, going through the licensing and taxes and then getting it shipped up and not having anyone to do maintaince work. This way, we can go into Driving Force, tell them what vehicle we want, they'll order it up here and then they'll call us when it arrives on the sealift boat. Much simpler. Probably a little pricier, but you take a certain price hit for not dealing with a ton of hassle.
And yes, I know, GM. I'm aware of the potential downfalls, although both vehicles are well reviewed. But we shall see.
3. And yes, I'll try to get better with the blogging. If nothing else, I need to start gearing up to revamp the FAQ again, which is an annual thing. I've had no less than three people at work tell me they read the FAQ and it helped them decide to move here. That's always good to know.
Last Five
1. Shaking the tree (live) - Peter Gabriel
2. Road trippin' - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
3. I would die for you - Garbage
4. The long way home - Norah Jones
5. Sodium - Ian Foster
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Ten election thoughts
An assortment of random thoughts about the election that will have to tide election junkies over for the next four years.
1. Cleary and Penashue, Newfoundland? Really? I mean, it's not as mind-boggling as electing Bonnie Hickey back in '93, but all right, sure. If that's the way you want to go.
2. By all accounts Siobhan Coady was a hell of an MP. And while it sucks to lose, given the current state of the federal Liberal party, I suspect more than one are glad to be out of Ottawa for the next four years. Also, tell me she wouldn't make an interesting pick as the next leader of the provincial Liberal party. With due respect to Yvonne Jones, I don't think she's going to stick around long after the next provincial election. Coady is an interesting choice. If nothing else, if you've stood up to John Baird, I imagine Kathy Dunderdale and Jerome Kennedy are not exactly scary people to have yelling at you in the House of Assembly.
3. Humour is not something that translates from culture to culture well. I remember being in South Korea and the audience would not laugh at Men in Black until the group of English teachers I was with laughed first. Because they didn't get the jokes (they did laugh a lot at weird moments during Romeo + Juliet, though, including the death scene at the end). It's why Hollywood likes action movies more than comedies these days. It's easier to sell tickets on shit blowing up with minimal dialogue than trying to explain why Zach Galifianakis is funny.
All of which is a preamble to I'm sure there's a punchline to last night's election results in Quebec, but I've never really got French humour. For example, Ruth Ellen Brosseau won her seat despite:
A. Not living in the riding.
B. Going to Vegas in the middle of the campaign.
C. Her riding is 98% French and she can't really speak it that well.
D. Appears to have not even visited the riding during the election.
Yet she got 40% of the vote, won the seat and now gets a $150,000+ a year job, which is a bit of a step up from assistant manager at a pub.
So yes, there's a punchline here somewhere, I just don't get it. Can someone explain French humour to me, please?
4. Although, seriously, the day I would see that much orange on a map of Canada I would assume I had a stroke and was hallucinating.
5. I have something like 170 friends on Facebook. Of those, I have about two who admit to supporting the Conservatives. Most were supporting the NDP and were giddily ecstatic for a chunk of the evening. And I swear, most of them must have went to bed early, because the amount of shock and bile on Facebook this morning to discover that, yes the NDP have a historic high number of seats, but one of the results of that is the Conservatives got a majority.
Why this is a shock is beyond me. I saw enough projections that said if the NDP got 100+ seats it was all but certain they were going to take them from the Liberals and the Bloc and not the Conservatives. Reading Facebook it looked like a bunch of people went to bed with the hot babe and woke up to something....not quite what they were expecting....in the morning.
6. What's the over/under on how much longer Michael Ignatieff stays in Canada? I give it a year.
7. I'm disappointed the Hasselhoff Party didn't make more inroads in this election, but I'm bitter to discover there was a Pirate Party and they got 3,198 votes. I seriously would have been tempted to run for the Pirate Party in Nunavut. Arrrr. Although apparently they're about copyright instead of, you know, actually talking like a pirate and plundering, which is kind of disappointing. Clearly this needs to be addressed at their next national convention.
8. And, you know, the Communists and the Marxist-Leninist Party are never going to form a government if they keep vote splitting like that.
9. Quote of the day, making the rounds on Twitter: "The Conservatives are like Nickelback. No one you know likes them, but they always seem to do very well." - Anonymous
10. The next federal election isn't until October 19, 2015. For those of you who hate federal elections, this is a break. However, you will pay for it with interest as I believe there will be several provincial and territorial elections scheduled for the same time. For example, the next election in Newfoundland after this fall is, I think, October 12, 2015.
Try not to think about the campaign signs.
Last Five
1. Vow - Garbage
2. Pinball wizard - The Who
3. Subterranean homesick alien - Radiohead
4. Semi suite - Tom Waits
5. The long day is over - Norah Jones
1. Cleary and Penashue, Newfoundland? Really? I mean, it's not as mind-boggling as electing Bonnie Hickey back in '93, but all right, sure. If that's the way you want to go.
2. By all accounts Siobhan Coady was a hell of an MP. And while it sucks to lose, given the current state of the federal Liberal party, I suspect more than one are glad to be out of Ottawa for the next four years. Also, tell me she wouldn't make an interesting pick as the next leader of the provincial Liberal party. With due respect to Yvonne Jones, I don't think she's going to stick around long after the next provincial election. Coady is an interesting choice. If nothing else, if you've stood up to John Baird, I imagine Kathy Dunderdale and Jerome Kennedy are not exactly scary people to have yelling at you in the House of Assembly.
3. Humour is not something that translates from culture to culture well. I remember being in South Korea and the audience would not laugh at Men in Black until the group of English teachers I was with laughed first. Because they didn't get the jokes (they did laugh a lot at weird moments during Romeo + Juliet, though, including the death scene at the end). It's why Hollywood likes action movies more than comedies these days. It's easier to sell tickets on shit blowing up with minimal dialogue than trying to explain why Zach Galifianakis is funny.
All of which is a preamble to I'm sure there's a punchline to last night's election results in Quebec, but I've never really got French humour. For example, Ruth Ellen Brosseau won her seat despite:
A. Not living in the riding.
B. Going to Vegas in the middle of the campaign.
C. Her riding is 98% French and she can't really speak it that well.
D. Appears to have not even visited the riding during the election.
Yet she got 40% of the vote, won the seat and now gets a $150,000+ a year job, which is a bit of a step up from assistant manager at a pub.
So yes, there's a punchline here somewhere, I just don't get it. Can someone explain French humour to me, please?
4. Although, seriously, the day I would see that much orange on a map of Canada I would assume I had a stroke and was hallucinating.
5. I have something like 170 friends on Facebook. Of those, I have about two who admit to supporting the Conservatives. Most were supporting the NDP and were giddily ecstatic for a chunk of the evening. And I swear, most of them must have went to bed early, because the amount of shock and bile on Facebook this morning to discover that, yes the NDP have a historic high number of seats, but one of the results of that is the Conservatives got a majority.
Why this is a shock is beyond me. I saw enough projections that said if the NDP got 100+ seats it was all but certain they were going to take them from the Liberals and the Bloc and not the Conservatives. Reading Facebook it looked like a bunch of people went to bed with the hot babe and woke up to something....not quite what they were expecting....in the morning.
6. What's the over/under on how much longer Michael Ignatieff stays in Canada? I give it a year.
7. I'm disappointed the Hasselhoff Party didn't make more inroads in this election, but I'm bitter to discover there was a Pirate Party and they got 3,198 votes. I seriously would have been tempted to run for the Pirate Party in Nunavut. Arrrr. Although apparently they're about copyright instead of, you know, actually talking like a pirate and plundering, which is kind of disappointing. Clearly this needs to be addressed at their next national convention.
8. And, you know, the Communists and the Marxist-Leninist Party are never going to form a government if they keep vote splitting like that.
9. Quote of the day, making the rounds on Twitter: "The Conservatives are like Nickelback. No one you know likes them, but they always seem to do very well." - Anonymous
10. The next federal election isn't until October 19, 2015. For those of you who hate federal elections, this is a break. However, you will pay for it with interest as I believe there will be several provincial and territorial elections scheduled for the same time. For example, the next election in Newfoundland after this fall is, I think, October 12, 2015.
Try not to think about the campaign signs.
Last Five
1. Vow - Garbage
2. Pinball wizard - The Who
3. Subterranean homesick alien - Radiohead
4. Semi suite - Tom Waits
5. The long day is over - Norah Jones
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Lo, I am risen
What? Easter was last week? Oooops, sorry...
So yes, Hi. Sorry about that. Certainly hadn't planned on disappearing for quite that long. I really figured at some point the urge to blog again would become over-powering. Figure for sure it would kick in while on vacation. It's not like it was action-packed, but stuff happened that was amusing and worth writing about.
Nope.
Not even after being back for a week, it didn't kick in. So, at some point, you have to give something a kick all on it's own and hope the creaky thing swings back into life.
However, I will not be writing about the Royal Wedding. You can go somewhere else for that.
So, first, the vacation. It went well, I think. A trip to St. Pete's Beach is not meant to be an epic vacation. But it was my first one in a year and it achieved what it was supposed to. We resupplied and we did a lot of relaxing next to the pool or on the beach. Mission Accomplished. Although I think we managed to throw a bit of a scare into Cathy's parents. They've never seen a full-power Northern Power Shop before. It can be a terrifying experience if you're not used to it. It is not unlike a plague of locusts hitting a location. In this case it was hitting an outlet mall south of St. Pete's. Cathy and I even printed off coupons for the stores in the place and had a plan of attack. At the end of it, much money was spent, but we essentially had all of our clothing for the next year.
Oh, and a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Those things are spiffy.
And from there on out, it was mostly about the relaxation. Sure we might pop out for some air conditioning and twacking (window shopping for you non-Newfoundlanders) when the beach got too hot (about 33C every day down there). The ocean was also cooking quite a bit, so I suspect hurricane season is going to be an unpleasant one for Florida. They all kind of know that there, after speaking with some of the locals.
If there was a disappointment in the vacation it was the lack of wackiness. Last year I had a guy dragging a 10-foot cross along the beach on Easter weekend, marginally racist barbers, my first trip to the Wagon Wheel flea market and a stop at the Golden Corral for feeding. This year, no crosses, the flea market was kind of boring, the barbers were more worried about the weather and the Corral was completely unexciting.
Perhaps I'm getting used to Florida. I mean, all the heavy metal tapes and t-shirts disappeared from the flea market. Was there a run on them or something? Although the volume of betamax tapes....I didn't know there were that many left in the world. The only funny thing I heard was a woman saying "well, she went and divorced his ass once he got out of prison." Which was funny only because of the southern accent. I've overheard the same thing when I lived in Clarenville and it was just another day at Sobeys.
Still, here are some pics. A bit of wackiness. And I include the fruit ones just to drove people up north mad.
So yes, Hi. Sorry about that. Certainly hadn't planned on disappearing for quite that long. I really figured at some point the urge to blog again would become over-powering. Figure for sure it would kick in while on vacation. It's not like it was action-packed, but stuff happened that was amusing and worth writing about.
Nope.
Not even after being back for a week, it didn't kick in. So, at some point, you have to give something a kick all on it's own and hope the creaky thing swings back into life.
However, I will not be writing about the Royal Wedding. You can go somewhere else for that.
So, first, the vacation. It went well, I think. A trip to St. Pete's Beach is not meant to be an epic vacation. But it was my first one in a year and it achieved what it was supposed to. We resupplied and we did a lot of relaxing next to the pool or on the beach. Mission Accomplished. Although I think we managed to throw a bit of a scare into Cathy's parents. They've never seen a full-power Northern Power Shop before. It can be a terrifying experience if you're not used to it. It is not unlike a plague of locusts hitting a location. In this case it was hitting an outlet mall south of St. Pete's. Cathy and I even printed off coupons for the stores in the place and had a plan of attack. At the end of it, much money was spent, but we essentially had all of our clothing for the next year.
Oh, and a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Those things are spiffy.
And from there on out, it was mostly about the relaxation. Sure we might pop out for some air conditioning and twacking (window shopping for you non-Newfoundlanders) when the beach got too hot (about 33C every day down there). The ocean was also cooking quite a bit, so I suspect hurricane season is going to be an unpleasant one for Florida. They all kind of know that there, after speaking with some of the locals.
If there was a disappointment in the vacation it was the lack of wackiness. Last year I had a guy dragging a 10-foot cross along the beach on Easter weekend, marginally racist barbers, my first trip to the Wagon Wheel flea market and a stop at the Golden Corral for feeding. This year, no crosses, the flea market was kind of boring, the barbers were more worried about the weather and the Corral was completely unexciting.
