Some graphic novels for the geek in your life

So you know a geek and would like to buy them something. Speaking as a life-long geek, I understand that this can be a challenge. There is, in fact, so much cool geek stuff out there that it’s almost impossible to sort through. And you have to be careful. Getting Star Trek stuff for a My Little Pony geek isn’t really going to work out too well for you. A for effort, C for results.

I always tend to lean towards comic books. Big surprise. You can rarely go wrong with them. It’s a good story and pretty art in a nice little book. And most of them are reasonably priced, except for the ones that are not. And really, unless you really love them, you’re not buying them too many $100 books.

So here are a few of my suggestions for comics that you might want to buy this Christmas season. For the most part these are self-contained reading. I mean, Wolverine and the X-Men, Vol. 7 was a lovely book and all, but unless the person you’re buying for has the other six, it’s a bit of a wasted effort.

Book of the Year

East of West: Vol. 1 – The Promise

There’s no series I’ve gone back and reread more this year. I love Jonathan Hickman’s writing because it’s ambitious as hell, and he’s setting up for stuff that’s not going to pay off for a couple of years. But when it does, you can almost always guaranteed to be spectacular.

Put it this way, he recently completed a run on the Fantastic Four that I consider one of the five best in that series 50 year history. He had an inter-dimensional Council of Reed Richards, alien invasions from space and another dimension, Dr. Doom, battling space gods, time travel, a major death, and a dozen other things. And after two and a half years of this glorious madness, it was all build up to three pages of writing, so personal, human and beautifully written that I got misty. (Vol. 1 of the Omnibus of that Fantastic Four run is also now out, and well worth picking up, but it is expensive.)

All the first volume of East of West gives you as an alternate future on an Earth where the U.S. Civil War ended very differently, where three of the four horseman of the Apocalypse are on the ride and what the fourth horseman is up to is strange business indeed. It’s a sci-fi apocalyptic western. It’s also a love story. It also has some brutal, yet beautiful bits of writing (Death gets all the best lines). I have no earthly idea where Hickman and artist Nick Dragotta (doing career best work) are going with this, but I’m along for the ride. As long as I can have a horse like the one Death rides, because that is a pretty awesome horse.

For Women:

It sounds a touch derogatory to specifically list comics for women. But women geeks are starting to come into their own serious power in 2013. Here are some of their favourites, and ones that I’ve read.

Captain Marvel: Vol. 1 - In Pursuit of Flight
Captain Marvel: Vol. 2 - Down

Captain Marvel fans are a hardcore group. They’ve dubbed themselves the Carol Corps, you can buy t-shirts online, they make their own costumes and crafts, and they’re some of the most active tumblr users in comics. Writer Kelly Sue DeCormick is one of the most accessible, and kind, comic book writers on social media.

Honestly, the books shows more potential for awesome then consistently hitting it. When it’s on, it’s funny, inspirational and kick-ass. But just as often it can be frustrating. I think starting the series with a time travel story was a bit of a mistake. And the art has been maddeningly inconsistent. But still, it is beloved and I think Kelly Sue is really starting to find her groove. It’s a solid super hero comic on the verge of becoming something really good.

Young Avengers: Vol. 1 – Style < Substance

Teen super hero team books are an old comic book tradition. X-Men were the first, I believe. Teen Titans followed shortly afterwards. But the thing is, they haven’t always been written as teens. They felt like adults. I mean, I loved Teen Titans growing up, but they never acted like they were 18.

This title does. The opening scene features Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) waking up in bed after hooking up with a guy the night before. A guy with a space ship. Then they’re promptly attacked by Skrulls. It feels a lot more like being 18 years old, passionate and deeply stupid about stuff (I assume you weren’t attacked by Skrulls at 18, however). The make mistakes, but do their best. They are also not all white and straight, which is nice. Oh, and there is Loki. A little Loki. It makes him no less dangerous. This is also Tumblr’s favourite comic book. People on Tumblr adore this series.

Also, the art by Jamie McKelvie is spectacular. Aside from being lovely to look at, there’s also a lot of unique lay-out and design work happening. Years from now, people are going to be looking back on Young Avengers and copying what they did here.

The Adventures of Superhero Girl

Honestly, you can buy anything that Faith Erin Hicks does (Friends with Boys and Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong are also worth picking up) and you’re in safe hands. She works out of Halifax and this is a fun series of strips featuring the adventures of Superhero Girl, as she tries to do right, keep a secret identity and put up with her insufferable, and much more popular, older hero brother. Delightful sounds condescending, but it’s a spot on accurate description of the book.

Bandette: Vol. 1 – Presto!

Anything Colleen Coover draws is pretty much is assured to end up on my buy list. I just love her art. It’s more cartoonish, but is filled with such energy and joy that makes it impossible to resist. Paul Tobin (who wrote the entertaining super-hero novel “Prepare to Die!”) helps out with the co-writing. The story is about a young woman who is both an art thief and someone who helps the police foil particularly nasty criminals. Well, her and her gang of street urchins.

Just a fun little piece of escapism. I’m not sure you’ll find a more joyful comic book this year.

Money to Burn

Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, Vol. 1

This is oh so pretty. It collects Uncanny X-Men from Giant-Size Annual #1 to #129 (about 37 issues). If you ever wonder how the X-Men, and Wolverine, got so popular, this is the book for you. From the slightly clunky relaunch and first year’s worth of issues (the series was bi-monthly to start with. Sales of 250,000 copies a month didn’t warrant a monthly. Most publishers today would murder their family for a series with those numbers today) the series hits full speed when Canadian artist/co-writer John Byrne comes aboard. Also, fun fact, fans loathed Wolverine on the team for years and begged writers to kill him off. Which goes to show you should not always listen to fans.

It’s expensive, but the stories still hold up, the art is gorgeous and it has been recoloured. Also, the original issues are a fortune. A great book for the X-Men/Wolverine fan in your life.

The Animal Man Omnibus

Originally this was going to be a four-issue mini-series. Animal Man was a joke character and DC wasn’t expecting much. Except Scottish writer Grant Morrison hit it out of the park. One of the definitive series of the late 80s/early 90s, Morrison rewrote his origins, added a logical animal rights angle to the story and, towards the end, so completely fucked around with the story telling that you were genuinely shocked and touched with what he pulled off in the last few issues.

It’s also worth mentioning that the classic “The Coyote Gospel” issue will change the way you look at Looney Tunes cartoons forever.

Sandman Omnibus, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Really, really not cheap. DC manages to find new ways to repackage Sandman every few years. This is the latest, with the complete series in two hefty volumes. Forests have been slaughtered writing about the greatness of Neil Gaiman’s series. It’s on any shortlist of the greatest comic books ever written.  These are beautiful looking, but heavy, books. I actually prefer to Absolute editions of the books, but they’re even more expensive to buy. Still, it’s a fantastic series and a classic.

Mature

Comics aren’t for kids anymore is the refrain that was popular in the mid-80s. So here are a few that are not quite for the kids.

Stumptown: Vol. 1 - The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo (But Left Her Mini)
Stumptown: Vol. 2 - The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case

Greg Rucka remains one of my favourite writers. Along with Matthew Southworth and Rico Renzi on art, this is a great little pair of books set in Portland, Oregon featuring P.I. Dex Parios (Dex is the shortened version of her name. Her real name is one of the better jokes of the series). Dex, like any good P.I., is pretty deeply screwed up. Good heart and smart, but a real gift for getting in trouble and making bad decisions. The first book is a bit darker than the second, and honestly, I prefer Vol. 2., but they’re both clever and well written.

Also, a note about the hardcover design. These are seriously nice looking books, with lots of extras. Credit to Oni Press for putting together a really nice looking book at a very reasonable price.

RASL

It’s weird sounding title, and short for Romance at the Speed of Light. It’s also written and illustrated by Jeff Smith. And if that names sounds familiar, he produced the beloved classic kids comic Bone. This is about as far away from Bone as you can get and still be a comic. RASL, our hero, drinks, swears, tends to have sex with women he shouldn’t (prostitutes and his lab partner’s wife) and is an art thief.

It’s a big book, there’s a lot crammed in there (comic books writers love Tesla these days) and not all of it works (the art thief angle really doesn’t), but it’s beautiful and Smith is playing with a lot of stuff here, including inter-dimensional travel, the nature of God, identity, government conspiracies, and a host of other things. It’s ambitious and even if he doesn’t 100% land it, it’s a hell of a pleasure watching him try. This is also another beautifully packaged hardcover, by the way.

The Black Beetle: Vol. 1 – No Way Out

I have no idea how Francesco Francavilla can be so prolific and this damn good. It feels like his art was everywhere in 2013 and it was exploding with energy and vibrancy all over the place. I think the phrase “sickeningly talented” might apply here.

He also writes “No Way Out” and if you’re a fan of 30s/40s pulp heroes, this is your book. The Shadow and the Green Hornet also had series out this year. None of them came close to the fun of this book, as our hero fights Nazis trying to grab an occult object and solve the murder of some gangsters who got blown up just as he was about to bring them to justice. And again, give credit to Dark Horse for putting together a gorgeous, and reasonably priced, hardcover of this bit of pulp fun.

Fatale: Vol. 1 - Death Chases Me
Fatale: Vol. 2 - The Devil's Business
Fatale: Vol. 3 - West of Hell

Breaking the multiple volume rule for two reasons. First, no one in the business is better at putting out reasonable priced trade paperbacks to lure in new readers than Image Comics (these volumes can be bought at Amazon for $11.50 each). Secondly, when Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips put something out, you buy the damn thing no matter what.