Perhaps I'm getting used to Florida. I mean, all the heavy metal tapes and t-shirts disappeared from the flea market. Was there a run on them or something? Although the volume of betamax tapes....I didn't know there were that many left in the world. The only funny thing I heard was a woman saying "well, she went and divorced his ass once he got out of prison." Which was funny only because of the southern accent. I've overheard the same thing when I lived in Clarenville and it was just another day at Sobeys.
Still, here are some pics. A bit of wackiness. And I include the fruit ones just to drove people up north mad.
 |
| Enough to make you cry. |
 |
| It was Sunday. I guess Jesus was busy somewhere else, |
 |
| I really wanted to buy this for my friend Karin. |
 |
| Just in case the flea market gets rowdy. |
 |
| Happy Easter! |
So yes, a good vacation and certainly a much needed one. Although I will say this one thing - and perhaps I've been watching too much Fringe - but is it possible that at some point during our flights we were transported into an alternate universe where the NDP is now a real political party. Just asking.
Oh, and here a few photos of sunsets and the beach. Just to prove we were there.
 |
| An attempt at me being creative. |
 |
| Bridesmaids on the beach. Stalking wedding parties was a favourite thing to do with Cathy's family. |
 |
| Us looking all happy. |
 |
| The clan. Cathy, her parents and her aunt. |
 |
| Good-bye Florida... |
Last Five
1. Dignity - Bob Dylan
2. Down for the count - Girl Talk
3. The great pretender - Queen
4. Surveyors and cranes - Bob Mould
5. Out of touch - Hall & Oates*
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Break time
I write this on April 12 and it's -25C outside. The winds are calm, so there's no windchill to add to the punishment, but it could hit -39C. This is spring in Nunavut, by the way. Realistically it's another two months until we'll start seeing regular above 0 temperatures. It's never the cold that sinks you in Nunavut, it's the duration of the cold that ends up doing the trick. This has been a short winter by Iqaluit standards because of the massive mild spell we had in November and December.
It's also why we need a vacation. Now, I've been cautioned by a friend about talking about vacations as it has been pointed out that not everyone gets one, let alone the two or three a year Cathy and I can normally squeeze out. Which is true. I recall when working for the Packet and getting a whopping two weeks off a year and my vacation consisted of going to St. John's to stay with one of my parents for two weeks. Because when you're making $19,000 a year, the around the world vacations don't really drop into your lap.
However, we have the money now. It's one of the perks of living up here. And a trip out every now and then is a sanity measure for us. People react different to living in the north. Some move here and they never want to leave. Their idea of a vacation is to hop on their ski-doo, or their boat, and zip on up the bay to spend a few weeks at their cabin. Because, you know, what you need when you live up here is to get away from it all. But people do it and that's cool.
Others come up here and last three weeks. Or three minutes. There's the story, true or not, of a teacher arriving in one of the Kivalliq communities, walking off the plane, looking around and then getting back on the plane and leaving. I repeat this for everyone who ever thinks about moving here - it's not for everyone. And for those who stay, you may love the place to pieces. But I'm willing to bet most still need a break from it all. And that's us. A couple of times a year, it's nice to go somewhere. Somewhere new and exotic if at all possible.
And one of the great...resentment is too harsh a word, but certainly envy, of my late 20s and early 30s, was watching friends go all over the world. I had friends in the UK, Africa, southeast Asia, the middle east, California....everywhere it seemed. I had Clarenville and St. John's.
So we're making up for some lost time. Besides, I haven't had a vacation in nearly a year. The last time I sat around and did nothing was when we went to Florida last April for a week. So yes, a break. Something other than the ice and snow.
So where are we going? What exciting and exotic land are we off to?
Um, Florida.
Yeah, I know. Cathy's parents are there so we're going to go and crash with them for a week like we did last year. Although last year I had a hard time sitting still. I had been unemployed for several months, so I didn't really need the break. This time, I suspect I'll have no problems flaking out on a beach with a book. Or possibly an iPad 2 if I can find a store there that's selling them.
Yes, relaxation is the name of the game this time.
Oh, and in case anyone is thinking the house is unattended for that week, well, we have a vicious attack dog (well, he's a noisy fucker at least), plus a house sitter. So if you were thinking of breaking in, well, no.
I'll let you know if I see any true weirdness. It's Florida and it's Easter, so I'm willing to bet the odds are good.
Last Five
1. Century city (live) - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
2. On the back of a broken dream - Flogging Molly
3. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen*
4. Fiesta - The Pogues
5. December - David Gray
It's also why we need a vacation. Now, I've been cautioned by a friend about talking about vacations as it has been pointed out that not everyone gets one, let alone the two or three a year Cathy and I can normally squeeze out. Which is true. I recall when working for the Packet and getting a whopping two weeks off a year and my vacation consisted of going to St. John's to stay with one of my parents for two weeks. Because when you're making $19,000 a year, the around the world vacations don't really drop into your lap.
However, we have the money now. It's one of the perks of living up here. And a trip out every now and then is a sanity measure for us. People react different to living in the north. Some move here and they never want to leave. Their idea of a vacation is to hop on their ski-doo, or their boat, and zip on up the bay to spend a few weeks at their cabin. Because, you know, what you need when you live up here is to get away from it all. But people do it and that's cool.
Others come up here and last three weeks. Or three minutes. There's the story, true or not, of a teacher arriving in one of the Kivalliq communities, walking off the plane, looking around and then getting back on the plane and leaving. I repeat this for everyone who ever thinks about moving here - it's not for everyone. And for those who stay, you may love the place to pieces. But I'm willing to bet most still need a break from it all. And that's us. A couple of times a year, it's nice to go somewhere. Somewhere new and exotic if at all possible.
And one of the great...resentment is too harsh a word, but certainly envy, of my late 20s and early 30s, was watching friends go all over the world. I had friends in the UK, Africa, southeast Asia, the middle east, California....everywhere it seemed. I had Clarenville and St. John's.
So we're making up for some lost time. Besides, I haven't had a vacation in nearly a year. The last time I sat around and did nothing was when we went to Florida last April for a week. So yes, a break. Something other than the ice and snow.
So where are we going? What exciting and exotic land are we off to?
Um, Florida.
Yeah, I know. Cathy's parents are there so we're going to go and crash with them for a week like we did last year. Although last year I had a hard time sitting still. I had been unemployed for several months, so I didn't really need the break. This time, I suspect I'll have no problems flaking out on a beach with a book. Or possibly an iPad 2 if I can find a store there that's selling them.
Yes, relaxation is the name of the game this time.
Oh, and in case anyone is thinking the house is unattended for that week, well, we have a vicious attack dog (well, he's a noisy fucker at least), plus a house sitter. So if you were thinking of breaking in, well, no.
I'll let you know if I see any true weirdness. It's Florida and it's Easter, so I'm willing to bet the odds are good.
Last Five
1. Century city (live) - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
2. On the back of a broken dream - Flogging Molly
3. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen*
4. Fiesta - The Pogues
5. December - David Gray
Monday, April 11, 2011
Kiss and tell
When I read this story about Kiss playing Grand Falls-Windsor my first reaction was to mock. Well, all right, I might have already mocked on Twitter. But that was mainly due to the absolutely ludicrous lede. I don't know if it's Ms. Colbourne's fault or if she has a desk to close to Steve Bartlett at the Telegram and suffered a temporary loss in sanity. Look, most people don't consider Kiss to be the most influential rock band in history. Virtually no one does. If you're going to have discussions about most important rock bands of all time then you mention The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin and The Ramones to start with. Kiss is a great rock band in the same way that Def Leppard and Bon Jovi are. And yes, that's meant exactly as backhanded as you think.
Now, the easy thing is to mock the band for playing Grand Falls. I've long had the theory that Newfoundland is the elephant graveyard of rock music. Bands who were big once stagger to the island, trying to desperately grasp one last burst of glory before wandering off into the Atlantic to die. Or shot out of mercy. It doesn't always work. April Wine and Trooper keep playing there despite the best efforts of some to put them out of their misery. But it's rare that a band in their prime plays in the province.
To say Kiss is past their "Best By" date would be an understatement. I'm pretty sure they haven't had a hit in 25 years. Oh, I'm sure it'll be an entertaining enough show for the devoted, but if I was in Newfoundland would I pay $70 to go and see them? Hell no. I wouldn't pay them that much if they were actually in St. John's. Paying to see them in Grand Falls? Not in this lifetime.
But an interesting thing happened on the way to this blog post, which has been brewing for a few days. I read this article from Rolling Stone the other day about Bob Seger. It's a great interview (how the hell is his stuff not up on iTunes) and talking about how he's not doing this too much longer because, well, he's 65 years old and chain smokes and playing for a couple of hours on stage kind of hurts these days. Seger probably hasn't had a hit since 'Breakdown' from the Beverly Hills Cop movie.
For that matter, Jackson Browne is on tour right now doing solo acoustic shows. I have two of the solo acoustic albums and they're fantastic. But again, no idea when he last had a hit song.
Now, I could make the point that I consider both Seger and Browne to be much better than Kiss, but of course, that's a matter of taste. And, I would argue, common sense, but anyway...
So I can't get up on my horse too high about people willing to pay to see Kiss. If that's your thing, more power to you. I'd pay good money to go see Seger in a second. I think Browne was playing in St. John's and tickets were a pretty penny. So logically, I can't really mock if you're willing to drive all the way to Grand Falls and stand outside for hours to watch Kiss play a set.
But understand, I really, really want to.
Last Five
1. American Idiot - Cast of American Idiot
2. The fixer - Pearl Jam
3. Blackbird - Neil Diamond
4. The masterplan - Oasis
5. Take this waltz (live) - Leonard Cohen*
Now, the easy thing is to mock the band for playing Grand Falls. I've long had the theory that Newfoundland is the elephant graveyard of rock music. Bands who were big once stagger to the island, trying to desperately grasp one last burst of glory before wandering off into the Atlantic to die. Or shot out of mercy. It doesn't always work. April Wine and Trooper keep playing there despite the best efforts of some to put them out of their misery. But it's rare that a band in their prime plays in the province.
To say Kiss is past their "Best By" date would be an understatement. I'm pretty sure they haven't had a hit in 25 years. Oh, I'm sure it'll be an entertaining enough show for the devoted, but if I was in Newfoundland would I pay $70 to go and see them? Hell no. I wouldn't pay them that much if they were actually in St. John's. Paying to see them in Grand Falls? Not in this lifetime.
But an interesting thing happened on the way to this blog post, which has been brewing for a few days. I read this article from Rolling Stone the other day about Bob Seger. It's a great interview (how the hell is his stuff not up on iTunes) and talking about how he's not doing this too much longer because, well, he's 65 years old and chain smokes and playing for a couple of hours on stage kind of hurts these days. Seger probably hasn't had a hit since 'Breakdown' from the Beverly Hills Cop movie.
For that matter, Jackson Browne is on tour right now doing solo acoustic shows. I have two of the solo acoustic albums and they're fantastic. But again, no idea when he last had a hit song.
Now, I could make the point that I consider both Seger and Browne to be much better than Kiss, but of course, that's a matter of taste. And, I would argue, common sense, but anyway...
So I can't get up on my horse too high about people willing to pay to see Kiss. If that's your thing, more power to you. I'd pay good money to go see Seger in a second. I think Browne was playing in St. John's and tickets were a pretty penny. So logically, I can't really mock if you're willing to drive all the way to Grand Falls and stand outside for hours to watch Kiss play a set.
But understand, I really, really want to.
Last Five
1. American Idiot - Cast of American Idiot
2. The fixer - Pearl Jam
3. Blackbird - Neil Diamond
4. The masterplan - Oasis
5. Take this waltz (live) - Leonard Cohen*
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Not so fine dining
I mentioned we had a new restaurant in town, with the introduction of Yummy Shawarma. I've eaten there twice more since the last time I wrote about it, and I still like it quite a bit, although I need to ask them to go light on the garlic sauce. I love garlic, but it repeated on me something fierce. Plus, I'm sure I wasn't a joy to be around a few hours later.
However, if the fates giveth, they also taketh away. And no, not just with the loss of Fantasy Palace. Cathy and I like going to the Gallery Dining Room at the Frobisher maybe once a month. It's an expensive restaurant, but if we have the money and we're in the mood. This evening we had the added bonus of being able to go and not have it cost us anything. As part of my Glorious Curling Victory last weekend I go a $120 gift card for the restaurant. Which, given the prices at the place, is almost exactly enough for supper for two.