This is Ed Brubaker playing with multiple genres. It’s noir. Deep, dark noir, so it’s not ending well for a lot of people. But it’s also a Lovecraftian horror story about a seemingly immortal woman who has the ability to get men to do anything she wants, rarely with good results, and the mysterious cult that chases her throughout most of the 20^th century.

Brubaker and Phillips are hopscotching across the decades in a non-linear bit of storytelling that is so good you would think anyone could do this, but almost no one other than these two can do it so well and effortlessly.

Saga: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples put together the critical darling of the moment. This series is beloved and wins awards everywhere. Basically, two star-crossed lovers (literally) from warring galactic cultures fall in love and then, because neither one of them are particularly bright, manage to have a kid. This so infuriates both of their respective cultures that assassins are sent to remedy the situation.

This is a grotesquely simple description to a fun, sexy and touching series. Vaughn isn’t trying to sugar coat stuff here. The first issue got some blowback because it features a character breast feeding. There is sex. There is weird culture stuff happening. There is a Lying Cat, which can tell when you’re lying and says so loudly, which makes it the most beloved, and annoying, character in the series.

Vaughn and Staples are going balls to the wall crazy on this, but it’s fun stuff and worth the ride. And again, Image Comics makes the books ridiculously cheap, at $11.50 each.

Super-Heroes

Oh right, the stuff most people like. Well, um…

The Avengers: Endless Wartime

An original graphic novel from Marvel, written by Warren Ellis (my favourite writer) and illustrated by Mike McKone, this is the book for people who loved the movie, but we’re too daunted by the hundred million Avengers books out there right now to know where to start.

Basically, an old threat from Captain America and Thor’s past drives the rest of the team (Wolverine, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man, the Hulk) into action. The strength of the book is the easy way Ellis introduces each of the characters and how they interact with each other (everybody thinks Tony Stark is a dick and takes turns threatening him: "Tony, I could shoot you out of the air right now and all that would happen is I'd get a medal" - Captain Marvel). Everyone has a big moment, but the quiet moments of characters talking are the best ones.

It’s a solid little book, but a touch disappointing, if I’m honest. I don’t think Ellis landed the ending, which is rare. And McKone’s art is fine, but the action scenes never worked 100% for me. But it’s still a solid read and enjoyable.

Hawkeye: Vol. 1 - My Life as a Weapon
Hawkeye: Vol. 2 - Little Hits

I should mention you can also buy these two books in one, over-sized hardcover. This is Marvel’s critical darling book of the moment, with Matt Fraction and David Aja (and some guest artists), knocking it out of the park. I mean, it’s Hawkeye. He’s a guy that shoots arrows. How cool can this be?

Really cool. Extraordinarily cool. As the pitch goes, this is what he does when he’s not an Avenger. Which means he tends to get beaten up a lot, make a lot of mistakes, try his best, and sometimes come out ahead. There’s also Russian mobsters who say “bro” a lot, Kate Bishop, who is also Hawkeye, and Pizza Dog. Who is a dog that likes pizza. And sometimes solves murders.

It absolutely shouldn’t work, but it absolutely does. Aja’s spectacular art and creative layout certainly helps. But Hawkeye is such a loveable idiot in this book (bad habit of sleeping with the wrong women) you can’t help but to along with whatever stupid thing he’s doing now.

Batgirl: Vol. 1 - The Darkest Reflection
Batgirl: Vol. 2 - Knightfall Descends
Batgirl: Vol. 3 - Death of the Family

I was really prepared to hate this book, simply because I loved the previous Batgirl series by Brian Miller. And seriously, if you can find Miller’s run (it’s pretty much out of print), buy it. It’s one of the most entertaining series of the last 15 years.

But this is written by Gail Simone. And she managed the miraculous feat of bringing Barbara Gordon back as Batgirl, after she’s spent the last 20 years as the beloved, and wheel-chair bound, Oracle. A lot of fans hated this move, as positive role-models for disabled people are rare beasts in comics.

But Simone is doing some interesting things here. She’s taking advantage of a publisher wide revamp of the entire DC line. That revamp has been a massive failure, in my opinion, with a few exceptions. Here is one of them. For one thing, Gordon is dealing with PTSD, which means she’s got a lot of rage issues and doesn’t always do the smart thing. Simone is also looking at mental illness, in particular with some of the villains. There are other tweaks as well. Batgirl doesn’t feel comfortable going after poor people doing bad things to try survive like robbing from the rich. And there’s a nice, diverse supporting cast.

I miss Miller’s Batgirl a lot, but if you had to replace it with something, this is as good as you’re going to get.

Batman: Vol. 1 - The Court of Owls
Batman: Vol. 2 - The City of Owls
Batman: Vol. 3 - Death of the Family

Lord knows that DC is flogging the Bat titles to death. I think there are about a dozen Bat related titles right now. But along with Batgirl, this is the cream of the crop. Writer Scott Snyder is DC's go to guy for writing these days, and artist Greg Capullo is doing career best work. The first two books are one big story arc and the rare attempt at going back through Batman's origins that really quite works. A sinister, secret organization that has laid in the heart of Gotham for more than a century, that has intimate ties with the Wayne family. It's a nice place on owls and bats, a good new set of villains for Batman. He's a character that's as much defined by his foes as himself, so a new, high calibre villains is no easy trick.

As for Death of the Family, it's Snyder's attempt at the ultimate Joker/Batman story. It has its moments, and introduces a very weird new dynamic between the two. I think he wrote himself into a corner for the ending (he simply couldn't do what he wanted to do, because it would have damaged too many of DC's characters), but it's one of the scarier Joker stories I can recall.

Others

Star Wars: Vol. 1 – In the Shadow of Yavin

I’ve never bothered with Star Wars comics too much, because publisher Dark Horse cranks out so many that it’s impossible to keep up with it. This book, however, has several things going for it. Brian Wood is a top notch, if controversial, writer (accusations of bad behavior towards women at cons). I’ve been hit and miss on his work before, but this is a solid hit. The series takes place shortly after the events of “A New Hope”. The rebels are on the run and trying to find a new base, but the Empire is right on top of them. It’s up to Princess Leia to try and save the rebellion, which is hanging on by a thread.

Seriously, this book is great because of Leia. She’s barely recovering from losing Alderann and being tortured, dealing with spies, a pouty Luke Skywalker and trying to keep the rebellion together. But through all of it, she’s kick-ass tough and smart. I’ve never read or seen a better portrayal of Leia.

And yes, Vader is in it, smarting from losing the Death Star and looking to get some revenge. Han and Chewie are there too, proving that they're the worst smugglers in the galaxy.

Oh yes, and the art is great. Trying to draw actors in comics has a long history of failure. They often look either very stiff or not like the actors. Carlos D'anda manages to pull off the rare trick of it looking natural, but also with a nice gift for the big action sequences.

Conan: Vol. 13 - Queen of the Black Coast

Again, breaking a rule, but you can easily skip the previous 12 volumes and not be confused. A young Conan makes his way to a boat with the local police hot on his trail. Shortly afterwards there are pirates and tales of high adventure. Oh, and a pirate queen not to be messed with.

Conan is way hit and miss with me, and more often miss. A little goes a long way. But with writer Brian Wood (him again) and art by the amazingBecky Cloonan and quite good James Harren, this is a fun little tale.

Molly Danger: Book 1

An early Kickstarter success story, this is for people who missed out on getting the book through the original fundraising effort. Written and illustrated by Jamal Igle it features the adventures of Molly Danger, a 12-year-old girl with super powers. Except she's been 12 for several decades now, has an origin that sounds decidedly suspicious and a support team to help her with adventures, but doesn't seem to do much to actually make her happy.

If it sounds like a downer, well, a bit of one. But it's a super hero book aimed at kids (there's a rarity) and Igle is setting up a lot of stuff in this volume for future ones. But it's beautifully drawn and the book itself was quite the surprise when it arrived. It's an over-sized book, which shows off the artwork quite nicely. I'm eagerly awaiting Book 2.


Well, that went on longer than I thought, but hopefully there's a few suggestions there that are useful. Enjoy your comics...

Last Five
1. I can't wait to get off work (and see my baby on Montgomery Avenue) - Tom Waits
2. The guitar - They Might Be Giants
3. Like a star - Corinne Bailey Rae*
4. Salute your solution - The Racounteurs
5. Keepsake - The Gaslight Anthem

Lead-up to Christmas

Christmas gong show season is in full effect down south, and Iqaluit is not exempt. Things will start getting crazier in town over the next week or so, then get weird during the mass exodus right after school ends, but then quietly and more intimately busy over the holidays.

So what do I mean by that?

Well, on Thursday there was a school choirs concert in town. Cathy and I missed that as she was working at the thrift shop and I continue my self-abuse/improvement at the gym. Friday night saw the annual Christmas ornament sale at Arctic College by the jewelry class. We've been going to that pretty much every year since we've been here. The first and second year students of the jewelry class make a bunch of northern influenced ornaments made of brass. Prices can go for $10 for a small, simple piece to $40 or $50 for a more intricate ornament.

When we first started going, the sale would start at 5 p.m. and you would show up 10 minutes beforehand, take a look at everyones ornaments, settle on a couple and that was that. I'd say over the years we've probably acquired about a dozen ornaments for ourselves and almost the same amount to give to other people as gifts. They're a nice local craft, and you get to support art students.