The problem with the Frob is they tend to switch up chefs once or twice a year. And the last few have not had a curb upwards in menu quality. The latest is apparently a big fan of seafood. For example, the only appetizer that was not seafood was a Caesar salad. Most of the main courses are now seafood. They changed the cut of beef for the steak I used to get and it's not nearly as good now. And for $50, I'd like a slightly better quality steak than that. Or, for that matter, more than a few scraps of potato and some asparagus as a side. Cathy spend $30 for essentially vegetarian pasta. Lovely and all, but they at least used to offer to toss in a bit of chicken for a few dollars extra. Not so much anymore.
So yeah, the Frob is off the list for the next little while. Normally not a big deal, but when you have something like seven restaurants in town, losing one is a bit of a blow.
Then again, in about a week's time, we're going to overdose on restaurants. Ever time we go out and friends or family are around, I think they're bemused/horrified by the number of restaurants we go to. I mean, we don't even make the pretence of picking up some groceries. We so rarely get to eat out or sample new foods. So yeah, we'll be hitting a few places when we start our vacation.
And where are we going? Well, more on that next time.
Last Five
1. All you need is love - The Beatles*
2. Your fake name is good enough for me - Iron & Wine
3. Near fantastica - Matthew Good
4. The hands that built America - U2
5. Treasure - Ron Hynes
However, if the fates giveth, they also taketh away. And no, not just with the loss of Fantasy Palace. Cathy and I like going to the Gallery Dining Room at the Frobisher maybe once a month. It's an expensive restaurant, but if we have the money and we're in the mood. This evening we had the added bonus of being able to go and not have it cost us anything. As part of my Glorious Curling Victory last weekend I go a $120 gift card for the restaurant. Which, given the prices at the place, is almost exactly enough for supper for two.
The problem with the Frob is they tend to switch up chefs once or twice a year. And the last few have not had a curb upwards in menu quality. The latest is apparently a big fan of seafood. For example, the only appetizer that was not seafood was a Caesar salad. Most of the main courses are now seafood. They changed the cut of beef for the steak I used to get and it's not nearly as good now. And for $50, I'd like a slightly better quality steak than that. Or, for that matter, more than a few scraps of potato and some asparagus as a side. Cathy spend $30 for essentially vegetarian pasta. Lovely and all, but they at least used to offer to toss in a bit of chicken for a few dollars extra. Not so much anymore.
So yeah, the Frob is off the list for the next little while. Normally not a big deal, but when you have something like seven restaurants in town, losing one is a bit of a blow.
Then again, in about a week's time, we're going to overdose on restaurants. Ever time we go out and friends or family are around, I think they're bemused/horrified by the number of restaurants we go to. I mean, we don't even make the pretence of picking up some groceries. We so rarely get to eat out or sample new foods. So yeah, we'll be hitting a few places when we start our vacation.
And where are we going? Well, more on that next time.
Last Five
1. All you need is love - The Beatles*
2. Your fake name is good enough for me - Iron & Wine
3. Near fantastica - Matthew Good
4. The hands that built America - U2
5. Treasure - Ron Hynes
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Blackberries and shawarma
I've written before that telecommunications up here tend to be a little...different, than what most people experience down south. If I had a dollar for every time I read a tweet saying how much Northwest Tel sucked, I could pay off my mortgage in about half the time. To say there is hatred over NWTel in Iqaluit would be an understatement. It mostly starts with how bad the internet is. If you're paying $120 a month for internet and suffering with a 10 gig cap, you'd at least like the speed to be not disgusting and for it to be reliable.
That doesn't happen very often, alas. Hence our reasons for switching to Xplorenet last year.
The other thing that's cursed on is the cell phone service. Iqaluit only got cell service in the past five years, I believe. I know there wasn't any when we first moved here in 2005. And if you listen to some people around town, what's here now isn't all that great. Let's take today, for example. Blackberry service in town was almost completely useless. And why was that? Because there was a conference in town. That meant a couple of hundred extra people in town, all checking their Blackberry. Which, it seems, overloaded the local network's ability to handle traffic. So there were a lot of grumpy people around town today.
On the upside, we have a new restaurant in town. Anywhere else, not such a big deal. New restaurants don't open every day in Iqaluit. They don't open every year, for that matter. But for some reason, a family decided to open a shawarma and donair shop in town. Everybody is pretty excited by this. Cathy and I have eaten there twice and it's tasty. Judging by the line-up at lunch time today, they're off to a good start.
It does mean the end of another long term establishment in town, though. Fantasy Palace, a long-time coffee shop in town, is no more. So no longer will new arrivals leave the airport, glance to their left, see the name Fantasy Palace and assume it was the local strip joint. It's the loss of a local landmark and the first local coffee shop killed by Tim Hortons. I don't think too many people were surprised to see it go, to be honest.
But hey, shawarma. And the Grind and Brew started serving pizza late last year, which is also not bad. If we could get some good Mexican and Indian food, we'd be all set.
Last Five
1. I will follow (live) - U2
2. In the neighbourhood - Tom Waits*
3. The world we live in - The Killers
4. Talk to me - Bruce Springsteen
5. Living with the masses - Sloan
That doesn't happen very often, alas. Hence our reasons for switching to Xplorenet last year.
The other thing that's cursed on is the cell phone service. Iqaluit only got cell service in the past five years, I believe. I know there wasn't any when we first moved here in 2005. And if you listen to some people around town, what's here now isn't all that great. Let's take today, for example. Blackberry service in town was almost completely useless. And why was that? Because there was a conference in town. That meant a couple of hundred extra people in town, all checking their Blackberry. Which, it seems, overloaded the local network's ability to handle traffic. So there were a lot of grumpy people around town today.
On the upside, we have a new restaurant in town. Anywhere else, not such a big deal. New restaurants don't open every day in Iqaluit. They don't open every year, for that matter. But for some reason, a family decided to open a shawarma and donair shop in town. Everybody is pretty excited by this. Cathy and I have eaten there twice and it's tasty. Judging by the line-up at lunch time today, they're off to a good start.
It does mean the end of another long term establishment in town, though. Fantasy Palace, a long-time coffee shop in town, is no more. So no longer will new arrivals leave the airport, glance to their left, see the name Fantasy Palace and assume it was the local strip joint. It's the loss of a local landmark and the first local coffee shop killed by Tim Hortons. I don't think too many people were surprised to see it go, to be honest.
But hey, shawarma. And the Grind and Brew started serving pizza late last year, which is also not bad. If we could get some good Mexican and Indian food, we'd be all set.
Last Five
1. I will follow (live) - U2
2. In the neighbourhood - Tom Waits*
3. The world we live in - The Killers
4. Talk to me - Bruce Springsteen
5. Living with the masses - Sloan
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Review - Republic of Doyle, Season 2, ep 13
So here we are at the end of the another season. This normally means bad things for the Doyle family. Last year we had heart attacks, a frame up for a murder and Ron Hynes closing out the season. So what's going to happen this time?
Well, Tinny and Des get kidnapped, an old partner of Jake's comes back looking to settle a score and about the only person safe for next season appears to be Jake. Everyone else is up in the air. In other words, another eight months or so of pure torture for fans of the show. Anyway, let's get started.
So it seems back in the day, when Jake was with the RNC he had a partner - Crocker - who was a wee bit of a scumbag. And Jake helped to bring him down. The only thing, of course, is that he got away before they could arrest him. Now, 10 years later he's decided it's time to come back and take care of Jake. And the best way to do this is to kidnap Tinny and Des and force Jake to rob several million dollars for him.
It's an intense episode, which is fortunate because if you pause and stop for a minute and actually start to think about it, you realize it's also a pretty stupid one. I'm tempted to use the phrase "intensely stupid", which is accurate, just not in the way you would normally think.
This has always been one of little annoyances with the show - good stories, but you sometimes get really stupid plot points. Jake's ex-partner kidnapping Tinny and getting Jake involved in a heist he didn't want to save her life is a good idea. It's just the execution that was weird. The robbery was weird, Jake turning on Crocker and getting him thrown in jail feels just like an excuse to get the police involved in the plot and to stage a dramatic jail break later.
Once Rose had it narrowed down to about seven places, that should have been it. No need for the big jail break. Once they knew it was an abandoned warehouse in St. John's they could have gone to the police, who arrest Crocker, organize a big search of the city and that's it. The only way to throw a wrench into that is if Crocker alluded to having a partner watching Tinny and Des. They can't go looking then because a partner at least puts the fear in them for trying something like that. But he never does, which is again, stupid. I know Crocker isn't supposed to be a criminal mastermind, but still...
As I said, intense, but not all that smart. This was an episode that counted on people who are supposed to be smart being very stupid. When the cop at the end compliments Jake for being clever, I burst out laughing.
However, I will give props to a few things. First, Paul Gross looked like he was having a blast being a bad cop. So here's hoping they can find an excuse to bring him back sometime soon. Bring him back instead of that idiot author character.
Secondly, for a show settled into a nice, comfortable routine they certainly blew it up really good in the last 10 minutes. Jake possibly rejoining the police, Leslie fired, Tinny off to Europe and Mal and Rose running off into retirement. Now, the reset button can be hit quick enough, but it's an interesting cliff-hanger to end the season.
A couple of other points.
1. The actual mayor of St. John's, Doc O'Keefe, was in the scene at the Duke. So was John Crosbie. It occurs to me that Andy Jones hasn't appeared in the show yet. If he does, clearly he needs to be the premier. It would be a lovely in-joke, as he was the premier during the movie Secret Nation.
2. Trimmed Navel Beef (the name of the salt meat in the warehouse) was a local band that was quite popular about 10 years ago. Your in-joke for the week.
3. There was clearly a bit of money blown in this episode, what with the big car smash-up on Water Street, plus a Pogues song ("Dirty Old Town") to close out the season and a Bruce Springsteen song ("Mrs. McGrath" off the excellent Seeger Sessions recordings) for the dramatic jail break. I'm always surprised by the music choices on the show. They're mostly excellent, but I always figured they'd use more local music.
I'll do a wrap-up of the season in the next few days.
And now, best quotes:
Well, Tinny and Des get kidnapped, an old partner of Jake's comes back looking to settle a score and about the only person safe for next season appears to be Jake. Everyone else is up in the air. In other words, another eight months or so of pure torture for fans of the show. Anyway, let's get started.
So it seems back in the day, when Jake was with the RNC he had a partner - Crocker - who was a wee bit of a scumbag. And Jake helped to bring him down. The only thing, of course, is that he got away before they could arrest him. Now, 10 years later he's decided it's time to come back and take care of Jake. And the best way to do this is to kidnap Tinny and Des and force Jake to rob several million dollars for him.
It's an intense episode, which is fortunate because if you pause and stop for a minute and actually start to think about it, you realize it's also a pretty stupid one. I'm tempted to use the phrase "intensely stupid", which is accurate, just not in the way you would normally think.
This has always been one of little annoyances with the show - good stories, but you sometimes get really stupid plot points. Jake's ex-partner kidnapping Tinny and getting Jake involved in a heist he didn't want to save her life is a good idea. It's just the execution that was weird. The robbery was weird, Jake turning on Crocker and getting him thrown in jail feels just like an excuse to get the police involved in the plot and to stage a dramatic jail break later.
Once Rose had it narrowed down to about seven places, that should have been it. No need for the big jail break. Once they knew it was an abandoned warehouse in St. John's they could have gone to the police, who arrest Crocker, organize a big search of the city and that's it. The only way to throw a wrench into that is if Crocker alluded to having a partner watching Tinny and Des. They can't go looking then because a partner at least puts the fear in them for trying something like that. But he never does, which is again, stupid. I know Crocker isn't supposed to be a criminal mastermind, but still...
As I said, intense, but not all that smart. This was an episode that counted on people who are supposed to be smart being very stupid. When the cop at the end compliments Jake for being clever, I burst out laughing.
However, I will give props to a few things. First, Paul Gross looked like he was having a blast being a bad cop. So here's hoping they can find an excuse to bring him back sometime soon. Bring him back instead of that idiot author character.
Secondly, for a show settled into a nice, comfortable routine they certainly blew it up really good in the last 10 minutes. Jake possibly rejoining the police, Leslie fired, Tinny off to Europe and Mal and Rose running off into retirement. Now, the reset button can be hit quick enough, but it's an interesting cliff-hanger to end the season.
A couple of other points.
1. The actual mayor of St. John's, Doc O'Keefe, was in the scene at the Duke. So was John Crosbie. It occurs to me that Andy Jones hasn't appeared in the show yet. If he does, clearly he needs to be the premier. It would be a lovely in-joke, as he was the premier during the movie Secret Nation.
2. Trimmed Navel Beef (the name of the salt meat in the warehouse) was a local band that was quite popular about 10 years ago. Your in-joke for the week.
3. There was clearly a bit of money blown in this episode, what with the big car smash-up on Water Street, plus a Pogues song ("Dirty Old Town") to close out the season and a Bruce Springsteen song ("Mrs. McGrath" off the excellent Seeger Sessions recordings) for the dramatic jail break. I'm always surprised by the music choices on the show. They're mostly excellent, but I always figured they'd use more local music.
I'll do a wrap-up of the season in the next few days.
And now, best quotes:
"Obviously I ended my personal relationship with the mayor when I arrested him." - Leslie
"Dessy’s being a good little housewife." - Tinny
"How is our plucky little PI connected to all of this?" - RNC investigator (blanking on his name)
"I don’t want you to starve, so you can eat my corpse." - Des to Tinny
"I’ve always been one more of a curling fan, myself." - Mal
"Another 50 and I can pretend to be a cop in private." - A hooker out in the Battery to Jake
"I don’t think you should eat 20 year old salt beef." - Tinny to Des
"I love you (pause) You can shoot me later if you want." - Jake to Leslie
"I wanted to kill you for a long time…I just needed something to get me off the couch." - Crocker
"You can shoot me now if you want to."
"Don't tempt me." - Jake and Leslie
"To not getting shot." - Rose
Last Five
1. She will be loved - Maroon 5
2. Burn your life down - Tegan and Sara
3. Bobby Jean (live) - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
4. Glamourous death - The Pursuit of Happiness
5. U.R.A. fever - The Kills*
Monday, April 04, 2011
Three quick things
1. Clare first brought Indigo's health to my attention a few days ago. I didn't know her as well as some other northern bloggers, like Jen and Clare. But she always swung by the blog, had a few kind things to say or interesting observations to make. I was saddened to hear about her death. It's going to be an absence in the local blogging community, but more importantly it's the loss of a good friend and a beloved family member. My condolences to everyone.
2. When all hell broke loose in Japan last month, I remember reading a quick article with someone saying they were actually more in favour of nuclear power after the incident than they were before. Which was a curious thing to say in the wake of all the panic that was going on. But really, he had an interesting point. The reactor survive a 9.0 Richter Scale earthquake. It was only when the tsunami wave hit and knocked out back-up generators that all hell broke loose.
Geoff Meeker, who writes a media column with The Telegram, did a piece expressing his disgust with a lot of the fear-mongering reporting that happened after the plant incident. But it's this piece with Bob McDonald of CBC's Quirks and Quarks that really impressed me. McDonald explains what happened with the reactor better than anyone else I've read so far and makes an interesting and compelling argument on nuclear power.
I'm not saying let's rush out and build nuclear reactors everywhere. But I think after reading this I'm a little more open to the idea of nuclear power than I was before. And if nothing else, he's a good place to start on any debate on the subject.
3. So after Southwest Airline had a few incidents involving a Boeing 737 I was wondering if there was going to be a warning. Lo and behold, there is. But the thought that crossed my mind was that both First Air and Canadian North use older 737s, so were any of those planes going to be affected?
Thanks to the power of Twitter, I posed that question and got an answer. First Air doesn't, but Canadian North has one. Which I'm willing to bet is being inspected as we speak. So that brings up two things - god love Twitter, which is a brilliant way of throwing questions out into the wild and getting answers. And secondly, both airlines really need to get some new planes. Seriously.
Last Five
1. October - U2
2. From my own true love - The Decemberists
3. Wallet - Regina Spektor
4. Voicething - Goldfrapp
5. Times a thousand - Hot Hot Heat
2. When all hell broke loose in Japan last month, I remember reading a quick article with someone saying they were actually more in favour of nuclear power after the incident than they were before. Which was a curious thing to say in the wake of all the panic that was going on. But really, he had an interesting point. The reactor survive a 9.0 Richter Scale earthquake. It was only when the tsunami wave hit and knocked out back-up generators that all hell broke loose.
Geoff Meeker, who writes a media column with The Telegram, did a piece expressing his disgust with a lot of the fear-mongering reporting that happened after the plant incident. But it's this piece with Bob McDonald of CBC's Quirks and Quarks that really impressed me. McDonald explains what happened with the reactor better than anyone else I've read so far and makes an interesting and compelling argument on nuclear power.
I'm not saying let's rush out and build nuclear reactors everywhere. But I think after reading this I'm a little more open to the idea of nuclear power than I was before. And if nothing else, he's a good place to start on any debate on the subject.
3. So after Southwest Airline had a few incidents involving a Boeing 737 I was wondering if there was going to be a warning. Lo and behold, there is. But the thought that crossed my mind was that both First Air and Canadian North use older 737s, so were any of those planes going to be affected?
Thanks to the power of Twitter, I posed that question and got an answer. First Air doesn't, but Canadian North has one. Which I'm willing to bet is being inspected as we speak. So that brings up two things - god love Twitter, which is a brilliant way of throwing questions out into the wild and getting answers. And secondly, both airlines really need to get some new planes. Seriously.
Last Five
1. October - U2
2. From my own true love - The Decemberists
3. Wallet - Regina Spektor
4. Voicething - Goldfrapp
5. Times a thousand - Hot Hot Heat
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Not dead, just curling
First of all, no Republic of Doyle review again this week. Sorry. My curling game got shuffled from Thursday to Wednesday. By the time I got home, there was 20 minutes left, which I watched and seemed fine. But I certainly didn't see enough to review or comment on. However, I will make sure to catch the finale this Wednesday. Can hardly miss the last episode of the season, can I?
But yes, I've actually been busy with curling this week. I haven't written about it much this season because it was a fairly frustrating year. Teams I tried to put together for the mixed championship and the Dominion both collapsed. Every year there is a team that always seems to be caught on the wrong end of the stick when it comes to having games cancelled because teams folded or people are away on duty travel. This year, it was our team.
And then, to put one final kick in the groin, we suffered what was, no kidding, my single worst loss since junior high. We were blown out 12-0 in five ends on the second last game of the season. So when we headed into the play-offs, I was not that optimistic.
And yet, strange things started to happen. Getting regular games gelled us as a team. We won the first game pretty easily. Despite blowing a 6-1 lead, we won the second game. The third game was against the second seed who had smacked us around pretty good early in the season, and we held on against them. Then we faced the #1 seeded team who beat us 12-0 and got a measure of revenge by knocking them out. And then we managed to win the final. We won our league night.
Six years I've been curling at the club and I've made it to the final twice before, but it was nice to finally win one. But what was even nicer was to get one for the rest of the team. Mark, who kept laughing and shaking his head in disbelief that we pulled it out. Troy, who has only been curling for two years. And Ashley, my rock at Third, who ran home to boast to her husband that she's now a curling champion.
I figured that was pretty much going to be the end of it. But we had the Canadian North bonspiel this weekend and we agreed to put a team in weeks ago. But after winning the league championship, this was for giggles. I think we were all hoping to be lucky enough to win a plane ticket (plane tickets are offered up as door prizes. This prevents stacked teams and keeps things a lot more fun) rather than winning the thing.
We won the first game pretty easily, but the second game was against two of the best players in the club, so I figured that was going to be the end of that streak. But we won (secret strategy, make sure they get drunk the night before, have to get up early to work on the ice and play still feeling hungover. I recommend it). The third game went to something ugly called Skip Stones. It's the equivilent of a shoot-out in hockey. Each Skip gets to throw one rock to break the tie. Closest to the button wins. I managed to get my shot about 6 inches further (I nearly killed my sweepers) than the other skip.
And then in the final, we got in trouble in the early ends. I gave the team a motivational speech (I won't say what it was, but it got them to laugh and it got them to kick it up a gear.) And next thing you know, we won the bloody thing. Two championships in less than a week. Unreal.
(And yes, that is a big ass and unsubtle trophy that Ashley is hoisting up there.)
I think if you have to end a curling season, that's not a bad note to go out on at all. Alas, none of us won any of the plane tickets, although we all got nice prizes for winning. I grabbed a $120 gift card for the Frobisher, where I will take my lovely, curling widow wife out to supper when she next wants.
I'll add two other things. First, the Canadian North is an awesome curling event. We can take 16 teams and the spots filled up pretty quick (although we had one drop out last minute due to an emergency). Canadian North provided, no kidding, six plane tickets. Five were door prizes and one was for the infamous frozen foot draw (slide on your bare foot on the ice. Closest shot to the button wins. $5 a shot, all money goes to the food bank). Plus there were tons of other door prizes. I also managed to get a cool 2010 Winter Olympics jacket. I will bet there is no event in Iqaluit where you have better odds of winning a plane ticket (by the time you discount the team who had to drop out, Canadian North employees and a few people who do not show up for the draw, the odds are about 1 in 13 of winning), plus be able to have an absolute blast.
The second thing is that I'd forgotten how superstitious I can get over curling. I haven't written about curling in recent weeks because, well, I was winning and not mentioning it on the blog, so let's keep that going. One of the play-off games happened on St. Patrick's Day so I wore a green shirt. And we won. So I kept wearing that shirt. I wore it for every game except one down the stretch.
For that matter, I had a nice Olympic fleece Cathy bought at a house sale (for 50 cents. Insane) that I wore to a game early in the play-offs. The opposing team stole two points early, then I took the fleece off because I was warm. Next end, we took five. It was never worn at the club again.
And so wraps up curling. I was at the club this morning helping to clean up and put things away. The City brought in the zamboni to try and get the ice off as they need the club for a banquet on Thursday (good luck with that). A rough start, but an excellent finish. Last year when the season wrapped up, I was done and looking forward to the break. This year, well, I'm looking forward to next season.
Last Five
1. Cry on demand - Ryan Adams
2. Alfie - Lily Allen
3. Do what you want, be what you are - Hall & Oates
4. Tick tick boom - The Hives*
5. The red light - Joel Plaskett Emergency
But yes, I've actually been busy with curling this week. I haven't written about it much this season because it was a fairly frustrating year. Teams I tried to put together for the mixed championship and the Dominion both collapsed. Every year there is a team that always seems to be caught on the wrong end of the stick when it comes to having games cancelled because teams folded or people are away on duty travel. This year, it was our team.
And then, to put one final kick in the groin, we suffered what was, no kidding, my single worst loss since junior high. We were blown out 12-0 in five ends on the second last game of the season. So when we headed into the play-offs, I was not that optimistic.
And yet, strange things started to happen. Getting regular games gelled us as a team. We won the first game pretty easily. Despite blowing a 6-1 lead, we won the second game. The third game was against the second seed who had smacked us around pretty good early in the season, and we held on against them. Then we faced the #1 seeded team who beat us 12-0 and got a measure of revenge by knocking them out. And then we managed to win the final. We won our league night.
I figured that was pretty much going to be the end of it. But we had the Canadian North bonspiel this weekend and we agreed to put a team in weeks ago. But after winning the league championship, this was for giggles. I think we were all hoping to be lucky enough to win a plane ticket (plane tickets are offered up as door prizes. This prevents stacked teams and keeps things a lot more fun) rather than winning the thing.
We won the first game pretty easily, but the second game was against two of the best players in the club, so I figured that was going to be the end of that streak. But we won (secret strategy, make sure they get drunk the night before, have to get up early to work on the ice and play still feeling hungover. I recommend it). The third game went to something ugly called Skip Stones. It's the equivilent of a shoot-out in hockey. Each Skip gets to throw one rock to break the tie. Closest to the button wins. I managed to get my shot about 6 inches further (I nearly killed my sweepers) than the other skip.
And then in the final, we got in trouble in the early ends. I gave the team a motivational speech (I won't say what it was, but it got them to laugh and it got them to kick it up a gear.) And next thing you know, we won the bloody thing. Two championships in less than a week. Unreal.
I think if you have to end a curling season, that's not a bad note to go out on at all. Alas, none of us won any of the plane tickets, although we all got nice prizes for winning. I grabbed a $120 gift card for the Frobisher, where I will take my lovely, curling widow wife out to supper when she next wants.
I'll add two other things. First, the Canadian North is an awesome curling event. We can take 16 teams and the spots filled up pretty quick (although we had one drop out last minute due to an emergency). Canadian North provided, no kidding, six plane tickets. Five were door prizes and one was for the infamous frozen foot draw (slide on your bare foot on the ice. Closest shot to the button wins. $5 a shot, all money goes to the food bank). Plus there were tons of other door prizes. I also managed to get a cool 2010 Winter Olympics jacket. I will bet there is no event in Iqaluit where you have better odds of winning a plane ticket (by the time you discount the team who had to drop out, Canadian North employees and a few people who do not show up for the draw, the odds are about 1 in 13 of winning), plus be able to have an absolute blast.