It's....escalated over the last few years. For example, Cathy went to line-up at 4:30 last year and was the third person in line. This year we showed up at 4:30 and we had about a dozen or more people in front of us. When 5 p.m. came around it was a free-for-all, with everyone pushing through to the table and grabbing pretty much anything they could find. The sale was essentially over by 5:05 p.m. We managed to grab a couple (one for us, one for a gift), but man, it's getting a little crazy at that sale. Good for the artists, who are making money, but you don't actually get to see much of their art. I only got to see what was on the table when comparing ornaments with others afterwards.

They might want to reconsider how they do things for next year. As I said, it's getting a bit crazy, all for the chance to grab one of, maybe, 50 ornaments.

The other big Christmas events were on Saturday, with the slightly screwed up combination of the major Christmas Craft Fair taking place at 11 a.m. and the Santa Claus parade starting at noon. To be fair, I think the parade had dibs, it's normally the first Saturday in December and the craft fair is normally a couple of weeks earlier. But it did make it a bit chaotic yesterday.

The craft sale is another level of madness. We showed up a good hour and 20 minutes before the doors opened and we were not at the front of the line. There was at least a dozen or more people there ahead of us. It's not at the point where people are going to start camping out for that craft sale, but it's starting to feel like it. It's one of your best chances to get local Christmas gifts, but it's also one of the main social events of the season. I won't say everyone in town goes, but a lot of the town shows up. So you're as much stopping as you are saying hi to people.

(Apologies for the blurry photos. Still getting use to the new iPhone. Note to self, remove Pro HDR from the list of camera apps to use.)

This was a pretty good year. Part of it was they opened up the second floor of the school to more table, which spread the crowd out a little more. Plus, the sale can be hit and miss. Some years there is a ton of really cool stuff. Other years, it feels like a lot of southern related junk is there.  We pulled in a pretty good haul...um, mostly for ourselves. Well, we don't need to buy much for others. At least that's the excuse we're going with.

Then there was the Santa Claus parade. I suspect because of the competing craft fair, it was a touch disappointing this year. Not as many floats. But Santa was there, and there were still lots of people marching along the parade route, waving and filled with some Christmas cheer.

School concerts will be coming up next week and then once school ends, the exodus begins. I'd say about a third of Iqaluit will leave for Christmas. A lot go south, but also a lot of Inuit will go visit family in their home communities. Iqaluit become a much quieter place during Christmas. It's nice. We'll be here as we went back to Newfoundland last year. This year it's in town. Which will be nice. Something to be said to waking up Christmas morning in your own bed and then having to do nothing but laze around for the day because you don't have 100 family and friend commitments. It's quite relaxing...

Last Five
1. The freezedown - Gramercy Riffs
2. That was your mother - Paul Simon
3. Waiting for a miracle - Bruce Cockburn
4. Be mine - Alabama Shakes
5. Night sky - CHVRCHES

I’ve been going to the gym for almost two years now. It’ll be two in February, but it’s close enough for this blog post’s purposes. According to the computer they use to keep track of my usage, that’s meant more than 300 trips the gym during that period of time. I also just paid for another year’s membership, so that number is only going to keep going up

I’m not putting that out there to look for applause, but to point out that I spend a decent part of my week at that place. I try very hard when I get to the gym to focus on the workout. It’s meant in the past that I’ve been exceptionally, and inadvertently, rude. I put my headphones on and just go. So people have said hello to me and I haven’t acknowledge them. That’s because I didn’t notice they were there. When I’m in the zone, which is where I try to be, nothing gets through. That’s a good thing. I’m not there to socialize; I’m there to do one specific thing and then go home.

Having said that, and because I’m a person who can still get easily annoyed, I can still notice things at the gym that pisses me off. The top thing tends to be the music. To say I have a healthy loathing of 95 per cent of EDM is an understatement. This is easily dealt with by simply putting in my headphone. The thing that annoys me is when people go to the soundsystem and crank it to the point where I have to put my iPod on blast to drown them out. When my hearing gives up the ghost in about 20 years time, I’ll probably trace it directly back to Atii Fitness.

Let’s put it this way, I already own two pairs of Bose headphones. I really don’t need those noise-cancelling earbuds they just released, but I am lusting over them.

There can be other things, but they’re minor and I know it. Barbies more interested in gossiping or posing than doing their workout. Gronks (male Barbies) doing the same thing, only grunting louder. There aren’t many, but it never takes much to get on my nerves a bit. Atii is actually pretty good, considering it’s a small gym with limited machines, weight and space. But considering I’m working out and grumpy, it’s not a surprise that my annoyance level is pretty easy to trip.

But on the weekend I saw something that actually made me question someone’s sanity. And I mean that very literally.

This past weekend was the first blast of winter for Iqaluit. Temperatures were in the -20C range, which is cold, but not ohmyjesus cold. The kicker was the wind, which was hitting 90 km/h, which meant the windchill settled in around a cozy -42C or so. We’ll deal with far colder than that before this winter is out, but it’s the first real taste of it this season, so there’s always an adjustment time.

So it’s bitter cold, extremely windy and while there isn’t much snow falling, what’s on the ground is blowing around, so there were a few whiteouts. Sunday was unpleasant, shall we say. That’s why I was astonished to notice a bike tied to the steps of the gym. Yes, someone biked to the gym in that weather.

I’m friends with one of the volunteers at the gym. He wasn’t sure who it belonged to, but confirmed he looked out his window earlier that day and saw someone biking up the road.

Look, if biking is your thing, good for you. I have a dear friend in Edinburgh who bikes everywhere and is a biking advocate. I think there comes a point, however, where you go “You know what, maybe I’ll leave the bike tied up today.” -42C windchill and 90 km/h winds with reduced visibility would be a little past that bar, I would think. My gym friend and I were discussing, quite seriously, if the person might not be mentally ill. I think you would have to be.

There was a time when I would simply go “Well, there’s a Darwin Award waiting to happen.” But I think I’ve changed as I’ve gotten older. It’s not just about making a choice that I think, sincerely, is a sign there’s something wrong with you. It’s also about the consequences when this inevitably goes wrong. When s/he gets hit by a car in a whiteout. Or hits a patch of ice and goes flying. Or gets frostbite or worse. It’s the trauma the people having to deal with your mistakes go through. It’s what your family and friends will go through.

I hope someone talk to that person and tells them they really need to think twice about that choice. Because they’re going to get hurt. I have no doubt about that.

The last ship

It's been consistently cold the last week or so in Iqaluit. You get a choice when you live up here...you can have it relatively warmer, but it's going to be cloudy or you can have bright sunshine that your body is craving, but considerably colder. You're not getting sunshine and warmth at this time of the year.

Earlier the week the last sealift boat made its escape from Iqaluit. I'm surprised it took as long as it did. For days it seemed like it was just hanging around out there, doing nothing. I can't imagine sitting on a sealift boat when it's -27C windchill, which we had last week, was particularly fun. I figured that was the last boat of the year.

Except yesterday the coast guard made a reappearance. Again, not really sure what she's doing out there. I guess it's possible another sealift boat is coming, or perhaps a fuel boat. But it's getting awfully late in the year. There are great clouds of mist coming off the bay today. The air is considerably colder than the water, and you can see the bay is starting to freeze up. You won't be hopping out there on a ski-doo for several more weeks, but it's beginning. People around town are anxious for it to happen. It's too cold to go boating now, so they want the bay to freeze so they can go ski-dooing.

The light was nice this morning, so I grabbed a couple of pics; one in colour and a slightly spookier one in black and white.

And just because it's been awhile, I figured you should get an update on Boo. As you can tell, it's a hard life being a little dog. He's resting up in preparation for his next defence of the house from the evil duo of The Water Truck and The Sewage Truck. It's a never-ending battle...trust me.

I've also discovered in recent weeks that there is a third Coton de Tulear in Iqaluit. I knew there was at least one other because the family came down to meet Boo before deciding if they were going to take the plunge (Coton's are not cheap). This lady got her dog (named Chiquita), from a different breder...one in Saskatchewan. Still, it's nice to know there are three Cotons in town, even if Boo wanted absolutely nothing to do with her when they met on the street. I joked we needed to start a Coton Club in town. Alas, the joke seems to go right over everyone's head. Anyway...

I always kind of regret how unsociable he is with other dogs. It's a consequence of when we lived "downtown" and there were so many strays - many of them not nice - so that we were constantly yanking him away from other dogs when they met on the road. It's too late to do anything about it now (something about old dogs and new tricks, I believe), but if that's the worse we can say about him, then I think we got off all right.

Well, Cathy's not fond of his habit of whining at 4 am to get up on the bed, even though he's perfectly capable to jumping up there himself. So I guess we can find a few bad things, but really, he's an awfully good dog. I regret that with the colder weather coming in his walks are about to get a lot shorter. Even with a proper coat on, we can't have him out as long. His feet get too cold. And yes, we know we can buy boots, but the little bugger is a Houdini in getting them off his feet. We've probably lost $100 worth of those things. 

Last Five
1. Bad liver and a broken heart - Tom Waits
2. I think Ur a Contra - Vampire Weekend
3. The one - Garbage
4. Billy Liar - The Decemberists
5. Murder in the Southlands - Mark Bragg*

Candidates forum

So, Nunavut's election is on Monday and today was an all afternoon affair at the Francophone Centre. A little last minute scrambling by some dedicated volunteers led to a unique event - candidates from all four Iqaluit ridings had a brief, well, debate isn't the right word. It was a question and answer session, to be more accurate. A forum. Each riding got 90 minutes with the candidates. Questions were sent in and drawn at random and asked to the candidates.