The second thing is that I'd forgotten how superstitious I can get over curling. I haven't written about curling in recent weeks because, well, I was winning and not mentioning it on the blog, so let's keep that going. One of the play-off games happened on St. Patrick's Day so I wore a green shirt. And we won. So I kept wearing that shirt. I wore it for every game except one down the stretch.
For that matter, I had a nice Olympic fleece Cathy bought at a house sale (for 50 cents. Insane) that I wore to a game early in the play-offs. The opposing team stole two points early, then I took the fleece off because I was warm. Next end, we took five. It was never worn at the club again.
And so wraps up curling. I was at the club this morning helping to clean up and put things away. The City brought in the zamboni to try and get the ice off as they need the club for a banquet on Thursday (good luck with that). A rough start, but an excellent finish. Last year when the season wrapped up, I was done and looking forward to the break. This year, well, I'm looking forward to next season.
Last Five
1. Cry on demand - Ryan Adams
2. Alfie - Lily Allen
3. Do what you want, be what you are - Hall & Oates
4. Tick tick boom - The Hives*
5. The red light - Joel Plaskett Emergency
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Neutrality
For those of you not in Canada, we've just started a federal election. And since it's set for May 2, it's going to be several weeks of shouting and jockeying for votes. We actually have a vacation planned right in the middle of it, which I'm not sure is a good thing or not. On the one hand, we'll probably enjoying watching TV without political commercials. On the other hand, I'm a political junkie and a federal election is like your World Cup.
However, here's the thing, you won't be reading much about the federal election on this blog.
I haven't advertised the point much on the blog, but I am a member of the federal civil service. Now, I've always been careful about posting opinions on federal politics since getting this job, but now that we're in an election, I think that probably gets ramped up a bit. Members of the civil service, as I understand it, have to remain neutral. Especially during elections. There are very specific rules in place for this - about what happens if you want to run for office, or help someone run for office. Or write opinions that could damage one candidate or party over another.
However, things get a bit dicer when it comes to social media such as Facebook, Blogger and Twitter. I'm willing to bet a whole bunch of people are going to get burned by Twitter in this election. Politicians, political staff, civil servants, Twitter is just a minefield waiting for people to dance through it blindfold.
And yes, I know it was around and used during the last federal election. However, people were still trying to figure out what to do with it. Beyond it being a toy to let people know where you were when you were on your cell phone, people couldn't see a practical use for it. That's changed now. Everyone knows how Twitter can make an impact. Hell, the only way I know what's going on around Iqaluit is by checking my Twitter feed.
But yes, Twitter is going to get a lot of people in trouble the next few weeks. And probably Facebook. And likely Blogger/Wordpress, etc. So I'm going to try and be a very good boy and not get in trouble. I'm not going to stay off these platforms, because I enjoy using them. I'm just going to be a little extra careful on what I say on them.
Because I think the idea of a neutral civil service is a good thing. Not always an easy thing, but it's good that it is neutral. So in public, I shall be in neutral.
Although it occurs to me that the next five weeks or so might be hardest on Cathy. Without the blog to vent on anytime I see something that drives me crazy, I might start walking around the house ranting. There's a good chance I might not come back from Florida. Or, come to think of it, make it to Florida alive.
Last Five
1. Cruel (live) - Tori Amos
2. Christy - Brendan Benson
3. Someone saved my life tonight - Elton John
4. She's always a woman- Billy Joel
5. Tower of song - Jenny Gear*
However, here's the thing, you won't be reading much about the federal election on this blog.
I haven't advertised the point much on the blog, but I am a member of the federal civil service. Now, I've always been careful about posting opinions on federal politics since getting this job, but now that we're in an election, I think that probably gets ramped up a bit. Members of the civil service, as I understand it, have to remain neutral. Especially during elections. There are very specific rules in place for this - about what happens if you want to run for office, or help someone run for office. Or write opinions that could damage one candidate or party over another.
However, things get a bit dicer when it comes to social media such as Facebook, Blogger and Twitter. I'm willing to bet a whole bunch of people are going to get burned by Twitter in this election. Politicians, political staff, civil servants, Twitter is just a minefield waiting for people to dance through it blindfold.
And yes, I know it was around and used during the last federal election. However, people were still trying to figure out what to do with it. Beyond it being a toy to let people know where you were when you were on your cell phone, people couldn't see a practical use for it. That's changed now. Everyone knows how Twitter can make an impact. Hell, the only way I know what's going on around Iqaluit is by checking my Twitter feed.
But yes, Twitter is going to get a lot of people in trouble the next few weeks. And probably Facebook. And likely Blogger/Wordpress, etc. So I'm going to try and be a very good boy and not get in trouble. I'm not going to stay off these platforms, because I enjoy using them. I'm just going to be a little extra careful on what I say on them.
Because I think the idea of a neutral civil service is a good thing. Not always an easy thing, but it's good that it is neutral. So in public, I shall be in neutral.
Although it occurs to me that the next five weeks or so might be hardest on Cathy. Without the blog to vent on anytime I see something that drives me crazy, I might start walking around the house ranting. There's a good chance I might not come back from Florida. Or, come to think of it, make it to Florida alive.
Last Five
1. Cruel (live) - Tori Amos
2. Christy - Brendan Benson
3. Someone saved my life tonight - Elton John
4. She's always a woman- Billy Joel
5. Tower of song - Jenny Gear*
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Review - Republic of Doyle, Season 2, ep 11
A much belated Republic of Doyle review. My apologies. But as I think there's only one left in the season, I can hardly punk out now so close to the finish line.
So on out last episode of Doyle, Jake learns the disadvantage of having friends come along on a stake-out and that perhaps you shouldn't involve yourself in the affairs of your ex-fling's current boyfriend. Tinny tries to make Dez into less of a doufus with mixed results, while Mal and Rose go on vacation. In the liquor cabinet.
It's not exactly a secret that I loathed last week's episode, which was a blemish on a nice run of shows. For whatever reason, it takes five or six episodes for the boys to get into the swing of things. Which is fine if you have a 22 episode season like they do in the United States. Doesn't work quite so well when you only have 12. Something to work on for next season. Republic of Doyle isn't high art, but it's good when it's on the mark. They just need to be hitting it with more consistency.
Having said that, this was back to form. A good, solid episode where the guilty party wasn't readily obvious. I was actually wondering for a bit if it was going to be a two-parter. While on a stake-out Jake goes into a bar with brother Christian and lawyer Walter in tow where there is some illegal gambling going on, featuring the mayor of St. John's, a judge and a developer. Next thing you know, armed gunmen burst in, with strippers (much to Walter's pleasure), and people are photographed in compromising positions.
The mayor hires Jake to figure out what's going on and get back those photos. What's happening is that there appears to be a sizeable amount of corruption happening in St. John's City Council, which the mayor may or may not be involved in. Throw in sinister feds and a couple of murders and you've got yourself a pretty good mystery with lots happening.
Seriously, when a murder happens in St. John's at this point, they might as well just call Jake and ask how he's involved with the incident.
Even the Dez and Tinny stuff wasn't too bad. I hate saying Tinny is more interesting trying to fix up Dez because I wish she was just more interesting all on her own, that she didn't need a male character to fix to be interesting. But compared to the terrible dope growing subplot from earlier the season (and hey, remember her wanting to go to London? Once again, Doyle is not great on following up on these things) I'll take it.
I will, once again, say that more Walter is a good thing. Yes, the Christian and Jake stuff wasn't too bad. But how much more fun would it have been for Jake and Walter to be going around trying to solve the case? So yes, more Walter. Besides, he delivers several killer lines in about four minutes of screen time.
Finally, we have the ongoing Jake/Alison/Leslie triangle. Leslie continues to be the most frustrating character on the show right now, because for a police detective she is staggeringly dense. She catches her boyfriend lying to her, does something I believe they might call actual detective work and catches him lying again. Then he tells her who she should and shouldn't be friends with. I believe that's three strikes there in one episode and yet, there she is still with him.
I think that's my problem with Leslie and Allison. They're both supposed to be deeply intelligent women and the absolute top of their game. But they're not always written that way and, Leslie in particular, acts incredibly stupid. They should both be smarter than Jake and yet the deeply stupid stuff they're wrapped up in (Alison with an abusive husband. Pick something with Leslie) is annoying. If they were deliberate character flaws, I might go with that (I can almost go with Alison and the abusive husband). But more often then not it feels like lazy writing. "Let's get them to do something stupid because it moves Jake's story along" is not great writing.
Don't get me wrong, it was a fun episode, nice and twisty and I enjoyed it. But I want better and there are times when I see good writing like most of this episode, laced with just lazy stuff that makes me frustrated.
So let's see what happens next week. We have hints of a sinister plot going on at city hall, we're about due for Christian to do something dumb-ass again, the Jake-Alison-Leslie storyline is probably due to be wrapped up and I'm sure we'll have another cliffhanger of some sorts.
Quotes of the Week:
So on out last episode of Doyle, Jake learns the disadvantage of having friends come along on a stake-out and that perhaps you shouldn't involve yourself in the affairs of your ex-fling's current boyfriend. Tinny tries to make Dez into less of a doufus with mixed results, while Mal and Rose go on vacation. In the liquor cabinet.
It's not exactly a secret that I loathed last week's episode, which was a blemish on a nice run of shows. For whatever reason, it takes five or six episodes for the boys to get into the swing of things. Which is fine if you have a 22 episode season like they do in the United States. Doesn't work quite so well when you only have 12. Something to work on for next season. Republic of Doyle isn't high art, but it's good when it's on the mark. They just need to be hitting it with more consistency.
Having said that, this was back to form. A good, solid episode where the guilty party wasn't readily obvious. I was actually wondering for a bit if it was going to be a two-parter. While on a stake-out Jake goes into a bar with brother Christian and lawyer Walter in tow where there is some illegal gambling going on, featuring the mayor of St. John's, a judge and a developer. Next thing you know, armed gunmen burst in, with strippers (much to Walter's pleasure), and people are photographed in compromising positions.
The mayor hires Jake to figure out what's going on and get back those photos. What's happening is that there appears to be a sizeable amount of corruption happening in St. John's City Council, which the mayor may or may not be involved in. Throw in sinister feds and a couple of murders and you've got yourself a pretty good mystery with lots happening.
Seriously, when a murder happens in St. John's at this point, they might as well just call Jake and ask how he's involved with the incident.
Even the Dez and Tinny stuff wasn't too bad. I hate saying Tinny is more interesting trying to fix up Dez because I wish she was just more interesting all on her own, that she didn't need a male character to fix to be interesting. But compared to the terrible dope growing subplot from earlier the season (and hey, remember her wanting to go to London? Once again, Doyle is not great on following up on these things) I'll take it.
I will, once again, say that more Walter is a good thing. Yes, the Christian and Jake stuff wasn't too bad. But how much more fun would it have been for Jake and Walter to be going around trying to solve the case? So yes, more Walter. Besides, he delivers several killer lines in about four minutes of screen time.
Finally, we have the ongoing Jake/Alison/Leslie triangle. Leslie continues to be the most frustrating character on the show right now, because for a police detective she is staggeringly dense. She catches her boyfriend lying to her, does something I believe they might call actual detective work and catches him lying again. Then he tells her who she should and shouldn't be friends with. I believe that's three strikes there in one episode and yet, there she is still with him.
I think that's my problem with Leslie and Allison. They're both supposed to be deeply intelligent women and the absolute top of their game. But they're not always written that way and, Leslie in particular, acts incredibly stupid. They should both be smarter than Jake and yet the deeply stupid stuff they're wrapped up in (Alison with an abusive husband. Pick something with Leslie) is annoying. If they were deliberate character flaws, I might go with that (I can almost go with Alison and the abusive husband). But more often then not it feels like lazy writing. "Let's get them to do something stupid because it moves Jake's story along" is not great writing.
Don't get me wrong, it was a fun episode, nice and twisty and I enjoyed it. But I want better and there are times when I see good writing like most of this episode, laced with just lazy stuff that makes me frustrated.
So let's see what happens next week. We have hints of a sinister plot going on at city hall, we're about due for Christian to do something dumb-ass again, the Jake-Alison-Leslie storyline is probably due to be wrapped up and I'm sure we'll have another cliffhanger of some sorts.