I'm going to say a few words, which I assume I'm allowed to do. I have some empathy for Elections Nunavut during this voting cycle. They're being stuck enforcing some truly bizarre rules. The latest one is that all candidates must remove all social media presence by tomorrow. That means candidates are not allowed to have websites up, active Twitter accounts or any kind of group on Facebook. Why? It violates the rules passed in the recent Nunavut elections act. I'm sure there is logic to it, just none that I can see. So for all I know someone from Elections Nunavut might tell me to take this down in a few hours. I don't know if I might not get in trouble if I Tweet something about the election in the next 48 hours.

I assume whoever gets elected on Monday might want to look at going back and tweaking some aspects of that act.

So, onwards to the latest events.

1. In the end, five of the six candidates came to our doorstep. I spoke with four of them. The only one who didn't show up was Sytukie Joamie, who said he wasn't going to do any campaigning of any kind. Which is his right, I just won't be voting for him. It's easy to crap on people who want to get involved in politics, but I found the candidates I spoke with to be intelligent, knowledgeable about the issues and possessing a genuine desire to try and help. So I applaud them for getting involved and working hard to convince people to vote for them over the past month.

2. Also, got to say, it's refreshing not to be dealing with party platforms. Each candidate has issues they believe passionately in. There's considerable overlap, but there's no party platform trying to be adapted to a specific riding. There was no crapping on an opposing party. This is what each person believes in. You can like it or not, but at least you know what you're getting. A person, not a plank.

3. A friend of mine commented on Twitter that the nice thing about the Nunavut election is the lack of polling. Absolutely right. I have no idea how things are going to turn out on Monday. I have no idea how three of the four seats in Iqaluit are going to go, including ours. I'll be up late on Monday getting the results. I'm looking forward to it.

4. As for the event today, there's a lot to commend to the volunteers who put together a great event in a short period of time. It was well organized, there was simultaneous translation available in English, Inuktitut and French. It was broadcast on radio and they had dedicated people Tweeting out the questions and the candidates responses. Voters from all four ridings got to see their candidate speak on the issues at four different times. A remarkable job.

I put that out there so as to not distract from my two complaints. First, it wasn't a debate. Candidates were asked four questions, they all got a chance to answer. There was no debate or interaction. For our riding, the candidates were all very polite to each other. Which is grand and nice to see, but it also would have been nice to see them debate their differences in opinion with each other.

Secondly, I wish they had done a better job with the questions. They took them from the general public and drew them at random from a box. Not all questions are equal. The questions asked of the candidates in Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu were, at best, meandering and at worst completely irrelevant (one was on snowmobile safety in Iqaluit. It's a municipal issue). I wish they had done a better job of screening out weak questions or picked a different way to quiz the candidates. They should have just gotten Nunatsiaq News editor Jim Bell to ask questions.

So having said that, how did they do today? Well, I caution this is just my opinion. I also caution this is not an indication of how I'm voting or who I am supporting. I'm weighing factors other than four not great questions asked over the space of an hour. Having said that, this is my ranking.

1. Anne Crawford - She's the one who seemed the most comfortable with the format. She was the most concise with her answers and used her time the most efficiently. She spoke English, French, and Inuktitut. She also raised good points and offered up some interesting ideas. She did a good job.

The nitpicks. I'm not sure how many Inuit she wowed starting off her opening remarks in French. Also, while she speaks Inuktitut, I'm not sure how comfortable she was with it except for prepared remarks. A question about encouraging the use of Inuktitut was tailor-made to be answered in Inuktitut; she responded in English.

2. Jack Anawak. He offered up the best and more forceful opening remarks on what he wants to get accomplished. He also raised interesting points about the Inuktitut language and the need for greater training for Inuit, pointing out that mentoring programs are worse now than what they were in the 80s. He was well-spoken and is obviously passionate about issues as they relate to mental health. He's the one who moved up the highest in my regard after the candidates spoke.

The nitpicks. Not always the best at managing his time when talking. He ran out of time during his opening remarks. Also, I think he was trying a bit too hard sometimes to try and tie answers back to the issue of mental health.

3. Duncan Cunningham. A solid opening statement and he also tried to work all three languages in. He's obviously got a ton of experience and some good ideas. No one real shining moment during the meeting, though.

He wasn't so great at answering the questions in the time allowed. He seemed to get nervous and flustered and never looked 100 per cent at ease on the stage. He also wasn't 100 per cent comfortable using Inuktitut, except in prepared remarks. He's someone I get the feeling is much better at the policy and nuts and bolts of being in the office than in the campaigning to get the job.

4. Pat Angnakak. Oh, I confess this was a disappointment. I really quite liked her when she came to the door. Bright, engaging, well-spoken and lots of ideas. But the format clearly unnerved her. She never really had her composure until towards the end. She was nervous when talking and never got the clarity I think she was looking for when trying to answer questions.

She has one really quite good moment when talking about teacher/parent engagement, relating her own experience and also with her frustration that getting kids involved in school should be a community-wide effort (fair point, why do local businesses let kids into their establishments when they should be in class). I think she's better than she showed today, but it's bad timing to have an off day.

5. Sytukie Joamie. I think it's almost unfair to rate him 5th, simply because he's doing his own thing. He's the least polished politically of the six. That means sometimes he says stuff that leaves you scratching your head (making Nunavut into a province), but he also says stuff that is quite insightful. His reminder that Nunavut has a lot of positive things and is a good place was a needed, and refreshing, reminder that not everything is broken with Nunavut. In a discussion that so often focus on what's wrong and how to fix it, it was nice to hear.

6. Methusalah Kunuk. I didn't know much about him going into this forum and I still don't know much about him. It was not a great performance. He has a ton of experience in Government of Nunavut, but none of that was convincingly related when he spoke. He doesn't have a clear speaking voice in either language and not helping is that he never really seemed to clearly relay his ideas and what he stands for. You can scoff at some of Joamie's ideas, but at least they will get you talking. Nothing Kunuk said made an impression.

So there we have it. Crawford said it's too bad all of them couldn't win. And honestly, it's a pretty good field to pick from. No predictions on my part, and I'm not saying who Cathy and I are voting for. But Monday should be interesting. Best of luck to all of them

Last Five
1. We - Neil Diamond*
2. Man's best friend - The Pursuit of Happiness
3. Make a little noise - Joel Plaskett Emergency
4. We walk - The Ting Tings
5. Confidence - Garbage

Nunavut elections

I haven't written anything about it, but Nunavut is in the middle of a territorial election. Old habits die hard, I guess. This is the second one we've been in Nunavut for. The last one was in 2008 and I was an employee of the Government of Nunavut, which meant I didn't feel comfortable writing about it.

Why? Well, I have a long-standing rule about blogging which is never write about work. It's begging, absolutely begging, for trouble. Now, I should be able to write about an election and the people running for the office when an employee for the GN. Reality was a little different. Social media, like blogger, Twitter or Facebook was something the GN was struggling to deal with. So, when in doubt with a new media, organizations like that tend to react in a hostile manner. I'm sure if I dug through the archives, I can find blog posts writing about bloggers being told to delete posts, or their blogs, if they wanted to keep their jobs.

You can debate if that's right. It was the reality. I understand the GN has a social media policy in place these days. I haven't read it, but hopefully it's a touch more...enlightened.

I don't work for the GN anymore, so I'm feeling a touch more liberated talking about the election. I'm not endorsing anyone because we're not sure who we're voting for yet. But I do love that it's going on. I'm a political animal. I was paying attention to the municipal elections in Newfoundland, so watching the territorial ones is fun stuff for me.

First, Nunavut elections are different. There are no political parties, which I find refreshing. I could explain how Nunavut's political system works, but I doubt I could do it better than Jim Bell did last month in the pages of Nunatsiaq News. Go here to read his explanation.

As for us, we're in the riding of Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu. Here's CBC's riding profile. Nunatsiaq has a bunch of stories about different candidates running in our riding, but I honestly don't have it in me to go and link to each one of them.  It's a bit weird as at six candidates I think we have the most running of any one riding in the territory. Also, none of the candidates ran in the last territorial election, which makes us unique in the ridings in town. There's no incumbent to bump off.

I've had a rule about the election, which has baffled a few people when I tell it to them. It's a simple one: if the candidate does not knock on my door he or she is automatically excluded from being in the running for our vote. I don't have to be here. If I'm out, well, they can't be blame for that (although I could make the case that a professional campaign would note that and make the effort to come back before election day).

For me, this is simple. It's a small riding. I'm going to use some simple, and not 100 per cent accurate math, but it'll be close enough for our purposes. If there are approximately 8,000 people in town, and we divide that by four, that means there are 2,000 people in each riding. And let's say at four people per residence (total guesswork) that means about 500 residences per riding. If you can't visit that many households in a month, you're not trying. It means you're making a minimal effort to convince me, or anyone else, to vote for you. And if you're doing that in an election, what kind of MLA are you going to be?

So far, four of the six candidates have been to our door. Sytukie Joamie has already said he's not going door-to-door, so he's out. Nor has Jack Anawak. Given that advance polls are now open, he's pushing his luck, but he still has a few more days to be in the running. Methusalak Kunuk came to the house Saturday morning, but we were out. He did leave a brochure.