Quotes of the Week:
"Let’s go to George Street. Girls like me better when I’m drunk." - Walter
"Pay no attention. That was my dickweed brudder." - Jake. Glad to see 'dickweed' passes muster on the CBC standards.
"Special knock, you know what that means - Strippers!" - Walter
"Anyway, any one for microwave coconut shrimp?" - Rose
"You're hot and your blonde. Of course people are watching you." - Jake
"If I could take Jake’s blood, I would." - Dez, not being creepy at all.
"Think hard. Not too hard, you look like you’re hurting yourself." - Tinny
"I wanted another daughter, but I got you. Oh well, you take what you’ve got." Mal to Jake
"I guess he told you I saw him."
"Well, he has a black eye and I know he met with you." - Jake and Leslie on Jake's meeting with the mayor
"Tragically, I see no hookers." - Walter
Last Five
1. Watching Michael Knight - Mark Bragg*
2. For a dance - Jackson Browne
3. Love you so what - Lloyd Cole
4. I want you - The Beatles
5. Maria's bed - Bruce Springsteen
Friday, March 25, 2011
The fire
Last night the plan had been to write the usual Republic of Doyle review. Except I was completely knackered and didn't have it it me to sit down and write it. "No problem," I thought. "I'll just do it tomorrow evening."
Except in lieu of events that happened in Iqaluit last night, writing about a TV show seems kind of silly. Although I promise to have a review up by tomorrow night.
We had a fire last night in Iqaluit. A bad one. No one died, thankfully, but a relatively new apartment complex burned to the ground. You can read more about it at the CBC or Nunatsiaq. There's a fairly spectacular photo of what the fire looked like on the front of Nunatsiaq as well. I can't directly link to it, however.
Fires are bad anywhere, but up here they tend to be much worse. Trying to fight a fire in cold that can be -30C or more is tricky. The wind was up last night and there were plenty of other buildings around that could have went up. Hell, we found ash around our house when we woke up this morning and we're about a kilometre or more away. But hard work and more than a little luck (the wind was blowing the right way to prevent the fire from spreading), meant it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Still, for about 60 people, it was disastrous enough. The fire started at 1 am. Most had enough time to wake up, throw something on to stop from freezing and get out. That's about it. They lost everything. Plus I'm hearing many didn't have tenants insurance, which means getting the insurance company to pay for their material losses is not going to happen.
Plus, this is Iqaluit. The apartment occupancy availability is somewhere around zero. When I first heard about the fire this morning I honestly though those 60 people were going to be living in the old residences out by the airport for the foreseeable future. I really didn't think there was going to be anywhere for them to live.
However, if there's such a thing as a lucky break from absolute disaster, then the victims got two. First, they were all employees of the Government of Nunavut, which had provided housing for them. The GN still has some vacant apartments, so they'll have new places to live in a few days.
The second lucky break is the community is rallying massively to help out. People have been dropping of donations of all kinds at the high school and other places all day. Cathy and I have, and I suspect just about everyone in town is doing it as well. Rotary, North Mart and Arctic Ventures are giving money to help and local banks have set up accounts where people can donate money as well.
It doesn't help with personal momentos that were lost, like photographs, jewelry and gifts. People lost everything and the psychological impact that has can never be made up, not matter how much the community rallies. Still, I'm glad to see everyone is pitching, trying to do something to help. I honestly don't think much work was done in Iqaluit today. It was trying to find out what had happened, if anyone was hurt, if you knew anyone in the building (Cathy had a former co-worker living there. Both her and her dad lost everything. I had a friend who lived across the street. He's fine, other than the shock of opening his curtains at 4 am and discovering the apartment building about 100 feet away was engulfed in flames) and how could you help.
There are still questions to be answered, of course. No one knows how the fire started, other than it started outside. Some are questioning why there was no sprinkler system inside of the apartment building. And it'll sort itself out, I'm sure.
But the important thing is that everyone is safe and, as much as possible, are being looked after.
By the way, if you want to help, I suspect the easiest way for those not living in Iqaluit would be to make a donation at the bank. CIBC has an account set up. If you wanted to go to your bank and see if you could make a donation, I think that would be the best thing to do.
Last Five
1. Last night of the world - Bruce Cockburn
2. Green grass (live) - Tom Waits
3. Fire up ahead - The Trews
4. Tunnel of love (live) - Dire Straits*
5. Waiting for the world to change - John Mayer
Except in lieu of events that happened in Iqaluit last night, writing about a TV show seems kind of silly. Although I promise to have a review up by tomorrow night.
We had a fire last night in Iqaluit. A bad one. No one died, thankfully, but a relatively new apartment complex burned to the ground. You can read more about it at the CBC or Nunatsiaq. There's a fairly spectacular photo of what the fire looked like on the front of Nunatsiaq as well. I can't directly link to it, however.
Fires are bad anywhere, but up here they tend to be much worse. Trying to fight a fire in cold that can be -30C or more is tricky. The wind was up last night and there were plenty of other buildings around that could have went up. Hell, we found ash around our house when we woke up this morning and we're about a kilometre or more away. But hard work and more than a little luck (the wind was blowing the right way to prevent the fire from spreading), meant it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Still, for about 60 people, it was disastrous enough. The fire started at 1 am. Most had enough time to wake up, throw something on to stop from freezing and get out. That's about it. They lost everything. Plus I'm hearing many didn't have tenants insurance, which means getting the insurance company to pay for their material losses is not going to happen.
Plus, this is Iqaluit. The apartment occupancy availability is somewhere around zero. When I first heard about the fire this morning I honestly though those 60 people were going to be living in the old residences out by the airport for the foreseeable future. I really didn't think there was going to be anywhere for them to live.
However, if there's such a thing as a lucky break from absolute disaster, then the victims got two. First, they were all employees of the Government of Nunavut, which had provided housing for them. The GN still has some vacant apartments, so they'll have new places to live in a few days.
The second lucky break is the community is rallying massively to help out. People have been dropping of donations of all kinds at the high school and other places all day. Cathy and I have, and I suspect just about everyone in town is doing it as well. Rotary, North Mart and Arctic Ventures are giving money to help and local banks have set up accounts where people can donate money as well.
It doesn't help with personal momentos that were lost, like photographs, jewelry and gifts. People lost everything and the psychological impact that has can never be made up, not matter how much the community rallies. Still, I'm glad to see everyone is pitching, trying to do something to help. I honestly don't think much work was done in Iqaluit today. It was trying to find out what had happened, if anyone was hurt, if you knew anyone in the building (Cathy had a former co-worker living there. Both her and her dad lost everything. I had a friend who lived across the street. He's fine, other than the shock of opening his curtains at 4 am and discovering the apartment building about 100 feet away was engulfed in flames) and how could you help.
There are still questions to be answered, of course. No one knows how the fire started, other than it started outside. Some are questioning why there was no sprinkler system inside of the apartment building. And it'll sort itself out, I'm sure.
But the important thing is that everyone is safe and, as much as possible, are being looked after.
By the way, if you want to help, I suspect the easiest way for those not living in Iqaluit would be to make a donation at the bank. CIBC has an account set up. If you wanted to go to your bank and see if you could make a donation, I think that would be the best thing to do.
Last Five
1. Last night of the world - Bruce Cockburn
2. Green grass (live) - Tom Waits
3. Fire up ahead - The Trews
4. Tunnel of love (live) - Dire Straits*
5. Waiting for the world to change - John Mayer
Monday, March 21, 2011
Ah spring...
I remember, this is almost 14 years ago now, when I was with in South Korea and I experienced spring for the first time on March 21. You grow up in Newfoundland you don't get spring. Odds are you're going to get Shelia's Brush, which is a late winter, early spring blizzard that's going to dump 40 cm of snow on you. But even at the best of times, it was going to be snow/rain, greyness and muck. Sunshine was a dream and expecting actual greenery was cause for you to spend some time at the lovel mental health facilities at the Waterford.
But on the first day of spring, back in '97, it was warm, there was greenery and cherry blossoms were in bloom. It was magical. I must have wandered around Busan with a stunned look on my face for days.
I mention this because today is the first full day of spring. As I type, Environment Canada is reporting that it is -33C outside with a windchill of -53C. Yesterday wasn't much better, by the way. I think the windchill was around -47C.
The idea that this is spring is some cruel joke the gods are playing on us. That it's bright and sunny outside with plenty of daylight is just some extra spice to the joke. You could almost be fooled into thinking it was warming up outside. Until you went out there and frostbite set in in a matter of minutes.
Having said all that, Cathy was getting cabin fever yesterday, having been sick most of the last week. So me, her, the dog and the new digital went for a jaunt to get some air, which promptly seared our lungs and caused our skin to dry out in about 10 seconds. However, in that brief period of time, I managed to take some pictures. Only cost me two fingers, but what the hell. One must suffer for their art.
But on the first day of spring, back in '97, it was warm, there was greenery and cherry blossoms were in bloom. It was magical. I must have wandered around Busan with a stunned look on my face for days.
I mention this because today is the first full day of spring. As I type, Environment Canada is reporting that it is -33C outside with a windchill of -53C. Yesterday wasn't much better, by the way. I think the windchill was around -47C.
The idea that this is spring is some cruel joke the gods are playing on us. That it's bright and sunny outside with plenty of daylight is just some extra spice to the joke. You could almost be fooled into thinking it was warming up outside. Until you went out there and frostbite set in in a matter of minutes.
Having said all that, Cathy was getting cabin fever yesterday, having been sick most of the last week. So me, her, the dog and the new digital went for a jaunt to get some air, which promptly seared our lungs and caused our skin to dry out in about 10 seconds. However, in that brief period of time, I managed to take some pictures. Only cost me two fingers, but what the hell. One must suffer for their art.
Last Five
1. Got my own thing - Liz Phair
2. Answering bell - Ryan Adams
3. Kitty - The Pogues
4. Bigfoot (live) - The Weakerthans
5. Boston - Vampire Weekend
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Review - Republic of Doyle, Season 2, ep 10
You know the episode is in trouble when you catch yourself thinking fairly early on that you really hope Tinny shows up. Because if she shows up, perhaps there will be less screen time with Garrison Steele, the aggravating crime write from last season back to bedevil Jake and bore the crap out of the rest of us.
In fact, I'm pretty sure the only redeeming moment in the entire episode is when the Johnny Cash kicked in during the last 45 seconds of the episode. Generally speaking, you can't go wrong by throwing some Johnny Cash ("God's gonna cut you down" Awesome song) into the mix, however it was much too little and far too late. The streak of good Doyle episodes curls up and dies with a whimper this week.
To be fair, I knew that going in. The worst episode of last season featured Garrison Steele so why they felt the urge to bring him back again this season is beyond me. Here's the thing about Steele - he's a smug bastard who uses people. He thinks he's charming and so do others, although it's blatantly clear to anyone with half a brain that he's an asshole.
He's a character that makes everyone on the show look stupid because he's so clearly an asshole and except for Jake no one gets it. And to make the worst of it, he's an asshole who in his two appearances never gets his comeuppance.
All in all, it's a pretty aggravating way to waste an hour of your life. Even the mystery of the week is dumb. A fighter is put away for murder. But did he do it? Did he take money to do the hit? And is there a crooked cop involved? If you can't see where it's going, if you're not rolling your eyes at some of the stuff (sure, a cop is going to kick the crap out of Doyle on George Street in the middle of the day with no one way boo. Absolutely) then you're a little too easily amused.
On top of that we have the return of ditsy Leslie and they begin the process of writing the Crown out of the show with the absolutely dreadful idea of her having an abusive husband that she's just having a hard time leaving. After showing her all season as being a tough, in control woman we now see her dealing with an abusive husband.
And yes, I know this happens in real life. I've had friends go through similar things. But really? Could they have not gone down this path? It feels....cheap.
Just dreadful all the way around. This is one where you take all traces of its existence, burn them and hope that people forgot you ever aired it.
By the way, in a Doyle related thing not directly related to this episode, I read somewhere that Russel Crowe is a fan of the show. Might be because his buddy Alan Doyle starred in an episode or because the show is popular in Australia (it airs there).
Honestly, if you're not writing a script for Crowe right now then you're mad. I have two plots right off the top of my head.
1. Crowe and (Alan) Doyle are brothers. Crowe is a successful musician who gets dragged into trouble when his stunned younger brother gets him involved in something. Jake to the rescue. Hook for Crowe, he gets to sing on the show.