That leaves three we've spoken to: Anne Crawford, Duncan Cunningham and Pat Angnakak. Cathy and I are still discussing where we're leaning. We like to try and vote as a block whenever possible, rather than vote split. Cathy's interested in educational issues, I tend to focus on infrastructure. That's not to say there aren't other important issues in the election: mental health, food security, housing, economic development and among others.

The thing I like to ask is "how?" Honestly, if you ever want to see a candidates eyes go momentarily wide, after they talk about what they want to do, ask how they're going to be able to accomplish that. I mean, I think a mental health/addictions rehabilitation facility in Nunavut is absolutely necessary. The question is where is the money going to come from to build it, staff it and run it each year. It's not as easy as waving your magic wand. People have wanted this for years. I note we still don't have one.

I will give one indication in which way we're leaning; unless we hear something extraordinary from one of the men, which hasn't happened yet, I'd like to see a woman get elected from our riding. I think there are going to be plenty of middle-age men from other ridings in Nunavut. It'd be nice to have a woman represent us. And both Crawford and Angnakak seem like intelligent women with ideas of what they want to once elected.

There's been some talk of a debate. Actually, for awhile today there had them scheduled for Thursday and Friday, but that seems to have been put on hold. I hope it happens. I'd like to go and see how they do in a public setting. There's still a week. Not much time, but I can always hope...

Last Five
1. My old man - Ron Hynes
2. Baby got going - Liz Phair
3. Bangs - They Might Be Giants
4. A good idea at the time - OK Go*
5. Instant crush - Daft Punk

Nelvana

There were days, back when eBay first started, where I thought that website might be the death of me. I'm pretty eBay resistant these days. I think I might have bought about a half dozen things in the past couple of years. But in terms of new temptations, Kickstater is doing a pretty good job.

I think Kickstarter has lured me into supporting about a half dozen or so projects so far, and there's normally one going on that I have to talk myself out of, just for the sake of the pocketbook. The big one we've supported so far was the Veronica Mars movie. Cathy and I are huge fans of the first two seasons of the show (we just pretended the third season didn't happen), so when there was an opportunity to support doing a movie...we were all over that one.

But one of the big lures for me have been some of my favourite comic book creators deciding to give Kickstater a try. So when Brian Q. Miller (writer of a beloved run of Batgirl) decided to launch a creator own series called Earthbound on Kickstarter, well, I'll give that a try. I like giving money directly to artists I like.

And then, well, Greg Rucka (dozens of superb books) launched Lady Sabre, well, that was another one. Then Amy Reeder came out with Rocket Girl, which looks like entirely too much fun, so clearly I needed to get that.

So yes, I have issues. This is not a news flash.

For most people I suspect these are probably not things that would lure your attention, although I think they're all excellent books (I'm past due for another graphic novel review post. Maybe later this week). But if you're Canadian, I'm going to point you in the direction of a Kickstarter worth taking a glance at. It's not only comic book based, but also Canadian and historical. So it's a solid trifecta.

This Kickstarter is for Nelvana of the Northern Lights. She was Canada's first superheroine and the story behind her creation and what happened to her is seriously fascinating. I mean, I knew of her existence, but not much more than that. I didn't realize, for example, that she was created in part because US comic books were banned in Canada during World War II, but that there was still a demand to read comic book stories. I also would have sworn there would have been a collection of some of kind of her comics already out there, but I would be wrong.

I could go on at length about this, but there are already two really good interview with the women spearheading the project to collect all of Nelvana's into one book. The more mainstream one came out last week in The Star. Go here to read it, assuming their firewall doesn't drive you nuts. You can also go to Sue's Tumblr called DC Women Kicking Ass and read her interview here.

As it stands, they've already made enough money to get the book made. They're into Stretch Goals now (If they hit certain goals, they offer up more items to go along with the book). And there are a few cool other things you can get, like posters, a calendar, original artwork, etc.

However, I guess due diligence requires me to tell you that if you are interested that this book does collect comics from the 1940s. They were a much different beast back then. I remember when I was younger picking up a copy of Batman Archives which collected the first couple of years of Batman comics from the late 30s and early 40s. I figured it would be something like the Marvel books of the 1960s. But no, it's not. It's a much more...raw and almost primitive version of the comics you will find today. It's not for everyone.

Still, I think what Hope Nicholson and Rachel Richey is wonderful. It's an act of historical preservation, in a way. And I think people in Nunavut would find it interesting and worth taking a look at.

I also love the idea of updating the character and relaunching her. I hope one this Kickstarter is over they find the interest in an update. I suspect that'll be another Kickstarter I'll be interested in supporting.

Last Five
1. Let it be - The Beatles
2. Everybody's trying to be my baby - The Beatles
3. Knuckles - The Long Distance Runners
4. Bohemian like you - The Dandy Warhols
5. Back to the start - Lily Allen*

Keeping my zen

I like to argue that I’ve gotten older, but not necessarily grown up. I think there’s ample proof of that if you walked into my geek den/man cave and saw a wall filled with comic book art, another with book cases filled with graphic novels and, the most recent addition, a quilt. Not any quilt, though; a quilt of Star Wars alphabet featuring artwork by a favourite of mine, Katie Cook.

No, I’m not kidding.

It’s not entirely true, however, the whole “I haven’t grown up that much” thing. I have moments where that hits home for me. Yesterday was one of them.

I had an…incident. I’m not going to go into the details, but let’s just say it happened and….it’s been awhile since I’ve been that mad. Understand, I’m not a get mad kind of guy. I get ranty occasionally, but seething rage, not so much. But earlier the week….I was that mad I could actually taste it. I assume in was adrenaline or something causing the reaction, but I could taste the hate I had going. It felt like it had been liquefied and was running through my veins. When I got back to my office I was physically vibrating to the point co-workers asked if I was all right.

Cathy, god love her, after saying a few consoling words, wisely gave me my space for a few hours. I went to the gym, worked out for about 90 minutes, burned out most of the hate, went back home and was fine. But man, that was an interesting few hours there.

So how is that a grown-up thing? Because my reaction 20 years or so ago would have been much different. When I was with the Muse at MUN, I was a source of amusement for my friends and the staff. I was very bitter, angry and ranty. In my prime, I could probably have given Rick Mercer a run for his money. It didn’t normally take much to set me off. A bloody student council meeting could get me going. The provincial government doing something stupid could get me going.

And once I got going, it was a thing then. I could stretch it out over days or weeks or longer (still not fond of a former MUN president for a number of reasons, so I guess you could argue decades, although it’s cooled from sincere and deep loathing to mild contempt at this point). If you had personally slighted me or someone I care about, then I would make your life miserable. I had the ability to be a particularly cutting bastard. If it was an organization I could write stuff that would make eyeballs bleed. My heroes were Hunter S. Thompson and V from the graphic novel V for Vendetta, just to give you an idea.

I considered this a good thing. My friends would laugh at my rants, which only encouraged me. I thought most of my best creative writing came out of being a proper bastard and ripping people and organizations in print. I actually won awards for it when I was a reporter with The Packet. I like to think I was a pretty good columnist back in the day. I was a bastard, but a bastard with a cause, which was all right in my mind.

Here’s the thing though. I don’t think you can do that forever. Well, you can, probably. I just don’t think you become a very nice person to be around as you get older. You burn so much energy with anger, hate and grudges that it becomes who you are. You have almost nothing else left for anything else. The people who were your friends when you were 22 are much less likely to find it amusing and charming at 42 (although Cathy tells me that some of them have said to her, privately, they do occasionally miss the snarky bastard version of me. I'm...touch?).

So that’s how I’ve grown up, I guess. I like to think I’m much calmer. My fuse is much slower to burn. Cathy gets deserves most of the credit for that. Maybe it makes me less entertaining, but I think it makes me a better person. But yesterday, oh yesterday for a few hours the 22-year-old version of myself was back. Oh yes. There would be fiery vengeance, my friends. I had creative uses for my new walking stick that involved bodily orifices, lighter fluid and matches planned out. I indulged in fantasies where I got to tell certain people, in graphic detail, exactly what I thought of them in ways that would have made their eyes bleed. It’s not that I was ready to burn bridges, you understand, for about three hours yesterday I was ready to burn cities, I was that mad.

It’s been awhile since I was like that. I concluded I didn’t like it. Didn’t like who it was turning me into. So after my workout, I drove home. Sat in the car before I went into the house. My iPod, which I am convinced is sentient, started playing the live version of Springsteen’s "Promised Land" which is one of my favourite songs. Took a deep breath. Realized it was in the past and that there are more important things to deal with. Got over it. Time to move on.

I guess that’s what you do when you’re a grown up. Probably less entertaining, but better for you in the long run.

Last Five
1. Radio Nowhere - Bruce Springsteen
2. You don't see me - Keane*
3. What if I can't see the stars, Mildred? - Matthew Good
4. Can't walk away - The Monday Nights
5. Living the dream - Sloan

Waiting for the mail...

When you only have so many lifelines out of the north, when one of those goes through a major disruption people get very surly, very fast.

For example, about two years ago the satellite that provides most of the communications for Nunavut went down. It was very much like Nunavut got thrown back 50 year just like that. Internet, phones, television, banking….all were rendered useless. Hell, the airport went down for a day or so. People were deeply freaking out. It’s one of the reasons why there’s such a push for a fibre optic cable for Nunavut. Yes, it could still break, but at least it gives the territory more than one communications option than a finicky satellite.

The latest disruption is coming from Canada Post. Understand, the people of Nunavut and Canada Post have always had a…touchy relationship. There’s the belief, not exactly unjustified, that we pay way too much for a massively inferior postal service. This tends to ebb and flow, with the high points coming right before Christmas, when people are freaking out waiting for their gifts to arrive.

However, Canada Post is managing the rare trick of really pissing off people in Nunavut during one of the down seasons. The service to the north since about mid-summer has been awful. It’s taking weeks for things to get here. And what with the advent of online tracking, it’s no problem for people here to spot where the problem is – Montreal.

Seriously, depending on where it’s sent from, your package will normally make a speedy trip across the country, or around the world in some cases, hit Montreal and then stop. My favourite one for me personally was when I ordered some toys from China this summer. They made it from Hong Kong to Montreal faster than Montreal to Iqaluit. And not by a small margin either.

My Twitter feed is being lit up, daily, by people losing their minds wondering why one of their packages has been sitting in Montreal for weeks. And it is Montreal. One of the nice things about a small town is you generally have an idea of what’s going on. And let’s just say the local post office is quietly letting it be known that it’s not their fault there are so many delays. Not that it's always helpful to them. I understand there was a racket at the post office on Friday. A combination of a long line (about 15 people or so), only one person on the counter, and lack of mail caused some people to start yelling at staff. So things are reaching a boiling point.

There are some days you can tell that Montreal apparently decided to free up a bunch of Amazon orders because every second person is coming out of the post office with one of their boxes.

Now, there’s speculation that this drug bust might have slowed things down. The usual geniuses involved in the local dope trade were receiving ExpressPost envelopes filled with dope from dealers in Montreal. From my brief time working with the local Canada Post, I kid you not when I say we’re not dealing with rocket scientists. You could smell some of these bags from 20 feet away. Some were doing nothing to try and disguise the smell.

It’s times like this when I’m against legalization simply because I want an easy way to locate and remove the terminally stupid from society. This seems like a fairly easy method of doing so.

With this drug bust everyone is hoping the logjam breaks up and people can finally start getting their mail at the slow crawl we’ve all come to expect, as opposed to Canada Post basically forsaking us. I really hope so because when people don’t get their mail, man, tempers and nerves get frayed quickly. If it’s taking a month for an ExpressPost package to make it here during a slow season, I’m going to have to start ordering Cathy’s Christmas gifts three weeks ago in the hopes they might make it in time.

Look, I know Canada Post has bigger worries going on, what with them on pace to lose hundreds of millions this year. But their service in the north is an ongoing thing. There seems to be a real disconnect between Montreal and Iqaluit and it’s something that needs to be addressed. If the regional manager (who is often based down south) can’t do something about it, then perhaps it’s time for Canada Post’s president to make a trip to the north so he can understand what a vital lifeline the mail is for people and what these disruptions in service mean to people. It genuinely does weird things to people’s mental health. It can impact the economy. They need to explain why it takes weeks for packages to get from Montreal to Iqaluit and what they’re going to improve it.

There’s an election in Nunavut right now. I wonder if a clever candidate will make that an election issue…

Last Five

1. Greenland whale fisheries - The Pogues

2. Jealous of your cigarette - Hawksley Workman

3. Big parade - The Lumineers

4. Skinwalker - Robbie Robertson

5. Old man (live) - Neil Young

The new geeks

So here’s a thing…I love female geeks. This isn’t the kind of love that my wife should be jealous of, by the way. It’s just…I’ve been a geek for as long as I can remember and for most of those decades it has been a big ol’ sausage party. The first comic book store I ever went to was called the Escape Hatch when I was around eight years old. I loved that place. And then the owner decided that comics weren’t bringing in enough business so he added a second floor that sold porn.

Suddenly, my parents became much less enamoured with the idea of me going there. And then the owner decided that the porn was selling better than the comics and did away with them on the ground floor. So that was that. The place eventually burning to the ground kinda of sealed the deal.

But women in geekdom was like spotting unicorns. And sadly there tended to be one of two reactions. The first was to get huffy that this…girl was intruding on your hobby. The other, and I fell into this camp, was so tongue tied that it must have made the whole comics thing look like it was inhabited by the marginally braindead.

(My ineptness with trying to date women is long known, and was a great source of amusement to my friends. I had a small group of conspirators who plotted for, literally, three years to bring Cathy and I together. They wouldn’t do it any sooner because she was seeing someone and they were absolutely convinced I would find a way to fuck it up. They were not wrong in this assessment.)

And look, collecting when it’s just guys is fun and all, but it would have been nice to have had a few women around. It started changing, slowly, around the late 80s. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman has been widely attributed to this, although you can make the argument that Chris Claremont's X-Men also played a role. But it’s progressed in fits and starts since then. I was probably naïve enough to assume that because more women were reading comics with Sandman, that meant good things. That male fans would think it was cool, like I did, and that the industry would do more to try and lure in more female readers.

This is where women geeks start to laugh their ass off. The industry and geekdom has been far from welcoming to women. There are horror stories of sexual harassment and abuse. Ask Colleen Doran what it was like being a young woman in the 90s trying to break into comics. Ask Valerie D'Ozario, who edited comics at Acclaim and DC last decade, what she went through. Her biography, Goodbye to Comics, is an eye-opener. There are endless stories of the major publishers not caring to target books towards women, even though they showed real interest, because why make the effort. For example, how the hell does DC not have all-ages books with Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl? Do you know how much merchandise those characters sell and you can't market an all-ages book about them? Dean Trippe pitched a Lois Lane: Girl Reporter book a few years ago featuring an 11-year-old Lois Lane breaking news stories. I would have bought that book, the pitch was that good. It's like they don't want to make money.

I’d like to say that it’s over with, but it’s not. You still hear horror stories going on. You still hear creators and publishers take staggeringly tone deaf attitudes towards women. DC managed to do that recently, with a pair of deeply respected creators quitting fan favourite Batwoman over editorial interference and a botched fan art tryout on Harley Quinn.

You hear of male geeks giving shit to women calling them “fake geek girls” or openly harassing cosplayers at comic cons.

But I don’t say this to make it sound like things are desperate and never going to change (and, as an aside, at least comics are better than the video game industry. Holy fuck but that’s a misogynistic gong show. You seriously have to love video games to take a tenth of that shit). What I absolutely love is the attitude of many female geeks….which is “fuck you, we love this stuff, and you’re not getting rid of us that easy.” And I swear, because they have to work harder at this, and put with more crap, they love it more and harder and are more articulate about their passion than a lot of male geeks I know. You find this scattered all over Twitter, Tumblr (In particular the brilliant DC Women Kicking Ass) and websites like The Mary Sue. Most of the absolute best comic book and pop culture criticism being written right now are by women.

Plus, you're seeing a lot more female comic book creators. Gail Simone (Batgirl, Red Sonya, The Movement, and the upcoming Tomb Raider) felt like she was very much alone in mainstream comics for awhile now. But there are others making their mark. Kelly Sue DeConnick who is doing Captain Marvel, Avengers Assemble and the upcoming western/horror Pretty Deadly. Amy Reeder has Rocket Girl. Faith Erin Hicks (who lives in Nova Scotia) has a bunch of graphic novels, including What Could Possibly Go Wrong, Superhero Girl, The War at Ellesmere and others. Fiona Staples draws Saga which is the most critically acclaimed comic being published right now. There’s Katie Cook, who does My Little Pony, which is not a comic I collect or am interested in, but I love her art and the series is beloved by fans of the cartoon.

And there’s also Marjorie Liu, Becky Cloonan, Nicola Scott, Agnes Garbowska, Ming Doyle, Amanda Conner, Stephanie Buscema, Amy Mebberson, Colleen Coover and a lot more. Actually, I'm looking at the original artwork I have on my wall and half of it is by women artists.

There’s a conversation taking place. There are more women going to comic cons and less willing to take crap. They love comics, just want to have fun and want to interact. You get fans that with the right book, the themes really mean something to them and has a powerful effect on them. I’m not sure there is a creator who loves her fans more, and who goes out of her way more to be supportive, than Simone. And you can tell from her Tumblr and Twitter just how much women geeks love her work, and love what she's writing about. Which is not just strong women characters, but also minorities, GLBQ characters, transgender characters and more. They're not just a cool story with beautiful artwork. There's more to it than just that.

When I was in New York last year I’d say at least 40 per cent of those attending were women. And they were having a blast. They also want their woman superhero movie now, by the way. And fair enough. If Guardians of the Galaxy are getting a movie next year, then it’s insane that there’s no Wonder Woman movie yet. Or a Captain Marvel movie. Or Black Widow. And don’t give me Elektra and Halle Berry's Catwoman bombed. They were awful movies. Green Lantern bombed because it was just as bad and they went ahead and made Captain America and Thor. They’re also still giving Ryan Reynolds fresh chances to make more bad movies.

And look, not all males in the industry are assholes about it. Most aren’t. Some are wonderfully supportive. It’s just the dicks that get the attention, sadly. There are no negatives for more women getting involved in comics, either as fans or creators. Only positives. The geekiness will be cooler. The product will be better. It'll just be a lot more fun.

I, for one, welcome our new geek overlords. Bring 'em on...