2. Crowe and (Alan) Doyle are still brothers. Both were successful rugby players back in the day until they both discovered they enjoyed smacking people around a little too much. They have to be kept in separate prisons because together they were too much trouble. But they're both out now and mixed up an a game throwing scandal involving the local rugby team. Hook - Crowe can play rugby, which he apparently likes.
Pity they already used Mary Walsh as a bar owner. She would have been good as their mother.
There you go. I have given you your plots. Write them up and get him on the show next season. It's entirely on the condition that Garrison Steele never comes back, though.
Best Quotes
"You wouldn't know your arse from a hole in the ground." - Jake
(Smack) "Not in the face!" (Smack) "Not in the gut either." - Jake
Last Five
1. Four seasons in one day (live) - Crowded House
2. Damn liar - Cherly Wright
3. Double life - Matthew Good*
4. Old Polina - Great Big Sea
5. Shitloads of money - Liz Phair
In fact, I'm pretty sure the only redeeming moment in the entire episode is when the Johnny Cash kicked in during the last 45 seconds of the episode. Generally speaking, you can't go wrong by throwing some Johnny Cash ("God's gonna cut you down" Awesome song) into the mix, however it was much too little and far too late. The streak of good Doyle episodes curls up and dies with a whimper this week.
To be fair, I knew that going in. The worst episode of last season featured Garrison Steele so why they felt the urge to bring him back again this season is beyond me. Here's the thing about Steele - he's a smug bastard who uses people. He thinks he's charming and so do others, although it's blatantly clear to anyone with half a brain that he's an asshole.
He's a character that makes everyone on the show look stupid because he's so clearly an asshole and except for Jake no one gets it. And to make the worst of it, he's an asshole who in his two appearances never gets his comeuppance.
All in all, it's a pretty aggravating way to waste an hour of your life. Even the mystery of the week is dumb. A fighter is put away for murder. But did he do it? Did he take money to do the hit? And is there a crooked cop involved? If you can't see where it's going, if you're not rolling your eyes at some of the stuff (sure, a cop is going to kick the crap out of Doyle on George Street in the middle of the day with no one way boo. Absolutely) then you're a little too easily amused.
On top of that we have the return of ditsy Leslie and they begin the process of writing the Crown out of the show with the absolutely dreadful idea of her having an abusive husband that she's just having a hard time leaving. After showing her all season as being a tough, in control woman we now see her dealing with an abusive husband.
And yes, I know this happens in real life. I've had friends go through similar things. But really? Could they have not gone down this path? It feels....cheap.
Just dreadful all the way around. This is one where you take all traces of its existence, burn them and hope that people forgot you ever aired it.
By the way, in a Doyle related thing not directly related to this episode, I read somewhere that Russel Crowe is a fan of the show. Might be because his buddy Alan Doyle starred in an episode or because the show is popular in Australia (it airs there).
Honestly, if you're not writing a script for Crowe right now then you're mad. I have two plots right off the top of my head.
1. Crowe and (Alan) Doyle are brothers. Crowe is a successful musician who gets dragged into trouble when his stunned younger brother gets him involved in something. Jake to the rescue. Hook for Crowe, he gets to sing on the show.
2. Crowe and (Alan) Doyle are still brothers. Both were successful rugby players back in the day until they both discovered they enjoyed smacking people around a little too much. They have to be kept in separate prisons because together they were too much trouble. But they're both out now and mixed up an a game throwing scandal involving the local rugby team. Hook - Crowe can play rugby, which he apparently likes.
Pity they already used Mary Walsh as a bar owner. She would have been good as their mother.
There you go. I have given you your plots. Write them up and get him on the show next season. It's entirely on the condition that Garrison Steele never comes back, though.
Best Quotes
"You wouldn't know your arse from a hole in the ground." - Jake
(Smack) "Not in the face!" (Smack) "Not in the gut either." - Jake
Last Five
1. Four seasons in one day (live) - Crowded House
2. Damn liar - Cherly Wright
3. Double life - Matthew Good*
4. Old Polina - Great Big Sea
5. Shitloads of money - Liz Phair
Monday, March 14, 2011
New toys
So yes, not dead. Just the usual excuses. However, as Cathy pointed out, people are going to think this is becoming a Doyle review blog. And with only two or three episodes left in the season, that would be bad. Instead, I will point out something weird regarding packaging.
Considering how expensive shipping is up north you'd figure companies would be doing their damnedest to try and not to be stupid with their packaging. You'd think that, but you would also be wrong. Chapters is nortorious for this. I have gotten an order of 10 books in as many as six boxes before. Today's culprit is Future Shop.
Cathy got a new laptop before Christmas. As she's carrying it back and forth to work quite a bit she thought it would be a good idea to get a neoprine sleeve to protect it. So we go to Future Shop and order one. This is what it looks like.
Lovely isn't it? Now, something like this, you could probably slip into an envelope. It's not fragile or likely to be easily damaged. It is, after all, something designed to take a bit of damage to protect a computer. This is what they shipped it in.
Seriously, a tree had to have died for this package if you saw how much paper they stuffed in it. Now, it's free shipping, so I shouldn't care too much, but really? That's some seriously dumb packaging. If Future Shop goes tits up, you can take a guess as to why.
We also had another Future Shop Package. There have been a few comments about how I don't have many photos of Iqaluit up on the blog. Part of the problem is my camera is a Pentax K10D, which is a big son of a bitch. It doesn't exactly slide into my pocket. So I decided to burn off some of the Future Shop gift card money and buy a nice pocket digital.
The theory is I can take this with me more easily around town. Plus it makes it easier to take on vacation. So I went with a Canon Powershot S95, which looks like this.
It's a lovely wee beastie, I must say. And I'm quite happy with the photos I'm getting. Here are a few samples and I haven't tweaked or adjusted any of the colour settings.
I'm telling you, that's easily as good, if not better, than what I can take with my Pentax. It doesn't have the telephoto lens, but I'm pretty happy with photos that good. And that's just me playing (and taking them outside when it was -35C and I wasn't really able to do much in the way of fine tuning with the settings). So I'm happy with it. So hopefully readers (the 10 of you still around) will see a few more photos from around town in the months to come.
Last Five
1. We made a pact - Hey Rosetta!
2. Girl sailor - The Shins
3. Politik - Coldplay
4. Girl in the war - Josh Ritter*
5. You've lost that lovin' feeling - Hall & Oates
Considering how expensive shipping is up north you'd figure companies would be doing their damnedest to try and not to be stupid with their packaging. You'd think that, but you would also be wrong. Chapters is nortorious for this. I have gotten an order of 10 books in as many as six boxes before. Today's culprit is Future Shop.
Cathy got a new laptop before Christmas. As she's carrying it back and forth to work quite a bit she thought it would be a good idea to get a neoprine sleeve to protect it. So we go to Future Shop and order one. This is what it looks like.
Lovely isn't it? Now, something like this, you could probably slip into an envelope. It's not fragile or likely to be easily damaged. It is, after all, something designed to take a bit of damage to protect a computer. This is what they shipped it in.
Seriously, a tree had to have died for this package if you saw how much paper they stuffed in it. Now, it's free shipping, so I shouldn't care too much, but really? That's some seriously dumb packaging. If Future Shop goes tits up, you can take a guess as to why.
We also had another Future Shop Package. There have been a few comments about how I don't have many photos of Iqaluit up on the blog. Part of the problem is my camera is a Pentax K10D, which is a big son of a bitch. It doesn't exactly slide into my pocket. So I decided to burn off some of the Future Shop gift card money and buy a nice pocket digital.
The theory is I can take this with me more easily around town. Plus it makes it easier to take on vacation. So I went with a Canon Powershot S95, which looks like this.
It's a lovely wee beastie, I must say. And I'm quite happy with the photos I'm getting. Here are a few samples and I haven't tweaked or adjusted any of the colour settings.
I'm telling you, that's easily as good, if not better, than what I can take with my Pentax. It doesn't have the telephoto lens, but I'm pretty happy with photos that good. And that's just me playing (and taking them outside when it was -35C and I wasn't really able to do much in the way of fine tuning with the settings). So I'm happy with it. So hopefully readers (the 10 of you still around) will see a few more photos from around town in the months to come.
Last Five
1. We made a pact - Hey Rosetta!
2. Girl sailor - The Shins
3. Politik - Coldplay
4. Girl in the war - Josh Ritter*
5. You've lost that lovin' feeling - Hall & Oates
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Review - Republic of Doyle, Season 2, ep. 9
Well folks, I didn't mean to disappear quite that long from the blogging world. No reason for it, really. Just one of those weeks where I didn't seem to have much to say. However, now we have a new Doyle, so let's dive into that.
This week on Doyle, Des conducts perhaps the most inept convenience store robbery short of using a hand carved musket (this has actually happened in St. John's, by the way), things get testy between Jake and the Crown, Leslie shows some spirit for the first time this season and, oh yeah who the heck is Des Courtney? Because as it turns out, he doesn't exist.
The string of good Doyle episodes keeps on rolling here. There might have been better ones this season but there haven't been any better balanced, I think. There were a lot of characters rolling around here and they all got their moments to shine. Jake got to be annoyed, surprisingly concerned, clever (dropping the GPS) and deeply stupid (Not knowing what Special K was, and not knowing where the skateboarders hang out. That was actually bad expository writing, but anyway). Mal got to be fatherly, Rose got to be motherly (she got to be smart in figuring out who Des's father is and caring in knowing what he's going through and offering to help while keeping his secret. Nice stuff). Tinny wasn't annoying, the Crown was a bit of a bitch, but for surprising reasons and Leslie was not a total ditz.
And the mystery was good as well. Why did Des try to rob a convenience store? Why can't he remember anything? Why was he wearing snorkeling equipment (alas, never explained). It was a nice putting together of all the pieces. I can also believe the police not having any interest, because it's a pretty open and shut case for them (let's just say the RNC have a history of this sort of thing). Oh, and for those wondering, the Veiled Virgin is real. I'm still trying to figure out if they shot inside the Basillica. I kind of doubt it, though.
Writing like this is trickier to pull off than you might think. A decent mystery and giving everyone a few moments to shine. Hell, they made Des interesting, and he's never been one of my favourite characters. They made Tinny interesting, something I would have thought was impossible.
And seriously, thank God they gave Leslie something to do other than mope about and cry this week. There was a little bit of feistiness there. A little of the old "I can't believe I'm letting this lunatic talk me into this". Although the mayor has to go as a character. Not because he's disrupting Jake and Leslie from being together, but because he's annoying and kind of flat. People don't like the Crown, but hell, no one can say she's boring. She's been better written than Leslie this season by a mile.
Oh, and thank god she isn't married to the mayor. We can finally put that theory to bed.
Granted, I think the run of good episodes comes to an end next week with the return of author Garrison Steele, a character I loathed last season, but we shall see. I had low expectation for a Des-centric episode and it turned out great.
Quotes of the week:
"He was at I'se The Guys, the male strip club." - Jake (I'se The Guys, by the way, is right up there with Wiggs Dinner as an all time great Doyle name.)
"Des, you're not going to last two minutes in real jail." - Tinny
"You're going to get me disbarred, you know. I am an officer of the court!" - Walter. I will say this again: More Walter, goddamn it.
"What are you doing?!"
"I planted a GPS in his backpack."
"Oh good, I thought you were losing it." - Mal and Jake after Jake smacked around a suspect. The fact Mal has more respect for Jake these days is one of the nice developments of this season.
"Leslie, so sorry to get you out of your nice, warm bed." - Jake. And it's not just the quote, but the fantastic smirk he makes when saying it.
"You're like the son I never had." - Mal to Des, proving he's still not above taking the piss out of Jake from time to time.
Last Five
1. Everlasting light - The Black Keys
2. Losing you - Neil Diamond
3. Novelty - Pathological Lovers
4. Rocking horse - The Dead Weather
5. Compliments - Band of Horses
This week on Doyle, Des conducts perhaps the most inept convenience store robbery short of using a hand carved musket (this has actually happened in St. John's, by the way), things get testy between Jake and the Crown, Leslie shows some spirit for the first time this season and, oh yeah who the heck is Des Courtney? Because as it turns out, he doesn't exist.
The string of good Doyle episodes keeps on rolling here. There might have been better ones this season but there haven't been any better balanced, I think. There were a lot of characters rolling around here and they all got their moments to shine. Jake got to be annoyed, surprisingly concerned, clever (dropping the GPS) and deeply stupid (Not knowing what Special K was, and not knowing where the skateboarders hang out. That was actually bad expository writing, but anyway). Mal got to be fatherly, Rose got to be motherly (she got to be smart in figuring out who Des's father is and caring in knowing what he's going through and offering to help while keeping his secret. Nice stuff). Tinny wasn't annoying, the Crown was a bit of a bitch, but for surprising reasons and Leslie was not a total ditz.
And the mystery was good as well. Why did Des try to rob a convenience store? Why can't he remember anything? Why was he wearing snorkeling equipment (alas, never explained). It was a nice putting together of all the pieces. I can also believe the police not having any interest, because it's a pretty open and shut case for them (let's just say the RNC have a history of this sort of thing). Oh, and for those wondering, the Veiled Virgin is real. I'm still trying to figure out if they shot inside the Basillica. I kind of doubt it, though.
Writing like this is trickier to pull off than you might think. A decent mystery and giving everyone a few moments to shine. Hell, they made Des interesting, and he's never been one of my favourite characters. They made Tinny interesting, something I would have thought was impossible.
And seriously, thank God they gave Leslie something to do other than mope about and cry this week. There was a little bit of feistiness there. A little of the old "I can't believe I'm letting this lunatic talk me into this". Although the mayor has to go as a character. Not because he's disrupting Jake and Leslie from being together, but because he's annoying and kind of flat. People don't like the Crown, but hell, no one can say she's boring. She's been better written than Leslie this season by a mile.
Oh, and thank god she isn't married to the mayor. We can finally put that theory to bed.
Granted, I think the run of good episodes comes to an end next week with the return of author Garrison Steele, a character I loathed last season, but we shall see. I had low expectation for a Des-centric episode and it turned out great.
Quotes of the week:
"He was at I'se The Guys, the male strip club." - Jake (I'se The Guys, by the way, is right up there with Wiggs Dinner as an all time great Doyle name.)
"Des, you're not going to last two minutes in real jail." - Tinny
"You're going to get me disbarred, you know. I am an officer of the court!" - Walter. I will say this again: More Walter, goddamn it.
"What are you doing?!"
"I planted a GPS in his backpack."
"Oh good, I thought you were losing it." - Mal and Jake after Jake smacked around a suspect. The fact Mal has more respect for Jake these days is one of the nice developments of this season.
"Leslie, so sorry to get you out of your nice, warm bed." - Jake. And it's not just the quote, but the fantastic smirk he makes when saying it.
"You're like the son I never had." - Mal to Des, proving he's still not above taking the piss out of Jake from time to time.
Last Five
1. Everlasting light - The Black Keys
2. Losing you - Neil Diamond
3. Novelty - Pathological Lovers
4. Rocking horse - The Dead Weather
5. Compliments - Band of Horses
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Review - Republic of Doyle, Season 2, ep 8
This week on Doyle - Jake ends up quite possible much stupider at the end of the episode than he was at the beginning, which is impressive when you consider he viewed helping Martin Poole a good idea, Dez tries to get Tinny's helping in manning up and gets tazed for his troubles and Sgt. Bennet goes on to show why she's not really a great police officer.
This was seriously not a good episode of Doyle to be a male. The only person who didn't managed to get the shit kicked out of him was Mal. For those of you keep track, Martin got tazed and the shit kicked out of him. Jake got hit in the head with a crowbar, the back of the head with a bottle of wine and the shit kicked out of him. And Dez got the shit kicked out of him by Tinny and tazed twice. This doesn't count the number of times guns were pointed at them
If you operate under the theory that men aren't all that bright to begin with, I assure you none of those characters went to bed smarter than they started the day.
So why all the abuse? Well, Martin is trying to get the Doyle's to help him land an accountant who is on the run for mysterious reasons for the bounty. This is Martin, of course. So Mal and Rose both know he's lying, but he's also dangling $300,000 in front of Jake, who is dumb enough to go for it. Thank god Christian wasn't in this week's episode or things might have gotten really stupid. Then again, maybe they would have tazed him in the head and jolted some sense into him.
So yes, there are shenanigans afoot, with a bounty hunter looking for our accountant, some dude with a machine gun, the police and a very pissed off crown attorney.
Over all, not a bad episode. Actually, just like last year, the second half of the season is shaping up to be much better than the first half. I have no idea why. Last year I just assumed they were finally figuring things out. But things like the real reason why Martin was trying to get the Doyles involved in the case and where they were going with it, a lot of the physical comedy and even the hint of a future plot with Jake and the mayor all work.
Hell, even Dez didn't annoy me this evening. The multiple tazering was funny. The only way Tinny and Dez are not staggeringly annoying is when they work together.
If I had to pick a weakness, the Jake/Bennet/Crown triangle is getting old already. Thank god for small miracles in that Bennet at least found out (although Jake had to explain it to her) about why he said all that crap to her when she came to see him. She's taken a serious step backwards as a character this year. It's becoming a moral imperative that they do something with her.
Seriously, there's a scene where Martin tells Jake that if anyone can get a particular character to turn, it'll be Bennet. The problem is, we haven't seen much this season to indicate that she's an effective cop, let alone a particularly scary one.
Bennet aside, a fun episode and another step in the right direction for the show.
Best Lines. For once, Jake doesn't get them all:
"True. I suffering from discordination. And, well, fear." - Dez
"Do you miss the dental?" - the Mayor
"Well, luckily all my teeth have been knocked out and replaced." - Jake, who may or may not be joking.
"Mal...Mal...Is cake a food group?" - Dez, after one too many shots of electricity
"Don't be such a sook." - Tinny
"Dez, don't! You can't afford to lose any more brain cells today!" - Tinny
Last Five
1. Baker, baker - Tori Amos*
2. The fix is in - OK Go
3. Run (live) - Kathleen Edwards
4. Johnny Feelgood - Liz Phair
5. The bridge - Mark Bragg
This was seriously not a good episode of Doyle to be a male. The only person who didn't managed to get the shit kicked out of him was Mal. For those of you keep track, Martin got tazed and the shit kicked out of him. Jake got hit in the head with a crowbar, the back of the head with a bottle of wine and the shit kicked out of him. And Dez got the shit kicked out of him by Tinny and tazed twice. This doesn't count the number of times guns were pointed at them
If you operate under the theory that men aren't all that bright to begin with, I assure you none of those characters went to bed smarter than they started the day.
So why all the abuse? Well, Martin is trying to get the Doyle's to help him land an accountant who is on the run for mysterious reasons for the bounty. This is Martin, of course. So Mal and Rose both know he's lying, but he's also dangling $300,000 in front of Jake, who is dumb enough to go for it. Thank god Christian wasn't in this week's episode or things might have gotten really stupid. Then again, maybe they would have tazed him in the head and jolted some sense into him.
So yes, there are shenanigans afoot, with a bounty hunter looking for our accountant, some dude with a machine gun, the police and a very pissed off crown attorney.
Over all, not a bad episode. Actually, just like last year, the second half of the season is shaping up to be much better than the first half. I have no idea why. Last year I just assumed they were finally figuring things out. But things like the real reason why Martin was trying to get the Doyles involved in the case and where they were going with it, a lot of the physical comedy and even the hint of a future plot with Jake and the mayor all work.
Hell, even Dez didn't annoy me this evening. The multiple tazering was funny. The only way Tinny and Dez are not staggeringly annoying is when they work together.
If I had to pick a weakness, the Jake/Bennet/Crown triangle is getting old already. Thank god for small miracles in that Bennet at least found out (although Jake had to explain it to her) about why he said all that crap to her when she came to see him. She's taken a serious step backwards as a character this year. It's becoming a moral imperative that they do something with her.
Seriously, there's a scene where Martin tells Jake that if anyone can get a particular character to turn, it'll be Bennet. The problem is, we haven't seen much this season to indicate that she's an effective cop, let alone a particularly scary one.
Bennet aside, a fun episode and another step in the right direction for the show.
Best Lines. For once, Jake doesn't get them all:
"True. I suffering from discordination. And, well, fear." - Dez
"Do you miss the dental?" - the Mayor
"Well, luckily all my teeth have been knocked out and replaced." - Jake, who may or may not be joking.
"Mal...Mal...Is cake a food group?" - Dez, after one too many shots of electricity
"Don't be such a sook." - Tinny
"Dez, don't! You can't afford to lose any more brain cells today!" - Tinny
Last Five
1. Baker, baker - Tori Amos*
2. The fix is in - OK Go
3. Run (live) - Kathleen Edwards
4. Johnny Feelgood - Liz Phair
5. The bridge - Mark Bragg
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Seal-free month
1. About a month or so ago I saw some online publication, the name escapes me, declare February to be a Palin-free month for them. That unless something truly dramatic or astonishing happened with Palin, they weren't going to write about her. I don't know if they were successful or not, but Palin made it fairly easy this month. She's been unusually quiet. A combination, I suspect, of licking her wounds after the shooting in Tucson and that so much of the news the past month has been focusing on the events in North Africa. She tried a few half-hearted attacks on President Obama, but really, nobody is going to listen to Palin on foreign affairs.
But I thought that was a noble cause. A good thing. The best thing for getting rid of someone like Palin is to suck the oxygen out of the room. If no one pays attention to her, then eventually she's going to fade away, perhaps crawl back to Alaska and get lost in the wilds somewhere.
So where is this leading? Well, I've decided for the month of March I will not write about the seal hunt (after this post, obviously) or even read stories about the hunt if I can help it all. That might be a bit of a challenge as part of my job responsibilities including reading news stories that might be of interest to my bosses. And I certainly, absolutely, positively will not read the comments section.
Read the comments section for most news stories is a bad idea. Reading them for seal hunt stories....that is the way to madness, my friends.
You can only argue with the deranged for so long before you wander down that path yourself. So, no seal hunt for March. Let's see how well I do.
2. I had a comment awhile ago about how I don't have many pictures of Iqaluit up on the blog. And I understand how people are interested in what the town looks like. And way back in the day I wasn't a bad photographer. The reason there aren't more photos is that I'm not 100% happy with my camera. It's a been a little glitchy for my liking ever since I bought it. Also, the damn thing weighs a ton.
If I'm just running out to get groceries or go to work, I'm not dragging out the whole DSLR kit and caboodle on the off-chance I might find something cool to photograph. Plus, Cathy hasn't been having much luck buying a cheap little digital for her to use.
So, with a couple of hundred dollars in Future Shop coupons lying around, we decided to splurge on a little Cannon Powershot S95. From the research I've done it appears to be about as good as you're going to get at that price range with those features. It should arrive in a few weeks. Once that happens maybe you'll start seeing a few more pictures from around Iqaluit up on the blog.
Last Five
1. Crazy love, Vol. II - Paul Simon
2. A slight discomfort - The Hold Steady
3. Summertime - Beck
4. It's my life - Talk Talk
5. If I should fall behind (live) - Bruce Springsteen*
But I thought that was a noble cause. A good thing. The best thing for getting rid of someone like Palin is to suck the oxygen out of the room. If no one pays attention to her, then eventually she's going to fade away, perhaps crawl back to Alaska and get lost in the wilds somewhere.
So where is this leading? Well, I've decided for the month of March I will not write about the seal hunt (after this post, obviously) or even read stories about the hunt if I can help it all. That might be a bit of a challenge as part of my job responsibilities including reading news stories that might be of interest to my bosses. And I certainly, absolutely, positively will not read the comments section.
Read the comments section for most news stories is a bad idea. Reading them for seal hunt stories....that is the way to madness, my friends.
You can only argue with the deranged for so long before you wander down that path yourself. So, no seal hunt for March. Let's see how well I do.
2. I had a comment awhile ago about how I don't have many pictures of Iqaluit up on the blog. And I understand how people are interested in what the town looks like. And way back in the day I wasn't a bad photographer. The reason there aren't more photos is that I'm not 100% happy with my camera. It's a been a little glitchy for my liking ever since I bought it. Also, the damn thing weighs a ton.
If I'm just running out to get groceries or go to work, I'm not dragging out the whole DSLR kit and caboodle on the off-chance I might find something cool to photograph. Plus, Cathy hasn't been having much luck buying a cheap little digital for her to use.
So, with a couple of hundred dollars in Future Shop coupons lying around, we decided to splurge on a little Cannon Powershot S95. From the research I've done it appears to be about as good as you're going to get at that price range with those features. It should arrive in a few weeks. Once that happens maybe you'll start seeing a few more pictures from around Iqaluit up on the blog.
Last Five
1. Crazy love, Vol. II - Paul Simon
2. A slight discomfort - The Hold Steady
3. Summertime - Beck
4. It's my life - Talk Talk
5. If I should fall behind (live) - Bruce Springsteen*
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