Last Five

1. Mama - Genesis

2. Now I know - Cowboy Junkies

3. Kiss with a fist - Florence and the Machine*

4. Lady Dada's nightmare - MGMT

5. Magazines - The Hold Steady

Amazing Race Canada thoughts

And so ends the Amazing Race Canada. I’ve see-sawed back and forth on the show right from the very moment I heard it first announced. When I found out Canada was finally getting a race, I was all set to wrangle someone into forming a team with me. Not Cathy, however, as we have long understood we would end up divorced at the end of the race. But then I found out the race was only going to happen within Canada. So that killed that idea. I made more than one joke about the race going to scenic Moose Jaw….woohoo. I wanted to travel around the world, not the country.

Still I tuned in for the first episode and stuck around to the end. I should have done a weekly review like I did with Doyle, but just wasn’t in the mood, especially after the very flat first episode. But it got better, despite some ups and downs. And while I mocked Saskatchewan, I actually thought that episode was one of the better ones. If I had to sum up the first season, I would call it about an average season of the US version of the Race. Which might seem damning with faint praise, but considering how awful this could have been, I think it’s high praise. They did some things right, some things really bad, but there’s room for improvement should they decide to do round 2.

What they did right:

1. Jon Montgomery as the host. I had my doubts during the first episode where he looked nervous and was reading very flat. But man, did he ever improve by leaps and bounds as the season went along. He loosened up, looked like he was having way more fun than most of the contestants and grew into the host role really well. He’s no Phil, but we’ve had years to get used to Phil. Jon should be happy with how he did this season.

2. The Teams. They never had a true villain team. Oh sure, the doctors showed some hints of it, but they never truly got into it other than moving around some maps. And they whined more than they were evil. But the teams had personality, even Jet and Dave, who kind of overwhelmed at times, but were always fun. You needed teams to cheer for, and with at least five teams with lots of personality and character, you were certainly lured into having your favourites to cheer for.

3. The production values. At no point did the show really look cheap, which is what I was expecting. The camerawork was solid, they did a nice job of showing off the country.

4. Canada. Don’t get me wrong, I think the whole joy of the US version of the show is watching the contestants try to figure out deeply foreign cultures and, in some cases, get mocked by locals by how clueless they are. That never really happened here, with the exception of a few minutes in Quebec City. But they managed to show off the country and I thought the Nunavut section of the race was particularly well done. It could have been awful, but it looked beautiful and gave a nice, brief taste of Nunavut culture.

What they got half-right:

1. The challenges. This is an Amazing Race standard, thought. You get some truly mind-blowing ones. As I have reiterated many times to friends, two of the hardest times I have laughed in the last 10 years was watching contestants try to run down a hill with 25 pounds wheels of Swiss cheese on their back while locals drank beer and cracked up. Only nearly matched by the sight of a former NFL player losing his shit while coaching a rabbit through an obstacle course. But then you get some that are dreadfully boring.

There were no transcendental moments like that this season, but some of the challenges were quite good. The getting your room squared in Regina was good, as was the football challenge. The challenges in Nunavut were great. Then you get ones, like last night, where you’re opening chocolate bars for two hours and that’s worth spending 10 minutes of TV time on. Dear God.

2. The sponsorships. Shitting on the Amazing Race for sponsorships is ridiculous, considering Expedia is all over the US one. But I didn’t mind Interact Flash. Even Blackberry was only mildly annoying (the fact the new ones don’t work in Nunavut was amusing). But God Air Canada was annoying. To the point they actually messed up parts of the race (more on that in a moment). I understand they were a huge sponsor and the race probably wouldn’t have happened without them. But that I was hitting mute pretty much any time they went on screen says something about how aggravating the ads - during the show and breaks – were.

What was bad:

1. Bottlenecking. Here’s the problem with the race in Canada, and Air Canada. There are only so many places you can go, with only so many flights. And when you’re limited to only flying one airline – except for their hilarious covering up for using First Air to get into and out of Nunavut – you’re constantly going to have bottlenecks where all the teams even out. Other than getting a cool prize, there was rarely any benefit to winning a leg, because odds are everyone would catch up with you in the next leg very quickly. It would be nice if they were able to use WestJet or Porter or whatever. Or even flying into the U.S. for a few legs or something. They need to work on decreasing the bottlenecks next season.

2. The ending. Again, Amazing Race has the bad habit of not nailing the landing, but wow, this was just awful. From the smarmy “look how awesome we are bumping all these people up to first class”, to the absolutely ridiculous chocolate bar challenge (seriously, how much did Cadbury pay for that ad placement and that was the most entertaining thing they could think to do in a chocolate factory?) to having contestants wander around a zoo, it was a deeply boring ending to the show. Yes, they went down a half-constructed sky-scraper, but they all went down at the same time, so the drama there was minimal.

Also, for every person in Toronto you pleased by having the finale there, you probably annoyed three others. Here’s hoping next season ends somewhere else. I think ending it in BC or Newfoundland would have made more sense, rather than the “centre of the universe”, but that’s me.

So not a first go of it and they’re going to be doing a second season. I would hope there are things they have learned from this one and can do better with next time. I think they should up the ante on some of the challenges, work on not creating so many bottlenecks and maybe find a team that’s not quite so…Canadian. You know, really mean or something.

Let’s put it this way, I blew off the idea of putting an entry in for this race. I kinda regret that now. But I might see if I can find a willing sucker…er, friend to join with me in entering the next race. We’ll see…

Last Five
1. The sound of silence (live) - Paul Simon
2. A better son-daughter - Rilo Kiley
3. The broad majestic Shannon - The Pogues*
4. Modern love - David Bowie*
5. It's a hard life - Queen

Sealifting

(I actually wrote this a few weeks ago, but got lazy about the editing and slotting in the photos. But here it is now, in case anyone is interested in sealifts.)

We’ve just wrapped up our annual sealift, which is something that always fascinates people who don’t live in the north. I’m sure I’ve written about it before, but for those who don’t want to go digging through the archives, here’s basically happens with our sealift. Your mileage may vary.

The first couple of years we lived up here we did our sealift through NorthMart. There are pros and cons to that. The major pro is that it is pretty simple. You order your stuff online or through a catalogue and then a few months later there is a knock on the door and a couple of guys start dragging stuff into your house. The downside is that you can only order what NorthMart brings in, which can be limited.

So a few years ago we decided to go and do our own. It’s normally in conjunction with our summer vacation, so we’re not making a special trip out to do it. Plus, we’ve gotten quite good at our plan of attack. We can do a sealift in two days, no problem. We could probably do it in a day if we had to. Basically, we go to Ottawa, go to TSC (The Shipping Company), let them know we’re starting our sealift, and then hit the following stores in this order: Costco, Wal-Mart, Loblaws, Canadian Tire/Home Depot, Ikea. Sometimes there are specialty stops, like at a bedding company last year when we needed a new box spring and mattress. Next year there might be a furniture store if we decide to get a new living room set (recommendations for good places to buy sofas in Ottawa are welcome).

We then drag most of this stuff back to TSC, put it in a crate and wave good-bye to it. There are exceptions, of course. If it’s really big sometimes we’ll get it delivered there (like the mattress last year). After an incident with Costco a few years ago we no longer ask TSC to do pick-ups. About $800 worth of stuff went missing and neither Costco nor TSC admitted the screw-up (pretty sure it was Costco), so we were out the money.

The crate has arrived, although they put it in the wrong spot

 

TSC then packages it up, puts it in a crate, seal it up and then ships it to Montreal. From there it gets put on a boat and then eventually it arrives in Iqaluit.

We finished our sealift on June 26 this year. The crate arrived on August 19. So a little less than two months. Which is actually quite good. We’ve waited the better part of four months for it sometimes, depending on when we order and delays with the boats.

Fort Knox is probably easier to get into.

Opening a sealift is like having the most frustrating Christmas morning ever. First of all, TSC puts enough nails in the crate to ensure that you’re seriously considering dynamite at some point during the process of trying to open it. You know there is cool stuff in there, you just can’t get at it. And there’s always stuff that you forgot you bought or wondering why the hell you bought it in the first place. No matter how organized you are, you’re still buying a year’s worth of goods and dropping thousands of dollars in a short period of time. Higher brain function melts away at some point during the process.

After 90 minutes, progress has been made.

Once you finally crack it open you then have to drag it all into the house. Normally two people can make short work of it. And this year’s sealift was relatively small for us. Except the crate arrived days before Cathy came back from Newfoundland. Yes, I could have left it until she returned, but I find leaving thousands of dollars of goods unattended in front of your house is never a good idea. While we don’t order booze in our sealift, many others do. It’s a tempting target to many.

So anyway, I had to unload it myself. And on the day that the mosquitoes decided to make it their last hurrah for the year. I highly recommend the experience. But I did get it all in the house.

And here it is, waiting to be put away.

Now you’re faced with the challenge of where to put all of this stuff. It’s not so bad for us now. We have a house and a decent sized sealift room. When we were living in apartments it could be interesting. There’s the story of a guy who ordered so much beer on his sealift he couldn’t store it in his tiny sealift room. Instead, he used it as flooring and, over the course of the year, drank his way out.

Still, storage is Cathy’s thing (Cathy arrived on Thursday and began lamenting how cluttered the house is looking even without the sealift mess. I just sighed. I think it looks fine). I put some of it away and then cleared a space in the hallway to be able to walk through. She put the rest of it away.

So there you go. Another year’s sealift over and done with.

Last Five
1. Travelin' on - Norah Jones
2. Hum Hallelujah - Fall Out Boy
3. Get some - Lykke Li
4. Live it out - Metric*
5. Times like these - Foo Fighters

On Gen Y, social media, municipal politics and getting off your goddamn ass

So I had one of those “Gah, but you… Gah!” moments the other day when I went to the Newfoundland CBC website and found an op-ed piece by Candice Walsh chastising candidates for not doing enough to reach out and get Generation Y age voters to participate in the election. You can read her piece here. It caused one of those spikes in blood pressure that two years ago I would have been concerned might give me a stroke.

One more advantage to weight loss…much less likely to die from reading op-ed pieces. Stroking out after reading something from Margaret Wente would be a profoundly stupid way to go. I would write about her “oh, rape isn’t really a big deal on campus” piece, but I think I would actually explode if I seriously let myself get started.

So anyway, voter engagement. Look, I’m a huge believer in the importance of voting. I believe you should be fined if you don’t vote. This is a step towards moderation from my original plan of going door to door with a taser and asking people if they’ve voted.

I think the voting age should be dropped to 16. I believe that the tobacco, coffee, soft drink figured something out that most politicians never have…get them hooked when they’re young. I was thrilled when I discovered the voting age for elections with my previous employer was 16. I was developing grand plans to really target kids to go and vote. Make it a big deal. That they can do something 16 year olds down south can’t do.

Get them started early, and make them realize why it’s so vital to inform yourself on the issues and to get out and vote. In that regard, I think generations of Canadians have a legitimate beef with that part of their education. For that matter, I want a You’ll Actually Need This class, where they teach you how to use credit cards, how to budget, how to write a resume and do a job interview. Throw the importance of voting in there.

Anyway, the op-ed complains that candidates are not doing enough to reach out to people in their 20s, who are not at apathetic and disengaged. They want to care, but people are not doing enough to reach out to them and the quality of candidates is lacking.

OK…

First of all, it’s your job to care about the damn election. Yes, a smart candidate should be reaching out to voters on multiple platforms and not just plastering those ugly goddamn signs all over the city. However, those signs reach older people, who apparently have managed to figure out the importance of voting in municipal elections. But if they’re not reaching out to you on Twitter or Facebook, it’s because they probably view it as a waste of limited resources (resources are not just money, they're also time. And you need time to do a proper social media strategy. Ask people who think it's a cheap and easy thing to do and how that works out for them) because they don’t think you’re going to go out to vote anyway.

Democracy isn’t something you’re spoon fed when you’re sitting in your high chair, folks. There is some work to this. If you’ve got ideas, then you can’t wait until someone comes courting you over social media. You either have to run, support someone who is running, or find someone who you can convince that these issues are damn important and require serious consideration.

We have a territorial election here next month. I can't wait to start asking my questions.

I don’t know why people view municipal elections as less important than federal or provincial ones. They’re not. That ugly damn fence down by the waterfront that everyone complains about? That’s your city councilors at work, right there. Or preserving downtown? Or the quality of city services. Almost pulped walking to university because the sidewalks aren’t cleared? Yeah, there might be a solution to that. Municipal politics is day-to-day, ground-level stuff. It's not flashy, but never doubt its importance.

It’s funny, as I was writing this I was scrolling through Twitter. I follow a brilliant New York artist named Molly Crabapple, who turned 30 on Friday. She was talking to a friend and reminiscing about being young, stupid and fighting for every bloody inch.

I don’t mind being young and stupid. I was young and stupid. I wish at least once a day I knew then what I know now. I know my parents were young and stupid just by measuring the distance between their wedding and my birthday. But I love the line about fighting for every bloody inch. Because if you’re whining in an op-ed about people not doing enough to reach out to you in an election, instead of reaching out and taking every bloody inch from them on issues that are important to you, then don’t expect a lot of sympathy when they get elected and steamroll you…again.

Last Five

1. Run - Vampire Weekend*

2. The mason's apron - The Chieftains

3. Always look on the bight side of life - Spamalot (OCR)

4. Every in ambition - The Trews

5. Jacob's ladder - Bruce Springsteen

Curling once more...

To today is Mass Registration Day in Iqaluit. I'm absolutely certain I've written about it before, but for those not willing to dig through the archives, it's simply this: If you're a club, society, or whatever in Iqaluit, today's the day you sit at table and try to convince people that you're cool and they should join you. There are dozens of groups, everything from the Humane Society, to the Scouts, to different martial arts groups, etc.

It's actually a pretty cool event. I've gone each year looking for something interesting to join. I rarely do, however. Because of the activity/health kick I'm on these days, I want something physically active to do. But most of the activity groups in town don't really interest me. Badminton, broomball, karate, etc...don't really do it for me. I'm not sure what would, but nothing grabbed my attention.

Which meant I went to my old fallback...curling.

I've been getting a bit frustrated with curling the last couple of years and keep grumbling that this year was the year I was going to break from it. Last season was particularly maddening in that we were knocked from the playoffs when half the team didn't show up. I'm just arrogant enough when it comes to curling that I'm convinced I could go out there by myself and one other person and beat most teams in town. That's not a completely justified arrogance, by the way. There are plenty of good curlers around who could whip me, no problem But I just want to get out there and play, and having that not happen....well, I was in a pretty foul mood. Forfeiting is a deeply shitty way to end the season.

And curling should be fun. I should be getting a kick out of it, enjoying the strategy and the skill and the rare sport that I can profess some ability at. Cathy has been gently suggesting that maybe I should take some time away from it.

But I want to be doing something and going to the gym five days a week isn't an option as I can only spend so much time on an elliptical before my sanity starts to fray. So we'll see how it goes. I've already said I either want to be on a serious Dominion team or put together a pretty rock solid rec league team. I've already had two people express an interest in the rec team, so maybe that's what happen. Time will tell.

However, if you're in town and a brilliant curler, by all means, give me a shout. The Dominion is in Halifax next year and I'd like to go. It'd be nice to go to a national curling event so close to my family and friends. Maybe I could persuade a few to come on up and see me play.

Last Five
1. Old Dan Tucker - Bruce Springsteen
2. To wild homes - The New Pornographers
3. She loves you - The Gaslight Anthem
4. Learned you name - Frightened Rabbit
5. Navigator - The Pogues*

Eight years

I've actually had this post sitting in the queue for about a week or so, just been too lazy to edit and publish it, which has to be a record for sloth. Anyway, some thoughts on the 8th anniversary of out time in Iqaluit....

So August 24th marks, as best as I can recall, the eight year anniversary to the day we first set foot in Iqaluit. Now, Cathy had a year in Rankin Inlet before moving here and she also had spent a few days here as part of a teacher conference, so it wasn’t a shock to her. But it was our first time here together and it wasn’t for a visit, it was to come here to live and work.

I believe my reaction, after leaving the airport was “oh my fucking God, what have you gotten us into, Cathy?” I have seen many other people have similar reactions when they first arrive in Iqaluit, so I’m glad I’m not the only one to have ever had that reaction.

Nunavut can be like that to people when you first arrive. You can be good and do your research, talk to people, read articles and look at photos. But if you’re moving here, nothing really prepares you for that first shock of stepping foot into the place. There’s more than one story of people getting off a plane, taking a look around and going “nope” and getting the next flight back south.

Then again, there are also lots of people who come here for a three month contract and have been here for 20 years. It all depends. As I have cautioned many people who have emailed me over the years. It’s not for everybody, but if it turns out it is for you, it’s a fantastic place.

We came to Iqaluit on a five year plan and we’re going into year nine of that plan right now with no end in sight. Are there things that drive me nuts about Iqaluit? Oh God, yes. I could rattle of an extensive list of things, from the crap internet to the lack of basic stuff you take for granted down south. My latest one? I can’t paint the deck of our house. There are two hardware stores in town. One doesn’t carry deck paint and the other is going bankrupt so they didn’t bother to bring in any new paint supplies. And we forgot to get paint during our sealift. That means we have to wait to paint the deck until next summer.

Or how about the airlines putting up a “seat sale” recently. Iqaluit to Ottawa for only $1,600. That frustrated me enough that I took to Twitter and begged WestJet to start flying here. They responded we’re on their wish list, so one can only hope.

And that list can go on and on.  But here’s the thing, that can be said of any place you live. If we were still in St. John’s I would be complaining about that damn stupid harbor fence, bayman drivers, Stavanger Drive and a desperate and doomed provincial government on its last gasp. I lived in Clarenville for three years, a place about the size of Iqaluit, and I complained about the lack of book store, crap drivers and that the mayor was obviously crazy.

You will always find things to complain about in any place you choose to live. And you won’t have to search hard for it either.

Yet, there is plenty to love about the place. Iqaluit is honestly beautiful during the winter. Even with the population growth in town, there’s a nice sense of community here. I get to experience a unique culture and language without leaving Canada. When we move away (I’m not living here in my retirement, sorry) I genuinely will miss the view of Frobisher Bay from my living room window. It's the best view I've ever had of any place I've lived, and I used to have a view of the Narrows when I lived in downtown St. John's.

We do miss our family and friends. Cathy will testify that I was pretty depressed for a couple of weeks after a wedding in Kingston this summer with most of my closest friends in attendance. There is something that gets to me knowing it can be years in-between seeing some of these people. But if we ask ourselves if we would have been any better off eight years ago if he had decided to stay in St. John’s rather than come here, I don’t think we would be. Not even remotely.

So here's to eight years (nine for Cathy) in Nunavut with no end in sight. 

Last Five
1. Not fair - Lily Allen* 
2. 500 up - Sloan
3. Open arms - Tracy Chapman
4. Lunge forward - Wavves
5. Lucinda/Aint goin' down (live) - Tom Waits